In the light of their campfires, the crowds of men were bulking shadows. They ranged about in the scrubby field and the forest beyond, squatting or hanging onto tree limbs or branches, sitting or standing, watching silently and listening. Oron stood before them on a knoll by a fire, his voice carrying on the night air.
“I’m promising you gold and plunder and the conquest of nations!” he swore to the men. “Now, I’ve spent months among you, gathering you to raid the cities and settlements of the East. No more for any of you the toil of the fields and forest. No more the browbeating and backhandedness and double-dealing of corrupt officers in the service of corrupt nobles and kings. We’ll take and hold the lands that reach from ocean to ocean and from forest to desert!
“Some men who’ve foll
