"Don't move, don't move!"
Boss wanted to step back a little more, but Batu wasn't willing to let him. Wind of Death was watching the man in his mid-thirties and wouldn't wait long to voice the question in her mind.
"And why should I listen to you?"
"Why should you listen to me?"
Batu, lowering his eyebrows down to his eyes as if he had heard the most ridiculous thing in his life, was looking back and forth between the map and Wind of Death, trying to make sense of the spoken words. Boss was a spectator in these moments; seeing the other orc starting to deal with the man he didn't much like, he preferred this attitude instead of intervening.
"Yes, what is the better aspect of the idea of waiting for the enemy instead of going upon them?"
Batu, letting out a long 'Mhmm' sound, buried his back, which he had to keep straight for a while, into the armchair again. Since the furniture was made according to orc standards, especially suitable for Wind of Death's measurements, Batu, having left his double machetes aside, looked as if he would disappear inside the armchair.
"When you ask like this, it sounded like a logical question! Otherwise, if she doesn't want to listen to me, why would the Commander-in-Chief of the mighty Orc Empire need my Golden Army? I think you can find a force of five thousand people on your own!"
Five thousand people within the Orc Steppes consisting of billions of people was a drop in the ocean. Batu didn't look so green not to understand that what was desired wasn't his warriors but himself. He reached for the fruits scattered on the floor; he grabbed two of them he chose first with his eyes, then with his hand, and tossed them at Boss's feet.
"We will be waiting exactly here, and the Emerald Leaf Guild will also come before us using this road!"
The two fruits, having bite marks of unknown time on the dazzling details of the map, were screaming 'pick me up from here'. Boss took his place without saying another word; together with Wind of Death, they were evaluating what Batu said.
"You speak well, but there is a minor problem! How are we going to draw the enemy to the point we want?"
Wind of Death took the job of dialogue upon herself, using her thumb to flick a large grape beside her onto the fresh fig that had burst open. The fruit, which was the symbol of the Emerald Leaf Merchant Guild armies, released its remaining seeds outside along with the blow it received from the grape with light red stripes on it.
"Bringing the army to where I want? I will do such a thing that even Izumrud, who hasn't left the Golden City for years, will be there!"
Guiding the enemy army into a trap during war was one thing, bringing their leader to his feet was another. While saying this, Batu acted as if it was as easy as having the servants bring another plate of fruit, and this attitude of his had pleased Wind of Death.
"We will do as you say, but considering the enemy army has also set out, you have three days at most. In three days, the war will begin in the place called Mohacs, and we will see if the Emerald Leaf Guild Leader will be there!"
Wind of Death, making perhaps the most interesting battle plan since she started commanding armies, couldn't help smiling while looking at the fist-sized green apple chosen to represent them. Batu wasn't at an age that could be considered young, but sometimes his actions were of the kind that would leave even little children in amazement.
"Bring the voice recorder! Now that I found my rhythm, I would like to send a message to the homeland!"
It was enough for Wind of Death to listen to his first three sentences to think that perhaps she acted a bit early while arriving at some conclusions about him. When the voice recording was completed and Batu put it in his mechanical hawk, she was still busy digesting what she heard; she might have found a hidden gem buried under the soil while looking for an ally.
When they opened the tent door and stepped outside, Batu, releasing the communication device, gave his greeting and set off towards the tent reserved for him. It was advancing as rapidly as the mechanical hawk that would arrive at the communication tower belonging to the Emerald Leaf Guild before half a day passed.
News coming from all four corners of the continent and the world were first read by the sworn men here, then set off again to be transmitted to the relevant places within the Emerald Leaf Guild. This order hadn't changed for years, but only in a single exceptional situation, the officials in the communication tower transmitted the incoming message to the required place without intervening in any way.
Perhaps due to the darkness of the night, perhaps due to ignorance, Wind of Death and Boss hadn't seen the seal under the body of the mechanical communication device escaping from Batu's hands and reaching the sky.
The Communication Tower officials couldn't be as careless as them; if they wanted to breathe for another day and their families to live as well, the highest-ranking official in the tower had to take this mechanical hawk to the guild leader with his own hands.
He set out with a vehicle different from usual; neither at the entrance of the Golden City, nor at the entrance of the Emerald Leaf Merchant Guild Headquarters, nor while passing through doors he had never seen before did anyone dare to stand before him.
Even though the others couldn't see what he carried inside the emerald-colored chest, they knew what this procedure meant like their own names. If the Communication Tower personnel appeared with this chest, not even someone from the leader's family could step in front of him and obstruct him, and no matter who it was, the punishment for behaving contrarily was death.
The door with two guards in front of it opened without asking for permission. Izumrud was discussing over the map with his advisors gathered around the round table in the throne room, the diameter of which reached three steps, and when he turned to the man entering inside unexpectedly, lightning flashed in his eyes.
Whoever dared to disobey his order about not being disturbed in such troublesome times and, on top of that, interrupt his war meeting without feeling the need to ask for permission deserved to die.
If it were a normal time, let alone a war meeting, the punishment for entering inside without permission even while he dozed off on his throne would be losing his head, but the chest adorned with emerald stones in the lap of the man trembling more with every step was capable of changing everything.
"All of you out, out quickly!"
The man having difficulty walking in a straight line continued his advance, ignoring his clothes soaked with the sweat pouring from his face. It was impossible to see those running past him to leave the throne room in this state at any other time; the important figures of the Emerald Leaf Guild, who had to bow to the ground to greet him, were fleeing like kids caught breaking a window.
Remaining alone with Izumrud in the throne room large enough to comfortably gather three hundred people inside, the man began to have difficulty breathing with three steps left to the round table where the war meeting was held. The chest adorned with emeralds in his lap was rocking like a cradle, and it continued to tremble until Izumrud's five fingers came down on it.
"Do you know what is inside it?"
When the voice coming from behind the mask reached his ears with a metallic echo, the exact same sound of a hot iron plunged into cold water rose from the heart of the Communication Tower official.
"Absolutely not, sir. As soon as we saw the seal on the body of the mechanical hawk, we put it in the dynasty chest and came to your presence. We didn't waste even a second neither inside the Communication Tower nor on the way, sir!"
Even though some letters came out different than they were due to his teeth chattering and him tripping over his words, Izumrud had understood what he meant. He placed the chest on the table, took a step back, and looked the official up and down.
Even though the shape his face took couldn't be seen, his gazes were so piercing that it was as if they penetrated his skin and entered inside him, trying to rip out even the smallest crumb of a lie from where it hid. The silence lasting for half a minute had lasted almost a century for the Communication Tower official who didn't dare to avert his eyes, and if it weren't for the instruction to get out that finally came, he wasn't sure if he could endure any longer.
Izumrud, left alone in the giant room, lifted the lid of the emerald-colored chest. He took the mechanical hawk, on the body of which a fig pattern of the same color was engraved, into his hand, and pressed his finger on the required place inside it to listen to the message.