Khao'khen gave the order on the morning after the council, and the order was different from every order he had given in the campaign.
He gave it at the formation assembly, which he called at first light on the open ground south of Millbridge where eight thousand warriors could stand together. He walked to the center of the assembled formation without a map or a plan or a scroll.
He stood where every warrior could see him, and he spoke in the language of the Horde, which was Orcish stripped of the formal register that councils used, the direct language of warriors.
"The pinkskins sent their best general and he could not beat us. They sent fifteen thousand soldiers and they could not beat us. They sent a diplomat and the diplomat could not give us what we came for. Now they are sending twenty-five thousand soldiers, and they have sent them because they believe that the number is large enough to do what the others could not."
He paused and let the silence hold for a moment.
