Twisted Fate (Orc Destiny Volume I) (The Blood and Brotherhood Saga) (9 page)

Try as he might, he could not just trust her to lay still
and obey his orders. Even if she
was
small. He knew that even if she
did
get away and run he could catch her easy. But what if she put magic on him and
made him sleep forever? Or what if she sealed his eyes closed, making him blind?
Many what ifs assaulted his mind, lulling him off to an uncomfortable sleep
where he thrashed and kicked, a cold sweat covering his entire body.

It was dark again when he woke, and there she sat quietly,
her gag removed, a mouth full of half-chewed food as she decided to greet him.

“Hello, Gnak,” she said.

He grunted in reply, his body filled with ache, the side of
his face feeling worse than ever. He reached up to touch the wound and found it
wet. Removing his fingers, he pulled them in front of his face to reveal a
thick yellow pus that reeked of decay. He needed to reach the shaman. Fast.

Rising, he stumbled slightly, his whole world spinning for a
moment before it finally settled into place. Looking to the girl, he gave his
orders.

“I lead. You come. I walk, you walk. No talk. Walk. Eat. Piss.
Yes?”

She nodded, then decided that apparently a simple unspoken ‘yes’
was not enough.

“Are you OK, Gnak? Cause I gotta tell ya, you’re not looking
so good.”

“Gnak good. I walk, you come.”

With nothing more, he snatched up the supply bag and began
walking at a pace that made her struggle to keep up. If she was breathing hard,
perhaps she would talk less.

Hours later, bless the gods, he stopped as she picked
herself up off the ground for what had to have been the fifteenth time. Her
eyes were pathetic in the dark, and she seemed to trip over every single
obstacle they passed. Even so, with such short legs, she was making good time
so long as he kept her moving.

Near the middle of the night, they stopped to allow her to
rest while eating a quick meal and taking a drink. She eyed him the whole time,
but never said a word. Until of course they got up and began moving again.

“What’s to stop me from just leaving when you drop dead?”
she asked.

As was becoming their custom, he ignored her.

“I’m eleven, Gnak, I’m not a child. I can see that you are
injured and with every hour you slow down more and more. Now when you walk, you
sway from side to side.”

“Gnak injured, yes. But return home. See shaman. Get heal.”

“You have healers too?” she asked excitedly. “I’m a healer,
though no one has trained me. Do your healers worship the goddess Lorentia?”

Yup, most of
that
was nonsense.
Heal, train
,
and
god
he could understand, but the rest was gibberish. Humans talked
stupid.
Stupid humans.

“Shaman heal. We go shaman.”

Gnak snatched the bag of food once more and began walking
again. He would show her
slow down
. Stretching out his stride he found
that with every step the world leaned to one side and then the other. Sweat
poured down his head and face. His leather armor was soaked with it. He kept
moving and she followed behind. He stumbled once, perhaps an hour into that
stretch of trail, and then he looked up at her from his back.

“Shaman,” he grunted.

“Yes, Gnak, shaman, I know. But I don’t know any shaman. Why
not let me heal you? I could use the practice.”

“No. No magic.”

“No magic?” Do your healers not use magic?”

“You no magic Gnak,” he replied.

For a long time the world turned round and round, the stars
in the sky spinning in his vision. Closing his eyes made it better, but he
could not very well continue with his eyes closed. He needed rest. So he simply
listened to Jen’s chatter, and with nothing better to do, decided to see if he
could learn more about the stupid humans.

“You see, Lorentia gives me the power to heal, but I just
use it. It’s not really mine.”

“You god give power?”

“Of course. Do the Orcs have gods?”

“Yes. Orc gods.”

“What gods do Orcs worship?”

“Gogoc, Burliq, Keeka. You?”

“I’ve never heard of those gods. Do they give power to Orcs?”

“No many.”

“Maybe you should try different gods, then? Do you know of
any others?”

“No.”

“Are you a fighter, Gnak?”

“What fighter?” he asked.

“A warrior? A Knight? A swordsman?”

“Warrior, yes. Sword, yes.”

“Then maybe you should worship Gorandor, or Vikstol, or
Ishanya. They all grant warriors with power.”

“Talk me power.”

“Gorandor is the most known and honored god of human
warriors. He makes his soldiers big and stronger than anyone,” she began to chatter.
“Even the king of Valdadore worships Gorandor. But some soldiers worship
Vikstol too. He gives his warriors victory in the face of defeat, letting them
live when other men would surely die,” she added, whipping her hand about like
she brandished a sword.

“Gnak need Vikstol,” he joked before realizing his own
actions, letting her continue as he closed his eyes again.

“Now, I can’t tell you much about Ishanya. Not many worship
her anymore, my ma says, but I heard a rumor that there is a man up north who
worships her, and he can change men into beasts, and shoot fire from his hands,
and kill people with a single thought.”

“Ishanya?”

“Yup, that’s right. Ishanya. Funny name, huh? Kinda like
Gnak.”

Again, half of her words were meaningless, but he understood
her point nonetheless. The humans had gods, too. Their gods granted power, too.
It sounded to Gnak like some gods were better than others. But he wanted more
knowledge.

“Talk me. You god.”

“My god? Well, Lorentia is a goddess of healing and
nurturing. See, that is what I am doing right now. Nurturing. I am letting you
be at peace, and helping you to be comfortable and pass the agonizing hours. It’s
better to not be alone when you die. Oops, I meant when you are hurt and all
that.”

“Everything die alone.”

“I suppose that is true too in a way, but I don’t think I
would want to be alone if I knew I was dying.”

“Gnak no die. How you heal?”

“I’m not really sure yet. The first time I healed, it was a
little bird I found with a broken wing. I wanted to save it so bad, I picked it
up and held it in my hands. I knew Lorentia was the goddess of healing, and so
I prayed that she help me heal the bird. Then I felt her power inside me and I
opened my hands and the bird flew away. Now when I want to heal something, I
just pray to Lorentia and wholla… healed. Ma says that other healers do it different,
but what does she know? She ain’t never left Brookside before.”

“What else you heal?”

“I healed a horse once, and some chickens that a fox got to.
These days I mostly heal my brother, but he don’t like being my practice.”

Gnak mulled over her words in his head, trying to keep his
world from spinning. She had a great many ideas about the gods and her healing,
but he wondered if her young age tainted her thoughts or if they were real and
true.

Laying on his back, the world seemed heavy upon him and he
felt as if he slipped further into the ground with every breath. He decided
that her words were true. She was not trying to convince him of anything. She
was not even trying to escape. She was only trying to… to? Nurture? Him? It was
a strange word, but he knew the meaning. She was being with him, keeping his
mind busy as his body fought the infliction. It was a kind gesture, a weak one,
but he understood it coming from a young human girl. Had she been a strong Orc
she would have sliced through his neck by now and watched him bleed out upon
the ground. But she was not Orc. She was human.

Even opening his eyes now, everything remained dark. His
vision had escaped him. A strange fog filled his mind, but when she spoke, he
could feel his way through it to her words. It was an odd sensation. Again, he
encouraged her to talk.

“Tell me
why you
god?”

“Why do people choose to worship Lorentia? I guess because
they want to help their people. I worship her because she allows me to make a
difference. Though she chooses which of her followers to give the gift of
healing, she does not pick and choose who we can heal. She allows us to heal anyone
we are able. She…”

Gnak heard no more. His hearing was lost in the fog too. Her
words remained though, only as a muffled sound. Human gods helped them make a
difference and helped their people. They did not need to kill their sick and
weak. They made them better, making their clans and their people stronger. It
was smart. Even for humans.

He pondered further what she had said about the gods of
human warriors. They gave gifts of power to humans. Made them stronger. Made
them live when they should have died. Made them throw fire, and kill with a
thought. The Orc gods sometimes gave strength and speed. It was a great asset
in war, but with Orc life it made those blessed by the gods look at other Orcs
as weak and infirm. It did not make them better to make their clan better. It
made them better for only them. Gnak questioned much of what he had been
taught. ‘Kill or be killed’ was good advice on the field of battle, but how was
a clan to grow stronger fighting amongst itself?

Such were his thoughts as even they began to fade into the
fog. Darker and darker Gnak’s world became’ as he fell deeper and deeper
beneath the world’ until at last a bright white light appeared before him. He
looked into the light, his eyes burning from the brightness. He imagined that
this was the heavens and he had returned to the side of the gods. But the light
wasn’t the heavens.

Nearing death’ his eyelids had relaxed and come open. The
light radiated from small hands. The small hands were Jen’s. She had brought
him back from the nothingness of death and saved his life, even if it meant he
would lead her to the end of her own. He could see her small face from the
light her hands created, glowing with joy.

Her goddess had allowed her to heal him, even though he
planned to sacrifice the small girl to one of his
own
gods. In his
homeland the act would be seen as weak, but it was the act of a strong god. For
only a god with strength would say ‘
let me save you, even if you wish me
harm, to do as you were meant to do
.
For by doing so, I have done what I
am meant to do’.
The saving was a greater act than the killing. It took
more strength to save.

Gnak watched as the light faded from Jen’s tiny hands, a
crooked grin washing across her face.

“All life is sacred, Gnak. Even yours,” she whispered,
before she collapsed from exhaustion.

The words burned into his mind. The girl was a stupid human
and she was only half his age, yet she in her short years had become wise
beyond measure.

Sitting up to assure himself that she was only unconscious,
he rolled her onto her side to sleep more comfortably and watched as she
breathed slow even breaths. She would be fine.

Reaching up to his face, he quickly turned his head as his
eyes widened in disbelief. Both the wound in his shoulder and slice through his
bicep had vanished. Not even a scar remained where just moments before swollen,
jagged edged wounds had been. Touching his face, he found that there too his
wounds had vanished. No more swelling, no more burning, no more pus, and no
more fog. The little human had taken it all away. And he was planning to kill
her.

It was a confusing predicament, to say the least.

Gnak awoke near midday, with the sun high in the sky. Fearing
to stand up, he listened for many minutes, watching the still sleeping form of
Jen across the tiny clearing from him. It was not long, perhaps an hour, when
she stretched before rolling to look at him. She grinned a crooked grin and
pushed herself up to a seated position.

“Good morning, sunshine,” she said, her grin growing wider
still.

Gnak simply grunted, unsure what a proper reply would be. What
he did know was that he owed his life to the small human. When you owed
something, you repaid it. You paid things with currency. Gnak’s life had been
changed by the small girl, and so too would he change
her
life. It was
obvious her clan had little wealth among the humans. But he knew how to change
that.

It would take them two more days to reach the pass, then
four to return her back to her clan. Without her to slow him, it would only
take three days to reach the pass through the mountains once more, and he would
still have plenty of time to collect a goblin captain before returning home. Debt
owed. Debt paid. Sacrifice owed. Sacrifice paid. Problem gone.

Handing Jen the bag of supplies, she grabbed them and
instantly Gnak was ashamed. Still her little hands remained bound together,
even after saving his life. Reaching across the distance, he untied her small
wrists and watched her rub them a moment to restore her circulation. Then with
a quick prayer to her god, she seemed to glow for only a moment and even the
redness around her wrists vanished without a trace. The child was impressive.

“I no kill you.”

“That’s good, Gnak, I was hoping that I might head back home
today.”

“No. You no go home. No yet.”

“Aww, Gnak, are you going to miss me?”

“Miss? I have give you. Change life. I owe this.”

“You really shouldn’t have,” Jen grinned. “What is it?”

“I have debt you. I pay debt.”

“And
then
I go home?”

“With I pay debt, yes. I take you home.”

It was a simple conversation but conveyed a lot. They had
managed trust, where the only certainty for either of them was death. Gnak
could not help but think again and again about the words she had spoken to him
as he lay dying. They had opened him to a world different than his own. He
could help his people become something more, something better than they already
were. He could teach them, like she had taught him. Every life was precious.