The fight became a battle of patience, of dodge and counter dodge; the longer he held out, the greater chance that Melress would get here.
Suddenly Kepler was slipping as he lost his footing, his instinct made him look down, and as he took in the severed head he had seen earlier, a blinding pain hit him, and he watched in disbelief as his right arm, with his sword still in it went flying. He screamed as the pain intensified and then he lost consciousness.
The wall began to waver, and swords dropped as the Captain went down in a fountain of blood. Involuntary steps were taken backwards and then Quinn was there, the battle mage behind him. Quinn’s helmet was still split, but he looked fine other than that, ‘Stand, yer bastards. Yer run, yer die! Hold firm, and we might just get out of this alive.’
In front of the squads the orcs were too busy cheering and backslapping their new champion to have taken advantage of the momentary lapse. By the time the orcs returned their attention to the troops, the shield wall was as strong as at the beginning. One small figure stood beyond the shield wall. The orc with the axe smiled his tusks and pointed teeth showing like a set of old stones in an earthquake. The figure nodded and made a come-on motion with his left hand.
The orc walked forward, licking blood off his axe as he did so, and as with the human he had taken down earlier he dropped and swung the mighty axe. The figure before him didn’t move and the axe sliced clean through it but before the orc could react another figure suddenly appeared on his right, and a long sword swept down, severing his arm from his shoulder. The orc howled in agony and now chopped with the axe one handed, his other arm still dangling from the shaft, flapping about.
Melress could easily avoid the sweeps and chops of the axe, as the orc started to lose strength from the blood spraying in all directions, and soon he could dart forward and slice his long sword across the neck of huge orc. More blood sprayed out, drenching Melress in blood. The orcs in front of him wavered and then began to flee the ambush site, while from behind him the men cheered and started to surge forward.
‘Hold still yer bastards!’ Yelled Quinn, ‘If you run after ‘em yer likely to be killed. Hold.’
The shield wall solidified again as Quinn rallied the men. Melress turned to him, ‘Find the Captain and his arm Sergeant, quick as you can, and any more wounded we have. Set up a field tent over there.’
Melress pointed to a small hill far enough away from the battle site.’
‘Yessir. What about the bodies?’
‘Bury ours, and burn theirs. There's some trees over there, and there should be enough axes among the orcs.’
‘Sir.’
Quinn stomped off and started shouting orders, splitting the three squads to do separate tasks.
38: Hardstone
Tierra swooped down to where Saethryth was walking through the long grass. He glanced at her as she landed, ‘Anything?’
‘There’s a large area of flattened grass up ahead, looks like they’ve split up. Some have moved towards the Ashen Falls Road and the others look to be heading towards a village. I don’t think we’ll get there in time to save anyone as they can’t be far from it.'
Saethryth smiled, ‘Which direction is the village and how far?’
‘I’d say northeast of our current position, say ten miles away. Why?’
‘We need to stop soon anyway, as it’s beginning to get dark. Hold my hand.’ He held his hand out to her, and Tierra put her hand in his.
There was a flash, and suddenly they weren’t in long grass anymore. They were standing on a dirt track, to one side a sign read Hardstone and turning around she saw the wooden palisade of the village.
Saethryth looked at her, ‘I’m impressed. Pretty much spot on.’
Tierra stood open mouthed, ‘What? How? Why didn’t you just bring us here to start?’
‘Teleport. It’s something the sword can do, gods know how, but I needed a point of reference. I can’t just teleport where I want, and we didn’t know where the Orcs were.’
‘What now?’
‘Time for me to do what I do best, slay orcs. We need to get the village elder to seal the gates, and then we wait for them to arrive.’
The two Orcslayers walked into the village. There were only about a dozen buildings inside, one of which was what looked to be an Inn and shop combined, they made their way to the door and stepped inside.
As they stepped into the Inn, all heads turned to look at them, and the conversation stopped dead. The Barkeep had been wiping a mug clean, but he stood still as a statue, staring at the couple.
‘Err, hello. Is your village elder here, we really need to speak to him or her?’ Said Saethryth
The silence continued to grow.
‘Oh come on, you’re not THAT far from civilisation!’
The Villagers suddenly all burst out laughing. A small, wizened man made his way from one of the tables, chuckling.
‘Soz folks. Nowt much ‘a ‘ere, gotta get yer joy where yer can, aye?’
‘Err, yes. Look we really need to speak to the elder.’
‘Tha's me. Goyler’s me name. Wha' do yer need, folks?’
‘Well, Goyler, you have half an orc war band coming straight here an...’
Goyler had started laughing again, ‘Ain’t bin an orc ‘ere for a cennery, nor is there like to be with the forts an’ all.’
‘I’m serious Goyler, there are a lot of orcs coming here, you need to close your gates. Look at our brooches, were Orcslayers, and I’m telling you, close those gates. Now.’
Goyler looked at the brooches and his eyes widened, ‘Me Pa saw him an Orcslayer once, an’ now I’ve sen two. Ha. Bill, you and Oak, go and shut the gates, make sure you bar em gud. Seems we ‘ave some trouble comin.'’
Two large men stood up and ran out of the Inn. Goyler watched them go and then turned his attention to everyone else in the Inn, ‘Roit everyone, go 'en get yerselves a weapon, looks like we gotta fight for our farms an' such.’
Chairs scraped, and the conversation started up as everyone started to pile out the door of the Inn. The Bartender bent down and brought up a repeating crossbow, slamming in a cartridge of bolts he stuffed two more cartridges in his apron pockets and stalked through the door. Goyler nodded after the Barkeep ‘Old Soldier,’ he said as if that explained everything.
The two Orcslayer's stepped outside with Goyler, and they all watched as men and women ran hither and thither, grabbing a wide variety of weapons and implements that could be used as weapons. Goyler stopped a harried looking middle-aged woman as she ran past, ‘Mariss, jus' a thought, get the kids in the Inn’. Mariss nodded as she ran off.
‘Goyler, your Villagers, are going to be at a disadvantage if it gets much darker, I didn’t see any elves or half-elves in the Inn, at least we can see in the dark.’
Goyler looked at Saethryth, ‘I’m sure we’ll be fine, we can put torches in the wall sconces, that’ll help.’
‘If you think so. Tierra, you stay here and help the villagers you’ll be better than me at that sort of thing.’
Tierra looked startled, ‘And where will you be?’
Saethryth smiled, ‘Oh sneaking and killing.’
And with that he was off, running at the palisade wall and climbing it like a spider.
39: The Walking, Talking Dead
It had taken the two of them the best part of an hour to fully extract themselves from the graves that held them. The Woman had gotten out first as her grave had had the least amount of earth, and then she had helped free her husband. Was he still her Husband, after all, the Priest who had wed them had indicated death would end their union? Oh, well best not to say anything, she thought. Dirt still dropped out of their clothes as they stood looking at their farmstead.
‘It’s a bit like us, silent and dead.’ Said the Woman
‘Well, dead anyways.’ Replied the Man
‘And look at you, great big hole in your throat, stones and dirt stuck to the blood. Go and get yourself cleaned u
p.’
‘Fucks sake Woman, don’t nag. A man should be entitled to some quiet once he’s dead. This ain't fair, not fair at all. An’ I saw you, harridan, taking orc cock after orc cock.’
‘Well, if you had performed more often....’
‘What? We only did it at Winters Eve. Fucks sake.’
‘That was four months ago. I’ve been gagging for it for weeks.’
‘Well, why didn’t ya say?'
‘By the gods man, did I suck your brains out, all that gobbling I done.’
‘I just thought you was being nice. Fucks sake.’
‘Just go and clean yerself up. And while you’re on, wash your mouth. Both of them.’
‘Oh, ha ha. It’s no fun having your throat cut, after watching your wife being gang raped. If the dead could cry, I would be weeping right now.’
‘That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me in weeks. Now go and get cleaned up, for the third time of asking.’
‘Well, you know what they say, third times the charm. Then what?’
‘Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m off to eat me an orc or two!’
‘Yes, well, I suppose it makes a change from an orc or two eating you.’
‘Bastard!’
Farmer Royce shuffled off to the water trough with a smile on his lips, perhaps being undead could be fun after all.
Jillian Royce watched her Husband, as he shuffled off. They had been married for more than twenty years, and she had never stopped loving him, never sought another. Oh, they didn’t have much except the farmstead, but even with the tithe, they ate well enough, better than some of the city folk she heard about. Some of them were lucky if they saw a carrot a week she had heard. The Farmstead had been hard work, but they had gotten some enjoyment, after all, they had had Lucy.
She had seen Lucy on the back of the knight’s Horse as they had gone over the hill, she’d be alright, she had looks and brains, she could even read and write, her mother had made sure of that. Paying a passing Tinker a copper head or two to teach Lucy for an hour, before they moved on to the next stop.
Farming was no job for Lucy, the wind and weather would batter her down, making her worn and bitter before her time, especially with no company, no man in her life. You couldn’t survive on your own, just sleeping with the occasional passer-by. To survive in this place, you needed lifelong companionship.
Jillian headed off into the house, she needed a new dress, this one was a tattered mess, and she didn’t fancy the idea of walking about naked, people gawking at her tits, it just wasn’t right, wasn’t natural.
She laughed to herself, here she was a walking, talking dead person worrying about what was natural or not. Still, she had a nice red dress in her cupboard, and that would hide the stains most nicely. She thought of the last time she had worn the dress, how Allen had gaped at her, the lust in his eyes, and how he had slowly, ever so slowly taken it off to get to her flesh beneath.
But now she and Allen were Undead, and while they could stay on the Farmstead and continue as they had been, she was going to make those orcs pay for what they had done, she was going to bite some fucking heads off when she caught up to those bastards.
When she had been alive she hadn’t liked all the profanity her husband had used, but she was dead now, so fuck it all. But no need to tell him that, not just yet anyway.
Allen Royce came shuffling back, his head and neck still dripping with water. Jillian shot him a look, ‘Why are you walking like that?’
Allen looked quizzically back at his wife, ‘I don’t know, just seems kinda' appropriate.’
‘Well, you can stop it right now Allen Royce, makes you look stupid, like a zombie or something.’
‘Oh, well what are we then?’
‘You and I, Husband dear, we’re revenants. We are the dead come back to seek revenge on those who killed us.’
‘Wow, you always were the smarter one dear. Shall we be off? We have some revenanting to do!’
The two undead headed off in the direction the flattened grass led them.
40: The Road Back
Ellowe looked at the burnt out remains of the Inn he and Melress had stayed at just the night before. Smoke curled into the air if you sniffed too hard you could smell roasting meat from within.
The two stable boys lay bent over the horse rail, their britches down around their ankles, blood dripped from their throats down into the water trough below. Flies were buzzing around the boys, darting in to lay their eggs in the hideous gashes on their necks. He couldn’t see anyone else, no more bodies the others must have been inside the Inn when it was torched.
Lucy sat on his horse staring at the sight in front of her, she couldn’t cry, she had no more tears left, just a steely resolve now, to help catch the bastards that had done this to her countrymen.
She wasn’t a royalist or anything; a royal to her was just someone who took something for nothing, little better than a brigand, just with better manners, nicer clothes and a bigger house. But this was her Home, her Homeland and no one should be doing this to her and her fellows. She couldn’t fight, she was no warrior, but she could help in her own small way.
Ellowe turned to look at her, ‘You okay?’
She still saw the love in his eyes, the concern, but amongst that were the hate and the worry, for what was going to happen to them, to their Country.
He continued to talk, ‘I’ve got to bury them, the Boys, and whoever else I can find. You may as well get down and take a rest, the barn’s still standing. Hopefully, there’s a spade in there.’
Lucy slid down off the horse, and hugged Ellowe as hard as she could, what with him wearing plate mail.
‘You’re a good man Ellowe.’ She went up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. He blushed. ‘I always thought I was, these days I’m not so sure. I used to be a right bastard to Melress when we were training together, used to bully him something terrible.’
‘And yet he let you be his friend, that must say something about you and him. We’ll do this together Ellowe, have no worries on my account, I was brought up on a Farmstead remember, I’m used to seeing animals slaughtered and butchered, and to these orcs, that’s all we are, animals to be butchered.’
‘Yes, I guess we are,’ he sighed ‘Stay here while I go and get a spade, and take this.’
He handed Lucy a dagger, and stomped off to the barn, drawing his two-handed sword as he did so.
The doors to the barn were closed but not locked, Ellowe used the blade of his sword to open them, and the smell of death hit him straight in the face, and he nearly gagged but managed to hold it in.
Inside the barn stood a cart, its contents ransacked and scattered, and the two oxen that had pulled the waggon were in nearby stalls, what was left of them anyway. They had been slaughtered and stripped of all edible flesh, piles of offal lay everywhere.
Ellowe spotted a spade propped up against an upright timber, taking a deep breath, he ran into the barn, grabbed the spade and ran out again.
‘Some fearsome warrior you are’, he thought to himself as he took deep breaths of clear air.
From the road came the sounds of a waggon, and soon a merchant waggon appeared. The merchant sat on the front guiding the waggon, and two guards sat on the back. The merchant’s eyes opened in surprise as he saw the burnt-out Inn and he brought his waggon to a stop.
The two guards jumped off the back and drew their long swords as they walked up to the front of the waggon. Ellowe noticed the similarities between the three, father and sons he guessed.
‘What the fuck have you done?’ The merchant exclaimed as he jumped down from the waggon and drew his long sword. ‘You’ve killed them, you’ve killed them all. Battle mage or not I’ll see you hang for this.’
Ellowe looked at the merchant and slowly started to put his sword away, ‘Not me, take a deep smell, you’ll smell the oil they used to light the torches. No, we just got here ourselves.’
He waved the spade, ‘Just about to
bury them.’
Lucy spoke up, ‘He’s right, we were on our way to Ashen Falls to tell the Commander about the orcs...’
The merchant interrupted, ‘Orcs, haven’t been orcs here for near five thousand years you’ll have to try harder than that Miss, or you’ll both hang.’
‘It’s true. They killed my parents, took everything we had, I’m the only one that survived because they hid me first. We need to warn the Battle Mages that they're here.’
One of the Guards spoke up, ‘Hey Pa, 'ain't that the Royce’s girl...Leannie or something.’
The merchant looked carefully at the Girl. 'Your right Jed, Lucy that’s her name.’
Concern came over his face, ‘That right, Lucy, your Folks been killed?’
‘Last night, orcs came pouring over the hill we buried my Parents this morning. Ell...this battle mage is taking me to Ashen Falls to speak to the Commander, and another one went off after the orcs. They stayed here last night, and we were going to sleep here tonight, but we came here to this. We were just about to start burying them.’
The merchant slid his blade back into his scabbard and motioned for his Sons to do the same. He looked at Ellowe, ‘Names Ned, these are my twins, Jed and Brack. We’ll give you a hand and then be on our way, we’ve got this stuff to get to Hardstone, for the Inn.’
Ellowe nodded his thanks, ‘You might want to hole up somewhere for a day or two, there’s a war band out there.’
Ned shrugged, ‘Death or near death’s a merchant’s friend Ellowe, always someone wanting to take what’s yours. We’ll be fine. We know a few dodges and bolt holes we can use on the way. Come on we’ll take turns at digging and keeping watch.
41: The Dancing Death
The first the orc knew of the danger was when the dagger’s blade pierced him straight through the right eyeball, and a hand covered his mouth to silence the scream. Saethryth lay the body down carefully and then went in search of the next victim.
The Eighth God Page 11
