Twisted Fate (Orc Destiny Volume I) (The Blood and Brotherhood Saga) (17 page)

For more than two hours he just sat watching her sit across
from him with a blank stare on her face. She was still in there. He knew she
was. He talked to her every day. He could not do what the shaman said. He could
not kill her, not if she could recover. She just needed more time. So he
waited.

The entire night passed and Jen did not move. Day came and
she did not sleep. Still Gnak watched. It was three hours past dark again when
she shuddered suddenly, her eyes blinking rapidly.

“Hi, Gnak,” Jen said, her voice filled with cheer.

The wheezing had returned. Gnak figured it was because there
were not enough maggots to fill the holes in her chest and back. He tried to
smile at her, but he choked upon the false action, a sob escaping him.

“Gnak. What’s the matter?” she asked, rushing to his side.

“I fail you. You not live. Inside dead. Shaman no fix. Soon
you die.” Gnak managed through his emotions.

“Gnak. What’s the matter?” she asked, and Gnak looked to her
tiny confused face.

She had forgotten what had happened just seconds before. He
wondered if she would be lucid ever again. Or at least,
this
lucid. Pulling
her into his arms he stroked her tiny head, appalled as a piece of her scalp
tore away, the hair becoming tangled in his fingers. Removing it from his hand
without her noticing, as a means to not startle her, he pushed her back away
from his chest and looked into her large eyes.

“Gnak no good. Gnak sorry fail. I take Jen away. Stay with. You
die.” He laid out his plan.

Staring into his, face she didn’t even blink. She had
disappeared again.

“You go sleep…”Gnak began, but before he could finish she
rose from his lap and stalked across the tent, plopping herself down upon the
pile of furs opposite him.

“Jen?”

No answer.

So his decision was made. When light came in the morning and
most Orcs took to their tents for rest, he would take her into the woods to the
north upon the mountainside. There he would stay with her until she died. Again.

He never slept that night, instead watching the small girl
slumber,
if
that’s what she did. He pondered where he had went wrong,
thinking that perhaps she had been right again. Maybe he
had
angered the
goddess by not working to carry out his end of the bargain. Maybe he had
brought her back incorrectly. Maybe she had been dead too long when he brought
her back. He had no way to be sure. All he was certain of was his failure.

He had failed to let her return home when she had asked
after saving his life. He had failed to give her the riches he promised. He had
failed her by allowing her to be captured by his peers. He had failed her by
allowing one of them to kill her. Again he had failed her by using his gift,
given by a god, improperly. And now he would fail her again, as again she had
to die, because of him. It was a dark and empty feeling that lasted for hours,
but while he dwelled upon his failures the day had come.

Angered with himself, he left the tent and set about
gathering supplies. Stomping from place to place, he gathered a leather sack
and stuffed it full of meat, rope, and a skin filled with water. Returning to
his tent, he rolled Jen in the fur she slept upon and carried her from his home,
snatching up a spear as he left. With the sun blazing, he crossed the miles of
sand until he reached the grassy land beyond. Then, further still he hiked into
the forest at the base of the mountains.

High he climbed, where other Orcs were not likely to follow,
and where it was cold. It was a sick reason, perhaps, but he knew she would not
rot as fast in the cold and even unthinking, her presence comforted him.

For weeks he stayed with her, watching her deteriorate, as
it slowly tore him apart. He watched as her scalp and hair slid from atop her
head and tore free to settle upon the cold stones beneath them and her eyes
ruptured only to deflate and fall from her skull. He watched as the flesh from
her fingers tore when she bent them, and broke away leaving little nubs. He
watched as great slabs of her skin were left behind as she sought to rise from
laying down or sitting. He watched still as her muscle and other tissues turned
slowly into a thick black fluid and she was rendered immobile. Still he stayed
at her side waiting.

Though it was painful, and
he
, not
she
,
suffered the torture of
her
slow death, to Gnak it had been worth it to
not put her down. She had had two more days with moderate periods of lucidity
and he used them to express to her his regret of failing her and not listening
to her. He told her that all would be OK, and comforted her when she realized
what it was that was happening, but that had been more than ten days ago. In her
final moments of conscious thought, he promised her that he would carry on to
see the god’s desires fulfilled, and at the same time he would teach his people
that there was more to life than pride and courage. All that was left for him
was waiting.

It was three days after her last movement that the little
ball of swirling light left her. Unable to let her go, he again snatched it out
of the air, and held it close.

It took him three more days of experimentation, but when he
was done he was both satisfied and prepared to return to camp. One last time he
focused himself inward, and located the small orb of Jen’s light and willed it
into his hand. He felt the warmth, and felt the transition as it exited his
body, coalescing in his palm. Then, as he had done hundreds of times, he drew
it back into himself. Jen was with him. Rising, he strode down the
mountainside.

It would be a long walk, but he did not care. Gnak had a
promise to keep, both to his goddess and to Jen. He had a plan, and had thought
it through several times, but in order to pull it off he had to kill a few Orcs.
Sometimes to save many you had to kill a few, and Gnak could live with that. After
all, he had an empire to build.

“Gnak wish Jen here,” he said into the empty air, setting
his pace for the long journey back home alone.

“I am here,” her small voice replied inside his head.

-End

Fallen
Crown

Clad in Shadow
(Poetry for a Burdened Soul)

The Blood and Brotherhood Saga

The Choosing
(Book One of the Blood and Brotherhood Saga)

The Chosen
(Book Two of the Blood and Brotherhood Saga)

The Changing
(Book Three of the Blood and Brotherhood Saga)

Crimson (Book 3.5
of the Blood and Brotherhood Saga)

The Contention
(Book Four of the Blood and Brotherhood Saga)

The Champions (Book
Five of the Blood and Brotherhood Saga)

The Crowned (Book
Six of the Blood and Brotherhood Saga)

Orc Destiny Trilogy

Twisted
Fate (Orc Destiny, Volume I)

Fallen
Crown (Orc Destiny, Volume II)

The Beyond Series

Beyond The Mask
(The Beyond Book One)

Beyond The Flesh
(The Beyond Book Two)

Beyond The Soul (The Beyond Book Three)

I live in southern Louisiana with my wife and children, and
work full time as a civilian employed by the federal government. I like to
spend time with my family and am excited that we will soon have a new addition
in Feburary of 2014.

I spend as much time as I am able writing, but also enjoy
downtime with the wife and kids, and am a bit of a movie buff as well. I thrive
on sarcasm and nerdism and am currently addicted to The Big Bang Theory amongst
other things.

Fantasy has always been my reading genre of choice, though I
am picky about who and what I read, and I refuse to read a series out of order.
I have been known to devour entire sagas in mere days, emerging only when
necessary for survival.

I love to hear from all of my readers, and hope to chat with
you on the Blood and Brotherhood fan page on Facebook, here:

http://www.facebook.com/bloodandbrotherhood

Or feel free to contact me through my website and send me an
email, here:

http://www.wix.com/jeremylaszlo/author