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 se
e 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.
CHAPTER SEVEN
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.
But still he had questions. So they ate a meal together and, deciding it was safe, Jen stood up and scouted the surrounding hills to see if anything sought them out. When she gave him the all clear Gnak rose, and shouldering their supplies they walked side by side through the tall grass, watching its golden stalks bend and sway in the breeze.
It was some time before Gnak worked up the desire to ask the question and hear her reply but when he did, he paused in their trek and turned to face her as an equal.
“Your god say all life precious, yes?”
“Exactly, Gnak, why do you ask?” she asked with a knowing smirk.
“If all life precious, how you kill animal for eat?”
“I’ve never had it explained to me, but this is how I understand it. Killing to eat, is killing to survive. If nothing killed, everything would die. So killing to eat is OK, but killing just to end a life is not.”
Gnak nodded his understanding, and they began walking again. Apparently the child had already questioned all this herself at one point or another. They spent most of the day with simple conversation, each asking the other a question and listening patiently for the answer.
It was late in the evening when they crested the plateau that looked down upon the valley that blocked their way to the pass in the mountains they sought.
Closer to the eastern edge of the valley this time, Gnak guided them around the steep drop-off and further still into the night. Reaching the eastern edge of the valley he could tell the girl grew tired from all the walking, so they stopped and rested a while, eating once again before carrying on.
Nearing morning they finally made their way around the remainder of the valley and, turning once again to the south, Gnak aimed them towards the pass in the near distance. With daylight coming, the giants would be more active and he dared not risk taking Jen into the pass with the giants during the day. Instead they would find a place to hide until night and enter the pass then. Turning off course, he aimed them towards the tree line at the base of the mountains.
It took less than an hour, once they reached the trees, to locate a suitable spot to wait out the day. Here a great pine tree had fallen and been caught near the ground by a neighboring tree. Nearly parallel to the ground, its great boughs swept out in all directions, including down to the soil, creating a great place to hide beneath its thickly needled branches. Under the tree were various openings hidden within its boughs, and together they selected one big enough for the both of them. Then, gathering up branches that had broken free when the tree fell, they carried them into their makeshift room to create for themselves a comfortable place to lay, and better walls to keep predators at bay. Two hours later, both lay sprawled out atop beds of soft pine needles, lost in their own thoughts, drifting into and out of consciousness as the day passed them by.
Gnak used the day to ponder his future. He had never really looked too far ahead before, but now he knew that it was a fault of his people. He was proud of his clan, proud of his people too, but their short-sightedness had created a weakness among them. It was a weakness he could help them change into a strength. All he needed to do was make the clan proud. Make them see his strength. Then become a captain. In time, if he worked hard and planned ahead, perhaps he could help his people find a better path. A more understanding path. After all, if what Jen had told him was true, and now it seemed obviously so, then his people were not loved by the gods as they should be. More could get power if they changed their ways. Their clans would grow bigger and stronger. Their race would become more powerful. He had to find a way to show them.
Night fell upon the forest at the base of the Rancor mountains, and with it a cold breeze from the north sent shivers down their backs as Gnak led Jen towards the pass. The ground grew more steep now, and with the rocky surfaces and loose rubble, Gnak knew that it was unsafe conditions for such a small human. She slipped multiple times, tripping altogether on more than one occasion. Even so, he told himself that it was because she was slowing him down that he came to the decision.
Stopping upon a particular
ly treacherous slope, he turned and without warning he snatched her off her feet, lifting her high into the air. Spinning her within his hands he placed her upon his shoulders behind his head, her legs running down each side of his chest. Holding her feet, he again turned and began the climb up the mountainous slope.
“No piss?” Gnak grunted.
“No piss. I promise,” she giggled in reply.
They continued on for several hours in silence, making the difficult climb up to the pass entrance. It was near midnight, judging by the stars, when Gnak stopped suddenly, leaning down to the ground. Before him lay the track of an Orc, which might have been one of his own from days before, except that it faced the wrong direction. This Orc was moving in the same direction as they were. Another hundred yards further up the trail Gnak followed the prints and realized that the Orc was two Orcs, and they did not travel alone. With them a small, adult human-sized print and a thick, almost round print traveled as well. All four sets of tracks moved in the same direction and all were fairly fresh, likely passing earlier this same day.
“What is it, Gnak?” Jen asked.
“More Orcs go here. Have prisoners.”
“Will I get to meet them?” she asked excitedly.
“No. You meet, I have kill you.”
“Oh.” Her body sagged on his shoulders.
“We no talk. We hear.”
Jen did not answer his last words, and Gnak knew she understood his meaning. Quietly, they crept ahead the remaining mile to the mouth of the mountain pass. Gnak strained his ears listening, but could hear no sounds ahead. Peering ahead into the gorge through the mountain, he could see no movement either. Assured that his kin had passed hours before, he carried Jen into the pass, carefully avoiding stones, discarded implements, and bones alike.
Little more than a hundred yards into the pass, Gnak stood with Jen upon his shoulders, her tiny, still body, barely noticeable as far as weight was concerned. Together they listened and Gnak peered into the darkest places, searching for what could be hidden beneath them. Naught but a pair of rats scurried about the piles of dead mounded along the sides of the pass.
Age of the Gods: The Complete, twelve novel, fantasy series (The Blood and Brotherhood Saga) Page 146