Page 18 of Orn and the Real Girl
He was so beautiful.
After a moment he shook his head, turning his dark eyes to me. “No, the bulk of their force is in the cave. They’re…celebrating, I think.”
Panic threatened to grind me down, but I took a deep breath, then another, and beat it back once more. But when Orn took my mittened hand and held it tight, I took his comfort gladly. “Can you tell anything about what they’re celebrating?”
He shook his head, tusks glinting as they caught the dying light. “No. But the smell of blood is old, and doesn’t strike me as human.” He sniffed again, closing his eyes to concentrate. Disgust wrinkled his nose, but he seemed to have figured something out. “Deer, I think. Maybe a little rabbit,” he told me. My panic subsided further.
“How can you smell all that?” I asked, letting him lead me farther from the encampment. “Is that an orc thing?”
He shrugged. “In a way. My nose is keen, but it’s never been this sharp before. Likely it’s the blood song.” He lead me through the forest until we couldn’t see the encampment anymore, parting the heavy snow-laden boughs of a huge pine tree, the branches providing a rough shelter from the wind. “We’ll camp here tonight, I think. I’m going to scout some more, try and get a better idea of how many there are.”
I snatched his arm and gripped it tight, stopping him as he tried to pull out a tarp for our bedrolls.
“You’re going back? Alone? At night?”
Orn’s face softened, his free hand cupping my cheek. “My sweet little witch. The gods themselves couldn’t tear me away from you.”
I swallowed a painful lump. “But they managed to capture most of a coven of talented witches. They’re not going to be pushovers, honey.”
“Ah, but they had time to prepare for that, to craft that hideous spell they used to smooth their way.” He grinned wide,eyes going unfocused as he pictured it. “And they will have never come afoul of an orcish man with the blood song in his veins and a sweet goddess to worship when the job is done.” His gaze returned to me, something wild and dangerous glimmering in his coal-dark eyes. “They won’t know what’s upon them until it isfartoo late.”
I shivered, but not from the cold—this was my first time seeing this side of Orn, and while it should have terrified me, should have sent me running, instead it…itexcitedme. There was so much menace and deadly power in that huge, solid body—but every second with him had shown me that it was allforme, for him to use to take care of me, to protect me.
I pressed close and kissed him hard, my arms circling his neck and squeezing tight. “Be careful, you madman,” I told him, my voice hoarse from unshed tears. “If I have to go in there by myself and rescue you along with everyone else I will beso angry.”
He laughed, kissing me back. Then we parted and got our little camp set up, the night quickly falling to cloak the forest in dark.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ORN
I WASN’Tlying when I said that Sara had nothing to fear…but it was not thewholetruth, either. Iwasnervous about my solo adventure deeper into the strange humans’ encampment, and it all had to do with that scent. That unnatural, unholy reek that bathed the entire area and set my teeth on edge. A band of humans, even a lot of humans, was no match for a determined orc in the thrall of the song—and though these might not be normal humans, there was no other option than to scout out the encampment and discover all that I could.
I would just have to be careful. Quiet, small, careful. There was no way I was going to let Sara anywhere near that cave without having a better idea of what we were up against.
But from the beginning, it was obvious that the gods were on my side. The guards posted outside were careless, distracted, and I was able to slip past them so easily I found myself embarrassed on their behalf. Once I was in the cave I was alone, the sounds of merriment coming from much deeper inside; this was a large cave system, then, with several passageways and caverns.
Without the crisp wind and the cut of pine sap to dull the unnatural scent it was almost overwhelming, my stomach turning and threatening to dispose of my supper any time I tried to breathe through my nose.In Salerah’s name, I will cleansethis place of this filth,I thought, grimacing at a hellish altar I passed. Whatever they were doing here, it was an affront to the very fabric of the world, a stain that was so awful there was no choice but to cut it out entirely.
Howling sounded from around a corner and I froze, pressing myself into the shadowy stone walls. My ears strained, trying to pick out every sound I was hearing and give it a name. The howling was human, I noted, and seemed to be part of the celebration, other voices gradually joining it and weaving through it until it was like a song—a cursed, unreal song that stood my hair on end.
When the noise subsided I was rewarded for my vigilance at last.
“Fucking can’t wait for tomorrow,” a rough voice said. “Been looking at those cunts for too damn long without being able to do nothing to ‘em. But the Unmaker needs fresh, intact meat for ‘is journey, aye?”
“That’s what Bell said,” another voice slurred. Their next words were drowned out by something heavy and metallic crashing to the floor, but I was able to just make out the tail end of it: “…still be warm enough, after.”
My pulse drummed heavily through my veins, rage filling me so quickly and furiously that it made me lightheaded. I shuffled back, away from this cavern, before the blood song took all my sense and demanded I slaughter them all here and now, with nothing but my small hunting knife to help be get through all that work.Foul wretches.
I checked down two more passageways that forked off from that one, stopping when I heard voices to try and glean what I could. But much of it was the same: their god, this “Unmaker”, needed a huge sacrifice to traverse the planes and make its way here, and Sara’s coven were meant to be that sacrifice. They were waiting until tomorrow night, when the moon would be new,but the celebrations were already well underway. The only other valuable information was that they slept during the day. That guardmightbe more vigilant, knowing that their brethren were all asleep, but it didn’t seem like there would be any more than two. Most every voice I heard was relieved that they had not been one of the two selected to hold the post come morning.
In all, I thought there might be something like two or three dozen of these animals—I refused to think of such cruel, filthy beasts as people. Certainly, there would be fighters among them, but after a night like tonight they’d be hungover and groggy, especially if we struck while they slept. They did not expect anyone to try and stop them, confident that they had managed to snatch everyone who would come looking, that no one even knew they existed, let alone what they were up to.
But I knew. Sara knew. And we would bring all the fires of Salerah to this cursed place and cleanse it of their evil.
SARA
ORN HADwanted me to sleep, but even with wards in place there wasn’t any way I was going to let myself relax until he was safe in my arms. I kept holding my breath to listen better, to pick out the sounds of the night and find any thread that might need pulling. But all was still and calm, the storm finally spent and no great calamity striking to crack through the soft sounds of the night.
