Age of the Gods: The Complete, twelve novel, fantasy series (The Blood and Brotherhood Saga) (173 page)

Stalking to the base of the wall, Gnak reached up to find his first handholds and began pulling his weight up with his massive arms.

Long and arduous was the climb that first night as the sun fell from the sky, only to be replaced by both of Thurr’s moons. Hour after painstaking hour Gnak reached up and grasped at the interwoven vines to heave himself upward. From time to time he would hear the chatter of small animals along the face of the cliff and on several occasions, birds leapt into the air just out of his reach, fleeing at his approach in an explosion of feathers and screeched warnings to their peers.

Finding himself exhausted from the climb, as he had been several times through the day, he wrapped his legs and arms in the vines, entangling his limbs and relaxed his muscles. There he hung suspended by the plants, leaning away from the rock face slightly as he hung limp in their grasp. From this vantage it appeared that the climb would never end, though for several hours he worked to ascend towards a dark spot higher upon the wall. Each time he stopped he measured his progress, and each time he found his destination further than he liked. The progress was slow. His muscles ached and cramped. His knuckles and shoulders were tight from constant strain. Yet still his goal required more from him.

For near half an hour in the darkness he lay, vertically suspended and still, so as to not become dislodged. Watching and listening as the time passed, he noted a low thrumming sound as the wind swept across the mountains here, and imagined the very rock of the peaks were breathing. Stretching his limbs, one by one, he disentangled himself and began climbing once more.

The night was clear and cool with millions of stars set as a surreal backdrop for the moons. Looking ever upwards, it felt as if he were climbing into the sky itself and with every new handhold he grew nearer to touching that which was elusive to the mortals. Above him the heavens looked back down, and Gnak wondered if the gods were there, watching his pathetic attempt at attaining that which only they claimed.

Another hour passed and then another, and slowly the dark patch he sought upon the mountainside grew more and more distinct as he was rewarded with the revelation that it was indeed a cave as he had hoped. Willing his muscles to continue, Gnak struggled on into the last hour of darkness. Then, with the effort of a man with nothing left but stubborn pride, Gnak jutted out his jaw and gnashed his teeth as he clambered over the edge of the vertical wall and into the cave upon its face.

Rolling to a crouched position, he pulled forth the pair of twin blades from his back and looked into the depths of the cave in search of anything that might lurk there. The cave was more of a crack in the stone wall that sloped down and away from the opening upon the cliff face. Warm air rose from deeper in the cave, blowing upon his face in a steady breeze. Moss and lichens clung to nearly every vertical surface here near the mouth of the cave, and on the floor small pools of water sat stagnant, with leeches and snails moving about in their shallows. Where the crack narrowed to close above him, Gnak could see small glistening trails of moisture that crept down the moss to the floor below. Grey and black stone created every surface between the plants that carpeted the cave, and with no sign of danger, Gnak collapsed to the floor in a heap.

Rolling to his back he stretched out all of his aching limbs, opening and closing his destroyed hands to restore circulation where it was still needed, its flow having been limited due to his constant grasping of the vines. Twisting his joints, many of them cracked, as even his charred toes seemed to sigh in relief. Just lying upon his back felt like ecstasy. Yet even now, he knew he would have a repeat performance the very next night.

After a long rest, Gnak rolled to his side and removing the bundle from his back he forced his fingers back into service. Untying the bundle, he removed several strips of dried meat. Eating just one of the strips, he placed two more in one of the shallow pools of water on the cave floor to rehydrate the meat. As the mouth of the cave grew brighter, Gnak moved further inside and, his loneliness getting the best of him, he called out into the echoing depths.

“Jen?”

“I’m here, Gnak. Quite a day, huh?”

“Yes, Gnak tired.”

“Where are we going? Is it daytime?”

“We go see trolls. Learn trolls. Maybe no fight. Is day. Trolls move in day. Gnak move in night.”

“I sure would like to feel the sun on my face again,” Jen admitted.

Gnak paused a moment, letting her words set in. He knew it was unnatural to keep her like this. He should let her go, but he couldn’t. He needed her and wanted to restore her to life. He knew that in time he would better understand his power and then, perhaps, he could find her a suitable body and bring her back. Her desire to feel the sun assured him that he was on the right path. He hoped.

“Gnak want Jen feel sun too. Gnak will fix. Need more time.”

“It’s OK, Gnak… So what do you hope to discover about the trolls?”

“Gnak need know if troll talk. See if orc can talk to troll. Make deal, no war.”

“What if they don’t talk?”

“Gnak not know. Need knowledge. Need plan. Gnak will find what he needs. This is what Ishanya want. Gnak have vision. Will find way.”

“I wish I could help you,” she replied.

“Jen does help. Make Gnak not alone. Help Gnak see right way. Help Gnak learn.”

“Thank you, Gnak. That is very kind,” she said with a long pause before she resumed. “I have to go soon. Where are we?”

“We in cave. High on mountain. This where Gnak build city. Will be great fortress. Orcs, goblins, and trolls work together. Make new home. Good home. Gnak want to show Jen,” he explained, and waited for her reply.

It was several minutes before he gave up and realizing that a reply would not come, Gnak closed his eyes in the semi-darkness of the cave and went quickly to sleep.

* * * * *

Deep inside the cavernous depths the goblin slavers toiled. With cracking whips and clattering chains they demanded obedience of every beast given into their charge. Here the darkest of evil dwelt within man and beast alike, yet it was given unto the slavers to keep them in line, pounding and beating at the hot stones to breathe life into a city for those who were better men.

Consigned to lives of hard labor, those killers, and thieves, and takers of virtue were brought before the whips of the slavers to earn their redemption through sweat and blood. Here they worked day in and day out until their lives escaped them. But even then, beyond the reach of normal pain, the great warlord would not let them shirk their condemnation. Without pity, he would raise them from their rest once more to continue on until they could no longer perform the tasks given.

Here in the sweltering confines of heat-blasted stone, even the slavers who feared no men bowed before him as he passed. It was the same every day as he made his rounds through the hidden passages beneath the great city. With the clinging scents of putrid decay, sweat, feces, and sulfur, the caverns turned his stomach every time he forced himself to see to these duties. But see to them, he knew he must. To keep the city moving, there were many duties he was forced to undertake.

As he passed the condemned, time and again, he would raise those who lay shackled upon the ground without life to swing their hammers. Those still living and with hope for their freedom all fell to their knees before him in a dark melody of mournful moans and clanking chains. Then with a crack of the whips the slavers would seemingly bring them back to life, as they climbed to their feet once more to resume their ceaseless punishment.

Though he felt that he should have remorse for the treatment of those in the caverns, he reminded himself that they were the dregs of his society. They were unfitting of the life lived by those above the surface. They were all condemned by their own kind, not just him, and for their crimes he would see them punished until their very bones crumpled into piles of waste upon the cavern floors.

He wondered who was worse, the criminals condemned to these caverns, or those slavers who drove them ceaselessly beyond their very deaths. Shaking his head, he began towards the intersections that would lead him back to the surface where he could breathe without bile rising into his mouth.

With a blast of steam issuing out from a fissure in the cavern floor, Gnak covered his face to protect his sight, but when it relented he was not ready for what he saw.

Standing before him was the goddess he served in all her dark and menacing glory. From the very shadows of the cavern she coalesced, her form gathering definition with each second. With tightly braided hair clinging to her scalp in rows, it cascaded down her back and over her shoulders. Her creamy, flawless skin, though covered in near entirety by armor, seemed to invite him closer as her lips curled upward into a wicked grin. Hers was a beauty that surpassed the racial barrier. Or was it her power that called to him?

Like tidal waves of energy, he could feel her power washing over him whilst he remained in her presence. Hovering several feet off the cavern floor, it was as if ethereal wings held her aloft as she bobbed up and down in a slow steady rhythm. Gnak did not blame her for not wanting to touch the ground. He would not see her tainted by the soiled surface either, for she was perfection.

Bowing low to the goddess he served, he let his crown sweep the stone of the floor for many long moments before daring to rise anew. From toe to head his gaze swept up every clinging curve of her wicked armor, until at last he gazed into the dark voids where her eyes should have been.

“Time is of the essence, servant,” she said to him, her lips moving out of sync with the sounds that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

“Gnak work hard. Make promises real, Ishanya,” he replied turning his gaze upon the floor once more.

“You have months, not years, puny orc. See your oath fulfilled or I will strip her away from you, never to see the sun again.”

Gnak did not question how she knew about Jen. She was a god. She knew everything and saw everything. There was no proper response to what she said.

“Yes, goddess,” he replied hesitantly.

“Use the power I have given you, fool. That which you need to see my will done is within your grasp. You need only reach out and take what is yours.”

And then her form seemed to waver in the light as the shadows that bound her together released their hold, to return to the cavern around them. With the disappearance of the shadows, so too was the goddess gone. A shiver ran down Gnak’s spine as his vision clouded before turning black.

* * * * *

Gnak awoke with a start, and snatching up his blades he rose to his feet, twisting this way and that as hot air issued out from deeper within the cave. With no apparent enemy, he wiped the drool from his lower lip and chin with the back of his hand as a strange realization struck him.

Pulling his hand away from his face, he looked upon the blood that was smeared across the back of his wrist and hand. Reaching up, he wiped globs of goo from his chin and even one of his tusks with his fingers, before holding his hand out to where he could see it with his good eye. He found that he had indeed been attacked.

Though it was smashed and resembled little more than pieces of slimy goo, he recognized the large leech from the previous night. Looking down to his arms and chest the things clung to his body everywhere, their small circular mouths attached to his flesh. Almost in perfect rhythm, the things undulated as if pulsing with his heart as they fed from him. There were thousands.

Working as fast as he was able, Gnak began to pluck the leeches from his body. Every removed parasite left a raised ring of swollen and bloody flesh where it had fed, but even so he continued on. One after another he plucked the things from his skin, twisting and tearing each one away forcefully. Even the bottom of his feet and armpits were host to the disgusting creatures, and without the ability to reach much of his back, Gnak was forced to smash into the cavern wall, and scrubbing his back against the moss and lichens that clung there he stripped away the blood-sucking, foul creatures.

By the time he was finished, he was in such a mood that he wanted nothing more than to flee the cave and return to the mind-numbing and body-aching climb that awaited him. Gathering up his weapons and supplies he began to stride towards the exit of his temporary abode, when he remembered the strips of meat he had left in a shallow pool to soften. Turning, he took the few steps required before he knelt down to retrieve what would be his evening meal.

Though both strips of meat were covered nearly entirely in both the leeches and the snails that inhabited the cave, Gnak wanted vengeance. Chewing vigorously he took a large bite of both strips, parasites and all, gnashing his teeth and tusks as he turned them to jelly within his mouth. If they had fed on him, then he would do the same in return.

It was only moments later, when finishing his meal, that Gnak strode to the edge of the cave, and reaching out beside it he took his first grasp of the evening at the vines that would be his companions for the remainder of the night.

Swinging out and away from the cave he began to climb, ignoring more than a thousand raised welts upon his flesh that stung in the cool night breeze as he climbed.

Fourteen hours later, as he crested the cliff face he had spent two entire nights climbing, he could not help but wonder if it was the leeches that had saved him the pain of cramps this second day. Could it be that they had given something into his body to speed his climb, allowing his blood to flow more easily in his muscles? No matter what the case, he thanked Ishanya for any help she might have given him as he peered across the view ahead.