(Continued from Ch 44, The Best Laid Plans)

The Chronicles of Rapina
Chapter 45, An Unfriendly Wager


Rapina heard a scream from the edge of the forest where the men were cutting wood. 

"Orcs!" an infantryman shouted.

"Retreat! How in hell did that assassin quench the light on the rock? Harms galloped back to the walls as enemy archery fire began. 

He tossed her to the ground in the corner made by the two remaining stone walls. "I've got work to do. Just keep low and in that corner. If you want to try to escape, go ahead. The orcs will shoot you down."

"Yes, I'm sure they would," Rapina said.

Harms' men stacked what timbers they had up in front of the inside corner made by the existing stone walls. It was a much smaller fort than they had originally intended.

Rapina literally lied down on the cold ground. She heard arrows and the screams of the men. A soldier named Sims came staggering over the timbers the others were putting in place, took a few more steps and fell. There was an arrow stuck deep in his chest.

"Damned orcs know we can't see a bloody thing. The assassin has cut off our light!"

"Aaah!" Rapina screamed as an arrow buried itself in her calf. Rapina knew she was doomed unless she found a shield. Men were falling everywhere. Only the one's right up near the piled timbers were safe from orcs firing from the direction where the missing walls should have stood. Rapina crept forward. She was luckier than some. There was a dead man lying on the ground not far in front of her. She rolled him on his side and wedged herself under him. She felt the wound in her calf and snapped the arrowhead off, then pulled the shaft out the other side. The pain was terrific but, once she had removed the arrow, she could direct the energies she had stored within her breasts to heal it. 

She cowered under the dead man as volley after volley struck all around her. On several occasions, she was wounded by arrows that transfixed the corpse or grazed her less well-protected legs, but she received no wounds as bad as the initial wound to her calf had been. She knew that there was no one living this far back, and that she was receiving only the stray shots but there were plenty of those. She slowly wriggled and pulled her dead man shield back into the corner formed by the stone walls so that she would catch fewer of the stray shots. 

"They're using our own damn arrows against us! They looted these from the garrison stores," Harms threw one of the orc arrows he had pulled out of a man aside.

The arrows positively rained down and then Rapina heard it, the sounds of firebombs landing on the men. The orcs were tossing them over the walls from behind, the opposite direction from whence the archery fire originated. It was a route and a massacre. Some of the men ran and were cut down by arrows, others staid and burned, and a very lucky few remained untouched between the fires. After the fires had died down, Rapina noticed the sky had begun to lighten. The day was dawning.

---

Rames paced back and forth in front of the door to Thane's chambers.

"Come in guardian Rames. I assume you are worried about Rapina," Thane said.

"I feel bad about not trying to rescue her," Rames said.

Thane nodded, "I realize that this is trying for you, but we must do what is right for the church. We might have tried to rescue the girl, but with the number of Avengene priests and soldiers, the odds were very good that we would only have succeeded in getting ourselves captured as well. As it was, Rapina's decoy spell casting was half the reason I was able to get away. The other half, being Elizabetta's fine marksmanship. I am aware of Rapina's value, and I will do my utmost to retrieve her, but I will not attempt a half-baked plan. Dawn is near and we have little power in the light of day."

Rames paced, "I know, I know, but I'm a soldier, I want to do something!"

"I have been working very hard on scrying during the past year, and this sort of situation was precisely the reason for that work. I have guardedly good news. I was able to locate Elizabetta using my pool, and then switch to my mirror so that I could cast an audible illusion and clairaudience through the mirror," Thane said.

"You mean you spoke with her?" Rames asked.

"Indeed," Thane replied.

"What happened after we left?" Rames asked.

"Apparently the men we faced were the scouts and outriders for a unit of infantry about four dozen strong. They arrived shortly after we escaped. Rapina attempted to run away after I made my escape, but a priest's spell rooted her to the ground. While the Avengenes were fighting the reavers and snagging Rapina, Elizabetta did a fine job of assassinating three of the four priests. Had the priest not enspelled Rapina, and had the infantry not arrived when they did, Elizabetta might actually have been able to rescue the girl."

"Damn!" Rames snapped.

"Indeed, but all is not lost," Thane said. "It was a mistake that the Avengenes decided to attack us, for in so doing they allowed the orc scout to get away. The scout alerted the orcs. Evidently, they decided to attack while it was still dark and their night vision would give them the advantage. Just before the start of the orc attack, Elizabetta was able to sneak up onto one of the stone walls and accomplish two things. She killed the Avengene's last priest, and she used dust of disenchantment to kill the light spells cast on a beacon atop the wall so that the Avengenes were stuck with poor illumination. 

Currently Rapina has taken cover beneath the body of a dead Avengene. The orcs are doing devastating damage with arrows. They are standing in the dark just out of the visual range of the humans. The overcast night is winning the battle for them.

Elizabetta will attempt to secure the bodies of the priests for me before any more Avengenes arrive. She has garnered a number of cloaks to protect herself from the light and is waiting for the orcs to leave. We must sleep soon. I will watch a little longer, but there is nothing I can do for Rapina at this time," Thane said.

"But the orcs, if they catch her they'll..." Rames' voice trailed off.

"Rape her?" Thane chuckled. "I am more concerned about them eating her. Her skills between the sheets could save her life."

---


Rapina heard arrows from the direction of the lower of the two stone walls. Orc archers were somehow poking their heads over the wall, perhaps on the shoulders of their compatriots. There were very few Avengenes left to oppose them, and almost none when the orcs had finished. A minute later, a frontal assault was led by a huge orc in mismatched plate armor bristling with spikes.

The orcs seemed to range in size somewhat more than humans did. There were orcs only as tall as a petite woman, and orcs who were something over seven feet tall. On the average they seemed to be relatively broad, or it could have been that they simply tended to carry extra weight. Their skin was usually some tint of gray, beige or brown with pink areas such as the tips of their porcine noses. Their jaws stuck out farther than those of humans, but were not as pronounced as the snouts of animals. Their hair was coarse and ranged in color from white to beige, brown or black. They had small tusk-like teeth that stuck up from the bottom of their jaws and protruded outside their lips. Their armor and weapons were a hodge-podge of pieces that looked to have been salvaged from the soldiers of Avengene.

Harms was in the front corner of his makeshift fort, nearly covered with his dead men. He stood, yelling, "Culach!"

"Ahahaha!," The orc leader laughed. "Culach? botn mal?"

"Uh," Harms pointed to his blade. 

"Bah!" the orc chief replied.

Rapina peered out from under the dead man's shoulder trying to see what the lieutenant was up to.

Harms Rushed over to Rapina and poised his blade at her throat. "Push that body off you, lady. I am challenging this orc to a duel and need you as a wager." He held up the keys to Rapina's manacles and pointed at her, nnn iskar squchuchuchuchuch.

"Mal?" The orc said as he kicked the dead body, aside with his foot and looked at Rapina. "Heheheh, goo?"

"Goooooo," Lieutenant Harms replied.

"Culach!" The orc gesticulated with his arms. The orcs who had been busily stabbing the wounded and apparently dead to make sure they were dead, tossed bodies aside to make room.

"I have successfully challenged this orc chief to a duel. It is customary to bet something that will then belong to the victor rather than the dead man's clan. The blade of a desperate human was not enough, but he knew I could kill you instantly, so you were," Harms chuckled. "If I win, his clan cannot hunt me because he agreed to the duel, and if they cannot hunt me, I will walk out of here unscathed."

"Jool," One of the orc guards said noticing Rapina's jeweled silver choker.

"Goooo! Culach!" the chief bellowed.

Rapina had seen Harms fight the reavers, and he was good, but the orc was head and shoulders taller than the man, and broad. Rapina doubted it was all muscle, but enough of it certainly was. The combatants circled, trading feints. Rapina looked at the orc's armor. It was probably made from parts salvaged from a dozen different warriors, and there were rivets in many places where it had been patched. It had to weigh a ton. Harms' chainmail was certainly lighter. He seemed a little faster, but the orc's reach was longer, both because of the length of his blade and the length of his arms.

After a feint flew by, Harms stepped in and swung.

Clang! Rapina watched as Harms' blade struck the side of the orc chief's helmet. The sound must have been deafening. The orc had ducked forward, not far enough to avoid the blow, but far enough to catch it on the boss around his ear. The helm was creased and a bit of blood flowed. The orc was stunned, but not so stunned that he failed to take advantage of Harms' open left side

"Ahh!" Harms jumped back, a grizzly wound where his pristine left shoulder had been.

Harms had certainly hit a more lethal spot, but Gluud was so strong that the chainmail Harms was wearing gave only as much protection as leather would have given against a normal man. The warriors continued. Harms managed to glance a blow off the orc's chest as the orc struck at a patch of air above his head. Unfortunately, the lieutenant had failed to take advantage of the staggering power of his head blow because of the chief's timely hit to his shoulder. Harms' skill and speed, however, allowed him to move more freely than his opponent did. 

Wang! The lieutenant's blade took the orc's visor right off and creased his chin. The orc raised a bracer against the lieutenant's back swing and struck forcefully, the point of his sword opening a deep rent just below the officer's right knee.

"Vermin!" Harms shouted. He knew he was in trouble now. His best advantage had been his speed, now his leg was a mess and he could not put his full weight on it. It felt spindly as if something were broken but was not yet hurting as much as it soon would. Harms knew it was now or never. The orc's belly was not made for human armor. several bands of dead men's breastplates had been used to cover it. The quality of the workmanship was poor. Harms ran under the orc's swing and pushed his blade up under a plate.

Chief Gluud squealed like a wounded pig as the lieutenant's blade entered his belly and slid up through his vitals. The chief swung like a crazed boar as Harms gutted him, but the lieutenant hopped forward and avoided the orc chief's last stroke. The jump brought a sickening crunch from his leg.

Harms sat down on top of the fallen chief's body and tossed the keys to Rapina's shackles to her. "Take off the leg irons. I don't think they will give me a horse so we will need to walk fast and I will have to lean on you. Take your cloak if you like. Sims only has a few arrows in him, and most are in the front. Harms removed Rapina's cloak from Sims' body and began ripping strips of cloth from a Sim's breeches. He would need a splint for his leg.

Rapina grimaced. Harms had won; that meant the orcs could not challenge him, and it probably also meant that she would still belong to the lieutenant. She was glad to be rescued from the orcs. She kind of liked admired Harms' efficiency, but she had no doubt he would keep her in chains and drag her right into Avengene's court where she would conveniently be relieved of her head. 

There was a possibility she could use the charm generated by her climax to get him to let her go, but she wondered if it would be strong enough to go against the man's training and unquestioning loyalty to Avengene. Not only that, but she did not know if she could get him to stop to bed her if he was intent on making it to the nearest fort to send reinforcements against the enemies he had outwitted. On the other hand, dealing with one half-lame man, good warrior or not, would be a whole lot easier than dealing with a whole tribe of hostile orcs.

The orcs were also missing a chief, making their political situation very volatile. She could see that several of the chief's retainers were eyeing each other. A few of the orcs were grouping around certain of the more powerful-looking warriors. Although she could not understand what they were saying, there were some tones of protest coming from various orcs. Fingers were being pointed at the lieutenant. Rapina relocked the empty shackles as she took them off. By the time she had her cloak on, Harms had a makeshift splint on his leg and was standing up.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Lieutenant Harms said.

Rapina helped serve as a right-hand crutch for the lieutenant. They headed straight for the nearest folliage. Rapina realized that she was not the only one to have heard the voices of dissension from amongst the orcs. As soon there were a few trees between the two of them and the orcs, the lieutenant spoke up.

"Give me the keys to the shackles you've got slung over your shoulders," Harms said.

"You took my belt," Rapina replied.

"What's that got to do with it?" Harms asked.

"I had no pouches, so I stuffed them into my pants," Rapina said.

Harms checked the shackles, they were locked so he could not put them on her without having the keys. "Damn it wench, I ought to cut you down where you stand," Harms said.

"Except you need me as a crutch." Rapina smiled.

The lieutenant shook his head, "Come along. It is not safe for either of us near the orcs. Their tribal custom says that they cannot harm the winner of culach, but they were a sorry lot with many wounded. Had it not been for the arrows they had stolen from the fort, and the fact that it was night and your assassin stripped us of our priests and light, we would have held. At dawn we would have cut them down. They believe that, with my bad leg, I will not be able to find reinforcements to turn their butts into bacon before they can get their sorry asses into the Northern mountains, but I aim to prove them wrong." After Harms put some more distance between himself and the orcs, he put his fingers to his lips and whistled. "Hold up, we will rest here for a minute." After a brief wait, Rapina heard the galloping hooves of a horse. "Hahah, Rascal you are the greatest!"

Harms mounted up and reached down to hoist Rapina from the ground. He placed her on the saddle in front of him and got the horse moving right away. 

Rapina heard hoofbeats behind them. The orcs were screaming something, and she could hear arrows.

"They're calling me a horse thief for taking my own horse!" Lieutenant Harms said.

Rascal squealed and limped as an arrow buried itself in his hock.

"Shit!" Harms pulled up behind some trees but the orcs quickly came up and surrounded them.

The lieutenant dismounted and held his horse's head as he spoke to the orc in charge of the little band. A heated argument in orcish followed. 

"Who Hchil? Culach! Culach!" Harms said.

"You're trying to duel them for your horse?" Rapina asked.

"Nevermind, there are some medical supplies in the saddlebag. See to the horse's wound if you know how."

Rapina opened the saddlebag. There was a pouch of first aid supplies, but that wasn't all. Rapina slid off the horse and took out the pouch, and her equipment belt and blades. She put her belt on and went to the rear of the horse. She gave it a wide berth until she had made it around to the right side. "The arrow's gone through right above the hock joint. Steady him and I'll break it off and take it out." Once the lieutenant had a firm hold of the horse's head, Rapina quickly snapped the arrow from the side and pulled it out. She washed the wound out with some water from her canteen and applied herbs and bandages from the first aid kit. 

In the meantime more orcs had arrived. Rapina had a bad feeling about the situation. The lieutenant had waited until he was well away from the fort before calling his mount. It was obvious the orcs had been following him all along, or at very least they had followed the whistle at the same time as the horse.
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This ends, An Unfriendly Wager, chapter 45 of The Chronicles of Rapina.
The story continues in chapter 46, With A Little Bit of Hluk.

Copyright 2001 by Rapina