The Orc's Tale Read Online Free

useful servant." He lifted the vial, his voice rising to a shout. "Slave! I, Narrakhan, your master, call to you! Come to my side and rend my enemies! Come and slay!" 
    A terrible cry rang from the mountains. Kharlacht clawed his way to his knees as he saw a dark shape speeding out of the hills. The urvuul dropped out of the sky, its great leathery wings folding, and landed next to Narrakhan.
    "Clever little mortal," purred the urvuul, its burning eyes fixed upon Kharlacht. "I told you that we would meet again."
    "Silence!" said Narrakhan, pointing. "Kill him!" 
    Again the urvuul loosed its horrible cry, and sprang forward with blurring speed. Kharlacht leapt to meet the urvuul, sword clanging against the creature's talons. Again the blade sheared through the serrated claws, and again the urvuul reared back in pain. Kharlacht saw his opening and surged forward, both hands around his sword's hilt, and stabbed. The blade crunched into one of the urvuul's eyes, driving into its skull. But the urvuul wrenched free, shaking its head, and Kharlacht saw the shattered claw growing anew, saw the eye repairing itself.
    His greatsword had the power to wound the urvuul, but not to kill it. 
    "Kill him!" bellowed Narrakhan, brandishing the vial on its chain. "Kill him now!"
    The urvuul glared at Narrakhan, but its head rotated back to face Kharlacht. Clearly it had no more liking for Narrakhan than for any other mortal, but Narrakhan had the power to control it. 
    The vial. 
    Kharlacht had to get that vial of blood away from Narrakhan. 
    Again the urvuul drove at him, and Kharlacht backed away, swinging his blade in high parries. The urvuul might be immortal, but Kharlacht suspected it had no desire to feel his blade. Kharlacht let it drive him towards the cottage, then he sprang to the right, darted beneath a swinging claw, and threw himself at Narrakhan. 
    The old shaman shouted, and Kharlacht knocked Lujena's body to the ground. He tore the vial free from its chain. The urvuul surged at him, and Kharlacht threw the vial against the cottage wall.
    It shattered, the blood within bursting into flame. The vial against the urvuul's neck likewise shattered, the crimson flames licking against the black armor of the urvuul's hide. 
    The creature went motionless. 
    "Fool!" shrieked Narrakhan, getting off the ground. 
    "Release Lujena’s body," said Kharlacht, "now, or..."
    He never had time to finish the threat.
    The urvuul sprang forward with a howl of glee, shoving past Kharlacht, and plunged its pincers into Lujena's belly. 
    Kharlacht heard himself scream. 
    The urvuul leapt back, and Kharlacht saw a spirit caught in its pincers. Narrakhan's ghost, eyes wide, mouth open in silent screams, struggled against the urvuul's grip, but to no avail. 
    "Come, Narrakhan," said the urvuul, its lovely voice smooth with pleasure. "Let us discuss how you shall repay my servitude!" 
    The urvuul leapt into the sky and vanished, its laughter ringing out, Narrakhan's screaming spirit imprisoned in its grasp.
    Kharlacht ran to Lujena's side and knelt by her. The urvuul's pincers had ripped her open from stomach to throat, her blood pooling into the dirt. Her eyes, cloudy and full of pain, met his, and her shaking hand curled about his own. 
    She was Lujena again. 
    "I always knew," she whispered.
    "Knew what?" said Kharlacht, squeezing her hand. 
    "That you would save me from him," she said, her eyes dimming. "And you did. You saved me from him."
    Her grip slackened, and she slumped against the ground. 
    Kharlacht bent over her, weeping. 
     
    ###
     
    The next day Kharlacht watched the smoke rise from Lujena's roaring pyre.
    He could not return to the village. They would think he had murdered Lujena, and he had no proof otherwise. And he could not leave Lujena's body to lie in the dirt, to be buried besides her murderous, treacherous father. 
    So he stood in the woods five miles from the village and watched his beloved's pyre.
    Narrakhan