“I hate this damn thing,” Qurrah said.
“Shush and enjoy the ride,” she replied.
The girl whispered to the horse and then they were off. So great was Seletha’s weight that deep hoof prints marked their passing across the earth, the centers of each one lined with a tiny flare of dying flame.
2
Qurrah hunkered beside the fire, a deep scowl covering his face. He pulled his hood low over his head and muttered about the pain in his lower back. Tessanna cuddled beside him, quietly singing. Each note was slow and soft, her voice as cold as ice atop a river.
“We were made for joy, we were made for suffering. We feel love, and we hate who we love, and this is not real until we cry…”
Love swirled within his chest, and in such a manner, he touched her face as she sang. But she was the girl of apathy, and her face was stone against his touch.
“I will not cry ‘til I die, and I will die when you come for me. Come for me. Make me real.”
She ended her song, her eyes staring up at the sky.
For the longest time she remained silent. Qurrah brushed her face again, not hurt by the lack of emotion she showed to him. Ever since Aullienna’s death, her love for him had come and gone, much like her personalities. He knew, given time, she would return his affection. If she didn’t, he’d take her and give her no choice but to love him. Sometimes he wondered if that was what she preferred the most.
“The stars are beautiful,” Tessanna said. Qurrah did not respond so she continued. “I used to wish upon them when I was a little girl. I’d wish for a bear to come and eat my father and then a great black hawk to come and let me ride on its back. Do you know what I wish for now, Qurrah?”
The half-orc shook his head. She stared at him, wanting to see his reaction.
“I wish for a way to replace what was lost. The girl you killed.”
“You desire a child?” he asked, fighting anger at the guilt she cast his way. “One of your own womb?”
“I do,” she said. Her voice was perfectly calm, yet a tear ran down the side of her face. “But I know I can’t have one. No life sparkles inside me. So what am I to do, Qurrah? What am I to do?”
Qurrah kissed her lips and then used his thumb to wipe the tear away.
“Even if it takes all my life, I will repay you for my mistake. For my brother’s pride. Perhaps, in time, I may give you a child.”
Tessanna finally smiled.
“You just want me more often.”
He laughed.
“Any more than we already do, I may injure myself.”
She laughed, the apathy within her melting away. Underneath the ice, a smoldering fire flared. “How about tonight,” she asked. “Always worth a try, isn’t it?”
He kissed her again as he removed her dress. In the light of the campfire, her body was perfect. He could not see her scars or the bones of her ribs. Her slender hands removed his sash and parted his robe. She crawled atop him, her lips and tongue flitting across his neck.
Qurrah moaned and arced his back, and as he did, he saw the men watching them.
“Tessanna,” he said, his entire body suddenly tensing.
“I’m sorry,” the girl said. “I should have sensed them sooner.”
And then they were atop them, pulling Tessanna off. A boot pressed hard against Qurrah’s neck. Another crushed his right hand. Two men each held Tessanna by an arm. They all wore brown coats and grey trousers.
“Hold them steady,” one man said to the others. “Seems they’re both all riled up and ready to go.” The man, the leader of the bunch by the way he yelled at the others, knelt next to Qurrah and spat. The half-orc swore death as the saliva covered his eyes.
“Looks like you won’t get to have too much fun, but your girl there…”
“A toll!” one man shouted, and his cry was quickly repeated by the others.
“A toll! A toll!”
They jostled the naked girl this way and that, her slender frame lacking any strength to resist. Yet despite their cries and their looks, she did not appear afraid. Instead, she let out a tiny moan as she moved her hips back and forth.
Qurrah forced himself to open his eyes. He needed to know how many had attacked them. He counted only four, two holding Tessanna, another restraining him, and then the leader. Daggers were attached to their belts, but so far they remained undrawn.
“For what should we pay a toll?” Qurrah asked. His free hand crawled across the ground and tightened about the handle of his whip, which lay atop the fabric of his cloak, nearly invisible in the darkness.
“To cross the Gods’ Bridges, of course,” said the leader. “Tory’s boys own it now, own the whole bloody Delta. If you want to cross, you pay a toll.”
“We have no coin,” he said, glancing at Tessanna. He wondered if he should act or wait for her. The ruffians had no clue what they held in their arms. No clue at all.
“Well ain’t that a shame,” said the leader, standing up and walking to Tessanna. He cupped her face in his hand, turning her chin this way and that. “But I’d say this pretty girl does have something of value. Doesn’t she boys?”
All four cheered and whistled.
“Touch her and die,” Qurrah said.
“Shut up,” said the man towering above Qurrah, pressing harder against his neck with his foot. “Close your eyes and keep them shut. We gonna take our toll.”
The leader grabbed Tessanna’s hair and pulled her head back. She moaned, louder. A smile creased her face.
“You like that?” he asked her. “You want a real man, don’t you, not some bony little orc runt.”
“You couldn’t handle me,” she said. “You’d only end up hurt.”
He laughed. The others only smirked and chuckled. They knew what was coming. Tessanna wasn’t the only woman to sass off when they took their toll.
“Oh, is that so?” he asked before backhanding her across the face. As she spat blood onto one of her captors, he drew his dagger and held it to her neck.
“You keep that pretty mouth of yours shut,” he whispered. “I’ve humped corpses before, you little whore, and we’d all have hours of fun with yours before you turned cold.”
Qurrah watched his lover smile even as blood ran down her lips. He tightened his grip on the whip’s handle, knowing the one who held him was far too interested in Tessanna’s body to pay him any attention. The girl was playing games with them, with all of them.
“It’d be more than hours,” Tessanna said, licking the blood with her tongue. “I’m fire, you naughty little boy, pure fire. I’d burn you the second you put that little weed you call a prick inside me.”
Sparks of flame burst within her eyes. The leader glanced around, for the first time realizing he was not dealing with normal travelers. Qurrah saw this and chuckled. About damn time.
“What the abyss,” the leader said, pressing harder against her skin with his knife. Her hair caught flame, then her shoulders, her chest and her neck. The fire hid her nakedness. The men who held her screamed, the flesh of their hands seared black. The leader thrust his dagger only to have the cheap metal shatter. Fire leapt across the broken blade, burning a thin line up his arm. He tried to run but Tessanna was not done. She whispered a few words of magic, paralyzing him where he stood.
The man holding Qurrah fled. Qurrah whirled immediately, fire consuming his whip. He wrapped it about the fleeing man’s legs, tumbling him to the ground. The man screamed as the fire burned his ankles to the bone.
“Shut up,” Qurrah said. The necromancer hooked his fingers in bizarre directions and let his dark power flow. The bones in the man’s ankles snapped. The broken pieces tore out the black mess of flesh, animated with dark power. With a thought, he ended the man’s screams, shredding his throat with his own bones.
