The Death of Promises

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.

Qurrah picked up his robe and put it back on. He tied the sash while he watched Tessanna have her fun. The two men that had held her had long fled into the night. Only the leader remained, held sway by the beautiful sorceress. She ran a hand down his face, smiling as one of his eyeballs popped.

“Do you still want to bed me?” she asked. Tears ran from his good eye, and he tried to speak but all that came out was a pathetic whimper. “Good. You interrupted my fun, so I’ll have to have fun with you.” She pressed her body against his. Her arms wrapped about his body and pulled him closer. She ground her crotch against his leg. She slipped a finger inside his mouth. His clothes burned away, as did his flesh. Still she caressed him. Still she held him against her.

At last she pulled back and cried out in ecstasy. She released him from his paralysis. His throat and mouth was so charred and burned he could not even scream. Nothing but a blackened mess, he collapsed to the ground, bled, and died. The fire left her body…at least the outward fire. Qurrah wrapped his whip around his arm, amused at how aroused his lover was.

“I told him he couldn’t handle me,” she giggled.

T he next morning, Qurrah was first to awake. His whole body shivered underneath his blankets. He pulled them tighter about himself and attempted to return to sleep but the groaning of his stomach refused to let him rest. He had eaten nothing the previous day. Their provisions were running low, and he meant to stretch them as far as they could go.

“I should have made her teach me that spell,” he muttered, thinking of the banquets his brother’s wife Aurelia had conjured seemingly at will. The spell most likely required some sort of component to cast, but whatever it had been, Qurrah knew it would be easier to carry and obtain than his current stock of food.

Tessanna stirred at his voice.

“Getting hungry again?” she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. He didn’t answer as he opened the dried meat’s brown wrapping. He tore off a chunk and ate, grimacing at how salty it was. He immediately craved water. The girl watched him, absently picking at her lip.

“Do we ride today?” she asked. Qurrah shook his head.

“The Bridges are near. I want us to be prepared in case our welcome is as kind as last night.”

The half-orc took another bite. Couldn’t Aurelia summon water too? He thought he remembered her soaking his brother once or twice in such a way. The elf was a walking supply caravan, he thought. Here he was, able to manipulate shadow, bone, and blood, and he would trade it all for the ability to conjure a tiny bit of water along with a sweetroll or two.

He finished the rest of the meat and then cast the wrapping to the dirt. Tessanna raised an eyebrow.

“Someone’s being a pig. Where will we get more?”

“Those men that attacked us last night must live nearby,” he said. He pooled saliva in his mouth and then spit, imagining it full of salt. “Most likely a village. If we meet them at the Bridges, we’ll find out, and take what we need.”

“Murder for supplies?” She wrapped the blankets around her so that only her head peeked out. “That’s low even for us, isn’t it?”

Qurrah opened his mouth to speak, then stopped. It was, wasn’t it?

“They attacked us first,” he decided. “If they dare touch us again, well, would you blame me for taking what they will no longer need after I send them to the abyss?”

The girl shrugged. She pulled the blankets above her nose.

“Will they try to hurt me again? I don’t like it when people do that.”

Qurrah offered her his hand, and was not at all surprised that she shrunk back from it. She had slipped into her childlike state. She seemed more like a six-year-old girl than the young woman she really was.

“I’ll protect you, whether you need the protection or not,” he told her. “Now get dressed. Those men likely saw our fire from their post at the eastern bridge, so we cannot be far.”

“Qurrah?”

“Yes, Tessanna?”

She smiled an unseen smile behind the blankets.

“What are the Gods’ Bridges like? I’ve always heard they’re pretty.”

“Come with me,” he told her, once more offering his hand. “And we shall see together.”

He took her hand and pulled her from the blankets. She kissed his cheek before putting on her dress.

“Together,” she said. “I like that.”

When they were ready, Qurrah scattered the last few ashes of their fire and led them west.

The Bridges had been constructed centuries ago by the gods Karak and Ashhur after they had Celestia split the land of Dezrel with the great Rigon River. Just before reaching the ocean, the Rigon River forked in two, creating a large delta. Each god had placed a bridge just south of the fork. Each had hoped this crossing would allow them to claim the fertile delta, and it was their twin claims that led to their war.

Karak had built his bridge across the eastern fork, and it was this bridge that Qurrah and Tessanna first saw.

“Oh, Qurrah,” Tessanna said, smiling. “It is beautiful.”

Twin lions carved of stone flanked the entrance. They were reared back on their hind legs, their front paws raking the air. Their mouths were forever open in a roar of battle. Three arches made of giant stones wedged together formed the bridge’s structure. The first arch began where the ground sloped toward the river, and the third ended atop the bank on the far side. Two giant pillars marked where the arches met above the water. Qurrah had heard that the hand of Karak himself lifted and placed the stones into the water, and seeing its size, he held little doubt to its truth.

Carved into the pillars was a giant man standing beside another lion. Qurrah recognized the image, for he had seen a similar one when he visited the priests of Karak back in Veldaren. The top of the bridge was smooth flat stone. Along its edges were three more arches, significantly smaller than the ones underneath. The entire bridge was a chalky white, though in patches throughout there remained the golden color it had once been.

“Pelarak mentioned this in his journal,” Qurrah said as he and Tessanna stared in awe. “He wrote that many of his order came here to study the bridge and learn its secrets. Those arches in particular interest them. Pelarak claimed their strength is far beyond the mere stone that makes them.”

“I don’t care about its secrets,” Tessanna said. “But I must see it closer.”

She led the way, and Qurrah followed.

Twelve men waited at the bridge’s entrance. They wore the same brown coats and gray trousers as the men who had accosted them the previous night. A couple had swords attached to their belts while the rest carried daggers. All Qurrah could think was of how pitiful the men looked compared to the stone lions on either side of them. The men drew their weapons as Qurrah and Tessanna neared. One man perched at the foot of the left lion called out to them.

“Stop, now,” he shouted. “That’s close enough to talk.”

“We don’t wish to talk,” Qurrah said, using magic to strengthen his voice so the others could hear. If he tried to shout, he’d tear an old wound and blood would pour down his throat. “We wish to cross.”

“Well that’s the problem,” the man said, tossing a dagger up and down in his hand. “We’re not sure we want you crossing, not after what happened last night. And I said to stop moving.”

The couple continued anyway. The other ruffians grew nervous at their boldness while the apparent leader kept tossing his dagger. Qurrah eyed him closely. His hair was cut much shorter than the others, and he wielded the weapon with an ease that implied many hours of practice. If it came to killing, that man needed taken out first.

“Fine then, guess shouting isn’t too civilized, is it?” the man said, hopping down from the lion’s foot. “My name is Tory. It’s nice to meet such a lovely couple.”

Qurrah grabbed several bone pieces from his pockets and held them in one hand. His other caressed the handle to his whip.

“We wish to cross and find supplies within the delta,” Qurrah said, letting them look into his eyes and see the lack of fear within. “And we will not be stopped.”

“You killed a few of my men,” Tory said. “However, I believe they were acting boorish, so unlike the example I try to set for them. For that I apologize.”

“Accepted,” Qurrah said. “Now will you let us pass?”

“No, not yet,” Tory said, pacing between the lions. “See, I heard some crazy stories about a girl made of fire killing my men. Now I don’t see any fire, but what we see is hardly what we get, is it?” He gestured to Tessanna. “Are you more dangerous than what you appear?”

“I’ve killed more than you,” she said, her voice meek and shy. “Ten times more. Does that make me dangerous?”

Tory laughed, but Qurrah detected a bit of nervousness. The other men were getting antsy. They had gotten a good look at Tessanna’s eyes and they wanted no part of her.

“That’s what I thought,” Tory said. “Such a beautiful thing, too. Are you both in such a hurry that you cannot stay with us in our friendly town? Riverend may not be the largest of places, or the most civilized, but the ale and food are excellent.” He looked at Tessanna, a charming smile on his face. “Surely we could become better acquainted.”

Jealousy flared within Qurrah.

“How dare you…”

“We could,” Tessanna said, offering him a flirty smile back. “But as I told your dead men, you’d die the moment you touched my flesh.”

The charming smile faltered.

“So be it,” he said. He snapped his fingers. The men around him reached back and pulled out loaded crossbows from behind the lion statues. Qurrah tensed, his knuckles white.

“No one insults me,” Tory said, the dagger in his hand twirling so fast it was a metallic blur. “No one.”

Before the men could fire, Qurrah tossed the bones into the air. Dark power flowed from his hands, giving them life. The pieces hovered in a small circle, shining a phantom gray.

“You cannot win this,” Qurrah said, his fingers outstretched. “Put down the bows and I will let you live.”

“They’re scared,” Tessanna said. Her hands remained at her side, and she appeared bored of the situation. “They’re scared so they threaten.”

“Then let’s remove their ability to threaten,” Qurrah whispered. He formed a fist, igniting the power of the bones. The shards flew through the air, aimed straight for the crossbows. They punched holes in the wood, broke the fingers that held them, and snapped the strings. A couple fired, but the shots were erratic. Qurrah opened his hand once more. Half of the bone pieces returned, hovering before his face.

“Do you think your swords will kill me?” he asked. “Do you think you will get close enough to try?”

A few men grabbed their daggers but Tory waved them off.

“You may cross,” the man said. “You are the stronger, without question.” He gave one last longing look at Tessanna. “A shame, too.”

The group of men parted, granting the couple passage.

“The western bridge is not far,” Tory said as they passed. “My men will let you through without hassle. Try not to keep them waiting.”

Qurrah grabbed Tessanna’s arm and walked across the bridge, silent.

“We’re not going to the other bridge,” Tessanna said once they were beyond earshot. “And we’re not going just because he said he wanted us to. You’re such a child.”

“We need supplies,” Qurrah said.

“Keep telling yourself that,” she said, kissing him once on the cheek. “But you won’t be fooling me.”

“I’d never try to,” he said, glancing back at Tory. “But I think I might kill him the next time we meet.”

“Try to make it painful,” Tessanna said, her tiny mouth grinning. “All he could think about was raping me the entire time we talked.”

Tory couldn’t decide why, but the horrific laughter he heard from the two as they left the bridge formed a knot deep in his gut, one that would take many drinks to loosen.