Vhamnya's Tale: Rise of a Dark Queen - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Vhamnya learned there was no such thing as secrets among the orcs. All they did, all they ate, killed, and rutted, happened out before the whole tribe. The green-swarthy folk haphazardly slept around the bonfire they built, tumbled together for warmth. When two males drew steel and fought, the rest gathered in a ring to see the outcome. When two females fought with knives, the males gathered and took bets. The winner the chieftain or his lieutenants would take right there before the fire and all the watchers, since Vhamnya later learned it was thought a lucky sign if she bore a child. The loser, if she lived, would be made the plaything of the remaining warriors. If she did not survive, her carcass went to feed the orcs' bellies.

The brutality would have broken Vhamnya's mother if she had any mind left. Her awareness retreated into whatever mad realm haunted her, other than to do as she was bidden and cower out from any threat or blow. Vhamnya followed her example, but with wits and eyes sharp. She ate what they put in front of her and did not question its source. The dark girl knew what their lives depended on.

The chieftain, who was named Ullorgh, had made Vhamnya and her mother his slaves. Ullorgh, or even the other warriors, could kill them at whim. Luckily, the witch-wives stepped between the dark girl and any hurt-bringers. Ullorgh and the others respected their rank, for they had power to cast curses and bring the gods' favor. Not so lucky was her mother. Although the witch-wives protected Vhamnya, they let Ullorgh use Rennyae as his plaything. When the chieftain bent her over on her hands and knees and used her, Vhamnya felt his eyes rest on her.

The girl retreated. She looked about the tribe: at the violent males, at the eager females, and also at their swelling bellies, milk-heavy breasts, and babes in arms. The dark girl feared the day she might become possessed by such desires. She mistrusted the strange new burning in her belly and thighs. They brought to mind the cruel folk among whom she had been born.

In the next year, Rennyae bore Vhamnya a baby brother. They named him Steygr. Vhamnya found him the most beautiful creature she had ever seen. She did not mind the gray shade to his skin, compared to her darker hue. She slept with him in her arms to give her mother a rest. Curious, she tried nursing him, but it only helped to stop his crying.

So they survived until Vhamnya's sixteenth year. By then she towered head and shoulders over the orcs. Her shifting silver hair fell almost to her knees. The orcs parted in awe where she walked. She could feel the males' aching need aimed at her, but the witch-wives still warded her. Vhamnya had learned to call the spirits in their rituals. Together they asked questions of the future, of where lay the easiest prey, and where threatened danger.

Then came the day when Ullorgh decided it was no longer enough to let his eyes burn on Vhamnya. He grabbed the dark maiden's arm. "Come!" he growled. "You woman now. You mine!"

He reached for her skirt's hem. Vhamnya heard her mother's shout. Her brother Steygr stood nearby. She saw the little boy's eyes wide in fear. The orcs crouched around; all watching. No one did anything.

She lifted her hand and touched Ullorgh on the brow. Dark light briefly flashed in his eyes. Then his mouth fell open. His knees buckled, landing on the ground. There he knelt and tottered while a line of drool grew on his slack lips.

Vhamnya had dwelt long enough among the orcs to know she had to prove a point. She stepped behind Ullorgh and bared a knife. For a moment she quailed, recalling the crow's death and the darkness it brought. In a corner of her mind that darkness muttered, louder and hungrily. Then she stared out at the watching orcs, all waiting to see whether she was fierce enough. She drew the blade's edge across his throat.

After the blood stopped spraying, she laid him on his back, stuck the knife under his ribs, and opened his breastbone. The sawing, lifting, and cutting was horribly messy and made her sweat and her arms and legs ache, but in the end she lifted out his heart. She raised it overhead, blood dripping down her arm, and then set it to her mouth. Her teeth tore out a chunk. She kept eating until she had swallowed it all. Within her the darkness swelled.

Ullorgh's death set off a storm of murders and challenges as the greater warriors vied for chieftainship. Vhamnya let them settle it among themselves. She watched as one might two armies of ants war on each other. When the last blade had fallen, the new chieftain knelt at her feet. Vhamnya laid her six fingers on his head and gave him blessing. Afterward, no one bothered either Vhamnya or her mother. The maiden dwelt as the tribe's dark goddess. She led the witch-wives in the sacrifices and omens. The warriors asked her for the next raid's target.

Then the men arrived. There were six of them: three men and three women, but also more soldiers in armor. They came to the edge of the tribe's camp and called for parley. After some threatening and challenging the orcs granted them entry. They escorted them to the camp's center, to the hide tent under which Vhamnya sat by the witch-fire.

Vhamnya surveyed the visitors. They wore travel-robes of unremarkable hue. The men wore hats and hoods; the women shawls. As soon as she saw them, she knew. They were the cruel folk, not the same ones who had raised and tortured her as child, but the same ilk.

One of the men doffed his hat and spoke: "We have looked for you long, Princess." He smiled. "Eventually rumors reached us of a dark fey-child hiding in the Darkeave. We knew it had to be you."

Vhamnya flicked her fingers at the orcs. Warriors seized him. They bound his arms to a beam, nailed his wrists to it, and lifted him in the air. Then they split open his belly and let his guts droop into a cauldron of burning coals. The smoke stank while his entrails roasted, leaving him to die twisting slowly. Only when he stopped breathing did she let the orcs take him away for their feast. All this while, she had the remaining men and women kneel before her.

At last Vhamnya rose from her seat and walked among them. "I was a child when you tortured me," she said. She jerked a hood from one of the women's heads. She looked down into eyes. The dark maiden crouched down and brought their faces close: "I am not a child anymore."

The woman nodded, licking her lips. "Believe me, Princess: all we did we did to honor and exalt you. Those who kept you gave their lives to keep you safe."

"Funny," said Vhamnya. She laid her dark hand along the woman's cheek and tapped a finger at her temple. "Because it felt that the priests saved me when they took me out of that prison."

"They had no appreciation of you, Princess," replied the woman. "They were fools who rejected your true potential."

Vhamnya remembered Carvvyn handing her the apple blossom. "They were kind to me," she whispered back. Then she rose and slapped the woman, sending her sprawling on the dirt.

The orcs surged forward to rend and slay, but Vhamnya's raised hand halted them. "Why would a group of witches use a girl for their bloodletting, use her blood for their spellcasting, and then leave her there watching while they ravished each other and raped their prisoners in front of her eyes?" she asked. "What twisted evil would drive them?"

The cruel folk did not speak. At a signal from Vhamnya the orcs dragged off one of the other women. Her screams and the orcs' howls and grunts lingered behind.

Vhamnya knelt over the first woman, grabbed her hair, and lifted her head. "Who is my father?" she asked. "Who is the Dark Prince?"

The woman swallowed. "Your father has many names, Princess, but chiefest among them is Graz'zt, called as you say the Dark Prince. He is the greatest of the dark lords. We serve him. We are his Chosen."

Vhamnya paused, considering. "A demon," she accused.

The woman shrugged. "A god. He has granted us favor as his priests. He gave us you."

Vhamnya slammed the woman's head against the ground. She walked away and left her there whimpering. "You sacrificed my mother to my father," she accused. "You summoned him."

One of the kneeling men swallowed and hesitated. "If you mother was unwilling at the beginning, Princess, she was not unwilling by the end. You do not know your Dark Father's full glory." He stared at her. "Your own is a reflection of his. I was there as witness. As you were conceived, she screamed his name in ecstasy, and her hips writhed to meet his."

The dark maiden stared back. "And it broke her mind," she growled.

"She was weak."

With a gesture and word Vhamnya broke his mind. She let the orcs drag his limp body away. Now were left only three: two women and one man, one of them holding her broken head. Vhamnya walked around them. She tasted their fear, but also underneath their desire. They had come because they wanted something from her.

"Tell me everything," she commanded.

"We will," said the woman still kneeling, "if you come back with us."

"No," said the dark maiden. "Now."

"Here we cannot, Princess."

Vhamnya looked at the waiting orcs. "I don't need all three of you to tell me," she warned. "Just one."

The woman bowed. "One of us cannot teach you what we have to teach, Princess, and neither can three. You must return with us."

"To where?"

"To Azpat."

"Azpat," Vhamnya repeated the name. "The priests were from Azpat. Azpat rooted you out."

"And in Azpat's heart we dwell," replied the woman. "We dwell both above and below their authority. When they root us out, we have three more places to hide."

"Which didn't stop them from taking me," reminded Vhamnya.

"And yet here we are," he replied.

Vhamnya walked around once more, and then returned to her seat. "Let's say I agree to go," she supposed. "What would you require of me?"

"We would teach you," answered the man, "and also we would initiate you into your Father's grace." He coughed. "We have just one question, though."

"What?" asked the dark maiden.

"Are you virgin?"

Vhamnya's bright eyes narrowed. "After all the things you forced me to witness in childhood, why would that matter?"

"It matters to Him," he replied.

In the end Vhamnya agreed. Oddly enough, the orcs accepted her departure. The witch-wives seemed even more impressed with their talisman, now that they knew her heritage. She packed a sack with her few belongings. Then she dried her brother Steygr's tears and bade farewell. Vhamnya hugged her mother with realization that for the first time in her young life, they would be apart.

"Don't- don't-" stammered Rennyae.

Vhamnya frowned. Although her mother often muttered, the times she had put two words into a full sentence hardly happened. The dark maiden lowered her head; ear next to her mother's lips.

"Don't take Him away from me!" muttered her mother.

Vhamnya stared at her. Then she laid a kiss on her mother's brow and strode out of the camp.

Continued in Chapter 6

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