01 - Honour of the Grave Read Online Free Page A

weedy branch reached out to caress her, leaving a line of burrs
hanging from her leggings.
    She would not do anything foolish, she told herself.
    She pulled the back of her hand across her forehead, wiping sweat away.
    Maybe you could say, in some sense, that the boy deserved rescuing, but she
would not allow herself to be tempted towards such stupidity.
    Drumming started up, somewhere in the distance, and echoed across the walls
of rock.
    There were hundreds of orcs around, maybe more, and any one of them could
kill you with a single blow.
    A rock rolled out from under Angelika’s foot as she put it down on the path,
and she windmilled her arms to try to keep her balance. She crashed into one of
the low, bushy trees, grabbing a branch for support. Its bark felt greasy.
    Especially that biggest of the orcs, up on the cart, standing over
Franziskus. That one could kill you with a single dull fingernail.
    Up ahead, she saw that her path dead-ended. The pass widened out, and the
trail went right down to its flat bottom. She could stay put, clamber back up
the incline through sharp rocks and boulders, or continue on to where the orcs
were. She stayed put, cursing her folly.
    She heard whip cracks and orcish shouts and looked over to see that the cart
drivers were trying to get the haulers stopped. Some at the front had halted,
while others behind them trudged peevishly onwards. A pileup began, and the
haulers began to push and shove at each other. One particularly large specimen,
pushed from behind by a humpbacked, dull-eyed orc, turned and opened his maw
wide, exposing his tusks and sending a great spray of spittle back towards his
tormentor. A third orc, beside the humpback, squinted as spare sputum hit him,
then lurched forward to clamp thick, horny fingers over the larger orc’s lower
jaw. He pulled downwards, smashing his victim with his spare fist. Haulers all
around these two joined in, limbs flying, jaws gnashing, as the drivers up on
the cart directed their whips into the brawling mass. A small chunk of something
fleshy and greenish sailed out from the tangle of brawling orcs. Angelika
guessed it for a finger or possibly an ear.
    Her shoulders seized up in warning as she heard something behind her.
Twisting backwards, she saw a trio of orcs making their way quickly down the
trail, their eyes on the fight. They intended to join it, but unless she went
somewhere, they would run right into her. They blocked her route back into the
hills. Her only way was forwards, towards the greater mass of orcs. At least
they were distracted.
    Angelika leapt. She was in mid-air, sailing over the bushes. She hit the
gravelly ground at ravine bottom. The wheels of the cart, now motionless, stood
in front of her. She could hear screaming and growling, but no orcs were looking
her way. They’d all be up at the front of the cart, where the fight was. She
sprinted in between two of the tall, spoked wheels, rocks and pebbles spraying
out behind her. Once under the cart, she looked for the best way to hide. The
axles were high and wide enough that she could haul herself up on them, and
maybe not be seen when the commotion died down up front. She chose an axle in
the middle, which would give her more choices when she had to run. Angelika
hefted herself up and laid herself out on her back, across the axle. It was not
comfortable, but she could balance herself and was not in immediate danger of
falling off. What would happen when the cart started moving again, she could not
predict.
    The sounds from up ahead were trailing off to yelping and isolated snarls, so
Angelika could only guess that the orc leaders had violently snuffed out the
brawl. She would be stuck here for a while, until the next distraction. This
would probably occur after the cart started up again, and then reached its final
destination. She could creep away then. This would teach her forever, she
thought. She promised herself that the next time she