Page 41 of The Orc's Bride

“Enemy,” Urgan said quietly.

Zadran drew his curved sword out of its sheath. I looked around as much as I could without moving my head, which was now pinned to Urgan’s chest with his hand.

But I saw nothing. And I heard nothing – nothing apart from us. The forest was dead silent.

Brrthak snorted and stopped walking. He started shifting in place, turning this way and that nervously.

My throat constricted. The orc horses hadn’t acted nervous during the first ragghit attack. Could this be… something worse? Something capable of making an orc horse afraid?

Urgan let go of my mouth and drew his axe.

“Stay here. I’ll protect you,” he whispered.

He jumped off Brrthak’s back and landed on the road. Behind us, Kluga did the same. Grikh, who was much farther ahead, stayed in his saddle, his axe in his hand.

A high-pitched giggle came from the trees on our left. Another ragghit then. I clutched onto Brrthak’s mane, my hands white. Would it be another wolf, deadly fast? Or another large animal like that elk?

The small hairs on my neck rose when another giggle came from the other side of the path. There were two of them!

Urgan barked his orders. He faced the left side, while Zadran faced the right one. Kluga moved closer to us, guarding the rear. Brrthak was dancing under me, snorting. He was acting like he didn’t know which way to turn.

I loosened my grip on his mane and started speaking quiet, meaningless words that were meant to calm him down. For a moment, I thought it was working. Brrthak froze, his head turning left.

A ragghit emerged from the gloom under the thick fir trees. A red-eyed bear. It wasn’t yet stripped entirely of its fur – most of it still clung to its hide, matted with black blood.

It was as large as Urgan. And then, it stood on its back legs and gave a raspy roar, followed by an eerie ululation.

Larger than Urgan.

My heart stopped for a second. All it would take for the bear to defeat Urgan was one bite. One bite… or even a dribble of saliva into a fresh wound… and Urgan would be gone.

Infected and turned into a ragghit.

The bushes on Zadran’s side of the road rustled and a slim, almost normal-looking deer emerged. Its fur was only just beginning to darken with rot, but its eyes gleamed red.

The air was dense with the sickly sweet corpse smell of the ragghits. I tried not to gag. In my mind, Urgan’s question from before echoed.What’s the worst smell you’ve ever smelled?

And I knew. The ragghit reek of death was the most revolting stench there was.

The bear ululated again, lunging at Urgan. They locked in a wrestling embrace, Urgan gripping the beast in half, ducking his head out of the reach of its muzzle.

On the other side of the road, Zadran swung his axe at the deer’s head, but it pranced out of his reach.

I realized I was smack in the middle between the two beasts. If either Urgan or Zadran fell, I’d die.

Kluga was making his way closer to us, focused on Urgan and the bear. Good, he’d help him. But Kluga stopped before reaching us. His eyes opened wide, and he swayed slightly before whipping back.

I gasped. A small orange squirrel was hanging off his back, its teeth sunk into Kluga’s flesh. Its fur was streaked with the black of the ragghit illness.

Kluga reached back, trying to throw the animal off him, but his movements were jerky, uncoordinated. A sob escaped me.

Urgan was still wrestling with the bear, his snarls and growls getting louder and angrier. He was holding the beast in check… But how long would he last?

Zadran had disappeared between the trees, probably chasing the deer. And Grikh had got off his horse and was running toward us.

I knew he wouldn’t make it in time.

Kluga fell to his knees, and the squirrel got off his back. It landed, nimble and fast, and turned to Urgan.

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