Chapter 11: Playing with friends

“Let me go!” Malakhay tried to protest against the orc that was holding him by the neck but it was pointless. As he was being brought away from the camp nobody around seemed to care, only some of the other orcs he could briefly see on the way were showing him a nasty smile, as if they knew what will happen to him in a few moments.

The orcs looked quite ugly, even to Malakhay. All of them had green skin colour, only different shades of it. Their body build was sturdy and large muscles could be seen underneath their armour. Each one of them was measuring at least 2 meters in height. Most of them were bald, or if they had hair, it was of black colour. Their ears looked humanlike, with the only difference being the pointy tip. In their small eyes there could always be found an aggressive look which suggested their warlike nature. The tips of their noses were flat, as if somebody smashed it again and again until it acquired the present state of look. Another very distinctive thing about them was their fangs which were protruding from their mouth from the lower part of their jaw.

In one quick look Malakhay could say they looked like brutes and that they will fight first and ask questions later, if they will bother to even ask.

When the one carrying him finally stopped, Malakhay could see a lone, thick, steel pole, measuring around 2 meters, firmly planted into the ground. There were four chains coming from the pole, each one ending with a shackle. Looking at it Malakhay started to have goose bumps. The orc disregarded Malakhay’s fear, came closer to the pole and started to chain him to it.

“No! Let me go!” Malakhay protested again trying to free himself, but it was still hopeless. He was too powerless to really do anything.

After some moments, being finally tied to the pole, the orc took some distance from him, put down the 2-handed sword that was stored on his back until now and grabbed a leather whip that was hanging from his waist.

“No, please no! I didn’t do anything wrong! Why?” Malakhay asked with panic fully showing in his trembling childish voice, knowing what will probably follow. The orc stayed quiet, only smiling at him with a sadistic smile.

*CRACK*

The whip flew through the air with the speed where Malakhay was barely able to see it and the burning pain from his chest, which came almost instantly with it, was excruciating. He couldn’t focus on anything else. At that moment he forgot about his little quest or about his master inside of him and the only thing that came to his mind was pain.

“Aaaaaarrrgh!” Malakhay’s howls could be heard in the dark night, but nobody cared.

*CRACK*

The second hit came right after the first one, the orc not getting him any time to ready for it. Again ripping Malakhay’s flesh, he struck dangerously close to the first wound. His blood was slowly dripping on the ground and a little puddle was starting to form from it beneath him.

“NO MORE, PLEASE!” Malakhay screamed again, trying to shield his chest with both of his hands and not caring if he looked like a coward as he pleaded for mercy.

*CRACK*

The orc didn’t care and instead whipped at one of his legs which were unguarded and his bare skin was exposed there. Losing even that little strength he had left in it, Malakhay’s leg buckled underneath him, but the chains that were binding him didn’t allow him to fall down. Instead he was left hanging by the hands, which the orc immediately took advantage of.

*CRACK*

He was again stuck at the now unguarded chest, this blow stronger than the previous ones. Malakhay’s skinny body also didn’t help him and the new wave of pain robbed him of a chance to stand up again as one of his ribs became slightly visible after the strike.

“YOU FUCKING PIG! I WILL KILL YOU!” Malakhay angrily shouted not knowing where he found the power for it, which earned him one hit through his mouth. Spiting blood and probably also a tooth, he naively tried to observe the direction from where the next hit will come from and dodge it, but that too was pointless. The orc seeing Malakhay is trying to dodge changed the trajectory of the whip with the simple movement of his wrist and still struck him successfully.

At one point, as the whipping endlessly continued, Malakhay noticed that the orc was masturbating with his other hand.

“YOU MUST BE FUCKING KIDDING ME! YOU SICK PIG!” He tried to shout at his torturer again. The puddle beneath him was becoming larger and larger as the blood in it was starting to mix with his saliva and tears. Malakhay was at this point glad he didn’t piss himself or something even worse.

The previous shout earned him another lashing across his mouth. He didn’t know how long the whipping lasted, but he was genuinely happy when he started to lose consciousness.

***

I woke up in the morning, again locked in the cage, in one of the now moving carts. It looks like I ended up in the same one as the previous day. Feeling even worse than when I ate that soul core of the shadow lurker, I slowly tried to sit up. I must say, lying on the hard floor as the carriage is shaking your almost broken body against it isn’t really a pleasant feeling. My chest was aching all over and every single breath I took was painful as hell. The wounds on it were still clearly visible and I was probably lucky that they already started to heal. In this situation I was genuinely thankful for my demonic blood that helped me with the recovery. Master once mentioned that thanks to it, it will be easier for me to heal my wounds. It probably saved me a few times as I remember the last few days.

My legs and hands were shaking as I tried to support myself with them and I could still taste the blood in my mouth, or smell it with my nose.

“Easy there my little friend, you took quite a beating last night.” I could hear the voice of the troll from the previous day speaking to me calmly. “I must tell. I didn’t think you will last that long. The guy before you was at first brought back after just half an hour, but you withstood almost a whole hour. I must applaud you.”

“If you don’t have anything useful to say shut up.” I tried to silence him, not knowing if he was making fun of me or not.

“Don’t be like that. Look, I saved you some of the food from the morning, thinking you will probably need it after you wake up.” As he said this, he passed me the wooden bowl full of some brown, slimy-looking soup.

It had a horrible smell and I was sure I would regret asking what’s in it, but I was seriously starving so I took the bowl from the troll. As I did this he smiled at me, showing his sharp white teeth.

“My name is Ruon’ga, what about you my little friend?” He wanted to know, still observing my every little action.

“Mind your own business.” I retorted, still only staring at the soup, trying to convince myself that it is edible.

“Ok, be it your way, I will call you ‘little friend’.”

“Malakhay.”

“What?”

“Malakhay, that’s my name.” I introduced myself as he was slowly starting to piss me off and being called ‘little friend’ by him all the time sounded really annoying.

As I took a small sip from the soup, my mouth started to burn like I was trying to eat hot embers. I immediately remembered how I was whipped through it a few times last night. The soup was exactly how it looked the first time I saw it, disgusting. I can’t even compare it to anything. I almost puked myself as I tried to eat it.

“You must have told some pretty nasty words to Zuran, only then he tends to whip your mouth. I recommend you to not do that next time.” The troll was again starting to be clever with me.

“Are you kidding me?” I was almost left speechless when I heard him, I even forgot about the pain in my mouth for a second. “That pig was whipping me while jerking off, what am I supposed to do? Praise the sick pig? Yes, good boy. Hit my one more time and then cum for me.” I said sarcastically, thinking it will be hard to be with this guy in one space.

I seriously want to be comatose again. A few more times and I will probably like it better than sleeping.

“No, but let me give you a little advise. As you said, he is literally a sick pig, so when you try to fight and defend yourself it only makes him happier and the happier he is the crueller he becomes.”

I must have looked really stupid because Ruon’ga continued: “I’m not telling you to smile at him, or to not scream, just try not to scream at him. That way he probably won’t kill you, probably.”

He said it like he knows what he is talking about. Maybe he isn’t as crazy as he sounds.

“I don’t understand. Why would he kill us? They can’t sell us if we are dead.”

“Well that’s the worst thing Malakhay. For them, we, and I mean the two of us when I say it, aren’t even worth selling. We are just something that can be discarded anytime.”

After hearing Ruon’ga say this, my head started to spin. He can’t be serious, but he doesn’t look like he is kidding. I don’t know what to think, I don’t want to trust him, but something tells me he isn’t lying.

“Your eyes are screaming WHY? at me.” He told me, again sitting down in the same corner where I spotted him for the first time last night.

“Well, the answer for that is a simple one. We are not the merchandise, but a part of Zuran’s salary. He is the leader of the orc guards that are accompanying the caravan. If I’m not mistaken the deal goes like this – they will guard the caravan, slave traders and slaves and in exchange they will receive gold and some slaves with whom they are free to do whatever they want.” As he said this, I looked around and could see around thirty orcs surrounding the carts, every one of them armed with some weapon, be it heavy looking 2-handed swords or just thick clubs. Two of them are even holding something similar to the staff like thing that master had, they are probably some kind of mages.

“How do you know all this?” I wanted to know, thinking it’s suspicious that he knows so much about it.

Ruon’ga smiled again with that annoying smile of his before he answered me: “Well, I have had the honour to travel with them for quite some time now, so I learned a few things here and there. Trust me when I tell you that in some situations, these details can save your life.”

***

The rest of the day was just as horrible as the morning. For lunch we got the same disgusting meal as for breakfast, the brown shitty soup thing. My body slowly continued to heal, but I was still hurting all over the place as I was shaken in that cursed cage. I can’t say our pace was quick, but we never stopped during the day to give a break for the horses. When I asked Ruon’ga about it he told me that we will stop only for the night. He also told me that he was captured about 2 months ago.

When I heard this I was surprised at how he managed to survive that torture night after night without going crazy. He explained that it is probably thanks to the fact that he is a troll, they have bodies with great regeneration abilities. The next thing I learned from him was where and what slaves are. The first carriage, which is the one where Larkus sits most of the time, is something like exclusive goods. Ruon’ga said there should be three female slaves there right now, two daughters of some nobles from some human lands who weren’t able to pay their debts and one dark elf.

Then in the second wagon there should be children. They are the most profitable slaves after the exclusive ones, as they can still be trained after they are bought and they can’t really put up any resistance. Also some people are supposedly willing to pay a high price for them because of their sick fetishes. When I heard this from him I laughed at the idea that these humans call us monsters.

In the third and also the biggest cage are the most people. They are the unlucky villagers captured after bandit raids or citizens that were in debts and so on and so on. These people are sold as the working force and most of them end up in some mines as workers, as lab rats on the table of some curious necromancer, cheap prostitutes in brothels or as soldiers in slave armies. Depends on their luck of who bought them. The luckiest ones become servants of more wealthy merchants whose life isn’t really that bad, only doing some chores and managing a house.

The fourth carriage is ours. They tend to put here people that are normally hard to manage and tend to cause problems. So when somebody appears on a slave trader’s blacklist, he ends up here. Once you are here Zuran can do whatever he wishes with you and even if he kills you nobody gives a shit. Ruon’ga called it: the gate to hell.

When I asked him: “Why?” He only told me: “Because the real hell starts once you get into the fifth wagon.” He pointed at it, now without a smile.

He didn’t describe it any further, only said that there are people that tried to run away, harm the slavers or do some other stupid things. And once you are there, not just Zuran, but every other orc can do whatever he wants with you.

“Here Zuran can kill you, but there you wish to be killed. I saw those orcs how they took women who tried to run. They chopped of theirs arms near the elbows and legs near their knees and healed them with magic so they don’t die. After that they ripped out every single tooth they had, made something like sex-dolls from them and raped them all night long. The worst thing is, most of those women are still alive, if you think you can call it being alive.”

Hearing him talk about it I was almost thankful for being only whipped.

I also noticed that he wore silver looking collars around his neck, both wrists and ankles, but there were no chains attached to it. It piqued my interest so I asked him about it.

“What are those things for?” I pointed at them knowing he will know what I have in mind.

“Oh you like my jewellery? I must say myself, it looks quite nice but I’m not really wearing it from my own volition.”

“Will you tell me or not? You don’t need to make fun of me.” I was starting to be annoyed again when he was talking to me like this.

“Don’t be so nervous, that won’t help you here. And the way you are acting, your face is screaming that you plan to escape. That is not wise. Plan as much as you want, but don’t let it show on you. It will earn you a one way trip to hell.”

I was left speechless by him. Is it really shoving so obviously what I’m planning? If yes, I must really be more careful.

“I’m glad you understand. I wouldn’t like to stay alone again. As I said previously half of the torture I experience is now yours so it eases my mind greatly.” He explained to me and for a second he seemed very serious, but it only lasted for a moment before he returned to his jokes.

“You want to know so I will tell you. It’s called Mage-bane. As the name suggests it’s supposed to be worn by somebody who knows how to use magic. I don’t know how much you know about magic, so I don’t know if you will understand. This thing prevents you from channelling any mana you have access to, be it inside or outside of your body. That way you can’t cast any spells even if you were able to get by some miracle to a mana potion. The second very nasty ability is that it constantly drains your mana the second your body creates some. So even if you wanted to just sit and accumulate mana quietly and then use a big quantity of it to overpower the necklace, you won’t be able to. A side effect of this is that you are also constantly tired, because your body tries to generate mana, but it is sipped away all the time.”

I gulped down when I heard his explanation. If what he said is true, why didn’t I get one of those? My master said previously that he can feel the mana emanating from me. I don’t know the reason, but if they can’t see this then I have at least some advantage. Maybe if I find somebody who is able to teach me the right spells I will be able to escape from here. I’m thinking about asking Ruon’ga, but I don’t think I can trust him yet. Who knows, maybe he will immediately run to Larkus and tell him about it, just to receive better treatment.

But just knowing I have something to work with puts my mind at ease.

The caravan stopped for the night when the sun started to settle. The slave traders created something like improvised fortifications out of the carriages by arranging them in a circle. Inside of it they started fires and probably cooked some dinner, others put up tents or tended to horses. Meanwhile, the orcs who served as guards made themselves comfortable on the ground from the other side of this camp, creating the first line of defence, should it be needed.

I tried to look for some opportunity to run away from this hell, but couldn’t think of anything at the moment. It will be very hard without some help from the outside and I highly doubt that there will be somebody suicidal enough to help me. As I stared around the camp a slave girl of around 20 years old brought that brown shitty soup for us and after that left for the tent of one of the slavers. It could have occurred to me sooner that they will use them in the night if they can.

“So, how is our newest guest, everything to your satisfaction, oh mighty minion of Korpus?” Larkus showed up with an idiotic smile on his face. “I heard you were accompanying Zuran last night. Hope you liked it. You will probably do it quite often from now.”

“Everything’s great here Larkus. I was just teaching him how to spit in your face even from this distance.” As Ruon’ga said this he boldly smiled Larkus in the face.

“You think you are funny, hmm you blue shit-face?” He told him and signalled to the two orcs to take him outside.

They took him out and made him kneel before Larkus.

“You know you blue shit,” Larkus kicked him right in the mouth as he continued his preaching. “You could have been in the other wagon if you weren’t such an idiot. But on the other hand I must still thank you for taking care of Zuron.” He kicked him again. “Thanks to you he killed a surprisingly small number of merchandise on this trip. But you are seriously starting to piss me off, so here is the proposition for you.” As he said this he grabbed Ruon’ga’s chin and made him look into his eyes. “You piss me off one more time, only one more time and I will make sure you will beg to be only tortured by Zuron. You understand?”

Ruonga stayed quiet, probably knowing Larkus wants to see him broken. As they stared at each other, one of the guards brought the dark elf from her cage to Larkus.

“Now I will excuse myself. As you can see I’m going to spend my time with this beauty. But don’t worry, to not feel so lonely Zuron sent for you so I’m sure you will have your fun with him.”

I could finally take a look at the dark elf that Ruon’ga was talking about before. I have seen elves previously in the forest when I killed that shadow lurker, but this one was quite different from them.

The long pointy ears and sharp looking eyes were the same, but her skin colour was dark grey, one would say almost black. Her eyes were violet and from her look I could tell that if she had an opportunity she would butcher Larkus like a pig. Her hair was long and right now also quite dirty, but I could see they had a dark red colour. She was dressed in some old rags and thanks to it she was almost naked. Around her neck was a silvery looking collar similar to the one Ruon’ga and some other slaves wore. This proved that she could use magic. She had a slim athletic figure measuring around 1,7 meters, so she was smaller than most elves as they tend to be on the taller side, but this can be also caused by her being a dark elf.

As I was studying her, she also noticed me for the first time. I don’t know why but she had a weird look in her eyes as she looked at me. For a second I thought she looked surprised but it vanished almost instantly.

“Take him to Zuron.” Larkus commanded the guards and after locking the cage I was in again, he spoke to me: “And you little shit remember, here I’m the rules. So when I tell you to jump you ask: how high? You can choose to be a quiet little shit which doesn’t cause any trouble and maybe I will take pity on your sorry shitty ass and move you to another cage, or I can very nicely ask Zuran that he starts to have his parties two or three times a day. I’m sure he would love that. Who knows, maybe he will entertain both of you at the same time so that you can deepen your friendship.”

After his little speech Larkus took the elf and vanished in his tent with her and a few other slave traders.

“So it doesn’t bother them that she is from the first cart, they will just fuck everything that looks good. No wonder I could feel her hatred for them if she is raped like that, probably every night.” As I thought loud about these things I could hear Ruon’ga’s cries in the night. Just thinking about what was probably happening to him sent chills down my spine.