He glanced back to the necromancer, and then he saw his eyes, just hints of red underneath the hood of his robes. Qurrah shivered as whispers shot up his spine.
You silenced my pets, it said.
“I do as I wish,” Qurrah whispered back. He felt a touch of cold on his fingers, like the fleeting kiss of a corpse lover.
You ally with the city of men?
“Again, I do as I wish,” Qurrah whispered.
“Who are you talking to?” Harruq asked. “Qurrah, what’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Qurrah said. He tore his gaze back to the fight. More orcs had pushed inward, leaving them bunched in a wide circle. They flung themselves against the surrounding guards. Again he felt a cold chill, this time creeping across his arms like frost spiders. The sensation of being watched was unbearable.
“We need to move,” he said. “If the guards falter we might suffer.”
“We’re already high up,” Harruq said. “We’re perfectly safe…”
“I said now!” Qurrah shouted. He doubled over, hacking and coughing. His breath was raspy and weak. “Please,” he insisted. “Take me from the wall.” “Alright then,” Harruq said, grabbing his brother’s arm. “Just hold tight.”
He leapt off the roof, pulling Qurrah with him. As his feet smacked the hard ground, his knees buckled and he fell back, catching his brother as he did. Without a word of thanks, Qurrah stepped off him and leaned against the wall. His whole body shuddered. He had often looked into the darkness. For the first time, the darkness had looked back, and it was amused. Whoever this necromancer was, Qurrah knew he had been an idiot to challenge him.
“Lead the way,” Qurrah said. “And forgive my outburst.”
“I understand,” Harruq said, ignoring the pain in his knees and the bit of blood running from his elbow to his wrist. “We need to hurry, though.”
He looped his arm through Qurrah’s and then hurried down the alley. As a soldier’s body collapsed at the end, the two stopped, and Harruq swore.
“The orcs made it through,” he said, to which Qurrah nodded. “This could be bad.”
An orc stepped into the alley, blood splashed across his gray skin. He held a sword in each hand, dripping gore coating both. Shouting something in a guttural language neither understood, the orc charged.
“Get back,” Harruq ordered as he shoved Qurrah to one side. He slammed himself against a house, barely dodging a downward chop of the blades. The orc attacked again, all his strength behind the swing. Harruq ducked, narrowly avoiding decapitation. Qurrah lunged before the orc could strike again, latching onto his wrist and letting dark magic flow. The orc howled at the sensation of a hundred scorpions stinging his flesh. Flooded with adrenaline, he hurled Qurrah aside, desperate to break the contact between them. Qurrah’s thin body crumpled against the dirt. At the sight of it, Harruq felt his rage break loose.
He slammed his fist into the orc’s stomach, followed by a brutal kick to the groin. Harruq rammed his elbows into the orc’s face, baring his teeth in a feral grin as he felt cartilage crunch. Staggering back, the orc dropped one of his swords and clutched his face.
“His sword,” Qurrah shouted loud as he could. “Take it, brother!”
Harruq obeyed without thought. He dropped to his knees, grabbed the sword, and rolled forward. Steel smacked where he had been. Now on his back, Harruq tossed the sword in front of himself, clutching the hilt with both hands. The orc smashed his own blade downward, and as they connected, Harruq did not feel fear or the strain of his muscles. He felt exhilarated. Even though the orc pressed with all his strength, he could not force the kill.
At last, Harruq forced him back, and in the brief opening he spun his sword around and buried half the blade into the orc’s gut. The orc gasped something unintelligible, dropped his other sword, and fell limp. Harruq stared at the body, his hands shaking from the excitement and his breath thunderous in his ears. A hand touched his shoulder. He recoiled as if struck.
“Well done,” Qurrah said, his eyes locked on the corpse. Harruq recognized that look. His brother had seen something he wanted, and he would have it. “A strong life and a fresh death.”
“The battle?” Harruq asked. Even as they stood there, he watched several orcs go running past, howling murder.
“We will partake in our own way,” Qurrah said, kneeling beside the orc. The savage clutched his stomach, his hands the only thing holding in his innards. Qurrah’s thin, ashen face curled into a sneer. Harruq turned away. Perhaps his brother would think him weak, but he would not watch. He heard a sudden shriek of pain that morphed into a long, drawn-out moan. As the last of the air left the orc’s lungs, Harruq turned around, startled by the sight.
“Beauty in all things,” Qurrah said, purple light dancing across his face. “Especially those things that are controlled.”
An orb floated above his open palm, seemingly made of thick, violet smoke. Within its center, a face shifted, its sunken eyes glaring. When it opened its mouth, no sound came forth, just a soft puff of ash.
“A soul seeking release,” Qurrah said. “How destructive, I wonder?”
“Get rid of it,” Harruq said as he picked up the other sword the orc had dropped.
“You disagree?” Qurrah asked, his delight vanishing into a sudden frown.
“No,” Harruq said. He thought to explain and then just shrugged. “It makes me uneasy,” he said instead. “But do as you wish.”
The frailer brother approached the end of the alley where the sound of combat was strongest. His steps faltered only once. When Harruq moved to catch him, Qurrah glared and leaned against the side of a house. When a luckless orc rushed too close to the exit, Qurrah hurled the orb. Its explosion conjured shadows and shifting mists of violets and purples. The orc collapsed, white smoke rising softly from his tongue. In the sudden blinding light, Qurrah laughed.
“Never,” he said, “could I have imagined it so beautiful.”
An hour before dawn, the city’s soldiers cornered and killed the last of the orcs. The Tun brothers were not there to watch, for they had snuck back to the outer wall at Qurrah’s insistence.
“I know his plans,” Qurrah whispered as they stared across the open grass and the arrow-pierced orc bodies that covered it. “He is familiar to me, though I know him not.”
“He isn’t your former master, is he?” Harruq asked as he adjusted his newly acquired swords. He had taken a belt and some sheathes from one of the dead bodies, but he was having a devil of a time getting them to fit correctly.
“No,” Qurrah said. “He is dead. I killed him. Whoever this is, he is someone else. Someone stronger.”
He pointed into the darkness.
“There,” he said. “He returns.”
Robed in black, the figure approached unseen by the guards. He lifted his hands, which shone a pallid white in the fading moonlight. So very slowly their color faded, from white, to gray, to nothing, a darkness surrounding and hiding them.
“What’s going on?” Harruq asked. He pulled one of his swords out from its sheath, pleased by the feeling of confidence it gave him. Qurrah said not a word. His eyes were far away, and his lips moved but produced no sound.
“Qurrah?” Harruq asked again. “Qurrah!”
He struck his brother on the arm. Qurrah jolted as if suddenly waking.
“The dead,” Qurrah said. “They rise.”
Sure enough, the arrow-ridden bodies stirred. As if of one mind, they rose together, ignoring any injuries upon them. Some hobbled on broken legs while others shambled with twisted and mangled arms. The brothers watched as hundreds more lumbered through the still-broken southern gate. A few belated alarms cried out from the exhausted guards, but they were too few and too late. Unencumbered, the horde of dead marched out to where the necromancer extended his arms to embrace them.
Harruq and Qurrah watched until the sun rose in the east and all trace of the necromancer vanished.
“What is it he wanted?” Harruq asked, breaking their long silence.
“More dead for his army,” Qurrah surmised.
“No,” Harruq said. “With you.”
Qurrah nodded, knowing he disrespected his brother to think he might not have noticed.
“He wanted my name,” Qurrah said. “I did not give it. I have served a master once. I will not do so again.”
Harruq frowned but said no more. Together they climbed down from the wall and returned home.