Da Portal of Darkness

Chapta 7

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  Da Portal Of Darkness

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Chapta 21 

Chapta 22 

Epilogue 


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The meal had been ready for some time, and Sophie just sat in the kitchen waiting for Hazug to return. She wasn’t sure where Rhia was at that moment either, something had seemed strange about her behaviour ever since they had been to the site of the bombing earlier that day, but had refused to discuss it when Sophie had asked her while they cooked.

Glancing out of the window, Sophie saw that the sky was starting to darken as the sun grew close to the horizon and she stood up.

“Rhia!” she called out, “I’m going for a bath,” and she went upstairs.

Orks rarely had any use for indoor plumbing, and the room that Hazug had allowed Sophie to convert into a bathroom when he got the house had previously been just another room where a small group of orks had slept. Now it contained a metal trough that had been used for feeding squigs that now served as a bathtub and two large containers that were kept full of water. From each of these containers a pipe extend over the bathtub that had a tap to control the flow of water, while beneath one of the containers there was a wood burning stove that allowed the water inside it to be heated up. Sophie had of course insisted on a being allowed to fit a bolt to the inside of the bathroom door. When they had all lived in a single room Sophie had erected a curtain around her while she bathed, but it had taken some explaining to Hazug that he should not just brush it aside and dip his drinking cup into her bath, and of course Ratish would frequently just rip away the curtain just because he knew it angered her. Here at least she could have some privacy.

Sophie first lit the stove before going to her room to fetch her towels, and then she returned to the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

 

In the cellar beneath the house, Rhia sat waiting impatiently. Suddenly there came a sound from the tunnel beyond the door she had unlocked, and it was followed by the creaking of the hinges as the door opened.

“I was starting to wonder if you were coming at all,” she said to Jaris as he entered the cellar, followed by three other men. All of them carried shotguns, and wore armoured vests with faded Imperial markings.

“Would you believe me if I said we got lost?” Jaris asked with a smile, “Now show us where the weapons are.”

“Right this way,” Rhia said, walking towards the stairs, “That collaborator Sophie’s just gone for a bath, so if you can all keep quiet we can do this without having to deal with her.”

“So where’s the ork gone anyway?” Jaris asked quietly as Rhia led him and his men upstairs to Hazug’s room.

“The warboss’s palace I think, another pair of orks came for him,” Rhia answered.

“Well let’s hope they have a nice long chat,” Jaris said, “because I don’t fancy having to fight him on his home turf.”

“Don’t worry, he walked anyway so it’ll be some time before he’s back I’m sure,” Rhia reassured Jaris as they got to Hazug’s room, “here we are, the weapons are in there,” and she pointed to the heavy metal door of Hazug’s personal armoury.

“Is this a fething joke?” one of the other men exclaimed.

“Quiet Hobbs,” Jaris hissed, “The other one’s still here remember, we don’t need her raising the alarm or we’ll be arse deep in greenskins.”

“Sorry,” Hobbs replied, “but look at that door, we’d need a las cutter or phase field generator to get through it, and I don’t happen to have one in the pocket of these trousers. Do you?”
”No, but that’s why I brought a locksmith,” Jaris replied, “Isn’t that right Droyle?” and he looked to another of the men he had brought with him.

The man Droyle smiled and nodded.

“Let me see it,” he said, and he slung his shotgun over his shoulder and crouched down in front of the lock. While Droyle studied the mechanism that was holding shut the armoured door, Jaris turned to Rhia once more.

“So is there anything else around here that we could use?” he asked.

“No, Hazug keeps all the weapons from the cache in there, those that he’s still got anyway,” Rhia told him, then she suddenly remembered something, “Hang on,” she said, “Hazug got Sophie an autopistol, an Imperial made one. I think that she keeps it in her room somewhere.”

“Right Hobbs,” Jaris said, “Rhia’s going to show you which room to search, and I want you to find that gun. Do you think you can manage that without a las cutter in your trousers?”

“Show me the way,” Hobbs said, and he followed Rhia to Sophie’s room.

While the pair was gone, Droyle stood up.

“It’s no good,” he said, “it’s these ork locks, there’s something about them that stops you picking them with anything smaller than a crowbar. We’re not getting through this door anytime soon.”
”Shit,” Jaris exclaimed, and then remembered that Sophie was still in the house. But when there was no indication that she had overheard them he continued, “So what do you suggest we do then, because I don’t fancy going back and telling him that we’ve failed him.”

“What about the walls?” the final member of Jaris’s team suggested, “maybe the greenskin’s stupid enough that they aren’t reinforced. We could just smash through.”
”Try it,” Jaris told him, and the man drew a knife, stepped forwards and began to use the tip of the blade to dig away at the wall separating the armoury from Hazug’s bedroom.

“What’s going on?” Rhia asked, returning alone.

“We can’t get through the door,” Jaris told her, “so we’re seeing if we can make our own.”

“Well that’s not going to work,” Rhia replied, “if you’d bothered to ask me I could have told you that the entire armoury’s lined with steel. I’ve seen inside it remember?”

“She’s right boss,” the man digging at the wall said, “there’s a metal plate behind this, look,” and he pointed to where his digging had exposed the inner metal wall of the armoury.

 

Sophie wrapped her towel around herself and picked up her discarded clothes, she had tried just sitting back and relaxing in the bath for a while, but whatever Rhia was doing apparently involved a lot of stomping up and down, so Sophie decided that she was done for now.

Leaving the bathroom, Sophie paused for a moment. She was certain that she had just heard something from her room, but Ratish was out so she was sure that she had imagined it. Then, when she opened the door to her room she saw Hobbs lying on the floor and reaching under her bed.

She screamed.

“Oh feth,” Hobbs shouted, and he reached for the shotgun that he had left on Sophie’s bed.

Sophie turned to run, and she came face to face with Rhia.

“Rhia, there’s a man in my room, we have to get of here,” she said in a panic. Then she saw the other three men standing behind Rhia, all of them holding shotguns of their own, “What are you doing here?” she said, recognising Jaris from the bomb site.

“Reclaiming what’s ours,” he replied as Hobbs stepped out of Sophie’s room, and pressed the muzzle of his shotgun against her spine.

“Just do as they say Sophie, and you’ll be just fine,” Rhia reassured Sophie, who looked close to tears.

“You, you’re with them?” Sophie stammered when she realised that Rhia showed no signs of being in distress in spite of the armed strangers in their home.

“Of course I am, they sent me here to get our weapons back,” Rhia said, “now be a good girl, and you’ll live to tell Hazug how you let us take them.”

“Did you find the gun?” Jaris asked Hobbs.

“Sure, under the bed,” Hobbs answered, “I was just checking to see if there was any more ammo with it.”
”Give the gun to Rhia then, she can keep an eye on her friend here. We’ve got a vault to break into.”

 

Together with warboss Kromag, Hazug leant over a map of the city.

The portion of the map devoted Git Town had initially been labelled simply with the phrase ‘‘ERE BE GITS’, but with Hazug’s assistance details such as the marketplace where human met to trade goods were being filled in.

“So Hazug,” warboss Kromag said, standing up straight, “’Ow do all dese farms bein’ burnt affect me den?”

Hazug was unsure what Kazkal was talking about.

“Wot farms boss?” he asked.

“I keep ‘earin ‘ from da other Bad Moons wot travel about dat loads of da farms wot give ‘em food in exchange for not bein’ killed ‘ave been burnt down and da gits wot ran ‘em is dead anyway. Me Bad Moons is well angry at dis, dey reckon dat dare is wildboys out dare wot we aint found yet.”

Something about burned farms struck a chord with Hazug, but he couldn’t quite place it.

“Hazug? Is ya listenin’ to me? I said dat git farms is bein’ burned down with da gits still in ‘em.”

“I ‘eard boss,” Hazug said, “Its just dat I got a feelin’ dat dare’s somethin’ important about dese farms bein’ burned down.”

“Important? Its just wild boys me lad, normally dare’s just a few and da gits drive ‘em off and den da traders find ‘em and bring ‘em back to civilisation. But dare’s a lot of ‘em about at da mo, and dey is killin’ da gits. My gits.”

Then Hazug remembered it, a conversation he overheard between Sophie and an elderly human they had found in a desert outpost over the ocean. Sophie had lived on one of the farms when she had been younger, and one of the other humans there had been killed, but not by the feral orks who roamed the wilderness before they were either caught by a patrol or wandered into a civilised settlement by themselves, but by other humans. In particular the humans of the same resistance that had probably planted the bomb that morning. He also remembered being at a farm that had been destroyed, one where Rhia had taken him when they first met. She told him that she had lived there and seen gretchin digging at some nearby ruins from her window. But Hazug had observed that the ruins were out of sight of the farm, she could only have known about them if she, or someone known to her had been moving covertly around the area, someone with a reason to destroy a farm that refused to aide them. Someone like members of the resistance.

“I gotta go,” he said, moving quickly towards the door.

Which meant that Rhia was part of the resistance, and Sophie was at home alone with her.

“Go? Where?” warboss Kromag asked, unused to people suddenly running out on him when he hadn’t threatened them first.

“’Ome boss,” Hazug shouted back as he disappeared out of the map room, “I reckon somethin’s wrong.”

“Can Ratish go too lord?” Ratish asked meekly from the corner of the room from where he had been watching the two orks talking.

“Does I look like I cares?” warboss Kromag responded, and after shaking his head, Ratish ran off after Hazug.

 

Sophie lay on her bed. Rhia had bound her wrists and ankles with strips of animal hide that Hazug kept lying around to keep her immobilised. Her arms were bound behind her back, which meant that she was lying on top of them uncomfortably, but she didn’t struggle. She was all to aware that she was clad only in a towel that was all too likely to fall away if she moved about too much.

“What are you going to do with me?” she said, looking directly at Rhia who had occupied the seat opposite to the bed.

“Nothing providing you behave,” Rhia answered, “we just want our weapons back, then we’ll leave. Now keep quiet or I’ll have to gag you.”

At that moment Jaris entered the room.

“Get up,” he said, looking down at Sophie.

“I can’t,” she answered, “she tied me up,” and she nodded towards Rhia.

Jaris turned towards Rhia also.

“Free her ankles and pick her up,” he ordered her, “you’re taking her with you.”

“But you said you’d leave me here,” Sophie protested when Rhia approached her.

“I also said I’d gag you if you didn’t keep quiet,” Rhia said, slicing through the strips that bound Sophie’s ankles with a knife. Then she looked at Jaris, “what about you, aren’t you coming with us?”

“No, we can’t get into the vault, so I’m going to wait here for the ork to get home and tell him that if he wants his precious slave back then he’s going to have to open it for me and give us back our property.”

“He won’t give you anything,” Sophie told him as Rhia dragged her to her feet, “he’ll kill you. He’ll rip your…” before Sophie could finish the threat Rhia forced a rag into her mouth and tied it in place.

“Oh I doubt it,” Jaris replied, “the Blood Axe will want to keep its precious human pet safe, so it’ll do exactly what we want while we’ve got you.”

 

Hazug ran through the streets of the city towards his home.

“Move!” he yelled at anyone who got in his way, and those who failed to move as instructed got pushed out the way. Hazug wasn’t stopping for anything, not even for Ratish who found that he was lagging further and further behind his master.

“Wait! Ratish can’t keep up!” the gretchin called out, but the large ork ignored his diminutive servant and continued to run homewards as fast as he could.

In his impatience to enter the building, Hazug almost broke down his front door.

“Sophie? Where is ya?” ha bellowed from the hallway, and he paused to listen for a reply, breathing heavily from the exertion of running across the city.

When no reply came Hazug knew that something was wrong, Sophie never left the house without telling him first, and she always took care not to be out after dark without him.

Briefly Hazug checked both the kitchen and the room that Sophie referred to as a ‘lounge’ in Gothic, there being no equivalent in the ork language, but it was clear that Sophie was not downstairs. Instead, Hazug drew his pistol and cautiously he made his way up the stairs.

“Sophie?” he asked again as he pushed open the door to her room, there was a chance, however unlikely, that she was sleeping and had not heard him.

With the door open, Hazug saw that not only was Sophie not in her room, but also he saw that her belongings were scattered about instead of packed away neatly as she usually kept them. Then Hazug heard a movement coming from his room, and keeping his pistol at the ready he crept towards it.

Moving swiftly, Hazug burst into his room and looked around, letting his pistol follow his view until he found himself looking at a human sitting in a chair against the far wall.

“Good evening,” the man said.

Hazug recognised the intruder straight away, it was Jaris, one of Dariel Thayne’s soldiers.

“Wotcha doin’ ‘ere?” Hazug asked in Gothic, he guessed that the man had something to do with neither Sophie nor Rhia being present, but he had to be sure that Thayne hadn’t sent him before he took any action.

“I’ve come to reclaim what you took from us,” Jaris said.

Hazug didn’t answer him; instead he just kept his pistol trained on the human.

“I want our weapons, the lasguns and the missiles you stole from our stash,” Jaris continued.

“So ya is part of da mob wot don’t want us ‘ere den,” Hazug said, again using the human’s own language, guessing that the man would not understand orkish, “and wot planted dat bomb.”

“Part of the bomb plot? I’m the one who planted it. Now back to why I’m here, I expect you’ve noticed that your slaves are missing.”
”Ya mean ya took ‘em,” Hazug interrupted, “only I reckon dat Rhia didn’t take much forcin’, she’s one of ya too isn’t she?”

Jaris grinned, Rhia’s assignment here was over anyway and she couldn’t come back now that Sophie had witnessed her helping Jaris and his men, so there seemed little point in denying what the ork already knew.

“Yes, she’s been quite useful to us in letting us in through that nice little underground doorway of yours,” Jaris told Hazug, standing up and walking towards the large ork, “But the other one, Sophie I think she’s called, seemed rather distressed to be taken away by my men. So if you want her back then you’ll have to open up that vault and then we can swap our weapons for your slave.”

Again Hazug said nothing; instead he just kept his gun pointed at Jaris.

“Come on now,” the man said, “surely you can see reason here, you want Sophie back, and we want our weapons back. So be a good little ork and open up this vault.”

As a Blood Axe, Hazug had a history of employing negotiation and diplomacy instead of always relying on brute force, a trait of his clan that Jaris was counting on to blackmail him into agreeing to the exchange. But critically, Jaris had overlooked the fact that Hazug was still an ork, and even Blood Axes would only rely on negotiation so far. Anyone, whether greenskin or alien, or thought that a Blood Axe would allow himself to submit to extortion had a made a terrible mistake.

A fatal mistake.

Hazug dropped his pistol and lunged at Jaris, letting out a roar as he did so. He grasped the surprised human by his throat and lifted him up off the floor. Then, still holding Jaris in the air, he spun around and slammed the man’s body against the armoured door of the armoury and tightened his grip.

“We’ll kill her,” Jaris croaked as he struggled for breath. Hazug’s grip tightened, but significantly he did not dig his fingertips into Jaris’s throat, so the man could still just about breathe.

Hazug roared again and pulled Jaris away from the door, only to slam him back against it once more. The back of Jaris’s skull hit the metal door hard, and the blow stunned him. Then Hazug leant in towards Jaris and head butted him. There was a crunch as the impact of Hazug’s forehead shattered Jaris’s nose, and blood spurted from the wound. Hazug let go of Jaris, and the human fell limply to the floor. By now Jaris had realised his mistake, and he looked for his shotgun. There it was, still next the chair he had been sat in when Hazug had entered the room, and Jaris began to scrabble towards it.

But Hazug wasn’t finished with Jaris yet, and the ork reached down and grabbed the injured man by his collar and lifted him up again. Holding Jaris in one hand, Hazug produced the key to the armoury and unlocked the door.

“’Ere ya go,” he said, pulling Jaris closer to him so that they pair were face to face, “da door is open,” and he threw the man to the floor so that his head lay in the doorway.

There was a look of horror on Jaris’s face as Hazug slammed the door shut the first time, and as the door closed he just had time to consider how Sophie had warned him that this would happen and perhaps he should have listened to her. When Hazug opened the door again and slammed it for a second time, Jaris was already dead.

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