Taker Of Skulls (Book 5) (4 page)

“They’re not coming with us,” Kormak said.

Sasha said, “They’ve just come to see us off.”

“They your kin?” She nodded. The girl and the little boy were watching him wide-eyed. He seemed to make them nervous. It was something he was used to. He took a copper piece from his purse and flicked it to the boy. He snatched it from the air and gave a quick bright smile.

“Say thank you, Tam,” said the sad-faced girl.

“Thank you, sir,” said the boy. He walked over to Sasha and tried to take her hand. She squeezed his fingers and then let his hand go. He clutched her hip and pressed his head against it. Half-angry and half-affectionate she pushed him away then bent down till her head was level with his.

“While I am gone you’re going to have to look after your Auntie Sal,” she said. “Make sure she does not get into any trouble.”

The boy looked at her with big eyes, and nodded. He pushed himself against her then. She pushed him away and ruffled her hand through his curly dark hair.

“Don’t go, Ma,” he said.

“I’ve got to,” she said. It sounded like she had explained this to him many times. She said it with a kind of weary patience. “We need food. We need money for Aunt’s medicine. We need money for clothes.”

Kormak looked away not sure what to say. The boy gave him an imploring look.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll see your mother comes back.”

“Promise?” the boy asked.

“I promise,” Kormak said. As the words came out of his mouth he felt their weight settle on his shoulders, heavier than any pack. The boy ran and grabbed Sasha again.

Kormak stared down the main street. Karnea and Boreas walked towards them, leading mules with gear slung over their side.

“It’s time to go,” Sasha said. She gently detached the little boy from her and pushed him into the arms of her sister. The boy was crying. She walked away, standing stiff and straight and she did not look back. Kormak did and saw the little boy waving.

Kormak looked over his shoulder down the steep rocky slope. Varigston had dwindled to a toy town beneath them, as they followed the Dwarf Road. Tiny figures swarmed in the streets, and moved along the ridge-lines. Smoke rose from chimneys. Temple gongs tolled.

Sasha saw the direction of his gaze. “Worried about being followed?” she asked. Kormak nodded. “We left some annoyed people back there; from what you told me they seem like they might be the sort to be vengeful.”

“So do you,” she said. “If you don’t mind me saying so.”

“I don’t go looking for fights. I get enough in the normal line of things.”

“You a mercenary?”

“I prefer to think of myself as a soldier.”

“You must be a very successful one.”

“What do you mean?”

“Not many soldiers can afford a dwarf-forged blade. To tell the truth, I thought only Guardians of the Order of the Dawn carried those. Curiously enough they carry them on their backs as well, just like you do. Something about symbolising the burden of their calling. Or so I’ve heard.”

Kormak shot her an amused glance. Clearly she knew more than she chose to let on.

“How do you know so much about dwarf-forged blades?”

“My father was a prospector and a learned man in his own way. We drifted from ruin to ruin when I was growing up. I keep my ears open. I hear stories. I’ve heard the name Kormak before too.”

“Is that so?”

“Hero of the Orc Wars, killed more orcs than the Red Plague, saved the life of the King at the battle of Aenar. Outlander too. Supposed to look a bit like you, although the stories make him out to be a giant.”

“I’ve heard those stories,” he said.

“You don’t believe them?”

“I believed them once.”

“Not any more, eh?”

“Believing in heroes is for the young.”

“It’s a pity—this is a land that’s sorely in need of heroes. The Great Comet is in the sky. The shadows lengthen. Civil war in the South. Orc hordes on the move in the east. And we’re here looking for old runes in the rubble of Khazduroth.” She let the implied question hang in the air.

“Speaking of dwarf weapons, where did you get the one on your back?”

“The stonethrower? It belonged to my father. He found it up in Durea. I’ve got few fire-eggs for it. It might prove handy if we run into any goblins.”

“Let’s hope we don’t.”

Her lips compressed and she glanced back in the direction of the town. “Yes, let’s.”

He let the silence hang for a moment then said, “Is Tam your kid?”

She nodded. “Duncan, his father, died last year. He was killed by goblins on the way out of Khazduroth.”

“Sorry to hear that. Is your sister going to look after Tam while you’re gone?”

“Why you interested?” She sounded guilty and her tone was aggressive.

“Just making conversation.”

“You always this curious?”

“I am when my life might depend on someone.”

“You don’t trust me?”

“I don’t trust anybody. No offence.”

“You think I’m going to lead you down the wrong path, like Otto would.”

“It would be a big mistake if you did.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t. I want your money. And I confess I am curious about what you are doing… soldier.” She placed an ironic strain on the last word.

“It does not pay to be too curious,” he said. Another glance behind showed a large party on the road. He counted the numbers. They were just right for Otto’s gang.

THEY MADE CAMP in the shelter of a group of large rocks, up a side track just off the Dwarf Road. Boreas built a fire from lichen and some sticks he had gathered. He did it with the ease of long practise. Clearly he was a man who was used to setting up camps. The mules were all tethered alongside Kormak’s pony.

Karnea got a pot full of herbs and dried meat and some wine stirring. Smoke smudged her cheeks. The flames reflected in her glasses making it look as if she had eyes of fire. She stirred the mixture with a wooden spoon, clearly enjoying herself. Kormak walked back to the road and looked along it.

In the moonlight, he could see quite far. In front of him the cliff dropped away, falling scores of feet. He had a clear view of the road below. Beyond the path the mountains were vague bulks in the darkness. They were a long way up and the air was cold. The sweep of the wind was audible. His shadow danced in front of him reacting to the blaze of the fire. He sensed someone coming closer, recognised the tread as belonging to Sasha.

“Looking for Otto?” she asked.

“Or anybody else who might come on us in the night.”

“I took us off the main road and our fire is well hid up here among the rocks.”

“If he knows these hills as well as you, he’ll know about this place, won’t he?”

“We’ll hear him coming up the road, and his men can only reach this place one at a time.” Kormak thought about the narrow path they had led the mules up and saw that this was true. “And if you are as good with that blade as you seemed to think you were back in the Axe and Hammer, they won’t get past you.”

“Only if I am standing there when they come, and I have to sleep some time.”

“Your friend looks like he can handle a weapon as well.”

“That he does.”

“Go back to the fire. I’ll shout if evil Otto and his boys come up the path. It smells like the food will be ready soon, and you need to eat.”

“So do you?”

“I’ll eat later. We do the watches in rotation.”

Kormak shrugged and made his way back to the fire.

“Interesting conversation?” Boreas asked. His voice was flat and there was no real curiosity in it.

“We talked about setting up watches. Sasha reckons one man can hold the path.”

“She’s right, if the people coming up it don’t take a bow or a slingshot to him.”

“If they can do it on that path in the dark, they’ll be miraculously good shots.”

“Or fortunate ones. I’ve seen some very good warriors go down to a lucky blow.”

“It must have seemed anything but lucky to them,” Kormak said. Boreas’s teeth gleamed whitely in the darkness.

“What do you think about this place?” he asked. Now they were on the road he seemed less touchy, more a professional doing a job and confident about it.

“It is defensible and we are hidden from the road, but it would be as easy to bottle us up in here as it would be for us to hold an attacker off.”

“I was thinking the same myself.”

“Still it’s probably better than the alternatives.”

“You think our friends from back in town will come looking for us?”

“You saw them. What do you think?”

“I think they think we have money and that they want some of it.”

Sasha returned and made a shushing sound. When she spoke her voice was pitched low. “If you want to see where Otto is,” she said, “come take a look.”

Shadows moved on the road below. Kormak could see a number of warriors and a number of mules. The men were armed and some of them held crossbows. They did not stop at the place where Sasha had taken them off the road. Either they did not know it was there or they had missed seeing it in the gloom. After a few minutes they disappeared round a bend in the road.

Sasha smiled triumphantly. “Old Otto does not know these mountains as well as he thinks.”

“Let’s hope so,” said Kormak. “And let’s hope some of his boys are not sneaking up on us even now.”

“Why don’t you go down the path and take a look,” she said.

“I’ll do just that thing,” Kormak replied. He padded down the trail, silent as a great cat. He kept his hand near the hilt of blade but no shadowy figures sprang on him from the darkness. When he reached the road, the only sign that anyone had been this way were some mule droppings on the interlocked flagstones of the old dwarf path. It looked like they had indeed been missed.

He wondered how long things would stay that way.

Kormak sat down by the fire, eyes narrowed and focused away from the glare to preserve his nightsight. An eerie howl echoed through the night. It was answered by another. Kormak had heard howls like that before, far to the east in the great Elfwood.

“Dire wolves,” said Sasha. “Packs of them haunt these mountains.”

“What’s the difference between a dire wolf and a normal wolf?” Boreas asked. His voice came from further back on the path, where he stood on watch.

“What’s the difference between a domesticated terrier and a hungry wolf?” Sasha replied. “Dire wolves come up to my chest and they can chop through a man’s leg with one bite”

They fell silent for a moment. All of them were imagining what meeting a pack of such creatures would be like.

“They run with the goblins,” Sasha added, apparently determined to lower the mood even more. “Little bastards use them as steeds.”

“I would have thought they would just be snacks for the wolves,” said Boreas. He was attempting to make a joke of it.

“Don’t kid yourself, they are about as vicious as the wolves and they are a lot more cunning. Both like manflesh to eat.”

Karnea ladled out some of the stew. “I love cooking,” she said. “I am not so sure about camping.”

Kormak tasted the stew. It was very, very good. “You could make a career as prince’s chef,” he said.

“Cooking is a hobby. I’m afraid most of my life has been spent studying the Art and the ways of the Khazduri.”

Sasha spluttered food at the mention of the Art.

“You are a witch,” Sasha said. There was an undercurrent of fear in her voice that was not there when she had talked to Kormak about the possibility of being killed.

“I would not exactly say that,” said Karnea. “Although I do know some herb lore and I have the gift for healing and warding.”

Sasha’s eyes widened. If anything, the fact that Karnea so calmly admitted what she was had dismayed the prospector even more. “Aren’t you worried about the Shadow?” she asked.

Karnea took off her glasses and studied them for a moment. It was as if she was looking at her reflection in them. “All with the Gift must worry about such corruption but I can assure you I am well warded against such things as it’s possible to be.”

Sasha fell silent. Kormak imagined she was stunned by this calm discussion of the risks of losing your soul by another woman, particularly one as harmless looking as Karnea. He was not fooled. He knew there was no such thing as a harmless magician.

Karnea did not seem to notice Sasha’s appalled look. “And you can be touched by the Light as well as the Shadow,” she said. “Scripture says so.”

“Do you think you are? Touched by the Light, I mean,” said Sasha once she had regained composure enough to speak.

“I have touched its presence once or twice,” she said. “I am not sure the Light has touched me. I like to think that it might some time. It would be a blessing indeed.”

“I thought the Light only touched saints,” Sasha said.

“You think me egotistical?” Karnea asked. Her tone was very mild but Sasha responded in a way that she never would have to a threatening word from Kormak.

“No. I was just saying.” She spoke nervously.

“Perhaps I am egotistical,” said Karnea. She smiled benevolently around her. Kormak was reminded of an owl. They looked wise and splendid but they were also deadly predators. Karnea took a mouthful of her stew, made a face, and then blew on the spoon to cool it. She looked about as threatening as a rabbit, but Sasha has moved to put some distance between them. “No one really knows why the Light touches some and not others. Although some scholars claim that in every case of sainthood the one so blessed had the Gift.”

“You mean they were sorcerers? You are saying that the saints were all magicians. That is blasphemy.” Sasha sounded genuinely appalled. She looked at Kormak and Boreas for support.

“Some of the Old Ones have told me similar things,” said Kormak maliciously.

“Really,” said Karnea. “Fascinating. We have much to talk about, Sir Kormak.

“The Old Ones are notorious liars,” he said to close off any further inquiries of this sort.

“Not all of them,” said Karnea. “And even in the lies of the most deceitful some nuggets of truth may be uncovered. It makes the lie more convincing, or so they say, although I confess this is not really my area of expertise.”