“What have you heard?”
“They are spooky and strange. I am guessing that does not come as any surprise to you.”
“All of the Old Ones are different. In what way are these ones strange?”
“They don’t think like you or me. They don’t act like people. They can be friendly one minute and rip your heart out the next.”
“I’ve known people like that.”
“I mean literally rip your heart out—reach into your chest with their hand and pull it out.”
“They are strong? They have claws?”
“I am just telling you what I’ve heard and I believe it. The kind of people who live in Elderdale don’t scare easily but the Twins scare them.”
“Scare you too?”
“I am not ashamed to admit it.”
“Good. You’ll live longer.”
“Are you not scared? You’re a Guardian. They may not take kindly to your sort riding into town.”
“They have not broken the Law,” Kormak said. “They have nothing to fear from me.”
“Maybe you have something to fear from them.”
“They kill me and two more of my Order come. They kill them, however many it takes will come. The Old Ones know this. They don’t want trouble with me any more than I want trouble with them.”
“That’s not how the stories always tell it. It’s always war unto the death between the Guardians and the Old Ones.”
“It is with some. Most of the Old Ones just want to be left alone. Men rarely see them these days.”
“Is that why you are so interested in the Twins?”
“One reason. I am also wondering whether Morghael has any reason to deal with them or they with him.”
“You think that’s likely.”
“I am thinking they’ve been here a long time and if he is looking for something they may well know where to find it, or they may know how. I’m also thinking that something was in the air the night Hungerdale was attacked.”
“You planning on visiting them then?”
“It’s possible.”
“You’re going on your own then. I’d rather explain things to Ma than come face to face with one of those two.”
Kormak could see he really was scared, of his mother and of the Twins.
They rode on in companionable silence for a while. Behind them, Kormak heard the clip-clop of horse hooves and the rumble of the Tinkers wagon’s wheels on the stone.
“There,” Lucas said as they passed a small opening in the valley side. There were tracks in the mud leading to the roadside. He dismounted and inspected them. Kormak watched interestedly. The others stayed on the road. “Whoever made most of these tracks were lighter than children, but their boot size was that of a full-grown man.”
Kormak thought about skeletons. Lucas’s finger stabbed out, pointing to the print of something narrow and bony and clawed-looking. It was the imprint of a bootless skeletal foot.
Kormak sensed the presence of others. Brandon and Aisha had ridden up to see what they had found.
“Tracks,” Lucas said, nodding down the pathway. “That’s where last night’s attack came from. This path leads down to Cullen’s Barrow.”
Kormak studied the narrow pathway. “I’m going to investigate. How far is it to the barrow?”
“An hour or so but we’ll never get the wagon down there,” said Lucas.
“It can stay on the road. Javier and the boys can take it slow and we’ll catch them up. Lucas, you stay with the Tinkers and make sure no harm comes to them.” The hill-man made no objection, as Kormak suspected would be the case. He did not seem overly keen on another run-in with the undead.
“I’m coming with you,” said Aisha. “I want to see this for myself.”
“Suit yourself,” said Kormak. He was keen to see why she was so interested to be there.
Kormak studied the land around them. The trail was winding down into a new valley. There was a massive barrow beneath them. It too was marked with standing stones. Some of them had toppled. He noticed they had been originally laid out in the same pattern as an Elder Sign.
Their horses began to pick their way downslope. Kormak got off his and walked beside it. Aisha did the same. Brandon, more confident in his horse and horsemanship, remained in the saddle. Kormak felt the great warhorse’s presence more now that he was on the ground. Not for the first time he realised how intimidating it was to face a charge of cavalry.
From the angle they were at he noticed there was small tarn of dark water next to the barrow.
“We’re wasting time doing this,” said Brandon, “if you really want to overtake this Morghael.”
“I need to make sure nothing more is going to come out of this barrow. And there may be clues there as to what this is all about.”
“I suppose,” said Brandon. “Although all the clue I need is that mob of walking bones that attacked us last night.”
They moved on until they reached the barrow. The entrance was open just like the one outside Brandon’s village. The air around it was chilly. Kormak tried telling himself that was just his imagination.
“It looks like this one is broken too,” said Sir Brandon. Kormak strode up and inspected the entrance. The stone door had been inscribed with a massive stone seal. On it was worked a five pointed star inscribed with words from the Book of the Sun and various ancient binding runes. The etched lines in the stone were partially full of moss. It blotched the stone as well. When Kormak touched it, it felt chill and damp. The stone-work had been defaced and the doorway hammered open. The two panels of the door were so massive they had not been broken, but the way down into the earth was clear.
Aisha inspected it as well and nodded as if she understood what she was seeing.
“So many of these bloody things in the hills,” Brandon murmured.
“The men of Kharon were here for a very long time,” she said. “Before you Sunlanders came they lived here for millennia. They buried many kings according to the Old Rites.”
It was impossible to miss the reverence with which she said the old rites.
“I’ve heard it said that they were once part of a much greater Empire,” said Sir Brandon. “That stretched all the way to the Southlands, that there are still great stone barrows there, where the dead are interred.”
“It is true,” said Aisha. “The Empire of Kharon once extended from the Mountains of Snow to the Desert of Ash.”
“The First Empire destroyed it,” said Sir Brandon with some satisfaction.
Aisha shook her head. “It destroyed itself. It had already fallen apart into a group of warring states by the time the Solari came over the World Ocean. Forghast was just one of many realms ruled by a former Satrap, and even it splintered into every smaller petty nations. That was why the Sunlanders found it so easy to conquer. The Empire of Kharon kept them at bay for centuries before that.”
Brandon looked at her, clearly not expecting this barrage of learning from a Tinker woman. Kormak could see suspicion enter his mind. “You have more learning than my village priest, that is for sure.”
“I doubt that is very difficult,” she said. There it was again, Kormak thought, the imperial arrogance. Brandon looked away. His face had gone red as he tried to control his temper. Aisha looked at Kormak.
“Have you seen enough?” she asked.
“More than enough,” said Kormak. She gave him a sharp look, as if she understood what he meant.
“What are you going to do?” Brandon asked. Kormak sniffed the air from the barrow, then strode down inside. He did not have a sense of any inimical presence down there but he wanted to be certain. “I am going to take a look. Wait here.”
“I’m going with you,” said Aisha.
“As you wish,” said Kormak warily.
“Did you find anything?” Brandon asked, as they emerged from the barrow.
“There’s nothing left down there,” Kormak said. “The coffins are all empty as are the ossuary niches
. It looks like the wight brought all its people along for last night’s attack.”
They had searched the chambers of the barrow and found no remains. He had watched the woman closely. She had scoured the place clearly looking for something, and just as clearly, as far as he could tell, not finding it.
Brandon said. “I doubt anybody would steal anything from an open tomb so there would be no need to leave guards.”
“Why this tomb though?” Kormak said. “There were other barrows, closer to the village.”
“Maybe because the Hungerdalers would run out and burn anyone they saw trying to open them,” Brandon said.
“Maybe,” said Kormak.
“I see what you are getting at,” Brandon said. “Why open some barrows and not others?”
“Maybe they know what they are looking for and where to look,” Kormak said. Aisha nodded. Kormak wondered what she knew that he did not.
“Maybe some seals just failed,” Aisha said at last. She clearly felt called upon to say something in the face of their silence. “Spells do fade; water, wind and weather wear away stone.”
“These seals were mostly definitely broken by human hands,” Sir Brandon said.
“That is so,” Kormak said.
“It might not have been humans,” Aisha said. “There are Old Ones in these hills. We’ve seen them. Or if it was men, maybe they were acting on behalf of the Old Ones.”
Kormak thought of the winged being he had seen before the attack. Again he noticed the curious stillness with which she held her hands when she mentioned Old Ones. She was clearly restraining herself from doing something.
“Why wait till now to do so?” Kormak asked, although he half suspected he knew her answer. There was civil war in the south, orcs along the borders. If the Old Ones wanted to work mischief, this would be the time to do it.
“You think this Morghael may have nothing to do with this then?” Sir Brandon asked. He sounded sceptical, as well he might, given what Kormak told him.
“He might be in it together with the Old Ones,” Aisha said. “Some of them would be pleased to see chaos come to the lands of men.” There was a peculiar emphasis on the way she said the word some.
“I can believe that,” said Sir Brandon. Like all Sunlanders he believed the worst of all the Old Ones. Not without reason, Kormak thought. Aisha looked as if she was considering saying something and then thought the better of it.
“We’d better be getting back to the wagon,” said Kormak. He considered pushing the woman to find out what she knew, but he was starting to think that she would speak in her own good time.
They rode on from the barrow heading north back onto the road. The great wolf padded along, sniffing the air and growling. It did not seem upset, it seemed angry or as if expecting some ambush. Aisha rode ahead, talking to it, as if it were a person.
Brandon looked at Kormak sidelong. “What do you think of her?”
“What do you mean?”
“She is not what she seems, is she?”
“Who is?”
“I mean she is not just another Tinker. Maybe she’s not a Tinker at all.”
“So you finally worked that out.”
“We can’t all be clever as you, Guardian. I suppose you are going to tell me you suspected that all along.”
“What does it matter?”
“What is she?”
“She is a witch.”
“You think she is in league with this sorcerer we are chasing, the one who is opening the barrows?”
Kormak shook his head. “I do not think she is his ally. But she has some personal interest in this matter, I am sure.”
“If she is not what she seems why are we riding with her?”
“She is where we can keep an eye on her. If she’s an ally, she’s a useful one. If she’s an enemy, we’ll know soon enough.”
“If we don’t wake up with that wolf’s jaws on our throats or a knife in our hearts.”
“You sleep with your armour on.”
“Bloody uncomfortable it is too. I have not done that since the orc wars.”
“You’ll get used to it. Anyway, something tells me we’re not going to wake up dead, not until Mistress Aisha or whatever her name is, gets what she wants.”
“You seem very sure of that. You think she’ll spare you because of your pretty face?”
“I think she’ll spare us because she wants something. You asked me why I let her ride with us. Maybe it’s her who is letting us ride along.”
“I don’t like this, Kormak. I don’t like this at all. We’re alone in these hills, with no allies, on the trail of some dark sorcerer, heading towards a place with some truly nasty people in it.”
“I can give you one more thing to worry about, if you like.”
“Go on. A man should have a hobby. Worrying is mine.”
“I think the Old Ones are mixed up in this.”
“Oh great,” said Brandon. “Old Ones too.”
“Enjoy,” Kormak said.
“Did you have a good chat with your friend Brandon?” Aisha asked as Kormak rode up beside her. Kormak had to fight down the suspicion that she knew everything they had been talking about. Some witches had the sight that way. Some shared the senses of their familiars and wolves had very good ears.
“Yes,” said Kormak.
“Was it about me?”
“Yes, in part.”
She smiled lazily. It reminded him of the wolf. It was the look of a predator revealing its fangs. “Only in part? That’s not very flattering. What else did you talk about?”
“I think we may have problems with the Old Ones in Elderdale.”
“You have a dwarf-forged blade,” she said.
“The secret of staying alive is knowing when to use it,” he said.
“And you have stayed alive for a long time,” she said. “That’s an impressive achievement for a Guardian. Most of you die fulfilling your oaths.”
“I’ve heard people say that,” he said.
“Meaning we should not talk about things of which we have no knowledge.”
“Meaning I have heard people say that.” The wolf growled as if annoyed at the tone he was taking with its mistress. Kormak glanced at it.
“Most people are frightened of Shae,” Aisha said.
“I’ve killed wolves before. I’ve killed familiars too.”
“And witches?”
“And witches.”
“I am sure you are a very dangerous man,” she said. There was mockery in her voice. Kormak let it pass. She was clearly one of those people who was always going to have the last word. She noticed his expression.
“You do not like me, do you?” she said.
“I do not know you,” he said.
“But you’ve met my sort before.”
“You are not a Tinker,” he said.
“What do you know of the people you call Tinkers?”
“The same as everybody else.” He spoke as mockingly as she, to see whether he could goad her into saying more. “They go everywhere, trade with everyone. They repair things. They work petty magic. They tell fortunes.”
“They are suspected of being thieves…”
“They are suspected of being thieves.”
“I have heard it said your Order are assassins,” she said.
“My Order are assassins,” he said. “When it is called for.”
Kormak was not sure why he said that. Perhaps he was the one being provoked here. It was certainly within the realms of possibility that she was cleverer than he was. She looked at him closely.
“Have you ever been called on to be?”
“Yes.”
“Is that why you always look so sad?” It was not what he had expected her to say at all. He glanced at her sidelong and kept his mouth shut. She looked at him. The wolf looked at him mockingly.
“Sad?” he said eventually.
“You are a moral man, Sir Kormak, even I can see that. It cannot sit well with y
ou to be a murderer.”
“Is a soldier a murderer when he kills on a battlefield? That is what this world is,” he said.
“I can see you have been well provided with answers.”
“Is that what you think?” Kormak asked. The words came out a little more angry than he had intended. Aisha smiled and fell silent. That had not gone quite as he planned, Kormak thought.
Ahead of them he could see the wagon. He rode forward to join the people there.
CHAPTER NINE
RAIN SLEETED DOWN from the grey sky. It soaked through Kormak’s cloak and dripped down his forehead. He looked down on the town below, glad that he would soon have an opportunity to get out of the rain.
Elderdale was bigger than Kormak had expected, a sprawl of huts and compounds and smelters and fortified inns with a lot of muddy space between them and clouds of smoke rising into the air above. In the valley sides, mine-shaft entrances gaped, propped open by wooden arches. Piles of slag and rock lay outside them; men came and went with wheelbarrows and picks.
Over everything loomed a massive rock and on that rock rose a castle of very strange appearance, taller and narrower and more rickety that anything a knight would build to defend his home. It was made of stone piled on stone in a haphazard way and it looked unstable. It was only when he paused to consider how big the structure must be that Kormak realised how large those individual blocks were. He wondered how they got them into place on the hilltop. It would have taken a lot of serfs a lot of time to pull them there but something told Kormak the construction had not been achieved by the muscles of men. It had that alien look he had seen before in structures built by the Old Ones and it had a brooding presence that made him deeply uneasy.
The Old Ones usually shunned the haunts of men, and in his experience those that did not were rarely up to any good. He halted for a moment to consider the view as the others rode by.
Brandon reined his warhorse to stop beside Kormak. “It’s not the most prepossessing place, is it?”
Kormak shook his head. “At least we’ll have a roof over our heads tonight. The first for a couple of days.”
“Has Lucas been making your hair stand on end with tales of what the occupants of that castle are capable of,” Brandon said.