Taker Of Skulls (Book 5)

  This was the best view he had of them so far. He could see the details on their squat armoured forms. Massive runes had been inscribed on their shields and hammers, beards stretched from their chins to their boots. Helmets covered their heads and obscured their eyes. The armour did not look as if it had been made by humans. It was more angular, with flat surfaces intended to carry numerous runic inscriptions.

  They were about halfway down the valley when Sasha led them off up a path by the side of some rocks. The climb very swiftly got steep and Kormak found himself scrambling on hands and knees as he went up the slope.

  Eventually, they emerged on top of a large flat rock and he got a good view of the valley below. The camp looked small and distant and rather pathetic compared to the mountains surrounding it and the Khazduri statues. A line of people and animals was already leaving the valley along the old road. Only a few tents and lean-tos remained.

  Lonely plumes of smoke rose above the few remaining fires. The sky overhead was grey and dark and it seemed like they were climbing all the way into the underbelly of the clouds. The landscape became even more barren. Here and there were a few small trees clutching the mountainside with gnarled roots but aside from that the only signs of life were a few birds and the lichen that clung to the stones and the sides of the grey boulders.

  “I’ve seen more pleasant places,” said Boreas.

  “It reminds me of Aquilea,” said Kormak.

  “That’s not any sort of recommendation in my book,” said Boreas. He was using the handle of his hammer as a staff to push himself up.

  “I suspect that where we are going will make Aquilea look paradisiacal by comparison.”

  Sasha was bounding ahead, agile as a goat on the tracks. Karnea mopped sweat from her brow. Her cheeks were even more rosy than usual. A few hours of sleep did not seem to have done an enormous amount to restore her energy but she looked cheerful enough. “I’ve been saying for a while that I needed more exercise. Be careful for what you wish for!”

  “How much further?” Kormak asked Sasha.

  She looked back down the slope as if trying to see if anyone was following them. “Not more than an hour if we keep up this pace. Surely you don’t need a rest already, Guardian? I thought this would be a mere tussock to an Aquilean.”

  “I am just curious,” said Kormak, refusing to rise to the bait. “Will we have time to get any distance underground once we find this entrance of yours?”

  “We’d better hope so,” Sasha said. “Those look like storm clouds coming in and I am not keen on spending the night getting soaked on a mountainside.”

  None of them said anything about the possibility that there might be goblins waiting in ambush.

  It was raining heavily as they reached the postern gate. It did not look like much, just a heavy stone doorway that blended into the rocks it stood among. Moss had grown on the runes in its surface. The rest of the door was overgrown so the pattern was only noticeable through being lighter than the moss around it.

  There was a faint darkness around one edge of the door. “The door is broken,” said Sasha. “It was when we found it.”

  Kormak studied the area around him. There were no signs of recent goblin passage, such as the marks of heavy packs being dragged over the rocks. That did not mean the goblins had not come this way of course.

  “Let’s hope they are not waiting for us on the other side,” said Boreas.

  “Never seen any goblins up here,” Sasha said.

  “Where do they usually lurk?” Kormak asked.

  “Nobody really knows but it used to be you never come across any signs of them near the gate or on the upper levels. Used to be you only found them deep in the Underlands and you had to be unlucky for that to happen.” She paused for a moment as if thinking about something sad, took a deep breath. “Of course they never used to raid either. Last night was something new.”

  Boreas used the handle of his hammer to force the gate wider and they looked down into the gloom. A flight of stairs receded in front of them.

  “We’re going to need light,” said Kormak.

  Karnea nodded and pulled something out of her rucksack. “Fortunately the goblins never got their claws on my pack,” she said.

  She held a glittering crystal on a stone ring. The ring was large enough to encompass a human fist, and Karnea gripped it as she would the handle of a stein. She rubbed the stone with her hand, and as she did so it glowed brighter. The light was no greater than that of the full moon.

  “A moon-lantern,” Kormak said. “You raided the vaults of Aethelas before you came.”

  Karnea made a noise of mock outrage. “Of course not. This is one I acquired for myself.”

  Kormak inspected the lantern. It would produce light for an hour after being rubbed or even after being breathed upon. It seemed to feed on heat, rather like the rune Mankh. It would begin to glow even if only held close to the body. Master Malan has possessed one. The light would not affect the Old Ones in any way, which was hardly surprising for the lanterns had been made by their servants, the dwarves, to illuminate their way in the very darkest places of the world.

  Sasha was looking at the lantern. A gleam of avarice had appeared in her eye. “A functioning moon-lantern,” she said. “Those are worth a lot of money.”

  “The light will be worth more to us in the darkness,” said Karnea. “Let’s try not to lose it.”

  “Are there many such objects in the vaults of Aethelas?” Sasha asked. Boreas stared at her sidelong. Kormak laughed. “Aethelas fortress is guarded by hundreds of warriors, by magic, by all manner of cunning traps. The vaults are probably the most secure place in the world.”

  “I was just asking,” said Sasha. “I am curious about dwarf artefacts. Always have been.”

  “That’s understandable,” said Karnea with her glowing smile. “I have spent hundreds of hours inspecting the collection myself.”

  She looked as if she were ready to expound on all the hidden treasures collected in the vaults so Kormak cut her off. “If we’re going down below, we’d better make a start.”

  They made their way down the stairs. It was a narrow spiral, obviously made for defensive purposes. It had not been made for people as tall as men. They all had to stoop. Kormak maintained a good pace. He was in the lead, Boreas was bringing up the rear, with Karnea and Sasha between them. Karnea was holding her lantern high. They corkscrewed down a long way into the earth and emerged on what seemed a vast landing that receded off into the distance, curving away to left and right. The ceiling here was much higher, more like the inside of a cathedral than a mine.

  The moon-lantern’s glow formed a pool of light around them. Massive arches supported the ceiling, every twenty strides or so.

  “Which way?” Kormak asked. When he spoke his voice seemed to carry a vast distance in the darkness. It sounded deeper than it normally did and louder. “Which way?” he repeated, this time speaking much more quietly, not wanting to give them away to anyone who might be listening.

  “Going left will take us to the main gate,” said Sasha. “If the goblins are waiting for us, they’ll most likely be there.”

  “What happens if we go right?” he asked.

  “We come to the Eighth Bridge. That will take us into the Hub. It’s longer though.”

  “How much longer?”

  “A few hours,” said Sasha.

  “It won’t make that much difference then, particularly if it’s safer,” said Kormak. “Anything else we should know?”

  Sasha shook her head. “Normally it’s pretty safe on these levels but keep your eyes peeled. You never know. The goblins are a lot more active than they used to be.”

  “Last night is proof of that,” said Boreas. He was standing taller now that they were out of the stairwell.

  They followed the road to the right. Kormak glanced through a huge archway. He saw vast empty halls, sometimes with a scattering of debris in them, sometimes bones gleamed oddly in the l
antern light.

  “Duncan reckoned these were all warehouses,” Sasha said, although no one has asked her. She was whispering. Something about this place seemed to demand it.

  “According to Toplen and other scholars, they were,” said Karnea. “Huge chambers and silos for storing food and trade goods were hollowed out from the walls on the upper levels of the city. The dwarves shipped goods out and stored food that came in.”

  “Duncan reckoned they grew their own food, mushrooms and such.”

  “They did,” said Karnea, “but they needed some variety in their diet and they needed grains to brew their beers and distil their whisky.”

  She did not seem disturbed by the gloom or the silence. She seemed excited. It came to Kormak that she really wanted to be here, was fulfilling a lifelong dream.

  “I could use some of their whisky now,” said Boreas.

  “Might be best to keep our wits about us,” said Kormak.

  They passed a junction. In the middle stood a towering statue of a muscular bull-headed man with a staff held in one hand. The other hand held a severed human head.

  “Tauran,” said Karnea. “The kingdom of Taurea takes its name from him.”

  Sasha looked at her sidelong. “A Sunlander kingdom named after an Old One. That smacks of blasphemy.”

  Karnea showed her dazzling smile. “Many of the tribes the Sunlanders conquered when they came over the World Ocean worshipped Tauran. He was their God-King. They called their land after him. The name stuck even after he was slain. It’s often the way. You might be surprised how many of our kingdoms and provinces take their names from our ancient enemies.”

  Kormak paused to consider the statue for a moment. It was astonishingly life-like. It seemed as if it was just about to step down off its plinth and confront them. It had obviously been made by a sculptor of genius and it looked as if it had been modelled from life.

  “Dwarf work,” he said. Karnea nodded.

  “I thought they hated the Old Ones,” Boreas said.

  “They served them first. And you can see the statue has been marked as if someone took a hammer to it. There are fingers missing on the left hand, the snout has been chipped and the tip of one horn is missing.”

  Kormak could see that everything she said was true. The statue was so astonishingly perfect he had simply assumed that the blemishes were intentional parts of it.

  “Maybe someone tried to destroy it and others stopped him,” said Karnea. Kormak could picture that; a fierce struggle between an angry rebellious former slave keen to destroy all reminders of his servitude, and maybe a builder wanting to preserve something of beauty.

  “Maybe it was a prospector,” said Sasha. “I’ve seen enough of them take a hammer to such things. Anything to turn a profit.”

  For the first time ever, Kormak saw Karnea look a little annoyed. “That would be pure wanton vandalism,” she said.

  “People have to eat,” said Sasha. She spread her hands apologetically. Kormak wondered if she had been one of those who had swung a hammer.

  “Why is his statue here?” Boreas asked.

  “I don’t know,” said Sasha. “But there are similar statues scattered through the Underlands.”

  “Of him?”

  “Of all sorts of different beings like him, half-man, half beast or monster.”

  “Those are most likely Old Ones,” said Karnea. “I look forward to inspecting a few.”

  “You’ll get plenty of chances,” said Sasha. “There are dozens between here and our goal.”

  “Let’s be on our way then,” said Kormak.

  They emerged onto an open square. In the distance there was a faint glow. The dim illumination was powerful enough to show the outlines of great buildings and pillars and a vaulted ceiling high overhead. Looking up, Kormak thought he saw a faint twinkling, almost like stars overhead except these were reddish yellow. They did suggest the pattern of constellations though. Something massive swept across them, obscuring them temporarily before vanishing. Kormak caught the distant echo of high-pitched shrieking.

  “Devilbat,” said Sasha. “Sometimes they are ridden by goblins. They use them as mounts.”

  “I saw that last night. That means they could be spying on us right now.”

  “Yes and be careful of the bastards. Their bites are poisonous, or at least diseased. I’ve seen men die very quickly, blood pouring from mouth and nostrils just from the tiniest nip of their teeth.”

  “Sounds like they carry bloodbane fever,” said Karnea.

  “Can you do anything about that?” Kormak asked.

  “Maybe, if I can treat the wound quickly enough. My best advice would be don’t get bit.”

  “We go here?” Kormak asked, nodding across the square. He did not like the thought after what Karnea had just said. Crossing the vast open space made him feel exposed. Sasha shook her head.

  “We hug the wall here and turn at the next junction. That will take us to the Eighth Bridge.”

  “What are those lights?” Boreas asked.

  “Where?” Sasha said.

  “Across the square.” Kormak focused on where the warrior was pointing and saw a cluster of faint lights, drifting will-o’-the-wisp like in the distance. Suddenly they vanished.

  “What were they?” Boreas sounded disturbed.

  “Might be other prospectors,” said Sasha. She was frowning. “Might be Underdwellers. Might be ghost-lights. You see them sometimes. They come from nowhere, go nowhere and vanish as quickly as they come.”

  Something big fluttered directly overhead. Once again Kormak heard that unearthly shrieking. Looking up, he thought he saw a bat-like shape silhouetted against the false stars of the overarching ceiling.

  “We’d best get moving.” They pushed on. Every now and again Kormak looked up when he heard something large passing overhead. He suspected they were being tracked and he did not like that idea at all.

  Chapter Eleven

  THEY TURNED AT another statue, this time of a creature with a cat’s head and a woman’s body. She held a net in one clawed hand and a two-headed spear that resembled a pitchfork in the other. The road ahead ran through a long tunnel between giant buildings.

  “Who is that?” asked Sasha.

  “I don’t recognise her,” said Karnea. “A great deal of knowledge was lost during the wars with the Old Ones. Many of them passed on in their Shadow Wars even before the Solari came.”

  “Her name was Karkeri,” said Kormak, as memories of a temple, a witch and an obscene rite flooded into his mind. “I met some of her children once.”

  The others looked at him expectantly but he said nothing. The memories the statue brought back were not pleasant. It was a tale of too many dead and yet another failure.

  Ahead of them two more massive statues loomed. These were squat warriors with long beards and huge eyes, raising runic hammers in challenge. They were under-lit by a greenish glow rising from below.

  “The Guardians of the Bridge,” said Sasha. “Duncan always said he expected them to spring to life and challenge us.”

  As they got closer Kormak understood what she meant. The statues were almost twice as tall as he was but looked as life-like as all the previous works they had seen. There were very obviously dwarven warriors. There were subtle differences in style and if Kormak had to guess he would have said these were from a later period.

  The bridge itself was wide enough for a couple of wagons to pass abreast and it arced out into space. The stone looked smooth as glass, as if it had melted and run and then been moulded into shape like hot iron from a cast. All across the bridge were more statues, depicting male and female dwarves in a variety of poses and garbs, but that was not what interested Kormak. When he set foot on the bridge he immediately went to one side and hauled himself up on the protective barrier.

  Looking down he had a clear view into the depths of the city. Far, far below him a river of dark water bubbled and swirled. Tendrils of eerie green phosphorescence
flowed through it. It did not look at all healthy.

  “The books say the waters were tainted when the plague came,” Karnea said.

  “Poison?” Kormak asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “But I would not recommend drinking from that river.”

  “I did not need a wizard to tell me that,” Kormak said.

  “The dwarves mined down there,” Karnea said. “Some of the minerals they excavated were dangerous—Lumium, Netherium, Malorium. Their very light poisons a man, or twists him into something else. A motherlode of the stuff was found just before the Shadow Wars.”

  “I know those metals,” Kormak said. “Dark sorcerers always seem to favour them.”

  “They have power that can be used for evil,” Karnea said. “But they can also be purified. Some of them were necessary elements in the forging of blades like your own. Some of them were used in the making of runic articles like my torc.” There was something in her voice that made him look at her sidelong. Did she want to find such metals? Was that the real reason she was here?

  “You would know more of such things than I.” She did not answer but stared down at the glowing waters far below.

  “Would this place be dangerous to us then?” asked Boreas.

  “If it was, the prospectors would all be dead by now,” said Sasha. “Me included.”

  Karnea took a deep breath. She rubbed a finger against her nose and bit her lower lip with her top two teeth. “Not necessarily,” she said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Magical side effects can take a long time to show. They sometimes only make themselves felt over a period of years or decades. Prospectors live hard and dangerous lives. Many might die before the magic had time to kill them. Without knowing more, it is impossible to tell.”

  “You are saying I could be under a kind of curse without even knowing it.”

  “You would not be the first,” said Kormak. “Shadowblights can kill in the same way.”

  “Elder Signs might not protect against this,” said Karnea. She looked thoughtful. “I would need to perform some divination rituals to be sure and we do not have the time.”