The Kormak Saga (Omnibus Edition) by William King

Author:William King
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Gaming, Sword & Sorcery, Action & Adventure, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Genre Fiction, Puzzles & Games, Fantasy, Warhammer, Humor & Entertainment, Epic, Role Playing & Fantasy, Fantasy Novel, Literature & Fiction
Publisher: Typhon Press
Published: 2014-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

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.

“Yes.”

“He did the same for me when I asked him. You think they really can rip a man’s hearts out with their bare hands?”

“I’ve known Old Ones who could do a lot worse.”

“Let’s hope they are not visiting their kinfolk down there then.”

Brandon tugged the reins and the big warhorse moved on. Kormak followed him down the slope and into Elderdale. He was going to have to pay that Keep a visit.

The chill wind could not take away the stink of the sewer trenches. There were plenty of people about in the muddy streets. Hungry eyed men watched them pass. One or two shouted a greeting to Lucas that he returned with a wave of his hand. They looked only slightly less likely to put a knife in his back than the others, and Kormak guessed that counted for friendship in this place.

A few shopkeepers shouted to the Tinkers from their storefronts, asking what they had brought, seeking news from the south. Javier answered amiably. Aisha kept out of sight.

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