Taker Of Skulls(27)

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.”

“Could it affect my child?” Sasha asked. “Tam? I was first here when I was pregnant.”

Reluctantly Karnea nodded. “Such curses can take strange forms and remain in effect for many generations.” Silence fell as they considered Karnea’s words. Sasha looked horrified. Kormak found himself feeling sorry for her.

He pulled his wraithstone amulet from under his shirt and inspected it. It was still mostly white. The tendrils of darkness within it did not seem to have expanded. It had not absorbed any more evil magical energy since he had last looked at it weeks ago.

“Wraithstone,” Karnea said. “An interesting idea. I wonder if it could protect you from the taint of those metals the way it protects you from the Shadow.”

“Perhaps we shall find out,” Kormak said. From where he stood, he could see there were many other bridges. Some of them were at the same level as they were. Others criss-crossed the canyon below them. Some of them were a mere fifty feet below. Others must have been thousands of feet down. The city was driven very deep into the earth and riven with chasms. In terms of the area it covered it was far larger than any human city he had ever seen.

The hellish illumination of the tainted river showed him other things. Each bridge on the far side led into a massive archway and vanished. On their side, the nearer side, looking down he could see that each level was circled by a great road and in the walls doors and windows had been cut.

A sound of flapping filled the air above. Boreas looked up. Giant shadows swept over them. Above them hovered huge bat-like creatures with goblins on their backs.

A wave of darts descended on them.





Kormak threw himself to one side, arms outstretched, carrying Sasha and Karnea with him, as the missiles bounced on the stones. Boreas knocked one aside with his hammer. Two more clattered off his armour.

Sasha rolled to her feet. She raised the dwarven stonethrower and sighted along its length. The weapon twanged as she pulled the trigger. A burning rock hurtled upwards, trailing a tail of fire. It hit the bat on its underbelly and exploded, engulfing the creature in a cloud of flames. The blaze illuminated half a dozen more of the creatures. For a second the burning was so immense that Kormak caught sight of the vast dome of the ceiling far above him, thousands and thousands of tiny glittering points of light reflecting the fires below.