Taker Of Skulls(40)

There were other shrieks and thunderous rumbles, all in a different tone from that of the creature they had seen. There was definitely more than one monster loose in the Forge Quarter and more than one type. Kormak wondered if they were all as large and deadly as the first one he had seen.

“You ever heard of these creatures before?”

“Monsters? In the Forge Quarter?” Sasha replied. “No, though I’d heard they dwelled deep down, far below us and hardly ever came to the upper levels.”

“Maybe something is driving them up,” said Boreas, a little too cheerfully for Kormak’s liking.

“I don’t want to think of anything that could frighten that serpent beast,” said Sasha.

Boreas grinned. “It’s best to prepare for the worst. As a wise man once said.” She grinned back at him although on her the expression looked sickly.

“Let’s get on with it,” Kormak said.





Chapter Sixteen





AHEAD OF THEM the sounds of combat rang out. There were bellows of rage interspersed with the impact of something heavy on flesh. There was something else too, the sound of someone almost human shouting out in a tongue that was strangely familiar.

Karnea’s hand fell on his shoulder, “That is a dwarvish battle-cry,” she said.

Of course. He had heard such a voice before in the mines below Mount Aethelas. It was deeper than any human’s, with a much richer timbre.

“He sounds like he’s having a hard time,” said Kormak. “If one of those monsters has caught him, there’s not much we can do.”

Karnea shot him a reproachful look. “Think, Sir Kormak. A living dwarf. A native of Khazduroth. Who knows what he might be able to tell us?”

“We won’t be able to listen if we are dead,” said Kormak.

“You are a Guardian of the Dawn,” said Karnea. “You were trained to fight monsters.”

“I prefer fights I can win,” said Kormak. “And we are here to find these runes of yours.”

“This dwarf might be able to help us do that,” said Sasha.

Kormak moved in the direction of the combat. “Stay behind me,” he told Boreas.

He rounded the corner and was confronted by a battle, but not the one he had been expecting. The serpent thing was fighting with a creature equally as huge. This one was more than twice the height of a man, a bat-eared, scaly skinned abomination that might have been a cross between a goblin and a giant. It clutched a monstrous axe in one mighty hand. On its head was a horned helmet. Its eyes glowed a sickly yellow. Two huge tusks protruded from its lower lip. It was keeping the serpent thing at bay with sweeps of its club. Its opponent slithered forward, its sinuous body writhing on the slippery slime trail it created.

Kormak looked for the dwarf who had been shouting, fearing that he was already dead. Eventually he saw the small figure, backed into a doorway, sheltering from the conflict. Kormak had the vague impression of a figure almost as broad as it was tall, bearded, half-naked, armed with a hammer and a shield, skin marked with tattoos, a massive horn slung from his neck.

The yellow-eyed giant lunged forward, cleaving the serpent thing’s flesh. It got a massive coil in the way and let out a bellow of pain as the axe impacted, drawing blood. The giant howled triumphantly and raised its axe for another blow. The snake creature moved with lightning speed, looping around the giant’s body. The giant still had his arm free and brought his weapon down, but the angle was wrong, and his blow fell on the back and shoulder of the serpent thing. Bone cracked but the serpent did not let go of its tenacious grip. It looped more and more of its coiled length around the giant and began to squeeze.

Sensing its peril too late, the entrapped victim let go of its weapon and tried to wrestle its way free. Its hands were big enough to grasp a man around the chest, and its muscles looked powerful enough to uproot trees but it could not get a good grip on the slime-coated coils draping its body. It reached out for the serpent thing’s throat. Its opponent weaved its upper body from side to side, avoiding having those shovel-like hands wrapped round its neck, all the time squeezing and squeezing with tremendous force.

The giant’s glowing eyes bulged. The tendons on its neck stood out like ships rigging drawn taut in a storm. Something cracked, perhaps a rib. The giant let out a high-pitched scream of agony. The serpent creature looped more and more coils around its weakening foe. The grinding, cracking sound continued and the giant began to flop helplessly, bones broken, spine shattered. Pungent death stink filled the air. Excrement and piss spattered the ground beneath it.

Kormak raced forward and leapt, slashing at the serpent thing’s neck, aiming for the spinal column. His dwarf-forged blade sliced flesh and cut through bone. The monster spasmed, coils unwinding themselves from around the body of its dead foe. Kormak rolled clear as the huge whip of muscle lashed randomly about. The serpent thing was probably as deadly in its death agonies as it ever had been in life, and Kormak was careful to keep himself out of its reach.