Taker Of Skulls(55)

“Then I believe I may be able to help you.”

“And how would you do that?” asked Utti. There was a hushed note even in his hate-choked voice.

“I will kill Graghur for you.” A tremendous uproar erupted. Kormak realised that he had most likely said the wrong thing. The dwarves surged forward, seemingly intent on tearing him apart with their bare hands.

“Get them out of here,” Ferik bellowed to their escort.





Chapter Twenty-One





“WELL, AT LEAST we’re still alive,” said Boreas. Kormak stared at him. The cells walls pressed in oppressively.

“What did you say when you were up there,” Sasha asked. “I thought they were going to tear you limb from limb. If those guards had not protected us, we would all be dead by now.

“The Guardian offered to destroy one of the beings they worship,” said Karnea. She looked as if she did not quite know what to think of that, as if she was torn between admiration for his bravery and contempt for his stupidity.

“They are at war,” Kormak said. “That much was obvious. I offered to do what their leaders must want but which is beyond their abilities.”

“They could just take your sword and do it themselves.”

“Look around you,” said Kormak. “Have you seen a single dwarf carrying a sword? They call them forbidden weapons. I strongly doubt any of them could wield one except as a club. They could not beat Graghur with it.”

“But you could?” Sasha asked. She was not mocking. She seemed to want to believe that he could.

“Yes,” said Kormak. The doorway ground upwards. Guttri, Ferik and Branhilde were there. They were alone but all three of them were armed.

“What did you say?” Guttri asked. “You seem to have disturbed your companions.”

Kormak told him.

“Do you really believe that, man?” Guttri asked.

“Yes. I have killed Old Ones before.”

“You have borne that blade for a long time.”

“More than twenty years.”

“You would be considered little more than a child among our people,” said Guttri.

Ferik said, “I have seen him wield it. He would kill many of our seasoned warriors if they fought with him.”

“That might be useful,” said Guttri. He looked at them. “Come, walk with me. I think there are matters we should discuss. Let there be plain speaking between us.”

He gestured towards the doorway. There were no guards there, only the dwarvish leaders. Kormak wondered what was going on. Had he guessed right? Were they willing to make a deal with him to kill Graghur?

There was only one way to find out.





The old dwarf limped along the corridor. The walls were marked with softly glowing runes. Beneath them were little stands of earth in which herbs grew. Guttri turned and looked directly at Kormak. “We are dying and we’re desperate,” he said. “I cannot say it before the clan but it is the truth. Once this place held thousands of dwarves, hundreds of our younglings, now there are barely enough of us to hold the gates and no children have been born in fifty years. In another few centuries we will be gone, leaving only this dead city as our monument and our vows unfulfilled.”

He smiled and ran his hand through his limp beard. “Some of us will be gone sooner than others, so I can risk saying these things. I am a smith and I have no living son to pass my secrets on to. So another tradition dies and I pass the secrets to my nearest kin because the clan must have weapons. More things will be lost if I die before I teach all I know. I do not know what my father did, and he did not know what his father did and my apprentice will not know all that I know. We lose so much. Once we built this city for the Old Ones. Now we can barely forge an axe-blade.

“And today you come among us and show us a weapon that is beyond our skills to make, and not just because it was forged with forbidden runes, and you tell us that we have kin living elsewhere. I say, even though those kin may be betrayers, it is good to know they live.”

Ferik looked away as though embarrassed but Branhilde smiled.

“Your kindred do not know you are here,” said Karnea. “How did this happen?”

Both Ferik and Branhilde shot Guttri a warning look. He made a disparaging gesture and said, “Our secrets do us no good once we are dead.” He made a circling gesture with his hand. “The warchief and the runekeeper both think I have become garrulous in my senility. Perhaps it is true but I will answer your questions if you will answer mine. There will be truth between us.”

“Very well,” said Kormak.

“Where was that sword made?”

“In the Hall of the Dwarves beneath Mount Aethelas.”