Stealer of Flesh k-1

by William King

  “I would not do that if I were you,” he said. “Not unless I wanted to die.”

  That seemed to be all the trigger it took. The wolf-man sprang, an avalanche of fur and muscle and rage slammed into Kormak. Its weight knocked him over but already it was ceasing to struggle.

  “I don’t believe it,” said Petra. “You drew your sword and put it through the wolf-man’s chest in a heartbeat.”

  Kormak pushed the heavy corpse off him. “Yes,” he said sourly.

  Kormak looked down at the wolf-man. It was already beginning to change. A pinkish-grey pus was leaking from its flesh as it lost mass and began to revert to something more human. In a few heartbeats a tall man clad in what looked like rags was lying there. He was still alive despite the fact that Kormak’s sword was embedded in his abdomen. Kormak had no intention of taking it out until he was certain the man was dead.

  “Thank you,” said the man. It was not exactly what Kormak had expected.

  He hunkered down beside the man. “Why?”

  “You have freed me, freed my soul. The demon in me is gone. It could not stand your sword. It burned.”

  “Massimo bound something into your body?”

  The dying man nodded. “When Massimo brought Jaro back from the dead, he called for volunteers. He said Massimo would work magic, that would make us invincible, let us take back what was ours from the Sunlanders. He showed us what had been done to him, how the wolf spirit had been bound into him and made him mighty. I stepped forward.”

  “Kill the moondog bastard,” said Petra. “He’s slaughtered hundreds.”

  “I want to hear what he has to say.”

  The man’s lips quirked in a sour smile. “She’s right. I did. Men, women, children. It was not what I expected. Not what I was told. He put a demon in me, Massimo did. At first I thought I could control it, use its power but over the months it grew stronger. It fed on the rage and hate and pain. In the end it controlled me. It made me want to kill everything within reach…”

  “Typical moondog bastard, always giving excuses when they are caught, when it doesn’t matter. Tell the folks you killed you’re sorry!”

  “I am not sorry I killed most of them,” the wolf-man said. “You came here and stole our land and you raised your false god. You persecuted those who followed the Old Ways and you were always so righteous about it. We showed you that Our Lady still has power.”

  Petra had drawn her knife. Kormak gestured for her to stand back. He did not want this man’s throat cut, not yet anyway. “Massimo did this to you.”

  “Yes.”

  “Why did you come here? Why did you attack us? Did you just find our trail, catch our scent?”

  “I was sent to find you. Many of the Wolves were. You are a champion of the Sun and you are pursuing Massimo’s new friend. There will be others after you now. I was just the first to catch your trail.”

  “New friend?”

  “Something strange. It rode up yesterday and chatted with Massimo for hours. It smelled of death and old magic. When he was finished, the sorcerer gave us our orders.”

  Kormak looked up at the sky. The clouds had parted. The waning moon blinked mockingly through the gap. “Where can I find Massimo?”

  “The Devil’s Peak,” said the wolf-man.

  “That’s where his tower is,” said Petra. “No one goes there.”

  “You can show me to this place?” he asked her. She looked at him for a long time, swallowed and nodded.

  “I could but I won’t. I am not mad. No one comes back from Devil’s Peak.”

  “Razhak is there. He killed your brother. You said you wanted to revenge. You said you wanted Massimo dead.”

  “And you will kill him?”

  “If I have to and I suspect I might.”

  “You don’t lack confidence do you, big man?”

  “I do what I have to, like everybody else. Massimo wants me dead. His Wolves want me dead. Razhak is with him. Under the circumstances, someone is going to die and it’s not going to be me.”

  “If you go to the tower you will die, Guardian,” said the wolf-man. “What’s left of Jaro’s army is camped in the valley and the Wolves guard Massimo. Not even your blade can kill all of them.”

  “There’s more than one way to skin a wolf,” Kormak said. “I don’t plan on hacking my way in.”

  “I said you were not entirely stupid,” said Petra. Her voice sounded so shaky Kormak knew she was still considering helping him. “You really mean to kill Massimo?”

  “If I can.”

  “If you do there will be no more Wolves.”

  “Not unless Massimo’s apprentices have been taught his secrets.”

  “Massimo has no apprentices,” said the wolf-man. “He guards his secrets from all.”

  “Why is he helping Razhak?”

  “I think Razhak has promised Massimo the secret of immortality. Does he really have it?”

  “Only the Old Ones know that,” said Kormak. “And he is not a true Old One.”

  The wolf looked curious. “I am sorry I don’t have the time to find out what you mean.” Blood was leaking from the corners of his mouth and from his nostrils now. His breathing was a hoarse rattle. There was a bubbling sound from inside his chest.

  “You should just leave the bastard to be eaten by scavengers,” Petra said as she placed another rough stone on top of the shallow grave. “There’s no need to build the monster a monument.”

  “He died as a man and he repented,” Kormak said.

  “And you believed him?”

  “I’ve seen others repent their wickedness. There’s hope for us all.”

  “You seem to really need to believe that.” She grunted as she lifted another heavy stone. Kormak looked at her and watched until she had lowered it into place.

  “You always watch, don’t you? You looked at me as if you were expecting me to try and brain you with that rock.”

  “I am not entirely certain you were not considering it.”

  “If you are going to kill Massimo I want you to live. He’s the bastard who deserves to die. That wolf would have eaten me as it raped me if you had not killed it. I owe you for that.”

  “I can’t kill Massimo if I can’t find him.”

  “All right, I’ll show you the way to Devil’s Peak.”

  “Thank you.” She laughed.

  “What’s funny?”

  “You. I offer to show you the way to certain death and you thank me. You’re a strange man, Guardian.”

  “I live in a strange world.”

  “We all do.”

  “I’ve seen more of it than most folk.” Kormak placed another rock on the cairn and watched her as she took her turn. This time she met his gaze and just kept laughing.

  They left the main road and started up a mountain track. This was clearly a path and a well-used one but it was not anything like a highway.

  “Used to be drovers and rustlers used these tracks,” Petra said. “The high valleys are full of treacherous, thieving moondogs.”

  “So you’ve said,” Kormak said. “Many times.”

  “If I am boring you, just say so,” said the girl.

  “I have said so.”

  “I didn’t say I would pay any attention,” she said.

  “You talk because you’re scared, I understand that.” She looked insulted and she shut up for a few minutes as he suspected she would. He was enjoying the silence when she said. “You think you’re very clever, don’t you?”

  “Do I?”

  “You think you can make me shut up by implying I am a coward if I talk.”

  “I can see you are too cunning for me.”

  “No. I am not. You were right. I am scared. I’ve been scared for a very long time. Since the war started. Since before the war started, when you could see it coming and the preachers were whipping everybody up to hate and the moondogs were spitting on our shadows and throats were being slit in the night. I was scared when the traders star
ted bringing stories of battles and even when the King’s armies won. We were scared they would increase out taxes, and then we learned Jaro wasn’t dead and the Wolves were still out there. It was almost a relief when Oakbridge was attacked. It was like the worst had come and there was nothing more to worry about, but there was, wasn’t there? There always is. There always will be.”

  She looked like a pale and frightened child now, like she always had been although he had been too annoyed and distracted to see it. He did not know what to say, so he kept quiet. He did not look at her. He heard soft noises that sounded like sobbing. They went on for a long time and then she blew her nose. That went on for a long time too.

  Eventually she said, “How do you get to be a Guardian?”

  “You thinking of becoming one?”

  “I might if I could.”

  There was no way she could become one. She was too old. She was not a Sunlander. He shook his head as he raised that objection. He was not a Sunlander either but then the order had special reasons for making him one of their own. “You must be presented at Mount Aethelas,” he said. “And you must swear an oath by the Holy Sun.”

  “That’s all?”

  “There’s the learning and the training, that takes some time.”

  “They teach you how to use the sword?”

  “Yes. And to read and to write.”

  “That sounds boring.”

  “How else will you be able to read your instructions from the Grand Master or find out what you need to know about the Old Ones in the lorebooks.”

  “I thought you memorised all that, the way bards learn their chants.”

  “You memorise a lot but you can’t learn everything. There’s always something more to find out.”

  “All right, I’ll give you that it’s useful but it’s still dull.”

  “I thought so when they first started teaching me but I soon got interested.”

  “You have a priestly look about you so I am not surprised.”

  “Most people find me menacing.”

  “You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?”

  “In my experience it’s true.”

  “I thought that when I first saw you. After I’ve talked to you, I am not sure. You do not seem like a mad-dog killer to me. If you had passed through our village dressed like a normal man I would never have guessed what you were.”

  “You’re not exactly an expert on the subject.”

  “You’re the one who asked for my help.”

  “I have been reduced to such desperate straits. It is sad.”

  “You killed that wolf-man back there, and you did not even look as if you were trying.”

  “People who are good at things make them look easy, even if they are difficult.”

  “Were you scared?”

  “I did not have time to find out.”

  “What?”

  “It was all over so quickly.”

  “Still, you must have worked out what to do; you must have thought about it.”

  “No. It happened too fast for that. That’s why you train, so your body knows what to do automatically. You stop to think when you are fighting something like a wolf-man and you are dead.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.” She continued to look at him as if interested in learning some secrets he knew. Kormak wanted to tell her that there were no secrets, only hard work and luck and ruthless determination. He was not sure what good it would have done though so he kept quiet.

  It was cold in the mountains but still warmer than Kormak would have expected for the time of year. Aquilea was a lot further coldward though so that might account for it. They said heat leeched away over the snowy edge of the world, the closer you got to it. It was certainly true it became warmer the further south you got.

  The trees still had some of their leaves here and a riot of coloured flowers was still in bloom on thorny bushes. Their scents fought for attention in his nostrils. High overhead an eagle soared on the wind. Kormak was very aware of its presence and of the massive bulk of the mountains looming over him. He felt like an insect crawling over their sides and that got him to thinking.

  “You are frowning. Straining to think, are you?” Petra said. He looked at her and smiled. They had developed the odd companionship of the road, the intimacy of strangers who would most likely never see each other again after the next few days. He had felt this way many times before. He could be open in such circumstances in a way he could not be with the closest brethren of his order.

  “I was thinking about whether any of this is worth it.”

  “You picked a bad time to have doubts.”

  “I’ve always had them. Our lives are so short. We will pass in an eyeblink of the gods. The mountains will still be here. They’ve seen a hundred generations come and go. They’ll see a hundred more.”

  She looked a little confused. “I have sometimes thought something similar myself.”

  “Razhak has been here for millennia. The Old Ones have been here even longer. I have set myself to hunt things as old as mountains and I do so to stop them preying on people who will die anyway, in heartbeats as those demons measure time.”

  “Why do it then? No one is forcing you to. You could just turn your horse around and ride away.”

  “You’re not asking me anything I haven’t asked myself.”

  “You ever give yourself any answers?”

  “I swore an oath. I keep it.”

  “That’s no answer at all.”

  “It is for me.”

  “It’s not the whole truth though, is it?” It was a surprisingly sharp observation for one so young.

  “The truth is that I love doing this. I love the hunt. I love the excitement of the battle. It’s when I feel most alive.”

  “You could soon get very dead.”

  “And that’s the point. Sometimes I think that is an unworthy reason to do what I do but it keeps me at the task.”

  “Maybe for you. I plan on living as long as I can and dying peacefully in my sleep surrounded by my grandchildren.”

  “I am surprised you have thought that far ahead.”

  “I’ve had some occasion to brood on these things recently. Tell me, do you hate him? Razhak, I mean? Or any of the Old Ones.”

  “I don’t know Razhak. I know what he has done and what he will do if he is not stopped and that is enough for me.”

  “What about the Old Ones?”

  “One in particular but it’s an old hate and I try not to let it bother me.”

  “Why you hate the one you do?” Kormak considered his answer, wondering whether he should give one, and then decided that under the circumstances it did not matter at all.

  “Because I am afraid of him and because he killed my family when I was a boy. He killed everyone I knew.”

  “I can understand why you feel that way then. You see that all the time up here. With the feuds. One killing leads to another. The moondogs kill us. We kill them. I was kind of hoping you would say there is no one you hate or fear.”

  “The two things go together along with a lot of other ugly emotions.”

  “You do sound like a priest sometimes, you know.”

  “I know.”

  “How are you going to kill Massimo?”

  “However I can.”

  “That does not sound like a plan.”

  “How can I have a plan when I have no idea what I will encounter? I will sneak into the tower one way or another. I will find Massimo and Razhak then I will see what happens.”

  “You have a lot of confidence in your own ability, don’t you?” She sounded envious.

  “I’ve done this sort of thing before.”

  “And that’s the secret, isn’t it? To confidence, I mean. How do you do it the first time though?”

  “You fumble your way through and you do your best to appear to know what you are doing.”

  “Is that what you did?”

  “For the most part. I was also trained t
o do this. It helps. A lot.”

  “An order of monks who are trained to kill. It sounds more exciting than praying for the souls of the dead.”

  “I won’t argue about that.”

  “But you could?”

  He shrugged. Somewhere in the distance a howl rang out. It was eerily loud. It sounded like a wolf but it was not. There was something oddly human about its tones. Petra had frozen on the spot. Her face was pale and devoid of colour. Her knife was in her hands but she looked as if she wanted to dive into the nearest bush.

  “It seems like Massimo’s pets are getting ready to hunt,” she said. Her voice sounded shaky, as if she was having some difficulty forcing the words out. She swallowed and waited for him to say something. He just listened.

  “They are still a long way off. The sound carries a fair distance in these valleys.”

  “They are going to be looking for us soon.”

  “They are going to be looking for me. You can still run.” She looked embarrassed.

  “I don’t want to be on my own in these mountains with the Wolves running free.”

  “We’re heading towards an army.”

  “I can be as sneaky as you. I have hunted these hills since I was a little girl. And I want to be there when you kill Razhak. I want to see him pay for what he did to Tam.”

  “I am not sure that is a good idea.”

  “You think I am not up for it?”

  “I’ve seen people who have had to deal with possessed relatives before. It’s not pleasant. They sometimes forget what has happened and demons can be very persuasive.”

  “It won’t happen to me.”

  “I wish I was as certain of anything, as you are of everything.”

  “You are getting old, Guardian.”

  “I know it.” They moved on.

  Below them the valley was visible in the early evening gloom. Smoke rose from campfires around which sat a number of men. A tower loomed on the opposite ridge overlooking the other side of the valley. A silvery dome topped the roof. It has the ancient look of most lunar fortifications in the area. The moondogs had been in this land a long time before the Sun worshippers came. It had been theirs once, just as the dying wolf-man had claimed.

  The tower’s age in no way detracted from its aura of strength. The position was very defensible, the only approach up the line of the ridge, a narrow road along which not many troops could advance at a time. Anyone coming up the road would be visible to defenders from a long way off. Anyone standing on the battlements would have a clear view of the surrounding land.