Ocean Of Fear (Book 6) (8 page)

“Be still!” Kormak shouted at the flailing man. He was afraid of being pulled into the water himself. Zamara’s blade flashed out and skewered the little monster but it still would not let go. The screaming man twisted again and his shirt gave way. Kormak’s fingers found no purchase on his slick flesh and the man disappeared below the water.

A few heartbeats later everything was still. There was no sign of the men who had vanished. Blood made the waters darker.

“We were lucky,” said Frater Jonas. “They did not attack us as we crossed the main chamber. If we had all been in the water then...”

He did not need to finish that thought. It was darker now. They had lost many of the torches and lanterns.
 

Zamara’s face looked ghastly in the dim light. Over half his command lay dead and he still had not caught sight of the man they hunted. The soldiers had a haggard desperate quality to them. They did not know what to do. They would have turned back except for the fact that no one wanted to get into the water.

“Those were the children of the things we fought above,” said Jonas. “They were spawn!”

“Yes,” Kormak said.

“This is a birthing chamber then. No wonder they tried so hard to keep us away. They were trying to protect the place.”

“Let’s hope the Kraken and his men suffered as much as we have on the way in.”

“I suspect he was better prepared than we were. He had maps. He had old books. He had relics.”

“He certainly spent a lot of time and effort to get here. We need to find out what for.”

They fell silent. All of them were wondering what exactly could draw a man to a place like this.

AHEAD THE RAMP led up through a great hexagonal archway, over which a green gem, the size of a human head, glowed faintly. The arch was perhaps three times the height of a man. Two grooves marked the floor. It looked as if two halves of a doorway had receded into the wall.

Inside the chamber the floor curved downward into a bowl. A mosaic showing more images of Triturids glittered amid the stonework. Around the walls of the chamber, galleries looked down. This place might once have been an arena.

 
In the centre a huge idol squatted atop an altar.
 
It looked like a Triturid: six-limbed, newt-like, with huge protruding eyes and a massive, neckless head. Its limbs were thicker and much more monstrous and each ended in huge claws. Even hunched, its head rose higher than Kormak’s though he stood on the ledge.

Around its neck a balefully glowing gem hung on a copper chain. Blood splashed the statue. A dozen corpses in the motley garb of pirates sprawled around it. Something had shredded their flesh. In their midst a black-cowled figure lay. Something about the shape told Kormak it wasn’t human.

“Looks like we found the Kraken’s crew,” said Frater Jonas.

“Some of them,” said Zamara. “There’s only half a dozen corpses. He should have more like fifty men.”

“If they didn’t die on the way in,” said Jonas.

“That must be the Black Priest,” Kormak said. The black-cloaked figure lay nearest to the foot of the statue. A jelly-like substance soiled its clothing.

There was no sign of anything that might have killed the pirates. If there was a trap, he had no clue as to its nature.

“You think the Quan turned on its allies?” Zamara asked. “This looks like demon work.”

Jonas snorted. “How would you know what demon work looked like?”

“This was certainly not done by men, now, was it?” the captain replied.

Kormak sought clues amid the carnage. The dead men lay in the depression in the stone floor below them. They were all on the mosaic, near the monstrous idol.

 
“Where is the Kraken?” Zamara asked. “Where are the rest of the crew?”

Kormak studied the galleries above them. No one was visible. There were no lights. Men might be crouching down behind the balustrades. If so, what were they waiting for?

 
“That gem is probably what they came for?” Zamara said. He licked his lips.

“And something stopped them from getting it. Something that killed those pirates and the Quan.” Jonas said.

“There’s something guarding it then,” said Jonas.

“In my experience there usually is in a place like this.”

“It’s good that you have some experience of situations like this, Sir Kormak,” said Zamara, a note of cool irony in his voice. “I’m glad someone has.”

Kormak shrugged.

“And what does your vast experience suggest we should do now?” Zamara asked.

“Leave the thing well alone.”

“The Kraken thought it worth coming all this way for,” said Jonas.

“Just from the look of it, it’s worth a king’s ransom,” said Zamara. Both men exchanged glances. The gem was worth a lot more than the bounty Aemon of Siderea would pay for the Kraken. They had come all this way themselves and if they could not return with the pirate’s head, they could go back with something even more valuable.

“I would not do that if I were you,” said Kormak. “The gem is a source of magical power. Look at the way it glows
 

“We do not all have your admirable capacity for self-denial, Guardian,” said Zamara. “Terves go fetch the gem.”

Terves looked at Kormak. Kormak shook his head. Terves looked at the priest and his captain and both of them nodded.

“A triple share for the man who brings me that gem,” said Zamara.

Terves took a slow step towards the great idol. A squad of the younger soldiers, forgetting their fear, raced ahead to the idol. One of them scrambled up onto its legs and reached up to get the gem.
 

The statue’s eyes opened. The soldiers froze.

The idol swept out a huge webbed claw and removed the head of the nearest marine. The monster reared on its two hind legs.
 

Zamara’s mouth hung open. His eyes were wide. He swallowed and then shouted, “Fire! Fire! Fire!”

A hail of crossbow bolts hit the beast, emerging from its skin like needles from a pin-cushion. The creature opened its huge mouth, revealing endless rows of serrated teeth. A long sticky tongue flickered out and wrapped itself around another soldier, immobilising him. A second later, a huge claw swiped down, disembowelling the victim.

The huge arms descended and two more of the treasure seekers fell. Ribs crunched as the giant stood upon him, reduced flesh to jelly. The crossbowmen cranked the windlasses of their weapons, trying to draw the lines tight so they could fire again. Jonas knelt down and presented his holy symbol as he recited a prayer. Zamara shouted at his men, “Stand your ground!”

The enormous creature lumbered forwards, reached out with a huge talon and dragged another squirming soldier to its mouth. Enormous jaws snapped shut. The man’s body flopped to the ground, blood spurting from the stump of his neck. The creature spat. The soldier’s crushed head arced down and rolled to Kormak’s feet. Eyes stared up at the Guardian in horror.

Kormak leapt into the pit. His sword swept out, catching the monster behind the ankle. The limb flopped, hamstrung. Blackish blood poured forth. Relief surged through the Guardian. The creature was a living thing at least, not an animated statue.

A massive paw swept downward. Displaced air rushed past Kormak’s head as he ducked. He rolled to one side and slashed upwards with his blade. Dwarf-forged steel clove the creature’s belly and sent entrails squirming forth.
 

The monster’s four legs enabled it to remain upright despite its crippled rear limb. It twisted to face Kormak and its long tongue flickered out. Kormak’s blade severed its tip. Black blood spurted into his face, hitting him in the eyes, blinding him.

By instinct he threw himself backwards as a webbed foot crashed down where he had been. He wiped at his eyes, knowing these few seconds of blindness were most likely going to cost him his life.

A war cry bellowed out from close by.
 
The cleaver sound of a blade biting flesh filled Kormak’s ears. When he had cleared his stinging eyes he saw Terves back-pedalling away from the monster, waving his blade, trying to hold its attention.

Kormak chopped two-handed at the brute’s rear leg, severing it just below where the knee would have been in a man. It flopped down, massive jaw impacting the ground in front of Terves. The soldier stabbed down with his sword driving it through the creature’s eye. Its head tilted to one side and it began to rear up, refusing to die.

Kormak leapt onto its slippery back and drove his blade downwards into the base of the creature’s skull where the head met the spine. Vertebrae severed. The beast let out one last frantic croak, twitched and lay still. Terves stood nearby, panting. Kormak took a deep breath.

Zamara clambered down, prised open the links of the creature’s collar and then pulled the gem and its setting out from below it. He gazed into its depths as if hypnotised by what he saw.

His jaw went slack and he licked his lips. “There are things inside this gem, thousands of things,” he said. His face looked ghastly in the red light from the gem. He shook his head as if to clear it. “We’re rich,” he said. “You could buy a kingdom with this.”

“And I will,” said a voice from the gallery. Ironic applause rang out. Looking up Kormak saw a face peering down at him. The Kraken did indeed bear a resemblance to King Aemon. Beside him were more pirates.
 

The crossbowmen tried to bring their weapons to bear, but arrows streaked down at them, taking them in the stomach.

“I must thank you for your help,” said the Kraken. “The Spawn Mother proved stronger than my Quan ally anticipated. Its powers worked better on the tadpoles than their parent. I confess I expected to have to re-think my plans. I had not expected such potent allies to appear. I will thank my half-brother for sending you when I claim his palace as my own.”

“We have the gem. You’re going to have to come down and get it,” said Kormak.

“It is more than a mere gem, my friend. I would not advise you to hold onto it if you value your sanity.”

“What is it?” Jonas asked.

“The Teardrop of Leviathan, lost during the ancient wars of the Elder Races. It was taken as spoils and immured here after Tritureon slew Dhagoth. It is a talisman of great magical power.”

“I assume you are not going to put it to any good use,” Kormak said.

“On the contrary, I am going to reclaim my birthright with it.”

“First you’re going to have to reclaim the gem.”

“I had hoped you would see reason. You’re outnumbered. You’re looking a bit battered and I will spare your lives if you cooperate.”

“Like you spared the lives of the people in Wood’s Edge?”

“That flyspeck village? My companion needed to feed and quite honestly I would have left the damn villagers alone if they had provided me with what I requested. They declined to do so and paid the price, as you will if you don’t see sense.”

“I fear we must reject your kind offer,” said Zamara.

“A pity.” He shrugged and tossed a black egg down into the pit. The marines dived for cover. The Kraken vaulted over the barrier. His huge cloak billowed out from his shoulders, revealing the alien armour encasing his body. It was dark and chitinous, ribbed around the chest in such a way as to make it look as if the wearer’s skeleton were on the outside. Black tubes emerged from the chestplate and flowed into veins of the Kraken’s neck. They pulsed as if feeding on his blood.

The armour bulged and flowed in odd places as the Kraken moved. It gave the impression of being alive and grafted to its owner’s body. Kormak had seen such things worn by Old Ones in the past.

The sorcerer drifted down rather than fell. A ruby ring on his left hand caught the light. Kormak had just enough time to notice this before the Kraken spoke a word of power. Clouds of inky black smoke emerged from the shattered crystal egg he had thrown. A strange peppery odour reached Kormak’s nostrils and his eyes began to sting.

“Hold your breath!” Jonas shouted. “Close your eyes!”

Kormak had already started to do so. Coughs and screams sounded around him out of the darkness. His flesh crawled in anticipation of a blade stroke. He listened as he had been taught in the fighter’s court on Aethelas, tried to sense any displacement of the air near him.

More shouts echoed round the chamber, in what sounded like Zamara’s voice. Kormak stood ready, blade in hand, eyes stinging.

The inky blackness faded. Kormak saw men on the ground, retching and choking. Jonas stood over Zamara, his mouth covered in a handkerchief, his eyes red and watering. The Kraken was nowhere to be seen, nor was the gem nor were any of his men.

“What did he do?” Zamara asked. He was coughing and looked as if was going to be sick. “What was that mist?”

“He used an alchemical gas,” said Jonas. “It obscures the vision and attacks the constitution.”

The men looked ill. Most could barely stand. A few sobbed and claimed they were blind. Kormak felt dizzy and nauseous and he had only breathed in a tiny amount of the gas. His eyes felt as if he had been staring at fire for days on end. They were in no shape for a battle.

“Something ripped the gem from my hands,” Zamara said.

“You were lucky. He could have killed you,” Jonas said.

“It might have given away his position,” said Kormak. “And I doubt his men would have done any better in the fog than we did.”

Jonas nodded. “The gas would have affected them too. It’s probably why he didn’t order them to attack us. Why risk a fight when he did not have to?”

Zamara looked pale. “Did you see the way he fell?
 
As if he weighed less than a feather. He should not have been able to drop from that height without breaking his legs. That was sorcery indeed.”

“We have other things to worry about,” said Kormak.

Most of the lights had gone out when they were dropped or spilled.

“Pick up those lanterns,” Kormak shouted. “If we lose the light we’ll never get out of here.”

Terves lifted one of the ship’s lanterns. Other soldiers gathered the remainder.

“We need to follow him!” said Zamara. “We can’t let him get away.”