Portents of Doom ( Kormak Book Ten) (The Kormak Saga 10)

by William King

  “Is this the glory you craved, my son,” he said aloud, his voice harsher than breaking stone. There was bitterness in his words, but they could not come close to matching the bitterness in his heart.

  “I feel for your grief,” said Balthazar, emerging from the shadows of the undergrowth.

  This is what you wanted, Coiled Serpent thought. You encouraged him. You wanted to martyr him and drive me to pursue your foes. The next thing from your mouth will make this clear.

  “Do not worry my friend. We will find Red Talon’s killers and we will punish them,” Balthazar said.

  You mean I will find them and punish them. Just as you meant me to do. You wish me to slay your enemies for you because you do not have the courage to do it yourself.

  Despite the fact Balthazar was now his superior in Shadow, Coiled Serpent was tempted to strike him down, or order his men to do it. He blamed Balthazar for Red Talon’s death as much as those who had done the actual killing. His hand tightened its grip on his skull-spear as he contemplated driving it through Balthazar’s body.

  What good would it do? It would not bring back the dead. It might make Coiled Serpent feel better for a day or a moon, but one day the word would get out concerning what had happened, and a black wind would blow, and Coiled Serpent’s soul would be driven from its body and into the Darkness Beyond. He did not want that. He would forego immediate retribution against Balthazar. He looked at the burns in Red Talon’s chest. “Powerful magic to burn a man in a rainstorm.”

  “It is the mark of a dwarf-forged blade,” said Balthazar. “It acted on the blessing of Shadow Red Talon carried within his body. It disrupted it and burned.”

  “Powerful magic indeed. You are saying the Guardian of the Dawn did this.”

  “It is the only explanation. He is the one who would fight against any spell-woven champion. He is the one with the weapons for it.”

  As you knew, when you urged my son to his death, Coiled Serpent thought. You wanted that confrontation to happen. You wanted to give me a reason to seek blood-vengeance from this champion. He said, “You are right. The bearer of that blade will be punished.”

  It helped. If he could not vent his wrath on Balthazar, he could vent it on others. He wanted this champion of the Sun dead. He wanted him to pay for his son’s murder. He wanted Balthazar to pay as well, but he would start with the easier of the two. One day though, he would have his vengeance. On his superior as well as on this arrogant Sunlander warrior.

  He looked around at the faces of his shaman chiefs. They were bland as they waited for his orders. “Send trackers ahead along the road. If they overtake the Sunlanders, they must harass them and slow them down. We must find these outlanders before they reach the sanctuary of the hills. Gather all the clan warriors and tell them to make ready for a great hunt. We will cut the hearts from these interlopers and nail up their corpses as a warning to others of their kind.”

  “As you command, chieftain,” said Swamp Dragon. He rushed to see that Coiled Serpent’s orders were kept. A good man that, Coiled Serpent thought, then turned his attention to his son’s body.

  “You were a good man too, my son,” he said. “Rest in peace. You will be avenged. We will send many souls to the Shadow to be your servants before we are done.”

  The horse gave a choked scream and toppled over. Something black and feathered protruded from its neck. Kormak moved forward and pulled it from the jugular of the dying animal. It was a dart, smeared with brownish paste. He raised it to his nostrils, sniffed and caught the distinctive odour of serpent venom.

  He glanced around and saw a few of the bushes shaking. A man could have closed with the party under cover and taken a shot with a blowpipe from that position.

  He advanced warily towards the spot, followed by the curious eyes of the watching soldiers. He held himself ready to dodge another dart if it came. He doubted that it would. All through the long hot day, they had been harassed from the jungle’s edge. Spears had been thrown, arrows fired, poison darts launched at vulnerable targets. The attacks had been meant to slow them down. They had sick and wounded men to carry with them and all the while the drums were coming closer behind them.

  Even now they beat, beat, beat. It was as if the thunderous heartbeat of a dozen waking giants echoed through the jungle. It worked on the nerves of all the men, as it was no doubt supposed to. It was even starting to affect Kormak, and he had been the object of such pursuits many times before.

  He reached the bushes and found exactly what he expected. There was a trail in the mud as if a man had been there and then squirmed away having taken his shot. The tribesman had been lucky. He had managed to strike his target exactly where it would do the most damage.

  The horse was down in its traces, preventing the cart from moving on even though there was another beast there. Kormak glanced behind and saw that Anders was already starting to cut the animal free from the leather straps holding it. The other horse, sensing the presence of death, whinnied and started to kick, lashing out with its rear hooves, causing the cart driver to dive off his vehicle as it was kicked to pieces.

  Not taking his eyes from the jungle, Kormak retreated towards the Siderean company. Zamara moved to meet him. He looked worried, as well he might, given their current position. It was late afternoon, and the enemy was closing in and there was going to be a lot more of them than had attacked last night.

  “What do you think?” the Admiral asked.

  “Another sneak attack,” Kormak said. “Intended to slow us down.”

  Anders walked over. “That cart is not going to be moving any time soon. We need to leave it behind. We need to get moving.”

  “We need those supplies,” Zamara said. “We need the food and the crossbow bolts and all of the other stuff.”

  “We can replace those once we reach beyond Helgard,” Anders said. “We will not be alive to replace anything if those savages overtake us.”

  “He’s right,” Kormak said.

  Zamara gave a sour smile. “I can tell you are not the people that have to pay for this stuff.”

  Kormak laughed. “Neither are you. Ultimately the King of Siderea will pay.”

  “And I am the one who will have to give an account of how the money was spent to Prince Taran. It’s not something I’m going to enjoy.”

  “Let’s hope you are alive to do so,” Kormak said.

  Zamara turned and bellowed, “You men! Take everything you can from this wagon and hurry. We don’t want those cannibals to overtake us.”

  “The jungle tribes are not cannibals,” Anders said. “They only eat their enemies’ hearts.”

  “That’s cannibal enough for me,” Zamara said. The soldiers hurried to pick up supplies from the broken wagon while the driver tried to calm the panicked horse. “Can you ride bareback?”

  “If I have to,” Kormak said.

  “We’ve spare bridles here, you and Rhiana can ride on those carthorses. Save your strength. We’re going to need it for fighting.”

  Briefly, Kormak considered refusing, but he saw the sense of it. Marching through the heat and humidity would take it out of him, and he would be a lot more useful when it came to a fight if he was at his full strength. He might be the only shield the expedition had against sorcery. “I’ll get on it,” Kormak said.

  Behind them, the drums pulsed on and on.

  Coiled Serpent studied his warriors with satisfaction. There were hundreds of them and more of them arriving all the time, streaming in to join his force, guided by the constant beat of his drummers. Many had flooded out of the jungle and onto the road.

  This was the largest force of the people that had been assembled since the Sunlanders put down their last rebellion. All of the warriors wore their war paint and battle plumes. All of them carried spears carved with runes sacred to the Shadow. All of them looked thirsty for blood and hungry for heart flesh.

  They came from dozens of tribes, led by their shamans and those who showed the greatest
blessings of Xothak.

  I will have vengeance for your death, my son, Coiled Serpent thought.

  Balthazar looked at him as if he were thinking of buying him as a slave. There was a look of calculation in the Sunlander’s eyes as if he were trying to read what was going on in the Chief of Chief's heart. “It is going well,” Balthazar said.

  “It is going well. Our scouts harass the Sunlanders at every turn. Our enemies are moving as fast as they can, but we are moving faster. We will overtake them before they reach the great stone fortress. We will kill every last one of them, and I will eat the heart of this Guardian of the Dawn you fear so much.”

  Balthazar turned away so that his face could not be seen, but Coiled Serpent knew that his shaft had flown true. Balthazar was afraid to face this Kormak. The man was a coward. He did not have the soul of a true warrior.

  “You will have vengeance for the death of your son,” Balthazar said. “What then?”

  He stared at the assembled warriors. Coiled Serpent knew what he was asking. This was a mighty army now. It could be put to many uses, particularly once it had tasted victory over the Sunlanders. Perhaps, once they had slain their intended prey, he should turn it against the colonists.

  “First of all it is kill our enemies,” Coiled Serpent said. “One thing at a time, my friend. One thing at a time.”

  Coiled Serpent looked at the sky. It was getting dark now. It was time to summon the great beast. Tonight he would leave his ageing body behind and wear the form of the jungle’s greatest predator. If it could not lead his warriors into battle the way he once had, he would do it in a different way. Perhaps he might even take his vengeance personally. It would be more satisfying.

  “Leave me now, my friend,” Coiled Serpent said. “I must work potent magic for the undoing of our enemies.”

  And perhaps after that, I will work your undoing too.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “The men are tired,” Zamara said. The Admiral himself looked weary. Like most sailors, he was not used to long marches or long rides.

  Rhiana gave him a worried look. Behind her, the drums pulsed on, closer than they had ever been. Kormak estimated that they could not be more than a league behind them now.

  “The rearguard has counted at least a thousand warriors, maybe twice that many if we are unlucky,” said Sergeant Terves.

  Zamara groaned. “They are making better time than us; that’s for sure.”

  “There is no safe place to make camp for the night,” Kormak said.

  “We’re not too far from the first fortress of Helgard Pass,” Anders said. He looked at the sky. The moon was high and bright. “If we keep marching at double time, we may just be able to reach it before they overtake us.”

  Zamara nodded and turned to Sergeant Terves. “Give the order, Sergeant. Double time along this road until I give the command to stop.”

  It was a measure of how nervous the soldiers were that no one gave even the slightest murmur of complaint when the command came.

  Coiled Serpent stalked through the jungle wearing the body of a great jaguar. Mighty muscles rippled beneath his tawny fur. His huge head swept from side to side. He looked down upon the jungle path from the same height as a man’s head but with far keener vision. He sniffed the air and took in all of the scents of small animals nearby and night blooming flowers. He sensed other great beasts out there in the night, their bodies ridden by the souls of shamans.

  Most of all he caught the scent of man-flesh. It was not the clean, sharp smell of his own people. It had the stink of towns about it. It had the stench of leather and metal and strange foods and unclean sweat. There was a large body of such men just ahead of him now. There were a few horses there as well. It seemed that the Sunlander invaders were truly frightened. They had not paused in their march or taken any rest. They moved along as swiftly as they could. It would not matter. His warriors would overtake them very soon now.

  He should be back there giving orders, making sure that things went well, looking after his people. He should not be stalking through the night wearing the shape of a great jungle cat. He was putting his personal interest, his desire for vengeance, in front of the welfare of this people and that was something he had sworn not to do.

  He pushed these thoughts aside. It was easy. Complex cogitation was difficult while wearing this form. It was too easy to be distracted by hunger, by thirst and by all the other powerful impulses that flowed into its mind through its hugely enhanced senses.

  More tempting even than these was the sheer pleasure of wearing this giant body, feeling its strength. He extended a claw capable of gutting a mastodon with a single stroke. He sprang three times the height of a man into the branches of a tree and felt them bend under his weight even as he raced along, leaving the ground far below.

  The beast’s heart beat steadily, pulsing like the drums that filled the night. Its eyes probed every shadow with an ease that was far beyond that of any mere human. Nothing could match his speed following these jungle routes. He was easily overhauling the Sunlanders. He could sense them below and to the right. He moved along the branches and sprang to the next tree and paused to inspect his prey.

  There was more than four score of them. They marched with a discipline that his people would never be able to match. Compared to the force pursuing them though they were a mere handful and would be swept aside like an ant hill in a flood. His eyes probed the darkness seeking out the man he had come to kill.

  There he was, near the head of the column, riding along beside the man in the elaborate uniform and the woman who had the scent of the Old Ones about her. He was a big man, black-haired with a sword upon his back. He had an easy grace and an arrogant confidence about him. Coiled Serpent’s hate filled him. Here was the man who had killed his son.

  Coiled Serpent leapt down from the tree and stalked forward on his belly moving through the undergrowth with all of the big cat’s hunting grace. He moved quickly and quietly along the edge of the road, keeping to cover. He kept downwind of his prey, feeling that one of the horses might catch his scent and give warning before he could spring his ambush.

  It won’t be long now, my son, he thought. You will be avenged, and then I will give my attention to Count Balthazar.

  Kormak shifted uneasily on the horse’s back. There was something not quite right. Something niggled at the back of his mind. It was something that had warned of danger in the past. The sensation had kept him alive in other places. He scanned his surroundings, looking for the slightest thing out of place. He felt as if he was putting his head into a noose, stepping forward towards a mantrap.

  The drums were getting closer but not as quickly as they had been before Zamara gave the order to march at double time. According to Anders, the fortress was not more than an hour’s march ahead at the speed they were moving.

  It was going to be close.

  They might be able to escape the jaws of the trap closing in on them. Zamara looked as if he was about to give the order to break into a run but was still restraining himself. Tired men could not run for an hour carrying full packs. They did not have the strength, or the endurance left for that. They had found a rhythm that kept them moving in spite of weariness, and they needed to maintain that, at least for the moment.

  Rhiana rode to his side and put a hand on his arm. “There’s something close; I can feel it.”

  Kormak put a hand on the elder sign on his chest. It was not warm. No magic was being cast nearby. He looked at her and shook his head slightly.

  The slight shift of his head was enough for him to catch the sight of bestial eyes looking at him out of the undergrowth. They were large as dinner plates and about the height of a man’s chest off the ground. He did not like to think about the size of an animal which those eyes would belong.

  As he met the animal’s gaze, he felt a shock. Recognition and animosity sparked between them. It was like coming face to face with an old enemy in the street. Even as the message flashed b
etween him and the beast he heard a growl from the undergrowth. It was not the call of any ordinary animal. It was a low rumble that came from the chest of an animal bigger than any lion he had ever encountered. That was the only warning he got before the creature sprang.

  He had just time to throw himself from the saddle before the giant, blight-mutated jaguar landed on his horse, claws raking, enormous jaws snapping shut where he had been but a heartbeat before.

  His steed began to topple over, and he had just time to scramble out of the way before it fell where he had been lying. Rhiana’s horse panicked and rose on its hind legs, catching the scent of horse blood. Kormak whipped his blade from the scabbard as the giant jaguar turned around to face him.

  He did not think it was chance that he had been selected as its victim. Some malign intelligence guided the creature. It crouched and made ready to spring. Kormak felt a surge of fear as he met the beast’s yellow eyes and saw the hate there.

  He prepared himself to meet the creature’s leap but Rhiana’s horse lashed out with its fore-hooves more from panic than anger. They connected with the jaguar’s side. Kormak heard ribs crack. The big cat lashed out with its mighty claws and disembowelled the horse. Rhiana just managed to roll clear as it fell.

  All around, soldiers panicked. Terves bellowed orders for them to stand firm. Zamara fought with his frightened horse to try to turn it towards the fray. Kormak raced forward blade held high.

  Pain ripped through Coiled Serpent’s side, more intense than any he had ever experienced. That damn horse had ruined his fine body. No matter that the dumb beast had been made to pay. He heard footsteps coming closer and twisted to see the accursed Guardian closing the distance. The man knew no fear.

  His blade flickered, and Coiled Serpent recognised the deadly runes on its steel. They contained magic inimical to all spells and all magical beings. He pulled himself upright, trying to block out the pain in his side and turned at bay. He opened his jaws and let out a great cat scream but the man attacking him did not freeze or hesitate.