The Kormak Saga

by William King

  “This is Aisha,” said Javier. “She is making her first trip north.”

  Kormak looked at the elder Tinker. He spoke very smoothly, but there was a tenseness in him, as if what he was saying contained a falsehood.

  “Well met. This is Kormak, a Guardian of the Order of the Dawn.”

  The Tinkers greeted Kormak. The woman stared at him with a look almost of hostility.

  “What have you got here?” Brandon asked.

  The Tinkers stood aside to let the knight have a clear view. “A man’s body. The wolf scented it. We saw the crows. It died no natural death.”

  “Let me take a look,” said Kormak, crouching down over the corpse. It had been pecked by the carrion eaters but it was still recognisably a man. He had been garbed in leather with a cloak of grey and green that would let it blend in well with the surrounding countryside. There were no weapons on the body but there was a pouch that contained a few small coins. A strange amulet with a rune in the shape of an eye within a circle hung round his neck. Kormak opened the tunic and saw a tattoo of a similar pattern was on the corpse’s breast. There was no mark of a killing wound on the body but there were odd blotched discolourations over his heart. The skin was very grey and the body was unnaturally cold even for one that had been lying on this chill hillside.

  “He was a Watcher,” said Javier. He said it as if it should mean something. Brandon nodded as if it did.

  “You knew him?” Kormak asked. The old Tinker shook his head.

  “We had dealings with his clan. That is their mark. The Eye.”

  Kormak looked at the standing stone. One of the runes on it was very similar to the one on the stranger’s amulet. He inspected the ground near the stone. There was a firepit in its wind-shadow. There were some ashes there, and the charred remains of burned wood. Some runes had been inscribed on stones nearby. They had been partially obscured as if someone had made a hasty effort to scuff them out.

  Javier saw the direction of his gaze. “Hill-men often meet in the shadows of these stones,” he said. “They say the Watchers leave messages for each other here.” Kormak sensed rather than saw a stiffness come over the woman. He looked up at her. Her face seemed even paler than before, and her jaw line was tight. A muscle pulsed in her throat.

  “He was a hill-man?” Kormak asked.

  “Not exactly. The Watchers stand apart from the rest of the clans. They go their own way, perform their own tasks.”

  “And what is that?”

  “No one really knows. Some say they watch the barrows and make sure no one has tampered with them. Some say they serve the Old Ones. Some say they rob tombs and sell what they find.”

  “Whatever he did, he was killed by sorcery,” Kormak said. He looked at the woman. She met his gaze boldly. “That is most likely why your wolf is so upset. He does not like the smell.”

  “Shae is always like this,” said the woman. Her voice was husky. Kormak could not help but notice the way the men looked to her, the way warriors look to a leader, even old Javier, who would normally have been in charge here.

  Kormak studied her more closely. She was garbed like a Tinker woman in a long skirt, a yellowish silk shirt and an embroidered waistcoat. There were many rings on her fingers and a great deal of jewellery on her arms and around her neck. Almost all of it contained signs of mystical significance. Judging from the look in her eyes, she saw him noticing this. She folded her arms under her breasts and cocked her head to one side. She was no longer restraining the wolf. It barked threateningly at Kormak.

  “It’s a beautiful beast,” Kormak said. “I would hate to have to kill it.”

  “But you would if you had to, would you not, Guardian?”

  “Yes, I would. If I had to.” The men’s hands went to their knives. Kormak looked at them. The woman made a gesture and the men relaxed a little. The wolf did the same. They looked at each other. Tension was in the air.

  “What are we going to do with the body?” Brandon asked.

  The woman said, “We were going to take his amulet and his personal belongings to his people and build a cairn for him so that his kin could find the body. Although I doubt they will want a body so tainted in this sour land.”

  “We should burn it or it might rise,” said Kormak. “The Shadow is in it now. We should do it before dark.”

  “Easier said than done,” said the woman. “It is wet and we have little we can use for kindling.”

  Kormak nodded. He took out his own knife and sawed away at the neck, tearing through the spine and gristle. Such blood as flowed was black and oily. He picked up the head by the hair and dashed it against a rock until the brains splattered out.

  “Now you can build a cairn,” he said. “I will bury the head separately.”

  He did so and then he washed himself as best he could in a pool of collected rain-water. The others watched him with looks of horror on their faces.

  “You’re quiet,” said Sir Brandon. The rain had stopped and they were all hunkering down around the fire in the wind shadow of the wagon. Nearby, the cairn rose out of the gloom. Kormak could tell the body was on their minds.

  The wolf’s eyes reflected the firelight where it lay. Aisha sat beside it. She was sewing something, the actions automatic. She watched everyone around the fire. Javier stirred the pot. He had been adding dried meat and herbs and tasting it occasionally.

  Kormak nodded. “I am thinking.”

  “You always did have difficulty doing that and talking at the same time,” said the knight. Kormak shrugged. He was not in the mood for banter.

  “Why did you smash the skull like that? Will it really stop the dead man from rising?”

  “It often does. Even if the corpse rises, it will not be able to see, there will be nothing to guide the body. Some sorcerers say the head is where the spirit dwells. Without it, nothing can take possession of a body.”

  “Let’s hope they are right.”

  “Let’s hope.”

  “You are a surly bastard tonight. What makes you so afraid the body will rise? We’re not in the Cursed Lands yet.” Brandon was trying to sound cheerful but he glanced over his shoulder into the darkness. He clearly found it very difficult to forget that the Barrow Hills were out there.

  “He was killed by dark magic.”

  “I saw the marks on the body.”

  “Yes, and the skin was grey and cold. There were black finger-prints on the chest as well. I have seen that before.”

  “Where?”

  “In the Southlands. The necromancers of the Lethian Shore dispatch their enemies with such magic. The man I am hunting knows such spells.”

  “You’re thinking of your friend Morghael, aren’t you?” Brandon was looking at the woman. Perhaps he suspected her and the Tinkers of having something to do with the death. Kormak could not help but notice that the woman sat up a little straighter when the name Morghael was mentioned although she should have been too far away to hear Brandon’s words.

  “Why was the Watcher killed?” Brandon’s eyes swept over the Tinkers.

  “I don’t know. Maybe he saw something.”

  “He was most likely tracking the ones you seek,” said Aisha. Kormak looked across at her.

  “You think?”

  “That’s what they do, or so I have heard,” she said. “They watch those who would tamper with the tombs of the Death Lords. It is their purpose, just as it is your Order’s purpose to oppose the Old Ones and the Shadow.”

  That made a certain amount of sense. “Why?” he asked.

  “They are descendants of those hill-tribes who sided with the Solari when they destroyed Kharon. They were left behind when the legions turned south. They swore an oath to guard the land against the return of evil. They have reason to. The Death Lords would seek vengeance when they rose.”

  That was something Kormak understood. Sir Brandon was nodding. “I had heard that mentioned in old tales. I always thought it was just a story.”

  “Even
the Watchers themselves think so at times. They have forgotten much and they had drifted far from their original purpose but still they try in their way to keep the faith.”

  “You seem to know a lot about them,” Kormak said.

  Aisha smiled. It was like the wolf bearing its teeth. “My people and the Watchers are old allies. We have treaties with them that date back to when the Sunlanders first came to this land. We do not forget such things.”

  Kormak noticed the emphasis she placed on my people. It was a proprietary tone, the voice of a queen speaking of those she ruled. Brandon cocked his head to one side. He was looking at her curiously. “Treaties?” he said. His voice was very quiet, as if he was speaking his astonishment aloud and had not meant to be heard. Aisha paused as if she had said too much.

  “We trade with them, bring them the herbs and devices they need. They pay us in hill silver.”

  “Trade treaties,” said Brandon as if that explained everything. He was still quite clearly bemused by the idea of tinkers and treaties.

  “You think the Tinkers just mend pots,” Aisha said. Something in Brandon’s attitude had clearly nettled her. It struck Kormak that Aisha was an angry woman and an imperious one. She had not the manners of any Tinker he had ever met. She seemed more like a noblewoman playing a part. Perhaps she was.

  “It had crossed my mind,” said Brandon. His tone was as haughty as hers. He was a nobleman and they were close to his lands. He had his pride as well. Aisha surprised Kormak by laughing.

  “It is what most people would think,” she said. There was a bitter edge to her mirth and there was something familiar to it as well. He could not put his finger on exactly why.

  Javier stuck a wooden spoon in the pot and tried again. “It is ready,” he said with the weary air of a courtier trying to stay out of an argument. He began to ladle the stew into wooden bowls. They were as brightly painted as everything else about the Tinker’s wagon. He produced some waybread from a leather pouch and handed it around and then he brought out a skin of wine. He passed it to Aisha first who passed it to Kormak. There was a ritual quality to this. Kormak took a mouthful. Aisha looked at Sir Brandon so he passed it to the knight. Brandon took it and passed it to Javier who in turn passed it to the others. When that was done, they began to eat.

  Kormak started to feel a little better. Partly it was because he had food inside him and partly it was because they were taking part in a small human ritual, here on the edge of these vast cold hills where alien threats waited hungrily. It made him feel a little closer to those around him.

  “Why are you here, Sir Kormak?” Aisha asked. The other Tinkers looked at him interestedly. Brandon replied before Kormak could make up his mind whether to speak or not, explaining their quest to the Tinkers, telling them what had happened to Olaf. The Tinkers exchanged looks containing horror and something else, Kormak was not sure what. Conversation died after Brandon had finished speaking.

  The wolf growled. Kormak looked around to see if there was anything coming in. He had been avoiding looking at the fire so as not to spoil his nightsight but still the light had affected his vision a little. He looked up and saw something passing overhead, too big to be a bird, the shape subtly wrong.

  “What is it?” Brandon asked.

  “Old One,” Kormak said. “Or one of their kin.”

  Even as he spoke it vanished into the night, gone as if it had never been. Kormak gestured for the others to remain quiet. They waited tensely for long minutes but whatever it was, it did not return.

  “What did it want?” Brandon asked.

  Kormak shrugged. “It may just be passing. It may have nothing to do with us.”

  “The reverse implication of that is that it may,” said Brandon.

  “We’ll know soon enough,” said Kormak.

  “If there is anything out there, Shae will let us know, Sir Kormak,” Aisha said, clearly following the course of his thoughts.

  “A useful watchdog in this foul place,” said Brandon chuckling. He was trying too hard to be his usual hearty self, trying too hard to show he was not afraid.

  He suspected that all of them were and that the dead man was on all of their minds. Someone had killed him. Someone had opened a barrow. Someone was responsible for terrible things. Kormak wondered if this meeting with the Tinkers was really by chance or whether they had something to do with all these dark deeds. Perhaps they would try and cut his throat in the night. He had herbs that would let him stay awake for days if need be, but he was reluctant to use them. They were not without side-effects.

  “We should set watches,” said Kormak. “It never hurts to have someone awake in case of trouble.”

  He looked at Brandon. “We can take turn about on watch. Just like in the old days when we were fighting the orcs.”

  Brandon groaned but he made no objection. He did not suggest including the Tinkers in the rota either. Perhaps he had his own suspicions.

  “I’ll take first watch,” Kormak said.

  Kormak was woken by the sound of a man taking a piss. He looked up, coming awake more slowly than he would have liked. There was some light from the rising sun. Brandon was standing away from the camp, looking out into the hills. Little was visible. Mist rolled over the land obscuring everything. The cold seemed to have seeped from the ground into Kormak. He rose and stretched. His back felt sore. He was getting too old for this.

  “You’re actually awake,” Kormak said. “I would have expected you to be snoring away.”

  Brandon gave him a sour grin. “I miss my bed and if you want the truth I miss my family. I miss waking up next to Gena and I miss having the young ones come racing in and asking me to tell them a story.”

  “I’ll ask you for one if it helps,” said Kormak.

  “Sod off!”

  “Go home, Brandon. I can do what needs to be done here.”

  “You always say that.”

  “Because it’s true.”

  “I said I would ride with you and I will. I am not going to give up because of a little rain and a little homesickness.”

  The big man still had something to prove it seemed, to himself if no one else. Maybe he just did not want to turn back so soon, having made such a big show of setting off to find Olaf’s killer. Kormak fumbled in his pack for some dried beef and a handful of oats. He started a fire and began cooking some porridge.

  “You do that with the ease of long practise,” Brandon said.

  “Not all of us have cooks or manors or families,” said Kormak. “Some of us spend our lives on the road.”

  “It has not done you any harm to look at you. You’re still tough as the day we met. Look at the belly on me. I swear I’ve had to get the smith to adjust my armour half a dozen times in the last five years.”

  “You still remember how to swing a sword, don’t you?”

  “Not something you ever forget, Kormak. You just get a bit slower over the years but you make up for it with cunning.”

  The wolf came snuffling around. It did not look quite so hostile in the watery sunlight. It seemed to have gotten used to their presence. The horses did not like it though. Brandon looked at it as he was considering shooing it away but then thought the better of it. A head poked out from the inside of the wagon. It belonged to Aisha. She did not look sleepy.

  “I see you rise with the dawn, gentlemen,” she said. Once again her manners seemed courtly, not those of a Tinker woman. She clambered down off the back of the caravan. She strolled over to the horses and whispered something to each in turn that quieted them. She came over to the fire hunkered down beside it, warming her hands and staring into the flames as if she saw something there that they could not.

  “It’s a gift, being able to handle animals like that,” Brandon said dubiously. Clearly was suspicious of her magic. Aisha smiled at him.

  “It is. Like the gift for witchcraft.”

  “There are places where saying things like that could get you burned,” said Brandon.


  Aisha inclined her head towards Kormak. “That’s what I would have expected him to say.”

  Kormak held his peace. He was determined not to get into an argument. It was a pointless waste of energy. “You are a witch, aren’t you?” Brandon said.

  “Thinking of starting your own inquisition, are you?” Aisha asked. There was a humour in her tone that took the sting out of her mockery.

  Brandon chewed on the end of his moustache. “Just asking. We might have need of a healer soon.”

  Clearly, he had some forebodings about this trip whatever he said aloud. Aisha nodded as if she agreed. “I know how to patch wounds and use herbs and maybe a bit more. Your friend there can do the first two but I doubt he knows a healing spell.”

  “That’s true,” Kormak said.

  “And you’ll need a tracker if you’re hunting wizards in these hills.”

  “Are you volunteering?” Kormak asked.

  Aisha gestured to Shae. The wolf came over and laid its head on her lap. It watched Kormak with bright, too-intelligent eyes. The woman was not intending to do the tracking herself.

  “I am.”

  “Why?”

  “I am no more fond of tomb robbers than anyone else,” she said. She measured out ever word, as if saying them would cost her blood.

  “You don’t come from around here. These are not your hills. You can just turn around and go back.”

  “So can you, Guardian, but you won’t.”

  “I know why I am doing this. I want to know why I should let you come with me.”

  “Because I can help you and there is evil here which must be stopped. No one wants to see the old Lords of Kharon rise again. If they come from their graves who will oppose them now?”

  Her words made the air seem even more chilly. Kormak turned and stared back into the mists. It was all too easy to imagine shadowy shapes moving in it, but when he focused his gaze on them they seemed to vanish like wraiths. “I will,” Kormak said.

  “And who will help you, Champion of the Sun? Will you face them on your own?” He looked at her for a long time, wondering what her motive really was.