Ocean Of Fear (Book 6) by William King Read Free Book Online Page B

the buildings all around them. Some looked like they could have been built yesterday. Some looked like they had crumbled centuries ago. Some looked like they had been burned by a fire so hot that the stone had flowed like lava before resetting. There was no rhyme or reason to it.
    Frater Jonas stroked his beard and said, “Such records as I have seen date the Triturids’ occupation of these coasts back to deep within the Age of Darkness. More than ten thousand years ago.”
    Zamara frowned. “Those elves told you that their mistress, this Great Tree God of theirs gave shelter to them. Does that mean she remembers all the way back in time?”
    Kormak remembered his encounter with ghost of Mayasha. “Yes,” he said. “They are as old as the forests and they remember everything, just not in the way we do.”
    “Then this place must predate the Kingdoms of the Sun by at least five thousand years,” the captain said.
    “At least,” said Frater Jonas. “Perhaps by a lot more. They say the Old Ones walked these lands for tens of thousands of years before the coming of men, and many of them were accompanied by their children.”
    “They ruled the world once, didn’t they? Before the coming of the Holy Sun.” Zamara said.
    “They did,” said the priest, clearly uncomfortable with the way this conversation was drifting.
    The captain glanced at the great pyramid, then at the ruins, then at Kormak. “What were they?”
    “No one knows,” Kormak said.
    “You have met them though, haven’t you? You’ve fought with them, talked with them? What are they like?”
    All around there was silence. Every man within earshot was listening. Even Father Jonas looked expectant. Kormak thought of the scores of Old Ones he had encountered in his life, the still living and the now dead, the hostile and the almost friendly and the totally alien. What could he say about so many and so varied creatures?
    “They did not tell me their secrets,” he said.
    His tone put an end to the questioning.

    Kormak strode up the ramp onto the roof of one of the buildings. A sunken pool lay before him. The place was dry save for puddles of stagnant rainwater now. In the centre a shaft dropped. He clambered down and looked in. Far below, dark water rippled.  
    He could see other buildings, mostly of the same height and uniform construction. Pools of water glittered on some of their roofs, evidence perhaps that their ancient hydraulic systems still worked.
    Even from this low elevation, the hexagonal nature of the islands was evident. The pattern was the same as on the map they had found in the Kraken’s cabin.
    A light glittered on the side of the great ziggurat, as if a weapon or a shield or a polished mirror caught the sunlight.
    He headed back to ground level. Zamara looked at him. “All done?” he asked.
    “I think we’ll find what we’re looking for at the central ziggurat,” Kormak said. “I don’t think we’re alone in the city.”
    “Tell me something I didn’t know,” said the nobleman.

    They picked their way along the canals, making for the great central ziggurat. The priest stared at one of the frog-mask faces as they passed.
    “The Triturids were ugly devils,” he said.
    “They would probably have said the same about us,” Kormak said.
    “The Old Ones looked at things differently from us, didn’t they?”
    “Not all of them,” Kormak said.
    “The most powerful ones from the Age of Darkness certainly did. And now we walk in one of their strongholds. It is a rather frightening thought.”
      “You seem nervous, Frater.”
    “Unlike you, Sir Kormak, I have not spent most of my life in such places slaying monsters.”
    “And yet you are here. Why? You could have stayed with the ship.”
    “I am curious. There must be much knowledge to be gained here. I have never been in such a place before and the Light willing I will never be in such a place again but while I am here I would like to look upon it. How many