Taker Of Skulls (Book 5) by William King Read Free Book Online

cloak around his body.
    The pony clopped along beside him, hooves ringing on the cut stone of the Dwarf Road. They passed one of the ancient milestones, a stone figure, somewhat man-like but broader and squatter and a good deal shorter. Its edges had been softened by centuries of weather, and the runes along its side were filled with lichen.
    Karnea squinted at them. “It says we are three leagues from the gates,” she said. “It is a marker representing one of the warriors of King Malki Ring-giver. The third of that name.” She looked at them all and smiled. “I am glad I came. On our way back I would like to make a sketch of that stone.
    “You know a lot,” Sasha said. Karnea beamed.
    “I spent a lot of time in the library at Mount Aethelas. It has the greatest collection of Khazduri literature and literature about the Khazduri anywhere on the surface.”
    Sasha smiled as if she understood that point. “Who knows what was lost in the Underlands during the Long Dying though?”
    “Precisely. I am hoping we may find some new stuff. I regret not having more time to spend in the bazaar in Varigston. Someday I’ll come back and really have a rummage about.”
    Sasha looked suddenly wary, as if she had been tricked into talking to the sorceress as she would any normal person.
    Boreas was striding ahead, gaze fixed on the road. Kormak glanced behind to make sure nothing was coming on them from behind. He felt as if in the clear mountain air he ought to be able to hear anyone doing so, but it never hurt to be careful.
    He found that in an odd way he was enjoying himself. He was walking through the sort of terrain that reminded him of his childhood, and when the clouds occasionally parted they gazed down into huge valleys cleaved out of the titanic mountains. Clouds floated below them as if they were the Holy Sun himself looking down from the sky.
    “What are you thinking, Sir Kormak?” Karnea asked.
    “I was thinking that Aquilea must be over there somewhere,” he pointed towards the Northwest.
    “Twenty leagues or so, if the maps I studied before I came are correct.”
    Kormak laughed.
    “What did I say was so funny?” Karnea asked. She was smiling, not a woman to take offence unless certain it was being given.
    “The borders of Aquilea and Taurea are, shall we say, disputed,” Kormak said. “The hill tribes raid across those borders at will, claim the lands are theirs and the Taureans have no right to be there.”
    Boreas nodded when he heard this. “My earliest posting was at Andium. Every moon or so the Wolf clans would get wild on firewater and try and burn us out. Hell, they succeeded in more than a few places. I’ve seen many a settler village burned.”
    Kormak thought about the implications of the term settler village. Even after two centuries, the Taureans called their townships on the border that. They clearly grasped just as much as the Aquileans did exactly how precarious their grip on the border was.
    “I heard the Aquileans have started raiding again,” said Sasha. “Have been doing that ever since this bloody civil war started.”
    Boreas nodded. “The mercenaries will all be heading south. It’s the prospect of higher pay and more plunder. Hell, any plunder. You don’t see much when you hit an Aquilean village. They are bloody barbarians.” He glanced at Kormak. “No offence, Sir Kormak.”
    “None taken,” said Kormak. “I am surprised you raided a Wolf clan village and lived to tell the tale.”
    “You a Wolf?” Boreas asked. “I mean originally, before you swore to follow the Holy Sun.”
    Kormak shook his head. “My people were Hawk clan,” he said. “They and the Wolves are traditional enemies.”
    Boreas’s eyes narrowed. “Never met a Hawk. Never heard much good about them either. Supposed to be even meaner than the Wolves.”
    “You won’t meet any more now. I am the last.” Boreas looked away, clearly wondering whether this was a subject to be broached at