Born of Darkness (William King) - William King Page 0,19
me at my word. You know it is forbidden. You know why too.”
“It can cause apoplexy, heart failure and rupture of internal organs. None of which will bother me if this Old One is eating my heart.”
“I never knew you had one.”
“Can your apothecary do it or should I ask the King instead?”
“Don’t embarrass me. Of course, he can. It’s just I will have a hell of a job explaining what happened to Grandmaster Darius if you drink the stuff and keel over and die.”
“I am not planning on it.”
“No one ever does. You really want it? You remember how we used to laugh about the old men who used it. We’re older than them now.”
Kormak nodded. “We were never going to get old.”
Gerd looked out the window. “But we did. And we are the lucky ones.”
“I’ll need essence of truesilver.”
“I can see this is going to get expensive. It’ll be interesting when the Auditor pays me a visit.”
“What a thrilling life you lead.”
“We can’t all be bold monster hunters. Well, not anymore.” Gerd looked serious. “How many weapons will you need the truesilver essence for?”
“As much as you can get me.”
“You planning on starting your own mercenary company?”
“The King’s bodyguards will need it and there may be people with me.”
“Oh there will be people with you all right. Me and some of my lads.”
“Better make sure they come with all their gear.”
“They’ll have alchemical banefire and sunflares.”
“Trick your lads out with every ward and rune you’ve got. We have no idea what this thing is capable of.”
“Other than shredding you, you mean. That’s quite enough for me.”
“You have a Shadowhound?”
“I have a pack of them. Take your arm off quick as look at you. You think we’re going to need trackers?”
“It depends on how good the local Diviners are.”
Gerd glanced around. “You are in the Imperial Palace. The walls are an arm-span thick and covered in elder signs. There are wardstones built into the support pillars. Most of the household is scryer-shielded. I doubt the Archmage Eldarak himself could perform a halfway decent divination in this place. I’ll bring the hounds. To tell the truth it’ll do me good to see someone else foot the bill for feeding them for a bit. The bastards eat more than all the brothers put together and that’s saying something. Has to be prime beef as well. They’re picky as a bunch of Selenean epicures. You’ve no idea how much it costs . . .”
“You can expect quite a large donation from the Palace.”
“Good because this is going to cost plenty and all these alchemicals will need to be replaced.”
“When can you get the brothers here?”
“Half a dozen are already with me. The rest are down in the city making sure the locals don’t steal everything that isn’t nailed down.”
“Get everybody you can up here. Leave the minimum you need to keep the chapter house safe.”
“The servants and the lay brothers can do that if I shout at them enough. Anything else?”
“Tell your boys they’ll need to be careful. They’ll not have seen anything like this thing before.”
“You’re not reassuring me, Kormak.”
“Good. Scared men pay attention.”
“Scared men make mistakes too. We both know that.” The words hung in the air after he left.
***
Outside it was noon. The Holy Sun beamed down on his people, his light keeping them safe from monsters. Inside the cool of the palace, a small army was on the move.
Warriors in the uniforms of the Household Guard watched all the entrances to the catacombs.
Hard looking men in white surcoats bearing the red dragon of the Order of the Dawn waited among them. They wore belts containing flasks of strange alchemicals. Elder signs warded their helmets. Most of them wore other runes on armlets, necklaces or rings. All of them had burning torches at hand.
Groups of household servants gawked. Nobles in full court dress displayed just as much curiosity.
Kormak felt the unfamiliar armour of truesilver on his shoulders and chest. He had forgotten how light it seemed when worn. He ran his hands over the contents of the pouches and rings in the belt the abbot had given him, making sure everything was there.
He touched the stoppers of tubes containing truesilver essence. He ran his fingers over the rune-lines inscribed on the otherwise smooth surfaces of sunflares. He studied one. The faint glow showed it was ready to discharge a burst of the stored light of the Holy Sun.
He felt the flask containing Valen’s Elixir. Why had he asked Gerd