Born of Darkness (William King) - William King Page 0,41
many different places and carrying so many different things. We could jump on one and get out of here. We could go to Port Blood. We could go all the way to Terra Nova. We could sail into the furthest north and see what the Shimmering Lights of the Aurora conceal.”
“I’ve seen the Shimmering Lights,” Kormak said. “And I’ve seen what lies beneath them. It is not pleasant.”
“Don’t you ever feel like just jumping on a ship and going somewhere, anywhere. Someplace you’ve never been. Someplace wonderful.”
“Sometimes.”
“I felt that ever since I was a little girl. Ever since I first saw a city. Ever since I saw the surface world.”
“I thought that the sea folk hated being above the waves.”
“Sometimes,” she said echoing his tone. “Me and my sister were always different. We always wanted to go places, do things. Beneath the waves can be beautiful but it can be cruel. And, to be honest, I think there is something in us that craves the light and the air. I think somewhere deep in the blood is the desire to see the surface. My people were changed by the Old Ones but originally we were land dwellers just like your people.”
“I hope you were not like the Aquileans. You’d spend all your time fighting each other.”
“I mean we were not like sharks or fish or Quan. It was never natural for us to be beneath the waves the way it was for those creatures. We had not been beneath the waters for a thousand thousand generations.”
“You’re definitely not like a shark.”
“It’s nice of you to say so,” she said. “Anyway we’ve drifted a long way from the subject of taking a ship. I wish we could just get on one right now and leave. I mean what has that creature from the sarcophagus got to do with us?”
“It has everything to do with me. I took an oath long ago to oppose such creatures and to protect people from them. I still hold to that oath.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to see you dead and I think that’s going to happen if you stay here.”
“I’ve fought Old Ones before and I’m still alive. They are not.”
“You’ve only got to fail once,” she said. “You’ve only got to make one mistake against a creature as dangerous as this one. That’s all it will take. Everybody’s luck runs out sometime. Everybody dies.”
“Yes,” he said. “Everybody dies. Everybody. There is no escape unless you’re an Old One. It’s not death that matters. It’s the way you die. I would rather go out with my sword in my hand than be devoured by some wasting disease in my bed.”
“I can see that. It’s one of the reasons that you do what you do, isn’t it? Even though you know that one day your luck is going to run out.”
He shrugged. “It hasn’t yet.”
“But it will.”
“Most likely.”
“I hope I’m not there to see it.”
“Most likely no one will be—except me and I’ll be beyond caring.”
“I’ve met men like you before, men in love with death and danger.”
He looked up at her. He felt tired, of this place, of this conversation, of having to justify himself. He took both her hands in his.
“This is my life,” he said. “And if it is my death, so be it. That’s just the way it is.”
She heard the finality in his voice, glanced towards the sky, bit her lower lip with her strong white teeth. The shadow of a smile passed over her face. “That’s just the way it is.”
A heavy hand rapped the door.
“Who the hell is it now?” Rhiana asked.
“Sir Kormak—the King-Emperor requires your presence in Council.”
“I had better go,” said Kormak.
“Yes,” she said. “You’d better.”
***
Vorkhul limped through the catacombs. He extended his senses as much as they could be and still allow him to maintain his disguise. He was nearing the vault where he had first emerged. His nostrils picked up faint traces of the hounds and the humans and their strange weapons. The scents were unpleasant, hinting at illness and dissolution.
He shuddered and wondered whether wearing this human form put his thoughts more in tune with those of mortals.
He came to the vault door, recognising it at once. Curiosity filled his mind. He felt the need to inspect the coffin that had entrapped him for so long. Perhaps he could learn something from it.
He paused to listen and heard nothing. He pushed the door open. The mortals had not