The eyes were like shrivelled black olives. The flesh was flaking away. His mind drifted back to a dead child in the cold northlands of Taurea. Someone else he had been too late to save. Once more he found himself pushing his anger down.

“It looks like a mummy,” said Zamara. “I saw things like this south of the Dragon Sea, in the Necropolis in Umbrea.”

Terves nodded agreement. Kormak guessed both the captain and the old soldier had served time as part of the Siderean army holding the forces of Shadow at bay in that distant land.

“It’s no mummy,” said Kormak. “It’s dressed like a villager.”

“Look at it. It’s been dead for centuries,” said Zamara. He clearly wanted to believe that.

“It’s certainly dead,” said Kormak. “Most likely since last night.”

“Then we’ve found what we’re looking for,” the captain said.

“I think so, yes,” said Kormak. He bent down to inspect the corpse.

“When did you see the like?” Terves was white-faced but needed to ask. Zamara clearly wanted to know the answer as well for he said nothing to shut the man up.

“A few years ago along the edge of the Barrow Hills in Taurea, a wight had taken a child...”

“You think this was a wight?” Zamara asked, torn between disbelief and dread. Kormak shook his head.

“Wights rarely move from the places their bodies were interred, and there is no history of Kharonian barrow builders along the Blood Coast.”

“Who knows what lies back there in the forest,” said the soldier. “Those are elfwoods. The Old Ones dwelled there once. And some of them dwell there still.”

“I suspect it was something that feeds in the same manner as a wight,” Kormak said. He looked up. Zamara’s hand clutched the triple Elder Sign at his throat. Terves made the Sign of the Sun over his heart.

“Feeds?” The captain’s voice was flat. He was holding his fear under a tight rein.

“They devour the souls of their victims, consume their life force. Something has done the same thing here.”

“I heard the Kraken was a sorcerer but this is like something you expect from the worst sort of Shadow worshipper.”

“It may not have been him,” Kormak said. “Perhaps he has bound a soul-eater to his service. Some sorcerers do.”

Terves let out a small scared groan. His face was stony. If Kormak had not heard the sound he would not have known the man was afraid.

“In the name of the Light what manner of man are we hunting for?” Zamara asked.

“A very bad one,” Kormak said. “One who deserves to die.”

“If man he is, sir,” said Terves.

“Man or demon, this will kill him,” Kormak said, touching the hilt of the dwarf-forged blade that protruded over his left shoulder.

A noise from the far side of the village drew their attention. Frater Jonas came striding up. “It appears we have some survivors,” he said.

“Let’s see what they can tell us,” Captain Zamara said.







CHAPTER TWO


A WOMAN, A teenage boy and a couple of children stood there, garbed in clothes made from a mix of buckskin and old sailcloth. Their faces were soot smudged.