Read 2 Defiler of Tombs for Free Online

in the sky.”
    There was a note of horror in his voice and he glanced at the hills again as if he feared some enemy might emerge from them. “Gena always talks about going south to visit her family, to see the great Summer Fair in Vermstadt. She talks about taking the children with her. I sometimes think that might be a good idea.”
    Kormak could tell that he was worried. If someone was opening barrows, dark and dreadful things might soon be coming out of those hills. “She’s never gone south since you got wed?” Kormak asked.
    “Talks about it all the time. She misses the City State sometimes. Take a look around you and I think you can see why.”
    “But she has never gone…”
    “You know how it is. There’s always something more needs doing. The roads are not easiest to travel on. The Tinkers bring tales of bandits. There are rumours of orc war-bands and monsters. Now it’s the civil war between the Princes. It’s cold here but it’s safe. At least it has been until recently. Now I wonder. You’ve been in the south. What do you think?”
    Kormak recognised it at once. The hunger for news. Not many people came this far north. What was ancient gossip in the courts of the Dukes was fresh rumour up here.
    “There are always bandits,” Kormak said. “Out of work soldiers, displaced nobles. You know how it is. I’ve not heard of any warbands though, and that’s something I would expect people to tell me about. Monsters… you’re talking to the wrong man. I meet those wherever I go. It’s the nature of my calling.”
    “You meet more now than you did a decade ago though, don’t you?” Brandon sounded as if he wanted Kormak to deny it. Kormak thought about it for a moment and answered truthfully.
    “Yes.”
    “Let’s hope there is nothing waiting for us on the road then,” said Brandon, smiling.
    “I would not count on that,” said Kormak.
    Brandon looked at him, finally getting to the question he wanted to ask. “This necromancer, Morghael, why would he flee north? Why would he come here?”
    Kormak gestured to the hills around him. “A lot of barrows up here.”
    “You think he plans to raise an army from the bones of Kharon?”
    “I don’t know. I do know that tomb dust from Kharon is used as part of the rituals in raising the dead.”
    Brandon looked at him sidelong. “You know a lot of things it would be better not to. I’ve never heard that before.”
    “It’s not common knowledge.”
    “Why tomb dust from the Cursed Lands?”
    Kormak considered his response carefully. “Some say it’s because the Shadow is in the dust, a legacy of the Defiler’s curse, that it becomes a kind of seed inside a corpse and stirs it to life if the rituals are performed right. I know it works. I saw Morghael’s army.”
    “You think he came here for more dust?”
    “It has to come from Shadow-tainted tombs, which makes it dangerous to collect, which makes it very expensive. Raising that army must have taken a lot of dust, cost a fortune.”
    “Well, there was a wight in that tomb and if he was looking for dust he must have got what he came for. Why not just head on back south?”
    “That’s a question I have been asking myself. I have a feeling I am not going to like the answer.”
    Around them, the hills brooded. Rain started to fall. They rode on into gathering darkness.
     
    The rain came down in a heavy drizzle. It soaked through Kormak’s cloak. He knew he was going to have to check his armour for rust at some point and oil it again. Brandon sat with his back to the ancient runic stone. At least it blocked the wind. He was cursing the cold and the wet. “Why did I agree to come with you again?” he asked.
    “Because you wanted to take part in the glamourous life of the wandering Guardian.”
    “I knew it was something like that.”
    “Why did you really come?”
    Brandon looked as if he was going to make a joke then shrugged and said, “Because I want to kill the bastard that let