Read Online 02 - Nagash the Unbroken by Mike Lee - (ebook by Undead) - Free Book Online Page A

stone never did lead Nagash to the
slopes of the dark mountain. If anything, it confused his course further,
leading him ever deeper into the heart of the wasteland. It was a mystery that
took him more than a hundred years to solve, during which time he was forced to
re-learn the sorcerous arts that had made him master of Nehekhara.
    The properties of the glowing rock—over time Nagash simply called it abn-i-khat, or “the burning stone”—were similar in principle to the
winds of magic he’d learned from his druchii tutors centuries ago, but not as
easily manipulated using the rituals he’d mastered in Khemri. As near as he
could tell, it wasn’t truly a stone at all, but a physical manifestation of pure
magic. If he used a fragment of stone as the locus of a simple ritual, the
mineral consumed itself, converting to a dry, ashy substance that flaked away
from its outer surface. The conversion was proportional to the amount of energy
used, so far as he could determine; more than once he bitterly regretted the
lack of paper and ink to document his observations. He’d learned over time how
to ration the stone perfectly: a single thumbnail-sized chip provided him with
enough strength and mental acuity to fulfil his needs for as much as a month,
provided he didn’t need to draw unduly upon its power. The flecks sustained him
far better than his elixir ever did, but its chaotic energies sometimes caused
his thoughts to become unmoored, or his perceptions to shift in unexpected ways.
    If not kept under careful control, the stone wrought physical changes as
well. His skin had retained its leathery texture, but it had taken on a
green-tinged alabaster tone. As soon as he’d understood the stone’s
transformative properties he focussed his attention on channelling it to good
use as much as possible; now he was stronger and swifter than ever before, and
virtually tireless for days at a time. Lately his skin was growing mottled with
faintly luminescent deposits around his shoulders and midsection, leading him to
wonder how much of the stone he ate was accumulating in his bones and organs.
Would there eventually come a point where its energies became too concentrated
for him to control? He reluctantly conceded the possibility, even as he
continued to consume the glowing stone.
    Time had no meaning in the trackless expanse of the wasteland. Nagash no
longer marked the passage of days, focusing all his attentions on unlocking the
powers of the stone and shaping rituals to harness its power. The first rite he
experimented on was creating a resonance between a fleck of stone and the source
it had stemmed from.
    The results were initially very disappointing. Over time, as he began to
grasp the mineral’s properties more closely, the experiments became merely
baffling. It wasn’t that the resonance failed to draw him in a distinct
direction—it pointed him in a multitude of directions at the same time,
including straight up and straight down. Following the many paths the ritual
revealed to him caused Nagash to cross and re-cross the length and breadth of
the wasteland. From time to time he would find pieces of stone, sometimes buried
deep beneath the ground, but none led him towards the dark mountain. After a
time, he began to think that the fickle energies of the stone were somehow purposely leading him astray.
    Then one night, he saw a streak of green light arc across the starlit sky,
and another piece of the puzzle fell into place.
    Whatever the abn-i-khat was, it truly was not of this earth—or at
least not part of the earth that Nagash knew and understood. He marked the
plunging arc of green light as a soldier might trace the fall of an arrow shot,
and then began a long and arduous trek to find where the stone had fallen.
Eventually he came upon a shallow crater dug into the earth. Pieces of the green
stone were nowhere to be found, but large, rat-like footprints were in
abundance. The