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

beasts had made it to the site mere hours before he did. Nagash
tried to track them further, but soon lost their spoor across the hard, rocky
terrain. After that, he resolved to kill the rat-beasts wherever he found them,
for clearly they coveted the stone at least as much as he did.
    Nagash mulled over everything he’d learned, and concluded firstly that if
he’d been able to detect the power radiating from the mountain at such a
distance, it must contain a much larger collection of abn-i-khat than
he’d ever seen before, and its chaotic energies made magical divination
difficult, if not impossible. So he abandoned his ritual and let his instincts
guide him, heading ever eastward over the ridges and foothills and leaving his
senses open for concentrations of magical power.
     
    It was the hazy glow to the north-east that drew him first—a faint,
greenish luminescence that limned the crooked lines of the mountain peaks,
almost too faint to see against the paling of the early morning sky. He was well
beyond the foothills now, crossing the first of the Brittle Peaks, and the
sensations of power seemed to shift directions like the fey mountain wind.
    Like everything else about the wasteland, the glow seemed just a few miles
distant, but it took him nearly a fortnight to reach the last of the intervening
peaks. From there, Nagash found himself staring down upon a broad, dark sea. The
night was early, and the glow he’d seen on previous nights wasn’t in evidence
yet, allowing him to see a long way in the clear mountain air. Marshlands
glittered frostily beneath the moonlight along the sea’s south-eastern shore,
while a broad crescent of watch fires flickered along the coastline to the north
and north-west.
    None of that mattered to Nagash. To the east, hard by the shores of the
gloomy sea, rose the dark slopes of the mountain that had called to him for more
than a hundred years. It was larger and far more imposing than the broken peaks
that surrounded it; tendrils of steam leaked from fissures along its flanks,
glowing faintly green in the darkness. It dominated the horizon for miles,
crouching at the edge of the sea like a brooding dragon from some barbarian
myth.
    Looking upon the mountain, Nagash realised he had never actually seen it with
his own eyes before that moment. The shadow of the power buried at its heart had
somehow etched itself upon his mind’s eye. Now he understood why it had always
seemed to hide, just out of his grasp, no matter how hard he tried to reach it.
All this time he’d been chasing a phantasm, a ghost of the true mountain. The
notion both intrigued and troubled him.
    Nagash reckoned that there could be dozens, perhaps even scores of stone
deposits hidden within the mountain. How could they have been gathered all in
one place? His gaze strayed to the constellation of watch fires lining the
northern coast. Perhaps it was the rat-things. They were gathering up the stones
faster than he. It all had to be going somewhere.
    He would have to learn more before proceeding. The secrets of the mountain
would be his, no matter what; he would need every bit of power he could muster
to re-conquer Nehekhara and punish those who had defied him. If the rat-things
stood in his way, then he would deal with them as well.
    It took most of the night for Nagash to descend the far slope of the mountain
and make his way to the outskirts of the marshland. In the early hours before
dawn, when the night was coldest, a thick blanket of glowing mist rose from the
marshlands and along the shores of the distant sea. The vapours curled and
shifted across the surface of the water, though there was no wind to stir them;
the unearthly light created the illusion of half-formed shapes capering and
whirling madly within the mist.
    The marsh terrain was more dense and treacherous than Nagash realised. He
sloshed through foul-smelling, scummy water that rose up to mid-thigh in places.
It was