Kormak 01 - Stealer of Flesh Read Online Free PDF Page A

be more appropriate.”
    “Come now, Sir Kormak,” said Lord Tomas. “Surely a man of your order is not afraid. I have always heard the Guardians of the Dawn enjoyed the special protection of the Holy Sun. Of all of us, you have the least to worry about from the contents of that flask.”
    “There is a demon in it,” Kormak said. “A demon of a particularly potent sort; one that was bound by Solareon more than a millennium ago.”
    Lord Tomas looked at him. “There is a Ghul confined in that bottle, Sir Kormak. I would not call it a demon in the sense that most people would understand the word.”
    “It is immortal, inimical to Men and will perform acts of the greatest wickedness if freed,” said Kormak. “I would say that fits most people’s understanding of what a demon is.”
    “But you and I know differently. The Ghuls were once men like us,” said Lord Tomas.
    Kormak shook his head. “They were servants of the Old Ones who rebelled against them but they were not men.”
    “They were mortals then, and they seized the secret of immortality from their masters.”
    Kormak thought he began to understand the cause of Lord Tomas’s excitement and the direction this conversation was going to take. “We do not know that for certain,” Kormak said. “We know only what the Sage Cronas wrote.”
    “But Cronas sat at the right hand of Solareon, and Solareon was the greatest wizard who ever lived.”
    “All the more reason not to trifle with his work.”
    “Your blade could destroy a Ghul, could it not, Sir Kormak?”
    “Is that what you would have me do?”
    “Eventually, yes,” said Lord Tomas.
    “But first you have questions to ask of the monster,” said Kormak. “Questions concerning the nature of its immortality and how it might be achieved.”
    “Exactly so,” said Lord Tomas.
    “We already know how the Stealers of Flesh achieved their immortality,” said Kormak. “They take possession of the bodies of other living things and consume their life force. They are vampires of a most awful sort.”
    “Yes but in the Codicils to the Deed of Solareon Cronas writes that it was not always so. That the Ghul sought the same form of immortality as the Old Ones and that something went wrong with the process. Cronas sat with his master while Solareon questioned the bound demons.”
    “Then you have read works by the Sage that my teachers never did,” said Kormak.
    “Your order had no monopoly on ancient knowledge, Guardian,” said Lord Tomas. “There are far more books in the world than exist even in the library at Aethelas. I have some of them on my shelves here.”
    “And some of them are filled with traps set to lure men to their doom,” said Kormak.
    “Spoken like a true witch-finder,” said Tarsus.
    “I have had experience of such things, have you?” Kormak said.
    “That is why we want you with us,” said Lord Tomas. “With your knowledge and your blade there will be no missteps. We will be able to question the demon in safety.”
    “You think I will help you learn how to transform yourselves into Stealers of Flesh? That is insane,” said Kormak. He could not keep his true thoughts hidden. The words were torn from him.
    “You misunderstand our intentions, Sir Kormak,” said Tarsus. “We seek no such thing.”
    “Tarsus speaks the truth,” said Lord Tomas. “We seek to learn what the demon knows, that is true, but we also seek to learn what went wrong. The Ghul must possess a fantastic amount of knowledge. It may put us on the path to immortality. We can learn where they went wrong, avoid their errors and perhaps all men will be able to live forever.”
    There was total compelling belief in his voice. Kormak realised to his astonishment that the nobleman meant every word he was saying. He was quite sincere, and possibly quite mad.
    “I do not think that is possible,” said Kormak.
    “But the Ghuls did,” said Tomas. “And they went more than halfway towards achieving it. Think of