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

stone appeared pervasive. The necromancer’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
With a little patient study, these men could teach him a great deal.
    Sticking to the deep shadows, Nagash crept around the edges of the wide pool
while the barbarians straggled to finish off their prey. The noise of their
struggles masked his movements, until finally he reached the far side of the
hummock next to their boat.
    The sounds of thrashing abruptly ceased. Nagash heard the barbarians whooping
and laughing, and then the sounds of feet tramping through foliage just a few
yards away. Carefully, he eased through the undergrowth towards the sounds.
    Within moments, lantern light was seeping between the mossy trees. Nagash
heard the scrape of wood on soil, and then a meaty thud on the ground
nearby. Peering around the bole of a gnarled old tree, he saw that the
barbarians had grounded their little boat and dragged their monster catch up
onto dry land to clean it and cut away the meat. The fish was huge—easily six
feet long—and almost as thick as a human torso. The scales along its back were
a dark grey, grimed with muck from the bottom of the pool, and its wide mouth
was full of small, black, triangular teeth.
    The two men who had wrestled the thing from its hiding place beneath the
water had pulled on heavy, oiled leather cloaks and stood tiredly over their
catch, their mud-streaked chests heaving, filthy water streaming down their
legs. One of their companions was digging a leather-wrapped bundle out of the
bottom of the boat, while the fourth man was busy tying the craft to the branch
of a nearby tree.
    Sensing his opportunity, Nagash slipped silently from the shadows beneath the
tree and crept across the small clearing where the men had set down their catch.
Being careful not to startle the barbarians, he walked quietly up behind one of
the cloaked men. At the last moment, just as Nagash came within arm’s reach, the
man must have sensed his presence. The barbarian whirled about, his powerful
hands poised to seize whatever was creeping up behind him. The man must have
been expecting an animal of some kind, because when he saw Nagash, his beady
eyes widened with surprise.
    Before the barbarian could recover, Nagash darted in quickly and slashed his
throat with the rat-beast’s dagger. Blood splashed across the clearing and the
man collapsed with a choking scream.
    Nagash turned on the second cloaked man just as the barbarian leapt at him
with a guttural shout. He managed to get his left hand around the man’s throat
as they crashed together, nearly knocking him from his feet. A stubby-fingered
hand seized Nagash’s knife wrist and held it in a vice-like grip, while jagged
fingernails clawed for his eyes. Nagash tightened his grip on the barbarian’s
throat and tried to pull his knife hand free, but the man refused to let go. A
knobby fist smashed into the side of the necromancer’s skull; he responded by
driving his knee into the barbarian’s groin. The man roared in pain, but
doggedly hung on.
    The barbarian who had been tying off the boat snatched up a fallen branch and
charged across the open ground towards Nagash, and the fourth man wasn’t far
behind. The tide of the battle was rapidly turning against the necromancer, and
the very idea infuriated him. With a snarl, he drew upon the power of the
burning stone.
    Fiery strength surged through him. His hand closed about the barbarian’s
neck, crushing the man’s spine. Nagash hurled the body like a children’s doll
straight into the third man’s path. Both man and corpse tumbled across the
ground in a tangle of limbs.
    Nagash pounced on the man before he could pull himself free and drove his
dagger through the barbarian’s eye.
    The last man stopped dead in his tracks, mouth agape in shock. Without
thinking, Nagash flung out his hand and hissed a stream of arcane words—and
the power of the stone responded. The man’s body went suddenly rigid, as