by Warhammer
When it was all over, when the last trapped zombie had been decapitated and thrown on the pyre, when the fires in the residences had been put out and the handgunners on the walls had stolen so many of the zombies’ ladders that they could no longer continue their assault, von Geldrecht and von Volgen approached the Slayers with Captain Hultz and Father Ulfram and Danniken in tow. They all inclined their heads respectfully.
‘Thank you, Slayers,’ said von Geldrecht. ‘If not for your quick thinking, we would have been overwhelmed. Castle Reikguard owes you a debt of gratitude it cannot repay.’
‘Even if it cost us a temple door,’ said Father Ulfram.
‘But how did they get in?’ asked von Volgen. ‘Did they burrow under the stones? Were they not piled high enough?’
Gotrek caught his breath, then spoke. ‘The gate was shattered. Like the lock mechanism. Like the runes.’
Von Geldrecht closed his eyes and groaned. ‘The saboteur.’
Von Volgen turned grim eyes on him. ‘You have learned nothing more of him, lord steward?’
‘My captains assured me they would report any suspicious goings-on,’ said von Geldrecht, shaking his head. ‘But they have given me no reports.’
Felix saw von Volgen’s jaw clench with suppressed anger. ‘My lord, rooting out such a powerful traitor is of utmost importance. You – you must do more.’ He turned to Father Ulfram. ‘Cannot the good father discover the identity of this warlock through his prayers?’
Von Geldrecht coughed as everyone looked at the priest. ‘I have asked,’ he said. ‘But–‘
‘But I am not what I was,’ said Ulfram, raising his bandaged eyes towards von Volgen. ‘The fight with the pestilent champion I slew at Grimminhagen was not won without sacrifice. It took my sight and – and the strength of my prayers. Danniken here has done his best to help me recover, but I am much diminished, and Sigmar has not seen fit to answer me in this matter.’
Von Volgen bowed, chagrinned. ‘Forgive me, Father. I did not know.’
Felix looked wonderingly at Ulfram as he nodded and looked down again. The frail old man had slain a champion of the dark powers? Did that mean he had been a warrior priest during the war? It hardly seemed possible, looking at him now.
‘Nonetheless, it was a worthy suggestion, Lord von Volgen,’ said Von Geldrecht. ‘And you are right. I must do more. I – I had thought to keep the sabotage quiet until the fiend could be apprehended, but – but I see now that drastic measures are required.’ He sighed and stared at the ground for a long moment, then looked up, his sagging face haggard. ‘Hultz, inform the officers, and you von Volgen, tell your men. I will address the whole of the castle in the courtyard tomorrow after morning mess. Everyone who is not on duty will attend – knights, foot soldiers, servants and staff. Everyone. I will expose this villain before them once and for all.’
‘My lord,’ said von Volgen, uneasy. ‘What do you intend?’
‘It is better that no one know in advance.’ Von Geldrecht turned to Ulfram. ‘Father, if I could see you in the temple.’
‘Of course, lord steward,’ said the priest. ‘Come with me.’
Danniken took Ulfram’s arm and led him towards the now doorless temple as von Geldrecht limped beside him, talking in low tones. Felix was amazed at the contrast between his memories of the cheerful and robust von Geldrecht he had met only days before, and the frail old man who shuffled away from him now.
Hultz gave Felix, Kat and the Slayers a salute as he turned to start back to his men. ‘Well done, tonight, friends. When we have beer again, the first round’s on me.’
‘Hultz,’ said von Volgen, calling him back. ‘One moment.’
‘Aye, my lord.’
Von Volgen shot an uncomfortable glance at the retreating von Geldrecht, then lowered his voice. ‘It is not my place to order you, but perhaps someone should put a guard on the river gate so this does not happen again.’
Hultz too looked after von Geldrecht, then nodded. ‘Aye, my lord. A very good suggestion. I’ll put someone on it right away.’
He started away again and von Volgen turned to Felix, Kat and the Slayers. ‘I know we did not start well, and I expect no friendship from you after having locked you up for something you didn’t do. But I wish you to know that I value your presence here as much as I value that of my own knights. Thank you.’ He clicked his heels together and bowed, then turned and strode off, ramrod-straight, and did not look back.
‘He’s still a blind fool that can’t tell his own son from a corpse,’ said Rodi, snorting.
Gotrek spat. ‘He’s not the fool that worries me,’ he said, then looked after von Geldrecht, who was just entering the temple with Ulfram and Danniken. ‘You don’t catch saboteurs with speeches. You catch them in the act.’
‘A trap?’ asked Kat.
Gotrek looked around the courtyard. ‘A watch on his next target.’
‘You know where he’ll strike next?’ asked Felix.
‘Well, it won’t be the river gate,’ said Kat. ‘Not if Hultz guards it like he said.’
‘The hoardings,’ said Rodi. ‘He’s already taken away the wards, the moat, the river gate – what else is left?’
Gotrek nodded, then turned for the stairs to the walls. ‘Find places to hide. We’ll watch until the rat comes out of his hole. Then we spring.’
Felix groaned. He was weary beyond description. ‘Tonight?’
‘Aye, manling,’ said Gotrek. ‘Tomorrow could be too late. And tell no one what you’re about. I trust no one in this madhouse.’
As they spread out, looking for likely vantage points, Felix felt eyes on him and turned to see Bosendorfer leading his greatswords into the underkeep and looking over his shoulder at him. The hate in his eyes almost singed Felix’s hair.
Kat found a shadowed spot on the roof of the temple of Sigmar from which to watch the courtyard, while Snorri and Rodi chose places in the ruined stables, and half-burned residences respectively. Felix and Gotrek chose a dark section of wall on the river side of the castle, far from where the hoardings had been placed, but offering a view of all of them.
Now that he had stopped fighting and running and swimming and shouting, all of Felix’s weariness and hunger and pain caught up to him, and he sagged against the battlements like an empty sleeve. He had cuts and bruises from head to toe, a loose tooth, a missing thumbnail – neither of which he could account for – and was covered in a grimy patina of smoke, sweat and harbour water.
How long had he been fighting? How long since he had more than a swallow of water and a single biscuit at a sitting? How long since he had more than a few hours of sleep at once? He was too tired to work out any of the answers. He was too tired to keep his head up, but at the same time, when he closed his eyes, his mind scuttled about like a nervous cockroach, and wouldn’t let him sleep.
Who was the saboteur? What madness was von Geldrecht planning for tomorrow? What would happen with Bosendorfer? But the image his mind returned to more than any other was Gotrek bellowing in Snorri’s face. The friendship between the two Slayers had had its ups and downs in the time that Felix had known them, but never anything like this.
Snorri had now cost Gotrek at least two certain dooms, and had forced him to bully Rodi into turning from a doom as well. The price of Gotrek’s vow to make sure that Snorri reached Karak Kadrin was getting unbearably high, and if things progressed as it looked like they were sure to, it could only get higher.
‘You can’t blame him, you know,’ he said, lifting his head from the wall.
‘Can’t blame who?’ rumbled the Slayer, his one eye continuing to scan the hoardings.
‘Snorri,’ said Felix. ‘You can’t blame him for not remembering things.’
‘Can’t I?’ growled Gotrek. ‘If Nosebiter had found his doom twenty years ago like a proper Slayer, none of this would be necessary.’
Felix glared at the Slayer’s hypocrisy. ‘Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?’
Gotrek spat over the wall. ‘Leave it alone, manling.’
Felix shrugged then laid his head back down on the wall. ‘I don’t know why you bother, anyway. None of us is getting out of here alive. Not you. Not me. Not Snorri. Not Kat or Rodi. None of us will make it to Karak Kadrin.’
Gotrek shrugged. ‘A vow is a vow,’ he said. ‘And a dwarf doesn’t give up a vow just because it’s impossible.’
THIRTEEN
‘Wake up, manling,’ whispered Gotrek.
Felix jerked his head up. He didn’t remember going to sleep, but apparently he had. It was still night, though the first hints of a red dawn were smudging the sky above the trees to the east, and all seemed quiet. Handgunners were patrolling the walls, spearmen were standing guard on the embankment by the river gate, night watch crews were dragging debris out of the partially burnt residences and repairing other wounds the castle had suffered in the battle, and the pyre of dead zombies and defenders was still burning in the courtyard.
‘What is it?’ he croaked. ‘Did he not show?’
‘He’s here,’ said Gotrek, and nodded towards the hoardings that covered the easternmost corner of the castle. ‘There.’
Felix squinted, trying to see into the blackness under the hoarding, but then his eye was caught by movement on top of it. A grey shadow, almost the same shade as the shingles that covered the slanting roof, was crawling along on hands and knees, as delicate and careful as a spider, and as Felix watched, it paused and reached over the side for perhaps the space of five heartbeats, then crawled on again.
‘He’ll hear if we try for him,’ said Gotrek. ‘But he won’t hear an arrow.’ He looked towards the temple of Sigmar. ‘Go to the little one. Point him out. She can’t see him from where she is. Then go and block the underkeep door.’
Felix looked down at the courtyard then back up to the hoardings. ‘He’ll see me.’
Gotrek shrugged. ‘Lots of people about. You’ll only be one more. Just don’t look at him.’
Felix nodded, and crept off. He took the internal stair down through the left-hand river gate tower, then sauntered as casually as he could along the front of the knights’ residence around the harbour to the courtyard. It was almost impossible not to glance in the direction of the shadow on the hoardings.
Instead, he focussed on the roof of the temple of Sigmar, and as he neared it, he saw a movement in the shadows where it butted up against the charred wall of the officers’ residence, and Kat’s face appeared, looking at him questioningly.
Felix nodded his head in the direction of the figure on the hoarding, twice, then, as casually as he could, brought his hand up to his chest and made a small drawing and firing motion, as if he were pulling back on a tiny bow.
Kat seemed to get the idea, for she nodded and ducked back into the shadows to lift her bow off her shoulders and draw an arrow from her quiver.
Felix turned away from the temple and crossed to the entrance to the underkeep. The big doors were shut, but the little inset door was open. He stopped beside it, then leaned against the sturdy oak, as if just getting some air while watching the comings and goings of the courtyard.
Now he allowed himself a glance up at the hoarding, and saw that the crawling shadow was still there, and still obliviously at its work, whatever that might be. It stopped again at a point just parallel to the officers’ residence, reached down over the outer edge of the roof, paused for a few seconds and continued slowly on.
Unbeknownst to the shadow, however, forces were moving against it. From the ruins of the stables to Felix’s left came Snorri, walking towards the stairs to the wall in the west corner as if he hadn’t a care in the world. The squat silhouette of Rodi crept out the front door of the half-gutted knights’ residence and started for the stairs in the east. Gotrek trudged along the parapet, looking out over the battlements as if the zombie horde was the only thing on his mind. And on the peaked roof of the temple of Sigmar, Kat crept up the slant until she could see over the officers’ residence, then ducked back down and drew her bow to full extension.
Felix held his breath as Kat stepped out, pivoted and fired all in one fluid motion. It was too dark to see the shaft fly, but the there was no question that it had flown true. With a squawk like a frightened goose, the shadow on the hoarding reared up, clutching its shoulder, then crashed down on the shingles and rolled towards the edge.
Freed from the need of caution, the Slayers sped forwards, Snorri barging through the upper room of the gatehouse then bursting out the other side, Rodi pounding up the stairs, Gotrek rounding the east corner and passing him. Kat stood and drew back another arrow, but before she could fire, the shadow dropped off the edge of the hoarding.
Felix expected it to crash down dead on the roof of the officers’ residence, but to his surprise, it hit on all fours like a cat, and though the fall had definitely hurt it, it kept moving, scrambling down through a blackened hole in the slates that had been made by the fires.
All three Slayers jumped from the walls after it, then stomped down the roof to the hole and dived in.
By now, men all over the courtyard were looking up at the noise, and as Kat swung down from the temple roof and ran for the residence’s door, several fell in with her, drawing swords and daggers as she drew her hatchets. Felix stayed at the underkeep door with difficulty, wanting to be in on the action, but he had to stay where he was. In a game of cat and mouse, one had to guard all the holes.
From inside the half-burnt residence came thuddings and crashings and the roaring of dwarfs.
‘Snorri has him!’ shouted Snorri, and a second later, ‘No he doesn’t!’
Then Gotrek’s voice, enraged. ‘Stay in your rooms! Close your doors!’
And Rodi’s. ‘Get out of the way!’
A second later, the residence’s door burst open and a black shadow shot out. Kat leapt at it first, swinging both hatchets, but somehow it slipped past her and drove through the crowd, knocking them left and right. The men fell all over themselves trying to catch it, but it fought through and broke away, then ran for the underkeep.
Felix stepped in front of the small door and raised his sword, smiling grimly. He had done right staying at the hole – the wise cat who would get the mouse when all the others had failed.
The shadow came on, neither slowing or swerving, as Kat and the Slayers and the men of the castle ran after it. Felix raised Karaghul even higher as it ran straight at him, then swiped down, aiming for the clavicle, and connected… with nothing. The blade cut through the shadow as if it wasn’t there, and yet a second later it had shouldered him in the sternum hard enough to knock him flat, then ran over him into the underkeep.
Felix sprang up again, coughing and sucking air, and plunged in after it. It ran straight down the main hall, past the mess and the stores in the direction of the barracks at the end. If it reached them it would find plenty of places to hide within, and clothes to change into to disguise itself. Felix couldn’t let that happen. He surged on, pumping his legs as fast as he could, and wonder of wonders, he gained on it.
Halfway down the hall he sprang forwards and made a diving tackle at its legs. It was only as he was flying through the air that he noticed that the figure had no arrow sticking from its shoulder.
He grabbed at the figure’s berobed legs and they went down together, but something felt very wrong. Felix didn’t feel legs under the robes. Indeed the robes didn’t feel like robes.
They hit the floor as one, but as the figure slapped down, it exploded into a swarm of squeaking black shapes that fluttered around his face then up into the air. Felix clutched at them wildly and crushed one in his hand. It sank needle-sharp claws into his index finger as it stilled – a tiny little bat, but rotten with mould and decay.
The rest of the swarm looped up and around and shot for the door just as Kat and the Slayers and the rest of the men pushed through. They shielded their faces as the little beasts battered past them and vanished into the night.
‘Where is he?’ growled Gotrek, walking towards Felix.
Felix stood and held out his hand to show the mangled bat corpse. ‘Here,’ he said. ‘And the flock that flew out the door.’
Kat shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I hit a man. I heard him yelp. This was a decoy.’ She started running towards the door. ‘Back to the officers’ residence! Quickly!’
Rodi shook his head. ‘He won’t be there. He sent us chasing in here so he could slip away.’
Gotrek nodded, disgusted. ‘We lost him.’
‘But we haven’t,’ said Felix. ‘We just have to look for a man with a wounded shoulder.’
Gotrek raised a shaggy eyebrow. ‘How many men in Castle Reikguard don’t have a wounded shoulder?’
Felix’s heart sank. The Slayer was right. After all the fighting, everyone in the castle was hurt in some way. Even if they found a man with a puncture wound, how would they prove it had been Kat’s arrow that made it?
‘Do you have a better plan?’ Felix asked.
‘Aye,’ said Gotrek, walking away. ‘Kill everybody. Then we’re sure to get him.’
The steward, when he was roused from his bed and given the news, seemed close to tears. ‘Again?’ he said, pacing before the underkeep doors. ‘Again?’
He stopped suddenly and turned to his officers. ‘Wake everyone,’ he said. ‘Assemble them before the temple of Sigmar. I will not wait until after morning mess to speak. We will begin now. This will end today!’
‘My lord,’ said von Volgen, who had followed von Geldrecht down from the keep like a dour shadow, ‘as the Slayer says, everyone is wounded. It will be difficult–’
The steward waved that away. ‘There will be no need to check for wounds,’ he said. ‘I have a better way. We will find him out, you can be certain of that.’
But as he watched von Geldrecht limp away, Felix thought von Volgen didn’t look very certain at all.
