by Warhammer
‘No, admiral,’ Frekrin answered.
A thought came to Thorki. ‘Check his cabin. Find his box.’ If Grokmund had not been thrown overboard by the attackers, then he might have gone below to check on their find. The quartermaster hurried below to carry out his orders.
‘Above us! Above us!’ Frantic cries rained down from the observation cupola high up on the endrin. The shouts were echoed from the remaining skyriggers as they turned their heads upwards.
‘Gods below,’ Thorki prayed as he stared into the heavens.
Like a gathering fog, a colossal shape appeared in the sky above the Kharadron fleet. Its dimensions were enormous, twice the length of even the Stormbreaker. A huge reptile with scales of lustrous blue and blackish green, immense wings that stretched away from its broad shoulders and fanned out for a dozen yards in either direction. Four massive legs were folded against its pallid underside, each ending in a set of sickle-like talons. A serpentine tail writhed behind it, tipped by a cluster of blackened spikes. Along its back, like a phalanx of spearmen, were double rows of spines, transparent membranes held taut between them. The beast’s head was elongated, jutting forwards in a fanged snout, bulbous multifaceted eyes bulging from the edge of its horned skull. The head was supported by a long, sinuous neck, a neck that was bifurcated midway along its length. Here the neck branched out into a thick stump to which a second, smaller head was attached.
‘Dragon!’ Thorki bellowed, the word rushing across the deck like a sliver of ice. He turned back towards the volley cannon. ‘Reload! Reload!’ The depleted gunners frantically tried to match the urgency of the admiral’s tone.
Shouts of alarm rose from each of the ships, commands yelled across voice pipes calling for more speed and hasty manoeuvres. A barrage of gunfire struck up at the flying reptile, lances of aethershot from rifles, which crackled ineffectually across the thick scales. Heavier weapons struggled to draw a bead upon the monster as the ships that carried them tried to re-position themselves. A harpoon flew up at the wyrm, passing through the membrane of its wing. The cannon of a Grundstok gunhauler roared, smashing its salvo against the beast’s belly.
With a thunderous shriek of annoyance, the dragon hurtled downwards. Its claw smashed into the gunhauler that had fired at its belly, shearing through its endrin and turning the vessel into so much wreckage. The crumpled ship fell towards the earth, smoke and shimmering aether bleeding from its ruptured hull.
Thorki scrambled back up the ladder and helped his crew rearm the volley cannon. ‘Aim for the belly,’ he enjoined the gunners.
Hurriedly they targeted the descending dragon and fired. The fusillade crackled against the wyrm’s scales but not so ineffectually as the gunhauler’s salvo. The dragon howled in pain, smoke and blood dribbling from the pock-mark scars inflicted by the cannon. With an angry hiss, the reptile dived upon the ironclad.
The thunderers and arkanauts on the decks fired their guns at the beast as it came for their ship. Endrinriggers detached the cables that bound them to the ironclad and rose up to meet the oncoming beast. Drill cannons and skyhooks peppered the scaly hide but did nothing to stem the reptile’s descent. A lash of the dragon’s tail sent two endrinriggers tumbling through the sky, their aether-endrins ruptured by the violence of the assault. A third was reduced to pulp by the monster’s talons, his corpse flung back at the ironclad like a mangled bullet.
‘Faster! Faster!’ Thorki howled at the gunners as they rearmed the volley cannon. Every second more of his crew was slaughtered by the beast. Every instant might bring final destruction to them all. He turned his head, staring up at the reptilian behemoth. What he saw matched his worst fear.
A glowing fire built at the back of the dragon’s throats. Both heads leered down at the Stormbreaker. With a deafening rush, the wyrm sent its fire spilling down upon the ship. The endrin supporting the ironclad shuddered, hoses and pipes rupturing as the tremendous heat washed across them, the lookout posted in its cupola broiled in his own armour. The flames swept down onto the decks, melting armour and fastenings, evaporating cables and ropes. The arkanauts caught in the blast were cooked instantly, reduced to sooty smears on the deck. A few surviving thunderers took aim, firing a couple of vindictive shots at the brute.
The dragon roared, the wrathful note rolling across the sky like thunder. Its dive brought it slamming down onto the endrin. Claws impervious to the heat of its own fire clenched tight about the bulky device, tearing into its metal skin. It swung its heads around as Thorki brought the volley cannon to bear upon it.
‘We’ll hit the endrin!’ one of the gunners protested when he saw what Thorki intended.
‘We will also hit the dragon,’ Thorki told them. There was not any help for it. If they held off, the reptile would send them crashing anyway. If they brought the beast down with them then at least they could save the rest of the fleet.
The hesitation of the gunners was brief, but long enough for their enemy. Hissing, the dragon sprang from its perch upon the crumpled endrin and came lunging down on the forecastle. The volley cannon was smashed under its massive weight. Thorki cried out in agony as the beast’s weight pressed down on him, pinning him beneath its huge claws. Almost daintily, the dragon’s main head arched down and snapped up one of the gunners. Jealous, the secondary head bit at the dangling legs, tugging at its portion of the prey until the doomed gunner was pulled in half.
Shots from the other ships of the fleet turned the dragon from its gory repast. A fresh surge of pain swept through Thorki as the reptile lunged up into the air and the tremendous weight lifted from him. The heavy armour he wore had offered scant protection from the dragon’s enormity. Instead of bursting under its mass he’d been crushed, ribs splintered and bones shattered. Blood dribbled from his torn body, surrounding him in an expanding pool. It was all he could do to keep his eyes open, to resist the pull of the grave as warmth fled from his flesh.
Thorki could see some surviving thunderers desperately trying to climb up to the endrin, to repair some measure of the damage inflicted upon it. Even as they dragged wreckage over to form a crude ladder, one of the compromised reservoirs inside the endrin burst, belching a stream of aether gases. Thorki heard their cries of horror as the ironclad’s plight became clear. The ship lurched, throwing the broken admiral to the deck below.
Thorki landed in a tangle of shattered limbs. He felt hands fumbling at him, managed to turn his head enough to see Frekrin trying to drag him away with one hand while the other gripped Grokmund’s box. Sight of the aether-khemist’s treasured find added a final note of bitterness to Thorki’s ordeal.
‘Too late,’ Thorki told Frekrin. ‘All is lost.’
Frekrin persisted in trying to move Thorki. ‘There’s still a chance, admiral. If we…’
Whatever the quartermaster intended, it remained unspoken. The stricken ironclad lurched again, drawing renewed cries of despair from the surviving crew. Frekrin was knocked off his feet, even the magnetised boots unable to maintain their grip. Thorki saw him thrown across the deck to fall into a hole in the planks near the forecastle. One instant he was there, then he was gone.
Much like Thorki’s ship, the admiral reflected. The efforts to save the endrin were futile. The end was inevitable now. ‘All is lost,’ Thorki repeated. He felt the tomb closing around him, his pulse faltering in his veins.
A last cry of terror from his crew reached Thorki’s ears.
The buoyancy of the ship failed and Stormbreaker fell like a rock into the valley miles below.
Khoram watched the ironclad’s destruction with a deep satisfaction. It was like planting a seed. A seed from which great things would grow.
The sorcerer glanced back at the rampaging dragon as it ploughed across the sky, striking the survivors of the fleet. A frigate that had survived its first attack now hurtled earthwards as a twisted mess of wreckage. The others would soon follow it. Khoram didn’t give their obliteration much concern. All that was of consequence to him was th
at the ironclad was where he needed it to be. The valley the Orb of Zobras had shown him.
The field that would soon yield a most auspicious fruit.
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A BLACK LIBRARY PUBLICATION
First published in Great Britain in 2013.
This eBook edition published in 2019 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.
Produced by Games Workshop in Nottingham.
Cover illustration by Tomas Duchek.
Map by Nuala Kinrade.
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ISBN: 978-1-78999-452-0
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Table of Contents
Cover
Backlist
Title Page
Warhammer Chronicles
Map
ELFSLAYER
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
SLAYER OF THE STORM GOD
SHAMANSLAYER
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-one
Twenty-two
ZOMBIESLAYER
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-one
Twenty-two
Twenty-three
Twenty-four
Twenty-five
Twenty-six
THE FUNERAL OF GOTREK GURNISSON
SLAYER’S HONOUR
A Gotrek & Felix Gazetteer
About the Authors
An Extract from ‘Overlords of the Iron Dragon’
A Black Library Publication
eBook license
Table of Contents
Cover
Backlist
Title Page
Warhammer Chronicles
Map
ELFSLAYER
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
SLAYER OF THE STORM GOD
SHAMANSLAYER
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-one
Twenty-two
ZOMBIESLAYER
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-one
Twenty-two
Twenty-three
Twenty-four
Twenty-five
Twenty-six
THE FUNERAL OF GOTREK GURNISSON
SLAYER’S HONOUR
A Gotrek & Felix Gazetteer
About the Authors
An Extract from ‘Overlords of the Iron Dragon’
A Black Library Publication
eBook license
Table of Contents
Cover
Backlist
Title Page
Warhammer Chronicles
Map
ELFSLAYER
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
SLAYER OF THE STORM GOD
SHAMANSLAYER
One
Two
Three
Four
