by ich du
As he wrote the last symbol, Valaris's chant became a song, high and beautiful and terrifying. He moved around the waystone in a slow, sinuous dance, and with each move, it felt as if all Reiner's blood was being pulled to the front of his body. His pulse pounded behind his eyes and in his ears. His heart pounded as if he had run a ten mile race. His fingers and toes throbbed.
The song grew wilder, as did Valaris's movements, and the pressure increased inexorably. Dieter and Gert cried out. Darius vomited. Spatters of blood appeared on Valaris's chest and back, partially obscuring the symbols. Reiner thought at first that they came from the dark elf's seven wounds, but as he looked down at himself, he saw that the blood from his wounded wrist was dripping, not to the floor, but sideways toward Valaris. Drops flew at the elf from all the Blackhearts, as if he had become the centre of gravity.
That gravity was getting stronger. Reiner's whole body was being pulled forward. The ropes cut into his flesh cruelly. It felt as if his heart would burst from his chest, and it came to him with a nauseous shudder that this was exactly what was meant to happen - a tenfold coronary explosion that would bathe Valaris in heart-blood and give him the power to crack the waystone. Reiner suddenly knew he was going to die. Augustus would not arrive in time. This was the end.
He turned his head to Manfred. 'Valdenheim! For your pity, who was the spy?'
But Manfred had lost consciousness, his head bobbling at the end of his neck.
Reiner turned to Franka. 'Franka!'
She looked up. Her mouth drooled red and the whites of her eyes were flooded with blood.
'Franka!' he called. 'I beg you, beloved, before we die! Forgive me! Say you forgive me!
Franka's face twisted in disgust. 'Before we die?' she choked. 'I am already dead. You killed me when you killed Augustus.'
'No, listen!' He opened his mouth to tell her the truth, but with a jerk, the pressure increased violently. Blood streamed from his nose and mouth to splash on Valaris's torso. He couldn't breathe. Couldn't speak. The pain was incredible, but the agony of his mind was greater. He wanted to weep. It was so unfair. How could he die with Franka thinking him a cold-blooded murderer?
His head began to fill with screams and shrieks. At first he thought it was the others dying, or the mad whispers in his head calling to him, but then he heard the ring of steel above the shouting. Was Valaris striking the waystone with his knife?
He forced his eyes open. Valaris was looking over his shoulder. The pressure eased. The roaring in Reiner's brain faded.
As Valaris stopped altogether, Reiner and the others sagged in their ropes, sucking in great ragged breaths. Now Reiner could hear it - the clamour and clash of battle. The mutants were running into the huge cavern, waving their makeshift weapons.
Valaris stared after them, then turned burning eyes on Reiner, knife raised. 'You... you deceived me!' Reiner flinched and twisted in his ropes, but the dark elf paused as he drew back the knife, and raised his head like a wolf scenting blood on the wind. 'Teclis!' A leering smile spread across his face. 'You have brought me my prey, captain. For that, you shall die correctly.'
He crossed to his strange bedchamber and snatched up his sword and bow, then called to the few mutants that remained in the chamber. 'Come, slaves. There is blood to be spilled!' He strode into the big cavern at their head.
Hals laughed wearily. Blood ran in rivulets from his eyes, nose and mouth. 'So Augustus comes through at last.'
'And not before time,' said Pavel, spitting crimson.
'Au... Augustus?' said Franka, looking up, wide-eyed.
Reiner coughed blood. 'It was a trick. Dieter only pretended to kill him.' He swallowed. 'I couldn't tell you without telling Valaris. I'm sorry.'
Franka gaped at him, then looked away with a sob, trying to bury her face in her shoulder.
'You mean,' said Manfred groggily, 'you mean we are saved?'
'If Augustus brought enough troops,' said Reiner.
At that moment, Danziger came through the arch with his men. He smiled as he saw the Blackhearts' predicament. 'How convenient,' he said. 'We will be rid of your meddling once and for all.'
TWENTY
Spears To The Front
DANZIGER ENTERED AND motioned his men towards the waystone. 'Put it in the casket and hide it. We'll return for it when the others have gone.' He turned toward Reiner, grinning evilly. 'I reserve this pleasure for myself.' 'Lord Danziger,' said Manfred. 'What is the meaning of this?' Danziger turned sharply, seeing Manfred for the first time. 'Count Manfred! We... we believed you dead.'
For a moment, Reiner thought Danziger would try to dissemble his earlier words, but then a cunning smile curled his lips and he looked back at the door.
'And why shouldn't you be?' He turned from Reiner to Danziger. 'What a coup this will be for Slaanesh! A count of the Empire.'
'You filthy cultist,' spat Manfred. 'You reveal yourself at last. You will burn for this.'
Danziger put his dagger to Manfred's chest and cut through the top button of his doublet as, behind him, his men waddled the waystone to the coffin. 'And who will know it was I? I will run out weeping that the elf has slain you, and-'
'Spears ready!' roared a voice from the door. 'Talabheimers, attack!'
Danziger and his men spun, groping for their swords. The waystone crashed down, smashing the coffin and crushing the legs of two of the men. Out of the shadows ran, not a company of spearmen, but a single man, his spear levelled. Augustus!
The pikeman ran past Danziger and the confused cultists, straight for Reiner. For a terrifying second, Reiner thought Augustus was coming to kill him, but then he saw the mad laughter in his eyes a realised he meant to cut him free.
'Not me, you fool!' Reiner shouted. 'Jergen!'
Augustus veered right and chopped at Jergen's ropes. The spear was an awkward tool for the job, but fortunately the ropes were rotten and Jergen's strength immense. He heaved mightily at the partially cut cords and they popped and hung slack.
'Behind you!' shouted Reiner.
Augustus whirled about, swinging his spear like a sword and fanning back Danziger's men, who had run up behind him.
Jergen drew his dagger and slashed at the ropes around his chest.
Augustus took a sword across the back of his breastplate and dodged behind Jergen's stone. The cultists followed him.
'You imbeciles!' shrieked Danziger. 'Don't kill the free one! Kill the trapped ones before they're freed!'
And putting action to his words, he started toward Manfred again as his men tried to get around Augustus to the bound Blackhearts. Haggard as Manfred was, there was some fight in him. He kicked Danziger in the stomach.
Danziger cursed, and dodged aside to cut Manfred's throat from behind, but he was too late. Jergen was free and leapt at him, sword drawn. Danziger shied away and Jergen slashed through Manfred's bonds with a single stroke, then spun and did the same for Reiner before running to defend Pavel and Hals from three cultists. Augustus jumped before Dieter and Gert, fending off two others.
Reiner staggered forwards and fumbled out his sword, his arms numb and weak. His mouth and nose were still filled with blood and it was hard to breathe. On his right, Manfred wrestled Danziger for possession of a dagger. On his left, two cultists were approaching Franka's stone.
'No!' Reiner shouted. He lunged at them, but as they turned, he found he had little strength to fight them. Valaris's ceremony had left him trembling and sore. He managed to parry the left one's thrust, but the other nearly took his ear off.
Elsewhere, however, the tide was turning. Jergen had freed Hals and felled another cultist, and Hals was freeing Pavel. Now in possession of Danziger's dagger, Manfred circled the cult leader, who jabbed at him with his sword.
Reiner wiped his nose and flicked the blood in the eyes of his left-hand opponent, then drove the one on the right back toward Franka. She raised both feet and kicked him in the spine. He stumbled forward, yelping, right into Reiner's out-thrust b
lade, and then Reiner faced only one.
As he saw Jergen cut down another of his men, Danziger finally had enough. He sprang back from Manfred shouting, 'Fall back! This is foolishness. We will win another way!'
His men danced out of their engagements and raced with him for the door. Hals and Pavel gave chase.
'No! Regroup!' Reiner shouted over the battle beyond the door.
Pavel and Hals stopped and turned back, then helped Reiner and Augustus cut down Franka and the others as Dieter slit the throats of the men crushed by the waystone.
'Thankee, lad,' said Reiner to Augustus. 'Wasn't sure you'd come back.'
Augustus's face darkened. 'I came for the stone.'
'Could ha' done that without cutting us down,' said Hals. 'We're obliged.'
Augustus snorted and glared at Reiner. 'Couldn't let the captain die. I owe 'im a kick in the eggs.'
'You have all done well,' said Manfred as they bound their wounds and gathered their weapons. 'If we survive this adventure, you shall all be richly rewarded.'
'Never mind that, jagger,' said Hals. 'Just free us like ye promised. That's all we ask.'
Manfred smiled. 'You need have no fear about that. Now, are we ready?'
Reiner frowned as the Blackhearts fell in behind Manfred. What had he meant, exactly? Gert also seemed to be wondering, for he was staring hard at Manfred's back.
Blinding flashes of blue and white light illuminated the door, and through it they could see the battle only in brief silhouetted flickers of seething bodies and glinting blades. The mutants surged around a square of men in a thick, undisciplined horde, more pouring into the cavern from the tunnels.
At the fore fought von Pfaltzen and the countess's guard, blood and black fluids staining their green and buff uniforms. On the far side of the battle Boellengen shouted orders at his handgunners as they emptied a volley into the churning mass. Scharnholt's men and Totkrieg's Hammers supported the handgunners, cutting down the mutants who survived their fusillades. A hundred Talabheimers under Hunter Lord Keinholtz defended the near side of the formation, spears in front, bowmen firing over their heads. Danziger, now returned to the main body of his men, encouraged them from the rear, shouting and waving his sword. Nearer the main entrance, Lord Schott's greatswords and Raichskell's Templars were doing butcher's work among the madmen. They were red to the elbows and mutants lay in waist high drifts around them.
But though the mutants died in droves, having only the crudest armour and weapons, they also fought with suicidal abandon, throwing themselves at the men without any regard for safety, and many a throat was torn out and gut ripped with their dying breath. They impaled themselves on swords and spears solely to drag them down so their brothers and sisters could rush over them and overwhelm their slayers.
In the centre of the conflict was the source of the blinding light. Like dark and light stars circling each other in a swirling celestial vortex, Teclis, in shining armour and Valaris, naked to the waist, attacked each other with spell and sword. Their blades glanced off each other's wards in showers of sparks, and their spells and counter spells met and burst against each other like colliding waves. Neither was making any headway against the other. It seemed the loser would be he who tired first, and Teclis, though no longer at death's door, looked feeble and exhausted.
Reiner was surprised to see Teclis without his guard, but then he saw them, lying at Valaris's feet, black bowshafts sprouting from their chests and throats.
'M'lord,' said Reiner to Manfred. 'The mutants only fight at the dark elf's bidding. Once he is killed, they will lose heart.'
Manfred nodded. 'Then you know your duty, captain. Kill him. I will join Boellengen and direct his men to cover your attack.'
'But... but m'lord,' said Reiner. 'He is warded by dark magics. We haven't a hope.
'Then distract him and allow Teclis to prevail.'
Reiner saluted to keep himself from punching the count. 'Yes, m'lord. As you command, m'lord.' He turned to his companions. 'Blackhearts! Spears to the front! Forward!'
'Spiteful jagger,' grunted Hals. 'Wants to kill us before he has to let us go.'
Teclis and Valaris fought behind the mutants' line, the biggest, most monstrous mutants defending the dark elf from the spears of the Talabheim guard. Valaris's back was, however, entirely unprotected, and the Blackhearts charged for him across empty ground, Hals, Pavel and Augustus at the fore, Reiner, Dieter and Jergen on the flanks with Franka and Gert at the back, nocking arrows. Darius stumbled along behind, whimpering as usual.
Jergen, Reiner, Dieter and the spearmen stabbed and slashed at Valaris's naked back as one. Blinding sparks cracked, and their weapons bounced away as if they had swung them at granite. Reiner's hand stung like he had grabbed a thorn bush.
Valaris glanced back, and in that brief second Teclis pounced, battering him with a barrage of spells and sword strikes. The dark elf spun back, parrying and muttering madly to protect himself. At last he recovered and their stalemate resumed.
'Again!' called Reiner.
The Blackhearts struck another blow at Valaris, but this time his attention didn't leave Teclis. Instead, five of the massive mutants, each taller than Augustus and broader than Jergen, turned like automatons from the battle line and attacked, swinging huge clubs and claws and rusty greatswords.
Pavel and Hals squared off against a towering thing with a horse-skull head and bones that grew through its skin in a lattice of armoured ridges, ducking its bony, hammer-like fists. Jergen closed with a red, woolly-haired beast with four arms and four swords. Augustus plunged his spear into an obese doughy thing. It stuck like glue and the monster clawed the spearman as he tried to yank it out again. Dieter hacked at a walking flower.
It had long legs and useless, shrivelled arms that flopped at its sides, but a head like a sea anemone with long ropy tentacles and a snapping beak at the centre. Gert and Franka stood back and peppered the things with bolts and arrows.
Reiner hacked at a broad, leather-skinned thing with a mouth that split its pumpkin head from ear to ear. It laughed at his attacks. One of Franka's arrows dangled harmlessly from its thick hide. Reiner cursed as he ducked the thing's claws. If the Blackhearts could reach Valaris again it might be enough. They had proved that a single distraction could be his undoing. But would they get a chance? Teclis was weaker than before. He had put too much into his last attack, hoping to end the fight, and was flagging. Valaris sensed this and pressed him hard, eyes shining. His crystal glowed like a star on his chest. Beyond the Talabheimers' line, Reiner saw Manfred directing Boellengen and Schott toward them. They would undoubtedly be too late.
Reiner blinked. The crystal. The crystal!
'Reiner! Look out!' screamed Franka.
Reiner flinched back and leather-skin's claws slashed his shoulder, knocking him to the ground. It raised its arms, roaring, then stumbled back, yelping, an arrow jutting from the roof of its mouth. Pavel and Hals gored it simultaneously, and it fell, spraying blood. Horse-head lay dead behind them, bloody spear wounds between its external ribs.
'Thankee, lads,' said Reiner as he picked himself up. His shoulder was shredded and bloody, but he couldn't take his eyes from Valaris. The crystal must help the dark elf absorb Teclis's magical attacks. If Reiner could take it... But that was impossible. A sword couldn't penetrate the assassin's defences, how could a hand?
Then he noticed something curious. As Jergen pressed the four-armed thing, it stepped back into Valaris's sphere of protection and was not repulsed, though the wild swings of its four swords still bounced away.
Augustus, Hals and Dieter killed the sticky, blubbery thing. Hals and Augustus held it at arm's length with their spears and Dieter knifed it under the ear. They had to abandon their weapons though, for they could not withdraw them. They found shoddy replacements among the dead mutants and helped the others. Gert shot the flower thing through the heart and it died lashing its tentacles in violent spasms. Jergen cut four-arms' legs out from
under it, and pinned it to the ground as it fell on its face.
'All on Valaris!' said Reiner. 'And don't mind that you can't hit him.'
The Blackhearts attacked the dark elfs back and the flanks, though all their strikes rang on shimmering air long before they touched him.
'Back away!' called Teclis, angrily, before returning to his mumbling.
'No! Keep at it!' said Reiner, and stepped behind the dark elf, praying the others held his attention. He reached forward. It felt like he pushed his hand into a hot wind. The air glistened around his fingers. He moved slower and the wind lessened, but as he reached further, his hand began to prickle, and then to sizzle with pain. It felt as if he was reaching into boiling water. He expected to see his flesh blistering, but it looked no different.
The pain made him try to push harder, and he lost three inches as the barrier shoved his hand back. He forced himself to creep ahead, though he trembled with agony and sweat poured into his eyes. Another inch. He had to shift as Valaris and Teclis circled and the Blackhearts kept up their futile attacks. Another inch. He could almost touch the dark elf's back. His arm was on fire to his shoulder. The pain made him dizzy. His knees shook. Another inch. His fingers rose toward the silver chain. Now his face was within the sphere. It felt as if the skin was peeling from his cheeks. His fingers closed on the silver chain. He shoved forward and was thrust back violently by the barrier. The chain snapped and came with him. He landed in a heap three yards away, spasming and dizzy.
'No!' screamed Valaris, spinning around. 'What have you...?'
Teclis's eyes flashed. He thrust his palms forward. The air around Valaris warped and his chest collapsed, his ribs snapping and jutting through his white skin. Air hissed from his slack mouth. He flopped to the ground, dead and staring, blood pooling around him.
Teclis fell to the ground too, utterly spent, and the Blackhearts made a protective ring around him. There was no need. With Valaris's death, the mutants' fury dissipated, and they fled from the assembled companies.
