Blighted Empire tbp-2

by C. L. Werner

  Hundreds of feet above, Lothar could see the pulsing streams of light bowing inwards. Again, he could not shake the impression of a beating heart. There was only one heart that could have provoked such resonance. Whether he was still in control or not, Vanhal was alive.

  How long he could remain that way was something Lothar didn’t know. No man could tap into such forces, channel them through mere flesh and spirit for long. Whatever his purpose, Vanhal had to be restrained before the power he had unleashed consumed him.

  The altar of bones rotated upon a nimbus of wailing emanations far above the framework of Vanhaldenschlosse’s highest tower. The stone roof below was rendered almost transparent by the phantom harmonies, its substance taking upon itself something of the spectral essence of the forces rushing through it.

  Lothar could feel his own flesh fading, evaporating into an ethereal shadow. Only by fierce exertion of his will was he able to maintain his grip on corporeal substance. As he climbed onto the half-circle of the roof, he stared up at Vanhal’s levitating altar above him, at the grotesquery of the necromancer himself, his black robes whipping about him as daemon winds clawed at his spirit. He stood in a nimbus of ghostly fog that blazed with fearful fires. Green ghoul-lights blazed from Vanhal’s eyes, ghostly flashes of energy rippled from his outstretched arms. With each pulsation of the energies rising from the menhirs, the necromancer appeared to flicker, to phase out of reality only to reappear before he could entirely fade away.

  Vanhal was doing more than simply harnessing the magic rushing up through his tower — he was becoming one with that power! As impossible as such a thing might seem, when Lothar lifted his gaze to stare at the sky above the skeletal altar, he received an even bigger shock. The stars were aligned differently than they had been when he entered the tower. Somehow, Vanhal had caused the castle to slip through time, to fall into the vacuity between seconds and emerge in another. In the rest of the world, the stars sat in the month of Vorhexen. But the tower had leaped ahead. It existed in the dark hours of Hexentag!

  The baron nearly lost his concentration, that fragile link that kept his flesh from fading into a ghostly vapour. The enormity of such a feat was beyond anything he had believed possible. Yet there must be some motive behind Vanhal’s act, some dire need that had pushed him to such a supreme and dangerous evocation.

  Hexentag! That was the answer. The aethyric current flowing through the tower would be even more potent in the haunted hours of that ominous day. Yet the answer itself begged another question: why did Vanhal need all this arcane energy?

  Casting his gaze away from the stars and the necromancer’s altar, Lothar looked down to the plain far below. At once he saw the massed formations of Vanhal’s undead legions, arrayed across the landscape like chessmen on a board. The size of that army would have impressed him had it not been for the still greater host scurrying towards the silent ranks of walking dead. Skaven! The verminous Underfolk of myth turned into hideous reality. This was the enemy Vanhal had tried to prepare for, but the monsters had come too soon. Their multitudes were innumerable. They were a chittering colossus descending upon the puny army arrayed against them.

  Lothar could hear the first bestial shrieks as the ratmen struck the front ranks of zombies, hacking and clawing their way through decayed flesh and bleached bone with murderous fury. The undead tried to repel the vermin, but their numbers were too small to hold the foe back.

  ‘The gnawing rat will not befoul the dream,’ Vanhal’s words slashed across Lothar’s ears like a knife. ‘Not this time,’ the necromancer vowed, his eyes blazing more brightly.

  ‘Nothing can stand against that,’ Lothar protested, waving his hand at the swarming vermin below. ‘You must use your magic to make the tower disappear!’

  ‘I have used my magic,’ Vanhal hissed. ‘But it is the skaven who will disappear.’ The necromancer raised his hand, ribbons of spectral light rippling along his fingers, making the bones glow beneath his wizened flesh.

  Lothar followed the pointing finger of his master. What colour was left in his pale countenance drained away as a gargantuan shape soared down from the heavens, blotting out those incongruous stars. As it descended towards the tower, the luminescent tendrils of power revealed its monstrous form, a scaly leviathan of muscle and sinew, of decayed flesh and exposed bone. Tattered pinions held it aloft, fanning a necrotic stench across the tower. A great tail undulated behind it, the forked tip flashing through the streamers of aethyric vibration. No face, no matter how horrific, could have matched the grisly stump of neck that projected from the gigantic shoulders. The head had been cut clean away long ago, leaving only a gaping wound dark with clotted blood and wriggling worms.

  It was a dragon. Vanhal had used his magic to raise the bones of a dragon as one of his undead slaves! This was the weapon the necromancer’s sorcery had drawn to destroy the skaven horde.

  ‘The most recently killed of dragonkind,’ Vanhal pronounced. ‘He will be your warhorse. Strike down the skaven. Leave none alive.’

  As he stared up at the zombie dragon, Lothar almost felt sorry for those slinking creatures down below.

  Chapter XV

  Altdorf

  Brauzeit, 1114

  Kreyssig turned away from the empty throne and slowly descended the steps leading up to the dais. He ignored the pair of armoured Kaiserknecht who flanked the throne Boris had left behind when he retreated from the plague-stricken city. For their part, the knights did their best to ignore him too. Their grand master had made no secret of his displeasure over taking orders from a commoner.

  Still, whatever his feelings, Grand Master Leiber had too many ideas about honour and duty to refuse Kreyssig’s commands. So long as Kreyssig wore the regalia of the Emperor’s chosen Protector, he could depend upon the unwavering loyalty of the Kaiserknecht — whatever he asked them to do.

  Half a dozen of the armoured warriors came trooping into the Winter Audience Hall, their steel clattering as they filed through the frescoed entry and passed beneath the magnificent lattice of silver and ivory that hovered between the ornamental pillars lining the entry. Between them, looking dishevelled and unruly, the left side of his face purple with a fresh bruise, Duke Vidor loped into the hall, his arms laden down with iron manacles and a great collar locked about his neck.

  A thin smile formed on Kreyssig’s face as he observed Vidor’s humiliation. There was something supremely satisfying about seeing a noble brought low, humbled and humiliated as they humbled and humiliated the thousands of peasants they exploited. Given the chance, he would see all of the blue-bloods in chains, dragged through the streets like cattle before being strung up by their perfumed necks.

  Only for a moment did Kreyssig relish that vision of an Empire free from the parasitic nobility, free from the tyranny of breeding and pedigree. An Empire where even a mere peasant might become ruler if he were cautious enough. Ruthless enough.

  For the moment, Kreyssig had to balance the two, caution and ruthlessness. The nobles were too entrenched to depose. Nor was it desirous to discard them out of hand. Not when they might still prove useful.

  ‘Leave us,’ Kreyssig told the duke’s escort. The knights saluted stiffly, then filed from the room. Kreyssig turned his head, repeated the order to the Kaiserknecht beside the throne. Without a word, the armoured warriors withdrew.

  Kreyssig waited until the knights were gone before approaching the shackled duke. ‘Now we can speak more freely,’ he said.

  Vidor’s face contorted into an expression of withering contempt. ‘If you expect me to beg, you may as well just kill me now. I’ll not grovel before a peasant.’

  ‘If I wanted to hear you beg, I would never have brought you to the palace,’ Kreyssig said. ‘You would have gone to the Courts of Justice with all the other profiteering traitors.’

  ‘What happened?’ Vidor scoffed. ‘Couldn’t your Kaiserjaeger fabricate enough evidence for you? Or did somebody warn you that you have already gone too far? The
nobility won’t sit idle while you cart them off on trumped up allegations of treason!’

  ‘I have only purged the Imperial court of a few villains who were seeking to aggrandize themselves while their liege lords are away,’ Kreyssig said, though he made little effort to put any conviction in his voice. ‘I don’t think Altdorf will miss a dozen or so grasping counts and barons, do you?’

  Before Duke Vidor could answer, Kreyssig was walking back towards the Emperor’s throne. Vidor gasped in shock as the Protector sat in the Imperial seat. Kreyssig smiled at the noble’s offended dignity. Deftly working his fingers under the throne’s armrest, he pulled at a concealed knob.

  Vidor’s shock was redoubled when the entire throne began to pivot, swinging out from the dais and exposing a flight of stairs concealed beneath the throne. ‘The entire palace is a maze of hidden corridors and secret passages. Prince Sigdan was fortunate to catch Emperor Boris in one of the few chambers without a hidden exit.’ Kreyssig laughed. ‘Actually, the Harmony Salon did have a hollow wall, but the Emperor had it filled in because he felt it was detrimental to the acoustics.’

  The commander rose and stepped away from the throne, posting himself at the head of the hidden stair. Vidor watched him with growing nervousness, tempted to bolt and run while Kreyssig was seemingly distracted. The indignity of such a retreat stifled such intentions. He might cower before an Emperor, but he would be damned if he were going to flee from a peasant.

  Kreyssig bent over, reaching down into the hidden stairway. A slim hand, gloved in purple, reached up from the passage beneath the throne, accepting the commander’s waiting grip. Soon he was escorting the Baroness von den Linden, svelte in a close-fitting gown the colour of ambergris, down the steps of the dais. Behind them, the Imperial throne rotated back to its former position.

  ‘What… what is that… witch…’ Vidor gasped, fear for the first time unseating the enforced calmness demanded by his noble bearing.

  ‘Have a care, Vidor,’ Kreyssig snarled. ‘It is by her ladyship’s grace that you are here and not down in the Dragon’s Hole.’

  The baroness stepped away from Kreyssig as she reached the floor. Stroking the kitten she held in the crook of her arm, she approached the chained Vidor. The aristocrat began to shiver as the witch drew near, Auernheimer’s story about summoned daemons rising unbidden in his memory.

  ‘He will be more useful to us here,’ the baroness declared. Her gaze was cold as she locked eyes with Vidor. ‘Having failed once, he won’t be so foolish as to move against us a second time.’ She wagged a finger at the shackles and collar. ‘I think those are unnecessary. You must speak to your Kaiserknecht about their zeal.’

  Kreyssig reached into a pocket, removing a large brass key. He contemplated it for a moment. ‘I should scold them for their laxity,’ he observed, tossing the key at Vidor’s feet. ‘It doesn’t appear they broke any bones when they collected his grace.’

  Vidor stared in confusion from the key to Kreyssig and then to the baroness, wondering what sort of trap they had set for him.

  The witch noted his hesitancy. ‘There is no trick, your grace,’ she said, demonstrating the claim by leaning down and retrieving the key, slipping it between Vidor’s fingers. ‘Adolf has demonstrated his reach. This little display was arranged to impress upon you that, whatever his parentage, you are subject to his authority.’

  ‘My Kaiserjaeger weren’t able to find that fanatic you set after us,’ Kreyssig grumbled. ‘Otherwise you’d have a much more memorable display to impress you.’ His voice dipped, losing its element of forced charm. ‘When I find him, I’ll be sure to send the pieces to you.’

  Vidor fumbled at the lock to his shackles, still expecting some kind of trick. When the chains fell from his wrists, there was a look of disbelief in his eyes. Quickly, he repeated the procedure with the heavy collar.

  ‘That should convince you of our sincerity,’ the baroness said.

  Vidor looked from her to Kreyssig, uncertain which of them was in control. Which of them he needed to placate. ‘What about the others?’ he asked.

  ‘I told you, they are profiteering traitors,’ Kreyssig declared. ‘They will be publicly tried and executed. Their titles will be abolished and their holdings forfeit to the crown.’ Again, he reached into his pocket, removing a ruby-encrusted signet ring. He scrutinized it for a moment, before returning his gaze to the duke. ‘Baron von Forgach’s lands in the Ostermark have been something you’ve wanted for a long time.’ With a last look at the signet, he tossed the ring to Vidor. The duke wasn’t surprised when he saw the von Forgach coat of arms emblazoned on the jewel.

  ‘Von Forgach was a traitor,’ Kreyssig stated boldly, ‘leaving all of his lands to the crown for redisposition.’

  ‘You have proof of this?’ Vidor asked.

  Kreyssig laughed darkly. ‘The best. A signed confession.’

  Duke Vidor grimaced at the peasant’s lack of candour. Just the same, he drew a merely ornamental ring from one of his fingers and slipped the signet in its place. ‘Do not think you can buy my loyalty.’

  Kreyssig’s grim humour expressed itself in a grotesque smile. ‘If I cannot buy it, then I will compel it,’ he warned. ‘When you say that there would be an uproar if I were to try and prosecute you, it was something that had occurred to me. I wouldn’t presume to try such a thing. Not at all. If it comes to it, you will be dragged before the proctors of the Temple of Sigmar and tried for…’ Kreyssig paused, looking at Baroness von den Linden.

  ‘You will be arrested for heresy, your grace,’ the witch said. There was a dark gleam in her eyes as she added, ‘Anyone can be made to sign anything given the right incentive.’

  ‘And even your staunchest supporters will desert you if it is the Temple of Sigmar, not Protector Kreyssig, who prosecutes you,’ Kreyssig stated.

  Vidor glared at his enemies, realizing how utterly he had fallen into their clutches. ‘What is it you want of me?’ he demanded.

  Baroness von den Linden smiled slyly. ‘One last present for you. The Protector is going to reverse his earlier decision. You will be appointed the new Reiksmarshal and given command of the army we are building.’

  ‘I need to use the veterans of your previous campaign as the core of this new force,’ Kreyssig said. ‘As soon as my programme began, I realized Soehnlein was out of his league. I don’t have time for my soldiers to adapt themselves to a new leader. I need a leader they already know and respect. That makes you necessary.’

  It was Vidor’s turn to laugh, appreciating now the reason for such gracious treatment from Kreyssig and his witch. ‘You must be planning to move against Talabheim soon,’ he stated, guessing now the source of all the inflammatory rhetoric that was upsetting the commoners and even ruffling the feathers of some of the nobility.

  Again, the duke was due to be surprised. ‘The enemy we prepare for isn’t Talabheim,’ the baroness said. ‘The real enemy is much closer.’

  Vidor was puzzled by her statement, and by the nagging familiarity with which she said it. Suddenly he recalled a sermon given by Grand Theogonist Gazulgrund, something about ‘the inhuman enemy in our midst’. Indeed, of late the priests had been making quite a point about warning their flock about Old Night and its monstrous progeny.

  What sort of enemy, Vidor wondered, was it that these two were afraid of? What threat hovered over them that they needed an entire army to guard against it?

  And, more disturbing, how soon did they expect that threat to be realised?

  Abin-gnaw bent almost double as he abased himself before Sythar Doom. The Warpmaster’s gemstone eyes reflected the green luminance of the warplight as he turned away from the piebald tinkerer, who was filing his metal fangs and cleaning them of rust. The Grey Lord’s lips peeled back, exposing those fangs in a threatening snarl.

  ‘Disturb me, murder-rat, and you will feed the burrow-worms,’ Sythar hissed. He started to turn back to the tinkerer when his nose twitched, detecting a scent that had b
een nearly stifled by rat-dung and skaven blood. He peered down at Abin-gnaw, noticing for the first time the trembling cloaked shape huddled beside the ratman. Now that he focused upon the figure, he could tell that here was the source of the scent — the smell of frightened human.

  Abin-gnaw had done an expert job of concealing the creature’s smell, hiding its presence from the other skaven in the warren. That didn’t, however, explain why the murder-rat had brought a man-thing into the presence of a Lord of Decay. Suspicion flared through Sythar’s mind. Had one of the other leaders bribed Clan Skully to remove him as he had had Deacon Blistrr eliminated? General Twych wasn’t keen enough for such insight, but Grey Seer Pakritt might be! Hurriedly, Sythar swung around, tilting his head so that his groom-mechanic could reconnect the power cable to his jaw. At the same time, he gestured wildly with his paws, waving his warpguard to surround Abin-gnaw and the human.

  ‘Great Sythar! Most Exalted of Tyrants! Most Potent of Calamities! Most Fertile of Sires!’ Abin-gnaw had his nose to the floor now, arms extended in an appealing gesture. ‘This humble-loyal servant wish-want to squeak-speak!’

  Sythar Doom’s fangs crackled with sparks as he turned. His electrified bite could burn through any garrotte the slinking murder-rat might carry. Then again, the killer might be clever enough to have something else in mind. Yes, it would be good policy for Clan Skully to use a poisoned throwing star and blame the assassination on Clan Eshin! Before the same idea could occur to his tinker-dentist, Sythar caught the hapless ratkin by the neck and dragged him between himself and Abin-gnaw.

  ‘Woe! Peril, Most Terrible Despot!’ Abin-gnaw wailed as the warpguard pointed their halberds at him. The murder-rat flinched away from the sharp blades. The human beside him moaned in terror and tried to bolt. Abin-gnaw must have noticed the motion out of the corner of his eye, for his scaly tail whipped out, tripping the man as he started to run.