“No!” he howled, as a cloaked and hooded figure stepped out of the shadows and walked unhurriedly towards the supine girl. “Leave her alone!” Another group of degenerate acolytes got between them and he hacked and slashed frantically with his sword, desperate to break through. The figure knelt next to Hanna, who stirred feebly.
Stepping over the corpses of the cultists who’d dared to challenge him, Rudi sprinted towards the girl and her assailant. The cloaked figure pulled back its hood, and Rudi gasped as moonlight gleamed from a small pair of gently curving horns. The sorceress! She was obviously too late to claim Magnus, but there was no telling what mischief she might still be capable of wreaking. An expression of shock passed across Hanna’s face and her lips moved, but whatever she said he was too far away to hear it.
Before Rudi could prevent her, or even realise what she intended, the horned sorceress reached out with surprising delicacy and brushed her fingertips against the sigil fused to Hanna’s forehead.
The girl cried out and lapsed into another seizure, spasming as the wax flowed and melted under the sorceress’ touch, the foul thing seeming to sublime into vapour as Rudi watched. Within arm’s reach at last, he seized the sorceress by the shoulder, trying to drag her hand away, but he might as well have been trying to bend the arm of a marble statue.
“What are you doing to her?” he shouted.
“Helping her,” the woman replied, in a surprisingly warm and gentle tone. There was something familiar about the voice and the blonde hair through which the horns protruded, and Rudi felt the same sense of formless recognition that he’d had when he’d seen the woman back in the soldiers’ camp. “She’ll need to rest for a while, but by the time you reach Altdorf she’ll be fine.”
Rudi stared, as the sorceress drew back her hand at last. The talisman had vanished and the skin of Hanna’s forehead was completely unblemished, as though the vile thing had never been there. His head reeled.
“Who are you?” he demanded. “How do you know we’re going to Altdorf?”
“The Changer sees all the paths we walk, long before we do,” the woman said, with a trace of amusement. She turned her head slightly, bringing her profile into the mingled light of the twin moons, and Rudi gasped with astonishment. No wonder she’d seemed familiar… But before he could speak, Hanna opened her eyes, staring at the face of the woman who had just saved her life with an expression of wonderment.
“Mother?” she asked, scarcely daring to believe her own words as she struggled to rise. “Is it really you?”
“Yes, my dear.” Greta Reifenstahl smiled and helped her daughter to her feet, a protective arm around her shoulders. Hanna hugged her fiercely, tears starting visibly in her eyes, almost choking on the words as she spoke them.
“I thought you were dead!”
“So did I.” Gerhard loomed out of the shadows, his sword at the ready. The witch hunter smiled bleakly, without humour. “But that’s a mistake which can easily be corrected.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
“You.” Hanna turned her head slowly towards the witch hunter, an expression of loathing on her face. A new strength seemed to flow into her as Rudi watched: her body straightened, no longer debilitated, and she stood firmly on her feet, shrugging her mother’s supporting arm away. The air in front of her began to ripple, shimmering with heat, and the dull, red flames Rudi had seen before when she’d killed the skaven flared into existence. Hanna smiled, with a level of malice which froze Rudi’s blood. “Your turn to burn, I think.”
“No, child.” Greta stepped between them. “This one has a long path still to walk.”
“I don’t need your protection, witch.” Gerhard raised his hand, in which something silver reflected the light of the moons. “I have the blessing of Sigmar and that’s more than enough.” If he was surprised by Greta’s words he gave no sign of it. With a shiver, Rudi recognised the amulet, or whatever it was, which had robbed Hanna of her powers back on the moorland. In a moment, he had no doubt, it would wreak its baleful influence once more. Without thinking, he charged forward, raising his sword.
“No!” he bellowed. “I won’t let you hurt her again!”
Taken by surprise, Gerhard turned to defend himself, steel clashing in the moonlight, and the object in his other hand fell to the ground. Rudi caught a brief glimpse of the twin comet tail symbol of Sigmar lying in the mud, then drove in hard against his enemy.
“There’s more at stake here than the life of a worthless hedge witch!” Gerhard responded, parrying Rudi’s attacks, but making no attempt to press home any countermoves. “If you’d just listen to me for a moment…”
“I’ve heard all I’m going to from you!” Rudi yelled, incensed at the man’s casual dismissal of the girl. He thrust at the witch hunter’s heart, only to find his blade turned away at the last moment by a skilful parry. He braced himself for the counter-attack he knew must be coming, but again, inexplicably, the witch hunter let the opportunity go, allowing him to get back on balance. This was like the fight in the lawyer’s office, when, for whatever reason, he’d been reluctant to move in for the kill. Rudi smiled. He had no such scruples…
“Rudi!” Hanna shouted. “Get out of the way! I can’t hold it!” There was an edge of panic in her voice now, and despite himself Rudi turned to glance in her direction. The ball of fire was bigger than anything he’d ever seen her conjure up before, the heat of it beating against his back, the dull red flames illuminating the squalid shanty town in hues of flickering blood. The girl’s body was shaking with the effort of restraining it, but to no avail. Even as he took the information in, in a single horrified glance, the sphere of flame began to move.
“Get down!” Gerhard tackled him, taking advantage of his momentary distraction to dive at his knees. Rudi crashed to the frozen ground, the breath driven from his lungs. Searing heat blistered the air above his back and there was a crack like thunder as the fireball streaked through the space he’d occupied an instant before. Gasping, he rolled over, just in time to see it burst against a mob of club-wielding mutants, consuming them utterly. Writhing in agony, a couple of them stumbled into their squalid dwellings, which began to burn in turn.
“Hanna!” The girl’s name emerged from his mouth as a barely audible wheeze, but even if he’d shouted it she’d never have heard him. She was sprawled out on the ground again, her face white, while Greta bent over her solicitously.
“Get up.” Gerhard had regained his feet easily and bent to grip the front of Rudi’s jerkin. He yanked hard, hauling the young watchman upright. “You see what happens when you put your trust in witches?”
“Hail the vessel!” Magnus, his voice gurgling around the arrow still embedded in his throat, shoulder charged the witch hunter, knocking him to the ground again. The light of madness was in his eyes, which reflected the hellish glow of the burning huts. Fanned by the onshore breeze, the inferno was spreading even as Rudi watched, leaping from one to the other almost at the speed of thought. Another flashed into flame in front of his eyes and he turned, looking for an avenue of escape. He wasn’t the only one.
“Fall back!” Theo yelled to his confederates. “Get out while we still can!” The mercenaries began to retreat, disengaging from the little groups of mutants still surviving, racing the flames back to the safety of the open mudflats. They barely made it, disappearing through the curtain of flames and smoke just as the last of the huts surrounding the open space whooshed into incandescence. As they went, Rudi noticed with a certain amount of satisfaction that Bodun was half-carrying Bruno. Despite the danger they were in, he smiled to himself. The cocky youth would be far more cautious about challenging him if they ever met again, of that he was certain.
He inhaled a lungful of foetid smoke and coughed. The chances of that were looking increasingly remote, he suspected. Retrieving his sword from where it had fallen, he glanced around for a way out.
Gerhard and Magnus were still fighting, a vicious, hand-to-hand duel. The deranged former merchant was
unarmed, but apparently possessed of an inhuman strength and resilience. His ravaged body bore the marks of several wounds which should have killed him, but he fought on, clearly determined to force his way past the witch hunter or die trying.
“Hail the vessel!” he howled, catching sight of Rudi and redoubling his efforts. Gerhard thrust his sword deep into Magnus’ chest, twisting the blade as he withdrew it to prevent the wound from closing, and kicked out hard as he did so, forcing the insane cultist back a pace.
“Hanna!” Content to leave them to it, Rudi turned, taking in the wider scene. The few remaining mutants surrounding them seemed to have forgotten their existence, running to and fro with shrill screams of panic as the flames grew ever closer. The air was growing too hot to breathe and as he watched, the rags swathing a couple of the grotesque parodies of the human form smouldered into flame, the shrieking redoubling in volume.
“In the name of the holy church of Sigmar, I find you guilty of heresy!” Gerhard shouted, closing in on the reeling figure of the cult leader. As his voice rose, Rudi found himself thinking that the witch hunter sounded barely more sane than Magnus had done. “And I sentence you to burn!” He kicked the stumbling wreck of a man again, square in the chest, propelling him back into the middle of a blazing hut. After a moment, the roof collapsed, burying the flailing silhouette. If his former friend ever screamed, Rudi couldn’t hear it, his ears full of the roaring of the surrounding flames.
He glanced down. The fabric of his shirt was beginning to smoulder, thin wisps of smoke rising from the linen. Every square inch of skin felt raw, presaging the agony which could only be seconds away by now. Despite the knowledge of an immanent and painful death, the sense of exultation and impending triumph rose up in him again.
“This way.” Greta beckoned and he walked over to her: as he got closer the heat seemed to diminish, until the surrounding air seemed no more than pleasantly warm. He glanced down at Hanna, who was still lying on the ground, her eyes wide with shock.
“I couldn’t control it,” she whispered. “Once that thing was gone, it just flooded back into me. It was so strong. I couldn’t…” Her eyes rolled up in her head and she fainted.
Rudi glanced at Greta in consternation. “We have to help her!” he said.
“She’ll recover,” Greta reassured him. “Just as I told you before.” She gestured to her daughter. “Would you mind carrying her please? I need to concentrate.”
Completely bemused, Rudi sheathed his sword and bent to pick up the unconscious girl. Once again, he found her disturbingly light in his arms, but didn’t comment. He wasn’t sure what Greta was trying to do, but it was clear their only hope of survival lay in her magical powers.
“What about him?” he asked. Gerhard was stumbling towards them, his sword raised, the skin on his face beginning to blister, choking in the smoke which billowed about them all. Noticing the way it twisted in the air currents, Rudi realised for the first time that it was flowing around him and the sorceresses, as though they were enclosed in a small bubble of cool, fresh air. So that was how Greta had survived the burning of her cottage, he thought.
“His path will open for him,” Greta said, apparently unconcerned. “The Changer will see to that.” She nodded in satisfaction as a swirl of smoke next to the witch hunter solidified into a human figure.
“Hold on!” Alwyn grabbed Gerhard by the arm and the two of them vanished as abruptly as she’d appeared. As she went, she locked eyes momentarily with Rudi and he shuddered. If they ever met again, he had no doubt that the mercenaries would prove to be as implacable enemies as the witch hunter had been.
“You’ll meet again,” Greta assured him, as though she could read his thoughts.
“When?” Rudi asked.
“When it’s time.” The sorceress glanced disdainfully at the blazing hut where Magnus had been left to burn. “The fool was right about one thing anyway. You do have a destiny.”
“What?” Stunned at her words, Rudi almost forgot the weight of the girl in his arms. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Right now?” Greta looked amused. “Carry Hanna and try not to trip over anything. Do you think you can manage that?” Without waiting for a reply, she began walking out of the furnace surrounding them and Rudi followed, too stunned to protest or argue. As the little group approached the flames, they twisted aside, just as the smoke had done, and within minutes the reassuringly familiar stench of Marienburg surrounded them. Rudi gasped, and inhaled the cool air gratefully.
“Hanna.” He laid the girl gently on a crumbling quayside and turned to look back at the shanty town. It was a sheet of flame from end to end, whatever secrets it held gone forever, and a good thing too probably. Hanna stirred fitfully and opened her eyes.
“Mother?” she asked. After a moment she tried to sit up. “Rudi, where’s she gone?”
“I don’t know.” Rudi glanced around them, confused and perplexed. “She was right here!” The familiar sensation of angry frustration welled up in him. The answers he thought he wanted so badly had been nothing of the kind, and the one person who sounded as though she might be able to help him to understand had apparently vanished into thin air. He glared at the crumbling desolation of the Doodkanal as though it were somehow responsible.
“Then she’ll be back,” Hanna said calmly. “When we need her help again.” Despite the confusion in her eyes, she smiled happily. “She’s alive! I can’t believe it!”
Rudi tried not to think about the woman’s horns, or the time he’d seen her in the forest with the beastmen and the mutated form of Hans Katzenjammer, or the casual way she’d slaughtered the soldiers threatening them at the camp on the moors. He was by no means sure that Greta Reifenstahl would be a comfortable ally to have. But he kept his doubts to himself and nodded.
“Can you walk?”
Hanna nodded too, and climbed gingerly to her feet. “Of course I can walk,” she said, a little testily. Rudi pretended not to notice her swaying gently as she did so.
“Good. It’s a long way to the Suiddock and Shenk won’t wait for us.”
“I don’t suppose he will.” Hanna took a slightly unsteady step forward. “Better get moving, then.”
“Right.” Rudi fell into step beside her. As they left the blazing ruins of his hopes behind them, the first snowflakes of winter began to fall.
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[Blood on the Reik 02] - Death's City Page 30
