Hammerhal & Other Stories

by Various

  Anhur looked around. It was here that the Klaxian noble families had made their final stand, and it was here that he had butchered them, beneath the great gilded ceiling. He gazed up at it, past the obsidian plates. The inner curve of the dome was shaped like a vast, inhuman countenance, bearded and stern. It was duardin work, he recalled, gifted to the first king of Klaxus in those dim, distant days before the coming of Chaos, and shaped like the face of…

  ‘Sigmar,’ he said, thinking of the lightning he’d seen thrashing about in the clouds.

  ‘Aye, and a great one for glowering he is,’ a voice said. Anhur laughed harshly. A lean shape, hooded and robed, wearing rusty scraps of armour, joined him in his examination of the dome. ‘He’s been doing it since I started the ritual,’ the hooded shape continued.

  Before Anhur could reply, the obsidian began to pick up speed, the plates turning more sharply. The runes etched into their frames began to glow white hot, and the air grew thick and cloying. Anhur could smell rotting meat and brimstone, sour blood and burning bone. The obsidian began to wobble and tilt and there were pinpricks of red within the starless dark. The flesh-shroud began to undulate as if in pain, the stretched and flayed faces of the dead twisting in silent screams.

  The blood which stained the stones of the chamber began to bubble, as if something stirred beneath it. Half-formed shapes heaved and splashed, pushing up from below the dried gore, striving towards the light. Brass talons and black horns breached the surface, but only for a moment. A litany of frustrated howls nearly deafened Anhur before fading to nothing, as the blood grew still and calm once more.

  ‘Pay them no heed, my lord. At the moment, they are not worth the effort,’ the lean figure said as it turned from the slowly spinning facets of obsidian. He threw back his hood, exposing mouldering, cadaverous features. One eye bulged from its socket, a glittering, faceted orb, like that of one of the flies which swarmed about the chamber.

  ‘Soon, then?’ Anhur said. ‘Will it be soon, Pazak?’

  ‘It will happen as the gods will, and not a moment sooner,’ Pazak of the Faceted Eye said. The sorcerer looked at Anhur and sniffed. ‘Glaring at me won’t make it happen any faster.’

  Anhur’s hand fell to the sword, sheathed on his hip. ‘Careful, Pazak. I spared you once. I shall not do so again if you continue to test my patience.’

  Pazak looked at the sword and then at Anhur. ‘And if I thought you would actually draw that sword, I might fear such a threat,’ the sorcerer said. ‘But you have never done so. Even when pressed, you refuse to draw it.’

  ‘And so? What business is it of yours which weapons I employ?’ Anhur hefted his axe. ‘Shall I test my axe, then? It served to still your tongue well enough in the Alkali Basin, as I recall. Should I finish what I started that day and remove your head in its entirety, rather than simply scratching your throat?’

  Pazak threw up his hands in surrender. ‘Forgive me, my lord. It was a silly question, I know. Curiosity has ever been the greatest of my vices,’ he said. Anhur laughed.

  ‘I doubt that,’ he said. He looked around. ‘Did you know, in all my years here, I never once saw this place for myself. This citadel was barred to all save the priest-kings of Klaxus and their retainers.’

  ‘And for good reason,’ Pazak said. ‘One can only imagine the havoc you might have caused, had you and your allies gained access to this place and its secrets.’ The sorcerer cocked his head. ‘Then, given that you fled one step ahead of the headsman, I suppose that you caused quite a stir regardless.’

  ‘I led a rebellion, Pazak,’ Anhur said, watching the facets.

  ‘A ruckus, then.’ Pazak gave a wheezing laugh. ‘All for the best, I suppose. Victory was achieved, in the end.’

  ‘We have not won yet.’ Anhur looked at the sorcerer. ‘The storm is on our doorstep, even as we speak.’ Anhur lifted his axe and pointed it at Pazak. ‘We must welcome it,’ he said, and smiled, thinking of the glories to come. Come storm-walkers, come lightning-men, come dogs of Azyr… Come and meet thy doom.

  Kratus the Silent dropped through the clouds towards the Mandrake Bastion on wings of crackling lightning. He dived through the storm, piercing it like an arrow from on high. The root-encrusted walls of the crater-city of Uryx grew larger, spreading beneath the Knight-Azyros as he shot downwards, faster than the speed of thought, his starblade in one hand and his celestial beacon in the other. Clad in azure and gold, his brother Stormcasts fell with him through the curtain of rain, their gleaming wings folded so as to lend them greater speed in their descent.

  As he dived, Kratus could see the vast sweep of the inner slope of the northern edge of the Tephra Crater, upon which much of Uryx nestled. The great rocky slope was shrouded by immense, ash-born trees for miles in either direction, as the city nestled within the jungle’s embrace, riding the curve of the crater wall down into the sprawl of jungle below. Uryx was still in its death-throes. Smoke boiled up out of the city as great fires raged unchecked, and even at this height, he could hear the clash of weapons and the screams of the dying.

  The Mandrake Bastion waited below, growing larger and larger the closer he drew. The enormous battlement of stone and living roots, each wider than three men, jutted up from and rose over the smaller walls of the city. The bastion was the gateway to Klaxus and Uryx from the north, and it had repelled mighty orruk hordes and even the black-armoured warriors of the Vulcanus Empire in the centuries before the coming of Chaos. It might even have been able to hold back the forces of the Adamantine as they fought their way up the slope. A slim chance, but a chance all the same. Thus, the Mandrake Bastion must fall.

  To Kratus the bastion looked as if giant hands had woven the roots together, and then stabbed immense blocks of stone between them or laid them across the top. The roots rose upwards, conglomerating into a dozen monstrous effigies, each as tall as a watchtower and twice as wide. The effigies stood balanced on the rim of the crater, towering over the outer slopes, misshapen faces slack as if in slumber. But appearances, Kratus knew, could be deceiving. He swept his starblade out, signalling to the Prosecutors on his right. They peeled off, hurtling towards the closest one.

  Kratus angled himself towards another, and his remaining Prosecutors followed suit. They could not take the whole bastion, but they could take its heart, just above the main gatehouse. There were thousands of Bloodbound stationed throughout the vast winding length of the bastion, but there was only one gate. What forces occupied the remainder of the fortress would be trapped when it was taken, easy pickings for the rest of the chamber when they arrived, regardless of their numbers.

  Scuttling masses expanded and divided, becoming hundreds of individual warriors, clad in barbaric raiment and clutching crude weapons. As lightning ripped the sky wide and thunder shook the air, some of them looked up into the stinging rain. Eyes widened, mouths opened in warning, but too late. The warrior-heralds of Sigmar had arrived, bearing messages of violence and retribution. Kratus led his warriors in a steep dive, blazing wings unfolding at the last moment, carrying them low and fast over the bastion in a blur of shining sigmarite.

  The Prosecutors unleashed their celestial hammers, hurling them with meteoric force as they sped along the rampart. The hammers were wrought from the energy of the storm itself, and they struck with its fury, rending stone, wood and flesh alike. They tore chunks out of the bastion and the gatehouses, and obliterated the head of one of the massive effigies.

  Kratus swept past a burly chieftain, clad in a reptilian pelt and wearing a brass muzzle over his face. His starblade licked out, and the chieftain tumbled in his wake, headless. The Stormcasts swooped upwards. Javelins and spears clattered uselessly behind them.

  Celestial hammers thundered down the length of the bastion, as the second group of Prosecutors began their own assault. Kratus signalled for his warriors to make another pass. As he did so, he saw a bulky, armoured figure stagger out o
f one of the gatehouses. No chieftain this, but a deathbringer, clad in the crimson armour of one of the Blood God’s chosen. The deathbringer bellowed inarticulately and grabbed one of the milling bloodreavers. He swung an axe out, gesticulating towards one of the effigies.

  Kratus and his warriors began their second pass, lower this time. The bastion rampart was wide enough for twenty men to march shoulder to shoulder along its length, and the bloodreavers charged howling to meet them. Others moved towards the effigy, bearing heavy iron spears. Each spear was so long that it required three of the Bloodbound to lift it. Kratus sped towards them, but knew he would not reach them in time.

  The immense wooden figure twitched and heaved as the bloodreavers stabbed it with the heavy spears. Dark rivulets of sap ran down its tangled frame, pooling like tar on the bastion. A foul smell filled the air, and the great eyelids snapped open, revealing milky orbs. The mandrake twisted on its roots, vast head turning one way and then another as if seeking something. It moaned as the iron spears dug into its form, drawing forth streams of sap.

  A moment later, the living tower opened its enormous mouth and began to scream. A Prosecutor fell from the air, clutching at his head, as the noise washed over the bastion. Kratus lunged past him, and crashed in among the bloodreavers as they pelted forward. Another Prosecutor fell, blood streaming from the slits in his war-mask. The mandrake stretched up, head tilted back, and wailed. Kratus felt as if his teeth would shiver from his jaw and his bones would crack in his flesh, and he flung himself skywards.

  The surviving Prosecutors followed him. The bloodreavers fell swiftly upon those who had been downed by the mandrake’s scream, hacking and slashing at them in a frenzy. Blue bolts of lightning speared upwards, hurtling past Kratus and vanishing into the roiling clouds above. More bolts sped upwards from further down the bastion, and he knew that a second mandrake had been woken.

  The living towers were foul things – terrifying, but pitiable. Grown by the priest-kings of Klaxus in ages past, they knew only pain, and their screams would boil the brain of any unlucky enough to be the focus of their ire. Such was the terrible power which had shattered the Black-Iron Reavers of Vulcanus and the Ashdwell orruks. Even Stormcasts were not immune, it seemed. Kratus shook his head, trying to clear it.

  Below, the mandrake twisted in its confinement, searching for them, mouth opening and closing. Its eyes rolled in their cavernous sockets and it gave a thunderous grunt. As one, the Prosecutors hurled their hammers and the enormous face vanished in an explosion of sap. Even as its smoking bulk lurched and hung dripping, the Prosecutors were dropping downwards again, ready to finish what they had begun.

  Kratus gave no orders this time; none were necessary. The Prosecutors knew their business and went about it with ruthless efficiency. Weapons wreathed in lightning struck out left and right, smashing bloodreavers to the ground. The bastion cracked and trembled as hammers hurled from on high smashed home, sending bodies, rock and roots into the air. Enough of the bastion would be left standing for their purposes, but not by much.

  The Knight-Azyros dropped to the rampart, cracking the ancient stones. He rose from his crouch, his starblade singing out to behead a bloodreaver. As they drew close, he realised that the Bloodbound were horribly mutilated – each one had only raw, stitched wounds where his ears should have been, and their eyelids had been removed, leaving their eyeballs exposed and staring. It was no wonder that the mandrake’s scream hadn’t harmed them. They howled as the dust of his arrival cleared and flung themselves at him.

  Kratus wove through their ranks with his starblade flashing. Bloodreavers shrieked in agony as the sword pierced armour and flesh. Kratus turned, smashing the screaming mortal wreckage aside and locked blades with a howling blood warrior. The armoured berserker strained against him, raging incoherently. Kratus slammed the gilded bulk of his celestial beacon into the warrior’s belly, driving him back a step. Before the Bloodbound could recover, Kratus thrust the tip of his starblade through the berserker’s eye and into his frenzied brain. He jerked his weapon loose and turned as the foe came in a rush.

  Beyond the armoured tribesmen he could see the smoking shell of the mandrake begin to twitch and rise. The ruptured roots began to sprout anew and shrill moans rose from them. It was regenerating. Soon it would unleash its scream again. He would have to deal with it himself, before the rest of the chamber arrived.

  Kratus leapt forward, impossibly quick despite the weight of his armour. The hilt of his sword slid smoothly across his palm as he thrust it forwards, and the blade punched through a bloodreaver’s chest. He tore it free and turned, smashing the sigmarite pommel into a second bloodreaver’s face. The Chaos warrior catapulted backwards, struck the edge of the rampart and spun away, into the dark below. Kratus continued to move, stabbing, sweeping, thrusting, leaving bodies behind even as the distant towers continued to scream.

  His Prosecutors continued to pummel the battlements from the air. Occasionally they would swoop through the ranks of the foe to leave a trail of broken bodies in their wake. Kratus fought his way towards the mandrake. The deathbringer rushed towards him, bulling through his own followers with a roar. He wore a round helm studded with brass nails, and his arms were bare and scarred. His axe keened strangely as it swept through the rain.

  Kratus parried the blow and replied in kind, driving his opponent back. The deathbringer roared imprecations and curses as the two warriors stamped and whirled in a deadly gavotte. Kratus fought in silence, save for the hiss of his blade as it cut through the rain. The deathbringer raced forward. Axe and sword became locked as the two champions strained against one another.

  ‘I will pluck out your skull and mount it upon my trophy rack,’ the deathbringer snarled. When Kratus did not reply, the champion cursed. ‘Say something, damn you! I would know the name of my prey – I demand it!’

  Kratus twisted his opponent’s axe aside and jerked forward. His head cracked against his foe’s, and the Chaos warrior staggered in surprise. Before he could recover, Kratus slid his starblade free and whipped it across the champion’s exposed forearms, severing the tendons there. The deathbringer howled as his axe fell from nerveless fingers. He lurched towards Kratus, trying to grapple with him, but the Knight-Azyros slid aside and chopped through the back of his opponent’s legs. The champion sank to his knees, and Kratus reversed his starblade and drove it down through a gap in his armour, between head and shoulder. He gave the blade a twist and jerked it free, as the dying deathbringer toppled over the parapet and tumbled to the slope far below.

  Kratus held his starblade out so that the rain sluiced it clean. As he did so, he turned his head to meet the stunned gazes of the other Bloodbound. He said nothing, made no challenge. That was not his way. Silence spoke eloquently enough for his purposes these days.

  Once, he had been a singer of great renown, in the days before the closing of the Gates of Azyr, before the fires of Chaos raged wild across the veldts of the Striding Kingdoms. He had wandered, singing for the highest chieftain and the lowliest tribesman alike. He had sung songs of peace and of war. But he would sing no more, not until the last embers of Chaos had been extinguished or his final hour, whichever came first.

  Above the Bloodbound, he could see the mandrakes taking form. Their shrill piping grew in volume as new-grown roots rose and twined about one another with sinister speed. Soon, they would scream again. From below, on the outer slopes of the crater, he could hear the familiar clarion call of Tarkus’ battle-horn as the Knight-Heraldor urged his fellow Stormcasts on. Bloodbound warriors were streaming up the slope, retreating. Kratus could hear the groan of the colossal gates as they slowly creaked open. If it was to be done, it would have to be done now.

  Kratus used the tip of his blade to open the shutter of his celestial beacon. Light poured out, the pure, blinding power of the Heavens themselves. It swelled, driving back the dark, reflecting from every drop of rain. To the fa
ithful of Sigmar, that light was a wonder to behold – in its scintillating radiance was all the splendour of the heavens, clouds of nebulae and the shining of uncountable stars, a glimpse into the wide cosmos, and the glory of the Celestial Realm.

  But to creatures like the Bloodbound, twisted and fallen from grace, the light of the celestial beacon was purest agony. It burned them as no fire ever could, searing the darkest corners of their corrupted souls. Armour, flesh and bone gave way before the light; warriors were reduced to smouldering wisps, their contorted shadows burnt into the stones of the bastion. Slowly, Kratus turned, lifting the beacon high so that its light swept across the closest mandrake. It shuddered as the light touched its tormented flesh, and, with a soft, sad sigh, the tree-thing collapsed in on itself, crumbling to ash.

  Kratus lifted his beacon higher, even as the second of the great wooden effigies collapsed, joining its fellow in dissolution. The light blazed brighter and brighter, and the thunder rumbled. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his Prosecutors swoop low, towards the gates. They would take control of them before the enemy could open them.

  More Bloodbound burst out of the stairwells of the ­shattered gatehouses, charging towards him. The first to reach him exploded into motes of char, as did the second, but the third swatted the beacon from Kratus’ grip even as he smouldered and crumbled. Kratus parried an axe and beheaded a bearded bloodreaver.

  Lightning streaked down, and struck the bastion again and again. Each strike shook the stone wall down to the foundations. Bloodreavers were flung from the rampart, or were burnt to cinders by the touch of the lightning. But more still pressed forward, driven to a killing frenzy by fear and madness. As the last echoes of the lightning faded, Kratus readied himself to meet their charge. But he knew that he would not do so alone.

  ‘Ho, Silent One, you called and we have come – make way, make way,’ Lord-Castellant Gorgus roared, as he plunged out of the swirling smoke of the lightning strike. He whirled his sigmarite halberd about in a tight circle over his head as he pounded towards the stunned bloodreavers. His loyal gryph-hound, Shrike, loped alongside him.