Gotrek & Felix- the Third Omnibus - William King & Nathan Long

by Warhammer

  ‘Sigmar,’ breathed Felix. ‘All of Shantytown is going to burn!’

  Gotrek grunted, his massive fists balled in anger.

  Ulrika shook her head in dismay. ‘What terrible villainy.’

  Gotrek sneered at her. ‘What’s the matter? You don’t like your dinner cooked?’

  She drew herself up, offended. ‘I’m beginning to think that you are deliberately misunderstanding the Lahmian way.’

  ‘Or maybe you are,’ said Gotrek. He started for the well. ‘Find a big tub, manling,’ he said over his shoulder. ‘We need to draw more water.’

  Felix nodded, and was about to enter an unburned tenement, when a voice screeched nearby.

  ‘There they are! There are the murderers who started the fire!’

  Felix turned with Gotrek and Ulrika to see one of the masked men pointing directly at him.

  Another cultist joined the first. ‘Get them!’ he cried. ‘String them up! Throw them in the fire!’

  ‘It wasn’t us!’ shouted Felix. ‘It was them!’ But his voice was lost in the roar of the crowd as they turned angry eyes on them.

  ‘Kill the fire starters!’ bellowed a man.

  ‘They burned my baby!’ shrieked a woman.

  All at once the crowd surged in from all sides, snatching up stones and bits of smoking wood.

  Gotrek bared his teeth in fury and frustration, and Felix was momentarily afraid that he was going to lash out at the mob, but then, with a dwarfish curse, he turned and made for a narrow alley, shoving the shouting people in front of him roughly aside. Felix and Ulrika followed him, hunching their shoulders against a rain of sticks and stones. Felix didn’t want to hurt the poor souls in the crowd, but they were trying to tear him apart. He kicked and elbowed them aside, men and women alike.

  They reached the alley mouth. Gotrek let Felix and Ulrika in first and then followed. Here, the mob could only press them from behind. Alone, Felix could have outdistanced them easily, but Gotrek, with his short legs, was too slow, and they railed unmercifully on his back with their makeshift weapons, the cultists urging them on. The Slayer cursed and grunted, but did not strike back. The end of the alley was rapidly approaching. They would be surrounded again.

  They dodged around a rickety exterior stairway. Gotrek stopped suddenly. His axe lashed out – once, twice – chopping through the stair’s supports, then ran on with Felix and Ulrika.

  The crowd flooded after them, but then, with a squeal of tortured nails and twisting wood, the stairway peeled away from the outside of the tenement.

  The crowd screamed and backed away, pushing back against their comrades who were continuing to press down the alley as the stairs accordioned down on themselves and crashed to the ground. A dozen or so Maze residents had made it past the crash. They ran out of the alley after Gotrek, Felix and Ulrika.

  Gotrek spun on them as they spread out, baring his teeth. Felix and Ulrika drew too. The men and women slowed, uneasy.

  ‘Go back,’ said Gotrek. ‘Fight the fire.’ He raised his axe. It flashed red in the light of the inferno. ‘You do not want this death.’

  He turned again and the companions ran on. The crowd did not follow.

  The Maze was filled with people and noise. Bells rang. People shouted. Men and women ran away from the fire or towards it. Teams of men ran past with ladders. Two women pushed a sloshing hogshead of water on a barrow. Others carried empty buckets, old blankets and brooms.

  Felix’s heart hung as heavy as a lead brick in his chest as he and Gotrek and Ulrika dodged through them all. He felt useless and miserable. He wanted to do something to help the innocents who were dying and losing their homes because of the Cleansing Flame’s callous arson, but he couldn’t think of a thing. He and Gotrek were very good at killing and destroying things. Ask them to fight a troll or a dragon, or bring down a corrupt king, or smash some eldritch temple and they would get to work with a will, and more than likely succeed, but ask them to protect someone from hunger or disease, or to save their home from fire or flood, and they were as powerless as the next man. You couldn’t slay hunger with an axe. You couldn’t kill fire with a sword.

  As they came around a corner near the edge of the Maze, they saw Ward Captain Wissen hurrying towards them with a company of the watch. His polished breastplate glinted yellow with reflected fire.

  His eyes widened as he saw them. ‘You!’ he cried, pointing. ‘Is it you at the bottom of this?’

  Gotrek didn’t slow down. ‘Out of my way, fool!’

  ‘Arrest them!’ shouted Wissen.

  The watchmen spread across the road, lowering their spears.

  Gotrek stopped, growling and staring them down.

  ‘The culprits are the Cleansing Flame, ward captain,’ said Felix quickly. It wouldn’t do to have the Slayer slaughter the watch. ‘Your agitators are cultists, worshippers of the Changer of Ways. It was they who started the fire. And they plan worse. They mean to blow up the Imperial Gunnery School with the stolen powder.’

  Anger flashed across Wissen’s face. Jealousy perhaps? ‘And how do you know this?’ he sneered.

  Felix looked around to get confirmation from Ulrika, and realised that she was no longer with them. He looked back over his shoulder. She was nowhere to be seen. Where had she gone? When had she left? ‘We heard it from the cultists themselves,’ he said, facing Wissen again. ‘And we saw them taking the powder into the sewers.’

  ‘But you have no evidence of this?’ asked Wissen.

  Felix grunted with frustration. ‘I don’t understand you, ward captain. All along you have suspected agitators of having been behind the thefts, but now that we bring you word that your suspicions are correct, you question it? What is the difficulty?’

  ‘The difficulty is you,’ said Wissen, stepping forward and jabbing his finger. ‘I have had the Cleansing Flame under observation for these past several months. My men have come very close to discovering who their leaders are, and what their ultimate goals are. We were this close!’ he held his finger and thumb less than a half inch apart. ‘This close to scooping them all up in a bag and jailing the lot of them. We might have uncovered a vast network of agitators and collaborators had we been able to put the screws to them, but then here come the “Saviours of Nuln,” waltzing into town like a pair of drunken ogres, and smash up everything they touch. We’ll never catch them now! You’ve scattered them to the four winds!’ He cursed and turned to his men. ‘Arrest them!’ he cried. ‘Arrest them for interfering with the work of the constabulary.’

  Gotrek went on guard. ‘You’ll take me when I’m dead.’

  Felix groaned. This was bad. Gotrek was going to kill a captain of the watch and they would have to go on the run again before they could warn Groot and Makaisson of the Cleansing Flame’s plans. ‘Captain,’ he said, fighting to keep his voice calm. ‘Ward captain, be reasonable. Do I need to remind you that we have been ordered by Lord Hieronymous Ostwald himself to assist you in your investigations? How will you explain to him our arrest? Should you not at least consult with your superiors?’

  Wissen paused, grinding his teeth. His men hesitated.

  ‘We were on our way to tell Lord Groot of the danger to the Gunnery School,’ Felix continued. ‘If you would care to accompany us, I’m sure that the truth of our story will be found below it.’

  A nasty smile spread slowly across Wissen’s face. ‘Ha!’ he said. ‘I’m sure it will.’ He bowed elaborately to Felix. ‘Very well, sir. Lead on. Lead on and we will see.’

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Lord Groot unlocked a heavy, iron-bound door and threw it open. ‘These are the lowest rooms in the school,’ he said in a cross voice. ‘And the last that we have not examined – a dungeon we have never found it necessary to put to use.’ He stepped aside and let Gotrek, Felix, Malakai, Magus Lichtmann and Captain Wissen step in.

  Groot had been roused from his bed more than an hour ago, and was not in the best of moods. He had all of Felix’s sympathy. Felix was so
tired and sore from all the night’s fighting and falling and battering that he could barely put one foot in front of the other. His eyes kept crossing and it was an effort to focus them again.

  The dungeon was a very small affair. A guard room with ten cells beyond it, and a ‘questioning’ room beyond that. It looked indeed like it had never been used. The corners of the few sparse furnishings were sharp and unblunted by use, and everything was furred in a thick coat of dust. None the less, the party made a dutiful tour of the place, poking their heads into each cell and scanning the questioning room. Gotrek and Malakai made a more careful examination, running their hands over every wall, and scrutinising the floors and ceilings closely, while Magus Lichtmann muttered and gestured with his single hand. Groot and Wissen waited for them to finish with exaggerated patience.

  At last the two Slayers exchanged an unhappy glance and returned to the door.

  ‘Nithin’,’ said Malakai with a sigh. ‘Nae hidden doors, nae hollow walls, nae trapped floors. Same as a’ the rest.’

  Wissen gave a little snort of triumph.

  ‘And you’ll agree that we’ve seen everything there is to see?’ asked Groot.

  ‘Aye, that ah dae,’ said Malakai. ‘Naught’s been left oot. We’ve seen it a’.’

  ‘And I detect nothing hidden with magic of any kind,’ said Magus Lichtmann.

  Groot nodded. ‘Then let’s return to someplace warmer and wait for the sewer detail’s report.’

  He led the way back up through the many cellars to the receiving room of the school. Leaders of the sewer detail were waiting for them – a captain and a sergeant of the school guard standing at attention at the entrance with a hunched, haggard man in filthy clothes who carried a lantern, a long-poled hook, and a short sword and dagger on his belt.

  Felix recognised the man’s accoutrements instantly. He was a sewer jack. A host of memories flooded his mind at the sight – Gotrek and he carrying those very implements, the other men of their patrol – Gant, Rudi, Hef and Spider, the twin brothers who had shared the same girl. He also remembered the vile smell that had taken forever to scrub from his skin and his hair. The memory was so vivid that he thought he could smell the odour even now.

  No, no, he thought as he saw Magus Lichtmann wrinkling his nose, it wasn’t the memory after all. It was the sewer jack.

  ‘What have you to report, captain?’ asked Groot.

  The guard captain saluted him and stepped forward. ‘Nothing, my lord. Steiger here took us through every tunnel and channel that crosses under the school. There was nothing. No barrels. No loose powder. No fuses. No evidence of digging or recent construction. We even…’ He coughed. ‘We even had him probe the stew for anything hidden under the surface. There was nothing there either.’

  Groot nodded. ‘Very good, captain. You are dismissed. Get some rest. And give this man a crown for his pains.’

  ‘Aye, my lord,’ said the captain.

  The sewer jack touched his forelock to Groot as the captain and the sergeant led him out. The light of early dawn shone into the entry hall as they opened the door.

  ‘You see, Lord Groot?’ said Wissen, eagerly, as he and the others followed Groot into the receiving room. ‘Nothing! No powder. No sign of the Cleansing Flame.’

  Groot only groaned and sank wearily into a deep leather chair.

  ‘Could be it hisnae been placed yet,’ said Malakai.

  ‘Or it was never sold to the Cleansing Flame in the first place, perhaps,’ suggested Magus Lichtmann.

  Captain Wissen scowled at Gotrek and Felix. ‘I begin to wonder if any part of their story is true. We only have their word that they found the Cleansing Flame’s quarters. Or that the Flame are cultists.’

  Gotrek rounded on him, his fists balling. ‘Do you think I got these cuts falling down stairs?’

  ‘Falling off a barstool, perhaps,’ sneered Wissen.

  Gotrek surged forward, lowering his head. ‘Right. That’s it.’

  Malakai stepped in his way and put out a restraining arm. ‘Easy laddie, easy. You’ll no’ catch yer villains like this.’

  ‘You see?’ cried Wissen, backing away. ‘You see? Whatever acts of heroism these two might have performed in the past, they’re mere taproom brawlers now. It may be true that they uncovered sorcery and mutation among the Brotherhood of the Cleansing Flame, but it could be just as true that they were carousing in some Maze ale cellar and kicked over a lantern, then thought to tell this wild tale to cover their villainy.’

  Gotrek pushed at Malakai’s arm. ‘Do you call me a liar?’

  ‘Not at all,’ said Wissen. ‘I merely say that we can’t know, because you burned all the evidence, and we found nothing below the school.’

  ‘We didn’t burn it!’ snapped Felix, his anger finally winning out over his exhaustion. ‘The cultists burned it when they saw that we were in danger of exposing them!’

  ‘And does that make it any less your fault?’ asked Wissen. ‘If you had not entered their lair they would have had no need to destroy their idols.’ He pointed to the line of tall windows that ran along the front wall of the room. ‘Look there! Look!’

  All heads turned to the windows. Through the diamond panes Felix could see, smudged across the shell-pink dawn like a black smear of dung upon a lady’s ball gown, a twisting pillar of smoke that rose from the centre of the Shantytown district. The orange glow of fire still underlit it at its base.

  ‘That is your work,’ said Wissen. ‘Whether you set it or no. Scores dead. Hundreds without homes. Victims to your bullheadedness.’

  Felix couldn’t tear his eyes from the rising smoke. He felt as if the words were being stacked on top of his heart like stone slabs, one at a time, crushing it. As much as he hated the man, he couldn’t help but think that Wissen was right. It was their fault. They had barged in as they always did, and innocents had been hurt. He looked over at Gotrek, expecting him to be trying to push past Malakai for Wissen again, but the Slayer was looking at the floor, his hands clenched. It seemed the words had hit him too. Somehow that made it worse.

  Wissen turned to the others, bowing. ‘My lords, I will place men in the sewers below the Gunnery School, just in case Herr Jaeger’s story is true. It is only prudent. But may I suggest that he and Gurnisson be confined to the College of Engineering at least until the matter of their actions can be put before Lord Ostwald.’

  ‘I think that is wise,’ said Magus Lichtmann, his spectacles winking in the dawn light. ‘It is a terrible pity. Much as I admire their zeal, I fear that the Slayer and his companion have been perhaps too hasty. If they had reported what they had discovered to Ward Captain Wissen, instead of trying to destroy the cult – if that is indeed what it was – single-handed, much tragedy could have been avoided.’

  Lord Groot nodded. ‘Aye,’ he said. ‘Maybe it’s best. These sort of tactics no doubt work well enough in the lands of our enemies, but this…’ He shook his head sadly. ‘This took the lives and livelihoods of honest Nulners. That can’t be allowed.’

  Malakai banged a side table with his huge fist. His face was as red as his crest. ‘Ye empty-headed eejits!’ he barked. ‘Have ye nae more sense than a bunch o’ hens? Yer locking up the wrong lads!’ He swept his hand towards Gotrek and Felix. ‘Who wis it found the thieves that stole the powder? Who uncovered the vermin who bought it, and learned o’ their wicked plans?’

  ‘We have only their word for that,’ piped up Wissen, raising a finger.

  ‘Shut it, yoo!’ said Malakai. ‘I’m talkin’.’ He turned to Groot. ‘And as to who’s tae blame for the fire. Do ye think this wee mannie,’ he pointed at Wissen, ‘and his lads would hae’ fared any better? By Grungni’s beard, them Flame boys would have heard ’em coming before they walked down three flights, and set the whole works ablaze. Ye would ha’ lost a full company o’ the watch as well as all those poor wee beggars in the warrens.’ His finger moved to Gotrek and Felix. ‘Gurnisson an’ young Felix hae come closer than any to catching
these lunatics. And it’s them yer going tae lock up? Awa ’n boil yer heids!’

  Groot raised his hands placatingly. ‘Not locked up, Malakai,’ he said. ‘Not locked up. Only, erm, taking a rest, let’s say, until Lord Ostwald can review what’s happened. I don’t doubt he’ll approve of all they’ve done, and set them on the trail as soon as he’s spoken to them.’

  ‘And when can Lord Ostwald see us?’ asked Felix.

  ‘Ah,’ said Groot, scratching his head violently. ‘Well, he’s been sent for.’

  Lichtmann stepped forward. ‘Pardon, Julianus, but I believe Lord Ostwald is closeted with the City Council today and tomorrow, reviewing some sort of fiscal matters.’

  Groot looked at Gotrek, Felix and Malakai, embarrassed. ‘So, a day or two then? The rest will do you good. You do look a bit the worse for wear.’

  Gotrek growled. ‘I make no promises.’

  Groot and Wissen looked about to protest, but Malakai stepped forward.

  ‘I do,’ he said. ‘Neither Gurnisson nor young Felix will pass through the gates of the College of Engineering until Lord Ostwald comes tae see ’em.’

  Groot frowned and exchanged glances with the others, as Gotrek glared at Malakai.

  ‘You will vouch for their good behaviour?’ asked Groot at last.

  ‘Aye,’ said Malakai. ‘If they step through that gate, ah’ll take full responsibility for their actions.’

  Groot nodded. ‘Very well. Then I release them into your custody. And thank you, Malakai, for your understanding.’

  Malakai snorted. ‘Oh, I understand fu’ weel.’

  As they stepped out of the gates of the Imperial Gunnery School and started down the street towards the College of Engineering, Gotrek shot a sidelong glance at Malakai.

  ‘You truly mean to try to keep me locked up?’ he asked.

  Malakai chuckled. ‘Eh? O’ course no’! Oh, ye’ll no’ leave by the gate. A dwarf does no’ break a promise. But there’s a wee hole down tae the sewers. I said naught about wee holes.’