Discover more about Warhammer Chronicles from Black Library

• THE LEGEND OF SIGMAR •

Graham McNeill

BOOK ONE: Heldenhammer

BOOK TWO: Empire

BOOK THREE: God King

• THE RISE OF NAGASH •

Mike Lee

BOOK ONE: Nagash the Sorcerer

BOOK TWO: Nagash the Unbroken

BOOK THREE: Nagash Immortal

• VAMPIRE WARS: THE VON CARSTEIN TRILOGY •

Steven Savile

BOOK ONE: Inheritance

BOOK TWO: Dominion

BOOK THREE: Retribution

• THE SUNDERING •

Gav Thorpe

BOOK ONE: Malekith

BOOK TWO: Shadow King

BOOK THREE: Caledor

• CHAMPIONS OF CHAOS •

Darius Hinks, S P Cawkwell & Ben Counter

BOOK ONE: Sigvald

BOOK TWO: Valkia the Bloody

BOOK THREE: Van Horstmann

• THE WAR OF VENGEANCE •

Nick Kyme, Chris Wraight & C L Werner

BOOK ONE: The Great Betrayal

BOOK TWO: Master of Dragons

BOOK THREE: The Curse of the Phoenix Crown

• MATHIAS THULMANN: WITCH HUNTER •

C L Werner

BOOK ONE: Witch Hunter

BOOK TWO: Witch Finder

BOOK THREE: Witch Killer

• ULRIKA THE VAMPIRE •

Nathan Long

BOOK ONE: Bloodborn

BOOK TWO: Bloodforged

BOOK THREE: Bloodsworn

• MASTERS OF STONE AND STEEL •

Gav Thorpe and Nick Kyme

BOOK ONE: The Doom of Dragonback

BOOK TWO: Grudge Bearer

BOOK THREE: Oathbreaker

BOOK FOUR: Honourkeeper

• THE TYRION & TECLIS OMNIBUS •

William King

BOOK ONE: Blood of Aenarion

BOOK TWO: Sword of Caldor

BOOK THREE: Bane of Malekith

• WARRIORS OF THE CHAOS WASTES •

C L Werner

BOOK ONE: Wulfrik

BOOK TWO: Palace of the Plague Lord

BOOK THREE: Blood for the Blood God

• KNIGHTS OF THE EMPIRE •

Various Authors

BOOK ONE: Hammers of Ulric

BOOK TWO: Reiksguard

BOOK THREE: Knight of the Blazing Sun

• WARLORDS OF KARAK EIGHT PEAKS •

Guy Haley & David Guymer

BOOK ONE: Skarsnik

BOOK TWO: Headtaker

BOOK THREE: Thorgrim

• SKAVEN WARS: THE BLACK PLAGUE TRILOGY •

C L Werner

BOOK ONE: Dead Winter

BOOK TWO: Blighted Empire

BOOK THREE: Wolf of Sigmar

• THE ORION TRILOGY •

Darius Hinks

BOOK ONE: The Vaults of Winter

BOOK TWO: Tears of Isha

BOOK THREE: The Council of Beasts

• BRUNNER THE BOUNTY HUNTER •

C L Werner

BOOK ONE: Blood Money

BOOK TWO: Blood & Steel

BOOK THREE: Blood of the Dragon

• GOTREK & FELIX THE FIRST OMNIBUS •

William King

BOOK ONE: Trollslayer

BOOK TWO: Skavenslayer

BOOK THREE: Daemonslayer

• GOTREK & FELIX THE SECOND OMNIBUS •

William King

BOOK ONE: Dragonslayer

BOOK TWO: Beastslayer

BOOK THREE: Vampireslayer

• GOTREK & FELIX THE THIRD OMNIBUS •

William King & Nathan long

BOOK ONE: Giantslayer

BOOK TWO: Orcslayer

BOOK THREE: Manslayer

• GOTREK & FELIX THE FOURTH OMNIBUS •

Nathan Long

BOOK ONE: Elfslayer

BOOK TWO: Shamanslayer

BOOK THREE: Zombieslayer

Discover more stories set in the Age of Sigmar from Black Library

THE REALMGATE WARS: VOLUME 1

An omnibus by various authors

Contains the novels The Gates of Azyr, War Storm, Ghal Maraz,

Hammers of Sigmar, Wardens of the Everqueen and Black Rift

THE REALMGATE WARS: VOLUME 2

An omnibus by various authors

Contains the novels Call of Archaon, Warbeast, Fury of Gork,

Bladestorm, Mortarch of Night and Lord of Undeath

LEGENDS OF THE AGE OF SIGMAR

Various authors

HALLOWED KNIGHTS: PLAGUE GARDEN

Josh Reynolds

HALLOWED KNIGHTS: BLACK PYRAMID

Josh Reynolds

EIGHT LAMENTATIONS: SPEAR OF SHADOWS

Josh Reynolds

OVERLORDS OF THE IRON DRAGON

C L Werner

RULERS OF THE DEAD

Josh Reynolds & David Annandale

SOUL WARS

Josh Reynolds

CALLIS & TOLL: THE SILVER SHARD

Nick Horth

THE TAINTED HEART

C L Werner

SHADESPIRE: THE MIRRORED CITY

Josh Reynolds

BLACKTALON: FIRST MARK

Andy Clark

GODS & MORTALS

Various authors

MYTHS & REVENANTS

Various authors

HAMILCAR: CHAMPION OF THE GODS

David Guymer

GLOOMSPITE

Andy Clark

THE RED FEAST

Gav Thorpe

WARCRY

Various authors

GHOULSLAYER

Darius Hinks

BEASTGRAVE

C L Werner

~ NOVELLAS ~

CITY OF SECRETS

Nick Horth

THIEVES’ PARADISE

Nick Horth

CODE OF THE SKIES

Graeme Lyon

THE MEASURE OF IRON

Jamie Crisalli

~ AUDIO DRAMAS ~

REALMSLAYER

David Guymer

REALMSLAYER: BLOOD OF THE OLD WORLD

David Guymer

THE BEASTS OF CARTHA

David Guymer

FIST OF MORK, FIST OF GORK

David Guymer

GREAT RED

David Guymer

ONLY THE FAITHFUL

David Guymer

THE PRISONER OF THE BLACK SUN

Josh Reynolds

SANDS OF BLOOD

Josh Reynolds

THE LORDS OF HELSTONE

Josh Reynolds

THE BRIDGE OF SEVEN SORROWS

Josh Reynolds

WAR-CLAW

Josh Reynolds

SHADESPIRE: THE DARKNESS IN THE GLASS

Various authors

THE IMPRECATIONS OF DAEMONS

Nick Kyme

THE PALACE OF MEMORY AND OTHER STORIES

Various authors

CONTENTS

Cover

Backlist

Title Page

Warhammer Chronicles

Map

GREY SEER

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

TEMPLE OF THE SERPENT

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

THANQUOL’S DOOM

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Epilogue

MIND-STEALER

THANQUOL TRIUMPHANT

About the Author

An Extract from ‘Myths & Revenants’

A Black Library Publication

eBook license

This is a dark age, a bloody age, an age of daemons and of sorcery. It is an age of battle and death, and of the world’s ending. Amidst all of the fire, flame and fury it is a time, too, of mighty heroes, of bold deeds and great courage.

At the heart of the Old World sprawls the Empire, the largest and most powerful of the human realms. Known for its engineers, sorcerers, traders and soldiers, it is a land of great mountains, mighty rivers, dark forests and vast cities. And from his throne in Altdorf reigns the Emperor Karl Franz, sacred descendant of the founder of these lands, Sigmar, and wielder of his magical warhammer.

But these are far from civilised times. Across the length and breadth of the Old World, from the knightly palaces of Bretonnia to ice-bound Kislev in the far north, come rumblings of war. In the towering Worlds Edge Mountains, the orc tribes are gathering for another assault. Bandits and renegades harry the wild southern lands of the Border Princes. There are rumours of rat-things, the skaven, emerging from the sewers and swamps across the land. And from the northern wildernesses there is the ever-present threat of Chaos, of daemons and beastmen corrupted by the foul powers of the Dark Gods. As the time of battle draws ever near, the Empire needs heroes like never before.

GREY SEER

CHAPTER ONE

SOMETHING IN THE SEWERS

‘Fast-quick, flea-maggots!’

The scratchy voice was thin as a whisper, like the rasp of snakeskin against cobblestone, but it carried through the dank, crumbling tunnels like a thunderclap. Scrawny rats with jaundiced eyes and matted fur skittered away, hugging the earthen walls as the fury of the voice moved them to flight.

For others, retreat was an option long ago taken from them. Emaciated creatures nearly as thin as the starveling cave rats, their scarred bodies covered in stringy brown fur, cowered and grovelled but heavy chains of corroded iron forced them to stand their ground. Each of the creatures was a horror of blisters and scabs, their bodies gouged by the violence of whip and fang. Only the most sardonic of observers would liken them to men, though there was a loathsome mockery of man in the shapes they wore. The things that dangled limply from their wasted arms were as much paws as they were hands. Naked tails, scaly and pallid, lashed the floor between their clawed feet. Above the iron collars that circled their necks was a narrow head, pinched and pulled into the rodent-like visage of an enormous rat. Yet even here could be found a gruesome echo of humanity, for it was more than the blind fear of vermin that shone in their beady red eyes, more than the unthinking pain of a simple beast that gave their gaze its stamp of dejected misery.

‘Fast-quick!’ the voice snarled again. This time the words were punctuated by a loud crack as a scaly whip, like the severed tail of one of the creatures, flashed through the green-shadowed gloom of the tunnel. Something cried out in a wordless shriek that spoke equally of pain and terror. The echoes of the cry had not even started to shudder through the tunnels when the slaves were moving once more, attacking the walls with their clawed hands, slashing and scratching at the earth and rock with frantic desperation.

Kratch coiled the macabre whip around his arm, exulting in the panic of the slaves. Not the slightest twinge of sympathy for the miserable throng moved him; pity was a concept utterly alien to the skaven mind. The slaves existed only to further Kratch’s own position and power; beyond that simple fact, Kratch had no concern for them or their suffering. It was the most basic foundation of skaven society: the weak existed to exalt the strong.

Kratch rubbed his white-furred hands together, a pleased gleam in his eyes, as he considered the wisdom of such an arrangement. Perhaps he would have been less pleased had the Horned Rat not smiled so kindly upon Kratch and made him one of the strong. But the skaven god had favoured him, shaping him in the belly of his brood-mother and placing his mark upon Kratch. The ratman lifted a paw to his forehead, stroking the bony nubs protruding through his fur. Horned skaven were the chosen of their god, the voices and instruments of his will. More than the frayed grey robes and warpstone charms he wore, it was his horns that marked Kratch as one of the exalted, one of the grim brotherhood of sorcerer-priests known as the grey seers.

As he stroked his tiny horns, some of the pleasure ceased to sparkle in Kratch’s eyes. He had been marked, but he was still far from the magnificence he wanted. Kratch was young, barely eight winters from the whelp-nests, his horns still developing and his magical knowledge small. He was only an adept, an initiate into the secrets of the grey seers, not a grey seer himself. One day he would wield such power, but until then he would be an apprentice, serving those who Kratch knew were his inferiors for all their horns and magic.

Kratch looked away from the frantic slaves, casting an appraising glance over his shoulder at his current ‘master’. Grey Seer Skabritt was several times again as old as Kratch, his horns grown into a double-curled knot of bone that encased the sides of the priest’s head like a helmet. Skabritt fancied himself a cunning strategist and plotter, weaving a nest of intrigue and deception to cloak his activities from his many rivals and enemies, but Kratch knew he could do so much more with Skabritt’s resources and power.

The adept lashed his tail in annoyance. Looking at Skabritt caused Kratch’s blood to boil with resentment. The grey seer stood well away from where the slaves were working, surrounded on all sides by his armoured stormvermin. The big black-furred skaven kept an easy grip on their halberds when they weren’t scratching fleas from their fur. So very like Skabritt to spare himself any chance of danger. Distance would protect him from any cave-in that might result from the attentions of the work gang on the crumbling walls. The stormvermin would guard him against the unlikely, but possible event of a slave revolt. The armoured ratmen would cut down any berserk slaves long before they could lay a paw on Skabritt.

However, such hazards were perfectly acceptable for Kratch to be exposed to. The skaven gnashed his fangs as he reflected on that fact. Skabritt had insisted it would be a good learning experience for his apprentice, something to bolster his abilities to command and lead the unwashed masses of the Under-Empire. More pragmatically, Skabritt could always get another apprentice if something went wrong.

‘Fast-quick!’ Kratch growled, spinning back around and striking out with his whip. He wasn’t sure if the brown-furred wretch he struck had really been slacking off and didn’t really care. Lurking about in this forsaken network of burrows – burrows that had been sealed off since the skaven civil war – was far from Kratch’s idea of safety and comfort. The number of stormvermin Grey Seer Skabritt brought along, and the amount of warpstone tokens he had spent in the markets of Under-Altdorf arming them, told Kratch that his mentor expected trouble. That Skabritt had not shared from what quarter he expected that trouble didn’t do much to reassure Kratch.

Still, the adept reflected, Skabritt would hardly put himself at risk for some miniscule gain. Whatever he hoped to find in the abandoned burrows the slaves were excavating, it would be something of importance. Perhaps some lost cache of warpstone or a lost trove of Clan Skryre technology. Kratch began to salivate as he considered the magnitude of such a find. Skabritt would earn the favour of the seerlords and the Council of Thirteen itself presenting them with such a treasure. Or perhaps he would instead choose to deal with a single clan, tempting them with the power his discovery would offer them. Under-Altdorf was a nest of intrigue already, each of its dominant clans striving against the others for control of the city, the largest in the entire Under-Empire with the exception of Skavenblight itself. Clan Skryre would pay well for anything that would tip the balance in their favour, just as the other clans would pay to keep such power from slipping into their paws.

Whatever Skabritt chose to do, Kratch would be there, clinging to his tail every step of the way. Even if only the smallest portion of the wealth and glory Skabritt was after trickled down to his apprentice, Kratch would take it. Unless of course he saw some way to cut his mentor out of the equation. Accidents did sometimes happen, like the time a swamp troll had broken free in the mines beneath Rat Rock and nearly devoured the grey seer. In the right paws, a sharp file and a rusty chain were as deadly as any assassin’s poisoned dagger.

A sharp squeal of alarm stirred Kratch from his murderous visions. The adept cracked his whip against one of the slaves, slashing through its mangy hide, then wrinkled his snout in disgust. The workers were venting the musk of fear from their glands. Kratch fought back the instinctive response to do the same, his contempt for the wretches overcoming the tyranny of biology.

The slaves were skulking away from the wall of the tunnel. Kratch could see a dark opening where the bloodied paws of the skaven had broken through into a sealed chamber. A murky, stagnant odour wafted from the opening, overcoming even the pungent musk of the frightened slaves. Kratch felt a tremor of anxiety as his senses drank in the cold, evil smell. He quickly calmed himself. Anything with such an intimidating stench would also be obscenely powerful. His thoughts turned to visions of some lost trove of warpstone quietly festering away in the dark for six centuries and again his jaws became moist with anticipation. There was certainly a suggestion of warpstone about the clammy stench issuing from the darkness.

Kratch started to scramble down from his perch atop a pile of loose earth. Sounds behind him had the adept spinning about in alarm, one paw slipping to the dagger concealed in the sleeve of his robe. A gruff snarl froze Kratch’s hand. The adept winced, screwing his eyes shut and lifting his head, exposing his throat in deference and humility to the creature he called master.

Grey Seer Skabritt had been drawn from his cautious observation point well away from the excavation by the clammy smell issuing from the opening. There was a feverish light shining in the priest’s eyes as he shuffled forward, his stormvermin flanking him.

‘Yes-yes,’ Skabritt chortled, clapping his paws together. ‘Mine it is! Power-strength! The Wormstone belongs to Skabritt!’ The grey seer’s eyes narrowed with suspicion, casting a hostile glance at slaves, stormvermin and apprentice alike. In his injudicious enthusiasm he had let too much slip off his tongue. The priest seemed to almost swell with malignity as he drew energy into himself, his eyes glassing over with a greenish film of light. After a moment, he allowed the energy to dissipate, satisfied that none of those around him knew of what he spoke. The ignorance of his minions filled Skabritt with contempt. There was no danger such wretches could pose to him.

Kratch was careful to maintain his subservient poise, to keep any suggestion of his thoughts away from Skabritt’s keen nose and penetrating gaze. The grey seer’s scrutiny of his apprentice lasted only a moment, then he was turning his attention back on the tunnel. Skabritt was growing forgetful with his years. He had forgotten the apprentice who had scoured the records of Under-Altdorf for him, sniffing out any mention of the war with the plague priests of Clan Pestilens and the doom of Clan Mawrl. He had forgotten the many weeks Kratch had spent poring over the rat-hide scrolls and their cramped lines of hieroglyphs. Skabritt had forgotten that everything he knew about the Wormstone, his apprentice had learned first.

Stormvermin kicked and bullied their way through the huddled throng of cowering slaves as Skabritt ordered them forward. Warpstone lanterns were pulled down from the crumbling walls, casting the tunnel into blackness. Kratch scurried after the light, not trusting the darkness to guard him against the attentions of a vengeful slave. He crept after the rearmost of the stormvermin as Skabritt entered the exposed chamber.

The light from the lanterns warred against the centuried darkness that filled the burrow, casting green shadows against the dripping walls. The burrow was not large, its other entrances as choked with rubble as the one Skabritt’s slaves had broken through. The other clans of Under-Altdorf had been most thorough in their plot to bury Clan Mawrl alive. Evidence of how successful they had been was littered all across the floor. The bones of hundreds, perhaps even thousands of skaven were scattered everywhere. Even a cursory glance told Kratch that something had fed off the dead, the marks of fangs clearly visible on the bones, though whether the damage had been done by common vermin or fellow skaven was impossible to determine.

Kratch quickly dismissed the question, his focus shifting to the object standing almost in the exact centre of the burrow. Here the skeletons were at their thickest, piled about the object as though seeking succour from it in the long hours of their slow deaths. Kratch’s fur crawled as he looked at it, as its evil smell hammered at his senses. Yet even in the midst of his fear, he could not deny the fierce desire and awful hunger the thing provoked in him.

A sickly yellow haze surrounded the Wormstone. The artefact was the size of a skaven, the colour of swamp slime laced with veins of pitch-black. Two hundred pounds if it was an ounce, the smell that came off it told Kratch what formed the bulk of its composition. Warpstone, the sorcerous rock that was the very foundation of skaven civilisation. It was food, power, wealth and more to the ratkin, used to power their technology, feed their brood-mothers and fuel their industry. A piece of warpstone the size of the find he now gazed upon was more wealth than any but the strongest clan-leaders and sorcerers could ever expect to possess.

There was something more in the scent of the Wormstone, something that reminded Kratch of what he had read. The warning checked the adept’s greed, and he backed away from the glowing rock.

The stormvermin, however, were ignorant of the Wormstone’s history. Two of them rushed forwards, snapping and spitting at each other as they rushed for the massive shard of glowing rock. One of the ratmen slashed his paw across the other’s face, staggering his rival as black blood spurted down his forehead. For an instant, it seemed that Grey Seer Skabritt might intervene, but then the priest’s face pulled back in a gruesome sneer. Skabritt was a big believer in object lessons: the more ghastly the better.

The foremost stormvermin covered the last few yards between him and the Wormstone with a fierce pounce, his teeth bared in challenge to any who would contest his new possession. Skabritt’s tail twitched with amusement as the defiant warrior stretched his arm around the massive rock. Instantly he cried out with a pained squeak, leaping away in terror. Kratch could see the same ghoulish light that surrounded the Wormstone now glowing around the stormvermin’s arm. Was it a trick of shadow, or were there really gigantic maggots burrowing into the warrior’s fur?

The stormvermin was scratching and tearing at himself now, his body twitching in a fit of agony. The ratman whose eyes he had nearly scratched out snickered and drew his sword. No thought of seizing the tainted Wormstone now, but the stormvermin could still glut his need for revenge against his treacherous rival.

As the avenger approached the twitching wretch, the stricken stormvermin reared up, lunging at his rival with paws spread wide. Kratch realised with revulsion that the sick skaven wasn’t attacking, he was appealing for succour. The swordsrat backed away in revulsion, horrified by the squirming ripples beneath the sick skaven’s fur. He wasn’t fast enough; the paw of the maddened wretch struck his foot, leaving a touch of the glowing taint on his clawed toes.

The swordsrat shrieked and brought his blade smashing down. The sick skaven’s head burst open like an overripe melon, exploding into greasy quarters. From the grisly mush, fat green worms plopped and slithered.

The watching skaven vented their glands at the sickening sight. Several stormvermin braced their halberds, pointing the blades at the now infected swordsrat, trying to keep both him and the glowing worms in view. Kratch began trolling through his mind for a spell that would guard him against the ghastly magic he had witnessed, prayers to the Horned Rat rasping through his fangs.

Skabritt was unmoved, however. A fiendish, exultant light was in his eyes now. ‘This,’ the sorcerer hissed, ‘this is the weapon that makes Skabritt seerlord!’

His master’s words had barely registered with Kratch before the adept’s attention was riveted once more upon the Wormstone. The bones piled behind the relic were moving, heaving and undulating like a boiling pool of pitch. A new scent imposed itself upon his snout, a thick beastly reek like an orc abattoir after a hot summer day mixed with the stink of wet rat ogre.

The stormvermin were too preoccupied with fending off their infected comrade, jabbing at him with the points of their halberds, trying to keep him back without puncturing his hide and spilling more glowing worms onto the floor of the burrow. They did not see the pile of bones rise up, did not see the old gnawed skeletons crash back to the floor as something immense and monstrous shook them from its peeling hide.

What it was, Kratch did not know. He suspected such a thing had no name. It was immense, bigger even than the blind burrowers that Clan Moulder used to expand the caverns of the Under-Empire. There was certainly the suggestion of rat in its overall shape, a loathsome bulk that conspired at once to appear both bloated and emaciated. Patches of piebald fur clung to random bits of its anatomy; the rest was leprous and dripping. Its paws were oversized, like those of a snow bear, and tipped with more talons than it had toes. The head was withered to the point of being almost skeletal and the eyes that stared from either side of its peeling snout were swollen and pale. It lashed its tail against the floor and scrabbled forwards, darting to the carcass of the slain ratman.

Now the stormvermin could not fail to notice the monster. They froze, eyes wide with fright as they stared at the imposing beast. The rat-thing ignored the warriors, instead snuffling at the floor, licking green maggots into its maw with its thin slimy tongue. The stormvermin backed away from the feeding monster, nearly trampling Kratch in their slow retreat.

Along with the healthy warriors, the infected swordsrat also withdrew from the monster, visibly shivering as he watched it feed. The sick skaven blundered into one of his former comrades. Instantly the stormvermin cried out, slashing the swordsrat from throat to belly with his halberd. Glowing worms oozed from the wound, slapping against the floor like greasy raindrops.

The sound caused the enormous rat-beast to lift its skeletal head. The monster sniffed at the air, then its jaws opened in a sharp hiss. Before any of the skaven could turn to run, the beast leapt across the burrow and was in their midst. Giant claws ripped and tore the tight knot of warriors, shredding armour like paper. Squeals of terror and agony became deafening as the smell of blood enraged the beast still further, provoking it into a frenzied state.

Kratch didn’t wait to see anything else. The adept dived from the burrow, scurrying on all fours in his haste to flee. In the tunnel, the panicked slaves were struggling to rip the iron spikes that anchored their chains to the crumbling walls from their earthen fastenings. When they saw Kratch, some of them abandoned their efforts, turning instead toward the savage taskmaster. Several leapt at him, tearing the empty air with their bloodied paws as they reached the limit of their chains.

Kratch backed away from the maddened slaves, but found his retreat blocked by something warm and furry. Grey Seer Skabritt’s scent held an unfamiliar taint of fear, but Kratch still recognised the smell. He lifted his gaze to the sorcerer-priest. Like the stormvermin, Skabritt’s eyes were wide with fear. Unlike the warriors, however, fear was not the only thing Kratch saw in his mentor’s stare. He saw anger, the smouldering fury of a mad genius who at the moment of triumph sees his prize stolen from him.

Then Skabritt’s eyes were changing, glossing over with a greenish luminance as he drew upon the arcane power of the Horned Rat and the warpstone talisman he clutched in his fist. Kratch could feel tendrils of energy oozing into his brain, trying to smother his thoughts. It took all of his own willpower and sorcerous knowledge to drive them back, to free his mind of their numbing touch. The adept slumped to the floor, physically drained by the effort of resisting Skabritt’s spell.

The slaves were not so fortunate. From the ground, Kratch could see them grow still. Fear withered from their eyes, dispelled by a green glow that was an eerie echo of Skabritt’s own charged gaze. When the grey seer gestured, the mob stirred, pulling once again at their chains and the iron staples anchoring them to the walls. This time, however, they did not attack the task as a disordered rabble but rather as a unified body guided by a single will: that of Skabritt. One after another, the combined strength of the slaves tore the staples from the walls.

The last staple came free just in time for Skabritt. The sounds of carnage and slaughter had faded from the burrow. In the exposed mouth of the chamber, its mangy pelt smeared in the black blood and yellow fat of the stormvermin, the rat-beast snarled and spat. Skabritt spun about, glaring at the loathsome creature and pointed a clawed finger at the monster.

At his command, the ensorcelled slaves surged forward, a chittering mass of claws and fangs. Like a furry tide, they crashed upon the rat-beast, crushing it beneath their sheer weight of numbers, bowling it over and slamming it into the crumbling wall of the tunnel. Earth and rock showered down from the ceiling, throwing dust into the musty air.

The rat-beast fought back, disembowelling slaves with every turn of its massive paws, snapping spines with its iron jaws. For all their numbers, for all the grey seer’s magic, the stink of fear began to rise from the tangled knot of skaven sweeping over the monster. Skabritt gave voice to an inarticulate howl in which was both terror and outraged fury. The sorcerer-priest scurried forwards, desperate to reinforce his hypnotic control of the craven slaves.

Kratch watched the grey seer rush closer to the battle and his mouth pulled back in a predatory smile. He pulled a small piece of blackish-green rock from beneath his robes, a tiny sliver of refined warpstone. The adept’s teeth gnawed at the rock, letting little bits of stony grit burn their way down his throat and through his body. Now it was Kratch’s eyes that began to glow with an unholy light, the apprentice’s brain that roared with the mighty power of the Horned Rat. Kratch could feel his body pulse with strength, swell with godlike vitality. He felt the essence of the warpstone flow through his entire being, hearing its seductive whisper crawl through his flesh.

It was almost worse than Skabritt’s spell, fighting down the euphoric mania of the warpstone, but Kratch knew if he lost control now, his opportunity would be lost. That cold, ugly fact helped him maintain a grip on his reason. He forced his eyes to focus on the rat-beast and the slaves, on Skabritt now standing so very close to the fray.

On the crumbling walls and weak ceiling of the tunnel.

It seemed so easy. A few words, a few gestures, and the primordial power that raced through his body was reaching out. Like a great hammer, it smashed against the walls, it battered against the ceiling. A deafening roar thundered through the tunnel. In that last instant, Skabritt turned, locking eyes with his apprentice.

Kratch grinned back, baring his fangs in challenge to his hated mentor. Then thousands of tons of earth and rock came crashing down, obliterating Skabritt’s expression of disbelief. Grey Seer, slaves and rat-beast, all were buried in the collapse.

Kratch coughed, spitting dirt from his mouth, choking on the dust that filled the tunnel and stifled the warpstone lanterns. He wiped at his almost blind eyes, even as he was pressing a rag to his snout to act as a filter for his nose. Briefly, Kratch considered waiting to see if the entrance to the burrow had remained intact. Skabritt was not the only skaven who could put the Wormstone to good purpose.

It was the memory of the stormvermin who had been infected by the Wormstone’s power rather than the dust and dirt that made Kratch decide to flee. He would not brave such a fate as he had seen. He would let others take those risks.

Yes, Kratch decided as he scurried through the raw, desolate tunnels, he would need helpers if he wanted to recover the Wormstone and reap the rewards of such a find. Kratch’s muzzle dripped as he salivated in anticipation of those rewards. He knew where to find his allies. He knew where his report about Skabritt’s discovery would benefit him the most.

‘Stop your whining or get an honest job!’ growled Hans Dietrich for what felt like the hundredth time since they had set out from the docks. It was a serious threat to make against men like those who lumbered after him through the stinking, dripping corridors. Most of them had been born one kind of thief or another. Compared to their past activities, smuggling was an almost legitimate enterprise, if no less dangerous. There were stiff penalties for bringing contraband into Altdorf. Everyone from the Emperor downwards took a dim view of cheating the excisemen, though nobody really seemed to mind that it was the excisemen who were the biggest thieves. Popular theory on the wharves was that if even half the money the excisemen collected on goods coming into the capital actually were to go where it was supposed to, Karl Franz would be able to buy back Marienburg.

Reviled villains, the excisemen were everywhere on the waterfront, and if they weren’t around, then there was always the chance that some wrinkle-faced old charwoman or bleary-eyed stevedore was employed by one, acting as their eyes and ears. The Fish, probably the most notorious of the waterfront gangs, took especial pleasure in floating such toadies in the river. Still, there was always someone desperate enough to take a few coppers from an exciseman, whatever the risks.

Which was why men in Hans’s profession avoided the wharfs and the streets. There was another, surer way to navigate the swarming, crowded warren that was Altdorf, and do so completely unseen. The sewers of Altdorf were the biggest in the Empire, if not the entire Old World. Built by the dwarfs so long ago that some said Sigmar’s water was the first to christen them, the sewers existed as an unseen underworld, ignored and forgotten by nearly all who prowled the streets above. Sewerjacks and ratcatchers, maybe the odd mutant hiding from the witch hunters, but largely no one bothered the sewers or even thought about doing so. Far from prying eyes and wagging tongues, the sewers were more than a filthy nest of scummy brickwork and walls dripping with slime to Hans: they were his secret road to anywhere in the city.

There were dangers, to be sure. Sewer rats grew to the size of small dogs and were infamous for their ferocity and the filthy diseases they carried. There were the grisly water lizards brought back from the Southlands for Emperor Boris Goldgather, which had escaped the Imperial Menagerie to slink and stalk through the humid damp of the tunnels. Hans himself had seen one of the things once, pale as the belly of a fish and with a tail thick enough to choke an ox.

Then there were the floods, when the reservoir beneath Altdorf would overflow and dump its spillage for the sewers to cast the excess into the Reik. There was little warning when these floods would rush through the tunnels; only by watching the rats could a man find any hint of alarm. If the rats started scrambling for the surface, the smart man was right behind them. Hans cursed the fiendish cunning of the dwarfs; no human would have thought of using the reservoir as a means to clean the tunnels. He cast a nervous look at one of the grimy chutes that yawned in the wall, somewhat reassured to find a big black rat staring back at him from the muck, its whiskers twitching as it gnawed on some nameless filth clutched in its hand-like paws.

‘Are we there yet?’ the thin, reedy voice of Kempf called out from the rear of the little procession. There were ten men in Hans’s little gang, just big enough to keep their cut of the merchandise lucrative, but too small to bounce anyone from the mob. Even an annoying weasel like Kempf.

‘You seen the mark?’ Hans snarled back, turning around to glare at Kempf. Like the rest of the smugglers, Kempf was dressed in a grimy set of homespun and wool that was only slightly too good to be called rags. Kempf affected a goatskin coat two sizes too big for him, the garment hanging well below his knees while a gaudy scarf circled his throat, hiding an Adam’s apple so big the man looked like he’d swallowed a goblin.

Kempf lifted his hands in a placating gesture, causing Hans to roll his eyes. Kempf had an ugly habit of excusing himself from all the heavy work. While the rest of the men laboured under the weight of a half-dozen casks of bootleg Reikland hock from Carroburg, Kempf had conned his comrades into posting him as rearguard to keep a wary eye out for sewerjacks… or worse.

‘Maybe we passed it,’ Kempf suggested, visibly cringing when he saw the reaction on Hans’s face. The reedy smuggler bobbed his head like a punch-drunk stork and started a bout of his braying, nasal laughter. ‘I know, I know,’ he said. ‘You keep a good eye out for the marks. Nobody says you don’t. I mean, that’s why you’re the leader.’ Kempf’s thin face spread in a toothy smile that was both ingratiating and smarmy. ‘But, I mean, everyone makes mistakes.’

Hans scowled at the rearguard, sucking at his teeth as he imagined burying his fist in that smug smile. He counted to ten, then reversed the numbers. His brother was always on him about his temper. They’d lost a few clients and quite a few men because Hans didn’t keep a tight leash on his tongue. More than a few of their enemies had started that way by being on the receiving end of Hans’s ire. Someday, Johann was always warning him, his temper was going to get all of them into more trouble than they could handle.

Hans looked away from Kempf and gave Johann an exasperated look. His brother was younger but taller and more muscular, his features handsome in a rugged sort of way that had all the girls at Argula Cranach’s making cow-eyes at him and offering discounts. His leather tunic, despite years of abuse and crude mending, still managed to constrain his brawny build. Hair the colour of old corn was cropped close to the skull, starkly contrasting eyes as cold and blue as the waters of the Upper Reik.

Johann had inherited all the better qualities. Hans was short, his unimposing build fading to fat, his left ear swollen out of proportion thanks to the impact of a Reiksguard’s bludgeon during the Window Tax riots many years ago. His nose was crooked, bent into its current asymmetrical fashion by the fist of a dock-ganger from the Hooks. His hair was a scraggly brown mop, like some disordered bird’s nest threatening to burst from beneath his battered felt hat. It wasn’t just looks that Johann had won out on. The younger brother was smarter, stronger, more cautious, less emotional and decidedly braver. What Johann lacked, what his older brother provided, was ambition.

Starve or steal was a simple choice to make for the people who inhabited the waterfront. The Dietrich brothers had chosen to steal, at first petty acts of thuggery that yielded petty results. There wasn’t much coin to be had rolling drunks as they stumbled out of the Orc and Axe. The real money was to be had by smuggling, sneaking goods from river trader to city merchant without the excisemen interfering.

They’d been profiting well from the venture, too. Even with his hot temper, Hans had a steady cadre of clients quite willing to put up with him for the sake of avoiding usurious duties and customs. Johann had scouted out a large section of the sewer over the course of several months, making marks in chalk and soot where the walls of the stinking tunnels corresponded with some important landmark above. By watching for the marks, the smugglers always knew where they were and where they needed to go.

Only Hans hadn’t seen any marks for quite some time now. Far too long, now that he thought about it. He didn’t like to give any credence to one of Kempf’s slippery suggestions, but the sneak might be right this time. Maybe he had missed something.

Before he could speak, Hans saw Johann’s eyes narrow into a suspicious squint. Slowly, the younger Dietrich began to lower his cask of cheap Carroburg booze.

‘Something’s wrong,’ Johann said, his voice low. His hand dropped to a weapon belt that was in far better shape than his tunic, fingers tightening about the grip of his dagger.

‘Who…’ but Hans had no need to finish his question. Torches blazed into life from the sewer tunnel up ahead. More lights burst into flame from the cross-tunnels to either side. Dark silhouettes moved through the blackness, naked steel reflecting the flickering flames. Hans felt his stomach turn as he decided that the sewerjacks had finally caught them. In the next moment, he found himself wishing they were sewerjacks.

‘The Dietrich boys,’ a deep voice growled, a voice Hans and any other scoundrel on the waterfront knew only too well. Gustav Volk. In a district infamous for casual violence and brutality, Gustav Volk was a name held in fear. As the speaker stepped out of the shadows, Hans reflected that it wasn’t size or strength that made Volk so feared, the man possessed neither in such abundance as to overwhelm the feral courage of rakes and thieves. It was the face – that grizzled scowl with its stubbly hair and heavy brow. Volk carried an expression that could make a wolf pass water. It burned in his eyes, the pitiless rage looking for any excuse to allow the man to do his absolute worst to his victim and enjoy every screaming, bloody minute of it.

Volk oozed out from the darkness, accompanied by a bull-necked bruiser carrying a torch. Other thugs followed close behind. Volk looked the smugglers up and down, his lip curled in scorn. ‘Quite an accomplishment,’ he snarled. ‘Your operation has become big enough to become annoying to Herr Klasst. Bad news for you.’ To add emphasis to his statement, Volk slapped the hilt of his sword. For the moment, it was sheathed. Nobody was fool enough to think the moment would last.

Klasst. Vesper Klasst. He was even more of a bogeyman to the inhabitants of the waterfront than Volk. A big-scale racketeer and gang-leader, it was said Klasst controlled criminal bands all across Altdorf, from Little Tilea to the Morrwies. After the Fish and the Hooks had been at least partially broken up by the Altdorf Dock Watch in the weeks after the murderous Beast had finally been brought to ground, it was Vesper Klasst who had become the undisputed power on the waterfront. And Gustav Volk was his enforcer, extorting a percentage from every transaction, criminal or legal, that happened in his territory, brutally coercing many of the district’s thieves to join Klasst’s ‘family’.

Hans had resisted Volk’s suggestion that his band of smugglers accept the protection of his gang. That meeting had ended with one of Hans’s fingers bent so far backward it wasn’t so much broken as snapped. It had also ended with Johann’s dagger tickling a piece of anatomy Volk wasn’t too keen on losing. The last view the brothers had had of Volk was him screaming for a chirurgeon and clutching his blood-soaked breeches. That had been three months ago. They’d been lucky to avoid him so long. Now Ranald had decided their luck was at an end.

‘I want the wine,’ Volk stated, his tone broaching no argument. ‘Then you’re going to show me where you were taking it. I’ll make a good example of somebody who thinks they can still use independents without Herr Klasst finding out.’

‘How do we know you won’t just kill us anyway?’ Hans challenged.

Volk’s smile was as ugly as an orc in a nursery. ‘You can die here, slow, or you can die there. I’ll have other things to do there, so I’ll make it quick.’

Johann pulled his dagger from its sheath. ‘How about I just gut you like the pig you are and leave you floating here with the rest of the…’

Hans stared in horror as his brother lunged at Volk. The entire sewer exploded into madness, armed men charging from the darkness to confront the smugglers. Hans dodged the murderous sweep of a boat-hook, driving his elbow into the thug’s belly and knocking the wind out of him.

So much for Johann being the level-headed one, Hans thought as he drew his own dagger and joined the fray in earnest.

Six casks of Reikland hock, three dead and two men missing. Johann knew he should be thankful that any of them were still alive, but he still couldn’t help but grumble over their losses. They’d accounted for at least two of Volk’s gang, but unfortunately he wasn’t one of the casualties. Not bad considering they’d been outnumbered three to one. Still, if Volk’s men had known the sewers half as well as the smugglers, there was no chance they’d have given the thugs the slip.

Then again, giving them the slip had also put Johann in a situation he hadn’t encountered in quite some time: he had no idea where they were. It was more than Volk’s men removing marks from the walls – Johann would swear on the Hammer of Sigmar he’d never seen this stretch of tunnel before. He tried to keep his confusion to himself, not wanting to panic the men. He felt that his brother had some inkling as to what was wrong but trusted him to keep quiet.

When they came upon the breach in the sewer wall, however, even the dullest of the surviving smugglers knew something was wrong. The jagged tear in the brickwork, like the yawning mouth of some immense snake, was certainly something they would remember. Johann edged forwards, peering through the opening. He risked lighting a candle. Beyond the breach was a tunnel, raw earthen walls that looked to have been carved out with bare hands rather than tools. There was a foul smell as well, a thick animal stench that even the reek of the sewers couldn’t overwhelm.

Hans appeared at his side, staring into the earthen tunnel. He glanced back, watching the fear grow in his small band of thieves.

‘We can hide from Volk’s gang in here,’ Hans proclaimed boldly, gambling that their fear of the unknown wasn’t quite so robust as their fear of Gustav Volk.

The gamble played out and soon the entire band of smugglers was creeping through the narrow, winding tunnel. The unsettling sound of earth shifting overhead and the occasional stream of dust falling from the ceiling did nothing to improve their spirits. But it was when the huge Emil Kleiner, a former stevedore before he decided that even so marginally legitimate a profession wasn’t to his taste, found the body that things really took a turn for the worse. His ear-battering shriek was such that if any of Volk’s gang were still following the smugglers, they could not fail to find their quarry now.

A snarled reprimand died on Johann’s lips as he stared down at the ugly, mangled thing that had so terrified Kleiner. The noxious carcass was almost man-sized, dressed in a crude grey robe even the most pathetic of Altdorf’s beggars would have refused to be seen in. It was covered in bloodied fur and its appearance, for all its mutilation, was that of a giant rat: a rat that seemed to have thought it was a man!

Frightened whispers came from the circle of smugglers gazing down on the thing. Half-remembered childhood tales of the verminous underfolk and their kidnapping ways rose to the forefront of each man’s mind. Several made the signs of Ranald and Sigmar, praying to their gods for deliverance from such mythic nightmares. Even Johann felt the nervous urge to glance down the tunnel, to discover if the dead thing had any of its living fellows about.

Hans bullied his way through the frightened men, sneering with contempt at both their fear and the unnatural corpse that sprawled at their feet. ‘Gunndred’s noose!’ he swore. ‘What is wrong with you slack-jawed curs? Never seen a dead mutant before?’ Hans punctuated his outburst with a strong kick to the dead thing’s horned skull. The corpse rolled obscenely from the impact.

Their leader’s outburst rallied the men and nervous laughter echoed in the crumbling tunnel. Hans was right of course, the smugglers decided. The thing was no more than a mutant wretch. Looking like it did, there was small wonder the scum had chosen to hide itself down in the sewers. The only thing remarkable about it was that it had avoided the witch hunters long enough to even reach the sewers.

Underfolk? Bah! Everyone with half a brain knew there was no such thing as the skaven!

The smugglers began following the tunnel once more. The air was dank and foul, leading Johann to believe it didn’t lead anywhere, but Hans was more obstinate. They passed carefully around several places that showed signs of recent collapse. Once, a great pool of black blood rewarded their investigation, seeming to seep from beneath a recent cave-in. The men carefully avoided the ominous sign and pressed on.

Not far from the cave-in, the smugglers found a large chamber. If anything, the air was even fouler here. The floor of the cavern was littered with bones and fresh offal, putrid blood splashed everywhere and gobbets of gnawed meat splattered against the walls. A quick inspection told Johann that whatever the place had been, the other tunnels that opened into it had collapsed a long time ago. He tried not to look too closely at the strange bones and furry meat littering the floor.

‘Look at that.’ The words left Hans’s mouth in an awed whisper. The smuggler was staring in open wonder at a huge chunk of greenish stone resting at the centre of the room, glowing faintly with its own inner light. Johann felt his skin crawl just looking at it. He could tell most of the other men felt the same way.

‘Black magic,’ hissed old Mueller, the eye that hadn’t been pulled from its socket by an over-eager river pirate squinting with a mixture of suspicion and loathing. At his words, other smugglers began making the signs of their gods for protection.

‘Maybe,’ agreed Kempf, ‘but have you ever heard of any kind of magic that wasn’t worth a fair number of crowns?’ The little thief scrambled forwards and joined Hans beside the weird rock. He grinned as he studied the thing, reaching out a hand and scratching at the rock. Kempf sniffed at his finger and his smile broadened.

‘Wyrdstone,’ Kempf declared. The eyes of every man present grew wide not from fear, but from greed. Wyrdstone was a valuable commodity, so valuable that even the lowest cutpurse knew its worth. A type of rock soaked in magic that, it was said, could do everything from curing shingles to turning lead into gold. It was said to be able to remove wrinkles from the old and build strength in the young. Pigments mixed with wyrdstone dust could allow even the most talentless artist to create a priceless masterpiece, and a single whiff of a wyrdstone poultice was certain protection from the evils of mutation and madness. Those who lusted after wyrdstone insisted it was a different substance from the abhorred warpstone, the raw stuff of Chaos that brought madness and mutation with its touch. Such connections were the delusions of ignorant, superstitious fools in their minds. There was almost nothing alchemists and wizards wouldn’t do to possess even a small measure of wyrdstone. What they were looking at was anything but a small measure.

Still, the avarice of the men was tempered by the grim knowledge that few substances in the Empire were as forbidden as wyrdstone. If there was nothing wizards wouldn’t do to get some, there was nothing the witch hunters wouldn’t do to anyone caught with any. Even for men who daily risked hanging or an indeterminable stay in Mundsen Keep, the thought of what the witch hunters did to heretics was sobering.

Hans stared at the glowing rock for several minutes, then nodded his head slowly. ‘Kempf, do you think you could find us a buyer for that thing?’

‘One? Why not a dozen?’ Kempf replied enthusiastically.

The answer decided Hans. ‘Kleiner, Mueller, fetch that thing down. We’ll take it back to the hideout.’

The men hesitated, but a sharp look from their leader had the pair lumbering up to the pile of bones and pulling down the heavy rock. They drew frayed rags from their pockets, wrapping them tightly about their faces to fend off any sorcerous fume, wound ribbons of torn cloth about their hands to defend their skin from the touch of magic. Johann felt a shiver pass through him as he saw the green light stretch and grip the arms of the men, casting a diseased pallor across their skin. The men carrying the rock didn’t seem to notice and Hans was already conferring with Kempf in a soft whisper, trying to figure out how they would best bring their strange discovery to market.

As they worked their way back down the crumbling tunnel, Johann could not share the optimism of his brother. He could not shake the impression that far from making their fortune, their troubles had instead only just begun.

CHAPTER TWO

THE MAZE OF MERCILESS PENANCE

In the flickering dark of the burning city, with the night pierced by the screams of dying men and the air stagnant with the stench of scorched flesh, he could feel power surge through his body. Raw, primal and awesome in its terrible magnificence, it roared through his veins like a living thing, firing every nerve and synapse, awakening them to the eldritch power that soaked his flesh.

Power! The power to rip apart mountains! Power to smash the puny warrens of his enemies and entomb them forever with their treachery! Power to obliterate the stinking hovels of the humans and grind that pathetic, preening breed beneath the clawed feet of the skaven! Power! Power second only to that of the Horned Rat himself, mightiest of gods!

No, he corrected himself. With such power he was no longer a simple thing of flesh and spirit. He was a god himself, ascended like the infamous blasphemer Kweethul the Vile! His was the power to rend and slay and rip and tear! His was the power to rule, to hold the entire Under-Empire, and the broken rubble of the miserable human surface realm, in a claw of iron. He would squeeze that claw until the world screamed and everything knew that it lived only because he allowed it.

Then the power flickered, cringing from him, retreating from his body like a wisp of ashy smoke from a smith’s furnace. His mind railed with horror as he felt his new-found magnificence deserting him. It was unfair, unjust that he should be cheated of his moment of ascendancy!

His eyes were pits of rage as he scoured the darkened streets of the burning city, looking for the traitor who had sabotaged his ultimate triumph. There would be blood and vengeance when he found them. He would bury his muzzle in their breast and gnaw out their beating heart with his fangs!

Then rage shattered in his mind, sent whimpering to some black corner of his being. The last of the divine power that had swept through his body abandoned him as he squirted the musk of fear from his glands.

There were figures moving in the dark street, striding purposefully through the swirling smoke and dancing embers. One was the tall straight figure of a man, his reek foully familiar as it struck the skaven’s senses. He felt only contempt for the man, but there was a reason he had vented his glands in terror.

If the man was here…

The second figure emerged from behind the veil of smoke. He was much shorter than the man, but stoutly and broadly built. Thick knots of muscle, like writhing jungle serpents, coiled around the apparition’s arms. Crude tattoos in the cut-scrawl of the dwarfs littered the figure’s bare chest and the sides of his shaven pate. A massive cock’s comb, dyed the same bright orange as the dwarf’s thick beard, sprouted from the centre of his otherwise shorn scalp. The dwarf’s battered face grinned evilly behind its old scars and bruises. A missing eye was covered by a weathered leather patch. The other eye burned into the skaven’s with a stare of murderous malevolence.

‘This time, vermin, you taste my axe!’

Huge and cruelly sharp, like the hand of some savage daemon of war, the star-metal blade came hurtling towards the skaven, driven by all the monstrous power in the dwarf’s swollen arms…

Grey Seer Thanquol snapped awake, his entire body twitching in terror at the nightmare that had fallen upon his sleeping mind. Empty glands tried to squirt the fear-scent, but he could tell from the heavy fug that surrounded him that he had already emptied them in his sleep.

More troubling than his undignified display of scent, however, was the fact that he hadn’t heard himself cry out. Thanquol tried to open his jaws, finding them thickly tethered by a leather muzzle. Rolling his tongue around inside his mouth, he found that he had been further gagged with an iron bit. Instinctively he raised his hands to remove the vexing intrusion. He found his paws carefully bound by little mittens of iron, his clawed fingers safely locked away inside the cold metal shell.

Panic thundered inside Thanquol’s chest, his heart hammering like a crazed goblin against his ribs. Carefully, desperately, Thanquol forced himself to become calm. Turn fear into hate, he told himself. It was the maxim that had built the Under-Empire and given the skaven race dominance of the underworld. Fear wouldn’t do anything to help him now. Hate, however, just might. Revenge was a powerful incentive for staying alive.

Thanquol cursed the nightmare memory of that devil-spawned dwarf and the preening human he kept as a pet. All of his misery and misfortune had started the day that whoreson pair intruded into his affairs. He was so close, so tantalisingly close to achieving the grand plot he had proposed to Seerlord Kritislik. The traitorous human dupe he had spent so long training and grooming to become his pawn was finally reaching his potential, finally ready to be put to the purpose Thanquol required of him. Fritz von Halstadt, chief of Nuln’s secret police, would have murdered the brother of the human emperor once Thanquol provided him with ‘evidence’ that the aristocrat was involved in a conspiracy against the countess of Nuln. Thanquol understood enough about the brood loyalty of humans, even if he found it incomprehensible. The Emperor would retaliate, the countess would resist, believing the evidence von Halstadt presented her. War would be the result, war between the Emperor and the wealthy warren-kingdom of Nuln. Favours and loyalties owed to both sides would cause the conflict to spread, and where these were not enough, agents of the skaven would sow further lies and deception. Before long, the humans would be slaughtering one another wholesale. When they were weak enough, the skaven would emerge from their burrows and take their rightful place as inheritors of the surface world.

Such a grand scheme, surely inspired by the Horned Rat himself! Even the seerlords had been impressed, though Kritislik had insisted on tampering with it slightly so that he could claim part of the glory when the humans were brought to ruin. Perhaps that was where things had started to go wrong, when Seerlord Kritislik had started tinkering with Thanquol’s brilliant vision. It was a thought that had occurred to Thanquol before, but one he knew it would not take a gag to prevent him from ever speaking aloud.

He doubted if even Seerlord Kritislik could contrive a scheme complicated enough to employ that hell-sent dwarf as a pawn, either willing or unwittingly. Yet who else could have managed such a feat if not Kritislik? Thanquol refused to believe it had been dumb blind randomness that had drawn the dwarf and his pet across his path. Everything would have succeeded but for them! Thanquol would have become the most renowned grey seer since Gnawdoom rescued the Black Ark from the wizard who dared steal it from its sanctuary deep beneath Skavenblight.

It was too much to think that it was circumstance that caused the cursed pair to kill von Halstadt before Thanquol could make use of him. Too much to think that any dwarf, however crazed, could fell a mighty rat ogre like his unfortunate Boneripper with a single blow! Nor was that the end of their meddling. The pair had lingered in the human warren-kingdom of Nuln, interfering in Thanquol’s attempts to recover the situation. They had spoiled his efforts to abduct the countess, ruined his attempt to cement an alliance with the warlock engineers of Clan Skryre by stealing a human-built steam-tank, and thwarted his all-out attack against Nuln itself, an attack that by rights should have left the city a smouldering crater.

Oh, to be certain the Lords of Decay had been most lavish in their praise of Thanquol’s efforts. They had tactfully ignored the intention of his grand scheme and instead focused upon the damage inflicted on the man-city and the severe losses suffered by the warriors of Clan Skab during the fighting. Clan Skab, they said, had been growing seditious. As a result of the fighting in Nuln, they were now too weak to act on any rebellious thoughts. Seerlord Kritislik himself had rewarded Thanquol, presenting him with a new rat ogre to replace the one he had lost. He was even given freedom and resources to pursue his vendetta against the cursed dwarf and his underling.

Thanquol should have suspected then, but he allowed his own ambition and his deep need for revenge to cloud his judgement. He gathered a new band of minions and pursued the dwarf far into the north. The battle that followed should have been a resounding victory; Thanquol had planned it out to the smallest detail. Instead his wretched minions had allowed themselves to be destroyed and routed by the filthy dwarfs. His second Boneripper performed even more wretchedly than its predecessor, killed by the dwarf’s pet before it could even lay a paw on him! Thanquol was right to have been suspicious. Few skaven would have had such sharp instincts. If he’d trusted the miserable wretch to protect him… hadn’t it been Kritislik who had suggested he employ the rat ogre as a bodyguard?

Pursuing the dwarf and his allies had led Thanquol even further north, most of his carefully hoarded wealth being spent to gather more warriors and to purchase a proper bodyguard, a hulking beast worthy of the name Boneripper. To remind Seerlord Kritislik of the importance of Thanquol’s brilliant and cunning mind, he sent a runner back to Skavenblight telling the Lords of Decay about the airship the dwarfs had built and in which his despised enemy had so cravenly quit the battlefield. Now he was not simply going to accomplish the elimination of a hated foe of the Under-Empire, but also secure a technology that made the loss of the steam-tank in Nuln insignificant.

But things continued to go wrong. His agent, the snivelling and faithless Lurk Snitchtongue, who in his foresight Thanquol had sent to hide in the airship before its escape, returned from his experience mutated and savage, exposed to the raw forces of the blighted Chaos Wastes. His paw-picked warriors, after occupying the airship’s staging area in Kislev and imprisoning its human defenders, were too glutted on their recent successes to obey his exacting commands when the airship returned. Had they followed his strict orders, the damnable contraption would have been his and all its miserable occupants at the grey seer’s mercy. Instead they had foolishly, treacherously rushed in and gotten themselves slaughtered. Even the wretched dolt of a rat ogre managed to get itself killed. Boneripper! Fah! Thanquol always knew the gruesome things were nothing but bad luck!

Only the grey seer’s genius (and a liberal ingestion of warpstone to augment his magical powers) had enabled him to escape the treacherous bungling of his subordinates. His only comrade as he scurried away from the debacle was the grotesque Lurk, now little more than a rat ogre himself, albeit with a troubling knot of hunger in his scent. Even worse, they had been captured by the pickets of a massive horde of deranged humans from the northlands. It had taken a wit as sharp and tricky as Thanquol’s to deceive the barbarians into releasing them, and he had made sure to use the escape to put as many of their fellow skaven between the marauders and himself as quickly as possible, seeking out the closest and largest skaven warren in the area.

That led to his entry into Hell Pit, the noxious city of Clan Moulder, breeders of the many beasts and monsters that slaved for the skaven in the dark reaches of their realm. Izak Grottle, the fat worm, had been there, spinning his lies to the elders of his clan, convincing them it had been Thanquol and not his own conniving and perfidy that had resulted in the failure of the attack on Nuln and the loss of many of the clan’s beast masters. Instead of welcoming the grey seer, Thanquol found himself a prisoner… and one destined for a very short stay.

Again, destiny and the Horned Rat smiled on him. At any other time, Clan Moulder would have happily disposed of Thanquol, indeed it was a rare thing for a grey seer to fall into any clan’s paws in so vulnerable a condition. Working up the nerve to actually do the deed was what was delaying them, Thanquol was certain, for even as a prisoner his reputation was enough to strike terror in such vermin.

The issue never came to open confrontation, however. In their foolishness, the fleshchangers of Hell Pit had taken Lurk away to experiment upon in their laboratories. Instead the mutant had broken free, lost himself in the lower warrens and incited a rebellion among Moulder’s skaven slaves! Hopelessly out of their depth, unable to keep even their clanrats from defecting to the insurrection, the High Packmaster had turned to Thanquol to save Hell Pit.

A pettier skaven would have refused, but Thanquol was gracious enough to aid Clan Moulder, despite the indignities they had inflicted upon him. With his brilliant leadership, the revolt was quickly broken. His only regret was that in the confusion Lurk had somehow contrived to lose himself in the tunnels and escape his well-deserved reward for betraying his old master and blasphemy against the Horned Rat.

Still the danger was not past. Lurk had treasonously allowed himself to be used by the sorcerers of the northmen to weaken Hell Pit for their horde to conquer. Selflessly, Thanquol did not depart for Skavenblight and his long-deferred report to the Council of Thirteen, deciding to stay and help Clan Moulder escape complete ruin. After all, had it not been the mighty Grey Seer Thanquol who had led the warriors of Clan Moulder in battle against the northman warlord Alarik Lionmane when he had brought his barbarians against the strongholds scattered beneath the Troll Country? The horde had been broken and all but annihilated as a result of Thanquol’s decisive strategy. If Moulder’s dull clawleaders had followed the grey seer’s intricate battle plan more closely, Moulder’s army would have emerged unscathed. But no reasonable mind could hold him to blame for the loss of an army that was too stupid to display a proper understanding of tactics.

Fortunately, the brood-mothers of Hell Pit had used the years since Alarik’s horde was routed to birth a new army for Clan Moulder. Thanquol led the solid ranks of armoured stormvermin, fierce clanrats and the many terrible beasts from Moulder’s flesh-forges against the brutish northmen, the elite vanguard of Arek Daemonclaw who had entrusted only the best of his warriors with the task of facing the skaven, taking the dregs of his host to attack the humans in Praag.

Thanquol had to admit that Clan Moulder’s new army was better than its last one. But then, of course his battle plan was better as well, even with the fat, squealing Izak Grottle trying to take a hand in the strategising. When it was over, Thanquol had the pleasure of watching his second northman horde break and scatter like the skull of a baby dwarf. This time there was none of the awkwardness of being the only skaven alive to enjoy the retreat.

After the battle, Thanquol took his leave of Clan Moulder, Hell Pit and the two-scented Izak Grottle. The grey seer accepted only the smallest measure of reward from the High Packmaster. After all, the flesh-changers were a simple and foolish breed, and it would be unkind to take advantage of them and point out that what they offered him was hardly what a more refined skaven would call generous. Besides, he was eager to make his report to the Council of Thirteen. In Skavenblight he would have friends, ones who would help him settle debts incurred during his stay in the north.

Through the tunnels of the Under-Empire, carried by the sickly skaven slaves given to him by Clan Moulder, Thanquol hurried, his mind afire with future plans and past grudges.

Thanquol rubbed one of his horns against his shoulder, trying to get at an itch he couldn’t reach with his chained paws. No matter which way he twisted his neck or tilted his head, he couldn’t quite find the spot. Another indignity unjustly inflicted upon him by those who were jealous of his genius and the favour displayed to him by the Horned Rat!

He’d had a fine taste of how deep the envy of his fellows went upon his return to Skavenblight! Instead of being welcomed back as the loyal and capable servant he was, Thanquol had been seized by the elite white stormvermin who guarded the Lords of Decay and the Shattered Tower. He was dragged before Seerlord Kritislik in chains, presented to them like some seditious heretic! Kritislik informed him that they were displeased by his failure to capture the dwarf airship, disturbed by his inability to inform the Council of Arek Daemonclaw’s attack on Kislev in time to allow them to exploit it for their own purposes, and upset by reports that he had engineered a slave revolt in Hell Pit without the seerlord’s authorisation.

Despite his best efforts to explain these seeming failures to Kritislik, the seerlord was deaf to his words. He was stripped of his staff and amulet, the talismans of his office as grey seer and agent of the Council, and thrown into some blighted hole deep beneath the streets of Skavenblight.

Thanquol was more certain than ever that Kritislik had been behind his downfall from the start. It was the seerlord who had put that hell-spawned dwarf in his way, probably the treacherous Lurk and all the other enemies who had beset him as well! Envious of Thanquol’s brilliance, doubting Thanquol’s tireless devotion and loyalty! Thanquol was right to have plotted against the senile old mouse! When he thought of all the times he had squirted the musk of fear just to convey a respectful scent in the fool’s presence…

As Thanquol’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, he suddenly froze. His surroundings were different; he wasn’t in the same dreary little hole anymore. He thought back to the pathetic bones he had been thrown by his guards the night before. They had tasted strange, but he had been too ravenous with hunger to care at the time. Now he knew the marrow had been treated with some kind of drug, a drug that left him insensible long enough for his captors to gag and bind him, to remove him from his prison to this place.

But where was this place? Thanquol’s stomach clenched and his empty glands tried to vent. He had a terrible feeling he knew. The Maze of Inescapable Death, the most insidious of the many ways the Council of Thirteen employed to dispose of those who displeased them. The maze was a trap-filled network of tunnels and warrens, a nest of pits and spikes and boiling oil, the walls reinforced with steel rods so that even the most desperate skaven couldn’t gnaw his way to freedom. In all the centuries since its construction, no skaven had ever escaped from the maze for one simple reason: there was no way out.

Thanquol stared at the ceiling, feeling his head swim as he saw tiny lights wink into existence, as the comforting closeness of the roof faded away into the vast, horrifying emptiness of the night sky. He knew it was a trick, a dwarf-made illusion plundered from the shattered halls of the City of Pillars. He knew that it was not stars he saw, but simply tiny bits of amber and pearl set into a black-painted ceiling. He recognised the deception for what it was, but he could not stop the instinctual revulsion that crawled through his body. Untold generations of breeding, fighting and dying in the close tunnels and cluttered caverns of the Under-Empire had made the skaven a race of agoraphobics, imprinting a terror of open spaces into the most primal part of their psyche.

The grey seer tried to overcome his fear with his knowledge, to let intellect subdue unruly instinct. It was the fiendish nature of the nameless and accursed ratmen who had constructed the maze that the labyrinth should use a skaven’s own natural urges to destroy him.

Instinct versus intellect, an unequal contest in most skaven, who were little cleverer than the common rats who shared their burrows, but in the case of a mind like Thanquol’s, genius would prevail. The nameless architects of the maze had not figured upon a brilliance such as that of the grey seer!

Thanquol caught himself as he was edging towards the wall of the tunnel, fighting down the desperate need to feel raw earth against his whiskers, to assure himself he was not falling into the enormous void of the sky above. He ground his fangs against the bit in his mouth, feeling annoyance that he had allowed his body to move at such primitive and petty urgings. The builders of the maze would know that huddling up against the wall would be the natural response of a skaven confronted by the sprawling starfield over him. They might have hidden anything in the wall to settle with such weak minds: spring-loaded spikes treated in warp-venom, jets of immolating warp-flame billowing outwards from projectors buried beneath a thin layer of crust, perhaps even a hidden pivot to allow the wall to spin and crush its victim.

Each image made Thanquol more nervous than the last and he slowly backed away from the offending wall. When he felt raw earth crumble behind his furred back, the skaven leapt ten feet into the centre of the tunnel, wide-eyed with fright, not caring how inappropriate such a display of raw fear was for a grey seer of his status. His retreat from the first wall had backed him into the other side of the tunnel. Only reflexes as honed and precise as his own could have allowed escape from so injudicious a moment. Thanquol watched the wall he had brushed against, waiting anxiously for it to explode in some manner of violence. When it didn’t, he felt almost disappointed, but he should have guessed that the speed of his amazing reactions was quicker than whatever device the architects had hidden. Before the death-machine could even be triggered, Thanquol was already gone.

Now, as he stood in the darkness, listening to his own heart pounding in his chest, Thanquol’s other senses became more alert. He could discern a faint, bittersweet smell. He could feel the air shifting slightly, betraying the merest suggestion of current and movement. He could hear an indistinct noise, a dim scratching sounding from beneath the rocky floor, giving him the impression of rusty gears grinding together.

There was no escape from the maze, but Thanquol was determined to fight just the same. If he could find something to rid himself of his muzzle and fetters, he would be able to draw upon his magic to tip the balance back in his favour. However fiendish the architects, Thanquol did not think they could have reckoned with the mystic might of a grey seer when they built their traps.

Keeping his eyes averted from the disconcerting illusion of the false sky, Thanquol carefully made his way down the tunnel. He was careful to stay away from the walls and kept a wary watch on the places he set his feet. Ahead, the tunnel split into five separate corridors, like fingers stretching away from a hand. He paused, sniffing at the air, trying to decide which corridor to take. He had a good feeling about the leftmost path. The skaven lashed his tail in annoyance, remembering that this place was designed to goad a victim into destroying himself.

Thanquol turned away from the left path, instead creeping down the centre corridor. He had only taken a dozen paces when instinct took over and he threw himself to the floor. An instant later a great blast of green warpfire whooshed overhead, searing its way down the tunnel. The smell of singed fur told the grey seer how nearly he had been caught, the flames licking at his back even as he crushed himself against the floor.

Thanquol lifted himself from the ground, scowling at the darkness. There was no mistaking the sound of gears grinding together beneath the floor this time. He could feel the tunnel itself rumbling. Quickly he retreated back the way he had come. He just reached the intersection when the trapped tunnel began to rotate, moved by machinery hidden beneath it. Soon, where the corridor had been, Thanquol could see only a bare stone wall.

The grey seer did not spend overlong contemplating the buried machinery or the question of whether it operated automatically or was guided by some malefic intelligence. Having escaped the warpfire, Thanquol was more inclined to trust his initial impression and travel down the leftmost tunnel. Certainly it couldn’t be any less hazardous than picking a path at random, as he had done.

That bittersweet scent was stronger as Thanquol entered the left tunnel. Now the grey seer identified the odour, his suspicions of trickery became even more pronounced. It was the smell of refined warpstone, but warpstone that had been allowed to age for an unbelievable amount of time. It was the sort of thing that would pluck at a skaven’s mind and guide him on even without his conscious mind being aware of its pull.

Thanquol, however, was aware of what it was that lured him down the tunnel. He knew he walked into a trap, and his every sense was on the alert. He froze when a slight shift in the heavy air suggested movement. When the bright flash of metal in the blackness flickered past his eyes, he arrested his every muscle and waited for the pendulum to withdraw back into its hidden niche. Briefly he toyed with the idea of using the sharp edge of the pendulum to cut his fetters, but quickly disabused himself of the impulse, fearing the blade had been treated with some ghastly poison by his captors.

Scurrying through the dark, Thanquol allowed the scent of warpstone to guide him. He continued to shun the walls, continued to avert his eyes from the disorienting glare of the starfield. It was not escape that goaded him onwards. He knew there was none from the Maze of Inescapable Death. No, it was something more primitive and elemental that motivated him. Food and water were his concerns now, excited by the smell of warpstone. His physical needs must be sated before he attacked the problem of removing his bonds and making a fight of the maze’s ordeal.

Down through the murk of the winding tunnel, Thanquol was drawn, even his cunning mind tortured by the effort of keeping track of his trail. The way the tunnel doubled back upon itself, he wondered if perhaps buried machinery wasn’t moving the corridors behind him, rotating and turning so that he was caught in an endlessly repeating pattern. The thought chilled him as much as it excited his appreciation for the sadistic minds that had built the maze.

If the winding tunnels were being rotated by machines, at least there was a purpose behind their movements. Turning one last corner, Thanquol was surprised to find himself looking out into a wide cavern. Stalactites dripped from the ceiling, spoiling the effect of the pearly stars and silver moons suspended overhead. The walls were at least partially worked, displaying the marks of tools rather than the scratches of claw and fang. He could not see any other openings into the cavern and very soon lost interest in looking for any, his eyes locked to the object at the centre of the chamber.

It was a black stone marked by veins of green that glowed in the darkness. If Thanquol had any doubts about the bittersweet scent, he could not mistake the colours of warpstone. The rock stood upon a small plinth of copper upon which the grey seer could see scratchy runes and elaborate pictoglyphs. Old writing, very old indeed, possibly even predating the rise of the skaven themselves.

Intrigued now by something more than hunger, Thanquol crept towards the plinth. Curiosity was a vice that had served the skaven race well down through their long history, though given the opportunity any skaven with an ounce of wit preferred to let one of his subordinates take on the inherent risks of exploration and inquiry. Thanquol did not have that luxury, however, a fact that made him curse Kritislik once more. A few skavenslaves, or even a truculent giant rat, would have been reassuring under the circumstances. No skaven felt at ease without the scent of a dozen of its underlings filling its nose.

Thanquol fought down the urgings of both hunger and curiosity, remembering only too well where he was. Instead he kept his distance from the plinth, circling it warily and studying it from afar. Abruptly he stopped, fixing his gaze on the block of warpstone. Now he could see that the rock had been sculpted, carved into a crude likeness in a style as primitive as it was ancient. It was the rough shape of a skaven, paws set upon its knees and with its tail curled about its lap. Great horns, like mighty glaives, rose from the brow of the statue’s head. Thanquol prostrated himself on the floor, grovelling in pious fear before this representation of the Horned Rat himself.

Now Thanquol understood where he was. This was not the Maze of Inescapable Death. It was the only slightly less deadly Maze of Merciless Penance, used by the seerlord to test those grey seers whose loyalty and capability had been cast into doubt. This Maze was designed to determine whether a skaven yet retained the good favour of the Horned Rat. Only those who proved themselves were ever seen again. The others became victims of the labyrinth.

Like any skaven, Thanquol feared and envied his god, but now there was a despair-born sincerity in his pleas to the Horned Rat for salvation. If the Horned One would only spare his miserable and unworthy servant, Thanquol would work tirelessly to ensure his domination of the world above. No more would he think of his own ambitions and greed, his secret dream to raise himself as seerlord and see Kritislik’s bones gnawed by the whelps of his own brood. He would even forsake his vengeful obsession to destroy the damnable dwarf and his foppish pet, if only the Horned Rat would hear him now.

In the midst of his deal-making prayers, Thanquol suddenly felt the compulsion to lift his head from the floor. He stared at the image of the Horned Rat for only an instant, then his eyes fixed on something above and beyond the statue. Two blue stars shone in the eerie false night, set amidst some of the rocky growths that peppered the ceiling. There was something disquieting about the sapphire-lights and Thanquol started to turn his head when he became aware of something that had him forgetting about mazes and gods, even about warpstone and hunger.

The blue stars were moving.

Slowly, agonisingly slowly, the sapphire-lights were creeping across the roof. Now Thanquol could see that they weren’t merely set amid the rocky growths, they were fixed to a big projection of stone. Only it wasn’t stone, just something that blended itself with the stone, the better to hunt prey.

Terrors from whelp-hood rose up fresh in Thanquol’s mind. All the bogey stories told by vindictive skavenslaves to frighten their charges. Tales of the Under-Empire and the lightless miles of empty tunnel between burrow and warren. Gruesome fables about what haunted those tunnels, ready to reach out and snatch the unwary skaven who dared the dark alone.

The thing on the ceiling was one such myth. Until this moment, Thanquol had not believed such a thing to be any more than the crazed imagining of the insect-obsessed Clan Verms. Still, there was no mistaking the monster for aught but what it was. Now that he was aware of it, Thanquol could pick out the shape of its many spindly legs, the long abdomen and the armoured thorax. He could see the angular head with its jewel-like eyes of sapphire and its hideous mouth of serrated plates. Two arched shadows dangling down from it were certainly the monster’s claws, great ripping things designed to catch and hold prey while the monster’s mandibles tore slivers of meat from its screaming victim.

A tregara, the panther of the underworld, a monstrous mantis-like predator that found no prey quite as much to its liking as skaven. Even now, staring back at its sapphire eyes, Thanquol found it difficult to believe the thing was real. He ransacked his mind for every half-remembered story he had been told about the creatures. Above him, slowly and silently, the tregara continued to creep forwards.

Blind! Yes, that was something he remembered. Thanquol prided himself on recalling such an old and seemingly useless bit of memory. There was more, it wasn’t able to scent prey any more than a skaven could catch a scent from the insect’s own pale, rocky body. How then did it hunt?

The tregara was almost directly above the plinth now. Thanquol shuddered as he saw how immense it was, at least twice his own weight and coated in thick plates of chitin. As he trembled, the insect rotated its head, seeming to fix its blind gaze on the grey seer. Thanquol knew it was not his imagination when the tregara’s lethargic stalk across the ceiling quickened.

Movement! That was how the tregara hunted its prey! Even the slightest motion would betray Thanquol to the monster. The skaven struggled to calm himself, to still his lashing tail and quivering limbs. He forced himself to look away from the gigantic insect, only too aware that while he looked at it, any effort to calm himself was doomed.

Long moments passed. Thanquol expected the scythe-like claws to come sweeping down to snatch him at any moment. When nothing happened, he risked raising his face from the floor.

The tregara was almost directly over him. He could see the stone-like markings on its back now, could hear the scrape of its body against the rock as it moved. The sight was too much for Thanquol’s self-control. Screaming into his gag, the grey seer scurried across the floor on hands and feet, racing away from the sinister predator with all the grace and terror of some mammoth rat. Dignity and decorum were the furthest things from his mind as the grey seer darted back into the tunnel, like a giant mouse disappearing into its hole.

Down the narrow, winding tunnels Thanquol ran, his replenished glands venting themselves. Only once did he risk a look back. Two sapphire-lights shone from the roof of the tunnel, the tregara’s clawed legs stabbing into the black rock as it hurtled after its fleeing prey. The insect’s grim silence disturbed Thanquol more than the hiss of a serpent or the snarl of a cat, lending the tregara an unnatural, almost elemental aura of inevitability.

Thanquol was not about to submit to the inevitable, whatever shape it assumed. There was always a way, a deception to work, a minion to blame, a superior to flatter. He had survived many things over his life, from the black arts of the necromancer Vorghun of Praag to the vile poxes of the Plague Lord Skratsquik and the mutated warriors of Arek Daemonclaw. Even that hell-spawned dwarf had proven incapable of besting the mighty Grey Seer Thanquol. To end as fodder for some mindless tunnel-lurker was too much for him to countenance.

Now Thanquol was back at the intersection. Once more there were five tunnels branching away. Close behind him came the tregara. He hesitated for only a moment, then quickly darted into the centre tunnel. Thanquol threw himself against the floor, crushing his body against the earth. For a terrible instant, he wondered if the trap mechanism had reset, or if the tunnel was indeed the right one.

Suddenly, green fire roared overhead. A sickly, satisfying smell of burnt meat struck Thanquol’s senses. He looked overhead and watched as a long, scythe-like claw dropped away from the charred husk of the tregara, its sapphire-lights dimmed forever by the scorching blast of warpfire.

The tunnel began to rumble once more. This time Thanquol was too slow to retreat, instead being carried away as the entire corridor rotated. As it finished its cycle, the grey seer found himself blinking in the harsh glare of warpstone lanterns. He could hear the grind of machinery all around him and could dimly perceive a massive treadwheel powered by skavenslaves looming in the distance.

Thanquol’s heart hammered against his ribs. He wasn’t going to die! He hadn’t been cast into the Maze of Inescapable Death, but rather into the Maze of Merciless Penance! The Horned Rat had not abandoned his favoured instrument! He was being given another chance to prove himself. His masters had not consigned him to destruction.

Much closer than the slaves was a large cluster of armoured skaven, their pallid fur taking on a greenish hue in the warplight. They were big, slavering brutes with breastplates of steel and wickedly hooked halberds clutched tightly in their paws. Thanquol knew their scent: albino stormvermin, the elite guards of the Council of Thirteen.

In their midst was another figure, nearly as tall as the hulking stormvermin. His fur was a murky grey that contrasted with the iron hue of his long, flowing robes. Sigils picked out in black rat-hair thread formed intricate patterns on the skaven’s garments. Huge horns as black as the thread rose from the skaven’s skull, curling into spiral antlers of bone. The face beneath the horns was pinched and drawn and filled with such timeless malice as to make even the fiercest giant seem small and vulnerable.

Thanquol abased himself before Seerlord Kritislik, baring his throat to the elder priest-sorcerer. If there was anything left in his glands, Thanquol would have vented them in deference to his master, but all the musk had already been used during the horrible chase by the tregara.

Kritislik’s face pulled back in a fang-ridden smile of challenge, annoyed by the lack of respectful scent from Thanquol. After a moment, however, Kritislik divined the reason for such impropriety. The seerlord chuckled darkly.

‘You survive the maze, Grey Seer Thanquol,’ Kritislik hissed. ‘Good-good. The Horned One still like-favour you.’ Kritislik gestured with his paw and two of the stormvermin advanced to the captive. Roughly, but quickly, they removed the muzzle from Thanquol’s snout and the fetters from his paws.

Coughing, Thanquol spat the iron bit from his mouth and tried to work feeling back into his jaw. He became aware of Kritislik’s impatient gaze upon him, and threw himself back to the floor.

‘I serve only the will-desire of the Horned One,’ Thanquol whined. ‘The word of the most terrifying-magnificent seerlord is my sacred commandment, oh benevolent tyrant,’ he added, deciding a display of fawning devotion might keep him from being returned to the maze.

Kritislik seemed to ponder Thanquol’s flattery, then a cruel light crept into the ratman’s eyes. ‘You have been a capable servant, Grey Seer Thanquol,’ Kritislik said. ‘The Council finds itself in need of a dispo- a competent servant for a matter of the utmost delicacy.’

Kritislik gestured again and the white stormvermin grabbed Thanquol by the shoulders and started to lead him away. The grey seer knew better than to struggle or protest. A less keen mind might have thought there was nothing worse that could be inflicted on him than the ordeal of the maze and that there was nothing to be risked by resisting.

Thanquol knew better. Where the insidious imaginations of the Lords of Decay were concerned, there was always something worse.

CHAPTER THREE

WORMS AND RATS

The hideout, as Hans Dietrich called it, was nothing more than a disused cellar beneath the Orc and Axe. The little gang paid Ulgrin Shatterhand, the proprietor of the tavern, a tidy sum to keep the cellar that way. There was a hidden door in the small foyer between bar and kitchen that allowed the smugglers entry to their secret storehouse. It was a vital element of their operation to have a safe place to store merchandise when immediate delivery proved impractical. The Orc and Axe, infamous as one of the most violent dens of vice and drunkenness on all the waterfront, made a perfect disguise for their activities. The place was so notorious there wasn’t a watchman in all Altdorf who would look beneath the surface for more crime. The panderers, weirdroot addicts, river pirates, mobsmen, thieves and murderers who patronised the tavern’s taproom were more than enough to meet any thief-taker’s quota. If there was one thing that had impressed itself upon Hans over the years it was the fact that the only person stupider and lazier than a watchman was the common outlaw.

Staying out of Mundsen Keep or Reiksfang Prison wasn’t a question of being a genius, only a matter of being cleverer than the next thief and keeping quiet when he took the fall. It was a philosophy that had kept Hans clean so far as the magistrates were concerned, despite over a decade of larceny. His brother, Johann, had violated the precept of not meddling in somebody else’s fight. He’d been tossed into the Reiksfang for three years after getting caught up in the Window Tax riots. Perhaps it would have been better had he spent a few more years in the dungeons of the Reiksfang, the extra time might have knocked a bit more sense into Johann’s thick skull. As it was, the younger Dietrich still had disturbing displays of idealism from time to time.

At least he was a dependable lieutenant, a vital asset when the gang included slippery weasels like Kempf among their numbers. Watching the diminished gang move through the narrow, garbage-ridden back-alleys of the waterfront, Hans realised he’d need to recruit some new muscle, sooner rather than later with Gustav Volk on the prowl for them.

Hans slipped in the side door of the tavern after making sure no one was about. He was always cautious about government informants and watchmen keeping a low profile, and tonight he was doubly so. If what they found in the sewers was really what Kempf claimed it to be, they’d make back what they had lost with the wine and then some. He held the rickety door, nothing more than a few planks fitted to a hinge, as the rest of his gang shuffled out of the shadows and darted inside. Johann brought up the rear, his dagger drawn, following close behind Kleiner as the big man shuffled his way down the alley, his arms wrapped about the strange stone. Even with an oilskin draped over it, the rock gave off a faint green glow in the darkness. Hans wrinkled his nose. The last thing they needed was somebody spotting that and getting the witch hunters involved!

The rumble of voices and bawdy songs from the tavern’s main room covered the entrance of the smugglers. The only one watching the side door was Greta, a plain-faced serving wench with a body like an over-sexed cow. She had a thing for one of the gang and always hung around the door when she could to watch their comings and goings.

‘Evening, Greta,’ Hans said as he slipped inside. The girl grinned at him, then craned her head, looking slightly disappointed that only Kleiner and Johann were still outside.

‘Is Krebs not with you?’ she asked, a dejected note in her voice.

‘Sorry, love, the Dockwatch nabbed him. You won’t see him until they let him out of Mundsen Keep,’ Hans lied. Johann gave his brother a sour look. They had both seen Krebs spitted like a fish on Gustav Volk’s sword. The only way Greta would be seeing him again was with the help of a necromancer.

‘He was just a bit too slow tonight,’ Hans continued, returning his brother’s sour look. There was no sense telling the girl the truth and spending half the night trying to console a bawling female. ‘Nobody’s fault, really. Sometimes the blasted griffons get lucky is all.’

Greta’s eyes were starting to turn red and damp, a flush rising in her plump face. Hans patted her shoulder.

‘Don’t fret none, poppet,’ he told her. ‘Me and the lads will see the bribe gets doled out. He’ll be back knocking at your window in no time.’

Hans didn’t have time to wipe the smile off his face before Johann was pushing him into the pantry and down the steps to the hidden cellar.

‘Anyone ever tell you that you’re a worm?’ Johann growled.

‘You think telling her that her darling swain is a notch on Volk’s sword would make her feel any better?’ Hans retorted. ‘I have to say, brother, sometimes I think dear old mum did our father wrong when you get all stupid on me.’

Hans ignored the ugly stream of invective his turn of phrase provoked and descended into the cellar. It was a rude, dilapidated affair, plaster walls bulging with the Altdorf damp, a timber ceiling that creaked every time anyone headed out the tavern’s back entrance to use the privy, spider webs so thick they could choke an ogre. Still, what it lacked in the niceties, it made up for in discretion. A smuggler had to choose inconspicuous over luxury every time.

The rest of the depleted gang was clustered around the only lantern in the place, a glass-faced storm lantern they’d somehow acquired from the ship of a Marienburg trader. The glass was cracked, throwing weird shadows across the floor, but at least it was better than sitting in the dark and far less stifling than a smoke-belching torch.

Hans did another quick head count. Mueller, Kleiner, that rat Kempf, Wilhelm and Johann. No doubt about it, but Volk’s little ambush had cost them a lot of manpower.

‘You can set that thing down now,’ Hans told Kleiner. The big oaf was still holding the glowing rock against his chest, even with sweat dripping down his forehead and veins bulging from the sides of his neck. He let the rock crash to the floor and crumpled into a gasping wreck. The other smugglers cursed at the loud noise and instantly trained their eyes on the ceiling, trying to decide if they had been heard.

Hans shook his head. With all the racket rising from the taproom, they could be murdering the Emperor’s mistress down here and nobody would hear it. He smacked his hands together to draw the men’s attention back to him.

‘Well boys, we had a bad night of it,’ Hans said.

‘Bad night?’ Wilhelm snarled. He waved his bandaged hand at the gang chief. ‘They cut off two of my fingers!’

‘Next time you’ll get out of the way,’ Hans quipped. Johann stepped beside his brother, a menacing reminder to Wilhelm that he would get much worse than a few missing fingers if he started anything.

‘Khaine’s black hells, Hans!’ cursed Kempf. ‘That wasn’t the Dockwatch or sewerjacks that rumbled onto us, that was Gustav Volk! In case you forgot, he works for Klasst! Those people don’t throw you into Mundsen Keep, they bury you under it!’

‘And they don’t never stop lookin’ for you either!’ Wilhelm added. ‘Never!’

Hans shook his head. ‘So you’d prefer that we were working for Volk all this time? Funny, I don’t remember anybody complaining about splitting the forty-percent that leech would have taken off every job.’

‘Yeah, well now’s different,’ Kempf spat. ‘Now Volk’s onto us!’

‘So what do you want to do? Everybody wants to quit and bottle out because the big bad Volk is after them?’ Hans was a bit annoyed by all the nodding heads that greeted the suggestion.

‘We’ve enough stashed from the last few jobs to get good and far from Altdorf,’ Mueller told him. ‘I’m thinking Wurtbad might be far enough to stay out of Volk’s grasp.’

‘If it’s just Volk,’ Johann interrupted. ‘If it’s his boss looking for you, Kislev isn’t far enough away.’

His brother’s sobering remark brought a decidedly depressing chill to the air, like a schoolroom bully letting all the air out of a pig’s bladder. Hans decided to play the card he had been holding back. He fished in his tunic and pulled out a sack of coins. With a flourish he threw the bag onto the floor, making sure everyone could hear the clatter of metal against metal.

‘There’s all the swag from the last three jobs,’ Hans said, smiling as the men pounced on the bag. ‘Divide it up any way you like, and may Ranald’s favour go with you.’ Hans paused, letting a sly twinkle into his eye. ‘Of course, if you leave now, you don’t get a share.’

That remark made some heads turn. Suspicious eyes fixed on Hans.

‘Share in what?’ Mueller demanded.

Hans patted the oilskin-draped stone, letting his fingers tap against its sides, letting the drumming noise echo across the cellar. ‘If this is wyrdstone, Kempf, how much would it be worth?’

‘You wouldn’t cut us out of that!’ Kempf snarled, more than ever resembling some cornered rodent.

‘But you men all want to leave Altdorf,’ Hans said. ‘Those who stay behind to sell this… commodity… should reap the rewards. What have we always said? An equal share of the risk, an equal share of the swag. That simple rule has kept us honest so far, I see no reason why it shouldn’t still apply.’

The men looked at Hans as if he’d spat in their beer. Kleiner rose from the floor, looking for a moment as if he’d like to rip the sneering rogue limb from limb. Wilhelm fingered his knife, a gruesome thing that looked like it was made for gutting sharks. Mueller just stood and glared. Kempf muttered to himself, chewing on his moustache.

‘How much do you say it would be worth?’ Johann asked, backing his brother’s play.

Kempf glared at both of the Dietrichs. ‘If, and I say if the thing really is wyrdstone, there’s no saying how much it is worth.’

‘How do we see if it is wyrdstone?’ Hans asked.

Kempf looked like he had just swallowed something bitter. ‘I know people…’ he began.

‘Who?’ prodded Johann. It would be like the little weasel to keep everything to himself and leave the rest of them hanging in the wind if he got the chance. Even Kleiner wasn’t stupid enough to let Kempf keep anything secret.

‘I could take it to Doktor Loew, the alchemist,’ Kempf said after a moment. ‘He’d know.’

Hans nodded. ‘A good plan,’ he agreed. Then he drew his dagger. Before any of the other smugglers could react, Hans smashed the edge of his blade against the brittle rock, knocking an inch-long sliver from its side. ‘But what if we don’t take the whole stone to him? I think that would be safer, don’t you? We wouldn’t like your Dr Loew to get any queer ideas about stealing the whole thing from us. We take him a little piece and maybe we can keep him honest.’

‘What about the rest of it?’ asked Mueller.

Hans looked around the small cellar for a moment, looking for a place they could hide the bulky rock and its unnatural glow. His gaze finally settled on an old wine cask that had been in the cellar before the building above was even called the Orc and Axe. It had been cheap to begin with and over the years it had soured itself into pungent vinegar. Hans pointed to the barrel and all the smugglers smiled at the suggestion.

‘I suppose you want me to lug it over there?’ grumbled Kleiner.

The taproom of the Orc and Axe was filled almost to bursting by the time the smugglers emerged from their hasty conference. It was just the way Johann preferred it. Crowded, the sudden arrival of the smugglers would pass largely unnoticed. More tactically minded than his brother, Johann was a good deal more cautious than Hans about the secrecy of their lair. Hans, in his opinion, trusted to luck and the favour of Ranald the Trickster too much and too often. The eyes of the Dockwatch weren’t just on the streets. And now there were Gustav Volk’s spies to worry about as well.

Johann’s steely gaze swept across the taproom, studying the motley gutter-sweepings sitting about the tavern’s dilapidated tables and gathered about its knife-scarred bar. Grimy, sour-faced visages sometimes looked up from their tankards of beer and flagons of ale to return his challenging inspection. Waterfront stevedores, back-alley swindlers, leather-faced fishermen, squinty thieves, swaggering sailors, brutish muggers, and foppish panderers all clustered about the cheap booze and scarcely edible fare of Ulgrin Shatterhand’s establishment. Johann could see the gaudy fabrics of Marienburg, heavy fur cloaks from Kislev, the stripped homespun of Nuln and Wissenland, the threadbare greens of Wurtbad, even the balloon-like cut of Tilean tunics and trousers. The smuggler laughed grimly. It wasn’t in the lofty spires of government and aristocracy where men from foreign places and foreign minds came together as equals with common purpose. It was in the lowest rungs of society that men set aside their differences. It was in the gutter they came together.

Any one of those faces that looked back at him might be one of Volk’s spies. Johann shook his head. The organisation Vesper Klasst had put together had its fingers in every district in Altdorf; even if none of Volk’s people were in the crowd, some of Klasst’s were certain to be. Hans was really testing the limits of Ranald’s divine indulgence. It was Johann’s experience that the gods seldom favoured fools overlong.

Hans and the others had already sidled over to the bar, pushing a knot of grumbling stevedores to make room for them. The labourers looked ready to make trouble, but proved too sober to pick a fight with any mob that included someone like Kleiner among its number. Hans was barking out orders for Reikland hock when Johann joined them.

‘This is stupid, Hans,’ Johann hissed from the corner of his mouth. ‘Somebody is sure to be looking for us.’

‘They won’t start anything here,’ Hans protested. He smiled as he took the clay tankards from the dumpy woman behind the counter. He pushed drinks down the bar to his men. He rolled his eyes when Johann refused the last tankard.

‘You worry too much,’ Hans grumbled, pointedly taking a swig from the tankard he had offered to his brother. ‘Comes from all that thinking you’re doing all the time. A man can’t think his way out of whatever the gods have in store for him.’

‘It damn sure can’t hurt,’ Johann retorted. ‘You ever stop to think Volk is sure to hear about us being here?’

Hans sighed, looking back down the bar. His annoyance grew when he saw that the rest of his men were watching the two brothers with rapt attention. Wilhelm wasn’t even drinking, instead soaking his mangled hand in his tankard. Kempf had a slithery look in his expression and his frequent glances in the direction of the pantry and the cellar beneath it told quite clearly where his thoughts were. Kleiner was scratching at his arm in between trying to stifle a suddenly persistent cough. Old Mueller just looked resigned, like a beetle waiting for the other boot to fall.

Hans leaned into his brother, keeping his voice low, but not so low that the other smugglers couldn’t hear him. ‘I want Volk to know about this place. If his people are watching it, then there’s small chance one of us is going to come sneaking back here on his own and try to make off with the wyrdstone. It’ll take all of us to even have a chance of getting something that big out of here.’

Kempf hissed something unrepeatable. Wilhelm slammed his hurt hand against the counter and took a drink from his tankard. Kleiner coughed. Mueller just gave voice to a pained groan. Hans grinned like the face of Khaine, enjoying his brother’s look of disbelieving horror.

‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘I’d rather put us all on the spot than have somebody getting rich off my sweat.’

Johann decided not to point out that it had been mostly Kleiner’s sweat, any more than he was minded to observe that their chances of making off with the wyrdstone even together weren’t going to be good. Volk’s gang was sure to get some of them. He felt disgusted as he saw the answer reflected in his brother’s twinkling eyes. That was part of the plan: fewer shares to go around. Not stupid, just callously reckless and ruthless.

Disgusted, Johann looked away from Hans, staring instead at the massive axe fastened to the wall above the bar. It was a huge weapon, the runes and craftsmanship proclaiming its dwarfish origin. It was a testament to how much the tavern’s proprietor was feared and respected on the waterfront that no one had seen fit to try and steal it. Ulgrin Shatterhand was known for his black tempers and a sadistic streak seldom found in a dwarf. Some said the loss of his hand had made him mean enough to choke a giant with the one he still had. Others said it was some secret shame that made him an exile from his own people and which had made him as bitter as the waters of the Sour Sea. Johann had heard a slightly different version from the few dwarfs he’d met in the Orc and Axe. They said Ulgrin Shatterhand was such a miserable grumbaki because of that splendid axe above the bar: a cheap human-crafted forgery if they’d ever seen one.

Thinking about the axe made Johann look down the other end of the counter where an enormous glass jar rested. If the axe was a forgery, there was nothing fake about the tavern’s other mascot. Pickled and preserved, the jar was filled with the swollen, snarling head of the largest, nastiest orc anyone in Altdorf had ever seen; many fights in the tavern started as arguments about whether the thing had really belonged to a large orc or had instead come from a small troll. Whatever the case, it was generally agreed that Ulgrin had lost his hand to orcs before he settled down to establish his tavern. The standing offer of free drinks to anyone who brought a larger orc head to the dwarf only helped to support such rumours.

As Johann looked at the leathery, green-skinned scowl of the head, his eyes were drawn to movement beyond the trophy. The bat-wing doors at the front of the tavern swung open, admitting a knot of armed men. Instantly the murmur of conversation in the taproom faded away to a whisper of muttered curses and hastily concealed contraband.

The foremost of the men was nearly as tall as Johann, with much broader shoulders. His features were regular, almost aristocratic if they hadn’t been spoiled by a jagged knife scar along the left cheek, pulling the corner of the man’s mouth into a slight pucker. Dark eyes, like the black pits of Mundsen Keep, fixed Johann with their gaze, then quickly looked past him and focused on his brother. The scarred mouth did its best to spread into a smile. The man dropped his hand casually to the longsword he wore at his side, the leather of his glove creaking as his fingers assumed a deceptively easy grip on the pommel.

‘I’ve paid!’ The outburst came from behind the counter. A hinged section of the bar swept upward and the stocky figure of Ulgrin Shatterhand stormed out. The dwarf’s long white beard was tucked into the belt of his beer-stained apron, his grubby hand wiping foam across his leather leggings. The steel hook that gleamed from the stump of his other arm was held menacingly at his side. ‘You can’t go abusing my custom, griffon! I’ve paid!’

The man with the scar turned a withering scowl against the dwarf. ‘Funny, the captain must have failed to mention it.’ He made a gesture with his hand, tapping the bronze pectoral that hung above his hauberk of reinforced leather. A griffon rampant, a halberd clenched in its talons, stood out upon the flat metal plate. It was the same figure that was represented upon the white armbands each of the armed men wore. It was the symbol of the Altdorf city watch. The bronze pectoral denoted the speaker as a sergeant in that stalwart organisation.

‘He’ll damn sure mention it after I get through talking to him!’ Ulgrin snarled. ‘And then he’ll take that fancy jewellery away from you and kick your arse back down with the sewerjacks!’

The sergeant fixed Ulgrin with his most authoritarian stare. ‘He’ll be happy to hear you are so vocal about the bribes he accepts, drok,’ the soldier said. ‘It might make him reconsider the arrangement.’

The words had their intended effect. Sputtering and cursing, Ulgrin Shatterhand retreated back behind the counter, leaving his patrons to the attentions of Theodor Baer and his watchmen.

It wasn’t a general raid for outlaws and contraband that interested the sergeant tonight, however. There was a very specific purpose behind his visit and as he turned his attention away from the angry dwarf and back to the men clustered about the bar, he found himself looking at that reason. Nodding to his men, Theodor Baer strolled over to where Hans Dietrich was trying his best to look inconspicuous.

‘Heard you had some trouble tonight,’ Theodor said by way of greeting.

‘Get stuffed, griffon,’ Hans spat.

‘No thanks,’ Theodor replied, pushing the tankard away from Hans’s fingers, forcing the man to turn around and face him. ‘Though I think Gustav Volk has some idea about doing something of the sort to you.’

‘Volk is always talking tough,’ Johann interrupted. ‘But we’re still here.’

Theodor looked down the bar, letting his eyes rest a while on each man. His gaze lingered on Kleiner, watching as the man almost doubled over from a fit of coughing. ‘Seems to me there’s a lot less of you here than a few nights ago.’

‘I think some of the boys might have caught a ship for someplace,’ Hans said.

‘If they caught a ship, its port of call was the Gardens of Morr,’ Theodor retorted. He raised the tankard, sniffed at it and wrinkled his nose at the reek of the cheap beer. ‘Though I can’t blame them for keeping away if this is the best stuff you can get here.’

‘Whatever you are fishing for, griffon, you won’t find it here,’ Johann said, glowering at the sergeant.

Theodor shook his head. ‘I’m not interested in you lot,’ he said, though once again his attention was distracted by Kleiner’s coughing and scratching. ‘You’re small fish. I want the big shark. I want Volk.’

‘I’d like to give him to you,’ Hans smiled. ‘But unfortunately that is a commodity that isn’t mine to sell.’ The elder Dietrich threw down several silver coins onto the bar and shuffled away from the counter. The rest of the smugglers followed him, Kleiner last of all. Theodor watched them leave, but made no move to stop them.

In the doorway, as the small band left the Orc and Axe, Johann looked back at the sergeant. Theodor wasn’t watching the smugglers anymore. Johann saw him further down the bar, near where Kleiner had been standing.

Across the distance, Johann couldn’t see what Theodor found so interesting. He didn’t see the strange, fat green worm writhing on the counter as it burrowed its way into the woodwork.

The chamber of the Council of Thirteen was deep within the Shattered Tower. An ancient structure, older than even the skaven race, the Shattered Tower loomed above the decaying sprawl of Skavenblight like the warning finger of a malevolent god. Even with its foundations sucked down into the mire of the Blighted Marshes, there was no corner of Skavenblight upon which its shadow did not fall. It was a potent reminder of the authority and reach of the Lords of Decay, a physical tribute to the awful power of the Horned Rat and his domination of his chosen people: the skaven.

Enormous doors, carved from black Southland wood and engraved with the sinister sign of the Horned Rat, guarded the entrance to the council chamber. Before the black doors, the biggest rat ogre Thanquol had ever seen crouched beside the wall. The chain fixing its collar to thick iron staples set into the floor looking to have been stolen from a warship’s anchor. The ugly brute rose up as it caught the scent of Thanquol and his escorts. Nearly furless, every inch of the rat ogre’s exposed hide had been branded with the mark of the Horned Rat. It snuffled grotesquely at the air, like some great hound, then slowly lurched away from its post beside the doorway.

Thanquol controlled a quiver of fear as he felt the flagstones beneath his paws tremble from the huge monster’s plodding steps. The albino stormvermin who flanked him, the guards who had led him through the streets of Skavenblight to ensure he kept his meeting with the Council, gave the faintest hint of musk as the brute’s muscular bulk thundered past. Thanquol did not find the subdued fear of his grim escorts comforting. He wondered how many of those summoned to the chambers of the Council ended up in the monster’s craw.

The rat ogre’s immense paw closed around an enormous club with a head of grotesquely carved warpstone. To Thanquol’s awed gaze, it looked as if the brute held an entire tree in its claws. He could imagine the weapon smashing down, pulverising whatever it struck into a gooey smear on the floor. The grey seer took a few nervous steps back, ensuring at least a few of the stormvermin were closer to the beast than he was.

The rat ogre, however, seemed to take no further notice of Thanquol and his entourage. Turning, the brute ambled over to a gigantic brass gong. With one swift motion, the monster brought its club smashing into the suspended metal disc, the violence of the impact sending a puff of green dust rising from the warpstone head.

A sound, low and sinister and evil, droned through the black corridors of the Shattered Tower, vibrating through the stones with malefic purpose. Thanquol could feel the sound pulse through his bones and ground his fangs against the terrifying sensation.

The single, throbbing note faded away, seeming to devour its own echoes. As it passed into nothingness, a new sound scratched at Thanquol’s senses. Slowly, with eerie precision, the great doors of the Chamber of Thirteen were swinging open, moved by some force even Thanquol’s sorcerous gaze could not discern. Smells, ancient and evil, billowed out from the room beyond the doors. Thanquol fought to keep his heart from racing. There would be time enough for terror after he crossed the threshold.

White paws closed about the grey seer’s shoulders, giving him an encouraging shove towards the doorway when he hesitated. Thanquol scowled at the mute armoured ratmen. Obviously the cowardly wretches had no intention of accompanying him further. He wished the shrivelling of their rathoods and a thousand other curses upon them as he carefully crept across the threshold, watching every step with a caution that made his experience in the Maze of Merciless Penance seem overbold.

No sooner had Thanquol stepped inside the chamber than the great black doors slammed shut behind him with a resounding boom. The grey seer sprang forward ten feet, his pulse racing. Anxious paws flew to his long, hairless tail, stroking it like a brood-mother with a favourite whelp. Thanquol let out a long gasp of relief. It was all there. Somehow his tail had managed to avoid being caught in the slamming doors.

A low, bubbling chuckle took Thanquol’s thoughts from his near-escape to the greater peril that still menaced him. It was a deep, throaty laugh, sickening and rotten, Thanquol was reminded of gas escaping from beneath a bog. It was a cruel, savage sort of humour that brooked no good will towards whatever it was directed against. He knew such a voice could belong to only one creature: Arch-Plaguelord Nurglitch, the foul master of the disgusting plague monks of Clan Pestilens.

The grey seer peered across the chamber. It was a great, round hall, its ceiling lost in the darkness far above. Braziers of glowing warpstone cast flickering shadows across the room, somehow managing to further obscure the far end of the hall even as they illuminated the centre. Even Thanquol’s keen gaze could scarcely make out the other side of the chamber. He had the impression of a rounded dais and a circular podium draped in red cloth. Behind the podium were chairs, but whatever sat upon them was nothing more than an indistinct shape, a blotch of blackness that might hide anything or nothing.

Thanquol did not need to count the chairs to know that there were thirteen. Their occupants, if any, would be the Lords of Decay, the warlords and masters of the most powerful clans in the Under-Empire. He could barely make out the banners that stood behind each chair, casting a darker shadow upon its occupant. Each banner depicted the sign of the great clan or warlord clan the Lord of Decay ruled over and represented. The assassins of Clan Eshin, the fanatics of Clan Pestilens, the brutal warriors of Clan Mors and Clan Skab, all had their representative upon the Council of Thirteen.

Two of the seats bore no banner, however. Instead there was a metal icon, the crooked crossbars that represented the Horned Rat. One of the seats would be occupied by the seerlord, the voice of the skaven god and his chosen prophet. The other stood above the centremost seat, a seat that was always kept vacant, kept waiting for the presence of the Horned Rat himself. The seerlord would interpret the will of the Horned Rat whenever the Council was called upon to vote upon some matter of policy. In effect, the tradition gave the seerlord a double vote, but no skaven was bold enough to challenge the connection between Kritislik and their merciless god.

‘Grey Seer Thanquol,’ a growling voice echoed from the shadowy podium. Some trick of acoustics made it impossible to pinpoint from which seat the voice emanated, magnifying and distorting it beyond any semblance of mortal speech. Thanquol tried to identify the voice, unable to decide if it belonged to General Paskrit or Warlord Gnawdwell. ‘The stink of fear is in your fur.’

Thanquol lowered his head and exposed his throat in abasement, trying to leave no question about his humility before the forbidding masters of his race. The warpstone braziers made it impossible for him to catch the scent of the seated warlords, but clearly the same disadvantage was not shared by the ratmen upon the dais. ‘Only a fool does not cower-grovel before the magnificent terror of the Council, oh mighty tyrant.’

Scratchy laughter chittered from the darkness. ‘Save your flattery and your lies for those witless enough to listen, mouse-bellied offal,’ a knife-thin voice, possibly that of Nightlord Sneek, snickered.

‘Come forward, wretched one,’ the voice of Nurglitch, stagnant and slobbering, oozed from the shadows. Thanquol’s glands clenched. ‘Stand where the Council can see you.’

Thanquol quivered. Even the trickery of the chamber could not disguise that voice. Nurglitch, the decayed master of Clan Pestilens and its plague priests. One of Thanquol’s earliest successes had been at the expense of the plague priests, orchestrating the assassination of Plague Lord Skratsquik before the disease-worshipping ratman could finish his improved strain of Yellow Pox. Nurglitch had been forced to decry Skratsquik as a renegade after the fact to save face with his fellow Lords of Decay, but it was convenience more than belief that moved his fellow skaven to accept the story. The bloated old plague rat was not one to forget any slight against his clan.

‘Come forward,’ the command came again, this time from a voice fairly creaking with age and brittle with wickedness. Thanquol had no difficulty identifying his own master, the Seerlord Kritislik. ‘The Council does not ask twice,’ Kritislik added with both menace and irony.

Thanquol forced himself upright and timidly approached the dais. His heart was hammering in his chest now, only a supreme effort kept his scent glands clenched. What game was Kritislik playing with him? Had the seerlord released him from the maze simply to destroy him before the entire Council? It was just the sort of grandiose display that would appeal to Kritislik. The horrible thought came to him: maybe the seerlord was looking to earn some good will with Clan Pestilens! Killing Thanquol in some gruesome manner before the eyes of Nurglitch would certainly accomplish that. The grey seer’s eyes narrowed, darting from side to side, looking for some route of escape. Nurglitch wasn’t the only member of the Council who might welcome his death. Clan Moulder was among the more recent enemies he had unjustly acquired, blaming him for their own incompetence and inadequacy.

Now Thanquol stood within a little ring of light, the exact centre of the warpstone braziers. The smell of the smoke was intoxicating, almost euphoric. He could feel the fumes dulling his senses, clouding his wit. He tried to shake off the effect, trying to claw his way free of the pleasant sensation. He needed every speck of his brilliance and cunning if he was going to leave the chamber alive. However seductive, the numbing draw of the smoke was threatening his chances to escape this audience alive.

‘That is far enough, grey seer,’ a scornful voice wheezed from the darkness. Even this close, Thanquol could not see a shape upon any of the seats, nor pick out the chair from which the speaker spoke. The grey seer’s fur stood on end, knowing the eerie absence to be a display of Nightlord Sneek’s terrible skill.

Through the fog of warpstone smoke, Thanquol could pick out other smells now. Faint, distant, but reeking of horror. He detected the faint tang of stagnant water and the thick musk of reptiles. He shifted his feet and felt the floor beneath him creak ever so slightly. Thanquol struggled to keep from bruxing his teeth together in an overt display of terror. No skaven in Skavenblight had failed to hear the stories of the execution pit, the long, cold drop into an unclimbable well, its depths filled with the most horrid of Clan Moulder’s creations. Things, it was said, that swallowed their victims whole and alive, that left their prey breathing and screaming even as they were dissolved in their bellies.

‘You have failed the Council, Grey Seer Thanquol,’ the grating voice of Kritislik spoke. There was no room for question or argument in the tone, only accusation and condemnation.

Thanquol abased himself upon the floor, grovelling against the symbol of the Horned Rat picked out upon the tiled mosaic in luminous green stones. ‘I was betrayed by my most worthless and cowardly minions,’ he said. ‘If they had followed-obeyed my plans…’

‘Your plans!’ snarled one of the voices. ‘Then you admit it was your strategy that cheated Clan Skryre of the airship!’

Thanquol shivered before the voice. Distorted, almost fleshless, like the tones were drawn from a steel pipe instead of a living throat. The grey seer could easily suspect which of the Lords of Decay it was who spoke: Lord Morskittar, master of the warlock engineers of Clan Skryre. He could readily guess how eagerly the scientist-sorcerers of the clan had been waiting to study the dwarf airship and learn its secrets. Such a weapon would have been a potent addition to the arsenal of the Under-Empire and a monstrous boost to the prestige and power of Clan Skryre.

‘We are not here to whine about the past,’ a shrill, sharp voice interrupted. Thanquol tried to identify the voice, shuddering as he decided it might be that of Packlord Verminkin, overlord of Clan Moulder and its obscene science. ‘The failures of the past do not concern this Council. It is the promise of the future that is our focus.’

A faint tremor of hope whispered through Thanquol’s mind. He dared to lift his face from the floor. ‘How may this most unworthy one serve the great and mighty Council of Thirteen, oh ravenous despots?’

‘Still your tongue and you shall hear, Thanquol,’ Verminkin snapped. Thanquol abased himself once more and the packlord continued. ‘It has been brought to the Council’s attention that a potent artefact long thought lost has been discovered in our settlement of Under-Altdorf.’

‘You will recover this artefact,’ the growling Paskrit/Gnawdwell continued. ‘You will recover it and you will bring it back here, to the Council of Thirteen.’

‘You will act as our agent,’ Kritislik said. ‘You will have the full authority of this Council behind you. The council of Under-Altdorf will submit to that authority in every way.’

Something came hurtling out of the shadows, clattering against the flagstones near Thanquol’s bowed head. The grey seer shifted his gaze, observing that it was a thick black pendant upon which the symbol of the Horned Rat was picked out in crushed ruby. It was a talisman of the Lords of Decay, entrusted only to those they sent upon the most vital of missions. Suddenly the thrill of hope shrivelled inside him. Anything vital to the Council was also bound to be grotesquely dangerous, dangerous enough that none of the clans felt safe pursuing it on their own.

‘If… if this wretched one might speak…’ Thanquol asked, lifting his head ever so slightly, careful to keep his lips over his fangs lest anything he do be interpreted as a challenge. When no voice snarled from the shadows to silence him, the grey seer proceeded. ‘Just one small question, oh virile sires of stormvermin. This artefact which you would have this most unworthy of servants retrieve for you…’

Nurglitch’s oozing voice rose from the darkness. ‘It is the Wormstone,’ the plaguelord declared. ‘Lost for a thousand breedings in the collapsed burrows beneath the man-nest of Altdorf. A potent weapon crafted by Clan Pestilens for the greater glory of the Horned Rat and the skaven race. Stolen before it could be presented as a gift to the Council.’

It didn’t take a faint hint of Nurglitch’s putrid breath to smell his words, but Thanquol knew better than to challenge the lie. Skaven politics was built upon letting adversaries and rivals spew whatever inanity they liked and pretending to accept it as something more than rubbish. If the Council saw fit to accept Nurglitch’s story for the time being, Thanquol wasn’t about to stick his own neck out.

‘The Wormstone is a masterpiece of alchemical creation,’ this time it was the metallic voice of Morskittar that spoke. ‘A block of pure warpstone endowed with new properties through a process now lost and forgotten.’

‘The Wormstone is the key to tearing down the decaying kingdoms of men and dwarfs,’ said Nightlord Sneek. ‘With it, we can unleash such plagues as the soft races have never imagined even in their darkest nightmares!’ The statement ended with another peal of chittering laughter.

‘Your colleague, Grey Seer Skabritt discovered the location of the Wormstone,’ said Kritislik. ‘He was killed in the attempt to recover it, but his apprentice, Kratch, escaped to bring word of his find to us.

‘You will succeed where Skabritt failed, Grey Seer Thanquol. You will return to Under-Altdorf with Kratch. You will recover the Wormstone and you will bring it back.’

Thanquol nearly leapt out of his fur as a pair of armoured white stormvermin appeared silently beside him. One of the stormvermin held a tall wooden staff in its paw, a staff tipped with a bronze icon of the Horned Rat. The other held an ornate amulet, a solid piece of pure warpstone engraved with the symbol of Thanquol’s god. The Staff and Amulet of the Horned One, the potent magic devices that had been confiscated from Thanquol upon his return to Skavenblight. The grey seer lashed his tail in delight just seeing them again.

‘These two will accompany you,’ General Paskrit said. It took Thanquol a moment to understand that he meant the two stormvermin, not the objects they held. ‘They will be another reminder to the leaders of Under-Altdorf that you are the representative of this Council.’

Thanquol nodded his head in agreement, though he easily saw through the deception. The warriors wouldn’t be simply protecting him, they would be the eyes and ears of the Lords of Decay, watching and waiting for any sign of treachery or duplicity on Thanquol’s part. It was another example of how much importance they placed on the recovery of the Wormstone.

‘I will leave at once, most grim and terrible of potentates,’ Thanquol said, abasing himself before the dais once more. He could hear a murmur of conversation in the shadows.

‘One last thing,’ Kritislik said. ‘Do not divulge anything of your mission to any within Under-Altdorf. This Council has been aware of a growing trend of independence and wilfulness among the faithless tail-lickers of that city. Under no circumstance are they to be made aware of the Wormstone.’

‘Fail us in this, Thanquol,’ came the bubbling voice of Nurglitch, ‘at your most dreadful peril.’

Thanquol tried to keep a trace of dignity in his speedy withdrawal from the chamber as the black doors creaked open once more. After standing before the Lords of Decay, even the giant rat ogre in the corridor outside was a friendly sight.

Kleiner was holding his sides, trying to push his ribs together, trying to squeeze out the pain. His insides felt as if they were on fire, as though little flickers of flame were dancing beneath his skin. The scratching had become maddening, his fingers were caked in blood. The coughing had become even worse, filth bubbling up from his throat that was too greasy to be blood and phlegm.

After retiring from the Orc and Axe, Kleiner had withdrawn to his lodgings, an attic apartment in a rundown hovel overlooking the Imperial shipyards. He was certain he had become the victim of some ill humour he had been exposed to in the sewers. He could feel it gnawing at his body. Kleiner had seldom prayed to any of the gods, even Ranald the patron of thieves, but now he found himself begging Shallya the goddess of mercy to make the pain go away. If only she would show him that small grace, he would abandon his wicked ways. This time he wouldn’t let Hans talk him back into a life of crime either.

Kleiner stuffed a rag into his mouth as another burst of violent coughing seized him. He couldn’t let his landlady discover that he was sick. The best he could expect would be to be thrown into the street. He could also imagine the paranoid old bat killing him in his sleep and dumping him in the Reik to keep any rumour of plague away from her boarding house.

The big smuggler rose from the straw-covered pallet that served as his bed, kicking old bottles from his path as he hobbled across the dingy room. He picked a few stained rags from the floor, feeling his stomach churn as he saw ugly green worms slither away when he moved them. For hours now, he’d been picking the loathsome things from his skin, dumping them in a copper slop-bucket. Kleiner almost gagged at the smell rising from the bucket, then dropped the bundle of rags into it. A vicious attack of coughing seized him and the big man fell to his knees beside the reeking can.

Lifting himself from the floor, Kleiner found the strength to carry the nauseating bucket to the tiny window that was the only ventilation in his room. He brushed aside the strip of canvas acting as a curtain. A blast of cold early morning air struck him and he blinked in the starlight. The city lay still and silent below. Summoning another reserve of strength, Kleiner dumped the bucket’s contents out the window. He watched as the rags and waste splashed into the gutter far below, then felt his gorge rise again. A pack of scrawny mongrels darted from the nearest alley, enthusiastically lapping up the filth he had cast below.

Kleiner lurched away from the disquieting sight, letting the bucket drop to the floor. Another attack of coughing seized him. As he reached up to stifle the sound, he plucked something fat and squirming from his cheek. The worm resisted his effort to pull it free, its slimy dampness twisting away from his touch.

The horror taxed the last reserves of the smuggler’s strength. He tried to make it back to his pallet before he collapsed.

Kleiner didn’t make it.

The agonised scream echoed from the alleyway, ripping Theodor Baer from his sombre thoughts. Immediately the sergeant was dashing down the lonely, darkened street, two of his soldiers close behind him. It was simple circumstance that caused the men to be patrolling such a lonely stretch of street. Theodor had been hoping to locate members of Gustav Volk’s gang out hunting for Hans Dietrich and his smugglers. When he heard the cry, his first reaction was to connect it to the brutal gang leader’s vendetta.

The scream, however, had not come from an adult. It was the shrill voice of a child. Rounding the darkened corner at a run, trying to avoid the muck and garbage heaped in the gutters, Theodor saw that the victim of the outrage was no cocksure smuggler getting more than he bargained for. Nor was the perpetrator some wharf rat ruffian out for revenge.

Instead the watchmen found a little girl, probably a bonepicker or dung gatherer judging by the smelly goatskin bag slung over her back, crouched in a corner trying to defend herself with a broken chair leg. Her attacker was a large mangy dog, so thin Theodor could count every rib, its hackles raised and its jaws foaming. Theodor shouted at the cur, thinking to scare the maddened beast. The shout didn’t frighten the mongrel. With lightning speed, the dog spun about, snapping and snarling at the would-be rescuers.

That was when things took a strange turn. In the dim starlight, Theodor could see the dog’s eyes glowing with a weird green luminance. The cur’s tan pelt was thin and rubbed raw, but Theodor could see things moving across it, like ripples in the river. It was with horror that the sergeant realised the effect of motion was caused by hundreds of wriggling worms burrowing up from beneath the dog’s skin.

The slavering mongrel did not wait for the watchmen to recover from their disgust. Snarling, it leapt at them, snapping its foam-flecked fangs at each of them in turn. One of the watchmen stabbed the animal with his sword, gouging a grisly wound in its flank. What bubbled up from the injury was too putrid to be called blood and the man recoiled from the rancid stench. As the dog turned to focus on the man who had struck it, Theodor’s own blade licked out, slashing it across the back, severing its spine. The brute flopped to the street, twitching, trying to pull itself upright with only its front paws. Even half-paralysed, the dog’s instinct was to kill, its jaws snapping at Theodor as the sergeant moved towards it.

Theodor’s second blow finished the animal, a quick sharp thrust through one of the weirdly glowing eyes and into the stricken mongrel’s brain. A stench, even fouler than before, erupted from the dog as it slumped across the sergeant’s steel. The soldier drew a kerchief from his tunic to wipe the blood from his sword, then cast the rag from him when he was finished.

‘Check the girl,’ Theodor told his men. The two soldiers had been staring in amazement at the gruesome carcass of the dog. Now they remembered the little girl whose screams had drawn them into an encounter with the strange beast. She was still pressed into the corner of the alley, seeming as though she was trying to push herself through the plaster wall. As the watchmen came for her, in her terror, the girl struck at them with the chair leg. One of the soldiers took a blow against his forearm, then relieved the child of the crude weapon.

‘I don’t think she’s been bitten,’ one of the watchmen called to his sergeant after a cursory examination of the frightened waif.

‘Take her to the hospice just to be sure,’ Theodor said. With something as unclean as the dog he had killed, it wouldn’t do to take any chances. The gods only knew what evil might arise from even a small cut delivered by such a wretched beast. The Shallyan sisters would know what to look for better than some overworked, underpaid Altdorf watchmen.

As his men carried the child away, Theodor lingered behind, continuing to study the gruesome cur. The worms weren’t moving now; as the dog had died, they had grown still. At least most of them had. Several had dropped away from the body and wriggled away, burrowing into the muck of the gutters.

Theodor knew there was some foulness beyond his understanding at work here. He knew this was more than just a matter of thieves and murderers. Just as he didn’t know what to look for in the way of infection or injury on the little girl’s body, he also accepted that he didn’t know what to look for here. There was a connection, he was sure, between the horrible green worms here and the one he had seen in the Orc and Axe, the one he was certain had dropped off the smuggler’s arm while he was scratching it. Something unclean, unholy, was at large in the waterfront. It would take a different sort of man to root it out and bring it to ground.

There was no pleasant way to do what Theodor knew he had to do next. When his men led away the little girl, they left behind her goatskin bag. Theodor walked over to it, upending it and spilling its contents of rubbish and rags into the street. He needed it to carry a different kind of garbage.

Using the chair leg, Theodor poked and prodded the carcass of the dog until it rolled into the open bag. Tying the loathsome burden into a bundle, dragging it behind him, he made his way through the deserted streets. It wasn’t the hospice or even the watchhouse that was his destination. He knew where he must take the wretched carcass. He knew where to take it if there were to be any chance of solving the strange enigma of the worms.

Through the early morning chill, Theodor made his way, picking a circuitous path through back streets and alleyways. Peeling plaster walls gave way to splintered timber frames as his journey took him into the oldest, most neglected section of the district, a place so forgotten that it was ignored even by the lamplighters. He found himself trudging down muddy lanes surrounded by sagging structures that might have stood in the days when the city had still been called Reikdorf. Shingled eaves frowned down at him, shuttered windows stared at him through lidded eyes. Somewhere a cat yowled and a night bird made its raucous call. Theodor felt his skin crawl, and a cold shiver ran up his back. However many times he followed the path, followed the secret marks visible only to those who knew how to look, he could not shake the eerie impression that now gripped him.

This part of the city was more than simply forgotten.

It was forsaken.

Forbidden.

Theodor stopped outside a dilapidated storefront. A pane of frosted glass set into the timber wall bore gilded letters in antiquated script, though Theodor could not make them out. There was no hint of the room behind the glass, so frosted with age and neglect was the window. Only those who had been inside could tell what the place housed. The curious would have been disappointed. Theodor was when he had first opened the heavy oak door set in the wall beside the window.

He pulled an iron key from his belt and fitted it into the door’s lock. There was a trick to working the key, a system of half-turns that had to be precisely worked to open the door. As it creaked inward on its hinges, Theodor found his nose filled with the musty smell of the building. The room beyond was just as it had been when he had first laid eyes on it many years ago: empty save for a thick layer of dust upon the floor.

Theodor dumped the goatskin bag and its grisly contents upon the floor. As he had done every time he’d visited the derelict building, he studied its walls, scrutinised the crumbling stairway that led up into the structure’s upper levels. As he had found every time before, there was nothing to be seen. No hint of secret doors and hidden watchers, no clue to anything that suggested the place was more than an abandoned ruin on an abandoned street.

It was more, however. Theodor retraced his steps and locked the door again behind him. Even if he had never been able to puzzle it out for himself, there was much more to the building than met the eye. Somehow, in some way, whatever was left in that room did not stay there.

Somehow, it would be retrieved, taken by the one man in Altdorf who would know how to unlock its secrets.

The man Theodor Baer called ‘master’.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE CITY BELOW

Darkness filled the windowless room. A hissed command whispered through the blackness and a ghostly glow began to slowly form in the empty air. The weird grey light threw rays of illumination upon the polished surface of a long steel table, and upon the table alone. The unseen walls, the ceiling and floor, these remained untouched by the spectral orb, lost within the thick shadows of perpetual gloom.

Upon the table, a goatskin bag was spread, its tattered edge held open by heavy weights. The centre of the bag had been cut open and peeled back, leaving its gruesome contents exposed beneath the sinister light.

For an instant, the light flickered. A stretch of shadow seemed to detach itself from the surrounding gloom. The strange apparition advanced upon the table, leaning above the objects spread across it. Pale, slender hands emerged from the dark shape. Powerful, claw-like fingers gripped steel instruments, pressing them into the corrupt husk of the creature on the table. A pincer-like device gripped one of the long, fat-bodied worms and pulled it free from the scrawny carcass.

Long moments passed as the hand turned the gruesome object around in its grip. Burning eyes studied the worm, committing its every contour and wrinkle to memory. Suddenly, the pincers were laid down upon the table beside the carcass. The pale hands retreated back into the formless shape, which withdrew in turn back into the lurking gloom.

Another hiss crawled through the empty room. As eerily as it had formed, the ghost light faded away, consigning the carcass of the dog Theodor Baer had killed once more to the darkness.

The dank darkness of the river had a soothing effect on Grey Seer Thanquol as he stood upon the deck of the flat-bottomed barge. He could feel the wood creaking and rolling ever so slightly beneath his feet, swaying in time to the current of the underground channel and the skaven bargerats poling their vessel through the black deeps of the world. He could hear sleepy riverbats croaking and chittering to each other from their perches on the ceiling high above the water, he could see the faint splashes in the stream as pallid cave-fish burst the surface to slurp great gulps of air into their slimy bodies. He could smell the thousand odours sweeping down the channel: the stink of wet fur, the decaying reek of rotting wood, the pungent tang of rat roasting over an open fire, the sharp suggestion of rusting metal, the seductive scent of warpstone smouldering in a metal brazier. They were the smells of civilisation and after a week upon the sunken rivers of the Under-Empire, they were a welcome sensation.

Thanquol straightened his body and muttered a hiss of satisfaction. Soon, soon he would be in Under-Altdorf, second greatest city in all skavendom! Nor would he be a non-entity in that city! Far from it! He would be the chosen representative of the Lords of Decay, their trusted agent, their invaluable proxy. Even the leaders of Under-Altdorf would be forced to bow their knee to him and wait upon his every whim. Such was the importance the Council placed upon Thanquol and his mission.

The grey seer felt a twitter of fear pass through him as he thought about that mission. The Lords of Decay had been somewhat evasive in their description of the artefact he was to retrieve. He knew it was some potent weapon crafted by Clan Pestilens, and had his suspicions that its intended use had not been confined to the furless humans and their decadent society. Anything developed by Clan Pestilens was apt to be monstrously dangerous, this was an accepted fact, but Thanquol was no simpering whelp. He would meet such danger boldly and headfirst. He wondered how many clanrat warriors it would be prudent to commandeer from Under-Altdorf to help him retrieve the Wormstone. Too many might make him seem cowardly, but too few would be imprudent. After all, there was no glory in confronting danger if he was to be one of its victims.

Thanquol cast a suspicious glance across the flat deck of the barge. The bargerats, all wearing leather jerkins stained in the colours of Clan Sleekit, were mostly clustered about the sides of the vessel, working their metal-tipped poles through the black water of the river, prodding the unseen bottom to push the ship forwards. The grey seer gave the skaven sailors only glancing notice. He continued his scrutiny of the barge, looking across at the piled sacks of grain and metal slag that formed the bulk of the barge’s cargo, even a small barrel of the black corn grown in the Blighted Marshes. A little taste of Skavenblight’s only crop was a mark of status anywhere else in the Under-Empire, and many a warlord and clanmaster paid many warpstone tokens to boast that he dined upon such fare. Thanquol little understood the practice: black corn was all but inedible, even for a skaven. It was the staple of Skavenblight’s diet out of necessity rather than choice. Having survived on such fare too often in the past, he felt his stomach clench every time the scent from the barrel struck his snout.

Chained to the deck, just out of reach of the cargo, was a line of scrawny skavenslaves, their pelts branded with the mark of Clan Sleekit. The bargerats didn’t trust their slaves with the delicate task of navigating the ship, however rough and demanding the work might become. They would leave the slaves in their fetters throughout the voyage, sometimes lashing the huddled wretches out of spite. When the barge reached its port of call, things would change. Then the slaves would be pressed into action, unloading the cargo their masters had brought so very far.

The grey seer turned his gaze away from the huddled mass of skavenslaves. Away from them, looming near the prow of the barge, were his ‘bodyguards’, a pair of hulking white ratmen in red steel armour. Garrisoned within the Shattered Tower itself, the white stormvermin were an enigma even Thanquol’s keen, perceptive mind had failed to penetrate. Mute, gigantic in proportions and possessed of a distinctly unskavenlike incorruptibility, Thanquol wondered about their origins. The two that had been sent along with him as overseers and spies – for he did not believe for an instant the Council’s claim they were really his protectors – were so alike they could only be from the same litter. Was that possibly the secret, some hidden clutch of brood-mothers kept by the Council that only produced these hulking, white-furred specimens? It would not be the first instance of skaven using warpstone and other substances to influence the ratlings forming in the bellies of the brood-mothers. Clan Skaul in particular was known for the high numbers of horned skaven born to its litters, while Clan Skab’s ratmothers produced inordinate numbers of ferocious black skaven. If that were the case, Thanquol would give much to learn the Council’s secret of instilling such incorruptible loyalty in their warriors.

Thoughts of loyalty shifted Thanquol’s attention away from the white ratkin to a grey one. As he glanced in the direction of Adept Kratch, the apprentice grey seer quickly turned his head. Thanquol’s lip curled in a fang-ridden sneer. Kratch knew a good deal more about the Wormstone than he had told the Council. Certainly more than he had told Thanquol! The grey seer lashed his tail in annoyance. What plot was the young seer hatching within that scheming little brain? Thanquol had studiously avoided taking on any apprentices; the fate of his own mentor, that trusting old fool Sleekit, was a bit too vivid for him to have any ambitious young whelps nipping at his tail.

An ugly idea occurred to Thanquol, and not for the first time. He wasn’t the first master Kratch had served. It was rather convenient for the apprentice that he alone had escaped the death that had overtaken Grey Seer Skabritt and his entourage. Already raised far beyond his station by the Council, made apprentice to the famous, renowned Grey Seer Thanquol, allowed the fabulous opportunity to learn from the most brilliant mind in all skavendom, Thanquol suspected that Kratch was still not content. The adept would require some careful watching… or perhaps a convenient accident when the time was right.

‘Grey Seer Thanquol.’

Thanquol turned about as he heard himself addressed, his name spoken with the right mixture of fear and respect his position warranted. The bargemaster, a pot-bellied, one-eyed ratman with piebald fur and oversized incisors, bowed on the deck before him, head tilted to the side to expose his throat. Thanquol flicked his claw, motioning for the skaven to speak.

‘Under-Altdorf, merciless and beneficent master,’ the bargerat said. ‘City scent is strong-strong, close-near.’

A clawed foot kicked out, striking the bargerat’s head. The skaven reared away from the blow, flattening its muzzle against the deck.

‘Fat-tongue flea!’ Thanquol snapped, annoyed by the grovelling bargemaster. He slapped a claw against his own muzzle. ‘Think-think I did not smell city-scent?’ The grey seer’s foot kicked out again, but this time the bargerat was quick enough to duck. ‘Sail this flotsam, leave thinking to those with wits.’

The bargemaster scurried away on all fours, waiting until he was well out of kicking distance before straightening. He turned, prowling over to the nearest knot of bargerats, swatting and swiping at them with his claws, allegations of slothfulness and other misdeeds flying from his tongue like little daggers. He threw one of the bargerats from the pole and assumed the duty for himself. The displaced bargerat skulked across the deck, stopping when he reached the shackled slaves. He didn’t bother concocting an excuse as he drew the ratgut whip from his belt and began to lash the skavenslaves.

Thanquol licked his fangs hungrily as the smell of fresh blood rose from the slaves. He was rather tired of cave fish and grain after so many days trapped on the rickety barge. A flank of fresh slave would do wonders relieving the tedium of the voyage.

Culinary considerations quickly faded as Thanquol’s sharp eyes detected the glow of torches in the distance. Rounding a bend in the underground river, the channel widened, opening into a cavernous expanse. The expanse slowly sloped upward from one side of the cave wall. It was from here that the flickering glow of torches shone. As they came nearer, the city-scent increased. Thanquol could see ramshackle wharfs projecting out into the water, crudely cobbled together from splintered planks and lumber stolen from the surface. The wharfs were swarming with ratmen of many sizes and colours, hurrying to unload sacks of grain, coffles of skavenslaves, boxes of warpstone and other cargo from a small flotilla of Clan Sleekit barges. Others were busy loading cargo onto empty barges: blocks of masonry, cords of lumber, baskets of steel, bundles of cloth, the plunder and loot from hundreds of midnight forays into the nest of humans above Under-Altdorf. Thanquol snickered as he saw coffles of pale, shivering humans being led onto some of the barges. After his recent misfortunes, his contempt for the furless breed had only grown. He wished the humans ill fortune in their new lives as slaves. Perhaps they would find themselves being sold to Clan Moulder to use in their ghastly experiments. With the recent slave revolt in Hell Pit, the master moulders would be needing a new supply of subjects for their studies.

The barge slowly manoeuvred through the press of ships clustered about the wharfs. The bargemaster snapped orders to his crew and the boat shifted about, making for an empty dock that had just been vacated by a ship loaded with bolts of brightly dyed cloth. Another ship tried to slip into the position, nearly colliding with the barge. Angry squeaks of accusation from the other ship quickly died when the bargerats saw Thanquol’s imposing figure standing upon the deck. With indecent haste, the other ship pulled away, not caring how many other barges it jostled as it made its retreat.

Thanquol straightened his posture, tightening his grip on the staff clutched in his claws, as the barge slid into place beside the ramshackle dock. Activity around the wharf came to a standstill as skaven paused in their tracks to stare at the sinister grey-clad priest. The scent of fear-musk rose from the most timid, others hurriedly averted their eyes and quickly remembered reasons why they should be elsewhere. An unnatural hush fell across the waterfront, and for the first time the sloshing rush of the river was not drowned out by the squabbling squeaks of the ratkin.

A big brown skaven, its scarred body pressed into a tattered collection of rags bearing the sign of Clan Skab, emerged from the awe that suppressed the rest of the waterfront. Brandishing a thick iron rod, he savagely struck at a huddle of emaciated humans, their bodies even more scarred than that of the ratman. The wasted slaves shuffled to the wharf, casting ropes to the bargerats on Thanquol’s ship. The skaven snatched the ropes from the cowed humans, swiftly tying off their vessel to the rickety dock.

Thanquol waited until the brown slavemaster encouraged his charges to place a gangplank between the deck and the dock before thinking about disembarking. He was relishing the respect and fear he smelled rising from the ratmen all around him. News of his coming had preceded him. Despite the Council’s unjust blaming of him for his recent setbacks, the numberless masses of the Under-Empire remembered him as the great and mighty Grey Seer Thanquol. They remembered, and they shivered in his presence.

The bargerats started to release their own skavenslaves to unload the cargo. Thanquol shot a malicious glare at the bargemaster as he noticed the activity. The ratman wilted before the grey seer’s fiery gaze. Did the idiot really intend to put his petty business before Thanquol’s disembarking? The wretch should be praising the Horned Rat with his every breath that he’d been allowed the unrivalled honour of conveying a personage so esteemed upon his dilapidated scow! Thanquol stalked towards the cringing bargemaster, whose terror only swelled when the red-armoured stormvermin fell in to either side of the grey seer, murderous smiles on their muzzles. Thanquol raised his staff, gripping it close beneath the metal icon. It hung poised above the bargemaster’s head like the iron bludgeon of the waterfront slavemaster.

Instead of dashing in the bargerat’s skull, Thanquol brought the staff crashing down into an iron-banded barrel, splintering its lid. The grey seer sneered at the bargemaster and dug a paw into the barrel. He made a point of popping a few kernels of black corn into his mouth as he strode away. The vile taste still made his stomach clench, but there was a deep satisfaction in the humiliation of the thoughtless bargemaster.

Thanquol clambered down the gangplank, his head raised imperiously as he strode past the awed throng of slaves and wharf-rats around him. He could see the great tunnels that stabbed through the earth away from the docks, thrusting down into the twisting burrows of Under-Altdorf proper. A few structures, gouged into the sides of the tunnels and supported with lumber and stonework stolen from the humans above, stood illuminated by torches and warpstone braziers. Vaults for cargo unloaded at the docks, slavepens, even the workshops of Clan Sleekit’s shipwrights loomed against the walls of the cavern. Thanquol could see a battered sign, probably stolen from a human tavern, hanging from a rusty chain above what could only be a garrison of the settlement’s warriors.

It was from the garrison that an armed body of skaven emerged, marching quickly across the waterfront, kicking and biting any ratmen too slow or slack-witted to make way for them. Thanquol was not surprised to find that they were stormvermin, of the more usual black-furred kind. Their steel armour and weapons were better than most settlements in the Under-Empire could boast, but then few places had the rich opportunities to bloat their armouries through theft and bribery the way Under-Altdorf could. The black stormvermin looked puny beside the albinos the Council had sent along with him, but there were at least a score of the fang-faced brutes. Any lingering confidence Thanquol had in his bodyguards suffered when he noticed that counting was not one of their deficiencies and the two warriors began to slowly back away from the grey seer.

The company of stormvermin came to a ragged stop before the dock. If they had been a less menacing sight, Thanquol might have snickered at the foolish attempt at aping the drill and precision of a human regiment. Most skaven were content to leave such pompous nonsense to the humans, but then there were many strange ideas among the inhabitants of Under-Altdorf. The Council saw rebellion and treachery everywhere they looked, but perhaps their paranoia about this city was not misplaced.

A crook-backed skaven bulled his way through the armoured ranks of the stormvermin. He wore the symbol of Clan Skryre upon his leather robes, a thick tool-belt straddling his waist. There was a chemical stink to his fur, and a metallic tinge to his overall scent. The ratman’s eyes were hidden behind a set of iron goggles, pitted with tiny openings so that the skaven resembled a fly as much as he did a rodent. The creature raised his head high, striving to stare down at Thanquol despite his malformed back.

‘I am name-call Vermisch of Clan Skryre, honoured emissary of their great and terrible lordships, the Grand High Supreme Council of Under-Altdorf, Festereach and Gnawhome. I am delegated to meet-speak with Thanquol…’

‘Grey Seer Thanquol,’ Thanquol corrected Vermisch, putting his most menacing hiss into every syllable. The little warlock engineer was like his stormvermin, pompous and preening. Far too recently, Thanquol had trembled before the Lords of Decay, before the Council of Thirteen itself. Moles would chew his bones before he would cower before this self-important functionary of a ten-flea circus with delusions of grandeur.

Vermisch was still blinking in nervous confusion as Thanquol took a pull of warpstone snuff to fortify himself. The grey seer closed the little ratskull box with a loud snap and glared at the befuddled emissary. ‘I am Grey Seer Thanquol,’ he said needlessly. As much as the snuff helped pour fire into his veins, it had a disconcerting habit of dulling the wit. ‘I am the chosen representative of their malevolent majesties, the Lords of Decay, the Council of Thirteen of holy Skavenblight and the living claws of his most vengeful divinity the Horned Rat. I am the eyes, nose and ears of Skavenblight. I am their judge and their dagger! Know me and tremble, spleenless-mouse, and beg my indulgence for your impiety!’

There was no confusion in Vermisch now. His head lowered and turned, exposing his throat in the traditional display of subjugation. Several of the stormvermin had likewise dropped down, lowering themselves before the formidable figure who had so thoroughly cowed the sinister Vermisch.

Thanquol’s tail twitched in satisfaction as he saw the display his fierce words had provoked. For an instant he considered drawing upon his sacred powers and immolating a few of the cowering ratmen as a reminder to the rest of the finality of the Horned Rat’s holy wrath. He quickly relented, understanding it was the warpstone inciting him to such recklessness. Scolded, the Under-Altdorf warriors might prove tractable. Attacked, they might respond in kind. Thanquol still didn’t like the way the numbers favoured Vermisch.

‘Forgive-forget this unworthy flea, most awful of dooms, Grey Seer Thanquol,’ Vermisch stammered, a suggestion of musk in his scent now. ‘My masters bid-ordered me wait-seek you. They wish-want to speak with your terrible eminence at once… if it pleases you, most dreaded of sorcerers.’

Thanquol stared down his snout at the contrite Vermisch, giving him only a slightly menacing display of fang to keep him in his place. ‘It pleases me to see your chieftains,’ Thanquol told him. ‘You may lead the way to their chambers.’

Bowing and grovelling, Vermisch hurried to reform the stormvermin into two columns, then waited for Thanquol to join him at the centre of the protective formation. With a measured, unhurried and unworried pace, Thanquol slowly strolled towards the armoured warriors. He snapped a few whispered commands to his bodyguards, promising unspeakable things if they should leave his side again. Even the elite white stormvermin seemed disturbed by some of the sadistic images he conjured.

‘A masterful display, grey seer.’

The fawning words were like a weasel’s whisper against Thanquol’s ear. The fur on his back crawled as though feeling the bite of a knife, but Thanquol forced himself not to break stride. In his preoccupation with Vermisch, he’d forgotten about Kratch. He blamed the oversight on the warpstone dulling his mind.

‘Adept Kratch,’ Thanquol snarled. ‘An apprentice’s place is before his master… where his mentor can watch-see and point out his pupil’s… missteps.’

Kratch hurried forwards, bowing his head in deference to Thanquol’s reprimand. ‘Forgive me, master,’ Kratch said. ‘I did not want any enemies to sneak up behind you.’

Thanquol gave his apprentice a blank, dumbfounded look, then blinked away his disbelief. Either the ratling thought himself incredibly clever or else he was the most painfully obvious backstabber ever suckled by a broodmother!

As he continued to stare at the simpering apprentice, Thanquol noticed that Kratch was furtively snacking on something clenched in his left paw. The grey seer gestured at his apprentice with a claw.

‘What are you eating?’ he demanded.

Kratch’s eyes became downcast, his body posture wilting like a flower beneath the Lustrian sun. Guiltily, he opened his paw, revealing a few kernels of black corn.

Thanquol snickered, understanding now why his apprentice had such a sickly scent. He realised that he still held a few kernels himself. With a broad gesture, one that could not fail to be noticed by Vermisch and his warriors, Thanquol placed the rest of the kernels in Kratch’s paw.

‘A reward-gift for your tireless loyalty,’ Thanquol told his apprentice. The display of black corn, such a valued commodity in Under-Altdorf, given so liberally to a mere underling would go far to impress upon Vermisch that Thanquol was above the thieving, cringing inhabitants of this city. He was reinforcing his fierce words, reminding Vermisch of where he was from and who he represented.

Stalking onward to join the functionary, Thanquol watched Kratch from the corner of his eye. There was, of course, another, purely selfish reason for the display, and each time he saw Kratch’s face twist with revulsion Thanquol felt a little shiver of amusement tingle down his tail.

The shop of Dr Lucas Phillip Loew was an old half-timbered building that looked old enough to have been the birthplace of Magnus the Pious. A balustrade of brickwork seemed to be all that was keeping its eastern wall from collapsing into an alleyway, while the roof was missing so many tiles that the support beams stood naked and exposed to the elements. It didn’t matter overmuch. None of the upper three floors of the structure were inhabited; if it were not for Dr Loew’s shop, the entire building would have been abandoned. The glassblower that had once operated the store next to Dr Loew was long gone, a faded playbill still pasted to the window advertised a Detlef Sierck tragedy that had stopped being performed twenty years ago.

Even if the building was not threatening to collapse into ruin every time a stork landed on its chimney, the landlords would have been hard-pressed to find tenants after Dr Loew moved in. In the wealthier and more educated districts of Altdorf shops like that of Dr Loew, an alchemist by profession, were shunned because of foul odours and the very real threat of dramatic explosions. In a superstitious, backwards slum like the waterfront, the situation was worse. The denizens of such places had little tolerance for magic of any sort, having listened only too intently to the fiery sermons of zealous Sigmarites. To their minds, there was no separating an alchemist from a wizard and a wizard from a sorcerer.

Still, a shop like that of Dr Loew did not depend upon local custom for its business. His patrons were scattered all across Altdorf, in every district and at every level of society. He did not need to seek out his customers, they would seek him out. And, because of the isolated, lonely situation of his shop, they would feel even more comfortable about patronising the alchemist.

At present however, the men moving about the wooden racks of powders and pastes, peering into the jars of dried spider legs and pickled salamander eyes, were sellers, not buyers. Dr Loew, seated at a long table at the rear of his shop, watched the men through the jungle of alembics and jars scattered across his workspace. Scruffy, caked in the grime and poverty of the waterfront, they were the sort of unpleasant creatures circumstances often forced the alchemist to deal with. Such creatures had low morals and few scruples when it came to gathering the morbid, often illegal substances desired by his patrons.

Hans Dietrich and his little band of smugglers were men Dr Loew had only dealt with rarely in the past, far less than the weirdroot growers and graverobbers who were his usual sources of supply. Dietrich didn’t seem to have the spine for engaging in activities that might earn him the attentions of the witch hunters, and generally gave the alchemist a wide berth. This time, however, he’d found something valuable enough to overcome those concerns.

Dr Loew looked away from the smugglers, returning his attention to the little bronze firepot and the iron bowl resting above it. He studied the way the heat played across the strange rock the criminals had brought him. The stone was like a sponge, absorbing whatever was inflicted upon it. That was in keeping with wyrdstone; the substance was notoriously hard to refine and smelt. Part mineral, part something else entirely, the weird rock had defied the best scholars of ten centuries to accurately classify. Of course, being unknown rather than understood, wyrdstone was condemned as tainted with Chaos by the short-sighted officials of temple and state. Mere possession of even the smallest fragment was grounds for torture and public execution… and there was no court of appeal when the prosecutors belonged to the Order of Sigmar.

Still, there were uses to which wyrdstone could be put that made knowledgeable men seek it out and pay small fortunes to possess it, whatever the risks. It could be used to heal the most terrible of illnesses, elixirs derived from its pulverised dust could cure fevers of the mind, pastes made from its ground powder could reverse the ravages of age and leave the skin as fresh and smooth as a baby’s bottom. Of course its most prized ability was its most elusive. Wyrdstone was held as the true alchemists’ stone, that fabulous substance that would be the catalyst for transforming lead into gold!

Dr Loew watched the thin stream of green smoke rising from the smouldering rock. It had an unusual smell to it. Not something he would associate immediately with wyrdstone, but still somehow making him think of the outlawed mineral just the same. Perhaps this was some exotic ore, some incredibly rare variant of the wyrdstone more commonly known to scholars and wizards. If that was true, there was no telling what price the substance might command.

‘Well, Herr Doktor?’ a gruff voice intruded upon the alchemist’s thoughts. Looking up, Dr Loew found himself staring into the hard features of Johann Dietrich, the larger and more imposing brother of the crafty Hans. Johann had a shrewd look about him, one that set Dr Loew on his guard. Smugglers were, after all, thieves, and it wouldn’t do well to let them know just how valuable their find was.

‘I can’t be sure,’ Dr Loew said, pulling off the copper-scaled gloves he had donned to protect himself while handling the stone. ‘I think perhaps I need to run more tests.’

Johann smiled and shook his head. ‘I think you recognised that rock as soon as we set it down,’ he said. ‘Play your games on your own time, frogcatcher, we don’t have any to spare.’

Dr Loew leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms defiantly. He wasn’t about to be lectured by some illiterate slob from the gutter, certainly not in his own shop. He sniffed at the silver pomander dangling from his neck, letting its medicinal fumes ward off any tainted dust that might have dispersed into the air from his handling of the specimen. ‘You tell me what it is, then,’ he snapped.

‘I think it’s wyrdstone,’ Johann told him.

The alchemist laughed. ‘And what do you base that on?’ he scoffed. ‘The word of some hop-headed cutpurse?’ Dr Loew pointed a finger at the lurking figure of Kempf. The weasel-faced thief grinned back, making no secret of his eavesdropping.

‘No,’ conceded Johann, ‘I base that on the smile you keep trying to hide. Greed doesn’t become you, doktor.’

The alchemist scowled, making a show of prodding and poking the sliver of stone in the bowl with a copper rod. ‘It might be wyrdstone,’ he admitted reluctantly. ‘If it is, I might be able to find a buyer for you.’

‘How soon?’ Kempf interjected, his voice eager and hungry. Johann glared at the small thief, only relenting when he backed away from the table.

‘It would take awhile,’ Dr Loew said after a moment of thought. He tapped the table as he considered his answer. ‘One has to be careful making inquiries of this sort, you understand.’

‘If you have a buyer, we might have more to sell him,’ Johann said in a low voice.

Dr Loew’s eyes narrowed and he directed a cautious stare at the big smuggler. ‘How much more?’

‘More.’

‘A lot more?’

Johann gave him a slow, knowing nod. ‘A lot more,’ he said.

Dr Loew didn’t try to hide his smile now. ‘It looks like this may very well prove to be wyrdstone. If you have much more, it will take some time to find enough buyers to move it.’

Johann shook his head. ‘We’d prefer to dispose of it all at once.’

‘Very dangerous to try and sell a large quantity of wyrdstone,’ Dr Loew told him. ‘The authorities aren’t very understanding.’

‘But it could be done?’ Johann asked.

‘It could be done,’ Dr Loew said, rubbing his fat, warty nose. ‘I could find a buyer outside Altdorf, that would be safer than selling it to someone inside the city. There’s a man I know in Nuln who might be interested – if it proves to be wyrdstone.’

‘If it proves to be wyrdstone,’ Johann repeated, turning away. He grabbed Kempf’s shoulder and prodded the small thief towards the door. Hans and the others saw Johann moving to the exit and started to follow.

‘Where can I contact you?’ Dr Loew called after the departing men.

Hans turned around and smiled at the alchemist. ‘You don’t,’ he told Dr Loew. ‘We’ll contact you.’ The smuggler gave a last look at the shelves of dried herbs, crushed powders and pickled reptiles. ‘Interesting stuff you have here, doktor. Disgusting, but very interesting.’

Dr Loew scowled as he watched Hans amble out his door. Ignorant peasants! What did they know of scholarship and learning! The fools had no idea what they had found, no idea at all. The specimen they had left with him was worth a small ransom on its own. Certainly more than the thugs would earn in a month sneaking wine past the excisemen.

The alchemist sucked his teeth and leaned over the iron bowl again. It was wyrdstone, every passing moment made him more certain of the fact. He had several contacts in the Colleges of Magic who would jump at the chance to buy such a fine specimen. Briefly, he considered informing them of the find that had fallen into his hands, but Johann’s claim that the smugglers had more gave him pause. It might be the bold promise of clever criminals trying to ensure a square deal from the alchemist, but Dr Loew was reluctant to dismiss the possibility out of hand.

He thought of his contact in Nuln. Dr Drexler had been obsessed with the study of wyrdstone since the Nuln riots several years ago. The physician would pay handsomely if Loew could provide him with a significant supply of the mineral. It was said he was supported in his experiments by no less than the Countess von Liebowitz of Nuln.

The image of the bulging coffers of Nuln settled Dr Loew’s dilemma. He rose and retrieved quill and parchment from his desk. Sitting back at the table, he began to compose a letter to his colleague in Nuln.

As he started to write, Loew’s left hand absently scratched at his forearm, trying to stifle the sudden irritation of his skin.

‘Your notoriety precedes you, Grey Seer Thanquol.’

The speaker was Grey Seer Thratquee, the highest ranking representative of the Horned Rat’s priesthood in Under-Altdorf and the occupant of the centremost seat on its ruling council. An aged, white-furred skaven with mismatched horns, Thratquee had the smug scent of a cunning politician, well-versed in the arts of corruption and cronyism. Thanquol took an instant dislike of the elder grey seer, not least because without the talisman he had been given by the Lords of Decay, it would be Thratquee, not Thanquol enjoying the dominant position.

The council of Under-Altdorf met in a large hall called the Supreme High Leader Nest. It was extravagantly ornamented with a motley collection of marble blocks and granite columns stolen from the human city above. A riotous array of colourful tapestries drooped from the walls, some of their human subjects crudely disfigured to resemble triumphant skaven warriors. The floor was a tiled mosaic of different coloured bricks while a crystal chandelier swung from the roof overhead. Thanquol was reminded of the pretentious opulence of the palace of Nuln’s breeder-queen, only on a shabbier scale. Perhaps the self-important lords of Under-Altdorf might intimidate some witless ratling from the hinterwarrens of skavendom with such a crude display, but for one who had walked the tunnels of Skavenblight, Thanquol saw it for the pathetic excess it was. The skaven of Under-Altdorf had perhaps spent too much time around humans; they were starting to adopt some of their habits.

Like the true ruling council of the Under-Empire, that of Under-Altdorf boasted thirteen seats. In a touch Thanquol found impious and possibly sacrilegious, no seat had been reserved for the Horned Rat. Instead the positions of authority had been shared out between the city’s most important clans, with the exception of Grey Seer Thratquee’s own seat. One chair was held by Skrattch Skarpaw, the Shadowstalker of Clan Eshin, with a further two seats held by his subordinates. Another chair was held by Fleshtearer Rusk of Clan Moulder. Pontifex Poxtix was the Clan Pestilens representative on the council. Other seats were held by the warlords of Clans Skab, Skaul and Mors.

The remaining seats were held by Clan Skryre, a potent display of their influence and power in the city. Warplord Quilisk was the highest ranking of the warlock engineers, a sinister figure with a lower jaw sheathed in metal and a riot of tubes and pipes running from a complex iron pump into his chest. The other Clan Skryre representatives were clustered around him and in obvious fear of the local clan-leader.

A final, non-voting seat, was reserved for a Clan Sleekit fleetmaster, a fat, sleepy-eyed ratman with thinning fur and the smell of weirdroot about him. He affected the frilly cuffs and sleeves of some effete human and wore gaudy rings on his fat little paws. If the decadence of the meeting hall itself were not evidence enough of Under-Altdorf’s corruption, a single sniff of Shipgnawer Nikkitt would be.

Thanquol ignored the offensive fleetmaster and tried to focus his attention on Thratquee on his overstuffed chair. Thratquee’s seat, indeed those of all the council members, appeared to have been purloined from an opera house, still carrying a lingering stink of the human about them.

‘Honoured clan-lords of Under-Altdorf,’ Thanquol began, careful to keep one paw stroking the black talisman around his neck. He could feel the eyes of every skaven fixed on the amulet, burning with envy and fear in equal measure. ‘I have come to you as the chosen representative of…’

‘We know all that,’ snapped Viskitt Burnfang, one of Warplord Quilisk’s underlings. Burnfang was an emaciated warlock engineer with a distinct patch of black fur running across one side of his face, jarringly offsetting his otherwise light brown pelt. Burnfang had a complex network of pipes and pistons running down his arms, some arcane supplement to offset his withered muscles. ‘Why do the Lords of Decay send you to spy on us?’

‘Because of your reckless experiments and blasphemous speak-talk!’ snarled Poxtix. Bundled in his ragged green robe, only the pontifex’s decayed snout projected into the murky light, though even so reduced a sight of the plague priest’s face was revolting enough. ‘Repent-revile the abominations of your technomancy and embrace the festering gifts of the Horned One’s true face!’

‘It is your blasphemies that bring the suspicions of Skavenblight upon us, tick-licking toad-mouse!’ The vicious snarl this time belonged to Warlord Gashslik of Clan Mors, a hulking black-furred brute clad in the steely skin of a human knight. ‘Pushing your pestilential faith into excesses no skaven of conscience can tolerate!’

Thanquol blinked at the quarrelling clan leaders and tried to inject a greater volume and authority into his voice. ‘Masters of Under-Altdorf, I come here in the name of…’

‘You should snarl!’ roared Warlord Staabnash of Clan Skab. Shorter by a head than his rival from Clan Mors, he was if anything twice as broad, so swollen with muscle that his bronze armour seemed ready to burst every time he moved his massive frame. ‘You and your toe-stabbing runt-stickers have been sucking up to Poxtix and his fanatics like they were your mother’s teats! How convenient that your warriors should happen to save this maggot-eater’s pelt last Vermintide when he dared preach his heresies in the scrawl and the clanrats rose up in pious indignation!’

‘I come to Under-Altdorf…’

‘Muscle-brained orc-fondler!’ spat one of the Clan Skryre leaders, a twitchy creature in red robes who had somehow managed to burn off his ears as well as all the fur on top of his head. ‘We know who was behind that riot! I am sure Clan Skab did not shed any tears when our warpfire thrower workshops were burn-wrecked! Not after you were told your bid for our weapons was low-low!’

‘The Lords of Decay have sent me…’

‘My clan knows those weapons well, death-peddling grub-biter!’ Skrattch Skarpaw rose from his chair, menacingly fingering the array of knives he wore across his chest. ‘They ended up in the paws of Clan Skaul so they could attack the dojo of my night runners!’

There was silence a moment, then the eyes of the council of Under-Altdorf shifted to Naktwitch Nosetaker, the local head of Clan Skaul. The scrawny ratman with the reddish-hued fur puffed idly at a ratskull pipe and blinked at his scowling contemporaries.

‘It seemed like a good idea at the time,’ Naktwitch said with a purely human shrug of his shoulders.

The comment caused the council chamber to erupt into a dozen arguments, each voice trying to hiss down the other. Thanquol ground his teeth together, then settled back while he waited for the bickering leaders to quiet down. This was the hierarchy of Under-Altdorf? These were the skaven who thought they could make their city the new Skavenblight?

A cunning gleam entered Thanquol’s eyes as he leaned against one of the columns and crossed his paws. Such enmity between the clans could serve him even better than any unity of purpose. He could play each rivalry for all it was worth. He wouldn’t seek to curry favour with any of the clan leaders. Let them seek to earn his favour! Each would seek to outdo the other trying to support Thanquol, giving the grey seer far more resources than he could draw from any single clan. It was a prime situation to exploit, and if some small part of what was generously donated by the clans went to rebuild Thanquol’s diminished personal fortune rather than achieving the Council’s mission, well that was simply something the Lords of Decay didn’t need to know about.

Thanquol was just beginning to feel quite pleased with himself as the hissing, snarling music of the clan leaders swirled around him when he happened to glance at old Thratquee. The elder grey seer wasn’t participating in the bickering of his fellows. No, he was instead being quite silent. Just sitting back in his chair, his gaze fixed on Thanquol, watching every breath the younger seer took, observing every twitch of his tail and flicker of his whiskers.

Thanquol couldn’t hold that stare. It felt too much like Thratquee was trying to look inside him, to let those old eyes burn a hole right down into his soul.

The bright glow of kerosene lamps shone down upon a long, marble-topped table. Fluted columns flanked a circular chamber, supporting the domed ceiling high above. Tiered seats formed a semi-circle around a sunken pit, making it seem almost like the stage of a small amphitheatre. It was upon this stage that the marble table reposed, and around it, two figures moved with all the care and precision of the most rehearsed thespian.

One of the figures was old, a full white beard compensating for his bald, liver-spotted head. He carried himself with a pronounced stoop, but with the dignity of a man of position and authority. His rich clothes were obscured by a crude smock of white that covered him from neck to knee, providing only the most scant glimpse of the finery beneath.

His companion was also in white, but her garments were of the softest fabrics, flowing robes that might have been spun from snow. The image of a heart dripping a single bead of blood was embroidered upon the breast of her robe, picked out in yellow thread. About her neck, she wore a silver pendant displaying a dove. She was not so old as her associate, but the stamp of time had already seeded silver in her long, dark hair, and little wrinkles spread away from her deep, sombre eyes.

The object of their attention was spread out across the table. It had been the carcass of a mid-sized dog, though now it had been dissected into its component parts. Standing in a surgical theatre in Altdorf’s prestigious university, it would have been strange for the two examiners to know that their subject had only the night before been killed while menacing a little girl deep in the city’s worst slum.

The old man stepped away from the table, wiping his hands on his smock. He shook his head in consternation. ‘I am at a loss,’ he finally confessed, throwing up his gloved hands. ‘I can’t say how this cur died, nor what horrible disease so thoroughly ravaged its body.’ He gestured at the hound’s skull and the marks left by Theodor Baer when he brought down the animal. ‘These injuries for instance,’ he said. ‘I cannot decide if they were made ante-mortem or post-mortem. Everything about this creature is simply wrong, Leni!’

Leni Kleifoth, the woman in white, nodded her head sympathetically. ‘I share your confusion, Professor Adelstein. The affliction this poor animal suffered is nothing known to the Temple of Shallya. I thought at first,’ the priestess suppressed a shudder and a haunted look crept into her eyes. ‘I thought at first it might… might be the work of… of the Fly Lord, loathed be his name.’

Professor Adelstein’s head bobbed up and down in agreement. ‘You had every reason to believe such. The ways of the Ruinous Powers are infinite and horrible.’ He stepped back to the table and removed a glass jar from the marble top. Inside was one of the hideous worms that had infested the carcass. ‘I’ve examined this thoroughly. Whatever it looks like, it isn’t a worm! I don’t think it was ever even alive, not as we understand life. It isn’t a thing of flesh and ichor. Do you know what it is composed of?’ The professor paused for emphasis before speaking his discovery.

‘Dust,’ he said. ‘That’s all it is: dust!’

Leni stared intently at the strange thing that looked like a worm. Dust! But how could it be simple dust? How could dust corrupt an animal in such a gruesome fashion! Why would dust mould itself into a semblance of life! She felt a chill pass through her. The temple of Shallya was devoted to combating the myriad diseases and afflictions that plagued mankind, even the daemonic fevers sent by the Fly Lord. This was something else entirely, something beyond her experience, perhaps even beyond the experience of her entire order.

‘No common dust,’ the professor continued, pacing behind the table as though conducting one of his lectures. ‘I’ll grant you that. It is a strange, weird sort of dust, like nothing I have seen before. But it is dust.’

‘What does it mean?’ Leni asked, her voice a grim whisper.

Professor Adelstein’s look became as sombre as that of the priestess. ‘You know who wanted us to examine this carcass,’ he said. ‘That alone should tell you what it means. Something dark and terrible is at work in this city.’

Skrattch Skarpaw crept through the gloom and murk of the old burrow system. Abandoned generations ago when the underground river had flooded and drowned its inhabitants, the tunnels still carried a musky reek of death. The assassin kept to the thickest shadows as he made his way through the dripping corridors and half-flooded chambers. He was careful to keep his feet beneath the water, trying to offset any betraying splash that might carry through the darkness. The assassin paused many times, feeling the current of the air with his whiskers. He stifled the impulse to twitch his tail in amusement. The current was blowing towards him, carrying his scent back into the sprawling network of Under-Altdorf and away from the one he had come here to find.

Arrogant and insulting, the message Skarpaw had received evoked the ratman’s deepest ire. Only a fool would provoke one of Clan Eshin’s most savage killers to such anger, and Skarpaw was not one to suffer fools. He would add the insulter’s pelt to that of the skavenslave who had acted as his messenger, a vivid reminder to any others who thought to dishonour Skarpaw and his clan.

The assassin’s whiskers twitched as he caught a new smell beneath the musky death-stink. It was the scent of mangy fur and festering sores, the smell of mouldy rags and rusty metal. Clan Pestilens! He should have expected some fanatic from the disease-worshipping cult to be behind such madness. Pontifex Poxtix would be short a few followers after this night’s work. Maybe Skarpaw would send the plague priest the heads of his deranged followers as an example of Clan Eshin’s prowess.

Skarpaw lifted his head. Even to his keen eyes, even knowing what he was looking for, he couldn’t see the slightest sign of the menace prowling above him on the roof of the tunnel. Trained in the arts of stealth and murder by the hidden masters of Cathay, the team of black-clad killers who formed the triad were Skarpaw’s most potent warriors, living weapons that struck from darkness and melted back into the shadows before the most wary skaven could draw a breath. Steel climbing claws were fitted about their paws, allowing them to find purchase even in the slippery rock of the abandoned tunnels. Even if some quick-eared sentinel did detect Skarpaw’s approach, his foes would expect the assassin’s guards to be around him, not above him.

A sickly light glimmered in the darkness ahead. Skarpaw’s lips pulled back in a feral smile. This would be easier than he thought. He drew the weeping blade from its scabbard, a sweat of poison dripping from its serrated edge. One cut from such a blade would finish even a plague monk, however many contagions the fanatic had invited into his flesh.

The musky smell intensified as Skarpaw crept forwards. Above him, he could smell the eagerness of the triad as they hurried along the roof, eager to begin the killing. Briefly, Skarpaw entertained the notion of allowing his minions to settle the affair for him, then he remembered the condescending lines he had read upon the ratskin parchment and his rancour rose once more. He’d cut the flea’s tongue from his mouth and feed it to him!

The greenish light now revealed a small chamber. Skarpaw could see a clutch of plague monks gathered about the far end of the chamber, their robes frayed and decaying. At the centre of the chamber, upon a crude dais that helped it rise above the level of the water, a throne-like seat of old bones had been set. Upon that seat rested a figure as abhorrent as anything Skarpaw had ever seen. Even the assassin was repulsed by the swollen boils that disfigured the seated ratman’s face, by the sickly green taint to his flesh and the thin patches of fur that yet sprouted from his diseased hide. The tattered robes the ratman wore were heavier and thicker than those of his minions, ugly symbols stitched across the border of the long cowl that framed his face. A heavy book bound in skavenhide rested in the monster’s lap while his claws played absently with the tiny copper bells that dangled from a long wooden staff.

Skarpaw’s eyes were drawn to that staff, widening as he saw the spiked metal globe that topped it. The green light was coming from openings in that globe, forming a pungent fog as it billowed away from the throne, caught by the current in the air. The assassin had seen the plague censers of Clan Pestilens before and knew their potency on the battlefield. The biggest troll, the most stubborn dwarf, none were immune to the toxic fumes of the plague monks. He started to back away, deciding that perhaps it would be best to allow the triad to do the job for him after all.

Then Skarpaw felt something slide against his leg. The assassin’s head snapped around, staring at the dimly seen object bobbing on top of the water. It was the bloated carcass of a rat, and it was far from alone. Having spotted one, now Skarpaw’s keen eyes could pick out dozens. The assassin realised with horror something he had observed but failed to appreciate during his vengeful passage through the tunnels. Every corner of Under-Altdorf was swarming with rats of every size and shape. They formed an important part of the skaven diet. But the old, flooded tunnels had been devoid of them. Now Skarpaw understood why.

Before the assassin could retreat, he heard a moaning gargle drip down from the ceiling of the chamber. He watched in horror as first one, then another of the triad killers plummeted from the roof, their bodies swollen with corruption. The musky death stink! It wasn’t some lingering stench left by the drowned skaven, it was the pestilential fumes rising from the seated plague priest’s staff!

As the last of the triad splashed to the chamber floor, Skarpaw felt his chest starting to burn from the inside. Whatever had struck down his killers, he had been exposed to it just as much. Realising he was already dying, the assassin lunged forwards, snarling his defiance. If he could not escape, then neither would his murderer!

Skarpaw’s feet drove through the flooded chamber, a savage hiss pushing through his clenched jaws. The assassin raised the weeping blade clutched in his paw, intent upon burying it in the sneering, diseased face beneath the priest’s cowl.

The assassin’s strength deserted him before he covered half the distance. Skarpaw sank to his knees, his sword slipping through claws too weak to grip it. Spots danced before his eyes and the chamber refused to stay in focus. His head sagged against his chest, bloody foam flecking his mouth.

Suddenly a fierce grip closed about the back of his neck and raised his head. Skarpaw felt something slimy and cold pressed against his lips, felt something like molten ice race down his throat. Slowly his bleary vision began to clear. He found himself staring into the warpstone eyes of the disfigured plague priest. The sneer was still curling the monster’s face as he backed away from the recovering assassin and resumed his seat upon the morbid throne.

Skarpaw could feel the burning sensation leaving his chest, but his limbs still felt like granite weights. The assassin glared murderously at the seated plague priest. ‘Tell-speak Pontifex Poxtix he will suffer-suffer for this!’

The seated plague priest laughed, a bubbling chortle that made Skarpaw cringe. ‘I shall tell-speak nothing to Poxtix,’ the skaven pronounced. ‘That is why I need-take you, Skrattch. You serve-obey me and speak-tell nothing to Poxtix.’ The decayed lips pulled back, displaying the ratman’s blackened teeth in a broken snarl. The plague priest pulled the chain of one of the tiny bells dangling from the head of his staff. Metal plates slid down, cutting off the glowing green light of the censer ball and its infectious fumes. The plague priest’s eyes shone in the darkness and Skarpaw could hear the other plague monks shuffling forwards through the water now that the dangerous fog was cut off.

‘I am Lord Skrolk,’ the skaven on the throne said in a guttural hiss. ‘You will be my sniffer-spotter, my knife-fang. Otherwise I will not give-gift you more of my antidote. Think-ponder, Skrattch, then give-gift me your allegiance.’

CHAPTER FIVE

KNIVES IN THE DARK

The lair of Grey Seer Thratquee was a resplendent, vault-like hall buried deep beneath Under-Altdorf’s temple of the Horned Rat. Thick walls of stone reinforced with bars of steel ensured that even the largest burrower bred by the diseased flesh-shapers of Clan Moulder would not be able to penetrate the skaven priest’s sanctuary. The flagstones upon the floor were massive blocks of granite plundered from the sewers and cellars of the human city above. Green light flickered from warpstone lanterns set high into the ceiling, crafted from the mangled remains of chandeliers and candelabra. Mouldering rugs and tapestries, their colours faded by skaven excretions, their finery frayed and tattered by the gnawing of rats, covered much of the floor. At the centre of the hall, a monstrous heap of soiled pillows rose, heavy with the stink of ratkin musk. In a shocking display of wealth, decadence and power, the heap of pillows was occupied by a pair of immense, bloated masses of fur and fat, the swollen bulks of a pair of skaven females, the nearly mindless brood-mothers of the ratkin. Steel collars circled their swollen necks, thick chains fixing the huge creatures to metal rings set into the floor.

Thanquol was unable to decide what he should feel as he stalked into the hall; envy, fear or disgust. He settled on a mix of the three. Thratquee was clearly trying to impress his guest with this show of opulence and power, yet Thanquol could not help but see in the elder grey seer’s lair a vivid display of the priest’s own decadence and corruption. Like the rest of Under-Altdorf, Thratquee had pretensions of grandeur, imagining himself some manner of petty seerlord. For someone who had only recently grovelled before Kritislik, there was something shabby, laughable, in such a display.

An emasculated human slave rose from a small kennel at the side of the hall and approached as Thanquol entered the chamber. The temple guards who had conducted him through the temple into Thratquee’s sanctum withdrew, casting a few jealous looks over their shoulders as they stalked back up the stairs. His own stormvermin, the matched set of albino mutes from Skavenblight, had been left in the temple, but Thanquol’s persistence had forced the temple adepts to allow him to bring Kratch with him to this private audience with Thratquee. It was comforting to know he had at least one underling to throw between himself and any treachery Thratquee might be plotting.

The slave bowed before Thanquol, making the gesture a strange hybrid of human and skaven by twisting his head to expose his throat to the grey seer. Thanquol paid scant notice to the wretch, instead sniffing at the platter of delicacies he carried. An array of cheeses and sweetmeats teased his senses, setting his stomach growling. Whatever his other faults, Thratquee had certainly cultivated an expensive taste for human cuisine.

Thanquol started to reach for the platter, then his paw froze, thoughts of treachery reasserting themselves. He glowered at Kratch, nudging the apprentice forwards. The young adept hesitated, twitching nervously as he felt Thanquol’s impatience grow. With a shivering paw, Kratch timidly retrieved a wedge of cheese from the platter. Thanquol continued to watch him as the apprentice took slight, dainty nibbles of the food.

‘Grey Seer Thanquol,’ the voice of Thratquee rose from the midst of the pillow nest. The elder grey seer peered from the mess of feathers and lace, eyes glazed with the effects of warpdust and human liquors. Thratquee had made no effort to disguise the smell of his vices, something that made Thanquol decide the old villain was far less impaired by them than he would like his guest to believe. ‘I am humble-honoured that so terrible and magnificent a visitor should grace my meagre nest.’

Thanquol’s tail twitched with annoyance. After visiting the other members of Under-Altdorf’s ruling council for private audiences, even his ego had grown weary of empty flattery and hollow praise. Again, the grey seer’s eyes prowled across the walls, looking for any sign of secret doors or hidden guards.

The old skaven nestled among the pillows chittered a peal of manic laughter. ‘No-no, my friend, there is no-no trick-trap. I have all the protection I need right here.’ Thratquee’s paws reached out to either side of him, patting the furry flanks of the brood-mothers. At his touch, the swollen females reared up, like living pillars, their whiskers brushing the ceiling. Thanquol could see that what he had mistaken for layers of fat were in fact knots of muscle. Thratquee’s consorts were built more like rat ogres than proper females. Some sick adjustment to their diet, perhaps, or some perverse misuse of his magic, but whatever the cause, the feral ferocity smouldering in the eyes of the breeders was enough to chill any would-be assassin.

After a moment, the brood-mothers subsided, flopping lazily down beside their master once more. Thanquol calmed his pulse and recovered the paces he had retreated when the females had reared. He could appreciate what fine guardians such monsters would make. No skaven would find anything menacing in the scent of a female. The worst traps were those that did not need to be hidden. But why had Thratquee deigned to disclose this secret?

‘A gesture of trust,’ Thratquee answered the unspoken question. ‘We are both disciples of the Horned Rat. We must have faith-trust in ourselves.’

Thanquol looked aside at Kratch. The apprentice was showing no sign of poisoning and was attacking a second wedge of cheese with anything but his earlier timidity. Thanquol brought the edge of his staff smacking into Kratch’s snout, knocking the young adept back. Seizing one of the sweetmeats for himself, the grey seer made a bold spectacle of himself as he approached the nest of Thratquee.

‘There are suspicion-stories in Skavenblight,’ Thanquol said between mouthfuls of food. The human slave struggled to keep pace with the advancing grey seer. ‘The Lords of Decay question-doubt the loyalty of Under-Altdorf.’

‘Some would say-squeak that the Lords of Decay lack vision,’ Thratquee replied in a scratchy whisper. It was a shockingly rebellious comment to make, especially to one who had been sent as a representative of the Council. Was the remark a sign of Thratquee’s opinion of his own power and position, or was it a mark of the old skaven’s madness?

‘Perhaps Skavenblight should step aside and allow those with vision to guide our people,’ Thratquee continued, his words whispering into the stunned silence. ‘They talk of destroying the humans, endless plots to conquer and despoil! Why? Why bother to seize with fang and claw what can so easily be taken with craft and cunning? Why conquer when we can rule from the shadows? The humans make so much for us already, never bothering to discover what happens to all that we steal and seize. Why would we wish to jeopardise everything they give us without even knowing?’

‘Some would say-squeak that such words are heresy,’ Thanquol warned, his claws tightening about the heft of his staff. ‘It is the destiny of the skaven to inherit the world of men. This is the sacred promise of the Horned Rat.’

Thratquee chittered his laughter once more. ‘The best slaves are those who do not know they are slaves. Look at Under-Altdorf. This city has grown to be the most powerful in all the Under-Empire… except for Skavenblight itself, of course. It has prospered so not by fighting the humans, but by using them, growing fat off their labour and industry. The Horned Rat favours cunning, favours those with vision. Skaven such as me, and you, Grey Seer Thanquol.’

Thanquol bruxed his teeth together, hearing his name associated with the deranged ‘vision’ of Thratquee. If the Council had any spies listening, his life would not be worth a waterlogged mouse when he returned to Skavenblight. The grey seer lifted his snout, trying to assert his lack of subservience to the corrupt heretic lounging on the pillows.

‘I am a loyal servant of the Council and the Horned Rat…’ he began, his words sharp as knives. If the Council did have any spies listening, such a display might save his skin when he returned to Skavenblight.

‘Do you understand what it is they have sent you to find, grey seer?’ Thratquee interrupted. The question took Thanquol off his guard. He blinked at the old priest, waiting for him to continue. Instead, Thratquee pointed a shrivelled claw at Kratch. ‘Tell him what it is Skabritt thought to find,’ Thratquee ordered. ‘Tell him more than you told those fools in Skavenblight,’ he added with a display of his fangs.

Kratch’s body was trembling as he felt the eyes of both grey seers fasten upon him. He scratched anxiously at his pelt, his glands dripping scent into the rug beneath his feet. It was almost on his tongue to deny Thratquee’s assertion, but a look at the massive shapes of the grey seer’s consorts and their immense fangs made the adept reconsider.

‘I would have told-told when it was safe-alone,’ Kratch began, apologising to Thanquol. His tone became more wheedling and his posture lower to the floor when he saw the disbelief in Thanquol’s eyes. ‘I did not want anyone to cheat-steal from your glory, most omnipotent of despots, most ravenous of killers, most…’

Thanquol swatted Kratch’s muzzle with the end of his staff, almost knocking the fawning apprentice from his feet. ‘Say-squeak something interesting,’ he warned.

‘Skabritt… the Wormstone…’ Kratch winced as he saw Thanquol start to raise his staff again. ‘It is a weapon!’

Thanquol bared his fangs in a threatening smile. ‘I already know that,’ he snapped.

‘You don’t know-think what kind-type weapon!’ protested Kratch, holding up his paws to protect his snout. ‘Clan Pestilens make-bring to use against Under-Altdorf not manling Altdorf!’

Thanquol looked from Kratch to the seated Thratquee. The old skaven was almost smirking among his nest of pillows.

‘Skabritt tunnelled deep in the archives of Under-Altdorf to learn of the Wormstone, and I follow-find his trail,’ Thratquee explained. ‘He learned of Clan Mawrl and its fate. How Clan Mawrl entered into alliance with Clan Pestilens during the Second Plague War and was given the Wormstone as tribute for their loyalty to the plague lords.’

‘But it was not a gift,’ Kratch said. ‘It was death that Nurglitch gave to Clan Mawrl. The Wormstone’s power infected the clan, destroying it from the lowliest whelp to the most powerful warlord. Before the infection could spread to the rest of Under-Altdorf, the other clans banded together and collapsed all the entrances to Mawrl burrows before any of them could escape.’

Thanquol leaned against his staff, digesting the account. He could well understand why the Council had kept this from him. It was one thing to send him after a weapon that would be used against the humans, it was quite another to trust him with a weapon that could decimate an entire clan.

‘You understand-see the possibilities?’ Thratquee asked. ‘The power of the Wormstone can makes us masters of skavendom! Every stronghold in the Under-Empire will tremble before the one who holds the Wormstone! Even the Council will bow to such a menace. We shall cast down the Lords of Decay, replace them with the sort of easily-manipulated fools I have contrived to seat upon the council of Under-Altdorf. With the power of the Wormstone, I can make myself seerlord, and you, Grey Seer Thanquol, shall be my most exalted and trusted lieutenant, the claw of a new Council of Thirteen!’

Thanquol’s tail twitched as he listened to the old skaven spout his mad ambitions, the insane scheming of a mind grown foul with corruption and intrigue. The hidden lord of Under-Altdorf, now Thratquee dared to reach even higher. Thanquol wondered just how deeply Skabritt had been entangled in the old rat’s plotting. Clearly Thratquee expected to use Thanquol to succeed where his predecessor had failed.

The thought brought a flash of scorn rushing through Thanquol’s brain. Perhaps Thratquee was right, perhaps the Wormstone was powerful enough to do everything he said. But as he looked at the bleary-eyed skaven nestled among his pillows, Thanquol knew that if there was a new seerlord it would not be the high priest of Under-Altdorf.

Professor Adelstein sat at his desk, a black-feathered quill fairly racing across a browned piece of parchment. This part of the university was deserted at this hour and only the scratching of his pen against the sheet disturbed the eerie silence that filled the darkened building. Beads of sweat dripped from the professor’s brow, his breathing short and sharp. It was not merely the grisly nature of what he was committing to the parchment that caused him such distress, though the ghastly carcass of the hound had been horrible enough.

It was the strange quill and the thin, smelly ink he employed to write his report that preyed upon Professor Adelstein’s mind. No clean thing, this pen and ink, but the stuff of sorcery and darkness. He lifted his eyes from the page to stare again at the macabre inkpot, a thing seemingly crafted from a piece of frozen fire, glowing with an unclean light in the black of his office. However many reports he was called upon to write with the strange ink contained in the weird vessel, the pot never went dry. The fact was the least of its unearthly qualities, however. Looking back at the page, he could see the words he had written writhing and slithering like a nest of serpents, rearranging themselves into new and unfathomable designs. They would remain that way, Adelstein knew, until a certain word was spoken above the parchment and the words reformed from the squirming mess of lines and splotches.

Adelstein had received the quill and inkpot long ago, under circumstances he did not care to ponder in the dark hours of the night. He had received many messages written by another who possessed the same sinister ink. A word, a whispered sibilant that was more like the rasp of a jungle snake than anything related to a human tongue; this would unlock the orders that came to Adelstein from his hidden master. Such a message had led to his examination of the dog carcass. Leni Kleifoth, he knew, had received a similar message. Neither knew what they were expected to find, or what the importance of their examination was. They did not need to understand. It was enough that they obeyed.

The quill stopped moving as Adelstein hastily completed his report. He watched as the last words he had written slithered into a meaningless jumble, then tightly rolled the pages together, tying a string about the bundle.

The professor was breathing even more heavily as he walked across his darkened office, navigating between tables strewn with books and shelves groaning beneath the weight of pickled specimens in glass jars. He pushed a chair against the wall, climbing up onto its seat. Adelstein stretched his hand above him, pushing open the window set high in the wall. He stretched his other hand to the opening, holding the roll of parchment through the open window.

Since the message had reached him, Adelstein knew his office was being watched. Somewhere in the darkness, something was waiting for his report. The distinct, pungent smell of the ink would reach out to it, carrying to it even through the fog of Altdorf’s night.

Adelstein felt something cold briefly brush against his hand, scales brushing against his flesh. The parchment was tugged from his fingers by a firm, powerful grip. Faintly, Adelstein could hear something flutter into the night. He hurriedly closed the window again and dropped down from the chair. Adelstein stepped to one of the specimen shelves and reached behind a pickled pig foetus to retrieve a hidden bottle of schnapps. The professor took a quick pull from the bottle, feeling a warm flush pulse through his quivering body.

He’d contrived to see what retrieved his reports once, when he had not known better. Scaly and hideous, he had been careful never to look at the strange courier again. There were books in the university with illustrations of the fauna of distant Lustria. What he had seen was not unlike the Lustrian lizard-bat, but there was none of the scholarly detachment of looking at an illustration in an old book when one saw such a thing fluttering outside his window in the dead of night.

The professor shuddered and took another drink. The creature was frightening enough, but his memory was clear enough to know it was nothing beside the master it served. The same whom Adelstein himself obeyed.

Grey Seer Thanquol took up the position of honour well to the rear of the mass of skaven who stalked through the dripping sewers of Altdorf. It was a motley gathering of warriors and specialists bestowed upon him by the clans of Under-Altdorf; swordrats from the warlord clans, scouts from Clan Eshin and Clan Skaul, sharpshooters and globadiers from Clan Skryre, and green-garbed monks from Clan Pestilens. At the head of the procession, flanked by hulking warriors twisted by unnameable experiments, one of Clan Moulder’s beastmasters led the way, a pale, twisted thing hopping through the sludge ahead of him. The beastmaster’s charge was a warp bat, weird denizen of the underworld’s deepest caverns and tunnels, a massive flightless bat with an uncanny facility for sniffing out concentrations of warpstone. The creatures were the most prized possessions of skaven miners and convincing Clan Moulder to lend the animal to Thanquol’s expedition had involved making promises even the grey seer’s lying tongue hesitated to agree to.

The alternative, of course, would have been to trust Kratch to lead the way, but Thanquol’s distrust of his apprentice had grown by leaps and bounds following his meeting with Thratquee. It was better to limit his dependence on the adept as much as possible. The fate of Skabritt remained foremost in Thanquol’s mind as they navigated the network of brick-walled tunnels and slimy canals. He tried to watch Kratch from the corner of his eye and made certain that his white stormvermin were positioned securely behind him. Their presence would discourage any thoughts of putting a knife in his back.

Kratch, of course, wasn’t the only enemy he had to worry about. It had taken a fair degree of coercion and manipulation of Under-Altdorf’s ruling clans to gain the support he needed for his expedition. Any one of the city’s scheming councillors might be plotting treachery, to seize the prize Thanquol was looking for. If Thratquee felt safe enough to be so indiscreet about his loyalty to Skavenblight, strange ideas might have sifted down to the clan leaders themselves. Warplord Quilisk in particular was being quite heavy-pawed in his dealings with the grey seer. He had sent one of his subordinate councillors, Viskitt Burnfang, to ‘assist’ Thanquol. The number of representatives Clan Skryre sent along was also a bit more than Thanquol had asked for. Somehow, he doubted the fact was intended to benefit him. At least it set the representatives and warriors of the other clans on their guard. They would be too busy watching the Skryre ratkin for the first sniff of betrayal to think about moving against Thanquol himself.

Down through the murk of the sewers, the pack of skaven plodded. The stink of human filth was everywhere, the sounds of their feet and wagons filtering down from the streets above. Thanquol felt his contempt for the surface dwellers swell. Furless, undisciplined vermin, arrogantly thinking themselves masters of the earth! They would be forced to remember who the real masters were! Too many times had their kind stood between the skaven race and its destiny, too many times had they defied the prophecy of the Horned Rat! Too many times had they thwarted the ambitions of Thanquol the mighty! Thratquee was wrong… destruction of the humans was the most sacred duty any skaven could aspire to. And Thanquol would be that skaven!

The beastmaster at the head of the pack cried out, a sharp squeak of warning and excitement. Thanquol snapped orders to the stormvermin behind him, inciting them to lift him above the throng. Planting his feet in their strong paws, Thanquol peered over the heads of his minions. He could see a jagged patch of raw earth where the human brickwork had been pulled away. The tell-tale marks of skaven claws and fangs pitted the damp earth, vanishing into the blackness of a tunnel. The beastmaster stood before the opening, the pallid warp bat straining at its leash in its eagerness to dash into the gloom.

‘Find-search, quick-quick!’ Thanquol snapped, slapping the muzzles of the stormvermin to encourage them to lower him. The motley pack of skaven milled about uncertainly for a moment, but then their own leaders began to echo Thanquol’s order. Cautiously, but with speed, the skaven began to converge on the earthen tunnel. Thanquol let the mass of ratkin plunge ahead, lingering behind as was the right of any wise leader. He waited until only himself and his immediate entourage were still standing in the sewer, then turned on Kratch.

‘Tell me again how Skabritt died,’ Thanquol hissed. His claws slowly tapped on the sword dangling from his ratgut belt. ‘In case you forgot anything the first time you told it.’

Kratch ground his teeth together nervously, only managing to make eye contact with Thanquol by the most severe of efforts. ‘Great and terrible scourge of the man-spawn, I have told-said all. Unlucky Skabritt was crushed when the cave collapsed upon him.’

‘But Kratch was luckier,’ Thanquol stated, displaying his fangs. He gestured with the head of his staff, pointing at the tunnel. ‘You first, most loyal and eager apprentice. That way if anything happens to me, it happens to you first.’

Kratch gave a backward look at the sewer behind them, looking for a moment as though he might flee. Wiser impulses prevailed however. Still grinding his teeth nervously, Kratch slowly made his way into the tunnel, feeling Thanquol’s eyes glued to his every step.

The grey seer took no reassurance from Kratch’s reluctance. He hesitated as he watched Kratch vanish into the darkness, then gestured to his stormvermin.

‘Follow him,’ Thanquol told the albinos. ‘Watch him. Watch everything.’ He dug the little box of warpstone snuff from his robes and inhaled a pinch of the gritty dust, feeling its sorcerous energy sear through his body, firing his senses and steeling his courage.

‘I’ll be right behind you,’ he said, pushing his bodyguards forwards. Thanquol gave a last anxious look at the dripping sewers. Briefly he considered the thought that had occurred to Kratch, but decided against such ignoble retreat. His decision was helped somewhat by the way the shadows seemed to coil about the brickwork support pillars in menacing patches of darkness. They might hide almost anything. At least whatever the dark tunnel might be hiding would have plenty of other skaven to distract it from himself.

Thanquol turned and scurried after his stormvermin with just enough haste to not undermine his carefully woven air of authority.

After the grey seer vanished down the tunnel, one patch of shadow detached itself from a nearby pillar. Sheathing his sword, Skarpaw gave a disappointed cough. He should have realised that killing Thanquol would not be so easy.

‘I’m still worried about him,’ Johann told his brother. The two smugglers were prowling the narrow streets of the waterfront, trying to keep to the back alleys and seldom-travelled lanes that twisted their way between a festering array of hostels and tenements.

‘You worry too much,’ Hans chided him. The older Dietrich kicked a broken jar lying in the muddy lane. He grimaced as something that smelled of old cabbages splattered across his boot. He motioned for Johann to wait while he tried to wipe the muck off by rubbing his shoe against the plaster wall beside him.

‘Gustav Volk is still looking for us,’ Johann said. ‘What if he found Kleiner?’

Hans abandoned his effort to clean himself. He wrinkled his nose at the revolting brown smear he had made on the wall, then shrugged and jogged up to catch his brother. ‘If Volk’s mob found Kleiner, then they’re the ones you should be worrying about.’

Johann shook his head as they started down another nameless alley. This time Hans was careful to step around a splintered tankard that was in his path.

‘You saw Kleiner when we were in Loew’s,’ Johann objected. ‘The man could barely stand. I’ve seen beggars who looked healthier.’

‘Most beggars are healthy,’ Hans scolded. ‘Best racket in the city, as long as you pay your tithe to the priests of Ranald.’ He saw the irritation on Johann’s face and changed his attitude. ‘Kleiner probably just drank too much,’ he assured. ‘You know him, probably celebrating selling the wyrdstone before we’ve even got a single copper from it.’

‘We didn’t know it was wyrdstone before we went to Loew’s.’

Hans let out a disgusted sigh. ‘Mother hen, that’s you, dear brother! I didn’t see Kempf around this morning, but I don’t see you worrying about him.’

‘Kempf is so slippery a rat couldn’t keep up with him,’ said Johann. ‘He can take care of himself.’

‘And Kleiner can’t!’ Hans protested, his voice incredulous. ‘I’ve seen the man outdrink a kossar and outfight a Norscan!’

‘He wasn’t sick then,’ Johann said. He hurried to the other side of the alley as a window opened in the wall above and someone emptied a slop bucket into the street. Hans didn’t match his brother’s agility and soon had a cloak to match his boot.

‘So what if Volk gets him?’ Hans growled, wringing filth from his clothes. ‘One more share for the rest of us.’

Johann gave his brother a withering smile. ‘Not if Volk makes him talk first.’

Hans’s face went pale, his eyes going wide with alarm. He grabbed his brother’s arm, fairly pulling the big man down the alley. ‘What are we standing around talking for? Let’s go check on my friend Kleiner!’

‘I want him out!’ The old woman’s shrill voice was as piercing as a lance this close to his ear. Theodor Baer glared at the crone, but if her vision was still clear enough to note the expression, she took no notice of it.

‘Into the street!’ she shrieked. ‘I’ll not have some pox-ridden vagabond giving my house a poor reputation!’ The old hag stomped one of her feet against the wormy floorboards of the landing, the thick leather clogs she wore threatening to punch through the dilapidated wood. ‘I’ll not have people driven away because they hear I’m harbouring disease in my house!’

‘Then maybe you should keep your voice down, grey mother,’ Theodor hissed. ‘The way you’re shrieking, they can probably hear you at the Emperor’s Palace.’

The landlady’s face grew flush with indignation. A little, withered specimen of waterfront wretchedness, the crone retreated down the rickety stairs with all the grace of a one-legged cat. Somehow she remained upright throughout her stumbling withdrawal. She turned at the foot of the stairs, pointing a crooked finger at Theodor Baer and the two watchmen with him.

‘Not another night under this roof!’ she said, her tone as imperious as anything spoken by the Emperor. ‘You put him out, or I’ll speak to your captain!’ Her threat made, the old woman scrambled back behind the door of her own rooms and slammed it behind her.

‘What a charming lady,’ one of the watchmen commented. ‘Is it wrong to hope the goblins come for her?’

‘You were the one who heard her screaming for the watch,’ the other soldier said. ‘If it was left to me, I would have ignored her and kept right on walking.’

Theodor was still staring down the stairs at the old woman’s refuge, only absently listening to the conversation of his subordinates. They had spent a long night prowling this district, searching for anything out of the ordinary, and the tempers of all three men were growing short. The tempers of his subordinates would be even shorter if they learned their orders had not come from the captain, but from a strange slip of parchment only Theodor himself had seen. That was something Theodor did not intend to ever share with his men. There were some things it was better for them not to know about.

Still, there was no denying that their long night vigil had failed to produce any results. Whatever had caused the grisly affliction of the dog the night before, they had seen no further evidence of it. Theodor would have dismissed the incident as some one-off monstrosity, some vile mutant that had somehow eluded the attentions of the witch hunters, if it had not been for the orders he had received from his hidden master. As long as he had served that unseen hand, Theodor had never known the master to be wrong. If the message said the dog was not a lone aberration, then Theodor knew enough not to question.

Something one of his men said began to nag at Theodor. He looked back at the soldiers, then at the door behind them on the landing. ‘We might not have ignored the old hag, but somebody is ignoring us,’ he said, walking quickly to the door. The sergeant brought his hand smacking against the panels in his most demanding and official knock. Still there was no sign of acknowledgement. He waited a moment, pressing his ear to the door, listening for any sound in the room beyond.

An uneasy feeling crawled up Theodor’s spine. Stepping away from the door, he motioned to his men. ‘Kick it in,’ he told them. The two watchmen were quick to comply, hobnailed boots making short work of the worm-eaten panels. Theodor squirmed his hand through the splintered wood and threw back the bolt.

The smell was the first thing that struck the soldiers as they opened the ruined door, a greasy stench of sickness mixed with a vilely sweet scent. The squalor of the room was made still more foul by the brown, greasy rags strewn about the floor and lying thick upon the straw-covered pallet that had served the occupant as a bed. Pots and buckets of filth were piled all around the bed, abandoned when the inmate had become too weak to tip them out the room’s little window. Despite the reek, Theodor was struck by the absence of flies. At this time of year, they should be thick as lice in such surroundings. The sergeant felt the hairs on his arm prickle with uneasiness. There was something wrong, unholy about this place, something more terrible than disease and plague, something that offended even the most base of insects.

Theodor Baer was a brave man, he had patrolled these same dark streets alone during the height of the Beast murders without a thought to his own safety. Yet it took every effort of will for him to approach the pallet. His men lingered behind, steadfastly holding position in the doorway. After taking only a few steps towards the pallet, Theodor quickly rejoined them, pushing both soldiers back onto the landing and slamming the door behind them.

‘Fritz,’ Theodor pointed to one of his men. ‘You will stay here. No one enters this room. Not the old lady, not other watchmen, not even the Grand Theogonist!’ Theodor stared into the soldier’s eyes until he was certain he had impressed upon the man the seriousness of his orders. It was the pale, frightened glaze over the sergeant’s features more than his tone of voice that drove home the gravity of the situation.

Theodor started down the stairs, taking the other watchman with him. ‘I am going to make my report to the captain. I will send a relief for you as quickly as possible,’ he called up to the man on the landing as he made a swift exit from the crumbling boarding house. Already Theodor was pushing the ghastly thing he had seen in the hovel from his mind, concentrating instead upon his next move. He thought about what he would write in his report, considering each word with the utmost care, words intended for someone much more important and powerful than his captain.

Johann and Hans watched from the blackened mouth of an alleyway as Theodor Baer and one of his soldiers exited the house. There was no mistaking the intense look on the sergeant’s face, nor the haste in his step.

‘Looks like Baer found something to nab Kleiner with,’ Johann commented, smacking fist into palm in a gesture of impotent frustration.

Hans sidled nonchalantly against the peeling plaster of the timber-framed wall behind them. ‘Better Baer than Volk,’ the smuggler observed with a shrug.

‘Kleiner can’t spend any time in Mundsen Keep,’ Johann growled back. ‘Not sick as he was. It would finish him.’ The filthy conditions and abysmal deprivations of the prison were infamous among the denizens of Altdorf. For all but the strongest condemned to the dungeons of the keep, a sentence of more than a few weeks was as good as a trip to the hangman.

‘We’ll get him out,’ Hans promised. He noted the doubt in his brother’s expression. ‘No, seriously, we’ll set aside some of the profit from the wyrdstone to bribe the jailors. The way Loew was preening over the little slice we gave him, there should be more than enough to buy Kleiner’s way out.’

‘That almost sounds like charity, Hans,’ Johann said. ‘I guess that’s why I don’t exactly trust it.’

Hans spread his hands in a gesture of hurt offence. ‘You wound me, Johann. Of course I’m not going to leave Kleiner in Mundsen. What kind of man do you take me for?’ Hans hastily continued before his brother could answer that question. ‘Look, it’s like this. If Volk had grabbed Kleiner, he might have spilled what he knew to try and swing some sort of deal. But we all know there’s no deal you can offer Baer. Damn griffon thinks he’s in the Reiksguard. Pure as the winter snow, that one! He’d break Kleiner’s jaw just for suggesting a pay-out, and Kleiner knows it. That means he’ll keep mum and wait for us to sell the wyrdstone and spring him.’

‘You cover all the angles, don’t you?’ Johann scowled.

‘One of us has to,’ Hans replied with a smile. ‘We can’t both of us wear our heart on our sleeve.’

Johann shook his head and started back down the alleyway. Hans watched his brother for a moment, then cast a lingering stare at the decaying boarding house. Kleiner, in Baer’s hands, would play for time and wait for the other smugglers to spring him. Of course, by that stage of the game they would already have sold the wyrdstone. Hans knew his brother wouldn’t approve, but Kleiner’s capture was something of a windfall. One less share to dole out when the time came to make the split.

The smuggler turned and laughed softly as he followed after his brother. He wondered how many weeks it would take Kleiner to realise that nobody was going to bribe the guards at Mundsen Keep. Hans felt little pity for his unfortunate associate. A man who let himself get caught had to look after his own luck.

Hans looked back at the house one last time. The smuggler scratched at his neck as he turned away. His skin had been itching all day, growing more persistent and vexing. He’d have to speak with Argula at the Crown and Two Chairmen. He suspected that some of the girls’ rooms had bedbugs.

The rough, earthen tunnels had a fug about them, a thick stink of rotting meat and decaying flesh that set Thanquol’s stomach growling and his nerves on edge. The keen nose of a skaven could easily decipher the smell of their own kind, even in death. There was no horror in the demise of a fellow ratman, of course. Rare indeed was the skaven who had not turned to ‘burrow pork’ as a way of staving off starvation at some stage in his life. Death was death and meat was meat. What troubled the grey seer was not the presence of corpses, but anxious doubts about how they had died and a nagging suspicion that Kratch was being less than forthcoming about the details of his previous excursion to this forgotten sub-warren of Under-Altdorf.

Ahead of him, Thanquol could see the shapes of his entourage scurrying down the tunnel, rapidly pursuing Clan Moulder’s warp bat. The Clan Skryre element, probably at Viskitt Burnfang’s command, had produced warpstone lanterns, casting an eerie electrical glow about the throng of ratmen. It was on Thanquol’s tongue to reprimand Burnfang for overstepping his authority and not begging permission of the grey seer before illuminating the tunnel, but a sly twitch of his whiskers indicated that Thanquol dismissed the thought as soon as it came to him. Let Burnfang light himself up like a Karak Azgal lava pit, it would make him the most visible and most logical target for anything lurking in the abandoned burrow.

The same thought occurred to Kratch. The young adept hesitated in his quick approach to the mob of skaven, instead creeping back to rejoin Thanquol and his stormvermin. Kratch kept his head low in deference to his master. ‘Grim tormentor of the unworthy,’ the apprentice squeaked, ‘should you not stop the Skryre heretics from displaying their perverse science?’ Kratch glanced nervously at the gloom around them, his head cocked in a peculiar listening gesture. ‘Something might see them and do them harm.’

Thanquol snickered at Kratch’s feigned concern. If the apprentice was ever going to amount to more than a snack for the bone chewers, he would need to learn how to lie better. ‘If Burnfang selflessly offers to present us with warning of any lurking danger, it would be inconsiderate to question his generosity.’ Thanquol interrupted Kratch’s raspy laughter with a cuff across his snout. ‘Now why not tell your gracious and beneficent mentor what kind of danger you think will spring from the darkness to seize our friend Burnfang?’ The grey seer’s lips pulled back, his fangs gleaming from the darkness. ‘It wouldn’t be the same thing that happened to Skabritt, would it?’

Kratch backed away, grinding his fangs together nervously. ‘Most mighty of magicians, dread sire of warlords and chieftains, it was a simple collapse of these miserable and neglected tunnels that crushed the life from my poor old master.’ Kratch’s nervousness abated and he warmed to the subject Thanquol had forced from him. ‘The same fate was almost mine as I tried to save Grey Seer Skabritt from the falling earth. Only by the grace of the Horned Rat was this humble servant spared to bring word of Skabritt’s discovery to you, great and terrible liege.’

Thanquol considered cracking Kratch’s skull with his staff to stifle the stream of ingratiating flattery and calculated self-abasement, but decided he could make better use of his apprentice. Kratch was the only one who had escaped this place the last time. That made him someone worth keeping around and keeping close.

The musky scent of fear rose from the throng ahead, a scratchy chorus of frightened voices drifting down the tunnel from some point ahead of Burnfang and the glow of his lanterns. Thanquol waited, his ears pricked to detect any sound of battle, one eye watching Kratch. After a moment, without hearing screams or the crash of steel, Thanquol decided that whatever had frightened the scouts wasn’t fighting back. He motioned to his bodyguards and straightened his posture as he marched down the tunnel to take direct command of his minions and discover for himself what they had found. Stalking past Viskitt Burnfang and his warlock engineers, Thanquol relieved the Clan Skryre leader of one of his lanterns, glaring at Burnfang, daring him to challenge the grey seer’s confiscation of the apparatus.

Instead of defiance, Burnfang sketched an insincere bow. Thanquol decided to ignore the insubordination, at least until a more opportune time. He discovered the source of Burnfang’s smirking humour a moment later as he continued down the tunnel and the lantern was nearly pulled from his paw. Stumbling and tripping after him, dragged by the thick wires that connected the lantern to a bulky contrivance lashed across its back, one of the warlock engineers was pulled along behind the grey seer. Thanquol scowled, glaring at the smirking Clan Skryre contingent, daring any of them to find humour in what was, after all, a slight oversight.

Still dragging the warlock engineer and his battery after him, Thanquol found himself approaching a section of tunnel that broadened into a wide opening. Warriors from Clan Mors and Clan Skab stood around the opening, sniffing at the air, staring suspiciously at the walls. One side of the tunnel was choked by a mass of freshly collapsed earth, from which the stink of decaying skaven rose. The same smell was even more potent ahead, however, but Thanquol hesitated to press past his warriors.

It was only when one of the Clan Eshin gutter runners, the slithery scouts supplied to the expedition by Skrattch Skarpaw, crept back down the passage to report to the grey seer that Thanquol felt the imperative to advance.

‘Tunnel-burrow go into chamber-cave ahead, dread master,’ the gutter runner wheezed, his breath as stagnant and foul as the linen rags he wore around his snout and across his face. Dyed black like the rest of the scout’s ragged raiment, the skaven was almost invisible in the gloom of the passage, only his distinct scent picking him out from the darkness. ‘Chantor Pusskab find-snatch something,’ the scout added in a subdued whisper, nervously looking over his shoulder.

Thanquol bristled at the words. Clan Pestilens! The diseased plague monks and their heretical perversion of the Horned Rat’s religion! Too many times had those vile abominations stood between him and the glory that was his right! Nurglitch probably knew full well what sort of artefact the Wormstone was, and had sent word ahead to Under-Altdorf and his followers in the city to keep the device from Thanquol and the Council of Thirteen.

‘We’ll see about this!’ Thanquol hissed through clenched fangs. ‘Follow me,’ he snapped, pushing his stormvermin into the passageway ahead of him. He’d feel a bit more confident confronting the plague monks with the two albinos between his own pelt and the diseased curses of the chantor. Noting that the clanrat warriors of Mors and Skab weren’t displaying any initiative to join him, Thanquol scowled. He’d remember such faithlessness!

The tunnel opened into a larger cavern. Instantly, Thanquol was impressed by the carrion stink. The glow from his warp-lantern disturbed a swarm of starveling vermin gnawing at bones that still bore scraps of flesh. The rats chittered angrily, but refused to abandon their meal. Across the floor of the cave was a litter of other bones, much older bones, which converged into a great heap at the centre of the chamber. Thanquol was quick to notice the way Kratch’s attention instantly flashed to the heap and the sharp disappointment that flickered through his posture.

‘Something wrong?’ Thanquol hissed in his most menacing whisper, low enough that only Kratch and the unfortunate warlock engineer he continued to drag behind him could hear.

‘The Wormstone…’ Kratch whined. ‘It is gone, master!’

Thanquol’s fangs ground together, his fur standing straight on his arms as he heard the adept speak. If his hands weren’t filled with his staff and the warp-lantern, he probably would have strangled the whining apprentice. What did he mean it was gone! Thanquol shuffled the staff into the crook of his other arm and locked a paw about Kratch’s throat anyway.

‘What do you mean “it’s gone”?’ the grey seer demanded. ‘Are you telling me that I came all the way up here, to this miserable pit, this human-reeking backwater, for nothing!’ Thanquol’s clutch tightened. Kratch clawed feebly at the choking hand, even as he tried to gasp out apologetic protests. ‘Am I supposed to go back to Skavenblight and tell the seerlord that the weapon he wanted is just gone?’ A feral fire burned in Thanquol’s eyes now. Even the warlock engineer was spurting musk when the grey seer snarled at his apprentice. ‘Gone! You slack-witted, turd-sniffing tick! How am I supposed to tell the Lords of Decay their weapon is gone!’

Kratch’s eyes were starting to roll into the back of his skull, his tongue lolling from his jaws. Suddenly, Thanquol relented, letting the adept slump to the earth at his feet. The grey seer turned, remembering what the gutter runner had told him. There were others here more deserving of his wrath than the snivelling Kratch!

There were several distinct groups of skaven in the chamber, an old warren-nest of the vanquished Clan Mawrl. Thanquol could see the Clan Skaul scouts, a dishevelled gang of scrawny runts sniffing about the old collapsed exits to the cavern, pawing about the rubble for any trace of plunder. He could see the Clan Moulder contingent, warriors in vivid yellow and blue cloaks following the erratic movements of the beastmaster and his warp bat as they prowled about the cavern. There were the Clan Eshin gutter runners, sinister in their blackened rags, doing their best to fade into the gloom of the cavern walls.

Thanquol paid scant attention to any of these. His ire was directed against the last group occupying the chamber; the green-clad plague monks of Clan Pestilens and their crook-backed leader, Chantor Pusskab. The plague monks were pawing about among the bones, picking through them with exaggerated care. Thanquol was not tricked by the pretended search. He knew Pusskab had already found what he was looking for. Clan Pestilens had already swiped the Wormstone.

‘Looking for something?’ Thanquol challenged, his words slashing through the darkness. Every skaven in the cavern turned when he heard the grey seer speak, hoping the fierce snarl wasn’t directed at him. Chantor Pusskab’s first instinct was to cower, but the plague priest quickly composed himself. The green-clad ratman snuffled and coughed, spitting a blob of phlegm into the bone field.

‘Look-seek?’ Pusskab’s dripping voice oozed. ‘No-no, find-find, yes-yes.’ The plague priest opened his paw, displaying for Thanquol’s eyes something that looked like a fat green-black worm.

Before Pusskab could explain the importance of what he had found, another voice echoed through the cave. Sharp and shrill, the voice resounded from the walls, its frantic cry sending a thrill of fear down the spine of every ratman who heard it.

‘Die-die, traitor-meat!’

The gutter runners who had so carefully manoeuvred to positions in the shadows against the walls now sprang from the darkness in a concentrated mass of violence and savagery. Thanquol saw green-clad plague monks dragged down beneath the stabbing, clawing bodies of the black-clad scouts, crushed against the floor until flashing daggers did their gruesome work.

Only for an instant was Thanquol able to watch the havoc the gutter runners made of Pusskab’s minions. Even as the grey seer’s heart swelled with pride at this display of loyalty and appreciation for his leadership, he saw something leap towards him from the corner of his eye. A gutter runner, its fur showing black beneath its leather rags and linen wrappings, sprang towards him, a wicked-looking knife gripped in both its paws. Thanquol could smell the burning taint of poison rising from the blades.

No mere gutter runner; the skaven leaping for him was one of Clan Eshin’s expert killers! The war cry, the attack on the plague monks, these were a distraction to cover the activities of an assassin!

Thanquol’s reaction was instant, instinctual. He spun about, diving away from the leaping killer. Still holding the warp-lantern, Thanquol’s dive was spoiled by the weight of the warlock engineer on the other end. Stumbling, struggling to maintain his balance, the warlock engineer toppled after the reeling grey seer. Thanquol heard the murderous snicker of the assassin as the black-cloaked skaven struck at him with envenomed blades.

Thanquol felt a heavy weight smash into him, crushing him into the ground. For an instant, he thought the assassin’s blow had landed, that some insidious Clan Eshin poison was even now pumping through his body. An agonised squeal in his ear, magnified by a mask of metal, told the grey seer what had happened. The warlock engineer, hurtling after Thanquol, had blundered into the path of the leaping assassin. Instead of striking the grey seer, the killer’s blades had stabbed into the body of the unfortunate engineer!

Thanquol’s fingers scurried into the folds of his grey robes, pulling a small piece of warpstone from a hidden pocket. Without hesitating to consider consequences, Thanquol popped the nugget between his fangs and bit down on it, grinding the little rock into powder with the frenzied action of his teeth.

Screams of battle raged all through the cavern. From the floor, Thanquol could see other assassins rushing to support the first killer. The albino stormvermin intercepted one of them, slashing at him with their halberds. The pouncing killer dived under the blade of one stormvermin, then leapt high over the blade of the second, slashing an ear from the bodyguard’s head as he passed him. The injured stormvermin spun about to confront his attacker, but the assassin was already darting away. While the two bodyguards fretted over the one assassin, the second raced unimpeded towards his target.

Blazing light swept through Thanquol’s vision, banishing the less than magnificent display of his bodyguards as the power of the warpstone surged through his body. The grey seer felt the warlock engineer’s body being rolled off of him. The assassin had recovered one of his blades and was struggling to pull the second from the battery lashed across the corpse’s back. He turned his face to snarl at Thanquol, but his expression quickly changed as he saw the glow behind the grey seer’s eyes. Like most of his kind, the assassin’s glands had been removed so that his scent might not betray him. There was no musk of fear to tease Thanquol’s nose, but the grey seer could see the mark of terror in his would-be murderer’s eyes. If the power of the warpstone was not intoxicating enough, the fear of his foe was.

Crackling yellow fire seared from the blazing head of Thanquol’s staff as he pulled himself from the floor. The assassin’s amazing reflexes allowed him to drop beneath the blast of arcane power with only a scorched cowl to speak of the nearness of his escape. In dodging the attack, however, the assassin was not prepared for a simultaneous strike. Swinging the warp-lantern about with his other hand, Thanquol brought the heavy metal instrument cracking into the assassin’s skull. The killer was thrown back, black blood and broken fangs spraying from the side of his mouth. Thanquol sneered at the stricken killer as he rolled through the dirt.

The grey seer’s sorcerously enhanced senses did not allow him to savour the wounding of his enemy, however. Even as the first assassin’s body came to rest, Thanquol was turning away from him, turning upon the killer springing at him from behind. In mid-air, the assassin was unable to twist his body completely away from the crackling fire Thanquol sent searing at him from the head of his staff. The magical fire bit through the ratman’s side like a red-hot sword, adding the reek of burnt entrails to the foulness of the cavern. The assassin flopped against the wall, his paws caked in his sizzling blood as he tried to push his belly back into his body.

There was an adage among the skaven: a dying enemy has the worst bite. It was a proverb that Thanquol had seen to be true far too many times. A dying enemy had nothing left to fear. Before the maimed assassin could make that realisation, Thanquol sent a second bolt of arcane power blasting into his head, leaving only a dripping mass of charred gristle above his shoulders.

To his credit, the third assassin showed an almost un-skaven degree of determination and courage. Bolstered by some strange combat-brew that increased his cunning and ferocity, the assassin used the gory demise of his brother as an opening to exploit. Eschewing the pouncing charge of his unfortunate comrade, the killer struck low, seeking to gut Thanquol with a wickedly curved short sword. The blade’s serrated edge slashed through the grey seer’s robe and shredded several scrolls tucked beneath Thanquol’s belt. By only a breath did the poisoned metal miss the flesh beneath Thanquol’s fur. The assassin twisted away, spinning his entire body around as though to retreat. Instead of running, however, he turned the motion into a reverse dive, thrusting his sword once more at his target.

If the grey seer’s senses were not aflame with the power of the warpstone, the assassin’s attack would have been a blinding blur, like a flash of lightning allowing no chance of escape. But Thanquol’s body did pulse with that sorcerous power, the corrupting foulness that only the skaven were daring enough to draw into themselves. Everything around him seemed to move as though mired in the bogs of the Blighted Marshes. The assassin was like a ratling whelp, blind and naked, pathetic in its efforts to crawl upon its little pink nubs! Thanquol’s sharpened mind had the leisure to consider a dozen ways to destroy this maggot, this faithless flea who had the temerity to dare strike the mighty Grey Seer Thanquol! He bared his fangs in sadistic appreciation for what he would do to this filth.

The blast of fire that lashed out from Thanquol’s staff struck the assassin’s arm, tearing it from his body at the shoulder, sending the severed limb dancing off in the gloom. The assassin shrieked and crumpled, then struggled to rise, the instinct to escape overcoming the agony of his mutilation. A second blast of crackling flame severed the ratman’s leg, spilling him back to the floor. Thanquol turned his back on the squirming wretch, leaving him to the vengeful blades of the stormvermin. It was the ultimate sign of contempt, ignoring the oldest of skaven adages, the sort of recklessness that only the most powerful skaven – or those lost in the grip of warpstone – indulged in.

Thanquol’s eyes stared back towards the entrance of the chamber, looking for the first assassin. When he did not immediately see the black-clad killer, he brought the butt of his staff crashing against the floor in annoyance. A brilliant, blinding burst of light filled the cavern, washing out every shadow in a glowing haze. Only Thanquol, his eyes already aglow in the ecstasy of warpsight, was not stricken by the magical brilliance. He savoured the frightened squeals of the skaven around him, giving little care to the fact that the terror was given voice by friend as well as foe. He was much too busy sneering at the figure revealed by the light, the slithery shape that had tried to creep up on the grey seer to make another attack. Slinking along on his belly, the first assassin had come within a foot of Thanquol before being struck blind by the grey seer’s sorcery.

The assassin covered his eyes with one paw, hurling his dagger at Thanquol with the other. The spinning blade seemed to move in slow motion as it flew towards the grey seer. Thanquol contemptuously shifted away from its path, only dimly registering an agonised squeal rise from behind him. He had no time for other distractions. He had a killer to deal with first.

The warp-lantern came cracking down into the blinded assassin with the same brutality and strength as before. The ratman was sent tumbling by the impact against his skull. Even as he rolled back down the entranceway, the assassin hurled his other dagger at Thanquol. The Staff of the Horned Rat burned with power once more, sending a spectral green light to surround the flying blade. The weapon darkened within that light, withering with each instant. It splashed against the breast of Thanquol’s robe, reduced to nothing more than a greasy smudge by the grey seer’s magic.

‘You would kill-kill me!’ Thanquol hissed, his voice booming with magical energy. Flickers of green light danced from his fangs as he spoke like fiery sparks from the mouth of a furnace. ‘Scat-licking frog-nibbler! Curse-curse the moment you were plop-dripped from your breeder’s belly!’ The grey seer unleashed a burst of power from his staff with each snarl, a burst of pummelling force that smashed into the assassin, throwing him yards at a time through the tunnels. Now the sorcerous glow was gone, Thanquol’s wrath and pursuit having taken them back into the passageway. The warriors of Clan Mors and Skab, resolutely refusing to enter the cavern and take part in the violence they had heard, now huddled against the walls, horrified by the awful power the grey seer was unleashing.

‘Grovel-beg, worm-feeder!’ Thanquol growled at the battered assassin. The wretched ratman bled from every corner of his body, limbs hanging from him in tangles of twisted wreckage. It was all the creature could do to look at Thanquol, much less try to shape words to his broken mouth.

It was not enough. The invigorating, fiery power of the warpstone had magnified Thanquol’s arcane power, enhanced his senses, swollen the speed of his devious mind, but one thing had shrivelled beneath its influence: patience.

Thanquol sent another burst of power smashing into the assassin, flinging his shattered wreckage into the mass of broken earth that marked the collapsed tomb of Skabritt. The assassin’s impact brought a burst of bloody froth from his muzzle, sent ribs skewering through his pelt. Thanquol favoured the watching clanrat warriors with a menacing snarl, reminding them to pay particular attention to this example of the grey seer’s power, lest they be his next victims.

Grey Seer Thanquol stalked towards the shattered assassin, his steps filled with power and malignity. However, even as his rage swelled, his might began to ebb. The warpsight faded slowly from his eyes, the fire slowly seeped out of his veins. For the first time Thanquol felt the drag of the warlock engineer’s body, causing him to drop the dented warp-lantern he had been carrying. Strength deserted his excited muscles and he was forced to lean on his staff for support. Thanquol’s breathing became short, his heart pounding erratically against his chest. Panicked thoughts raced through his brain, urging him to consume another warpstone nugget before the power faded from him entirely. Thanquol shivered as he fought to keep his paw away from another hidden pocket, exerting all his willpower to keep the compulsion at bay. Addiction to warpstone was the curse of every grey seer if he was not prudent, an addiction that would end when the terrible powers of the warpstone became too much for any sorcerer to control and the grey seer’s body was ripped apart from within.

A bloody smile came to the assassin’s face as he saw Thanquol’s power desert him. The grey seer simply scowled down at the killer, then crushed what was left of his face with his staff. After all, one did not need magic to settle with vermin.

‘Let this be an example!’ Thanquol snarled as he turned away from the carcass. His gaze, even without the fire of warpstone behind it, was fierce enough to command the rapt attention of every skaven in the passage. There were many more of them than there had been. Viskitt Burnfang and the rest of his warlock engineers had come forward to join the warriors while Kratch and several survivors from the treacherous attack in the cavern had come back to see for themselves the outcome of Thanquol’s fight.

‘Smell-see this,’ Thanquol ordered, pointing a talon at the bleeding ruin of the assassin. ‘Remember-learn! This is what happens to all who betray Thanquol!’ The grey seer fixed his fury on Kratch. The apprentice cringed at the attention, seeming to curl up into his own fur.

‘Go!’ Thanquol growled, now pointing to the cavern. ‘Someone has taken what I came here to find! Search-find it, before I think about all those who did not guard the safety of one who serves the Council!’ For emphasis, Thanquol fingered the talisman from the Shattered Tower. The reminder was enough. Clanrats and warlock engineers, Clan Skaul scouts and Clan Moulder beasthandlers, an eager, frightened throng, scurried up the passage and into the cavern, almost tripping over themselves in their haste to appease the grey seer’s anger.

Thanquol took a moment to enjoy the terror of his minions. The first rule of command for any skaven was to ensure his followers feared nothing more than their leader. The ill-fated attempt on his life had gone far to instil that kind of respect in the ad-hoc entourage he had been provided with by the council of Under-Altdorf. He would need that kind of power base now that the hunt for the Wormstone was proving more difficult than he had anticipated. That was something he would need to discuss with Kratch, preferably while tugging fangs from the lying maggot’s mouth.

As Thanquol followed after his underlings, the grey seer gave no notice to the body of the assassin he had killed. So it was that his eyes failed to see a slight trickle of earth drip from the collapsed heap of dirt and rubble and his ears failed to hear a faint, but persistent, scratching sound rising from beyond the cave-in.

Jakob Helmer stamped his feet against the splintered floorboards and clapped his hands together, trying to keep warm. The night chill that rose with the fog from the River Reik seeped through the shabby walls of the boarding house as though they weren’t even there, soaking into the watchman’s bones with a wintry clutch. Not for the first time, Jakob cursed his sergeant, his job and the thin cloth of his tunic. What was so important about some room in a flytrap flophouse that Baer wanted a man posted on guard all night? He suspected it was the sergeant’s idea of a punishment duty after catching Jakob playing dice in the backroom of the Drunken Bastard the previous week. The suspicion, combined with the dampness of the fog and the chill of the night, might have been enough to convince him to abandon his thankless post for a few hours if Baer’s despicable penchant for checking up on his men wasn’t still so fresh in the soldier’s mind. If he was discharged from the watch, the best Jakob could expect from his wife was a cracked skull when she bounced a skillet off his head.

The watchman blinked his eyes, staring into the creeping blackness that filled the stairway and the lower landing. He could only dimly make out the outline of the building’s main door below, illuminated by the dim light of a streetlamp outside. For an instant, it had seemed to him that the outline had flickered, vanished for the briefest of moments. Jakob scowled and blew another hot breath against his hands. As cold as it had grown, even his eyes were starting to go numb. He rubbed his fingers together, watching as a little of the blue tinge faded from them. Perhaps he should pay a quick visit to the Street of 100 Taverns and secure something more substantial to fortify himself against the cold of night.

Jakob blinked as he looked up from his hands. The darkness of the stairway seemed to have grown even more pronounced, thicker and blacker than it had been. He was just about to dismiss the impression as some trick of light when a sound arrested his attention. The watchman spun about, his frozen hand dropping to his sword. He could not say what exactly the noise had been, but he was certain of where it had come from; only a few feet away from him on the upper landing.

The watchman felt his blood chill even more as his staring eyes picked out a figure among the shadows that filled the landing. Someone was standing there in the darkness, watching him. He could distinctly make out the silhouette of a tall man, shoulders and head just barely perceptible against the dark background.

‘Who is there?’ Jakob challenged, his voice low and filled with threat. He allowed only a single breath to pass for an answer to come, then drew his sword. The rasp of metal against leather sounded loud as lightning in the silence of the hallway. The watchman took a step towards the dark figure in the shadows and repeated his challenge. Still there was no reply.

Licking his lips, Jakob raised his sword and took another step. If the stranger in the shadows thought to make sport of the watchman, he would soon discover that Jakob was in no mind to play games. The soldier took another step, his arm tense, ready to thrust two feet of sharpened steel into the body of the intruder.

The last step brought a nervous laugh to Jakob’s lips. As he drew closer, the sinister figure he thought he saw vanished. Another trick of his tired eyes, the shadow against which he had imagined he saw some lurking presence proved to be the outer wall of the house. There was nowhere any intruder could have escaped to even if there had been one there. Jakob sheathed his sword and returned to his post, still chuckling over his fanciful fright. He looked back down the stairwell, smiling as he saw the outer door illuminated by the streetlamp. Even the splotch of blackness he had been convinced lay upon the stairs was gone, another phantom of his fatigue and tedium.

It never occurred to the watchman that he had seen something upon the stairway, something that wrapped itself in the blackness of the darkened building, something that had silently and swiftly raced up to the landing when Jakob turned to investigate the noise he had heard. He would not have believed that both the sound and the sinister silhouette were illusory suggestions that had been planted in his brain by an outside will. He did not know that as he had been threatening shadows, something had come up behind him, stealthily opened the smashed door and slipped inside the room he had been set to guard.

Despite the pitch dark of the squalid room, the intruder picked his way with practised ease, only the faint swish of a cloak betraying his presence. Eyes, fiery and piercing like ruddy garnets, penetrated the darkness, dissecting at a glance the place where Kleiner had spent his terrible ordeal. Carefully the invader stalked towards the reeking pallet, like a panther on the prowl. A dark heap, indistinct and almost formless in the gloom, sprawled across the rag-strewn mess of soiled hay and greasy brown stains.

The vile reek was familiar to the strange visitor, just as it had been to Theodor Baer when he had made out his report. It was the same smell of death and corruption that had pervaded the carcass of the dog. But it was not the wreckage of a dog that dripped from the rags and hay. The few bones, the few scraps of flesh and organ that had not ruptured and corroded told the observer that what he gazed upon had lately been a man.

Gloved hands whispered in the darkness, reaching beneath heavy folds of grey cloth to produce two objects. The first was a small glass vial with a topper of cold-wrought iron. The second was a thin copper device, like a knitting pin but hinged at its tip to form something resembling the bill of a gull. Holding the vial firmly in one hand, the intruder leaned above the pallet and prodded among the grisly ruin of what had once been the smuggler Kleiner. After a few seconds of picking about the slimy mush, the hooked bill closed about something fat and elongated, almost resembling one of the dead man’s fingers but for its ghastly green-black colour and bloated, wormy shape.

The grisly maggot hung lifelessly from the pincers as the intruder lifted it to the neck of the vial and quickly nudged it inside. The thing had never truly been alive, but there was a chance that its motive power had not yet been entirely spent, a chance that the man in the darkened room did not want to risk. He knew what manner of death had struck here, what terrible corruption had been passed on into the dog Theodor had killed.

It was not that mystery that caused the visitor to linger in the squalid hovel, his penetrating gaze inspecting every nook and crack in walls and floor. He knew what kind of death stalked the streets of Altdorf. What he did not know was why and how it had been brought into the city.

Those questions remained a puzzle to the intruder when, just before the morning sun began to rise, he made his silent departure. There was no need to again ensorcel the senses of Jakob Helmer when he made his exit; the watchman had been asleep at his post for some hours when the intruder left.

In that respect, Jakob was much like the city at large; asleep and unaware of the horror that threatened them all.

It was as well that the city was unaware. Knowledge would bring panic, panic would bring confusion and confusion would bring disorder. Altdorf could not afford such unrest, not when her enemies were so many and so near.

Now that his master had examined what he had found, Theodor Baer would be free to destroy the evidence of how Kleiner had died. The secret would be kept and the ignorance of Altdorf’s teeming masses would be maintained.

For how long it could be maintained was a question for which the cloaked figure that vanished in the pre-dawn streets had no answer.

CHAPTER SIX

THE WIZARD AND THE MONSTER

Grey Seer Thanquol stood within the cavernous warren, perched atop a lump of stone, overseeing the frantic efforts of his underlings as they scoured the floor of the abandoned cave. Their objective was to gather small slivers of blackish green stone, the tiniest of fragments of the missing Wormstone. These toxic flakes were scattered throughout the warren, forcing the skaven to scour every nook, dig under every bone, in their search. The effort was made all the more complicated by the warp bat’s refusal to have anything to do with the unnatural debris, anxiously cringing beneath the legs of its beastmaster every time an effort was made to include it in the hunt. After a time, even Thanquol gave up trying to induce the animal to cooperate. If it wasn’t so valuable and if he didn’t need the goodwill of Clan Moulder, he would have ordered his stormvermin to gut the rebellious vermin.

None of the scouts sent by Clan Eshin had survived the skirmish and assassination attempt, though they had taken most of the Clan Pestilens contingent with them. Chantor Pusskab was among the casualties, a skaven dagger nestled in his chest, whatever strange revelation he had wanted to impart to the grey seer locked on dead lips. The knife in Pusskab’s chest looked terribly familiar to Thanquol and he felt uncomfortable when he recalled the throwing knife that had missed him and the death squeak that had followed when the weapon struck a very different target.

Pusskab and several of the other plague monks had been gathering strange wormy growths from the floor of the cavern. The things had a weird, pungent smell that reminded Thanquol equally of warpstone and sewage. Even so, the plague monks had thought the things important enough to collect, so Thanquol bit down on his squeamishness and ordered Kratch to gather them together. Kratch wasn’t overly pleased by the task, quickly bullying some Clan Skaul clanrats into doing the work. The studious way Kratch avoided touching any of the dried, crumbly worms was not lost on Thanquol. Anything his apprentice avoided coming into contact with was worth keeping in mind. Later, when there were not so many listening ears, he’d have some questions to put to Kratch about the Wormstone and Skabritt’s ill-fated expedition.

The fate of the Wormstone itself was soon explained. Some of the Clan Skaul contingent found faint prints in the dust of the floor; the marks of boots. Humans had been here and, judging by the depth of some of the tracks when they had departed, they had taken something very heavy away with them. Of all the clans, Skaul and Eshin had the greatest contact with the human nest above Under-Altdorf. Knowing the disfavour and distrust with which Thanquol now regarded Clan Eshin, Clan Skaul was quick to offer its services tracking down the errant humans. Their spokesman, an old crook-backed spy named Skrim Gnawtail, promised that Skaul’s network of informants, partners and pets among the humans of Altdorf would quickly locate the men the grey seer needed to find. With Thanquol’s blessing, Skrim Gnawtail sent one of his younger, spryer subordinates to make contact with Skaul’s agents on the surface. Thanquol watched the wiry skaven scurry from the warren, rushing down the black passageway beyond.

‘These shards,’ Viskitt Burnfang was saying, one of the flakes of stone gripped in his iron-sheathed hand. ‘They are strange. I should like to examine them further.’

Thanquol looked at the warlock engineer, studying his posture and scent for any mark of deceit. He was perfectly willing to allow the warlock engineer to suffer the hazards and labour of experimenting with the Wormstone residue. He was less than willing to let such discoveries slip into the paws of Clan Skryre. He gave Burnfang a threatening smile of fangs. ‘Perhaps we could study it together,’ he told the warlock engineer, lifting his head to remind Burnfang of his superior authority. There was no reason not to allow Burnfang to do all the work. He could always suffer an accident before any report could find its way back to Warplord Quilisk.

Before Thanquol could make more detailed ideas about how to exploit Burnfang’s skills without risk, a sharp squeal of terror rose from the passageway behind him. The grey seer spun about, his eyes going wide as he saw an enormous creature waddling out of the darkness. Its scent was sickly, a foul mixture of decay and disease laced with, yes, a suggestion of warpstone. The reek of fresh blood – skaven blood – was heavy about the monster, stemming from the ugly smear splashed across its massive jaws.

Gigantic, rat-like, its foul eyes gleaming with hunger and madness, the rat-beast crept slowly forwards, a rope of bloody drool spilling from its fanged mouth.

‘Rat-beast still live-live!’ Kratch’s panicked shriek echoed through the cavern. The adept dived behind a pile of bones, spurting the musk of fear. Thanquol watched the display of terror. The private discussion about what exactly had happened to Skabritt was going to be very interesting.

The rat-beast growled in response to Kratch’s scream. It shook dirt from its mangy pelt and loudly sniffed at the air. Its claws crunched against the floor as it continued to creep forward.

Thanquol hopped down from his perch and started to back away. He smelled the horror in the scent of his underlings, disturbed to see them retreating even more rapidly. The grey seer forced himself to stand his ground, straightening his posture and raising his head. He glared at his minions, showing his fangs. Angrily he pointed at the slowly advancing monster. ‘Kill-kill!’ he snarled.

The command didn’t seem to impress his underlings. When the rat-beast suddenly swung its huge head around and bit through a Clan Skaul ratman trying to sneak past it, many of them began to squirt their own fear-smell. Thanquol ground his fangs together. The craven filth! Their cowardice was threatening his own welfare! He closed his eyes, drawing upon some of the divine power of the Horned Rat. A leprous glow began to gather around the metal head of his staff.

The display of Thanquol’s sorcery turned the crisis. His underlings had seen a recent and dramatic display of the grey seer’s awful power. They knew the havoc and carnage he could visit upon them with his magic. Thanquol gloated as the warriors of Clan Mors and Clan Skab began to form up into ragged ranks, as the armed clanrats of Skryre began to scurry and creep into positions from which they could employ their ghastly weapons. It did not matter if they feared the rat-beast. All that mattered was they feared Thanquol more!

The muster of the ratkin was not lost upon the rat-beast’s feral brain. The monster roared as it saw the warriors form into ranks, then it was charging across the cavern, a pounding surging mass of crushing bestial fury. The beast smashed into the warriors of Clan Mors, battering them with the violence of an earthquake. Broken bodies were flung into the air as the beast ravaged the ranks of the warriors, oblivious to the swords and spears stabbing into its polluted flesh. Squeaks of terror and cries of mortal agony rose from the brutalised ratmen, filling the abandoned warren with a fearful clamour. The stink of fear was drowned out by the reek of spilled blood and ruptured bodies.

Thanquol swung about. The rat-beast’s charge had moved it away from the passage; the one exit from the cavern. Snapping quick orders to those around him, Thanquol led a quick retreat, careful to keep his white-furred bodyguards between himself and the rampaging beast. Other skaven were quick to join the exodus, abundantly content to leave the warriors of Clan Mors to distract the monster.

Thanquol led his minions across the cavern, the crunching of bones and the shredding of flesh echoing behind them. It was wisdom, not cowardice, to avoid a senseless fight with a mindless monster. It was more important that he bring his discoveries back to Under-Altdorf than risk himself destroying some brainless brute lurking in a forgotten warren that had been abandoned generations ago. His subordinates would support his position. At least those who made it out would.

Thanquol looked back to see the rat-beast feasting on the fallen warriors. It was a gruesome, hideous sight that made the grey seer’s glands clench.

While he watched the monster feed, Thanquol saw something leap up from the floor and begin a mad dash for the tunnel. It was Kratch, abandoning his improvised refuge, scent dripping down his legs. The rat-beast noticed the adept’s sudden movement. With live prey to pursue, the monster ignored the carrion crushed beneath its paws. Growling, the brute lunged after the scurrying Kratch.

A timely tumble spared Kratch from the beast’s lunge. Sprawled across the floor, Kratch cowered as the monster’s bulk swept through the air above him. Thanquol snickered when he saw his apprentice’s dilemma, but his amusement quickly died when the rat-beast’s pounce carried it past the prone adept. Landing past its intended prey, the beast did not bother to look around for Kratch. Instead its beady eyes focused on the skaven fleeing into the tunnel.

It was just like Kratch to treacherously refuse to allow himself to be eaten so his betters could escape.

Thanquol shoved Burnfang out of his way as he resumed his headlong flight down the passage. The white stormvermin kept pace with him, using their halberds to batter and smash any skaven in their way. Behind him, Thanquol could hear the shrieks of ratmen as the beast ploughed into them, crunching their bodies against the earthen walls. The grey seer risked a look back, horrified to see the rat-beast rushing down the passage only a few yards away. He fumbled at his robe, paws closing around another piece of warpstone. Despite the immense danger of drawing upon such power again so soon, Thanquol was determined it was better than being chewed by a giant monster.

Burnfang’s shrill voice squeaked above the roar of the monster and the screams of mangled skaven. Thanquol did not catch the warlock engineer’s words, but one of his guards did. Seizing the grey seer by the waist, the stormvermin crushed their charge to the floor. Thanquol spit dirt from his mouth, about to snarl an outraged protest when a chemical smell filled the tunnel. With a whoosh, the gloom of the passage was annihilated by a surge of dripping flame; the liquid fire of a warpfire thrower. Skaven shrieked as the flame licked at their bodies, searing through flesh and fur to gnaw the bone beneath. At the front of the tunnel, a Clan Skryre weapon team stood its ground, their slick oiled smocks resisting the back-spray from their weapon. They played the flame across the tunnel, heedless of whether the fire struck skaven or beast, their sadistic laughter ringing out.

Laughter turned to screams as the monster came racing down the tunnel, its side engulfed in flame. Agonised, maddened, the rat-beast charged the source of the fire rather than fleeing it. The brute’s mass smashed into the weapon team, dashing both of the ratmen against the walls. The burning monster did not pause to finish its foes but continued on, rushing down the winding tunnels. Moments later, Thanquol could hear a faint splash as the scorched creature dived into the stagnant muck of the human sewer system beyond the skaven tunnels.

The grey seer pushed the clinging arms of his bodyguards from him and lifted himself to his feet. Brushing dust from his robes, Thanquol dispassionately surveyed the carnage in the tunnel, mangled and broken skaven picking themselves from the smoking wreckage of their fellows. He ground his fangs together as he saw Kratch stepping gingerly through the gory mess.

‘I think you forgot to tell me a few things,’ Thanquol hissed as his apprentice came closer. Kratch started to stammer out some sort of excuse, but Thanquol was in no mind to hear his lies. A quick smash of his staff into the adept’s gut crumpled Kratch in a gasping heap on the ground.

Feeling much better, Thanquol started to see what was still alive enough to be salvaged from the ruins.

‘You can trust me, Maus, no less an authority than Dr Loew confirmed it’s wyrdstone.’

Kempf stood within a cluttered curio shop, surrounded by shelves bulging with pieces of rusty armour, notched blades, mouldy garments decades out of fashion, cracked pots, dented tankards and the leering bosom of an old ship’s figurehead. The building was less store than it was rat run, narrow little aisles winding their way through heaps of old junk and almost-trash. One glance at the motley collection, the gathered hoard of a pack rat rather than the wares of a merchant, the observer might be forgiven for cultivating a belief that the proprietor would buy nearly anything brought into his shop.

It was a calculated deception, for the owner of the shop was notorious for his shrewd business sense and miserly soul. Bitter and sharp, Hopfoot the Maus was far from the happy, hedonistic halflings of the Moot. Frugal to the point of deprivation, as judgemental as the warden of the Reiksfang, as vicious-minded as a goblin warchief, many stories and rumours circulated about the waterfront regarding Hopfoot’s past. The halfling’s twisted leg was blamed on everything from an extreme case of orcish shingles to a bad fall when he pulled himself out of a giant’s cook-pot. The reasons for his exile from Mootland were even more speculative. Some said he’d murdered his father to claim an inheritance and had been forced to flee with the fieldwardens hot on his hairy heels. Others said he’d committed the unforgivable crime of stealing recipes from the Baker’s Guild and had been tarred and feathered before being run out of the Moot on a rail. Whatever the true stories, Hopfoot kept them as close to his chest as the tiered ring of money belts that hugged his plump frame.

The halfling was fingering one of those belts as he eyed the green-black shard the smuggler had placed on the teakwood counter. There was a foxy, suspicious gleam in his eyes as he lifted his head and squinted at Kempf. ‘If Loew thinks this stuff is wyrdstone, why don’t you sell it to him?’

Kempf chuckled. ‘He’s an alchemist, you’re a fence. You have more ready money than he does.’

Hopfoot patted the steel barrel of an enormous blunderbuss, its mouth looking wide enough to swallow the Emperor’s Palace. It was one of many such weapons secreted about the confusing jumble of the curio shop. In the past, enterprising burglars had thought the diminutive fence would make an easy mark. It was said the halfling had sold their bodies to the medical catechists at the university. Their clothes would be some of those quietly decaying on the dusty shelves.

‘I have more money because I am careful with it,’ Hopfoot warned. ‘Not all thieves use their hands. The clever ones try to use their tongues.’ The fence’s voice dropped to a sinister snarl. ‘You aren’t clever, now, are you?’

‘Don’t threaten me, Maus!’ Kempf snapped, reaching out to retrieve the stone shard. The halfling’s nimble hands quickly pulled it from the man’s reach. ‘I can just as easily sell it to Loew.’

Hopfoot grinned, fingering his jewelled money belts again. ‘You are a terrible liar, Kempf. If you were going to sell to Loew, you wouldn’t have come here. Besides, as you so eloquently observed, I have more money at hand for such expenditures.’ The halfling stared at the greenish rock again. ‘Tell me, why don’t you want to sell to Loew? Worried that he might have spoken with Gustav Volk?’

‘Volk doesn’t concern you, Maus,’ Kempf stated, reaching for the shard again. The halfling leaned away from his clutching hand.

‘He’s looking for you, you know,’ Hopfoot said. ‘You and all your friends. Offering a tidy sum too.’ The fence made a placating gesture with his hand. ‘I buy and sell goods, not information. Ask around, anyone will tell you that Hopfoot’s memory is absolutely awful.’ The halfling’s smile broadened. ‘But maybe it isn’t Volk who you are hoping to avoid. Does Hans know you’re making a side deal?’

‘For a fellow with a bad memory, you’ve got an ugly tongue,’ Kempf growled. Before he could move, Hopfoot had his arms around the blunderbuss, raising it menacingly above the counter.

‘Let’s keep things professional, shall we? Any transaction we agree to stays between the two of us. Discretion is, after all, the heart of good business.’ The halfling set down the wide-mouthed gun and picked up a stick of lead from the counter. Writing on a strip of water-stained parchment, he began to make calculations. After a few moments, he set down the lead and pushed what he had written towards Kempf. ‘I trust you can read numbers if not letters.’

Kempf’s face grew flush, his fingers crumpling the parchment. ‘What are you playing at, Maus? This isn’t even half what Dr Loew would pay for a good piece of wyrdstone like that!’

‘Then see Dr Loew. Or maybe talk to the Dietrichs about your little side-deals. How much of the stuff have you skimmed already, I wonder? Enough to make Volk the least of your problems?’

‘Stop baiting me, you poisonous little toad!’

Hopfoot’s smile dropped into a thin, friendless sneer. ‘I’m just making certain we understand one another. Discretion, after all, doesn’t come cheap. Think of it as an added custom or duty. A bit less profit for you, and Hopfoot’s memory remains as bad as the roads in Stirland. Nobody needs to know you ever came here… or why.’

Glowering at the fence, Kempf gave a reluctant nod. Hopfoot opened one of the pouches on a money belt and began counting out silver coins. The smuggler watched the little stack of silver rise, all but drooling over the piled money. Absently, he began to scratch at his arms, twitching as he did so. The fence noticed the motion and he gave Kempf a knowing look.

‘How long has it been since you visited Otto Ali?’ Hopfoot’s smile grew back into its former broadness when he saw the alarm seize Kempf’s features. ‘Don’t worry. If I can’t remember where you were, I can’t very well know where you are going if anyone asks.’

The halfling laughed as Kempf quickly grabbed the fistful of coins and darted down the cramped aisles of his shop. ‘Come again,’ Hopfoot called after the smuggler. He heard the little bell fastened to the door jingle as the man retreated into the street. He stared back at the green stone in his hand, laughing to himself as he considered how much he could sell it for.

‘Always a pleasure to help those in need of discretion.’

Grey Seer Thanquol stalked through the cramped streets of Under-Altdorf, his albino stormvermin clearing a path for him through the press of mangy, furry bodies. The streets of Under-Altdorf, like those of any skaven warren, were narrow and winding, designed so that those who scurried along them could feel the reassuring presence of solid earth against their whiskers. Stenches and smells inundated the priest-sorcerer, an almost overwhelming stink of musks and scents. Here in the market skrawl of Under-Altdorf, every few feet of tunnel bore the musk of a different individual as merchants and tradesrats marked their shops and stalls. Dingy signs, often no more than a rag drenched in the odour of the proprietor’s wares, stabbed out from the tunnel walls, denoting some little wooden stall or the sunken entrance to a more permanent establishment. Large banners hung over the entrances to side-tunnels and connecting passageways proclaiming the clan affiliations of those merchants to be found in that stretch of the market. Sometimes, though rarely, Thanquol even saw signs bearing the scratch-marks of written Queekish, though literacy was considered something of an unattainable extravagance by much of the teeming masses that scurried through the marketplace.

Thanquol patted the heavy bag he bore and his tail twitched in satisfaction. He had turned the fiasco in the old warren of Clan Mawrl into a victory, one that only a skaven of his keen and discerning intellect could have achieved. Playing one clan against the other, he had been quick to accuse each of being behind the plot to assassinate him. Thanquol was not sure he believed Skrattch Skarpaw’s insistence that if Clan Eshin had wanted the grey seer dead they would never have been foolish enough to use their own ratmen to accomplish the deed, but it made for a most effective argument to keep the other clans nervous and jumping at shadows. Each had been most eager to show their loyalty to Thanquol and, more importantly, the Lords of Decay in Skavenblight, by lavishing the grey seer in gifts and promises.

They could keep the promises. Thanquol might not be convinced of Skarpaw’s innocence, but he was far from satisfied that none of the others were guilty. He included Grey Seer Thratquee in that suspect group. The old villain was probably just impatient enough to try and kill Thanquol even before the Wormstone was in their paws! Thanquol wasn’t about to accept further reinforcements from the clan leaders. The remains of his first retinue, those who had survived the attacks of the assassins and the rat-beast, were enough for his purposes, and more importantly could be reasonably assumed not to have been involved in the plot to kill him. They didn’t smell of treachery, or at least Thanquol could try to convince himself they didn’t. If they thought he trusted them, they’d let their guard down and be easier to watch.

Gifts, however, had been much more welcome. Each of the clans had tried to outdo the others in financing Thanquol’s changed mission. A small fortune in warpstone tokens now rattled in the dwarfskin bag slung over his shoulder, enough to rebuild the fortune he had lost trying to pursue his foolish vendetta against that damnable slayer and his manling pet. There was even enough that he could spend part of it on what it was intended for without feeling the bite too keenly. It would certainly help him keep up appearances as far as the council was concerned.

‘Most merciful and wise master,’ Kratch’s whining voice sounded from beside Thanquol. The grey seer turned to see his apprentice’s head bobbing submissively at his elbow. ‘Allow this wretched underling to relieve-carry your onerous burden.’

Thanquol gave the adept an incredulous stare and clutched the bag tight against his chest.

‘When orcs fly,’ the grey seer answered. Ever since they had left the council chambers, Kratch had been grovelling and snivelling, trying to get his paws on the swag Thanquol’s craft had won. The adept’s manipulations might be as transparent as a broken window, but his tenacity was becoming tedious. Of all the skaven the rat-beast had gulped down, how was it possible the nasty thing had missed Kratch? Surely it was some trial sent by the Horned Rat to test Thanquol. The only thing that gave him pause was the nagging doubt that he might still need his apprentice to identify the Wormstone when it was found.

That and concocting an elaborate enough lie about Kratch’s future accident that the Council of Thirteen would accept.

Thanquol was pulled from the happy thought of several inventive and torturous ends for his apprentice by one of his albino guards. The hulking armoured skaven bowed before the grey seer, his posture bespeaking the new respect and fear both stormvermin had been displaying ever since his brutal destruction of the assassins. If Thanquol had even considered intimidation would work on the elite warriors, he’d have tried it long ago instead of bribery and deception.

The white-furred stormvermin waited until Thanquol acknowledged him, then lifted a paw and pointed at the bright yellow and blue banner stretched across a nearby tunnel entrance. The rune scratched across its surface in what smelled like a particularly septic sort of blood proclaimed it as the demarcation for Clan Moulder’s section of Under-Altdorf’s skrawl market.

Thanquol’s tail twitched and a feral gleam came to his eye. When he had told the council he did not need more ratmen to serve him, he had, of course, meant minions provided by the clans. If he was to master the Wormstone, he would need to experiment with the pitiful remnants recovered from Clan Mawrl’s abandoned warren. For that, he would need test subjects… many test subjects. The slavemasters of Clan Moulder and Clan Skaul had ample stocks of shackled wretches to be had for a few warpstone tokens. Clan Skaul specialised in human slaves, starveling drug-fiends abducted from the nest of humans above Under-Altdorf, the dregs and detritus of the largest concentration of humans in the Old World, the nameless and faceless who were barely missed by their fellows. Thanquol had already negotiated the purchase of a few score of these manlings to test the effects of the Wormstone upon. Before he returned to Skavenblight and presented a weapon before the Lords of Decay, it would be advisable to make sure it worked first.

Clan Moulder, however, specialised in skavenslaves, miserable ratmen whose clans had been conquered and vanquished, the survivors becoming a commodity to be traded and abused by the victors. In his audience with the council, Thanquol had explained he would need a control group of skaven to test the Wormstone on and to see what safeguards would be required to make it safe for the ratmen to handle. Skavenslaves represented the cheapest and most expendable way to conduct controlled exposures and develop countermeasures. Viskitt Burnfang was even now ransacking the shops of Clan Skryre’s engineers for the equipment Thanquol would need to make his experiments. He knew he would not need to fear any subterfuge from Burnfang: the warlock engineer would be heading the experiments himself and any sabotage would strike down him before the grey seer. No skaven, however large the bribe or threat, could be bullied into sacrificing himself.

Of course, Thanquol’s real motive in testing the skavenslaves was not to find a way to protect against the Wormstone, but to see how potent it was against his own kind. Some of Thratquee’s grandiose scheming hadn’t sounded completely insane to Thanquol. As a weapon against the humans, the Wormstone would represent power for the Council of Thirteen. As a weapon against skaven, the Wormstone would represent the might of Grey Seer Thanquol.

The tunnels of Clan Moulder’s section of the skrawl were wider than those elsewhere, the ceilings stretching higher than the comforting closeness of the other trader districts. Thanquol knew it was practicality rather than aesthetics that had caused such a divergence in construction. Many of the strange beasts bred by the master moulders were much larger than even the biggest skaven and such lumbering brutes needed the extra space if they were not to become lodged in the passages.

A thousand new smells assaulted Thanquol’s senses, odours of corruption and suffering, bestial stenches and the reek of raw meat. The shops that loomed from the walls of the tunnel were larger than elsewhere, expanded to accommodate the living wares of the merchants. Iron cages and wattle pens were everywhere, smashed into each nook and cranny, wherever a beastmaster or slaver could squeeze his property and set up an auction block. The gloating, bullying voices of the merchants chittered through the passages, alternately whining and threatening, using a bizarre combination of enticement and intimidation to draw custom their way.

The throng that packed the tunnel was a motley array from all across Under-Altdorf. Clan Sleekit bargemasters scurried through the press, eagerly negotiating for more slaves. Fat hedonists of Clan Skaul bartered in the shadows for weird, mind-warping elixirs and powders from garishly robed beast-breakers. warlock engineers prowled through the crowds, their bodies bent beneath masses of strange machinery, little strings of servants scurrying after them with baskets bulging with recently purchased rats. Towering above the mob, immense rat ogres stalked along the passages like walking mounds of muscle and claw, doggedly following in the tracks of their colourfully cloaked masters.

Sight of the huge monsters brought a new thought to Thanquol. His eyes narrowed as he looked at his white-furred guards. Their performance against the assassins had been less than zealous and he could not forget that however much they might fear him now, their loyalties still ultimately rested with the Lords of Decay. He needed protection of a more dependable sort, the kind that didn’t scheme behind its master’s back or plot intrigue with his enemies. He turned his eyes away from the tunnel ahead, instead training his attention on the shops and pens they were passing, sniffing at the air and trying to pick from it the scent he was looking for. After a dozen twists and turns of the tunnel, a feral smile came to the grey seer as he found what he was seeking.

Raising his staff, Thanquol motioned to his underlings to precede him into a cave-like shop that gaped in the wall of the passage. The reek of beasts and meat was overpowering as the skaven stepped from the corridor and into the dimly-lit shop. Metal cages hung from the ceiling, displaying a variety of oversized rats with an outrageous array of mutations twisting their verminous bodies. A big wooden mew stretched across one of the shop’s walls, its cramped interior filled with a colourful collection of bats, a popular pet and status symbol for affluent skaven.

Thanquol ignored the bats and rats, turning instead to the far side of the store. Here a deep pit had been excavated, lined with wickedly barbed iron spikes. A thick, brutish smell rose from the hole and he could hear the rumbling breath of some gigantic creature.

‘Greetings-greetings, holy one,’ the proprietor of the shop chittered as he crept towards Thanquol. He was a small, large-fanged ratman with strange streaks of red in his fur. A variety of whips and leashes dangled from the copper belt that straddled the merchant’s paunch, clattering against his belly with each waddling step. ‘How may humble-honoured Schafwitt be of service to terrible Grey Seer Thanquol?’

The stormvermin bared their fangs when they heard Schafwitt address the grey seer, lowering their blades menacingly. Thanquol waved them back. As much as he approved of this display of paranoid caution, it was not surprising that the merchant should recognise him. Word of the presence of so renowned and respected a personage as himself would have spread to even the lowest levels of Under-Altdorf by this time. Moreover, the frightened scent and submissive posture of Schafwitt was too compelling to be trickery. An old hand at deceit, Thanquol knew an amateur’s smell.

Thanquol did not answer the merchant, instead pushing past the runtish ratman, stalking towards the pit. He peered over the side, his beady eyes narrowing with greed as he saw the thing below. A thrill of fear rushed through the grey seer’s body, teasing at his glands. His muzzle spread in a fierce smile. The fear he felt would be nothing beside that which would grip the craven hearts of his enemies.

Kratch slithered up beside his master, his conniving curiosity pulling him after Thanquol. The adept peered down into the pit, cringing back as the thing below looked back. The apprentice’s feeble valour abandoned him and he began to creep away. ‘Perhaps, grim and horrible biter of throats, this one should scurry-seek the slave-meat for your studies. If great master Thanquol will allow-favour poor Kratch with a few hundred warpstone tokens to make-take from the slavers…’

‘Still your tongue and your feet, Kratch,’ Thanquol snarled. ‘Or I will nail both to the floor.’ He gave his apprentice a glower that ensured there was no doubting the sincerity of his threat. Turning away from the subdued apprentice, Thanquol rested his paws against the fence of metal spikes and grinned down at the occupant of the pit.

It was a colossus of bone and muscle, every inch of its massive frame boiling with barely restrained violence and bloodlust. Taller than three skaven, six feet across at its broad shoulders, weighing as much as the barge he had travelled to Under-Altdorf on, the thing in the pit seemed more like some elemental force than a beast of flesh and blood. Its leathery flesh was pale and pitted with vicious scars, the visible heritage of a brutal and savage life. Patches of stringy black hair dripped from the huge body, its scaly tail dangling behind it, as thick around as one of Thanquol’s legs. A massive head filled with yellowed fangs the size of daggers sprouted from the broad shoulders, bestial and rat-like with a dull, murderous intelligence shining in its bloodshot eyes. The beast’s arms were enormous concentrations of knotted muscle and thick bone, each ending in a fist bigger than a skaven’s head, each fat finger tipped with a sword-like claw. The imposing limbs were made even more menacing by their disparity: a mutant, the thing sported a third arm, its right shoulder splitting to accommodate the extra extremity.

It was, quite simply, the most monstrous rat ogre Thanquol had ever seen and when he saw the giant, spear-like horn growing between the brute’s eyes, he knew the creature was meant to be his. It was a sign, an omen from the Horned Rat. A sacred protector to guard the god of vermin’s favourite and most devout servant. Thanquol had used rat ogres to protect him from his enemies in the past, the first having loyally and fearlessly sacrificed itself upon the axe of that thrice-damned slayer in order that its master might escape. In need of a dependable guardian, Thanquol had come to the skrawl foremost to procure a rat ogre bodyguard. After one look at the hulk in the pit, he knew no other beast would do.

‘What price for the beast?’ Thanquol asked, his eyes locked on those of the monster in the pit.

‘Dread-mighty Thanquol,’ Schafwitt whined, ‘…expensive-expensive. Much-much cost to unlucky Schafwitt to feed and keep such fearsome stock.’

Thanquol’s eyes narrowed, his fangs gleamed in a challenging smile. ‘How much?’

‘It kill-eat Schafwitt’s other rat ogres,’ the merchant explained, spreading his paws in a helpless gesture.

The irritating habit of Under-Altdorf skaven to adopt human mannerisms set Thanquol’s fur bristling, darkening his mood and collapsing his already fragile patience. ‘Name a price while there is still a tongue inside your snout,’ he warned in a low snarl.

‘F… four-hun… hundred warp-t… t… tokens, merciful and fearsome Thanquol,’ Schafwitt stammered.

Thanquol turned his head away from the merchant, looking instead at the white stormvermin. He gave a twist of his horned head and the two warriors seized Schafwitt, pushing the merchant to the lip of the pit, pressing his body over the spikes. Below, the mutant rat ogre watched the spectacle with rapt – and hungry – attention.

‘Th… three… three-hundred seventy warpstone tokens,’ Schafwitt pleaded. A flick of Thanquol’s claw had the stormvermin push the merchant a little farther over the edge. ‘Three… three-hundred fifty four warpstone tokens… three-hundred thirty three… three-hundred twenty!’

Grey Seer Thanquol listened to the merchant rattle off prices. Eventually he would reach a fee that reflected the proper amount of respect and admiration for Thanquol’s position and prestige. Until then, Thanquol returned his attention to the pit. The rat ogre looked back at him, the smell of Schafwitt’s fear provoking a rope of drool to fall from its immense mouth.

‘Twenty! Twenty warpstone tokens!’ Schafwitt shrieked.

Thanquol chuckled, motioning for his mute storm-vermin to pull the merchant up from the pit. It was a miserable-looking Schafwitt that grovelled and fawned before the grey seer.

‘Pay the wretch!’ Thanquol barked at Kratch.

Looking almost as miserable as Schafwitt, Kratch dug a pawful of coins from his ratskin purse. Scowling at his miserly master, Kratch threw the coins at Schafwitt, the little discs of warpstone scattering across the floor. The merchant dived after them, scrambling about on all fours to recover his money.

The albino stormvermin used their wiry strength to drag a heavy beam from one corner of the shop and tip it over the side of the pit. They glanced down into the depression, then hurriedly retreated, scurrying after the halberds they had set leaning against the wall with almost as much indecent haste as Schafwitt scrabbled after his coins. Behind them, the beam groaned and shook as something immense clawed its way up from the darkness.

The horned rat ogre’s head just peeked above the lip of the pit, all three of its immense claws dug into the wood of the beam, streamers of drool dangling from its fangs. Thanquol felt a tremor of fear as he felt the rat ogre’s beady eyes stare at him, but the monster had small interest in his new owner. It was the sight of Schafwitt, still scurrying about the floor for his fee, that seemed to incense the monster. With a tremendous bellow, it exerted the massive strength of its powerful frame. The beam splintered and cracked as the rat ogre lunged from its perch, clearing the pit and crashing to the floor of the shop. Schafwitt had just enough time to recognise the vengeful paw that came smashing down to grind his skull into the ground.

The other skaven backed away from the monster as it continued to pull slivers of meat from the merchant’s corpse, flinging them from its claws with an almost noble contempt as it continued its bestial retribution. Thanquol saw the indecision in the eyes of his bodyguards, their halberds shaking in their paws. The longing look they gave to the doorway was eloquent in its expression of cowardly treachery. Thanquol lashed his tail in spiteful annoyance, his anger only swelling when he heard Kratch yelp as his master slapped him across the snout. Thanquol turned a baleful eye on his apprentice, furious at the temerity of any minion to cower behind his master in a crisis.

Anger (and a good pinch of warpstone snuff) fuelled the grey seer’s contempt for all and everything around him. He straightened his back and stormed across the shambles of Schafwitt’s shop, being careful to step over the spreading pools of the merchant’s blood. Thanquol stalked directly towards the raging rat ogre. Angrily, he brought the head of his staff smacking into the monster’s snout.

The brute reared back, a deafening roar rumbling from its lungs, all three arms raised over its head in readiness to crush and maim. Thanquol just glared back at the beast, no suggestion of fear seeping into his scent. The monster stared into Thanquol’s glowing eyes. The arms drooped slowly to its sides, jaws snapped close as the rat ogre’s expression faded from one of exultant rage to cowed timidity. A subservient scent poured from the beast’s glands.

Thanquol turned from the subdued rat ogre and snarled at his own cowering minions. Let them fear, he was better than them. That was why he was destined to be the greatest skaven who ever lived. Even a dumb brute like a rat ogre recognised the might of Grey Seer Thanquol!

With their own heads lowered in humility, the stormvermin crept forwards. Kratch, with one eye still fixed on the rat ogre, began to paw among the mangled meat that was the remains of Schafwitt looking for warpstone tokens. Thanquol drank in their fear as though it were a sweet perfume. It was not the rat ogre they feared, but the skaven who was able to command such a beast’s loyalty through force of will alone.

He would name his new property Boneripper, Thanquol decided. No matter how many times he used it, the grey seer felt there was an appealing menace to the name, a promise of the horrific savagery his guard would unleash on his command.

The Black Bat was one of the many establishments on Altdorf’s notorious Street of 100 Taverns. It was well outside of Theodor Baer’s normal hunting grounds, being close to the university and well away from the docks. However, swathed in a heavy leather coat and with his pectoral stuffed inside an inner pocket, Theodor wasn’t on official business and didn’t need to worry about stepping on the pride of the local watch house responsible for this stretch of the capital. He was not visiting the Black Bat in his capacity as a sergeant of the city watch.

His visit here was more important than his normal duties, orders not from his captain but from the invisible being to whom he owed his ultimate loyalty.

The tavern was crowded, even at midday. The long beer hall that was the Black Bat’s common room was bisected by a rectangular counter of sombre Drakwald timber polished to a remarkable shine. The counter formed a little island amid a sea of oak tables and beech wood benches from which the barmen could minister spirits and beer to the thirsty throngs who rolled around them like crashing waves. A trapdoor behind the beer barrels led to the cellar beneath the tavern, allowing the workers to replenish supplies without pushing their way through the masses of patrons.

Most of the clientele of the Black Bat were labourers; teamsters and muleskinners, stonemasons and carpenters, roofers and plasterers. Odd pockets of students from the university, slumming from their usual haunts, were scattered among the tables, keeping as much to themselves as was possible in such crowded conditions. At a glance, Theodor could see the styles of Marienburg and Nuln, the rich fabrics of Estalian pantaloons and the frilly extravagance of Tilean shirts, threadbare wool tunics from Wissenland and wolfskin boots from Middenland. Long Kislevite beards mingled with swarthy Miragelan complexions. At one table, Theodor could see a dusky Arabyan horse trader boisterously arguing with a Bretonnian sea captain. All roads lead to Altdorf was a common saying in the Empire, and nowhere could the truth of such an assertion be better displayed than in the city’s taverns.

Theodor turned away from the noise of the hall, looking instead to the stairs that rose from the tiled floor. These led up to a wooden deck that circled and overlooked the hall below. Climbing the stairs, he found the upper floor divided into small booths separated by partitions, affording each occupant a level of privacy impossible in the room below. Each of the niches held a table and several straight-backed chairs. A candle provided each alcove with illumination, dispelling the shadows that threatened to consume them. Theodor marched past the alcoves, studying each face he passed. The occupants, mostly wealthy businessmen and buxom wenches too young to be their wives, ignored the sergeant as he stalked along the walkway.

At the end of the walkway, just as the raised floor made a turn to the right, Theodor noticed an anomaly, an alcove that seemed somehow out of place. Appointed just as the others, the light of the candle was somehow weaker than those elsewhere. Where the other private booths had been bathed in light, this one was lost in shadow. The sergeant felt the hairs on his neck prickle as he stepped towards the niche, his mind suddenly gripped by a thrill of alarm and uneasiness. The air felt colder as he leaned into the alcove, his breath misting before his face.

‘Be seated,’ a low, whispering voice spoke from the gloom of the apparently empty alcove.

Startled, Theodor could do nothing except obey the commanding tone. As he started to settle in one of the chairs, a long-fingered hand swathed in charcoal-grey gloves emerged from the shadows, gesturing for him to take the chair to his left. Theodor turned and sat where the pointing finger indicated. He glanced at the hall below, noticing that his original position would have obscured the speaker’s view of the Black Bat’s main entryway.

The gloved hand vanished back into darkness. Straining his eyes, Theodor could not make out so much as a silhouette amid the patch of shadowy blackness. An instant later, the hand reappeared, tossing a token down on the table before him. Theodor heard the clank of metal against wood, looking down to find that the token was a coin-like square of metal, its face engraved with strange, squirming characters and a device he could liken only to a snake skull wearing a feathered headdress. His eyes had only a moment to register the weird talisman before the gloved hand dragged it back into the shadows. Even so, he knew it to be the sign he had been instructed to look for.

‘Report,’ the chilling voice in the darkness told him.

Theodor licked his lips nervously, knowing now that he sat in the presence of his master rather than another minion such as himself. ‘The dead man was Emil Kleiner, a small time smuggler, part of Hans Dietrich’s gang. The body was burned, the tenement where it was found quarantined, as per instructions.’

‘Dietrich’s gang. Progress in finding them.’

Theodor found himself glancing away from the darkened corner even though he could not see the face of his interrogator. ‘No progress. There was a fight between Hans Dietrich’s men and those of Gustav Volk five nights ago. Dietrich has been lying low ever since. Many in the gang may have been killed by Volk’s men.’

‘Known survivors,’ the chill voice’s clipped words hissed from the gloom.

‘Dietrich and some of his gang were seen in the Orc and Axe the same night as their fight with Gustav Volk. Poorly treated wounds on several of the men make it likely this occurred after their encounter with Volk. In addition to Dietrich and Kleiner, the others present were Dietrich’s brother Johann, Bogdan Kempf, Max Wilhelm and Niklos Mueller. I have issued orders to the soldiers in my district to look for these men and detain them on sight.’

‘Countermand those orders. The men are not to be detained or followed. Sightings of any of them are to be reported. Take no further action until otherwise instructed.’

Theodor sat in silence, considering the strange commands he had been issued. The importance of finding the smugglers was something that he could not doubt and which he had been certain he had impressed upon his master. The new instructions seemed to betray that urgency.

A rasping sound, like the rustle of scales against cloth, hissed from the darkness. ‘More importance must be placed on following and observing these men than catching them. At least for the moment. Nothing must be done to put them even more on their guard than they already are. Other operatives will take up the vigil. You will stand by with your men and be ready to act when indicated.’

‘I obey,’ Theodor said, relieved by his master’s explanation but now more perplexed than before. He knew, of course, that there were other operatives in service to the master, but he wondered who could be better qualified to watch the waterfront than the men who patrolled it day in and day out.

‘Dismissed,’ the voice hissed from the shadows.

Theodor rose from his seat and bowed. Turning away from the table, he started to walk back across the platform. As the sensation of unnatural cold passed from him, he looked back at the alcove where he had sat in conference with his mysterious master. The sergeant stared in dumbfounded wonder. Where the alcove had been, there was now only the outer wall of the Black Bat, a single window looking out over the street behind the building! By some sinister art, the little alcove had been conjured into existence in a place where it could not exist!

As many times as he had experienced the abrupt vanishment of his master, the watchman could not keep his skin from crawling and his blood from turning cold in his veins. Theodor backed away from this evidence of dark powers, turning his thoughts to more clean subjects such as murderers and smugglers as he quickly descended to the main floor of the Black Bat. Even in the light of day, there were some things a man feared to dwell upon.

Kempf stumbled on the stairs as he exited the little tea shop and descended into the building’s cellar. He always stumbled, his excitement overwhelming his coordination, overwhelming everything in fact. Hans, Volk, the watch, nobody and nothing existed as far as Kempf was concerned. All that mattered was now, was his descent into the cellar, the magical place hidden beneath the shop. His eyes barely registered the growing gloom of the poorly-lit landing at the base of the steps, his nose didn’t even notice the musky, cloying stink that rose to meet it, his ears didn’t trouble themselves about trying to make sense of the muffled voices that could be faintly heard. What little concentration Kempf was able to drag away from the excruciating anticipation that gripped his mind was focused upon the steps beneath his feet.

A hulking man with arms thick enough to strangle an ox greeted Kempf at the bottom of the stairs.

‘Back for more, eh scum? Didn’t take you long, did it?’

Kempf had to crane his neck to look into the guard’s scarred visage. ‘I want to see Otto Ali,’ he said, licking his lips as he spoke.

The guard poked a finger into Kempf’s chest, pushing the weasel-like man back onto the stairs. ‘I don’t think the boss wants to see you,’ he grunted.

‘Please!’ Kempf whined, stepping down to regain the ground he had lost. ‘I must see Otto Ali!’

A massive hand slapped against the sheathed length of a thick-bladed broadsword. ‘Go drown yourself, rat,’ the guard growled. ‘No layabouts and no charity. Beat it before you start to annoy me.’

Kempf dug frantically into his tunic, dragging out the little leather pouch Hopfoot had given him. He opened it, displaying the coins for the guard. The thug grunted appreciatively and thumbed a few coins from the purse.

‘Why didn’t you say you could pay?’ the guard muttered, stepping aside and allowing Kempf to scramble past him.

Beyond the guard was a thick oak door. Kempf gave a practised knock against the wooden panel, a series of raps and taps that would allow him entrance to the lair of Otto Ali. The door opened and a glowering brute, every bit as large and imposing as the outer guard, looked Kempf over from head to foot before motioning the little man inside.

Within was a brick-lined grotto, its exact dimensions hidden by shadow and the litter of wooden bunks crammed into every inch of the main floor. The smell of human sweat and urine was too strong for even Kempf’s distracted senses to ignore, the delirious moans and mumbled words rising from the bodies sprawled on the bunks too persistent to escape his ears. A few old lanterns, their glass cracked and caked in grime, flickered from rusty chains set in the ceiling, casting a feeble glow upon the drug den.

‘You come to visit us again, my friend,’ a thickly accented voice beamed. Kempf’s heart fluttered like that of a young lover in the presence of his paramour. He turned quickly to face the speaker. The man who had addressed him was swarthy, his complexion darker even than that of a Tilean. Oily black locks, their lengths curled and stringy, draped down across his thick brow. A smarmy smile split his broad face, displaying teeth that matched the thick gold rings piercing his ears. The man’s attire was like his lineage; a curious mixture of the Empire and far distant Araby. A wide sash circled his heavy gut while foreign slippers with curled toes covered his feet. The mixed-blood Arabyan laid a heavily jewelled hand on Kempf’s shoulder, like an old friend rather than a man who had used violence to eject the man from this very cellar only the night before.

‘More gold, and so soon?’ Otto Ali laughed, knowing that the smuggler would never have penetrated this far into his establishment if he were still as destitute as when he had left it. Kempf handed him the pouch Hopfoot had given him for the shard of wyrdstone. Otto Ali poured the contents into his hand and tutted. ‘Only silver,’ he sighed.

Kempf’s shoulders sagged, his face falling into a mask of despair.

‘Still,’ Otto Ali mused, ‘this should be enough to buy a few dreams… small dreams,’ he added when he noticed the joyous relief that seized the smuggler. It would not do to raise the man’s hopes too high. That might lead to another ugly scene such as the previous night.

Otto Ali clapped his hands together and a thin servant joined the two men. A long-stemmed pipe was in the servant’s hand and Kempf could barely contain himself as the minion led him away towards one of the bunks. Otto Ali started to follow, but a sharp voice demanded the Arabyan’s attention, pulling him into one of the drug den’s many dark corners.

Kempf dismissed the proprietor from his thoughts. Dismissed everything in fact as the servant poured a pinch of shiny black powder into the bowl of the pipe, then pressed the stem to the smuggler’s lips. Another servant, one of the few trusted to carry an open flame in the den, manifested beside the bunk and placed a candle beneath the bowl. After a moment of smouldering against the river-clay bowl, the contents of the pipe began to vaporise. Greedily, Kempf drew the fumes up through the pipe and into his body.

Dreams gripped Kempf, dreams such as the smuggler preferred to his bleak reality. There was only one distraction as he slipped into the visions filling his mind. Something was snuffling close beside his bunk, something like a big stinky dog. It was too much effort to turn his head and see what it was, so he drew another lungful of vapour into his body.

Voices came to him. One was thin and scratchy, the other was Otto Ali’s.

‘Take-watch human-meat,’ the thin voice chittered. ‘Smell-scent like warpstone. No-no warpstone, maybe-might.’

‘This man is a good customer,’ Otto Ali objected. ‘If I keep him I can’t get more of his silver.’

‘Take-watch!’ growled the voice. ‘Take-watch or no-no black dust for Ali-man! We pay-pay shiny ore to Ali-man.’

‘I can give him more black dust,’ Otto Ali mused. ‘He will dream for days. But why do you want him?’

The scratchy voice laughed, a weird trilling sound that was ugly enough to almost pull Kempf from his drugged indolence. ‘Not want-find. Thanquol want-find! Thanquol Grey Seer! Reward much-much! Use human-meat find-take maybe-warpstone! Thanquol reward much-much!’

A shabby-looking gutter snipe in tattered coat and scuffed boots, there was nothing in the appearance of Ludwig Rothfels that made him stand out among the shambling crowds that filled the streets of Altdorf, pushing and squirming their way through narrow streets choked with unwashed masses of humanity. There were hundreds of his ilk creeping through the busy market squares and thoroughfares of the capital, waterfront vagabonds stealing forth from their habitual squalor to rub elbows with their betters. Beggars and thieves, cutpurses and muggers, only when the crowds thinned as the sun began to set would the city watch be able to separate them from their marks and drive them back into the lawless slums.

Ludwig ducked the sweep of a chicken farmer as he gawped and gaped at the sights of the city, forgetting the long pole slung over his back, squawking poultry dangling from it by their tethers. He dodged the carriage of a nobleman as the dignitary rushed through the street, allowing no delay as the traffic parted before his horses. The wheels of the carriage threw up great sheets of muck and mud as they ploughed down the lane. Curses and garbage pelted after the noble as he vanished down the avenue.

Ludwig wiped mud from the coat he had used to shield himself, spitting against the cobblestones as he added his own curses to the chorus. The miserable toffs! One day they’d answer for their pomposity and arrogance! The red hand of revolution would rise again and the great palaces in the Imperial Quarter would burn! Then the streets would run with blue blood and the roar of the oppressed would be heard!

The little, scrawny man’s face grew crimson as emotion welled up inside him and his hand clenched itself into a fist at his side. Then reason reasserted itself and Ludwig gave a nervous, hunted look up and down the street, fearful of who might have noticed his momentary loss of control. Paranoia had quietened his revolutionary spirit, deadening his ideals beneath a shroud of fear. Not fear of the politicians or the nobles, not even the witch hunters and their brutal ways. Ludwig was a man who had defied all of them to do their worst and never backed down before their threats and violence. His right hand was missing two fingers from the time he had been rounded up by the Reiksguard and encouraged to betray his fellow revolutionaries. All they had wrested from his tongue was the same spittle he’d given the street.

It was later, much later, that he’d discovered true fear. It was when he’d first set eyes on the sinister being he would call master that Ludwig had learned the nature of terror. The cell of conspirators, a revolutionary group calling itself the Red Talon, had gathered in the old abandoned manor house of Prince Steffan, planning their own addition to the festivities being arranged to celebrate the birthday of the Emperor. The plotting had not gotten far when the meeting was disturbed, disturbed by a spectral apparition that seemed to grow out of the darkness. Ludwig was a man of words and ideas, not a fighter, but many within the Red Talon were seasoned warriors, veterans of military campaigns, naval engagements and underworld skirmishes.

Ludwig was to learn much that night, as the violence of that tremendous battle stripped away the mask that had cloaked the true nature of the Red Talon. Many of his fellow revolutionaries were exposed as twisted mutants, hiding their corruption beneath a veneer of normalcy. Their leader, Ulrich Schildenhof, proved to be a disciple of the Ruinous Powers, a sorcerous agent of the Purple Hand.

Lofty principles and fiery rhetoric crumbled beneath the horror and shame of the moment, Ludwig’s mind numbed by the guilt of being used as a pawn by such unholy things. Then his horror was magnified when he saw the lone, shadowy intruder spring into battle with Schildenhof and his inner circle. One man against the awful mutations of a dozen degenerate horrors and the infernal sorcerer whom they served. It should have been a slaughter. It was, but not the way Schildenhof expected. Ludwig could still remember the look of absolute disbelief on the black magister’s face as his head rolled across the manor’s ceramic floor.

The former agitator and rabble-rouser shuddered at the image and hurried on his way. Ludwig had preached to any who would listen about the Emperor’s spies and how they were steadily attacking the privacy and dignity of every soul in Altdorf. He had believed his words. Now he knew them for the exaggerated lies that they were. Now he knew what it was like to be watched by a being who did have eyes everywhere.

He did not know why he had been spared that night. Perhaps it was because he had been an innocent dupe of the ring’s cultist leadership. Perhaps it was because in him Jeremias Scrivner found skills that would be useful to his own organisation. Whatever the reason, Ludwig knew it would have been a death sentence to refuse the offer that spectral shadow spoke to him amid the gory shambles of the Red Talon’s ruin.

The agitator shook his head, trying to dislodge the terrifying memory. He was still not sure if what he had been granted was reprieve or simply deferment. What he was certain of was the folly of delay. His new master did not have much patience for folly.

Ludwig saw the darkened doorway of a cellar, its iron-fenced steps climbing to join the level of the street. He fumbled at the pocket of his coat, producing a strange gilded key. His father had been a locksmith, among a dozen other professions as his family had quietly starved in the squalor of Altdorf’s waterfront, but Ludwig had never seen the likes of the key before. He would almost swear that it changed each time he placed it into a lock, an impression that was always as hard to shake as it was to accept.

With one last glance over his shoulder, Ludwig darted down the cobblestone steps and pressed his body against the iron-banded cellar door. The key slithered into the bronze lock like a hand into a glove, producing a scratching, clicking sound as it turned the mechanism. He pulled the key out quickly and stuffed it back into his pocket, not daring to look at it, fearful he might notice some change in its shape. Muttering a prayer to Verena, goddess of wisdom and light, Ludwig pulled the door open and ducked inside.

His prayer was not answered. Ludwig could tell at once. The cellar was as black as the belly of a daemon, not even the feeblest light trickling through its glazed window, as though the day feared to trespass upon this lingering patch of midnight beneath the streets of Altdorf. A cold iciness crawled through his flesh, seeping into his body and numbing his soul. His breath became a frosty whisper as he forced himself to step deeper into the darkness. Somewhere in the gloom, he knew, was a little metal box painted to look like one of the flagstones. Perhaps he would still be allowed to place his message there and withdraw.

‘Report,’ came the hissed command, at once both distant and near.

Ludwig shivered as he heard the voice of his master. He fumbled again in the pockets of his coat, drawing the letter he had written with the master’s crawling ink. There was no sound, no sense of anyone moving towards him, not even the slightest brush against his hand, yet somehow the sheaf of parchment was plucked from his fingers just the same.

Ludwig could hear the parchment crinkle somewhere in the darkness. He could imagine grey eyes of smoke gazing upon those pages as the mind behind them willed the ink to form itself into letters once more. Somehow, he knew that the written words would not be enough.

‘Johann Dietrich spotted,’ Ludwig said, forcing the quiver from his voice. ‘I followed him to the shop of Dr Lucas Phillip Loew the alchemist. Dietrich remained there for some time. Upon leaving, he pursued an indirect route to the Crown and Two Chairmen. I waited for three bells, but he did not emerge from the tavern. At that point I decided that he was not coming out again and hurried here to make my report.’

There was silence in the darkness, silence as thick and menacing as anything Ludwig had experienced in the dungeons of the Emperor. Ludwig knew that a tremendous intellect was digesting his words, twisting and turning them, viewing his account from angles Ludwig could neither understand nor fathom. There were some things it was best not to understand… or question.

‘Assume position outside Dr Loew’s. Observe any visitors. Await further instructions.’

Ludwig sketched a deep bow, putting far more sincerity into the gesture than he had ever showed the Emperor or the Grand Theogonist. ‘I obey,’ the scrawny man whispered. He reached behind him, feeling for the door, his hand closing desperately about the handle. Lingering only a moment to hear his master’s cold voice, Ludwig pulled open the door and rushed back into the fading daylight.

Behind him, in the perpetual shadow of the cellar, a figure stirred, its footsteps echoing as it too deserted the room, vanishing into the deeper darkness beyond.

Grey Seer Thanquol found that his progress through Clan Moulder’s stretch of the skrawl was much easier with Boneripper’s enormity looming beside him. The mutant rat ogre was a creature of some notoriety among the merchants and beastmasters of Clan Moulder. Few of them had failed to see the brute in the clan’s fighting pits, tearing through every beast, slave and captive he was pitted against. Beside such gruesome memories, even the fearsome reputation of Skavenblight’s elite stormvermin was insignificant.

He’d given Kratch the unenviable job of holding onto Boneripper’s leash. It would take time for the rat ogre to accept his new master, though feeding him the best part of his previous owner had certainly helped improve the monster’s attitude. If Boneripper was still hungry, Thanquol felt better with Kratch being the closest thing to him. Being eaten by one’s own bodyguard was a terribly silly way for someone of his fame to end his brilliant career. With that in mind, Thanquol glanced at his apprentice. The wretch was once again treacherously lingering behind, stretching Boneripper’s chain to its full extent. Thanquol snarled a few threats and brought his apprentice sullenly back into place. Selfless, loyal underlings were so very hard to find.

Up ahead, Thanquol saw his stormvermin suddenly grow tense. Squeals and frightened squeaks rose from the crowd filling the passageway, the musk of fear rising prominently among the fug of the streets. Skaven scurried and scrambled into shops and dived into slave pens in a maddened, frightened dash for safety. Low chittering howls told the reason for their flight. Thanquol snarled at his stormvermin as the two albinos shared an anxious glance, then retreated behind the bulk of Boneripper. As an afterthought, he grabbed Kratch by the shoulders. He wasn’t forgetting that the rat ogre might still be hungry.

A heavy, stagnant smell assaulted Thanquol’s nose, a reek of beasts and blood, ratlike yet lacking the pleasantness of a purely rodent scent. Loping into view a few moments later was the source of the scent. A thrill of terror ran through Thanquol’s glands as he saw the crouched shape, thinking for a moment that the rat-beast had somehow returned to hunt him down. It took only an instant to realise that the creature he gazed upon was much smaller, only about twice the size of a skaven. It was more doglike than ratlike, with a broad build and powerful, square-set jaws. The hand-like paws and long scaly tail were distinctly ratlike, however, and when it sniffed the air, it lifted its body in the fashion of a rat rather than sniffing the ground like a dog.

It was a wolf-rat, one of Clan Moulder’s loathsome creations, a fearsome, barely tractable beast bred for those warlords and degenerates for whom the usual strains of giant rat and mole were not large enough. Thanquol grinned savagely, pushing Kratch away and cuffing the apprentice for observing his moment of fear. Formidable as a wolf-rat might be for a lone skaven, Thanquol was anything but alone.

Then the wolf-rat caught his scent. It stared straight at him, singling the grey seer from among his guards. It was an unsettling moment, made worse when the animal uttered another of its chittering howls. Instantly other shapes loped into view, first one, then another. Before Thanquol could even twitch a whisker, a half dozen of the mutant beasts filled the tunnel ahead.

‘Stand-fight!’ Thanquol snarled as his stormvermin started to back away. They looked at him, eyes wide with alarm. Thanquol raised his staff threateningly. ‘Stand-fight or burn-burn!’

Then there was no more time for threats and commands. Howling, the wolf-rats bounded down the tunnel, foam dripping from their jaws, their eyes still locked on the robed figure of the grey seer. Thanquol forced his eyes shut, focusing his mind on the power of the Horned Rat. A green glow gathered about his staff. Opening his eyes again, he sent a bolt of shimmering energy crashing into the oncoming pack. One of the wolf-rats yelped, crumpling as the bolt struck it. Smoke rose from its singed fur, blood dripping from its mangled body as it dragged itself away across the floor of the tunnel.

The other wolf-rats kept coming. They struck the position of the stormvermin like a furry avalanche. Each of the white-furred warriors lashed out, their halberds flashing like scythes through the beasts, slashing their flesh and splitting their bones. Any lesser skaven would have been overwhelmed on the instant by such adversaries. The elite warriors from Skavenblight managed the impossible: they managed to hold their ground long enough for Thanquol to draw upon his powers once more.

The temptation to nibble a piece of warpstone flashed through Thanquol’s mind, but the hazard, the way he had lost control, was too fresh in his memory for him to weaken to it. Instead he concentrated and evoked the might of the Horned Rat once more. Another bolt of energy, this time smashing into a pair of wolf-rats as they swarmed over one of his stormvermin. The blast incinerated all three, engulfing them in burning, roaring malignance that scorched the fur from their flesh and melted the marrow in their bones. Thanquol was certain the beleaguered warrior died happy knowing his sacrifice had destroyed two of the grey seer’s enemies.

The other stormvermin was not so diligent about delaying the grey seer’s foes. Occupied with one wolf-rat, the warrior allowed the other two to get past him, the beasts heading straight for Thanquol. No time for concentration now. Thanquol grabbed one of the warpstone tokens, raising it to his muzzle. He was suddenly struck violently from behind, the nugget of warpstone flying from his paw. Thanquol dived after it, scrambling to recover it.

Too late he realised the mistake of his instinctive dive for the errant warpstone. Thanquol lifted his horned head to see both of the wolf-rats driving down upon him. Their dripping jaws flashed, their clawed paws slashed at the earthen floor. As one, the beasts leapt, pouncing upon their prey. Thanquol covered his head and cursed anything and everything he could think of.

Stabbing teeth and slashing paws never touched Thanquol’s fur. The grey seer uncovered his head and looked up in disbelief. Towering above him was Bone-ripper, and in two of the rat ogre’s immense paws he held a struggling wolf-rat. The brute seemed oblivious to the jaws that snapped at his fingers, at the paws that slashed at his chest. With a dull, disinterested look, he simply stared at the animals, almost as though trying to figure out what they were.

Thanquol understood now. In his diatribe against all skavendom, he must have squealed Boneripper’s name. The rat ogre had reacted with admirable speed, rallying to his master’s defence. Even in so short a time, he had accepted both his new name and his new master. Surely another sign that the beast had been gifted to Thanquol by the Horned Rat himself.

The grey seer looked up at his bodyguard and the struggling wolf-rats in his paws. He looked down the tunnel to where the last stormvermin was just finishing off his opponent with a stab of his halberd into its throat. Thanquol looked back at Boneripper, determined the rat ogre could do better. ‘Boneripper!’ he called, pleased when the brute fixed his dull gaze on the grey seer. Thanquol made a snapping motion with his paw. ‘Rip-tear!’ he snarled. ‘Rip-tear!’

Boneripper nodded, a loathsome human gesture he must have been taught by Schafwitt’s decadent human mannerisms, but instead of ripping apart the wolf-rats, the rat ogre began to squeeze. Tighter and tighter his paws closed, ignoring the desperate spasms of terror from his captives. Thanquol could hear bones crack beneath the pressure, then a hideous squish as the heads of both animals popped from their necks. It wasn’t what he’d had in mind, but he was reasonably satisfied with the results. As a reward, Thanquol allowed Boneripper to settle down onto his haunches and start to feed off the carrion.

‘Master-master! You are safe-well! No-no pain-hurt?’

Thanquol’s claws tapped the hilt of his sword, then he reminded himself that he might still need Kratch. For prudence, he’d have to dismiss that treacherous shove from behind as an innocent accident. ‘Be more careful fool-flesh!’ Thanquol snapped, contenting himself with swatting Kratch’s snout with his staff.

A quick investigation further up the tunnel found a dead Clan Moulder merchant inside a shop with an empty kennel. A scrap of the grey seer’s old robe, the one soiled during the fight in Clan Mawrl’s warren, was clutched in the dead traitor’s paw. Having failed with Clan Eshin’s gutter runners, Thanquol’s enemies in Under-Altdorf had turned to Clan Moulder’s beasts. He didn’t like to think what their next trick might be.

Perhaps he would spend a few more of the council’s warpstone tokens after all. Thanquol snapped a curt order to Kratch and the last of his stormvermin. They would head for the armour shops of Clan Mors. Thanquol would feel a bit better with something heavier than his fur standing between himself and a stab in the dark. Then perhaps they would visit the temple again and collect some protective charms and amulets, just in case his enemies decided to use something less physical than a knife or a wolf-rat.

Dr Loew descended the stairs that connected his living quarters with his shop, taking extra care to step only upon the thickly carpeted centre of the stairway so that his footfalls might be muffled. One of the alchemist’s hands was wrapped about the handle of a heavy ceramic pestle, holding the tool after the fashion of a horseman’s mace, while the other hand clutched the glass neck of a more grisly weapon; a powerful acid derived from vitriol and troll vomit. He paused in his descent, cocking his head in a wary, watchful manner, his senses trained on the gloom of his darkened shop, waiting for any betraying sound to again reach his ears. It had been many years since any of the scum of the waterfront had been bold enough to try and rob him. Loew was determined to make an example of this clumsy burglar.

The sound came again, a scratching rattle from the direction of his workroom. The alchemist’s expression grew vicious. It was trespass enough to try and steal his wares, but to disturb his experiments was a violation he would not forgive. As the sounds continued, Loew’s pace quickened, caution cast aside in his anger. He pushed through the darkness, rushing past the shadowy shelves of bottles and potions, towards the curtain that separated workroom from shop. Abruptly, the alchemist froze, every sense afire with alarm.

Before him, the shadows seemed to reach out, to assume a solidity of shape and form. Something was standing between him and the curtain, something that seemed to mock his efforts to see it. Loew started to lift the bottle of acid, but a frightened chill that had nothing to do with the sudden coldness of the room arrested the motion. From the darkness, a voice hissed at him.

‘Return to your bed,’ the whisper warned him. ‘There is nothing to find here except death.’

There was a fearful menace in that voice, a nightmarish air of unreality that made even the alchemist pale as he heard it. Loew took a few stumbling steps back almost before he was aware of his own retreat. Remembering the sounds that had drawn him downstairs, remembering what it was he had left in his workroom, the alchemist drew upon his own miserly greed to put steel in his spine.

‘Who are you to order me around in my own home?’ Loew snarled indignantly. ‘I’ll settle with you, be you ghost or phantom!’ He started to raise the heavy pestle for a strike at the patch of thick darkness where he judged the whisper to have emanated. Suddenly, the darkness lessened, fading away and exposing what it had concealed. The pestle dropped from nerveless fingers.

Tall, swathed in the heavy folds of a charcoal-grey cloak, his head hidden beneath the shadow of a deep hood, his face muffled beneath a thick grey scarf, all that Loew could see was a sharp hawklike nose and a pair of smoky grey eyes. The alchemist’s willpower was trapped by the intense stare of those eyes, swirling pools of darkness that drew him into their formless depths. There was power in that chill gaze, power beyond that of hypnotist and street-corner mystic, Loew could feel the icy touch of the arcane world in those eyes.

The sinister apparition raised a hand swathed in black, motioning for silence from the stunned alchemist. ‘Preserve your life, forget what was brought to you,’ the shade’s hissing voice told Loew.

A sound from beyond the curtain, louder than anything Loew had heard before, broke the hypnotic spell that had started to numb his mind. The alchemist tore his eyes away from the smoky pits of the apparition’s hidden face, rushing past the menacing darkness and seizing the curtain in a trembling hand. With a snarl of defiance, Loew ripped the curtain away, ready to confront the burglar who had violated his workroom.

For the second time, Dr Loew was confronted by a sight that drained the strength from his spine. The alchemist’s retreat was more rapid than before, his terror impossibly even greater than when he had been confronted by the cloaked wraith in his shop.

What was rummaging about his workroom was no burglar, at least no human burglar. It was a gigantic, feral thing, its general shape that of some enormous vermin. A great swathe of scorched, crusty hide stretched along its side from the edge of its snout to the tip of its tail, the ugly wound still dripping a filthy blue treacle that sizzled as it struck the floor. As Loew gasped in horror, the rat-beast swung its head around, fixing the alchemist with its beady red eyes.

With a low chittering growl, the monster began to stalk after the terrified man, its fangs gleaming like daggers in the gloom.

CHAPTER SEVEN

BLACK DUST, BLACK DEATH

Iron fingers gripped Dr Loew’s shoulder, pulling him back, throwing him to the floor. The alchemist could only gape in astonishment as the spectral figure of the intruder stepped between himself and the ghastly monster stealing slowly from the workroom. Even in the clutch of terror, Loew was horrified by the madness of such an act. Phantom or thief, it was suicide to stand before such a monstrous abomination.

‘Do not move,’ the hissing whisper commanded, the force of the voice brooking no dissent. The grey-shrouded figure threw his arms wide, his splayed fingers pointing to the ceiling. Strange, rasping words crawled through the air and Loew felt the coldness of his shop become steadily more pronounced, little beads of ice beginning to form on the floor.

More remarkable than the falling temperature, however, was the way the darkness seemed to swell and thicken. Shadows crawled from every corner and crack, swirling about the cloaked man, clinging to him like a second skin. In less time than it took for Loew’s mind to register the fact, the man was gone, veiled in a patch of solid blackness that all but filled the doorway to the workroom.

Loew’s breath came in a ragged gasp. A dabbler in the arcane, the alchemist knew a master of the black arts working his craft when he saw – or failed to see – one. The intruder, the strange apparition who had warned him away from the workroom, was a magister, though whether one of the sanctioned wizards of the Colleges or some renegade warlock, he could not say.

Loew quickly forgot his concerns over the wizard’s identity and purpose. More important to him, at the moment, was the effect his magic had upon the rat-beast. As soon as the wizard bound that wall of darkness about himself, the monster stopped its slow, steady creep into the shop. Its beady eyes blinked, its head swung about in confusion. It reared up, sniffing at the air, trying to pick up the scent of the prey it could no longer see. Even this sense was foiled by the wizard’s spell.

Rendered invisible to both sight and scent, the rat-beast lost interest in Dr Loew and his mysterious benefactor. Almost absently, it swung back around, pawing its way across the floor, its claws scraping deep furrows in the wood. Loew could just see its verminous bulk as it sniffed and snuffled about his workspace. Sometimes a decayed tongue would flick from its mouth to lick at his tools and instruments. There was more than randomness in what the creature chose to study and what it ignored. With horror, Loew realised what had drawn the monster to his shop!

The alchemist could not restrain himself when he saw the rat-beast lurch up, setting its paws on a table so that it could sniff at a cupboard set into the wall. It was here that he had secreted the metal box in which he kept the wyrdstone Dietrich had left with him! When the rat-beast’s dagger-like fangs began to gnaw at the wood, any last trace of question about its intentions were gone.

The monster was after the wyrdstone!

Avarice overcame terror. A shriek of protest burst from Loew’s lungs as he lunged past the blurred form of the wizard, plunging through the chill darkness and into the workroom beyond. With a roar that would not have shamed a Norscan berserker, the alchemist dashed the vial of acid full into the face of the rat-beast as it spun about to snarl at him. The hulking monster recoiled, its fur and flesh sizzling beneath the clinging, burning fluid. Its bulk lurched backward, crushing the cabinet into splinters. The metal box with the stone shard clattered to the floor, little tinny protests rising from it as it rolled away.

Instinctively, Loew started to dive for the box, but once again he felt a clutch of iron close about his shoulder. The wizard’s touch snapped the alchemist back to his senses. Terror resumed its dominance of the man’s mind. Loew’s eyes bulged as he saw the stricken rat-beast rise from the floor, the flesh of its face still steaming, patches of bone gleaming through the corroded skin, its giant fangs made all the more enormous without lips to cover them. It chittered madly, then sprang like a raging mammoth.

Loew was flung to the floor by the powerful thrust of the wizard’s steely arm. At the same instant, the magister was fading, his body twisting and shifting as though possessing all the formlessness of water. The lunging monster charged into the space between alchemist and wizard, the place where only a breath before, both men had been standing. The rat-beast’s pounce had it crashing against the wall, its head smashing through the partition that separated shop from workroom. Growling with the fury of a tempest, the monster tugged and tore, seeking to rip itself free of the obstruction.

Now the wizard’s form became more distinct, as solid and real as anything else in the nightmarish scene unfolding before Loew’s eyes. Hissing words slithered from behind the heavy scarf wrapped about the magister’s face, seeming to burn with a dark malignance as they escaped from his hidden lips. Again, Loew could feel the atmosphere grow icy. Shadows crawled across the floor like living things, answering the sorcerous call of their mysterious master. Like jungle pythons, thick ropes of darkness converged upon the rat-beast, wrapping about its struggling frame, dragging it down with spectral strength.

‘The box,’ the wizard’s voice cut through the eerie scene.

A long-fingered hand shrouded in black was stabbing across the room, pointing at the metal casket. But the smouldering eyes of the wizard were fixed upon Loew, burning into his own. The alchemist knew he could not defy the commanding presence.

However, as he picked up the casket, Loew’s old greed returned. The wizard had returned his attention to the rat-beast, using his arcane might to bind the creature even tighter in coils of shadow. For the moment, Loew was unobserved, an opportunity he knew might not arise again. Quickly his fingers worked the hidden latch on the box, his hand plunging inside to close about the treasure he now knew both monster and magister coveted.

The instant the box was opened, the scent of what it contained was released into the air of the workroom. No longer the faint, old odour the stone had left behind on table and scale, but the fresh smell of its own substance. The scent burst through the rat-beast’s primitive brain like an explosion, sending shockwaves rippling into every muscle and tendon. Even the shadowy coils wrapped about it were not enough to bind its frenzied might. Roaring, shrieking, the rat-beast ripped itself free from all fetters, physical and magical. The partition was torn apart by its fury, splinters sent hurtling through the room like gnarled skewers. The shadowy tendrils snapped, seeping into the floorboards as they lost their phantom substance.

Quickly the wizard’s dark hands were in motion, fingers splayed and curled into arcane gestures, arms crossed before his cloaked body. A wave of freezing shadow swept before him, smashing into the rat-beast with a pulse of withering force. The monster was bowled over by the mystic energy, thrown across the workroom as though it were a child’s doll. Furniture shattered beneath its weight, floorboards cracked and splintered. A dozen new wounds opened across the monster’s vile shape as the wizard’s spell drove it smashing through everything and anything in its way. Its bestial bulk slammed into the far wall, crumpled beneath a heap of debris.

Even for the sombre emissary of darkness, the magic of his last spell had been taxing. Cloaked shoulders sagged, the hooded head nodded weakly against a chest shrouded in grey. For the first time since setting eyes upon the magister, Loew’s stunned awe of him was disrupted. The alchemist was reminded that for all his spells and sorcery, the wizard was nothing more than a man. A man who would rob him of the precious wyrdstone.

Loew turned his head, snatching a heavy iron flask from the floor beside him. A murderous grin spread over the alchemist’s face as he unfastened the stopper and spun back towards the recovering wizard. The Colleges of Magic had many arcane spells and rituals that could visit horrific death upon their enemies, but so too did the ancient and eldritch Alchemists’ Guild. Among the oldest and most closely guarded of their secrets was that of nafaalm, the terrible mixture known as Nehekharan Fire.

As Loew turned to deal death to his rescuer, the wizard’s face turned towards him. Grim and judgemental was the grey gaze of the magister, his strange eyes biting into Loew like knives of hoarfrost. The alchemist almost faltered, but the realisation that he had already removed the flask’s stopper decided him. The muscles in his arm tensed as he prepared to dash the nafaalm against the wizard’s body.

Before Loew could move, the wizard’s hand shot forward. Something dark and sharp and thin shot from the black-swathed hand. Loew felt a blade of icy pain flash through his gut, spilling him to the floor. Too late he realised that what covered the magister’s hands were not gloves but an arcane skin of shadow, enslaved darkness that only awaited the merest gesture from the wizard to do his bidding. Faced with Loew’s treachery, the wizard had sent a portion of that darkness speeding into the alchemist’s body with the precision and deadliness of a throwing knife.

Crumpling to the floor, Loew could only groan in horror as the iron flask rolled from his fingers. The gooey, syrup-like nafaalm was already eating away at its iron prison now that it had been exposed to the open air. Weakened to the point of brittleness, the flask shattered as it struck the floor.

Instantly the back corner of the workroom exploded into flame. Loew shrieked as he was immolated by the blast. The entire building shook like a rowboat in a gale, plaster and dust raining from the ceiling. A roar like that of some caged beast swept through the alchemist’s shop, bringing with it a withering burst of heat that banished even the wizard’s unnatural aura of cold.

The grey-cloaked magister was sent reeling by the explosion, knocked from his feet, thrown out the alcove and dashed against one of the heavy shelves in the shop beyond with bone-jarring force. The wizard braced himself for the crushing impact, coiling like a serpent within his sombre robes, gathering the darkness around him to cushion his body. Knocking the shelf down with the force of his velocity, sending clouds of powder and dust billowing into the gloom as hundreds of vials and bottles shattered, the wizard rose from the tangled debris. His stern gaze pierced the smoky shadow of the shop, watching as flames greedily devoured Loew’s workroom. Before the room was lost within a wall of fire, he could see the immense shape of the rat-beast, risen from its own jumble of wreckage, madly forcing its way through the smoke and fire, its dull mind still fixated upon the alchemist’s box and what it contained.

From behind him, a dull crash sounded. The wizard faded into the darkness of the shop, blending his substance into that of the shadows. Another crash and the front door of the shop burst inwards. Men rushed inside, men wearing the livery of the Altdorf city watch. In command of them was Theodor Baer. Contacted by the agitator Ludwig Rothfels, who had lingered outside the shop, Theodor had employed his own initiative rushing to his master’s aid when the same shop had been rocked by an explosion. Now he raged through the smoke-filled shop, trying to fight his way into the flames beyond.

‘Instructions,’ a low voice hissed from the smoke. Theodor spun about, trying vainly to find the source of words only he could hear.

‘Have your men withdraw,’ the voice continued. ‘Evacuate surrounding buildings. Contain the fire. Allow Loew’s shop to burn. Be watchful for anything trying to escape the flames.’

Theodor could see several of his men already trying to fight the spreading fire with blankets and tools hastily salvaged from the shelves of the shop. The sharp, shrieking cries of someone trapped in the fire rang out, agony twisting them into something bestial and inhuman. It sickened Theodor to abandon someone to such a fate. All the same, he knew what duty demanded of him. ‘I obey,’ the sergeant said, almost choking on the words.

‘Search the ashes of this building,’ the master’s voice whispered. ‘Recover a small metal casket. Do not open it. Do not touch what is inside.’

Theodor was calling back his men from their futile efforts against the fire, using every bit of his authority to compel them away from the source of such miserable screams. Only dimly was he aware of a lightening of the darkness around him, as though the smoke and shadow had withdrawn from the shop, drawn elsewhere by the presence they shrouded.

What was asked of him, he knew. What was expected of him, he knew. The why behind his orders, however, was something Theodor could not fathom. Another in an endless chain of riddles and mysteries he knew were beyond his ability to resolve. Like so many times before, he had to trust the wisdom and intentions of the man who he knew as Jeremias Scrivner.

The sharp squeals rising from the sunken pit were ghastly, so eloquent in their suggestion of unspeakable pain and terror that even Grey Seer Thanquol felt a thrill of fear race along his spine. It was like a choir of damned souls as the flames of Chaos licked their naked flesh. For all the horror in the screams, Thanquol felt a sense of immense power. The knowledge that he and he alone was able to induce such a hideous fate upon other creatures made him feel bigger than Boneripper, more powerful than the Lords of Decay. Stronger than the Horned Rat!

Thanquol quickly glanced about the cavern-like chamber, guilty eyes staring at each of his minions in their turn, grinding his teeth as he wondered if any of the spying sneaks had guessed the impious turn his thoughts had taken. He fingered the amulet he wore, muttering apologies and renewed oaths of loyalty and service to his god. He had enemies enough to go around, he did not need to add the Horned Rat’s wrath to his worries.

The incident in the skrawl was foremost among Thanquol’s concerns. First Clan Eshin, then Clan Moulder had made an attempt against him. Who would be next? Which of Under-Altdorf’s clans was after his blood, or perhaps it was all of them working together? Grey Seer Thratquee had certainly woven a web of intrigue around the other council members long enough to draw upon the resources of each in turn. Perhaps the senile old priest-sorcerer had sense enough to regret the injudicious discussion he had shared with Thanquol beneath the temple of the Horned Rat.

Thanquol did not like being thrust into a situation he could not dominate. The schemers and manipulators of Under-Altdorf were better at their game than some rustic warlord clan-hold in some forgotten hinterland of skavendom. He did not have the time or effort to spend trying to ferret out their secret alliances and rivalries to gain the leverage he needed to truly control them. His only hold over them was the talisman he had been given by the Council of Thirteen, and that wasn’t enough to dissuade whichever of the clan leaders had decided they wanted Thanquol dead.

Or was it Thanquol they wanted? The grey seer’s pride was such that he didn’t like to consider the possibility, but perhaps it was the Wormstone the killers were after. He cast a suspicious look at Viskitt Burnfang as the warlock engineer and his technicians scurried about the work tables, studying a bewildering array of rusty machinery and grimy alembics as they experimented upon the slivers of Wormstone that had been recovered from the warren of Clan Mawrl. The warlock engineer was attacking the task Thanquol had set him with a good deal too much enthusiasm as far as the grey seer was concerned. Not the enthusiasm of a dutiful servant doing his master’s bidding. No, it was more the enthusiasm of someone intending to keep his discoveries for himself. Thanquol had seen such base treachery many times. He would keep Burnfang only as long as the Clan Skryre engineer was useful, then it would be time for a little accident. He’d let Kratch handle that when the time came.

The grey seer shifted his attention to his apprentice. The young adept was trudging through the chamber, buckets of slop and offal swinging from his shoulders. Thanquol had given his apprentice the humiliating duty of feeding the dozens of slaves he had purchased. It would keep Kratch too busy to concoct any new half-witted schemes to usurp his mentor’s position and authority. Thanquol hadn’t forgotten the ‘accidental’ shove from Kratch that had knocked the warpstone from his paws just as the wolf-rats were nearly upon him.

Thanquol smiled evilly. A little while longer, just long enough to be certain his usefulness was at an end and it would be Kratch’s turn to suffer an ‘accidental’ push. Straight into Boneripper’s mouth. The rat ogre would probably appreciate the light snack.

Looking away from Kratch, Thanquol turned his attention instead to the nearest test-pit. He stalked towards the depression like a hungry jackal, rubbing his paws together in greedy anticipation. The immense Boneripper lumbered beside him, his massive weight causing the earthen floor to shiver. Thanquol had been right to secure such a brute for his bodyguard. No skaven in his right mind would dare try anything if it meant confronting such a monster. During his spending frenzy in the skrawl, Thanquol had lavished his new pet with armour and weapons from the forges of Clan Mors. A thick skin of chainmail protected the monster’s head, sheets of the metal falling about his neck and cheeks. Boneripper’s huge horn had been sheathed with steel to improve both its impressiveness and lethality. A huge bronze shoulder guard was strapped to Boneripper’s left shoulder, protecting its solitary arm. On a whim, Thanquol had fitted the shoulder guard with a steel spike bigger than his own leg. Woe-betide any slinking enemy who was charged by his bodyguard now! Finally a glove of mail covered Boneripper’s extra hand, the tightly-woven links of metal in turn fitted with fist-spikes fashioned from sword blades. It pleased Thanquol to picture what would happen to anything Boneripper punched with that paw!

Thanquol had not been lax in seeing to his own protection, however. As impressive and fearsome as his new Boneripper was, he could not shake the nightmare image of that vile dwarf dropping the first Boneripper with a single blow to the head. He could not depend upon a bodyguard alone to preserve himself against his enemies. Thanquol had purchased an elaborate bronze helmet from a Clan Skab armourer, arranging with the artisan to alter the helm to accommodate the grey seer’s curling horns. From a Clan Sleekit trader, Thanquol had secured a warpsteel blade, its blackened edge engraved with deathly runes that glowed faintly with arcane energies. A collar of boiled leather reinforced with iron studs and a lining of chain nestled between layers of fur had been provided by a one-pawed Clan Skaul merchant. To protect against more magical threats, Thanquol had secured a riotous array of charms and talismans. Little shards of warpstone engraved with protective sigils, rat skulls taken from the sacred vermin of the temple, little bronze icons of the Horned Rat, an elfskin mojo bag filled with sacred powders and bones – all of these dangled from Thanquol’s belt and the head of his staff.

A pair of scrolls, written upon the flayed skin of slaves and marked with the scratch-script of the Queekish language, marked the most expensive of Thanquol’s protective measures. Each scroll bore the secret words of a mighty spell: bound into the simple markings and skaven-skin vellum was an awful magic. Only the wealthiest and most powerful of ratmen could afford such potent artefacts, but Thanquol had found a few disreputable dealers in the alleyways of the skrawl who had been able to provide what he needed. The white stormvermin from Skavenblight had seen to it that neither of the dealers would tell anyone what they had sold and to whom. Altogether, Thanquol felt much more secure in his security. Though it would still be prudent to keep some lack-wit lackeys close at hand to put between himself and any sniff of danger.

There was danger enough to go around, and the most potent of them all was the one Thanquol could not afford to spare himself from: the Wormstone. For days now, the grey seer had been experimenting on the subjects he had secured in the slave markets of Under-Altdorf. The results had been as terrifying as they were enticing. To think that Clan Pestilens could have developed such a powerful weapon was unsettling. If the diseased plague lords who ruled the heretical sect had pursued their experiments, they might easily have conquered the entire Under-Empire. It was fortunate that their decayed brains had not seized upon the promise of their creation, leaving it abandoned and forgotten until a skaven of Thanquol’s vision and genius should find it.

Down in the pit, Thanquol watched the results of his latest test. A half-dozen skavenslaves and a few humans had been dropped into the smooth-walled pit, then exposed to slivers of the Wormstone. It had been Burnfang’s fiendish idea on how to effect the exposure, securing the shards to thick ropes and then swinging them through the pit like pendulums. It was entertaining to watch the wretches try to escape the swinging ropes. Once a few of them had been hit by the blackish-green rock, there was no need to strike the others. The exposed victims would see to the infection of the rest.

It was remarkable, the way the infection worked. Once exposed to the Wormstone, a skaven’s fur began to become mangy, filthy wormlike growths sprouting from his skin. In a matter of minutes, the skaven would become insensible from the pain, a twitching, grovelling thing. Fat green worms would begin to drop away from the ratman’s body, slithering across the pit, drawn to other skaven like iron to a magnet. A single worm would be enough to infect a ratman, the filthy things burning their way into the fur of their victims. Most dramatic of all was the final stage of the infection, when the skull and organs of the skaven would burst into a writhing mass of worms. This could take anywhere from minutes to hours, a process Burnfang had not yet been able to fully understand.

Humans were not immune to the infection, though they were much more resistant to it. Where a skaven would show signs of his corruption in a matter of minutes, a human might endure for days before becoming sick from his exposure. The end was, if anything, even more loathsome than the fate of the ratmen as the human’s body corroded into a syrupy mush. It was a curious fact that the body of a human did not yield nearly so many of the fat green worms as that of a skaven; another puzzle Burnfang had not yet solved.

The implication was not lost upon Thanquol, that the Wormstone would make a much more efficient weapon against his fellow skaven than it would the furless hordes of mankind. It gave the grey seer pause, exciting both his paranoia and his ambition. What did the Lords of Decay want with such a horrible thing and could he trust their gratitude that he was the agent of its delivery to them? At the other end of the spectrum, Thanquol saw himself stalking through the streets of a humbled Skavenblight, supreme among the ratkin, power such as no lone skaven had ever held clenched tightly in his iron paw. It was a vision that made him almost forget his fears.

‘Most gracious-kind despot,’ a snivelling voice squeaked nearby. Thanquol did not need to turn to recognise the decrepit scent of Skrim Gnawtail, the Clan Skaul sneak. He waved his paw, motioning for Boneripper to allow the aged ratman to approach. Even so, Skrim kept his eyes fixed upon the hulking rat ogre as he scurried around the imposing monster.

‘Speak-squeak, underling,’ Thanquol commanded. Whatever Skrim was peddling, it was interrupting the grey seer’s observation of the slave-subjects. One of the ratmen was about to burst and Thanquol didn’t want to miss the grisly sight. ‘Quick-quick!’ he snapped, displaying his fangs.

‘Mighty claw of the Horned One,’ Skrim whined, ‘this loyal-true servant has found one of the man-things that took-stole the Wormstone!’

Thanquol spun about, giving Skrim his full attention, slaves and infections forgotten. A greedy gleam shone from Thanquol’s eyes. From habit, he drew the little ratskull box from his robe, tapping a bit of warpstone snuff into his paw. ‘Speak-squeak!’ he repeated impatiently.

‘One of Clan Skaul’s business ventures is selling Black Dust to the foolish man-things in the over-city,’ Skrim told the grey seer. ‘Our agent among the humans is name-scent Otto Ali. The man-thing runs a dust-den where other man-things come to breathe the poison.’

‘They pay to be sick?’ Thanquol asked, incredulously. He knew that the humans were insane, from their concepts of ‘self-sacrifice’ to their unintelligent devotion to offspring and birthkin. They even treated their breeders as something more than brutish property to be used and forgotten. But to deliberately inhale Black Dust, the poisonous residue of warpstone refinement, was such an excessive display of stupidity that he had a hard time believing it.

‘Yes-yes,’ insisted Skrim, bobbing his head up and down. ‘They pay much-much! Do anything to breathe the dust again!’ The crook-backed ratman’s voice faded into chittering laughter. ‘Clan Skaul use dust-addicts much-much!’

Thanquol took a pinch of snuff and drew it into his nostrils. Such contemptible weakness was only to be expected from the man-things, further proof, if any was needed, that the skaven were the only fit rulers of the world. Clan Skaul had used the weak nature of the man-things to swell their own power, gaining a clawhold in Under-Altdorf that was almost the equal of the greater clans through their network of drug addict dupes and tools. It was such a sneaky ploy, Thanquol was tempted to admire it. At the moment, however, he only wanted to know how it helped him find the Wormstone.

‘A man-thing addicted to dust came into the warren of Otto Ali,’ explained Skrim. The ratman tapped his snout. ‘He smell-scent of Clan Mawrl warpstone.’

Thanquol clapped his paws together, tail twitching in excitement. ‘The man-thing is being held-kept?’

‘No-no, great and terrible priest-master,’ Skrim said. ‘The man-thing was allowed to leave.’ He saw the fury start to rise in Thanquol’s eyes and hurried to elaborate. ‘The man-thing might be suspicious-wary if he was kept longer. His dust-hunger is much-much. He will be back. Soon-soon.’

‘Good,’ Thanquol snarled. ‘When the man-thing comes back, I will see-smell him for myself. If he leads me to the Wormstone, you will be rewarded. If not…’

Thanquol didn’t describe what would happen if Skrim’s discovery didn’t pan out. Sometimes it was enough to let an underling imagine his own punishment.

‘Stop fussing over me, Johann,’ Hans growled for what seemed the hundredth time. This time a fit of coughing didn’t spoil his insistence that he was alright.

Ensconced within one of the finest rooms in the Crown and Two Chairmen, the smuggler had spent the last two days virtually bedridden, plagued by fits of coughing and the interminable scratching. He made for an amusing sight; the hardened dockland rogue who had boldly defied Gustav Volk and the Vesper Klasst organisation, now partially sunken into an overstuffed mattress of dainty pastels and frilly lace. At least Hans would have made for an amusing sight if it weren’t for his deathly pallor and the hollowness of his cheeks.

The remaining members of his band, minus the still missing Kempf, were gathered around the bed like mourners at a wake, their expressions as grave as that of a dwarf told the beer had run out. His brother’s expression was the dourest of them all. Johann had heard rumours about Kleiner being very ill before the watch had come for him. The big man might have caught nearly anything down in the sewers. And he might have shared his affliction with Hans before Baer came calling on him.

Hans seemed to read his brother’s thoughts. He gave Johann what was supposed to be a cheery smile. The effect was rather spoiled by the anaemic condition of his face. ‘I’m fine,’ he insisted. ‘Just a bit tired is all. Too many late nights,’ he added with a lascivious wink.

The woman perched at the end of the bed made a loud harrumph at the comment and rolled her eyes. Argula Cranach was blonde, buxom and built like an Amazon. Her looks were on the harsh side, not quite manly but neither the appearance of a Detlef Sierck heroine. She reminded Johann of statues he had seen of the warrior goddess Myrmidia. Her cheeks were brightly painted, her face thickly powdered as she tried to hide too many years of hard living and ill repute. Even so, as Johann considered it, she was a damn sight too decent to be entangled with his manipulative sibling. As part owner of the Crown and Two Chairmen, and sole proprietor of the tavern’s upstairs brothel, she was a damn sight closer to being legitimate than Hans. And for all her shrewdness in business, she was as naïve and helpless as a Shallyan nun when it came to matters of the heart.

Argula and Hans enjoyed an on-again, off-again relationship. That is, Hans enjoyed it while Argula simply suffered through the storm. When Hans was flush, when his luck was high and his pockets full, Argula and her tavern were the last places he wanted to see. When things were bad, when the watch was hounding him or the loan sharks looking to break his legs, Hans always turned to Argula for help. Like an idiot, she always took him in, hiding him until things cooled down. Then Hans would be off again, leaving a mouthful of empty promises and false hopes behind. Johann always felt the woman would be better off taking in some back-alley cur.

Of course, under the current circumstances, Johann had to admit the masochistic relationship was like a gift from Ranald. In need of a new hideout, the Crown and Two Chairmen was about the best the smugglers could ask for, even if the girls were remaining staunch in their policy of not extending further credit to the men. Argula tended Hans with the doting affection of a mother hen, worrying about his health even more than Johann. It had been by her suggestion that Johann and the others had come into the madam’s boudoir to see for themselves their leader’s condition.

It was anything but reassuring.

‘Late nights!’ she scoffed, adjusting her bodice. The garment clung to her ample frame so tightly, Johann wondered if she knew some trick to keep from breathing. ‘For which of us, Hans? You coughing your lungs into my hair or me trying to sleep through the racket?’

‘Now don’t be coy, my love,’ Hans scolded her. His lewd smirk vanished in a fit of coughing. Argula rushed to coddle the smuggler, crushing him to her breast and trying to massage his back at the same time.

‘I understand you have a surgeon on the premises?’ Johann said, intruding upon the scene. ‘Perhaps it is time we sent for him?’

Argula turned her head, her eyes wide with disbelief. ‘Gustaf? That swine? The only thing Gustaf Schlecht is able to handle is sewing up holes in the bouncers after a rowdy night and helping the girls with… indelicate problems! I won’t have that butcher touching my sweet Hansel!’

Hans grimaced as Argula used the diminutive name, but soon he was more concerned with an even worse fit of coughing. The liquid that spilled from his mouth was green and bilious, smelling like raw sewage that had sat out in the sun for a week. Mueller grabbed at his nose and hurried to open the room’s window.

‘Argula, we can’t help him,’ insisted Johann. ‘Much as we’d like to, we just don’t know how.’

Argula closed her eyes, rocking Hans slowly back and forth in her arms. A hard woman, she was trying her best to fight back a show of feminine weakness. Johann saw the tears anyway. He turned away from the woman, joining the other smugglers beside the open window. Next to the stench of whatever Hans had coughed up, even the smell of the streets was refreshing. Johann tapped his fingers against the window sill, his mind lost in thought. From below the racket of drunken university students, the clatter of carts, and the shrill voice of a street-corner activist declaiming the evils of Bretonnian brandy rose to invade the room. Trust the crack-pot agitator to choose the corner outside the tavern for his soapbox!

‘He needs a physician,’ Johann told his comrades.

‘You heard Argula,’ Wilhelm said. ‘She won’t let this man Schlecht anywhere near Hans.’

Johann clenched his fist. ‘Then we’ll need to get someone else is all,’ he growled.

‘Someone else?’ Mueller scoffed. ‘You expect doctors to just come dropping out of every harlot’s bed in the place?’

‘I’ll have to go out and fetch one,’ Johann said.

Mueller shook his head, his one good eye narrowing into a squint. ‘Look, I know he’s your brother and all, but use your head man! Where do you think Kempf is? The watch might have done for Kleiner, but I’d wager my bottom teeth Kempf is spilling his guts to Volk as we speak. Anybody sees you on the street, it’s all of our necks!’

Johann glowered at Mueller, then favoured Wilhelm with the same challenging look. ‘Try to stop me, and you won’t have to worry about Volk.’ The two men backed away. They knew only too well Johann’s skill with the blade. Together they might be able to take him at such close quarters, but one of them wouldn’t walk away to brag about it. Neither of the smugglers wanted to chance being the unlucky one.

Johann marched to the door. He paused on the threshold. ‘Keep an eye on things, Argula,’ he said, giving a meaningful look to his skulking companions by the window. ‘I’ll be back soon with a real physician for Hans.’

There was nothing else to be said and Johann wasn’t of a mind to waste more time questioning the wisdom of what he was doing. Rapidly, before common sense could really start to nag at his conscience, Johann descended the carpeted stairway that connected brothel and bar, navigating his way through perfumed whores and eager university students. He was through the tavern almost as soon as his feet left the bottom step, pushing his way out the bat-wing doors and into the foggy streets of Altdorf.

He paused for only an instant outside the tavern, trying to get his bearings. A soft voice beside him brought Johann spinning around, his sword in his hand. A small, shivering man backed away, pamphlets falling from his hands as he tried to display his lack of weaponry and malice.

‘Peace, good sir,’ the little man said. Johann recognised the voice as that of the agitator who had been making speeches outside the tavern. ‘I mean no offence. I am quite harmless, I assure you.’

‘Then what do you want?’ Johann demanded, his sword remaining poised to run the agitator through.

‘I am Ludwig Rothfels,’ the agitator introduced himself, ‘a prophet of the streets, wise in the ways of…’

‘Cut to the chase before something else gets cut.’

Rothfels smiled nervously. ‘Quite so, quite so. I understand your brother is sick and you are in need of a physician.’

Johann took a step towards Rothfels, ready to run the man through right then and there. Then he remembered the open window. It was possible the little sneak had heard the smugglers’ discussion by mere chance. It was, of course, equally possible he was one of Volk’s informants.

Sweating, Rothfels seized Johann’s moment of delay. ‘For a small gratuity, good sir, say three pieces of silver, I could bring a healer back to this… establishment. I could do this far more quickly than you could, for, you see, I happen to know of a healer who will come here like that,’ Rothfels paused and snapped his fingers, ‘should I ask her to.’

‘Her?’ Johann asked, suspicion in his voice.

‘Er… yes, good sir,’ Rothfels stammered. ‘You see, I don’t know any physicians, but there is a priestess of Shallya who shares a… mutual acquaintance. The ties that bind us are quite strong, I assure you. If I ask a favour of her, she will feel honour bound to come.’

‘A Shallyan priestess?’ Johann scoffed.

‘Do not mock the powers of the gods!’ Rothfels replied, deliberately mistaking the reason for Johann’s doubt. ‘Shallya has been ministering to the sick and wounded long before these book-smart quacks started meddling with things!’

Something about the agitator’s tone made Johann decide the man was on the level, or at least running an honest hustle. ‘All right, little man,’ he said, fishing a pair of silver coins from his pocket. ‘I’ll play your game. Bring your priestess. If you can have her here before I find a physician, I might even give you the other coin you asked for.’

Ludwig snatched the coins from Johann’s open hand. Sketching a hasty bow, he hurried off through the fog. He had to make a report to the master and pass word to Sister Kliefoth. Ludwig was quite pleased with himself. He had not only verified that the Dietrich brothers had returned to their old haunt, but had also arranged matters so that another of the master’s servants would be able to keep tabs on the smugglers from within their own hideout!

Kempf was sprawled in one of Otto Ali’s rickety bunks, a clay pipe dangling from his numbed lips. The smuggler had lasted only a few days before he started to feel the urge to return to the drug parlour. He’d been forced to return to the cellar of the Orc and Axe, using care and caution to elude any watchers Gustav Volk might have posted around the tavern. Another shard of wyrdstone broken off from the rock hidden in the barrel of vinegar, another visit to Hopfoot the Maus, and Kempf was ready to ‘chase the dragon’ once more.

Otto Ali had been more friendly than the last time Kempf had come to him, even going so far as to admit him into one of the small private alcoves normally reserved for guild masters and aristocrats, the prestigious patrons of the den who could not afford to be seen in such places.

The black dust tasted as sweet as before, filling every pore of Kempf’s body as he drew it into his lungs. The dingy surroundings, the tattered curtain that separated the alcove from the main room of the parlour, all these faded into a soft blur as the smuggler’s senses were drowned beneath a tide of intoxicating warmth and kaleidoscopic swirls. Kempf’s squalid reality vanished as his mind was sent soaring. When the curtain was pulled aside and Otto Ali crept into the alcove, it was more unreal to Kempf than a dream.

‘He has taken the dust,’ Otto Ali said, his voice shaking with nervousness, sweat beading his swarthy brow.

Another figure stalked into the room, something so wild and weird that even in the midst of his dust-dream, Kempf managed a laugh of disbelief. It was a big rat dressed in a ragged grey robe, a bogey from nursery rhymes, one of the underfolk. To add to the unreality, the ratman sported immense curling horns and a long staff tipped with a strange metal icon. Kempf began to giggle, wondering if the thing had come for him because he had sucked his fingers as a boy. Then he lost interest in the weird figure, abandoning himself to the colours of dream.

Thanquol leered at the sprawled figure of the addict, sniffing at the man’s hands and hair. A cruel smile spread on the grey seer’s face. Skrim was right, this wretch did smell of Wormstone. The question was, where had the filthy man-thing hidden it! Thanquol was tempted to claw the information out of the maggot, but he knew that in his present condition the man wouldn’t feel even the most vicious torture.

‘How long?’ Thanquol snarled at the anxious operator of the drug den.

‘S… several hours,’ Otto Ali answered, being careful not to smile or make eye contact with the horned ratman. In all his long years of dealing with the skaven, he had never encountered one that filled him with such terror as the imposing grey seer. Otto Ali knew the dangerous temper of the underfolk and wasn’t about to take any chances with a creature even Skrim Gnawtail feared.

Thanquol bared his fangs, staring down at the smuggler. ‘Good-good,’ he decided. ‘When the man-thing awakes, we will begin.’

Otto Ali raised a hand to his throat, horrified by the menacing suggestiveness of Thanquol’s words.

Suddenly, one of the addicts in the main parlour cried out. The scream was not unusual; many times the dreams of the pipe smokers were not pleasant. What was unusual were the shouts of Otto Ali’s guards that followed the outburst. Man and skaven tore aside the curtain and stormed into the drug den. At the same time, the crash of steel against steel reached their ears.

Thanquol’s eyes narrowed with suspicion even as his glands clenched in alarm. A dark figure was in the far corner of the room, fending off a half-dozen burly humans with a pair of notched black blades. The grey seer could smell the odour of skaven fur, but could not detect an individual scent. His alarm grew. Only one clan of skaven descented themselves: the assassins of Clan Eshin.

Outnumbered, the assassin was still a blur of steel and black fur. His dark swords struck sparks from the blades of the guards when they didn’t slash into the flesh behind them. In the first instants of conflict, two of the humans were down, the others backing away in fear. As they withdrew, Thanquol was afforded a clear look at their attacker. The grey seer felt another spasm of fright. No simple assassin, but Skrattch Skarpaw himself! His very position as clan leader of Under-Altdorf’s branch of Clan Eshin made him the deadliest killer in the entire city!

Thanquol grabbed a fistful of white fur, pulling the albino stormvermin he had left to watch the entrance of the alcove closer to himself. He would have liked to have brought Boneripper into the lair, but the rat ogre was simply too massive to fit. Certainly the absence of Boneripper had factored into Skarpaw’s decision to attack now.

‘Get the others! Quick-quick!’ Thanquol snarled at Kratch. The apprentice nodded, but made no move to leave the cover he had found behind a wooden bunk. Thanquol ground his teeth at his minion’s cowardice, but soon had bigger problems to concern him. Skarpaw had heard the grey seer’s voice. The assassin spun, plunging one sword into a human’s gut, leaving the weapon sheathed in the dying man’s flesh. With his now empty paw, he drew three sharp metal disks from his ratskin tunic.

Instinctively, Thanquol dragged the white stormvermin into the path of the assassin’s throwing stars. The skaven warrior’s body shivered and shook as the weapons slammed into him, their envenomed tips sending poison rushing through his veins. Thanquol tightened his hold on the living shield as he felt the body shiver and go limp. He snarled again for his minions to stop cowering behind cover and help him.

Relief came from the timely action of Skrim Gnawtail and his underlings. The Clan Skaul skaven flooded into the drug den, tipping bunks and addicts to the floor as they rushed the lone assassin. Willing to risk being outnumbered by the comparatively slow and ungainly human guards, Skarpaw was less inclined to take his chances with a score of vengeful ratmen. Another pawful of throwing stars downed the foremost of the snarling clanrats, then Skarpaw was dashing through the drug den, leaping over toppled bunks and slashing at intervening foes. The assassin seemed intent on gaining the hidden tunnel that would lead him back into the maze of passageways beneath Altdorf. He abandoned his purpose, however, when the entrance to the tunnel exploded in a shower of brick and earth.

Looming within the entrance, his body almost bent double to accommodate the low ceiling, Boneripper glared death at the would-be murderer of his master. The rat ogre’s armoured fist swung for Skarpaw, narrowly missing the assassin as he dodged away. The monster’s fist smashed into the wall with the force of a steam-hammer, cracking bricks into powder. Boneripper swung his head around, ropes of saliva dripping from his immense fangs as he growled at Skarpaw.

Boneripper before him, Skrim Gnawtail’s clanrats coming up behind him, and ever mindful of Thanquol’s magic, Skarpaw realised his escape rested upon a matter of instants. The assassin danced away as the rat ogre lurched after him, gutting a clanrat with his sword and pushing the maimed ratman into the monster’s path. Spinning away from the chittering ratkin squeaking for his blood, Skarpaw lunged for the locked doorway that led into the cellar of the tea shop. A glass orb drawn from a pouch on the assassin’s belt made explosively short work of the portal and the human guard beyond it. Before any of his enemies could recover from the roaring explosion, Skarpaw was darting through the debris, scrambling up the stairs to the streets above.

‘No-no!’ squealed Skrim Gnawtail as the clanrats started to pursue. ‘Man-things must not see-see skaven!’ The decrepit old ratman was shoving one of Otto Ali’s men after the fleeing assassin. ‘Find-find!’ he snarled. ‘Kill-kill!’

Reluctantly, fearfully, the men hurried to carry out the orders of their inhuman patrons. They knew what happened to those who defied the underfolk.

As silence slowly regained its hold over the drug den, Clan Skaul skaven began to seize those addicts who had been shaken from their stupor by the violence swirling around them. These wretches would be destined for the slave market of Under-Altdorf now that they had seen the skaven. The others, still lost in their dust-fuelled dreams, would be allowed to stay.

Grey Seer Thanquol let the limp body of the albino slump to the floor, its white fur now tinged with green from the poison of the assassin’s throwing stars. He strode through the wreckage, the butt of his staff tapping menacingly against the floor. Kratch hid his head as his mentor stalked past him, the adept trying to press himself into the frame of the bunk. Thanquol gave the apprentice a spiteful swat of his claw, licking Kratch’s blood from his fingers and snickering as he heard the flea yelp in pain. If he wanted to last long enough to have an accident, Kratch would need to grow a spine, and quickly.

Just now, however, Thanquol had a more important victim of his wrath. As Skrim snapped quick orders to his clanrats, Thanquol approached the sneaky ratman from behind. A blow of his staff sprawled Skrim Gnawtail on the floor. The old skaven snarled, reaching for his dagger, but quickly thought better of the suicidal action when Boneripper loomed behind the grey seer.

‘Safe-secure?’ Thanquol snarled through clenched fangs. ‘Brainless tick-feeder! Where did the assassin come from?’ He punctuated his words by driving the butt of his staff against the ratman’s skull, drawing blood from his temple.

‘Please, forgive-forget miserable Skrim,’ the stricken ratman whined. ‘Not-not Skrim’s fault. Skrim would not-not betray great and terrible Thanquol! Clan Eshin, Skarpaw, they are traitor-meat worthy of Thanquol’s most holy vengeance!’

Thanquol struck the grovelling ratman again. He had a point, unfortunately. Skrim would hardly have put himself in the front lines if he was aware of the attempt to kill Thanquol. Of course, that didn’t mean someone higher in the ranks of Clan Skaul might not be in collusion with the assassin. Moreover, Skrim had not fabricated the human who smelled of Wormstone.

‘Off the floor, flea-biter!’ Thanquol spat. He pointed a claw to the alcove where the drug-addled Kempf had slept through the entire incident. ‘We must take away the man-thing and torture the hiding place of the Wormstone from it before Skarpaw returns.’

Skrim Gnawtail wiped at his bleeding head, bowing in deference to Thanquol’s imperious authority. ‘Wise and holy despot, would it not be smart-smart to leave the man-thing alone? It is selling bits of the stone to pay for its addiction. If we wait-watch, it will lead us to the Wormstone on its own.’

Thanquol pondered the suggestion. It wasn’t a bad idea and would save them the risk of breaking the human. Their minds were so fragile and if the human lost his senses under Thanquol’s persuasive techniques, they would lose the trail to the Wormstone almost as soon as they had discovered it.

The grey seer irritably struck Skrim’s snout. ‘Fool-fool!’ he snapped. ‘What we will do is allow the human to leave. He will come back to buy more dust. Before he does, his metal-tokens will be stolen from him. To get more, he will have to return to where he has hidden the Wormstone.’

Thanquol’s tail twitched in satisfaction as he considered the brilliance of his plan. Skrim rubbed at his snout, trying to hide his confusion over how the grey seer’s idea was any different from his own.

Skarpaw burst through the front door of the tea shop, the slashed body of the thug who guarded it pitching headlong into the street. A thick fog swirled about the bleak streets of Altdorf, rendering even the nearest pedestrians into indistinct shadows. The sound of violence sent them scurrying for cover like a nest of frightened mice. The only one near enough to observe the assassin’s inhuman shape was an old toothless beggar crouched upon the stoop of the tea shop. Skarpaw slashed his dripping sword at the old man, shocked when the blow somehow failed to strike the withered human, scraping against the plaster wall instead of through his scrawny neck.

There was no time to correct the amateurish mistake, however. Already Skarpaw could hear Otto Ali’s men rushing through the shop he had just vacated. The assassin snarled defiantly at his pursuers, spinning around and launching himself in a full-bodied spring at the building on the opposite side of the street.

The assassin’s leap brought Skarpaw six feet off the ground and the skaven plunged his still-gory blade into the wall above his head. Even as the guards scrambled to attack him the ratman pulled himself from their reach, using his sword to hoist himself still further up the wall and from there to the roof of the building. He paused at the peak of his ascent to leer at the men who clamoured for his blood and spit in the face of the foremost of them. Chittering laughter erupted and the assassin disappeared beyond the edge of the roof.

‘After him!’ one of Otto Ali’s thugs shouted. Already, several of his companions had started running in the direction of a low overhang. Behind them, the dishevelled old beggar who had nearly been bowled over when the thugs burst from the tea shop rose to his feet, all suggestion of infirmity and age vanishing as he straightened his body.

The old beggar mirrored the renegade ratman’s actions, launching himself at the wall Skarpaw had impaled his sword upon. But where inhuman strength and agility had enabled Skarpaw to perform his incredible escape, it was a darker power that enabled the beggar to match the ratman’s feat. The man’s outstretched hands closed about the plaster of the wall, little tendrils of darkness clinging to his fingers and stabbing into the structure beneath. Like a jungle lizard, the man used claws of enslaved shadow to rapidly scramble up the roof in pursuit of the vanished skaven.

The wizard’s eyes studied the expanse of tiled, shingled and thatched roofs that filled the foggy sprawl of the waterfront. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, like some enormous and loathsome toad, Skarpaw’s fleeing figure could be seen. An unnatural sense of grace and balance served the magister well in this new facet of the chase. Where the skaven had paused to judge distances before jumping from one roof to another, the wizard automatically calculated the speed and velocity needed to carry him across the emptiness between one structure and another and to accomplish it as easily as taking a step. Where the assassin had scrabbled to regain his balance when his foot had encountered a broken tile or his weight had broken through a rotten shingle, the wizard’s arcane powers sensed such hazards and avoided them without slackening his pace.

The pursuit was swift and soon the wizard was near enough to his prey that he could hear the skaven’s heavy breathing as the beast launched himself across the yawning chasm of a street. Skarpaw crashed against the side of the far building, his clawed hands fastening themselves about the edge of the roof and labouring to pull the assassin’s mass onto the tiled surface. The magister employed the ratman’s distress to execute his own passage across the street. The wizard twisted his body in mid-air as he leapt between the buildings, lending him greater momentum and carrying him beyond the skaven to land in a crouch atop the tiled roof.

Skarpaw pulled himself onto the roof just as the wizard rose from his crouch. The magister fastened his dark eyes upon the skaven’s beady red orbs. The wizard made a sweeping gesture with his hand, banishing the aspect of age and poverty he had worn, revealing himself as a grey-cloaked figure with smoky eyes that matched the fog swirling about the roofs. The assassin cringed as he saw the display of sorcery, noting with something approaching horror the colour of the wizard’s raiment. The magister hissed a warning to the creature, stunning him by forming his threat in Queekish rather than any human tongue.

Skarpaw answered the wizard’s challenge with a bestial snarl. The skaven tore a tile from the roof and flung the ceramic at the human’s head. Moving only his right arm, flicking a sliver of shadow from his darkened fingers, the wizard cut the projectile in two. Skarpaw blinked in astonishment and horror at his opponent’s speed and spellcraft.

‘Talk-speak or die-die,’ the wizard’s hissing voice warned.

Skarpaw growled, flinging a tile at the wizard with either hand. Again the magister struck at the projectiles, shattering both of the missiles, but the skaven had already exploited the distraction. Lunging to the right, the ratman rolled down the steep incline of the roof, launching his body at the roof of the next building to the south. Like a giant spider, Skarpaw scrambled up the incline of the opposing roof.

The wizard was quick to match his enemy’s manoeuvre and jumped to the flat peak of the roof just as the ratman reached the level surface. The skaven grinned with ferocity as he saw that he and the wizard still shared the same relative positions.

The skaven reached down to the rooftop and again removed a tile, this time with both hands. Hidden from the magister’s eyes was the substance the skaven smeared about the back of the tile as he gripped it, the tar-like paste the assassin had removed from one of his many hidden pouches during his graceless ascent of the incline.

Again the wizard’s shadow magic licked out, a dark, formless blur. The darkness of the sorcery was as nothing compared to the blinding radiance as it struck the tile. The tile exploded when the shadowy bolt cleft its ceramic surface and struck the black paste smeared upon its underside. Shards of ceramic shrapnel ricocheted off the roof as the force of the explosion threw the wizard into the street below. Trying to grip the close-set walls of the buildings around him, the wizard crashed through a heavy fabric awning and into the wares of a potter’s shop.

Skarpaw snarled at the magister as he pulled himself from the pile of shattered pottery. The skaven would be off the roofs and into a sewer before the wizard could regain the rooftop. He would have liked to spare the time to settle with the meddling sorcerer, but he quailed at the prospect of facing him alone.

Even Clan Eshin knew of Jeremias Scrivner, and what they knew was enough to make even the boldest assassin afraid. Skarpaw would almost rather cross Thanquol’s immense bodyguard again than risk a second encounter with the shadowmancer.

CHAPTER EIGHT

HUNTERS, SCAVENGERS AND PREY

‘I am very sorry, Herr Kempf,’ Otto Ali said. The Arabyan wore a broad smile that was as genuine as a Kislevite teetotaller. In the gloom of the drug den, however, Kempf couldn’t see the nervous tremor in the man’s face or the anxiety in his eyes. ‘As you can see, the Hooks raided my establishment while you were enjoying the dust-dreams.’ Otto Ali spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness, indicating the smashed bunks and general disorder of the dust parlour’s main room. He didn’t explain that the damage had been caused by feuding ratmen, the same ratmen who supplied him with the black dust.

‘But my purse is gone!’ Kempf protested. ‘I had ten… er… twenty shimmies in there!’

‘They must have stolen it while you were dreaming,’ apologised Otto Ali. ‘I am afraid they robbed most of my customers when they burst through the door.’ Kempf glanced in the direction of the door in question. The Arabyan hoped the smuggler didn’t look too closely at it and notice that it was broken out rather than in.

Kempf scratched at his neck, feeling sick and disgusted by what he was hearing. His face wrinkled in disgust, as his arm rose. ‘What did they do? Piss on me while they were at it?’

‘Some men have strange ideas of amusement,’ Otto Ali said. He saw anger flare up in Kempf’s eyes. ‘When someone has a knife pressing against my belly, I don’t tell him what he can and can’t do,’ the dust dealer explained.

Robbed, humiliated, his stomach turning with sickness and his skin feeling like ants were crawling beneath it, Kempf wanted to scream, to let all the pent-up outrage loose in one furious howl. Instead, the fire in his eyes faded into glassy hunger and when he spoke, it was with a shallow whisper.

‘But I needed that silver,’ Kempf muttered, more to himself than the Arabyan. He lifted his now pitiful face to stare at Otto Ali. ‘You will make good my loss? I don’t mean in money, but rather… in kind?’

Otto Ali’s smile became a great deal colder, but far more genuine. ‘I have misfortune enough already, Herr Kempf. I cannot compound my own losses by assuming those of my patrons.’

‘But I need… I mean… I was robbed here!’

‘Here or in the street, I cannot afford to make it my concern,’ said the dust dealer. ‘If you seek charity, I suggest the Shallyan hospice.’ A shrewd gleam came into Otto Ali’s eye. ‘The Hooks left little enough dust for those who can pay.’

Kempf clutched at the Arabyan’s arm, his face turning a sickly shade of green. ‘You mustn’t!’ the smuggler pleaded.

‘First come, first served,’ Otto Ali said. ‘Those with coin to pay, that is.’

‘I can get the money!’ Kempf swore, his voice cracking with emotion. ‘Please, just give me a few hours!’

‘Don’t be too long,’ warned Otto Ali, but the smuggler had already released him and was dashing through the hastily-repaired door of the drug den. The Arabyan watched the little man run off, his contempt for the man’s pathetic addiction twisting his face into a sneer.

‘Does it dare-dare bare its teeth-fangs!’ a shrill voice snarled from nearby.

Otto Ali quickly threw himself to the floor, abasing himself as Grey Seer Thanquol and his apprentice Kratch emerged from one of the curtained alcoves. Despite his many years as a pawn of the skaven, he still sometimes forgot that the ratmen regarded a smile as a threatening display. With the sneaks and spies of Clan Skaul, such an oversight was dangerous. Around a creature as vicious and megalomaniacal as Thanquol, it could quickly prove lethal.

‘He goes to get more of the stone,’ Otto Ali said, his face still turned to the floor.

Thanquol pressed his clawed foot on the man’s neck. ‘Skrim, remind your pet that it does not speak-squeak to me. The ears of a grey seer are not for the chitter-chatter of man-things.’

The crook-backed Clan Skaul spy and several of his underlings cowered around the grey seer, looking almost as miserable as the Arabyan dust-dealer. Their scent was heavy with the odour of submission, their snouts held much lower than that of Thanquol. No danger of any of the ratmen forgetting about keeping their teeth hidden behind their lips.

‘Great and malicious potentate,’ Skrim whined, ‘my… your brilliant plan-plot proceeds…’

‘Enough whining,’ Thanquol snapped. ‘Set your trackers after the thief-meat!’

Skrim hastened to chastise and bully his cadre of skaven sneaks. The wiry ratmen pulled coarse brown cloaks and hoods tight about themselves and rushed after the departed Kempf.

‘They will find-seek him soon-soon, master-teacher,’ Kratch’s weasely rasp sounded in Thanquol’s ear.

Of course they would, Thanquol thought. Even the mongrel, degenerate skaven of Under-Altdorf couldn’t fail to follow such an easy trail. It had been a stroke of genius to spray the sleeping thief-man with his own musk. The lowest skavenslave could not fail to follow a fleeing human smelling of a grey seer’s scent!

‘Kratch,’ Thanquol said, turning his head ever so slightly to regard his apprentice. ‘Gather Burnfang’s warriors and my other minions. Have them ready for when Skrim’s sniffers run this thief-meat to ground.’

Kratch’s face grew pinched, his whiskers twitching. ‘You anticipate trouble-danger, wise-brave overlord?’

Thanquol brought his staff smacking down against Kratch’s snout. ‘Don’t ask-ask! Just do what I tell-say!’

Rubbing his injured snout, the rebuked Kratch loped away, scurrying down the crude tunnel that connected Otto Ali’s lair to the sewer-runs of the skaven. Thanquol felt better sending the adept to bring the rest of his underlings where he needed them. If Skarpaw had any back-up assassins waiting in the sewers, there was always a chance they might mistake the apprentice for the master.

That happy thought set Thanquol’s tail twitching. Kratch was the last possible informant for the Council of Thirteen that remained among his followers since Skarpaw had obligingly removed the last of the white stormvermin. If the traitor could be convinced to do the same to Kratch, things would be much simpler for Thanquol’s plans. The closer he came to the Wormstone, the more he wondered if he really wanted to deliver it to the Lords of Decay. Wouldn’t such a weapon be of more benefit to skavendom in the paws of one who had the will and vision to use it properly? Wouldn’t that be following the true wishes of the Horned Rat?

Thanquol turned to inspect some of the dead addicts who had been left in the lair. He wanted to see what effect long-term abuse of Black Dust had had on them. It might help him judge better what effect the Wormstone might be expected to have on humans who had not been broken by the whips and claws of Clan Moulder.

As he moved, Thanquol absently noticed that the thing beneath his foot was now a corpse. In his angry outburst against Kratch’s insolent stupidity, he must have put too much pressure on the Arabyan’s neck. Irritably, Thanquol kicked the lifeless thing and continued on his way to inspect more interesting carcasses.

‘…according to Galen…’

Johann held up his hand, motioning the rotund apothecary to silence. ‘If Galen is mentioned one more time, I will send you to consult him directly,’ he warned. It had been difficult to find a physician anywhere near the Crown and Two Chairmen, the closest he had come was a drunken barber-surgeon in the Pink Rat and a bleary-eyed horse doctor cheating at cards in the Wayfarer’s Rest. The most professional prospect he had discovered was an apothecary at the Mathias II tavern who had only just started unwinding after closing up shop. Not too deep in his cups, and quite amenable to earning a few gold crowns for his medical knowledge, Sergei Kawolski agreed to postpone his bottle of Reikland hock to accompany Johann back to examine his brother.

The results weren’t exactly what Johann had hoped for. The apothecary had puttered around, poking and prodding Hans for the better part of an hour, sometimes pausing to make dour observations or scratch his chin in befuddlement, always reciting the journals of the long-dead founder of modern medicine to lend some manner of veracity to his confusion.

Hans, at least, was oblivious to the apothecary’s dubious expertise. The smuggler chief was sleeping, his skin more pallid and drawn than before, ugly tumour-like growths visible beneath his flesh. A little trickle of noxious-smelling slime oozed from the corners of his mouth, every bit as vile as the spittle expelled by his frequent coughing.

Wilhelm and Mueller had abandoned the room and its stench, pushed to their limits. The two outlaws were downstairs, lingering in the barroom, ostensibly keeping an eye out for Volk or the watch. Johann wondered how long it would be before the two rogues decided to desert entirely. Only the promise of selling the wyrdstone had kept them loyal this long. Any hint that they might catch whatever was wrong with Hans and they’d be gone faster than a side of beef at an ogre wedding.

Argula was curled in a chair, the limit of her endurance reached, sleeping even more deeply than Hans, so tired she hadn’t even the strength to replace her soiled blouse, just discarding the stained garment in a corner. Sergei had trouble keeping his eyes from straying back to the woman’s buxom undress. Johann wondered what Galen would have to say about the apothecary’s distraction.

‘So what’s wrong with him?’ Johann asked.

Sergei slid his spectacles down his broad nose and peered above the thick lenses to stare at the smuggler. ‘I can’t be sure. It might be Reikworms or possibly Crowpox.’

‘Crowpox only strikes ravens, falcons and hawks,’ a stern voice corrected the apothecary. Both men turned to see a white-clad figure standing in the doorway of the room. Johann’s mouth dropped open in disbelief as his mind understood exactly what he was looking at. Rothfels had been on the level after all. The woman standing in the doorway was a priestess of Shallya, the goddess of healing and mercy.

Leni Kleifoth stepped into the room, her movements self-assured. ‘And I should think even the lowest medical man in Altdorf would have seen Reikworms often enough to realise that brown sputum is not one of that affliction’s symptoms.’ The priestess crouched beside the bed, placing her hand against Hans’s forehead, smelling his breath and listening to his breathing.

Johann turned on the dumbfounded apothecary. ‘Get out.’

‘You… you aren’t falling for a bunch of religious mummery!’ protested Sergei.

‘Call me strange, but I think she knows what she’s talking about, unlike some people,’ Johann answered, shoving the apothecary towards the door.

‘But… but my fee!’

Johann gave the bespectacled man a none too gentle push out of the room. ‘A man gets what he earns,’ Johann said, his voice low and menacing. ‘Right now I’m tempted to throw you down those stairs.’

Sergei needed no further encouragement. With a last lustful look at Argula, the apothecary fled down the hallway. Johann turned back to his brother and the priestess. Kliefoth had his shirt open, her ear pressed against his chest. It had been many years since Johann had given serious consideration to the gods, except of course to call upon Ranald to keep the watch away, but even he felt reassured just seeing the priestess ministering to his brother.

‘Can you tell what ails him?’ Johann dared to ask.

The priestess looked up at the smuggler, feeling a little knife of guilt stab at her as she saw the hope and faith in his face. She was tempted to tell him the truth. Instead, she told him what she had been told to tell him.

‘He has been exposed to something that has corrupted his humours,’ the priestess said. ‘Has he come into contact with anything… unnatural?’ Kliefoth studied Johann’s face intently, watching for the slight flicker of suspicion that told her the smuggler had an idea of what might be responsible. ‘If I am to treat this man, I must know what has brought this ailment upon him. Even better, if I should be able to examine it for myself.’

Kliefoth did not press the suggestion further. She was silent as Johann made his own calculations. He was wondering about the supposed wyrdstone, wondering if it could have been the source of the disease. He was weighing the reported value of the stone against his brother’s life. At length, he reached the decision the priestess knew he would make.

‘I think I know what might have done this,’ Johann said, already moving towards the door. ‘Stay with him, and I will bring a sample of it back to you.’

Kliefoth nodded her agreement and Johann was gone. The priestess shook her head, asking Shallya for forgiveness for her deception of the man. At least, she reflected, her part in it was over. Ludwig Rothfels would take up Johann’s trail when he left the tavern, following him to whatever hiding spot the smugglers had secreted their find. Ludwig would be the one to make the final report to the master and bring him to his objective.

Looking at Hans and noting his suffering, Kliefoth only hoped that the source of this terrible corruption could be found in time, could be stopped before the infection spread.

Kempf carefully made his way through the alleyways and side-streets of Altdorf’s waterfront, a slinking shadow veiled by the thick fog rolling off the River Reik. He was careful to keep his body pressed close to the plaster and timber walls of the district’s rundown buildings, darting across muddy lanes quickly only when absolutely necessary. He felt like a fish out of water during these brief moments of exposure, imagining hostile eyes watching him with grim fixation. He saw in every stumbling drunk, in every grumbling stevedore or swaggering sailor, one of Gustav Volk’s murderous crew. He knew the thugs had been keeping a watch over the Orc and Axe, waiting for their chance to nab any of Dietrich’s gang.

He had slipped past the roguish watchers before, with contemptuous ease, but Kempf’s paranoia was feeding off his desperate need. Fear that Otto Ali would sell the last of his diminished supply of black dust had become frantic imaginings that this time he would be caught by Volk’s skulking killers.

Kempf was so worried about watchers between himself and the tavern, he was blind to any threat from behind. He was unaware that he had been followed from Otto Ali’s, followed by spotters far more capable than any of Altdorf’s criminal scum. Skrim Gnawtail and his cloaked brethren kept their distance from their quarry, never giving him the chance to discover their presence. The skaven did not need to keep their eyes on the smuggler, instead using their keen noses to follow the pungent scent Thanquol had sprayed on the man’s clothes.

Every few blocks, Skrim would detach one of his little mob of trackers, sending a ratman scurrying for a sewer opening. The messenger would squirm down the narrow holes with a sickeningly boneless motion, wriggling his body like an eel to slip into the reeking blackness beneath the streets. The messengers would report to the grey seer and his entourage, following Skrim’s progress from the tunnels under the city. When Kempf got wherever he was going, Thanquol’s troops would be ready to act swiftly and brutally.

Johann Dietrich opened the door to the disused cellar and began to carefully make his way down the rickety set of steps, never letting too much of his weight rest on any one foot. It had been a test of his skills at silence and caution to slip past the cordon of thugs watching the Orc and Axe. Many times Johann had been certain he would be discovered despite the grey veil of fog that assisted his efforts. Twice he had been almost under the very nose of one of the racketeers before he realised they were even there. Both times he had been spared discovery by the grace of Ranald, the lurking watchers distracted at the last instant by some sound or shift in the fog.

Now close to his goal, Johann was even more cautious. If Volk had discovered the wyrdstone, then he would have his best men guarding the cellar, certain that the smugglers would return for their plunder. His senses keyed to even the slightest disturbance, as he descended the steps Johann became aware of a slight tapping. Muffled, only a faint murmur in the air, but persistent and hurried. It was a strange sort of sound, one Johann had a difficult time connecting with lurking guards. He slowly drew his knife, a fat-bladed scrapmonger’s knock-off of the infamous Magnin throwing dagger. Its balance was off, making it useless for anything approaching accuracy, but its broad edge and spear-like tip made it perfect for gutting unsuspecting thugs.

Tightening his grip about the handle of his knife, Johann quietly set his foot on the cellar floor. The gloom of the dusty basement was almost as thick as that of a coal mine, but even so, Johann could pick out the faint suggestion of movement coming from one corner; the same corner the muffled tapping sounds were coming from. Johann started to creep towards the noise, then decided he still could not reconcile the sound with any waiting killer. The smuggler turned, navigating through the darkness by memory rather than sight. He found the little table and its half-used candles. Scratching a match against the splintered wood, he brought the candle sputtering into life.

The light from even so feeble a source was like the brilliance of a small sun compared to the darkness that had preceded its advent. The tapping noise came to an abrupt halt. Johann saw a man scramble away from the barrel of vinegar, a hammer wrapped in goatskin falling from his fingers, his other hand closing tightly around an iron chisel. Propped against the rim of the barrel, its surface still dripping with vinegar, was the wyrdstone.

‘I was wondering where you’d gone to,’ Johann snarled. ‘Taking your cut a little early, aren’t you, Kempf?’

‘Stay back!’ the little man growled back, gripping the chisel like it was a Tilean stiletto.

‘You stay back,’ Johann said, striding forward, contemptuous of the thief’s threat. ‘Hans is sick, Kleiner too.’ He pointed the tip of his knife at the wyrdstone. ‘I think that is what made them that way.’

Kempf’s face twisted into an ugly smile. ‘Don’t try to spread dragon dung over my pasture, Johann. I’m a better liar than you’ll ever be.’

‘It’s not a lie,’ Johann said. He took another step forwards, forcing the cringing thief back a space. ‘Now back off. I need a piece of that thing for Hans. You can have the whole damn thing after that.’

Kempf’s eyes narrowed, his expression became even more weasel-like. He uttered a short bark of laughter. ‘Oh, sure, you take a little sliver and leave the rest to me. Leave me to rake in all the Karls and Clanks while you just go on your merry way to fix your dear brother. What do you take me for? Stupid?’

‘Yes,’ Johann growled. The blade of his knife flickered menacingly in the candlelight, catching Kempf’s nervous gaze.

Suddenly, the thief’s face broke into a malicious smile. ‘You can’t kill me,’ he said, his voice shrewd. Kempf pointed at the ceiling. ‘Volk’s men are right up there. Any noise down here and they might investigate. Then where will you be?’

‘Your head’s in the same noose,’ Johann said.

Kempf nodded in agreement, but his expression lost none of its cunning. ‘True, but I’m willing to gamble that you have more to lose than me.’ The smuggler licked his lips hungrily, casting a covetous glance at the wyrdstone, seeing not the rock itself but what it represented to him. He scratched at his neck, stifling a cough as he considered his next move. Johann watched his every move with intense study.

‘I’ll take the wyrdstone with me,’ Kempf decided at last. ‘Not just a little of it. All of it. In return, you don’t get killed by Volk.’

‘It’s a fool’s bargain, Kempf,’ Johann said, still watching the thief scratch at his skin. There was an ugly pallor to the ferret-faced man, a sickly thinness to him that made Johann think of Hans. The priestess was right; the stone was the source of the poison. ‘You’ll be the fool if you take that thing. Look at yourself, Kempf. You have only to do that to know I’m telling the truth about Hans and Kleiner. The stone made them sick… the same as you.’

A snicker of scorn passed through Kempf’s lips. ‘Nice try, Johann,’ he said, ‘but I know what’s wrong with me.’ Kempf looked longingly at the wyrdstone again. ‘And I know how to make it all better.’

Johann braced himself, watching as Kempf circled back around towards the barrel. The thief was no fighter, there was no question that his wiry frame was no match for Johann’s brawn. But it would have to be a quick fight, one or two stabs of his knife. Any more than that and Johann knew Kempf would shout to bring Volk’s men running. He watched the thief’s movements, waiting for the opening that would allow him to bring quick death to the traitorous cur.

Any plans that Johann made were exploded along with the back wall and part of the floor. A cloud of brick-dust washed over both smugglers as they were thrown against the far wall by the violent discharge, their heads ringing with the deafening roar. For an instant, Johann could smell some sort of explosive powder, then the scent was burned away by the rancid stench that rushed into the ruptured cellar; the stink of sewers and beasts.

Johann heard Kempf scream, a lingering wail that threatened to break his voice. The big smuggler shook his head, trying to force some kind of focus to his eyes. The blast had extinguished the candle, but weird green fire clung to the shattered brickwork scattered throughout the cellar, casting an unreal light across his surroundings. He saw the black cavity of the basement’s broken wall. Pouring through it were things even more unreal than the light that illuminated them. Slinking, verminous shapes moving with what was at once half scurry and half sprint, their heads leering from beneath ragged hoods and rusty helmets, beady eyes gleaming as they reflected the eerie green glow. They were things from nightmare and childhood fear, half-believed myths that refused to be purged from the unconscious. The ratkin, the loathsome underfolk! Ghastly legend transformed into hideous, chittering flesh!

As the swarm of ratmen poured into the cellar, Johann saw one swagger through the pack, a tall horned figure clad in mangy grey robes.

‘Take-snatch the stone!’ Grey Seer Thanquol snarled to his underlings. The skaven’s beady eyes caught those of Johann and his lips pulled back in a fang-ridden smile. ‘Kill-slay the meat!’

As the slinking ratmen began to converge upon their prey, a hissing peal of laughter brought them up short. A strange, trilling sound that came from everywhere and nowhere, the laughter seemed to be more like a chorus of serpents than anything rising from a human throat. Thanquol felt his hackles rise, instinctive terror clenching his glands. The lesser skaven around him cringed and cowered. The air grew cold, warmth draining from it like blood from a severed vein. Thanquol gripped the shoulder of Kratch, pulling the apprentice in front of him as the dark shadows clinging to the walls of the cellar seemed to swell, to take on depth and substance.

Ratmen whined and muttered in fear as their sharp eyes detected motion within the shadows. Warriors backed away, the fur on their backs standing on end. Skrim’s sneaks slithered between the bigger ratmen, trying to squirm their way back into the sewers. warlock engineers nervously began drawing strange weapons and sinister glass spheres from beneath their tattered robes, ignorant or uncaring of how many of their own kind they should kill using such terrible devices within the closed confines of the basement.

The air became foul with the musk of fear as the nebulous shadows assumed shape and form; great pantherish figures that prowled menacingly towards the ratkin. Rat-soldiers, unable to retreat from the shadows because of the press of bodies behind them, lashed at the dark shapes with their swords and spears, desperately trying to fend off their approach.

Thanquol fought against his instinctive horror of the immense, catlike shadows, his lust for power warring against his compulsion towards self-preservation. The grey seer’s scheming mind rose through the fog of terror, denied the weakness of glands and flesh. The Wormstone was near, absolute power was within his grasp! He would not be cheated of his triumph by shadows and the treacherous cowardice of his underlings!

The grey seer’s eyes told him the feline horrors were real, his ears could hear their stealthy feet padding across the floor. But there was something wrong, something missing. The panthers carried no scent. Ghost or illusion, it was enough to decide Thanquol’s mind. He threw Kratch’s cringing form from him and lifted his staff high. ‘No-no fear-fright!’ his scratchy voice bellowed, rippling with rage. ‘This is trick-lie! It is false-scent, nothing but shadow burned away by the light-wrath of the Horned One!’

As he raged, Thanquol brought the butt of his staff crashing against the floor. The metal icon at its head blazed into brilliance, the white-hot explosion of a star. Creeping shadows were thrown back, ripped to shreds of blackness by the light. They slithered and wormed their way across the floor like living things, converging at the foot of the stairs. There they gathered, like frightened curs, about the feet of a sinister figure cloaked in grey. Thanquol blinked nervously as he met a pair of dark, stormy eyes that seemed to burn into his own.

‘Kill-kill!’ the grey seer roared, jabbing a claw in the direction of the now-visible wizard. Even as he roared, however, Thanquol was flinging himself to the floor. Only the speed of the skaven’s instincts saved him as shadowy blades of sorcery swept through the air above him, skewering a warlock engineer that had been standing behind him. By burning away the shadow-shapes, Thanquol had exposed the real enemy, but in doing so he had made himself the target of choice for that enemy’s retaliation.

The grey seer’s distress, however, was not noticed by the chittering horde of ratmen. With vengeful snarls, the skaven rushed for the lone wizard, their feral minds gripped by indignant fury. The terror of the cat-phantoms had touched upon their most primordial fears. That was an outrage even the lowest ratman would not forgive.

The magister held his ground, hissing his contempt for the massed attack. His hand swept before him in an arcane gesture. The shadows gathered about his feet rushed forwards, crashing down about the ratmen like an icy wave. Instantly they were plunged into darkness, the brilliant glow of Thanquol’s magic cut off from them. Panicked by their blindness, the skaven began to cut and stab at one another, fearfully trying to fight off imagined attackers.

It was only a momentary confusion, however. The skaven had other senses, sharper even than their sight. Soon, despite their fear, they would remember them and rise once more to the attack. The wizard was not going to give them that chance.

‘Up the stairs,’ the magister ordered the two smugglers cowering against the wall as he drew a slender sword from his belt. As the wizard’s hand closed about the grip, crawling tendrils of blackness coiled from his fingers, rushing up the length of the blade, turning it from a thing of metal into a thing of shadow.

Only for an instant did the wizard’s smoky eyes linger on the two criminals, then he was gone, merging into the darkness he had sent to engulf the ratkin. Sounds of battle rose from the blackness, the terrified screams of ratmen as their bodies were slashed by ensorcelled steel. Johann picked himself from the floor, risking a look at Kempf cowering nearby. The thief was huddled into a trembling ball, muttering to himself in a child-like voice over and again ‘the dreams are true.’ Johann’s skin crawled just hearing the madman, his mind broken by the advent of the ratkin, horror heaped atop horror.

Johann turned to race up the stairs, but the sounds of battle stayed him, stabbing at the core of his rough pride. He did not know why the sinister wizard had appeared to save them from the fangs of the underfolk. He did not know if his rescuer was mortal man or slinking night fiend, witch or sorcerer. All that mattered was that he was human enough to oppose the verminous ratkin. No man could abandon a fighter to such foes and still call himself a man.

Tightening his grip on his knife, Johann prowled at the periphery of the roiling mass of darkness, stabbing and slashing those ratmen who emerged from the wall of shadow. For all their horror, for all the mythical dread they filled his mind with, the things bled when Johann cut them, filthy black blood that sizzled as it erupted from their wounds. Confused, disoriented by the change from darkness to light, the ratmen escaping the wall of shadow made poor opponents for all their inhuman quickness. Johann cut them down with butchering strokes that tore throats and gashed faces, as pitiless as Sigmar’s vengeance. Johann was remembering all the fright tales he had heard as a child, about the underfolk and their hideous habits, about their fondness for the soft flesh of babies and children. Such things were not deserving of mercy.

Grey Seer Thanquol waited for the sounds of battle to reach him before rising from the floor. The priest-sorcerer ground his fangs together in a mix of fear and fury. It was outrageous that some miserable man-thing playing at magic should try to stand between him and ultimate glory! Thanquol would sweep the filthy warlock from his path like a flea from his backside! There was no chance the petty spells of a human could stand against the primordial might of skaven sorcery!

Thanquol started to move towards the wall of shadow, the icon on his staff crackling with energy. Beyond that wall of darkness was the Wormstone, he could smell its sickly odour. He salivated at the thought of the awesomely powerful artefact in his paws, then reminded himself about the lethal consequences of handling it. A particularly high-pitched wail from one of the skaven fighting the wizard reminded him of the lethal consequences of entering that unnatural darkness as well. With all of his might and power, Thanquol knew there was only one thing to do.

All around him, Thanquol was surrounded by ratmen who were less than eager to join their embattled kin. warlock engineers, Clan Skaul lurkers, a few survivors of Thanquol’s contingent from Clan Moulder. The grey seer ignored all of these, his teeth gleaming in a savage grin as he spotted the skulking ratman he wanted.

‘Kratch,’ Thanquol snarled, ‘fetch-steal the stone!’

The apprentice cringed as he heard his master’s command. His mouth dropped open to squeak a protest, but the fire in Thanquol’s eyes made him close it again. Instead he snapped at some of the Clan Skryre ratmen around him. If he was going to risk his pelt bravely covering for his mentor’s cowardice, he was determined not to share the danger alone.

Thanquol watched his apprentice scurry into the clinging darkness, flanked by several warlock engineers and Clan Skaul sneaks. With them they bore the huge iron box Viskitt Burnfang had prepared to convey the Wormstone safely.

‘Do you-you think-believe Kratch can get past-through the wizard-thing?’ Burnfang’s voice growled in Thanquol’s ear.

A petty tinge of amusement crawled into the grey seer’s voice. ‘If not, at least I am rid of him.’

Then there was no more time for amusement. The wall of darkness collapsed suddenly, revealing a tangle of stabbing, clawing ratmen and their fallen brethren. Thanquol’s stomach turned as he saw the litter of bodies strewn around the fighting skaven. Confused by the darkness and the presence of an elusive enemy who weaved a path through their swarming ranks, the ratmen had turned their swords against whatever was close to them. They had done an excellent job butchering their comrades.

It wasn’t the confused infighting and resulting carnage that disturbed Thanquol. He didn’t care a pellet for the dead and maimed warriors. What concerned him was the grim apparition their stupid frenzy had allowed to stalk right through their ranks. The grey seer felt a tremor of fear as he once again found himself locking eyes with the wizard’s stormy gaze. He reached for Burnfang to pull the warlock engineer in front of him, but the coward cravenly slipped away from Thanquol’s grasping paw.

Fortunately, Burnfang’s underlings had stronger spleens. A few broke and scurried back into the sewer, but others raised a riotous array of heavy pistols, warplock weapons fitted with scopes and strange mechanised loading clips. The ratmen snarled their hate at their sinister foe.

Thanquol managed to squeak a hurried ‘Fire-kill!’ as the warlock engineers pulled the triggers of their weird weapons, allowing him to maintain an illusion of command. Thick black smoke billowed from the volley, bringing tears to the eyes of the ratmen. One warlock engineer shrieked as his overly complicated pistol exploded in his face. But the rest of the volley smashed into the grey-cloaked phantom, warpstone bullets capable of exploding steel plate slashing through the unarmoured wizard. Thanquol chittered in victory; nothing could survive such a point-blank assault.

The grey seer’s laughter was drowned out by the shrieks and wails of skaven warriors. As the smoke cleared, Thanquol saw many of the clanrat fighters in the centre of the cellar topple and fall, writhing in pained heaps. The wizard stood, seemingly unharmed, glowering at the skaven shooters. Then, as though built of smoke himself, the motionless form of the magister disintegrated, shattering into shreds of darkness. An illusion! Another of the human’s insufferable tricks!

Mocking laughter rose from the wall, once again wrapped in shadow and blackness. From that darkness, like a cave-shark rising from the pitch depths of a subterranean pool, the wizard stepped forwards, his icy blade held menacingly before him. warlock engineers squeaked in terror, fumbling and pawing at ammunition belts as they tried to reload their pistols. Those few with mechanical loading devices fired at the magister, but their shots were hurried and ill-aimed, the closest whizzing over the wizard’s hood.

None of the Clan Skryre ratmen had a chance to recover. The wizard was among them, stabbing and slashing, spilling maimed skaven in whimpering heaps. Many of the ratmen broke, fleeing down the sewer, Viskitt Burnfang and Skrim Gnawtail leading the way.

Abandoned, feeling the full measure of his predicament, Thanquol drew upon his magic for desperate and brutal salvation. Lightning crackled about the head of his staff as he used the metal icon to channel his sorcery. Snarling, Thanquol pointed the staff at the lone human slaughtering his minions. Searing green tendrils of malevolence burned and seared through the bodies of intervening ratmen, but the wizard himself faded from the magical assault, seeming to melt back into the clinging darkness. Thanquol ground his teeth, ripping at one of the ratskin scrolls at his belt.

The spells he had bought, the power contained in the scrolls, would obliterate the annoying human! Thanquol tore the little rat-gut string sealing the rolled parchment, his lips already parted to begin squeaking the incantation. He stared in disbelief at the scratch-slash symbols that greeted his gaze. The scroll wasn’t the same one he had purchased! The snivelling black marketer had pulled a switch! Instead of a spell to draw magical energy from the aethyr and weave it into a ball of annihilating fire, what Thanquol was looking at was some kitchen-rat’s recipe for goblin goulash!

A blast of gathered shadow smashed into Thanquol with the force of a hammer, throwing him to the ground. His staff leapt from his fingers, clattering against the floor. Little fingers of darkness wrapped about it, dragging it away from his grasping fingers. Frantic, Thanquol pulled a nugget of warpstone from beneath his robe, but before he could stuff it into his mouth, a stabbing knife of blackness tore it from his paw. Snarling in fearful rage, Thanquol lifted his eyes to see the grey-cloaked magister looming above him, his ensorcelled sword poised for a final, downward thrust.

Thanquol cringed, bracing himself for an ignoble end. Then a cruel smile spread across his face. Just as the wizard loomed above the prone grey seer, a hulking shape loomed above the wizard.

Thanquol’s chittering laughter scratched at the wizard’s ears in the same instant as Boneripper’s huge fist slammed into his body.

Johann slashed at a final ratman, his big knife almost severing its spine. The mangled thing flopped to the floor, crawling in a pathetic pile to die in a corner. The numbers of ratmen breaking from the conflict raging amid the wizard’s veil of shadow had thinned. After an initial surge of three, they had continued in their ones and twos until Johann had accounted for eight of the vermin. The smuggler was breathing hard, sweat dripping from every pore, his arms feeling like numb lumps of lead hanging from his shoulders. He wondered if there was an inch of skin on his body that hadn’t been cut or scratched by the blades and claws of the ratkin. He was only thankful that none of their snapping fangs had managed to sink into the meat of his flesh.

The smuggler hoped the wizard was holding his own, because Johann doubted he had the strength left to even muster the most feeble of assistance. Then again, for all he knew, the wizard could just snap his fingers and vanish any time he wanted, leaving Johann alone to face the vengeful horde.

Alone save for a whimpering madman, Johann corrected himself. He turned his face to look at Kempf curled up against the wall. What he saw sent a thrill of horror down his spine. Five ratmen had gotten through the wall of shadow without his notice. The slinking vermin had circled around the conflict as best they could, intent not upon adding their numbers to the combat but upon some other purpose. Johann felt he knew what the monsters were after.

‘Ho! Monsters!’ the smuggler shouted, forcing himself to lift his knife once more. Johann’s thoughts were of his brother, lying sick and dying in the bed of a whore. The one chance he had might lie in bringing some piece of the wyrdstone back to the priestess. Johann had been ready to kill Kempf, to risk certain death from Volk’s thugs, to secure the sample he needed. He would be damned if he was going to abandon his brother because of some slinking fairytale monsters!

The ratmen spun about, snarling at the smuggler. One of them, a wiry creature with little stubby horns, chittered a command to the others. Two of the ratkin drew long rusty swords and began to creep towards Johann. These weren’t confused, half-blind refugees fleeing from a fight. Johann could see their scorn for any threat he posed to them shining in their beady eyes. Their fangs gleamed in the weird green light, pink tongues licking hungrily at their furry snouts.

Johann’s earlier combat against the ratkin had been butchery. This, he knew, would be a fight. A fight it was unlikely he would walk away from.

Kratch snickered as he watched the foolish human try to stand its ground. The Clan Skaul sneaks would make short work of the stupid animal; unless of course they chose to take their time with it. He dismissed the killers and their quarry from his mind. He had bigger concerns to occupy him. Kratch turned and snapped commands to the two warlock engineers who had managed to keep up with the adept as he slipped through the veil of shadows. The two skaven scurried forwards, setting their heavy iron box down on the floor.

Beside the box, glowing with the same eerie light he had seen before, the Wormstone seemed to welcome Kratch as he stretched his paw to seize it. The adept managed to resist the self-destructive urge. He knew exactly what the properties of the Wormstone were, and what it would do to any skaven stupid enough to touch it. It was a little detail he had kept from Skabritt, something he had tried to keep from Thanquol, though his new master had managed to discover it for himself through Burnfang’s experiments.

‘Take-fetch, quick-quick!’ Kratch snarled at the warlock engineers. The masked ratmen stared at each other through their bug-eyed goggles, then back to the mass of darkness behind them. Their job had been to carry the box, another pair of engineers had been tasked with carrying the metal tongs to transfer the Wormstone into the box. They knew only too well the horrific effects of being exposed to the stone. ‘Quick-quick!’ Kratch repeated, a greenish glow burning behind his eyes as the adept summoned his sorcerous powers.

The display was enough to overcome the hesitancy of the engineers. Using their thick leather gauntlets and praying to the Horned Rat that it would be enough protection, the two ratmen converged on the Wormstone. With indecent haste, they seized the thing and dropped it into the waiting casket. One of the warlock engineers slammed the lid home while the other threw his tainted gloves away with a frightened squeak.

Kratch patted the box affectionately. He looked back at the melee between the Clan Skaul lurkers and the human. The man was somehow holding them back, but Kratch could tell they would soon break through its fatigued defences. The apprentice wasn’t of a mind to wait for them to finish playing with the animal. He had bigger fleas to scratch.

‘Back to the tunnel,’ Kratch growled. The warlock engineers hefted the iron box from the floor, once again chittering little prayers to the Horned Rat that Burnfang’s precautions would actually work. They nearly dropped their heavy burden when the wall of shadows suddenly collapsed upon itself. Kratch leapt backwards, landing on all fours, his eyes wide with alarm. But when he saw the grey-cloaked figure confronting Thanquol beyond where the magical darkness had been, the apprentice’s lips pulled back in a predatory smile.

‘To the tunnel!’ he repeated. Kratch let the warlock engineers lead the way, carefully picking a path through the crazed skaven warriors ripping and tearing at each other. There was a hideous instant when the warlock engineers who had remained with the grey seer fired at the human wizard, their bullets passing through the apparition to strike the ratmen beyond, but the shots were wide of Kratch and his crew. Besides, the follow-up to the wasted fusillade played right into the adept’s paws. His image broken, the wizard himself emerged from the darkness to confront Thanquol, slashing his way through the Clan Skryre shooters. Most of the skaven broke and ran, abandoning Thanquol to his enemy.

Kratch seized the opening, urging his underlings down the tunnel. Kratch hurried after, dodging aside as the immense bulk of Boneripper charged up the passageway, rushing to his master’s aid. The rat ogre had been left behind in the sewer, the warlock engineers protesting that it would take too much explosive to widen the opening to allow the monster to enter the cellar. Reluctantly, Thanquol agreed to their incessant whining.

Kratch ground his fangs together. The rat ogre smashed into the man-thing wizard just as the human was about to put an end to the thieving career of Thanquol! The brute tore his own opening into the cellar while his third hand formed a bludgeoning fist that smashed into the human and sent him flying across the basement. Kratch saw tentacles of shadow wrap about the cloaked figure, deadening the violence of his impact against the far wall as completely as one of Thratquee’s over-stuffed pillows. Kratch cursed as he saw Thanquol start to rise from the floor.

The trickle of dust falling from Boneripper’s impromptu widening of the tunnel gave Kratch an idea. Most of the spells Skabritt had seen fit to teach his apprentice were minor incantations of no great consequence, but there was one his late teacher had foolishly taught him that held real power. Grinning, Kratch called upon that power now, weaving his paws before him in a complex pattern, syllables rasping off his tongue with rapid-fire quickness.

The roof of the tunnel groaned, dirt trickled down in a steady stream. Kratch locked eyes with Thanquol, then spun about and hurried down the tunnel, pursuing the warlock engineers and their burden. Behind him, the adept heard a terrible roar. He coughed as a cloud of dust washed over him, propelled by the fury of the collapse.

Kratch was almost disappointed. He had thought he would need to come up with something new to get rid of Thanquol. Instead, the same trick that had caught Skabritt had been good enough.

The apprentice grey seer scurried down the tunnel, chittering his wicked glee at the destruction of his hated master, his slippery mind already pawing over his next move. He would seize the Wormstone, take it to some secure place and then ransom the deadly weapon to one of the Lords of Decay. The hoary old rats would pay anything to keep such a fearsome artefact from their rivals on the Council, enough to give Kratch wealth and position beyond his wildest imaginings. Indeed, the thought occurred to Kratch, why should he limit himself to ransoming the Wormstone back to only one of the Lords? He could contact any number of them, then choose whichever one seemed most likely to afford him protection before closing the deal.

Kratch rubbed his paws together in the greedy human gesture of an Altdorf moneylender. With Thanquol gone, the only perceivable obstacle to his ambitions might be Viskitt Burnfang, but he had some ideas about how to deal with the warlock engineer. Strike him down, and the other Clan Skryre metal-mongers would quickly submit to Kratch’s authority.

Yes, Kratch thought as his scampering steps brought him into the moist muck of the sewer. Once Burnfang was out of the way, there would be no one to stop him.

The adept blinked in confusion when he found himself snout-to-snout with the warlock engineer. Burnfang’s eyes were wide with fear, his paws raised in a helpless gesture of surrender. All around him, the sneaks of Clan Skaul and the survivors of Clan Skryre likewise lifted their hands in defeat. Kratch was about to snarl at the ratmen when he became aware of shapes surrounding them in the reeking corridor of brick and filth.

‘Adept Kratch, how kind-easy you to join-find us.’ The voice was that of Skrattch Skarpaw, but the cunning assassin was too wise to emerge from the ranks of his followers and expose himself. Instead the black-clad killer simply laughed, a long murderous giggle.

‘Take-snatch the stone!’ Skarpaw snarled to his minions. ‘Kill-slay the meat!’

CHAPTER NINE

A RAT’S REVENGE

Tons of earth and rock came smashing down into the cellar, bringing with it most of the kitchen up above. Fleeing ratmen were smashed into paste by the deluge of stone or skewered by great splinters of wood from the upper floor. Stairs, smugglers and shadow-wrapped wizard all vanished in a gritty cloud of darkness that rushed down Thanquol’s lungs with a smothering embrace.

The grey seer coughed and hacked, fighting for every breath of air, flinching at every fresh clatter of rock against stone. The smell of skaven blood filled his nose, the cries of maimed and mangled ratmen scratched at his ears. Thanquol ignored them all, instead turning his beady eyes to a more vexing question: why had he not been crushed by the collapse?

The answer towered over Thanquol, his huge back arched above the grey seer like a bridge of flesh and bone. By sheer brute strength alone, Boneripper defied the pressure of tons of earth, preventing it from smashing downwards and obliterating his master. The rat ogre’s head was crooked in an awkward position, his dull eyes staring plaintively at Thanquol, waiting for his master’s approval.

Let the beast wait, Thanquol decided. Of primary importance was making sure the damnable human sorcerer wasn’t in any condition to renew his attack on the grey seer. Crawling on all four paws, he squirmed his body around in the small space beneath Boneripper’s arched body. He ignored the moans of half-crushed ratmen, slithering away from their groping paws, his sharp eyes fixated only upon one purpose. A cunning smile spread across Thanquol’s face. The collapse had been total and complete. Wherever the wizard was, the vermin had been buried.

Thanquol didn’t know if his enemy could dig himself out or not, nor did the grey seer intend to wait around and find out. His inspection complete, he crawled back beneath Boneripper’s enormous chest. The rat ogre’s lungs were rumbling like a bellows, sucking in what little air had been trapped with them in the pocket. Already there was a stagnant smell to it. Thanquol licked his fangs. There were spells he knew that could whisk him out of his predicament as quickly as a filthy human could snap its wormy fingers, but Thanquol did not dare cast them without knowing how far the cave-in had filled the tunnel. It would do him no good to disappear in a puff of black smoke only to rematerialise in solid stone. Fortunately, there were other options available.

‘Dig,’ Thanquol told the hulking brute looming above him. ‘Dig-dig, fool-beast!’ he repeated when Boneripper simply gazed at him with dull, vacant eyes.

Boneripper groaned as he shifted his body, trying to adjust his position to both support the ceiling and obey his master’s shrill commands. Streams of earth and rock trickled down as the burden rumbled in protest, sending Thanquol scurrying deeper into the shadow cast by the monster’s enormity. Boneripper took no notice of the grey seer’s fright, however. One arm and one shoulder twisted up above his head, Boneripper began clawing at the rock and dirt choking the mouth of the tunnel with his other arms.

Thanquol watched the excavation with a vengeful gaze, each armload of rock Boneripper clawed away bringing the grey seer’s fangs grinding together. He’d seen the look Kratch had given him just before the collapse. The treacherous apprentice was going to be sorry he hadn’t finished the job.

Red thoughts of violence and pain clouded Thanquol’s vision. His tail lashed angrily against the floor, his fur bristling. So Kratch had thought to get rid of him the way he had Grey Seer Skabritt, had he? Kratch thought to steal the power of the Wormstone for himself, to use it as a weapon against its rightful owners, the Lords of Decay? Thanquol would make him suffer for such callous treason against the Horned Rat and indeed, all of skavendom.

Even if he were not lost in bloody imaginings, Thanquol would have given no notice to the squeals and cries of the trapped ratmen who were crushed by the shifting weight of the collapsed earth, the piteous sounds growing fewer and fewer with each armful of rubble Boneripper clawed away. It was, after all, the duty of such lesser creatures to give their miserable lives that the genius of Thanquol should endure.

The force of the collapse knocked Johann from his feet. A thick cloud of dust enveloped him, coating him from head to toe in a gritty skin of dirt. He scrambled to find his knife, blinking debris from his tearing eyes. All around him he could hear the piteous wails of mangled skaven caught in the collapse, their rodent howls gnawing at his ears with their deafening discord. Johann was bleeding from dozens of small, vicious cuts, his cruel foes taking sadistic delight in playing with their prey. With every motion, Johann could feel his strength ebb.

Strength, a man’s only advantage against the abominable ratkin. The loathsome walking rodents were faster than any man, primal reflexes and instincts allowing them to twist and writhe away from the slow, comparatively clumsy strokes of a human blade. They were fiercer too, their savage minds gripped by a vile verminous malignity only the most desperate and degenerate breeds of men might ever sink to. They were monsters, in every sense of the word, but monsters built for murder and ambush, not a straight fight against a man’s superior strength. So long as that strength remained.

Johann’s foes had not been caught in the collapse. One of the ratmen was clawing at its face, trying to wipe dirt and dust from its sensitive nose with the same sort of frantic frenzy as a courtesan might attack a dress upon which she had felt an insect’s crawling legs. The other ratman, however, was not so distracted by the brown coating that covered its fur and face. Its feral gaze was fixed entirely upon Johann, and its lips spread in a fang-filled grin when it saw the man’s knife lying on the floor.

With a savage squeal of murder and brutality, the ratman leapt towards Johann, a leap that should have seen the smuggler impaled upon the monster’s blade of rusty iron. The blow never fell, however. Sounding from the wall came a wailing echo of the ratkin’s cry, a mournful shriek of madness and unimaginable horror. A crazed blur exploded across the space between Johann and the ratman, smashing into the monster while it was in mid-leap.

Only by the shape’s clothes could Johann tell the strange vision was Kempf, his erstwhile comrade and fellow criminal. Pushed to madness by the advent of the skaven into the cellar, driven to the limits of despair by his need for black dust, Kempf’s face was as pallid as the belly of a fish, his eyes gaping orbs of mindless terror. Seeing the skaven in the flesh, Kempf’s mind recalled dreams and visions from the drug den of Otto Ali, mixing them together into one obscene collage of depravity and evil. Now, driven into his own world of shadows, the ratman’s cry had invaded the madman’s last refuge. Like any cornered beast, Kempf lashed out.

Johann saw madman and ratkin roll across the floor, their bodies tangled together. When they stopped, both forms were still. Kempf’s hands were locked around the ratkin’s scrawny neck, pressed together, the furry neck snapped like the stem of a weed. The madman was equally dead, the ratman’s rusty blade thrust through his belly with such force that its point erupted from the man’s back, the monster’s bestial jaws mired in the gory wreckage that had been the dust-fiend’s throat.

A low growl of fury finally snapped Johann from his morbid fascination with Kempf’s death. He lunged for his knife as the last ratman sprang for him. His shoulder exploded with pain as he sprawled beneath the monster’s attack, catching the edge of the skaven’s blade. His fingers closed about the grip of his fat-bladed knife, rolling onto his back to meet the creature’s next charge.

The attack never came. The ratman stood transfixed, staring vacantly at the wall above Johann’s head. Slowly the creature’s limbs began to droop, the sword clattering from its claws. It was like watching a pig bladder deflate, as though all the air inside the ratkin was slowly draining away. At last its head slumped against its breast. For the first time, Johann was aware of a little sliver of blackness piercing the ratman. While he watched, the shard of night sank back into the furry chest and the verminous corpse toppled to the floor. Beyond it was a dark shape of shadow and menace.

The wizard’s veil of gathered shadow billowed about him as he stepped forwards, sheathing his sword. The magister’s stormy eyes regarded Johann coldly and the smuggler felt himself wither beneath the terrible judgement in their grey, misty depths.

‘Above,’ the wizard’s hissing voice intoned, pointing a finger shrouded in black at the stairway. Johann did not question the man’s authority, did not even think to protest his right to command. Like a little boy scolded by his father, he hastened to obey, taking the stairs two at a time. Dimly he was aware of a presence following after him, though his ears could detect no sound upon the creaky wooden steps.

The taproom of the Orc and Axe was strangely deserted for this hour. Johann could see only a handful of what he took to be grim-faced patrons scattered about the room. They were a disparate group, such that Johann would have sensed no thread of common unity were it not for the identical expressions they wore, each face being a mask of worry and concern. He thought perhaps that the reasons for their concern were the dead men stacked like cordwood in one corner of the hall, but a single glance at the bodies gave him doubts. No one would hang for killing men belonging to Gustav Volk. The mystery of why the thugs had not investigated the violence in the cellar was answered.

‘You and your filthy mob brought this on me!’ roared Ulgrin Shatterhand when the old dwarf’s eyes spotted Johann entering the room. He tried to shake off the restraining hand of a younger, yellow-bearded dwarf standing beside the bar. ‘Couldn’t leave well enough alone! Had to use my tavern for your idiot manling intrigues!’ Ulgrin’s bluster died a sudden death when he saw the apparition stalking behind the smuggler. The dwarf muttered some half-audible oath into his beard and decided to busy himself with tending a rack of cracked clay steins.

The other dwarf came forwards, bowing deeply as Johann stepped further into the room. The head of every other man in the room made a similar nod of respect and fealty. Johann realised the gesture was not for him, but for the strange being who had rescued him from the underfolk.

‘Report,’ the wizard’s hissing voice commanded, his smoky gaze resting on the figure of the bowing dwarf.

‘All of Volk’s men have been dealt with,’ the dwarf replied, patting the heft of the broad-bladed axe lashed across his back. ‘No prisoners.’

The wizard turned, pointing a finger at one of the men. Johann was shocked to find himself staring at the scarred face of Theodor Baer, the watch sergeant. The watchman was treating an ugly gash in his leg with a bottle of pungent-smelling Reikland hock, gritting his teeth against the pain.

‘Report,’ the grey-cloaked spectre hissed.

Like a well-trained dog, Theodor set down the bottle, seemingly oblivious to his still bleeding wound, and answered the command of his master. ‘No casualties. We took Volk’s gang by complete surprise. Only a few minor injuries.’

‘Select three unimpaired operatives,’ the wizard’s voice spoke in a steel whisper. ‘They will descend to the cellar. Dispatch any wounded ratkin.’

Theodor nodded. Forcing himself back to his feet, grinding his teeth against the pain from his leg, he began shouting orders at the other men in the tavern. A motley group composed of a villainous-looking Tilean, a pock-marked stevedore wearing the colours of a Fish, and a hulking Kislevite with a thick red moustache, drew daggers and hurried to their butcher’s work.

A wiry little man came across the barroom, bowing before the wizard. For the second time, Johann was surprised to see a face he recognised amongst the wizard’s crew. Ludwig Rothfels, the street-corner agitator, was another of this mysterious master’s thralls.

‘Master,’ the agitator reported, ‘Gustav Volk and five of his men left the Orc and Axe shortly before your operatives were in position.’

‘Volk is inconsequential,’ the wizard replied. ‘His mob will wait. The matter of the underfolk cannot.’

Ludwig nodded in servile agreement, but did not excuse himself from the magister’s imposing presence. ‘Master, an unscrupulous apothecary was with Volk when he left, one Sergei Kawolski.’ Ludwig darted an accusing look at Johann. Before the agitator could elaborate further, Johann seized upon the importance of what he had said.

‘Sergei with Volk!’ The smuggler’s eyes were wide with alarm. He felt sick at the ghastly purpose that alone could unite those two names. Ludwig was right to accuse him. He should have waited for the priestess. Now, the quack he had brought to treat his brother was selling out Hans to his enemies!

Johann fell to his knees, clutching at the wizard’s hand. It felt cold and unreal beneath his fingers, as though what he touched had no more substance than a fistful of river fog. He stared up at the wizard’s face, hidden within the shadow of his hood and the thick folds of his scarf. ‘He is taking Volk to my brother! Please, they will murder Hans! You must stop them!’

The wizard’s eyes were an icy storm of steely grey as his voice spoke in a soft, hissing whisper. ‘This will be a second debt you will owe to me,’ he stated, each word laden with menace rather than hope. ‘I do not forgive my debtors easily.’

Before Johann could reply, could even explain where his brother was, the hand he held became even less real, less solid beneath his fingers. While he watched, awestruck, the wizard’s body vanished, fading into nothingness like fog burned away by the sun. Almost before he could register what was happening, the wizard was gone, only a lingering chill in the air remaining behind.

Somehow, Johann knew he did not need to tell the sinister being about the Crown and Two Chairmen. He felt that the wizard already knew where his brother was. There was no secret, Johann felt, that could endure those eyes of mist and fog. Nothing could be hidden from that penetrating gaze, the gaze of the being Johann knew he too must call ‘master’.

Thanquol ground his fangs together as he followed the treacherous scent of Kratch, his duplicitous apprentice. The grey seer had decided to strangle the adept with his own entrails while allowing pain-pain snails to dissolve Kratch’s nethers with their acidic slime. Or perhaps he would have a Clan Moulder flesh-shaper open up the traitor’s belly and sew a live bonechewer inside. Watching Kratch squirm and writhe as the terrified mole clawed its way free would be deliciously entertaining.

Changes in the scent brought Thanquol to a halt. The fug of the sewer was oozing into the tunnel now, but mixed with it were the smells of battle: blood, fear-musk, the stench of burned fur and the noxious reek of warpfire. Thanquol cast a nervous glance at Boneripper, the immense monster lumbering beside him, forced into an awkward half-crouch by the low ceiling of the tunnel. It was on the tip of his tongue to order the brute back into the cellar, to dig out the other side of the cave-in and take their chances against the man-thing sorcerer. Whatever had befallen his cowardly underlings and their despicable new leader, the grey seer wanted no part of it.

Then new smells registered in Thanquol’s nose, one of which set the grey seer’s tail twitching in excitement. The Wormstone! There could be no mistaking that cold, evil smell. Kratch had recovered it! All that was left was for Thanquol to seize the weapon from his slinking apprentice while he was beset by his own enemies! It would be unfortunate not to take his time killing Kratch, but possessing the Wormstone would go far in the way of compensation.

He was just turning to growl new orders to Boneripper when Thanquol detected a strengthening in the scent of both Kratch and the Wormstone. He abandoned his idea of using the rat ogre as a distraction, bursting into the midst of the fray in the sewer while he slipped in and stole, no, recovered, the Wormstone before anyone was aware of him. The Horned Rat had once again smiled upon his chosen prophet. He would not need to go into the sewer to seize the Wormstone or kill Kratch; both of them were coming to him.

Thanquol motioned Boneripper to flatten himself against the side of the wall. The way Kratch’s scent was growing, the apprentice was in full flight. He wouldn’t be aware of the lurking grey seer and his bodyguard until it was far too late to arrest his headlong, craven retreat. Thanquol drew the ratskull snuff box from his robe, inhaling a pinch of the warpdust powder. Perhaps he would take his time with Kratch. Anything less might be insulting to the Horned Rat for presenting him with such an unexpected gift.

Scurrying skaven appeared suddenly in the gloom of the tunnel. As Thanquol had surmised, their pace was so hurried that they were unaware of his scent until they were almost on top of him. Most of the fleeing vermin were first made aware of their presence when Boneripper exploded upon them in an avalanche of blood and screams. A Clan Skryre skirmisher shrieked into his gas-mask as Boneripper impaled him on the rusty metal fist-spike of his mutant arm. A pair of Clan Skab warriors crumpled into a pile of twitching wreckage as a sweep of Boneripper’s claw eviscerated them. A weedy Clan Skaul sneak howled in terror as Boneripper lifted him to his immense mouth. The rat ogre’s fangs bit down, severing the screaming ratman just beneath the rib cage. Boneripper crunched noisily on the fore section while the rest of the mutilated skaven flopped to the floor in an obscene display.

Once certain that his enemies were fully engaged by and focused on the terror of the rat ogre, Thanquol sprang from the other wall of the tunnel. His claws locked around the throat of his chosen prey, unholy fire glowing in his eyes. There were so many spells, so many unspeakable secrets of the eldritch and the arcane he had learned over the years. Choosing the right one to send Kratch’s wretched soul snivelling from his shrivelled flesh was something it was hard for Thanquol to resolve.

‘Great and wise m… master!’ Kratch wheezed, gasping for breath. ‘Glory-glory that your eminence live-live! We fear-sad that you die-die!’

‘I won’t be able to say the same,’ Thanquol hissed through clenched fangs. ‘Die, snivelling traitor!’

‘Mercy-pity, kind tyrant!’ Kratch pleaded. ‘This humble one has saved the Wormstone for you! Saved it from the real traitors!’ The apprentice waved a frantic paw at Viskitt Burnfang and a pair of surviving warlock engineers. Between them, the heavy iron box rested on the floor. The Clan Skryre skaven were looking anxiously between Boneripper and the tunnel behind them, trying to decide whether to brave the mutant rat ogre or the battle they had fled.

Thanquol’s eyes narrowed, his grip tightened. ‘What “real traitors”? Speak-squeak flea-maggot! Who attacks you and your miserable entourage?’

‘Skrattch Skarpaw!’ whined Kratch. ‘He set upon your loyal servants as we entered the man-thing scat-stream! Mighty Thanquol, he seeks the Wormstone!’

‘Obviously, you dung-brained swine!’ Thanquol cursed, dropping Kratch onto the floor. He looked past the grovelling apprentice to the hulking Boneripper. Thanquol snapped a quick command and the rat ogre relented in his savage persecution of the other cowards who had followed Kratch in retreat. The grey seer’s fiery gaze swept over the cowering ratmen, resting at last on Viskitt Burnfang. ‘Swear loyalty to me or die, maggot-feeding trash!’

Burnfang held his head so low that his whiskers brushed the ground. ‘Of course, mighty voice of the Horned One! Burnfang has ever been your loyal-honoured servant!’ The warlock engineer glared at Kratch. ‘I follow this slag-scat only because he claims his master is lost-dead!’

Thanquol decided now was not the time to remind Burnfang that he had abandoned the cellar – and the grey seer – before Kratch had made his own escape. As soon as Burnfang spoke, the other refuges began stumbling over one another in their hurry to echo his oath of servitude and devotion. Thanquol waved their assurances aside, recognising them for the empty breath they were. The skaven of Under-Altdorf were absolutely without honour or scruple, they’d do anything to benefit themselves, whoever they had to betray for such advancement. He would use the scum, for now, then dispose of them when they were no longer useful.

‘Gracious and merciful despot,’ Kratch whined from where he had fallen to the floor. ‘You must hurry to save those loyal-true skaven who fight even now against your enemies!’ The apprentice pointed a crooked finger down the tunnel towards the continuing sounds of conflict. ‘Wretched Kratch will stay behind and protect the Wormstone.’

Thanquol swatted the unctuous adept in the snout with his staff, sprawling him across the floor of the tunnel. He was tempted to unleash the full malignity of his magic against the ratman, but he knew he would need the full might of his sorcery if he would make good his escape… and do so with the Wormstone.

‘We will face Skarpaw together,’ Thanquol growled. He felt a delicious surge of satisfaction at the fear that flickered through Kratch’s eyes as he said the words. Having just quit the battle, the adept was of no mind to return to it.

The grey seer saw otherwise. The fierce snarls of battle echoing up the tunnel had given him an idea, an idea as callous as it was cunning. And Kratch had a part to play… a very important part. More satisfying than slowly torturing the traitor to death would be to use Kratch’s destruction to ensure his own survival.

‘Back to the man-thing scat-stream!’ Thanquol snarled. When the other skaven appeared to share Kratch’s opinion of returning to battle, Thanquol snapped a quick command to Boneripper. The rat ogre’s paw closed around the closest skaven, crushing every bone in his body with a single tightening of his fist.

After that, the skaven would follow Thanquol straight into the jungle hell of Daemon-Sotek if he ordered them to. At least so long as Boneripper was close enough to enforce the grey seer’s commands.

Skrattch Skarpaw watched as his little army continued to destroy the ambushed skaven of that preening Skavenblight upstart Thanquol. It had taken every favour bought by bribe or threat to assemble such a force, but Skarpaw did not grumble too much about squandering the resources of Under-Altdorf’s branch of Clan Eshin. If he did not capture the Wormstone for Lord Skrolk, his life would end in horror and pain. Even if he failed, a chilling thought, Skarpaw was not about to leave his carefully cultivated resources for whatever upstart succeeded him as clanleader. Better to squander them now when there was a chance they could do him some good!

The assassin looked over his force with pride. Warpfire throwers from Clan Skryre, black-furred stormvermin from Clan Mors. From Clan Moulder had come a pair of rat ogres and nearly a hundred oversized and extremely ferocious rats. Clan Sleekit spear-rats and Clan Skaul slingers scurried at the periphery of the conflict alongside his own clan’s gutter runners and clanrats. They closed the noose tighter about Thanquol’s hapless underlings with every passing breath, choking the petty-tyranny of the grey seer with each traitor they cut down.

So far Skarpaw had not seen the grey seer, nor picked up his scent. He had seen the grey seer’s apprentice, however, and more importantly, he had seen what could only be the box they thought to convey the Wormstone in. The scent of Thanquol’s workshops was familiar to Skarpaw; the assassin had prowled them many nights looking for an opportunity to finish the grey seer. The smell rising from the box was stronger, telling him that what he needed was indeed inside.

Everything depended on the Wormstone. With it, he could force Lord Skrolk to give him the antidote to the corruption the plague priest had infected him with. He could feel the corruption even now eating away at him, sapping his strength, dulling his reflexes, clouding his mind with decay.

Skarpaw would have his revenge upon the diseased Lord Skrolk. Once free of Skrolk’s threat, he would find a way to take the Wormstone back from Clan Pestilens. The weapon would be safer in the paws of Clan Eshin, and if he was the instrument of that transfer of ownership, Skarpaw’s status within the clan would be second only to the Nightlord and the Deathmasters. A greedy glint entered the assassin’s eyes. Why should he set a limit to his ambition?

A chittering cry of agony betokened the brutal demise of some of Thanquol’s minions, incinerated in an instant by a blast of warpfire from one of the Clan Skryre weapon teams. Their bodies were little more than charred skeletons even before they crashed to the floor, the sickly sweet scent of burnt meat and fur billowing across the brick-walled confluence of human tunnels that formed the scene of Skarpaw’s triumph. The master assassin twirled his whiskers, imagining the moment when he would be free.

Suddenly a new scent drew Skarpaw’s attention, a smell that was far from unfamiliar to him. The apprentice Kratch had fled up the skaven tunnel when the ambush had sprung. Now the wretched creature reappeared, leading the less than eager cowards who had fled with him. Skarpaw was pleased to see that the iron box was still with them. He was less thrilled to see that Kratch’s master had finally seen fit to enter the fray. Grey Seer Thanquol marched behind his apprentice, always pushing the miserable adept before him. Beside the grey seer lurched his enormous rat ogre, the mutant Boneripper. As the beast emerged fully from the tunnel and straightened his bulk in the higher ceiling of the sewer, even Skarpaw felt a thrill of fear rush through him. The brute was gigantic, dwarfing even the immense rat ogres he had procured from the beastmasters!

Eager to enter the battle a moment before, Skarpaw found himself hanging back, snapping orders to his underlings. Let them take the risks, he would keep himself apart from the fray, the better to adjust to changing tactical situations. Once Boneripper was brought down, then Skarpaw might take a more direct role in the combat. Unless of course it looked like Thanquol still had some magic left.

Thanquol cursed through clenched fangs. The craven idiot Kratch hadn’t told him the half of it! This was more than simply an ambush by Skarpaw and the cloaked killers of Clan Eshin, more than some diseased union between Eshin and Moulder! He saw warriors from all of Under-Altdorf’s major clans converging on the last hapless clusters of loyal skaven guarding the mouth of the tunnel. He smelled conspiracy! An obscene collusion between all of the clans of Under-Altdorf to destroy him and capture the Wormstone for themselves! Thanquol’s eyes narrowed with hate. There was only one skaven capable of forging such an alliance! Skarpaw was just a figurehead – the real villain was that senile scum Thratquee! Well, if Thratquee thought he was going to build his heretical ‘New Skavenblight’ on the bones of Thanquol, the corrupt old rat was stupider than a sack of goblins!

‘We must flee-flee!’ Kratch whined as Thanquol pushed him forwards, toward the battle line. The adept vented his glands as Skarpaw’s rat ogres made particularly gruesome work of some surviving Clan Skab warriors.

The grey seer snarled at his underling. ‘Grow a spleen, coward-meat!’ he snapped, pushing the frantic apprentice a few steps further. Thanquol glanced over his shoulder to make certain that Boneripper was still beside him. ‘We must fight-conquer or die-die!’ Thanquol spat, stamping the butt of his staff against the floor for emphasis. As he did so, a warplock jezzail roared from somewhere in the darkness, its warpstone bullet exploding the skull of a Clan Skaul sneak only a few feet behind Thanquol. Instinctively, the grey seer dropped into a crouch, shielding himself with his apprentice’s body. Kratch struggled to free himself from his mentor’s fierce grip.

‘It is hopeless!’ Kratch whined.

Thanquol struggled to raise the ratskull snuff box to his nose, somehow maintaining the box and his staff in the same paw. The intoxicating burn of the powder sent iron flowing through his veins, subduing the fear flooding his system. The fiery sensation calmed the grey seer’s instincts. His eyes were smouldering pools of blood flecked with gold when he glared into Kratch’s face.

‘I will use your power, apprentice-pupil,’ Thanquol said, his voice a sinister murmur. ‘Your power joined with my own,’ he added with a malicious chitter.

‘Used to fuel horror.’ Thanquol’s staff began to glow with a green light. More warplock bullets sped for the grey seer but they were knocked aside by the unseen power of his magic.

‘Used to feed carnage.’ Thanquol’s staff was now a blazing sliver of green fire, its talismans and charms dancing in a dank wind that snapped and crackled through the fur of every skaven it touched.

‘Used to call hunger into the bellies and brains of the traitor and the heretic!’ Now Kratch could feel the grey seer’s power devouring his own, pulling strength from his very soul to feed its own ravenous need. The apprentice felt himself wilting, as though his spirit were being torn from his flesh. Around him, the fighting had ceased. Every skaven, both friend and foe, was drawing away from the two grey seers, their fur standing on end, their glands venting as their every sense recoiled from the malign power of Thanquol’s sorcery.

Thanquol’s eyes gleamed with an insane light. Bloody froth spilled from his mouth. When he spoke, his words were black with his own stagnant blood. ‘Power to summon-call the Black Hunger!’

With the grey seer’s maddened shriek, grisly ribbons of power burst from the head of his staff, stabbing into all who stood before it. The eyes of each creature the green vapours struck glazed over, blackening as they filled with blood, as all intelligence shrivelled. Skaven, rat ogre or giant rat, one and all were struck down, their senses and minds drowned beneath one overwhelming urge, one all-consuming need. The verminous throng burned with a terrible hunger, a hunger that could only be sated with warm, dripping flesh!

Skarpaw’s army disintegrated into a snarling mob of frenzied beasts, biting and clawing at their own, casting aside weapons and intelligence in the grip of their primal, cannibalistic hunger. Clan Moulder packmasters leapt onto the back of their rat ogres, ripping and tearing at their leathery flesh with fang and claw. Clanrats worried at the throats of gutter runners while Clan Skryre skirmishers cast aside their complex, fantastic weapons to gnaw the entrails of their own fallen.

Kratch could only dimly see the gory display, his senses fading as Thanquol’s spell consumed more and more of his essence. It became an effort of concentration to make his heart beat, to bring air down into his lungs. The adept’s limbs trembled, his bones feeling impossibly heavy beneath his flesh. He imagined he could feel his eyes slithering back into the pits of his skull. In his ears, he thought he could hear the sardonic laughter of the Horned Rat.

Suddenly, Kratch could feel an incredible surge of strength flow into him. His failing spirit swelled, filled almost to bursting. The adept fought to control the sheer force rushing into him, trying to prevent it from burning out his mind and soul. He could feel the reins of control and command seeping into his own bones, feel himself become connected to each and every creature whose brain Thanquol had filled with the Black Hunger. He struggled to keep the same frenzy from flowing back into himself, even as he understood the dire consequences should he try to banish the spell. Every one of the survivors would descend on him in a vengeful mob.

From the corner of his eye, Kratch could see Thanquol’s grin of triumph.

‘Quick-quick!’ the grey seer snarled at his followers. ‘We must flee-scurry!’

Awed by the hideous brutality of Thanquol’s magic, the depleted members of his entourage needed little encouragement to obey. Carefully skirting the orgy of feral cannibalism the grey seer’s spell had unleashed, the few dozen ratmen scampered down the brick-lined tunnels. Thanquol hurried after them, Boneripper’s ever present bulk loping beside him. The grey seer caught the scarred stump of Skrim Gnawtail’s tail, pulling the Clan Skaul spy back towards him.

‘Not back to Under-Altdorf,’ Thanquol warned Skrim. ‘They are our enemies! All of them! It was the council that set that ambush!’

‘Where-where, mighty one?’ Skrim asked, quivering with fear and anxiety.

‘Somewhere away from the traitors!’ snapped Thanquol. He stabbed a clawed finger at the arched ceiling overhead. ‘Somewhere up there, where they can’t find us.’

Thanquol gnashed his fangs together in a fit of vindictive fury. ‘I will announce myself to Under-Altdorf when I am ready. In my own way.’

Kratch struggled to control the force of Thanquol’s spell, as much a victim of its power as any of the maddened wretches tearing and chewing their way through the skaven army. The adept’s mind seethed with his mentor’s treachery. Transferring the focus of his spell from himself to Kratch, Thanquol had doomed his apprentice to a slow and creeping death. The arcane forces Kratch was trying to control would rip through him, twisting his flesh and mutating his soul into something spawned in the blackest pits of nightmare. Kratch railed against such an ignoble end, yet every sight of the ripping, gnawing mob swirling around him made him only more determined not to break the grey seer’s magic. So long as the spell remained, that long did Kratch remain at the eye of the storm. As soon as he broke the spell, he would become part of the storm, defenceless against the clawing, biting, mindless swarm.

A warplock fired from somewhere beyond the melee. Kratch crumpled to the ground, his head bloody. As he fell, he could feel the magic evaporate. Kratch ground his teeth together, waiting for the swarm to descend upon him. It was almost a minute before he dared to open his eyes.

He blinked in disbelief. Nothing had descended upon him with tooth and claw because there was nothing left to do so. Most of Skarpaw’s army was just so much gnawed meat choking the canal of the sewer. Those that still drew breath were curled into little trembling balls, panting and wheezing as their bodies struggled to recover from their frenzied madness. It would be many days before they recovered from the Black Hunger, if they ever did.

Dimly, Kratch heard voices raised in argument, sharp, snarling skaven voices. He could see four ratmen garbed in the black cloaks and leather wrappings of Clan Eshin arguing among themselves. One of the ratmen held a smoking jezzail in his paws and he was gesturing furiously at the unspeakable carnage that had consumed Skarpaw’s army.

Another skaven, this one larger and bulkier than the jezzail bearer, snarled and snapped at the excited sniper. With abrupt suddenness, the large skaven, who Kratch judged to be no less than Skarpaw himself, plunged a fist-spike into the eye of his rebellious underling. The sniper pawed at Skarpaw’s chest for an instant, provoking the assassin to plunge the fist-spike into his underling’s body in a blur of vicious violence.

The draconian discipline excited the other two Clan Eshin ratmen. One scrambled into a narrow pipe, his body squirming like an eel down the slender metal shaft. The other dived into the putrid stream of the canal, plunging beneath its filthy water and vanishing from sight.

Rising from the butchered sniper, Skarpaw glared first at the pipe, then at the filthy sewer canal. Kratch could guess the thoughts that slithered through the assassin’s crooked mind. He might be able to catch one of his escaped minions, but never could he catch both of them before they returned to Under-Altdorf and reported his defeat to his enemies and rivals. By the time Skarpaw returned to the city, if he was only stripped of his position as clanleader, he could consider himself blessed by the Horned One.

Skarpaw seemed to reach the same conclusion. Sullenly, the assassin turned and scurried down a sewer tunnel that would take him away from the direction of the skaven city.

Kratch waited until the assassin was gone before daring to move. He lifted his paws to his bloody head. The shot from the jezzail had miraculously been deflected by one of his small horns, a certain sign of favour from his god. The Horned Rat had spared him, spared him to pursue righteous vengeance against the traitorous Thanquol. Kratch ground his teeth together. His former master thought him dead, did he? Well, Kratch would show him the error of his arrogance before allowing death to crush the grey seer’s corrupt flesh.

Yes, Kratch thought, he would have his vengeance against Thanquol. His murderous grin spread as he turned his eyes back to the tunnel down which Skarpaw had escaped. He also knew of someone who had every reason to hate Thanquol even more than he did. Someone who would help him claim his revenge!

Hopfoot the Maus awoke with a start. He smacked one of his tiny fists against his head, trying to pound the last of his hangover from his skull. It was an effort that was far from successful, made all the worse because he still couldn’t shake the ringing from his ears.

No, not ringing. Scratching. A weird, grating sound, like a beaver gnawing at the roots of an old oak.

Hopfoot roused himself, almost banging his head against the top of the table above him. His shop filled to the gunwales with merchandise, the halfling had set his little mattress of fur and straw beneath one of the curio tables. It was an arrangement he preferred to separate sleeping quarters. This way he could keep an eye on his wares and be ready with his trusty blunderbuss should any thieves be brazen enough to challenge his resolve.

The fence rolled over, a surly grumble rolling off his lips as his bare feet encountered the chill metal barrel of his gun. Hopfoot’s fat little fingers curled around the stock. There was a definite pattern to the scratching, something more purposeful than the scampering of rats or the nocturnal wandering of cats. Thieves were an ever-present danger on the waterfront, even for a fence. Crawling out from under the table, Hopfoot let the funnel-shaped mouth of his blunderbuss swing around. He hoped he left enough to sell the physicians at the university. Even Hopfoot felt a twinge of shame selling dead thieves to the swineherds.

The persistent sound came from the back door of the shop, and Hopfoot carefully made his way through the gloom of his darkened store towards the source. He cursed as he stubbed his toe against the claw of a stuffed panther. Whoever was working at the back door must have heard him, for the scratching noise fell silent. It was only a momentary lull, however. A few moments, then it returned with renewed violence and vigour.

Hopfoot chose a position behind the wooden counter, cocking the hammer of his gun, aiming its wide mouth at the door. The instant it opened, he would fire and turn the face of the strange thief into so much shredded meat.

How strange the intruder was, Hopfoot discovered an instant later when the weakened door gave inwards, nearly gnawed clean through at its base. Gnawed was indeed the right word, for neither pick nor axe had done such terrible work. Squeezing itself through the hole, its bulk causing the frame to bulge and snap, was a vision of ghastly, verminous nightmare that froze the halfling solid with terror.

It was like a rat, only bigger. Much bigger. Enormous in a way only travellers’ tales from the Mountains of Mourn could match. To call it a rat was to call a griffon a sparrow. It crept through the darkened shop on its hand-like paws, dragging its scaly tail after it. Its nearly hairless body oozed with sores and blackened scabs of burned flesh, its face scalded into a skull-like mask.

The blunderbuss fell from Hopfoot’s frozen fingers, clattering across the floor. The rat-beast turned its head, its beady eyes focusing on the halfling. It sniffed at the air, raising its body after the fashion of its smaller kin. It chittered, displaying its gruesomely oversized fangs. Hopfoot thought his heart would turn to stone as it dropped back to all fours. If the thing should come one step closer, he should die of fright.

Instead the rat-beast turned away, loping through the clutter of shelves and tables. It tipped over a nest of old shirts and moth-eaten blouses to expose the fence’s iron strongbox. Again the monster chittered, a vocalisation of its hunger.

Hopfoot did not even dare to curse as he watched the monster start to chew its way through the strongbox. The iron chest contained all of his wealth, all the gold and silver he had accumulated from his thieving patrons, all the gems and jewels he had bought over the years, even those weird green-black rocks Kempf claimed were wyrdstone.

There was something even more valuable, however, that Hopfoot had not locked away in his strongbox. As he heard the rat-beast’s fangs gnaw into the metal box, Hopfoot decided to save his smooth plump skin and edge out the smashed door. He waited until his hairy feet had carried him a full block from his shop before he started to scream.

By the time he could convince anyone that he was not drunk and that he was not insane, by the time enough people stopped laughing at him long enough to follow him back to his shop, the monster was gone. It had finished its gruesome effort to chew its way into the strongbox. Strangely, all the gold and silver, gems and jewels, were scattered across the floor of the shop.

The only thing that was missing were the wyrdstone shards.

CHAPTER TEN

SHADOWS OF ALTDORF

‘Where is Hans Dietrich?’

The question was punctuated by a sharp scream, a blood-curdling sound that raised the rafters of the Crown and Two Chairmen. The interrogator was a very angry Gustav Volk. The wailing subject of his attention was Mueller. The smuggler’s eye patch had been torn away and Volk’s gloved finger was probing the scarred cavity with a none-too gentle touch. His face split in an evil grin as blood spurted from the empty socket and Mueller’s scream rose still higher in pitch.

‘Where’s your boss?’ Volk repeated, his voice a low snarl. He pressed his finger still deeper.

The employees and patrons of the tavern and its attendant brothel were clustered about the main hall, just beneath the carpeted stairway that rose to the sleeping rooms above. The mobsmen had scoured the entire building of occupants, herding them into a single mass of anxiety and fear at the base of the stairs. Several of Volk’s men, steel-barrelled handguns at the ready, kept even the most frantic from making a break for it. The gory spectacle of what happened to the few who refused to accept an invitation to Volk’s gathering kept the hotheads from getting any bold ideas. No man wanted to risk his life showing off for an audience of barflies and doxies.

‘I… I don’t… Nooooo!’ Mueller shrieked, another spurt of red bursting from the socket. Blood dripped from Volk’s leather tunic.

‘Wrong answer!’ growled Volk, pressing still harder and dragging more screams from the smuggler.

‘He’s telling the truth!’ a shrill voice shouted at the racketeer.

Volk turned his head slowly, his finger still deep in Mueller’s empty eye socket. The mob leader glanced across the frightened mass of prisoners, then glared at the nearest of his henchmen. ‘Which whore spoke?’ he asked the thug.

The brutish thug snarled an answer, then shoved his way into the crowd, pulling Argula from the cluster of cowering harlots. He pushed the woman forwards, spilling her at the feet of his boss. Still maintaining his grip on Mueller’s face, Volk glared down at the woman.

‘Alright, bitch, you say he doesn’t know, then I’ll go ahead and believe you.’ Volk stabbed his finger savagely into Mueller’s socket, then yanked his hand away. The maimed, shrieking man collapsed into a trembling heap on the floor, blood pouring from his ruined face. While Argula was still gawking in horror at the savage spectacle, Volk’s bloody fingers coiled in her hair and pulled her from the floor. ‘Start talking, or I start cutting,’ the racketeer warned, drawing his dagger. His smile became a sneer as he stared into her eyes. ‘I won’t start with your face, whore. I’ll start with the bits the lads are paying for first.’

Argula cast a desperate look at the crowd of patrons, employees and friends, imploring any of them for help. The only one with nerve enough to meet her eye was Gustaf Schlecht, the sometime house surgeon. The piggish man didn’t have the same helpless look as the others, but rather had the leering smile of a sadistic child watching an older sibling pull wings off a fly. His lack of empathy sent even more fear pounding through her heart. No one would help her and, given half a chance, grinning Gustaf might just join in!

‘He was here,’ Argula groaned while Volk continued to wrap the woman’s hair ever tighter in his fingers, forcing her ever higher onto her toes to stop the pain. ‘That one,’ she said, pointing to Mueller’s moaning body, ‘and the man you killed upstairs brought him, but someone else came and moved him elsewhere later.’

‘You see, Herr Volk, I told you true.’ The words came from the apothecary Sergei Kawolski, his speech partially muffled by the bloody rag he pressed against the corner of his mouth.

‘Shut your face, quack,’ growled Volk without looking at Sergei. ‘Or maybe you’d like to choke on some more teeth?’

Sergei shook his head, recoiling from the brutal racketeer. The apothecary had thought to turn a quick coin by informing Volk’s gang of the hideout of Dietrich and his smugglers. Instead, he was quickly realising he would be lucky to walk away from the fiasco with his life. If Volk’s men hadn’t found Mueller and Wilhelm, Sergei knew he would already be dead. If they failed to find the sickly Hans, Volk still might kill him.

Gustav Volk’s smile was almost reptilian in its merciless inhumanity as he pressed his face into that of Argula, his murderous eyes boring into her own. ‘Now, strumpet, who moved that bastard Hans and where did they take him?’ He twisted his hand, forcing her to crook her head at an awkward angle, the better to watch Volk’s dagger slide slowly down her body, slicing a little ribbon of lace from her bodice and dress as it worked its way down her side. ‘Talk or scream, I’ll find out and nobody’s going to stop me.’

A sudden chill swept through the tavern, bringing shivers to racketeers and prisoners alike. Beads of frost formed upon the bottles behind the bar, wood creaked as the air about it became icy. The darkness of the hall seemed to grow steadily thicker, every shadow attaining a sinister aura of lurking menace.

‘Keep a watch on those prisoners!’ Volk snapped. Like his men, he was turning about, watching the eerie, supernatural display unfolding all around them. The racketeer pulled Argula close to him, wrapping his arm across her generous chest, using the madam as a living shield against whatever unseen danger had descended upon the Crown and Two Chairmen.

Suddenly one of Volk’s thugs cried out, followed quickly by a second. Both men fell, their heads split by what looked like knives of solid shadow. Before the horrified gaze of the other mobsmen, the arcane blades began to wither, seeping into the wounds they had dealt even as blood dribbled out.

‘Over there!’ roared a black-toothed rogue, pointing at the stairway and firing his gun. The shot rushed past a grim apparition cloaked in grey robes, the bullet shattering against the ceiling. Every eye turned to the landing, drawn to the mysterious figure. Gleaming eyes, their colourless depths swirling like the cloudy heart of a tempest, impressed themselves upon all who looked upon the wizard, however far away. Cruel judgement, merciless justice, these were the threat carried in those eyes, a promise of death to all who defied the iron will dwelling behind their steely gaze.

‘Kill him!’ Volk shouted, breaking the spell of awed silence that gripped his men. The thug who had fired dropped his gun and scrambled to draw his sword. Two other rogues joined him on the stairs, firing their own guns before resorting to their blades. Like the first, the other marksmen failed to strike their target, the ghostly shape seeming to bend and distort around their speeding bullets. Two more missiles smashed harmlessly into the ceiling above the top of the stairs.

A mocking hiss rose from shrouded lips, and the cloaked shape became indistinct as the shadows on the stairway seemed to rush in and converge upon the wizard, wrapping and blurring his form in a mantle of darkness. The thugs on the steps trembled, their vicious courage wilting before the fearsome display of arcane power.

‘It is just a conjurer’s trick!’ roared Volk, making no move to join his men or abandon his living shield. ‘Kill him!’

The encouragement of their brutal boss sent steel back into the spines of the thugs. They forced defiant snarls onto their pale faces, glaring at the inky cloud of blackness that now filled the top of the stairway. One of the racketeers began to climb the steps, his fingers white around the grip of his sword.

No sooner had the villain taken his third step than the shadowy mass was billowing down the stairs, rushing towards him like some malevolent fog. The thug cried out, slashing his sword through the formless wall of night. An instant later and the man was enveloped by the shadows, an instant after that and his body was crashing through the wooden balustrade. The thug was already dead when he hit the floor, his neck sliced open and a look of abject terror frozen upon his cold features.

The dead man’s comrades on the stairs had no chance to recover from the shock of their fellow’s swift destruction. Before they could either move forwards or back, the wizard’s concealing darkness swept down, enveloping them as completely as the first racketeer. Briefly, the sounds of swords clashing carried itself from the blackness. A loathsome gurgle, a piteous groan, and all was silence again. One of the thugs emerged from the black fog. He swayed on the stairs for a moment, then toppled and fell, his body rolling brokenly down the steps.

As though struck by a sudden gale, the shadowy mantle was swept aside, streamers of darkness writhing and twisting as they slithered back into the shadows. The grey-cloaked magister stood revealed once more, a bloody sword in his hand, the dead body of a racketeer crumpled at his feet. From either side of his hawklike nose, the wizard’s fierce eyes cast judgement upon the men below.

Such cringing valour as remained among Volk’s crew withered beneath the renewed attention of that merciless gaze. With a cry of fear, the last two racketeers threw down their guns and ran towards the door. The wizard did not move, merely raised one of his darkened hands. Slivers of shadow erupted from the oily skin of darkness that coated his fingers, flashing across the hall to strike down the fleeing mobsmen. The thugs tottered and fell as the wizard’s sorcerous knives slashed through their backs. There was no honour among thieves, and no chivalry to be shown to murderers.

Gustav Volk’s body shivered, the first time the mob leader had known abject terror since becoming old enough to call himself a man. His eyes roved the hall, hunting for some avenue of escape, some place of refuge. Argula moaned in his twisting grip. A rat-like smile spread across Volk’s lips. He pulled the woman to the tips of her toes, using her shapely figure to completely cover himself from the silent figure standing upon the stairs. He pressed his dagger to her throat, bringing a tiny bead of blood running down the steel.

‘Stay back, warlock!’ Volk shouted, his voice filled more with panic than menace. ‘One step closer, and I’ll gut this whore like a pig!’

The cloaked wizard remained unmoving upon the stairs, his eyes still trained upon the mob leader. Volk’s face formed itself into a twisted grin. He began to back slowly across the hall, dragging Argula with him.

Volk’s slow retreat ended in a cold, icy pain that shivered through his back and belly. The racketeer’s dagger fell from his numbed hand, all the strength and vitality withering in his veins. Argula slipped from his slackened grip, shivering as she recoiled from the thug. Volk stared in disbelief at a sluggish crimson stain slowly spreading across his tunic, his incredulous gaze returning to the still unmoving figure on the stairs.

The illusion gradually faded, as the real wizard stepped around from behind the stricken racketeer, the tip of his sword wet with Volk’s blood. The pitiless eyes of the magister bored into those of Gustav Volk as his dying frame crumpled to its knees.

‘When you sit before Morr, tell him others are coming,’ the wizard hissed to the expiring mobsman. A gasped gargle rose from Volk’s throat, then the racketeer slumped onto the floor.

The wizard turned from the last of the racketeers, turning his steely gaze across those who had been Volk’s prisoners. If the crowd had cowered before the racketeers, they trembled before the grey-cloaked magister. He lifted a hand, his long fingers no longer coated in a dark skin of arcane shadows. He pointed at Argula.

‘The smuggler, where was he taken?’ the wizard demanded.

Before the violence and brutality of Gustav Volk, Argula had been prepared to remain stalwart and defiant, sacrificing her own life if need be to keep her beau safe. Faced with the eldritch menace of the wizard’s hissed words, her courage wilted.

‘Upstairs,’ she said, her voice quivering with fear and guilt. ‘Hans is inside the old priest hole.’

‘Show me,’ the wizard commanded, gesturing to the stairs.

Reluctantly, Argula stepped around the sprawled bodies of the dead racketeers, trying to keep her eyes from looking at their ugly, blackened wounds. She could sense rather than hear the cloaked magister following her, his very presence exuding an aura of wrongness, of offence against everything natural and pure.

A sharp cry from the hall below caused Argula to turn about. The apothecary, Sergei, was crumpled on the floor, gripping a bleeding leg and moaning. Gustaf Schlecht stood over him, a grisly-looking surgical hook gripped in his grimy fist. He looked up at Argula with the same sadistic smile he had displayed when she was being threatened by Volk.

‘The toff’s fallen down and hurt hisself,’ Schlecht croaked, his voice dripping with brutish humour. ‘Figured maybe I should look to him. I’m something of a doctor, after all.’ He laughed at his own crude humour. Surgery, even the simple stitches Schlecht was called upon to minister to injured bouncers and bar patrons, wasn’t a matter of healing to the man, but rather an excuse for indulging his own sadism.

Argula glanced back at the wizard, expecting that grim figure to intercede, to spare Sergei the cruel attentions of Schlecht. Instead she found the same grim countenance watching her from beneath the shadow of his grey hood. Remorseless, implacable, the wizard continued to follow Argula, utterly unmoved by the plight of Volk’s informant. By casting his lot in with racketeers, Sergei had earned his fate.

The priest hole was a tiny alcove hidden behind the closet of one of the bedrooms. Argula pulled aside the rack of dresses that filled the space, exposing the little iron-banded door. A relic from the days of the Ulrican schism, when the cult of Ulric had sought to scour Altdorf of its Sigmarite faith, there were many priest holes to be found in the older structures of the city. They were places of refuge and concealment for the hunted priests, places from which the cult of Sigmar could continue to minister to the masses of Altdorf and maintain a presence and influence in the city.

Now the tiny room hid a different sort of cleric. Leni Kleifoth, the demure priestess of Shallya, huddled against the doorway, her face flush with a resigned defiance. Utterly committed to non-violence, there was little a member of her order could do to oppose brutal men such as Volk’s mob, but at the same time, striking down a priestess was one of the few villainies that gave even the basest outlaw qualms of conscience.

When she saw the grey figure standing behind Argula, Leni’s expression changed, becoming dour and uncertain. She looked sadly at Argula and allowed the woman to slip past her into the little room. Argula threw herself beside a little heap of blankets upon which Hans’s pallid body was strewn like a sickly scarecrow. Filthy brown liquid dribbled from his body, ugly green worms crawled visibly beneath his skin. The groans of pain rising from Hans were quickly drowned out by the weeping of his woman.

‘Report,’ the cold voice of the wizard rasped, tearing Leni’s eyes from the piteous scene.

‘I have tended the man to the best of my skills,’ Leni said. ‘I have made prayers to the goddess and burned incense in the victim’s name. I have…’ her voice grew weak with guilt. ‘I have allowed him to drink the sacred tears, and have administered the other treatments dictated by my orders.’

‘Results.’

Leni shook her head, stifling her own tears. ‘The victim remains unresponsive, the infection continues to grow and spread. There is nothing more to do except pray to the goddess.’

‘This is poison, not true disease,’ the wizard said, gesturing to the broken shape of the smuggler. ‘It attacks what is inside the man, not the man himself. Your failure to heal him proves the nature of this evil.’

The priestess threw back her shoulders, glaring at the cloaked wizard. ‘Even if I fail, I must still try to help this man!’

A dark chuckle hissed from the wizard’s concealed lips, amused by the boldness of the priestess and her fealty to her vows. ‘Admirable, but useless.’ His stormy gaze returned to the stricken Hans. ‘The only help you can render him is the only help your vows forbid you to bestow.’ His fingers spread, forming a splayed claw.

In response to the wizard’s gesture, ribbons of shadow slithered from the gloomy room, enveloping Hans’s head. The smuggler gasped as the ribbons wrapped about him. His body thrashed against the blankets while Argula fought helplessly to pull the smothering darkness from his face. A minute, no more, and Hans was still. Argula held his hand, sobbing as she felt life pass from it. At the same time, the ribbons of shadow dissipated, exposing Hans’s lifeless features.

‘Release from agony,’ the wizard told Leni. As he gazed upon the priestess, for the first time there was a hint of sympathy in the magister’s grey eyes. ‘The tranquil peace of death.’ The sympathy drained away, once more the steely gaze was a thing of fire and judgement.

‘Check the woman for any sign of infection,’ he ordered the priestess. ‘Baer will arrive to burn the carcass of the man. My familiar will collect your written record at the usual time.’

‘I obey,’ Leni said, her tone subservient, laced with equal measures of respect and fear.

There was nothing more. Like a patch of lingering night burned away by the dawn, the wizard’s body faded away, leaving only the empty doorway and the narrow walls of the closet.

After the third attempt, Skrim Gnawtail was finally able to suggest a hideout that was not utterly beneath the dignity and position of Grey Seer Thanquol. The skaven priest-sorcerer’s new lair was an old townhouse house on Altdorf’s prosperous Reikhoch Prachstrasse. The structure had sat alone and abandoned for years, shunned by the humans who dwelt around it. Ugly rumours had circulated about Contessa Eleanora Daria di Argentisso, the last tenant of the townhouse. Stories of vampirism and even more unspeakable acts of evil.

Thanquol cared for the superstitious fright of humans only so far as it lent itself to his own purposes. If stories of vampires and ghosts kept the foolish animals from intruding upon his solitude, so much the better. He had enough flesh-and fur enemies to occupy his thoughts without adding phantoms and spectres to his worries.

The grey seer prowled through the dusty halls of the townhouse, dead leaves crunching under his feet. He wrinkled his nose as he nearly stepped into the wispy net of an immense cobweb stretching across the hallway. Angrily, he swatted the obstruction down with the head of his staff and smashed a fat-bellied spider beneath its iron-capped butt. The incident in the Maze of Merciless Penance had left Thanquol in no mood to abide the presence of insects, arachnids and all their crawling kind. If he had the underlings to spare, he would have the townhouse scoured from attic to cellar and all its creeping denizens exterminated.

Unfortunately, Thanquol didn’t have the minions to spare. Barely two dozen of them had escaped the ambush laid by Skrattch Skarpaw and the treacherous clan lords of Under-Altdorf. Most of the survivors were Skrim’s slippery sneaks and Viskitt Burnfang’s warlock engineers. It was just as well – they were the most useful to him, far more valuable under the present circumstances than a battalion of stormvermin. Even their small numbers were preferable; too many and they might think to earn their way back into the graces of Under-Altdorf by betraying Thanquol to their old masters. Fortunately, he judged their numbers too insignificant to dare any mischief against a sorcerer of his maleficent might.

Even if they were, there was Boneripper to consider. Since escaping from the sewers, Thanquol had been careful to keep his clever, cunning bodyguard as close to him as possible. It was a situation that had played havoc with the townhouse’s doorways and ceilings, but the humans had abandoned the dwelling anyway. More important than Skrim’s paranoia about leaving evidence of their brief occupancy was keeping Boneripper where the rat ogre could savage his master’s enemies before they could endanger Thanquol’s valuable hide.

There had been a few others who had escaped the sewers with the Clan Skaul sneaks and the Clan Skryre warlock engineers. Thanquol saw little value in keeping a motley clawful of clanrat warriors and beastmasters around, especially when their added strength might just give Skrim or Burnfang ugly ambitions. There was another purpose they could be put to that would help him far more than their ability to catch rats or bear arms. All of his slave subjects were back in Under-Altdorf, a place he didn’t dare show his scent. It was more important than ever that his experiments with the Wormstone proceed on schedule. Lacking either numbers or leadership, the ragged survivors of the other clan delegations were perfect proxies for Thanquol’s absent supply of slave-subjects. Of course, the treacherous cowards didn’t see it that way, but Thanquol had ways to enforce his will.

Viskitt Burnfang built a crude laboratory in the spacious old kitchens of the townhouse, even cobbling together a complex array of pipes to divert the smoke from his improvised furnace down into the townhouse’s cellar. It wouldn’t do, after all, to have smoke rising from a supposedly vacant house. That was the sort of thing the man-things just might take it in mind to investigate.

Burnfang attacked the experiments with his usual scheming and eye for sinister innovation. Using the townhouse’s larder as a make-do slave pen, he had found a new way to administer the Wormstone by tainting the drinking water of the unlucky wretches. The liquid somehow diluted the poisonous infection, but if it lacked some of its former swiftness, it retained its grisly potency. Thanquol was pleased with the results, and the new means of introducing the infection to the enemies of skavendom. Indeed, it set the grey seer’s mind considering new potential for this weapon, potential that would set him among the greatest skaven to ever live – or at least even higher in those august ranks since no ratman could claim such a legacy of success, brilliance, and valour as himself.

Thanquol paused beside one of the slave-subjects, a moaning warrior whose fur was already starting to fall out as ugly worm-like growths burst from beneath his skin. He watched every flicker of pain and suffering on the captive’s face, picturing the faces of Thratquee and Skarpaw and all the other scum who had betrayed him gripped by such pain! His enemies would not be allowed the leisure to regret baring their fangs to Grey Seer Thanquol!

‘Skrim!’ Thanquol snarled. The little Clan Skaul spy came creeping into the kitchen, his feet slipping on the smooth marble tiles. His head bobbed up and down in frightened subservience to his tyrannical master. ‘Get your best sniffers! Somewhere in this filthy human-warren there will be a place of records. The man-things do nothing without writing it down. I want to know where they take their water from!’

‘Their water?’ asked Skrim, not understanding.

The question drew a look of disgust from Burnfang, but the warlock engineer simply shook his head and returned to his experiments. Thanquol bristled more at Burnfang’s manlike gesture than Skrim’s idiotic lack of vision.

‘Yes-yes, their water, fool-meat!’ Thanquol snarled. If the spy had been close enough, he would have cracked his snout with his staff. As it was, he made do with a threatening display of fangs. ‘They will have maps, charts of their city. Bring the ones that show their canals and aqueducts!’

Skrim muttered a string of obsequious assurances that he would follow Thanquol’s commands and scurried from the makeshift laboratory with indecent haste.

Thanquol looked over at Burnfang, his lip curling in loathing. He would kill two fleas with one scratch. The degenerates of Under-Altdorf were so dependent upon the humans for their way of life, stealing not merely food and supplies, but even customs and mannerisms. He was certain they were also dependent upon the same source of water as the man-things. By poisoning the human city, he would at the same time be poisoning Under-Altdorf and all of his enemies there! It was a grand stroke only a skaven of his genius would have conceived! The capitol of the humans devastated and at the same time the rebellious degenerates of Under-Altdorf annihilated.

Besides, Thanquol thought, if the Lords of Decay did complain, he could always shift the blame to Skrim Gnawtail for bringing him incomplete maps.

Alone, wet, tired, the wound on his head still dripping blood and trying his best to follow the trail of one of Clan Eshin’s elite killers, Kratch was far from happy. Only the apprentice’s lust for revenge against Grey Seer Thanquol silenced the fear that hammered through his heart, driving him onward. He knew he was too weak to confront Thanquol alone. The trick would lie in convincing Skarpaw that the assassin needed him if he was to succeed in eliminating their mutual enemy.

Kratch followed the assassin for what seemed hours, sloshing through the reeking sewers of the humans and old, seldom used rat-runs whose ceilings creaked and whose walls displayed generations of neglect as they crumbled beneath Kratch’s whiskers. Skarpaw, like all of the assassins of Clan Eshin, did not have an individual scent, his glands having been removed in one of the clan’s mysterious eastern rituals. However, if Kratch could not pick out Skarpaw from any other skaven by his scent, the assassin could not hide the fact that he still had the distinctive smell of all ratmen. So long as no other skaven crossed Skarpaw’s trail, Kratch’s nose would be able to track him without confusion.

The trail led Kratch into a particularly ramshackle section of sewer. A long-ago collapse had filled the tunnel with rubble from the street above. The wreckage had simply been bricked over by the humans, who had diverted their waste around the compromised section of tunnel. The shoddy excavation that Skarpaw crawled into to reach the forgotten channel was so poor, Kratch doubted it was the work of either man or skaven, more likely the labour of mutants or scrawny, slinking sewer goblins.

Crawling after Skarpaw through the cramped, debris-strewn passage, Kratch was struck by the putrid stink of the place. It was a smell of death and decay, of rot and ruin, of sickness and corruption. No skaven who had once encountered such a smell could ever forget it; the smell of the plague monks, the diseased fanatics of Clan Pestilens.

Kratch’s hackles rose and he fought the urge to squirt the musk of fear. He could pick out the individual scents of other skaven from the air, not simply one or two, but dozens. Some were alive with loathsomeness, others were the foul smells of the dead. Kratch recoiled from the horror of realising how little difference there was between the two.

Kratch pressed his body flat in the narrow tunnel, trying to work up the nerve to continue. The faint sound of voices gave him something to concentrate upon besides his own fear. One voice was the whispered snarl of Skarpaw, the other was a gurgling croak thick with evil. The adept strained to make out words, but the distance was too great. Gingerly, with as much care as he had ever shown in his entire life of scheming and spying, Kratch crept closer, clenching his teeth as the sickening smell of the plague monks grew more intense.

Now Kratch could put words to voices. Skarpaw was explaining his recent failure to the plague monk leader. The assassin’s tone was strangely servile, lacking the authority and threat of an Under-Altdorf clan leader. There was actually a trace of fear running through Skarpaw’s words, a desperate, almost pleading anxiety Kratch had never thought to hear come from the mouth of an assassin. Hearing Skarpaw’s fear fanned the flames of his own, and Kratch began to slowly crawl back through the narrow opening. A sudden shift in the conversation arrested his retreat, however, and the adept crooked his ears as he heard the filthy croak of the plague monk mention Thanquol and the Wormstone. He started to creep forwards again, ignoring the stink of death and corruption all around him.

‘…certain you have been followed?’ the croaking plague monk asked.

‘Yes-yes, rotten one!’ Skarpaw’s anxious voice replied. ‘Long-long has his scent been in my nose!’

A tremor of terror sizzled through Kratch’s brain. Fool-fool to think he could follow one of Clan Eshin’s killers without the assassin knowing it!

Panicked, Kratch started to crawl away. As he did so, the smell of dead ratman swelled around him. He felt scrawny paws close tight about his ankles, holding him firm as he lashed about to free himself. Threshing his body about, Kratch was able to see the dead-smelling things that held him. They were skaven, once, but now they had more kinship to corpses than living ratmen. Their fur hung from their bodies in wet strips, peeling away from skin that looked as lifeless as boiled meat. Tatters that might once have been robes clung to their near-skeletal frames, while blemished eyes gleamed rabidly from the sunken sockets of withered skulls. The things glistened with a sheen of pus that seemed to exude from every pore.

Kratch shrieked and flailed all the harder in the grip of the diseased ratmen, his lips stumbling over the syllables of a spell. Firm paws gripped him about head and shoulder, strong claws clamping his mouth closed before he could work his magic. Beset from before and behind, Kratch flailed helplessly in the grip of his captors.

The oozing ratmen carried their quarry out of the tunnel and into a large vault. Scummy water sloshed beneath the feet of the skaven as they stalked through the chamber. Ahead, on an island of broken bricks and mud, a cluster of ratmen watched the procession with malicious amusement. Robes, pelts and bodies were in better condition than the wretched specimens that had captured Kratch, but not one of them was without the stamp of disease. Even Skarpaw’s black-cloaked figure seemed pallid and infirm, his limbs trembling as with an ague.

‘See-look!’ the assassin crowed, pointing a claw at Kratch. ‘The traitor-priest’s apprentice! All-all is as I have true-told!’

The creature Skarpaw addressed was such a ghastly-looking specimen that he made even the wretched ratmen carrying Kratch seem the picture of health. Bloated with corruption, his face lost beneath a mass of boils, his fur limited to green-tinged patches, the plague lord peered evilly from beneath the grimy folds of his hood.

‘Yessss,’ the plague lord’s voice bubbled through a mouth almost barren of fangs. ‘You have true-told. This time.’ One of the creature’s wasted hands pulled a little vial from a ratskin bag hanging from the rope that circled his waist. Almost absently, the plague lord dropped it at his feet. Skarpaw pounced after the vial, chasing after it as it bounced down the bricks towards the filthy water. Bloated plague rats, of the four-legged kind, scattered before his frantic pursuit. The plague monks laughed at the assassin’s terror, their voices sounding like a chorus of maggots. Skarpaw caught the vial just as it struck the water, his hand coated in green scum as he pressed the vessel to his lips and guzzled its contents with abandon.

Lord Skrolk chortled at the pathetic spectacle. ‘Have no fear-fright, Skarpaw-slave. Lord Skrolk keep-honours his promise-squeak. You may wait ten bells before you must earn-beg more medicine.’ The plague lord made the last word sound as though it held all the evil in the world within it. The other plague monks wrinkled their muzzles at the sound, muttering a wheezing chant that sounded like nothing so much as the buzzing of flies.

Lord Skrolk pushed his way through his green-robed disciples, his rheumy eyes focused on Kratch. A flick of the plague lord’s scabby claw and the wretched creatures holding the adept set him down. They glared sullenly at Lord Skrolk, like so many abused curs fearing their master’s cruel whims. Another flick of the plague lord’s claw and the sickly ratmen retreated back through the scummy water, keeping just near enough to pounce on Kratch should the apprentice seer try to escape.

‘Thanquol’s lick-spit,’ Skrolk said, fixing Kratch with his putrid gaze. The plague lord’s breath was like an over-ripe midden, making the adept gag. ‘You are fool-meat to spy-sneak for your master.’ Skrolk’s lips pulled back, exposing the few blackened fangs still clinging to his gums. ‘Tell-speak, where is your master and what he has stolen?’

Kratch found enough desperate courage to force words up his throat. ‘I-I serve not-not Thanquol thief-traitor! I-I am brother-under-the-fur to your most obscene eminence, father of decay and despair! Death to the traitor-meat! Death-suffer for Thanquol!’ For emphasis, Kratch spat after pronouncing the name of his old mentor.

Lord Skrolk simply stared at the snivelling apprentice, the snarl never leaving his diseased face. ‘I… Clan Pestilens desires the Wormstone,’ Skrolk growled. ‘Arrogant Thanquol is no-no interest. Your revenge is no-no interest.’

Skrolk waved his paw. One of the plague monks drew a rusty dagger from beneath his robes and started to descend the slope of the island. Kratch dropped to his knees, quivering in the cold filth of the flooded vault.

‘Mercy-pity, great doom-breeder, sire of a thousand poxes!’ Kratch’s whines became even more rapid when he saw that flattery had done nothing to arrest the descent of his executioner. ‘Kratch can take mighty Lord Skrolk to what his former traitor-teacher has stolen!’

Lord Skrolk’s face narrowed with suspicion, but he raised a paw, stopping the executioner’s descent. Kratch hurried to explain his meaning to the plague lord. ‘When I tried to save-protect the Wormstone from thieving Thanquol, I placed upon it my seer-sign.’ Kratch gestured with his claws, giving some hint of the sorcerous symbol he had scratched into the rock. ‘I can see-scent my seer-sign wherever Thanquol-thief takes it.’ The adept tapped the side of his head, indicating that his sense of the magical mark was something he sensed in his mind rather than a thing some skaven with better eyes or nose could hope to find.

Skrolk’s snarl lessened by a fraction. He waved his scabby claw and the sickly ratmen came swarming forwards, seizing Kratch. Savagely they tore at him, ripping away his grey robes and leaving him naked and shivering before the island of plague monks. Skrolk waved his paw again and three plague monks climbed down the mass of bricks and mud, carrying with them the body of a fourth. Callously, they stripped the diseased carcass of its tattered green robe and threw it to Kratch. Instinctively, the adept caught the flung garment. He stifled the impulse to cast it aside, trying not to look too closely at it, or pay attention to the way the flea-ridden cloth seemed to crawl beneath his fingers.

‘Brother-under-the-fur,’ Skrolk laughed. ‘Now you are brother-true. Reject false-words of seers and embrace true face of the Horned One! Bring Skrolk to the Wormstone, and you will be plague priest. Betray,’ the word was nothing but a bestial snarl at the back of Skrolk’s throat, ‘and you become pus-bag.’

Kratch followed Skrolk’s extended finger, cringing when he saw that the plague lord was pointing at the rotting, pseudo-dead things that had captured him. Hurriedly, Kratch started to don the filthy green robe, trying to give an impression of enthusiasm.

Skarpaw crept forwards as the adept was dressing himself. ‘Thanquol will not give up the Wormstone without a fight. His magic is powerful-strong, and his rat ogre is worth any fifty of your plague monks!’

Lord Skrolk glared at the assassin. ‘I will deal with the seer’s corrupt sorcery,’ his bubbling voice declared. Again, the plague lord made a gesture with his scabby paw. This time it was not the ratmen on the island who reacted to his command, but another group of plague monks gathered at a brick-lined archway across from the little tunnel Kratch had crawled through. At his gesture, the ratmen began pulling on heavy bronze chains, fighting to pull something into the dim light of the vault. Kratch froze and turned his head as he heard something huge sloshing through the water of a flooded sewer and into the vault. Skarpaw drew his wicked swords and dropped into a crouch of tense muscles and pounding heart. Skrolk simply grinned his black-toothed smile.

‘Pox and Nox will deal with Boneripper.’

Grey Seer Thanquol inhaled a pinch of warpstone snuff and snickered as he studied the diagrams Skrim’s agents had stolen from one of Altdorf’s civic buildings. The skaven had stolen dozens of plans for everything from sewers to the Imperial Menagerie, and hundreds of worthless documents even the most addle-witted ratman should have been able to recognise as being useless, but it was this set of mouldy old parchment maps that best suited Thanquol’s grand vision.

They were old, hundreds of generations old by the standards of the short-lived skaven. They had been drawn up by dwarf artisans in the distant times when the squabbling humans had warred amongst themselves and laid siege to one another each spring. The men of Altdorf had feared for their security, seeking to establish lines of supply that would withstand any attacker, no matter how large his army. The dwarf diagrams represented a solution to the city’s most pressing concern: a reliable supply of water independent of the River Reik. The burrowing beard-things had found an underground lake beneath the oldest part of the human city. Through a clever network of subterranean channels and pipes, the dwarfs had made the lake into a reservoir that could supply the entire city for an indefinite period. Fed by still deeper streams and rivers, the lake was an almost bottomless well to sate the thirst of the humans.

It was also, Skrim reluctantly confirmed, the main source of fresh water for the skaven city of Under-Altdorf as well.

Thanquol lashed his tail in amusement and rolled up the diagrams, stuffing them into his belt. The reservoir would be the perfect place to strike! In one fell swoop, he would poison the largest human settlement in the Empire and destroy the treacherous heretics of Under-Altdorf! Even the Lords of Decay would be forced to bow before the genius of such a masterful stroke. Thanquol rubbed his paws together, imagining the honours and rewards they would heap upon him.

The grey seer rose from the claw-footed chair, some of its decaying velvet clinging to his robes as he stood. Thanquol padded across the dusty wreckage of what had once been the townhouse’s study, Boneripper’s immense bulk plodding a respectful three paces behind him. He wrinkled his nose, sniffing the air, catching the faint odour of Wormstone. Following the sounds of activity, he descended to the ground floor of the townhouse, creeping into what had been the front parlour.

The room no longer bore even the echo of its former function. Under Burnfang’s frantic direction, it had been transformed into a workshop, every table in the abandoned townhouse pressed into service to support stone pestles and mortars. The warlock engineer’s minions worked at a frenzied pace, their snouts lost behind masks of rat-gut and leather, their hands covered in what looked like oversized mittens. The workers laboured at their pestles, grinding slivers of Wormstone down into a fine grit of poison. The grit, in turn, was poured into wine bottles looted from the cellar of the townhouse. Fabulously rare and priceless vintages had been callously spilled across the floor as the ratmen emptied the bottles in preparation for receiving far more sinister contents.

Thanquol grinned as he watched his underlings work. Soon they would pulverise the last of the Wormstone. Soon they would be ready to strike! Then none would dare defy the might and power of Grey Seer Thanquol! From the spires of Skavenblight to the lowest rat-burrow, all the Under-Empire would grovel before the fury of Thanquol!

Watching his minions work but taking small notice of their actual labours, Thanquol didn’t notice Viskitt Burnfang quietly pour a small measure of crushed Wormstone into a little glass sphere, nor observe the warlock engineer carefully set the sphere inside one of his many belt pouches.

Burnfang glanced up at the grey seer and struggled to hide his snarl of contempt. The time would soon come to disabuse Thanquol of his arrogance.

Deep beneath the streets of Altdorf, something stirred in the darkness. Powerful nostrils flared, sniffing at the air. Thousands of scents and smells raced through the tiny brain of the beast, each quickly dismissed and discarded. From all the myriad odours of the city, from the countless stenches of its sewers to the innumerable smells of its markets and thoroughfares, the sensitive nose picked out the one scent that had aroused its interest, the scent that had twice drawn it up from the black underworld and into the city above.

The rat-beast rose from its haunches, filthy sewer water dripping from its scalded hide. The clammy chill of the noxious canal soothed its oozing wounds, the muck of the brick-lined channel cooling its burnt flesh. The monster was loath to abandon its refuge, but the intoxicating scent of the Wormstone pulled at its primitive senses, drawing it like a moth to a flame. It chattered angrily to itself, despising this impulse it could neither understand nor control.

Slowly, the rat-beast began to lope through the dank tunnels of Altdorf’s sewers, its keen nose trained on the guiding scent of its poisonous quarry, following the scent with the unerring precision of a lodestone.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

GONE TO GROUND

‘What happens now?’

The question lingered in the little back room of the Black Bat, almost as though by being spoken, it had assumed life and substance of its own. The echoes seemed to seep into the soot-stained plaster walls, to crawl into the scarred timber benches and heavy oak table. The uncertain tone recoiled from the stone-lined fireplace, repulsed by the cold breeze whistling down the chimney.

Johann Dietrich’s companions shared a grim, forbidding look. It had taken three of them to keep him from rushing to the Crown and Two Chairmen to save his brother from Gustav Volk’s doubtful mercy. He was uncertain which of the three had struck him with a leather sap, though there was a sinister aspect about the sharp, leathery features of the swarthy Tilean leaning against the room’s only door that made him Johann’s first choice. The Tilean gave him a sour look in turn, making it clear he didn’t care a groat for what Johann thought of him.

The other two were seated at the table with Johann. One was a burly, wild-haired man wearing a heavy leather slicker and an almost shapeless felt hat. If pressed, Johann would have guessed his vocation as coachman or perhaps barge captain. He had a cunning glint to his eye that reminded him of merchants and other swindlers, but was weathered enough to look like he was no stranger to real work.

The second man at the table was less formidable in build, but a good deal more sinister in aspect. He was dressed better than the Tilean and the coachman, his clothes sporting a finery only racketeers and ship captains dared display on the waterfront; the little designs on his eelskin boots were picked out in gold leaf, the buckle of his belt was a monstrous assemblage of amethyst and jade, the pearl hilts of his matched daggers were shaped like snarling sharks and each eye was picked out with a tiny ruby. Seeing the daggers, Johann came to the cold realisation that he knew this man, even if he had never set eyes upon him before. No one on the waterfront had failed to hear of Simo Valkoinen. Next to the ‘Murder Prince’ Dieter Neff, he was the most infamous assassin-for-hire in Altdorf. How many of the bloated bodies found floating in the Reik could be credited to Valkoinen and his ‘Fangs of Stromfels’, no one could say for certain. It was certain that Valkoinen, the ‘Cold Death’ as the criminals of the waterfront had named him, was not offering any official tally of his work.

Valkoinen! Johann’s mind reeled under the implication, the certainty that this formidable hired killer was actually one of the helpers, the servants of the mysterious wizard who had saved his life. What sort of man could command the loyalty of a killer like Valkoinen? What sort of man would want to?

‘What happens next largely depends on you.’

Johann’s answer came from a fifth occupant of the little room. When he had regained consciousness, Johann hadn’t noticed the little political agitator Ludwig Rothfels. He took a seat on the bench beside Valkoinen and the coachman. The pleasant-faced agitator looked almost ridiculous sitting between the brawny coachman and the sinister assassin, like a cook’s ladle set between a pair of swords.

‘You will be given a choice,’ Ludwig continued, staring intently into Johann’s face. ‘The same choice all of us were called upon to make. You will be given the opportunity to serve the master and help him in his work.’

Johann shook his head, snorting with ill humour. ‘The master and his work,’ he repeated. ‘You make it sound very mysterious.’

‘Because it is,’ growled the Tilean from his place against the wall.

The smuggler growled back at the scowling foreigner. ‘Just the same, I’d like to know what noose you want me to put my neck in.’ He returned his attention to Ludwig. ‘Just who is this “master” of yours and what is this work he asks you to help him with?’

Ludwig seemed to consider the question for a long time, and when he finally answered, there was a note of uncertainty in his voice. ‘We know him by the name of Jeremias Scrivner and he is a wizard of terrible power. There are many who serve him, far more than you saw at the Orc and Axe. The master has eyes and ears throughout the city, perhaps even beyond. How many may number themselves among his servants, only he could say.’ Ludwig paused and sighed deeply as though remembering some past guilt. ‘As for his “work”, Scrivner is devoted to the defence of Altdorf against all those who would bring evil upon the city.’

Johann stood, shaking his head. ‘It seems to me he has a strange way of fighting evil.’ He swung his pointing finger around the room. ‘A rabble-rouser, a hired killer, a smuggler, a Tilean alley rat…’

The Tilean pushed himself from the wall, one hand dropping to the slender rapier he wore. ‘You watch who you call “rat” or I make nice red grin in your neck!’

‘Amando, please,’ Ludwig called out. ‘He did not understand what he said.’

The Tilean sneered at Johann. ‘He doesn’ understand? They never understand! They bring their dirty rock into the city. Then ratkin, they come to take the rock, and whatever else they wanta take!’ Amando’s face became livid as he saw the incredulous expression on Johann’s face. ‘You think maybe I no know what I talk about, hey little thief?’ He tapped himself on the chest. ‘I’m from Miragliano. I see with my own eyes what ratkin do when they take it into their heads to stop slinking in their tunnels!’

‘If the problem is so serious, then why are you sitting around here?’ demanded Johann. He trembled as he remembered the ghastly creatures he had fought in the cellar and the hate-filled gaze of their horned leader. ‘Why doesn’t your master notify the authorities, bring the Reiksguard and the witch hunters and the whole of the Imperial army down upon them?’

‘Because the underfolk are a myth.’ The hissing words came from the darkened corner of the little room, a space so small that Johann was certain no one could have hidden there. Even the other men in the room betrayed uneasy wonder as a grey-cloaked figure stepped from the shadows, the darkness swirling about his lean form like little fingers of black fog. The stormy grey eyes of Jeremias Scrivner met each of his minions in turn, subduing even Amando’s anger with the imperious power of his gaze. The wizard’s attention lingered on Johann and the smuggler stumbled back, dropping down onto the timber bench.

‘They must remain a myth,’ Scrivner continued. ‘Ignorance is the best shield the Empire has, the ratkin themselves our best allies against the threat of the skaven. While man remains ignorant of their world, the skaven feel safe to war amongst themselves, pursuing their petty intrigues and vendettas. Given a common foe, given a common purpose, their entire race would unite into a single horde and smother the world of men beneath their numbers. For the survival of the Empire, the underfolk must remain a fable told to children.’

‘But you can’t just let such monsters go free!’ protested Johann. He gestured to Ludwig and the other men in the room. ‘They tell me that you are some manner of champion, a fighter against evil. What could be more evil than these ratmen! You must fight them!’

A flicker of approval seemed to pass through Scrivner’s colourless eyes. The wizard lifted a long-fingered hand, halting Johann’s impassioned words. ‘I will fight them. You and your friends brought a terrible thing into this city. In doing so, you have placed Altdorf in great peril. At the same time, you may have saved all who dwell between its walls.’

Every eye was on the wizard as he swept across the dimly lit room. His hands were beneath his cloak, and when they emerged there was a little lead box gripped between his fingers. Carefully he set the box down and stepped back. A muffled incantation hissed from Scrivner’s hidden lips and an invisible hand opened the catch on the box. The lid sprang back, exposing a little shard of greenish-black rock that glowed evilly in the darkness.

‘Wyrdstone,’ gasped Johann.

‘So book-foolish men would say,’ Scrivner said. He pointed at the box. ‘What is in there is more dangerous than warpstone – what ignorant scholars once named wyrdstone to deceive themselves and cloak their own fears. This is poison and pestilence cast into stone by the foulest of magics. To touch this is to touch death.’

‘Kleiner! And my… my brother!’

Scrivner nodded grimly. ‘They handled the stone and its evil seeped into their veins. Even the grace of Shallya could not stave off the taint which ravaged Hans Dietrich.’

Johann’s face became pale, his entire body seeming to wilt as he heard the wizard pronounce his brother’s doom. Hans was dead then? Taken by the horrible disease that had ravaged him. No, not a disease, but some kind of abominable poison created by the ratmen!

‘I will not accept this!’ Johann snarled. ‘Kempf handled the rock more than my brother, you saw him in the cellar chipping pieces from it to steal for himself! If it was poisonous, he would have fallen ill long before Hans!’

‘Kempf was an addict of a substance called black dust, a foul derivative of warpstone sold to human distributors by opportunistic skaven,’ Scrivner said. ‘Use of the drug caused the thief’s body to build a greater tolerance to the poison, though he too would have succumbed in time. Your brother, lacking Kempf’s vice, was more susceptible to even a slight exposure to the stone.’

Johann slumped against the table, holding his head in his hands, his last desperate defiance of Scrivner’s words crushed by the wizard’s cold logic. Accepting his explanation, Johann was also forced to accept the news that his brother was dead.

‘The stone works upon a simple principle,’ Scrivner continued, this time his words intended for all within the room. ‘It could be likened to a lodestone, only drawn to warpstone instead of metal and operating in far more horrible fashion. It feeds upon warpstone residue trapped within living bodies, drawing it together into tubular, worm-like growths. Warpstone dust is everywhere and in everything, but seldom in concentrations pronounced enough to do harm. This stone,’ the wizard pointed again at the box. With his gesture, the lid snapped closed once more. ‘This stone draws those harmless traces of warpstone dust into deadly knots of corruption and mutation. I suspect that the stone is even more deadly to the ratkin, whose entire metabolism is saturated with warpstone.’

‘Then why would the ratkin create such a thing?’ asked Ludwig.

‘Because they do not value the lives of their own,’ the wizard said. ‘To the skaven there is nothing so cheap as the life of a ratman. If they must lose ten of their own to kill a single enemy, then they count it a bargain so long as they are not one of the ten.’

‘We cannot let the ratkin get away with plot! They make of Altdorf what they do to Miragliano!’ Amando raged.

‘There are agents and powers already seeking the stone,’ Scrivner said. ‘If the skaven have taken it anywhere in the city, I shall learn of it.’

Johann lifted his head from the table, hate smouldering in his eyes. ‘They have to be destroyed,’ he growled, his voice cold as a winter grave. ‘Every last one of them.’

The wizard nodded his hooded head, his grey eyes burning in the darkness. ‘You will get your opportunity, Johann Dietrich,’ he said.

Scrivner reached to the table, collecting the little lead box. As he removed it, Johann was surprised to see that something had been left in its place. It was a small, flat rectangle of strangely-hued gold like nothing he had ever seen before. The surface of the token was richly engraved with writhing serpents and crawling lizards, a stylised sun peering from between two eclipsing moons forming the centrepiece of the engraving.

‘My talisman,’ the wizard said, motioning for Johann to collect the token. ‘All who serve me bear such a coin,’ he continued, watching as the smuggler’s fingers lifted the gold rectangle to his face that he might inspect it more closely. ‘By accepting it, you become one of my servants. You agree to follow my orders without question or hesitation. You agree to place no loyalty above that which you shall render to me, not that of family, gods or Empire.’

‘If I refuse?’ Johann asked, his eyes never leaving the strange coin.

‘Then you will forget about avenging your brother’s death.’ The wizard’s cold words cut through the air like a knife.

Johann looked again at the grey-shrouded apparition, trying to fathom the mind that regarded him from behind those sinister, colourless eyes. At last he nodded and slipped the coin into his pocket. It did not matter to him any more what Scrivner’s motives were, what the wizard’s intentions were. It was enough that he promised Johann revenge. For that, Johann would follow the magister into the Mouth of Chaos if he demanded it.

Suddenly there was a sound from the chimney, a rustling, scratching noise that set every man in the room on edge. Valkoinen’s hands whisked daggers from his belt in a blinding flash, the coachman had an ugly-looking mace in his hand almost before Johann was aware the man had started to move. Amando drew pistol and rapier while Ludwig backed away, a knife clenched in his fist. Every man stood ready for action, their morbid imaginations fired by talk of ratkin and underfolk.

Only Scrivner remained as he had been, unperturbed by the sounds descending the chimney. The wizard turned slowly as the noise reached the bottom of the shaft, one hand gesturing at the hearth. Johann saw something dark slip from the opening, dropping onto the hearth with a wet flop. The dark shape shook itself, then, to the smuggler’s alarm, it seemed to expand, growing in size and distorting its shape. Scrivner swung his pointing hand around, gesturing to the table. The thing in the hearth hissed at him, a low serpentine noise that made Johann’s skin crawl. The dark shape launched itself into the air, gliding across the room to land atop the table.

Johann recoiled from the gruesome thing. It was coated from beak to talon in soot, so he could make no guess as to its true colour, but its shape and nature were far too apparent. What was under the soot was not feathers but reptilian scales, the long beak was filled with sharp little teeth, the wings were leathery and bat-like. A long tail stretched behind the thing, lending it even greater resemblance to some nightmarish union of snake and falcon.

The flying lizard’s yellow eyes stared at Johann and it took a shuffling hop towards him. Then, suddenly, Scrivner’s voice drew its attention away from the smuggler. Johann could not understand the slithering, hideous noises that rose from the magister’s muffled face; if they were words then they were such words as did not belong on the tongues of men. His horror increased when he observed the ghastly lizard-hawk bobbing its head and fluttering its wings seemingly in response to Scrivner’s hissing speech, as though the hideous thing were conversing with him!

Scrivner turned away from the lizard-hawk, again sweeping his gaze across the room. ‘The stone has been found,’ he said. He stared at the coachman, fixing the burly man with his stormy gaze. ‘Take word to all who participated in operations at the Orc and Axe. Bring Grimbold Silverbeard; his knowledge is vital if the foe goes to ground. All operatives are to await me at the old di Argentisso house in the Reikhoch Prachstrasse.’

The coachman sketched a deep bow and hurried to carry out his orders. Scrivner watched him go, then considered his remaining minions. ‘The rest of you will accompany me,’ he said. His grey eyes drifted back to Johann, this time with a terrible scrutiny that made the smuggler even more uncomfortable than the renewed interest the lizard-hawk had displayed in him.

‘Perhaps we will even be in time for Herr Dietrich to have his revenge,’ Scrivner said, a trace of heaviness in his tone.

Grey Seer Thanquol watched as the last of the subjects twitched and writhed on the floor of their cage. It turned out that Burnfang hadn’t needed as many subjects as the pool of Thanquol’s less useful minions had provided. He was pragmatic about the situation. Even if there was nothing worthwhile to be learned by exposing the ratmen to the Wormstone, it made for a most effective method for exterminating individuals who would certainly be looking for some chance at revenge if Thanquol allowed them to live. No, it was better not to risk their petty and vindictive treachery and simply get rid of them along with the others.

Burnfang and his warlock engineers were scurrying about the kitchen-laboratory, grinding down the last of the Wormstone and pouring the contents into the wine bottles. Thanquol remembered the way the thieving humans had used vinegar to mask the smell of the Wormstone from the skaven. He thought the sour wine from the cellar might do the same, though whether it could deceive something like the warp bats of Clan Moulder or some of Skrattch Skarpaw’s slinking backstabbers, Thanquol was uncertain. The less consideration he gave to Grey Seer Thratquee using magic to find the Wormstone – and himself – the more comfortable he was. The sooner he eliminated the threat of that corrupt old rat and the entire treasonous council of Under-Altdorf, the better.

Thinking of Under-Altdorf, and the doom that would soon descend upon it, Thanquol abandoned his morbid observation of the corroding captives. He strode across the kitchen to the small parlour beyond, Boneripper trudging after him like a faithful hound. He had made the parlour into his command nest, filling it with such opulence as the mouldering furnishings of the abandoned townhouse could provide. A small entryway beyond the parlour opened upon the street. One of Skrim’s sneaks was posted there, watching through the grimy windows, waiting to give warning should any human invaders descend upon Thanquol’s refuge.

Similar lurkers were posted in the cellar and basement of the townhouse. These were separate rooms beneath the structure, the cellar connected to the kitchen, the basement reached only by a hidden door in what had been the study. Tunnels connected both of the subterranean rooms to the underworld of the skaven. If attackers came from beneath the townhouse rather than from outside, then Thanquol would use whichever tunnel his ratkin enemies didn’t to make his escape. And if they somehow discovered both entrances…

Thanquol patted the remaining ratskin scroll tied to his belt. He’d inspected the document very carefully, assuring himself that the magic it professed to evoke was no forgery. To use such magic would mean abandoning his minions, but that was a sacrifice that didn’t cause a second of doubt. It was, after all, the duty of the common ratman to give his life that the brilliance and fortitude of their betters should endure. Why, if they had the intelligence to see it, creatures like Skrim Gnawtail and Viskitt Burnfang could not fail to understand that the greatest accomplishment they could hope for in their dreary, scrabbling little lives would be to die for the glory of Grey Seer Thanquol!

Sadly, the wretches did not have such vision. As he entered the parlour, Thanquol found Skrim leaning over the teakwood chest upon which the grey seer had set the stolen maps and diagrams. There was a furtive, suspicious quality about the spy’s manner that made Thanquol’s lip curl. Boneripper sensed his master’s disquiet and a threatening growl rumbled through the rat ogre’s barrel chest.

Skrim scrambled away from the chest, claws clutching the badly-chewed stump of his tail. Age had dulled the spy’s senses, allowing even something of Boneripper’s size to steal upon him unawares. Any skaven in such a state was near the end of his race, the ravages of time leaving him easy prey to younger, faster upstarts.

‘Find-smell anything interesting?’ Thanquol challenged as he stepped to the chest and peered down at the maps. Boneripper lurched around the parlour, placing his bulk between the cowering spy and the doorways leading into the hallway proper and the old study. The grey seer chuckled at his monster’s initiative. With himself between Skrim and the kitchen and the rat ogre placed where he was, the only path of retreat left open to the spy was a quick dash into the street outside. Allowing of course that the lurker at the threshold chose helping Skrim over incurring the wrath of the grey seer.

‘No-no, mighty one!’ Skrim insisted, dipping his head in deference to Thanquol. ‘I was merely…’

‘Spying?’ Thanquol growled. Skrim was so taken aback by the fury with which the grey seer spoke the word that he actually started to nod his head. Thanquol glared at Skrim, taking a menacing step closer, flickers of power burning in his eyes. ‘And what did we see-find, crook-backed sneak?’

‘Nothing! Nothing most baleful holiness!’ Skrim insisted, wringing his hands together. ‘Skrim not-not read dwarf letters!’

Thanquol’s fangs gleamed in the dingy light of the parlour. Skrim shivered as Boneripper’s colossal shadow fell across him.

‘Then how did you know they were dwarf runes if you could not read them?’ Thanquol’s paw rose, a nimbus of green energy gathering about his claws like a nest of swirling fireflies.

Skrim collapsed to the floor, fear-musk spurting from his glands, his mind trying to find some combination of falsehood and flattery that would appease the grey seer’s rage. More realistically, he prayed to the Horned Rat for mercy.

Sharp squeals of terror and pain sounded from the kitchen. The glow faded from Thanquol’s paw as the grey seer spun about, his body a confusion of anger and alarm. Wet, ripping sounds and bestial snarls thundered from the makeshift laboratory as Burnfang and his attendants burst through the door and spilled into the parlour. The Clan Skryre ratmen scrambled through the command nest, spilling furnishings and tearing tapestries in their headlong flight. One warlock engineer crashed into Thanquol, then careened onwards to upset the teakwood chest and spill the stolen maps across the floor. Before Thanquol could hurl a curse against the skaven who had knocked him over, Boneripper’s fist closed about the coward’s head, crushing both his iron helm and the skull inside it like an egg.

A familiar scent snapped Thanquol’s attention from his bodyguard’s gruesome work. It was a smell the grey seer had hoped to never encounter again, the stench of a beast that should be lying cooked, charred and very dead somewhere in the man-thing scat-streams. Instead, the burnt, ravaged, skull-like head of the rat-beast glared at him from the doorway of the kitchen, the badly chewed torso of the Clan Skaul sneak delegated to watch the cellar tunnel lodged in its exposed cheek-pouch. The monster chittered hungrily, its eyes more like pools of blood than things capable of vision. Thanquol scuttled away from the thing’s approach, keeping on all fours so as not to arouse its interest by rising from the floor.

The grey seer needn’t have bothered. The rat-beast lifted its mangled snout and sniffed at the air. It snarled, then with a savage leap it propelled its immense body into the nearest warlock engineer. The skaven shrieked as half the bones in his body were shattered by the rat-beast’s bulk. It perched above him like a lion with its prey and its dripping jaws began ripping at the ratman’s leather smock and man-gut harness.

Fresh screams from the skaven beneath the rat-beast’s paws brought Thanquol leaping to his feet. The other skaven were watching the gory spectacle with terrified fascination. Thanquol snarled at them, trying to snap the fools back to their senses. While the monster was eating the clumsy fool the rest of them could escape! They could use the basement tunnel – there was no need to fight past the brute to reach the cellar tunnel. Before the creature was half-finished with its meal, they could all of them be many rest-stops away!

It was a sound plan until Thanquol glanced back at the monster savaging Burnfang’s minion. The beast was not eating the ratman, it was tearing open the leather bag he carried. Wine bottles rolled free and the monster lost interest in the crushed skaven. It scurried after the bottles. With a shriek of horror, Thanquol and the other skaven watched as it raised one immense paw and brought it smashing down into one of the bottles, exposing the syrupy mix of Wormstone dust and wine. Almost before the suicidal madness of such action could register with the onlookers, the rat-beast brought its muzzle close to the foul mixture. A scabby tongue flicked from its snout, lapping up the poisonous concoction.

Where a moment before Thanquol had been eager for escape, now his blood boiled with outrage! The dumb animal was eating the Wormstone! It was actually eating the grey seer’s chance for glory and revenge!

Thanquol spun about on his heels, his staff raised over his head. He glared at Boneripper. The rat ogre still stood between the hall and study archways, the dead warlock engineer dangling from his hand. The dull-witted monster was fully occupied batting the dead ratman with his other hands, fascinated by the way the broken body swayed back and forth when he hit it.

‘Lumbering, witless flea-food!’ Thanquol snarled, slamming his staff against Boneripper’s thigh. The huge rat ogre cringed from the blow, fear clouding his beady little eyes. Thanquol ignored the brute’s reaction, instead pointing a claw at the feeding rat-beast. ‘Kill that filthy beast, you brainless oaf-thing! Kill-kill! Kill-kill!’

Each command enflamed Boneripper’s aggression, each snarl from Thanquol’s voice brought the fur on the rat ogre’s neck bristling. Drool dripped from Boneripper’s jaws as the monster let loose with an ear-shattering roar. The rat-beast looked up from its frantic feeding just in time to be bowled over as Boneripper flung the carcass of the warlock engineer into its face.

The rat-beast was knocked back by the morbid missile, toppling head over tail until it smashed into the wall of the parlour. Plaster rained down upon it from the battered wall. It hissed savagely as it lifted itself and shook its mangy pelt free of plaster. It spun about to challenge Boneripper, but the rat ogre was already upon it.

The townhouse shook as Boneripper launched himself at the staggered rat-beast. The huge brute charged across the parlour, slamming into the rat-beast with the impact of a battering ram, the huge spike on his shoulder guard impaling the creature through the chest as he drove his body into it. The force of the impact drove both monsters onwards, and nothing so humble as timber and brick and stone was going to stop them.

The wall collapsed in a shower of rubble as Boneripper smashed the rat-beast through the parlour wall and back into the kitchen. A table vanished in a cloud of splinters as both of the huge brutes hurtled onto the kitchen floor. Boneripper was the first to rise, tearing his gory shoulder spike free of the rat-beast’s mangled body.

The fresh surge of pain inflicted by the withdrawal of the spike brought a shriek of agony from the rat-beast. In a frenzy of pain, the creature flung itself from the rubble, latching onto Boneripper. Even the rat ogre’s prodigious strength was not enough to overwhelm the bulk of the rat-beast. Like its smaller kind, the rat-beast scrabbled at Boneripper with all four of its clawed paws, tearing deep furrows in the rat ogre’s leathery hide. The ratlike jaws of the beast snapped and slashed at Boneripper’s head, trying to work around or through the armour of his helmet to reach the soft skin of his throat.

Boneripper staggered, trying to stay upright with the weight of the rat-beast pulling at him and threatening his balance. Even his brutish mind understood that if he fell, he would be finished, his foe free to tear out his throat. With two of his arms, he tried to grapple the beast. His mutant third arm, its hand fitted with steel and spike, struck again and again into the beast’s side until it was coated in blood.

The rat-beast chittered its feral ferocity at Boneripper, each blow only serving to excite its terrible vitality even more. Rather than fading beneath the force of the punishment the rat ogre was delivering, the beast seemed to be empowered by it. Snapping jaws closed against the side of Boneripper’s face, tearing away an ear and part of his cheek armour. Boneripper responded with a savage grip, his mighty arms straining as they bent the rat-beast’s body upward and back. With a wet pop, the beast’s hind legs fell limp, flopping uselessly against the rat ogre’s waist.

The beast vomited black blood from its jaws, spattering Boneripper’s armour, but refused to abandon its efforts to reach its foe’s throat. Boneripper felt incisors scrape against the side of his neck, drawing a thin trickle of blood.

With another thunderous roar, Boneripper threw the rat-beast from him. It crashed in a broken heap against the old larder, crushing the last of Burnfang’s test subjects beneath it. Boneripper was not satisfied, however. The rat ogre stomped after the quivering wreckage of the beast, pounding its prone form mercilessly with his huge fists. The wet smacks of fist into dripping meat were a fitting applause to such a primitive, bestial spectacle.

Hearing Boneripper’s triumphant bellow, Thanquol decided it was safe enough to creep into the kitchen. A few of his followers crept after him, not willing to risk upsetting the grey seer if his bodyguard had indeed vanquished the terrible rat-beast. Thanquol sneered at their cowardice. Boldly, he stepped to Boneripper, swatting the rat ogre’s flank with the butt of his staff.

‘Fool-meat!’ Thanquol snarled. ‘Leave dead-thing. There is work to do!’ The grey seer turned and glowered at his shivering underlings. ‘Recover the spilled Wormstone,’ he snapped at Burnfang. ‘Hide your dead as well. My enemies must find-smell no sign that I was here.’

‘What of the monster?’ Burnfang growled back. ‘It is too big to move or hide!’

Thanquol glared at the warlock engineer. ‘Then leave it, dung-breath toad! Do not pester my brilliance with your stupidity, tinker-rat!’ The grey seer lifted his gaze to the other surviving skaven, both of Clan Skryre and Clan Skaul. ‘We waste no more time!’ he declared. ‘We take the Wormstone to the reservoir! Then the man-things will suffer for defying the will of the Horned Rat!’

The grey seer looked past the throng to see Skrim skulking in the shadows. He pointed a clawed talon at the slinking spy. ‘Gnawtail will lead you through the tunnels,’ he said. His eyes became as cold as those of a snake and Skrim felt his insides shrivel as Thanquol snarled words he knew were meant for him alone.

‘Gnawtail knows the way.’

As the skaven began to scurry from the gory ruin of the old kitchen, none of them gave a second glance to the dripping mass of meat and fur splashed against the larder, nor to the hate-filled eye that sullenly watched them go.

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE TRIUMPH OF THANQUOL

The abandoned townhouse on the Reikhoch Prachstrasse was as still as a crypt when twenty armed men and dwarfs burst through its doors. From front and back, the men rushed through the dusty rooms, swords and pistols at the ready. Each man’s brow dripped with a sweat of fear, knowing too well the hideous enemy they expected to find. As they surged into each empty room, their fear only increased. If the ratkin had not confronted them already it could only be because they were waiting for the intruders to stumble into some devious trap.

Theodor Baer led the group that had smashed its way through the entranceway at the front of the townhouse. Baer could feel the hairs standing on the back of his neck as he crept through the silent rooms. He had heard the stories about the townhouse and its last tenant, tales of vampirism and worse horrors. The watch sergeant allowed himself a grim chuckle. Beside his fear of the restless dead, confronting a mob of verminous underfolk would almost seem tame by comparison.

Almost.

Theodor kept his pistol aimed, turning it with the lantern in his free hand. The instant his light showed something monstrous, it would get a bullet through its skull. He only hoped the men with him were as ready for action. Most of them he knew only casually, some of them not at all. Being a vassal of Jeremias Scrivner was not the sort of thing that drew men together for socialising in their off hours. Of course, the very fact that they did serve the wizard spoke of their capability. Scrivner was not one to make time for charity cases. Those who bore his token were men with something to offer him, some skill useful to the wizard’s interests.

Entering the parlour, Theodor’s lantern revealed a shambles of piled furniture and torn tapestries. The sickly stink of spilled perfume assailed the watchman’s senses. He heard Amando, the Tilean duellist, cough violently behind him, clenching a rag to his face against the smell. Theodor controlled his own repugnance, sweeping the lantern across the room. A grey shape appeared in front of him. Before he could tug the trigger of his pistol, a steely grip knocked his hand aside.

‘They have gone,’ the chill voice of Jeremias Scrivner told him. The wizard reached to Theodor’s lantern, throwing open the metal shutters on its sides. The sudden light threw the parlour into sharp relief. Theodor’s initial impression of cluster and ruin was justified. Someone had ransacked the entire townhouse to create a gaudy impression of a throne-room, like a child playing king.

Sounds from the hallway beyond the parlour brought Theodor and the men with him turning from their cursory inspection of the room. Certain that the ratkin had sprung their trap, each man tensed, weapons at the ready. Sighs of relief spread across the parlour. The sounds had come from the men who had come from the back of the house. Theodor gave a grudging nod of respect to Simo Valkoinen.

‘Report,’ the hissed whisper of Scrivner commanded the professional killer.

‘Nothing,’ Valkoinen answered. ‘Nothing alive, at least. There are rooms that look like an orc warband slept in them. Most of those smell like a whore’s boudoir. But no trace of what did the damage. No trash, no fur, no scat.’

‘They cleaned up after themselves,’ observed one of the fighters with Theodor. The speaker was a squat, broad-shouldered dwarf, his frosty beard tied into elaborate braids that fell almost to his knees. His dark eyes twinkled like chips of ore from his wrinkled face, almost matching the mailshirt and steel helm he wore. Grimbold Silverbeard did not speak only of Valkoinen’s report. He pointed a stubby finger at the floor. Amid the debris of tattered finery, patches of the dusty floor had been scrubbed so fiercely that the tiles were little more than layers of scratches. ‘Skaven blood isn’t easy to get up. Back in Zhufbar, if it got on anything that wasn’t metal, we usually burned it. Damn bad choice to make between carrying that stink around and cutting your beard!’

‘Trying to hide the fact they were here?’ Theodor wondered. ‘But why drench the place in perfume? You can smell it from the next street.’

‘Because it isn’t men they are afraid will find their trail,’ Scrivner said. ‘The ratmen are their own worst enemies. This was done to hide their scent from their own kind. The skaven who possess the stone are afraid they will be discovered by enemies from their own ranks. Perhaps that fear has gripped them enough, that they will not be expecting other enemies to come after them.’

‘Magister!’ It was Grimbold who called out, his voice betraying an excitement his people seldom allowed themselves to display. Scrivner swung around at the dwarf’s call, staring over his shoulder as the dwarf displayed what he had found. It was a scrap of torn parchment, hoary with age.

‘I found it poking out from under that chest,’ Grimbold explained. ‘It’s a chart, one of the blueprints of the Grey Dwarfs who helped construct the city’s infrastructure. This one,’ his thick thumb tapped a set of Khazalid runes drawn at the top of the parchment, ‘is for something called the “Dunkelwa…”. That’s all that’s left.’

‘The Dunkelwasserkleinmere,’ Scrivner finished for the dwarf. ‘An old name. Now it is known as the Kaiserschwalbe.’

Grimbold’s eyes went wide with horror. ‘The reservoir! The filthy ratkin mean to poison the reservoir!’

‘We can’t let them!’ Johann swore, pushing his way through the other men in Valkoinen’s group. ‘They’ll poison hundreds, thousands if they put that filth into the water!’ The smuggler clenched his fists in fury, imagining the magnitude of suffering, entire households stricken with the same slow corruption that had beset his brother. Men, women and children, it would be wholesale slaughter such as even a Kurgan warlord would balk at.

Scrivner gave Johann a grim nod, then looked to Grimbold once more. ‘You will lead us to the reservoir.’

‘I maintained the Imperial sewers long enough to know every way into the place,’ Grimbold said. ‘But the ratkin are fair diggers. They might have made their own way. We’ll reach the reservoir, but without knowing what route they are using I can’t say if we’ll beat them or simply meet them.’

‘Then the surest course is to follow their trail,’ the wizard stated. He removed a vial from the folds of his cloak. Johann had never seen such a vibrant purple elixir as that which sloshed against the clouded glass of the vial, but he recognised the dove of the Shallyan temple on the wax seal that closed its top. ‘Stay here,’ Scrivner commanded, ‘and do not move, whatever you see.’ His cloak swept around him as he stalked from the parlour and through the broken wall that led into the kitchen.

Tense moments passed, then the men in the parlour heard a grisly sound of laboured breathing and grinding bone. Despite the wizard’s warning, the watchers drew back from the grotesque shape that crawled through the wreckage. It was an immense, rat-like thing, not an inch of its body unmarked by violence. Broken bones ground together as the beast pulled itself across the floor, dragging its useless hind limbs after it. The thing gave them no notice as it crossed the parlour leaving a bloody trail after it. The drooling, slobbering horror vanished into the gloom of the study. The men in the parlour could hear wood splintering as the monster attacked the wall with its fangs, gnawing at the concealed entrance to the basement.

‘The map was not the only thing the skaven left behind.’ The wizard’s whispered words startled men who had been fixated upon the rat-beast. Once more, their cloaked master stood among them. Johann noticed that the vial in Scrivner’s hand was now empty. ‘The tears of Shallya allow the abomination a few more hours. We must trust that they are enough. The skaven learned well from our smuggler friends,’ Scrivner added, gesturing to the black paste none of Thanquol’s minions had dared clean from the parlour. ‘They have mixed their vile poison with wine to hide its smell. Well enough to hide from their own kind and my familiars.’

There was a loud snapping noise as the rat-beast gnawed its way past the secret panel. Scrivner’s eyes burned in the darkness as the sound carried into the parlour.

‘But there’s one nose they can’t trick anymore,’ he said, stalking after the rat-beast as it disappeared through the hole it had made. Scrivner’s servants fought down their own fears and followed after their mysterious master.

‘Right now I bet you wish Volk had settled your mob down in the sewers,’ Theodor told Johann as they waited their turn to descend into the basement.

Johann shook his head. ‘I may die in a sewer yet,’ he told the watchman. ‘But this time at least I’ll do it for more than a few barrels of contraband.’

Skrattch Skarpaw scrambled up the slime-slick sewer wall, clinging to the dripping surface of an archway. As one of the skilled assassins of Clan Eshin, Lord Skrolk had sent him ahead to scout the way for the plague lord’s retinue. Despite Kratch’s assurances and oaths of loyalty and service, Skrolk was being wary of treachery from Thanquol’s former apprentice. Among the skaven there was no such concept as being over-cautious. Skarpaw, being near the end of his usefulness to Skrolk, was not only the most capable of spotting any traps the grey seer might have set, but also the most expendable if he fell afoul of one.

The assassin’s claws found tiny gaps between the bricks to maintain his hold. His scaly tail coiled about one of his cruelly serrated swords. Skarpaw’s eyes glittered in the darkness, his nose twitching as he sniffed the air. Beneath the fug of human waste, he smelled a familiar scent. The odour of fresh blood was strong as he heard something large sloshing through the muck. Skarpaw tensed as a new scent reached him, the reek of the rat-beast that had routed Thanquol’s minions during their expedition into the forgotten burrows of Clan Mawrl.

He held his breath as the huge monster dragged itself through the scum of the canal, its mangled body little more than an open wound. Any moment might see the beast’s finish. Scavenging instincts reared up from the depths of Skarpaw’s psyche, urging him to leap upon the dying monster, but reason subdued the impulse. There were other sounds now, sounds of many feet trudging through the sludge and scum. Skarpaw pressed himself even closer to the wall, vanishing into the shadow of the vaulted ceiling. He stifled his breathing, willed his heartbeat to an infrequent murmur. Like a verminous gargoyle, he became as lifeless as the stone around him, only his glittering eyes betraying his presence.

Men emerged from the darkness. Skarpaw knew enough of the ways of men to recognise that these presented a motley gang, finery mixed with the rags of the slums, the soft scents of refinement mixed with the hard smells of the lower classes. At their fore, Skarpaw saw a grey-bearded dwarf leading the way, a light glowing from the peak of his helm as he followed the dying rat-beast. Just behind the dwarf, however, was a figure that sent a thrill of fear racing through Skarpaw’s pulse. A hooded man cloaked in grey and with the chill of sorcery about his smell. It could only be the wizard-thing that had fought Thanquol for possession of the Wormstone. He had survived his battle with the grey seer and was once more on the trail of his adversary and his prize. Somehow, in some way, the wizard-thing was letting the rat-beast lead him to Thanquol!

Skarpaw lingered in the shadow of the archway for many minutes, allowing the steps and scent of the men to fade into the distance. After what Kratch had told Skrolk about the wizard-thing, the assassin wanted to take no chance of the human discovering his presence. Even his killer’s heart preferred not to pit itself against magic and sorcery. The memory of Thanquol’s spell of madness was still too fresh.

Certain he was undiscovered, Skarpaw dropped down from his sanctuary, sliding along the slimy brickwork to the putrid surface of the canal. At first with caution, then with speed, the assassin raced down the black maze of sewers, darting down side-passages and around cross-tunnels. The ratman’s winding route seemed a confusion of turns, but he was not relying upon memory to bring him back to his gruesome master. Skarpaw used the rotten smell of the plague monks to lead him through the sewer, a smell even the dull senses of a human would find hard to mistake.

Soon, the assassin stood in the tunnel where Lord Skrolk’s festering followers were gathered, impatiently awaiting their scout’s report. The plague lord himself shuffled forward as Skarpaw came upon the clustered vermin. Skrolk’s boil-strewn face scowled at the assassin, the fumes rising from his censer-staff matching the smouldering temper in his blemished eyes.

‘There will be no more medicine until you clear the path,’ Skrolk warned the assassin, his voice bubbling with menace. ‘If the Wormstone escapes me, you will wish I had let the pox do its work!’

Skarpaw prostrated himself before the ghastly plague lord, taking the decayed hem of his filthy robe and rubbing it across his nose in a show of abasement. ‘Horrific one!’ he whimpered. ‘Others seek the traitor!’ He pointed to where Kratch stood among the plague monks, the adept now garbed in the same rotten green robes. ‘The wizard-thing still seeks Thanquol! I have seen it and its underlings walking through the scat-stream. They were following the great rat-beast from Clan Mawrl! They were hunting the Wormstone!’

Kratch scrambled from the mass of plague monks, grovelling at the feet of Lord Skrolk. He kissed the plague lord’s decaying tail, rubbed his forehead against the monk’s leprous foot, anything to make his show of abasement and devotion more convincing than that of the assassin. ‘Terrible bringer of suffering!’ Kratch wheezed. ‘Your humble servant did not know the wizard-thing still lived! I did not know…’

Lord Skrolk’s laugh was an obscene gurgle, like heartblood slopping from a wound. ‘We will follow the wizard-thing,’ he croaked.

‘But if the wizard-thing finds Thanquol first…’ Kratch started to protest. Skrolk seized the cringing adept in his paw.

‘Do you think Thanquol will simply hand the Wormstone to the human?’ the plague lord growled. Kratch’s tongue lolled from his mouth as he felt the claw around his throat tighten. ‘We will let the human find the traitor first. They will fight over the Wormstone. Then Clan Pestilens will destroy the exhausted victor and recover what belongs to us!’

Lord Skrolk tossed Kratch aside like a piece of refuse. The adept rubbed his injured throat, sickened to find that one of Skrolk’s decayed claws had broken off in his skin.

‘The Wormstone will be mine!’ Skrolk chittered. ‘Then shall all the Under-Empire tremble once more before the might of Clan Pestilens and the true face of the Horned One!’

Grey Seer Thanquol lashed his tail in annoyance as he stepped onto the stone ledge overlooking the enormous Kaiserschwalbe. Once, many centuries ago, it had been a natural cavern, an underground lake fed by springs and subterranean streams. Under the patronage of Altdorf’s princes and emperors, however, dwarf artisans and engineers had transformed the cavern into a mammoth edifice of marble and granite. Huge pillars rose from the depths of the lake, their fluted columns reaching up like the fingers of drowned giants until they merged with the tiled ceiling of the cavern, the elaborate frescos shimmering with the reflection of the water beneath them. Massive pumps of steel and bronze hugged the columns. Operating upon an ingenious system of pressure valves, the pumps employed the volume of the reservoir itself to send water up into the city above. Everywhere, from the dam-like restraining wall of the reservoir to the stone walkways that crisscrossed over the aquifer, elegant sculptures and magnificent bas-reliefs lent the place a majesty that made the grey seer’s heart seethe with contemptuous envy. That men would squander such time and effort into something they could hardly expect many of their kind to ever see was beyond Thanquol’s ability to understand. Of what use was grandeur if it was not used to inspire fear and awe in subordinates?

The grey seer was still chewing over that quandary when his sharp eyes noticed movement on the cavern floor. Restrained by the dam, there was a section of the old cavern that had been left relatively dry except for a deep channel that allowed the reservoir’s excess to escape back into the dark of the underworld. It was this stream that provided much of Under-Altdorf’s water, the decadent council of the city far too miserly to pay tolls to Clan Sleekit for use of regular river water. Sight of the stream made a fierce smile grow on Thanquol’s face, final confirmation that his plot to poison the man-things of Altdorf would also spell doom for his enemies in Under-Altdorf.

Thanquol shook his head, his eyes narrowing as he again focused upon the creatures moving around the reservoir. A work crew of humans, performing some manner of maintenance upon the dam, scrambling up wooden scaffolds with what a skaven could describe as only the most wretched clumsiness. One of the humans gave a shout, a trembling hand pointing up at Thanquol. The other humans turned, tools dropping from their hands, jaws dropping open in shocked silence.

The grey seer’s tail lashed in annoyance again, glaring at the stupid animals, awestruck by his magnificence and their own superstitious terror. It was almost insulting that these pathetic dregs should be the final obstacle between himself and ultimate glory.

‘Skrim,’ Thanquol snarled. ‘Have your slinking thief-rats kill those animals!’ It would be an abuse of his powers and far beneath his dignity to partake in the slaughter of such a sorry mob. Thanquol would leave that to base creatures like Skrim and his sneaks. Besides, even the most wretched enemy sometimes got lucky.

Thanquol watched the Clan Skaul ratmen scamper down from the ledge, leaping onto the scaffolds and gantries with apelike agility. The men closest to the ledge were already dead before their comrades started to run. Thanquol laughed as he watched Skrim’s sneaks do their bloody work. Laughter turned to a snarl of anger as he heard the sharp crack of a warplock pistol. A worker pitched and fell, smashing against the side of the dam before bouncing to the cavern floor hundreds of feet below. Another pistol barked in the darkness, this time blasting a worker off a stone causeway and into the reservoir itself. The wounded man thrashed in the water, desperately trying to keep his mangled frame afloat. The warlock engineer who had shot him rushed to the edge of the causeway directly above him and hurriedly reloaded his pistol, snickering at his flailing victim all the while.

Thanquol stamped his feet, his fur bristling, his fangs grinding together. What were the fools doing! He hadn’t sent Burnfang’s pack into the fray! He wasn’t about to risk what they carried by fighting a miserable lot of defenceless humans!

Grey Seer Thanquol rounded on Viskitt Burnfang. He wanted to crack his staff against the idiot’s snout, but he was too far away. Instead, Thanquol contented himself with a very vicious string of obscenities and staff-rattling. ‘Fool-meat! Flea-brained mouse-fondler! Did I squeak-say send your tinker-rats into battle! If they lose one bottle of Wormstone…’

Burnfang grinned at Thanquol, a savage, fang-ridden smile that spread from cheek-pouch to cheek-pouch. ‘They won’t lose the Wormstone,’ Burnfang snapped. ‘But you will, priest-dolt!’ Before Thanquol could even blink, Burnfang whipped his own pistol from his belt, aiming the muzzle between the grey seer’s eyes. A deep growl and a heavy footfall told of Boneripper’s reaction to this sudden threat against his master. Burnfang didn’t even glance at the rat ogre. ‘Call him off, Thanquol,’ he snarled. ‘He couldn’t reach me before I pulled this trigger and exploded your skull like an egg.’

Thanquol turned his head, noticing for the first time that he was alone upon the ledge with Burnfang. That was why he had sent his minions down to help Skrim. The warlock engineer wanted no witnesses to his treachery. That thought puzzled Thanquol and occupied his thoughts even as he snapped commands to Boneripper.

The rat ogre sullenly sank to his haunches, head lowered like that of a scolded child. Boneripper could not understand why his master had called him back, his simple mind unable to reconcile the contradiction between the threat in Burnfang’s scent and Thanquol’s command to sit and stay away from the warlock engineer. The confusion made him rock from side to side, his instinct to obey the grey seer warring with his instinct to tear apart his master’s enemies.

‘What is your scheme, Burnfang?’ Thanquol snarled. ‘If you think the council in Under-Altdorf will reward you for bringing me to them, I can promise-swear the Lords of Decay will reward you much-much more.’

‘I know that they will,’ Burnfang hissed through his fang-ridden grin. He slapped his chest with his paw. ‘Skavenblight does not care about you, grey seer. It is the Wormstone they want. They shall have it, but it will be Warp-Master Viskitt Burnfang who presents it to the Council of Thirteen, not Grey Seer Thanquol!’

Burnfang’s paw reached to his belt, removing a glass orb from a leather bag. It resembled the gas bombs employed by Clan Skryre, but its contents were a murky liquid. Thanquol instinctively took a step back as he saw Burnfang’s bomb and caught the scent of its contents. He flailed at the lip of the ledge, nearly pitching to the floor below. Instead, Thanquol threw himself forwards, landing in a sprawl before Burnfang’s feet.

The warlock engineer started to laugh at the grey seer’s antics, but the roar of Boneripper stifled any amusement Burnfang felt. The warlock engineer fired his pistol into the charging brute, blasting a fist-sized chunk of flesh from his side. The rat ogre gave a snarl of pain, but kept coming, storming after Burnfang like a hate-maddened juggernaut. Burnfang flung the spent weapon full into the charging rat ogre’s face, but succeeded only in cracking one of the monster’s fangs. The warlock engineer leapt away as Boneripper’s thick arms reached for him, shrieking in fright. Narrowly, he missed hurtling to the floor hundreds of feet below, landing instead on a scaffold. The wooden structure swayed and groaned beneath the abrupt addition of Burnfang’s weight.

Boneripper started after the warlock engineer, several ropes snapping as he took a step onto the scaffold. A shrill command from Thanquol called his bodyguard back. Still glaring at Burnfang, the rat ogre lurched back onto the ledge. The grey seer joined him, watching as the treacherous warlock engineer scrambled to the next scaffold, putting a further twenty feet between himself and his enemies.

‘An impasse, grey-fool!’ Burnfang snarled. ‘I don’t dare come after you while you have your monster, you don’t dare come for me while I hold this!’ Again, the warlock engineer brandished the dusky globe of glass. Even in the extremes of his terrified retreat, he had had sense enough to keep a firm grip on the deadly object.

Thanquol did not respond to Burnfang’s baiting. Too late did the warlock engineer observe the green glow in the depths of the grey seer’s eyes. Too late did he see Thanquol’s paw stretch out, his fingers splayed wide apart. With a savage gesture, Thanquol closed his fingers into a fist. In sympathy with the grey seer’s motion, without any conscious thought from their owner, Burnfang’s fingers did likewise.

Viskitt Burnfang screamed as the glass globe shattered beneath the tightening pressure of his rebellious hand. Howls of terror became shrieks of agony as the lethal contents of the orb saturated his flesh and seeped into his fur. The warlock engineer pawed wildly at his poisoned body, trying to claw the sorcerous venom away. Almost instantly, fur began to drip off his skin, fat green worms began to erupt from his flesh. When, at last, in a fit of panic and suffering, Burnfang threw himself into the cavern, his decaying body was little more than a mass of squirming filth.

‘So suffer all who defy the destiny of Thanquol,’ the grey seer snarled as he watched Burnfang’s writhing carcass burst upon the cavern floor. Thanquol looked up to find the eyes of Skaul sneaks and the remaining warlock engineers fixed upon him. Burnfang’s treachery had drawn an audience after all. He glowered back at the frightened skaven, straightening into his most imperious posture. ‘So end all traitors!’ he growled, slamming the butt of his staff against the ledge. The watching skaven bowed and grovelled, spurting the musk of fear. Thanquol snickered, relishing their terrified devotion.

Boneripper’s low growl drew the grey seer away from the adulation of his minions. It was on Thanquol’s tongue to chastise the rat ogre, but movement at the mouth of the tunnel that opened onto the ledge made him hesitate. The grey seer’s eyes narrowed as he saw something big crawl into the fitful light of the reservoir cavern. He recoiled as he saw the rat-beast pull itself into the chamber, the monster’s mangled body leaving a bloody slick behind it.

That anything should survive the punishment the rat-beast had suffered was incredible to the grey seer. Disturbing memories of the necromancer Vorghun of Praag and his lifeless creations sent a pulse of terror rushing through Thanquol’s glands.

‘Boneripper!’ he shouted at his hulking bodyguard. ‘Kill-kill! Kill-kill!’ Thanquol gestured frantically at the rat-beast with his staff.

Boneripper smacked one meaty fist into another and rushed towards the rat-beast. The monster caught the rat ogre’s scent, pushing itself awkwardly from the floor with its forepaws. It snarled at the charging rat ogre, its own blood slobbering from its broken jaw. Boneripper swung at the creature with his armoured third arm, but the rat-beast dropped beneath the blow, crashing lifelessly at the rat ogre’s feet.

Thanquol stared incredulously as Boneripper stubbornly poked and prodded the dead hulk, vainly trying to get the lifeless beast to fight him. Whatever monstrous strength had allowed the rat-beast to chase after him, it had abandoned the thing at the very moment when it at last gained upon its quarry. Thanquol’s chittering laughter echoed across the reservoir as he considered the cruel irony of the dumb brute’s fate.

Cold, mocking laughter, like the whisper of an enormous serpent, stifled Thanquol’s own. The grey seer drew a pinch of warp-snuff from the ratskull box as he backed away, retreating onto the stone causeway. He knew that laughter.

A dark figure slowly manifested upon the ledge, seemingly bleeding into substance from thin air. Shadows swirled and crawled about the cloaked wizard, his grey eyes boring into the beady orbs of Thanquol. The grey seer trembled with outrage more than fear. The reservoir was here, beneath his very feet! All he had to do was pour the Wormstone into the water and all his enemies, human and skaven, were doomed to die in excruciating pain! Skavenblight would herald him the greatest grey seer since Gnawdoom recovered the Black Ark!

Thanquol snarled at the sinister wizard. One claw closed about a protective talisman, he thrust his staff towards Jeremias Scrivner. Thanquol snickered as he saw clouds of darkness leap from Scrivner’s pointing hands. He felt the talisman in his paw crumble into powder as it absorbed the wizard’s spell, drawing the baleful energies into itself to protect its wearer.

The head of his staff erupted into a scintillating sphere of phosphorescence, like some diseased echo of an aurora. Thanquol roared as he flung the dazzling light at the shadowmancer. A blanket of green luminance engulfed the ledge as Thanquol’s spell struck. Thanquol had seen how capably Scrivner could protect himself; this time the grey seer chose to attack not the man, but everything around him. What power, he wondered, could a shadowmancer wield if there were no shadows to command!

The grey seer snickered as he saw Scrivner staggering in the spectral glow. Again, Thanquol’s shrill voice cried out, his clawed finger stabbing at the reeling wizard.

‘Boneripper!’ the grey seer cried. ‘Kill-kill! Kill-kill!’

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

WAR OF THE RATS

Bellowing like a blood-mad bull, Boneripper thundered towards the staggering wizard, his shoulder lowered to impale Scrivner upon his spiked armour. Still stunned by Thanquol’s blinding sorcery, the magister was oblivious to his peril.

Others were not. From the mouth of the tunnel, a voice cried out a hasty command. It was Boneripper who staggered as a volley of shots rang out and his leathery hide tore beneath the impact of bullets. The rat ogre howled in pain, dropping onto all five paws and scrambling away from the fusillade, blood streaming from his wounds. A cheer went up from Scrivner’s men as they saw the monster flee.

‘Press the attack!’ Theodor Baer cried out. ‘Keep the ratmen from the reservoir!’

Thanquol heard the watchman’s shout, grinding his fangs as he saw the men rush across the ledge. Lightning crackled about the metal head of his staff. Snarling, the grey seer sent a bolt of withering energy to strike down the would-be hero. Sizzling warp energy crackled through the air, like a thin finger of glowing death. Thanquol’s beady eyes gleamed as he watched the corrupt power crash down upon the human.

Even as the warp lightning struck at the man, however, Theodor’s body was engulfed in darkness, fading, blinking into the shadows. When the grey seer’s attack landed, all its fury accomplished was to sear the stones where the man had stood.

Thanquol growled in frustration, glaring at the cloaked wizard. Jeremias Scrivner glared back at him. Recovered from the grey seer’s blinding spell, now it was the wizard’s turn to frustrate the rat-mage’s sorcery. Thanquol squealed, diving behind the nearest of the marble columns as Scrivner gestured at the skaven with his black-coated hand. Knives of shadow given substance slashed through the cavern, slicing into the column and tearing through the ancient dwarf-built pump bolted to its side. Streams of water erupted from the pitted metal, spraying in every direction.

Thanquol snarled from behind his refuge, glaring at his cowering minions. ‘Skrim!’ the grey seer raged. ‘You and your thief-rats! Kill the man-things!’

The Clan Skaul spy hesitated, but a second glance at Thanquol’s glowing eyes and snarling face decided him. The crook-backed old skaven snapped orders to his sneaks. The ratmen surged forwards, scrambling along the sides and bottoms of the scaffolds and gantries to frustrate the fire of the humans rushing to oppose them. One skaven lost his grip, scrabbling desperately at the carved face of the dam before plummeting into the cavern. The rest kept scurrying onwards, swiftly closing the distance between themselves and the men rushing onto the causeways.

‘Not you! Idiot-meat!’ Thanquol howled in disgust. He watched in dismay as the surviving warlock engineers scurried forward to support Skrim’s sneaks once more. One of the Clan Skryre engineers heard the grey seer’s roar, giving Thanquol a puzzled look. ‘Are you carrying Wormstone!’ the grey seer shrieked. The ratman gave an embarrassed nod. Thanquol’s blood was already boiling, and the human gesture made him lose all control. He sent a bolt of warp-lightning scorching through the warlock engineer, turning him into a tiny torch as he bounced down the layers of scaffolding and into the cavern.

Thanquol slapped his forehead at his own stupid loss of control, grinding his teeth at yet another human gesture. He’d been among the man-rats of Under-Altdorf too long, he was picking up their decadent habits. Certainly he had been infected by their stupidity. If he had to make an example of someone, an underling carrying Wormstone was not the one to choose!

There was at least one benefit from his tantrum, however; he’d gained the attention of the other warlock engineers. Thanquol glowered at the masked ratmen.

‘Any of you fool-meat carrying Wormstone!’ he growled, lashing his tail angrily as he was answered with more nods. ‘Forget the humans!’ he snarled. ‘Move-scurry your tails up to me!’ He pointed at the far end of the dam where another set of scaffolding would allow the skaven to climb up to the level of the causeway and the reservoir. Three warlock engineers started off, scrambling and leaping from platform to platform. The few survivors from the work crew fled at their approach, offering the skaven not even the slightest opposition.

Thanquol peered from behind the column, grinning as he saw Skrim Gnawtail’s sneaks pounce upon the wizard’s allies. Men might be stronger than skaven, but they were laughably slow. With their terror of Thanquol’s power to goad them onwards, Skrim’s vermin would make short work of the humans.

Just as Thanquol was deciding the fight was over before it began, he saw one of the sneaks swatted from the scaffolding by a wave of shadow that billowed and clung to him like fog. The grey seer didn’t give any thought to the wretch’s shriek as he fell, instead concentrating upon the real problem. The wizard was the flea in the fur of his plan, his magic could tip the balance against him. Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure there was any way to remove his threat without risking his own hide in the process.

The sound of water lapping against the column drew Thanquol’s attention. He grinned evilly as he saw Boneripper trying to climb up from the lake and join his master on the causeway. His beady eyes turned back to the cloaked wizard. Scrivner was on one of the other causeways, supporting his underlings with his shadow magic. The grey seer hissed a command to Boneripper, then pointed at the column closest to the magister. Boneripper dropped back into the reservoir with a loud splash and began to swim towards the other causeway.

Thanquol lashed his tail, amused by his own brilliance. He would wait for Boneripper to attack the wizard. While Scrivner was busy trying to stave off the rat ogre, Thanquol would be able to bring the full fury of his sorcery against the meddling magister. The grey seer teased a nugget of warpstone from the hidden pocket of his robe. He stared at its black, shining depths. There was danger in using warpstone, even the most carefully refined warpstone, to fuel spells, but in this case Thanquol decided the risk was worth it. With the wizard gone, there could be no question of his plan’s success. Two cities would die and with their deaths the glory of Thanquol would be like an ocean of magma blazing through the caverns of the Under-Empire!

Thanquol popped the piece of warpstone into his mouth, feeling its burn against his tongue. Soon, soon the moment would come. He would unleash such havoc upon the wizard that all that would be left of him was a greasy smear! No! That was the warpstone talking! He had to be careful, only use enough power to get the job done. Dead was dead, he didn’t need to make a spectacle of the wizard’s destruction.

Then, with Scrivner gone, Thanquol could savour his triumph. There would be none to oppose him then!

Fresh sounds and scents from the tunnel caused Thanquol to spin around. The grey seer nearly choked upon his warpstone as he saw a horde of chittering, green-clad skaven pour onto the ledge. Plague monks! The vile heretics of Clan Pestilens! Thanquol was under no delusion about their purpose here and what they had come for. He lifted his amulet, the richly jewelled medallion engraved with the sacred symbol of the Horned Rat. Thanquol scowled at the image, thinking of this fresh batch of adversaries come to stand between himself and his triumph.

‘Are you testing me, Horned One?’ Thanquol demanded.

Johann dropped down onto the scaffolding and fired the pistol he had been given by Theodor Baer full into the face of a ratman climbing up to meet him. The monster squealed and hurtled into the abyss below the reservoir wall. Other shots sounded and Johann risked a quick turn of his neck to see Grimbold standing on the ledge wall above him. The dwarf’s leather apron was hanging open now, its surface fitted with loops through which had been secured an array of fat-muzzled pistols. Thongs secured the weapons to the loops in the apron, and as the dwarf began his fusillade, he let each gun drop from his hand, slapping against his belly as the thong prevented it from falling. The dwarf quickly filled his hands with fresh pistols and continued to persecute the cringing, slinking beasts.

‘If you don’t want to catch your death from plague, manling,’ Grimbold chuckled, meeting Johann’s stare, ‘kill the ratkin before their stink gets in your nose!’

The smuggler nodded his understanding and fumblingly tried to reload his weapon. The punishment the dwarf had delivered with his barrage had not quite been enough to drive the skaven into retreat. Valkoinen’s deadly throwing knives picked ratmen from the scaffolding as they tried to swarm the men, pitching still more of the monsters into the darkness, yet still they came, encouraged by the feral snarls of their leader, a crook-backed old ratman with a stumpy tail.

Sight of the defiant ratkin enraged Amando. The Tilean hurled an epithet that would have shocked the ears of the Lord of Murder and threw his empty pistol after it. Shrieking furiously in his native tongue, Amando rushed across the scaffold to break the skaven attack in the surest way he knew: by killing their leader.

‘Someone stop that fool!’ Theodor barked.

Before he knew what was happening, Johann found himself running after Amando. The smuggler leapt over the blade of a ratman crawling up from the underside of the scaffold, punctuating the manoeuvre by kicking the monster’s teeth down its throat. He didn’t linger to see if the blow caused the ratkin to lose his grip, but pressed on in his rush to save Amando from the suicidal frenzy that had seized him.

The crook-backed ratman was snarling and spitting at the others now, calling them back to protect it from the Tilean. The ratman drew its own pistol from the filthy rags that served it as clothes and raised it to fire at Amando. Johann heard a shot sound from behind him. The crook-backed rat jumped in pain as a bullet smashed into it, its own pistol falling from its paw as pain from its wound seized it.

Amando gave a cry of triumph, leaping down to the last platform between himself and his prey. A ratman reared up before him, slashing at him with its notched blade. The Tilean screamed as the sword clove into his leg, then brought his own sword smashing down into the ratkin’s head, scraping against its skull and ripping an ear and most of its scalp free from the bone beneath.

Johann dropped down to drag Amando away, but the Tilean shook him off, pointing at the cowering rat-leader.

‘I kill that pig, then you take me back!’ Amando growled.

Johann had no chance to argue. At that instant the seemingly dead ratman at Amando’s feet found some measure of strength in its dying body. With a hiss, the skaven buried its fangs in the Tilean’s foot. Amando shrieked in shock and pain, then brought the edge of his blade slashing across the monster’s throat, banishing its filthy life for good.

Foul black blood sprayed as Amando opened the ratman’s neck, splashing across Johann’s body. The smuggler felt disgust at contact with the loathsome ichor, but quickly this was forgotten as tearing, crawling pain wracked his body. It felt like his body was ripping itself apart from within, like his veins were trying to slither free from his flesh. Johann clawed at his skin, trying to combat the itching sensation. He slumped to the shaking floor of the platform, horrified by what he was doing.

Amando, stunned by the strange agony that had seized Johann, was torn from his blind rage and turned to help his comrade in arms. A shot sounded and most of the Tilean’s face vanished in a spray of blood and bone. On the higher platform, Johann could see the crook-backed ratman fling aside a second pistol. The monster glared at him for a moment, then threw itself at the causeway edge above it. No man could have made such a leap, nor found purchase for his grasping fingers, but the wiry ratman managed the impossible. An instant its stumpy tail swung from the lip of the causeway, then Johann heard a splash as the rat-leader threw himself into the reservoir.

The reason for the ratman’s flight was revealed as Johann heard men rushing across the platforms.

‘More ratmen have swarmed into the cavern,’ Theodor shouted at Johann. ‘We need to find a defensible position on the other side to fend them off!’

Johann only dimly heard the exchange. He was too busy staring at his arm, at the disgusting suggestion of movement beneath his skin where the black blood of the skaven had stained it. He reached a hand towards Amando’s body, to see if the Tilean’s flesh was also affected, trying desperately to deny the hideous truth fighting to dominate his brain. He recoiled, biting down on his lip to keep from screaming. Not only was Amando’s skin unmarked, but as his hand reached towards his head, where the sickly glowing warpstone bullet the ratman had fired was lodged in his skull, Johann saw a filthy green wormlike growth push itself free from his wrist.

Poisoned! Poisoned by that damnable stone from the sewer! Poisoned like his brother Dietrich! He saw in his mind the ghastly scene of his brother’s deathbed, the filth and horror of that lingering sickness.

The wizard had known! Johann realised the fact with a sickening horror. Scrivner’s terrible familiar had smelled it on him. Perhaps the wizard had known even before that. He had known, and he had said nothing! Johann rose to his feet, glaring at the causeway where the wizard stood before the oncoming horde.

‘It’s suicide to go back,’ Valkoinen snarled at him.

Johann nodded stiffly to Valkoinen.

‘Sounds like exactly what the doctor ordered,’ Johann said, then turned and hurried to fit words to deeds.

The festering ranks of the plague monks came scuttling out of the tunnel like so many rotting corpses, their fur hanging from their emaciated limbs in mangy strips, their frayed robes crusty with filth from their decaying bodies, and in each rheumy eye the ecstatic madness of the true fanatic. The plague monks did not see horror in their abominable condition; they saw power.

Instinctively, Thanquol looked past the mouldering mob of common plague monks, over the cowls and hoods of the frenzied wretches swinging obscene incense censers over their heads, past the diseased dregs carrying profane fly-strewn icons of crumbling bone and rusting iron, beyond the shrieking zealots with prayer scrolls clenched in their scrawny fists. He looked beyond the tide of madness, seeking the master of this deranged throng. He found him, perched upon the backs of four bulky ratmen who had somehow managed to retain some semblance of strength despite the ravages of their many ills.

Thanquol hissed an oath through his fangs. He knew that filthy rat, the insane, gibbering heretic who stood at the position of command behind his miserable congregation. Lord Skrolk, perhaps second only to Nurglitch himself in the loathsome ranks of Clan Pestilens and the foul plague priests!

Skrolk caught Thanquol’s eye. The plague lord’s lips peeled back, displaying his rotten smile. There was a look of unspeakable triumph in Skrolk’s expression, as though all the hate and malice in his entire clan had been boiled down into a single display of emotion. Thanquol knew Nurglitch wanted the Wormstone for himself and Clan Pestilens alone. Accepting the will of the Council had been a ruse. His true plan had been to send Lord Skrolk to steal the Wormstone once Thanquol found it. And if, in the process, the grey seer was eliminated, so much the better for Skrolk and Nurglitch. Thanquol’s killing of Plague Lord Skratsquik would be avenged. With the Wormstone in their possession, Clan Pestilens would need fear no retaliation for striking down one of the Horned Rat’s sacred priests!

Thanquol bit down on the warpstone in his mouth, feeling its fiery power blaze through him. His vision became a brilliance of golden light, his arms felt as though they swelled with power. He could see the swirling threads of magic all around him; the grey darkness surrounding the human wizard, the green putrescence that billowed about Skrolk. They were as nothing to Thanquol’s enhanced sight, petty tricks drawing upon but a few of the sorcerous strands that writhed all around them! The grey seer would show them real power! He would show them true magic!

Chittering wildly, Thanquol opened himself to the aetheric forces surrounding him, drawing all the many strands of magic into his body and into his mind. He formed the power into a thought, forced the thought to become purpose, forced the purpose to become action. Forced action to become words, gestures, binding the power with the secret knowledge handed down to the grey seers by the Horned Rat himself. Skrolk, the pathetic heathen, would suffer for his impiety! The Horned Rat would gnaw the heretic’s bones!

As he started to point the blazing head of his staff towards the corrupt plague lord, Thanquol’s sorcery-soaked vision noticed another figure drawing arcane energies into itself. The efforts of this one were even more laughable than those of Scrivner and Skrolk, like a whelp trying to raise a rat ogre’s maul. Yet there was something naggingly familiar, insufferably annoying about the pathetic aura of the wretch. Thanquol’s fangs snapped together, grinding against each other as he realised who the little scum-mage was!

Adept Kratch! The treacherous little bastard-flea was still alive! He was there, at the fore of the plague monks, his grey robes cast aside for the green decay of his new friends. The riddle of how Skrolk had found him was solved. The plague monks were here courtesy of some trick of his deceitful former apprentice!

Kratch vanished in a blaze of green-gold fire, the fur stripped from his bones as he was engulfed by the full fury of Thanquol’s magic. Plague monks near him pitched and fell, their hearts burst by the magnitude of the sorcery that had smashed into the adept. Other plague monks whimpered and howled as the refuse of Kratch’s sorry carcass splashed across them, greasy black drops that sizzled and burned whatever they touched.

Thanquol felt every eye in the cavern drawn to him as shocked silence drowned out the roar of battle. Man, dwarf and skaven, every face was pinched with horror at the unfathomable power the grey seer had unleashed. Fur and hair stood on end, patches of ice bobbed upon the surface of the reservoir. The air itself seemed charged, flickering with a weird afterglow along the course the grey seer’s annihilating blast had taken. Even Lord Skrolk’s blemished face was filled with astonished terror. If the decayed villain still had functioning glands, Thanquol knew they must be spurting the musk of fear like a runt in a snake pit.

The grey seer straightened, holding himself high as he felt the terrified appreciation of his enemies. Then his pride wilted, along with the tremendous strength he had imagined flowing through his limbs only moments before. Thanquol struggled to keep standing, succeeding only in sliding down the length of his staff, wilting into a weary pile upon the stones of the causeway. Bile rose through his throat, burning as he vomited a mix of warpstone and blood. Quivering like a leaf, Thanquol tried to focus his vision. It was a horrible effort, his brain swimming with pulses of pain and throbbing against the inside of his skull as though trying to batter its way out of his head.

Across the stone ledge, Skrolk’s eyes were not having the same problem holding the image of his enemy. Gone was the terror, and in its place a snickering scorn. Thanquol had drawn such incredible power, unleashed such unspeakable havoc, and to what purpose? Skrolk lived, as did more than enough of his vile disciples to slaughter both Thanquol’s miserable servitors and the meddling human wizard’s agents.

Skrolk’s bubbling laughter oozed through the cavern, echoing from the walls. It would be some time before Thanquol could muster the concentration for even the most minor cantrip. Before that happened, he intended to be wearing the grey seer’s entrails for a belt.

Thanquol groaned as his vision finally steadied. He saw Skrolk clap his paws together, saw two mammoth shapes emerge from the tunnel. Horror clawed at the grey seer’s heart. The things that lurched out onto the ledge were rat ogres, brutes nearly the equal of Boneripper in size. Where his bodyguard had prodigious strength and savagery, however, these had the same diseased viciousness of the plague monks. Their emaciated bodies were nests of boils and sores, their flesh betraying a leprous tint, rabid foam dripping from their black-toothed maws. He didn’t need Skrolk’s pointing finger to tell him what victim the plague lord had chosen for his monsters.

Thanquol tried to lift himself, but his wobbly legs just crumpled beneath his weight. He ripped the escape scroll from his belt, but his pounding head and bleary vision would not cooperate enough to read the complex spell.

The grey seer groaned again, smacking his horned head against the cold stone beneath him. It had been a fit of temperamental stupidity, an outburst of temporary madness! Satisfying as obliterating Kratch might have been, it was a woeful blunder tactically.

Jeremias Scrivner struggled to maintain the bonds of shadow wrapped about the gigantic hulk of Boneripper. The rat ogre refused to submit, forcing his huge body onwards, regardless of how much power the wizard put into his spell. Inch by inch, the monster was breaking free, his tiny brain too dull to submit to Scrivner’s magic. More formidable even than the grotesque rat-beast had been in Dr Loew’s workshop, Boneripper had enough of a mind to focus upon the commands of his master. The rat ogre had been told to attack the wizard, and whatever Scrivner did, he was determined to obey that command.

Scrivner glanced at the gloating grey seer. He knew the fiend’s intention. Callous as all his breed, the rat-mage would wait until the wizard was completely and hopelessly occupied by Boneripper, then Thanquol would leap to the attack. Scrivner knew there was no hope that the grey seer would stay his magical assault out of concern for his bodyguard. For any skaven, there was only one life that was not expendable: his own.

The wizard began to slowly fall back along the causeway. If he could put enough distance between himself and Boneripper, he might be able to strike Thanquol before his bodyguard could reach him. He struggled to tighten the wispy fetters wrapped about Boneripper’s legs, but the monster stubbornly pressed on, slogging through the arcane chains like a behemoth trudging through a quagmire. Scrivner could not gain enough ground on the brute. If he ended his spell, Boneripper would be upon him before he could even wag a finger at the gloating Thanquol.

‘Master!’ The harsh bellow sounded from behind Scrivner. The wizard recognised the voice as that of Grimbold Silverbeard. The dwarf had extricated himself from the fight on the scaffold. His pistols spent, his hands instead were filled with black metal objects, round at the base then tapering to a point from which a hemp fuse protruded.

‘Back!’ Scrivner ordered his minion. The wizard could read the concern in Grimbold’s voice, but the dwarf had a much more important role to play in the drama unfolding around the reservoir. If he could not stop the skaven, it would be left to Grimbold to cheat them of their victory. ‘Do not interfere,’ the wizard snarled when he saw the dwarf set down the bombs and start to reload one of his pistols. A shot at the rat ogre would only enrage him further, allowing the brute to completely break free of Scrivner’s tenuous hold. A shot at the grey seer might only wound the fiend, and make Grimbold the new target of Thanquol’s wrath. As things stood, Scrivner himself was more expendable than the dwarf.

The magister restored his attention to Boneripper, struggling to push the hulk back. Boneripper growled, snapping his fangs and flexing his claws in a primitive display of his ghastly strength. Scrivner was not intimidated by the brute’s bestial boasting; it was enough to tax his mind just keeping the monster enmeshed in his coils.

Scrivner’s fixation upon the task at hand bore tragic fruit. Too late was he aware of a new menace, lurking close by. He twisted his body around, shouting a warning, but word came too late.

With skill to match that of the wizard, made all the more impressive because it did not depend upon magic and illusion to accomplish, a black-clad shape emerged from the shadows. Snarling, the shape pounced on Grimbold, knocking the pistol from the dwarf’s hands. Grimbold staggered, his beard darkening as blood seeped into it from a ragged wound in his chest. Stabbed in the back, the dwarf’s armour had folded like cheesecloth before the unnatural venom of an assassin’s blade. The dwarf had time to stare into the face of his killer before slumping to the ground.

Skrattch Skarpaw sneered at the dying dwarf, raising his poisoned blade for another thrust. The blow never fell. Black blood exploded from Skarpaw’s mouth as his body was bisected by a lance of darkness made solid. The assassin’s confusion and disbelief was a mirror of the expression that had filled Grimbold’s face. He looked from the magic spear that had ripped through him to the causeway. He shook his head, refusing to accept what he saw. The wizard had attacked him, voluntarily abandoning his spell against Boneripper to strike down the dwarf’s killer! Madness, Skarpaw’s brain screamed, to the last unable to understand the peculiarly human concepts of loyalty and sacrifice.

Skarpaw’s body crashed to the causeway, then rolled over the edge, sinking slowly into the cold waters of the reservoir. Only his dropped blade and Grimbold’s bleeding body gave silent testimony that he had ever been at all.

Scrivner hastily began to cast a new spell. He knew it was hopeless, and his knowledge was proven as a fierce, vice-like grip closed around him. The wizard was wrenched from the floor, the hot breath of Boneripper washing over him. He felt ribs cracking beneath the cruel pressure of the beast’s paws. Boneripper’s mutant third arm drew back, the blood-crusted length of its fist-spike poised for the killing blow. The magister spent his last moment invoking a death curse that would take his killer with him. He only hoped that the grey seer was petty enough to still use magic to finish his foe rather than allowing Boneripper’s brawn to settle the score.

Neither spell nor fist fell. Confusion showed on Boneripper’s dull features, the brute staring in perplexity at the ledge. Scrivner could tell that something unexpected had happened. Diseased cries and a stagnant stench told him what had happened without the need to look. More skaven had arrived, but these were no allies of Boneripper or his master. Easily distracted by the unexpected, the rat ogre had lost his focus.

Where a moment before, Scrivner had braced himself for certain death, now he seized opportunity. Instead of finishing his death curse, he instead wove a new spell from the grey wind of magic. The rat ogre was oblivious to his incantation, Boneripper’s dull mind instead watching his master work himself into a fit of anger. The first Boneripper was aware something was amiss was when the physical substance that had been Jeremias Scrivner seeped through his thick fingers in long streamers of darkness. The rat ogre stared stupidly at his empty paws, scratching his horn with his mutant hand.

The darkness that had become the wizard reformed into a human shape only a few feet from the immense monster. Dangerous magic, changing the corporeal into the incorporeal; Scrivner had trusted his spell only as far as he needed to escape Boneripper’s clutch. Now the wizard stood between the monster and Grimbold’s body. The dwarf had served him faithfully for many years. Scrivner would not abandon him while there was still the flicker of life in him. Not while Grimbold still might have a role to play saving the capital of the entire Empire from a hideous fate.

Boneripper must have smelled Scrivner as he took shape once more. The rat ogre stopped staring at his empty hands and instead glared at the magister. Drool glistened as the monster roared his rage.

The rat ogre started to rush towards Scrivner, but then his roar was drowned out by an even more monstrous sound. The entire cavern shook, the air burst into golden light. The wizard shielded himself with his cloak as ice erupted from the reservoir in bursts. Impossibly powerful magic had been unleashed, sorcery both awesome and reckless, the wild raw malevolence of absolute destruction. He knew he was fortunate that such a spell had not been unleashed upon himself, for there was no curse or charm or protective talisman known to mortals that could have withstood it. It was like the fist of an angry god smiting down from the heavens or up from the hells.

When the aftershock of the arcane blast had dissipated enough for Scrivner to focus his thoughts again, he saw Thanquol staggered on the next causeway. He saw the newly arrived skaven; green-robed plague monks, rushing forwards at the command of their putrescent leader. At the head of the chittering host were a pair of hulking rat ogres, festering kin of Boneripper’s breed. True to Scrivner’s prediction, these were no allies of the grey seer. Indeed, they seemed oblivious to the wizard in their haste to settle with Thanquol.

Scrivner lifted Grimbold from the ground, moving him just in time to prevent the dwarf from being crushed underfoot by Boneripper as the monster thundered past. With a brain too small to hold Scrivner’s illusions, he was intelligent enough to recognise the peril threatening his master. Like a loyal dog, Boneripper was rushing to protect Thanquol from his enemies.

It was not fear for Thanquol that caused Scrivner to shout orders to his men, commanding them to attack the plague monks. It was a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. Thanquol would use the Wormstone if given the chance. The plague monks, however, might do much worse. Scrivner knew about their fiendish ability to create new diseases and ways of distributing them. Given a chance, they might not only use the Wormstone, they might be capable of replicating the spells that had created it. They might be able to make more!

Boneripper ploughed through the swarming mass of plague monks, smashing and crushing them with his monstrous claws. The diseased ratmen refused to break, chittering and snarling as they leapt upon their hulking attacker. Rusty daggers sank into the rat ogre’s leather hide, staves of worm-eaten wood splintered against his bones, yellow fangs ripped at his flesh. The monster’s charge floundered as plague monks threw themselves at him with lunatic abandon. Before he had taken more than a dozen steps onto the stone shelf, Boneripper’s shape vanished beneath a clinging, clawing mass of ragged green robes and leprous flesh. Even the mutant’s prodigious strength faltered before the onslaught. He stumbled, dropping to one knee. A plague monk shrieked as he was crushed by Boneripper’s shifting weight, but the wretch’s maniacal brethren gave his fate passing notice. Chanting their obscene prayers to their vile god, the plague monks struggled all the harder to bring their prey down.

Rescue came from an unexpected source. Shots rang out, blasting clinging ratmen from Boneripper’s body. Scrivner’s minions had heard their master’s command and rushed to attack their new and horrific foes. Plague monks turned to meet the renewed assault by the humans, snarling their vile shrieks as they surged towards the scaffold. Crazed skaven wielding smouldering censers of rusted iron led the charge, the pestilential fumes spewing from the foul incense almost visibly corrupting their wasted bodies as they scurried to the attack.

Theodor Baer held the survivors of Scrivner’s band together, ordering them into a rough skirmish line. Those few who still bore loaded pistols fired into the diseased throng, spilling another pair of ratmen onto the ground. The filthy stink of incense and disease reached out to the men, threatening to engulf them in a fog of plague and decay.

Suddenly, the charging ratmen were lost beneath a shroud of darkness, a cloak of shadow that descended upon them like a falling curtain. The diseased ratmen howled and whined, shrieking and chittering in confusion and frustrated rage. Some, confused by the supernatural darkness, rushed too far forwards, choking as they entered the cloud of noxious fumes spewing from the heavy flail-like censers. Less inured to the smoky filth than the censer bearers, these ratmen writhed on the ground, coughing and bleeding as the fumes overwhelmed their disease-ravaged bodies.

The spell of darkness did no more than delay the charge of the plague monks, however. Lost in a frenzy of bloodlust and hate, the acolytes of Clan Pestilens were not so easily provoked into fright as the hapless minions of Thanquol had been in the basement of the Orc and Axe. They used their keen sense of smell to pursue their prey through the murk, emerging on the other side of the wizard’s spell in a snarling mass.

Scrivner’s agents had not been idle while the plague monks were blinded, however. Instead of holding their skirmish line, as soon as the wizard’s spell had struck, the men turned and fled back onto the scaffold. With as much haste as their weary bodies could summon, the men ran, retreating before the vengeful mob of ratmen chittering for their blood.

Such was the maddened bloodlust of the plague monks, they scarcely paused as they scrambled onto the wooden scaffolding to give chase. Ratmen were knocked from the rickety wooden platforms by the reckless haste of their comrades and the press of the frenzied mob behind them. Their shrieks as they fell into the cavern were all but lost beneath the obscene chanting and hungry chittering of those who swarmed across the scaffolding, hot on the heels of their enemies.

Another sound was also lost to the ears of the snarling pack. Designed to support the weight of a few men at a time, the scaffolds groaned and sagged beneath the scrabbling mass of plague monks. Ropes snapped, boards splintered. Too late, some of the plague monks sensed their peril. Fear swept through the swarm of green-cloaked fanatics, transforming into panic as the less desiccated skaven began to vent their glands. No longer did they pursue the tiny band of humans who were climbing onto the stone ledge at the far side of the reservoir. Instead they fought and clawed and pushed to reach the safety of the near ledge, to find refuge from the wooden platforms that creaked and buckled beneath their paws.

Few of the plague monks reached the security of the ledge before, with a titanic groan, the first section of scaffolding broke and tumbled into the chasm. The dissolution of one section aggravated the distress of the others. The plague monks wailed and screamed as the entire scaffold broke away, carrying the swarming fanatics with it as it toppled hundreds of feet to the rocky slope below.

Upon the shelf, Boneripper tore the last stubborn plague monks from his body, smashing them into gory paste upon the floor. The rat ogre, blood dripping from hundreds of cuts and bites, pounded his paws against his throbbing chest, creating a drum-like report. He wiped blood from his jaws, his beady eyes squinting at the ragged survivors from his assault and the ill-fated chase onto the scaffold. The plague monks shivered, frozen with fear. Only their blister-faced chieftain seemed unfazed by the menace of the rat ogre. Calmly, Lord Skrolk clapped his leprous hands together and pointed a shrivelled claw at Boneripper.

Two gigantic shapes turned at the plague lord’s summons, their rheumy eyes fixing upon Boneripper’s mangled bulk. Nox and Pox lumbered away from the causeway, leaving Thanquol to the plague monks who had already crawled out ahead of them. Like roaming wolves, the two diseased rat ogres circled their prey, their blackened teeth grinning from behind their crusty lips. They were not so far gone to the ravages of pestilence and plague that their tiny brains had forgotten the pleasures of life; such as an enemy wounded and outnumbered, just waiting for their fangs to close about his throat.

Nox growled, a sound like the wheeze of a dying mammoth. The rat ogre’s snarl drew Boneripper’s attention, the mutant brute roaring his own defiance at the decayed abomination. Nox, however, made no move to close with Boneripper. A vile cunning lingered in the disease-ravaged minds of the plague-ogres.

As Boneripper turned towards Nox, Pox charged the mutant’s back. The plague-ogre’s thick arms wrapped about Boneripper’s body, crushing him in a bear hug that pinned his limbs against his sides. Pox’s slobbering mouth worried at Boneripper’s neck, shredding his flesh and soaking the abomination’s muzzle in the mutant’s dark blood. Boneripper shrieked in pain as the plague-ogre’s fangs gnawed into him. He tried to twist his head around, to slash Pox with his horn. The plague-ogre ducked the clumsy attack, shifting his grip and sinking his fangs into Boneripper’s shoulder.

Seeing Pox launch his attack, Nox rushed the besieged Boneripper, rabid froth bubbling from his diseased jaws. The plague-ogre raised a clawed hand to slash open Boneripper’s belly, but the blow never fell. Boneripper slashed at the monster with his tail, driving the spiked steel ball Thanquol had nailed to the tip of the rat ogre’s scaly tail against the knee of the plague-ogre. Nox gibbered in pain as his knee exploded beneath the strike, the bones of his lower leg shattering as the plague-ogre’s full weight pressed down upon them. Nox smashed against the floor, fangs snapping from rotten gums as his face smacked into stone.

Startled by his fellow’s alarming distress, Pox failed to remember his earlier evasions of Boneripper’s horn. The steel-capped sliver of bone scraped across the plague-ogre’s face, bringing treacly blood spurting from a deep gash that ran from forehead to chin. Pox reared back, instinctively recoiling from the source of his wound. Boneripper’s mutant arm, unrestrained by Pox’s crushing hug, stabbed at the plague-ogre’s head. The monster released Boneripper and staggered away, clutching at his blood-soaked face.

Boneripper sniffed at the putrid eye impaled upon his fist-spike, then growled his own challenge to the plague-ogres. Slowly, the mangled monsters lurched after their foe, snarling their own savage defiance. Beast against beast against beast, there could be no quarter in such a struggle; the only measure of victory would be the cold still bodies of the vanquished.

Jeremias Scrivner stared down into the bloody face of Grimbold Silverbeard. There was more shame than pain in the dwarf’s eyes as he stared back. That changed as the wizard’s palm slapped against his grisly wound. The dwarf gritted his teeth as he felt the magister’s magic pour into his body.

‘I am no healer,’ Scrivner warned him. ‘Against the poison of the skaven, even a healer might be of no use. But my magic will slow the ratkin’s venom.’

Grimbold nodded, fumbling at the straps of his apron. Tearing it loose, he exposed a set of bandoliers that criss-crossed his chest. More of the curious metal bombs were secured to the loops of the belts. ‘Th… the fuses… will burn… even in… the water.’ The dwarf grinned, an effect ruined by the blood staining his teeth. ‘No time… to set them… proper. But I know… where they will do the job!’ A grim laugh rumbled from the dwarf’s throat.

Wizard and dwarf looked up as they were joined upon the causeway. Johann Dietrich had not followed Theodor Baer across the scaffold. Something more terrible than skaven and monsters had seized the smuggler’s mind. He pointed at his torn shirt, at the crawling things he could see just beneath the surface of his skin.

‘Why didn’t you tell me!’ Johann demanded.

‘Would knowing have made any difference?’ Scrivner answered coldly. ‘There is nothing that can be done.’

‘But I should have known!’ growled Johann. ‘You should have told me!’

‘Count it a blessing, manling,’ coughed Grimbold. ‘It’s not every one learns the hour of his death. It’s not every one can make his last minutes such to make his ancestors proud.’

Scrivner pointed at Johann. ‘Crawl into a hole and die, or stay and help avenge your brother. The choice is yours, but choose quickly.’

Before Johann could even think about the wizard’s words, the shadows seemed to reach out and surround the magister. Scrivner’s figure darkened until it was indistinguishable from the blackness around him. Then, as man and shadow merged into one, both slowly faded into nothingness.

Grimbold shook his head sadly and started to drag himself across the causeway, leaving Johann alone with his thoughts and his decision.

Grey Seer Thanquol watched with horror as Skrolk’s abominable minions charged the causeway. Even the onset of Boneripper’s valiant attack had not been enough to break their diseased determination. Worse, the stupid rat ogre had allowed himself to become embroiled in a scuffle with Skrolk’s disgusting beasts, leaving Thanquol alone against the plague monks.

Thanquol managed to rise to his feet, leaning heavily on his staff for support. His head was spinning, swimming with colours and sounds only he could sense. His guts felt on fire, his limbs still shook as muscles twitched and shivered. Too much power used unwisely had left the grey seer as helpless as a whelp.

It was fortunate, then, that the last of his own underlings did not appreciate just how helpless their tyrannical leader was. If they had, they would certainly have abandoned him, or perhaps even tried to gain some favour with Clan Pestilens by delivering Thanquol to Lord Skrolk. However, the grey seer’s awful displays of sorcery had impressed upon his minions the magnitude of his power, filling their hearts and minds with a lingering fear.

Instead of fleeing, the warlock engineers who had circled the entire reservoir to avoid Scrivner and join Thanquol pulled pistols and fired into the oncoming plague monks. The foremost of the fanatics shrieked and fell into the icy waters; those behind hesitated, unwilling to be the next to die from a sudden barrage.

Thanquol snarled at the two warlock engineers. Killing the plague monks was all fine and good, but the vermin had more important work to do. He pointed a talon at one masked ratman, gesturing at the leather bag slung from his left shoulder. ‘Leave the Wormstone,’ Thanquol snapped through clenched fangs. He pointed to an almost identical leather bag hanging from the engineer’s other shoulder. ‘Keep-keep the heretic-maggots back-away while I do what needs to be done!’

The warlock engineer nodded his head in almost eager fashion and dropped the heavy leather bag down beside his comrade. His gloved paws rummaged in the other bag, producing a globe of smoky glass. Tightening valves on the sides of his mask, the skaven scurried forwards and hurled the globe at the lurking plague monks. The glass grenade shattered on the stone of the causeway, spewing an acidic fog that corroded the flesh from the plague monks caught in the mephitic cloud. Shrieking in agony, the wounded skaven leapt into the reservoir, but the cold waters did nothing to stifle their burning flesh. Other plague monks, killed outright, lay sprawled upon the causeway, foul steam rising from their smouldering carcasses.

The warlock engineer chittered madly as he saw the terror on the faces of the other plague monks and pulled a second poison wind globe from his bag.

Grey Seer Thanquol turned his attention away from the globadier, fixing his gaze instead upon the engineer beside him. He gestured at the bag the globadier had discarded and at the similar one the warlock engineer held. ‘You, dump-pour Wormstone into pool-pool, quick-quick!’ The grey seer put a growl into his voice to spur the hesitant engineer onwards. Thanquol had no intention of getting any closer to the Wormstone than he already was, that risk he was perfectly content to leave to his underling. Once the reservoir was safely contaminated, he’d then be free to use the escape scroll, secure in knowing that his victory was complete.

The warlock engineer drew heavy gloves of chain and copper from his belt before opening either of the bags. Gingerly, he started to lift one of the wine bottles from the bag. Thanquol glanced away for only an instant, checking that the globadier was still holding the plague monks back. When he looked again at the engineer, he found the skaven sprawled across the causeway, his throat slashed from ear to ear. Standing over him, dripping wet from his swim in the reservoir, was old Skrim Gnawtail. The Clan Skaul spy glared at Thanquol, fangs bared in a contemptuous snarl.

‘Thanquol-meat is finished!’ Skrim snapped. The spy’s grin broadened as his claws closed around the strap of the leather bag holding the bottles of Wormstone. ‘I scent-see your treachery, grey-flea! I shall be hero of Under-Altdorf when they learn I saved them from your poison!’

The old ratman grunted with effort as he lifted the heavy burden. His crooked back trembled as he tried to straighten. For an instant, his attention was away from Thanquol. It was a mistake Skrim would never have made in his younger days, but those days were long past. Crippled by age, instincts dulled by time, the spy could not concentrate upon both the grey seer and the heavy bag.

Thanquol sprang at the spy, smashing the metal head of his staff into Skrim’s grey head. The spy uttered a shrill gasp, then crumpled to the floor, blood spurting from his cracked skull. Thanquol scrambled to grab the bag of Wormstone, but the satchel was already slipping from Skrim’s dead clutch. The grey seer gave voice to a furious wail as he watched the leather bag drop from Skrim’s fingers and sink into the black depths of the reservoir, its lethal contents harmless and inert inside their bottles.

Scowling, Thanquol kicked Skrim’s lifeless body, the ferocity of his vindictive rage snapping the spy’s neck as his foot smashed against the side of his head. Still not content, Thanquol swatted the twitching corpse with his staff, sending it rolling into the icy reservoir.

Turning, the grey seer smiled as he saw the second bag of Wormstone bottles. There would still be enough to poison the reservoir and kill his enemies! Thanquol reached his paw towards the leather bag. Suddenly, he cringed away from his objective. Standing just beyond the grey seer, between himself and the lone globadier holding back the crazed hordes of Clan Pestilens, was a figure draped in a charcoal-grey cloak and hood. Once more, Thanquol felt the wizard’s intense gaze bore down upon him.

Thanquol fought down the fear Scrivner’s abrupt appearance provoked. The grey seer fingered his protective talismans, wondering if any of them would be potent enough to dispel the magister’s magic. He did not display his fear, however. Instead he screwed his body up into his most imperious posture.

‘Leave-go,’ Thanquol pronounced. ‘You may warn-tell the humans not to drink-taste the water. It is the traitor-rats of Under-Altdorf I will destroy! You go tell-warn the Emperor, be good hero for all man-things! This does generous Thanquol offer his worthy enemy!’

Mocking laughter rewarded the grey seer’s proposal. Slowly, his stormy eyes still fixed upon Thanquol’s beady orbs, Scrivner drew his sword from its sheath. ‘Your sorcery has fled-betrayed you,’ the wizard’s chilling hiss sounded, forming the words in perfect Queekish. ‘Draw-take your blade, Grey Seer, and meet-find your death with spleen!’

Thanquol backed away from the wizard’s challenge. His paw fell to his belt, but it was not his sword he fingered but rather the escape scroll. Would he have enough time, he wondered, to invoke the spell before Scrivner could run him through with his sword. Suddenly, Thanquol found himself with more pressing concerns.

Peering past the wizard, Thanquol could see the globadier engulfed by a stream of burning green filth. The warlock engineer’s leather garments dissolved in the vile spray, his fur and flesh dripping off his bones as the corrosive consumed him utterly. His dripping skeleton made a loathsomely squishy sound as it collapsed to the floor.

Beyond the globadier’s steaming wreckage, Thanquol could see the ratman’s killer. Lord Skrolk wiped a paw across his dripping jaws, wiping away little burning bits of residue from his mouth. Like the fabled plague dragon Bubos, Skrolk had used his magic to spit searing death at the warlock engineer. The plague lord chuckled grotesquely as he plodded forwards, pestilential vapours rising from the bowl of his censer-staff. The fanatic’s decayed paw caressed the ratskin binding of the massive book that swung from a chain on his belt. Thanquol’s fur bristled with horrified recognition: the book was the Liber Bubonicus, an abominable artefact stolen from the disciples of the horrific Dark God Nurgle by Clan Pestilens long ago. Thanquol, and indeed all the grey seers, had thought the abomination long since destroyed. Knowing that Skrolk had studied the book’s spells of plague and destruction, the grey seer found himself more eager than ever to evoke his escape spell.

Scrivner saw the horror in Thanquol’s eyes. The wizard knew that, for now at least, the grey seer could not draw upon his own magic, his body still recovering from the rampant excess of the spell that had obliterated Kratch. If he was still confident in his own powers, he would hardly have tried to wheedle a deal from the wizard. Scrivner had sensed the discharge of Skrolk’s black magic, knew that there was another foe who was not so drained as the grey seer. For Thanquol to find terror rather than rescue in such magecraft, Scrivner knew the perpetrator could only be one of the plague priests, creatures he had already determined were an even greater threat than the grey seer.

The grey-cloaked wizard spun about, glaring at Skrolk just as the plague lord opened his rotten mouth once more. A spew of maggot-ridden broth exploded from the decayed skaven’s jaws, a burning stream of noxious putrescence that glowed with the filthy light of unclean gods. Such a breath of rotting disease had destroyed the globadier, now Lord Skrolk evoked the same magic to settle with the meddling wizard and the cringing Thanquol.

Talons of shadow swept down from the ceiling and up from beneath the causeway, intercepting the stream of plague-magic, swirling about the filth in a complex pattern that echoed the motions of Scrivner’s wildly gesturing hands. Thanquol blinked in disbelief as he saw Skrolk’s ghastly sorcery scattered by the magister’s arcane powers. Skrolk, however, was far from finished. Snarling, the plague lord reached to his rotten face, tearing one of his blemished eyes from his decayed skull. Thanquol realised with horror that Skrolk’s staring eyes were not real, simply cleverly painted chips of warpstone!

The plague lord uttered another croak of laughter as he popped his false eye into his mouth. Skrolk seemed to swell with power as the weird energies of the warpstone rushed through him.

Scrivner’s voice came in a low hiss, forming slithering words that seemed to charge the very air. He was drawing upon the last reserves of his own power to ward off what was coming, tapping spells and energies that would drive most men mad. He invoked cold gods, ancient and strange, called to the slithering forces of lost worlds. Secret words, forbidden before the first man crawled from the slime, rasped past the magister’s hidden lips. His fingers cracked as he forced them into gestures nearly impossible for human anatomy to mimic. He only prayed it would be enough to stop the surging malignity of Skrolk’s arcane might.

Thanquol was less hopeful. He opened the escape scroll, his mouth started to form the first words of the incantation. Then his eyes darted to the bottles of Wormstone lying on the causeway. He looked up, grinning as he saw Skrolk and Scrivner locked in their wizard’s duel. Focused upon each other, there was nothing either of his enemies could do to stop him now!

Thanquol the mighty reached into the leather bag, snickering contentedly as he pulled the first bottle into the dim light.

Jeremias Scrivner struggled to maintain his sorcerous shield against the noxious spellcraft of Lord Skrolk. Foul spell after foul spell smashed against the arcane defences he had erected, splattering against the shadowy folds of his magic like waves battering a shore. Skrolk did not throw his warpstone-fuelled power into a single burst of havoc. Instead the plague lord used it to craft a barrage of deathly magic that taxed Scrivner’s powers to their limit. Beads of blood dripped from the wizard’s pores as he struggled to maintain his focus and his strength. Inch by ghastly inch, he could feel Skrolk’s malignity prevailing.

The plague lord could smell the weakness of his foe, and croaked with bubbling laughter. Skrolk’s false eye saw the world in waves of purple and green; it had been many years since he had clawed his natural eyes from his face after beholding the wondrous putrescence of Arch-Plaguelord Nurglitch. Sorcery gave him sight, the same sorcery that now allowed him to crush the grey wizard and the grey seer like a pair of gnats. Slow and persistent as the holy poxes of the Horned Rat, Skrolk brought his insidious magic of corruption and decay gnawing at Scrivner’s defences.

A bellow snapped Skrolk’s attention from the wizard. Scrivner wilted to the floor of the causeway as the plague lord’s barrage of spells abruptly ceased, completely drained by his desperate efforts to hold back the monster’s power.

It was a different sort of monster and a different sort of power that threatened Lord Skrolk. Towering over the plague lord, his body torn and gashed, Boneripper glowered at this festering toad of a rat who thought to kill his master. The severed head of Nox hung from one of the rat ogre’s claws, the better part of Pox’s belly was skewered on the brute’s horn.

‘Boneripper! Kill-kill!’ came a frantic shout from further along the causeway. The rat ogre, only a moment before looking as though he might pass out from fatigue and injury, abruptly rallied at the sound of Thanquol’s shriek. Snarling, he slapped his chest with Nox’s mangled head.

Lord Skrolk glared back at the beast with his last eye. The plague lord did not need spells to deal with such a brute. He tightened his hold on his staff, flicking a pinch of yellow powder into the smouldering bowl of the censer. ‘Boneripper, die-die!’ Skrolk snarled, lunging at the hulking brute before he could attack.

Boneripper swatted at the plague lord with his claw. Skrolk ducked beneath the wounded rat ogre’s swipe, striking at him in turn with his sinister staff. The rod of corruption sank through the meat of Boneripper’s arm as though it were butter, blisters and maggots spreading from the grisly, gangrenous wound. Boneripper howled in pain, lifting his injured arm to his face, sucking at the putrid wound in a futile effort to ease the pain.

‘No-no! Stupid brute! Kill Skrolk! Kill-kill!’

But it was already too late for Thanquol to command his bodyguard. Boneripper had drawn a lungful of the foul fumes spilling from Skrolk’s censer into his body when he voiced his painful howl. Coupled with the vileness he drew into his belly when he sucked at his wound, the rat ogre’s body was beset by the supernatural poxes of Clan Pestilens and their most abominable plague priest. Boneripper slumped to his knees as his flesh became pallid. His eyes rolled back in his skull as pus began dripping from his ears. The rat ogre’s horns and claws became brittle, crumbling like clay. Boneripper opened his mouth to snap at the gloating plague lord, but his fangs fell out of his bleeding gums.

Whining like a whipped cur, Boneripper crashed onto his face, his skull bursting like a crushed egg as he struck.

Skrolk licked the rat ogre’s blood from his face as he turned back to his other foes. ‘Where-where were we?’ the plague lord snarled. ‘Oh yes-yes! First the wizard, then the fool!’

Lord Skrolk lifted his paw, the claws glowing with foul energies. Scrivner could only watch as the plague lord began to work his magic. Thanquol fingered his protective charms, but knew that they would be useless. He could still smell the warpstone fuelling Skrolk’s malignant sorcery.

Before Skrolk could unleash his death spell, he was again beset by an enemy from behind. The plague lord’s followers, faced with Boneripper’s rage and the dire magics being unleashed by their own prophet, had abandoned Skrolk, diving into the reservoir in their bid to find safety. In deserting their master, they had left the path open for Boneripper. In destroying Boneripper, Skrolk had left the path open for a different kind of adversary.

Johann did not shout or roar challenge to the decayed monster, he did not announce himself in some honourable call to battle. What he did was climb onto Boneripper’s lifeless mass and leap down upon Skrolk, locking one arm about the skaven’s waist, another about his throat.

Skrolk flailed in Johann’s grasp, slithering and squirming like an eel in that clutch. Then the plague lord’s diseased sight focused upon the state of the arm that was wrapped about his neck. He saw the ugly green-black worm growths squirming up from the man’s skin. Johann Dietrich – last victim of the Wormstone!

Even the decayed face of Lord Skrolk was capable of expressing the horror the sight of those writhing worms evoked. He knew what sort of death the worms would bring, and knew they were erupting from the man’s body, being drawn into his own by the scent of warpstone in his blood! Skrolk redoubled his efforts to break free, clawing at the face of his captor, but Johann would not relent.

Johann met the silent gaze of Scrivner’s grey eyes. He saw a respect in those eyes, something approaching admiration beneath the swirling storm of shadow and fog. The wizard gave the slightest nod of his head. The smuggler tightened his hold upon the struggling Skrolk and launched himself into the icy waters of the reservoir, dragging the squealing monster with him into the dark depths.

Scrivner looked back at the last of the skaven. Thanquol was perched at the edge of the causeway, upended wine bottles in each paw. More bottles lay empty all around the grey seer’s feet.

The wizard glared coldly at the laughing skaven. His own icy smile was hidden beneath the folds of his scarf. He turned his head and shouted across the reservoir to a little shape lying upon the causeway nearest the restraining wall. His words were thick and harsh, the stony tones of Khazalid, the ancient tongue of the dwarfs.

‘Honour your ancestors, Grimbold Silverbeard, and tell the gods the way of your death!’

The shape on the causeway shifted slightly, then plunged into the black embrace of the reservoir. An instant later, the entire cavern shook with such a roar as made even Thanquol’s rage-filled spell seem the babble of a child. The shaking tremor spread, the roar intensified and the entire restraining wall seemed to lift up, then come crashing down again!

Grey Seer Thanquol stared in mute horror as the reservoir rushed from the ruptured wall, hurtling down into the chasm, rushing into the darkness. The cataract of water bore with it the Wormstone powder, speeding its poisonous taint far from where it would wreak havoc upon the people of Altdorf. Even the traitors of Under-Altdorf would be spared; such a torrent would hardly stop at the pools and streams the skaven used, it would rage onwards until it reached the sunken ocean beneath the world, far beyond the reach of men or dwarfs or goblins or even skaven.

It was not fair! Just as he had accomplished his victory, Thanquol had been cheated of his triumph! The glory and power, the authority and riches that the Lords of Decay would have showered upon him! All of it lost, lost because of that heretic Skrolk and those traitors Burnfang and Gnawtail, Skarpaw and Kratch! Stolen from him by that damn meddling human mage-thing!

Thanquol saw the cloaked wizard rise weakly to his feet. Now it was Scrivner who was the weak one! The grey seer drew his sword, the foul rune engraved upon the black blade glowing evilly in the shadows. He wanted to test Thanquol’s blade, did he? Well, the grey seer was going to show him how much courage there was in his spleen!

Scrivner stared back at Thanquol as the grey seer stalked towards him. This time it was the wizard’s turn to look at something just beyond his enemy. A hiss of laughter rasped from the magister’s muffled face.

Thanquol spun about, his eyes narrowing with outrage as he saw the wizard’s men rushing at him from the far side of the causeway. Having escaped across the now destroyed scaffold, they were returning, rushing to their master’s aid.

‘Strike, coward-meat,’ Scrivner jeered. ‘Or does Grey Seer Thanquol fear-shiver because my warriors will avenge their master!’

Thanquol snarled at Scrivner, but refused to rise to the wizard’s bait. The magister was trying to delay him, keep him lingering about this place long enough for his man-things to get him. Thanquol had lost enough already, there was nothing to be gained risking his pelt further.

The grey seer opened his scroll, his lips moving in a rapid stream of spits and squeaks. Abruptly there was a crack like lightning and a stench of brimstone. A black cloud of smoke lazily swirled about the place where Thanquol had stood.

Scrivner’s men stared in amazement at the deathly cloud, stunned by the grey seer’s sorcerous disappearance. The wizard himself simply shook his head sadly, wondering if perhaps the world might have been made safer trading a Jeremias Scrivner to remove a Grey Seer Thanquol.

‘We failed you, master,’ Theodor apologised, taking Scrivner’s arm and supporting the weakened magister as he started back along the causeway.

The wizard shook his head, pointing to the ruptured wall of the reservoir. Grimbold had worked on the Kaiserschwalbe. The dwarf had known the exact spot where a little explosive would do a lot of damage. The entire reservoir was draining away, taking with it the vile poison of the skaven. There would be much hardship and suffering in Altdorf in the weeks and months to come. It might take years before the Kaiserschwalbe could be repaired and in that time, the city would be forced to find other ways to satisfy its thirst. Water-barons would grow rich carting potable water into the capital, the poor would be reduced to boiling the polluted waters of the Reik. Unrest and disorder would follow hard upon such a crisis, politicians and nobles exploiting it towards their own ends, growing fat off the suffering of the masses. The authorities would be busy trying to maintain the peace, and with their attention diverted, many terrible things would be free to slink into Altdorf’s dark streets and forgotten corners.

Scrivner would have spared Altdorf its suffering, but Thanquol had left him no choice. To save the city from the horrible fate the grey seer had planned for it, the reservoir had to be broken.

‘Failed?’ Scrivner asked Theodor. He pointed at the one section of reservoir wall that had resisted Grimbold’s demolition. Like the outer surface, the inside of the wall had born a fresco. Despite the build-up of algae and the ravages of time, the subject of the fresco was still intact, almost whole despite the destruction all around it. Theodor’s mouth dropped as he recognised whose image it was depicted on the tiles.

‘Magnus the Pious!’ the watchman gasped.

Scrivner nodded his hooded head. ‘Saviour of the Empire,’ he said. ‘But to save it, he first had to destroy the corruption within it. That is the way of saviours, if they would succeed, they must know when they must play the part of the destroyer.’

Black smoke and green lightning swirled about Grey Seer Thanquol as his body was thrust through the daemon world of Chaos. Every hair on the ratman’s pelt stood on end as he became a thing of substance and shape once more. Thanquol hated those terrifying retreats into the maddening realm beyond the spheres of order. Even though it passed almost quicker than a single heartbeat, he could not shake the horror of even so brief a glimpse at planes of existence alien and hostile to creatures of flesh and bone. It was a door that was opened only in moments of the most dire duress, and shut again as swiftly. Yet he could not help but feel the malevolent gaze of hungry eyes watching him as he blinked between worlds, daemon things that might, with the least effort, close the door before he had passed through it!

The thought was horrible enough to make the grey seer’s empty glands clench. He shivered at the idea of being trapped in that horrible void between the physical and the astral, his very soul nothing but a plaything for monsters of the aethyr, his only companions those ever watching eyes of malice and hate.

Thanquol fell into a wary crouch, his staff held before him to ward off lurking foes. Eyes glittered at him from the darkness, bright yellow eyes wide with the most rapt attention. For an instant, he thought that some of those daemon things had passed through the doorway with him when he used his spell to shatter the harmony of the spheres. His paws scrambled beneath the folds of his robe for even the smallest pebble of warpstone he might have forgotten, anything that might give him the power to fend off, or at least run away from, such ghastly foes.

A familiar smell made Thanquol’s terrified expression tighten into a sneer of annoyance and contempt. He knew that smell, the stink of the mangy felines man-things kept as pets. There must be dozens of the vile beasts all around him, filling the air with their reek.

Now that the grey seer’s eyes were completely adjusted to physical colours and a world where light and darkness existed as separate and disparate things, Thanquol could see that he was in some man-thing’s cellar, a dingy little brick-walled room filled to bursting with clutter. Old chairs, empty barrels, mouldy portraits of long-dead birth-kin, the accumulated rubbish of several generations of garbage collecting humans. Beneath, around, and on top of the clutter, a riotous array of cats were curled into little frightened balls of fur and eyes.

Thanquol hissed at the closest of the beasts, sending the flat-eared tabby scurrying backwards beneath a three-legged table, its frightened eyes never leaving the grey seer. It started yowling, a quivering sound quickly picked up by other cats scattered about the cellar. The grey seer scratched at his ears, deciding he’d never heard quite so abominable a sound.

A voice called down from the room above the cellar, the soft shrill sort of voice Thanquol knew commonly indicated an older breeder among the humans, what the man-things called a woman. ‘Karl! Franz! Beatrice! My little babies! What is going on down there?’

Thanquol’s eyes darted from side to side, scanning the rubbish for some new sign of foes. It took several breaths before he realised that the human was calling down to the menagerie of shabby cats. The grey seer ground his teeth together. After all he had suffered, all he had lost today, this was the final indignity – jumping at a bunch of snivelling cats!

‘What is all that racket, babies?’ the woman called down again. Thanquol could hear a door open, a little sliver of light shining down into the cellar. He could hear a step creak as someone started to descend. ‘What are you dong? Do you have a rat cornered down here?’

Thanquol’s lips pulled back, exposing his sharp fangs. He’d worked up quite the appetite, what with all the fighting and leading and run–tactical withdrawals. Eating the stringy meat of a cat was one of the few things a skaven found too revolting to contemplate, but an old human breeder…

‘Don’t get too close to that old rat, babies,’ the woman cooed, her steps now rapid as she descended the stairway. ‘He might bite you and make you sick, darlings!’

Grey Seer Thanquol rolled his eyes. He hoped she was fat, at least. It was going to be a long trip back to Skavenblight and he’d need something to nibble on along the way.

‘I have a broom, sweeties!’ the old woman called as she stepped down onto the floor. ‘I’ll swat that old rat…’

Her words faded into a horrified gargle, her eyes rolling into the back of her head as she fainted dead away at sight of the ghastly creature standing at the foot of the stairs.

Thanquol watched impassively as the old woman’s body crashed to the ground. He let a pleased hiss rasp through his fangs as he bent over her. She was one of the fattest, plumpest specimens he’s seen in quite some time.

In the long catalogue of things that had gone wrong today, Thanquol was happy to steal any crumb from the Horned Rat’s larder. At least he’d have a full belly when he made the trip to Skavenblight. Perhaps by the time he got there, he’d have concocted a lie to tell the Lords of Decay.

Perhaps he’d even think of one good enough to keep Seerlord Kritislik from blasting him into a greasy paste…

TEMPLE OF THE SERPENT

PROLOGUE

Unblinking eyes stared with cold, emotionless intensity at the bloated bulk that sprawled in the half-light of a subterranean chamber. The cloying stench of reptilian musk mixed with the pungent humidity of the air to create an almost tangible fug within the buried grotto. Insects buzzed about the surface of a scum-covered pool while creeping things crawled along the damp walls to bask in the few beams of daylight stabbing through the cracked tiles of the ceiling, drawing the heat of the sun to warm their cold bodies.

The eyes of the watchers ignored the small lizards basking on the walls, their bodies bobbing upwards in little displays of bravado to warn away the other reptiles. Tiny snakes, their bright bodies like ribbons of black and crimson, writhed between the carvings that covered the stone walls, sometimes pausing to taste the foetid air with their flickering tongues. In the darkness, wiry grey spiders mended their webs, shaking shimmering beads of dew from the strands so that their gossamer traps would not be betrayed.

It was something more subtle than the chores of spiders that caused the slit-like pupils of the watchers to widen with interest. From dagger-thin slivers of black, the pupils expanded to nearly overwhelm the amber puddles of their eyes. Leathery crests of scaly skin undulated upon the blunt, wedge-like heads of the watchers in silent expression of the concern that intruded upon their vigil.

The watchers surrounded a bloated, slimy mass, a thing of scummy green and festering yellow, mottled with patches of black dots and stripes. Under their gaze, the pattern of blotches was shifting, fading and changing, assuming new patterns almost faster than the minds of the watchers could follow.

The largest of the watchers straightened its body from where it had crouched upon the damp floor. The crest atop its reptilian head flapped open, a brilliant flash of scarlet that contrasted with the blue-grey scales that covered its wiry body. In response to the skink’s display, several of the smaller watchers set little thimble-like contrivances over their claws. The tools gleamed in the dim light like tiny stars as they slid into place over the reptilian hands, diamonds reflecting the fiery brilliance of the sun.

Other skinks came forward and set stone tablets in the laps of the diamond-fingered watchers, who then began scratching their claws into the faces of the tablets. Everything was conducted with a deliberate, but somehow calm, haste. The skinks studied the shifting patterns of the slimy body, recording each change in stone.

The amphibian shape soaking within its hibernation pool was oblivious to the hurried labours of the skinks. The golden, bulging eyes of the creature were open, but there was neither sight nor intelligence behind the slumbering gaze. The frog-like slann was as oblivious to the skinks as they were to the lizards and insects that scurried around them. Only its dreams were real to it as it slumbered, dreams that engulfed its mind and caused its skin to shift colour and pattern.

There were many dimensions beyond the physical, many that no brain could ever perceive, much less imagine. Lord Tlaco’amoxtli’ueman was among the oldest of his kind, a being that had been spawned by the Old Ones to understand these dimensions, to see the vectors of the Great Math and their impact upon the higher phases. The harmonies of the equations became increasingly complex as the labours of the Old Ones brought existence further and further from the universal null towards which all things decayed.

Perhaps the Old Ones had needed things of flesh to appreciate the impact of their algebra upon the lower phases, or perhaps they had needed beings such as the slann to understand how the lower dimensions could cast fractions of themselves into the higher in an effort to escape final decay. Whatever their logic, the brains of the slann had been engineered to see the arithmetic behind all existence that they might keep the equations of the Old Ones balanced.

But things had gone wrong. In their experiments the Old Ones had created low phase creatures with the potential for devastating impact upon the higher phases of order. The essences of these beings expressed themselves in simple algorithms, but of immense numerical size, as though in defiance of their inevitable decay and negation. Too late did the slann understand the impact of these arrays upon the higher dimensions. Too late did the Old Ones understand the illogic that had infected their carefully plotted vectors.

The design of the Old Ones collapsed under the corruption of persistent fractals, fractals that were not merely echoes of life, but things that existed in multi-dimensional displacements. Their numerical values did not decay, but swelled by adding into themselves the algorithms of the low phase creatures. Under the madness of these persistent fractals, the equations of the Old Ones were unbalanced, broken by a perverse arithmetic.

The Old Ones had faded from the malignance of the persistent fractals, incapable of enduring within their broken vectors. Sometimes, Lord Tlaco could almost perceive the lingering shades of the shattered vectors, recast into persistent fractals themselves. It was a disharmony that even a mage-priest could not fully comprehend. Were these shards of the masters or simply new fractals cast into the semblance of the old vectors?

The slann considered one of these persistent fractals. It was a repugnance of irrational numbers and unbalanced singularities. Yet, at the very core, Lord Tlaco could almost sense a string of the ancient harmonies. It troubled the slann’s thoughts. Was this simply another creation of the low phase algorithms coalescing in the higher dimensions, or was it an expression of the broken vectors trying to reassert itself? Could the equation be balanced by the addition of yet another persistent fractal? Would even the Old Ones dare to work in such a reckless manner?

There were no easy answers. The slann knew that this particular fractal had expressed itself in a way that made many of the low phase minions of the mage-priests venerate it. The fractal had manifested as a low phase being and routed the infestation of corrupted algorithms that had once threatened to return the slann and all of their minions to the universal null.

Lord Tlaco’s mind focused upon the discordant memory of those corrupted algorithms. Like so many of the unbalancing influences, they were warm-quick, emotional and illogical. To contemplate them was to contemplate the square root of negation. More so than any other beings, they were the product of persistent fractals, the spawn of debased mathematics and disordered equations. Of all the pollution befouling the patterns of the Old Ones, they were the most debased.

Yet might they not serve to further the vision of the Old Ones? Might they not be used to balance the equation?

The slann shivered in his slumber and considered the dangers of inviting such terrible potentialities into the ordered math of his own domain.

CHAPTER ONE

SHADOWS OF SKAVENBLIGHT

‘We have listened to your report, Grey Seer Thanquol.’

The voice was like the snap of a whip lashing out from the darkness of the immense chamber. The speaker himself was lost in the cloying darkness that filled the hall, nothing more than a shadow and a whisper.

Grey Seer Thanquol stood at the centre of the cavernous chamber, bathed in a sickly green spotlight that all but blinded his sensitive eyes. He could feel the pit below the trap creak and groan beneath him, could smell the faint scent of stagnant water and reptilian musk wafting up from the pit beneath the trap door. It was muttered among the inhabitants of Skavenblight that their tyrannical masters, the Lords of Decay, used the pit to execute those who had displeased them. At a sign from one of the sinister overlords of the skaven race a lever would be thrown and the offending ratman would be dropped into the watery depths far below, there to have his flesh devoured by obscene hybrids of rat and alligator, mutant creations of Clan Moulder.

Thanquol swallowed the knot growing in his throat and controlled the urge to leap from the trap door at the centre of the room. To do so would be to invite certain death. He knew the shadows concealed any number of the Council’s elite bodyguard, mute albino stormvermin chosen for their strength and relative fearlessness. Then there were the members of the Council themselves to consider, a dozen of the most vicious villains ever bred by the teeming hordes of skavendom. Challenging them on their own ground would be an act of lunacy Thanquol doubted if even the accursed crimson-furred dwarf who had interfered with so many of his past schemes would be mad enough to attempt.

The numbing scent of smouldering warpstone made it difficult for Thanquol to concentrate, to focus his senses on the raised dais at the far end of the chamber and the sinister figures hidden behind it in the dark. He knew that if the need arose, it would be all but impossible to conjure a spell with the warpstone vapours befuddling his thoughts. Ancient and evil, the despotic Council of Thirteen was taking no chances with him. Backed into a corner, even the lowest skaven would show his fangs. When that skaven could command the powerful magic of the Horned Rat, even the Lords of Decay preferred to take no chances.

‘The loss of the Wormstone causes us great concern.’ This voice was oily and foul, the slobbering lisp of a thawing swamp. Thanquol shuddered as he recognised the decayed tones of Arch-Plaguelord Nurglitch, supreme leader of the plague monks of Clan Pestilens. The Council had sent Thanquol as their representative to secure the Wormstone from beneath the man-thing city of Altdorf, but there had been a rival expedition dispatched to steal it from him when he had found it. Thanquol wasn’t sure how many of the Council were behind the plot, but since his rivals had been plague monks led by the ghastly Lord Skrolk, there was no question that Nurglitch had been a prominent patron of the scheme.

Thanquol bruxed his fangs together, grinding his teeth in a fit of nervous anxiety. It would be like Nurglitch to be the first of the Council to express his anger over the loss of the Wormstone, even if it was the self-serving treachery of Clan Pestilens that had resulted in its loss. What lies had Nurglitch told the other Lords of Decay, and what bribes and pacts had he made to ensure they were believed? There was no love between Clan Pestilens and the grey seers, and even less between the plague monks and Thanquol himself. But did Thanquol dare to try and exploit that fissure of mutual hate and distrust? Could he depend on the support of Seerlord Kritislik and his allies on the Council if he accused Nurglitch of treachery? More importantly, if he did so would he be able to scramble off the trap door before Nurglitch had the switch thrown and sent him plummeting into an unclimbable pit of death?

The grey seer squinted into the harsh green spotlight. He couldn’t see any of the Lords of Decay, not even his master Kritislik. Faintly, he could make out the outline of the huge empty seat at the centre of the dais, the one kept empty and waiting for the presence of the Horned Rat himself. Kritislik, as Seerlord, was counted the voice of the skaven god and was allowed to interpret the Horned Rat’s will whenever the Council debated a subject. Thanquol doubted if even the effective double vote this gave Kritislik would be enough to sway the Council into open hostility with Clan Pestilens. The last time the other clans made war with Clan Pestilens, the entire Under-Empire had been ravaged. Worse, Clan Pestilens had nearly succeeded in overcoming the combined might of the other great clans! Only the timely re-appearance of Clan Eshin from the distant lands of Grand Cathay had prevented Clan Pestilens from overthrowing the Council of Thirteen. Even so, their power was such that they could not be denied a position on the Council and a place among the great clans.

No, Thanquol decided, Kritislik won’t put his neck out by openly provoking Nurglitch, and if he does, the other great clans won’t support him.

A decision reached, Thanquol stared at the spot in the darkness where he thought Nurglitch’s voice had spoken. ‘Great and putrescent Plaguelord,’ he said, careful to keep his tone the proper mix of fawning respect and cowering fear. ‘The Wormstone has indeed been lost to us. The cowardice and stupidity of the Under-Altdorf leaders made it impossible to recover the artefact from the man-things that stole it.’ Thanquol coughed and tried not to choke on the next words that hissed past his fangs. ‘Even the timely assistance of Clan Pestilens and your brave champion Lord Skrolk was not enough to undo the treachery of the Under-Altdorf leaders.’

There was a grotesque rumble from the darkness, like an ogre being sucked down into a bog. It took Thanquol several breaths to realise that it was the sound of Nurglitch laughing.

‘The loss of our brave kin from Clan Pestilens is to be lamented,’ the thin snarl of Kritislik cut through the boiling exuberance of Nurglitch’s laughter. ‘But how is it that the Wormstone was placed in such jeopardy in the first place?’

Thanquol cringed as he heard the Seerlord make his accusation. Kritislik clearly wasn’t happy with the way he had appealed to Nurglitch by ignoring the grab the plague monks had made for the Wormstone. His mind fought through the numbing confusion of the incense, racing to find a new scapegoat for the Seerlord’s ire.

‘It was Grey Seer Thratquee,’ Thanquol said, mentioning the first name that occurred to him. Thratquee was the ancient, corrupt grey seer who led the council of Under-Altdorf. As he thought it over, everything had been Thratquee’s fault. If he’d been more aware of what was going on in Under-Altdorf, there was no way Lord Skrolk would have been able to subvert some of its inhabitants and use them in several attempts to murder Thanquol and steal the artefact. Besides, Thanquol didn’t like the old priest anyway. ‘It was his idea to grind up the Wormstone and use it to poison the humans. Every moment I was in Under-Altdorf, I was under the watch-sniff of his minions. At no time could I get away from my guards and return to tell this most terrible Council of Thratquee’s plans. I tried-wanted to stop him…’

‘We must congratulate Grey Seer Thratquee for his most keen foresight,’ the brutal snap of General Paskrit’s voice growled. ‘My agents tell me that a tenth of Under-Altdorf’s population was killed in the flooding of their warrens, that the damage inflicted upon that upstart burrow will cripple its growth for generations. It will be a long time before they dare think themselves as mighty as Skavenblight!’

‘… from executing his plan in a way that would cause the loss of the Wormstone…’ Thanquol hurried to elaborate as he heard Paskrit speak.

‘The Wormstone would have been most useful to us,’ came the unctuous voice of Doomclaw, warlord of Clan Rictus. ‘However, perhaps it is better lost where it cannot be found again and used against us.’

‘… because I believed there was a better-better way to lose-hide the Wormstone.’ Thanquol bruxed his fangs again as he spoke. It was unfair that the Council was prepared to give Thratquee the acclaim and reward that was rightfully his own!

‘It is to be regretted that the Wormstone has been lost,’ the metallic groan of Warlock Lord Morskittar’s voice echoed through the Chamber of Thirteen. After centuries of unnatural life, the leader of Clan Skryre was more arcane machine than flesh and blood skaven. ‘However, its very existence would have been a threat to the stability of the Under-Empire. Grey Seer Thratquee has done this Council a great service by removing such a tempting morsel from the plate of any ambitious upstarts.’

There was an angry wheeze from the shadows where Nurglitch sat as Morskittar spoke. Hatred of Clan Skryre was probably the only common ground that Clan Pestilens and the grey seers shared.

‘The humbling of Under-Altdorf at the same time shows a skaven who knows where his loyalties lie,’ mused the shrill chittering voice of Packlord Verminkin, master of Clan Moulder.

Thanquol’s eyes narrowed with hate. This was ridiculous! The mad old Thratquee had done nothing but sit in his decadent burrow with his breeders and rot his brain with warpdust! Thanquol had been the one who took all the risks! He had been the one who dared the corruption of touching the Wormstone by having his minions experiment with it! He had been the one who had braved the treacherous blades of assassins and the putrid magic of Lord Skrolk! It was his brilliance that had concocted the plan to poison the reservoir beneath Altdorf and doom both the human city and the upstart skaven metropolis beneath it to a lingering death! It was his bravery that had nearly won the day, defying both the treason of Clan Pestilens and the frightful magic of the human wizard-thing! If not for the cowardice of his minions, if not for the betrayal of his adored apprentice Kratch, if not for the brainless stupidity of his rat ogre bodyguard Boneripper, he would have succeeded! The Council of Thirteen would be showering him with praises and honours!

‘We must take pains to ensure that Thratquee is able to exploit the reconstruction of Under-Altdorf to increase his control over the city,’ Kritislik said. ‘As Thanquol’s report shows, we cannot trust the other members of Under-Altdorf’s council… even if they are from our own clan.’ The last barb was thrust at Morskittar. The council of Under-Altdorf was bloated with representatives of Clan Skryre, giving the warlock-engineers a distinct dominance in the city.

‘Something to take under consideration,’ Morskittar agreed, a sullen tone in his iron voice.

Thanquol lashed his tail in annoyance at what he was hearing. Were they really going to make Thratquee de facto warlord of Under-Altdorf? He found himself suddenly wishing Morskittar luck in the inevitable assassination attempts Clan Skryre would mount against Thratquee to prevent such a possibility.

‘Something disturbs you, Grey Seer Thanquol?’ Nurglitch’s voice snarled. Even if Thanquol could not see the Lords of Decay through the shadows and the glare of the green light, they could clearly see him. His display of irritation had not failed to be noticed.

‘No-no, great and monstrous Nurglitch,’ Thanquol stammered, not quite managing to keep a hint of pride in his fawning contrition. ‘It is just that I have come far-far and this one finds himself tired from his journey.’

‘Then you are dismissed, Thanquol,’ the knife-edged voice of Nightlord Sneek, leader of Clan Eshin and its murderous assassins, spoke from a patch of darkness that seemed somehow even blacker than that which cloaked the other Lords of Decay. ‘We would not wish to get between yourself and your rest.’

The way Nightlord Sneek made the parting remark caused Thanquol’s fur to stand on end. Even as he bowed and scraped his way from the Council of Thirteen, his pulse was racing, his mind screaming in horror. None of the other Lords of Decay called for him to remain, a fact Thanquol took as a bad sign. Whatever Sneek was planning, the others had already abandoned him to it!

It wasn’t a lot, the small stash of warp-tokens Thanquol was able to take with him when he fled Altdorf, barely the surface of what he had hoped to extort from the bickering clan lords of Under-Altdorf. Certainly it would take more to pay off Nightlord Sneek and make him reconsider the interest he had suddenly shown in the grey seer. The slicing voice of Sneek kept echoing in Thanquol’s mind, that whispered threat about helping him rest. Clan Eshin had helped a lot of skaven rest, the kind of rest that usually involved poisoned blades and quick stabs in the dark. Thanquol had even paid for the services of their assassins in the past. He knew only too well their hideous and lethal efficiency. Once the trained killers of Clan Eshin were on a ratman’s tail it was only a matter of time…

Thanquol lashed his tail in frustration, his fingers curling tighter about the haft of his staff. He wasn’t some flea-ridden clawleader from some three-bat warren! He was Grey Seer Thanquol, the supreme sorcerer-general of the Under-Empire, the most brilliant, valiant and loyal servant to ever serve the Council of Thirteen! If Sneek thought he would be easy prey, then the Nightlord would learn how wrong he was! Thanquol was the chosen of the Horned Rat himself, blessed by the god of all skaven!

Of course, the Horned Rat’s blessings had been rather mixed of late. It was all the fault of his incompetent and treacherous underlings of course. That snivelling fool Skrim Gnawtail and that backstabbing cur Kratch! If not for them, the Wormstone would have been his and his alone, to use in whatever way he saw fit. That ancient idiot Thratquee and all of the decadent inhabitants of Under-Altdorf would have been scoured from the tunnels of skavendom if Thanquol’s craven minions hadn’t let him down!

The grey seer ground his teeth together and stared up at the night sky. Unlike the rest of the Under-Empire, much of Skavenblight was upon the surface, infesting the crumbled ruins of the ancient human city that had once dominated what would later become the Blighted Marshes. Some even whispered that the Shattered Tower, within which the Council of Thirteen held their chambers, had been built not by skaven paws but reared by human hands. Such heresy was, of course, punished by a good tongue-cutting whenever it was spoken, but as he glanced up at the crooked spire which dominated the cityscape, Thanquol had to admit it had the ugly stamp of human engineering to it, perhaps even a trace of dwarf-thing too. Naturally, even if the thought came to him, he wasn’t fool enough to ever speak of it.

Thanquol turned his gaze back to the wide street around him. The avenue was packed with a scrabbling, struggling mass of ratkin, a sea of fur and fangs that bobbed and weaved, squirmed and squeezed in their efforts to navigate through the city. The air was thick with the smell of decaying timber, rancid fur, musk and excrement, the distinct tang of black corn in the skaven droppings giving the city a scent unique to itself. The snarls, whines and chittering of ratmen rang from the crumbling stone walls that flanked the street.

Much of the city was sinking into its foundations, slowly collapsing into the maze of burrows and ratruns teeming generations of skaven had dug beneath it. Everywhere, timber supports and buttresses hugged the sagging walls, trying to stave off the creeping ruin. Many structures had become so mired in mud and earth that their lower floors were lost beneath the ground. Some still sported the weathered husks of once elegant columns and promenades, a few even had the faint remnants of tiled frescos peeping out from beneath the layers of grime that coated them. Before one tilted manor, the misshapen bulk of a corroded iron statue stood upon a cracked marble pillar, a mass of rust that might once have been a sword raised high in a lump that once could have been an arm.

Home, Thanquol thought as the smells, sounds and sights of Skavenblight crawled across his senses. Wherever he went, there was nothing to compare with the press of Skavenblight’s masses, feeling the presence of hundreds of thousands of ratmen all around him. Even Under-Altdorf felt deserted and empty next to Skavenblight. This was the way the world was meant to be, filled to bursting with the swarming masses of the Under-Empire. A world alive with the numberless hordes of the skaven, all looking up from the gutter, looking for the leadership only Grey Seer Thanquol could give them.

Thanquol stroked his whiskers as he thought about the happy vision of himself as unquestioned master of skavendom. One day he would dare place his paw upon the Pillar of Commandments, that obelisk of pure warpstone set down before the Shattered Tower by the Horned Rat himself. He had no doubt that he would survive the ordeal, survive to challenge Grey Seer Kritislik and take his place upon the Council. Then, then he would begin to eliminate the other Lords of Decay. That bloated pustule Nurglitch and that scrap-metal mage-rat Morskittar and that slinking throatcutter Sneek…

Thanquol nearly spurted the musk of fear as he thought of Nightlord Sneek. The black-clad murderers of Clan Eshin were a nightmare to every ratman, from the lowest clanrat to the most exalted warlord. They could be anywhere, lurking with their poisoned knives and their deadly blowguns. Thanquol’s eyes narrowed with suspicion, squinting as he studied the mass of skaven filling the street around him. Suddenly, the press of so many ratmen swarming on every side wasn’t so reassuring as it had been a few moments before. Almost involuntarily, he backed away from a clutch of scabby clanrats wearing the colours of a clan he didn’t recognise. He watched them pass, one hand locked about the tiny chunk of warpstone he had secreted in a pocket of his robe. Were they watching him more closely than they should? Perhaps he should simply blast them with a spell and worry about whether they worked for Clan Eshin later.

Shaking his head, Thanquol decided against striking prematurely. A display of magic might annihilate his enemies, but it would also panic the skaven filling the street. Being stampeded by the crowd would make him just as dead as any assassin’s blade. He continued to watch the three clanrats until they were lost in the mass of furry bodies. Most likely, they had simply recognised him and been overawed by his formidable presence. Yes, that was certainly it.

A sharp growl to the hulking brute towering behind him, and Thanquol made his way through the swarm of ratkin. It had taken most of his carefully hoarded warp-tokens to buy the behemoth, but after that sinister encounter with Nightlord Sneek, he reasoned that he had to do something to protect himself. The rat ogre had been the biggest, nastiest one he could find in the beast pens, a brown-furred giant with fists like boulders and a face filled with dagger-like fangs. He’d named the monster Boneripper after the brave, clever bodyguard that had fought so valiantly to protect him from Lord Skrolk’s treachery and the profane magic of the grey mage-man.

The crowd parted before Thanquol’s advance, Boneripper looming over them like the very shadow of doom. There were frightened squeaks, whines of fawning protest and frequent spurts of musk. A rat ogre, he reflected, was a marvellous instrument for reminding the lower castes who their betters were.

A flash of darkness among the throng arrested Thanquol’s attention. Had that been a flash of black cloak? The sort of cloak an assassin might wear? Thanquol chided himself for such foolishness. It was ludicrous! Why would an assassin bother to wear black when he could so effortlessly blend in with the crowd without it! It wasn’t as if they were required to wear a uniform, to carry a placard that announced their profession to any skaven they might meet!

Through the crowd, Thanquol saw a black-cloaked skaven creeping purposefully towards him, one paw curled beneath the folds of the creeper’s cloak. Thanquol blinked in disbelief. It was still ridiculous, but that creep really was hiding a knife under his cloak! As he looked again, he saw a second cloaked ratman slinking towards him, and still a third coming from the opposite direction.

Thanquol quickly edged himself away from the approaching killers, his fingers curling around the chunk of warpstone in his pocket. He was a bit more willing to risk the stampede now that there was no question that Sneek’s assassins were coming for him.

Abruptly, Boneripper’s huge maw dropped open in a fierce roar. The rat ogre’s huge paws slammed against his chest, pounding a drumlike tattoo that rumbled over the heads of the skaven filling the street. The monster’s beady red eyes were ablaze with malice. He took a ponderous step towards the closest assassin, crushing a hapless bystander beneath his immense foot.

Thanquol gloated as he saw the look of terror crawling onto the murderer’s face. They hadn’t been expecting this. He had been very careful picking his bodyguard, choosing one that had been trained to hate the cloaked adepts of Clan Eshin. The rat ogre’s body was still criss-crossed with the scars the packmasters had left when they had beaten hate into the beast’s tiny brain. The effectiveness of that training, however, was quite obvious as Boneripper stomped a gory path through the crowd, focused upon rending the assassin limb from limb.

‘Yes-yes!’ Thanquol hissed through his fangs. ‘Kill them, Boneripper! Kill the faithless little maggots!’

Hearing his master’s voice snapped the last composure Boneripper possessed. Uttering a deep, groaning roar, the rat ogre ploughed through the massed skaven, hurling squealing ratmen aside with each sweep of his claws, crushing those too slow or too terrified to scramble out of his way beneath his clawed feet. The black-cloaked assassin stood paralysed as he saw the immense behemoth charging towards him. The killer threw back his cloak, revealing the knife he held. Shrieking in terror, he threw his weapon at Boneripper. The poisoned edge sank into the rat ogre’s shoulder with a meaty thwack.

Boneripper paused in his rush. He turned his head and stared at the knife sticking out of his body. The brute reached down, ripping the blade from his flesh, staring at it with confused eyes. His huge nose twitched as he sniffed the ugly green muck dripping from the knife’s poisoned edge. It took a moment for the smell to register with his dull brain, but when the rat ogre remembered the lessons he had been so painfully taught by the packmasters, he came alive with fury. The knife crumpled into an unrecognisable lump of steel as Boneripper angrily closed his fist around it.

The assassin squealed in fright and turned to flee, horrified that Boneripper had survived the poison. He couldn’t know the toxic provender the packmasters had reared the rat ogre on, the slowly increased doses of venom they had injected into his veins since he had been a whelp. The result had made Boneripper’s body develop a pronounced resistance to a wide range of diseases and toxins.

The rat ogre reached down to the street beside him, snatching a cowering skaven from the flagstones. The wretch screamed and writhed in Boneripper’s grasp, but his efforts went unnoticed by the brute. Glaring at the assassin as he started to scurry away, Boneripper flung the screaming ratman at him. The living missile wailed as he flew across the street, slashing fleeing spectators with his flailing claws. The skaven smashed into the assassin as though fired from a cannon. Both ratmen were hurled through the air, battering a path through the packed street.

In the aftermath, the panicked mass of the crowd struggled even more fiercely to flee, but their very numbers hampered any real hope of progress. Crippled, cringing ratmen, limbs shattered by the impact of Boneripper’s living missile, crawled along the ground, trying desperately to avoid being crushed by the feet of other ratkin. The skaven Boneripper had thrown was a shattered mess of broken bones and bloody fur smashed against the stone wall on the other side of the street. Beneath the dripping carcass, the crumpled body of the assassin struggled. The impact had snapped the killer’s spine, leaving him helpless from the waist down.

Boneripper lumbered through the shrieking mob, stalking through the packed skaven with powerful strides. Soon he towered over the crippled assassin. The rat ogre stared down at the trapped ratman, then brought his clawed foot smashing down into the assassin’s skull.

Thanquol grinned in savage challenge as he watched Boneripper kill the assassin. He glanced to either side, pleased when he saw the other two killers slinking back into the crowd, clearly less than eager to have any part in attacking the grey seer after watching their comrade slain so brutally. Thanquol snarled a command to Boneripper, gesturing with his claw to one of the retreating murderers. He felt a flare of angry frustration when the brute ignored him, too intent on pounding the skull of the first assassin into paste to pay attention to his master’s voice.

With an effort, Thanquol calmed himself. It was just as well that the others escaped. They would bear word of their experience back to the other skulking murderers of Clan Eshin. They would tell their fellows that to face Grey Seer Thanquol was to face their own deaths! Yes, the assassins would know that killing Grey Seer Thanquol was no easy task!

A troubling thought came to Thanquol then and his fur began to rise in anxiety. It had been easy. Much too easy. Positively bumbling on the part of the assassins to let themselves be spotted so quickly. Perhaps they were simply murderers in training, neophytes at the arts of assassination. But why would Sneek send amateurs to kill someone of his formidable powers?

On impulse, Thanquol spun about and dropped into a crouch. There was a wail of agony just behind him. The grey seer risked a glance, saw one of the skaven that had been cowering near him during Boneripper’s rampage lying on the ground, his body twitching in a violent spasm. A dart as long as Thanquol’s finger was buried in the stricken ratman’s cheek.

The grey seer’s eyes went wide with fright. The killers he had sent Boneripper after weren’t the assassins! They were the diversion! Something to keep Thanquol occupied while the real assassin made his move!

Thanquol threw himself across the ground, rolling along the muck-strewn stones. He imagined he could hear something whistle past his face, but there was no imagination behind the pained shriek of the skaven behind him. The ratman was hopping on one foot, pawing at the black needle sticking out of his other foot. A moment later, the skaven fell in a twitching mass, froth bubbling from his mouth.

Above! The dart had come from above! Thanquol glared at the stone wall, gnashing his teeth as he saw his attacker. Clinging to the ancient stones like some mammoth spider, the assassin was swathed in black from the base of his tail to the tip of his muzzle, only his beady red eyes left exposed by the cloth mask wrapped around his face. A sniff told Thanquol this was indeed a true assassin, the glands that produced the distinctive personal scent having been removed in one of Clan Eshin’s macabre rituals.

The assassin glared back at Thanquol and raised a long, slender blowgun to his cloth-covered lips. The grey seer ducked his head, pressing himself against the filthy ground, trying to hide his face from the coming attack. This time he distinctly heard the dart as it raced through the air. He felt something brush against him, holding his breath in horror as he waited for the poison to do its lethal work.

It took Thanquol a heartbeat to realise what had happened. The dart had missed him, glancing off his horn. Fear and rage warred for mastery of him when he realised how close he had come to dying. Fear put up a good fight, but in the end it was rage that won out.

Thanquol lifted himself from the ground, his eyes focused on the assassin clinging to the wall above him. The grey seer’s hand closed about the chunk of warpstone in his pocket, breaking off a tiny fragment and popping it into his mouth. The assassin seemed paralysed with horror, as unable to move as the decoy had been when faced by Boneripper’s unstoppable charge.

A sickly green light crackled within the depths of Thanquol’s eyes as the magical energies of the warpstone flowed through his mind and seeped into his soul. He could feel the awesome power of the Horned Rat rippling through him, the magical winds seeping into his body. He ground his fangs together, his brain flooded with images of destruction. He would incinerate this entire street and everything in it, leave the buildings nothing but heaps of slag. He would burn the assassin’s shadow into the very stone with the fury of his magic and send his soul shrieking into Kweethul’s sunken hell! Then he would cast down the Shattered Tower and drag Sneek’s shattered corpse from the rubble…

Shaking his head, Thanquol fought down the overwhelming influence of the warpstone. He focused on what was at hand. All he needed to do was kill the assassin, nothing more.

Suddenly, Thanquol’s concentration was shattered by a deafening shriek of terror. The air was pungent with the stink of musk and the very ground shook with the violence of hundreds of ratmen stampeding. The grey seer turned and watched as the panicked crowd surged away from him, horrified by the crackling lightning dancing about the head of his staff, frightened by the malignant aura that had settled about him like a mantle as he invoked the awful magic of the Horned Rat. The mob surged away from him as quickly and as far as it could. But even the wide streets of Skavenblight could not accommodate the mass of struggling, frantic ratmen. They soon became packed and pressed together at either end of the street, unable to flee further. When that happened, the blind terror of the mob drove them back, turned them around to find escape in the other direction.

From either end of the street, a wave of squealing, snarling skaven came stampeding. Between the two panicked hordes stood Grey Seer Thanquol, suddenly feeling very small and vulnerable for all the magic burning through his veins.

The assassin chittered maliciously from his perch upon the wall. Thanquol scowled spitefully as the murderer climbed to the roof of the building and retreated from view. This had been the plan all along, he realised. The assassin wasn’t trying to kill Thanquol with the darts, he was trying to provoke him into using his magic to defend himself, thereby throwing the mob into a panic. When Thanquol was crushed beneath the paws of the crowd there would be no evidence that his death had been the work of Clan Eshin.

Defiantly, Thanquol stood his ground. Mostly because there was nowhere to run. He raised his staff, sent a crackling blast of green lightning searing into the foremost ranks of the stampeding skaven. Several ratmen shrieked and fell, their bodies quickly crushed beneath the feet of the mob. In a blind panic, the skaven were oblivious even to the death-dealing sorcery of Thanquol. The grey seer turned and sent a second blast searing through the ranks of the mass of skaven rushing towards him from the other end of the street. Again, the mob refused to break.

Thanquol spurted the musk of fear. He could blast a hundred of the craven vermin into cinders and still there would be enough of them left to crush his body beneath their feet!

As he contemplated his doom, a huge shape charged at him from across the street. Thanquol spun, sending a blast of lightning crackling past Boneripper’s face. The panic of the skaven mob had infected Boneripper’s tiny brain! The slack-witted brute was turning on him!

Thanquol did not have time to send another blast of magic at Boneripper before the beast was upon him. Huge claws closed around the grey seer’s body, pinning his arms to his sides and lifting him from the ground. Thanquol struggled and cursed, trying to wriggle free of his treacherous bodyguard’s grip.

The panicked mob of skaven came crashing together, savagely attacking one another as the two sides met. The street became a sea of flashing fangs and raking claws as the frightened skaven tore at each other. The pungent stink of black skaven blood filled Thanquol’s senses.

Boneripper lifted the grey seer still higher, keeping him well above the frenzied mob’s reach.

Fear drained out of Thanquol and he bit back the last of he curses he had been heaping on his bodyguard’s head. Such a clever servant, he considered, to see his master’s distress and come rushing to his aid.

He would need to find some suitable way to reward Boneripper for such selfless service.

Perhaps he would let Boneripper eat Sneek’s heart after he tore it from the Nightlord’s mutilated chest.

CHAPTER TWO

STREETS OF SKAVENBLIGHT

Grey Seer Thanquol sat in the gloom of his rented burrow and carefully plotted his next move. Nightlord Sneek had failed in his first attempt to murder him, but he knew the master of Clan Eshin would try again. Once the assassins had a skaven’s scent, they never lost it.

The warpstone-induced madness had passed. Thanquol wasn’t thinking in terms of killing Sneek. The very thought set his body trembling with fear. No, the only way to save his hide was to find out why Clan Eshin wanted him dead. Then he would need to find a way to make them change their mind. The only other alternative was to try and find an ally powerful enough to protect him from Sneek. That wouldn’t be an easy task. None of the warlord clans, even the mighty Mors, was strong enough to defy Eshin. The warlock-engineers of Clan Skryre were cosy as fleas with the assassins, developing all kinds of new murder devices for them. No help there.

Clan Moulder was a possibility, if the ungrateful beastmasters didn’t blame him for the slave revolt that had nearly destroyed Hell Pit! Now was not the time to remind them that the attack on their city had been the work of the rebellious mutant Lurk Snitchtongue, not the steadfast and selfless Grey Seer Thanquol. Pestilens, the traditional adversaries of Eshin, was an even worse proposition. Thanquol had earned his fame at the expense of Pestilens by defeating the renegade Plaguelord Skratsquik. Now he’d undermined their efforts to steal the Wormstone and been an unwilling participant in the destruction of Nurglitch’s favourite disciple, Lord Skrolk. The only reason the plague monks would protect him from Sneek would be so they could kill him themselves.

Thanquol picked a flea from his fur, staring in distaste at his grungy surroundings. It had been too dangerous to return to his own chambers: that would be the first place his would-be killers would look for him. The burrow his failing store of warp-tokens had allowed him to rent was little more than a hole clawed out from the muddy foundations of Skavenblight. The dirt walls dripped with moisture, ugly orange roots protruding from them at every turn. The ceiling was sagging, a few rotten beams and pillars cobbled from broken bricks the only thing keeping it from collapsing into the burrow. For accoutrements, Thanquol had a pile of insect-infested straw that smelled like it had last been changed when the Grey Lords were in power. A dilapidated desk pilfered from some Tilean villa leaned against a corner while an iron-banded trunk slowly rotted in another. This, the services of a diseased human slave, three meals a day and all the stagnant water he could suck from a bronze pipe in the tunnel outside his chamber had cost Thanquol seventeen precious warp-tokens.

That was what angered him the most. His formidable reputation should have been enough to bully the burrow-master down to at least seven warp-tokens. It was almost as if the ratman hadn’t wanted Thanquol in his tunnels. Even after Boneripper broke a few of the insolent swine’s fingers, he’d stuck to his price. The filthy rat knew that Thanquol was in hiding and had used that knowledge to mercilessly extort money from him. Thanquol didn’t like to think that news of his problems with Clan Eshin had percolated down even into the squalor of the Sink, but it certainly looked that way. He had hoped to lose himself among the teeming masses of Skavenblight’s lesser clans while he plotted his next move. But if the wretches around him were more afraid of Clan Eshin than they were of Grey Seer Thanquol…

He ground his fangs together in aggravation. If the filthy sewer rats of the flea-clans thought they could snitch to Sneek about his being down in the Sink he’d gut every last one of the vermin! He’d burn down their hovels and collapse their burrows! He’d string their living guts from one end of Skavenblight to the other! He’d feed their nethers…

Thanquol snapped from his vengeful ruminations, his nose bristling as the stink of human blood struck his senses. He could see the dim outline of the man-thing slave at the entrance to his burrow. The dim-witted thing had probably been stumbling about in the dark again. Humans were as good as blind down in the tunnels anyway. Thanquol was sorely tempted to let Boneripper take a bite out of the idiot thing, but was less than optimistic about his chances of training the rat ogre to do domestic chores.

‘I did not call you,’ Thanquol snapped irritably, lashing his tail against the floor.

The slave staggered a few steps deeper into his burrow and Thanquol was able to see the wretch better. He could see the scabby, sickly skin of the slave, clinging tight to his bones. He could see the thin, scraggly hair growing in patches on the human’s sore-strewn scalp. Most of all, however, he could see the wet, dripping wound that stretched across the man-thing’s neck.

Someone had slit the slave’s throat from ear to ear.

Alarm flared down Thanquol’s spine while fear-musk spurted from his glands. The grey seer leapt towards the pile of straw, tearing through it to retrieve his sword and staff, cursing himself for using his last piece of warpstone in the street.

Clan Eshin had found him! Clan Eshin was here!

Something blacker than black oozed into the burrow from the darkness of the tunnel. For a frantic moment, Thanquol imagined that the shadow wizard had followed him from Altdorf. Then the blackness moved towards him, moved with a speed beyond even a wizard-thing. He could see a black-furred hand gripping a dripping blade.

But Grey Seer Thanquol was not the only one who saw. Bellowing his fury, Boneripper lurched up from the floor, his back cracking against the sagging ceiling of the burrow. Thumping his claws against his chest, the crouching rat ogre lumbered towards the assassin.

The killer spun away from Thanquol, springing at Boneripper in a fluid motion that carried him under the hulking monster’s claws. The rat ogre snarled in pain, his jaws snapping at the murderous shadow as it sprang away from him. Boneripper took a single step in pursuit, then crashed noisily to the floor. In that brief moment of contact, the assassin had expertly severed the tendons in each of the rat ogre’s legs.

Boneripper snarled and snapped from the floor, dragging himself after the assassin. Thanquol hoped killing the brute would distract his attacker long enough for him to call upon his own powers to annihilate the scum. He could feel sorcerous energies gathering about him, seeping down into his veins. He felt a pang of longing for warpstone that churned his belly into a little knot of agony. His system felt empty drawing magic into it without warpstone to support the effort. Angrily, Thanquol gnashed his fangs and redoubled his exertions. If he did not strike quickly, there wouldn’t be any more warpstone, either now or later.

Impossibly, even with a raging rat ogre roaring at him, the assassin noticed Thanquol’s efforts. Even as the grey seer’s eyes began to glow with power, a sharpened length of steel flew through the darkness. The knife slammed into Thanquol’s staff, splintering the wood and missing the grey seer by inches. He stared in horror at the evil-smelling blade and the green venom dripping from its edge. The poison wasn’t applied, it was oozing from the black metal itself. A weeping blade, a weapon carried by only the most expert of Eshin’s killers!

Repulsed, horrified, Thanquol pulled the revolting thing free and threw it to the floor. His concentration broken, the grey seer’s eyes no longer glowed as he cringed against the wall of his burrow.

The assassin, however, was again focused upon Boneripper. With a leap and a roll, the skaven swept beneath the rat ogre’s claws, bringing the blades he carried in his hands scything through the tendons of the powerful arms. The killer ended his attack just beneath Boneripper’s lashing jaws. A third blade, clutched in the coils of the assassin’s tail, stabbed upwards, scraping past Boneripper’s fangs to punch through the roof of his mouth and pierce the tiny brain inside his thick skull.

Boneripper shivered, gasped, and then crashed against the floor. The assassin chittered coldly and stepped away from his kill, turning towards Thanquol once more.

The death of his bodyguard had taken less than a few heartbeats, too little time for even Thanquol to find an opportunity to escape. Now, as he watched the black-cloaked murderer creep towards him, sheer desperation gripped Thanquol’s mind. Drawing quickly upon the dregs of magical energy still left in his body from his still-born spell, Thanquol sent a bolt of raw aethyric energy sizzling towards the assassin. The nimble ratman easily dived out of the spell’s path. It continued onwards, smashing into one of the supports. A great groaning noise sounded from overhead. Eyes wide with horror, Thanquol watched as the ceiling came crashing down.

Thanquol expected to be crushed. For an instant, he thought he had been as his body was seized and all the air smashed from his lungs. Only when he was in the tunnel outside, coughing dust from his mouth, did he realise he was still alive.

At least for the moment. Looking up from the floor of the tunnel, Thanquol found himself gazing at a sinister figure swathed in black. Black fur, black leather leggings, black silk trousers and blouse, black cloak and hood. Even the assassin’s scaly tail had been dyed black and the teeth in his muzzle had been stained to match the rest of him. Only the eyes were different, red and gleaming with amused malice. The eyes, and the green poison glowing on the edge of the knife he still held in his tail.

‘You owe your fur to the Nightlord,’ the assassin said. His voice sent shivers down Thanquol’s spine. It was a thin whispering sound, the kind of noise a dagger makes as it sharpens against a stone.

Thanquol’s head swam as he heard the words. Clearly it had been no effort on his part that had saved him from the collapse. But why would the assassin save him after coming so far into the depths of the Sink to kill him?

The grey seer bared his fangs in a threatening display and made a show of brushing mud from his robes. ‘Since it was you who put my life in fear-doubt, I am…’

The assassin bared his own fangs, his tail arcing to his side, its menacing blade poised to strike. ‘You owe your fur to the Nightlord,’ the skaven repeated, his whisper becoming a growl. ‘Because all-all he sent me to do was find-bring you.’

Thanquol wasn’t sure exactly where in Skavenblight Clan Eshin had built Sneek’s pagoda. It was somewhere deep under the city, the pressure on his ears told him that, yet there was also the stagnant smell of the Blighted Marshes in his nose that told him he was near the surface. Eshin made a habit of using dwarf slaves to build their strongholds, and the dwarf-things had many ways of tricking skaven. Perhaps they used extremely dense rock in the ceiling to increase the sense of pressure, or maybe they had some way of piping the smell of the marshes deep underground. It was a puzzle Thanquol promised himself he would look into.

Allowing, of course, that he ever left this place alive.

He stood in a dark, spacious chamber. The floor beneath his claws was piled with elaborately woven rugs, their pattern tickling the pads of his paws. The ceiling was lost somewhere in the darkness above him, the walls obscured by silken veils that swayed and trembled in the warm breeze that crawled through the room. A thick, heady scent of incense pressed in around him, filling his nose with a not unpleasant stinging feeling, like a faint echo of the warpstone snuff he enjoyed upon occasion.

Considering his favourite diversion, Thanquol dug a paw into the pocket of his robe. He stared in confusion at the slow, clumsy way his hand moved. There was a warning snarl from behind him, and a powerful claw dug painfully into his shoulder. Thanquol spun around at the contact, a spasm of fear running through him as he realised how slow his reactions were.

The incense! Far more potent than even that employed by the Lords of Decay in the Shattered Tower, it was intoxicating his nerves with its soporific stink, rendering him slow and clumsy. His thoughts were no less sharp, however, and a grim gleam crept into Thanquol’s eye as he saw how slowly the Eshin guard moved to restrain him. Whatever the vapour was, the assassins were not immune to it either.

The guard bared his blackened fangs, reading the change in Thanquol’s posture as a sign of the grey seer’s discovery. Like lightning, his paw drew a dripping knife from beneath his blouse. Thanquol pulled away, trying to ward away the assassin with his paws. This was the same killer who had murdered Boneripper. He was under no delusion about his ability to meet the assassin’s speed, even without the incense dulling his reflexes.

‘Peace, Grey Seer Thanquol,’ a voice like the whisper of a drawn dagger scratched at the edge of Thanquol’s hearing. The Eshin guard-rat released him and he turned back around to find himself facing a raised dais upon which stood an elaborately engraved throne, a seat of musky-scented wood carved from top to foot with writhing dragons and leering devils. Impossibly, the sputtering light of the warpstone braziers smouldering to either side of the chair illuminated the crown and sides, but left the seat itself in perfect shadow. From that shadow, a pair of sinister red eyes glistened in serene malevolence. A shiver crawled down Thanquol’s spine as he understood who it was sitting in the darkness.

Nightlord Sneek’s black-furred paw emerged into the light to beckon him forwards. Thanquol could see the long, ghastly nails that tipped each of Sneek’s fingers, grotesque things that had not been gnawed or trimmed since he’d risen to the ranks of the Council. Now each was almost as long as the Nightlord’s hands. They had been painted with curious characters, the weird writing of the men of Cathay. It was a language unknown even to most of the Lords of Decay, a secret known only to the Nightlord and his closest disciples. Thanquol wondered what sinister message was written on those talons and who was meant to read them.

The guard-rat sheathed his weeping blade, shuffling back to lean against one of the Cathayan columns that lined the centre of the chamber. His eyes, however, continued to regard Thanquol with unnerving intensity.

‘Come forward, Grey Seer Thanquol,’ Sneek repeated. ‘There is much I would speak-say with the famous-honoured Thanquol.’ The Nightlord’s paw vanished back into the shadow and there came the sound of hands clapping together. From behind the silken veils, a train of skavenslaves emerged, bearing platters of sweetmeats and pungent Tilean cheeses, jugs of bloodwine and pots of the pungent green liquid Clan Eshin had become addicted to during their long sojourn in Cathay.

Thanquol eyed the victuals suspiciously, even as his stomach rebelliously growled. He started to reach for a tray of sweetmeats before common sense drew his hand back. It seemed a lot of work to bring him here just to poison him, but the Lords of Decay were not known for the practicality of their often-murderous whims. Thanquol pushed the tray away from him. He knew enough about the weird rituals of Eshin to turn and bow to the Nightlord’s throne as he refused his hospitality.

There was just the slightest hint of a chuckle from the shadows, then Sneek clapped his hands together a second time. The slave carrying the smelly pot of tea scurried up the steps of the dais to present the beverage to his master.

‘You are curious why I call you, Thanquol,’ Sneek’s thin whisper cut through the darkness of his lair. ‘I find myself in need of a grey seer. One with every reason to be loyal to me.’

Thanquol licked his fangs nervously. Loyalty to Clan Eshin was something of a lifetime commitment, however short that might be. ‘I–I am honoured by your confidence, exalted murder-master, but my oath-service to the Horned Rat is my bond. I can serve-obey no other.’

‘Kritislik and Tisqueek are even now selling your mangy pelt to curry favour with Nurglitch,’ Sneek said. ‘The seerlords hope to use Clan Pestilens to curb the ambitions of Clan Skryre. Giving Nurglitch your glands in a warpstone bowl will go far to impressing that diseased pustule of their sincerity.’

Thanquol felt his knees buckle beneath him and he slumped to the floor. Kritislik was betraying him to Clan Pestilens? After he had selflessly risked his life to keep the Wormstone out of Nurglitch’s paws? The plague monks were heretics, worshipping some grotesque daemon-thing and pretending it was the Horned One! He knew Kritislik hated Warplord Morskittar with a passion, but to condone the blasphemous ways of Pestilens in order to restrain the warlock-engineers was utter madness! Age had finally crippled Kritislik’s senses, or else the poison Tisqueek kept trying to lace the senior seerlord’s food with was finally having an effect!

Again Nightlord Sneek clapped his paws. In response, the veils behind his throne parted. A pair of sinister-looking skaven emerged from the blackness beyond the veils. One was a cloaked killer, his face wrapped in strips of darkened leather, his left hand encased within a wickedly sharp steel fighting claw. The other was a lean, emaciated ratman with a sickly pelt of charcoal-coloured fur. He wore a dark robe of Cathayan silk and leaned upon a gnarled staff. Thanquol stared in alarm at the talismans dangling from thongs affixed to the staff. The stories were true, then. Clan Eshin had their own heathen sorcerers, versed in some arcane art they had learned in the mysterious east.

‘This is Shiwan Stalkscent,’ Sneek said, one of his grotesquely long claws indicating the cloaked skaven. The assassin gave Thanquol a mocking bow, then ran the back of his paw across his dripping nose. Sneek indicated the other skaven. ‘This is Shen Tsinge,’ his whispery voice rasped. The sorcerer simply bared his fangs at Thanquol. ‘They have been entrusted with an honour-task of importance to me. To ensure they succeed, I am sending you with them, Grey Seer Thanquol.’

Thanquol stared at the two sinister skaven. He could see the hate in their eyes. Shiwan, like most of Eshin’s assassins, had his scent glands removed so there was nothing in his smell to make Thanquol any wiser about the emotions coursing through him. Shen, however, stank of hostility, the envious fug of a whelp pushed from its brood-mother’s teat by a stronger sibling. His own exploits were known far and wide throughout the Under-Empire, yet these two showed not the slightest trace of intimidation in his presence. To be so open about challenging a grey seer meant more than impiety. It suggested a hideous degree of ability and ambition as well.

‘I wish-pray them much-much success on their venture,’ Thanquol said, repeating his deferential bow to the Nightlord. ‘Unfortunately my duty demands I stay-stay in Skavenblight.’

The chilling chuckle of Nightlord Sneek wheezed from the darkness. ‘If you leave, Thanquol, it will cause me much unhappiness.’ Sneek waved his open palms in a helpless gesture. ‘I would need to send Deathmaster Snikch looking for you again. Only this time he would not bring you back.’

Eyes wide as saucers, Thanquol turned in horror to the guard-rat leaning against the Cathayan column. Deathmaster Snikch grinned at him with a muzzle filled with blackened fangs. Thanquol couldn’t keep a squeal of terror from rumbling up his throat.

‘Perhaps you have reconsidered?’ Nightlord Sneek did not even give Thanquol time to answer him. ‘To offset the ambitions of Seerlord Kritislik and prevent alliance between the grey seers and Clan Pestilens, I find it necessary to treat with the plague priests in my own way.’ Sneek clapped his paws together. In response, Shen Tsinge scurried forward, approaching the base of the dais.

‘Many breedings ago, when Grey Lords yet ruled the Under-Empire, Clan Pestilens build-make own empire far across great waters. Long-long they stay, lost-forgot by all skaven.’ Shen lifted his finger for emphasis as he made his next point. ‘Plague monks fight-fight cold-things to rule-keep jungle. Many-many battles they fight-fight, but always plague monks win. Then cold-things call great magic. Bring new-new god-devil into world.’

Thanquol’s heart hammered in his chest. No skaven had failed to hear of the horrible devil-god that had routed Clan Pestilens from their ancient homeland and pursued them into the swamps of the Southlands. Sotek the Snake Daemon, whose jaws could swallow an entire warren in a single bite!

‘Long-time ago, we steal-take map from plaguelords,’ Shiwan boasted, wiping his paw across his nose again as a string of mucus brushed his whiskers. ‘Map show-tell old cold-thing place where they call snake-devil.’

‘Cold-things build-make temple of serpent there,’ Shen explained. ‘Keep snake-devil fed with skaven hearts. Great prophet of snake-devil there, listening for snake-devil’s words.’

Nightlord Sneek clapped his paws together again. Shen and Shiwan bowed to their master and were silent. Sneek pointed one of his talons at Thanquol. ‘Pestilens has tried many times to kill the snake-prophet. If Eshin succeeds where the plaguelords have failed, it will make them afraid. Too afraid to oppose my power.’

Thanquol shuddered at the idea. Sneaking into the very temple of Sotek to kill the snake-devil’s high priest! It was on his tongue to suggest a certain dwarf-thing and his human pet for the job when an even more disturbing thought occurred to him. Sneek wasn’t worried about Pestilens making alliances against the rest of the Council; he wanted Pestilens to ally with Eshin! By murdering the arch-foe of the plaguelords, Eshin would be able to treat with them from a position of dominance and dictate the terms of their alliance. In the last civil war, only the opposition of the assassins had prevented the plague monks from overwhelming all the other clans. If the two united together there might be nothing that could stop them!

‘You are quiet, Grey Seer Thanquol,’ Nightlord Sneek said. ‘Are you thinking of leaving us?’

An eager hiss of anticipation rasped through Deathmaster Snikch’s fangs as Sneek spoke. Thanquol resisted the urge to turn and see if he was drawing one of his poisoned blades.

‘No-no!’ Thanquol assured the Nightlord. ‘I was only worrying that there are traitors trying to stop-stop your great and glorious plan, oh murderous daimyo! Only a few days ago I was attacked in the streets…’

The Nightlord’s talons stabbed accusingly at the grey seer. ‘There are no traitors in Clan Eshin!’ Sneek’s voice was a rumbling growl now, the serene whisper cracking in the heat of his fury. ‘An adept would sooner slit his own belly than defy me!’

Thanquol’s fur crawled as he felt the Nightlord’s rage fixed on him. However, the only way to escape that anger was to feed it.

‘Grand slayer of kings, I do not doubt-question your mighty power! First among the Lords of Decay, feared even by those who sit upon the Council! Yet I speak-say no lie when I tell you an assassin of your clan tried to murder me in the street! The slinking-coward used darts from a blowgun to goad me into using my meagre knowledge of magic to defend myself, knowing such a display of power would set the crowd into a mindless panic. He thought to hide his crime by crushing me beneath their paws!’

Nightlord Sneek’s paws disappeared back into the shadow. ‘I will look into this, Thanquol. If you have spoken true, I will have the traitor’s spleen in my hand. If you are trying to trick me, Deathmaster Snikch will bring me your spleen instead.’

Thanquol risked a sidewise glance at the lounging master-killer. Snikch grinned back at him, his pink tongue licking his painted teeth. There was no place in the Under-Empire anyone could hide from the Deathmaster.

Clapping paws ended Thanquol’s audience with the Nightlord. ‘Shiwan and Shen will attend you,’ Sneek said. ‘They are fully versed in my plans. Follow-obey them, Thanquol. Defy their orders and I shall consider it defying my own.’

Deathmaster Snikch’s bloodthirsty chuckle at the Nightlord’s threat was still ringing in Thanquol’s ears as Shiwan and Shen led him into one of the narrow tunnels hidden behind the veils.

Chang Fang was a skaven with big problems. As he made his way through the streets of Skavenblight, he hugged the manskin cloak tight around his body. He’d dyed his fur, rubbed the disembodied glands of two clanrats into his skin, discarded all of his weapons and equipment lest their smell betray him. In every way and in every detail he tried to present the appearance of a Clan Muskrit bog hunter. From smell to posture to appearance, he tried to make himself inconspicuous.

He was realistic about his chances of fooling his kinsrats of Clan Eshin. If he lived until dawn it would be a wonder worthy of the Horned Rat.

The disguised assassin ground his fangs together and cursed for the thousandth time the scent of Grey Seer Thanquol. The maggot should have been dead, crushed beneath the stampeding paws of a hundred skaven. An ignoble death for a conniving, cowardly, self-important flea! Long overdue, far too long delayed. Thanquol needed to be shown that he could not betray his fellow skaven with impunity. There were consequences and Chang Fang intended the grey seer would suffer them!

His own ruin was Thanquol’s fault. The grey seer had used Chang Squik in his crazed scheme to destroy the man-thing nest called Nuln. To cover his own incompetence, Thanquol had abandoned Chang Squik to die, then blamed his many failures on the dead assassin.

Chang Squik had been trained as part of the same triad of assassins as Chang Fang; the disgrace suffered by Chang Squik infected the reputations of the survivors of the triad. No one would hire the services of an assassin tainted with the stink of failure, even Clan Eshin. Unable to expand the fortunes of their clan through murder, Chang Fang and Chang Kritch had been expunged from the ranks of the assassins. Chang Kritch had opened his belly in shame, but Chang Fang had endured. The need for vengeance had sustained him.

He would survive! He would escape the daggers of his kin and he would find Grey Seer Thanquol again!

Chang Fang lashed his tail in annoyance, nearly tripping an overburdened skavenslave scurrying down the street beside him. It was unfair! How was he to know the Nightlord wanted the damn grey seer for one of his schemes! By the time he found out, he’d already made the attempt to kill his hated enemy. Of course, that only made things even worse. To interfere with the Nightlord was bad enough, but for an assassin, even a disgraced one, to fail to kill his target was a crime that could be redeemed only with blood. If it was not to be his own, then he must kill Thanquol. Otherwise the Horned Rat would gnaw on his soul when he died.

The assassin’s face split in a vicious snarl, his claws curling into his palms. It would be Thanquol’s blood, not his own! Somehow, he would find the slippery grey seer and make him pay.

A green-robed figure intruded upon Chang Fang’s thoughts of vengeance. So intently had the assassin been watching for others of his kind that he had not noticed the plague monks as they oozed their way through the teeming mass of skaven that filled the narrow street. Chang Fang maintained his pose of bog-hunter and tried to squirm past the odious monk. He realised his mistake when the monk’s decayed paw closed around his arm. He brought his foot smashing into the ratman’s belly in a savage kick that sent him crashing through the throng around them.

Chang Fang did not wait to see how badly the kick had crippled the plague monk, instead turning to vanish into the crowd. His escape was blocked, however, by a solid mass of tattered robes and mangy fur. A rusty knife pressed against his chest.

‘Greetings, murder-meat,’ the knife-holding plague monk coughed. ‘Our master would speak-say much-much. You come with us, yes-yes.’

The plague monks were silent as they marched their captive through the dingy alleyways of Skavenblight, down dark corridors so desolate that they barely had to push anyone out of their way. Soon, the strange procession stood before a partially collapsed stone structure, its broken blocks jutting up from the mud around it. One of the plague monks indicated a window gaping a few feet above the mud. Another of the monks pushed Chang Fang towards it.

Briefly the thought of fighting back flashed through Chang Fang’s mind. Quickly it was discarded. Even if he won clear of so many foes, the skirmish was sure to be noticed. The Nightlord’s spies were everywhere. Besides, if the plague monks wanted him dead, he would already be so.

Chang Fang squirmed through the window, sliding into the room beyond. The floor of the room above had been torn down to open the ceiling of the mud-choked chamber he now found himself in. The air was rank with the pestilent stench of rot and decay. Half-eaten things were piled on the floor before a bloated warpstone idol only the deranged imagination of the plaguelords would see as representing the Horned Rat. If his glands hadn’t been removed, Chang Fang would have spurted the musk of fear just looking at the noxious thing.

Revolted, he turned his eyes from the idol. Now he saw that it was not the only occupant of the slimy room. Several green-robed plague monks were seated on the floor, each of them furiously polishing a small chunk of warpstone. Behind them, seated atop one of the fallen blocks of stone, was a shape almost as ghastly as the obese idol. It was a bloated ratman, his skin peeling, his hair hanging in lumpy patches, his flesh a sickly green where it was not blotched with sores and boils. The ratman’s muzzle was a decayed stump, his rotten lips unable to cover his fangs. Most hideous of all were his eyes. One was an empty hole in his face, the other was a polished piece of pure warpstone. Despite the impossibility, Chang Fang knew the creature could see him with that warpstone eye.

‘They work to fashion a new eye for Lord Skrolk,’ the grisly thing on the stone block declared, pointing a withered finger at his empty eye socket. ‘The one whose work I choose will be made a deacon. The others will be made into meat.’

Chang Fang shivered to hear the plaguelord’s bubbling, decayed voice and the callous indifference he displayed towards the fate of his underlings. If he treated his own clan in such fashion, what could Chang Fang expect?

‘Terrible Lord Skrolk, horror of all skavendom, if this wretched-foolish one has-has offended…’

Skrolk’s rotting face pulled back in a snarl. ‘Do not test-tempt my patience! I know-see you are Chang Fang!’

The assassin recoiled from the threatening voice as though it were the roar of a swamp dragon. Unconsciously, he dropped into an Eshin fighting stance. His eyes darted across the room looking for a means of escape. It would take too long to climb the walls and there were more monks waiting outside the window. Perhaps behind the idol…

Lord Skrolk made a placating gesture with his paw. ‘We are friends, Chang Fang,’ he croaked. ‘We share a common enemy.’

Suddenly escape no longer interested Chang Fang. ‘Thanquol,’ he growled.

The plaguelord’s wormy tail lashed angrily against the stone block. ‘I’ve had a long-long swim thanks to him,’ Skrolk hissed. ‘Except for his treason, I would have presented a great-great treasure to my master. Now my tongue grows heavy with excuses.’

Chang Fang ground his teeth together. ‘He is protected by the Nightlord,’ he cursed. ‘We can’t touch Thanquol without suffering his wrath.’

‘Grey Seer Thanquol will soon be leaving Skavenblight,’ Lord Skrolk said. ‘Sneek is sending him far away, beyond even the protection of Eshin’s assassins.’

There seemed to be a vengeful gleam in Skrolk’s warpstone eye as he spoke. The same gleam that shone in Chang Fang’s eyes as he listened.

‘Sneek is sending an expedition to Lustria, sending them to kill the Prophet of Sotek.’ Lord Skrolk’s loathsome laughter bubbled through the sunken room. ‘He is sending Thanquol with his skaven in case they need his magic to overcome the powers of the snake-devil. You will see that Thanquol fails.’

‘How can I get to him if he’s in Lustria?’ Chang Fang asked, fumbling over the unfamiliar name.

‘My henchrats have kill-killed one of your clan and made it seem he was the one sniff-sniff for Thanquol’s blood. You will take his place on the expedition. Kill-slay Thanquol when you can, then make sure none of the others come back.’

Chang Fang’s fur bristled as he heard Lord Skrolk’s final condition. ‘Kill-slay my own clan?’

‘They would kill-slay you,’ Lord Skrolk pointed out. ‘This expedition is a fool’s errand Sneek has been tricked into, your clan will take-find no profit. When you kill-slay Thanquol, none of the others can return to squeak-speak of what happened.’

The assassin considered Skrolk’s words, then bowed his head.

‘Thanquol will die,’ Chang Fang promised.

CHAPTER THREE

SHIPRATS

The trim sailing ship made good time as she cut through the cold waters of the Great Western Ocean, spray dripping from the buxom, serpentine figurehead fitted to her prow. White sails billowed high above her swaying decks, flags snapping in the wind from her three towering masts. The barque seemed almost a thing alive, so gracefully did she glide upon the sea.

The Cobra of Khemri was out of the Free City of Marienburg. The Freetraders of Marienburg were the most prosperous merchants in all the Old World. Through their hands passed goods from all points of the compass: spices from Araby, silks from Cathay, weird beasts from the Southlands and strange metals from the savage shores of Norsca. The barque’s voyage, however, was to still more exotic shores: the elf homelands of Ulthuan. Trade with the elves of Ulthuan was strictly regulated by their Phoenix King, limited to only a handful of guilds and trading companies. These few mercantile concerns were allowed access to the elven port of Lothern, the only place in all Ulthuan where outsiders would be tolerated. Holding a very real monopoly on elven goods being brought into the Old World, these men and their elven sponsors could command their own prices on elf crafts, making the trade unspeakably lucrative. After a single voyage to Ulthuan, a sea captain could earn enough from his own meagre share of the cargo to retire comfortably. The merchants themselves lived like princes.

The Cobra of Khemri, however, was not owned by one of the select few traders licensed to deal with the elves. Her hold filled with furs, fruits and timber from the Old World, she would be allowed to offload her cargo and sell it on the docks to the merchants of Ulthuan for whatever pittance the elves would give for such curiosities. But to fill her holds with elf fabrics, dyes, perfumes, ceramics and objets d’art, the part of the voyage where the promise of real wealth lay, would take a formal trade agreement with the Sealords of Lothern.

The ship’s owner thought about the precarious prospect of making the long voyage for nothing. Lukas van Sommerhaus was a patroon, one of the wealthy merchants of Marienburg. Or at least he had been. Under his stewardship, the enterprise built by his great-grandfather had dwindled, collapsing in upon itself until there was almost nothing left. From a fleet of fifty ships, the Sommerhaus name now controlled only three.

Van Sommerhaus stared out at the sea, watching the dark waters crash against the prow. The backers of the Sommerhaus Trading Company blamed him for the failures that beset the business. They held him to account for the ridiculous antagonism of the dogmatic royalists of the Empire, men who refused to either understand or appreciate genius! They’d tried to destroy him for refusing to be bound by tradition, and when they couldn’t do that, they had set about trying to destroy his business.

The sharkskin gloves on his hands creaked as he clenched his fists. They were fools, blind superstitious fools! And his money-grubbing partners were no better! What were they, after all, but small men with petty ideas! He was above them. He was a patroon!

‘Mourning the family business?’

Van Sommerhaus turned as he heard the soft, feminine voice at his elbow. The patroon was a tall man and he towered over the short woman who had spoken to him. His heavy, dull features contorted into an outraged scowl. He pulled away from the rail of the ship, his hand whipping about, cracking against the woman’s cheek. She crumpled to the deck, her fingers clutching at her face where the patroon’s rings had torn her delicate skin. There was resignation, not fear, in her expression as van Sommerhaus loomed over her and drew his hand back for another blow.

The slap never struck the young woman. Van Sommerhaus found his arm unable to move, saw strong fingers closed around his arm, crumpling the velvet material of his shirt. He glared into the face of the man who held him.

‘You dare touch a patroon?’ van Sommerhaus snarled.

‘Hit her again and you’ll see how daring I am,’ the broad-shouldered man who held him growled back. He was a head shorter than the tall patroon, but much more powerfully built than the lean merchant. Not the wiry muscles of the barque’s sailors, but the deadly brawn of a professional soldier.

‘You forget your place, Adalwolf,’ van Sommerhaus said. He wrenched his arm free as Adalwolf allowed his hold to slacken. Puffing out his chest, the patroon made a point of smoothing the crumpled material of his shirt before marching off to join the barque’s captain on the quarterdeck.

The mercenary watched his employer stomp off, shaking his head in disgust. He’d been employed by the Sommerhaus Trading Company for nearly ten years, but this voyage marked the longest he had been called upon to suffer the patroon’s company. After a week at sea with the man, he found himself wondering if there were any goblin warlords who needed a swordsman.

‘That was stupid.’

Adalwolf looked down as he heard the woman speak. He reached a hand down to help her up, but she ignored the gesture, lifting herself off the deck despite the thick folds of the dress wrapped around her legs.

The mercenary couldn’t help his eyes lingering over her. Hiltrude Kaestner wasn’t the best looking woman he’d ever seen. She was a little too short for his tastes, a bit too full in her figure. Her features were pretty, not beautiful, and her dark hair was curled and coiled into one of the elaborate extravagances that reminded him unpleasantly of the aristocrats. Still, however much she wasn’t his type, she was certainly easier on the eyes than the scruffy sea dogs who crewed the Cobra of Khemri.

‘You’re welcome,’ Adalwolf grumbled.

Hiltrude pushed against his chest with one of her slender hands. ‘Mind your own business,’ she hissed. ‘I know what I’m doing.’

Adalwolf shrugged his shoulders. ‘Fine. Next time I let him hit you all he likes.’

Sharp eyes glared into the mercenary’s. ‘Look, van Sommerhaus retains me to entertain him, just like he retains you to carve up pirates and mutineers. That’s the arrangement.’

‘Seems to me you could do better,’ Adalwolf said, handing her a kerchief to daub the bruise on her cheek.

Hiltrude snatched the cloth from him, pressing it to her face. ‘He pays well,’ she said, as if that explained everything. Seeing the words made no impact, she sighed and elaborated. ‘He’s under a lot of stress. The family fortune and all that. I can tell when it’s getting to him.’ She cast a sidewise glance at the quarterdeck where van Sommerhaus was in a heated discussion with Captain Schachter. ‘I deliberately provoked him, gave him someone to lash out at. He’d feel better, I’d get knocked around a bit. No big deal. When we get back to Marienburg, he spends some of what’s left of the family fortune on me.’

‘He’s no one to blame but himself,’ Adalwolf told her. ‘The trouble with the Empire is his own fault, not yours. If he hadn’t decided he was a playwright…’

Despite herself, Hiltrude couldn’t repress a chuckle. ‘The Victorious Life of Van Hal the Vampire Hunter,’ she laughed.

‘One performance before it closed,’ Adalwolf grinned.

‘Oh, it didn’t close,’ Hiltrude corrected him. ‘It was closed. By order of the Lord Protector. Seems the witch hunters didn’t like one of their heroes being represented as a shape-changing Child of Ulric. It was the University of Altdorf that condemned it for historical inaccuracy.’

‘Van Hal hunting down Vlad von Carstein, wasn’t it?’ Adalwolf asked, trying to remember the details of the play.

Hiltrude laughed again and nodded her head. ‘Van Hal being dead for two hundred years before the Vampire Wars wasn’t the sort of detail Lukas would let get in the way of his masterpiece. I didn’t see it, but Detlef Sierck did. I believe his exact words were “This moronic abomination is not theatre”.’

‘I don’t know, it was better than his rewrite of Prince of Nehekhara.’ The interruption came from a thin man dressed in blue-grey robes trimmed with a white wave pattern, a scrimshaw albatross pectoral strung about his neck. The levity left the man’s leathery, sea-bitten face as he noted the ugly bruise on Hiltrude’s face. He removed a clam-shell flask from his belt, then reached for the kerchief the woman held. After a moment of resistance, Hiltrude let him have it. The woman’s eyes were frightened as she watched him drip the contents of the flask onto the cloth before handing it back to her.

‘Brother Diethelm means no harm,’ Adalwolf assured her. The priest smiled at the mercenary.

‘There is nothing to fear,’ the priest said. ‘It is just sea water. It will sting, but it will help your injury heal fast and leave no blemish.’

Hiltrude still looked suspicious, but she pressed the cloth to her cheek. She winced as the priest’s prediction about it stinging proved true. ‘I thought healing was the domain of Shallya, not Manann,’ she quipped.

Diethelm grinned beneath his short blond beard. ‘Manann has taught us a few tricks,’ he said with a wink.

‘Maybe he could teach a few of them to van Sommerhaus,’ Adalwolf said.

‘I don’t think the patroon would listen,’ Diethelm answered. ‘He’s an obstinate sort of fellow.’

That remark brought nods from both Adalwolf and Hiltrude.

‘He’s convinced that elf is going to help him rebuild his fortune,’ Adalwolf said. All eyes turned to the forecastle where the subject of his remark was standing, one boot set upon the prow, his eyes locked upon the horizon. Ethril Feyfarer would stand there for hours watching the sea. There was no question he was eager to return to Ulthuan. It was his reason for going back that Adalwolf was dubious about. He’d never met a poor elf. He was fairly certain that still held true.

‘I hope he’s being honest with Lukas,’ Hiltrude said, worry in her voice. She pressed the cloth a little closer to her cheek.

‘Elves are very careful with their promises,’ Diethelm told them. ‘Anything this one has promised van Sommerhaus he will honour. But he will keep the letter of the bargain, not the spirit. A man must be careful making agreements with elves.’ The priest turned away from the prow. His face grew dour.

‘However, I don’t think Ethril holds the future of van Sommerhaus in his hands,’ the priest said, his voice heavy.

Adalwolf and Hiltrude followed the priest’s staring eyes. At first, they could see nothing, then they saw what Diethelm’s eerie gaze had seen before them. Black clouds rolling against the sternward horizon, sky and sea seeming to boil with the fury of their coming. It was a storm, a storm such as even Adalwolf had never seen. A storm that was bearing down on them with horrific speed.

‘The future of van Sommerhaus, and everyone on this ship, is in the hands of Lord Manann,’ the priest said, his words little more than an awed whisper.

The sweltering Tilean sun beat down upon the swarming harbour of Sartosa as though an angry god glowered down upon the pirate stronghold with displeasure.

A less divine figure, Captain Vittorio Borghese glowered from the quarterdeck as his crew took on the last of their supplies. Half the scum were still bleary-eyed from two weeks of drinking and wenching, and the other half were grumbling about rigged dice. The pirate captain rolled his eyes as he watched a pair of dusky Estalian buccaneers arguing about how to set the staysails between the ship’s masts. He could almost smell the rot-gut rum on their breath as their rapid-fire argument grew more vitriolic. He wondered if Luka Silvaro ever had these kinds of days as his eyes roved the deck looking for his hulking first mate to crack their heads together before the argument went any further.

Instead of his mate, the pirate captain found himself watching an evil-looking Bretonnian swaggering down the dock towards his ship. Behind him, a half-dozen murderous thugs pulled a long wooden cart. Vittorio had only ever seen a similar contrivance when he’d been a boy in Miragliano and a travelling circus had come to town. The cart, with its steel bars, looked like nothing so much as a menagerie wagon. Only instead of a leering harpy or toothless manticore, the cage was filled with the groaning bodies of men.

‘Clearing out the dregs of Peg Street, Levasseur?’ Vittorio demanded as the strange procession approached his ship.

The cold-eyed Bretonnian doffed the tricorn hat he wore in a courtly bow. ‘I heard that the Black Mary was in need of crew,’ he said, a cruel smile on his face.

Vittorio turned a disgusted glance at the deck of his ship. ‘I’ve no time to fetch the rest of my dogs from half the taverns on Sartosa,’ he answered with a nod. He scratched at the empty socket behind his eyepatch, considering Levasseur’s offer. ‘What waters did you find your catch?’

Levasseur’s grin broadened. ‘The Hole Inn By The Hill,’ he answered. ‘Only the best for the Black Mary.’

The pirate captain nodded again. The Hole Inn By The Hill was the most notorious of Sartosa’s many taverns, a place frequented by only pirates and their ilk. No weak-kneed pearl-divers or gutless fishermen there. ‘Somehow I doubt they’re the best,’ Vittorio told Levasseur, digging through the pockets of his brocaded vest, ‘but they’ll have to do.’ He tossed a small pouch to the grinning Bretonnian, the contents of the bag clanking together as Levasseur deftly caught it.

‘Always a pleasure, mon capitain,’ Levasseur said with another flourish of his feathered hat. He snapped quick orders and the press gang began unloading their drunken charges from the cart and carrying them onto the ship.

‘Let them sleep it off in the hold,’ Vittorio directed the press gang. When the indentured crew awoke, the Black Mary would be far at sea and well away from where the men could cause any problems.

Dismissing his new crew from his mind, Vittorio returned his attention to his old crew, barking orders at them as they made the two-hundred ton brigantine ready to sail. He did not notice the unusual number of men Levasseur’s thugs brought onboard, nor the way many of them were covered in ragged cloaks and wrapped in frayed blankets.

Vittorio certainly did not see the wicked gleam in Levasseur’s eye as the Black Mary pulled out from the Deadman’s Docks.

‘Bon chance, mon capitain,’ Levasseur laughed as he watched the ship sail out from the pirate city of Sartosa for the last time. He fingered the small bag of silver Vittorio had paid him, tucking it beneath his tunic beside the larger bag of coins his special friends had given him earlier that night.

The Black Mary was going to need all the luck she could get.

A slight exertion of will, so insignificant only the smallest portion of its mind was focused upon the task, and the heavy golden dais beneath Tlaco’amoxtli’ueman rose from the ground. Gravity was a question of value; the slann had simply unbalanced the equation. It was something that had long ago ceased to even stir the mage-priest’s thoughts. Levitation and telekinesis were among the first adjustments the Old Ones had taught their minions.

Skink attendants loped after the slann’s dais as it glided slowly through the stone halls of the pyramid-temple. Beyond the golden doors that guarded the sacred well of contemplation at the heart of the pyramid, the dais rotated, facing an angular corridor with a squared ceiling. Only senses attuned to the Great Math could detect the menace behind the many glyphs carved into the walls, each possessing the power to disperse the sum of any creature daring to pass between them. Such wards had withstood the hunger of the nether-things in the Age of Strife. Lord Tlaco did not break their power when he passed between them, instead shifting it so that it curved about the dais and the skinks following after the slann.

Through the long corridor and its protecting glyphs, the dais entered a grand hall. Monstrous warriors waited here, lizardmen of more formidable shape than the slight skinks. The warriors stood twice the height of the slann’s attendants, the bodies beneath their thick blue scales swollen with muscle. Their heads sported powerful jaws, sharp fangs curling across their scaly lips. Cold, passionless eyes stared from beneath thick brows. The saurus warriors wore gilded armour of fossilised bone and bore spiked clubs of bronze in their claws. Lord Tlaco’s temple guard bobbed their heads in recognition of their revered master, silently forming ranks around the mage-priest.

Now surrounded by his bodyguard, Lord Tlaco’s dais began to climb a set of immense stone steps. There were more protective glyphs as the dais reached a raised platform, lesser wards to keep parasitic mites and worms from the pyramid. A short passageway opened onto the platform, and up this the slann’s procession proceeded. The hot stickiness of the air was a thing beneath Lord Tlaco’s notice, but skink attendants quickly leapt to their master’s comfort, fanning the toad-like creature and bathing its mottled skin with water drawn from the razordon bladders many of them carried.

Sunlight broke the dark gloom of the pyramid. The dais rotated again, shifting so that it could face the sun as the slann emerged from the cave-like opening set into the side of the great temple. His guards still surrounding him, skinks still bathing his hide and fanning his skin, Lord Tlaco pondered the fractals that had disturbed his meditations.

Xa’cota were at the source of the slann’s unease. The unnatural spawn of the rat-fractal had caused no end of disturbance to the Great Math. Many of the cities that had survived the Cataclysm had not survived the coming of the xa’cota. Their aberrant plagues, far more virile and deadly than anything engineered as a part of the natural equation, had devastated the lizardmen. Entire spawnings of skinks had been wiped out before even setting eye upon their enemy.

The war with the rat had turned at the temple-city of Quetza and the dominance of the xa’cota had been broken, many of them driven back into the sea. Many skinks claimed the victory had been brought about by a mammoth serpent they called Sotek and which they worshipped in warm-thing fashion as a god. More than the breaking of the xa’cota, the rise of Sotek troubled Lord Tlaco’s meditations. Among the names of the Old Ones, that of Sotek was not to be found. Upon the plaques of prophecy, the advent of the serpent was not foretold.

The city of Quetza was saved from destruction, but the plagues of the xa’cota festered within the very stones. It had become Quetza the Defiled and was abandoned by the lizardmen. At least for a time. Now inhabitants once again stirred within its walls, the followers of Xiuhcoatl, one of the Prophets of Sotek. Under Xiuhcoatl’s leadership, the skinks erected a new pyramid in Quetza, a temple to their serpent god. Spawning pools had been dug from the foundations of the temple, holy serpents brought from the jungle. Here, where the skinks claimed Sotek had manifested before them, Xiuhcoatl did obeisance to his god.

Was this a part of the Great Math? Was it the will of the Old Ones? Lord Tlaco was uncertain. Even the slann’s brain could not follow the calculations to their end. The plaques of prophecy were again silent. Had the jungles of Lustria been delivered from the unbalance of the xa’cota only to fall to a more insidious corruption?

Lord Tlaco closed his eyes as the warmth of the rising sun flowed into its damp body. Many times had the slann pondered the problem of Xiuhcoatl and Quetza the Defiled. For the skinks to survive, there needed to be something preserving them. But was it a part of the Great Plan?

The xa’cota were coming back. That fact had ended Lord Tlaco’s meditative slumber. In their coming, it saw a menace to Quetza. There were other possibilities that arose, other sums that could be introduced into the algorithm. In casting its mind through the lattice of creation, Lord Tlaco became aware of a small cluster of xho’za’khanx, the untamed warm-things that infested so much of the world. The mage-priest calculated their potentiality. The spots on its skin shifted, setting skink scribes into a frenzy of activity.

Lord Tlaco concentrated on the humans and made a minor adjustment to the geomantic web…

The storm’s fury descended upon the Cobra of Khemri like the hammer of a titan. The ship rolled violently between each undulation of the angry waves. Punishing rain pelted the decks, stinging the bodies of the crew desperately trying to secure the rigging and bring some semblance of control back to their vessel. A shrieking wind tore through the sails, setting them cracking and snapping before the masts, bulging with the malign power of the storm.

Even the most experienced of the mariners was ashen-faced; sun-baked skin turned pale by the malevolent power of the storm. Men who had spent decades upon the Great Ocean whimpered and wailed like whipped dogs, those with less experience simply clung to the rails and wept.

Adalwolf tried to help a pair of sailors secure the wheel, unaware if the effort was even worth it. The violence with which the wheel spun threatened to snap the tiller. He grimaced at the thought. Without the tiller there would be no way to steer the ship’s rudder. They would be utterly at the mercy of the capricious sea.

A shriek from aloft and a body came hurtling down from the rigging. Ropes broke beneath the plunging weight. The fallen sailor struck with such violence that he bounced from the aftdeck before being thrown into the sea.

The cry of the lookout was echoed all across the main deck as the foremast began to crack. Men scrambled to fit lines to the mast, trying to strengthen it against the wind by sheer brawn. The mast continued to groan and sway, drawing more sailors to the desperate effort.

Adalwolf shook his head in disgust. It was a brave effort, but utterly doomed from the start. Splinters as long as his arm were already jutting from the surface of the mast. The men should be trying to cut it free, not hold it in place, but blind panic sometimes overwhelms even the most experienced. The mercenary ground his teeth together, waiting to hear the sickening finale of the farce.

It came with a low wooden growl that shook the ship more fiercely than the storm. Like a towering Drakwald giant, the foremast came smashing down, crashing through the railing and chewing a great gouge in the ship’s hull before slipping over the side and plummeting into the depths. Several sailors were crushed beneath the impact, a half-dozen more were pulled screaming into the sea, unable to loosen the ropes with which they had struggled to save the mast.

Adalwolf felt his stomach churn at the hideous vision, violently turning his head away from the scene. At once his eyes found a sight just as ghastly.

A cluster of sailors were gathered around Brother Diethelm, boathooks and belaying pins clutched in their fists. The mercenary could see van Sommerhaus and Captain Schachter standing some small distance away, as silent as Arabyan sphinxes. Only Hiltrude’s drenched figure stood between the raging sailors and their intended victim.

‘You don’t dare do this thing!’ Hiltrude shouted at the men. ‘Think what you are doing!’

A burly, scarred ruffian, his leather vest plastered to his dripping body, glared at the woman. ‘Some priest!’ the villain scoffed. ‘What good are his prayers?’ He gestured with the long dirk he held, sweeping it as though any of them could forget the storm raging around them. His outburst brought murderous oaths from the sailors around him.

Hiltrude turned desperate eyes towards van Sommerhaus and Schachter. ‘Stop them!’ she pleaded.

Van Sommerhaus turned his face, unwilling to meet her gaze. Captain Schachter simply spat on the deck. ‘Even if I could, I don’t think I would,’ he muttered.

‘Enough of your lip, wench!’ a dusky, monkey-like sailor growled. ‘Get out of our way or you go over the side with ’im!’ He leered wickedly at the courtesan. ‘Maybe you go over just the same. Maybe Stromfels is hungry for more than just the priest.’

The deck monkey shrieked as a fist smashed into his face, knocking yellowed teeth from his mouth. He staggered back, blood gushing from between his fingers as he clutched at his jaw. Adalwolf let the heavy chain uncoil from around his hand, the sailor’s blood dripping from the iron links.

‘If the Shark God is hungry, maybe we start by feeding him you,’ Adalwolf threatened. In his other hand he gripped a fat-bladed short sword. He waved the weapon menacingly at the sullen crewmen.

The scar-faced sailor glared at the mercenary. ‘If we don’t appease the Storm God, then we’ll all drown!’ He didn’t wait for Adalwolf to respond, but drove his leg upwards, smashing his boot into the warrior’s groin. Adalwolf doubled over. Before he could recover, sailors were swarming over him, ripping the sword from his fingers.

‘First the bitch, then the friar!’ the sailor roared, lunging for Hiltrude. The courtesan tried to squirm away, but the greater strength of the seaman prevailed, pulling her close and crushing her against him. Diethelm rushed to help her, but the priest was quickly beaten down by two of the other sailors.

‘Damn you, Marjus, leave her alone!’ Adalwolf raged, straining to free himself of the men who held him.

Marjus sneered at the mercenary, then moved towards the rail, dragging Hiltrude with him. ‘You better hope this calms Stromfels,’ the sailor warned. ‘Or I know who else gets dropped into the drink.’

The sailor’s ugly chuckle faded as he saw a shape appear between himself and the rail. While Marjus and the other sailors struggled to keep their feet on the wildly pitching deck, the apparition before him moved with eerie precision and grace. A tall, lean figure, his fine garments barely moist despite the fury of the storm, Ethril stared down the sailors. There was no rage or warning in that look, indeed, it was the chilling lack of emotion that struck the men, like the disapproving gaze of a weary teacher.

‘Do you really think calling out to daemons is going to help?’ Ethril’s solemn voice was barely a whisper yet it carried with a quality that the wailing storm could not silence.

The elf’s words made the sailors cast uncertain looks among themselves. Marjus glanced back at them for support. When he looked back, he found Ethril had drawn a curved dagger and that its point was now pressing against his throat.

‘Let the girl go,’ the elf told him. Reluctantly, Marjus released Hiltrude. The courtesan backed away from both sailor and elf, uncertain which to regard with more horror. Unlike the man, she had seen Ethril’s hand. The elf had not drawn the dagger from some hidden sheath. It had appeared there, evoked from nothingness.

Marjus snarled at the cowed crew, yelling at them to help secure the deck and clear away the debris from the foremast. Even in the midst of the storm, there was no hiding the haste with which they fled the elf.

Adalwolf nodded his gratitude as Diethelm helped him off the deck. The priest’s robes were torn, his face matted with blood where a belaying pin had struck him. He smiled sadly to the mercenary, then repeated the gesture when Hiltrude joined them.

‘I thank you for your faith, or if not that then at least your assistance,’ he said. Diethelm sighed as another great wave crashed against the deck, showering them all in spray. ‘But I think perhaps it would have been best not to have interfered.’

‘It would have served no purpose,’ Ethril told them, stalking across the rolling deck. ‘There is magic behind this storm, and it is not the work of your Stromfels. This storm blows us far off course, defying every effort, physical and magical, to oppose it.’

The elf shook his head, then turned to withdraw into the cabins within the sterncastle.

‘It is almost as though the storm has a mind and a purpose behind it.’

Screams and cries of horror echoed across the decks of the Black Mary. Captain Vittorio Borghese stood with a small knot of his crew upon the quarterdeck. From the sounds, it seemed they were the last of the pirates still fighting.

The ship’s attackers had boiled up from the hold like the rats they so loathsomely resembled. Vittorio did not know how many of them there were. It seemed like hundreds, certainly dozens. They were wiry, agile creatures, their furry bodies wrapped in dark cloaks. He’d grown up on stories of these creatures, of how they would snatch bad children and take them into their burrows never to return. He’d seen the ugly, man-like bodies paraded through the streets by the rat-catchers after one of their excursions into the sewers. They were a nightmare he had grown up with and one he had never forgotten.

Vittorio did not know how the monsters had gotten aboard his ship, but as the Black Mary was just leaving the Pirate’s Bay, they had struck. There was no warning. One moment, all was calm, the next the deck was crawling with beasts of Chaos. His crew had managed to down a few of their inhuman attackers, but not enough to stem the verminous tide. The rusty blades of the skaven stabbed and slashed with cruel abandon, their chittering laughter scratching at his ears as they cut down his men.

The Black Mary’s quartermaster stood beside the swivel gun mounted on the quarter deck. He’d refrained from firing while the crew was still fighting. Now he hesitated because the skaven had prisoners. The ratmen seemed intent on taking captives. It was a thought that evoked all of Vittorio’s oldest childhood fears. He drew one of the pistols fastened to his belt and aimed it at his quartermaster.

‘Blast ’em down, or I blast you!’ Vittorio snarled.

The quartermaster paled beneath his dusky Tilean complexion, but swung the gun about and took aim. No sooner was the cannon pointed towards a cluster of skaven than a slim throwing knife crunched into the pirate’s forehead. The quartermaster was already dead when he smashed against the rail and toppled into the sea.

Skaven were converging on the quarterdeck now. Vittorio shifted the aim of his pistol and exploded the face of a brown-furred monster scurrying up the side of the sterncastle. He drew another pistol and shot a second ratman creeping along the rigging above him. The pirates around him tried to hold back the hissing mob of ratkin trying to rush up the stairs from the main deck.

Vittorio cast about for any avenue of escape. What he saw sent raw panic pulsing through his heart. The Black Mary was sailing past the mid-point of Pirate’s Bay. A single rock jutted up from the depths upon which had been carved an immense statue of Jack o’ the Sea, the patron of all pirates. No one was certain just who had carved the strange statue, but pirates were careful to leave small offerings to it each time they sailed into Sartosa.

It wasn’t Jack o’ the Sea who captured Vittorio’s attention, however. The waters around the statue were almost black with ships, a ramshackle fleet of dinghies, barges and flotsam, every inch of them crawling with more skaven. As soon as the Black Mary drew near, the ghastly fleet debarked from their moorings around the rock and began rowing towards the brigantine.

‘Every man for himself, lads,’ Vittorio snarled, hurling his spent pistols into the bay. The pirates watched in alarm as their captain climbed onto the rail and followed his weapons into the sea.

Grey Seer Thanquol stood tall in the bow of his boat, his staff clenched tight in his fist, his robes whipping about him in the crisp ocean breeze. He enjoyed the smell of the sea, it excited his senses with its suggestion of far-off places. Of course, the vastness of it was profoundly disturbing. Sometimes he felt his head spinning with the sheer immensity of it. No skaven liked open spaces, they preferred the comforting feeling of close walls, firm floor and a thick ceiling overhead. Thanquol wasn’t immune to the psychology of his kind. Indeed, he was finding this first phase of Nightlord Sneek’s plan unsettling.

The Eshin flotilla had waited for hours sheltering beside the lonely rock and its ugly human statue, their boats swaying sickeningly beneath their paws. Some of Shiwan Stalkscent’s warriors had passed the time poking through the jumbled heap of trash the man-things had piled at the base of the statue. Thanquol took a detached interest in their investigation. He’d seen enough evidence that humans were all insane, he didn’t really need more. Why they would row out into the middle of so much water to throw something away he couldn’t understand, even less when he saw little metal disks among the rubbish. Man-things would kill each other for little circles of gold and silver, yet here they had gone and left a pile of them on this abandoned rock. Perhaps they were trying to hide it from their clan leaders? It was the only conclusion that made any sort of sense to him, though he would have thought even a human could hide something a little better.

Thanquol shook his horned head and stared once again at the ship his minions had decided to steal. He wasn’t any kind of sailor, but even he could appreciate the sleek lines of the brigantine, the intimidating black hull of the ship with her yawning gun ports. He knew enough about seafaring to understand the importance of the huge white sails billowing from her two masts. He even liked the little black flag flying from her bow, the one with a grinning human skull set between two leg bones. It was a ship worthy of Grey Seer Thanquol and his brilliance.

‘Sit-sit or have knife stuck in back,’ Shiwan Stalkscent growled from the stern of their little boat. Thanquol stared back over the heads of the cloaked skaven sitting at the oars, his lip curled back in a challenging snarl. The assassin snarled back, a dripping knife in his paw.

Thanquol decided to cover his own fangs and sit down. It wasn’t the right time to challenge the upstart assassin, not when that old mage-rat Shen Tsinge was sitting right beside him. Thanquol lashed his tail in annoyance as he thought about the sorcerer. Clearly Shen had little confidence in his supposed abilities, otherwise he wouldn’t be hiding behind the bulk of a rat ogre. He couldn’t imagine what kind of magic such a coward would be good for! A real mage-rat, one with real power, didn’t need the mindless brawn of a rat ogre to keep him safe! A real mage-rat was able to bend the aethyr to his will, command its forces to protect him, petition the Horned One for his divine might! A real mage-rat didn’t need a stupid rat ogre stumbling after him, getting in the way and making his boat ride dangerously low in the water!

Bruxing his fangs in annoyance at all so-called sorcerers who felt the need to compensate for their inadequacies with a rat ogre bodyguard, Thanquol turned his eyes again to the Black Mary. His fur bristled as he studied the ship. It was little more than a scow, probably so worm-eaten that it would sink before it left the bay. If he was in charge of things, he would have Tsang Kweek and his gutter runners skinned for their temerity in stealing such a dilapidated vessel and endangering the lives of their betters. Certainly they could have stolen one that could actually be seen at night and that didn’t have such a worrying over-abundance of sail. There was such a thing as going too fast, after all. And that ugly little flag with its smiling skull; what kind of morbid sadist thought that was appropriate?

Yes, Thanquol would have much to say to Shiwan about this reckless display of incompetence from his skaven. He’d wait until he could discuss the matter in private, when Shen Tsinge and his rat ogre weren’t around to eavesdrop. There was no sense embarrassing Shiwan before his subordinates, after all.

Taking another glance behind him, Thanquol decided he’d also wait until the assassin put away his knife before talking to him.

CHAPTER FOUR

GREEN HELL

Adalwolf could not take his eyes off the endless green wall before the prow of the Cobra of Khemri. It was like watching a hungry wolf slowly licking its chops.

He could feel the hot, stinking damp of the jungle pawing at him, driving back the clean ocean breeze like a lion snapping at jackals. There was a putrid, rotten smell in the air, a charnel reek of death. The coastline was thick with towering palms, their thin trunks mottled with parasitic growths, their fronds dripping with clinging vines. Bulky, nasty-looking bushes squatted beneath the trees, their thorny branches sometimes sporting oversized flowers of brilliant crimson and vibrant orange. Stalk-like plants for which Adalwolf could think of no name, but which looked like an oversized sort of grass peppered the few dozen yards of beach between sea and jungle, hordes of flies buzzing about them.

Raucous croaks, insane cackles, piercing cries, all told of the animal life lurking beyond the face of the jungle. The incessant drone of unseen insects pounded upon his ears, punishing them with a remorseless intensity that made Adalwolf long for the deafening boom of a broadside or the angry howl of a storm.

The storm. It had raged against them for two full days. Adalwolf was not a firm believer in the beneficence of his gods – he felt they had better things to do than bother about men – but he was convinced only a miracle sent by Manann could have kept the barque in one piece throughout the long ordeal. As if to illustrate the limit of Manann’s indulgence, the keel of the ship had snapped as it grounded itself on the twisted grey rocks that jutted from the shore.

‘By Khaine’s fiery hell, where are we?’

The outburst came from Lukas van Sommerhaus. Like the rest, he had clustered at the rail to stare at the forbidding jungle. The Cobra of Khemri had come aground in the middle of the night, forcing them to wait until dawn to discover what new land had received them.

Ethril turned a withering look upon the patroon, making even the arrogant burgher wilt. ‘Do not swear by the gods of my people, human,’ the elf snapped.

‘It looks like the Southlands beyond Araby,’ Captain Schachter said after contemplating the jungle for a moment. There was uncertainty in his voice as he trawled the depths of memory for every sailor’s tale he’d every heard about those mysterious lands beyond the desert. He moved stiffly, favouring his left leg. Trying to keep the ship afloat had taxed the stamina of all her crew and her passengers. Only the patroon had had the nerve to hide in his cabin through such an ordeal.

‘That would be impossible,’ Diethelm corrected the captain. The priest’s tone was dolorous, his expression drawn and haggard. ‘The storm blew us southwest. Araby would have been to our east.’

‘Maybe… maybe this is… Ulthuan?’ Hiltrude at least presented a better appearance than Diethelm, even if her voice was more uncertain. Van Sommerhaus had provided her with a considerable wardrobe for the voyage. The last thing he wanted was a consort unequipped to hang off his arm at any social engagements they might encounter.

The patroon was the only one who looked to Ethril with any real hope that the elf would confirm the woman’s feeble suggestion. Ethril shook his head with a humourless smile on his lips.

‘We don’t have jungles in Ulthuan,’ the elf said. ‘This… this is the place you call Lustria.’

A babble of excited conversation swept through the crew, seizing even the captain in its grip. No seaman, certainly no sailor out of Marienburg, had failed to hear stories of fabled Lustria, a land where there were entire cities built of gold, a place where untold treasures waited to be found. The men who had braved the Great Ocean and entered the jungles of Lustria returned richer than kings.

‘Lustria?’ van Sommerhaus mused, rolling the word over on his tongue. ‘Yes, wasn’t that the place where Lord Melchin made his fortune?’

‘More than just Lord Melchin!’ scar-faced Marjus Pfaff exclaimed. ‘Pirazzo came back so wealthy that Prince Borgio of Miragliano tried to seize his riches and assassinate him.’

‘Marco Columbo came back rich enough to make himself Prince of Trantio!’ quipped one of the other sailors.

‘Aye!’ agreed a third seaman. ‘They call Lustria the Land of Gold, the Jewelled Jungle, the…’

‘The only thing I’ve heard it called is Green Hell,’ Adalwolf’s grim voice drowned out the avaricious exuberance of the crew. Sullen faces turned towards the mercenary. The warrior ignored their annoyance. ‘You talk about the men who came back rich. What about all the others? The ones who never came back.’

The sailors grumbled and cursed among themselves, none of them willing to concede Adalwolf’s point, but none of them able to deny the ugly truth behind his words.

Van Sommerhaus, as usual, was oblivious to the changing mood. ‘This is a fantastic opportunity!’ he exclaimed. ‘I think you are overcautious, Graetz,’ he told the mercenary. ‘Chance and the gods have favoured me with an opportunity greater even than establishing trade with Lothern! Why, I can return to Marienburg with a hold bursting with treasure, enough to make even the blinkered fools in the Empire forget their petty prejudices.’

‘What’ll you use for a ship?’ Adalwolf growled back. He stamped his foot on the deck, setting it shaking. ‘Or have you forgotten our keel is broken?’

The patroon waved his hand in annoyance at the mercenary. ‘Small details. We can just carve a new one,’ the remark had some of the sailors rolling their eyes in disbelief. ‘The important thing is we find the gold.’

‘I suggest you leave mindless greed to the dwarfs,’ Ethril’s melodious tones punctured the patroon’s posturing. ‘The swordman is quite right when he speaks of how dangerous this place is. My people have learned to leave it alone. You would be wise to do the same.’

Van Sommerhaus stared hard at the elf, then grinned. ‘Are you warning me away because there is treasure?’

‘Oh, there is certainly treasure,’ Ethril replied. ‘But don’t think it is unguarded. There are things in the jungle, powers even we have learned to respect. They are best not disturbed.’

The patroon laughed at Ethril’s warning. ‘If they are so powerful, why do they hide themselves in a stinking jungle? No, my friend, you are just trying to keep me from making a fortune here instead of in Ulthuan.’

Ethril spread his hands in a hopeless gesture. ‘Do as you like. Lustria never tires of finding new ways to kill fools.’

Thick coils of vine dangled from the palms, choking the jungle like some mammoth cobweb. Filthy black mould carpeted the earth, boiling up from the decaying plant matter caked into the ground. Saw-edged grass sprouted wherever the mould had not found purchase, each blade of grass as sharp as the edge of a dagger. Dried husks crashed downwards from the towering palms, smashing through the tangled canopy with enough force to crush a man’s skull. Dead trees, their innards devoured by parasite growths and hungry insects, leaned sickly against their neighbours, only the clinging vines preventing them from hurtling to the jungle floor.

Droning insects, chattering monkeys, growling jaguars and the thousand insane cries of unseen birds filled the air with a deafening din. Hot and foetid, the atmosphere of the jungle seeped through the trees like wet wool, stifling those who tried to draw breath from it.

Adalwolf drove the meat cleaver into his hundredth vine, snapping the ropey growth in a spurt of rancid sap. The other men in the scouting party turned their faces upward, their ears perked to catch the first groan of a falling tree. Twice they had been surprised by dead trunks crashing down on them from the overgrown canopy above their heads. It had been simple luck that had prevented them from suffering casualties from either incident. Now they were better prepared, ready to scatter the instant they heard any kind of sound above them.

The mercenary hesitated, listening just as hard as the others. He waited a moment, then gritted his teeth. If nothing had moved, then nothing was apt to. He hefted the meat cleaver again, shaking his head at its already notched blade. Chopping through the vines was harder than cutting through bone, it was like trying to hack through iron wrapped in wet leather. Much further and he’d have to use the cook’s cleaver as a saw. As slow as their progress was already proving, he was certain it wouldn’t improve when that time came. He would be damned, however, if he was going to take van Sommerhaus’s advice and ruin the edge of his sword on the cursed vines.

‘Can’t you go faster?’ the question came from van Sommerhaus for what had to be the hundredth time. The patroon’s face was drenched in sweat, his fine clothes scratched and torn, the ostrich-plume fan in his gloved hand wilting in the humidity. Discomfort did not bring out the best in the man.

Adalwolf paused in mid-stroke, the cleaver gleaming in his hand. ‘Maybe you should go back to the beach with the others,’ he suggested.

‘Maybe you should remember who is directing this expedition,’ van Sommerhaus growled back. He waved the dripping fan at Adalwolf. ‘While you’re indulging in the novelty of thinking, consider who’s paying you while you’re at it.’

The cleaver crunched noisily into the vine, not quite chopping through it. Adalwolf clenched his fist around the handle of the hatchet, his breath an angry hiss scraping through his teeth. Need strangled pride even as it started to find purchase on his tongue. He had family back in Marienburg. There was a wife he hadn’t seen in four years, three children who barely knew his face. They were his obligation, even if the woman he had married wouldn’t let him share her life. She’d never agreed to his taking up the sword, but the gold his blade earned kept their children with a roof over their heads and clothes on their backs. They needed him, and because they did, Adalwolf held his tongue and took the patroon’s abuse.

‘I’m sorry, patroon,’ Adalwolf said. ‘I forgot my place in my eagerness to find fresh water.’

‘Forgiven,’ van Sommerhaus smiled in his most magnanimous fashion. ‘However, water is the least of our concerns. Brother Diethelm has an entire ocean he can mumble prayers over and make clean for us to drink.’

The dismissive way the patroon discussed the miracle the priest had performed early that morning shocked Adalwolf and the sailors. Even the men who had been ready to sacrifice Diethelm to Stromfels felt horror at van Sommerhaus’s words. Commoners would accept a lot of abuse from their social betters, but they expected even emperors to respect the gods and their powers.

‘I think you have your priest confused with a wizard,’ Ethril told van Sommerhaus. ‘Graetz is right. You should be looking for fresh water. In case Diethelm’s god decides to stop listening to his prayers.’

Van Sommerhaus screwed his face into a sour expression, dropping the damp fan. ‘I’m not such a fool as that,’ he said. ‘I was just trying to reassure the men there was nothing to worry about if we don’t find water.’

The elf favoured van Sommerhaus with a slight bow. ‘Then I apologise, patroon.’ Ethril’s eyes were cold as Kislevite snow as he spoke. ‘I forgot my place.’

The moment of tension was broken by the crack and roar of a falling tree. Adalwolf dived for cover, sheltering behind a scaly dwarf palm. The sailors scrambled in every direction, van Sommerhaus among them. Ethril simply glanced upward. As casually as a man navigating his own parlour, the elf took two steps. An instant later, the dead tree slammed into the ground beside him.

‘If you are done scampering through the forest,’ Ethril’s withering voice snapped at the scattered men, ‘I suggest we get back to work. At some point the sun will set and we don’t want to be in the jungle when it does. Before then, it would be nice if we found game, water and some sort of hill I can see the coast from.’

Adalwolf extracted himself from behind his refuge, brushing muck from his tunic. ‘You still hope to recognise the coastline?’

The elf nodded his head. ‘There is an asur settlement at the tip of Lustria. If we can find a point high enough for me to see a good part of the coast, I should be able to determine how far from it we are.’

‘What about these treasure cities?’ a black-bearded sailor named Joost asked eagerly. ‘You know where any of them are?’

‘I doubt I could find one for you before nightfall,’ the elf told him, his tone dripping with scorn. Suddenly he pointed one of his long, slender fingers at the tree Adalwolf had taken shelter beneath. His finger indicated a clump of withered husks dangling from the palm fronds.

‘You see that,’ Ethril said. ‘It might look like rotten fruit, but it isn’t. Those are blood-bats. They sleep now, but when the sun sets, they will take wing. They aren’t greedy though. They’ll just take a small bite, you won’t even feel it. Then they start lapping up the blood that fills the wound. Once their little bellies are filled, they fly off. If only a few land on you and you don’t get sick from their bites, you should live. If a whole flock decides to feed…’

Ethril left the threat to the imagination of the sailor. He turned back to Adalwolf, motioning for the mercenary to continue hacking a path through the undergrowth.

Adalwolf’s eyes went wide with shock as he turned. The cleaver fell from his numbed fingers. He took a staggering pace back, staring in disbelief. ‘That wasn’t there a minute ago,’ he muttered. ‘That wasn’t there a minute ago!’ he repeated, almost as though to assure himself of the fact.

The green wall of the jungle was parted a small distance from where the mercenary stood, opened apart in a path as wide as an Altdorf boulevard, as regular as though bored through the jungle with a giant corkscrew. No beast, however colossal, had torn such a regular path through the jungle.

Ethril stared in amazement at the pathway. The elf’s eyes were filled with an almost reverential awe, the sort of look an amateur carpenter might have when walking into a cathedral built by a master architect. Quickly the look passed and the elf’s cold demeanour returned. He backed away from the mysterious path with something akin to repugnance.

‘We need to go back now,’ the elf said.

‘Why?’ van Sommerhaus demanded. ‘The jungle is open ahead. We can make good time now.’

Ethril stepped in front of van Sommerhaus, blocking him from the strange pathway. ‘Even you must sense something wrong here.’

Van Sommerhaus laughed in the elf’s face. ‘The only thing wrong here is that we aren’t supposed to make use of a good thing when we find it.’

‘I rather think your “good thing” found us,’ Ethril said. ‘We didn’t find it. This whole thing feels of magic.’ The elf turned his head, casting frightened eyes over the weird tunnel through the jungle.

Marjus Pfaff pushed past Ethril. ‘An elf afraid of sorcery!’ he scoffed, spitting into the underbrush.

‘Whatever did this has enough power that only a complete fool would not fear it,’ Ethril warned. ‘There is a saying in Caledor. “Let sleeping dragons lie.” I advise you use the same wisdom.’

‘The long-eared fey is trying to keep us from finding the treasure!’ exclaimed Joost. The sailor brandished a fat-bladed cutlass in his hand. ‘Somebody cut that road through this mess, and I’ll bet my bottom teeth it goes someplace. Someplace with lots of gold and jewels just waiting to be scooped up!’

Ethril shook his head, then stepped aside with a sigh. ‘If you are so eager for death, I will not stand in your way.’

Joost stared suspiciously at the elf as he passed him. An avaricious gleam was in the sailor’s eyes as he stepped onto the strange pathway. The other sailors watched him proceed a few steps down the trail. Adalwolf turned his attention instead to Ethril. It was hard to read the expression on the elf’s mask-like face, but what he saw there suggested a deep-set fear, fear far greater than would be occasioned simply by the prospect of losing a trade contract with van Sommerhaus.

‘Joost!’ Adalwolf called out, hurrying after the man. ‘Wait! Don’t go! Let’s think this through first!’

Coming near the sailor, Adalwolf was forced back by a desultory sweep of Joost’s cutlass. ‘I’ve waited all my life for a chance like this!’ Joost snarled. ‘Keep out of my way, because you aren’t stopping me!’

Adalwolf’s hand dropped to the sword at his side. Sadly, he shook his head. There weren’t many of Schachter’s crew he was friendly with. It was fate’s sick humour that Joost was one of them. Grimly, he let his fingers slip away from the sword and tightened his hold on the cleaver in his other hand.

‘Joost, there’s something wrong here!’ Adalwolf pleaded. He gestured back at Marjus and the other sailors. None of them had made the first move to enter the pathway. They were watching and waiting. ‘They can feel it,’ Adalwolf said, pointing back to their comrades. ‘Something’s wrong here.’

The sailor glared at the mercenary. He swept his cutlass through the empty air between them, warning Adalwolf back. ‘Let me be! I don’t want to hurt you!’

‘Nor I you,’ Adalwolf said. With a swift lunge, he dived beneath the sweep of the sailor’s cutlass. His fist cracked against Joost’s jaw, staggering the seaman. The flat of the cleaver cracked against Joost’s shoulder, numbing the arm that held the cutlass.

‘Let me be, damn you!’ Joost shouted. The sailor drove his knee into Adalwolf’s gut, knocking the wind out of him. Joost lifted the cutlass with his numbed hand, making a sloppy strike at the mercenary’s ribs.

Adalwolf brought the flat of the cleaver cracking against Joost’s hand, knocking the cutlass from his grip. Furious, the sailor charged at him, his face twisted with rage. The mercenary kicked Joost in the leg, knocking him off balance. The sailor hurtled past Adalwolf, crashing into the ferns at the edge of the path.

Adalwolf turned to help the sailor back to his feet, but a piercing scream froze him in his steps. He watched in horror as Joost leaped from the green tangle of vegetation, blood streaming from his face. A pair of ghastly creatures clung to his beard, lean grey things with splotches of black along their scaly backs. They were lizards of some breed Adalwolf had never seen, reptiles as long as a man’s forefinger and only slightly broader.

More hideous than their appearance, however, was what the lizards were doing to the screaming sailor. From where they clung to his beard, the blunt-faced reptiles darted their heads at Joost’s face, sinking their fangs into his flesh, ripping little slivers of meat away with writhing jerks of their bodies. Joost shrieked again, trying to tear the lizards from his beard. Adalwolf started to rush to his aid when the frenzied shaking of the ferns behind the sailor froze him in his steps.

The entire cluster of plants was shaking and trembling. From every branch, a scrawny grey shape crawled, an entire swarm of the ghastly lizards. Purple tongues licked scaly lips as the reptiles converged upon the screaming man, leaping at his body, scrambling up his legs. At first they were drawn to his face, but soon they gathered wherever a bit of skin was exposed by the sailor’s tattered garments.

In less time than it took for Adalwolf to draw a breath, Joost had vanished beneath a living mantle of snapping, biting death. When his agonised body crashed to the ground, the lizards scattered from it, retreating in all directions. The gory spectacle that reached blindly towards Adalwolf was barely recognisable as human. Quickly, the lizards returned and Joost was lost once more beneath a carpet of hungry grey scales.

Horrified, the men could only watch in mute fascination as the reptiles made short work of the mariner.

‘Cannibal lizards,’ Ethril’s sombre voice told Adalwolf. ‘Once they set upon prey, nothing can be done. They will gorge themselves until only bones are left.’ He turned and faced the other sailors. ‘Maybe you still want to follow the path?’

Van Sommerhaus, his eyes locked on the hideous sight, tried to answer Ethril, but instead doubled over and was noisily sick.

‘We’re going back,’ Adalwolf said, marching away from the gruesome spectacle. ‘We’ll try again tomorrow,’ he decided. ‘Only next time we do everything Ethril says we do.’

‘A wise course,’ Ethril agreed.

Adalwolf looked over his shoulder at the feeding cannibal lizards. ‘Nothing wise about it, just fear. I don’t want to end up like Joost. You’re the only one with any practical knowledge of this place. That means we follow you and leave the treasure hunts to the dead.’

Lidless eyes watched as the warm-bloods chopped their way back through the jungle. As the men vanished into the jungle, five shapes detached themselves from where they had hidden alongside the strange path. As they moved through the jungle, the scales that covered them shifted colour to match the fronds and grass they moved through.

As they emerged onto the path, the reptiles savoured the warm sunlight trickling down through the trees. For a moment, instinct overwhelmed the purpose that had brought them so very far through the jungle. The chameleon skinks basked in the warmth, feeling the heat invigorating their cold bodies. The chromatophores in their bodies relaxed, the camouflage colouring of their scales brightening into a dull yellow hue.

One of the skinks emerged from its torpor, stalking towards the lizard-covered carcass of Joost. The chameleon moved with an odd, swaying motion, each step of its tong-like feet deliberate and precise. It removed a long, hollow tube of bamboo from a sling wound about its scaly chest. Carefully, the skink prodded and poked at the grey cannibal lizards sitting on the corpse. There was small threat of danger from the lizards now that they had eaten their fill. Far from the ferocious swarm that had engulfed Joost, now they were slothful and ungainly.

The other skinks now joined the first, gathering around the gory corpse. With a darting motion, one of the chameleons seized a cannibal lizard in its splayed hand, popping the struggling lizard in its crushing jaws. The other cannibal lizards scurried away, but only for the few paces it took their tiny brains to forget what had frightened them.

The first chameleon extended his tongue, absorbing the scent of the dead man with the organ’s sensitive receptors. It was, as the skink expected, the scent he had been told to seek out. It was puzzled at first over the way the warm-bloods had failed to behave as expected. The answer, it realised, must lie with the one who smelled different and who had tried to dominate the others.

The skink bobbed his head from side to side, communicating the idea to the others. The warm-bloods were meant to follow the path. If the strange-smell was keeping them from doing what they were expected to do, then the strange-smell would be eliminated.

Soundlessly, the chameleon skinks withdrew from the body, vanishing back into the jungle, their scales again camouflaging their every motion.

The encampment on the beach was a rough cluster of tents fashioned from sailcloth and a somewhat more robust lean-to built from lumber scavenged from the ship. Captain Schachter had supervised the construction of the camp while the scouting party had penetrated into the jungle. Such supplies as could be easily removed from the Cobra of Khemri were brought ashore. The manner in which the ship was caught upon the rocks made it unlikely that it would sink, but Schachter was a man who didn’t believe in taking undue chances. A storm the likes of which had brought them to Lustria was unlikely too.

As the scouting party returned from the jungle, they were greeted by the unexpected smell of cooking meat. They could see a plume of smoke rising from a pit dug some small distance from the tents. Across the beach there was a great swathe of blood-drenched sand. Some distance from the scene of violence, the men could see a number of squat, sheep-sized creatures lounging in the fading sunlight, soaking up the last rays of warmth before the humid tropical night settled in.

Hiltrude and a few sailors hurried from the camp to greet the men as they returned. Van Sommerhaus gave his consort a lingering kiss as they met, his hands crumpling the velvet of her dress. The sailors leered lewdly at the display. Adalwolf turned and looked away. There was little in the way of passion in the patroon. Hiltrude was just another possession to him, something to lord over the rest of them. Like the lizards basking on the beach, van Sommerhaus basked in the envy of those under him. Adalwolf hoped he enjoyed himself while he could. Once the reality of their situation set in, once even men like Marjus Pfaff understood how unlikely their return to Marienburg was, all of the patroon’s promises of wealth and privilege when they returned to civilization would be as worthless as the man’s titles and airs.

‘Schachter’s crew collected some bird eggs and a few shellfish. They killed some big lizards while you were gone,’ Hiltrude told van Sommerhaus, shifting her gaze to include the others. Her eyes lingered for a moment on Adalwolf. ‘They came out of the jungle and just sat down and went to sleep on the beach. A few of the sailors went over and clubbed them over the head. They didn’t even put up any kind of fight. Almost like they’d never seen people before.’

‘They probably haven’t,’ Adalwolf said.

Van Sommerhaus let Hiltrude slip from his grasp. ‘More important, what do they taste like?’

‘A bit like iguana,’ one of the sailors said, his headscarf carefully held before him against his chest. ‘I sailed on an Estalian galleon for a few years, all up and down the Araby coast. Ate all sorts of strange things: monkey, bat, seal.’

Van Sommerhaus gave the man a patronising smile. ‘And what does iguana taste like?’ he demanded.

The sailor laughed, then caught himself and forced solemnity back into his voice. ‘Well, it don’t really taste like nothin’. That is, you can chew it and all, but it’s like water really, where it don’t have a taste of its own. Not bad mind, and decent fare if you have the spices to liven it up a bit.’

The patroon rolled his eyes. ‘I will stick to the dry rations. You can have your water-flavoured reptile.’

Adalwolf caught van Sommerhaus’s arm. ‘We should save the dry food for an emergency.’

‘My palate is too sensitive to be subjected to charred lizard,’ van Sommerhaus said, brushing off the mercenary’s hand. ‘This threat against my stomach is an emergency to me.’ The patroon did not linger to argue with Adalwolf. With one arm circling Hiltrude’s waist, he strolled down the beach towards the lean-to Schachter had erected for his employer.

‘That man is bucking for a fall,’ Adalwolf growled under his breath.

‘No more than the rest of you,’ Ethril cautioned. The elf pointed at the bloody sand along the beach. ‘Your men would do better not to slaughter anything so close to their camp. There are any number of things that could be drawn by the smell of blood. Not the least of which are ground leeches.’ The elf smiled grimly as he saw Adalwolf’s ignorance of the creatures. ‘Each of them is longer than your arm and they move in a slithering army through the jungle. They can sense a drop of blood from a mile away. Once they latch onto flesh, they can’t be pulled or cut off. They have to be burned away and while they are being burned, they try to chew their way deeper into their victim. I’ve listened to swordmasters beg for death rather than endure such pain.’

Adalwolf licked his lips nervously and cast an anxious gaze at the jungle. ‘Marjus!’ he called out. ‘Get a few of your lads together and help me cover up all this blood!’

Ethril sat upon one of the coastal rocks and watched the little encampment below. Certainly the humans had posted their own sentries, but Ethril knew full well how feeble the vision of men was compared to that of his own people. With everything else already stacked against them, the elf knew they needed every advantage they could get.

Watching the stars sparkling on the sea, Ethril could almost imagine himself back in Ulthuan. It had been centuries since he had last set foot in his father’s house. He had left with the bold words of youth, the pride of an elf determined to wrest his own glory from the world, to reclaim some of the lost wonders of the asur’s fading empire. Many lands had passed beneath his boots, years had fallen away like leaves from a dying tree. All they had done was to crush the boldness of youth, replacing it with the jaded wisdom of experience. It was a sorry thing to outlive one’s dreams. Perhaps, Ethril considered, that was why the civilization of the elves continued to diminish and pass into history.

Four centuries of wandering and all he was left with was the homesick longing of the traveller for the places of his youth. He would see his father, see the ivory halls of their palace in Lothern. He would like to feel the crisp wind of Ulthuan against his cheeks again, to watch starlight sparkling from the waters of his own shores.

Ethril had decided he would not return to Lothern as a vagabond, dependent upon the charity of other elves to return him to his home. He had settled upon a plan that would bring him back to Ulthuan by another route. In Marienburg there were many men who traded with the elves, and many more who hoped to break into the lucrative market. It had been easy to find van Sommerhaus and play upon his hopes. Ethril was careful to make no direct promises to the man, leaving most of the details of their arrangement entirely to the patroon’s imagination. Returning to Lothern aboard a human ship was hardly triumphant, but it was better than returning as a beggar on an elf vessel.

A bitter smile formed on Ethril’s face. The storm had dashed that dream. He was lost more completely than before. The jungles of Lustria were a place he had hoped never to see again. He had watched them devour armies. He did not rate the chances of his ill-equipped human comrades very highly, even if they could clear their heads of idiot notions about treasure and fortune.

He had considered leaving them. Alone there was a chance, a small one, that he could follow the coastline southward until he reached the Tower of Dusk, the great port fortress the asur had built on the southern tip of Lustria. With the humans along, he was more dubious of their chances. Unless they were further south than he imagined them to be, well past the swamps of the Vampire Coast, there was small chance the humans could survive the journey.

It was strange, the elf considered, how he felt responsible for the humans. They were so short-lived, fragile as flowers in their way. It should have been easy to abandon them to their own foolishness, to wash his hands of them. Yet he knew he couldn’t. He was their only hope for survival. His intrigues had led them here, now it was his obligation to lead them safely out again. The lives of men were short, but the guilt he would feel for them would pain him far longer.

There was something more at work than simply the natural dangers of the jungle, however. Ethril had sensed some manner of terrible magic behind the storm, magic on such a scale that even the mightiest archmages would baulk at evoking such power. He had seen further evidence of such powerful sorcery in the jungle when they had suddenly come upon the pathway. None of the humans had been quick enough to see the pathway form, their attention gripped by the falling tree. Ethril had, watching as leaves and branches contorted and reformed into new shapes, as an invisible fist punched a trail through the steaming growth.

Something was stirring in the jungle, something with an interest in the Cobra of Khemri and her crew. Ethril could not decide if the force was malignant or callously indifferent. From what he knew of the amphibian masters of Lustria, the bloated mage-priests, he knew that whatever interest was being shown would not be benevolent. The cold-blooded slann were incapable of benevolence. Everything was simply a cog in the great mechanism of their minds. They would spend the lives of their own minions by the thousands simply to settle some question that perplexed them. If they displayed such indifference to the lizardmen, they would have no compassion for foreign creatures who stumbled into their experiments.

It was a slight sound, but it had Ethril whipping about, his sword in his hand. The elf’s eyes focused on the beach around him, on the rocks and the pounding waves. He opened his senses, trying to discern the influence of magic in the aethyr. There was nothing, only the crawling sense along the back of his neck that something was wrong.

Another sound. Now Ethril could identify it as a soft splash. He stared hard at the waves crashing about the rocks. Perhaps nothing more than a crab knocked loose by the waves, but somehow he doubted it.

Finally his keen vision spotted the incongruous spot on the beach, the place where the waves broke strangely. It was as though there was a delay in this one spot as the foam rushed up the sand. Eyes less sharp than those of an elf would not have been able to pick it out, to see the outline of a thin, humanoid body with a crested head and a long curled tail. The chameleon blended almost perfectly with the shore, but the chromatophores in his scaly hide weren’t able to keep pace with the rolling waves.

Ethril watched the skink slowly creeping towards him. He opened his mouth to shout a warning to the camp, then felt a sting against his neck. At once the muscles in his throat went numb, his breath becoming like burning frost as he drew it down into his lungs.

A second sting and Ethril’s sword fell through his cold fingers and clattered across the rock before slipping into the sea. The elf slumped to his knees, staring through cloudy eyes at the feathered dart sticking out of his hand.

The third dart struck him in the back. Ethril groped for it a moment before his numb body slammed face-first against the rock. Before he could slide off to join his sword beneath the waves, scaly, tong-like hands closed about him, lifting him off the rocks and carrying him to shore.

Ethril’s eyes had been sharper than those of any human. He had spotted one of the chameleon skinks lurking on the beach.

It was no slight upon his wariness that he had failed to see the other four.

Silently, the skinks bore their unmoving burden across the starlit beach. One chameleon lingered behind, a blowgun clutched in its scaly paws, its unblinking eyes fixed on the camp of the humans. When his comrades reached the shadows of the jungle without any stir from the camp, the chameleon replaced its weapon in the sling he carried and quickly joined them in the darkness.

CHAPTER FIVE

RETURN OF THE SKAVEN

The Black Mary swayed ever so slightly as her anchor plunged into the crystal blue waters of the little bay. Beyond the ship, the white sands of the beach glistened in the sun, shimmering like a field of diamonds. Past the beach, the trees of the jungle swayed and sighed in the cool sea breeze. A parrot, its plumage a bright crimson, squawked its annoyance as it flew above the beach, unsettled by the appearance of the big black ship.

The parrot quickly retreated into the trees when longboats were lowered from the sides of the brigantine. The deck of the Black Mary swarmed with foul life, verminous shapes cloaked in black, staring up at the sun with hateful eyes. They clambered over the rails, swinging down on frayed ropes before dropping into the lowered boats. On and on the ratmen came, crawling and scurrying until the boats sagged beneath their weight and water began to swamp them. Angrily, the bigger skaven threw their smaller kin into the bay until the boats rode the waves more easily. Clumsily, they fumbled at the oars, gradually pulling away from the Black Mary. As the skaven rowed towards shore, their displaced kin paddled after them, whining their displeasure to an uncaring audience.

Grey Seer Thanquol swam with the rest, his eyes glaring daggers at the last longboat and its cargo of skaven. All the leaders of the expedition had taken seats in the boat, by rights his place was there among them. Instead, he’d been knocked over the side by Shen Tsinge’s ungainly rat ogre. Oh, no doubt the sorcerer would claim it was an accident! He’d twist his tongue to some clever lie about how no insult had been meant! He’d pretend to be utterly innocent of any slight upon Thanquol’s authority and position as a priest of the Horned Rat and an invaluable servant of the Council!

Thanquol knew better. When he reached shore, there would be a reckoning! He’d show these Eshin gutter-lickers who was the master and who the slave! He’d teach them a thing or thirteen about respect! They’d go slinking back to Cathay with their tails tucked up their nethers when he was through with them!

Chisel-like fangs sank into ancient wood. Thanquol forced his anger to abate when he heard the staff clenched in his jaws start to splinter. The Staff of the Horned One was his most treasured possession, beside the warpstone amulet that went with it. He’d worked hard and long to earn the right to carry the magical talismans, to bind their magic so that it complemented his own incredible command of the aethyr. His old mentor had been reluctant to give them up, and had taken an unreasonable amount of time to die when Thanquol did present his claim on the artefacts to him. Some grey seers simply weren’t gracious enough to step aside in their dotage and open the way for the young and vibrant.

Something brushed against Thanquol’s leg, something big and cold. The grey seer gritted his teeth – though being careful not to splinter the wood of his staff again – and began paddling a bit more quickly towards the shore. He pushed a struggling young night runner beneath the waves as he found his path choked with the swimming figures of Clan Eshin runts. The night runner pawed frantically as his head was pushed under, but Thanquol had already dismissed the whelp from his thoughts. He reached out and seized the tail of the next runt, pulling savagely on it and dragging the paddling ratman out of his path.

A sharp squeal of mortal agony snapped across the waves. The tang of skaven blood struck Thanquol’s senses and he twisted about. The night runner he’d pushed underwater was back on the surface – flailing about in the jaws of a monstrous fish. Thanquol’s eyes fairly bulged from his head as he saw the immense creature. It was all grey on top with a white belly and eyes as black as crushed warpstone. Its teeth were gigantic saw-edged things that filled its entire face. When it tightened its hold on the screaming skaven, its jaws actually shot forwards from its face before recoiling back into the leathery white mouth.

There was a mad scramble of skaven as the shock of seeing the great fish wore off. Knife-like fins were already slicing through the waves, drawn by the night runner’s blood. The ratmen had no idea what a shark was, but they could appreciate what they had seen the first one do. Snapping, biting, and clawing, the skaven flung themselves towards shore. One knot of cloaked ratkin swarmed a longboat, pitching its occupants into the sea. A cluster of them quickly surfaced, scurrying onto the overturned boat. A cloud of blood and a submerging fin showed at least one of their number whose scramble for the shore was over.

Warplock pistols cracked, swimming skaven shrieked as the occupants of the other boats ensured their vessels would not suffer the same fate. Carefully, Thanquol edged away from the longboat he had been paddling towards. He saw a huge dorsal fin glide past him, watched as an armoured ratman desperately trying to tread water was jerked under, vanishing into a watery ring of blood.

A cloaked assassin rose from the bottom of the longboat, a blowgun clutched in his paws. Thanquol could not see the ratman’s face beneath the shadow cast by his hood, but he could see the skaven swing around to face him. With a quick motion, the assassin brought the blowgun to his lips. Thanquol’s fur crawled at the sight, remembering how near such a weapon had come to killing him in Skavenblight. Despite the sharks in the water around him, he clenched his eyes tight and dived beneath the surface.

Desperately Thanquol clawed his way through the bloody sea. He could smell the sharks frenziedly tearing at their prey all around him. It was a reek that sent stark terror pulsing down his spine. He felt his lungs burning for want of air as he blindly swam through the water. Something brushed against his arm. Frantically he lashed out at it with his claws. When he discovered his target was covered in fur, he grabbed it, holding it in a terrified embrace. Thanquol tried to climb the body of the skaven he gripped, then opened his eyes in horror as he found there was nothing attached to the leg he held.

The last of Thanquol’s breath escaped in a terrified burst of bubbles. Frantic, he followed them to the surface, gasping for air as his head bobbed above the blackened waves. Almost as soon as he broke the surface, a whistling sound whizzed through his ears. A dart shot over his head, so near to his skin that Thanquol could feel his fur ripple in its wake.

Behind him, Thanquol felt the sea undulate with violence. He turned himself about to watch as an immense shark thrashed in the water. After a few moments, the monstrous fish rolled onto its back, its eyes rolled into the back of its head, a poisoned dart protruding from its snout.

Thanquol glanced back at the longboat. It was being swarmed by terrified skaven, desperate to escape the sharks. He could make out the shape of the cloaked assassin whose shot had saved him from the shark. The wretch didn’t seem happy about it, breaking his blowgun across his knee before turning with a long dagger to help fend off the ratmen trying to swarm into the boat.

There was no personal scent to the assassin, like most of his kind the identifying glands had been surgically extracted. Thanquol tried to fix the killer’s appearance in his mind. It was no easy task – the skaven of Clan Eshin all looked alike to him. When a ratman treading water nearby cried out before a shark dragged him under, Thanquol decided he’d studied the assassin long enough.

Ensuring he had a firm hold on his staff, Thanquol paddled towards the sandy shore.

‘Dung-chewing flea! You read-say map wrong-wrong!’ Shiwan Stalkscent snatched the mouldy map from the paws of Shen Tsinge. The sorcerer bared his fangs at the master assassin, but waved a placating hand at his rat ogre when the brute began to move towards Shiwan.

Thanquol reclined beneath a palm tree, quietly eating the weird yellow fruit he’d confiscated from a pair of gutter runners. He was rather enjoying watching the Eshin big shots fall out among themselves. There was something deeply satisfying about watching his enemies tear into each other. He only hoped their argument would come to blows sooner than later. Given the Eshin penchant for poison, the expedition would quickly have a few less leaders if that happened.

It had been a long, taxing voyage to Lustria from Sartosa. They’d kept the human crew alive for most of the voyage, using them to crew the ship. The voyage, however, had been a bit farther than they had planned on. It had taken only a few weeks for the skaven to exhaust the provisions in the hold. Then they had started using the humans to supplement their diet. Only a few days and the skaven had exhausted that food source. Fortunately, Tsang Kweek, head of the gutter runners, had the cunning to have his ratmen watch the pirates. They had managed a reasonable enough job of sailing the ship when the last pirate was butchered. Even so, it had taken a further two weeks to sight land. By then, the skaven were just finishing off their emergency-emergency food supply, the skavenslaves Shiwan had brought from Skavenblight.

Thanquol took a bite of his confiscated fruit, wondering if perhaps it might not taste better with the fleshy yellow shell peeled away. He wrinkled his nose at the strange idea. Then again, it wasn’t the first strange idea he’d had. There was his conviction that one of the assassins had tried to kill him while the sharks were eating the slow, lazy skaven. Nor had that been the only incident. A falling spar had nearly split his skull only a day out from Sartosa. Then there had been the time he’d been on deck at night and been knocked over the rail by someone he didn’t see or smell. Only by the grace of the Horned Rat had he managed to grip the hull of the ship and climb his way back onboard.

They’d blamed that accident on an uppity pirate, but their efforts to explain away how he had been nearly smothered while he slept and thrown into the hold with the humans had been a good deal harder. If he hadn’t awakened in time, and if he hadn’t hidden a few nuggets of warpstone in his cheek pouches, the vengeful pirates would have killed him with their bare hands. As it was, it had taken every ounce of his cunning and his sorcery to keep them off him before he was finally discovered three days later.

Someone, it appeared, wasn’t too happy about the Nightlord’s decision to send him on this expedition!

Thanquol bruxed his fangs together, glaring at the little group of ratmen arguing over the rat-hide map. Any one of them might be the one! Or why did it need to be only one? Yes! It could be a conspiracy, a subterfuge being plotted by two of them! Maybe more! Maybe they were all in on it!

The grey seer worked his tongue to extract the last, miniscule portion of warpstone from his cheek pouch. He could swallow it, draw on its innate power and fuel a spell of such magnitude that all of the Eshin leaders would become nothing but a bloody smear on the sand!

He blinked his eyes and shook his head, moving the bit of warpstone back into the corner of his mouth. Yes, he could blast all of his enemies at one go, and then what would he do. He’d still be a thousand food-stops from home, surrounded by impenetrable jungle, shark-infested water and a few hundred Clan Eshin warriors that might not take too kindly to his extermination of their leaders – however justified. Reluctantly, Thanquol let the murderous vision fade and cocked his ears forwards to listen to the argument unfold.

‘Maybe it wrong map!’ Shen Tsinge hissed, shaking his staff at the cloaked assassin. He spun and pointed a slender claw at Tsang Kweek. ‘Maybe you steal map to wrong place!’

The leader of the gutter runners bared his fangs, his fur bristling at the insult. ‘We take-snatch map from plague priest!’ Tsang protested. The brown-furred ratman was a wiry, emaciated creature beneath his cloak, taking pains to keep himself trim enough to crawl up a drain-pipe or wriggle through a chimney. ‘Him say is for Pestilens come-take Lustria from snake-devil! Him say-squeak much-much,’ he added with a low snarl, his thumb working along the back of a serrated dagger.

‘Pirate-man maybe lie?’ offered the hulking Kong Krakback. The black skaven was in charge of Eshin’s clanrat warriors, a brutish monster who wore segmented armour in preference to the cloaks and robes of his assassin masters. The huge skaven leaned on his fang-edged glaive, its edge pitted with little copper rings and other protective talismans.

‘Man-thing no lie-lie!’ snapped Shiwan. ‘I say-tell he not die-die he land ship right place!’

‘Maybe man-thing know you lie-lie,’ Shen observed. ‘Maybe he think-know we eat anyway.’

Sullenly, Shiwan swept his cloak tight around himself, his tail lashing angrily against the sand. Immediately, the assassin’s whiskers started to twitch. Forgetting the bickering of his ratkin, he bent down and scratched at the sand. There was a sinister gleam in his eye as he rose, his claws curled around a rusty piece of iron.

‘Man-thing metal!’ Shiwan hissed in triumph. He tossed the decayed bit of iron into the sand, nearly hitting Shen Tsinge’s feet. The sorcerer scowled and picked up the rotten piece of rust. He sniffed at it, then, with a suspicious glance at Shiwan, gave it an experimental lick.

‘Man-thing metal,’ the sorcerer agreed. His eyes narrowed and his tail lashed behind him as he stared at Shiwan. ‘What you sniff-scent?’

The master assassin wiped a drip of ooze from his nose and grinned threateningly at the others. Proudly he held up the ratskin map. His claw tapped a mark upon the inked surface. ‘Map show man-thing place. Find man-thing place, find-find where on map we are!’

Shiwan’s declaration excited the other skaven leaders. They all knew how rare humans were in Lustria. There were a thousand things in the jungle that would kill a human faster than a Clan Eshin blade. A human settlement of any size was an incredible rarity in the jungle. A landmark they could use to get their bearings and sniff their way to the lost city of Quetza.

Tsang Kweek snapped quick commands to his gutter runners. Lean and thin, the gutter runners had formed the bulk of the swimmers at the beachhead and had suffered the heaviest casualties from the sharks. They were eager to prove their worth and forestall worse treatment from the assassins and Kong’s warriors. It was not a question of loyalty or duty, but simply a question of survival.

The gutter runners fanned out along the beach, sniffing at the sand. Sometimes one would start digging at the earth, scrabbling at some buried scrap of metal. Each discovery formed a pattern and soon the skaven had a definite idea from where in the jungle the trail of rusted junk had started.

Shiwan snarled the order for the expedition to follow Tsang’s scouts into the jungle. Whining their feeble protests, the warriors and assassins got to their feet and scurried into the trees.

Thanquol leaned in the cool shade of his palm and watched them go. For a fleeting instant, he hoped they had forgotten him. Then he turned his eyes back to the shore, watching badly chewed bits of skaven roll in with the tide. He listened to the raucous calls of jungle birds, sniffed the evil smell of reptiles in the air. Anxiously, the grey seer licked his fangs.

Of course he could not desert the brave Clan Eshin in their time of need! Why their leaders couldn’t even read a simple map! If there was to be any chance of success on this mission, they would need his impartial and selfless guidance. That would be the only way to spare them from the Nightlord’s wrath. It would be a dangerous undertaking, but Thanquol was not one to shun his obligations merely because they might prove hazardous.

Tucking his staff under his arm, Grey Seer Thanquol dashed after the last of the warriors.

He tried not to look too undignified as he raced to catch up.

Thanquol’s fur was plastered to his skin, his robes clinging to his body like the wet rags used by ratwives to smother malformed whelps. The grey seer swatted irritably at the nasty blue fly trying to bite his neck. All considered, he must have lost a quart of blood to the abominable insects. It had been sorely tempting to draw upon his power to ward off the biting bugs, but he decided such a display of magical prowess might be unseemly. Besides, that slinking mage-rat Shen Tsinge was conserving his powers, and that made Thanquol doubly keen to husband his own.

His fur bristled as he watched the scabby little sorcerer. No trudging through the muck and mud of the jungle for him! Oh no, not when he had a big strong rat ogre to lug his mangy skin around for him! The sorcerer was cradled in the brute’s arms like a favoured whelp nuzzled against a breeder. Thanquol could swear the villain was dozing. Dozing while the rest of them suffered and sweated and fought off all the filthy vermin the jungle could throw at them. Leeches! Mosquitos! Poisonous spiders! Blinding clouds of gnats! Snakes!

Thanquol’s fur crawled as he thought of the snakes. The loathsome things were everywhere, watching them with their unblinking eyes, sniffing at them with their forked tongues. He’d lost count of all the hideous snakes they’d seen. Little ones the colour of man-thing blood that could kill a skaven with a single flash of their fangs. Big ones that dropped down from the branches to coil around a ratman and crush his bones in their coils. Flat ones that flew through the trees like great scaly ribbons. Most horrible of all had been the giant one with a head on each end. Fortunately that monster had been content to eat two gutter runners and then slither back into the scummy stream it had been hiding in.

He returned his angry gaze to Shen Tsinge. Of course the sorcerer didn’t have to worry about snakes, not up there in the arms of his rat ogre! Thanquol studied the monstrous brute. From head to foot the beast was as black as an assassin’s cloak and the immense claws on both its hands and its feet were covered in steel. The monster wore a necklace of skulls around its neck: skulls of dwarf-things and man-things and green-things, but mostly the long, narrow skulls of skaven. The threat was obvious.

Goji, the sorcerer had named his bodyguard in typical excessive fashion. Clan Eshin must have trained the beast for some time: it moved with a speed and agility that belied its bulk, and when it moved it did so without a whisper of sound to betray it. Even Tsang’s gutter runners seemed clumsy beside Goji as they scurried through the jungle.

Thanquol bristled and snorted his amusement at all the wasted time and expense Shen Tsinge had squandered to train his rat ogre. What good was a quiet bodyguard? What use was it to have a hulking engine of destruction that could daintily pick its way through the jungle? A rat ogre was something to be used to scare underlings and terrify enemies! Shen Tsinge obviously had not the slightest clue about rat ogres!

The grey seer quickly moved behind a pair of clanrat warriors as the scouts ahead came scampering back. He could smell the excitement in their scent. His keen ears soon picked out their hasty report. They had found something ahead!

Carefully, the column followed the scouts back along the trail they had carved through the jungle. For some time, the ground had been growing less solid. Now it fell away into a full-fledged swamp. Gnarled mangroves thrust themselves from the scum-coated water, clouds of insects buzzing above the filth. Sandbars protruded through the muck, forming a twisty, broken bridge across the morass. Immense green crocodiles lounged upon the sand bars, basking in the sunlight dribbling down through the trees.

All of this Thanquol saw and smelled in an instant, then his attention was drawn like all of the other skaven to the ugly stone tower rising from a small island. The structure leaned crazily out over the swamp, many of its stones having collapsed and fallen into the mud banks around it. The rusted mouth of a cannon protruded from the single window that could be seen. Above the broken wooden gate that fronted the tower, a set of human bones had been fixed above the archway with mortar. Thanquol recognised the shape they formed. It was the same as the Black Mary had flown, a skull above two leg bones. The grey seer wondered if it was possible if the men who had built the tower and the pirates whose ship they had taken could have belonged to the same clan.

Some of Tsang Kweek’s gutter runners started towards the tower, a suggestion of greed in their scent. The smell was picked up by Kong Krakback’s warriors and the bigger skaven started scurrying after the small scouts.

Grey Seer Thanquol started to move forwards as well, determined to mediate any dispute over treasure for the good of the expedition – and a nominal percentage. His nose twitched as a new smell struck it. A cold shiver crept through his spine and it was an effort to control his glands. This was no scent even the keenest assassin would know. It was a smell only those attuned to the world of magic could know. Thanquol had last smelled such a foul taint when he had fought the necromancer Vorghun of Praag. It was the stench of the darkest of sorcery, the sickening reek of the undead.

Thanquol pondered his options, then carefully made his way back towards the jungle. Let the Eshin upstarts walk into trouble! It would serve them right for all the indignities they had forced upon him! Besides, someone among that murderous rabble was trying to kill him. Maybe he’d get lucky and whatever evil was hanging about the tower would take care of his unknown enemy for him.

Shen Tsinge’s eyes were not quite as closed as Thanquol had supposed them to be. Far from dozing, the sorcerer had been watching all of his comrades, and most particularly the grey seer. When he saw the crafty gleam creep into Thanquol’s eyes, the sorcerer dropped down from the arms of Goji. Shen sniffed at the air. His fur bristled at what he smelled. He stared accusingly at Thanquol, then scrambled forwards to warn his clan of their danger.

It was too late. The foremost of the skaven had already reached the tower. As the first ratman leapt from the sand bar to the crumbling face of the island, a shadowy figure shambled out of the darkness inside the tower. It looked something like a human, but its clothes were nothing but shreds of cloth hanging from starved bones. The skin was green with rot, blistered and split by the jungle heat. Spots of bone protruded from the decaying flesh and maggots crawled in what little meat remained. Beneath the tattered remains of a captain’s hat, a desiccated skull glared at the ratmen.

One of the gutter runners squeaked in terror as he saw the apparition, scrabbling backwards in such haste that he stumbled into the scummy water. The other gutter runner bared his fangs and hurled a pair of knives into the approaching human. The blades sank deep into the man’s chest, transfixing his heart. The man didn’t even seem to feel their impact, but took another shambling step towards the gutter runner.

Now terrified like his comrade, the ratkin turned to flee. But as he did so, a rotten fist exploded from the ground beneath him and seized his foot in a cruel grip. The gutter runner writhed in agony, hacking desperately at the imprisoning hand. Though fingers snapped beneath his blade, the hand refused to release him. The skaven wailed, pleading with his kin for help. Too late he saw the rotten shadow of the captain fall across him. The mouldering zombie raised the rusty cutlass it carried and brought it slashing down.

Screams echoed throughout the swamp. Other zombies were now pulling themselves free from the muck, groping in mute malevolence for any skaven near them. The skaven recoiled from the frightful things, horrified at their inability to kill creatures that were already dead. Several gutter runners fell beneath the groping claws of the zombies, their shrieks rising to deafening squeals as they were slowly ripped apart. One assassin, his black cloak billowing about him, tried to fight his way back to the tower, thinking to slay the captain. Every thrust of his poisoned knives struck home, yet none of his victims fell. The zombies soon surrounded the lone assassin. In a fit of horror, the cloaked killer sliced his dagger across his own neck rather than fall to the claws of the undead.

A black whirlwind crackled into the rotten ranks of the undead, exploding a dozen of the zombies into putrid fragments. Shen Tsinge and Goji came rushing to the sand bar where Shiwan and most of his warriors were trapped. The sorcerer gestured with his staff again, howling magic exploding from it to strike down another mob of the creatures.

‘Flee-flee! Quick-quick!’ Shen hissed at the master assassin.

Shiwan’s eyes darted longingly to the jungle, but he lashed his tail and stared instead at the map in his hand. ‘Use magic!’ he snarled at the sorcerer. ‘Keep dead-things back-back!’

Something like terror filled Shen’s glands, but when he saw the cruel intensity in Shiwan’s eyes, he knew any argument would be fatal. Drawing a warpstone charm from the tip of his staff, the sorcerer nibbled a sliver from it. He felt the invigorating rush of power swell through his veins. He shut his eyes. When he opened them again, they were black pits of power. Snarling, he swept his hand through the air before him. Black wisps of energy shot from his fingers to shatter the decayed heads of a half-dozen zombies. The sorcerer snarled and tightened his hold on the staff. A second burst of dark power and more zombies were broken, their fragments sinking beneath the slime of the swamp.

Shiwan Stalkscent wiped his snout and eagerly pointed with his claw to the north. Bullying and threatening, Kong brought his warriors into a semblance of formation. With the threat of their leader’s glaive at their back, the clanrats were herded towards the mob of zombies blocking them from the jungle. Frenziedly, the masses of skaven hacked their way through the eerily silent undead. Slowly, but deliberately, they began to carve their way through the horde.

Exhausted by his exertions and the noxious influence of the warpstone he had so hastily consumed, Shen Tsinge slumped into the arms of his bodyguard. Cradling his master in the crook of one arm, the hulking Goji loped after the retreating expedition, his huge claws shearing through the few zombies standing between him and Shiwan’s rearguard.

Grey Seer Thanquol blinked in disbelief as he saw Shiwan’s ratmen fleeing the swamp. It was not so much that they had been driven off by the zombies – he’d expected that much. It was the fact that they were making their escape on the wrong side of the swamp that incensed him. He’d expected them to come back, not press forward!

The jungle seemed to press in all around Thanquol as the scent of his fellow skaven began to grow more faint. The swamp was still alive with zombies, the vile things surrounding and slaughtering the stragglers Shiwan had abandoned. It was a hideous sight, made even more gruesome by the way the crocodiles slid into the water to snatch up the floating bits of meat the zombies left behind. Thanquol considered himself a valiant skaven, afraid of very little, but to end up in the belly of some scaly monstrosity was one of his pet horrors.

Thanquol lashed his tail and ground his fangs. The smell of Shiwan’s retreating column was just a feeble hint in the air. If he didn’t want to lose them, he had to move fast. His heart was already thundering in his chest, the terror of being alone flooding through his mind. Desperate, he drew his sword and tightened his grip on his staff. Hissing a hasty, but most sincere, prayer to the Horned Rat, Thanquol rushed out into the swamp.

The sand, now slimy with skaven blood and the stagnant fluids of the zombies, proved treacherous under Thanquol’s feet as he scurried along the sand bars to catch up with Shiwan’s ratmen. To either side, the waters of the swamp were alive with crocodiles, the huge reptiles churning the water in their brute hunger. They were careful to keep away from the zombies, however, and it was with a sinking sensation in his stomach that Thanquol watched the walking cadavers closing upon him.

Briefly, Thanquol contemplated blasting his way through the shambling corpses. For a petty mage-rat, Shen Tsinge had exhibited an impressive amount of power. Not that Thanquol couldn’t do far better, even on his worst day. Still, the effort had taxed Shen terribly, leaving him to be carried off by his rat ogre. Perhaps it would be best not to indulge in any excessive display of his own magical ability. Making a quick count of the zombies still rising from the muck and mud, Thanquol decided against drawing on his powers. The undead tended to fixate on sources of magic.

Spinning about, Thanquol sprinted across the sand bar, throwing his body forwards at the first gap. He landed in a crouch, the impact almost jarring the sword from his hand. He grimaced at the hungry crocodile staring at him from the muck he had jumped over, then scurried quickly away from the gruesome creature.

Distracted by the crocodile, Thanquol almost didn’t see the zombies until he was right in the middle of them. When he turned away from the frustrated reptile, Thanquol found a rotting human face smiling at him, worms spilling from its eye socket. The grey seer shrieked and ducked the club-like swing of the zombie’s arm. He brought his sword chopping around, cutting through the zombie’s leg just above its ankle. His staff cracked against the undead pirate’s waist, spilling it into the scummy water.

Before he could appreciate dispatching his foe, Thanquol found five more zombies staggering towards him like a wall of flesh. The grey seer backed away, cringing when the undead refused to be cowed by the threat of his sword. In a panic, he tongued the nugget of warpstone out of his cheek pouch. The temptation to draw on its power to annihilate the zombies was almost overwhelming, but the knowledge that to do so would draw the attention of every undead thing in the swamp tempered his despair.

Thanquol backed away from the advancing zombies until he felt his heels hanging over emptiness. Frantically he darted forward, lifting his tail just in time to escape the snapping jaws of the crocodile. Between the zombies and the reptile, the grey seer found himself backed into a corner.

While there is even the slightest possibility of escape, a skaven will make every effort to save his skin. It is when there is no hope of escape that a fearsome fury comes upon them, a berserk madness that roars through their brains. Thanquol felt the desperate, instinctive madness seize him. His fangs grinding together, he drove into the approaching zombies with the mindless savagery of an orc warlord. The first zombie staggered from a blow of his sword that sent its forearm flying through the air. The second he caught upon the shoulder with the head of his staff, using it to tug the creature forwards and send it tumbling into the jaws of the crocodile. After that, all became a red haze of fear-crazed frenzy. When it cleared, Thanquol stood panting twenty yards from where he had started, his path strewn with mangled, mutilated bodies.

Grey Seer Thanquol took two great gulps of air. The scent of the other skaven was quickly fading – soon it would be lost completely. There wasn’t time to gloat over the havoc he had caused, or even to praise the Horned Rat for whatever slight role he might have had in Thanquol’s escape. Terrified at being left behind, Thanquol braced himself for another desperate gauntlet across the sand bars.

Before he took his first step, the sand at his feet exploded upwards. At first he thought it was another zombie, and that mistake almost proved his undoing. Thanquol reared back, stabbing his sword at his attacker. With distinctly un-zombielike speed, the cloaked ambusher darted to the side and brought a dripping dagger slashing at him. The poisonous blade crunched into Thanquol’s staff, missing his flesh by a matter of inches.

‘Die-die, murder-meat!’ the assassin chittered, struggling to free his trapped blade. Thanquol swung at him with his sword, at the same time relaxing his grip on his staff.

The staff smacked into the assassin’s snout with an impact that cracked fangs and sent a spray of black blood exploding from his nose. Thanquol’s sword chopped down at the stunned assassin, hacking the black-furred ear from the side of his head. Before the grey seer could exploit the reversal, the assassin’s clawed foot smashed into his chest, knocking him back and almost pitching him into the swamp. Only by planting the butt of his staff in the loose sand was he able to save himself from hurtling into the scummy water.

Fangs bared, the assassin snarled back at him. The killer didn’t try to use his dagger again, but instead drew a pair of throwing stars from his belt. ‘Think-think of Chang Squik before you die-die!’

Thanquol grinned back at the assassin. The killer never had the chance to throw the deadly shuriken. Instead, dead claws seized his legs. The more intact pieces of Thanquol’s defeated enemies had been crawling steadily after him. Now the mangled zombies closed upon the assassin. The cloaked killer squeaked in horror as the zombie began to pull itself up his body, its entrails dangling from where Thanquol had cut it in half. A second zombie followed the first, closing a wormy hand around the assassin’s shoulder.

Twisting and shrieking, the assassin tried to escape the relentless grip of his attackers, only to find his feet slipping on the sand. A dreadful wail rose from the assassin as both he and the zombies gripping him pitched headlong over the edge of the sand bar and splashed into the swamp. Immediately several crocodiles converged on the commotion.

Thanquol wished the reptiles a full supper.

CHAPTER SIX

A LOST WORLD

‘Khaine’s black hells!’

Captain Schachter’s shout awakened everyone in the small camp on the beach. Men stumbled from sailcloth tents, cutlasses and bludgeons clenched in their fists. Adalwolf wiped sleep from his eyes and shrugged into his armoured vest. The chainmail felt uncomfortable against his bare skin, but the mercenary could think of many things that would feel even worse.

Schachter stood a few paces from the smoking remains of the great bonfire at the centre of the camp. For once, the sea captain’s face was devoid of the ruddy glow of alcohol. His ashen features were twisted in horror, his hand trembling as he pointed at something jutting up from the pile of ashes.

Adalwolf felt his blood run cold as he looked at the thing that had so terrified the captain. He heard sailors grow sick behind him.

‘Handrich’s Purse!’ snarled the imperious voice of van Sommerhaus. The patroon was fumbling at the buckles of his coat as he stormed out from his lean-to. Wrapped in a coarse ship’s blanket, Hiltrude demurely followed after the furious merchant. ‘What’s all this about, Schachter? Don’t you know better than to disturb my morning libations?’

The patroon stifled a gasp and pressed a gloved hand to his mouth as he saw the grisly thing that had captured the attention of the entire camp. Hiltrude gave voice to a shriek, then collapsed against the sand in a faint.

The thing rising from the ashes was a crude wooden pole, roughly the height of a man. A clutch of bright parrot feathers was bound to the thing’s top, swaying in the tepid morning breeze like the fronds of a palm. Nestled among the feathers were three grotesque things that reminded Adalwolf of the sleeping bats they had seen in the jungle. Like rotten fruit, the fist-sized things drooped from the pole, but these were fruit with ghastly, shrivelled faces!

Marjus Pfaff was the first man to work up the nerve to close upon the ghastly pole. He squinted as he stared at the tortured, wrinkly faces. They were bound to the pole by their hair, which had been pulled back in a long knot to leave the horrible faces exposed. Each was darkened to the colour of old leather, lips and eyes sewn shut. Yet there was an uncomfortable sense of familiarity about the things, for all their diminutive size.

Marjus jostled one of the grisly things with the tip of his cutlass. The shrunken head rolled with the motion, displaying for all the long, pointed ear clinging to the side of the shrivelled skull. It was no human ear, but that of an elf.

‘Ethril!’ Adalwolf shuddered. Now that the connection was made, he could see the semblance of the asur wanderer on the withered husk.

‘The others will be the sentries you posted last night,’ Marjus said, spitting into the sand and making the sign of Manann. A quick call of the sailors on the beach confirmed the mate’s suspicions.

‘Who could have done this?’ wondered van Sommerhaus when he’d finally managed to compose himself and assume some small measure of his arrogance.

Captain Schachter scratched at the stubble of beard growing on his chin. ‘I’ve heard tales of cannibal halflings that live in the jungle, and stories of Amazons that would as soon skin a man as bed him.’

Adalwolf shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter who did this,’ he told Schachter. ‘What does matter is the message they’re sending. It wasn’t enough for them to just kill Ethril and the guards. They made a point of telling us what they did. They crept into the very centre of camp and put this… this… horror right here with us all sleeping around it!’

‘They’re saying they can come back and do the same any time they like,’ Schachter hissed in a frightened whisper. The eyes of every man on the beach turned towards the jungle, wondering what might be staring back at them.

‘We’re someplace somebody doesn’t want us,’ Adalwolf said. He gestured at the hideous totem again. ‘This is their way of telling us we should be moving on.’

The survivors of the Cobra of Khemri debated for an hour over what to do. It was clear that they could not stay with the wreck of the ship. They had no way of knowing how numerous their unseen enemy was. Just because they hadn’t wiped the entire camp out the night before, Diethelm argued, did not mean they weren’t able to do so. The priest thought their best course of action was to build a raft from the wreck and set back out upon the open water, trusting in the grace of Manann to spirit them away from this unholy shore.

Adalwolf and Schachter supported a more sensible course. From Ethril’s words, they knew there was an elf settlement somewhere on the southern tip of Lustria. How far south was any man’s guess, but at least it was something to strive for. Whether the elves would receive them now that they had lost Ethril was a disturbing question neither of them could answer.

It was van Sommerhaus who proposed a third option. There was the trail they had found in the jungle. Clearly it led somewhere, somewhere big. Sailors’ stories of lost cities of gold hidden in the jungle were tempered by the practical observation that any city would have the resources close at hand to support it. Even if they found nothing but a deserted ruin, there would be fresh water and feral crops to be had. They could fortify themselves, use the ruins for shelter and plan their next move at leisure without the threat of headhunters and starvation hanging over them. If they indulged in a little treasure hunting while they were at it – well, that could hardly be countenanced an ill thing.

The crew might have rejected the patroon’s arguments had Marjus Pfaff not intervened. The mate had taken it upon himself to knock down the totem and bury the sad remains bound to it. He had been quite cagey at the time, uncharacteristically refusing all offers to help him in the morbid labour. Now he reluctantly showed everyone the reason behind his craft. The feathers and shrunken heads had been bound to the pole with loops of wire – golden wire!

Gold! Even in the midst of their fear, the men could feel its allure. Coils of finely wrought gold far beyond the skills of headhunting savages. Treasure that the savages could only have bartered or stolen from the city beyond the jungle. The city that must lie at the end of the trail they had found!

Despair and fear had been the only emotions the crew had shown since the discovery of the shrunken heads. Now a cruel sort of hope flared up within their hearts: the blind, unreasoning hope that is born of greed.

The vote was taken again. This time, even Captain Schachter backed van Sommerhaus. Only Adalwolf and Diethelm tried to argue against such a reckless course. The priest tried to invoke the power of his god, warning that the further they strayed from the sea, the farther they were from Manann’s protection. Adalwolf tried a more practical course, trying to make the men see reason. If they were worried about a cold reception from the elves far to the south, how much more foolish was it to think they would be welcomed by whatever strange denizens had built the city they hoped to find? He reminded them of stories of lizards that walked like men and who delighted in sacrificing the beating hearts of their enemies to their strange devil-gods. He told them of the many dangers the jungle held, and all the other dangers they would be ignorant of now that Ethril was gone.

‘We’ve small chance enough’, Captain Schachter decided. ‘Whichever way we turn, we’re likely to die in this damn place. All things being equal, I’d rather take my chances where there might just be a pot of gold waiting for me at the end of the journey.’

The captain’s sentiment quelled the last misgivings of the crew. Adalwolf looked for any of them to stand by him, but even Hiltrude voted to take the jungle trail. He stared hard at her when she cast her vote, essentially parroting van Sommerhaus. The courtesan looked away, a guilty flush tingeing her cheeks.

‘If this is your decision,’ Adalwolf said, casting his eyes across the crew, letting his gaze linger on the smirking face of van Sommerhaus, ‘then I’ll help you try to see it through. Not because I think it’s right, but because I don’t want to die alone in this place.’ The mercenary stared at the imposing edge of the jungle.

‘I’ll die much easier with an audience,’ he said grimly.

Cold, unblinking eyes watched as the ragged survivors of the Cobra of Khemri gathered what supplies they could carry and began to march into the jungle. None of the warm-things so much as glanced in the direction of the chameleon skinks, little guessing that the killers of Ethril and the sentries were so near at hand.

The shifting hues of their scales allowed the skinks to creep right up to the edge of the camp. They listened to the curious chirps and squawks the warm-things uttered, cocking their scaly heads in curiosity as they watched the robed magic-thing mutter sounds over several barrels of sea water. If the skinks had been like men they might have laughed as the smell of brine left the water. It was not the paltry display of magic that interested the skinks, but rather the grave solemnity with which the warm-thing worked his spell. They had seen their own priests accomplish similar feats, but with far more practicality.

The sentinels watched as the warm-things made a strange little platform of flat wood and fitted a long length of rope to one end. Upon this they set the barrels and before it, they placed the two biggest members of their tribe. When they set out, the big ones dragged the little platform behind them. The skinks watched the operation in fascination, wondering why the warm-things expended so much effort. Did they not know they could just lick water from the leaves each morning when the rains came?

If the skinks had been like men, they might have questioned the reasons they had been dispatched by mighty Lord Tlaco to herd these strange creatures into the jungle and see that they followed the trail the slann had made for them. But the skinks were not men and the thought of questioning a mage-priest was as alien to them as their jungle world was to the humans.

So they sat and watched and waited, enjoying the sun that warmed their scaly bodies. The skinks kept their blowguns ready in their strange mitten-like hands. If the warm-things came back, they would make another totem to encourage them to follow Lord Tlaco’s path.

They found the path much easier than on their first excursion into the jungle. Van Sommerhaus said it was because they had already chopped a path through the tangle of bushes and hanging vines. Even the jungles of Lustria, the patroon argued, were not so fecund as to efface a trail over the course of a single night.

Adalwolf was not so sure. There was something wrong. Nothing he could put into words, just a cold feeling at the back of his neck. He wondered what Ethril, with his elven wisdom, might have sensed. The jungle didn’t feel right, not like a natural place. It was almost like sneaking through someone’s house while they were away.

No, that wasn’t quite right. Something knew they were here. He could feel it watching them, watching them with a calculating regard that was chilling in its indifference. Even the bloodlust of headhunters would have been preferable to that cold emotionless scrutiny. At least that would have been something Adalwolf could understand.

It was much as before, the path through the jungle, like a great tunnel bored through the trees. Not a vine, not a bush or blade of grass disturbed the path. Upon the ground was only the barren earth, overhead the trees and vines formed an archway fifty feet above their heads, not so much as a leaf dangling beneath that point. To even think for a moment that any natural artifice could have created such a path was absurd. Considering the enormity of the magic that must have been involved made Adalwolf think not in terms of wizards, but of gods.

‘We made excellent time,’ van Sommerhaus declared, breaking the awed silence that had fallen over them all. He puffed himself up, nodding as he studied the terrain. ‘I told you we would have no problem finding it again.’

Adalwolf repressed a shudder. ‘We didn’t find it,’ he corrected the patroon. ‘It found us.’

‘Not that mystic mumbo-jumbo of the elf again,’ scoffed van Sommerhaus. He gestured impatiently at the broad path before them. ‘The path is here. It’s as real as I am. This is no phantom of a feverish imagination! We made good time, that’s why you think it’s closer than before.’

The sailors looked uncertain, their superstitious dread rising to the fore again. Marjus tried to bring the men back in line, striking those who dared speak their fears.

Adalwolf pointed at the path ahead and made an observation that sent pure terror flooding through the crew. ‘If this is the same path, where are Joost’s bones?’

Van Sommerhaus bristled at the question. He stared at the ground for a moment, then shrugged. ‘Maybe those lizards ate him right down to the marrow,’ he suggested. ‘Or maybe a jaguar came along and carried off whatever the lizards left. Yes, that sounds possible enough.’

‘And afterwards the cat came back with an Imperial steam tank and dragged away the tree,’ Adalwolf’s voice was as thin as a knife. He saw the confusion on the patroon’s face. To emphasise his point, he swept his hand across the trail they had cut the previous day. ‘Where’s the tree? You remember, that last tree that came crashing down and nearly killed Ethril?’

The patroon tried to sputter some sort of answer, but even his inventive mind could not think of anything to explain away the undeniable fact that the tree was gone.

This last proof of sorcery was too much for the crew. Even the threats of Schachter and Marjus couldn’t hold them now. They turned, intent on retreating back to the beach. In the face of this evidence that the jungle’s magic wasn’t ancient and placid but active and aware, the promise of gold lost its lure. They were afraid of the headhunters, but they were terrified of the jungle.

Quickly, they had new reason to fear.

The foremost of the retreating sailors had not gone far when he made a sinister discovery. The trail they had cut the previous day was overgrown again, overgrown with great bloated green plants with fleshy yellow flowers. They were ghastly looking things and the impossibility of their existence sent every man’s skin crawling. Yet such was their determination to escape the jungle that the sailors soon overcame their trepidation. Boldly they stalked towards the growth, intent upon cutting it down with their axes and swords.

As the first sailor raised his arm to strike one of the plants, ropy vines shot out from the fleshy stalk, coiling about him like the arms of a kraken. The man shrieked as the tendrils pulled him towards the main body of the plant. Now the true nature of the yellow flowers was revealed. They folded inwards upon themselves, each petal as hard and unyielding as a fang. The flower snapped open and closed, like a hungry dog licking its chops.

Adalwolf rushed forwards to help the men trying to free the trapped sailor. Other tendrils shot towards them, wrapping around arms and legs, trying to drag the men back towards the plants further back along the trail. Adalwolf had known a Tilean who had kept a pet python – the strength of the tendrils put that powerful serpent to shame. He could swear he felt his very bones being rubbed raw as the vine about his leg tightened and tried to pull him off his feet. Desperately he brought the edge of his sword chopping down into the tendril. It bit halfway through the ropey plant fibre but no farther, forcing him to saw his sword free by working the blade back and forth.

When his leg was free again, Adalwolf limped over to help a sailor with vines coiled about both of his arms. Those seamen who had not been caught by the plants rushed to help their trapped crewmen. Captain Schachter tried to fend off the tendrils with a marlin pike, the only long weapon they had among them, while Marjus used his great strength to drag freed sailors from where the plants could reach them. Even Hiltrude and Diethelm lent their aid to the cause, chopping sailors free with the knives they carried. Adalwolf glanced once to where van Sommerhaus stood upon the path, frozen with horror.

New screams told the fate of the sailor who had first fallen into the clutches of the plants. Unable to get near enough to free him, they could only watch as he was pulled remorselessly towards the snapping flowers. One closed upon his outstretched arm and an agonised wail erupted from the seaman. Bubbling foam oozed from the folds of the flower. The man struggled furiously for several minutes, then managed to pull away from the flower. His shrieks became even more frantic when he stared at his arm. There was nothing left beyond the elbow; it had been dissolved in the maw of the plant. No simple weeds, these, but carnivorous monsters of the jungle!

Freed from the first flower by his efforts, the tendrils wrapped about the man began to pull at him again, dragging him to a second snapping maw.

Tears were in Captain Schachter’s eyes as he pulled one of the pistols he carried and aimed it at his man. When the hammer fell, however, no shot came. The damp of the jungle had fouled the powder. Marjus Pfaff rounded on van Sommerhaus, ripping one of the engraved duelling pistols he carried from his belt. The patroon started to protest, more from reflex than thought. The mate’s fist smashed into his face and spilled van Sommerhaus on the ground.

Grimly, Marjus took aim and fired. Preserved by the jewelled holster of the patroon, the pistol discharged with a burst of smoke and flame. The screaming man in the coils of the carnivorous plant fell silent just before a flower snapped closed about his hip.

Like whipped dogs, the rest of the crew retreated from the deadly plants. Brother Diethelm commended the soul of the dead sailor to the keeping of Manann and Morr while the rest of them watched the flowers take their grisly share of the man’s flesh.

‘Make torches,’ Schachter growled vengefully. ‘We’ll burn that filth into ash!’

Hiltrude caught at the captain’s arm. ‘We can’t do that!’ she said, her eyes wide with a different kind of fear. ‘If you set fire to them, what’s to keep the flames from coming back and getting us!’

The woman’s fears had a sobering effect on the captain. ‘Belay that order!’ he snapped. A string of vivid curses shot from his mouth as he glared at the plants.

‘It wouldn’t do any good,’ Diethelm told him as he finished his prayers. ‘There is some infernal power in those things, something even fire might not be able to purify.’

While he spoke, the priest indicated one of the ghastly flowers. An ugly blue seed the size of a man’s thumb dropped from the flower. Upon striking the ground, it instantly took root, as though some invisible hand were pushing it into the earth. In a matter of moments, a green shoot sprouted. A few minutes, and the plant was already half the size of its sire.

‘We can’t fight that,’ Adalwolf growled.

‘Then what are we supposed to do?’ demanded Schachter.

Adalwolf didn’t answer the captain, instead staring at the trail ahead. Schachter cursed lividly. The trail ahead was likewise alive with the hideous plants.

The mercenary turned and pointed at the eerie pathway through the jungle. ‘Something wants us to go this way,’ he told Schachter. ‘And it won’t take no for an answer.’

Schachter fingered the grip of his useless pistol. ‘Where do you think it goes?’ he whispered.

‘Maybe to van Sommerhaus’s city of gold,’ Adalwolf answered, glancing at the patroon as Hiltrude helped him off the ground. He quickly looked away.

‘Somehow I doubt it,’ Schachter said.

The foetid atmosphere of the jungle was a damp heat that oppressed the lungs of the small band of intruders. Whatever power had set them upon the strange path had cleared the way for them but seemed oblivious to the inhospitable nature of the heat and humidity. Perhaps these were things beyond its power, or perhaps it was in such an atmosphere that these unseen powers thrived.

Adalwolf could not be certain, he only knew that the strange tunnel through the trees had been laid out for a purpose. What that purpose was, he could not begin to guess.

Animals seemed to shun the strange path for the most part. At first this was counted as a blessing, the memory of the cannibal lizards and Joost’s terrible death still fresh in their minds. However, it quickly became obvious they would need to supplement the stores they had salvaged from the ship with fresh meat and whatever fruit they could find. To do so meant leaving the path and each of these excursions into the jungle bordering it was fraught with peril. Quicksand nearly sucked down an entire hunting party while a second came back short two men after encountering something they could only describe as a beaked bat-snake. The most hideous event of all happened to a grizzled sailor named Dirck who investigated a curious wailing sound emanating from beside the path. He discovered a little group of tiny red frogs with mottled markings. Thinking their legs would make good eating, he caught one. As soon as the frog was in his hand, however, it gave voice to another terrified wailing sound. Its slimy body began to excrete a vile brown mucus that sizzled as it touched the sailor’s skin. By the time he threw the frog away, the acidic mucus had eaten clean through his hand, finger bones standing exposed in the corroded flesh. Infection, sickness and delirium had been his fate after that. When he did finally die, it seemed almost a blessing to his comrades.

Lustria. Well had those who dared its jungles named it the Green Hell.

Adalwolf scowled at a scaly, monkey-like thing perched in one of the fern-like trees. The lizard simply stared back at him, sometimes closing one eye, then the other, as though to make sure both were seeing the same thing.

The column came to a halt. Men with flagons in their hands came jogging back to the water barrels, filling their mugs. Most of the men slumped to the earth beside the sledge, greedily drinking their fill. A few jogged back to the head of the column, where they handed their cups to van Sommerhaus, who in turn pressed a few coins into their outstretched palms. Even in their current circumstances, the fading wealth of the patroon commanded respect.

Adalwolf was surprised when he saw Hiltrude turn away from the water barrels and walk in his direction instead of returning to the patroon’s side. She smiled at him and offered him the silver cup she was carrying. The mercenary studied the delicately engraved cup for a moment, then handed it back to the woman.

‘I’m afraid taking a drink from that would leave a bad taste in my mouth,’ he told her.

Hiltrude shrugged and took a sip of water. She glanced around, then smoothed her tattered dress before sitting down on a big grey rock at the edge of the path. She smiled sadly as she felt the ragged, torn shambles of her once fine clothes.

‘Don’t worry, he’ll buy you a new one,’ Adalwolf assured her.

Fire flashed in Hiltrude’s eyes. ‘He didn’t buy it. I bought it, if you must know.’

‘I’ll bet he still paid for it,’ the mercenary grumbled.

‘And who paid for your armour and your sword?’ Hiltrude snarled back. ‘If you think I’m a whore for taking his money, what does that make you?’

‘It’s different for me,’ Adalwolf said, uncomfortable with the turn the conversation had taken.

Hiltrude cocked an eyebrow at him. ‘Why? Because you’re a man? Because it’s right for a man to take money from someone he despises, but when a woman does, it makes her cheap and wanton?’

‘I’m not selling my body to him!’

The courtesan snorted with bitter amusement. ‘Aren’t you? He pays you to fight his enemies and protect his ships. He expects you to get in the way of swords and axes – and ill-tempered plants! You’re right, that’s not selling your body. That’s selling your life!’ She shook her head, an arrogant expression on her face. ‘Even I haven’t sunk that low.’

Adalwolf shifted uncomfortably. He hadn’t expected Hiltrude to defend her relationship with van Sommerhaus by challenging his own. ‘I have a family depending on me back in Marienburg. That’s why I do it,’ he said in a quiet voice.

‘I don’t have even that,’ Hiltrude said. ‘My family died when I was almost too young to remember them. There was a pox in the neighbourhood and the plague doctors tried to burn down the infected houses. The fire got away from them. Three streets ended up burning to the ground.’ She stared sadly at nothing, her cheeks trembling as she remembered the distant tragedy. ‘Ever since then, I’ve had to make my own way as best I can.’

Adalwolf stepped towards her. ‘Hiltrude…’ he said in a soft voice. Then the mercenary’s eyes became hard again. ‘Hiltrude… don’t move,’ he ordered.

It was on the courtesan’s lips to object to being ordered around by the mercenary, but the intensity of his expression and tone made her do as she was told. Carefully, she turned her head to follow the direction of the warrior’s gaze. A short gasp escaped through her lips as she saw the thing that had slithered onto the rock beside her, warming itself in the light. It was like a thin belt of scaly leather, banded from tip to end in alternating rings of crimson, yellow and black. A blue tongue darted from its little snub of a head, tasting the air with little trembles of its forked tip.

‘Don’t move,’ Adalwolf whispered again as Hiltrude leaned away from the jungle snake. He could see her shivering, every muscle in her body quivering with horror at the thing sitting beside her. Slowly, Adalwolf drew his sword.

The blade had not cleared its scabbard before a strong grip restrained his hand. Adalwolf found Brother Diethelm standing beside him, the priest’s hand closed around his own. ‘Not that way,’ Diethelm advised. ‘Fast as you might be, the snake might be even faster. There is another way.’

Perplexed, Adalwolf watched as the priest knelt down before the snake. The reptile fixed its black eyes on him, watching his every move. Diethelm began to murmur softly into his beard, his body swaying slightly from side to side. The ophidian head followed his motion, slowly swinging from one side to another. Gradually, the priest began to crawl towards the snake, still swaying back and forth as he did so. The snake’s eyes never left Diethelm.

‘Hiltrude,’ the priest said softly. ‘Move away from our little friend. It is quite safe, so long as you do not touch him.’

The woman quickly leapt away from the stone, clinging to Adalwolf’s side. Together they watched as the priest closed the last few feet between himself and the snake. Casually, almost without apparent thought, Diethelm lifted his hand and tapped the snake’s head. ‘Go away,’ he told it. To their amazement, instead of biting him, the serpent turned and slithered back into the jungle.

‘How did you do that?’ Adalwolf asked. ‘I thought your powers relied upon the sea?’

Diethelm brushed dirt and leaves from his robes and nodded. ‘Indeed, my connection to mighty Manann is feeble here, so far from the ocean. I can only faintly feel his presence in this place, for it is a land removed from the gods we know. To call upon Manann’s strength here would be a fruitless effort.’

‘Then how were you able to tame the serpent?’ Hiltrude wondered.

The priest smiled. ‘Do not think I have journeyed upon the seas for most of my life without learning a few tricks of my own. There are mystics in Araby who specialise in mesmerising snakes. They use them to clear rats from their homes in that arid land, you know. Once, when I was aboard an Estalian galleon, we made port in Copher. It was there I learned the skill.’ Diethelm flushed with embarrassment. ‘I admit, I only learned it because I thought it would allow me to charm eels. Try as I might, however, I’ve never been able to get a snake-fish to stare me in the eye long enough to get it to work.’

Seven days of marching along the path and the travellers came upon a strange sight. Previously, the jungle had bordered the strange pathway like a great wall of green. Indeed, they had been forced to cut and chop their way through to hunt and gather fruit.

Now they came upon an enormous gash in the wall, a giant hole where something huge had torn its way through the jungle. The bare earth of the path was scarred and pitted where mammoth claws had gouged the ground. There was a coppery tang in the air and with it the heavy musk of reptiles.

The men eyed the torn ground with fright, horrified by the size of the clawed footprints they saw. A fearful murmur passed among the crew, some of the men starting to edge back down the path.

‘What do we do?’ Schachter asked van Sommerhaus. After the incident with the carnivorous plants, the patroon had been forced to become quite liberal with his money to return to the good graces of the captain and his crew. Few of the sailors did not hold a scrip to be drawn from the van Sommerhaus coffers upon their return to Marienburg.

Van Sommerhaus considered the torn ground, then cast a nervous eye on the hole gouged through the trees. He stroked the soggy ruffles of his shirt as he considered the question. ‘This might have happened any time,’ he decided. ‘Whatever did this could be leagues away by now. I say we stick to the path.’

‘And what if you’re wrong?’ challenged Marjus. ‘What if this thing is still lurking around here someplace?’

‘More reason to stay on the path,’ Adalwolf interjected. ‘Our only other course is to take to the jungle. I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer to face this thing out in the open where I can at least see it coming.’

It was hardly a reassuring sentiment, but it did quiet the grumblings of Marjus and the others. The tired men set out again, trudging across the broken ground, avoiding the shattered trees that had been cast down by the giant’s passage. Everyone helped lift the sledge and the remaining barrels of water over the worst of the debris. It was hot, back-breaking work for the weakened crew and demanded all of their attention.

Perhaps that was why no one could say when the ghastly crunching noises began. They seemed to manifest out of nowhere as the sailors set down the last of the barrels. The sounds were gruesome, slobbering noises, like a dog nuzzling its nose in a pile of offal. Everyone stopped and listened for a time, trying to fix the sounds in their mind. But though they grew louder, the deceit of the jungle and its echoes made it impossible to say from which direction they came.

‘I’m not sticking around here to find out what’s making that!’ exclaimed one of the sailors. The man dashed off, racing around the bend in the path ahead. Others quickly followed his example, van Sommerhaus among them as the infectious fear claimed him. Schachter called his men back, but they were beyond listening to him. Reluctantly, those who had stayed behind took up the chase, knowing that their only hope of survival lay in keeping together.

The fleeing sailors did not go far. They froze as they rounded the bend in the path, colour draining from their faces, their hearts hammering against their chests. Fleeing from the ghastly noises, the men had instead discovered their source.

Gigantic, bigger than a burgher’s town house, the creature stood in the path, its scaly back glistening in the sun. In shape it was something like a plucked hawk, though with little clawed arms instead of wings. By contrast its legs were immense, thicker around than a ship’s mainmast and powerfully muscled. The claws that tipped the thing’s feet were huge, bigger than halberds. A thick tail, easily as long as the Cobra of Khemri’s hull, slashed through the air behind the creature, balancing its giant body. The head was monstrous, heavy like the skull of a bulldog and supported by a short, broad neck. The thing’s face was squashed like that of a toad, and its mouth was a great gash beneath the tiny slits of its nostrils and the amber pits of its eyes. Enormous fangs, each more like a sword than a tooth, filled the monster’s maw. In colour, it was a dull green striped with brown and possessing a distinct diamond pattern of orange scales running along its back. About its jaws, the scaly skin was painted red and from its fangs long ribbons of gore dangled.

Beneath the titanic reptile sprawled a behemoth even larger than itself. It was built not unlike an Arabyan elephant, but far more massive and covered in scaly hide rather than leathery skin. The head attached to the giant’s long neck seemed too small in proportion to its immense body and the teeth that filled its jaws were dull and flat, not unlike those of a cow. A great wound gaped in the beast’s neck, and here its throat had been crushed almost flat by the pressure of powerful jaws.

The great predator-lizard pressed its snout into the yawning hole it had chewed into the belly of the behemoth. Noisily, it worked its jaws to rip bloody slivers of flesh from the carcass.

Suddenly, the towering lizard-monster turned, its eyes narrowed, its fat pale tongue licking at the air. The men stood transfixed as the immense creature stared at them. No man moved, each desperately hoping the monster’s attention would fix on one of his comrades.

Van Sommerhaus croaked in horror as he felt the carnosaur’s eyes studying him. The sudden sound aroused the monster and the giant lizard-beast reared back. Men screamed and turned to run, casting aside their weapons in their horror.

Instead of attacking, the huge reptile sank its jaws into the neck of the dead thunder lizard and dragged the carcass a dozen yards down the path. Soon it was again tearing strips of meat from the carcass.

‘I think he’s afraid you’re going to steal his dinner,’ Adalwolf laughed, clapping van Sommerhaus on the back. The patroon bristled at his humour and pulled away, glaring daggers at the mercenary.

The humour, however, had the desired effect on the other men. Gradually the sailors came back, retrieving their weapons from the ground. They pointed at the feeding monster and joked nervously among themselves at both their fear and the beast’s timidity. The sound of their laughter disturbed the carnosaur. Sinking its fangs into the carcass, the huge reptile dragged its kill closer to the jungle.

Abruptly the huge predator moved again, this time dragging its prey away from the edge of the jungle. It glared at the trees, ignoring completely the puzzled men watching it.

The reason for the carnosaur’s actions quickly showed themselves. A half-dozen lean, scaly creatures hopped out from among the trees. In shape they were not unlike the carnosaur, though their arms were not quite as scrawny and their legs were far less muscled. The creatures were deep blue in colour with mottled black markings running along their sides. The reptiles circled the carnosaur and its kill. Whenever the big beast focused on one of them, others would dart in and try to rip shreds of meat from the carcass. Always the bigger monster was too quick for the smaller ones and they leapt away as the carnosaur’s huge jaws snapped at them.

‘Like jackals annoying a lion,’ Adalwolf observed.

Hiltrude shuddered at his observation. ‘Even those jackals are bigger than we are,’ she warned him. Adalwolf nodded grimly and turned to advise Schachter that they should be moving on.

Even as the group began to carefully make their way around the quarrelling reptiles, disaster came upon them. The sledge carrying the water became caught against the projecting root of a mangrove. In trying to force the sledge forward, the men pulling it upset one of the barrels, which toppled and crashed to the ground.

The sound upset the reptiles. The jackal-lizards and the carnosaur swung their heads around, staring at the retreating humans. The big predator-lizard again sank his jaws into the behemoth’s neck and began to drag its kill away. The smaller scavengers, however, became tense, their fleshy tongues licking the air.

When the cold ones came, they came at once in a hissing, snarling pack. The men with the sledge made a last futile effort to free it, then threw down the ropes and started to run. They were too slow. Leaping at them, pouncing on them like leopards upon sheep, two of the cold ones smashed them against the ground. Piteous screams rose from the sailors as the reptiles began to rip them apart with their clawed feet and fanged jaws.

There was no thought given to helping the lost men. The other survivors were already racing down the path as the rest of the reptiles pursued them. Their attention drawn away from the carnosaur’s kill, the scavenger lizards had decided the humans would make easier prey and now hunted them down the path, snapping at their very heels. One man rebelled against the instinctive terror that sent them fleeing before the hungry reptiles. He turned to chop at the cold one chasing him. His axe sank into its shoulder, syrupy blood spurting from the wound. The lizard took no notice of its wound, but instead closed its jaws about the man’s head and crushed his skull. It would be several minutes before the sensation of pain registered in the cold one’s tiny brain, and by then its victim would be little more than bones.

The success of the other reptiles goaded the rest of the pack to greater effort. Several of them sprang at the fleeing men, leaping clear over their prey to land in snapping coils of scales and fangs. Another seaman was crushed beneath a pouncing cold one, smashed into a lifeless mush beneath its weight. The reptile sniffed at him, jostling his broken neck with its muzzle before uttering a huff of annoyance and springing back to its feet in search of livelier prey.

For those being driven before the pack, the chase assumed the dimensions of a nightmare. The shrieks and hisses of the cold ones were a deafening clamour in their ears, broken only by the agonised screams of those who fell beneath their claws. The air was a smothering miasma, making the very act of forcing air into their panting chests an ordeal. There seemed no escape, their only hope being that the cold ones would abandon the hunt once they had eaten their fill.

A thunderous crack sounded from the trees looming over the path. Men risked their lives to glance up at the natural archway above them. One look was enough to spur them onwards. The trees were falling, crashing down like the talons of an angry god. They slammed into the ground with such impact that the men could feel tremors beneath their feet. Again and again trees came smashing down and it took every effort for the tired, desperate men to stay clear of them. Sometimes a shrill, bestial shriek would sound from somewhere behind them, but no one took the chance of being crushed to look back and see what had made the noise.

Soon the exhausted survivors could run no further, even if it meant falling to the claws and fangs of the reptiles or being crushed beneath the falling trees. Their breath was now nothing short of utter agony, their clothes clung to them in dripping tatters. Adalwolf and a few of the others made feeble displays of drawing their weapons, though each doubted he had the strength to use them.

‘Look!’ Hiltrude shouted between gasps. She pointed at the trees. The men followed her gesture. The trees had fallen still again, as still as the pillars of a cathedral.

Adalwolf turned and stared at the path behind them. There was no sign of the pursuing lizards now, only a great jumble of fallen trees. He remembered the bestial shrieks they had heard and could only imagine the predators to be crushed somewhere beneath the log.

‘Something,’ Diethelm said, ‘seems interested in keeping us alive.’

Despite the heat of the jungle, the priest’s dour words sent a chill rushing up each man’s spine.

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE LOST CITY

Grey Seer Thanquol gnashed his teeth together as he stubbed his foot against the gnarled root of a mangrove tree. Spitefully he swatted the root with the butt of his staff. It was a sore temptation to draw upon his sorcery to wither the offensive plant, but reason quelled the vengeful instinct. He had to be very careful about over-exerting himself. There was no telling when he would need his powers. He certainly couldn’t rely upon his supposed allies for any help.

After the fight with the zombies, the skaven had regrouped. Thanquol had been fortunate to catch up to them, but as soon as he made his appearance, Shen Tsinge started weaving all kinds of lies about how Thanquol had allowed them to walk into a trap and telling Shiwan Stalkscent that the grey seer was not to be trusted. Thanquol wanted to rip out the lying mage-rat’s tongue for spewing such falsehoods, but the way Goji glared at him made the grey seer keep quiet.

It was an example of how gullible Shiwan was that he accepted Shen’s story. With the master assassin’s knife at his throat, Thanquol was forced to stand still while Shen searched him for any warpstone. The cursed sorcerer was most thorough, ripping open the secret pockets sewn into Thanquol’s robes. He even put his paws in Thanquol’s mouth to fish out the little pebble of warpstone hidden in his cheek pouch.

Thanquol endured the humiliating treatment, holding himself proud and superior even as the Eshin leaders threatened and bullied him. For the good of the mission, he agreed to take the point and lead the way. It would prove to their unreasonable, paranoid brains that he was completely innocent of Shen’s outrageous claims against him. After all, from up front, if he led them into any kind of trouble, then he would be the first to suffer its effects.

He strode boldly through the jungle, preceded only by the scrawny gutter runners who cleared the worst of the vines and branches. Often he would pause to stare contemptuously at the Eshin leaders cringing at the back of the column, sheltering behind the spears of Kong’s fighter-rats. Such craven display was repulsive coming from skaven of such standing as Shiwan Stalkscent and Shen Tsinge! These were the mighty leaders of the expedition! Thanquol lashed his tail in frustration that such snivelling curs could begin to think they were fit to give him orders!

‘Thanquol, see-scent city yet?’ Shiwan’s grating voice called out to him in a demanding shout.

The grey seer turned and genuflected in the master assassin’s direction as he had seen the Eshin clanrats do when addressing their leader. ‘Nothing yet-yet, bold and mighty slitter of throats!’ Thanquol said. He glanced down at the map Shiwan had given him. Assuring the master assassin he could read the illegible scrawl of the plague priests was one of the things that had kept Shiwan from killing him after the incident with the zombies. Thanquol dearly hoped he wasn’t looking at it upside down.

‘Thanquol-meat try trick-fool Eshin!’ snapped Tsang Kweek, leader of the gutter runners. Tsang was a malicious, sadistic rodent, a slinking thug who enjoyed nothing more than inflicting as much pain as possible upon anything he thought weaker than himself. Right now, the gutter runner considered Thanquol to fall into that category. Thanquol wondered if perhaps it had been one of Tsang’s scouts and not one of Shiwan’s assassins that had lingered behind to ambush him in the swamp.

‘Does honourable Backstabber Kweek speak-squeak true-true?’ Shiwan growled. The skaven around him bared their fangs as the master assassin spoke.

‘No-no!’ Thanquol assured Shiwan, trying to keep panic out of his voice. Discreetly he turned the map around and stared at it, making an elaborate show of studying it. The skaven around him just glared at him suspiciously. ‘Soon-soon we find-find scaly-meat city!’

Shiwan drew a long dagger from the folds of his cloak. Shen Tsinge chittered with amusement as he saw Thanquol flinch at the assassin’s approach. ‘Find Quetza!’ Shiwan growled again. ‘Find or I feed-feed Goji your spleen!’

Thanquol’s glands clenched as the assassin snarled his threat. He shivered as he heard the rat ogre’s belly grumble when he heard Shiwan speak his name.

‘Soon-soon!’ Thanquol reassured Shiwan. Quickly he turned back around and scurried to the front of the trail, snapping quick commands to the gutter runners chopping through the brush.

The other skaven snickered at his predicament, but none more-so than the cloaked assassin with the missing ear. Chang Fang had been fortunate to escape the swamp, he could still feel the filth of the mire in his fur. More than before, he was determined to settle things with Thanquol. He only hoped he would get his chance before Shiwan’s patience ran out.

For his part, Thanquol was unaware his enemy from the swamp had returned. The Eshin practice of removing the scent glands from their assassins made it difficult for other skaven to recognise them. He already had enough enemies at his back, however, that even Chang Fang’s presence could not have increased his fright. He knew that he was quickly running out of time to squirm his way back into the good graces of Shiwan Stalkscent.

If only he could make sense of the accursed map! Why couldn’t the diseased minds of Clan Pestilens write like normal skaven? How was he supposed to make sense of a bunch of scratches and spit-stains? Nurglitch sneezes on a scrap of rat-hide and the plague monks call it a map!

It was unfair that his life should depend upon such a ridiculous, idiotic thing! The slinking murderers of Clan Eshin were clearly as mad as the plague monks to put any trust in such a mess of scribbles! Was that green slash supposed to be a hill or a river? And what by the Horned Rat’s tyrannical tail was this thing that looked like a ball of snot!

Thanquol closed his eyes, bruxing his fangs in frustration. Every inch of jungle the gutter runners cleared away brought him one step closer to destruction. He couldn’t expect a half-wit like Shiwan to give him anything like a reasonable amount of time to find the lost city!

Quietly, Thanquol muttered a prayer to the Horned Rat. If his god would only help him out of this predicament, he would abase himself before all his altars. He would never again be proud and boastful, but would devote himself to becoming the most humble and obedient servant of the Horned One.

Excited squeals suddenly erupted among the gutter runners. Thanquol half turned to scurry back to the main body of the expedition, but quickly realised the squeaks were happy ones, not sounds of fear. He turned his spin into a forwards dash, kicking aside the scrawny scouts.

Before him, the jungle diminished into a vast clearing. The earth was paved with immense stone blocks. These in turn supported huge structures of piled stone. The smallest of these had collapsed into jumbles of broken rock, but the largest loomed over the plaza like crouching giants. They were something like the pyramids the dead-things of Nehekhara built, but with steps carved into their faces and flattened tops. In the distance, beyond the strange pyramids, Thanquol could see great mountains jutting up from the jungle, plumes of smoke curling from their volcanic peaks.

Thanquol grinned in savage triumph. He had found the city! Here was what they had been looking for! His brilliant mind had deciphered the scrawl of the plague monks and brought them to their goal!

‘Great Shiwan Stalkscent,’ Thanquol said, turning to beckon the assassin forward. His eyes narrowed with suspicion, Shiwan and three of his guards crept up to join the smug grey seer.

Thanquol extended his claw, like a merchant displaying his wares. ‘Behold! The lost city of Quetza!’ He couldn’t quite keep the pride from his tone.

Shiwan stared at the ruins, then back at Thanquol. ‘Sure-certain this Quetza?’ he growled.

Thanquol glanced back at the ruins. He could feel his glands starting to clench again.

Thanquol’s fears that Shiwan’s map had led them to the wrong city were quelled when the skaven descended into the wide, plaza-like expanse. Creepers and stunted little trees poked up from between the great stone blocks, vines clung to the walls of the neglected pyramids. Everywhere there was evidence of decay and abandonment. It looked like a dead city, annihilated by the ancient plagues of Clan Pestilens.

But it didn’t smell like a dead city. The musk of reptiles was thick in the air, a pungent scent so noxious no skaven could mistake it. Thanquol remembered that according to the plague monks, Quetza had been deserted by the lizardmen, only the priests and servants of the snake-devil Sotek remaining behind. They were supposed to dwell exclusively within the Temple of the Serpent. It made sense they would take little interest in keeping up the other parts of the city.

A sharp hiss from the gutter runners sent a thrill of excitement racing through all the ratmen. The scouts had spotted some of the hated scaly-meat! The scent in the air didn’t lie, the city wasn’t completely deserted!

Thanquol crept forwards with the rest and stared at the weird creatures sprawled along the sunward side of a crumbling pyramid. They were shorter than the ratmen, and far thinner. Bright blue scales covered their bodies and they bore long, whip-like tails. Fan-like crests rose from the tops of their blunt, reptilian heads. They wore only scant loinclouts about their middles and jewelled armbands of gold and turquoise. The lizardmen were completely oblivious to the presence of the skaven, lounging in a kind of torpor as the sun warmed their cold bodies. Most didn’t even have their eyes open.

It was too great an opportunity for the murderous assassins of Clan Eshin to pass up. Stealthily they climbed the face of the pyramid that was still in shadow. Relentlessly, the killers made their way up the shallow stone steps until they were level with their victims. Shiwan Stalkscent was the first to leap down upon his oblivious prey, slashing the skink’s neck so thoroughly its head went rolling down the side of the pyramid.

The other skaven rushed to the attack now that their leader had made the first kill. Assassins fell on the sleeping skinks with ruthless abandon, their knives and swords licking out with lethal precision. Soon the side of the pyramid was dripping with the clammy blood of lizardmen. Kong’s warriors scurried to intercept the few skinks who lived long enough to scramble down the stone walls, butchering them before they could even set foot on the plaza.

It was not a fight, it was a slaughter, the sort of one-sided conflict every skaven dreamed about. Thanquol even lent his own small contribution to the massacre, sending a bolt of black lightning crackling from his staff to incinerate a tiny skink trying to escape the attack by climbing over the top of the pyramid. The little creature was nothing more than a blackened husk when its smoking body came rolling down the face of the pyramid.

Thanquol exulted in his casual abuse of magic. He gave Shen Tsinge a smug look, but became a bit more conciliatory when Goji growled at him. It would be just like the slinking sorcerer to have his rat ogre take a bite out of the grey seer and then claim it had been an accident.

The skaven rushed from the slaughter, their blood up, eager to continue the havoc they had started. Thanquol thought at first Shiwan had made a mistake allowing his troops to indulge their bloodlust so recklessly, but now he grudgingly appreciated the master assassin’s craft. Excited as they were, his troops weren’t hesitating at every turn and crossroad, trying to sniff out any lurking danger. No, instead they were sprinting straight towards their goal – the immense pyramid that loomed at the centre of Quetza.

There seemed little danger it could be the wrong place to go. Even the most dull-witted of the skaven could sense the power emanating from within those stones. The steps of the pyramid were laid out to resemble a giant snake crawling down from its flattened roof and its stairs were inlaid with polished gold that glimmered in the sunlight. No neglect or decay had been allowed to affect this place. Every ratman in the expedition knew the colossal structure was what they had been looking for: the Temple of the Serpent.

The Prophet of Sotek would be somewhere inside, waiting for the daggers of Clan Eshin to end his wretched existence. They would bring his skin back to the Nightlord and Sneek would reward them all once his alliance with Nurglitch became a reality.

Of course, Thanquol rather hoped to secure a greater amount of the credit and the reward for himself. Towards that end, he hung back as the Eshin warriors made their rush towards the pyramid. He had seen Shiwan do the same and understood the callous way the skaven leader was using his followers. It would only take one knife to end the life of Xiuhcoatl, the serpent-priest. He was using the charge of his followers to lure out any guards the lizardmen might have protecting the pyramid. While they were busy fighting his troops, Shiwan would be free to sneak inside the temple and kill Xiuhcoatl. It was a cunning plan, but Thanquol didn’t appreciate being lumped in among Shiwan’s disposable assets. He made a conscious effort to stay close to the master assassin in whatever was coming.

Strangely, no scaly troops emerged from the ruins to block their path as they rushed towards the temple. Thanquol braced himself for the whistle of arrows and the cough of blowguns as they raced past the tumbled heaps of collapsed buildings, but nothing answered his fear. Could the rest of the temple’s guardians truly be as witless as the ones they had already killed? Or, perhaps, the ones the assassins had slaughtered were the sum total of all the temple’s minions? Maybe Xiuhcoatl was already dead, perhaps he was even the tiny skink Thanquol had blasted with his magic!

The dark, cave-like opening at the base of the pyramid yawned before them now. A different smell was in the air, a stronger scent than the lizard-stink of the city. It was the loathsome scent of serpents, a smell that had even Shen Tsinge spurting the musk of fear. There was no smell more terrifying to the skaven, a scent that was imprinted upon their psyche from a time when they were still more rat than ratkin. The stench killed the bloodthirsty enthusiasm Shiwan had so craftily exploited. Now the skaven stared fearfully at every shadow and cringed against each other in little huddles of shivering fur.

Shiwan snarled, showing his fangs to his underlings. The master assassin lashed his tail, frustrated by their mindless terror. He took a bold step towards the opening, then reconsidered. Angrily, he snapped a command to Tsang Kweek. The backstabber laid into a pair of his gutter runners, cuffing the scouts about the ears and snapping his fangs at their necks until they reluctantly scampered towards the darkened opening.

As soon as the two scouts entered the passage, they squealed in alarm. It was a quick sound, it had to be because an instant later arcs of scintillating light engulfed the two ratmen. An instant of blinding white and the skaven were gone, leaving behind only little piles of smouldering ash.

Shiwan stared in horror at the sight. To appease his leader, Tsang sent another set of scouts forward, but these were annihilated in the same way as their comrades.

Shiwan rounded on Thanquol and the grey seer cringed when he saw the fury in the master assassin’s eyes. Perhaps staying close to him hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

‘Lizard-magic!’ Shiwan snapped, pointing a trembling claw at the four piles of smoking ash. ‘Fix-fix, quick-quick!’

Thanquol thought about protesting the assassin’s orders, but something about the way his hand was clenching his knife made the grey seer decide that might be a bad idea too. Timidly, Thanquol started to shuffle towards the cave-like opening. His slowness began to vex Shiwan. A snarled command and the grey seer found himself surrounded by some of Kong’s warriors, each of the burly skaven pushing him forwards when he hesitated. Shen Tsinge and Goji followed behind them. The sorcerer was keeping just close enough to Thanquol to claim any credit for anything the grey seer managed to do, but far enough back to avoid any danger to himself.

Thanquol was really coming to hate that craven mage-rat and his brainless rat ogre.

The aura of power was heavy around the door. Thanquol could actually smell the magic rippling through the very stones of the temple. It was a malignant, hostile sort of magic, magic that was somehow aware in its own right. He’d never encountered anything quite like it, except perhaps when he’d helped Clan Moulder exterminate the army of the Chaos Lord Alarik Lionmane.

Studying the way the lines of power were concentrated, Thanquol could find nexus points set into the walls of the corridor. They were something like the conductors the warlock-engineers of Clan Skryre used to harness warp-lightning. He could see that the glyphs on the stones set at these nexus points were different than those that adorned the blocks around them. He shivered as he saw the crude representation of a giant snake swallowing a skaven repeated over and over. But it did give him an idea exactly what the purpose of the stones were and why there were no guards trying to keep them out of the temple.

To prove his theory, Thanquol swung around and seized the cloak of the warrior-rat standing behind him. Before the clanrat could recover from his surprise, Thanquol pushed him forwards and sent him staggering into the tunnel. Like the gutter runners, the warrior shrieked once and then was reduced to a pile of ash.

‘It is as I thought,’ Thanquol declared in his most imperious tone. The warrior-rats snarled at him, but backed away. They still had enough respect for the grey seer’s powers that they didn’t want to attack him while he was looking.

‘What you think-think, bone-skull?’ Shen hissed. Goji licked his fangs as he heard the annoyance in his master’s tone.

Thanquol strode towards the sorcerer, pleased he had irritated the mage-rat. Shen had no idea what Thanquol had learned. He wondered if the sorcerer had ever even heard of guardian wards, magical sigils that were designed to destroy anyone they recognised as intruders. For the first time in a long time, Thanquol had something the sorcerer wanted – knowledge. And he was going to make Shen pay dearly to get it.

‘I know much-much,’ Thanquol grinned and for once he ignored the way Goji growled at him. Shen wouldn’t let his monster touch him. Not now.

‘I know you flea-bitten whelp-cutters aren’t getting anywhere near this place without my help,’ Thanquol stated.

Shen Tsinge glared daggers at him, but Thanquol could tell from the sorcerer’s posture that he was beaten. Shen knew Thanquol wouldn’t be so bold in his approach unless he was certain he was right.

Abruptly, Shen Tsinge was waving his hands wildly before him, gnawing on a chunk of warpstone as he did so. Thanquol could feel the sorcerer summoning power and his own magical attunement made him aware of the protective nature of Shen’s spell. Quickly, Thanquol dived behind the sorcerer, sheltering between Shen and the towering bulk of Goji.

The world around the two mage-rats exploded into a pillar of fire. Gutter runners and clanrats close to them were immolated in the blast of magical flame, their shadows burned into the side of the pyramid. When the flames faded, Thanquol’s gaze was drawn up the shallow stone steps set into the wall. He blinked in disbelief at the aura of sorcerous might swirling around the creature that stood upon the structure’s flattened roof.

The creature was a skink, his scales the same dark blue as the lizardmen Shiwan and the assassins had killed. The crest that rose from his head was a brilliant red, however, and he wore a more elaborate robe-like garment that was looped over one shoulder, bound about his waist by a golden belt. His arms gleamed as sunlight reflected off the golden talismans and rings he wore. In his hand, the reptile held a massive staff tipped with a great golden icon – the stylised head of a fanged serpent.

Xiuhcoatl! The Prophet of Sotek! Thanquol stared in horror at the object of their mission. He had imagined some slovenly, naked savage whose sum total knowledge of magic was to brew a few poisons to keep his enemies away. Not in his wildest fears had he imagined his enemy would be like this! He could almost see the snake-devil’s coils wrapped protectively around the lizardman, guarding him against any who would dare strike him. It would take the Horned Rat himself to defeat such a mighty foe.

Unfortunately, Shen Tsinge seemed to have the same idea. The sorcerer pushed Thanquol forward. ‘Call upon the Horned One to save us!’ he squeaked in terror.

Suddenly the arrows Thanquol had been expecting earlier began to clatter against the stones around them. He took his eyes away from Xiuhcoatl long enough to see blue-scaled skinks swarming over the tops of the ruined buildings all around them, tiny bows clutched in their claws. More of the creatures were pouring down the streets carrying javelins and holding blowguns to their mouths.

‘The Horned One helps those who run fastest!’ Thanquol snarled, pushing Shen down and racing away from the temple. He could hear the sorcerer hurling curses on his head, but doubted if Shen was enraged enough to send Goji lumbering after him. The sorcerer was going to need the rat ogre to make his own escape.

Fleeing skaven were all around Thanquol now. For a brief moment, Kong had tried to muster his warriors into formation to oppose the lizardmen. Any thoughts of making a stand evaporated however when the skinks came rushing at them. They herded a pair of big ugly reptiles before them, ghastly things with red scales and huge sail-like frills running along their backs. The reptiles hesitated before charging into the massed skaven, instead opening their jaws and spitting a stream of flame full into the faces of the ratmen. The only thing that allowed any of Kong’s warriors to escape was the fact that the salamanders had stopped to eat the burning flesh of the skaven they had killed and no amount of goading from their handlers could get them to move on.

Thanquol felt his heart thundering in his chest as he dashed down the broad street. The expedition was in full rout, gutter runners and assassins sprinting past him on every side. The grey seer cursed every skaven that ran ahead of him, knowing that each one meant one less body between himself and the arrows of the skinks. He earnestly hoped that if he fell in this blighted place, the Horned Rat would remember to punish the vermin for their cowardice!

Panting with exhaustion, Thanquol darted down one of the side streets, thinking that perhaps the lizardmen would ignore a lone skaven and instead concentrate upon the group as a whole. He ran along the deserted street, sticking close to the walls, reassured by the feel of something solid against his whiskers. Behind him he could hear the sounds of battle and knew that at least some of the expedition had been caught. Once again, he prided himself upon his wisdom and foresight.

Suddenly a pair of skinks appeared around the corner before him. The ugly monsters lifted blowguns to their scaly lips and took aim. In a panic, Thanquol pointed his staff at them and sent a bolt of warp-lightning sizzling through them. The ambushers fell, smoke rising from their charred husks. It was a satisfying result, but the pounding ache in his skull wasn’t. He hadn’t had time to prepare himself for such a spell and – moreover – hadn’t had any warpstone to ease the effort.

Thanquol staggered away from the wall, reeling dizzily as he tried to focus his senses. As he left the protection of the wall, he heard something crash behind him. His reflexes were quick enough to see something dark leaping across the rooftop. A huge stone block had fallen into the street, a plume of dust rising from it.

Angrily, Thanquol ground his fangs together. The skinks didn’t wear black cloaks! And the stone didn’t fall! It had been pushed! If he hadn’t moved away from the wall when he did, he would have been crushed beneath it!

Red fury banished the last of Thanquol’s headache. He had thought it strange that two skinks should be waiting for him so far from the main battle. Now he understood – his would-be murderer had lured them here to ambush him. When they failed, he had tried to murder Thanquol himself.

It was a cold, crafty sort of plan. Either way, no one would be able to say he had been killed by another skaven. Thanquol remembered all the other attempts on his life since his return to Skavenblight and throughout the voyage to Lustria. He thought also of a cold, crafty skaven who had been prepared to use his entire expedition as a diversion so he could sneak into the temple.

Thanquol’s claws closed tightly around his staff. Now he knew who was trying to murder him.

And the grey seer wasn’t going to give Shiwan Stalkscent another chance!

Thanquol hurried through the side streets of Quetza, always running parallel to the main avenue down which the skaven were fleeing. He followed the smell of the ratkin. Shiwan’s lack of scent glands made finding him a bit difficult, but Thanquol was reasonably certain he could do it. He had the proper motivation now. Besides, what other skaven would be trying to stem the retreat and force the ratmen back into the fight? Shiwan didn’t care if his followers died, but he did need them to distract the lizardmen long enough for him to get close to Xiuhcoatl.

The grey seer spotted Shiwan close to the back of the fleeing skaven. He wasn’t sure how the master assassin had gotten back to his troops so quickly, but he knew the sneaks of Clan Eshin were capable of many seemingly impossible feats.

Behind the skaven, the lizardmen were making a steady advance, herding their flame-spitting salamanders before them. Thanquol watched the few ratmen Shiwan was able to throw back into the fight being burned alive by the caustic breath of the reptiles. He gritted his teeth as a sinister plan occurred to him.

Waiting until there were no skaven near the little corner he was crouched behind, Thanquol crept forward. Using his staff to focus his concentration, he gestured with his hand at the master assassin. No bolt of lightning for Shiwan Stalkscent, oh no! Thanquol intended to deal with him as the assassin had intended to deal with the grey seer. He would be subtle and make it look like something else was responsible.

Fixing Shiwan’s image in his mind, Thanquol concentrated upon his spell. Again he felt the sharp pang of longing as he was forced to work his magic without warpstone to sustain his energies, but he knew this spell was important enough that he could endure a little suffering. Thanquol closed his hand, making a fist, slowly collecting magical energy in his palm. When he had enough, he opened his hand and sent the energy speeding into Shiwan’s body.

It wasn’t enough energy to kill the assassin. When it struck him, it felt like nothing worse than being accidentally slapped by an excited slave’s tail. However, it struck him in the knee and even so slight a blow was enough to trip him as he ran. The master assassin squealed in fright as he crashed face-first into the paving stones. Before he could recover, the fiery breath of a salamander engulfed him. Shiwan staggered to his feet, his body burning like a living torch. He took only a few shuddering steps before he fell again. The salamander sprang at him, its massive jaws ripping away at his scorched flesh.

Thanquol watched the salamander feed for a moment before turning and fleeing back into the jungle. He hoped the dull-witted beast didn’t choke on anything until after it had gobbled down every last scrap of his enemy.

CHAPTER EIGHT

NEW PLANS, NEW MINIONS

The jungle clearing slowly filled with panting, gasping ratmen. Although the lizardmen hadn’t pursued them beyond the borders of their city, none of the skaven was willing to take the chance that it was some kind of trick. So they hadn’t stopped running until they were deep in the jungle.

Stragglers continued to creep out of the jungle, drawn by the smell of the ratkin. Even with these latecomers, Thanquol judged the expedition had lost nearly half its number in the ambush. He felt no sorrow for their losses, his only worry was that there weren’t enough of them to fight off the beasts of the jungle when they made their way back to the beach.

Perched upon a fallen log, Thanquol leaned back and picked leeches from his fur while he waited for the bickering assassins to make up their minds and head back to the ship. It was, after all, the only sensible thing the slinking killers could do now.

‘Shiwan would not-not leave without killing scaly-meat,’ Kong Krakback was grumbling. The big black skaven sported an ugly gash across his face where a skink javelin had cut him. He was lucky the weapon hadn’t been poisoned.

Tsang Kweek’s fur bristled and his fangs gleamed in his face as he snarled back at the warrior. ‘Shiwan is dead-dead!’ the gutter runner hissed. ‘Who care-think what he do-don’t? I say-tell we leave! Now-now!’

‘We can’t leave.’ Shen Tsinge’s cold tones contrasted with the gutter runner’s frightened squeak. ‘We have to finish mission!’

Tsang spun around and scowled at the thin sorcerer. ‘Temple-place protected by magic! Burn-slay any skaven walk inside!’

‘Scaly-meat will be looking for us now,’ one of the cloaked assassins said, supporting Tsang’s move that they all head back to the ship. ‘Can’t sneak-surprise scaly-meat now!’

Shen shook a clawed finger in the assassin’s face. ‘Think-find way, fool-fur! We don’t go back until Xiuhcoatl is dead!’

‘We can’t get into temple-place!’ persisted Tsang. ‘How do we kill-slay scaly-meat if we can’t get inside!’

For an instant, it looked like Shen was going to pounce on Tsang. The sorcerer’s fur bristled with rage, his fangs gleamed savagely. Suddenly a cunning gleam came into the sorcerer’s eyes. He looked aside at the log and the horned ratman sitting on it. ‘We find-find way inside!’ he snapped.

Leaning on his staff, Shen Tsinge walked over to Thanquol’s perch, the other Eshin leaders following behind him. The sorcerer stared up at the grey seer.

‘Thanquol!’ Shen snapped. ‘We have decided to go back to temple-place! You must break-kill scaly-spells keeping us out!’

Thanquol didn’t look at the sorcerer, instead making a study of the leech he had plucked from his leg. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said, popping the parasite between his fingers. ‘I think Backstabber Tsang has the right idea. We go back.’

‘We can’t go back,’ Shen snarled through clenched fangs. ‘Nightlord Sneek will kill-eat all of us if we fail!’

The reminder of their clanlord’s inevitable vengeance for failure sent a fresh pulse of terror coursing through the ratmen. Thanquol could smell the musk dripping down their legs. He didn’t have to ask to know that he would be included in Sneek’s revenge. If it was any other skaven, he might have suggested sailing away and finding someplace to hide, but he knew there was no hiding from the Nightlord.

It was a desperate situation. Shen was right, they couldn’t go back until Xiuhcoatl was dead. Having seen the Prophet of Sotek in action, he knew that the only way to kill a sorcerer of such awesome ability was to take him unawares. To do that, they would have to get inside the pyramid. And to get inside the pyramid, they needed Thanquol to break the wards that had been placed there to destroy their kind.

Thanquol shivered with fear at the prospect of returning to Quetza and facing Xiuhcoatl again. Then, as his eyes swept across the clearing, he noticed something strange. All the skaven were looking up at him. There was a desperate hope in their eyes. Like Shen, they knew the grey seer was their only hope of getting inside the temple and killing Xiuhcoatl.

He stared down at Shen and the other leaders, lips pulled back in a fierce grin. ‘I might help-save you,’ Thanquol said. ‘But there has been too much bungling from you mouse-murderers!’ He pointed his claw threateningly at the assembled skaven. ‘You thought you knew better than Grey Seer Thanquol how to do what the Nightlord told you to do! Now you know how wrong you were! I should let you all rot-fester! Let your bones warm the bellies of snakes!’

Kong Krakback threw himself to the ground, grovelling before Thanquol’s feet. ‘Please, great master, do not abandon us!’ Kong’s pleading was soon taken up by other skaven, each trying to out-do the other in his obeisance.

‘I might help-save you ungrateful tick-nibblers,’ Thanquol mused, scratching his chin. ‘But I have been badly treated by your leaders…’

‘That was all Shiwan’s idea!’ insisted Tsang Kweek, wringing his paws together. ‘None of us would have dared treat you with dishonour if he hadn’t told-ordered it so!’

Thanquol sneered at the lie. They had all taken part in maltreating him. However, he could still use the faithless vermin.

‘If I help-save you,’ Thanquol pronounced, one finger lifted in warning, ‘then I must-must have total control. I must-must be leader and everyone must-must do what I say!’

That announcement had more than a few of the skaven gnashing their teeth. Yet even these bit down on their pride and bobbed their heads in agreement to Thanquol’s terms. Even Tsang Kweek and Kong Krakback accepted Thanquol’s leadership.

Rubbing his hands together in triumph, Thanquol hopped down from his perch. He grinned at Shen Tsinge. The sorcerer and his rat ogre had been the only skaven to remain standing during the display of grovelling and pleading. Shen snarled back at the grey seer, but he couldn’t hide the icy fear in the depths of his eyes. Thanquol knew then that the sorcerer was broken.

‘I’ll need all the warpstone,’ Thanquol told Shen. The sorcerer lashed his tail in outrage at Thanquol’s demand, but began removing nuggets of the black stone from his pockets just the same. ‘Don’t forget any little bits you might have hiding in your cheek pouches,’ Thanquol spitefully reminded Shen.

Shen’s eyes blazed with fury at the insult, his hand falling to the sword he wore. Behind him, Goji took a menacing step forwards. It was an effort, but Thanquol managed to keep any hint of fear from his posture as he coldly regarded the twin threats of Shen and the rat ogre.

‘As leader, I’ll need protection,’ Thanquol told Shen. ‘I want your rat ogre.’

Shen almost drew his sword, but one look at the skaven around him stayed his hand. They knew Thanquol was their only hope now. If Shen killed the grey seer they would fall on him like a pack of rabid wolf-rats and tear him to pieces. Choking on his rage, the sorcerer bowed his head and waved Goji forward.

Thanquol chittered his delight as he walked around the hulking rat ogre and inspected his new property. The monster was an impressive specimen, much more so than the weakling runts he’d owned before. The beast’s claws were the biggest and sharpest he’d ever seen on a rat ogre, there was an intelligence in his eyes that was almost skaven-like in their depth and understanding. The rat ogre’s fur was thick and lustrous, as black as midnight. He even found the necklace of skulls around the monster’s neck a pleasing touch.

‘You need a better name than Goji,’ Thanquol mused as he circled the rat ogre. ‘I think I shall call you…’ He paused in thought, picking at his ear as he considered what he would call his new bodyguard. The rat ogre stared down at him, an almost expectant look in his beady eyes.

‘Boneripper,’ Thanquol decided. It was a good name for a rat ogre, the kind of name that scared enemies just to hear it.

And Boneripper was going to scare his enemies. Thanquol was going to make sure of that.

Grey Seer Thanquol rested with his back against a palm, casually nibbling on the parrot in his paws. The bird had a curious taste, and not one that he was certain he appreciated. But meat was meat, and it would be a sign of weakness to forfeit the provisions his loyal followers had brought him. He looked up from his meal, savouring the sullen stares of the Eshin skaven. Let the rats skulk! It was no less than they deserved for all the indignities they had heaped on him!

Calmly, Thanquol handed the rest of the parrot to his bodyguard. The bird’s bones crunched noisily as Boneripper crushed it in his powerful jaws. Being careful to keep the rat ogre well-fed had done wonders for shifting his loyalty from Shen Tsinge. Thanquol was impressed by his intelligence and practicality. The sorcerer had always treated his bodyguard as nothing but another lackey, something that was second best. Boneripper deserved better treatment, and Thanquol was careful to put the rat ogre’s needs ahead of even his own.

Thinking about needs, Thanquol studied the fruit basket the gutter runners had brought him. He picked through the assorted nuts and berries, sniffing suspiciously at the ones he wasn’t certain were edible and glancing up maliciously to see which of his minions he would choose to test the suspect berries. He selected a ripe banana. He’d developed a bit of a taste for the mushy fruit. Picking out a leather-skinned melon at the same time, Thanquol let Boneripper gorge himself on the rest of the food that looked safe.

‘If you are finished eating, grim and terrible slayer-lord,’ one of the bowing hunter-rats started to address Thanquol.

A flash of fright raced along Thanquol’s spine. His eyes narrowed with hate and his foot kicked out, cracking against the hunter’s muzzle. ‘Don’t call me that!’ he snarled, trying to banish the momentary image of a ginger-haired dwarf-thing that had risen in his mind. ‘Don’t ever do that again, you paw-licking whelp-stealer!’ He stood, glaring down at the trembling victim of his ill-temper. Thanquol was pretty sure he knew who would be testing the suspicious berries.

‘Begging indulgence, mighty tyrant,’ Shen Tsinge’s ingratiating tones reached Thanquol’s ears. He turned to find the thin sorcerer shuffling towards him, leaning on his staff. Thanquol was pleased when he heard Boneripper growl at his old master’s approach.

‘What do you want, mage-rat?’ Thanquol demanded, giving another spiteful kick to the prostrate hunter.

For an instant, Shen’s face pulled back in a challenging grin, but he quickly covered his fangs again. ‘Thanquol…’

‘Grey Seer Thanquol!’ Thanquol snarled at the sorcerer.

Shen bent and bowed in contrition for the improper address. ‘Grey Seer Thanquol, we have been hiding in jungle-place for many-many sun-moon.’

‘Yes?’ Thanquol hissed at Shen, reminding the sorcerer to be very careful with whatever he was going to say.

‘Grey Seer Thanquol, we have been here long-long,’ Shen said. ‘We follow-obey whatever Thanquol speak-squeak. We bring-take water for Thanquol’s bath while we are thirsty. We bring-take meat for Thanquol’s meals while we eat ants and roots.’

‘Yes?’ Thanquol demanded again. The grey seer cast a wary eye at the other skaven who were listening to the exchange. He’d been forced to put down one insurrection already. If Shen was going to lead another one it might be more difficult to squash.

‘When we go back and kill Xiuhcoatl!’ Shen snarled, lashing his tail through the underbrush. ‘We stay in jungle-place we die-die!’

Thanquol bared his fangs at the rebellious sorcerer. ‘I am waiting for a sign from the Horned One!’ When questioned about his decisions, Thanquol always found it wisest to invoke his god. Then if his enemy persisted in doubting him, it was the same as if he was doubting the Horned Rat. It was always easy to rouse skaven to destroy a ratman who had been branded a heretic.

Unfortunately, Shen was bold enough to persist. ‘When you see-scent sign?’ Shen growled. ‘When all Eshin-rats are bones? When only Grey Seer Thanquol still has strength to walk-scurry from jungle-place?’

‘Heretic!’ Thanquol snapped, pointing a claw at the defiant sorcerer. ‘Seize him!’ he ordered the other skaven.

None of them lifted a paw, but instead glared at him with angry eyes. Boneripper moved beside Thanquol, but even the threat of the rat ogre didn’t seem to matter to the abused and starving skaven.

‘I am your only chance!’ Thanquol reminded the skaven. ‘Without me, you can’t get into temple-place!’

‘We aren’t getting inside with you,’ Tsang Kweek hissed, fingering one of his knives. ‘All we’re doing is getting weak while you get fat!’

Thanquol glared at the gutter runner. ‘The Horned Rat will shrivel your nethers for speaking to me like that! I am waiting for his holy scent to show us the way!’

‘Liar! Coward!’ one of the assassins shouted, emboldened by his lack of scent to hide his identity from Thanquol’s wrath. ‘Where is this sign from the Horned One!’

Suddenly a group of scouts came scurrying back into the clearing. Despite the mutiny all around him, Thanquol managed to notice with some misgiving that the hunters had come back empty-handed. However, rather than trying to slink off and avoid the grey seer, they excitedly rushed right towards him.

‘Great and might paw of the Horned One!’ the hunters squeaked. ‘There are man-things in jungle-place! Live man-things! We saw-scented them!’

Thanquol stroked one of his horns as he digested the excited report. The only humans they had seen since landing in this accursed place had been the walking dead-things in the swamp. He had begun to believe that there were no humans on the entire continent. It had been his experience that once man-things were established in a place, they quickly built nests everywhere. Yet they had seen no trace of any human villages. Indeed, except for the zombie tower, the only buildings they had seen were the ruins left by the lizardmen.

What would humans be doing here, so far from anyplace they had any right to be? The answer came to Thanquol as he glanced down at the excited hunters. Of course! He could have bit himself for not seeing it sooner. This was the sign he had been waiting for! As soon as that realisation came to him, a plan instantly began to form in Thanquol’s crooked mind.

‘Go-fetch man-things!’ Thanquol snarled at his minions. ‘I want all-all man-things! Bring them to me, live-live! If you kill-kill, I’ll cut out your brains and feed them to you!’

His minions didn’t stop to question the impossibility of Thanquol’s threat, but turned back and raced into the jungle, eager to obey his command. Thanquol watched them go, his tail lashing behind him impatiently. Now that the plan had formed in his mind, he wanted to try it out. If he was right, very soon they would be inside the Temple of the Serpent.

If he was wrong… Thanquol shuddered and started thinking about what he would do if he was wrong.

The trek through the jungle had become torture after the escape from the cold ones. With the loss of the water, there was no relief from the hot, sweltering misery that made every breath agony. Even the fine clothes of van Sommerhaus had been reduced to strips of rotten cloth hanging in damp tatters off his starving body. There had been no more straying off the path to find food since their encounter with the giant reptiles. Before, they had imagined the worst they might stumble on in the jungle was a prowling jaguar. Now they knew better and even the grumbling in their stomachs was not enough to send the men back among the trees.

Only one hope remained to them: the promise that the strange pathway was guiding them somewhere. They had all seen too much to doubt the sorcerous nature of the trail. If magic was behind the path, then it had to have some purpose, some reason for being. At each bend, they expected to see the golden city van Sommerhaus continued to talk about. Each time they felt the bitter sting of disappointment. There seemed no end to the jungle. If some distant power was watching over them, it seemed to have greatly overestimated their endurance.

Or had it? Adalwolf wondered about the brief glimpses of the night sky he could see through the trees overhead. He had a slight enough knowledge of astronomy to know there was something wrong about those stars. Captain Schachter and Marjus, men with much greater knowledge of navigating by the night sky, were positively terrified by what they saw to such an extent that as soon as the sun went down, they stubbornly refused to even glance up.

One day as they trudged along the path, Brother Diethelm offered an explanation for what had disturbed Adalwolf and frightened the sailors. ‘It isn’t that the stars are strange to them,’ the priest said. ‘It is that they move in ways no star should from night to night.’ He shook his head. ‘No magic, even such magic as makes this path for us, is strong enough to shift the stars from their settings. It is we who are moved in strange ways, not the heavens. Imagine a sheet of parchment upon which you draw a line. Now take the same sheet and fold it upon itself and draw a line. You have still crossed the parchment with your line, but it is a much shorter line.’

The mercenary blinked in confusion at Diethelm’s words. ‘I don’t understand.’

Diethelm favoured him with a patient smile. ‘This road,’ he said. ‘We know it is a creation of sorcery. But I think we make a mistake to presume it simply passes through the jungle. I believe it also folds the space around it. The road, like my parchment, shortens the line in some strange fashion we cannot fathom. To our eyes, nothing seems different, because we are walking within this fold and do not know how great the distance should be. The stars, however, cannot be fooled, and when they shine upon us, they shine from where they truly sit, not where we believe they should sit.’

Adalwolf’s mouth went dry at the priest’s explanation. ‘I’ve heard mad tales of such things from Norse sailors about the lands beyond the Troll Country, but I never believed them. Can any magic be so powerful as to change the land itself in such a way?’

‘I fear we walk within proof that there is such magic,’ Diethelm said. ‘We can only pray that the mind behind such magic bears us no malice.’

From the path ahead came excited voices. Adalwolf and Diethelm hurried forwards to find the remaining sailors hacking away at the vines bordering the path. Schachter stood nearby, arms folded across his chest, supervising the labour of his crew while van Sommerhaus gave them verbal encouragement by promising each man a gold guilder if they hurried.

‘What goes on here?’ Adalwolf asked Hiltrude.

The woman smiled at him, her drawn face lifting in an expression of breathless anticipation. ‘One of the sailors heard water flowing through the jungle close to the path! He thinks it must be some kind of river.’

‘Water!’ Adalwolf exclaimed. He wondered if any word had ever sounded more beautiful. The last real water they’d had was when they’d lost the sledge. Since then, they had been drinking whatever they could wring out of their sodden clothes after the jungle’s frequent rainstorms. ‘Are they sure?’

‘They are,’ Diethelm said. ‘I can smell a great quantity of water close to us.’

The axes and cutlasses of the men broke through the wall of vines. Beyond, they found that the trees were more widely spaced, the ground being too moist to support the overgrowth they had become accustomed to. In the absence of trees, fern bushes and saw grass had found room to grow, clinging close to the muddy earth. They did not obscure the welcome view that warmed the hearts of the men on the pathway: a great river slashing its way through the trees, its green waters murmuring softly as they washed over the many boulders lining its boundaries.

Hunger had not driven the survivors to brave the horrors of the jungle, but thirst was a need powerful enough to stifle even their fear. With so much water so near, the sailors rushed for the river, shouting and laughing like children. Adalwolf and Hiltrude joined the mad rush to the river and even van Sommerhaus forgot his detached dignity and threw himself headlong into the emerald waters. Only Brother Diethelm remained wary, watching every tree and bush for the first sign of danger as he carefully walked down to the river bank.

The crew greedily drank their fill of the water, then began to wash the filth from their clothes and bodies. Hiltrude tried to cleanse the stains from her ragged dress, doing her best to ignore the lascivious catcalls from the seamen as she exposed her slender legs in the process. Captain Schachter filled his hat with water then turned it over his head, letting the cool liquid wash down his face. Van Sommerhaus, after his first dive into the river, lounged upon one of the boulders, gently splashing water across his neck as though he were some noble lady daintily applying perfume. Marjus and the sailors cavorted in the middle of the shallow river, revelling in the luxury of the moment.

After taking a few long sips from the river, Adalwolf sat himself on the sandy shore and started unbuckling his armour. He was still thinking clearly enough that he didn’t want his armour getting any more rusty than it was from the rain. Carefully, he set the weather-beaten vest against some rocks and started to unfasten his boots. Diethelm’s hand on his shoulder caused him to stop.

‘I’ve been watching the river,’ the priest said. ‘What do you think of that?’

Diethelm pointed to a patch of river a dozen yards from where the sailors were swimming. At first, Adalwolf couldn’t tell exactly what he was looking at. It looked like the water was shivering, breaking out in bumps. If there had been any rain, he might have thought it was raindrops striking the water. He truly had no idea what it was.

‘Fish?’ he wondered. Still, that would hardly account for the chill that crept down his back. Surely the river was too shallow to harbour anything that could threaten a man? Even so, he watched the shivering patch of water begin to move towards them, moving upstream against the flow of the river.

Adalwolf rose and quickly moved down to the river bank. Sternly, he grabbed Hiltrude’s arm and pulled the protesting courtesan out of the water. When she moved to grab her shoes, Adalwolf savagely pulled her back again.

‘Out of the water!’ the mercenary shouted. He pointed his hand at the patch of dancing water.

The sailors saw what he was pointing at and laughed, several of them shaking their fists and cursing Adalwolf for trying to scare them. Closer to the disturbance, they could see what was causing it. No terrifying river monster, just a school of ugly little silver-coloured fish.

The jeering shouts of the sailors became bloodcurdling screams as the school of fish swam into them. The green waters around them turned cloudy and red. Frantically, the men beat at the water with their hands, trying to scare away their attackers. One man lifted his hand from the water with a fish hanging from it, the animal’s sharp fangs sunk deep into his flesh. Frenziedly the fish twisted and writhed, ripping gory ribbons from the sailor’s palm.

Horror-stricken, the men fled the water as quickly as they could. The piranhas converged on the slowest, ripping and tearing at their bodies as they tried to make shore. From the banks of the river, those safely on land could only watch the ghoulish display as the fish devoured their prey alive. When Marjus scrambled out of the water, he sported a hideous gash across his leg where the piranhas had savaged it clear down to the bone. He was the last to escape. Three other sailors never left the water, their bodies floating gruesomely down the river, pursued by the school of cannibal fish.

All eyes were fixed on the river and the terrible scene playing out upon it, so none of the survivors noticed the first cloaked shape emerge from the jungle. Quietly, other verminous shapes detached themselves from the trees, silently forming a cordon around the humans.

Hiltrude was the first to turn her face in disgust from the spectacle of the piranhas feeding on the dead seamen. In turning, she found herself facing a sight even more ghastly. A long, rodent-like visage stared at her with beady eyes and vicious, gleaming fangs. The creature gripped a wicked-looking dagger in its furry hand.

The courtesan let out a shriek of horror, flinging her shoe at the monster. The skaven ducked the clumsy attack and snarled at her threateningly. She retreated before the monster, stopping only when she felt water lapping against her naked heel.

At Hiltrude’s cry, the others swung around. Her scream was echoed by the men around her, men who were shaken to their souls by the awful sight. Even if the cold ones had returned, or the carnosaur had decided they would make nice snacks after all, the men would not have shown such horror. The giant reptiles were things they could accept, menaces they knew were real. What faced them now was nightmare, myth made flesh. Every man among them had been raised on fairy tales about the baby-stealing underfolk, nursery stories to make bad children behave. They had laughed at Tilean sailors who insisted such monsters were real and often got them drunk simply to hear such stories so they could laugh at them again. The underfolk weren’t real! They couldn’t be! The world couldn’t harbour such fiendish things!

Yet what stood before them, knives and swords in their hands, were undeniably the underfolk! The creatures had formed a semicircle around them, surrounding them on three sides. To their back, was the river.

Adalwolf made a dive to recover his sword from where he had left it against the rocks. One of the ratmen snarled at him, and a sharp throwing knife slashed across his knuckles as he grabbed for his blade. The mercenary recoiled in pain, glaring at the hideous monsters, trying to control the fear pulsing through his veins. His horror only increased when one of the ratmen opened its muzzle and began to push words through its fangs.

‘Man-things come-come!’ the ratman snapped. Its words faded into a peal of chittering laughter. ‘Or go swim-die,’ it hissed, pointing its claw at the river.

Before any of the terrified humans could consider the ghoulish choice the ratman had given them, its fellows rushed them in a snarling swarm, smashing them down with the flats of their blades and the rusty pommels of their swords.

Thanquol stroked his whiskers thoughtfully as Tsang Kweek brought the sorry-looking pack of humans to him. They looked half-dead and smelled little better. He was familiar enough with the different breeds of man-things to know that these belonged to the big Clan Empire. Their lands were far away, beyond even Skavenblight. It made little sense to him that these humans should be here, but very little humans did made sense to him.

Tsang Kweek had brought the humans back to the clearing in haste. The gutter runners and assassins had an easy time capturing the witless animals – but after all it had been Thanquol’s plan, so the ease of their success was hardly surprising. Kong Krakback and his warriors had searched Tsang’s sneaks for any captured plunder. They’d found a few things that Thanquol found interesting. A little glass bottle with some strangely scented liquid inside, a curious copper tube with glass fitted at each end that made things look smaller when he looked into it, and a pair of gaudy pistols, like shabby little cousins of the warplock weapons Clan Skryre made. Thanquol had been quick to take those. He knew how easily a bullet could go astray if left in the paws of a treacherous underling.

The humans were huddled on the ground before Thanquol’s perch, forced into uncomfortable bows by the kicks and threats of his loyal minions.

The grey seer was silent a long time, enjoying the frightened way the humans were looking at him. They knew who was their master, even without being told! They had sense enough to recognise his greatness, his authority, simply by looking at him! One day all of the decadent lands of the man-things would be brought under the rule of skavendom. Then all humans would grovel before him with the same look of respect and fear. Even that scrawny man-thing pet that damn dwarf had tagging along with him!

Thanquol bruxed his fangs together and lashed his tail angrily when he realised the prisoners weren’t looking at him, they were looking above him. He glanced over his shoulder and his mood became even blacker. The stupid, senseless brutes thought Boneripper was the leader!

‘I am Grey Seer Thanquol!’ he snarled at the dull-eyed humans, putting a full measure of venom in his tone. He waited a moment, then ground his fangs together when that announcement didn’t impress any of them. ‘I am leader here,’ he continued. ‘You will call-know me as master-king! Whatever I say-squeak, you do!’

Thanquol smiled. The more he spoke, the more upset the humans became. Good! Soon he would have them completely terrified and wrapped around his tail like a trained slug.

‘If you obey-please me, I will let-allow you to live,’ Thanquol said.

‘Filthy monster!’ one of the humans suddenly shouted. The man was on his feet and leaping for Thanquol so quickly, the grey seer didn’t have time to react. The human’s hands closed about his robe and Thanquol felt himself being pulled down from the log.

Suddenly the grip on him grew slack. Thanquol looked down to see the human’s torso laying at his feet, the man’s legs a good dozen yards across the clearing. Boneripper stood above the mess, licking blood from his massive claws. Even though he obscured Thanquol’s view of the humans, he decided to let the rat ogre stay where he was.

‘That is an example-warning!’ Thanquol hissed at the cowering humans. ‘Defy me and die-die!’ He let his angry gaze sweep across the trembling humans. He squinted in surprise as he noticed one of them was female. ‘Next time, I feed your breeder to Boneripper!’ He felt pleased when he saw one of the humans instantly wrap a protective arm around the female. In his experience, humans were never so manageable as when there were breeders and whelps around to threaten.

Strangely, one of the humans actually stared at him without the extreme fear the others showed. The animal’s temerity only increased when he spoke to Thanquol.

‘Are you the one who made the path we followed?’ the human asked.

Thanquol’s brow wrinkled in confusion. He didn’t like this human, there was a faint smell of magic about him. He was tempted to have the human killed just to be safe, but that impulse was mitigated by the fact that if he was wrong about how to get inside the pyramid, the human might know another way. What this path was the mage-thing was babbling about, Thanquol had no idea, but he decided to run with it.

‘Of course, fool-thing!’ Thanquol snapped. ‘With my powers I sent-made a trail-path to bring you to me. Now you must serve-obey Grey Seer Thanquol for saving you!’

The humans didn’t look particularly grateful, but clearly they were even more afraid of him now – and this time they weren’t looking at Boneripper by mistake. That was good, the more they feared him, the quicker they would be to obey his every command.

Brusquely, Thanquol snapped orders to Kong and Shen. They were to have all of the skaven ready to march. Now that he had the humans, Thanquol was eager to put his theory to the test. If he was right, they would soon be inside the pyramid and they could surprise Xiuhcoatl.

If he was wrong… well, the more skaven the lizardmen killed when they returned to Quetza, the better it would be for Thanquol!

CHAPTER NINE

THE TEMPLE OF THE SERPENT

The city of Quetza was eerily quiet when the skaven made their return. This time there were no sunning skinks to massacre and exploit the way the late and unlamented Shiwan Stalkscent had done. Thanquol favoured a more careful approach this time. They circled around the city, entering it from the north instead of the south, and they were cautious to keep clear of the broad main roads that led directly to the pyramid, instead scurrying through the crumbling side streets and keeping to the shadows.

It was not an easy thing, moving a hundred skaven and a pawful of human slaves silently through the rubble. If Thanquol had been less of a strategic genius, he might have despaired of accomplishing such a bold manoeuvre. Of course, it probably also helped keep his troops in top form when Boneripper bit off the head of the first clanrat to make a noise. A bit of terror did wonders to reinforce obedience among the rabble, Thanquol found.

The humans, of course, were clumsy and slow. If he didn’t need them so much, Thanquol would have gutted them before they’d gone more than a hundred yards into the ruins. However, they were a vital element in his plan, so he ground his teeth, kicked a convenient underling, and just concentrated on all the things he would do to the useless creatures once they’d served their purpose.

A full moon shone over the ancient city, causing the crumbling stones to shine weirdly in the silver light. The great pyramid that was the Temple of Sotek stood like a gleaming mountain amid the decaying rubble around it. The stink of reptiles and serpents was thick in the noses of the skaven as soon as they entered the city, but as they crept closer to the temple a new smell sent a twinge of fear shuddering through them: the hot stagnant smell of ratman blood.

Closer to the pyramid now, Thanquol could see that there were lizardmen lining its steps, swaying their bodies in a hideously snakelike harmony. Between the ranks of the skinks, a few bound skaven shivered and whined, prisoners taken in the first ill-fated assault on the temple.

A low hissing chant whispered down from the flattened roof of the pyramid. A great golden altar stood upon the roof and across its surface, arms and legs held firmly by four robed reptilian priests, a struggling skaven was stretched. His pitiful crying made Thanquol glance nervously towards the jungle and wonder if perhaps they might be better returning to its shelter. Thoughts of retreat vanished from Thanquol’s mind as he saw a fifth skink loom over the captive.

Even from such a distance, Thanquol could sense the awful power of the lizardman. Though all the reptiles looked the same to him, there was no mistaking that aura of brooding malignance and ancient enmity. It was Xiuhcoatl himself, the dread Prophet of Sotek, who stood behind the altar and lifted an obsidian knife above the breast of the struggling prisoner!

Xiuhcoatl lifted his scaly face heavenward, singing his praises to the moon and the watching stars. Then the prophet’s hand came stabbing down. The ratman screamed as the dagger bit into his breast, thrashing wildly in the remorseless grip of the skink priests. Pitilessly, Xiuhcoatl dug the dagger’s edge into the flesh of his sacrifice, relenting only when he had completed a vicious circle. Xiuhcoatl reached into the gory mess with his other claw, ripping free the ratman’s beating heart.

The prophet ignored the twitching corpse splayed beneath him as he lifted his gruesome offering high above his head. Xiuhcoatl held the heart up so that the moon and all the stars might see it, then stepped forwards and displayed his trophy for the skinks standing upon the stairs. They hissed in satisfaction, the crests upon their heads snapping open to better exhibit their pleasure. Xiuhcoatl handed the heart to a skink standing upon the topmost step. Uttering a quick chirp to honour his leader, the skink tore ravenously at the lump of bloody flesh.

Xiuhcoatl stepped back behind the altar. A flick of his head sent the four priests into action. In stark contrast to the reverence with which the heart had been treated, the priests simply threw the body of the ratman down the side of the pyramid, not even waiting to see where it fell. Xiuhcoatl’s head undulated in an approving nod as another skaven captive was pulled up the stairs and laid out upon the golden altar.

Thanquol quivered, smelling the musk of fear rising from his followers. It was good that they showed fear – it would mask his own frightened scent. Even the humans were terrified, their faces colourless as they watched Xiuhcoatl butcher his prisoners. Perhaps they weren’t as stupid as the grey seer had thought.

‘We-we not fight-slay that-that!’ Shen Tsinge wailed, his tail clenched tightly in his hands.

‘Run-run! Quick-quick!’ added Tsang Kweek, his fangs chattering against each other.

‘Go tell-say Nightlord that kill-kill scaly-meat is impossible!’ insisted Kong Krakback.

Thanquol grinned at each of his underlings in turn, making each of them quail before his merciless gaze. He was careful to conceal his own fear as he upbraided his minions for theirs. ‘He’s out of his damn hide-hole!’ Thanquol snarled, pointing a claw at the top of the pyramid. ‘Now-now! We strike-kill! Lizard-meat pray to snake-devil, never see-smell us until it is too late-late!

‘Kong, you take your war-rats and attack-kill from this side!’ Thanquol told the hulking black skaven. ‘I take-take gutter runners and assassins. We strike-kill from other end! No fear-fear! The Horned One will protect us!’

His underlings looked rather uncertain about that last part, but they did think he might have a point about taking the lizardmen by surprise. Thanquol toyed with a tiny nugget of warpstone, just enough to power a deliciously destructive spell. The implied threat removed the last reservations the skaven had about following his plan. Quickly they separated into two groups. Kong’s warriors made the biggest group, nearly two-thirds of their number, and Thanquol had to resist the instinctive urge to join them. Instead, he turned to Tsang Kweek and the score of scouts and assassins with him. Impatiently, he motioned them to start hurrying around to the back of the pyramid, to the face they had approached in the first attack.

‘What about man-things?’ Shen Tsinge asked, flicking his tail at the humans.

‘I will take them with me,’ Thanquol said. ‘They will make a good victory feast. Now, hurry and help Kong’s war-rats!’

Shen stared at Thanquol, then at the pyramid, then at the human prisoners. ‘I think I stay with you,’ the sorcerer said, suspicion in his voice.

Thanquol gnashed his fangs in annoyance. Shen was too clever by far. As much as he wanted to order the sorcerer to follow Kong, he couldn’t have him passing his suspicions on to the black skaven. ‘Of course,’ Thanquol hissed, lashing his tail. ‘I was only thinking your magic would help Kong.’ Grudgingly, he motioned for Shen to join the group rushing to circle the pyramid. He might be forced to keep the sorcerer with him, but he wasn’t going to have him at his back.

It took the skaven only a short time to make their way around the pyramid. They would have made it even faster, but the humans slowed them down. Tsang even pointed this out to Thanquol, but the grey seer stubbornly refused to leave his pets behind. By the time they reached the other face of the pyramid, sounds of battle were already coming from the other side.

Thanquol licked his fangs eagerly as he heard the sounds and watched skinks rushing over the top of the pyramid to join the fight raging on the steps below. Kong’s war-rats should be able to keep the lizardmen distracted for a little while at least. Long enough to suit his purposes.

‘They are fighting Kong!’ Tsang Kweek pointed out. ‘Now’s our chance!’ The gutter runner started to lead his troops towards the steps when Thanquol’s snarl called him back.

‘Fool-meat!’ Thanquol snapped. He pointed a claw at the top of the pyramid where Xiuhcoatl and the four skink priests still stood. They seemed to be watching the battle raging on the other side of the pyramid, but Thanquol wasn’t deceived. ‘Xiuhcoatl is waiting for us to attack! It’s a trap-trick, just like before!’

‘Then what…’

Thanquol swatted the end of Tsang’s snout with his staff. ‘Dung-sucking idiot!’ he snapped. He gestured with his staff to the opening, the magically protected tunnel that disintegrated any skaven who set paw within it. ‘We’re going in there, exactly where Xiuhcoatl won’t expect us!’

Understanding started to dawn in Tsang’s eyes, but Thanquol didn’t wait for him to come around. Impatiently, he snarled at Boneripper to bring the humans to the tunnel. Snarling, his huge arms spread wide to prevent anyone from slipping past him, the rat ogre herded the prisoners towards the pyramid.

Thanquol scurried after the huge beast, keeping one anxious eye on the top of the pyramid. If Xiuhcoatl caught on to what he was doing, there might not be enough time to make it back to the jungle before the full force of the lizardmen came down upon them.

The grey seer glowered at the sinister passageway. The skinks had cleaned away the ashes, but Thanquol could still smell the stink of fiery death in the air. He stared hatefully at the glyphs with their depiction of a snake eating a rat.

Irritably, he turned and snarled at his slaves. They had names, but the grey seer found it annoying to try to remember them. They all smelled pretty much the same and it was difficult to match the scent to a name anyway. ‘Which man-thing is leader?’ Thanquol demanded.

Van Sommerhaus pointed frantically at Captain Schachter. ‘Him! Him, he’s the captain!’

Schachter gave the patroon an icy stare. ‘Thanks, Lukas.’

At Thanquol’s gesture, Boneripper shoved the man forward. Schachter straightened himself up, trying to appear unafraid as he stood before the horned ratman. His bravado quickly failed and soon he was wringing his hat between his hands and nodding his head in eager servility to everything that was said to him.

‘Go-go!’ Thanquol snarled. ‘Take down snake-stones! Take down all snake-stones you see-find!’ When he saw that his slave didn’t understand, Thanquol growled at Boneripper.

Before anyone could react, Boneripper swung around and snatched a gutter runner from the ground. The ratman squirmed in his grip, but the huge beast was oblivious to his victim’s clawing and biting. Grimly, Boneripper turned back towards the tunnel and with a single heave of his powerful arm he threw the gutter runner down the tunnel.

As soon as the skaven passed the invisible barrier, the glyphs burned with power. There was a scream, a flash of light, and then a little pile of ashes on the floor.

‘Understand now, fool-meat?’ Thanquol hissed at Schachter. ‘Skaven can’t go inside, but stupid man-things can!’

The captain nodded his understanding. ‘You want them carvings tore down so’s you can go inside!’ Schachter flinched as the grey seer bared his fangs. He guessed that Thanquol was quickly losing his patience. ‘I can do it! But I’ll need help to do it.’

Thanquol glared suspiciously at the human, then glanced at the other slaves. ‘One,’ he said, lifting a claw. ‘Take-take one to help.’

Schachter nodded his understanding. He looked over the other captives. For a moment, he locked eyes with Adalwolf. A hint of regret came across Schachter’s features, then he pointed at Marjus Pfaff. ‘Him. He’s the one I want.’

Thanquol watched as the two men started timidly towards the opening, both of them looking down frequently at the smoking pile of ash. ‘Quick-quick!’ he snapped. ‘Go fast-fast or I kill other man-things!’

The threat seemed to work. The two men stepped boldly over the pile of ash. Thanquol closed his eyes and covered his ears, expecting another explosive display of magic. When nothing happened, a malicious grin of triumph spread across his face. He was right! The wards only guarded against skaven, not humans!

Any sense of triumph he felt faded when Thanquol stared down the tunnel. The humans should have stopped and started tearing down the wards. Instead they were running down the corridor as fast as they could!

‘Stop-stop! I kill-kill other man-things!’ Thanquol shouted. Schachter turned and flicked his hand under his chin at the grey seer before racing off. Soon both men were lost in the gloom of the tunnel.

Thanquol gnashed his fangs in fury and drew his sword. He rounded on the last of his slaves, fully intent on carrying out his threat. Only cold pragmatism stayed his hand. If he killed the humans, he would never get inside the pyramid. He glared at the trembling captives, smelling their fear-stink. Then he remembered something else about their smell.

Savagely Thanquol grabbed Hiltrude’s hair, pulling the woman away from the others. Humans were very protective of their breeders, he knew, and this knowledge was born out when Adalwolf clenched his fists and lunged at the grey seer. The mercenary didn’t come close to striking Thanquol. Boneripper’s enormous paw closed around him like a vice before he could take more than a few steps towards the grey seer. Only a quick command from Thanquol prevented the rat ogre from crushing him like a grape.

‘Good-good,’ Thanquol crowed as he returned Adalwolf’s enraged gaze. ‘You aren’t like leader man-thing.’ He paused, wondering if perhaps human leaders and skaven leaders weren’t really the same when it came to the lives of their underlings. ‘You don’t want see-smell pretty breeder get hurt.’

‘Take your filthy paws off her, you scum!’ Adalwolf raged.

Thanquol chuckled darkly. He pulled Hiltrude’s hair, forcing her head back and exposing her soft throat. ‘No talk-speak!’ Thanquol hissed. ‘You do what I say, or I eat she-thing’s tongue!’ For emphasis, he bared his fangs, displaying the murderous incisors and snapping them together. He pointed at the tunnel with his staff. ‘Go do what leader-man didn’t do! Break snake-stones! Break all snake-stones or she-thing die-die!’

Seeing that Adalwolf understood that he meant his threat, Thanquol motioned for Boneripper to release the man.

‘Are you all right?’ Adalwolf asked Hiltrude. The woman tried to nod, but Thanquol tugged her head back.

‘Stop talk-speak!’ the grey seer fumed. ‘Work-work!’

Glaring at the skaven, Adalwolf marched into the darkness of the tunnel. Soon he started attacking the nearest of the snake-glyphs. With no other tools to use, the man removed his boot, battering at the ward with the heavy heel.

Thanquol watched the operation with keen interest. He could sense something like a sigh in the air as the glyphs were battered into dust. It was the magical energy it had contained being released. The ward was broken! Its powers were gone!

Of course, he could have Boneripper persuade one of the gutter runners to test the corridor first just in case he was wrong…

Flattened disks of blackness abruptly expanded into great pools as the eyes of the slann focused once more on the mundane plane of matter and spirit that surrounded the mage-priest. Skink scribes hurried around Lord Tlaco, recording every change in his mottled skin.

Lord Tlaco lounged in his gilded seat, the baser elements of his consciousness savouring the cool water skink attendants splashed across his rubbery skin. It was a crude pleasure, a weakness of the fleshy vessel Lord Tlaco’s mind inhabited. The mage-priest quickly suppressed the sensation, concentrating again upon probabilities and unknown quotients. The low phase algorithms had reached Quetza and through them, the decaying fractals had broken the equations that restrained them. For the first time since the city had been retaken, the Temple of the Serpent was being invaded.

Everything was proceeding as the mage-priest had predicted, but still he could not decipher the final variables. All the elements of the equation were in place, but still he could not foresee the solution. For this reason, it was important that Lord Tlaco be there to observe the events that it had engineered.

One of the skink attendants locked eyes with Lord Tlaco as the slann set a thought-image in the lizardman’s mind. As soon as the thought had taken form, the skink hurried away to prepare things. There was much to do: skinks to muster from their villages, saurus warriors to rouse from their caves, beasts to gather from their lairs. Lord Tlaco was stirring from his temple for the first time in millennia, but the slann had not forgotten the need to protect his fleshy shell. When the mage-priest began to travel through the geo-spatial folds an entire army would march with Lord Tlaco.

An army that would surround the abandoned city of Quetza and ensure that nothing escaped until Lord Tlaco’s equation had been solved.

Grey Seer Thanquol congratulated himself on his craftiness as he stalked down the gloomy stone corridors. Who but the mighty Grey Seer Thanquol could have solved the riddle of getting past the ancient wards that had been set in place to destroy any skaven that dared trespass within the pyramid? No one, of course. It was a feat of genius worthy of the Horned Rat himself!

He had to give some grudging admiration to the reptilian wizards that had created the cunning trap. There had been five layers of wards in all, five separate arrangements of the deadly glyph-stones each placed ten yards deeper into the tunnel than the last. Even if one set of wards had failed, the lizardmen had prepared others to guard the way.

The human had performed well enough, smashing each glyph-stone in turn. Thanquol had considered killing him once the last layer of wards was broken and the tunnel broke into a junction of intersecting corridors. His natural paranoia kept him from giving the order, however. There might be still other wards waiting for them inside the pyramid. If so, he would need the human to smash them. The others he would keep to ensure the slave’s obedience.

Thanquol sniffed at the air. It was thick and musty with the stink of snakes, enough to set his fur crawling in fear. But there was something else, something he could smell each time he took a pinch of warpstone snuff. There was a suggestion of power in the air, a brooding arcane energy that coursed through the very stones.

Tsang Kweek and the assassins wanted to find the stairs and follow them to the roof of the pyramid so they could kill Xiuhcoatl. Angrily, Thanquol upbraided them for their stupidly suicidal plan. He pointed out to them that the prophet would be able to obliterate them all with his magic before they could even get within spitting distance of him. No, they had to find the source of Xiuhcoatl’s power and destroy it if they were to have any chance of completing their mission.

In truth, Thanquol was no longer thinking in terms of Nightlord Sneek and his tyrannical whims. Smelling the power inside the pyramid had given him a much different idea. Any sorcerer as powerful as Xiuhcoatl couldn’t possibly harness such energies without help. The lizardman must have many arcane artefacts hidden away within the temple, foci for his malignant spells. Thanquol was determined now to find them. With such artefacts in his control, he’d be able to laugh at Nightlord Sneek’s threats! At all of the Lords of Decay for that matter! None of them would dare touch him! He would place his paw upon the Pillar of Commandments where the Horned Rat himself would decree Thanquol’s right to sit upon the Council! He’d make short bloody work of that decrepit villain Kritislik and then it would be Seerlord Thanquol’s brilliance that would govern the Council.

Yes! With Xiuhcoatl’s treasure in his paws, Thanquol could leave this jungle hell behind and return in glory and triumph to Skavenblight!

Thanquol lashed his tail anxiously against the wall of the corridor. Besides, if they were quick enough in their stealing, they’d be able to get out of the pyramid before Xiuhcoatl noticed them. He was very keen to avoid confronting that scaly nightmare, just in case he was wrong about the lizardman’s reliance on relics and artefacts to bolster his power.

Instead of upwards, Thanquol followed his nose and ordered his minions to head down, deeper inside the pyramid. The humans led the way, Tsang Kweek’s knife always close to the she-slave’s neck to ensure the obedience of the others. The other gutter runners clung close to their leader. After them followed the assassins and Shen Tsinge. Thanquol and Boneripper took the rear position. The grey seer didn’t like being exposed to whatever enemies might be creeping up behind them, but he was even more nervous about having any of his ‘allies’ at his back. It was better to keep everyone where he could see them.

They had proceeded for several hundred yards when the corridor began to shudder. Great stone blocks dropped down from the ceiling, smashing flat against the floor and barring both advance and retreat. The skaven intruders were trapped in a section of corridor fifty yards long, surrounded on all sides by unyielding granite.

Panic seized the skaven, and their wails of shock and fear became a deafening clamour. Thanquol resisted the impulse to join in their terror, instead trying to focus on a way to get himself out of the trap. His mind raced with horrible images of the corridor slowly filling with sand to smother them or scummy swamp water to drown them or huge army ants to devour them. He fought down the hideous visions, staring desperately at the stone block behind him for any clue how to move it. Thanquol found his eyes watering as the air trapped with them became foul with fear musk. Perhaps that was their intention, to let the skaven simply suffocate!

It was on his tongue to order Boneripper to start killing things so the oxygen would last longer when a new sound reached Thanquol’s ears. It was a dull, grinding noise that throbbed through the walls of the corridor. At first he thought it was a delusion of his fear, but soon the grey seer could not deny that the walls were moving. Inch by inch they were being pressed inwards. He thought about the manner in which slug jelly was made and new horror gripped him.

‘Boneripper!’ Thanquol shrieked at his bodyguard, straining to make himself heard above the terrified squeals of the other skaven and the screams of the humans. ‘Open-open! Quick-quick!’ The grey seer pushed against the heavy stone block choking the corridor.

To Thanquol’s horror, the stupid rat ogre simply turned and trudged deeper down the hall, swatting aside the skaven that got in his way. The grey seer hurled curse after curse after the lumbering brute, threatening him with all manner of terrible deaths if he didn’t come back and move the block.

Thanquol returned to his desperate attack on the stone block. He sent a bolt of black lightning crashing against it, but all the spell did was to warm the rock. He tried to focus his mind around an escape spell, but knew his concentration wasn’t equal to the challenge. He kept thinking that even if he successfully slipped into the Realm of Chaos and back again, he might reappear on the roof of the pyramid with Xiuhcoatl. That would be like jumping out of the cat and into the snake!

The grey seer spun about as he felt something brush against him. His hand lashed out, and he heard a skaven cry out in pain. Then he felt a tremor in the aethyr. There was a crimson flash of light, a sound like thunder and the stink of brimstone. Thanquol quickly patted his robes and found that some of his warpstone was missing. He ground his fangs together in fury, willing to bet that flea-ridden sorcerer Shen Tsinge wasn’t with them anymore. It would be just like the coward to abandon his friends and save his own fur!

Boneripper had reached the middle of the passage. The walls were so close together now that the rat ogre was forced to move sideways, and even then it was a tight squeeze for him. He moved with one ear pressed against the wall. When he got to the middle of the corridor, he stopped. Crouching low to the floor, Boneripper drove one of his mammoth fists against the wall. Stone crumbled beneath the blow. A second punch and an entire block cracked away. Boneripper reached into the hole he had made, his claws scrabbling about in the darkness.

Thanquol scrabbled desperately at the stone blocking his retreat as the walls came grinding still closer. Then, suddenly, they stopped. At first he blinked in disbelief, but it was true, the walls had stopped moving. He glanced back down the corridor and saw Boneripper pulling twisted copper rods and gears from the hole he had made. The clever, loyal rat ogre had stopped the walls just in time!

Thanquol stalked through the huddled masses of his shivering minions. It was important to show them that the ordeal hadn’t frightened him in the least. After all, he’d told his bodyguard to get them out of the trap. He could have easily tried to escape by using his magic, but he had stayed behind to make certain his followers were safe too. He could see they appreciated that by the way they stared at him in reverence and awe.

‘Boneripper!’ Thanquol called. He pointed his staff at the block choking the far end of the passage. ‘Move that thing and open the way for us.’

Obediently, Boneripper squeezed his way along the corridor and began pushing the heavy block. It took a long time to get the stone moved and Thanquol was forced to have the humans and some of the gutter runners help the rat ogre. But they did get it open at last.

A shadowy figure raced at them from the darkness as soon as they emerged from the trapped corridor. The scent of the apparition told Thanquol who it was before he saw him. Briefly, Thanquol considered blasting Shen Tsinge with a bolt of warp-lightning anyway.

‘Great master, you have escaped!’ Shen whimpered, throwing himself at Thanquol’s feet. There was genuine terror in the sorcerer’s voice. After escaping the crushing walls, Shen had found himself alone in the blackness of the pyramid. Unable to smell another skaven, his nose filled with the reek of snakes instead, Shen’s instincts overwhelmed him and he’d come running back.

Thanquol drove the head of his staff into Shen’s belly, knocking the wind out of him and doubling him over. While the sorcerer tried to suck breath back into his lungs, Thanquol frisked him and removed the warpstone nuggets he had stolen.

‘Be thankful I might still need you,’ Thanquol hissed in Shen’s ear. ‘Otherwise I would give you to them.’ He gestured at the other Eshin ratmen who stared at Shen with murderous eyes. ‘I don’t think they appreciate the way you left everyone behind.’

Thanquol motioned for Tsang to lead the humans forwards again. ‘You should understand, mage-rat. When you are leader, you need to look after your underlings as though they were your own whelps.’

Adalwolf kept watching his verminous captors, waiting for the fiends to relax their guard. Unfortunately they seemed perpetually paranoid, leaping at shadows and whining at every change in the air. Only when they had all been trapped in the corridor with the moving walls had the underfolk been inattentive enough to give Adalwolf the opportunity he wanted, but there had been no place to go.

The journey through the darkness of the pyramid was a terrifying ordeal. Only sporadically did the ratmen light a torch so he could see where he was expected to lead them. Most of the time he was forced to feel his way, the image of an open pit an omnipresent fear. The vermin were oblivious and uncaring to his blindness. They scratched, kicked and bit him every time their patience wore thin. He could hear the cries of his companions each time the ratmen became impatient and vented their frustrations. Hiltrude’s sharp moans, Diethelm’s weary gasps and the pained curses of the two remaining sailors were knives of guilt twisting in his belly each time he heard them. Even the whines and pleas of van Sommerhaus had ceased to provide Adalwolf with sardonic satisfaction. Whatever his many faults, at least the patroon was human.

In a horrible way, Adalwolf couldn’t even blame Schachter and Marjus for abandoning them. They had seen a chance for escape and they had taken it. Under such ghastly circumstances, he wondered if he would have done the same. He liked to think he wouldn’t have.

Except at those times when he was allowed light, the ratmen were nothing but chitters and stench to Adalwolf. All he could see of them were their baleful red eyes gleaming in the darkness. The underfolk appeared perfectly capable of navigating the dark, but their horned leader’s fear about traps caused Adalwolf to continue to walk point. The craven things intended that he should find any more of the stones with the snake-glyph on them. Adalwolf wished that he would find others. It might offer a chance for escape.

He thought of the strange creatures who had built this place. That sight of the reptilian priest cutting out the heart of a ratman was burned into his brain. He’d never seen anything quite as horrible in all his life as that gruesome spectacle. Indeed, for all their apparent enmity towards the underfolk, Adalwolf wasn’t certain which of them he was more afraid of: the ratmen or the lizardmen.

During one of the frequent rests they were allowed while the ratmen bickered among themselves, Diethelm had whispered his own observations to the others. He was attuned enough to the gods and their ways to feel the divine power radiating from the lizardman they had seen conducting the sacrifice. It wasn’t the warm, wholesome aura of the gods they knew, but rather something cold, distant and uncaring. However, there was no denying the magnitude of the power he sensed within the reptile-priest. It was, Diethelm confessed with a shudder, like the presence of the High Matriarch of Manann, only even greater.

The priest also wondered if Thanquol hadn’t lied to them when they were captured about creating the strange path through the jungle for them. It seemed a feat of magic that was beyond the ratmen. Diethelm wasn’t sure it was beyond the strange, scaly lizardmen. But if the lizardmen had brought them, the question remained as to why they had brought them.

Adalwolf shrugged aside the lingering question. It was a problem to worry about later. For now, escaping from the ratmen was the only thing.

The chance the mercenary had been watching for came when the corridor they had been travelling suddenly opened out into a vast natural cavern. The light from the torch one of the ratmen held cast weird shimmers across the floor and the air was thick with a stagnant dampness. A few steps into the room and Adalwolf discovered why the floor reflected the light. It wasn’t a floor at all, but a vast pool. The water was almost level with the ledge that surrounded it and so filmed over with scum that it was easy to mistake it for solid ground in the darkness.

There was something more, however. Adalwolf could see ugly yellow bulbs floating just beneath the surface. It took him a moment to decide that they were some manner of egg. The spawn of the lizardmen? He crouched and put his hand into the water, finding it almost hot to his touch. Quickly he was pulled away by one of the vicious ratmen. Greedily, the vermin pawed at the water, scooping out one of the yellowish bulbs.

Adalwolf’s suspicion that the bulbs were eggs was quickly confirmed as the ratman broke it open and began slurping out the yolk. The monster that had been keeping a knife on Hiltrude made a jealous snarl and rushed the first ratman. Tsang Kweek tore the egg from the underling’s paws and gave him a spiteful kick that knocked him into the pool. Viciously, Tsang tore apart the leathery shell and began gnawing on the half-formed reptile inside.

The mercenary turned away from the hideous sight. In doing so, he noticed something moving in the water, sliding through the scummy film towards the ratman Tsang had thrown into the pool. He quickly looked back at his captors, but they were too busy pawing at the water to grab more eggs to see the menace moving towards them.

‘When I say move,’ Adalwolf whispered to his companions, ‘we all make a rush for those stairs.’ He nodded his chin to a set of stone steps a few dozen yards further along the ledge that circled the pool. It was just visible in the flickering light of the ratman’s torch.

‘We can’t!’ protested van Sommerhaus. ‘They’ll catch us!’

Adalwolf winced at the patroon’s craven words and more particularly the volume with which they were said. He glanced at the ratmen, but none of them seemed to have heard. He grabbed van Sommerhaus by his frilled vest. ‘Stay with them then, but don’t get in my way!’

‘We’re with you,’ Hiltrude told him, glancing with disgust at her benefactor. The sailors and Diethelm gave nods of approval.

Adalwolf looked back at the pool, watching for any sign of the swimming creature he had seen. He couldn’t be certain, but he had the impression of other beasts moving through the water now. ‘The underfolk are going to have some problems in a little while. When they’re busy, make for the stairs. I’ll be right behind you after I get the torch.’

His instructions had only just been whispered when the ratman in the pool suddenly vanished. The sudden disappearance wasn’t noticed by the rest of the underfolk, but when a huge scaly hand erupted from the pool and pulled one of the egg thieves under the water, the entire pack began to squeal in fright. They scurried away from the edge of the pool, but their quick retreat wasn’t enough to save them.

Three enormous lizardmen leapt from the pool, landing upon the stone ledge and hissing at the underfolk. They were gigantic creatures, their bodies encased in thick dark scales, their enormous jaws sporting huge fangs. There might have been some kinship between these beasts and the small, wiry lizardmen they had seen outside, but if so it was more distant even than that between the ratmen and the giant brute their leader kept as his bodyguard.

At the first sight of the lizardmen, the underfolk cringed away in fear. The hissing reptiles soon laid into them with giant clubs and axes, weapons that shone with the fiery lustre of gold. The death shrieks of ratmen became deafening as the hulking reptiles attacked the intruders.

Adalwolf knew that the ratmen would quickly overcome their fear. Either their merciless master would goad them into fighting the troll-like lizardmen or else they would retreat. Whichever choice they made, Adalwolf had no intention of following them.

Hiltrude and the others were making their panicked race to the stairs, even van Sommerhaus running along with them. Adalwolf spun about, leaping at the ratman with the torch. The creature’s attention was entirely upon the lizardmen, he had forgotten the prisoners. It was the last mistake the vermin ever made. In brutally short order, Adalwolf’s arm locked around the monster’s neck, breaking it with a savage twist.

Swiftly, Adalwolf retrieved the torch from where it blazed on the floor. He turned and ripped the rusty sword from the ratman’s belt.

Now the battle was joined. Thanquol’s shrill voice rang out, imperious and tyrannical, snarling at his minions to attack the lizardmen. A crackling sheet of lightning rose from the horned ratman’s staff, engulfing one of the huge lizardmen, electrocuting both it and the two underfolk caught in the reptile’s paws.

Adalwolf didn’t wait to see more. He spun about and made a mad dash for the stairs. He could see his friends crossing the ledge ahead of him. He could also see a scaly back moving through the waters of the pool towards them.

The mercenary opened his mouth to shout a warning, but he was too late. Another giant lizardman burst from the pool, seizing one of the sailors in its claws. The seaman screamed piteously as the monster twisted his body apart with a horrible wrenching motion of its hands.

Adalwolf roared his most fierce war cry as he saw the beast discard its first victim and reach for another. The monster turned at his call and Adalwolf shoved his torch into its eyes. The lizardman reeled back, but in a slow and clumsy fashion. Its lethargic nervous system hadn’t registered the bite of the flame until the scales of its face were blackened and charred.

As the giant reptile stumbled, Adalwolf drove his sword into its gut. For an instant, he thought the rusty underfolk blade would buckle and fail to pierce the thick scaly hide, but at last the sword sank into the lizardman’s flesh. Adalwolf made one effort to pull the blade free before he was forced to duck a sweep of the monster’s lashing tail. The lizardman stared at him from its burnt face and opened its jaws in a vicious hiss.

If there had been anywhere to run, Adalwolf would have fled from the monster. But the beast stood between himself and the stairs, completely blocking his way. His only hope lay in the brute’s slow reactions. It still seemed half asleep, perhaps adjusting its cold body to the change from the hot pool to the clammy atmosphere of the pyramid’s cellars.

Roaring at the lizardman, Adalwolf lunged at the hulking brute, throwing himself flat and diving between its clawed legs. He screamed in pain as he was battered by the beast’s tail as he scrambled underneath the monster, feeling as though a dragon had bounced his skull against the floor. Vengefully, he struck the monster with the torch again. The flame failed to burn the dripping scales of the lizardman’s tail, but the heat was enough to drive it back.

Adalwolf leapt to his feet, stumbling towards the stairs. He saw the huge lizardman turn to pursue him, but at that moment the beast was set upon from behind. The reptile was locked in the crushing embrace of Thanquol’s rat ogre. The lizardman flailed and clawed at its attacker, but Boneripper took small notice of the whipping tail and slashing claws. The rat ogre buried his fangs in the lizardman’s neck, biting deep into its throat.

The mercenary didn’t wait to watch the end of that struggle, but as he climbed the stairs, he thought he could hear the lizardman’s ribs cracking one by one as Boneripper crushed the life from it.

‘Hurry!’ he shouted at Hiltrude and the others, impressed beyond words that they had waited for him. ‘It looks like the underfolk are going to win that fight and I don’t want to be around when they do!’

Panicked by his words, the small band of refugees fled up the stairs, hoping that whatever horrors the darkness ahead held, they would be better than the nightmare they had left behind.

CHAPTER TEN

THE SACRED SERPENT OF SOTEK

As the fugitives fled up the stairs, the stink of reptilian musk intensified, becoming an overwhelming reek that made their skin crawl with loathing. After the horrific attack by the lizardmen in the spawning pools, the humans had new reasons to find the smell intimidating, reasons that went beyond even the natural repugnance of all mammalian life for the reptiles that had ruled before them.

Adalwolf forced his companions to press on when they would have succumbed to their fear and tried to turn back. There was nothing to return to. Either the ratmen had triumphed over the guardians of the pool, or the lizardmen had slaughtered the invaders. Whichever side had won, there was only death waiting for them back there. They could only press on and hope they would find some way out of this maze of ancient horrors.

There was one thing that the mercenary found reassuring about the thick ophidian stench. In his brief time with the ratkin, he had seen the way they relied more upon their sense of smell than their sense of sight. He knew they were even more frightened of the reptiles than he was. The greater the musky reek of snakes became, the greater the likelihood that the skaven wouldn’t follow them.

The mercenary led the way, holding the sputtering torch before him, watching its flame with an uneasy eye. He whispered a soft prayer to Myrmidia to keep the flame alive, glancing at Diethelm as he did so and wondering if it was impious to invoke the goddess while the priest of another god was standing beside him.

Sweaty fingers closed around Adalwolf’s arm, quivering as they gripped him. He turned to find Hiltrude’s ashen face staring at him with wide eyes and trembling lips.

‘We can’t go on,’ she gasped. ‘Please, we can’t go any more!’ Her hand fell away from the mercenary’s arm. Frantically she began rubbing the tatters of her dress, as though she were trying to wipe something unclean from her clothes. ‘I can feel it crawling on me!’

‘There’s nothing there,’ Diethelm assured her, trying to use the calmness in his voice to counter the panic in hers. ‘You are safe.’

Hiltrude was unconvinced, her head making erratic jerking motions as she looked down at the stairs. There was utter terror in her eyes now. Her boots, rotten from the jungle, stomped relentlessly against the steps. Adalwolf lower his torch and felt a chill race down his spine when he failed to see anything except the courtesan’s feet.

‘She’s out of her mind,’ van Sommerhaus declared. ‘Forget her and let’s get out of this hell hole.’

Adalwolf glared at the patroon, his fist raised to break the merchant’s aquiline nose. ‘We’re not leaving anybody,’ he growled.

‘Look at her,’ van Sommerhaus persisted. ‘She’s gone mad! A mad woman’s only going to slow us down! Ruin our own chance to escape!’

‘Only a little while ago, she spoke up for you when you wanted to stay with the underfolk,’ Adalwolf snarled at van Sommerhaus. The reminder visibly shamed the patroon and he looked away. The mercenary turned from him and grabbed Hiltrude by the shoulders.

‘We have to go,’ he told her. ‘It’s only a little farther,’ he added, feeling guilty as he spoke the lie.

Hiltrude didn’t even raise her head but kept staring at the steps, stamping her foot against every shadow. ‘Snakes everywhere!’ she almost shrieked. ‘Don’t let them touch me! Can’t you feel them!’

Adalwolf had to admit there was something beyond the heavy reptilian musk filling the air. There was something else, an oily sensation, like phantoms running their wispy hands along his skin. Diethelm had said it was aethyric power the mercenary sensed, that the pyramid was saturated with magical energy and they were drawing near to its source. The thought made Adalwolf even more uneasy. If there was one thing that would goad that horned ratman into braving the snake smell, it would be the lure of power.

‘There’s nothing there,’ Adalwolf assured her, ignoring his own doubts. He lowered the torch again, lighting the steps for her. ‘No snakes, see.’

The woman shook her head, but at least some of the fear had drained out of her eyes. With a little more time, Adalwolf was sure he could make her see reason.

Unfortunately, time was one thing they didn’t have. Hiltrude’s panicked shouts would travel far within the stone vaults of the pyramid and Adalwolf wasn’t sure what might have been listening. Already he fancied he could hear something moving far behind them on the darkened stairway.

‘I need you to hold this,’ Adalwolf told Diethelm. The priest looked at him with some perplexity as he placed the sputtering torch in Diethelm’s hand.

Without warning, Adalwolf spun about again, his fist smacking against the side of Hiltrude’s head. Her eyes fluttered and he caught her before the stunned woman could fall to the floor. Slinging the woman over his shoulder, Adalwolf motioned for the others to hurry up the stairs.

A last worried look into the blackness below and Adalwolf trudged after them.

It was some time later before Hiltrude recovered her senses. She struggled in Adalwolf’s grip, beating her fists against his back until he threatened to knock her head against the wall if she didn’t stop. The courtesan was a good deal more reasonable than before and quickly relented. Adalwolf breathed a quiet sigh of relief. It meant she wasn’t mad as van Sommerhaus had insisted, just afraid. Handrich knew she had every right to be.

‘You can set me down,’ Hiltrude told him. ‘I’m all right now.’

‘Happy to hear it,’ Adalwolf answered, making no move to slide her off his shoulder. He trudged onward, keeping his eyes on the flickering light of Diethelm’s torch.

‘Really, I won’t cause any more problems,’ Hiltrude insisted, a trace of annoyance in her tone.

‘I know you won’t,’ Adalwolf said, still climbing the steps.

‘Look you filthy pirate-stabber!’ Hiltrude snapped. ‘Tell me you’ve never been afraid of something!’ Adalwolf could feel her body shiver against his. ‘It was the smell. The smell of those slithering…’ She shuddered, forcing Adalwolf to steady her with his arm. ‘I’d rather be back down there with the ratkin than…’

‘And that’s why I’m not setting you down,’ Adalwolf told her. ‘The smell is getting worse, not better. There’s a snake nest somewhere and I fear we’ll have to cross it before we get out of this place.’

Hiltrude’s fist pounded against his neck. Adalwolf brought his palm cracking against the firm bottom draped over his shoulder. The woman yipped in alarm at the stinging slap.

‘A guilder says your arse wears out before my neck,’ Adalwolf warned her. Hiltrude relented, sagging desolately against his back. It pained the mercenary to hear her soft sobs. It was for her own good, he couldn’t trust her to master her fear. The idea of her racing back down the stairs and into the clutches of Thanquol was something that sickened his very soul to think about. She had to face whatever was waiting for them above, whether she wanted to or not.

Adalwolf stopped as he saw Diethelm’s torch finally go out. He heard van Sommerhaus and the sailor cry out in agony as the light died. Terror gnawed at his own mind as they were plunged into darkness and he felt his legs wobble beneath him. Only the thought of Hiltrude’s dependence on him steadied his nerves. He had to stay strong or they were both lost.

Gradually, as the darkness surrounded him, Adalwolf’s eyes adjusted to the gloom. With a gasp, he saw that the blackness was not absolute. There was light ahead of them, distant but distinct. He forgot his fear of verminous shapes stalking after them from below and shouted the news to his companions.

Thinking it was the light of day beckoning them, the men raced up the stairs, fatigue and horror overwhelmed by a surge of renewed hope. Van Sommerhaus and the sailor were well ahead of Adalwolf and they were the first to emerge from the darkness and into the light. Their jubilant cries drifted back down the stairs, making even Hiltrude forget her fear. Adalwolf set her down and together they climbed the last section, eager to feel the clean light of day against their faces.

The light wasn’t clean and it didn’t come from the sun. It came from dozens of great stone pots and the fires that flickered within them. The smoke of whatever smouldered within the pots had a thin, pasty taste to it but almost no smell to call its own. It did nothing to overcome the musky serpent reek of the place, which had now grown to the nigh unbearable. If Adalwolf had wrapped a python about his face, he couldn’t imagine the smell being half as bad.

The room that sheltered the stone pots was immense, so big that the Cobra of Khemri and three sister ships might have been set stern to prow across the middle of the floor and still not touch the walls. Great curled columns rose from the floor like a stone forest to support the ceiling of the chamber, their spiral contours seeming to writhe and slither as the flickering light set weird shadows dancing upon them.

As far as they could see every wall was covered from floor to ceiling in strange glyphs, sometimes broken by great stone murals. Adalwolf shivered to stare at the murals for there was an air of impossible ancientness about them. They depicted the lizardmen making war with creatures that defied imagination: foul cyclopean devil-beasts, dragon-like centaurs and daemon-things of every description. There were men too, huge and horrible and hoary with evil, wearing armour made from bones and carrying stone axes as they waged war upon the reptiles. The lizardmen, however, were no easy prey and Adalwolf could see ranks of huge scaly warriors fighting alongside the smaller reptiles they had seen upon the steps of the pyramid and the giant guardians of the spawning pool. Sometimes there would be a bloated, toadlike being depicted on the murals, but always rendered in such a way as to compel the same sensation of awe and reverence as had moved the chisel of the artisan who carved it.

Many doorways gaped in the walls, dark passageways that led back into the depths of the pyramid. One glance at the simple number of these openings made it clear that this was the centre of the structure, the very heart of the temple. Adalwolf noted with a start that each archway glistened in the flickering light, for each of the gateways was edged in gold and jade.

It was not this wealth that had made van Sommerhaus and the sailor cry out in glee, however. The two men stood in the middle of the chamber, having ascended a short dais that rose from the floor. At the top of the dais was a great altar. Adalwolf shook his head in disbelief as he gazed upon it, for the altar was bigger than a ship’s longboat yet it shone with the same lustre as the gilded archways. The immense altar was made of gold!

Caution vanished as every avaricious thought he’d ever had thundered through his heart. Adalwolf released Hiltrude and dashed across the chamber. He ran his hands lovingly across the sleek surface of the golden altar. It was cunningly wrought in the shape of hundreds of serpents, their coils intertwined in a complex lattice of priceless wealth. The gleaming eyes of each snake were picked out with the finest rubies he’d ever seen, their blue tongues were crafted from crushed sapphires and their shining fangs were made of pearl. The mercenary could only gawk at the display of wealth beneath his hands. A man could repay the bribe that had bought Marienburg’s independence from the Empire with this altar and have enough left over to lease the entire city of Carroburg as well!

‘And you thought I was crazy!’ van Sommerhaus boasted, running his hand along one of the snakes. ‘Here’s enough gold to choke a dwarf!’ The patroon laughed. ‘A dwarf? Handrich’s Purse, there’s enough here to choke a dragon!’

The sailor began trying to pry one of the rubies from the altar, having twisted his belt buckle into a crude chisel. He cursed lividly as the stone popped out and bounced away. He groped for it for a moment in the darkness, then cursed again. Turning, the seaman raced down to one of the fire pots and tore a strip of cloth from his tattered shirt. Holding it over the fire, he soon had a serviceable torch. As he swung back around to run back up to the altar, however, he froze in place and pointed dramatically at the columns.

‘They’re edged in jewels!’ the sailor shouted. He forgot about the lost ruby and pounced on the nearest of the columns, grinning greedily as he studied it. ‘Emeralds! Sapphires! A diamond as big as my fist!’

Adalwolf shared a look of jubilation with van Sommerhaus and both men rushed down to see what the sailor had found. As they ran towards the column, Adalwolf felt something snap beneath his boot. He bent down, picking it off the floor. Colour drained from his face as he found the object he had stepped on to be an arrow, its obsidian head still wet with blood. It was a stark reminder that this place was not abandoned, a cold slap to cool his dreams of gold and glory.

‘We must leave this place,’ Diethelm’s whisper sounded in Adalwolf’s ear. There was a look of mute horror on the priest’s face, an expression that was almost primal in its terror. ‘I feel that we stand in the house of an alien god, one who does not look upon our kind with friendly eyes. We must leave before we arouse it.’

Adalwolf tried to shove the priest away. Diethelm’s words of warning made an angry resentment swell within the mercenary. What did a simple cleric of Manann know about the worth of gold? What did he know about trying to keep an estranged family fed and sheltered? What did he know about having enough money to buy a new life for himself? With the gold he saw on display all around him, Adalwolf would be wealthy and respected! He’d be somebody, not just a pirate-stabbing sellsword! He’d be able to afford the love of a woman of quality…

He glanced about to find Hiltrude. He saw her and a sense of relief filled him. She had quite forgotten her fear and was just as enthralled as the rest of them. She raced like a schoolgirl to help van Sommerhaus and the sailor pry gems from the columns, her face bright with the rapture of wealth.

Then her face went pale and her eyes became pits of despair. She froze almost in midstep, staring in mute horror into the gloom of the temple.

Adalwolf heard a sound like sailcloth being unrolled and following it he discovered both its cause and the source of Hiltrude’s terror. He fell to his knees as every muscle in his body seemed to turn to jelly. The darkness of the temple wasn’t empty, but what it had sheltered was an abomination that made even the horrors depicted upon the stone murals seem tame.

Gigantic, the great serpent slithered from the shadows of the inner temple. Its sleek body glistened wetly in the firelight, armoured scales of brown and black rasping against the columns, leaving slivers of grey, lifeless skin behind. A blunt head as big as a river barge rose up from the floor, the black pools of its eyes staring across the temple, the blue lash of its forked tongue flickering and dancing before its snout as it smelled the air. The enormous snake continued to crawl from the darkness, coil upon coil of its scaly bulk undulating across the floor until Adalwolf thought even this vast chamber could not contain its titanic dimensions.

Van Sommerhaus and the sailor were late in realising the peril that crawled towards them. It was only when the seaman again lost a gem he had pried loose and started to chase it across the floor that he became aware of the giant serpent. He shrieked as he saw the monster and dived back to cower behind the column. As he ran, the great snake lunged at him, driving its enormity towards the sailor.

Narrowly it missed the sailor, but as the man tried to seek refuge behind the column, van Sommerhaus thrust him back, unwilling to jeopardise his own sanctuary by sharing it with the man. The sailor sprawled on the floor, the great serpent looming above him. Its cold eyes stared at him for an instant, then great folds of flesh snapped open on either side of its neck, making its terrible head appear three times as immense. The blunt head struck, the great jaws opened and the sailor was gone. Hideously, Adalwolf could still hear the man’s muffled screams rising from the serpent’s maw and he could see the horrible bulge in the snake’s throat as it pushed its meal down towards its stomach.

The serpent was not content with one victim, however. Its tongue lashed out again and it began to study the column behind which van Sommerhaus shivered in terror. First from one side, then from the other, the snake studied the column. Its lash-like tongue almost brushed the patroon’s cheek as the snake sniffed for more prey. Van Sommerhaus, crushing himself against the column, did not move a muscle throughout the ordeal. The snake’s body trembled, angry hisses seethed through its scaly jaws, yet still it failed to find the man.

Suddenly the great serpent spun its head around. Again its tongue flickered and tasted the air. It began to slither forwards again. At first it seemed the monster was interested in the altar, then it swung back around. Adalwolf’s stomach turned when he saw that it was staring at Hiltrude.

The courtesan was still frozen with terror, unable to look away from the giant snake. Even as it began to slither towards her, Hiltrude did not run.

‘She’ll be killed,’ Diethelm shuddered.

Adalwolf clenched his fists with impotent rage, his only weapon a broken arrowhead. A desperate thought came to him. ‘If she doesn’t move, maybe it won’t see her!’ he gasped. ‘It couldn’t find van Sommerhaus.’

Diethelm shook his head. ‘It couldn’t pick him out from the column,’ he said. ‘It could still smell him. She doesn’t have a column to hide behind and confuse it.’

Terror dripped from Adalwolf’s brow as he watched the snake’s steady progress towards Hiltrude. He knew it was death, but he couldn’t watch such an atrocity unfold before his eyes. Gripping the arrow like a dagger, he made ready to charge the reptile. Diethelm’s hand restrained him.

Before Adalwolf could shake him off, Diethelm pointed him towards Hiltrude. ‘Save the girl,’ the priest told him. ‘I have no idea if this will work. Most likely I walk to my death, far from the face of my god. But even my death might buy you the time you need.’

Diethelm walked away, marching straight towards the monstrous serpent. He shouted and shrieked at the reptile, then began stamping his feet on the floor. The giant snake swung its head around, its flickering tongue pulling the priest’s smell from the air. Slowly it turned its body and began to slither towards him.

Understanding came to Adalwolf in an instant and he marvelled at the boldness of the priest’s plan. The sharp sting of shame pained him at every step as he abandoned Diethelm to the approach of the serpent, but he knew if he didn’t get Hiltrude away then the priest’s sacrifice was for nothing.

Adalwolf reached Hiltrude at a bound. He struck her across the face, trying to snap her mind back from its terrible fascination. The woman screamed, clutching at Adalwolf, trembling and moaning in his arms. She pointed at the great serpent and shrieked again.

The mercenary risked one look back, then hesitated. He blinked in disbelief, but it was true. Diethelm sat upon the floor, his body slowly swaying from side to side. Above him, its awful hood of scales open on either side of its blunt head, the great serpent was likewise swaying back and forth. The priest had done the impossible. He had mesmerised the great serpent, just as he had done to the jungle viper days before.

Now, more than ever, the mercenary felt the impossibility of abandoning Diethelm. The priest had made a bold gamble and won. Adalwolf knew he could never call himself a man if he left such a courageous soul behind. He stared hard into Hiltrude’s eyes, trying to find any flicker of reason beneath her fear.

‘Go down that hallway and stay there,’ he told her, praying she would understand him. The doorways were too small for the serpent to crawl into, if he could get her into one of the corridors she’d be safe from the giant snake. But there was no sign of understanding on her ashen face. ‘Please,’ he pleaded. ‘I have to go help Diethelm. You must go down the hallway!’

‘No one is going anywhere!’

Adalwolf spun around as he heard the threatening voice. He watched as Captain Schachter and Marjus Pfaff came creeping out from one of the corridors. The two seamen held tiny bows in their hands and strange golden swords tucked beneath their belts. They grinned evilly at the mercenary.

‘My thanks for taking care of the snake,’ Schachter continued, nodding his head towards Diethelm. ‘I forgot the priest could do that. See, Marjus, it’s a good thing you didn’t sacrifice him to Stromfels.’

‘Schachter!’ van Sommerhaus cried out, emerging from behind his column. ‘Praise Handrich you’re here! I’ll remember this and you’ll be well rewarded when we get back to Marienburg!’

The sea captain turned and aimed his bow at the patroon. ‘Lukas,’ he said, his voice dripping with scorn. ‘I didn’t see you there. I was rather hoping the ratmen had eaten you by now. If you don’t want an arrow in your belly, I suggest you stop right where you are.’

The patroon froze, disbelief on his face. He made a placating gesture with his hands. ‘Please, Schachter, we’re old friends. You shouldn’t joke like this.’

‘Let’s kill him now,’ Marjus snarled. ‘Then we don’t have to listen to his mouth.’

Captain Schachter shook his head and a wicked smile twisted his mouth. ‘I don’t think so. Not while he’s useful. Adalwolf, I wonder if you and Lukas and the girl wouldn’t be nice enough to go and collect a few of those shiny stones for us.’

‘Why not get them yourself?’ Adalwolf growled back.

Schachter laughed. ‘To be honest, I don’t like the idea of going back out there. We already had a run in with the snake. He wasn’t so obliging as the lizardmen who donated their weapons to us. Five poisoned arrows in it and the thing still wanted to eat us.’

Marjus drew back his arm, the arrow nocked to his bow trembling from the tension. ‘Five didn’t kill the snake, but one will do for you, hero.’

Adalwolf could see murder in the mate’s eyes, the unreasoning bloodlust born of greed. He took a step back, moving Hiltrude behind him. If they could just reach one of the columns before the sailor loosed his arrow...

‘No need for that,’ Schachter scolded Marjus. ‘Adalwolf is a man of honour. That’s why we can trust him. That’s why I picked you to escape with me instead of him. I knew he’d never leave the others behind. With that being the way things stand, I must admit I’ve changed my mind. Send the girl over, we’ll hang on to her as an incentive to make you work fast.’

Hiltrude shook her head, clinging to Adalwolf’s shoulders. Between the serpent and the murderous human snakes now threatening them, the last thing she wanted to do was leave the mercenary’s side.

Van Sommerhaus noted her hesitancy. ‘The whore will give you trouble, Schachter. Take me as your hostage instead!’

The two seamen laughed grimly at the patroon’s offer. ‘Lukas, I wouldn’t break wind to save your life,’ Schachter sneered. ‘I don’t know many men who would. So you get your arse over there and start pulling diamonds out of the walls. It’ll be a rare novelty to see you do some honest work for once!

‘Send the girl over, Adalwolf,’ the captain demanded, turning back to the warrior. ‘I don’t know how long the priest can keep that snake busy and I intend to be very rich and very far away when it loses interest in him. Now send her over or I’ll stick an arrow in both your gizzards!’

Regretfully, Adalwolf pushed Hiltrude away, motioning for her to do as the sailors said. He felt a stab of guilt as he watched her stagger towards Schachter. ‘If you hurt her…’

‘We’ll do what we damn well please!’ roared Marjus, drowning out the mercenary’s threat. The sailor’s face was crimson with rage, all of his resentment for Adalwolf rising to the fore. ‘Curse us from the sunken hells of Mermedus, you stinking bilge rat!’ Marjus drew his arm back again, the poisoned arrow trembling in his hand.

Marjus never loosed his arrow. Instead he screamed. He screamed as sickly green lightning crackled and sizzled around his body, as his skin blackened and the teeth rattled from his mouth, as his hair shrivelled and his blood boiled. What finally collapsed to the temple floor was little more than a smoking husk.

Schachter turned to face the darkened mouth of the tunnel Adalwolf and the others had followed up from the spawning pools. What he saw had him flinging his bow to the floor and lifting his hands over his head in surrender.

At the head of a mob of furious ratmen, Grey Seer Thanquol glared at the fugitive. Sorcerous fire continued to burn around the head of his staff. With a chittering laugh, Thanquol pointed his staff towards Schachter.

‘Thanquol!’ Adalwolf shouted, trying to draw the grey seer’s attention away from Schachter. The captain deserved to burn the way Marjus had, but he was afraid that Hiltrude was too close to the treacherous seaman and would be caught by Thanquol’s vengeful magic. ‘Thanquol, you filthy rat’s pizzle!’

The grey seer’s horned head spun around, his teeth bared in a feral snarl. For an instant, Adalwolf thought Thanquol was going to blast him, but then he saw the ratman’s gaze drift past him, staring in wide-eyed horror at the gigantic serpent behind him. A foul, sickly stench rose from the robed ratkin. Squeals of pure terror rose from the underfolk behind Thanquol, only the fact that his huge rat ogre blocked the way keeping them from scrambling back down the stairs.

Adalwolf could almost laugh at the scene. He wondered what lies and threats Thanquol had used to force his underlings to ignore the snake-stink in their noses to get them this far. Now, faced with the titanic source of that musky scent, Thanquol’s control of them had almost completely shattered.

‘I see I have your attention,’ Adalwolf said. ‘Now listen to me. My friend is the only thing keeping that snake from crawling over here and eating the lot of you! If he stops distracting it, you’re all dead!’

Thanquol bruxed his fangs together and lashed his tail against the floor, but Adalwolf could see that his anger was nothing beside the terror dripping down his robes.

‘What-what does man-thing want-take?’ Thanquol snarled.

Chang Fang lingered towards the back of the skaven mob, listening with contempt as Thanquol negotiated with the escaped slave. Given a chance, the grey seer would no doubt find a way to squirm out of whatever deal he was brewing with the human, but the assassin was going to see to it that he didn’t get that chance.

He’d lost count of how many times Thanquol had escaped his traps. With each failure, Chang Fang’s anger and frustration grew. That was why he’d made his reckless attack on Thanquol in the swamp, a failure that had cost him his ear and very nearly his life. He’d been much more careful arranging the trap in the ruins, using the skinks and their crumbling city to annihilate the grey seer. Still he had escaped! What was more, he’d taken over command of the expedition! Chang Fang began to believe Thanquol’s mad boasts that the Horned Rat himself was watching over him!

Standing within the profane Temple of the Serpent, watching the gigantic snake swaying from side to side above the floor, Chang Fang’s heart threatened to burst from sheer terror. But he was not so lost to his fear that he forgot his murderous purpose, the one driving goal left in his life. He would avenge the betrayal of Chang Squik and his own disgrace! Thanquol would die!

He’d tried to use the lizardmen and their city to destroy Thanquol. Now he would use their god! He would pit the protection of the Horned Rat against the sacred serpent of Sotek!

Swiftly Chang Fang pulled the blowgun from beneath his cloak and placed it to his lips. The dart sped across the temple, striking its target in the neck. Chang Fang bit his tongue to keep from laughing as he watched his victim sway and fall.

‘Fine-good,’ Thanquol snapped at the arrogant human. ‘I let-allow you take-leave with other man-things. In return you make-make snake stay-sleep.’ He had no intention of keeping his word of course, but he still found it distasteful to lie to creatures so far beneath his station. A skaven lied only to those he feared, and Thanquol most certainly didn’t fear a bunch of furless man-things! Once the human let him get away, he’d send a few of the assassins back to deal with him and his herd. That would be a fair toll for the animal’s brazen arrogance!

Thanquol was chuckling to himself about future treacheries when he noticed the human kneeling before the big snake suddenly fall over. Cold fear ran down Thanquol’s spine as he heard the impact of the man’s body against the floor. Immediately he raised his eyes, squealing in horror when he saw that the snake was no longer swaying from side to side. No, it was turning, turning in his direction. The breath caught in his throat as he saw the loathsome tongue flicker out from the snubbed face, pulling the smell of skaven from the air.

Frantically, Thanquol thrust a nugget of warpstone between his fangs. He swallowed the rock whole, almost gagging as he forced the stone down his throat. For once, he didn’t revel in the intoxicating rush of magical energy that filled him, instead harnessing it at once, focusing it into the head of his staff. Green energy flickered and crackled about him. Thanquol tried to force down his terror, tried to control his panic.

Then the great serpent hissed and the sound drove all reason from Thanquol’s brain. Shrieking like a whelp, the grey seer pointed his staff at the giant snake. A half-formed, ragged nimbus of energy splashed harmlessly against the armoured scales.

The serpent hissed again and reared up from the floor. Thanquol glanced about him, but his minions had treacherously deserted him, stampeding over Boneripper in their craven urge to escape. Even the upstart human was running, diving behind one of the columns. Thanquol decided that was a good idea and tried to do the same, but his legs were paralysed with fear.

The snake’s hood snapped open, its mouth dropping open in a wide yawn. Thanquol threw down his staff, hoping against hope the snake wouldn’t think he was the one who had tried to burn it with a spell.

If the reptile noticed, it gave no sign. The great wedge-like head came hurtling down, the mammoth jaws closing around Thanquol before he could even scream.

Lashing its head from side to side, the sacred serpent of Sotek swallowed Grey Seer Thanquol in a single gulp.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE SERPENT AND THE RAT

As the great serpent started to move, everything within the Temple of Sotek descended into chaos. The ratmen, so menacing only an instant before, began a madcap scramble back down the stairs. Adalwolf watched them overwhelm even the huge rat ogre in their terror-ridden flight.

Adalwolf ran for the nearest column, thinking to hide himself from the snake the way van Sommerhaus had. He shouted for Hiltrude to do the same and risked a glance in her direction, fearing that she would be frozen with horror again. He breathed easier when he saw the woman scrambling for cover. Instead it was Grey Seer Thanquol who stood transfixed before the serpent’s approach. The mercenary shouted joyfully when he saw the snake slither unharmed through the villain’s spells and swallow the sorcerer with a single bite.

Thinking of Thanquol’s magic made Adalwolf remember Diethelm. Cursing the fear that had made him hide from the snake, he looked across the floor of the temple to the priest’s prone figure. He couldn’t think what had happened to Diethelm, he only knew he had to try and help the man. Honour would demand nothing less. For the moment the snake was occupied trying to swallow its latest meal. If he was fast, Adalwolf knew he would be able to pass it in safety. Steeling his heart for the effort, and with one watchful eye on the snake, the warrior made a frantic dash to the fallen priest.

When he turned Diethelm onto his back, Adalwolf knew the priest was dead. He also discovered the reason for the man’s collapse. It had not been the strain of keeping the great serpent mesmerised, as the mercenary had thought. There was an inch-long dart sticking from Diethelm’s neck, and the veins surrounding the ugly sliver were black with the poison that had coated it. Adalwolf clenched his fists in impotent fury at such a cowardly way of dealing death. One of the ratmen, no doubt, trying to remove the one man who could threaten them.

Adalwolf glared at the bulge in the serpent’s neck. Thanquol had paid for the murderous treachery of his minions. Whatever he had thought to accomplish by killing Diethelm, the mercenary was certain that ending up as a meal for the snake had been the last thing Thanquol had planned on.

A sharp scream pierced Adalwolf’s ears. He turned away from the great serpent, looking again across the floor of the temple. He could see Schachter, the gold sword clenched in his fist, pulling Hiltrude from her hiding place. The sea captain was trying to take her with him down one of the many tunnels opening into the temple. With one of his hands closed about her throat, the courtesan had little choice but to go with him.

‘Sommerhaus!’ Adalwolf cried out, gesturing madly to the patroon. Van Sommerhaus peered out from behind his column and Adalwolf could see that he understood the meaning of the mercenary’s wild gestures. He glanced at Schachter, took a few tenuous steps in the man’s direction, then retreated when the captain waved his sword at him. There wasn’t even a flush of guilt on the man’s face as he abandoned the rescue effort. He simply shrugged his shoulders and ran into one of the other tunnels.

There was no time to curse the patroon’s retreat. Adalwolf shouted at Schachter, demanding he leave Hiltrude alone. The captain’s only response was a nasty smile and a quickening of his own withdrawal from the temple.

Adalwolf forced himself to dash back across the floor of the temple. The giant snake had pushed its last meal some distance down its throat and was now beginning to move its head from side to side, its tongue flickering from between its scaly lips. The mercenary knew it was looking for more prey, but he also knew he had only moments if he wanted to reach Schachter before he escaped into the tunnels. Thinking of Hiltrude in the clutches of the desperate captain removed the last of his concerns.

The mercenary wasn’t even halfway across the temple before the great serpent lunged at him. The reptile’s foul breath washed over him as it narrowly missed Adalwolf, its jaws snapping against the stone floor instead. He dodged back as the serpent reared up for another strike, placing its scaly bulk between himself and his goal. Hiltrude’s last desperate cry tormented him as he watched her captor drag her off into one of the dark tunnels.

Then Adalwolf had no time to think of the helpless woman. The great serpent’s hood flared open, its immense jaws came hurtling at him like the sword of an angry god. He dived beneath the scaly jaw, nearly crushed beneath the snake as it lashed its head angrily, frustrated by its nimble prey and slowed by the morsel still lodged in its throat.

Hissing furiously, the great serpent reared back a third time. The hood flared open, the eye-like pattern of its marking staring down at Adalwolf. The mercenary braced himself, praying to his gods that he would again prove quick enough to defy the reptile’s hideous purpose.

Suddenly Adalwolf felt himself flung through the air by a powerful blow. For an instant he thought the snake had struck him, but as he crashed against the stone floor, he saw the truth. He had been thrown, yes, but it had not been the serpent’s jaws that had struck him. He’d been tossed aside by a different monster.

Where Adalwolf had stood only moments before, he now saw the furry, verminous bulk of Thanquol’s immense bodyguard. The rat ogre was grappling with the huge snake, its claws sunk deep into the ophidian snout, thin reptilian blood spurting from the horrible wounds. Growling with a fury Adalwolf had seen before only in the berserkers of the Norsii, the rat ogre was trying to maul the giant serpent!

Boneripper raked his giant claws across the great serpent’s face, slashing through its thick scales like they were paper. The reptile tried to rear back but the rat ogre held fast, his enormous muscles bulging beneath his fur as he forced the ophidian head against the cold stone floor. He set his clawed foot against the snake’s neck, trying to pin it in place while he slashed again at the monster’s face, tearing through its jaw.

The great serpent lashed out, whipping its tail against Boneripper, sending the rat ogre rolling across the floor. The snake’s coils followed after him, lashing about in a squirming dance in their effort to catch him within their lethal embrace. For all his bulk, however, Boneripper defied the deadly efforts of the snake to trap him. Reflexes hardened by the cruel training regimens of Clan Eshin were nimble even in the huge body of a rat ogre. He dived beneath the crushing coils, dodged as the lashing tail of the snake tried to swat him before he could escape. The serpent hissed in frustration, its cowl snapping open as it opened its mangled jaw.

Again the snake’s strike failed, reptilian fangs scraping against stone instead of closing around flesh. A flash of pain flared through the monster as its wound was worsened by the rough impact against the floor. It reeled back, its tail writhing in sympathy with the pain in its face. Given a chance, the great serpent would have slithered back into its lair to lick its wounds and digest its meal.

Huge claws seized the side of the snake’s head as it turned to flee. Boneripper sank his sword-like claws into the reptile’s neck, shredding the loose folds of flesh that formed its hood. The rat ogre pulled himself up the reptile’s body, stubbornly refusing to be knocked loose when the snake’s coils slammed into him. The reptile’s hissing became louder, almost panicked, as Boneripper brutally withdrew his claws only to stab them in again so that he might pull himself higher along the monster’s neck.

When it felt one of Boneripper’s claws stab into the base of its head, the serpent’s body flared with maddened convulsions. Its enormous body rolled along the floor, crashing into columns and shattering them. Brick and stone rained down from the ceiling, the entire temple seemed to tremble in its pained throes. Predation and escape were alien thoughts to the snake’s primitive mind now, only the instinct to remove the pain that assailed it remained. The giant reptile thought to crush its tormentor beneath its own tremendous weight, to smash Boneripper and grind him beneath its thrashing body.

Over and across the temple the great serpent writhed, toppling fire pots and crumpling the priceless altar into a mass of flattened gold and crushed gems. The monster’s hissing became a deafening susurrus, echoing from the walls, bouncing from the floor and ceiling. Again and again the snake’s coils thrashed and rolled about the temple, obliterating everything in their path.

As the snake tired and fell still once more, Bone-ripper leaped down upon it. The rat ogre had jumped clear of the snake the moment it had started to roll over, though its primitive brain had failed to recognise the fact. While the giant reptile raged through the temple, Boneripper had watched it from the column he had climbed. The rat ogre had nearly been knocked from his perch when the serpent’s agonies had caused it to strike the pillar, but he clung fiercely to the shaking stone and when the snake had passed, he remained with the broken stone stub still hanging from the ceiling.

Now Boneripper assaulted the serpent with twice the fury as before. The weary monster did not see him until the instant before his huge claws were again slashing into the scaly flesh clothing its jaws.

Bloody froth bubbled from the corners of the snake’s mouth as Boneripper dislocated its jaws. The serpent lashed and flailed in agony, trying to batter its attacker with its heavy coils, but the rat ogre held fast. Exerting his tremendous strength, he wrenched the snake’s lower jaw clear of its socket. The dislocated jaw flopped obscenely beneath the serpent’s head, its flickering tongue thrashing wildly.

Boneripper seized the lower jaw in both hands and began to pull savagely at it. The serpent struggled against the brutal attack, but it lacked the strength to roll its body again and crush the rat ogre beneath it. Its tail whipped at Boneripper, slashing deep cuts across his limbs and back, but even these hurts were not enough to make him relent.

Straining, every vein standing out upon his brow, Boneripper began to tear the snake’s lower jaw loose, ripping it free from its mouth in a single scaly strip. The serpent’s struggles became more desperate and agonised, but still it could not drive off the hulking rat ogre. He continued to pull on the jaw, using it to rip a long sliver of flesh from the underside of the snake’s neck, exposing the long oesophagus beneath.

The great serpent twisted in a pool of its own blood. No longer did it consciously try to escape Boneripper, though its coils continued to writhe with a mindless agony of their own. The rat ogre continued to tear a long, scaly strip of flesh from the reptile’s throat, ripping a great dripping swathe down its neck. Only when he reached the bulge in the monster’s throat did Boneripper relent. As the last strip of scaly flesh was pulled back, something more than reptilian meat and bone rewarded the rat ogre’s efforts. Eagerly he reached into the ghastly fissure, pulling free a slimy, dripping mass.

Grey Seer Thanquol coughed and sputtered, straining to draw air into his suffocated lungs. He found it impossible to stand, his head swimming from the violent rolling of the serpent. Dizzy, he crashed to the floor, yelping in pain as the fall hurt his tail.

Foul and slimy with the reptile’s juices, his robes and fur plastered against his skin, his talismans and amulets hanging from him in wild disorder, Thanquol presented a miserable, pathetic spectacle. He blinked like a newborn whelp, trying to force the world to stop spinning whenever he looked at it. The snake filth coating him choked his nose, making it almost impossible to smell anything but the reptile’s muck. His ears were still ringing from the pounding of the reptile’s heart.

Hacking filth from his throat, the slimy skaven stared up at Boneripper, waiting until the three rat ogres he saw merged into a single creature. Angrily, Thanquol kicked the brute’s leg.

‘What-what took-take you so long-long, flea-weaning maggot-spawn!’ the grey seer raged. The rat ogre looked suitably chastened, cringing before Thanquol’s wrath.

The grey seer wiped filth from his snout and glared at the chamber around him. Boneripper was the only one of his craven minions to stand by him, the others had fled like lice before the giant snake. When Thanquol caught up to them, they would pay dearly for such craven treachery! He’d sew up the lot of them inside the snake’s carcass and let them see how it felt!

Vengeful thoughts made Thanquol spin about when he heard the sound of boots moving across the temple floor. He could see the arrogant human who had dared to set the snake on him fleeing across the chamber, making for one of the openings in the wall. He felt the impulse to blast the man-thing with a bolt of warp-lightning or to set Boneripper after him. Only the consideration that the snake might have a mate slithering about somewhere made Thanquol fight back the impulse. If only his cowardly underlings hadn’t run off at the first chance!

Sounds of skaven paws scampering up stone steps made a malevolent grin spread across Thanquol’s face. So the cowards were coming back! They’d realised they couldn’t survive without his brilliant leadership!

Thanquol quickly wiped away the worst of the snake-slime coating him and struck his most imperious pose. He pointed his staff at the running human and growled at the skaven he saw running up the stairs.

‘Kill-kill man-thing and bring-take his spleen to me!’

Audaciously, the ratmen ignored Thanquol’s order but simply ran deeper into the temple. Furious, Thanquol ordered Boneripper to intercept the mob of gutter runners and assassins. The obedient rat ogre pounced upon the foremost gutter runner, crushing him beneath his paws.

That spectacle at least stopped the skaven from running, but Thanquol felt a cold chill creep along his spine when, instead of staring fearfully at the grey seer and his bodyguard, the ratmen cast terrified looks over their shoulders at the tunnel they had just emerged from.

Thanquol followed their gaze and felt a shock of horror as he watched a swarm of blue-scaled skinks and towering kroxigor rush out of the darkness and into the temple. At their head, carrying his golden staff, was Xiuhcoatl, the terrible Prophet of Sotek.

The lizardmen stared past the skaven they had been pursuing, noting the enormous bloody bulk of their sacred serpent strewn about Thanquol’s feet. The grey seer felt the urge to cower as he felt those cold eyes staring at him. He could imagine the fury surging through their reptilian hearts, the murderous outrage of religious zealots who have seen their holy of holies violated and defiled. He remembered the awful vengeance Grey Seer Gnawdoom had visited upon the man-wizard Bagrain for desecrating the Black Ark. Any instant he expected to hear Xiuhcoatl shriek in rage, to send his followers sweeping forwards in a murderous frenzy.

Instead, the lizardmen regarded their slaughtered godling with an icy, passionless detachment. There was no emotion as they silently crept into the temple, only a sinister calculating gleam in their unblinking eyes.

As Thanquol backed away from the reptiles he thought that a display of honest hate and anger might have been welcome beside the cold, utterly alien serenity of the lizardmen.

Thanquol had only the briefest vision of Xiuhcoatl and his warriors. A wall of inky darkness suddenly spread between the lizardmen and the skaven, cutting them off from one another. He could see Shen Tsinge gesturing madly with his staff, the sorcerer’s fur standing on end as he drew upon the forces of the aethyr. He felt a twinge of fear as he watched the sorcerer wield his magic, remembering the dark magic of the shadowmancer who had nearly destroyed him beneath Altdorf not long ago. More than before, Thanquol determined to arrange an accident for the treacherous sorcerer.

A thunderous explosion shook the temple and Shen’s wall of shadow vanished in a burst of blinding light. Through the light stalked the lizardmen, their golden weapons raised high, their fangs bared and a threatening hiss rasping from their throats. Xiuhcoatl strode forwards with his warriors, his staff still burning with the power he had used to banish Shen’s sorcery. Once again, Thanquol was awed by the creature’s ability, by the sense of arcane might that the skink exuded.

Awe turned to blind panic, for as Thanquol watched the Prophet of Sotek stalk closer in his mind’s eye he could see himself lying bound at the top of the pyramid and the skink’s hand tearing out his beating heart. The grey seer gnashed his fangs against the horrible image and he thrust a nugget of warpstone between his jaws. Hastily he wove the winds of magic together, using the warpstone to fuel his desperate spell. Almost he forgot to mutter a pray to the Horned Rat before he unleashed his magic, but even with Xiuhcoatl marching towards him, Thanquol could not completely forget fear of his own god.

An icy wind exploded from the grey seer’s staff, a gale drawn from the chill Realm of Chaos itself. Thanquol squealed in delight as he saw the lizardmen falter before his magic, their movements turning sluggish, their weapons falling slack against their sides.

‘Now-now!’ Thanquol shrieked at his minions. ‘Kill-kill scaly-meat!’

The skaven did not have to be told twice. Predatory instincts overcame ancient fear and the ratmen fell upon the reptiles in a furious tide of slashing swords and snapping fangs. The lizardmen, rendered all but helpless by Thanquol’s frozen spell, were easy prey for the agile skaven. Huge kroxigors fell, their bellies split open, their massive mauls and axes clattering against the floor beside them. Skink archers fitted arrows to their bows but so slow had they become that the ratmen were upon them before they could fire. Dozens of the cold-blooded creatures were cut down, butchered by the blades of the skaven. In almost the blink of an eye, the floor of the temple was littered with lizardman dead.

Then a flash of light burst from Xiuhcoatl’s staff. The Prophet glared at the skaven around him as they slaughtered his followers. The ratmen wheeled away from the skink priest, recoiling as another pulse of energy thundered from his golden staff. With each pulse of energy, a wave of heat washed over the lizardmen, invigorating their sluggish bodies and warming the chill blood in their veins.

Now the skaven did not have such an easy time slaying their enemies. A group of gutter runners rushed a square of skink spearmen only to fall with javelins piercing their bodies when the lizardmen suddenly threw their weapons. An assassin leapt upon the back of a kroxigor, trying to slit the huge monster’s scaly throat, but the towering lizardman simply turned his head and snapped his jaws, catching one of the skaven’s paws in his teeth. Before the assassin could lash out, the kroxigor threw him with a savage turn of his head, then crushed the fallen killer’s chest with a stomp of his scaly foot.

Thanquol sent a bolt of warp-lightning crackling at Xiuhcoatl’s head. His eyes went round with horror as he saw the spell evaporate before it could even strike the skink. His terror only increased when he felt the lizardman’s eyes staring at him. ‘Kill-kill Xiuhcoatl!’ he shrieked, diving behind the carcass of the giant snake before the skink could target him with a spell.

Peering from behind his gory refuge, Thanquol saw Tsang Kweek and a pair of assassins rush Xiuhcoatl from every side. The grey seer rubbed his paws in anticipation. The skink might stop one or even two of the ratmen, but certainly not all three! These were the cloaked killers of Clan Eshin, the finest murderers in all the Under-Empire!

Xiuhcoatl did not seem to appreciate or notice the death rushing towards him. The skink priest continued to march across the temple floor, his eyes focused upon Thanquol’s hiding place. Thanquol felt his glands clench when he realised the skink was intent upon confronting him, but he grinned savagely when he thought about the three killers closing upon his enemy.

The first assassin leapt upon Xiuhcoatl as though the skink were a piece of Marienburg cheese. With daggers clenched in fists, mouth and tail, the assassin seemed certain in his triumph. Xiuhcoatl didn’t even look at the skaven, simply pointing a claw in his direction. White flames engulfed the shrieking assassin, devouring him so swiftly that when he struck the stone floor his body collapsed into a pile of ash.

The second assassin tried an old Eshin trick of rolling across the floor and ending the manoeuvre in an upward stab of his sword. Again, the skink did not deign to notice him, but simply pointed in his direction. A finger of crackling blue energy shot from the lizardman’s claw searing into the assassin’s face. The skaven wailed in agony, then crashed to the floor, daggers slipping from lifeless hands, his head reduced to a smoking skull.

Tsang Kweek gave a terrified cry, hurling his sword at Xiuhcoatl’s back before turning tail to run. The blade melted in mid-air before ever striking the Prophet. The skink slowly turned to regard the fleeing ratman. Xiuhcoatl clenched his fist and a fiery stone shot from the fanged icon upon his staff. The tiny meteor rocketed across the temple, smashing into Tsang Kweek with the force of a cannon ball. The gutter runner stared dumbly at the gaping hole the burning stone had punched through his chest, then slumped onto his side and was still.

Grey Seer Thanquol bruxed his fangs together and cursed the incompetent underlings. Finest killers in all the Under-Empire! The filthy vermin couldn’t even kill a flea without someone spelling out every step for them! The miserable maggots weren’t fit to pop ticks on a brood-mother’s arse!

Thanquol spun about as he felt paws fumbling at his robes. As he turned, he was rewarded by a sharp blow against his snout. Recoiling in pain, Thanquol lifted his staff to block Shen Tsinge’s as the sorcerer tried to strike him a second time.

‘Filthy seer-rat-scum!’ Shen snarled. ‘All-all lost-fail because Thanquol is fool-fool!’ The sorcerer raised his other paw, displaying the warpstone he had picked from Thanquol’s pockets. ‘Give-give all-all warpstone, Thanquol-meat, and Shen Tsinge leave you for lizard-things!’

Thanquol bared his fangs at the sorcerer. ‘Aren’t you forgetting something?’

Shen Tsinge grinned back, murderous and triumphant. He nodded at the huge bulk of the rat ogre standing behind him. ‘Yes-yes,’ he agreed. ‘Goji should be the one to crush Thanquol-meat in his claws!’ He pointed at the grey seer and growled at the rat ogre. ‘Goji! Kill-smash Thanquol-meat!’

‘Boneripper!’ Thanquol shrieked back. ‘Hold-take this traitor-rat!’

The rat ogre stomped forward, his beady eyes glaring first at Thanquol, then at Shen Tsinge and finally back at Thanquol. The grey seer shrank back as he felt the rat ogre start to reach for him. Then, suddenly, Boneripper spun around, his huge hands closing about Shen Tsinge, splintering the sorcerer’s staff as he crushed it against his body.

‘Goji! No-no! Shen Tsinge is master!’ the sorcerer screeched.

Thanquol grinned maliciously at the struggling sorcerer, then glanced over the carcass of the serpent. Xiuhcoatl had been distracted by another pair of assassins, but that diversion was certain to be short. He needed something more substantial to keep the skink occupied. A gruesome laugh chittered through Thanquol’s fangs.

‘You want-take my warpstone?’ the grey seer asked, removing several nuggets from his robe. ‘I will give them to you, Shen Tsinge, to honour your faithful service.’

Shen Tsinge struggled in Boneripper’s iron grip, trying to wriggle free. Thanquol would have enjoyed watching his futile efforts, but he knew there was no time. Pinching the sorcerer’s nose shut with one claw, he waited until Shen was forced to draw another breath. As soon as he opened his mouth to suck down air, Thanquol thrust the entire mass of warpstone down Shen’s throat. Holding the sorcerer’s mouth shut, Thanquol gave him a simple choice: choke or swallow.

At last the sorcerer could endure the ordeal no longer and he gagged down the deadly black rocks. In small amounts warpstone was the lifeblood of skavendom, fuelling their industry, their magic and their diet. In greater amounts, however, even the corrupt constitution of the ratmen was unable to assimilate the lethal qualities of warpstone. What Thanquol had fed Shen Tsinge was enough to kill a hundred ratmen. In one sense, it was a waste, but in another Thanquol knew it was wealth well spent.

Boneripper dropped Shen Tsinge as the sorcerer’s body began to burn from within. Glowing green pulses of light began to sear through the sorcerer’s fur and robes. His body began to twist and swell as the unrestrained, unfocused energies continued to gather. Thanquol thought of a ratskin bag being filled to bursting with dwarfblood wine. He didn’t want to be around when the bag burst.

‘Boneripper!’ Thanquol cried, pointing at the exit he had seen Adalwolf flee towards. ‘Quick-quick!’

Grey seer and rat ogre dashed from behind their refuge, racing across the blood-slick floor for the exit. Arrows loosed from the tiny skink bows clattered around them, but the distance was too great for even the jungle hunters to deliver much accuracy. Other lizardmen broke off from capturing the few skaven that had survived the fight and set off in pursuit of Thanquol and Boneripper. The stink of their scaly bodies grew stronger and stronger in his nose and Thanquol began to despair of ever reaching the tunnel. He thought of Xiuhcoatl standing over him with his heart dripping through the skink’s scaly fingers. Fear lent the grey seer a new burst of speed.

Then the entire temple shook, a howling maelstrom of energy crashing and roaring through the colossal chamber. Lizardmen were battered and torn by the unleashed energies, dashed against the walls and crushed against the pillars. Thanquol himself was thrown by the explosion, only his horns saving him from a broken skull when he slid headfirst into the wall. He shook the spots from his vision and spat a cracked fang from his mouth.

Rising to his feet, Thanquol saw the chaos that had fallen upon his enemies. When Shen Tsinge’s warpstone-gorged body had burst, the unleashed power had hurled lizardmen pell-mell throughout the temple. Many were limping on broken legs or holding twisted arms to their sides. Others were unmoving wrecks, necks and backs broken by the sorcerous explosion.

Xiuhcoatl himself was busy trying to contain the furious energies Shen Tsinge’s destruction had unleashed. A purple fire glowed where Thanquol had left the sorcerer and in its light the temple itself began to corrode, the ancient stones crumbling into powder like bread infested with mould. Thanquol did not know how far or fast the magical corruption would spread or if Xiuhcoatl would actually be able to purge it. He only knew he wanted to be very far away before he discovered any of those answers.

‘This way!’ Thanquol snarled as Boneripper came limping over to him. A last glance at Xiuhcoatl showed the skink priest waving a claw frantically in Thanquol’s direction and a large number of lizardmen loping off in pursuit.

‘Quick-quick!’ Thanquol shrieked, half-pulling the stunned rat ogre after him into the darkness of the tunnel. Thanquol was instantly struck by the similarity it bore to the corridor the skaven had used to enter the pyramid.

The glyphs! A thrill of terror rushed through him as Thanquol thought of the wards that had protected the first tunnel. Only the thought of dying on Xiuhcoatl’s altar kept the grey seer moving. A new, desperate purpose guided him. They had to follow the man-thing’s scent and find him so he could clear away any wards they found! And they had to do it before the lizardmen found them first!

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE BREEDER’S SCENT

Schachter wiped the cold sweat from his brow, dearly wishing he had a good bottle of Estalian brandy to drive away the trembling he felt in his bones. He stared into the long stretch of darkness that lay between himself and the sputtering torch further down the corridor. It seemed an impossibly long way away. He felt his stomach churn at the very thought of running through it. That primitive, primal part of the human brain that told him to fear the night, to fear the dark, was like a thunder inside his head. Stay, it seemed to say. Stay in the light where you are safe.

Hiltrude tugged at him, trying to pull free from his grip. The action made him round on her irritably. A cruel twist of the cloth tether he’d tied about her wrists brought the courtesan to her knees, whimpering in pain.

‘Stupid wench!’ Schachter snarled down at her, his fear turning to anger now that he had an excuse to vent. He slapped her head, the crack of his palm echoing in the stone corridor. He glanced up in alarm at the loudness of the sound, but the stone lizards and snakes carved into the walls continued to stare down at him with the same icy indifference as before.

Hiltrude tried to pull away again, but Schachter pulled her arms back at such an angle she was forced up to her feet.

‘What do you think’s back there?’ Schachter asked. ‘Whichever pack of monsters won that fight, Adalwolf’s dead!’

The woman glared defiantly at Schachter, shaking her head furiously, tears streaming down her face. She wouldn’t listen to his words. She wouldn’t believe them. Adalwolf wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be.

It was strange, Hiltrude thought. It wasn’t until she’d lost him that she appreciated her feelings for the hardened warrior. Gruff, crude, arrogant even, yet she felt there was more nobility about Adalwolf than all the refined burghers and aristocrats she had entertained over the years. She wondered about the wife he’d left behind in Marienburg and the children she’d borne him. Perhaps, if things had been different, that woman might have been her.

She’d never know what had become of her husband. She’d never know how he’d fallen trying to save a perfumed harlot from the clutches of gruesome monsters far from the lands of men. She’d never know that Adalwolf had not abandoned her.

If it had been me, Hiltrude told herself, I would know. At least she wanted to believe that.

‘Come on,’ Schachter told her. This time the captain’s voice wasn’t so gruff and he relaxed his hold on the tether so it didn’t bite into her skin. ‘We can’t stay here. We have to find a way out before they find us.’

Hiltrude didn’t know which ‘they’ Schachter meant. She supposed it didn’t matter. The lizardmen had no more reason to look kindly on them than Thanquol and his brood. She wasn’t sure which fate she dreaded more. She had seen the hideous sacrifices of the lizardmen and their red-clawed priest. Somehow the cold, passionless way the reptiles had butchered their captives made her more afraid than whatever horrible revenge Thanquol might think of.

Schachter pushed her ahead of him into the darkness between the sputtering torches. She could feel the sea captain trembling as he followed her. Hiltrude found some comfort in the fact. If she could stay calm, if she could keep her wits about her, she might escape her captor. While Schachter was busy jumping at shadows, she’d have her chance to get away.

What she would do then, she had no idea. The pragmatic side of her told her to stay with Schachter, that he was her best hope of getting out of the pyramid alive. Hiltrude felt sick at the thought. She’d listened to her pragmatic side far too much in her life, let it lead her to places and do things that…

No, she wouldn’t be pragmatic now. She would wait for her chance and she would take it. She would go back to the temple and she would find out what had happened to Adalwolf. After that, she didn’t care what became of her.

Hiltrude watched as the circle of light drew nearer, like a beacon on a distant shore. Twenty paces, perhaps thirty, and they would be out of the darkness. Schachter would relax again once he was safe on that little island of light. That would be her chance.

Schachter moaned in terror behind her. ‘They’ve found us!’ he gasped, thrusting Hiltrude ahead of him. She stumbled ahead as the captain forced her into a run. She was able to glance back only once. There was an impression of shapes rushing through the bit of illumination they had just left behind, but she couldn’t tell from so quick a look whether they were rats or reptiles.

‘Run! Run!’ Schachter’s frantic voice boomed in her ears. Hiltrude sprinted ahead of him, impelled by the captain’s terror, frightened that he would trample her underfoot if she fell. Twice she felt the sword in Schachter’s fist jab at her back. She wasn’t sure if it was a conscious threat or an unconscious motion, but she was certain she didn’t want to test the man’s intentions.

They reached the little circle of light. By now there was no mistaking the pad of clawed feet on the stone floor behind them. Schachter pushed her forward, intending to rush further down the corridor, light or no light, but Hiltrude staggered back into the light.

Blue-scaled creatures strode out from the darkness ahead of them, ugly little spears clutched in their clawed hands. They regarded the two humans with huge, unblinking eyes and their sharp little fangs seemed to glisten in the flickering light. The sight was too much for Schachter. With a howl, he brought his sword chopping down into one of the lizardmen.

The skink gave voice to a single sharp bark of pain, then closed its claws around the golden blade that had split it from shoulder to sternum. Schachter tried to rip the cleaver-like edge free, but the reptile’s tenacious grip was too strong. Dying, the lizardman had prevented Schachter from continuing the fight.

With Schachter’s sword trapped in the body of the skink, the other lizardmen lunged forward. By now the pursuers following from behind had closed the gap. Schachter and Hiltrude were dragged to the ground beneath a mass of clawing, clinging reptiles. The thick tails of the skinks battered them mercilessly, raising ugly welts wherever they struck. Sometimes the golden butt of a spear would crack against their skulls, rattling their senses as they tried to throw off their scaly antagonists.

Already bound by Schachter, Hiltrude was the first to collapse beneath the abuse of the lizardmen. As the skinks lashed her legs and arms together with heavy ropes, she could see them beating the fight out of Schachter so they could do the same to him. During the struggle, the captain’s boot kicked the corpse of the dead skink, his sword still embedded in its chest. She found it strange that the lizardmen didn’t try to kill Schachter for what he had done.

Then an icy chill swept through her, a sense of terrible power. Hiltrude twisted her head against the rough floor, raising her eyes as a robed skink emerged from the darkness. Her skin crawled as she felt reptilian eyes studying her, appraising her like a fishmonger appraising a catch. Xiuhcoatl’s crest flared into a brilliant comb of crimson, contrasting brilliantly with his blue scales and white robes.

Even though she knew there was death in Xiuhcoatl’s voice as the Prophet hissed commands to the other skinks and the two humans were lifted from the floor, Hiltrude knew there was no malice in the lizardman’s direction.

She and Schachter would die upon the altar, but their killers would take no delight from it. They were above, or perhaps beneath, such things as emotions and desires.

That part of her that she had come to hate found it all quite pragmatic.

Adalwolf cautiously rounded the bend in the corridor, holding his torch high to illuminate as much of the darkness as he could. He knew he risked discovery by carrying the light, but he also knew he needed to see if he was to defend himself. By now the lizardmen had finished off Thanquol’s vermin, but he doubted if they would stop there. Their temple had been violated, their living god slain, their kin killed. No, they would not stop with the slaughter of Thanquol and his ratmen. They would head into the tunnels to pursue the humans who had escaped. Perhaps, he realised with a feeling of sick dread, the reptiles didn’t even know the difference between man and ratman.

The thought was made all the more hideous when he remembered the awful ritual they had seen the skink priests performing atop the pyramid. Certainly they were no friends of the underfolk, but that didn’t mean they harboured any kindness towards mankind.

Fear flared through Adalwolf’s heart. He had to find Hiltrude before the lizardmen did. To think of her alone with that scoundrel Schachter, a host of cold-blooded monsters hunting them…

The warrior scarcely stopped to consider that his own situation was worse. Schachter at least had a weapon to defend them. Adalwolf had only the torch he’d plucked from the wall of the corridor. The same menace hunted him that hunted them, only his own flight from the temple had been much later than theirs. Whatever pursuit the skink prophet had sent to scour the tunnels, they would be much closer to him than them.

Still, Adalwolf could not get the courtesan’s plight out of his mind. However sorry his own situation, he knew he had to make the effort to rescue her. He felt that more than merely his life rested on trying. He’d forsake whatever dignity years of working for creatures like van Sommerhaus had left him if he abandoned her now. His honour hung upon getting her safely from the pyramid and he was not so rotten with the mercenary creed that he did not still value honour.

Something stirred in the darkness ahead. The musky stink of reptilian flesh struck Adalwolf’s nose as a short, wiry lizardman scurried into the light of his torch. It paused when it saw him, shifting its grip on the short spear it carried. Adalwolf did not give the skink a chance to decide what it was going to do. Swiftly, he brought his torch slamming down into the reptile’s head, knocking it against the floor. He kicked the spear away from its grasping claws.

Hisses rasped through the shadows and Adalwolf saw more lizardmen emerging from the blackness. They were of the same wiry breed as the one he had knocked down and their claws held the same little spears as their prone comrade. The mercenary tried to read some emotion on their scaly faces and in their gaping eyes, but they might have been carved from stone for all the expression he could find.

‘Stay back! I don’t want to hurt you!’ Adalwolf warned, waving the flaming torch before him. The skinks didn’t seem especially impressed by his display of bravado, but they did hang back a bit. Adalwolf began to think he might be able to bluff his way past the timid reptiles when he saw the reason for their timidity lumber out of the shadows. His blood became ice as he saw one of the huge ogre-like lizardmen from the spawning pool march between the parted ranks of its smaller fellows.

The kroxigor carried an immense axe seemingly crafted from solid gold in its over-sized claws, the blade already clotted with bits of fur and black blood. Adalwolf could smell the carrion reek of the monster’s breath as a rumbling bellow pulsed up its throat and through its giant fangs. Suddenly the torch in his hand felt even punier than it had a moment before. Dragonfire might not be weapon enough to faze such a brute!

Adalwolf retreated before the kroxigor’s approach. Battle-hardened reflexes made him turn about before he had taken more than a few steps. He caught the shaft of a spear one of the skinks behind him was stabbing at his back just before it struck. He wrenched the weapon from the surprised reptile’s hands then drove the burning end of his torch into the creature’s face. The skink barked in pain and collapsed in a writhing mass of flailing limbs, its agonies effectively blocking the advance of its fellows.

The kroxigor bellowed again, charging for Adalwolf. The mercenary ducked beneath the sweep of its axe. Stone shards sprayed from the wall as the axe smacked into stone instead of flesh. Before the huge brute could recover, Adalwolf stabbed his stolen spear into its belly. The flimsy javelin failed to penetrate the thick scales and the knotted muscle beneath, buckling like a nail upon an anvil.

Adalwolf hurled the useless weapon into the kroxigor’s face, pleased to see the lizardman blink in surprise. Before he could exploit the distraction, however, he felt scaly arms grabbing at him from behind. A sinewy arm wrapped around his throat, trying to pull him down to the floor.

The mercenary gave scant attention to the skinks grappling him. His eyes were locked on the immense lizardman in front of him. The kroxigor hefted its axe again, raising it for an overhead blow that would split Adalwolf’s body like a fencepost.

Adalwolf squeezed his eyes shut to keep from seeing the death blow. After a few moments, he opened them again. His first surprise was that he was alive. His second was to see a shape fully as big as the kroxigor wrestling with the reptile, ripping at it with massive claws and smashing it against the walls at every turn. He almost laughed when he realised he knew his rescuer. It was Boneripper, the giant ratman who had been Thanquol’s bodyguard.

From the darkness there was a flash of flame and a crack like thunder. One of the skinks grappling Adalwolf chirped in pain and rolled away across the floor clutching at a bleeding hip. A second flash and a second skink was quivering beside the first one, its chest a ruined mess of gore.

The mercenary was as shocked as the lizardmen when a crazed figure cloaked in grey came rushing out from the shadows. Thanquol’s staff split the skull of one skink, his sword opened the belly of another. The grey seer was almost frothing at the mouth, his eyes wide with terror as he ruthlessly flung himself into the fray. Skinks crumpled at every turn, unable to match the crazed fury of the ratman.

Adalwolf threw off the last of the lizardmen holding him. He smashed the head of one into the wall, hearing its skull crack. The others seemed to lose their taste for fighting the human after that, releasing him and scurrying back into the darkness.

Or perhaps they had simply seen what Adalwolf now saw. Boneripper stood over a dripping, mangled thing that had lately been the kroxigor. The huge lizardman’s neck was broken, its head spun completely around so that its lifeless eyes stared straight down the length of its spine. The rat ogre shook the dead bulk of his foe, making its head roll along its shoulders in a particularly nauseating fashion.

Grey Seer Thanquol leaned against his staff, a tangle of dead skinks scattered all around him. The ratman’s teeth were chattering, his chest heaving with such a frantic effort to draw breath into his lungs that Adalwolf thought the creature’s entire body was going to burst. Finally, Thanquol’s shivering hand fell to one of the pouches lashed to the belt of his robe. He drew what looked like a pinch of black dirt from the bag and quickly pressed his paw against his nose. He could hear the ratman inhale deeply, then quiver as a fit of furious sneezing wracked his body.

When Thanquol was recovered from the fit, his teeth had stopped chattering and his eyes were no longer the bulging pools of pure terror they had been during the fight. Indeed, the ratman’s entire figure seemed to swell, to bristle with power and when the grey seer stared at Adalwolf his eyes were almost glowing with hellish energies.

‘Man-thing owe-give life-skin to Grey Seer Thanquol!’ he snapped, lashing his tail against the pile of dead skinks. ‘Man-thing serve-do true-true what Thanquol squeak-say!’

Grey Seer Thanquol bared his teeth, displaying his rat-like fangs. ‘Or I eat-take man-thing’s spleen!’

Lukas van Sommerhaus leaned against the cold stone of the corridor and fought to stifle the wracking sob that threatened to shudder past his lips. The patroon was tempted to grind his torch against the floor to blot out the hideous sight of the crawling carvings that covered the walls. He knew to do so was madness, to abandon himself to the darkness of the tunnels. He would be as helpless as a fish thrown from the water if he did so, as vulnerable as a bird knocked from the sky.

Darkness offered no safety from the things that hunted him. He only suspected that they needed light to see. He had only to remember his ghastly ordeal as the captive of the underfolk to know that there were creatures for which sight was not the chiefest of their senses. Perhaps the scaly monsters were sniffing him out even now with their flickering tongues, stalking him even as the mammoth serpent had in that awful temple!

Van Sommerhaus fingered the golden guilder in his pocket, rubbing the edge of the coin with his thumb as he invoked the name of Handrich. The patroon had always been contemptuous of the god of merchants and trade: Handrich had seemed to take a perverse delight in refusing his prayers. But now, in his agony of terror, he beseeched Handrich for succour. Rubbing a coin was said to arouse the god’s interest.

They had followed him into the tunnels, van Sommerhaus was sure of that. He’d heard them, their hissing speech echoing from the stones, their claws scratching on the floor, their scaly tails slapping against the walls. He could smell their reptilian musk fouling the air, warning him of their pursuit. His skin crawled, expecting at any instant to feel the prick of an arrow. That was a horror he could not bear, to know that even the slightest scratch would kill him, would send the poison of the lizardmen rushing through his veins. It was the ignominy of such a death that terrified him. It offended his patroon blood to die like some trapped vermin, murdered by some nameless monster!

Van Sommerhaus had thought much of his death in the long hours he had spent hiding in the stone corridors. He thought about the kind of death that suited his station. To fall nobly in battle, making an end of himself that would be sung by the minstrels for hundreds of years, that would be the most fitting capstone to his career. To be remembered as merchant, mariner, playwright and hero, that was the finish he would not run from.

The patroon caught his breath and hurried down the corridor, turning his gaze away from a carving of a bloated toad that seemed to watch him with its sapphire eyes. If he escaped this horrible place, perhaps he would return to the Empire. He could face his persecutors, challenge their small-minded bigotries. Why, he’d confront Thaddeus Gamow, the Lord Protector of Sigmar’s witch hunters and dare the villain to face him across bare steel! That would be a confrontation that would truly be the epic ending worthy of Lukas van Sommerhaus!

A rasping, hissing noise from further up the corridor made van Sommerhaus freeze in his steps. He turned an anxious eye back up the corridor, but all he could see were the sapphire gleams of the stone toads watching him from the edge of the torchlight. Nervously, he continued to rub the gold coin until his thumb began to bleed.

After finding the torch he now carried set into a gilded sconce, he’d tried to avoid any tunnel that flickered with light. He reasoned that they had the most chance of being populated. By sticking to the darkness, van Sommerhaus hoped to avoid the inhabitants of the pyramid. After all, he had not escaped the hunger of the ratmen simply to end up in the cooking pots of walking lizards!

Van Sommerhaus smiled as he fancied that the hissing sounds were withdrawing back up the corridor. Again he had outwitted the primitive, reptilian brutes! He would stick to his course, keep to the shadows and eventually make his way out of the ghastly temple.

He tried to ignore the ugly observation he had earlier made. He tried to forget that the corridors he followed, the ones that were not lit by torches, were leading him downward, not upward. He tried to silence the nagging fear that he was running farther and farther from any exit from the pyramid. He tried to tell himself that he imagined the sense of pressure that made his ears ring.

He wasn’t deep below the earth. He wouldn’t allow himself to entertain the idea. One more turn, one more archway, and he would see the sun shining. He would feel the damp heat of the jungle and he would be free.

Van Sommerhaus turned his corner and passed through his archway. He stopped rubbing the coin in his pocket. A brilliant light shone back at him.

It wasn’t the light of the sun.

It was better.

Almost the patroon wished someone was with him, someone to appreciate the magnitude of what he had found. He thought of Adalwolf and Hiltrude and even the traitorous Captain Schachter. None of them would ever know of his find. Van Sommerhaus felt sorry for them, hunted like rats in the maze. They would never know the riches that could have been theirs, the riches that fate had reserved to reforge the fortune of the House van Sommerhaus!

Trembling, van Sommerhaus stepped through the archway and into a chamber so vast that his torchlight failed to illuminate more than a fragment of its enormity. He stooped and ran his hand along the floor – the floor that was paved in gold. He stared at the ceiling above – the ceiling that was roofed in gold. The columns that supported the roof were likewise gold. So too were the great shelves that ran along the walls and the huge square altars that sat on the floor.

Handrich had answered the patroon’s prayers in a way only the god of merchants could.

It was like walking into a gilded heaven, a miser’s vision of Norscan Valhal.

The only thing that ruined the effect for van Sommerhaus were the long, shrivelled, cloth-wrapped shapes that stretched along the shelves on the walls. The patroon felt a twinge of uneasiness as he thought about what the things might have looked like once, trying to imagine a serpent twice the size of the one that had tried to swallow him.

He brushed aside the foolish image and returned his attention to the wealth surrounding him on every side. Whatever the things might have been once, they were dead now.

Van Sommerhaus would be damned if he was going to be frightened by a bunch of mouldering old mummies.

Grey Seer Thanquol glared at the insolent slave-thing. How dare it refuse him! He’d saved the worthless, hairless monkey from the scaly-things! He’d risked his pelt getting him away from the abominable lizardmen and this was how the filthy thing thanked him!

He drew another pinch of warpstone snuff to calm his excited nerves. The terror of his desperate battle was still throbbing through his blood. He would never have risked himself if there had been another way, but that idiot Boneripper wasn’t able to do anything more than wrestle with the kroxigor, leaving all the other lizardmen for Thanquol to take care of! Of course it would have been a simple matter if he’d been able to call upon his supreme mastery of the black arts. A single spell would have reduced the entire pack of reptiles into charred husks. Nothing could withstand the magic of Thanquol once it had provoked his wrath!

But there was Xiuhcoatl to think about. Thanquol tried to keep his glands from clenching as he did think about the Prophet of Sotek and his formidable powers. Xiuhcoatl might sense any use of magic within his pyramid. The last thing Thanquol needed was to draw Xiuhcoatl’s attention.

Without magic and with Boneripper making a big squeak and dance about killing one scrawny kroxigor, Thanquol had been forced to rely upon his wits and martial prowess to carry the fight. He’d emptied both of the pistols he’d confiscated from the humans, hoping the shots would be enough to send the lizardmen running. When they weren’t, he’d summoned up his courage (and a bit of warpstone snuff) and charged into battle. What happened next was one big blur to him, but the pile of dead around his paws was testimony to his valour.

If only he didn’t need the human so badly, he would never have put himself at such risk. But he needed the human, as much as he needed his own skin! Xiuhcoatl would know every exit from the pyramid and would have placed wards there to guard against invasion by the skaven. It was death for any skaven to pass near the wards. Thanquol needed a lesser creature to clear the path for him. As before, that meant using the human.

Unfortunately, the human knew it! The stubborn, stupid beast was exploiting its own usefulness to bargain with him! Him, Grey Seer Thanquol, bickering with a lowly man-thing like some rat-wife shopping the skrawls of Skavenblight! And after the selfless way Thanquol had rescued the miserable creature!

‘I’m not leaving without Hiltrude,’ Adalwolf told Thanquol for the third time.

Thanquol gnashed his fangs together. ‘I don’t care-want breeder-slave!’ he snarled. ‘We leave-leave now-now! You lead-show way!’

‘Even if I knew the way out, I’m not leaving without her,’ Adalwolf said. He trembled when Boneripper growled at him, but he stood his ground.

Thanquol set a restraining paw on Boneripper’s leg. ‘I smell-scent way out,’ he assured Adalwolf, brushing the side of his furry snout. ‘You smash snake-stones, I follow, we all escape-flee!’

‘A good plan,’ Adalwolf told Thanquol. ‘But we’re not leaving without Hiltrude.’

Thanquol’s teeth ground against each other, his claws clenching so tight they bit into his palms. ‘Forget-leave breeder-thing!’ he snapped. ‘I buy-barter you much-much breeder-things! All breeder-things you want!’

The mercenary smiled at Thanquol, a gesture he had learned the ratmen took as one of challenge. ‘We leave with Hiltrude or you can smash your own snake-stones!’

‘Stupid fool-meat!’ Thanquol growled. He snapped his claws together. Before Adalwolf was even aware the huge beast was in motion, Boneripper sprang forwards and seized the man’s arm, lifting him off the ground. ‘Obey-listen or suffer-suffer!’ Thanquol hissed.

‘Not without Hiltrude,’ the mercenary insisted.

Thanquol nodded to Boneripper. With a savage twist, the rat ogre broke Adalwolf’s arm and dropped him back onto the floor. The warrior landed hard, screaming in pain as he clutched his shattered arm.

‘I lose-forget patience, slave-meat!’ Thanquol told the moaning man. ‘Obey-listen!’

‘Get skinned!’ Adalwolf snarled back, careful to bare all of his teeth at the fuming grey seer.

Thanquol’s tail lashed furiously behind him, his fur bristling as raw rage rippled through his body. He thought about blasting the insufferable human with a burst of warp-lightning, but that would hardly get him out of the pyramid.

‘Fine-good,’ Thanquol hissed through clenched fangs. ‘You lead-show safe path, smash-wreck all snake-stones, I take you to breeder-thing.’ It took Thanquol a long time to realise that the coughing cry shuddering through Adalwolf’s body was laughter.

‘You think I’d trust you?’ the mercenary scoffed. ‘How can you find Hiltrude in this maze?’

‘Same-same I find stupid slave-meat!’ Thanquol raged. He tapped the side of his nose again. ‘I follow-find your scent. I can follow-find breeder-thing’s stink even better.’

Adalwolf seemed to consider that for a moment. Even a dull-witted man-thing had to appreciate the greater senses of the skaven. It never ceased to amaze Thanquol how dull the human ability to smell was, though it went far to explain the reek of their cities.

‘How do I know you aren’t trying to trick me?’ Adalwolf asked.

‘Because I can just have Boneripper smash-crush slave-meat’s empty skull!’ Thanquol spat. The rat ogre took a menacing step towards Adalwolf.

‘Go ahead,’ the mercenary mocked. ‘You’ll make a pretty pile of ash.’

Thanquol swatted Boneripper with the head of his staff, moving the hulking beast away from Adalwolf. It was becoming clear to him that threats wouldn’t work with this deranged human. He’d lost all sense of self-preservation. The grey seer tried to remember everything he’d learned in his dealings with humans. He grinned as a particular bit of nonsense that seemed to have a strange effect on humans occurred to him. ‘You have my word,’ he told Adalwolf.

Again, the human’s body shuddered as choking laughter seized him. ‘You want me to trust you, I want van Sommerhaus’s pistols,’ he said, pointing at Thanquol’s belt.

The grey seer was tempted to let Boneripper squash the arrogant slave-thing, but his need made him relent. With every muscle twitching in rebellion to his action, Thanquol unfastened the weapons and tossed them over to the wounded man.

‘You need-need me,’ Thanquol reminded Adalwolf. He tapped the side of his snout. ‘I can smell-find breeder-thing. Slave-meat cannot.’

Gritting his teeth against the pain of his broken arm, Adalwolf stood and awkwardly buckled the pistol belt around his waist. ‘All right,’ he conceded. ‘I need you and you need me. But I also need the gunpowder. And the bullets.’

Snarling, Thanquol tossed the flask of gunpowder and the little leather bag of shot to the human. They’d wasted enough time negotiating. Any moment might see the lizardmen return and Thanquol wanted to be far away when they did. Besides, even if the human did have the pistols, Thanquol had Boneripper and his magic.

Though to be on the safe side, he’d keep Boneripper close enough to hide behind if the human looked like he was going to use one of the pistols.

The patroon smiled as he studied the pile of gold bricks he’d been able to pry from the floor. If he could get even half of it back to Marienburg, he’d be able to fund an expedition to return for the rest. He’d be able to hire an entire army to scour the jungle of the walking reptiles, engage an entire clan of dwarf engineers to build a road back to the beach. It might take a full fleet to carry everything back, but he was sure when the guildmasters saw what he was able to bring back on his own, they’d certainly back the enterprise.

Van Sommerhaus scowled as he considered exactly how he was going to get his treasure out of the pyramid. If only that idiot Adalwolf hadn’t wasted his time with the girl! His brawn would be a great boon to the patroon right now. Or if Schachter hadn’t been such a greedy bastard! Even split eighty-twenty there would be enough here to put the miserable old pirate up in a style far above his station in life! Van Sommerhaus would even welcome Thanquol back into his life right now. Surely even the underfolk understood the value of gold. Thanquol’s rats could drag the stuff away and then they could split the treasure at their leisure someplace far away from snakes and reptiles.

Shaking his head in frustration, van Sommerhaus stopped dreaming of an easy way out. He’d have to carry the gold on his own. He wasn’t a man who enjoyed physical labour, it was an activity far below his class. But there wasn’t anything difficult about it either. After all, if the unwashed, illiterate stooges who infested the docks of Marienburg could do it, certainly a man of his intelligence could.

He’d need to craft some kind of sling to drag the gold behind him. That would be the best way. He could pull far more than he could lift. Van Sommerhaus ran a hand along the tattered shreds of his elegant coat, bitterly feeling the frayed cuffs and buttonholes. No, he needed something a good bit sturdier.

His eyes came to rest on one of the giant mummies stretched out along the shelves. Van Sommerhaus studied the wrappings with keen interest. They looked to be as thick as sail-cloth and about as tough as leather. Certainly they should be up to the task.

Van Sommerhaus approached the serpentine mummy. Even over the smell of musty herbs there was still an ophidian reek about the thing. He pulled his shirt up over his nose and tried to breathe through his mouth as he contemplated the unpleasant task ahead of him.

At last overcoming his repugnance, van Sommerhaus gripped the edge of one of the wrappings and started to pull it away from the shrivelled body beneath. He didn’t notice when his efforts caused the scab on his thumb to crack. Blood dripped down his finger where he had worn it raw during his prayers to Handrich.

As a long strip of cloth came free, a bead of the patroon’s blood splattered against the desiccated husk of the giant serpent. He didn’t notice the way the ancient corpse absorbed the liquid, or the slight shudder that passed through its sinuous bulk.

It was when van Sommerhaus turned to rip free a second strip of cloth that he discovered something was wrong. He had just set the first cloth down beside his plunder and was turning back to the mummy when he saw it move. There was nothing subtle about the motion, no chance to scoff and try to deny the evidence of his eyes. The head and neck of the mummified snake reared up off the shelf, rising into the air and staring down at him. Great emeralds shone from the skull of the snake, jewelled replacements for the eyes decay had claimed. Lifeless, yet gleaming with a hideous intelligence, the emeralds glared at the man who cowered below.

Van Sommerhaus backed away from the ghastly mummy. He understood now what this place was – a tomb for the giant snakes the lizardmen kept in their temple. Reptiles sacred to their strange god, the great serpents were preserved in death as they were nurtured in life. Unfortunately, the lizardmen had preserved the monsters only too well.

The patroon stumbled as he retreated, falling over the pile of gold he had ripped from the floor. Desperate, he seized a brick in each hand. Turning back to the towering serpent, he held the plundered treasure out to it.

The giant serpent seemed to regard van Sommerhaus’s offering for an instant. Then great leathery folds of skin snapped open to either side of its withered head. Decayed jaws fell open and the mummified cobra lunged downward.

Lukas van Sommerhaus shrieked as he vanished into the maw of the cobra, his dreams of wealth and power engulfed by the darkness of the serpent’s belly.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE PROPHET’S TEST

Adalwolf finished his inspection of the walls at the intersection, then waved his gruesome companions forwards with his torch. There was no mistaking the suspicion in Thanquol’s face despite his bestial countenance. The mercenary felt a twinge of disgust when he saw the grey seer prod Boneripper ahead of him on the chance that Adalwolf was trying to betray him and hadn’t reported one of the deadly snake-stones. It was an idea that seemed to occur to the ratman every hundred feet or so.

Because of Thanquol’s paranoid precautions, whatever progress they were making in finding Hiltrude had slowed to a crawl. Adalwolf felt sorely tempted to abandon the skaven and find Hiltrude on his own, but he knew he couldn’t. The crafty grey seer was right. He’d never be able to find her on his own. He had to rely on the ratman’s sense of smell if he was going to rescue Hiltrude.

If it wasn’t already too late.

Boneripper slipped into the intersection, moving with the eerie smoothness and silence that was so incongruous with his huge frame. The rat ogre’s crimson eyes glared into the darkness, careful to avoid directly looking at Adalwolf and his torch lest the light spoil the monster’s night-vision.

Thanquol waited several heartbeats, tapping out the time on the floor with his staff. When Boneripper failed to explode or crumble into powder, the grey seer came scurrying up to join him, clinging to his leg like a pilot fish to a shark’s fin.

‘Which way now?’ Adalwolf asked the grey seer.

Thanquol gave him a curious stare, the kind of look someone might give a feeble-minded idiot. He tugged at his whiskers and his eyes narrowed into crafty little slits. Adalwolf fought the urge to feed the monster his fist.

‘This way,’ Thanquol told him, lifting his head and making a show of sniffing at the air. ‘Yes-yes, breeder-thing smell strong this way,’ he elaborated, pointing the metal head of his staff down the left-hand turn in the corridor.

‘You’re sure?’ Adalwolf said. ‘I’d hate for you to be wrong. I might miss some of those glyphs you’re so worried about if Hiltrude isn’t with me.’

Thanquol gnashed his teeth together. ‘Yes-yes,’ he said. ‘Slave-meat wants to make whelps. I find-scent breeder-thing. Don’t worry-fear!’ He gestured at the passageway again with his staff. ‘This way. Yes-yes.’

Adalwolf was about to warn Thanquol about what would happen if he tried any tricks when the passage behind them was suddenly filled with hissing, charging lizardmen. Instinctively, the mercenary dropped his torch and drew one of the pistols. He’d reloaded the weapons, a tortuous process with one of his arms broken, but he’d done so for very different reasons. Now, before he could even think about it, he was sighting down the barrel and sending a bullet smashing into the foremost of the scaly blue mass of reptiles. He heard the sharp bark of a skink as one of the smaller lizardmen was thrown back by the impact of the bullet.

Adalwolf started to draw the second pistol before he remembered that the lizardmen weren’t the only things he had to worry about. Even if he had drawn the weapon, he would not have had time to fire. Roaring like a blood-mad bull, Boneripper charged into the reptiles. The rat ogre’s huge claws ripped a gory swathe through the small skinks, tossing their mangled bodies before him like chaff before a sickle.

The skinks retreated before Boneripper’s assault. For an instant Adalwolf thought the monster had routed them, but then he saw the real reason for their flight. The smaller lizardmen were clearing a path for two of their huge cousins. Boneripper growled a challenge to the two kroxigor and soon he was locked in mortal combat with the scaly brutes.

Adalwolf watched the battle for only a few seconds before furry hands were turning him around. Grey Seer Thanquol pressed the fallen torch into his hand and gestured frantically at the corridor ahead.

‘Fast-quick! Run-flee!’ Thanquol squeaked.

Adalwolf squirmed free of the ratman’s filthy touch. He looked in shock at Thanquol. ‘You’re going to just leave him?’ he asked, pointing back to where Boneripper struggled with the kroxigor.

‘Yes-yes!’ Thanquol snapped. ‘Hurry-quick! Breeder-thing close-close!’

Shaking his head in disbelief at the callousness of the grey seer, Adalwolf sprinted down the corridor at what he hoped was a fast enough pace to keep him ahead of the lizardmen once they got past Boneripper. He could hear Thanquol’s scurrying feet close behind him.

He didn’t see the crafty gleam in the grey seer’s eyes, or the way he ground his fangs together as though imagining them locked about a certain slave-thing’s throat.

The air was heavy with the hot, damp, rotten reek of the jungle as Hiltrude and Schachter were carried from the pyramid. Each of the humans was held by a hulking kroxigor, slung over the backs of the giant lizardmen like sacks of potatoes. The huge reptiles set them down roughly on a little flat ledge that circled the pyramid at its midsection. The captives blinked painfully at the blazing sun, blinding after the gloom of the tunnel-like halls within the temple.

Their captors did not allow them time to recover their sight. Almost as soon as the kroxigor set them down, skinks were scrambling over them. The smaller lizardmen slashed their bindings with little obsidian knives while at the same time retying their arms behind their backs. As soon as they were tied, the skinks forced them to their feet, prodding and pushing them to the long flight of stone steps set into the face of the pyramid.

Hiltrude stumbled as she tried to mount the stairway. The steps were shallow, the incline was nearly vertical and she couldn’t balance herself properly with her arms folded against the small of her back. She had taken only a few steps before she fell, smashing painfully against the jagged stairs. Her body began to slide down the stairs. She could see the cracked paving stones of the plaza far below and a thrill of horror swept through her. Frantically, she braced her legs to catch her weight and arrest her fall. It was only when she stopped sliding that the skinks moved in, pulling her back onto her feet and pushing her ahead of them.

She could see the robed figure of Xiuhcoatl climbing the stairs, scrambling up them as effortlessly as a squirrel climbing a tree. Her blood turned cold when she saw the other skink priests waiting for him at the top of the pyramid. They were standing around the altar, the same altar they had seen the lizardmen making their gory sacrifices upon.

Hiltrude screamed then. She twisted her body around, trying to throw herself from the side of the pyramid. Better to be smashed against the plaza below than be butchered on Xiuhcoatl’s altar. But this time the lizardmen were ready for her. Cold, scaly hands caught her before she could fall, pulling her back. Skinks surrounded her on every side, prodding and nudging her towards the waiting priests.

‘Don’t worry,’ Schachter called to her from below. ‘The bastards can only kill us once.’

As Hiltrude looked up and saw Xiuhcoatl gazing down at her, she wasn’t sure if the captain was right. It wasn’t anger she saw in the prophet’s eyes, it was more emotionless than that. But there was judgement there, stern and without pity. He knew they were the ones who had broken the magic that kept the underfolk from violating his temple. The Temple of Sotek had been profaned and they were responsible.

She read that in Xiuhcoatl’s staring eyes, and more. To purify the temple would take much blood and much pain.

Their blood.

Their pain.

The strange snake-glyph shattered beneath the blow of the weird golden club Adalwolf had taken from the corpse of one of the skinks. He could almost imagine little wisps of energy rising from the stone as it crumbled away. There was no mistaking, however, the eager glint that filled Thanquol’s beady eyes.

‘Quick-quick!’ Thanquol urged him, pointing down the corridor where another of the serpent glyphs could be seen jutting from the wall. ‘Scaly-things close-close!’

Adalwolf didn’t have to ask the ratman how he knew that. He could hear the skinks running up the hall behind them, their claws scratching against the stone floor. It could be only a matter of minutes before the reptiles caught them, and this time they didn’t have Boneripper to hold the monsters back.

The mercenary ran past Thanquol, attacking the snake-stone with his club. The ophidian head cracked as he struck it. A second blow sent the glyphs crumbling to the floor. The hair on Adalwolf’s arms stood on end as he felt the power within the ward escaping into the darkness. Thanquol chittered excitedly, racing past the man and gesturing impatiently at still another of the snake-stones.

Adalwolf glanced behind him. The lizardmen were much closer now. Perhaps the reptiles were using the stink of Thanquol’s fur to guide them through the dark. The idea caused a troubling thought to occur to him. How was it that Thanquol hadn’t smelled the lizardmen before? With his sharp nose he should have picked up their scent long before the skinks ambushed them? But why would Thanquol let them be ambushed? It had cost him his giant bodyguard to escape the attack.

‘Fast-hurry, quick-quick!’ Thanquol squealed at him, hopping on one foot in his frantic eagerness.

There was his answer, Adalwolf realised. The grey seer had allowed the lizardmen to find them and chase them so that he could force Adalwolf to hurry, to be driven like a hunted beast, to act without thinking about what he did.

The mercenary smiled coldly at Thanquol, glaring at him as he slowly marched towards the ratman. ‘Just where is Hiltrude?’

Thanquol lashed his tail, then lifted his head and made a great show of sniffing the air. ‘Breeder-thing near! Fast-quick!’ He pointed a shaking claw at the snake-stone.

‘You’re lying,’ Adalwolf told him. His fingers tightened about the grip of his club. He stared past Thanquol, noting the way the corridor seemed brighter ahead. Not the flicker of a torch, but something cleaner. Rage built up inside him as he realised he was looking at daylight.

Thanquol saw his anger. The grey seer dropped into a crouch, dragging his sword from its sheath. ‘Fool-meat! Scaly-things catch-kill both of us!’

‘I don’t care about that,’ Adalwolf snarled. ‘You tricked me! You let me have hope!’ He took a step towards the ratman, swinging the club before him.

‘Wait-listen! Breeder-thing near-close!’ Thanquol insisted, parrying the sweep of Adalwolf’s club with his sword. Even with only one arm, the mercenary’s greater strength sent the grey seer reeling. Thanquol shrieked in abject terror as he stumbled close to the snake-stone.

‘It’s me or the magic fire, monster!’ Adalwolf shouted. He swung the club at Thanquol’s head, the blow coming so close to striking home that it grated against one of his horns. ‘Either way will suit me fine.’

‘Listen-listen!’ Thanquol pleaded, throwing himself low to avoid Adalwolf’s club. The grey seer scrambled across the floor like a giant rat, cringing against the wall. ‘I find-take breeder-thing! Smell-scent!’ he whined, tapping his nose with the side of his sword.

Adalwolf didn’t give any credit to the grey seer’s begging. The monster had tricked him once, he wasn’t going to let it happen again. He would not put it past Thanquol to simply be playing for time so that he could be captured by the lizardmen rather than killed by the enraged mercenary.

The golden club came smashing down, denting itself on the hard floor as Thanquol dived away from the crushing blow. He made a desperate slash of his sword, but the strike missed Adalwolf’s leg by a good six inches. The mercenary spun on the cringing monster and brought the club swinging around in a savage arc that would spatter Thanquol’s brains on the wall.

The grey seer threw himself flat, the club whistling over his head before smashing into the wall. Adalwolf felt the terrific impact throb through his bones, his hand going so numb that the club nearly fell from his fingers. His flesh crawled as he realised he’d not only missed his enemy but had left himself completely helpless.

Thanquol didn’t spring at him with his rusty sword. Instead, the skaven leapt to his feet, chittering laughter rippling past his fangs. He turned tail and ran, not into the darkness where the sounds of the pursuing lizardmen were growing louder, but ahead, towards the daylight.

Raw horror raced down Adalwolf’s spine when he understood the reason for Thanquol’s laughter. The last blow he had aimed at the grey seer had missed him, striking the wall instead. But not just any part of the wall. Unintentionally he had shattered the last of the snake-stones! Whether Thanquol had goaded him into accidentally breaking the ward or if it was just another example of the devil’s luck that seemed to surround the monster, Adalwolf did not know. All that he knew was his enemy was going to escape.

Already resigned to a lonely death, the mercenary was determined to see Thanquol precede him on the long road to hell.

Tossing aside the golden club in disgust, Adalwolf drew the duelling pistol from his belt and raced after the fleeing ratman. The greater speed of the skaven gave Adalwolf small hope of catching the monster, but he was determined to try. He called upon Myrmidia and Verena and all his gods and goddesses, begging them for this one small favour. Let him avenge himself on his enemy.

Thanquol vanished through the stone archway that formed the entrance to the corridor. The daylight was almost blinding as Adalwolf hurried after him. Such was his disorientation and the urgency that sped his legs that he nearly pitched headfirst down the side of the pyramid when he left the tunnel. Only the merest chance allowed him to shift his weight back in time, to fall back against the wall of the pyramid instead of crashing down to the plaza far below.

His vision was still mostly a stinging blur, all colours washed out into different vibrancies of white. Adalwolf cursed the biting light of the sun, cursed the valuable moments it gave Thanquol to escape him.

In the midst of his cursing, a snarling figure pounced into the edge of his vision. Thanquol’s heavy staff cracked against his face, nearly breaking his jaw as it knocked him down. He screamed in pain as he fell, landing upon his broken arm. The pistol tumbled through his fingers, clattering along the narrow ledge.

More from instinct than conscious thought, Adalwolf rolled his painwracked body as soon as he landed. Instantly he heard the edge of Thanquol’s sword scraping the stones he had been lying on. He kicked out with his boot towards the source of the sound and grinned savagely when he was rewarded by Thanquol’s pained squeak.

‘Dung-rutting slave-meat!’ Thanquol snarled at him. ‘I’ll cut-gut your nethers and feed them to you!’

Thanquol’s staff cracked against Adalwolf’s side, sending slivers of pure agony rushing through him as his broken bones scraped against each other. But the mercenary did not let the pain overcome him. He seized the head of Thanquol’s staff, using it as a lever against his enemy. However fast and sneaky the skaven was, Adalwolf was bigger and stronger. Before Thanquol was even aware of what was happening, Adalwolf swung the grey seer around, slamming him into the wall of the pyramid.

The grey seer was more distinct now, no longer a blur of brightness in Adalwolf’s whitewashed eyes. He could see the grey fur standing up on the monster’s neck, the ugly fangs gleaming in his mouth. Thanquol’s claws tightened about his sword and he started to rush forwards to deliver a stabbing thrust to the man’s belly.

Suddenly, Thanquol’s eyes became wide with terror, an ugly musky smell rising from his body. The sword clattered from his fingers, bouncing down the narrow stone steps set into the face of the pyramid. Quivering, the skaven gave a short sharp squeak of fear, then ripped his staff free from Adalwolf’s grasp. Frantically, Thanquol ran down the side of the pyramid, dropping to all fours as he raced for the ruins far below.

Adalwolf turned his head, wondering if Thanquol had seen the lizardmen emerge from the corridor. Instead he found himself staring at the desolate city beyond the pyramid and the jungle that surrounded it. There were things in the jungle now, a great multitude of reptiles of all sizes and description. He saw lumbering armoured behemoths, howdahs lashed across their scaly backs as though they were Arabyan war elephants. He saw great carnivorous brutes like the one they had seen on the trail, only these were saddled after the fashion of Bretonnian destriers. He saw a horde of tall, powerful lizardmen, warrior reptiles that were neither the hulking kroxigor of the spawning pools or the wiry skinks of the temple. The soldier lizards formed ranks and columns, marching to the sound of strange pipes and ominous drums.

There was an entire army mustering at the edge of the jungle, fanning out to form a ring around the ruined city. In the midst of the strange army, his eyes drawn to it like those of a fly to a spider, was a weird, bloated, toadlike creature hovering upon a great golden dais. Even Adalwolf could sense the power of the strange being. It was as though a piece of the sun had broken off and fallen into the jungle, such was its magnitude. The skink prophet that had so terrified Thanquol was nothing beside the aura of ancient might that emanated from the toad-creature. No wonder the ratman had turned tail and run!

Thinking of Thanquol made Adalwolf glance back down the side of the pyramid. The fleeing skaven had covered almost half of the distance between himself and the plaza below. Adalwolf glanced about him for a loose brick, an old bone, anything he might hurl after Thanquol and perhaps make him fall. He smiled as something better rewarded his quick search. He had thought his pistol lost when Thanquol pounced on him, but the weapon had not rolled over the lip of the ledge.

Grinning, Adalwolf stood and coldly aimed the pistol at Thanquol’s back.

Before he could fire, a sharp scream rose from somewhere behind and above him. Adalwolf spun around, certain it was Hiltrude’s voice. He gazed up the face of the pyramid, staring at the flat summit where the altar stood. The skink priests were once more gathered there, the robes and feathers of Xiuhcoatl fluttering about him in the hot, damp wind. The skink prophet held a gleaming knife in his clawed hand as he leaned over the altar.

Upon the altar, stretched and tied as the ratmen had been, shrieking in terror, was Hiltrude!

Adalwolf gave no further thought to Thanquol. He sighted down the barrel of his pistol, aiming at the distant shape of Xiuhcoatl. There was little chance of the bullet striking the prophet at such a distance, but Adalwolf prayed that the noise of the discharge might frighten him off.

Taking careful aim and praying once more to his gods, Adalwolf slowly pulled the trigger.

Lord Tlaco watched the corrupted algorithm as it scurried down the face of the Temple of the Serpent. The slann shifted his attention away from the noxious disharmony and instead focused upon the low phase algorithm, the unknown quotient, standing upon the ledge above the fleeing xa’cota. He could see the warm-quick emotions as irrational sums warring for control of the unknown quotient’s mental processes. At the top of the temple, Lord Tlaco could see Xiuhcoatl, the skink’s presence as inscrutable as the other times the mage-priest had contemplated him.

Through the confusion of irrationalities that filled the mind of the unknown quotient, Lord Tlaco could see patterns. One set of patterns would spell destruction for the xa’cota. Another set brought challenge to the Prophet of Sotek. Which pattern would the unknown quotient add into itself? Which algorithm would it seek to negate?

The Old Ones had a purpose when they had added the low phase algorithms to the Great Math. It did not matter that none of the slann had ever truly decided upon the purpose of that addition, or even if the work the Old Ones had begun had been finished or left incomplete. Unlike the persistent fractals and the corrupted algorithms, the warm-quick had their place within the harmony. They had purpose.

Lord Tlaco had invested much attention to bringing the unknown quotient here to serve such a purpose. Which would it choose? Xiuhcoatl or the xa’cota? Which would its irrational sums tell it was the answer to the equation?

The slann’s eyes narrowed as he saw the unknown quotient’s thoughts become constant. It had made its choice. Lord Tlaco watched as the human pointed his weapon at Xiuhcoatl and fired.

That is the answer to the problem, Lord Tlaco decided, shifting one of its flabby fingers, using it to manipulate the patterns of the Great Math.

The equation is solved, the slann thought. The new unknown was why.

Adalwolf watched in disbelief as his bullet exploded the top of Xiuhcoatl’s skull. The skink prophet didn’t even cry out as the impact of the shot lifted him off his feet. The body flew over the side of the pyramid, clattering down the shallow stairway in a tangle of feathered talismans and golden charms.

The other skink priests were as shocked by the sudden and violent death of Xiuhcoatl as Adalwolf. The lizardmen blinked about them in confusion, their mouths gaping in stunned silence.

He didn’t know how long he could expect the lizardmen to be overcome by the death of their leader. Shifting his grip on the pistol so that he might use its heavy butt like a bludgeon, Adalwolf took to the stairs, rushing up them at a frenzied pace, heedless of the lethal fall waiting for him if he stumbled in his mad rush up the face of the pyramid. The danger that threatened him was little compared to the revenge the lizardmen were sure to take upon Hiltrude when they recovered. The vision of her dripping heart being ripped from her body by the reptilian priests spurred him on. He ignored the flare of pain that shot through him with every step as the bones of his shattered arm ground against each other. He was oblivious to the hot, stinging breath that rasped through his lungs. All that mattered to him was reaching the girl in time.

Adalwolf cleared the last few steps in a bounding leap, landing upon the roof of the pyramid in a pantherish crouch. The skink priests blinked, their pupils widening in surprise as they found this wild man kneeling beside the altar. One of the priests started to lift his feathered staff. The mercenary sprang at him, smashing the pistol against the top of his skull. The skink staggered under the first blow, then slumped lifelessly against the altar as Adalwolf pressed his attack.

A sharp hiss warned Adalwolf that a second skink was rushing at him from behind. He spun, hurling the bloody pistol at the skink’s face. Fangs cracked as the weapon smashed into the lizardman’s mouth, causing him to veer away from the mercenary and clutch at his bleeding face.

There was no time to pursue the wounded priest, for already the third of its fellows was rushing at Adalwolf, the sharp tip of its staff aimed at him like a spear. He braced himself, waiting for the moment he wanted. As the skink rushed at him, he shifted and grabbed at the staff. Much as he had when fighting Thanquol, he caught the staff in a grip of iron and used his greater strength and size to swing his foe around. The lean skink was even less of a burden than the horned skaven and Adalwolf’s spin flung the reptile far out over the side of the roof. The lizardman uttered a chirp of fright as it plummeted to the plaza below.

The last of the skink priests glared at Adalwolf with cold, unblinking eyes. Slithering noises whispered through its teeth and an awful light began to gather about its scaly claws. The mercenary understood the reason for the bold attacks of the other priests. They had been meant to distract him to give this last priest time to work its magic. Adalwolf threw the feathered staff he held at the skink, but the hurled weapon seemed to lose momentum before it even came near the skink, clattering harmlessly on the stones in front of the priest’s feet.

Gleaming teeth shone in the skink’s face as the priest raised one of his glowing claws. Adalwolf looked for someplace he might take cover. The only hiding place was the altar and to take advantage of it would be to expose Hiltrude to whatever magic the reptile was evoking.

Adalwolf stood where he was and glared defiantly at the lizardman. ‘I hope you choke on those words,’ he spat.

The skink abruptly stopped his incantation, the glow fading from his claws. It cocked his head to the side, staring at Adalwolf with a look of surprise and confusion that was even greater than his shock at Xiuhcoatl’s death. Calmly, the priest set its staff down on the ground, then sat down beside it, folding his legs and tail beneath his body.

Adalwolf stared suspiciously at the skink, wondering what trick it was playing at. He watched the creature carefully, circling around it to reach the altar. The skink gave no further notice of the man, but kept its eyes staring at the palms of its own hands.

Hiltrude sobbed when she saw Adalwolf’s face appear above her, tears of relief rolling down her cheeks. The mercenary gave her a reassuring smile, then fumbled at the thongs the lizardmen had used to bind her to the altar. Whatever knots the skinks had used, they were complex enough to baffle even a seafaring man. Adalwolf soon abandoned any hope of untying her and looked for something to cut her free instead.

The ceremonial knife Xiuhcoatl had thought to use on Hiltrude was resting on the ground beside the altar. Adalwolf leaned down and quickly grabbed it. As he did so, he saw the shivering mass lying sprawled at the foot of the altar. A grim smile appeared on his face as he saw Captain Schachter’s situation.

The treacherous sea captain could wait. Adalwolf stood and returned his attention to Hiltrude. With a last look at the skink to make sure he was still behaving, the mercenary began sawing at the ties that bound Hiltrude’s hands.

As soon as her arms were free, Hiltrude wrapped them around Adalwolf’s neck in a crushing embrace. She pulled herself off the altar and crushed her soft lips against his. It took more effort than he would have believed possible to free himself from her arms.

‘I have to free your legs,’ Adalwolf told her, gently pushing her away. A sudden thought came to him. He would need to turn his back on the skink. ‘Keep your eyes on that monster. Warn me if he moves.’

‘I prayed you would come,’ Hiltrude told him as he sawed at the cords. ‘I didn’t dare to hope you’d come in time.’

Adalwolf slashed the last of the cords and helped Hiltrude lower herself from the altar. ‘You can thank that slinking coward Thanquol I found you in time,’ Adalwolf said. ‘He promised he’d lead me to you if I helped him get out, though I’m sure he never intended to keep his word. Sometimes even liars get caught in their own lies.’

Hiltrude started to hug him again, then noticed the flare of pain that swept across his face when she touched his arm. A mixture of pity and concern filled her eyes as she noticed Adalwolf’s injury. She studied the crude binding he had made for himself from one of his pant legs. Shaking her head in disapproval, she started to rip at the tatters of her own dress to make a more secure bandage.

‘No time for that,’ Adalwolf scolded her. ‘There was an entire mob of reptiles chasing me when I escaped the pyramid and there’s an entire army of them moving to surround the city! We have to get out of here! Now!’

The mercenary grabbed Hiltrude’s hand and started to lead her towards the stairs when Schachter’s voice cried out.

‘For the love of Shallya and the grace of Manann, don’t leave me!’ the captain wailed.

Adalwolf stared coldly at the man, then his gaze shifted to the now empty altar. It was no better than the villain deserved. Hiltrude’s soft hand pressed against his chest as he turned away.

‘You can’t leave him,’ she said. ‘Not like this. Not with them.’

A stab of guilt made Adalwolf frown. Whatever Schachter had done, he was still human. Hiltrude was right; no man of conscience could abandon another to the mercies of inhuman monsters. Except for her, though, he realised that was exactly what he would have done.

The mercenary leaned over Schachter, sawing through the cords with a deft motion of the knife. The sea captain rubbed his bruised wrists and grinned at Adalwolf. ‘Don’t get the idea I did this for you,’ the mercenary warned him. ‘I just don’t want your sorry face haunting me at night is all.’

‘I won’t forget this,’ Schachter assured him. ‘By Handrich and old Jack o’ the Sea, I won’t!’ The captain stood and rubbed his legs, working circulation back into them. ‘What’s the plan now? You mean to go back inside and look for van Sommerhaus?’

Adalwolf turned away as Hiltrude looked at him hopefully. After her own impossible rescue, she seemed to think he could do anything. In a way, he was almost sad he was too rational to think he could. If the patroon was still inside the pyramid, they’d never find him. He stared out across the ruins, watching as the army of lizardmen slowly surrounded it. Soon there would be no escape. But where would they escape to?

A smile spread across his face as he spotted a grey robed figure racing through the ruins. If anybody knew an escape route, it would be Thanquol!

The warrior pointed at the distant ratman. ‘We have to follow Thanquol!’ he said. ‘He’ll know a way out of here and I’m sure he can be convinced the only way to save his skin is to save ours too.’

Hiltrude gasped in horror at the idea. ‘We escape the lizardmen only to run back into Thanquol’s paws!’

Adalwolf shook his head. ‘He’s lost all of his followers. It’s just him and us now.’ He gazed out across the ruins, unpleasantly aware of the cordon the lizardmen were throwing around the city and the presence of the toad-creature at the edge of the jungle. ‘We have to hurry before we lose him.’

‘I’ll be with you in a moment,’ Schachter told the others. He picked up one of the feathered staves lying on the roof and strode towards the sitting skink.

‘Schachter! Leave it alone!’ Adalwolf cried, afraid the man would provoke the reptilian priest into unleashing whatever magic he had been conjuring.

The sea captain hesitated as he lifted the staff, but it wasn’t because of Adalwolf’s shout. Schachter studied the unmoving lizardman, staring at the curious white spots that were spreading across the skink’s scaly hide. It was like watching mould growing on bread. He backed away from the reptile, suddenly losing his interest in bashing its head in.

‘Plague!’ Schachter gasped, making the sign of Shallya as he spoke the ghastly word.

Adalwolf started towards the sitting priest to see for himself, but Hiltrude held him back. ‘You said we had to go. Let’s go,’ she said, her voice quivering with terror much as it had when the sailors had proposed using fire to burn away the man-eating plants.

The mercenary relented. The skink could keep the secret of whatever weird doom had claimed it. Carefully, he made his way to the stairs, grateful that he had Hiltrude beside him to keep his balance. Descending was going to be harder than his mad rush to the top. For one thing, there was no way to avoid noticing how far it was to the bottom.

Halfway down they found the entrance way Thanquol and Adalwolf had used to escape the pyramid. The opening was littered with the bodies of lizardmen now, all of them sporting the most hideous wounds. Adalwolf felt all the warmth drain out of him when he saw the bodies. He knew what kind of creature was capable of wreaking such havoc. He kept silent, though. It wouldn’t do any good to tell the others that Thanquol might not be alone for long.

There were others though, lizardmen that hadn’t quite been finished off in the fight. None of them were in any condition to cause trouble, simply lying strewn about the ledge, their lifeblood seeping out of their mangled frames. The mouths of the skinks gaped as they tried to suck air into their bodies and their eyes were swollen and crusted over. The same ghastly white fungus Schachter had described was quickly spreading across their scaly skin, visibly expanding even as they watched.

Schachter stooped over one of the mutilated skinks and removed the golden sword clutched in its dead claw. He tested the balance of the unwieldy blade. Grinning, he turned back towards Adalwolf.

‘Damn sight better than a knife,’ Schachter told the mercenary. Hiltrude could feel Adalwolf’s body grow tense.

Schachter laughed and tossed the weapon to Adalwolf. ‘This one’s yours,’ he said. ‘I’ll see about finding others for myself and the girl.’

‘If we get back, these’ll be worth a few guilders,’ Adalwolf commented as he studied the strange double-headed sword.

‘I was thinking the same thing,’ Schachter answered, a gleam in his eye.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

HUNTERS AND PREY

When he heard the pistol shot, Thanquol’s paws instantly flew to his chest. It took several minutes of poking and patting to assure himself that he hadn’t been shot. He gritted his teeth in a feral scowl. He knew it had been a mistake to give that simpering human a weapon! The villainous, unthankful wretch had tried to put a bullet in his back!

Thanquol muttered a quiet prayer of gratitude to the Horned Rat for spoiling the man-thing’s aim. However dire his circumstances, he should have known better than to arm an unpredictable animal. Humans couldn’t be trusted with all their insane ideas and irrational attachments. Any thinking creature would have been content to be led out of the pyramid, but not a human! Oh no, the fool-meat had to demand to be led to his breeder first!

The grey seer looked back at the pyramid as he leaped to the cracked stones of the plaza. He wondered if he dared send a spell searing into the human. As afraid as he was of drawing Xiuhcoatl’s attention, he was even more afraid that the great fat frog-thing he’d spotted in the jungle would notice. That creature had appeared to Thanquol’s senses less as a thing of flesh and blood but more as a bloated sack of raw magical energy. He’d seen warpstone deposits that were puny beside the power he sensed in the fat frog-thing. Seeing the frog-mage up close had risen rather prominently to the top of Thanquol’s phobias. Going back to Skavenblight and explaining his failure to the Nightlord wasn’t such a poor prospect by comparison.

Thanquol lashed his tail in annoyance. He wouldn’t get back to Skavenblight if the back-shooting man-thing put a bullet through his spine. Perhaps Xiuhcoatl and the frog-mage wouldn’t notice a small spell; one only big enough to scorch the human’s eyes out of his face.

His beady red eyes blinked in confusion as Thanquol stared up at the pyramid. The human wasn’t even looking at him, he was dashing up the stairs as fast as he could, making for the roof of the dreadful temple. He was just thinking that terror of the grey seer’s powers had sent the man-thing running when Thanquol noticed the greasy tang of reptile blood in the air. He shifted his gaze in the direction of the smell and was shocked to see a scaly blue body tumbling down the steps of the pyramid. The faint smell of gunpowder rising from the lizardman told Thanquol how he had met his end. The white robe and feathered ornaments made him realise that the victim of Adalwolf’s bullet had been Xiuhcoatl.

Thanquol clapped his paws together and leaped off the ground, squeaking in delight.

The clever, bold little slave-thing! He knew there was a reason he had conquered his own petty fears and doubts and given the human those pistols. Lesser skaven would have thought only of their own skins, unable to think past getting a bullet in their back. Not he! His was the sort of genius that might exhibit itself once in a generation. He had foreseen the possibilities of a human with a pistol. For the good of the quest, he had dismissed his own fears and put the man-thing in the position to kill Xiuhcoatl!

Actually, the more he thought about it, the story would probably sound even more heroic if he avoided any mention of the human at all. Thanquol wondered if he should say he’d shot the cursed Prophet of Sotek or if it would be even more awe-inspiring to say he’d slaughtered the lizardman with one of his spells.

The problem was still vexing the grey seer when he saw a pack of excited skinks erupt from the tunnel he and the human had escaped through. Thanquol glared at the lizardmen, thumbed a piece of warpstone from his pocket and started to imagine the spell he would evoke. Then he remembered the frog-mage out in the jungle.

Magic probably wasn’t a good idea just now, Thanquol decided as he turned tail and scurried away from the Temple of the Serpent. The very last thing he wanted was to draw that thing’s attention. It might even draw the awful conclusion that it had been he and not the human who had killed Xiuhcoatl.

Thanquol wasn’t sure if frog-things could get angry, but he was sure he didn’t want to find out.

Adalwolf winced as Hiltrude tightened the binding around his broken arm. Staring down at the mouldy corpses of the lizardmen, the mercenary was certain the maimed limb was infected with the same putrescence. He wondered how quickly the disease would overwhelm him and how much it would hurt. Somehow, he didn’t take the skink priest’s quiet acceptance of the sickness as a good example of how it felt to have white mould erupting from your skin.

He looked longingly down the side of the pyramid. A quick fall and it would be all over, Adalwolf thought. But that would leave Hiltrude alone with Schachter again. The mercenary shook his head. He couldn’t abandon her to the villain. If it came to it, he cut Schachter’s throat before his own.

The sea captain almost seemed to sense Adalwolf’s thoughts. He backed away from the sprawled bodies of the lizardmen. Three gold swords and two clubs were stuffed beneath his belt and he had tied the arms of his coat together to make a bag to carry still more loot he’d pulled off the bodies. Schachter’s face flushed with embarrassment when he saw Hiltrude and Adalwolf staring at him.

‘If we get out of here, you’ll be glad I brought this along,’ Schachter told them, hefting the heavy sack onto his shoulder. ‘There’s enough here to set the three of us up pretty good if we get back.’

‘You sure about that?’ Hiltrude challenged. ‘I mean, about splitting it?’

Schachter couldn’t look in her eyes, instead staring at his feet. ‘You want me to leave it then?’

‘It might remove certain temptations,’ the courtesan shot back.

Adalwolf shook his head. ‘Bring the bag, Schachter,’ he said. ‘We’ve wasted enough time on it. Thanquol’s probably out of the city by now.’

‘Not the way he’s leaking,’ Schachter smiled, nodding his head at the trail of black blood staining the steps of the pyramid. ‘You must have cut him pretty good in your scuffle.’

Adalwolf thought about that. Thanquol hadn’t looked hurt when he scurried off. He glanced again at the mangled lizardmen and shuddered as he considered what the black blood was more likely to belong to. Still, even if he was wrong in his assumption, Schachter’s advice was sound. If it was Boneripper’s blood, then the rat ogre could only be following Thanquol’s scent. That meant if they followed the blood, they would still find Thanquol.

He only hoped they did so before Boneripper. Adalwolf was certain the beast would rip the ratman apart when he caught up to him. He wasn’t concerned about the ratman, of course, but they needed whatever escape route the slinking sorcerer had waiting to get him out of Lustria.

‘We can’t count on that,’ Adalwolf objected. ‘He’s a magician, remember? Once he’s far enough away from the pyramid, he’ll whistle up some kind of spell to set him right. Then where will we be?’ He didn’t want to frighten the others with his suspicions that Thanquol was not alone, but neither did he want them to be caught off-guard. If Boneripper had rejoined his tyrannical master, they would need all their wits sharp, not lulled into a false confidence by the thought of trailing a lone wounded ratman.

The thought sobered Schachter. Straining under the weight of his coat, the seaman hurried down the narrow stairway, recklessly taking them three and four at a time.

‘What are you standing around for!’ Schachter shouted. ‘We’ve got a rat to catch!’

Throughout Thanquol’s long flight through the ruined streets of Quetza, he’d had the impression of being pursued. Sometimes he would hear the faint scuffle of feet against stone, or the clatter of rubble being disturbed, or the scrape of claws against the crumbling walls. He managed to keep one step ahead of his pursuers, however, constantly darting into the confusing maze of alleyways and collapsed buildings that formed much of the sprawling city.

All of his tricks, however, weren’t enough to fool his hunters. They kept following him, always just out of sight, always just at the edge of his hearing. Thanquol tried to pick up their scent, but when he sniffed the air he found his nose filled with a foulness that caused it to run. An abominable taint was in the atmosphere, a sickly vapour that seemed to rise from the very stones of Quetza. Thanquol thought of the long war between Clan Pestilens and the lizardmen and wondered what manner of contagions the plague priests had brewed to conquer the city.

Whatever vile diseases the plague monks had created, they had lingered long after the serpent-devil Sotek drove them into the sea. The foul vapours had seeped into the very stones, lurking and waiting like some venomous spider. Thanquol wondered why he hadn’t detected it before. The only answer was that somehow, in some feat of sorcery of such magnitude that it made the grey seer’s fur crawl, Xiuhcoatl had suppressed the lingering plague vapours so that Quetza would be safe for the lizardmen to build their temple.

If true, it was another example of the potency of the scaly creatures and their magic. More than ever, Thanquol was determined to get his tail out of Lustria and back to civilised lands. The deranged maniacs of Clan Pestilens could keep the damn jungles! In fact, Thanquol would suggest to the Council of Thirteen that they ship all of the Under-Empire’s malcontents and undesirables to Lustria as an efficient method of disposal.

The grey seer breathed a good deal easier once he was back under the shadowy overhang of the jungle. When he reached the edge of Quetza, he gave one last look back, trying to spot his pursuers. He was certain they hadn’t given up. The ease with which they navigated the city made him certain they were Xiuhcoatl’s followers. Strangely, the idea was more appealing than the alternative: scouts from the frog-mage’s army. Thanquol quickly glanced from side to side and sniffed at the air, but there was no sign that the closing pincers of the lizardmen were near. He chittered in amusement as he considered the huge army of reptiles surrounding the city. They would be too late in their encirclement of Quetza – because he would already be long gone!

Still chittering with nervous humour, Thanquol darted down the jungle trails Tsang Kweek’s gutter runners had chopped through the jungle. Already vines and creepers were starting to choke the path again, but it was clear enough for Thanquol to follow. There was even a strong smell of skaven clinging to the path, making it doubly easy for him to find his way. It was certainly a sign of the Horned One’s favour that Thanquol had survived where so many of Clan Eshin’s vaunted killers and murderers had died.

Thanquol smiled viciously as he remembered his fallen comrades. Shiwan Stalkscent, the arrogant little murder-master. Shen Tsinge, the treacherous little sorcerer. Tsang Kweek, the slinking little spy. Kong Krakback, the bullying little thug.

Blinking in bewilderment, Thanquol paused as he ran down the jungle trail. For a moment, he’d thought he’d heard Kong’s voice. But that was, of course, impossible. Kong was dead, along with all of his warriors. They had sacrificed their lives so that the rest of the expedition could get inside the Temple of the Serpent. If he’d heard anything, it had been Kong’s ghost, and since he didn’t like that idea, he decided he hadn’t heard anything at all.

The smell of skaven was much stronger now and Thanquol was certain he’d reached the clearing where they had made their camp. He’d need some of the supplies they’d left behind to provision himself on the trek back to the beach. With enough food buried around the campsite to feed a few hundred skaven, he was certain there would be enough to keep himself in good state for some time.

Grey Seer Thanquol emerged into the clearing and immediately his face twisted into a scowl. The ground was torn up in every direction, churned by the claws of animals. Some filthy jungle beast had been digging up Thanquol’s supplies!

Then the grey seer’s eyes noticed the carefully stacked piles of roots and tubers and withered sheets of salted meat. Animals wouldn’t do that he realised, a chill sweeping down his spine. It could only mean that the lizardmen had already been here and found this place!

Spinning about to flee back into the jungle, Thanquol was thrown back into the clearing by a powerful blow. His mouth filled with blood as his fangs bit into his own tongue, his lungs gasping for air as the wind was knocked out of him by his violent fall. A savage tug ripped his staff from his hand while a clawed foot pressed down on his chest.

Thanquol sputtered and spat foul-tasting blood from his mouth. He tried to think what sort of appeal would ingratiate himself to the lizardmen. Perhaps he could offer to show them where Clan Pestilens still had strongholds in the jungle? Surely the reptiles hadn’t wiped out all of the plague monks and they’d probably be most eager to finish the job to avoid another of their cities ending up like Quetza!

His mind racing with thoughts of how to save his skin by betraying his race, Thanquol was slow to notice that his attackers weren’t scaly. Big, black-furred skaven surrounded him, their armour caked in blood, their bodies striped with crusty wounds. He saw Kong Krakback’s ugly sneer as the hulking skaven warrior glared at him from the edge of the clearing.

‘Kong!’ Thanquol coughed, finding the vocalisation difficult with the foot of a skaven warrior planted on his chest. ‘I am happy-pleased to see-find you alive! We are victorious! Serpent-priest is dead-dead!’

The big skaven didn’t seem to hear him, instead running his paw along the length of the notched sword he held in his other hand. The toothy smile on Kong’s face was perfectly primal in its expression of murderous hate.

‘They won’t listen-hear your lies, grey traitor!’ a shrill, snickering voice raked across Thanquol’s ears. He had to twist his neck to an uncomfortable angle to stare at the speaker. What he saw was a black-cloaked assassin crouched upon the same fallen log Thanquol had used as his own perch after assuming control of the expedition. The assassin, like the skaven warriors, bore the marks of hard fighting on his body and his cloak was a mass of bloody rags. It wasn’t the killer’s new injuries that interested Thanquol, however, but the old one he saw through a rent in the ratman’s hood, the scabby splotch against the side of his head where an ear had been cut off.

‘You!’ was all the grey seer could think to say.

Chang Fang grinned back at him and lashed his tail in amusement. ‘So, Thanquol-meat, you remember me! You have betray-trick so many, I worry-fear you would not know me! I am Chang Fang,’ the assassin declared, straightening himself into a proud pose. ‘Chang Squik was my triad-kin. When you betrayed him, you betrayed me. For that, you die-suffer!’

Thanquol’s body shivered in a spasm of pure fear. Chang Squik? But that bumbling killer had been dead for years! What kind of lunatic held a grudge for such a long time! It was madness! Besides, he wasn’t the one who had caused Chang Squik’s death, it had been that damnable dwarf and his pet human!

‘You die slow,’ Chang Fang hissed, hopping down from his perch and drawing one of his wicked knives. ‘I make you suffer-scream much-much,’ he added with an insane giggle.

‘But we can go back!’ Thanquol shouted. He could see it was useless trying to reason with the assassin, but surely Kong and his warriors weren’t so far gone as to ignore him. ‘Xiuhcoatl’s dead! I killed him! We can go back and claim the Nightlord’s reward!’

Thanquol’s words only brought chittering laughter from the other skaven. The ratman pinning him to the ground lashed his scaly tail across the grey seer’s face. The impact stung like that of a whip.

‘No lie-words!’ the warrior snarled, leaning his weight onto Thanquol, driving the breath from his lungs.

‘Thanquol kill-slay scaly-meat?’ laughed Kong Krakback. The big black skaven was fingering his sword in such a way now that the grey seer thought if Chang Fang didn’t hurry the warrior was going to do the job first. ‘How Thanquol-meat kill-slay snake-priest? Trip over snake-priest while running away?’

The grey seer gnashed his fangs at Kong’s casual insult against his courage, then tried to think of a lie that would sound believable to the black skaven. They’d never believe he’d arranged for one of the humans to kill Xiuhcoatl, even if he couched the story in terms that made it sound like a happy accident rather than brilliant planning and careful strategy.

A cunning gleam came into his eye. ‘Boneripper!’ the grey seer squealed. ‘I sent-told Boneripper to slay-kill!’

Chang Fang leaned over the prone Thanquol, a string of drool hanging from the assassin’s eager fangs. ‘Too bad you not keep-take rat ogre,’ he giggled. ‘Now you suffer-scream much-much. Then die-rot!’

The assassin raised his knife, the blade gleaming in the hot sunlight.

Thanquol screwed his eyes shut, his entire body flailing as he tried to escape the warrior pinning him to the ground. ‘Xiuhcoatl dead-dead!’ he yelled. ‘Boneripper slay-kill! Boneripper! Boneripper!’

Lord Tlaco shifted upon his dais, allowing his attendant skinks to pour cool spring water over his mottled skin. The dark spots upon the slann’s hide shifted position ever so slightly, setting the skink scribes surrounding it into a frenzy of activity as they recorded the new markings. The mage-priest paid them scant attention, allowing only the lower hemispheres of its brain to guide them in positioning the army around Quetza.

None of the servants of Sotek could be allowed to leave the city. Lord Tlaco had sent that message into the brains of the priests who had survived Xiuhcoatl. They understood the need for their own destruction. With Xiuhcoatl’s death, the Prophet’s magic had been broken. The powerful wards which restrained the sorcerous diseases infesting the very stones of Quetza had been broken. Every lizardman in the city was now a carrier of the plagues that had caused it to be abandoned many sun-cycles past. They could not be allowed to bring the contagion to other cities.

The priests Lord Tlaco had telepathically contacted had met the news with the fatalistic acceptance that denoted those who understood the Great Math and their own value within it. The slann did not have to worry about them irrationally behaving like low-phase algorithms desperate to delay their own negation. However, there were many others who served the Temple of the Serpent, minions less aware of the Great Math. These might try to escape and bear the contagion away with them.

The mage-priest flicked one of his webbed hands. A phalanx of saurus warriors bobbed their heads in unison, acknowledging the command. The dark-scaled soldier-lizards jogged off at a quick march, moving to encircle the northern perimeter of Quetza. They would reinforce the skink skirmishers already lurking at the jungle’s edge, waiting with their bows to strike down any lizardmen trying to leave the city. They would maintain their positions for the next three lunar cycles. By then there would be nothing to fear from Quetza. Nothing would be left alive within the ruins to act as a courier for the plague.

Lord Tlaco’s eyes widened as one of his army’s scouts came scurrying towards the slann’s dais. Instinctively, the mage-priest’s armoured temple guard closed ranks around the levitating dais. A slight shifting of its skin spots had the skull-helmed lizardmen stepping aside for the scout.

In a rapid series of gestures and hisses, the chameleon skink explained that several low-phase algorithms – what the scout called ‘soft-skins’ – had emerged from the city and were fleeing into the jungle to the south. The skirmishers had watched them go, but had obeyed Lord Tlaco’s command that the humans were not to be harmed.

It was a slight misinterpretation of its orders, but overall Lord Tlaco was pleased. The slann didn’t need all of the low-phase algorithms. It only needed the one that had been used to resolve the thought problem that had vexed Lord Tlaco. The slann had its solution, Xiuhcoatl had been killed. But did the Prophet’s death condemn his god or exonerate it? That was a problem that could only be resolved by studying the vector that had negated Xiuhcoatl’s value. Did the low-phase algorithm possess a rational value or was it a decaying fractal, a corrupted algorithm like the xa’cota?

That was an answer that could only be determined by studying the human who had made the decision to shoot Xiuhcoatl instead of the xa’cota. Lord Tlaco wasn’t certain simple dissection would allow him to understand why the low-phase algorithm made its choice. It was preferable to study its value before negation rather than after. Trying to impress that factor into every mind in his army as well as the thought-pictures that would ensure the lizardmen could differentiate Lord Tlaco’s subject from the others demanded an uncomfortable amount of concentration on the slann’s part. He would have to tap into those hemispheres of its brain that were already working upon other disharmonies in the Great Math to do so.

It had been easier just to order the army to allow anything that wasn’t a lizardman to leave the city. Warm-bloods could not carry the plague the xa’cota had used to kill Quetza, so there was no danger in allowing them to pass.

Now that their escape had been reported, however, Lord Tlaco decided it was time to collect its subject. The slann’s spots shifted into a determined pattern and the skink scribes set down their styluses and bowed their heads. Those elements of the army the slann had kept in reserve for just this purpose turned their heads so that, from the mightiest saurus war-chief to the small-brained terradons and razordons, every eye was fixed upon Lord Tlaco. The mage-priest sent the necessary impressions and factors into the minds of this fragment of its army.

Like a single gigantic creature, the lizardmen hurried into the depths of the jungle, one purpose driving them all: to collect Lord Tlaco’s specimen and return with it to the mage-priest.

Chang Fang’s knife hurtled downwards. The assassin held his weapon not in the stabbing thrust of an expert killer, but in the slashing stroke of a crazed butcher. He had decided he would start his revenge by cutting Thanquol’s horns from his skull. Then he would move to lower and more tender bits of the grey seer’s anatomy.

Before the assassin’s knife could even nick the grey seer’s horn, he found himself flying through the air. Chang Fang was so intent upon his vengeance that he didn’t see the bloody mangled mass until it slammed into him, carrying him away with it across the clearing. The assassin twisted his body in mid-air so that it was the torn mass of the corpse that smacked into the bole of a mangrove instead of his own back. The assassin toppled back to earth along with what he now knew was the wreckage of one of Kong’s clanrats. He tried to brace himself for the fall, but his best effort had gone into twisting the corpse about so it would absorb the collision with the tree. He struck the ground hard and it took several precious seconds to blink away the spots that danced before his eyes.

Across the clearing, Kong and his warriors were showing no less surprise than Chang Fang. They stared in gaping horror at the hulking shape that loomed out of the jungle towards them. There was no question who had killed the clanrat and then thrown the still twitching corpse across the clearing to knock down the assassin.

After killing the kroxigor, Boneripper had followed Thanquol’s scent through the pyramid, mutilating any lizardmen that got in his way. When the grey seer made his retreat from Quetza, it was Boneripper who followed him through the ruins and later into the jungle. Perhaps some dim sense of betrayal and abandonment was working on the rat ogre’s mind, confusing his feelings towards Thanquol. Perhaps he was simply too weary from his battles with the lizardmen to catch up to his fleeing master before. Whatever his reasons, Boneripper had been content to linger after Thanquol, making no effort to catch him.

At least until he heard Thanquol frantically crying his name. Any resentful thoughts vanished as the obedience that had been beaten into the rat ogre’s brain took over. Moving with the speed and stealth of a jaguar, the huge monster rushed through the forest, a living engine of havoc.

Boneripper beat his huge claws upon his chest and roared at Thanquol’s enemies. The ferocious display might have frightened Kong and his warriors more if the sudden movement hadn’t opened some of the wounds Boneripper had suffered in his fight with the kroxigor. The sight and smell of blood excited the skaven at the most primitive level of their minds. The hulking rat ogre had gone from terrifying foe to wounded prey.

Two of Kong’s warriors rushed at Boneripper from either side, while the leader himself and a third skaven charged at him from the fore. The rat ogre roared a second time, then brought both of his clawed hands slashing in an arc before his body. The clanrat charging at him from the right was eviscerated by the unexpected speed of the monster’s attack. He collapsed in a squeaking mess, frenziedly pawing at the dirt in his death agonies.

The skaven to Boneripper’s left came up short, recalling the horrific speed with which the monster could move. For a moment, however, his eyes were locked on the mangled shape of his comrade. It was a fragment of distraction that the ratman would never repeat. Boneripper sprang at him, smashing him flat with the palm of his paw and grinding his skull into the earth until it was jelly.

Kong Krakback slashed at Boneripper’s flank, opening a great gash just above the monster’s knee. Out of the corner of his eye, however, he could see the ratman who had joined his attack turning to flee. He turned his head to snap a wrathful order to the coward, but the words never left his throat.

Feeling the bite of Kong’s sword, Boneripper spun, swinging the crushed body he had been pounding into the ground. The flailing legs of the corpse smashed into Kong’s head, spilling him onto the ground and knocking the sword from his hand.

Boneripper dabbed a paw to the fresh wound in his leg. He sniffed at the dark blood that coated his fingers and glared at the black skaven trying to crawl away from him. Roaring like a gold-mad dragon, Boneripper descended upon the dazed Kong. The rat ogre’s scythe-like claws closed around the squirming skaven’s body and lifted him into the air. Kong shrieked as he was held dangling before Boneripper’s hate-filled eyes.

Slowly and maliciously, the rat ogre tore Kong Krakback limb from limb.

While Boneripper finished with Kong and his clanrats, a desperate Thanquol struggled against the warrior still pinning him to the ground. A twist of his body had caught the ratman unawares, knocking him down. Unfortunately for Thanquol, the treacherous wretch had the temerity to fall across his own body, effectively trapping him even more completely than before.

Thanquol squirmed and struggled beneath the fallen warrior. The clanrat abused him mercilessly with fang and claw, just as desperate to keep Thanquol trapped as the grey seer was to be free. Fear of being withered by one of Thanquol’s spells gave the clanrat a frantic tenacity. Thanquol gored the ratman’s shoulder with one of his horns and still his enemy refused to release him. Even a lucky bite that severed a few furry fingers wasn’t enough to make him let go.

A new menace reared up at the edge of Thanquol’s vision. Actually it was an old menace, but the grey seer wasn’t of a mind to quibble over semantics. One glance at the look in Chang Fang’s eyes told him the assassin had abandoned his ideas about killing the grey seer slowly. He’d drawn a different knife, an ugly black thing from which corrosive green drops sizzled. A weeping blade! The deadliest of Clan Eshin’s weapons! One nick, one drop of poison on his body and Thanquol would be as dead as the Grey Lords!

Desperately, Thanquol worked his legs beneath the body of the clanrat on top of him. He ignored the bites and scratches now, keeping his eyes locked on the approaching Chang Fang. He had to time things just right or what he had in mind wouldn’t work. As the assassin glared down at him, as the weeping blade started its descent, Thanquol squealed a quick prayer to the Horned Rat and set every muscle in his body into motion.

Legs and arms pressed against the clanrat’s body, lifting him up and pushing him forward. At the same time, Thanquol used his flanks and shoulders to slither completely under the skaven warrior. He could imagine the ratman’s confusion, but he wouldn’t be confused for long.

A sharp squeak told Thanquol that Chang Fang’s blade had found a victim, the victim his own frantic efforts had presented it. Quickly Thanquol flung the now slack body of the clanrat forward, hurling it at the assassin. Chang Fang leapt nimbly away from the macabre missile, but in doing so he’d been forced to leave the weeping blade trapped in the body. Now he snarled at Thanquol from across the twitching corpse.

Thanquol scowled at the murderous traitor and raised one of his paws. Green light glowed in his eyes, energy crackled around his fingers. He saw the sudden terror that crept across Chang Fang. The assassin didn’t know about the sliver of warpstone Thanquol had crushed between his fangs even before regaining his feet, not that the knowledge would have done him any good.

‘Say hello to Chang Squik, fool-meat,’ Thanquol snapped as he sent a blast of lightning crackling into Chang Fang’s face.

The grey seer recoiled as a blinding flash of light exploded before him. When his vision cleared he could see Chang Fang tearing into the jungle, his tattered cloak smoking but otherwise unharmed. Thanquol had a moment of horror, wondering if he’d nibbled a bad piece of warpstone and his body had internalised too much of its energies. After a few heartbeats without bursting into a ball of fire, Thanquol decided his fear was unfounded. He stared and saw a molten blob of metal lying on the ground where Chang Fang had been standing when he unleashed his spell. Apparently the assassin had carried an amulet to protect him against the grey seer’s magic. An intelligent precaution, Thanquol conceded. But it wasn’t going to save Chang Fang now.

‘Boneripper!’ Thanquol shouted. He pointed a claw at the jungle into which the assassin had fled. The rat ogre stalked towards the trees, absently tossing aside the last shreds of what had been Kong Krakback. ‘Fetch the traitor-meat!’

Boneripper growled an inarticulate acknowledgement and began to smash his way through the small trees that barred his path. Thanquol grinned as he watched the monster make short work of the trees. Without his weeping blade, Chang Fang was as good as dead when Boneripper caught up with him. And the rat ogre would. The skaven hadn’t been weaned who could match the endurance of Clan Moulder’s creations.

The grin faded on Thanquol’s face as a troubling thought came to him. He’d used a spell just a moment ago. His glands clenched as he considered what he had done.

‘Boneripper, you stupid dolt!’ Thanquol raged, rushing up to the rat ogre and smacking him with his staff. ‘You’re supposed to protect me!’

The rat ogre blinked at him in confusion, then hung his head in guilt and moved away from the trees.

Thanquol tapped his claws against the head of his staff and lashed his tail nervously. Maybe the frog-mage hadn’t noticed? That was certainly possible. Surely anything that powerful must have better things to think about. What kind of flies it was going to eat, for instance.

Then an uglier thought came to Thanquol. Chang Fang was getting away. He might be able to live with that fact, except for another fact that went with it. Chang Fang knew where their ship was! Denied any other chance to kill the grey seer, the assassin could still set sail and strand him in this green hell!

Panic in his eyes, Thanquol smacked Boneripper with his staff and turned the rat ogre back towards the jungle. ‘Hurry-quick, whelp-licker! Fetch-find traitor-meat!’

Boneripper just stared at his master for a moment. Then, with what might almost have been a sigh, he began tearing his way through the thick growth of the jungle once more.

Thanquol watched the rat ogre make rapid progress. In no time at all, Boneripper was out of view. The grey seer stroked his whiskers, quite pleased with himself. His bodyguard would catch up with Chang Fang and once Boneripper was through with him, the only boat the assassin would need was a funeral barge.

The grey seer stopped stroking his whiskers as he glanced at the jungle around him, listening to all its strange sounds, breathing all of its strange smells. He thought about the frog-mage and its army.

Hiking up his robes so he wouldn’t trip on them, Thanquol rushed down the trail Boneripper was making.

‘Wait for me, you moron!’

‘Wait for us, you moron!’

Hiltrude’s cry brought Schachter to a halt. The sea captain took the delay to set down his bag and wipe the sweat from his forehead. Though he wouldn’t admit it, lugging the heavy sack of plunder was taking its toll on his strength. When they had first set out, trekking across the silent, crumbling streets of Quetza, there had been a real chance he might have left his companions behind in his eagerness to catch up to Thanquol. Now, after hours creeping first through the ruins and then into the humid hell of the jungle, Hiltrude’s peevish scolding was more so she could vent her own frustration at their progress than any threat he would get too far ahead.

Adalwolf ground his teeth and cursed under his breath. Something was certainly wrong with his arm. He didn’t dare to look at it, but he could feel it throbbing against his body. It felt cold, as if there wasn’t a drop of blood in it. He had to keep from laughing at the irony of the sensation. Here they were sweating in the damp heat of the jungle and his arm felt as cold as a piece of Norsca. He knew if he started laughing, he might never stop.

Hiltrude stuck by him, letting her strength compensate for his. The mercenary considered the strange sort of courage she possessed. There were different kinds of bravery, he knew. His kind was the steel backbone of battle. Hers was the quiet tenderness that refused to abandon a friend in need. Stromfels’s Teeth! She hadn’t even been able to abandon Schachter when she had every reason to leave him to the lizardmen!

She used Schachter’s delay to inspect Adalwolf’s arm. She tried to hide it, but he saw the grim flicker that crossed her expression. That bad, he thought. If it wasn’t for her, he’d just lie down and wait for Morr to open the gates for him.

But she was here. Just as she wouldn’t abandon him, he couldn’t abandon her. Not to Schachter, not to the jungle. Not to Thanquol, if they ever found that slinking rat.

The blood trail was still easy enough to follow. Adalwolf was certain now it was coming from Bone-ripper. There was no way Thanquol could have leaked so much and kept going. He didn’t like the idea of running into the monster again. At every turn in the trail he kept hoping to see the rat ogre’s huge body lying on the ground. It would be one less thing to trouble his mind.

Myrmidia knew there were enough of those to occupy his thoughts. When they’d managed to escape into the jungle, he thought they’d been quick enough to make it before the army of lizardmen completed their ring around the ruins. Now he wasn’t so sure. There was something sinister about the frequent rustling they heard rising from the jungle around them. He almost wished he was one of the underfolk when a faint, musky reptile smell wafted its way out of the jungle. The ratmen would know if the smell belonged to simple beasts or something more sinister.

His thoughts drifted to his glimpse of the toad-creature and the aura of awesome power he had sensed surrounding it. Somehow, he could not overcome the idea that the terrible creature had been aware of him as much as he had been aware of it. Adalwolf didn’t know what interest such a being could have in a mere man. He thought about an alchemist he had once had dealings with, back when his wife was with their first child. The alchemist had a grisly hobby. He would collect molluscs and pull them apart in a desire to understand how they could function without any bones to support them.

Adalwolf felt an icy chill run through his body, a chill that had nothing to do with his broken arm. He didn’t like the idea that the toad-creature thought of him like the alchemist had thought of his snails and slugs.

‘Break time’s over,’ Hiltrude declared, not quite keeping a slight groan out of her voice. Adalwolf stared at her in confusion, unable to remember when she had set him down at the side of the trail. He did his best to help as she lifted him back to his feet.

‘I didn’t fancy this spot anyway,’ Schachter said, grunting as he slung his bag over his shoulder. ‘In fact, I’m not even going to put it in my memoirs.’

The poor joke brought smiles to the faces of his companions. Adalwolf’s expression darkened an instant later. Schachter’s friendly humour was meant to get them off their guard. He’d already seen the captain’s true colours. Nothing was going to make him forget the kind of man he really was.

Nothing except maybe fever from an infected arm.

Schachter had only taken a few steps when he held up his hand in warning. The captain turned his eyes to either side of the trail. An instant later he dropped his bag to the ground and drew two of the swords thrust beneath his belt.

Before Adalwolf had a chance to think Schachter was himself developing a fever, the bushes seemed to burst apart as two scaly blue bodies leapt onto the trail.

These weren’t the scrawny skinks they had fought in the temple. They were the big warrior-lizards Adalwolf had seen from the top of the pyramid. Each of the reptiles was taller than a man, though much more lean. Powerful talons tipped their muscular legs and their thick tails looked strong enough to break a man’s bones. The lizardmen wore chequered loinclouts and necklaces of animal fangs looped through gold wire. Each of the monsters held a saw-edged golden sword that made the weapons Schachter brandished look like paring knives.

The saurus warriors stared at the humans, their thick tongues flitting between jaws filled with long fangs. For the space of a heartbeat, the lizardmen didn’t move, they simply stared, almost as though they were studying the strange intruders.

Then both of the reptiles bobbed their heads in a weird, somehow threatening gesture. Adalwolf could actually see their scaly hands tightening around their weapons as the lizardmen came stalking towards them.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

RAT HUNT

Adalwolf drew the ungainly sword from his belt and shuffled in front of Hiltrude, trying to place himself between the courtesan and the advancing lizardmen. His arm trembled as the weight of the blade taxed his weakened muscles and a sheen of sweat began to rise on his forehead.

‘Get her out of here,’ he told Schachter. The mercenary took another staggering step towards the reptiles. A cry of alarm rose from behind him and his advance was broken. Hiltrude’s arms wrapped about his waist, pulling at him, trying to drag him back.

‘They’ll kill you!’ she yelled at him, her voice cracking with emotion.

Adalwolf tried to twist out of her grasp. ‘I can still buy time for you to get away,’ he growled at her as he struggled to get free.

‘Take your own advice, sell-sword,’ Schachter’s grim voice declared. The sea captain gave Adalwolf and Hiltrude a hard stare. ‘I’ll hold them as long as I can.’ He didn’t wait for any argument. With a last wistful look at the bag of loot he’d left on the ground, Schachter charged the saurus warriors.

The reptiles weren’t alarmed by the charging human and the shrill battle cry that rose from his lips. They didn’t so much as blink as the desperate, ragged figure stormed down the trail at them. Waiting with eerie, emotionless patience, the saurus warriors met Schachter’s attack.

Schachter chopped at the first of the unmoving lizardmen with an overhand swing of one of his swords that should have opened it from belly to groin. Even as his sword-arm was lashing out, however, the saurus snapped from its seemingly imbecilic lethargy. The reptile twisted its body in a writhing, undulating spasm that should have snapped the spine of a human. Schachter’s golden sword slashed through only emptiness as it made its butchering sweep. The saurus continued the sinuous motion of its scaly frame, rolling along the back of Schachter’s arm as the sea captain’s momentum caused him to overextend himself. The lizardman raised its own sword, bringing it crunching down into Schachter’s body.

Screaming in agony, Schachter crumpled to the earth, his sword-arm cut through nearly to the bone. Doubled over in pain, he cringed away from the lizardman as the reptile hacked at him again. The slashing blow missed him by a hair’s-breadth. Desperately, he thrust the sword clutched in his good arm at the saurus, forgetting in his fright that the blades of the lizardmen were made for cutting rather than stabbing. The blunt head of the sword smacked ineffectually against the thick scales of the reptile’s body. An instant later, the saurus pivoted and brought its powerful tail cracking around. The blow crashed into Schachter’s legs, spilling him onto the ground.

The other saurus left Schachter to his comrade and continued its menacing advance. Adalwolf locked eyes with the reptile, trying to find anything he recognised as thought or intention in the slitted inhuman orbs. The lizardman paused only a few feet from him, crooking its head in a gesture of curiosity, studying him with keen interest.

Without warning, the reptile suddenly sprang. Adalwolf raised his weapon to parry the sweep of the lizardman’s sword. The two blades clanged sharply as they crashed against each other. Adalwolf was thrown back as the momentum of the saurus nearly threw him off his feet. The reptile’s scaly muzzle hissed at him, inches from his own face, the monster’s eyes fixed on him with a weird, almost fascinated intensity.

The lizardman pressed in close, using its greater strength to push Adalwolf back. The saurus knew its strange foe was weak, could feel the vigour in the mercenary’s good arm faltering with each backward step. It would be easy for it to finish the fight quickly, but killing the warm-blood was not an option. Lord Tlaco needed the strange creature alive and alive was how he would be brought to the slann. Using its entire body as a bludgeon, the lizardman surged against Adalwolf, forcing him back several steps. The human’s sword grated along the edge of the lizardman’s blade as his arm shivered with the strain of holding the reptile back.

Hiltrude’s wailing cry split the air and the saurus shuddered as its hip was gouged. Like an Arabyan harridan, the woman had come from behind Adalwolf and charged at the reptile. Concentrating on the mercenary, the lizardman was too slow to react. Hiltrude swung the golden blade Schachter had given her in a clumsy, overhanded fashion, but with enough momentum to drive the edge deep into the scaly hip of the monster.

Hissing in challenge, the saurus rounded on its attacker. The woman retreated before the violent savagery of the reptile, the bloody sword falling through her slackened fingers. The lizardman shoved Adalwolf, sending the mercenary staggering away. Bobbing its head in a threat display, the reptile turned towards Hiltrude. It took only one stalking step, then nearly fell as the deep wound in its hip caused its leg to buckle. The pain of its injury was something it would take a few minutes for his primitive nervous system to transmit to its brain, but the saurus could not ignore the damage that had been done. It stared at the bleeding gash, clapped a clawed hand to the injury to keep the bone from poking through the skin, then coldly returned it attention to Hiltrude.

The courtesan tried to retreat before the lizardman, watching in horror as the reptile stalked after her, dragging its injured leg behind him and balancing himself with frequent slaps of its tail against the ground. She looked with despair at the sword she had let fall from her hand, knowing that her fear and inexperience had left her defenceless before this monster. It had been a reckless impulse that had made Hiltrude rush to aid Adalwolf despite the warrior’s constant pleas for her to run. She had hoped she could take the reptile by surprise, but had been unready for the drag of the heavy sword in her hands or the terror of actually striking such a formidable creature. She didn’t have a warrior’s knowledge of what constituted a killing wound, lashing out almost blindly against the lizardman.

Now she was appreciating the magnitude of her mistake. There was no pity, no compassion in the lizardman’s cold eyes as the creature limped after her. Even hate might have comforted her, at least it would have given the reptile a hint of humanity about it. Instead she saw only a merciless determination, as passionless as the hunger of a shark or the predation of a spider.

With her eyes on the saurus, Hiltrude was unaware when her slow retreat brought her to the edge of the trail. Her feet slid out from under her as she encountered a pile of leaves slimy with rot and decay. She landed on her back, groaning in pain as a rock bit into her soft flesh. The saurus quickened its pace, primal hunting instincts exciting it at the prospect of helpless prey. The lizardman loped forwards, its head still undulating in its threatening fashion.

Hiltrude screamed as the lizardman loomed over her, its sword raised for the killing blow. She kicked out at it, her legs locking around its injured one. She rolled her body, using all the leverage she could to twist the lizardman’s wounded leg. The tactic worked. The saurus uttered a frightened chirp then crashed loudly as its leg was pulled out from under it.

Raking pain seared up Hiltrude’s body as the lizardman’s scrabbling claws gouged her legs. The reptile hissed at her as it struggled to rise, its mouth gaping in a monstrous fashion that displayed each of its long fangs and the powerful jaws in which they were set. Until now, Hiltrude hadn’t thought it was possible to make the lizardmen mad. Now she wished they were as devoid of emotion as she had imagined. The sword, she was sure, would have been much quicker than the reptile’s claws and fangs.

Pulling itself along her body, its claws digging into her soft flesh, the saurus propelled itself towards Hiltrude’s throat. The woman beat her tiny fists on its head, but the blows couldn’t do much more than annoy it and make it blink its eyes. Once it snapped at one of the dainty fists, its fangs scraping along the knuckles and drawing a welter of blood from her torn skin. The taste of blood in its mouth only goaded the lizardman further and it dug its claws even deeper into the woman’s body as it stretched its head towards the pulsing veins in her neck.

The saurus recoiled, a gasping croak bubbling up its throat. It tried to reach behind itself, but its hands couldn’t find the blade that had crunched through its spine. Adalwolf had already ripped the ungainly sword free. Now he drove it down again, cleaving through the top of the lizardman’s skull. The reptile’s entire body shivered, its tail lashing furiously in the mud and leaves. The mercenary grunted, struggling to pull the sword free, but it had bitten too deeply. At last, he simply kicked the twitching body onto its side and helped Hiltrude slide out from under it.

The mercenary stared pityingly at Hiltrude, sorry for the cuts and bruises she had suffered, embarrassed because he hadn’t been able to protect her. She seemed to read his thoughts, giving him a look of sympathy. She started to open her mouth to speak, but suddenly her eyes went wide with renewed fear.

Adalwolf spun around and found himself staring into the countenance of the other saurus warrior. The reptile’s fangs were bared, its head undulating in what the mercenary now understood was a kind of silent battle cry to these creatures. The sword in the lizardman’s hand was slick with Schachter’s blood. The mercenary clenched his own empty fist and stared at the blade buried in the dead reptile’s skull. Like Hiltrude, he cursed himself for allowing his sword to leave his hand.

The saurus hissed angrily as it came creeping forwards, its eyes darting from Adalwolf to Hiltrude and back. At the first sign of trouble from its comrade, the lizardman had broken off its fight with Schachter to aid the other saurus. Too late to help, the reptile looked quite ready to avenge.

Adalwolf tried to push Hiltrude into the jungle. With luck, she could get a few minutes to escape before the lizardman finished with him. The courtesan resisted, however, instead closing her hand around his own. Her lip trembled with fear, but she stared defiantly at the reptile, offering the saurus her own silent challenge.

The lizardman cocked its head to one side, puzzled by the curious behaviour of the humans. For a moment, it was still, even its head unmoving. Before it could move back to the attack, however, the lizardman was thrown forwards as a shrieking body crashed into him from behind.

Schachter was a bloody mess, his shoulder laid open to the bone, his side gashed so deeply that ribs poked through his flesh every time he took a breath. His scalp had been torn, painting his face crimson. But he still had his sword and he still knew how to use it. Pure adrenaline powered the sea captain’s frenzied assault on the lizardman. After pitching the reptile forward, Schachter’s sword crunched into the creature’s arm, all but severing it at the elbow.

The stunned reptile spun about to confront the raging human, its muscular tail sweeping about like the whip of a coachman. Schachter leapt over the bludgeoning tail, coming in close to the lizardman. His sword smashed into the reptile’s throat, causing it to gag noisily and stagger. He pressed the attack, kicking the saurus in its knee, dropping it to the ground. Burying the edge of his sword in the lizardman’s side, Schachter screamed as the reptile’s jaws locked around his other hand. He let the sword drop from his grasp and tried to gouge the lizardman’s eyes in an effort to make the reptile release him. His efforts only made the monster bite down harder.

Blood streamed from the socket of the lizardman’s mutilated eye. The creature’s entire body twitched and writhed as its lungs started to fill with blood from its throat wound. A muscular spasm brought the lizardman’s jaws snapping together with a bone-crushing pop.

Schachter fell away from the dying lizardman, blood fountaining from his severed wrist. He tried to staunch the spurting blood, but dropped to his knees instead. A moment later he was sprawled on his back, colour draining out of him.

Adalwolf and Hiltrude rushed beside the dying sea captain. The mercenary could tell it was much too late to help him. Even without blood loss, the wound in his side was a mortal one. The two survivors could only look on in helplessness.

Schachter saw the look of wonder in their faces and a bitter laugh tortured his ravaged body. ‘Couldn’t… run out… on… you,’ he gasped. ‘Not… after… you saved…’

The captain’s eyes became glassy, his breath fell silent. Adalwolf could only shake his head. A rough kind of honour had ruled the man after all, something deeper than the lust for wealth. Adalwolf knew that he owed his life to the unexpected gratitude of the man he would have left behind.

There was no time to spare to bury Schachter, even if Hiltrude or Adalwolf had felt up to the task. Instead, the two dragged the bag of gold across the trail and set it beside the dead sea captain.

Somehow, they felt he would understand the gesture.

The shriek of parrots, the stench of rotting jungle growth, and the damp, smothering grip of air that felt like it had been soaked in boiled urine – these were Thanquol’s complaints of the day. He tried to keep in Boneripper’s monstrous shadow as much as was possible, though even that effort did little to ease the fury of the sun burning down from the Lustrian sky. The grey seer was sorely tempted to call off their pursuit of Chang Fang until nightfall. The hideous thought of being stranded by the assassin made him reluctantly set aside such pleasant ideas. The slinking Eshin traitor would have much to answer for when Thanquol caught him! He wondered if he would stake Chang Fang out for the ants or just feed him piece by piece to the sharks. Perhaps he could devise a way to do both…

A groaning rumble shuddered through the jungle, frightening Thanquol from his schemes of vengeance. He leaped off the ground, landing on all four paws, his breath coming in wheezing gasps. He looked about, trying to find the source of the terrible sound. His eyes narrowed spitefully and he bruxed his fangs when he saw Boneripper uprooting another tree that stood in the path with much the same clamour.

‘Mouse-brained oaf!’ Thanquol cursed the rat ogre, smacking his flank with the head of his staff. Boneripper turned around, staring at him stupidly with his dull eyes. Thanquol winced when he saw the tangle of leeches fastened to Boneripper’s arms, their bodies bloated with the rat ogre’s blood. He quickly scratched at his own arms to make sure he hadn’t acquired a similar mantle of parasites.

‘Find Chang Fang!’ he snapped. ‘Quick-quick!’

Boneripper didn’t move, instead continuing to stare at his master. The longer the big brute continued to stand there looking at him, the more Thanquol started to appreciate the immense muscles beneath his leech-draped arms, the sword-like claws that tipped his fingers, the necklace of skulls that hung about his neck. Maybe he’d been just a little hasty reprimanding his dutiful bodyguard.

‘Good-nice Boneripper,’ Thanquol said, taking a tenuous step back. He fingered a little nugget of warpstone, wondering if he was far enough away from the frog-thing to dare use his magic.

Before the grey seer could act, the huge rat ogre was charging towards him, the ground shaking from his thunderous footfalls. Thanquol squeaked in fright, leaping out of the crazed rat ogre’s way, hugging his staff across his body and frantically thrusting the warpstone into his mouth. He crashed into a thicket, feeling the thorns dig into his fur and snag in his robes. He thrashed about in the ugly plants trying to pull himself free enough that he might weave the aethyr into a spell that would settle the problem of Boneripper’s rebellion.

Just as he pulled himself free, Thanquol noticed that Boneripper wasn’t interested in him. The rat ogre was storming back down the path, beating his chest in challenge with his clawed hands. The grey seer was starting to think the jungle heat had deranged his bodyguard when a patch of trees suddenly burst apart and an enormous reptile lumbered onto the trail.

The sour stink of musk dripping down his leg barely registered as Thanquol stared in horror at the gigantic beast. It was like some great scaly bird crossed with a crocodile, lumbering about on two immense, tree-like legs while scrawny useless-looking arms dangled from its chest. Its head looked like nothing so much as a dwarf steam-shovel he’d once helped some Clan Skryre warlock-engineers steal, its fangs impossibly large even for so massive a head. A long tail smashed the trees behind it, splintering them like old mouse bones.

More frightening to Thanquol than the beast itself was the monster who rode it. A snakeskin saddle adorned with talismans of gold was lashed about the big reptile and from this seat reared a massively built saurus warrior, its powerful body pitted and slashed with old scars from countless battles. The lizardman wore armour fashioned from bones and many of its scales had been painted with strange glyphs that hurt the ratman’s eyes to look upon. The head of the saurus chief was locked within a helm fashioned from the skull of a horned reptile and in its claws it carried a murderous lance with a golden blade.

The lizardman roared something in its own language of hisses and then began to undulate its head in rapid – and threatening – fashion. The carnosaur it rode lowered its huge head and lunged forwards. The saurus chief urged its mount towards Thanquol, its yellow eyes locked upon the terrified grey seer. Opening its maw to utter its own deafening roar, the carnosaur charged, swatting Boneripper aside with a sidewise sweep of its head.

Seeing twenty tons of reptilian death barrelling down at him made Thanquol remember the nugget of warpstone he’d popped into his mouth. Fat frog-things were forgotten as he bit down on the rock, grinding it into powder with his fangs. Frantically, Thanquol swallowed each portion as it slid onto his tongue.

Invigorating power swelled within him, quickening his pulse, making his limbs feel as though steel had been poured onto his bones. Thanquol straightened out of his cringing posture, glaring defiance at the onrushing saurus chief. What was such a crude creature beside the godlike power that now coursed through his veins? Nothing! Less than nothing! With a single flick of his claw he would hurl the lizardman and its slavering mount across the jungle and back to Quetza! He’d smash their scaly carcasses into paste and then grind that paste into powder so fine even an ant couldn’t make a meal of it! Then he’d find that impertinent frog-thing and pop every wart on his slimy body before burning out his eyes and…

Intoxicating visions of what he would do to his enemies with the power searing through his body almost made Thanquol forget about the reptiles thundering down the trail towards him. Something like panic made him flinch when he realised they were only a few dozen yards away. Then he remembered who he was and the powers at his command.

Calmly, Grey Seer Thanquol pointed his staff at the carnosaur and its rider. A few sharp curses, a few focused thoughts, and he sent a storm of warp-lightning crashing into the reptiles. He grinned in savage triumph. Then his eyes widened in appreciative horror as he saw the warp-lightning being funnelled into the golden amulets riveted into the saurus chief’s scales. Beast and master came roaring through the magical onslaught as unfazed as a fish in a flood!

Whining in sheer terror, Thanquol dived back into the thicket. The chief’s lance came so close to him that it tore a great flap in the back of his robe. But the momentum of the carnosaur could not be stopped. The immense monster kept thundering down the trail. It was several dozen yards before the lizardman could turn it back around.

By that time, Thanquol was back on the trail, conjuring another spell to destroy his enemy. Still invigorated by the warpstone, he held his staff on high, muttering invocations to the Horned Rat. As the carnosaur turned to charge him again, he brought the staff smashing down against the ground. The earth trembled and shuddered as the focused malignancy of his magic coursed through it. Trees cracked and toppled, stones were sent bouncing into the jungle. A jagged fissure opened, snaking straight down the trail towards the onrushing carnosaur.

Just as the sorcerous fissure should reach the reptile’s feet, it stopped. Even more incredible, as the monster lumbered forwards, the ground closed up before it. Thanquol could see the charms nailed into the saurus chief’s hide blazing with magical energies. Those ancient amulets were doing more than simply warding off his sorcery, they were actively undoing it!

Thanquol felt his gorge rise and his nethers shrink as the carnosaur charged at him for the second time. He could not tear his eyes from the cold orbs of the saurus chief. He could sense the primordial, passionless hate in the lizardman’s mind and knew that here was an old enemy to all his kind. There would be no treating with this beast, no bribe he could offer the lizardman to spare his life. Helpless to turn away, Thanquol could only watch as the chief’s golden lance came stabbing towards him.

Before the lance could be driven home, the carnosaur reared back, almost throwing its rider. Interposing itself between the reptiles and Thanquol was a big black shape. Boneripper snarled up at the saurus, then dived straight at the carnosaur.

Thanquol blinked in amazement as he watched Boneripper’s claws tear through the carnosaur’s thick scales, opening a great gash in its chest where those tiny arms dangled uselessly. The carnosaur swatted at him with those arms, but Boneripper seized one in his jaws and with a sidewise twist of his head popped it from its socket.

Maddened with pain, the carnosaur jerked away from Boneripper. The saurus chief made the mistake of trying to restrain its retreat. Twisting about, the giant reptile arched its back and neck, writhing and turning, trying to unseat the lizardman upon its back, its tiny brain shifting blame for its pain onto its rider now that he had drawn its attention.

Quickly, Thanquol raised his staff, hoping that what he had in mind would work. Potent wards of protection such as the lizardman wore often required at least some concentration on the part of their wearers. At the moment, the saurus chief was fully occupied just staying in his saddle.

Green lightning burst from Thanquol’s staff, searing across the trail and smashing full into the saurus chief. Unlike the first time, the amulets riveted into its scales didn’t absorb the energies. This time the deadly burst of magical energy swirled and crackled around it, blackening its scales and melting the golden trinkets embedded in its skin. The straps holding it into the saddle snapped as the lightning seared it and it was pitched from the back of the furious carnosaur, then smashed beneath its pounding feet.

The carnosaur continued its mindless madness, snapping at its back where Thanquol’s fire had burned it. The great brute was oblivious to the rat ogre who circled it. Boneripper watched and waited, choosing the moment when the reptile’s weight was shifted to one side to pounce. The rat ogre crashed into the side of the unbalanced carnosaur, using its own weight to throw it across the trail. A stand of bamboo splintered as the beast smashed into it, the jagged shafts punching through its scaly body as it impaled itself upon them with its own momentum.

Boneripper raked his claws across the belly of the pinned carnosaur, the sword-like talons shredding the soft scales of its underside. The reptile struggled to pull itself off the bamboo stakes, trying to snap at Boneripper with its jaws. One of its legs had been broken in the fall, but the other proved a greater menace to the rat ogre, slashing his shoulder open. He staggered away from the attack, glaring at the flailing reptile.

Ignoring Thanquol’s demands to leave the dying beast alone, Boneripper leapt on top of the reptile’s body, scrambling around so that he could grab the monster’s leg at the hip, well away from the flashing claws. Grunting with effort, the rat ogre locked both of his arms around the offending limb and began to pull.

Thanquol stopped calling on his bodyguard to leave the carnosaur alone. Instead he watched the gory spectacle play itself out, earnestly hoping all the while that Boneripper would be a lot calmer when he was finished.

In fact, the grey seer was thinking it might be a good idea to start being nicer to Boneripper. It would be somewhat safer that way.

They could feel the jungle watching them. At first Adalwolf laid the sensation down to his own fearful imagination, but as he and Hiltrude penetrated deeper into the forest, he knew it was something more. Every hair on his body was crawling with apprehension. It was more than simple imagination. He could see that Hiltrude felt it too, but decided not to add to her fear by voicing his own concerns.

The fight with the soldier-lizards had made a sinister impression. Wounded and alone in a strange land, even the smaller lizardmen that had served in the Temple of the Serpent would have been enough of a challenge for them. Adalwolf knew they had been lucky to survive one encounter with the saurus warriors. If they would live, they would need to keep their wits about them, try to avoid drawing the attention of the reptiles.

Even before the strange sensation of being watched, the mercenary didn’t find that a likely prospect. The image of the toad-creature’s army surrounding the ruins of Quetza was too fresh in his mind. A legion of the powerful soldier-lizards had emerged from the jungle to encircle the city. There could be hundreds, even thousands of the monsters prowling the jungle looking for them, every one far more at home in the savage rainforests than the humans. It was only a matter of time before the lizardmen found them.

Their one hope was the black drops of blood they followed. Adalwolf was certain now that the trail could only belong to Boneripper. Anything else would have died from such blood loss but the rat ogre was too stupid and too stubborn to realise the fact. Perhaps whatever sorcerous arts had allowed the underfolk to breed such a beast had also endowed it with a super-normal vitality. Adalwolf didn’t know, he only knew that the beast lived and while it lived it gave them hope: a trail to follow that would lead them to Thanquol’s escape route out of this green hell.

It was a horrible thought to understand that their only prayer of salvation lay in the treacherous paws of Thanquol. Adalwolf would have rather entrusted his life to one of the merwyrms that guarded the shores of Ulthuan, but there was no other choice. They could follow Thanquol and hope to either steal or share his way out of Lustria or they could simply sit down and wait for the lizardmen to catch them.

At least there was no sign that Thanquol had any help other than Boneripper. When they had followed the trail back to the skaven encampment, Adalwolf had feared the worst. The air had been so thick with the smell of ratmen, he’d expected an entire swarm of the fiends to be waiting for them. Instead they had found a half-dozen ratkin ripped apart in a variety of ghastly ways he was certain only Boneripper could manage. It seemed Thanquol had had a very final falling out with those minions who had escaped from Quetza.

The two humans had lingered in the ghoulish clearing only long enough to scavenge supplies from the underfolk’s stores. Hiltrude had become sick at the very idea of carrying the ratmen’s provisions, much less the thought of eating them. The most appealing things appeared to be the pulpy innards of enormous beetles. The menu only got worse from there. It had taken all of Adalwolf’s skills of persuasion to induce the courtesan to pick up the ghastly fodder, assuring her they would only eat the filth as a last resort.

Even worse than the food was the water. The ratmen had used an assortment of increasingly foul-smelling bladders to carry their water. Adalwolf tried to convince himself the abominable-looking things hadn’t been stitched together from the kidneys of dead skaven. The bladders gave the water inside them a pungent reek and an even more loathsome taste, but the mercenary knew from experience that a few hours under the Lustrian sun would make them drink even this filth and praise the gods for providing it.

From the encampment, they followed Boneripper’s trail deeper into the jungle. It was impossible to be certain after the peculiarities of the path they had followed from the beach, but Adalwolf had the impression they were travelling in a largely southward direction. He was thankful for the rat ogre’s savage facility at tearing apart the foliage, making their own progress much easier. Even so, he was careful to set a pace that both he and Hiltrude would be able to maintain. Exhausting themselves wouldn’t let them catch Thanquol.

Several times the trail made by Boneripper would cross over into a larger trail. Adalwolf could tell from the smell that the wider trail had been cut by a great number of ratmen. Perhaps it marked the way Thanquol’s expedition had journeyed to Quetza. But if so, why didn’t the grey seer stick to it? If he feared pursuit, clearly he would have compelled Boneripper to be more careful about hacking a trail through the jungle.

The only answer Adalwolf could come up with was that Thanquol was looking for something, something important enough that he wouldn’t leave Lustria without it. The infrequent returns to the old path his ratmen had made were perhaps done so that he could regain his bearings. The mercenary was thankful for whatever delay made the grey seer shun a straight run to wherever he was going. Anything that slowed him down was to the advantage of the desperate humans who followed him.

Days passed before they saw a more tangible sign of their quarry beyond the occasional footprint or some trinket Thanquol had decided was too heavy to continue carrying. It was also a grim reminder that even as they hunted the ratman, other things hunted them in turn.

The carcass of the giant reptile was strewn across the trail, impaled upon the bamboo trees that flanked the left side of the path. Adalwolf shuddered to see the thing, reminded of the great carnosaur they had encountered so long ago. There was no question as to the thing’s death – one of its hind legs had been torn from its socket. Even the robust vigour of a carnosaur wasn’t able to overcome that sort of mutilation.

Adalwolf was surprised to find a saddle strapped to the reptile’s back. He smiled bitterly as he noted the gold adornments dangling from the snakeskin harness. There was wealth enough in this hideous place to choke every king in the Old World and every bit of it was as useless to them as a volume of Tarradash was to an orc.

Some little way from the dead carnosaur, they found the corpse of a lizardman, one of the hulking warrior breed. Its body was strangely burnt and there was a sulphurous reek rising from it.

‘Looks like Thanquol’s not so timid about using his magic now,’ Adalwolf said.

Hiltrude shuddered and turned away from the grisly corpse. She covered her face in her hands. ‘It’s hopeless!’ she sobbed. ‘Those things are going to catch us!’

Adalwolf reached his arm around her, trying to soothe her despair. He winced as she pressed against him, her shoulder brushing the broken limb tied against his chest. ‘Maybe they like the taste of rat better than us,’ he said. ‘We haven’t seen any of them in days. Maybe that’s because they have been bothering Thanquol instead.’

‘But if they do catch him!’ Hiltrude cried. ‘He’s the only one that might know how to get out of here!’

Adalwolf stroked her tangled hair. ‘One worry at a time,’ he told her. His eyes hardened as he looked over her shoulder. Gently, he nudged her away from the side of the trail, turning her around so that she wouldn’t see what he had seen.

The mercenary repressed a shiver as they limped back down the trail. It hadn’t been the sight of the little cannibal lizards that had so upset him, though he had seen their hideous capabilities firsthand. No, it had been the way they stared back at him, dozens of sets of unblinking eyes watching him with an air of rapt attention. It was more than the way an animal watched prey. There had been a chilling sense of purpose, of intelligence in that stare.

Once again, Adalwolf thought of the tremendous power he had felt rising from the toad-creature. He wondered what it was doing and if it had used some of its magic to make the vermin of the jungle its spies.

Lord Tlaco sat upon his dais, unheeding of the swaying rhythm of his strange chariot. Dispensing with the ancient magics that kept the golden dais in defiance of gravity, the slann allowed his temple guard to conduct it through the jungle. The brawny saurus warriors bent their backs beneath the long bronze rods upon which the dais rested. They moved in eerie unison, each saurus mirroring his opposite as they marched through the primordial forest.

The slann devoted a fraction of its awareness upon his surroundings, using a portion of its knowledge of the Great Math to bend trees away from the path of its minions, to drain ponds and fill gullies that might otherwise interfere with the march. Beasts of the jungle recoiled from the mental call of the mage-priest, or else came in their crawling, slithering, hopping multitudes to obey the slann’s command. A numberless legion spread through the jungle, peering under every bush, listening at every thicket, tasting the air of every path with forked tongues. All were looking for the fragile warm-blood Lord Tlaco sought, the unknown quotient that must be quantified to explain the equation.

Many were the eyes of Lord Tlaco, but there was a limit to what the tiny minds of tree frogs and mud snakes could accomplish, whatever their numbers. The swarming reptiles of the jungle could be trusted to find the decaying algorithm, but they could not be depended upon to contain it.

The blemishes on the slann’s skin shifted and expanded. The pale skink attendant crouching beside Lord Tlaco stood in response, the fold of skin at the top of its head fluttering like the signal flag of a warship. The skink gestured and hissed at the slann’s retinue, imparting to them the commands it had read in the mage-priest’s shifting hue.

Lizardmen hissed in reply, a rolling susurrus that crawled through the jungle like a primal force. Birds fled from the trees as the sound of the reptiles washed over them, monkeys scrambled to the forest floor, panthers retreated still deeper into their shadowy lairs. The simple beasts of the jungle knew that sound. The lords of Lustria were on the hunt.

Like waves breaking upon a rocky shore, Lord Tlaco’s retinue evaporated into the jungle, spreading out to scour the forest for the specimen their master required. Soon, only the slann, his temple guard and a few skink attendants remained.

The mage-priest made a slight motion of his hand and his small company began to march once more. There was neither chance or coincidence to one who truly understood the Great Math, only a question of probabilities, greater and lesser. For the unknown quotient to escape the slann’s hunters was a lesser probability. However, it was one that Lord Tlaco was not going to ignore.

Anything with purpose could be predicted according to the Laws of the Old Ones. A decaying algorithm was still a fragment of harmony, a value within the Great Math. Lord Tlaco knew where the specimen was going. He knew why and how.

The slann also knew the warm-blood would never get there.

Even the least probabilities were against him.

Sopping wet, Chang Fang dropped onto the deck of the Black Mary and began to wring out the dripping tatters of his cloak. The assassin bruxed his fangs in annoyance. He had Grey Seer Thanquol to thank for all of his misfortunes. Thanquol and that stupidly loyal rat ogre of his! If he’d known what trouble that brute was going to cause, he would have slit its throat on the voyage over! That worthless conjure-rat Shen Tsinge too!

Chang Fang tried to calm himself. He’d reached the ship well ahead of Thanquol. That was all that mattered. It would take only a few hours to get the vessel ready and then he’d be able to leave Lustria behind. With a little luck, the currents might take the ship someplace connected to the Under-Empire. Still, even if he never saw another skaven again, he could at least comfort himself with the image of Thanquol rotting away in the jungle.

Maybe the grey seer would even get as far as the beach. Chang Fang almost squealed in delight imagining the look on Thanquol’s face when he saw his only hope of escape sailing off over the horizon – without him!

The assassin clapped his paws together and looked about him, wondering where he should start to get the ship ready to sail. He twitched his whiskers in confusion when he noticed that the mainsail was already raised. Suddenly an annoyance he hadn’t really thought about in his frantic swim to reach the ship before Thanquol occurred to him.

Who had moved the boats from the beach? And who had fastened them into their places against the ship’s hull?

Chang Fang drew the knives from the folds of his cloak and stared suspiciously at his suddenly sinister surroundings. He heard a plank creak somewhere beneath him, then another and another. Every hair on his body shivered as a decayed, putrid stench rose from the Black Mary’s hold.

There was something uncomfortably familiar about that smell.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ESCAPE FROM LUSTRIA

Hiltrude could feel her heart pounding against her ribs, feeling as though it were trying to hammer its way out of her body. Her lungs felt like they were on fire and her legs felt like lead. She was certain that every step she took would be her last, but somehow her fear made her go on.

Any hope that the lizardmen would ignore them in favour of tracking down Thanquol had vanished. For hours they had heard the reptiles scrambling through the undergrowth, following them just out of eyesight. Sometimes a strange chirp or bark would sound from the trees, rising with a sinister sense of purpose that made Hiltrude’s skin crawl. She knew the sounds weren’t the idle chatter of monkeys or the cries of birds, but the calls of skink hunters shadowing their prey.

Sometimes they would catch a fleeting glimpse of blue-scaled stalkers moving through the trees. Such instances seemed deliberate to Hiltrude, as though the lurking lizardmen were revealing themselves in order to frighten the two humans away from a particular path. In their sorry condition, wracked with fever, tired from days of trudging through the sweltering heat, sickened by the abominable rations of the ratmen, the two fugitives didn’t answer whatever challenge the skinks offered. Instead they turned, trying to find a different way through the jungle.

Whatever hope they had of keeping to Thanquol’s trail was lost now. Forced from the grey seer’s path by the encroaching lizardmen, they now made their way almost at random through the rainforest. Hiltrude couldn’t escape the idea that the lizardmen were guiding them somewhere, herding them like cattle towards some definite end. It was a thought that made her gag in horror, memories of Xiuhcoatl and the altar atop the pyramid rising in her mind.

Adalwolf’s fever was worse, his movements reduced to a pained stumble. More and more he was forced to lean upon Hiltrude for support. The courtesan didn’t begrudge his weakness, she only hoped that she would be able to find the strength within her to bring them both through their ordeal safely. That cold, practical side of her that had so dominated her life was only a tiny voice now, chiding her for not leaving the sick man and taking her chances on her own. She didn’t listen to that ugly part of her soul. Adalwolf hadn’t left her behind. Even if she felt nothing for him, that alone would be reason enough to stay by his side.

The chirps and barks of the skinks rose from the bushes around them once more. There could not be many of the reptiles, Hiltrude thought, otherwise the creatures would have already overwhelmed them. Why they did not attack with poisoned arrows and javelins as they had the ratmen, she did not know. That there was some sinister meaning in their reluctance to attack she was certain. The lizardmen were leading them somewhere. But where?

They soon had their answer. Driven onwards by the chirps of the skinks, the two fugitives jogged down the game trail they had been following, mustering such speed as was still left in their bodies. Beyond the limit of her endurance, Hiltrude collapsed when the trail suddenly opened into a grassy clearing. Some giant of the forest had once stood here until the elements had finally brought it crashing down. Rotten piles of wood showed where the carcass of the tree had collapsed long ago. Now, at the centre of the clearing, a green-leafed successor grew.

Adalwolf crashed to the ground beside Hiltrude. He landed on his broken arm, a pained scream scraping through his clenched teeth. Hiltrude rolled him onto his back, trying to ease his suffering.

A louder shriek boomed across the clearing, a sound at once magnificent and terrible. It was like the roar of steel in a furnace and the groan of a warship upon a troubled sea. The sound pulsed through the ears of the two humans, throbbing through their bodies with a sting like electricity. They lifted their heads, Adalwolf’s broken arm forgotten as they focused upon the source of the awful scream.

Within the branches of the lonely tree, something moved. They had not noticed the reptile before, so still had it been, its green scales blending into the leaves around it. Now, however, the beast had been aroused. It crept along the thick branch upon which it stood with great crawling hops of its body. Two short, clawed legs let the reptile grip the tree, the rest of its body rising in a lurching, hunchbacked fashion. When the creature reached the edge of the branch, it sat for a moment, studying the two humans with a glazed, hungry cast in its dull yellow eyes.

The reptile crouched upon the branch for a time, looming over them like some scaly vulture. Then the folds of its wrinkled body opened wide, snapping into great leathery pinions. The winged reptile threw back its beaked head, its warbling shriek again pulsing through the jungle. Swiftly the reptile launched itself from the branch, soaring down from the tree, its eyes fixed upon the prey the skinks had driven to it.

As the terradon took wing, Hiltrude noticed the patch of scaly blue skin clinging to its back. Only when the blue scales started to move on their own did she realise that there was a skink clutching the winged monster’s back, riding the flying reptile as a man might ride a horse! The skink bore a long stabbing spear in its claws and with a deft motion of the weapon, it brought the terradon hurtling even faster upon the two fugitives.

Hiltrude cast about her for the golden sword Schachter had given her. She rose to her knees, huddling close to Adalwolf, flailing the sword in a desperate arc before them, trying to place a barrier of biting metal between them and the flying reptile.

The woman’s frantic efforts caused the terradon to shriek in surprise and rear back from the flashing blade. Its skink rider, however, had more intelligence than the beast. A single expert jab with its spear and the lizardman tore the sword from Hiltrude’s fingers, sending it flying across the clearing.

Hiltrude’s first impulse was to run after the sword, but Adalwolf grabbed her ankle before she could move, pulling her down before the skink could run her through with his spear. The mercenary rose to his feet, shouting and leaping, waving his hand over his head in an effort to grab the attention of their attackers. Seeing the terradon fix its eyes on him, he ran across the clearing, intent on drawing the reptiles away from Hiltrude.

The terradon shrieked and dived after the mercenary. Hiltrude could see the skink on its back pull on the bony headcrest that jutted from the back of the reptile’s head, causing it to veer away from Adalwolf before it could sink its talons into him. The terradon croaked and snarled in frustration, but the skink did not release its headcrest until it was sure it was back under control.

By that time Adalwolf had drawn his own sword and was bracing himself for the terradon’s second attack. Hiltrude watched the man trembling with the effort, his arm shaking as though with an ague. The terradon hovered above him, making its grisly croaking sounds, snapping at the skink on its back with its fanged beak.

Finally the terradon was allowed to dive at the man once more. The skink’s spear lashed out again, tearing the sword from Adalwolf’s fingers with the same precise, expert twisting motion that had disarmed Hiltrude so effectively. The courtesan cried out, expecting to see the skink impale Adalwolf with a second thrust of his spear, as he had nearly done to her. Instead the crest on the skink’s neck fluttered open and it shifted its grip on the spear, driving at Adalwolf with the blunt end of the weapon rather than the jagged tip.

Cold horror rushed through Hiltrude’s body as she understood the skink’s intention. The lizardman wanted to take Adalwolf alive, to use the flying steed to carry him back to the Temple of the Serpent and its waiting altar!

Hiltrude’s cry didn’t faze the skink as it struck out at Adalwolf with its spear, but the sound was enough to distract the hovering terradon that it shifted its position and foiled the lizardman’s aim. The jabbing thrust of the spear’s blunt end, instead of crashing into Adalwolf’s head and stunning him instead passed harmlessly over his shoulder.

Martial instincts honed in hundreds of battles made Adalwolf grab the end of the spear without thinking. Savagely he pulled at the weapon, ripping it from the hands of the skink and nearly causing the lizardman to lose its grip on the terradon’s back.

Confused and enraged by the conflict around it, the terradon dived back at Adalwolf, its talons spread for slaughter. The mercenary awkwardly fumbled with the skink’s spear, trying to turn it around so that he might stab at the reptile with the weapon’s edge. The one-armed man looked up, his eyes wide with horror as he saw the reptile nearly upon him.

Hiltrude screamed again, hoping to draw the terradon back away from the helpless Adalwolf. The sound wasn’t effective as it had been before. Quickly she unslung the pack of skaven provisions she carried. Gripping the rotten bag by its straps, she spun her body around and flung the pack at the winged reptile.

The provisions splattered across the terradon’s back, covering it in unspeakable bits of wormy meat and rancid fruit. The reptile shrieked in alarm, rising high into the air. Its eyes shifted angrily, studying the clearing and narrowing when they focused upon Hiltrude. Screaming its warbling cry, the terradon dived towards Hiltrude.

Again, the skink rider pulled at the crest of its almost brainless mount. The terradon hissed in protest, snapping at its master. The skink had nearly turned the beast about when suddenly its body was pierced from behind. The barbed head of its own spear erupted from its chest. The skink released the terradon and pawed futilely at its mortal wound.

The weight of the skink on the end of the spear pulled the weapon from Adalwolf’s hands. The terradon rose into the air again, the lifeless skink tumbling off its back and crashing to earth. Adalwolf rushed to recover the spear before the winged monster could turn on him again. He did not count upon the single-mindedness of the beast, however. Instead of turning upon him, the terradon dived straight at Hiltrude.

This time there was no guiding intelligence to curb the terradon’s predatory instincts. The reptile came hurtling at Hiltrude like a leathery thunderbolt. Its talons slashed through her soft skin, sinking deep into her flesh. Fluttering its wings, its warbling cry all but drowning out Hiltrude’s screams, the terradon lifted its prey into the sky.

Adalwolf rushed after the fleeing monster, shouting and waving his arm, trying anything to get it to take interest in him again. But the terradon could not be tricked into releasing its catch. The mercenary could only watch helplessly from the ground as the terradon settled into the branches of the tallest tree bordering the clearing. He made a desperate cast of the spear at the reptile as it landed, but the shaft fell well short of its target. He looked desperately at the tree, but knew he could never climb it with a broken arm.

By then, it was too late. The screams had stopped.

Desolate, Adalwolf stumbled away from the clearing. He no longer cared where his steps took him, only that they took him away from the grotesque slobbering sounds descending from the terradon’s perch as it feasted on its prey.

Grey Seer Thanquol peered through the branches of the mangroves, studying the swamp. He wrinkled his face as the stagnant, sour reek of the place smashed against his senses. His first instinct was to avoid this place, to detour however many leagues were necessary to avoid setting one paw on its slimy ground. That was a luxury he couldn’t afford. Chang Fang had come this way, Boneripper’s insistence that the assassin’s trail led here was proof of that. The rat ogre couldn’t communicate how long ago Thanquol’s enemy had been here, but it didn’t really matter. He was still ahead of the grey seer, still well on his way to getting to the ship before Thanquol.

Sidestepping the swamp wasn’t an option. There wasn’t the time to go around. Thanquol’s second instinct was to tuck his tail between his legs and scurry across the bog as fast as his feet would carry him. This too he dismissed with an effort of self-control. There was no way to tell where the decayed zombies might be lurking, waiting for fresh meat to rend with their rotten claws. The undead might be lying in wait under the mud or hidden beneath the scummy water. There was no telling and no way to pick their scent out from the rancid stink of the swamp itself.

Thanquol squinted as he stared at the crumbling fort the human pirates had built long ago. There was no sign of activity there, but last time there hadn’t been any sign either. Not until festering corpses had lurched out of the ruins to attack the skaven.

The grey seer bruxed his fangs and tugged at his whiskers. Caution was a good thing, but it wouldn’t help him if Chang Fang sailed away in the ship.

Screwing up his courage, Thanquol dropped down from his perch in the branches of a mangrove tree. He scurried over to Boneripper, swatting the rat ogre’s flank with his staff and pointing a claw at the swamp. ‘Go-quick!’ he snarled. ‘First-lead, I will follow!’

The rat ogre wrinkled his face in distaste as he turned and drew a lungful of stagnant swamp smell into his lungs. For an ugly moment, Thanquol thought Boneripper was going to defy his commands. Then the hulking beast’s body rumbled as a sigh shook through him. With an air of resignation, Boneripper loped off into the mud.

Thanquol waited a few moments to see if anything rose up out of the slime to attack his bodyguard, then quickly scurried after Boneripper. He glanced at the scummy water to either side of the sand bank, unsettled to see the cold eyes of crocodiles watching him with a predatory regard. Fumbling at the clasp, Thanquol thumbed open the little ratskull box that held his snuff. He inhaled a noseful of the warpstone powder, feeling a thrill of warmth and vigour rush through him. The snuff didn’t make him like the crocodiles any better, but at least his mind found it harder to focus on them as a tide of contrasting emotions flittered through his brain.

Of course, even the warpstone snuff wasn’t enough to make Thanquol forget about the zombies. Every step closer to the tower he expected to see the undead rear up out of the muck. His first encounter with the things had been bad enough.

Then again, he didn’t have Chang Fang around trying to feed him to the things either. Thanquol could be happy about that. Or at least he would be if the assassin’s absence didn’t mean he was probably on the ship getting it ready to sail away and maroon the grey seer in this lost world of lizards and snakes!

‘Fast-quick!’ Thanquol growled, striking Boneripper’s back to encourage the brute to greater speed.

The chirps and barks of the lizardmen sounded around him once more after Adalwolf fled the clearing. There was a frantic quality to the sounds now. Perhaps the lizardmen were asking each other what they should do now that he’d killed their chief and their flying monster was only interested in filling its gullet.

The mercenary thought about just sitting down and waiting for the skinks to come for him, but he didn’t think they would. They were watchers, sent to monitor him, to herd him to their masters. Even if the reptiles stood and fought, they would soon overcome him. His thoughts weren’t about escape now. That idea had died with Hiltrude. Now the only thing that goaded him on was the hope of revenge. He would make the lizardmen suffer. Killing the lower creatures wouldn’t hurt the reptiles greatly, but if he could find the toad-creature...

Adalwolf ignored the common sense that told him it was madness to think he could kill the toad-creature. If even a man who knew less about wizardry than a street sweeper could sense the aura of magic surrounding the amphibian, then surely it was more than capable of using that magic to protect itself. But he was far beyond reason now. It was something to keep him going.

He didn’t think finding the toad-creature would be a problem. Adalwolf had noticed the way the lizardmen seemed hesitant to kill him. Even the skink chief on the terradon had made every effort to keep his beast from hurting the mercenary. The reptiles wanted him alive, to bring him somewhere. He was certain that wherever that was, the toad-creature would be there.

It would do no good to fall into the claws of the lizardmen though. He had to keep out of their clutches, to force the toad-creature to come to him, to meet him on his own terms and on ground of his own choosing. That was his only hope now. His only hope for revenge.

Thrashing sounds in the brush ahead announced a new effort by the skinks to capture him. Adalwolf sprang behind the cover of a fallen log just as an armoured reptile the size of a lion thrust itself from where it had buried itself in the ground. The burrowing monster was a dull brown in colour, its body heavy with big thorn-like spikes that covered it from the tip of its snout to the end of its club-like tail. The reptile hissed menacingly at him as it shook the earth from its back.

Before the razordon could lunge at the man, however, a skink came scrambling around its flank, jabbing it with a short spear. The bigger reptile’s fury ebbed and it just stared at Adalwolf, content now to simply block his way.

The ground behind the mercenary now rose up and a second razordon emerged, blocking the way back. Like the first reptile, this one too had its entourage of skink tenders. Goading the armoured reptile with their spears, the skinks moved their monster towards Adalwolf, trying to trap the man between the beasts.

Crying out in challenge, Adalwolf threw the bladder of foul water into the face of the beast behind him. The creature was blinded for an instant, its horned body heaving as it sent spikes shooting out of its skin in every direction. Skinks dropped flat to the earth to avoid the deadly missiles.

Already turned to face the first razordon, Adalwolf did not see the unexpected reaction the one behind him had when the black water splashed in its eyes. Unfamiliar with the creatures of Lustria, his first awareness of the razordon’s ability to throw its spines was when six of them came stabbing into his back.

Screaming in pain, it took every last piece of willpower for Adalwolf to stay on his feet. He reached behind his back, frantically trying to pull the spines from his flesh. His skin throbbed where the spines had hurt him, a stinging burn as though he had backed against a hot stove.

A skink rushed at him with a club, but Adalwolf drove his boot into the lizardman’s belly, pitching him onto the ground. The mercenary could see more of the wiry lizardmen emerging from the jungle, surrounding him on each side. One of the razordon tenders encouraged the beast to shoot a volley of spines into the ground near Adalwolf. The meaning was clear. He was to stay where he stood.

Adalwolf glared at the skink and spat on the little line of spines. Gritting his teeth, he threw himself off the trail, crashing into the undergrowth. Vines slashed his face, thorns cut his skin, but he would not relent. If the lizardmen wanted him, they were going to have to work for their prize.

Scrambling over the side of the Black Mary, Grey Seer Thanquol flopped to the deck. His heart was pounding like a drum, electrified by the terror that had gripped him during his frantic swim from the beach. With every stroke he’d relived the awful horror of the landing in Lustria, smelling again the tang of skaven blood in the water as the sharks feasted, knowing that at any moment he might be the next to fill their jaws.

Thanquol cursed Chang Fang as he shook the sea from his dripping fur. It was just like the slinking murderer to take all of the boats back to the ship, forcing Thanquol and Boneripper to make the dangerous swim if they would gain the Black Mary in time. Every instant the grey seer had expected a shark to drag him under, for all of his magnificent ambitions and schemes to end in the belly of a hungry fish.

But the favour of the Horned Rat was still upon him. His god would not suffer the most brilliant genius in all skavendom to die in such a senseless way! Thanquol had not seen a single shark, not even a suggestion of a dorsal fin splitting the waves. Even Boneripper, with his torn body still dripping blood, had been able to make the swim safely. The grey seer had watched most carefully for the slightest sniff of a shark when he had sent the rat ogre to test the waters.

Perhaps the sharks were all asleep, digesting the feast of skaven flesh they’d enjoyed when the Black Mary landed. It was just like Thanquol’s return to the swamp. There hadn’t even been a whiff of any zombies about. Surely the Horned Rat was bestowing his protection upon the grey seer, striking fear into the craven hearts of his enemies and making them cower in their holes until he had passed!

Thanquol pinched the folds of his robe, wringing a stream of water from the soaked garment. He hated the salty stink of the sea, but at least it was better than the humid clinging heat of the jungle. And it was a smell he knew meant he was going home, so he couldn’t completely despise it. Soon he would be sailing back to civilization, to stalk once more through the streets of Skavenblight. He would return in triumph, victoriously presenting himself before the Nightlord and humbly relating the magnificent destruction he had brought upon Xiuhcoatl and the Temple of the Serpent! Clan Eshin would be indebted to him, and Thanquol would use their favours well! He would send their spies and killers to look after his many enemies. Those he could not threaten into submission would die, and their deaths would make all skavendom tremble. Tisqueek and the other seerlords would learn their place and then it would be time for him to turn his attentions to that incompetent fool Seerlord Kritislik. With the strength of Clan Eshin his to command, Thanquol would arrange an accident for the decrepit Seerlord and then there would be a new scent in the Shattered Tower – the scent of Seerlord Thanquol!

Vengeful thoughts reminded Thanquol of something he’d left unfinished. He clapped his paws together and rubbed them eagerly. It was so kind of Chang Fang to take so much time getting all the boats back to the ship. Without that delay, the idiot might have succeeded in his plan to strand Thanquol in Lustria. But, of course, the fool had pitted himself against a force of destiny when he set his puny brain against the genius of Thanquol!

‘Chang Fang!’ Thanquol cried out. ‘You can come out now, you turd-sniffing dung-licker! I won’t hurt-hurt you!’ As he spoke, Thanquol tucked a small piece of warpstone into his cheek pouch. He thought he’d start by burning off one of the assassin’s legs with a bolt of warp-lightning. Then he’d see where the mood took him from there.

Only the sound of the ship’s creaking hull and the waves rolling against the shore answered Thanquol’s call. The grey seer lashed his tail in annoyance. He didn’t like the idea of setting sail with an assassin hidden somewhere aboard. He almost wished that Shiwan Stalkscent had left guards behind to keep cowards like Chang Fang from sneaking back onboard. Then again, he had to grudgingly concede that Shiwan had a point when he decided any skaven he left with the ship would be tempted to head back to the Under-Empire as soon as their leaders were out of sight.

‘Chang Fang, you cringing whelp-chewer! Your mother was a he-mouse and your sire was an asthmatic bat!’ Thanquol snarled, shouting so that his voice would carry to the quarterdeck and the cabins below. He glared angrily at the ship around him, trying not to jump every time the shadow of a sail moved. The assassin might be anywhere, waiting to sink a knife in his ribs!

Baring his fangs, Thanquol rounded on Boneripper, striking the rat ogre with his staff. ‘Idiot-meat!’ he hissed at his bodyguard. ‘Find-fetch Chang Fang!’

Boneripper stared stupidly at Thanquol. The rat ogre didn’t budge. Instead he just turned his head and looked straight up into the rigging of the ship.

Thanquol cringed, expecting a ferocious assassin to drop down on him, eyes agleam with murder, daggers dripping with poison. He scurried around to take shelter behind Boneripper, hoping Chang Fang might be too busy tackling the rat ogre to kill the grey seer.

When he took a few breaths without a knife stabbing into his flesh, Thanquol became curious. Cautiously he peered around Boneripper’s bulk. Carefully he followed the rat ogre’s gaze upwards.

Fluttering from the mainmast was something that hadn’t been there before. It was a square of black cloth broken by the ghoulish image of a skull hovering over crossed blades. It took a moment for Thanquol to remember the flag the pirates they had taken the ship from had flown. This was similar to the banner the skaven had cut down and thrown into the sea, but the longer Thanquol stared at it, the more he began to notice disturbing differences from the flag he remembered. The black field wasn’t smooth cloth, it was furry, fashioned from the uncured hide of some animal. The blades weren’t colourful patches stitched into the flag, but were real knives tied against their furry setting. And the skull wasn’t sewn, it was a real skull set into the middle of the flag. And it wasn’t a human skull: it was the long, lean skull of a skaven!

Boneripper had found Chang Fang.

Thanquol stared at the gruesome Jolly Roger for a long time, a mixture of elation and horror pulsing through him. The assassin was dead, there was no need to fear him sneaking around the black guts of the ship waiting for his chance to murder Thanquol. That was a cause for celebration. Unfortunately, it left the disturbing question of what had killed Chang Fang.

The grey seer’s nose twitched as a rotten smell rose from the hold of the ship. His keen ears could hear a clumsy sort of shuffling beneath his feet. A cold chill ran down Thanquol’s legs as he vented the musk of fear. He knew that smell and he could guess what kind of feet made those stumbling sounds.

Turning, the grey seer saw a skeletal shape lumber out from the dark doorway set into the face of the quarterdeck. It grinned at him with a fleshless smile, a rusty cutlass clenched in its bony fist. The zombie pirate’s eye shone with an empty hunger, the same pitiless hatred of all things living it had shown when it had emerged from the fort in the swamp.

Thanquol understood now why he hadn’t been attacked in the swamp. After the skaven fled, the zombies had followed their trail back to the beach. In life they had been pirates, in death they had been abandoned to the stinking jungles of Lustria. At least until the skaven had brought a new ship to them.

Adalwolf stood atop a little grassy mound. It was an effort just to stand now, further flight from the lizardmen was something that almost brought tears of laughter to him as he thought about it. His back was swollen where the razordon spines had struck him, the venom in the wounds drawing every insect in the jungle to him. His broken arm was completely numb by contrast, a dead icy weight against his chest. More than the physical pain, it was the fatigue of his soul that crippled him. He had no purpose now. There would be no reckoning with the toad-creature, no revenge for Hiltrude.

Skinks surrounded him on every side now. Wherever he turned he could see their scaly blue bodies, little arrows nocked in the strings of their short bows, their unblinking eyes staring back at him. Even if he had the strength to go on, there was no escape from this place.

At first he thought it was the fever playing tricks on his mind when he saw the trees start to change. It was as though some omnipotent force was folding the jungle, parting it like a gambler shuffling cards. The jungle swirled around him, churning and undulating like an angry sea. The skinks vanished, the trees vanished, the thickets and saw grass. In the twinkling of an eye, everything around him changed, only the grassy mound beneath his feet had stayed the same. It was an anchor of reality that secured his reeling mind as he tried to cope with the impossible thing he had experienced.

Diethelm had expounded upon the weird qualities of the path they had followed through the jungle. Now Adalwolf knew the priest had been right. He felt very small when he considered the kind of power it must take for even the mightiest wizard to bend space and time in such a fashion.

His new surroundings were a sandy strip along the shore of the sea. The smell of brine overwhelmed the stink of the jungle and even the harsh light of the sun seemed somehow cleaner without the leaves of the jungle filtering it.

A bitter joy flashed through Adalwolf’s heart when he saw a distant speck bobbing at anchor far down the beach. It was a ship, he couldn’t be mistaken. He almost cried to see the sight, the hope that he had longed to find. But it was too late for that now. He would never leave this place. His bones would lie in the jungle with those of Hiltrude, forgotten by the world.

Adalwolf turned to face the green wall of the jungle and for the first time he was aware that he was not alone. A phalanx of saurus warriors, even bigger than the ones they had fought in the jungle, stood watching him with the same passionless interest as the skinks he had left behind.

But he only gave scant notice to the fearsome lizardmen. Adalwolf’s interest was almost instantly captivated by the bloated frog-like thing that squatted upon a golden dais in the midst of the saurus warriors. The slann’s eyes were limpid pools of amber as they studied the mercenary.

Adalwolf relaxed his hold on the sword. This close to the mage-priest, even his mad lust for revenge couldn’t make him ignore the amphibian’s aura of power. A mouse would have better chances against a dragon than he would fighting such a being.

The slann’s eyes narrowed with interest as Adalwolf lowered his weapon. A voice, neither harsh nor soothing, echoed through his brain. It promised succour. His wounds would be tended, his hurts healed, the fever driven from his body, the venom drained from his veins. All he had to do was submit, to accept his part in the Great Math. There was no need for his sum to be negated prematurely.

Adalwolf shook his head, trying to drive the voice out of his head. He glared at the bloated slann. It was offering him life, but that wasn’t something he wanted anymore.

Lord Tlaco stared back at the unknown quotient. The warm-blood had a kind of intelligence, but it had no concept of the Great Math. What it wanted and what it didn’t want had nothing to do with the harmonies of the Old Ones. The mage-priest shifted the spots on his skin. The skink perched on the dais beside the slann quickly interpreted the changes in his skin. Lifting its head, the skink chirruped and hissed to Lord Tlaco’s temple guard.

Almost as a single entity, the temple guard dropped their swords and pulled heavy clubs from their snakeskin belts. They stalked away from Lord Tlaco’s dais and marched towards the grassy mound and the sickly creature standing on it.

Adalwolf’s fist tightened about the sword in his hand as he saw the lizardmen marching towards him. He knew he couldn’t hope to fight them any more than he could hope to fight their master. They would beat him into submission, drag him off for whatever purpose the slann needed him for. There was no hope of victory here.

But there was still a way to cheat his enemies and deny them their triumph.

Lord Tlaco actually leaned forwards in his seat, his skin spots opening wide as something like amazement flushed through the slann’s body. Before his ordered mind could come to grips with the absolute madness of the warm-blood it was already too late to stop it. Adalwolf brought the serrated edge of his sword against his neck and with one savage pull cut open his carotid artery.

The dying human toppled from the mound, rolling against the feet of the temple guard. The lizardmen knelt beside the body, staring back at Lord Tlaco, looking to the slann for guidance. The mage-priest slumped back into his seat. He knew far too little about the anatomy of decaying algorithms to repair the damage Adalwolf had done. Given a little time, Lord Tlaco would be able to telepathically confer with another slann who had contemplated the biology of lower phase organisms. By that time, however, the human would be long dead.

Unable to understand the self-negation of its unknown quotient, Lord Tlaco ordered his temple guard to gather the body. Dissection was unlikely to yield the results the slann required to explain the decision Adalwolf had made, the choice to kill Xiuhcoatl instead of Thanquol. Still, the mage-priest would be thorough in his experiment. The condemnation or vindication of the cult of Sotek might yet be found within Lord Tlaco’s results.

Grey Seer Thanquol scurried up into the Black Mary’s rigging, terror throbbing through his brain. The pirate captain stared at him with its decayed face, worms dripping from the corners of its mouth and poking from the gashes in its forehead. The zombie pointed a fleshless talon at the grey seer and its undead crew began to shuffle out from the shadow of the quarterdeck.

‘Boneripper!’ Thanquol shrieked down to his bodyguard. ‘Kill-slay! Kill-slay!’

The rat ogre lumbered into the advancing pack of zombies, growling at the undead pirates. He brought one of his massive claws sweeping around, tearing apart a zombie at its waist and hurling the thing’s torso against the rail of the ship. A second flash of his claws opened another zombie from groin to chin, decayed innards tumbling from the ghastly wound to slop across the deck. The rat ogre tore at a third pirate, wrenching both its arms clean from their sockets and knocking the creature from off its feet.

An eager gleam crept into Thanquol’s eyes as he clung to the rigging. These things were no match for Boneripper! The rat ogre would quickly slaughter the decayed humans and this time the damned pirates would stay dead! There was no way a pack of stumbling corpses could match the strength and swiftness of a rat ogre trained by the master killers of Clan Eshin!

Even as his spirits started to rise, Thanquol’s tail twitched in fear. The zombies Boneripper had attacked were still moving! The legless torso was crawling along the deck towards the rat ogre, the second zombie staggered onwards with its guts dragging behind it, the armless husk flopped and slithered like some hideous worm. More zombies shambled out from the ship’s cabin, silently obeying the pointing talon of their captain. The deck itself creaked and groaned as zombies down in the hold pounded against the planks, clawing their way up from the darkness to join the attack.

Boneripper roared and waded into the ever increasing horde. Heads were smashed into paste by his fists, bodies were ripped asunder by his claws, bones snapped between his fangs and still the zombies came, relentless and remorseless. They slashed at the rat ogre with corroded swords, hacked at him with decayed axes and stabbed at him with rusty spears. Boneripper could easily dodge the clumsy attacks, but he couldn’t avoid them all. Bit by bit, the pirates were overwhelming the giant brute.

The splintering of wood announced the success of the zombies down in the hold tearing their way up through the deck. Stiffly the creatures pulled themselves up through the ragged holes they had torn, heedless of the slivers of wood that stabbed into their flesh as they emerged. For all their ungainly motion, Thanquol was impressed at how quickly a sizable mob of zombies rose from the hold to surround his bodyguard.

The grey seer bruxed his fangs. He’d hoped to let Boneripper settle with the undead, just in case any of the things decided to come back and haunt their destroyer. The example of Vorghun of Praag was a little too fresh in Thanquol’s mind to make him especially eager to test his luck against the living dead. One reanimated liche hungry for his soul was enough to give him nightmares.

Now, however, he saw that he had no choice. He could either help Boneripper fight the zombies, or he could let the pirates overcome his bodyguard. Once that happened, he knew their next target would be himself. Briefly the idea of swimming back to shore came to Thanquol, but he quickly dismissed it with a shudder. He’d take his chances with ghosts and wraiths.

Flicking the bit of warpstone from his cheek pouch with his tongue, Grey Seer Thanquol bit down on the little rock, feeling its magical energies course through his veins. A green light blazed from his eyes as the intoxicating flush of power roared through his brain. He snickered at his own fears of only a moment before. What did he have to fear from ghosts! If any of these things dared try to haunt him he’d blast their souls back to Nagash the Foul and grind their bones into dust!

Thanquol glared down at the pirate captain. Clinging to the rigging with one paw, he extended the other and pointed at the zombie. A shrill, snarling incantation scraped the air. There was a burst of light about Thanquol’s hand, then the pirate captain was enveloped in flame! Thanquol chittered evilly as he watched the zombie stumble about, a walking torch. The cutlass fell to the deck as the arm holding it was burned from the captain’s body, the rest of the zombie’s remains slumping to the deck soon after.

Cackling with glee, Thanquol turned his attention to the twice-dead captain’s crew. Pointing his claw at another zombie, the grey seer caused it to also be engulfed in green fire. The creature bumbled into one of its fellows, the flames from its body scorching the other zombie as well. His brain roaring with the intoxicating rush of power, Thanquol started hurling spells down into the undead.

With their ranks being depleted by Thanquol’s magic, the zombies lost their numerical advantage against Boneripper. The rat ogre rallied, leaping back into the combat with renewed vigour. Once again, the torn and mangled debris of the undead were hurled across the deck. Whole or dismembered, Boneripper attacked the monsters with equal ferocity, even clawing at the burning zombies when they staggered blindly towards him.

Thanquol grinned, baring his fangs in a wicked smile. The undead pirates were no menace now. Soon the ship would be his. He would sail back to the Under-Empire in triumph and never again smell the jungle stink of Lustria!

The grey seer relented in his sorcerous assault on the zombies, content now to simply watch Bone-ripper finish the job. Even with the slight assistance provided by warpstone, Thanquol didn’t like to over exert his powers. It was an unseemly abuse of the gifts the Horned Rat had bestowed upon him.

Thanquol laughed as he watched some of the zombies he’d set on fire staggering across the deck. The blind stupid things didn’t even notice Boneripper until the rat ogre tore them apart! Other zombies stumbled into each other or cracked their heads against the mast. One of the burning pirates even fell into one of the holes the zombies had torn in the deck, pitching headfirst into the hold below.

A thrill of horror banished the last invigorating effects of the warpstone from Thanquol’s brain. A sudden nagging memory rose in his mind, a memory of the long voyage across the sea and how Thanquol had paced the ship from top to bottom during that time. Sheer boredom had made him learn every nook and cranny on the vessel. Now that knowledge screamed at him, screamed at him with such panic that he vented his glands.

The hole the burning zombie fell down was right above the Black Mary’s powder magazine!

Squealing in fright, Thanquol scrambled as high as he could in the rigging, then dived into the sea. He plunged deep into the warm waters, so deep it was a fight for him to claw his way back to the surface. When his head was again above water and he’d gulped enough air to satisfy his starved lungs, Thanquol glanced back at the ship.

The Black Mary was still there, bobbing upon the waves. Thanquol was just starting to curse himself for allowing a mistaken memory to throw him into a panic when the ship suddenly exploded in a violent fireball.

EPILOGUE

Grey Seer Thanquol sputtered and coughed as he pulled his soggy mass over the side of the rowboat. He shook his entire body, trying to fling the worst of the sea water from his fur, then slumped wearily against the gunwales. A cunning grin spread across his face. For all of his ordeals, the Horned One had not abandoned him. How else to explain the providential appearance of this boat – hurled intact from the fiery death of the Black Mary? Thanquol had spotted it almost as soon as he’d fought his way back to the surface after his daring dive into the sea. Like a drowned whelp bobbing about in a water trough the boat had drifted away from the burning debris of the pirate ship.

It had taken him only a few terrified minutes to claw his way through the waves to reach the little boat. At any instant he expected to feel the sharp jaws of a shark tugging at his leg, but if any of the predators were about they didn’t notice the lone ratman swimming above them and he reached the boat safe if a bit soaked.

Thinking of sharks made Thanquol snap out of his fatigue. In a panic he yanked his dangling tail out of the water, stroking the naked, scaly extremity to ensure himself that nothing had nibbled at it. Breathing a gasp of relief, he slumped back into the bottom of the boat. He was safe for the moment. Chang Fang was dead. The zombies were dead – well, more dead than they had been. Xiuhcoatl was dead. All of his enemies were gone to their most deserved rewards. Once more, Grey Seer Thanquol had emerged triumphant, his genius carrying him to glories no other ratman would dare dream of!

Although, Thanquol thought as he forgot his enemies and considered his own situation, there wasn’t much glory around. He was wet and alone in a little boat bobbing about in a shark-infested sea thousands of food-stops from even the most remote outpost of skavendom. The closest land was a reptile-ridden hell of biting insects, tropical diseases and withering heat. As he took stock of the situation, he mumbled a curse too low for the Horned Rat to hear. There was a skin of water stuffed under the benches in the boat but not even a sniff of food. Thanquol’s belly growled at him as he made the observation and he could feel his mouth watering at the very thought of food. There hadn’t been any time to really stop and eat during the mad race to reach the ship before Chang Fang. Thanquol had never been much for privation, even when necessity called for it.

Suddenly the boat gave an alarming lurch to the side. For an instant, Thanquol thought one of the sharks had risen up to chew its way through the boat to get him. As the little vessel continued to tilt lower into the sea, water streaming over the gunwales, the grey seer’s terror mounted. It only lessened slightly when he saw a huge black arm reach over the side and pull a gigantic furry body into the boat. Even when the creature settled down, sagging wearily into the stern, the rowboat sat alarmingly low in the water.

Thanquol’s nose wrinkled at the unpleasant smell of burned fur rising from Boneripper’s scorched body. Wooden splinters jutted from the rat ogre’s hide where shrapnel from the exploding ship had driven them home. The brute was cut in dozens of places, his thick black blood oozing slowly from the wounds to mix with the water sloshing about Thanquol’s ankles.

There couldn’t be much strength left in the rat ogre. One sniff told Thanquol as much. Just like the witless slob to get himself crippled right when the grey seer needed him the most! Who was going to row the little boat someplace safe? Certainly it was unfair of Boneripper to expect his master to do such a thing! The stupid lummox should have stayed in the water and fed the sharks…

Thanquol pulled at his whiskers and a sinister gleam crept into his eyes. What did Boneripper weigh? Maybe eight hundred pounds? Certainly not less than five hundred.

The grey seer’s belly growled as he quietly thanked the Horned Rat for his bounty.

Upon the shore, Lord Tlaco watched as Grey Seer Thanquol began to row away from the burning wreck of the pirate ship. The slann considered this cruel little creature, plucking his thoughts from the matrix of the Great Math. How unlike the unknown quotient, that curious warm-blood that had taken his own life when rescue was offered to him. This corrupted algorithm was utterly selfish, fully aware of his own decay and decline towards negation and reaching out with every essence of his being to stave off that inevitable eventuality.

It was a contrast to be certain. The xa’cota might have made an interesting specimen to compare with the human had the warm-blood allowed himself to be captured. Now, however, Lord Tlaco doubted if there was any especial value in acquiring the ratman. The xa’cota carried diseases that could harm the skinks and other minion breeds and through their sickness even a slann might fall ill and die. That would not aid its study of the Great Math if the mage-priest were to perish in a plague.

No, there was something more to the corrupted algorithm than even the threat of disease. Lord Tlaco could sense a connection between the ratman and one of those dread persistent fractals that had cast their shadow upon the harmonious equations of the Old Ones. To invite such a being into his laboratories would be to endanger all of the slann’s other researches. The mere presence of an algorithm connected to the persistent fractals invited corruption.

The slann’s spots shifted. A dozen of its temple guard started to wade into the waves, their axes clenched tightly in their jaws. They would overturn the boat and butcher the noxious creature and end its menace to the Great Math.

Abruptly, Lord Tlaco’s eyes dilated and a low croak rumbled from his wide mouth, arresting the advance of the lizardmen. The little skink minion perched upon the slann’s dais chirped and hissed, calling the warriors back.

Casting his thoughts through the potentialities of the Great Math, Lord Tlaco tried to see the possibilities of this corrupted algorithm that had drawn his attention. The mage-priest was pleased by the way the xa’cota’s value ingratiated itself into other equations. If the slann had been capable, he would have found the degeneration of those problems highly amusing.

The xa’cota was a greater menace to his own kind than he was to the Great Math. Through him, much could be done to undermine the rest of his kind. The corrupted algorithm’s selfishness, greed and ambition would lead him into conflict with others of his kind, conflict that could greatly weaken the xu’cota as a species.

Yes, the potentialities of probability made it desirable that the xa’cota should return to his own kind. Focusing its consciousness upon the matrix of reality, Lord Tlaco excited the currents of the sea, creating a new undersea stream that would speed the corrupted algorithm back across the World Pond. The slann would uncreate the environmental change his magic had caused once it had served its purpose. A shift of his skin-spots told the skink attendant to remind the mage-priest to do so before the next lunar cycle.

Lord Tlaco remained with his retinue on the beach, watching the tiny dot of Thanquol’s boat dwindling on the horizon. Only when the grey seer was completely lost to sight did the slann give the command to return into the jungle. He expended some of his magic to weave a corridor through the trees, a pathway that would bring them quickly back to the pyramids of Xlanhuapec, the City of Mists.

Now that the experiment was at an end, the mage-priest was keen to study what results he had acquired.

Their influence on the Great Math would be a thing worth contemplating over the next century.

THANQUOL’S DOOM

PROLOGUE

Grey witch-light slowly manifested itself, coalescing from the darkness. The eerie luminance revealed a small chamber with walls cloaked in shadow, ceiling and floor concealed in an almost tangible miasma of blackness. There was a weird, unreal quality about the chamber, as though it were a place detached from the crude boundaries of physical matter. The air held the chill of magic, the frosty atmosphere of the aethyric planes.

Far from this sinister refuge seemed the world of men. Yet if the chamber were not a part of that world, then at least it bordered upon it. Only a few feet from the shadow-wrapt walls the teeming streets of Altdorf stretched across the greatest city in the Old World. Only a few of the denizens of that metropolis suspected the existence of such a room, a shadowy sanctum torn from the mystic veil. Yet the name of the room’s inhabitant was known to many, a name whispered in tones of awe and fear by the city’s thieves and murderers, sorcerers and heretics.

As the grey light flickered into being, a shadowy apparition detached itself from the darkness. Like a great black bat, the cloaked figure descended upon the solitary chair standing in the hidden chamber. Darkness crept away from thin, claw-like hands, drawn back as though black gloves had suddenly melted from the pale fingers.

A hiss of laughter rasped through the chamber as the owner of those hands leaned across the table standing beside his chair.

A motley assortment of curious objects rested upon the table. There was a golden bowl, shallow and broad-brimmed, filled with a translucent treacle. Beside the bowl yawned a hideous golden idol, incense pouring from its fanged and leering mouth. Next to the idol was a disc of glass set into a circle of silver. The glass was neither smooth nor clear, but rough and frosted, possessing a texture that somehow suggested a mass of cobwebs.

It was to the glass that Jeremias Scrivner, shadowmancer and secret protector of Altdorf, directed his attention. The wizard’s intense gaze bore down upon the curious glass, focussing his very soul upon the frosted mirror. He could feel the magical energies rising up from the mirror in response to his focus. They were not unlike the emanations which had disturbed his other activities, drawing him from the dark streets into this hidden sanctum.

The shadowmancer understood the mystic summons. There were some conjurations a wizard could not fail to recognise. That of the scrying mirror was one such magic. Through careful ritual and long meditation, Jeremias Scrivner had mastered an art few other wizards had ever dared attempt. Many had been driven mad by the very effort.

As Scrivner stared down into the glass, his astral self began to pass through the frosted mirror, seeping down into that nether realm where thought becomes substance and dream becomes reality. It was that plane of existence which only the most colossal of wills could penetrate and only a powerful intelligence could retain its sanity. Entering the realm, the shadowmancer’s body became ever more wraith-like, passing into a more perfect semblance of shadow than even his own magic could evoke on the physical plane.

The wizard felt his head swim as stars strode past his spectral form, as suns and moons wheeled through the amber nothingness all about him. Planets spun in their orbits, dancing to the phantom whistle of a cosmic flautist. Worlds shattered as discordant melodies warped their cores, comets flared into icy brilliance as they capered through crimson nebulae.

Scrivener forced his straying thoughts back into focus. To lose sight of purpose was to court madness. The astral self would be fractured, blown across the cosmic reaches, scattered about the eternal void, torn asunder among the symphony of the spheres. The wizard who lost purpose would lose his soul and leave behind him a gibbering husk of madness.

Through the effort of his steely will, the shadowmancer silenced the discord. The cosmic vastness collapsed in upon itself, taking the semblance of a monstrous form. A bloated, toad-like figure with golden eyes, the spots on its mottled skin shifting in ceaseless fluctuations of hue and pattern.

Scrivner knew he looked upon the mighty mage-priest Lord Tlaco’a-moxtli’ueman, among the most potent of the reptilian wizard-kings of Lustria, the eldritch slann. Alone among thinking races, the slann could cast themselves effortlessly into the nether realm, their cold brains immune to the numbing lure of the cosmic vastness. Here they would withdraw from the crudity of physicality, devoting themselves to a fuller appreciation of the Great Math.

The slann’s unblinking golden eyes focused upon Scrivner’s astral form. The wizard bowed in humility before Lord Tlaco’s superhuman mentality. Thoughts rushed from the mage-priest, thoughts of such magnitude that they would have seared the brain of a lesser being. Scrivner reeled against the swirling confusion of algorithms and equations, sifting through the multitude of the reptile’s contemplations for that one stream of thought which it wanted to impart upon him.

The effort was not made easily, but at last Scrivner was able to fix his mind upon the knowledge Lord Tlaco wished to impart to him, the wisdom which had caused the slann to summon him into the astral world.

Like a robber with his prize, Scrivner fled from the slann’s presence. It was unwise to linger in proximity to such vast intellect lest the very magnitude of its thoughts crush the supplicant’s mind.

Back through the dancing planets and flickering comets, Scrivner’s astral shape retreated. The wraith-like essence of the wizard seeped up from the frosty surface of the mirror, snapping back into his shadow-wrapt body.

Scrivner leaned back in his chair, his flesh numbed after the brief excursion of his soul. The wizard focused his thoughts, drawing warmth back into his chilled bones, willing his body into a speedy recovery.

Lord Tlaco had been perturbed by a potential miscalculation, a disharmony in the equation it had been considering. That miscalculation had a name, one with which Scrivner was not unfamiliar.

Grey Seer Thanquol.

CHAPTER ONE

If there was a comfortable spot in the Under-Empire, the warren of Skabreach was as far from it as it was possible to get. A filthy network of half-empty tunnels burrowing beneath the blazing heat of the Estalian sun, Skabreach was the sort of two-mouse flea-hole that any right-minded skaven did his utmost to escape from. It was a no-place in the middle of nowhere, a pathetic slum of fungus-farmers and chow-rat breeders. The air stank of poverty and weakness, the miserable inhabitants scurrying about with their heads cringing low against their chests and their tails dragging in the dirt. One could almost watch the piebald fur of the ratkin falling out as anxiety and malnourishment wreaked havoc on their wasted bodies.

Grey Seer Thanquol stalked among the tunnels of Skabreach with such contemptuous arrogance that he might have been the Horned One himself. The debased skaven of the colony prostrated themselves before him, cowering against the squalor of the tunnels until his imperious presence had passed. Sometimes Thanquol amused himself by trampling one of the abased ratmen, other times he vented his anger by lashing out with his staff against a skaven skull or knocking a few fangs down a farmer’s throat with a sharp kick.

Lately even these violent distractions had failed to improve the grey seer’s mood. After three weeks his supply of warp-snuff was perilously low and even the lowest cut-throats of Skabreach’s pathetic black market had been unable to scrounge up any more. The abominable smell of the warren was growing noxious to him: a vile mixture of fear musk and starvation. He was growing sick of eating mushrooms and chow-rat, finding the taste equally tedious despite the thousands of ways his hosts found to prepare it. He found himself almost longing for the salty taste of rat-ogre. There had been a lot of meat on old Boneripper. Had he known what to expect when he returned to skavendom, he might have rationed the flesh of his late bodyguard a bit more judiciously.

Thanquol’s eyes glistened with spite as he reflected upon his latest misfortunes and the events that had led him to such a pass. Coerced into an insane scheme by Nightlord Sneek to help Clan Eshin murder the reptilian Xiuhcoatl, Prophet of Sotek the Snake-devil. Of course, the small matter of having to go to Xiuhcoatl’s temple in Lustria hadn’t bothered Sneek – the skulking old backstabber wasn’t going!

If Thanquol lived to be forty winters, he would never set one paw on a ship again! First the crossing of the Great Ocean on a stolen man-thing pirate ship. Then to be cast alone in a little dinghy with his injured rat-ogre, abandoned to the doubtful mercies of tide and tempest.

And between those two terrifying ordeals at sea! Thanquol ground his teeth together as he remembered the green hell of Lustria, a stagnant morass of swamps so overgrown they were like jungles and jungles so damp they might as well have been swamps. How he hated those jungles! Alive with insects and reptiles and huge hunting cats! Everything in the thrice-cursed jungles had been devoted to one purpose: killing and eating ratmen! Even the plants were lethal, a riotous array of poisonous foliage even a skaven couldn’t choke down and a menagerie of ghoulish growths that supplemented their diets by dragging shrieking ratkin into their slobbering maws.

Lizardmen, snakes, zombies, even the treacherous blades of his underlings from Clan Eshin had all been poised to thwart his mission! But Thanquol had prevailed! Like one of the triumphant Grey Lords of old, he had manipulated all of his enemies into destroying each other. The zombies had settled the murderous Chang Fang. His own masterful exploitation of the human Adalwolf had spelled Xiuhcoatl’s doom. Given the choice of killing the grey seer or saving his breeder-woman from the skink’s knife, Adalwolf had acted precisely as Thanquol knew he would. The human had been his instrument of death. It was a stratagem that would make even Nightlord Sneek bow to his cunning and subtlety.

Thanquol tugged nervously at his whiskers, remembering his horrifying encounter with the bloated toad-priest of the lizardmen. He had once stood over the Black Ark, that most sacred of skaven artefacts, and he could safely say that the magical energies he had sensed emanating from the slann had been greater. For a sorcerer, it was a chilling prospect to consider that such power could exist within a living being. His glands clenched at the mere idea of facing a creature like that again. It would be a cold day in Kweethul’s larder before Thanquol set a paw in Lustria again!

Shaking his horned head, the robed ratman smacked a prostrate farmer across the backside with his staff, evoking a squeak of frightened pain. The pathetic maggots of Skabreach lacked even the spleen to bare their fangs when they were struck. Not that Thanquol could entirely blame them. After all, it wasn’t every day one was abused by the mightiest hero in the Under-Empire.

The narrow earthen tunnels pressed close against the grey seer as he made his way through the wretched warren. Sometimes he was forced to turn sideways to make any progress, the passage so tight that his whiskers brushed against both sides at once. The Estalian sun baked the ground into something approximating the toughness of concrete, making the excavation of even the smallest burrow a gruelling ordeal.

A more prosperous community might have bought one of the warpstone-powered digging machines crafted by Clan Skryre or hired the use of one of the gigantic moles bred by the beast-masters of Clan Moulder. But Skabreach was far from such developments. Its only recourse towards expansion was to send gangs of skaven into the tunnels with shovels and picks. As a result, everything in the settlement was close and confined, even by the standards of the underfolk.

Thanquol could not leave the warren behind him soon enough. When his boat had washed ashore on the Estalian coast, the grey seer had spent several frantic days searching for a hole that would lead him back into the tunnels of the Under-Empire. A hint of skaven-scent in the air had at last drawn him to one of the pit-vents leading down into Skabreach. There had been a moment of anxiety on his part when he discovered where he was. As an outpost of Clan Skab, Thanquol had every reason to suspect a violent reception. A warlord clan whose power he had played a part in diminishing through his hand in both the assassination of Warlord Vermek Skab and the near-eradication of Skab’s holdings beneath the human city of Nuln during the Battle of Nuln, the ratmen of Clan Skab weren’t likely to forget him anytime soon. Only a subtle mix of bribery and blackmail had enabled Griznekt Mancarver, Clanlord of Skab, to retain his seat on the Council of Thirteen. It made Thanquol’s tail twitch to think there was somebody among the Lords of Decay with more reason to want him dead than Arch-Plaguelord Nurglitch.

His momentary fear, in hindsight, had been absurd. Probably a result of eating the much too-salty flesh of his late and unlamented bodyguard for so many nights at sea. There wasn’t a rat in all Skabreach with the spleen to look at him, much less think of lifting a claw against him. Even the ruling warlord, a blight-eyed fawning rodent named Ibkikk Snatchclaw, had proven himself to be a grovelling lick-spittle. From almost the first moment, Thanquol had the warlord kissing his feet and falling over himself to keep the fearsome grey seer appeased.

It would have been a pleasant experience, but for the annoyance that the best Skabreach had to offer was almost as bad as being back in the jungle. What the warren could produce on its own was barely enough for subsistence and the cringing ratmen were so terrified of the human knights who patrolled the surface that they wouldn’t so much as poke their noses above ground, much less scavenge for supplies. All in all, Thanquol was so disgusted he would recommend the place be demolished when he got back to Skavenblight. He was pretty certain he’d heard Ibkikk muttering seditious talk that was both heretical and blasphemous. Or at least certain he could make Seerlord Kritislik believe he had.

Thanquol kicked another cowering ratman from his path and hastened his pace. There was a dank, musty stink on the air now, meaning he was getting close to his objective. Soon, the tunnel began to widen, the walls becoming jagged and smooth, unmarred by the tools of miners and the claws of slaves. His whiskers twitched in amusement. It was the smell of the river! The subterranean waterway that linked this forsaken outpost to the rest of the Under-Empire.

As the tunnel widened, so did the press of skaven filling it. The grovelling wretches abased themselves as they caught the grey seer’s scent, but in doing so they only placed themselves more directly in his path. Ordinarily, he would have bludgeoned and kicked the cringing vermin until they got out of his way, but the smell of the river made Thanquol anxious to escape the narrow tunnel. Callously, he scurried over the bent backs of the other skaven, indifferent to the squeaks of pain rising from the living carpet beneath his paws.

Soon the tunnel broadened into a cavern. Ramshackle huts built from bone and tanned rathide littered almost every corner of the cramped cave, some of them suspended like the nests of bats from the ceiling. The steady rumble of the river pulsed below the clamour of hundreds of skaven chittering and squealing as they scurried about the settlement. Thanquol’s lip curled back in contempt as he noted the crude lanterns that illuminated the squalor. Skabreach was so poor it couldn’t even afford proper warp-lanterns. Instead of the comforting green glow of smouldering warpstone, the hovels were lit by the flickering orange light of ratskin lanterns, the pungent stink of burning dung clinging to the black smoke billowing away from each light.

To be quit of this place, Thanquol was ready to brave anything. Even the thought that a slum like Skabreach might be too lowly to draw the attention of Nightlord Sneek and the assassins of Clan Eshin wasn’t comforting enough to make him embrace the flea-infested warren as a refuge.

Thanquol hurried through the crowded runs between the rathide shacks, kicking and clawing his way through the press of scabby skaven bodies. His eyes were fixed upon his goal: the massive pier and warehouse maintained by Skabreach’s small clutch of water-rats from Clan Skurvy. Among the few skaven with an affinity for water and the lunatic capacity for braving the subterranean rivers of the Under-Empire, Clan Skurvy was a powerful force within the skaven economy; its clanlord, the self-appointed Fleetmaster Viskit Ironscratch, enjoyed a position upon the Council of Thirteen. Ironscratch held tremendous power through the indispensable services of his armada of barges and scows. Without clans like Skurvy and Sleekit, valuable cargoes of food and slaves would rot before they reached the markets of Skavenblight. The iron hook which served the Fleetmaster for a left paw was poised against the belly of every ratman in Skavenblight and the Council knew it. Grudgingly, they had allowed Clan Skurvy to increase its reach until even a forgotten slum like Skabreach was not beyond its influence.

The warehouse had been cobbled together from old planks and timbers scavenged by Clan Skurvy from wrecked man-thing ships and barges. The rickety structure had been assembled in a crude, haphazard fashion, with extra storage rooms and slave pens slapped on seemingly at random, many of them sagging out over the black water of the river.

A great press of skaven surrounded the warehouse, clustering about the pier in a shoving, shouting mob of verminous flesh. Thanquol could see a long, flat-bottomed barge moored at the end of the pier. It did not take any deductive genius to figure out the reason for all the ratmen clamouring for attention. Like himself, they were trying to get out of Skabreach by means of the river, desperately waiting for even the worst scow to put in a rare appearance at the pier.

Perched atop an upended barrel, the outlandish colours of his vest and breeches making a stark contrast to the drabness of the mob, Weezil Gutgnaw, potentate of the local water-rats, was auctioning spots on the barge to the highest bidders. A pair of glowering black skaven who looked as though they’d been sired by rat-ogres flanked the flamboyant Weezil, while another gang of black-furred killers, each armed with a curved cutlass, guarded the narrow entrance to the pier.

‘No-no!’ Weezil was snarling at a grotesque-looking brown ratman. ‘Sick-smell,’ he added with a tap to his nose. ‘No sick-smell on board!’ Weezil kicked the miserable skaven away, at the same time slipping the paltry bribe of warp-tokens he had been offered beneath the bright red sash that girdled his waist.

The grotesque skaven lunged at Weezil, intending to recover his money. In mid-leap, the wretch was cut down by a guard’s cutlass. Black blood sprayed across the mob. An excited squeal rose from the throng, dozens of skaven rushing at the corpse and scrabbling among its clothing for any wealth the dead ratman might have hidden. By the time a pair of piebald scavengers armed with flesh-hooks pushed their way through to drag the body away, the mob’s frenzy had reduced the corpse to an unrecognisable mess of naked meat.

Thanquol watched the gory mass being dragged away, then pushed his way towards Weezil’s barrel. He felt a great wave of satisfaction when he saw the wharf-rat wince at his approach.

‘You were supposed to say-tell when a ship came in,’ Thanquol hissed through clenched fangs, his red eyes glaring into Weezil’s frightened yellow ones. The grey seer cocked his horned head to one side, a fierce grin splitting his face. ‘Perhaps you-you mistake-forget?’

The menace in the grey seer’s voice silenced the throng gathered about the pier. Nervously, the skaven fell back, clearing the space around Thanquol and Weezil. Even the black-furred bodyguards drew away, distancing themselves from their patron and the infamous sorcerer.

Weezil licked his fangs and tugged anxiously at the warpstone earring he wore. ‘G-great and g-glorious Thanquol, mightiest of g-grey seers,’ Weezil stammered. ‘I… I… I was just-soon to send-fetch…’ Weezil tugged even more fiercely at his earring, casting an angry look at his bodyguards. The black skaven ignored his signal, finding more interesting things to look at on the cavern ceiling.

‘I told-ordered you to find-fetch me a ship!’ Thanquol growled. He gestured furiously at the barge tied to the pier. ‘What-what do you think-see that is!’

Weezil turned and squinted at the barge where skaven sailors were making fast the meagre cargo Skabreach had provided them. ‘Oh! But that is too poor-poor a vessel to carry-take Mighty Thanquol!’ the wharf-rat tried to explain.

The lame excuse only provoked Thanquol’s anger. With callous brutality, he brought the heavy metal head of his staff smacking into Weezil’s leg. The wharf-rat spilled from his perch atop the barrel, smashing into the bloody ground in a tangle of curses and flailing limbs.

‘I’d sail-scurry from this dung-hole in the hollowed carcass of a cave beetle!’ Thanquol raged. He jabbed the end of his staff into Weezil’s chin, splintering some of the ratman’s fangs. ‘Now listen-hear, tick-sucking tail-sniffer! Tell-say the captain-chief of that wormy scow I am leaving this filthy midden-mound!’

Weezil pressed his nose into the mud, cowering before the grey seer’s wrath. ‘Calamitous lord! Please… listen-hear… it-it not my fault! Warlord Ibkikk say-order make-keep you here-here!’

The wharf-rat’s words came in a frightened squeal, whistling through his broken fangs, but they were enough to arouse a twinge of fear along Thanquol’s spine. Was it possible that cringing, pathetic warlord would actually have the gall to detain someone of his power and importance? Certainly the lick-spittle had made a few fawning requests for his help in ridding the area of the knights who so plagued Skabreach. But certainly the maggot wasn’t so deranged as to think such an enterprise was worth Thanquol’s time?

‘You-you stay-stay!’ a savage voice growled from behind Thanquol. There was such a note of ferocity and such a lack of deference in the voice, that the grey seer didn’t at once connect it with Ibkikk. Only the warlord’s scent convinced him that his ears weren’t playing tricks on him.

Thanquol turned slowly. At the mouth of one of the runs he could see Ibkikk, his bulk now encased in a rough suit of armour crafted from human shields laced into a vest of mail. The warlord’s lips were curled back from a mouth of gleaming fangs. Around him, a score of armoured clanrats stood with bared weapons.

‘I ask-speak before,’ Ibkikk snarled. ‘Now I say-tell! Thanquol will-will use his magic-power against steel-men! Thanquol will-will fight-kill for Skabreach!’

The grey seer listened to the warlord’s tirade, but found his attention constantly shifting back to the barge. The crew had erupted into a positive frenzy of activity. It wasn’t difficult to guess their intentions. They were making ready to debark as fast as they could.

‘Mighty Grey Seer Thanquol!’ Ibkikk scoffed, spitting a blob of phlegm into the mud. ‘We-we feed-treat you for many day-night! Now you-you return-pay! You kill-slay steel-men! Or I gut-stab you and let-leave rats to eat-feast!’

As he hissed the threat, Ibkikk drew his notched sword from his ratskin belt. The warlord ran one of his fingers along the blade, drawing a thin bead of blood from his finger.

Sight of the gesture sent a spasm of terror coursing through Thanquol’s body. The image of a homicidal ginger-furred dwarf-thing running his thumb along the edge of his enormous axe flared through the grey seer’s mind.

Before he was fully aware of what he was doing, Thanquol tongued the last bit of warpstone he had hidden in his cheek-pouch and crushed the tiny pebble between his teeth. A pulse of raw magical energy rippled through his body, burning away his fear and enflaming his mind with visions of destruction and havoc.

Ibkikk squirted the musk of fear as he saw Thanquol’s eyes suddenly erupt with a green glow. The same magical light gathered about the head of the grey seer’s staff. The warlord had just enough time to drop his sword and turn to flee before his enemy raised one of his paws and pointed a claw at him.

‘Burn-rot!’ Thanquol snapped. As he spat the words, a stream of crackling green lightning leapt from his finger to strike Ibkikk squarely in the back. The warlord shrieked as the magical energy scorched a hole clean through his body, shrivelling his flesh and blackening his bones. The charred husk smashed to the floor, burned bones scattering across the narrow street.

The sight of their leader’s instant destruction killed any enthusiasm his warriors had for confronting the sorcerer-seer. They glanced anxiously at one another, each waiting for one of the other clanrats to make the first move.

Thanquol glared contemptuously at the cringing vermin. It would be so easy to burn them all down where they stood. He started to raise his paw to do just that when simple practicality quenched the warpstone-fuelled impulse. This scum was nothing to him. All that mattered now was getting to the barge.

Thanquol brought his staff smashing down, obliterating the charred skull of Ibkikk which had bounced across the ground to land nearly at his feet. ‘I think-say Skabreach need-wants a new warlord,’ he growled, letting his menacing gaze linger on the cowering clanrats before turning and marching down the pier towards the barge.

The black-furred guards of Clan Skurvy didn’t even dare to look at him as he stormed past them.

‘A good-safe journey, dread Thanquol!’ Weezil’s whistling voice called out from behind the barrel.

Briefly, the grey seer considered turning back and attending to the double-dealing wharf-rat.

A few hours out from port, Thanquol was beginning to question allowing Ibkikk Snatchclaw to goad him into embarking upon such an unseemly vessel as the leaky old barge he now found himself on. Staring at the black waters of the underground river, he recalled the nightmarish horrors of his ocean voyage. The only difference being that at least the longboat had been seaworthy! His current conveyance seemed designed for no other purpose than to drown him and leave his body to be picked at by whatever noxious things slithered in these lightless waterways.

Paranoid thoughts swirled about in Thanquol’s mind. It was all a plot, of course! Ibkikk pushing him to leave Skabreach so that Clan Skab could have its revenge on him! What better way than to drown him on the river, with no one any the wiser about his fate. They could tell the Council they had never seen him and everyone would assume he had perished in Lustria!

Or was it Clan Skab at all? It wasn’t the brightest or most subtle of the warlord clans. Such a cunning plot would have to have a more cunning mind behind it. Clan Eshin! Nothing was secret from Nightlord Sneek’s spies! He would have learned of Thanquol’s return and the success of his mission. The famed assassins wouldn’t want it getting around that he had succeeded where they had failed.

Thanquol studied the deck of the barge with a new suspicion, inspecting every pile of mushrooms or crate of chow-rats for any lurking shape. His nose twitched as he drew the smells of his fellow voyagers into his senses, trying to detect any skaven that didn’t smell right. After his terrifying encounter with the Deathmaster in Skavenblight, he almost expected Snikch to be hiding among the huddle of grubby passengers or the mass of naked slaves chained to the foredeck. Most of these were skaven, wretches sold by the ratmen of Skabreach, but a few were dwarfs captured by the more prosperous skaven of Stabfall, deep beneath the Iranna Mountains.

The barge itself was a leaky mass of planks soaked in pitch and lashed together with a mishmash of chains, ropes and crossbeams. Water slopped across the deck every time the vessel hit even the most minor spot of rough water. A ratgut lantern suspended from a pole at the stern and another at the bow provided the only illumination. A gang of villainous ratmen dressed in the same sort of colourful rags as Weezil Gutgnaw served the dingy ship as its crew, languishing under the tyrannical voice of their captain. This worthy was a whip-wielding despot with cold green eyes and a tuft of white fur sprouting from his chin, resembling nothing so much as the dainty face-hair sometimes worn by prosperous humans.

Lynsh Blacktail snarled a stream of orders to his crew and stalked across the rolling deck to stand beside Thanquol. The vicious captain doffed the battered black hat crushed down about his ears and bobbed his head in deference to the grey seer’s eminence.

‘No fear about follow-track now, Terrible Thanquol,’ Lynsh told him, the iron fangs in his mouth rasping against his lips as he spoke. ‘Nobody swim-sneak this far-long down the river.’ A chitter of amusement coursed through the barge-rat’s voice. ‘Skabreach better-nice with no-none Ibkikk!’

Thanquol glared at the captain. Did the slime really think he was worth speaking to simply because he was the captain of this wreck? Or was the wretch trying to distract him? The grey seer’s eyes narrowed with new suspicion. He didn’t have any more warpstone, but in a pinch he could certainly call up a spell on his own. Certainly one strong enough to send this tub to the bottom and ensure his enemies followed him to a watery grave.

Lynsh noted the shift in Thanquol’s attitude. Seeming to guess the turn in the grey seer’s thoughts, he pulled his tail upwards, displaying it for Thanquol to see. Only about six inches of the captain’s real tail was left; the rest of the extremity had been replaced with a length of black leather studded with a sadistic array of spikes and blades.

‘Pretty-pretty,’ Lynsh cooed, stroking the artificial tail. ‘Big-hungry lurker take-snatch real one,’ he explained, jabbing a claw towards the black water. ‘Snick-snap! No more tail! Eat it all up!’

Thanquol winced in disgust at the image of some loathsome water beast waiting just under this leaky barge to snap off his tail. For an instant, his attention turned from Lynsh to the dark surface of the river. The jab of a blade against his ribs reminded him that he didn’t need to look to the river for danger.

‘One word I don’t like-like and I tickle-stab your lung,’ Lynsh hissed into Thanquol’s ear. He put emphasis on the threat by pressing the blade a little closer, evoking a whine of pain from his captive. The captain raised his voice, shouting new orders to his crew.

‘Alright you bilge-worms! Sort the passenger-meat!’

At their captain’s command, the barge-rats abandoned their other duties and swarmed over the passengers who had embarked on the barge at Skabreach. Most of the skaven were taken completely by surprise by the sudden treachery and the few who did put up a fight were quickly put down. The triumphant pirates herded their prisoners to the middle of the deck, searching them with expert skill for any valuables they had hidden about them.

‘Steal-fetch all of it!’ Lynsh bellowed. ‘Put any rat-meat we can sell-trade with the slaves! The rest can swim-sink!’

Thanquol watched as the skaven pirates brutally carried out their orders. The healthiest of the prisoners were herded towards the chained slaves. The others, shrieking and squealing in terror, whining for mercy, were callously thrown into the river. Some made a desperate effort to swim back to the barge, but these were savagely driven away by jabs from the crew’s spears.

‘Enterprising,’ Thanquol told Lynsh, hoping to use flattery to ingratiate himself into the pirate’s good graces. ‘The Horned One smiles on clever-smart skaven.’

‘Good-good,’ chittered Lynsh. ‘Now we see-take what Great Thanquol has to give-leave.’

‘No-no!’ shrieked one of the crew, a dusky creature with notched ears and a tangle of talismans about his neck. ‘We-we not rob-take from grey seer!’

‘Who say-squeak we don’t?’ demanded Lynsh.

‘I say-squeak!’ the indignant pirate snarled. ‘Bring-find curse of Horned One…’

Before he could finish, the pirate’s head exploded in a gory mess. In one smooth motion, without ever removing the knife from Thanquol’s ribs, Lynsh had drawn a heavy warplock pistol from his belt and sent a ball of hardened warpstone smashing through the ratman’s skull.

The shot had unexpected consequences, however. Hurled back by the impact of the deadly bullet, the pirate was flung into the mass of chained slaves. While the skavenslaves cowered, the dwarf prisoners surged towards the body, seizing the dead pirate’s weapons. In a matter of seconds, the dwarfs used the ratman’s cutlass to smash open the rusty lock restraining the single chain which ran through the manacles each of them wore and which linked all of them together.

Several of the pirates leapt forwards to subdue the dwarfs, but it was already too late. Two of the bearded prisoners had weapons now and were in no mind to fall captive to the scheming ratmen a second time. The brawny, red-haired dwarf who had taken the cutlass now plied it about in a murderous arc. Grim determination was etched upon his face as he opened the throat of one pirate, then hacked the paw from a second. A younger dwarf, armed with a knife and protecting his kinsman’s flank, finished the wounded pirate with a quick stab through the eye.

‘Belay that row!’ Lynsh thundered. ‘Get-take that slave-meat!’

The captain’s distraction was only momentary, but it was enough for Thanquol. The instant he felt the pressure of Lynsh’s knife against his ribs lessen, the grey seer spun into action. Viciously, he smashed the head of his staff full into the pirate’s face. Something broke inside Lynsh’s snout, black blood streaming from his nose. Stunned, the captain reeled back, his knife clattering to the deck as he clapped both hands to his mangled muzzle.

Thanquol did not give Lynsh time to recover. Drawing his own sword, he pursued the staggered captain. A swipe of his staff cracked against the side of Lynsh’s head, a slash of his blade opened the ratman’s thigh. Before he could deal the pirate further damage, Thanquol was forced back by Lynsh’s flailing tail. The bladed appendage gouged splinters from the deck as the grey seer retreated from its deadly thrashings.

‘Your bones will make good-nice chum, prayer-spitter!’ Lynsh howled, slashing at Thanquol with another sweep of his gruesome tail. For good measure, the pirate pulled his whip from his belt, adding the lash to his vengeful assault against the grey seer.

A flick of the whip set the lash coiling about Thanquol’s staff, a swipe of the tail smacked against his chest, knocking him flat. Lynsh gloated as he used his brawn to rip the staff from his enemy’s paws. His tail came slamming down against the grey seer’s head, only Thanquol’s horns saving him from the murderous blow.

Before Lynsh could attack again, the captain was suddenly confronted by a very different foe. Roaring a fierce dwarf battle-cry, the escaped slaves came lunging across the deck, breaking through the ragged line of pirates trying to subdue them. The red-bearded dwarf with the cutlass charged straight into Lynsh.

For the second time, the captain was caught by surprise. He turned to deal with the enraged dwarf, but the cutlass easily chopped through Lynsh’s whip, taking three of his fingers in the same stroke. The embattled captain recoiled in agony, howling for help from his crew.

At the same time, the young dwarf who had armed himself with a knife came around the side of Lynsh. Intent upon helping his comrade and believing the pirate had finished Thanquol with the brutal sweep of his bladed tail, the dwarf made the mistake of placing his back to the prone grey seer.

Seething with indignation and the fury of a cornered rat, Thanquol pounced upon the unwary dwarf, stabbing his sword into the prisoner’s back. The blade erupted in a welter of gore from the dwarf’s chest. Thanquol’s victim was dead before he slumped to the ramshackle deck.

The red-bearded dwarf turned away from the cowering Lynsh. His eyes went wide with shock as he saw his comrade fall to the deck. An instant later, they became narrow slits of hate.

‘That is my brother you’ve killed, vermin!’ the dwarf roared, brandishing his bloodied cutlass.

‘Your birthkin was in my way, dwarf-thing,’ Thanquol snapped. The grey seer’s eyes burned with unholy energies as he drew the power of the Horned Rat into himself. Without the aid of warpstone, magic was a fatiguing effort, one that didn’t really appeal to any grey seer. At the moment, however, Thanquol was too angry to care about exerting his affinity with the aethyr.

‘You’re in my way too,’ the grey seer announced, raising his paw and pointing a claw at the enraged dwarf. Before the prisoner could rush him, Thanquol sent a globe of searing green light smashing into him. The magic crashed into the dwarf with the kick of a mastodon, flinging him across the deck of the barge as though he had been shot from a cannon, pitching him out into the river where his hurtling form was lost in the darkness. Thanquol flicked his ears in cruel amusement as he heard a faint splash.

Now it was time to deal with his real enemy. Turning towards Lynsh, however, Thanquol found that the fight had gone out of the pirate. The captain came crawling towards him, whining and pleading for mercy. The grey seer lifted a paw to his forehead where one of the spikes on the pirate’s tail had cut him.

The other pirate-rats came scurrying towards the two foes. With the vanquishing of their armed leaders, the rest of the dwarf captives had been quickly subdued. Now, however, the crew found themselves uncertain which of the two leaders it was safer to support. They knew the viciousness of Lynsh Blacktail, but they did not know what other fell magic Grey Seer Thanquol might unleash upon them.

Thanquol could smell the fear and doubt in the scent of the other pirates. Gloatingly he turned towards them. ‘I think-say this scow needs a new-better captain.’ No voices rose in objection and Thanquol knew then that none would. Imperiously he pointed a claw at Lynsh. ‘My first command is that you get rid of the old captain.’

Thanquol stepped back as the crew surged forwards. Eagerly they seized Lynsh and in a matter of moments pitched him into the river. Thanquol wondered if that lurker was somewhere about. If so, it might finish the meal it had started long ago.

Looking out over the crew, Thanquol tugged at his whiskers and considered his next move. ‘I don’t know how much-little Lynsh claimed-took as captain, but I’ll settle for half.’ He could see from the way the pirates glared at him that whatever Lynsh’s cut had been, it was a good deal less than half.

Thanquol bared his teeth and flexed the fingers of his hand, the hand that had so lately dealt sorcerous death to the crazed dwarf. The threat was not lost on the crew.

‘If there are no objections, I want a course laid for Skavenblight,’ Thanquol told the barge-rats.

There were no objections.

CHAPTER TWO

Black with the heavy darkness of the underworld, cold with the chill of the forsaken deep, the tunnels coursed their way beneath the mountains, writhing like worms in the corpse of a shattered kingdom. Long ago, these passages had echoed with the clamour of hammers and the scrape of picks, the roar of explosives and the hiss of steam-drills. Miners and engineers, architects and prospectors; once these halls had been filled with the clatter of their heavy boots and the sound of their gruff voices as they laboured to wrest from the darkness the treasures of the earth and carve for themselves a kingdom of steel and stone.

Now, the old tunnels were abandoned by those who had gouged them from the rock. They were a relic of a bygone time, a time when the dwarf kingdoms dared to dream of glories that would never be. A relic of the days before the dwarfs were beset from above and below by their merciless enemies. A relic of an age that now lingered only in the ancient Book of Grudges.

Like worms burrowing through a corpse, the black tunnels writhed beneath the remaining strongholds of the dwarfs. Abandoned to the darkness. Left to the creatures that had risen to inherit much of the dwarfs’ ancient realm.

Miner and architect no longer dared to brave the old dark of the underworld, but the dwarfs could not completely ignore the leavings of their past glories. The things that had crept into their abandoned holdings were not content to steal what had been left to them. They would use the old tunnels to besiege what little the dwarfs still had the strength to maintain. Goblin and orc, troll and ogre, the dwarfs had to remain vigilant against their rapacious enemies.

In the darkness, a group of dour figures kept that vigil. Armoured from head to toe in extensively engraved plates of gromril, their flowing beards locked behind iron beard-sheaths, the dwarfs maintained their unending watch upon the tunnels. Silent as the rock walls, knowing that the least sound might betray them to the ears of a lurking goblin, the sentinels communicated by touch and gesture rather than by spoken word. Among a race accustomed to labouring in the darkness, the eyes of these lonely warriors were especially keen, able to see in almost pitch blackness. For in these forsaken tunnels, light, even more than sound, would betray a dwarf to his enemies.

These were the ironbreakers, an elite cadre of warriors with brothers throughout the scattered strongholds of the dwarf kingdom. Theirs was the role of watchman and sentinel, the first line of defence for their people against the horrors of the deeps. Against the monsters of the underworld, the ironbreakers pitted their selfless valour and martial prowess. Armed with the best weapons to emerge from the forges of their warsmiths, encased in armour crafted from indestructible gromril, many a foe had met its end before these unbreakable warriors.

Among the dozen armoured dwarfs spread across the opening of the tunnel, one of their number stood close against the wall. The lone dwarf had removed one of his gauntlets. His bare hand was closed about a length of wire fastened to the wall, his sensitive fingers pinching the copper thread between them. His role was one of especial vigilance, so much so that he did not engage in such silent banter as the gesture-speak allowed the other ironbreakers. He knew that the thin little wire held the only advanced warning they could expect in the case of an approaching enemy.

Strung across the floor of the tunnels, the wire would brush against the feet of any invader, sending a vibration along its length which the monitoring ironbreaker could feel with his fingers. Many times, by such a ruse, the dwarfs had been warned of things creeping through the tunnels. Their foreknowledge had been the difference between victory and disaster on more than one occasion. Goblins, cave squigs, even a basilisk, had all been repulsed before they could enter the inhabited halls of Karak Angkul.

Now, the wire again pulsed with the step of an enemy. The monitor reached out with his armoured right hand, closing his fingers about the shoulder of the dwarf standing beside him. The touch of the monitor’s hand was all that was needed. The meaning was clear. Without a word being spoken, the alarm was passed among the ironbreakers. One of their number, the youngest and most junior of their company, was dispatched back into the passages of Karak Angkul proper to warn their people of potential danger. The other warriors drew axes and hammers from their belts. Closing ranks, standing shoulder to shoulder, they formed an unbroken wall of armour across the mouth of the tunnel.

Long minutes, the dwarfs waited for their foes. The monitor continued to clap the shoulder of his comrade, indicating that their enemy was no lone straggler from the deep. The continued vibration of the wire meant a large group of adversaries, many feet trampling the concealed wires.

Before the sharp-eyed dwarfs could see or even hear the coming foe the loathsome stink of the enemy struck them. Not one of the ironbreakers could forget that smell. Memories of battle and fallen comrades rose within each dwarf’s mind, litanies of ancient grudges made speechless lips move in silent whispers. Ancestral hate, the heritage of centuries of unending war, caused hands to tighten about the grips of weapons. Yes, the ironbreakers knew this smell, the reek of their most despised enemy: the verminous skaven!

‘Fast-quick, dung-scum! Smash-kill all dwarf-things!’

Rikkit Snapfang added a bit of emphasis to his snarled command by lopping off the ear of a skaven who had the misfortune of standing too close to him. The stricken ratman squealed in agony, clapping a paw to his bleeding head and cringing his way into the teeming horde of furry bodies scurrying down the tunnel. Rikkit raised his sword to his mouth and licked the blood from his blade. The faint trace of warpstone in the black ooze sent a thrill coursing through him. There was nothing like the taste of blood to stir a warrior’s heart before battle.

‘Scurry-hurry, maggot-suckers!’ Rikkit growled, making a menacing sweep of his blade. It would be just like the treacherous lice to malinger in the tunnels and allow the dwarfs to escape. Worse, they might be so slothful that there would still be dwarfs alive when he reached the battlefield. Rikkit had all the ferocity and valour of a true skaven warrior, but very little appetite for engaging an enemy able to fight back. That was the duty of slaves and clanrats, to take all the danger out of the enemy before important skaven such as himself entered the fray. As a warlord of Clan Mors, Rikkit Snapfang would see that his underlings didn’t shirk that duty. Even if it meant killing a few dozen of them to keep the others moving.

Not for the first time, Rikkit cursed the craven hearts of his minions. But for their cowardice, he would have risen to prominence within the hierarchy of Clan Mors, gaining the notice of Clanlord Gnawdwell, perhaps even joining the Supreme and Merciless War-king Tyrant-General in Skavenblight. Instead, Rikkit was rotting away as warlord of a single warren, the fortress-burrow of Bonestash, a three-mouse hole some three miles beneath the stronghold of Karak Angkul.

Long had the skaven of Bonestash coveted the halls of the dwarfs above them, dreaming their vicious dreams of the hoarded wealth so near they could smell it. Many a warlord had tried to batter his way into Karak Angkul, each expedition ending in disaster. Rikkit Snapfang, however, was smarter than his predecessors. He knew that it took wealth to gain greater wealth. He had shunned the tactics of his stupid precursors, the massed charge of half-naked slaves straight into the waiting axes of the foe. His was a far more crafty and subtle mind. It had cost him almost half the treasury of Bonestash and much of the riches he had skimmed for himself, but he was certain he had spent his warp-tokens well.

Baring his fangs, Rikkit Snapfang shrieked his final command, urging the horde of nearly naked skavenslaves to charge into the ranks of their enemy. The dwarfs might be able to kill their lights and hold their tongues, but they could not mask the scent of their skin. In the pitch darkness, the skaven would still be able to find their enemies and destroy them.

The terrified slaves, urged forwards by the brutal lashes of Rikkit’s clanrat soldiers, swept up the tunnel in a tidal wave of stinking fur and flashing fangs. Rusty swords, stone clubs, splintered spears and corroded maces lashed out as the scrawny ratmen crashed against the armoured wall of their enemies.

The ironbreakers met the first wave of the attack with stony discipline. Unmovable, the dwarfs absorbed the crush of frenzied skaven. Rusted blades shattered against gromril plate, stone clubs chipped and cracked as they rebounded from the rune-etched armour. Squealing in terror, the foremost skaven tried to flee from their invulnerable enemies, only to be pressed back into the fight by the multitudes swarming up the tunnel behind them.

With the need to keep silent gone, the ironbreakers gave voice to a great shout. Their roar thundered through the tunnel, like the grumble of an angry mountain. They swept their axes into the press of clawing, stabbing bodies before them. In such quarters, every blow the dwarfs dealt split open a skull or slashed through a ribcage. Arms and legs and tails were lopped from the frantic ratmen as they alternately tried to escape or vainly strove to break through the formation of their enemies.

Rikkit listened to the carnage and a twinkle came into his beady eyes. The ironbreakers had taken the bait. They were committed to the fight now. There would be no escape for the hated dwarfs this time. No doubt they thought he was just another idiot warlord squandering his troops on the same suicidal attacks that had been tried so many times before.

Lashing his tail in amusement, Rikkit gestured to the mass of brown-furred skaven gathered at the foot of the tunnel. These ratmen were of a finer breed than the scabby slaves he had sent so callously to be slaughtered. Better fed, with sleek pelts and wearing long leather aprons, they formed a marked contrast to Rikkit’s abused minions. The warlord felt better just smelling the cold assurance they exuded in their scent, the encouraging odour of warpstone and gunpowder and the exotic oils these skaven used to maintain their weaponry.

Such weaponry! Great muskets with barrels longer than the ratmen who used them, each fitted with a glass eye to magnify their victims and ensure a killing shot! Pouches of refined gunpowder, little ratskin bags filled with bullets crafted from shards of warpstone! Grimy little skavenslaves bearing metal crooks upon which to rest the muzzle of each jezzail and ensure the steadiness of the shot! Rikkit had spent a small fortune hiring these mercenaries from Clan Skryre, but when they smashed the vaunted defenders of Karak Angkul, he would count the warp-tokens as well spent.

Climbing onto a ramshackle wooden platform Rikkit’s clanrats had erected, the jezzail teams loaded their weapons and took their positions. With the added height of the platform, the skaven sharpshooters would be able to fire over the heads of the slave horde and into the dwarfs beyond. Not that Rikkit was overly concerned by the accidental shooting of his worthless slave-troops, but when each bullet was costing him three warp-tokens, there was no sense in wasting ammunition.

The jezzails took aim, crouching over the barrels of their muskets, squinting through the telescopic lenses until they could draw a bead on their targets. A chittered peal of laughter rose from the first shooter as he pulled the trigger and sent a shard of warpstone rocketing towards one of the ironbreakers.

The bullet struck one of the skavenslaves, punching through his spine and tearing out of his chest in a welter of gore. Passage through the ratman’s body hardly diminished the terrible velocity of the bullet. The round ploughed onwards, smashing into the armoured breast of the ironbreaker.

The sharpshooter cursed under his breath, fear creeping into his scent. Through the sights of his jezzail he was able to see his bullet shatter as it crashed into the dwarf’s gromril breastplate. The dwarf was knocked back a few steps, but when he recovered, there wasn’t even a scratch to show where he had been hit.

The stunned sharpshooter snarled at the other jezzails. Instantly there was unleashed a full fusillade against the dwarfs. The shrieks of skaven caught in the path of the deadly bullets rang through the tunnel, but the enchanted armour of the ironbreakers again proved too much for the skaven weapons to penetrate.

Although he could not see the inefficacy of the jezzails, Rikkit could still hear the sounds of battle coming from the mouth of the tunnel. If the weapons had performed as they should have, then the dwarfs would be in no condition to put up a fight. Tugging at his whiskers in his agitation, Rikkit glared up at the sharpshooters as they reloaded their weapons. Quickly, the warlord began to calculate how much this fiasco was costing him.

‘Stop-stop!’ Rikkit howled. He didn’t wait to see if his mercenaries were going to obey. Gesturing to his dependable clanrat warriors, Rikkit ordered them to knock down the firing platform. Before they could shoot again, the jezzail teams found their perch tipped over and themselves sprawled across the floor.

Rikkit glared at the worthless sharpshooters. If he didn’t have to pay Clan Skryre extra for every one of their warriors who perished while fighting for him, he would have each of the mangy parasites skinned alive and fed to the squigs! They had proven useless. Worse, they were expensive and useless! Fortunately, he had been too clever to stake all of his ambitions upon a bunch of cowardly snipers who couldn’t shoot straight.

‘Bad-air! Bad-air!’ the clanrats were squealing now. A half-dozen ratmen came slinking up the tunnel. They formed a strange and sinister sight, their bodies covered from crown to tail in heavy ratskin cloaks soaked in preservative unguents and chemical solutions. Bulky, grotesque devices were slung to their backs, deranged contraptions of pipes and tubes that groaned and shuddered as they circulated air through their frames. Ugly masks enclosed the faces of each of the ratmen, giving them an almost insect-like look. At their sides, each of the skaven carried a heavy bag filled with glass globes, a sinister green mist swirling within each of the spheres. As the globadiers made their way towards the massed slaves, the wretched verminkin struggled to flee from their approach. The clanrats at the rear of the slave horde were more pressed than ever to keep the mob from turning tail and stampeding back down the tunnel.

Rikkit grinned savagely as he watched the globadiers force their way along the flanks of the packed slaves. The Poison Wind was one of the most hideous weapons known to skavendom, a vapour so toxic it could eat through iron and would melt the lungs of those who inhaled it. Even the most reckless warlord did not employ such a weapon without severe consideration, but the jezzails had failed to eliminate the ironbreakers for him. Now it was time to set aside his scruples and give the dwarfs the death their stubborn refusal to die had earned them.

Unseen by the ironbreakers, the globadiers drew closer to the fray. The hideous skaven in their gas masks and protective cloaks hesitated when they came within twenty feet of the embattled dwarfs. Heedless of their fellow ratmen who were still braving the enemy axes, the globadiers thrust their gloved hands into the bags slung at their sides. Chittering maliciously within their masks, the murderous skaven hurled the fragile glass globes into the raging melee.

Green fog burst across the tunnel as the globes crashed violently against the combatants. The shrill shrieks of ratmen ripped across the tunnel as the deadly gas engulfed them, burning through flesh and fur with savage rapacity. Dozens of skavenslaves wilted to the ground, blood streaming from their mouths as they coughed out their lives.

Though it had cost the lives of many ratkin, the brutal assault by the globadiers broke the dwarf line. For the first time, the discipline of the ironbreakers was fractured. Their stout gromril armour, proof against the fiercest blows, could not guard them against a weapon which could seep beneath the armour to attack the dwarf within.

First one, then another, then the entire company slumped to the ground, axes and hammers tumbling from numbed fingers. The dwarfs coughed as violently as the dying ratmen around them, a gory pulp of burned tissue dribbling into their beards. Their eyes, once so keen in the darkness, were blinded as bursting capillaries turned them into crimson pits of misery.

‘Fast-quick! Kill-slay!’ Rikkit shrieked at his warriors, driving his clanrats to turn the fleeing slaves about and herd them back up the tunnel. With the defenders on the floor, he wanted to take no chances that the dwarfs would somehow rally to thwart his schemes. Not waiting even for the Poison Wind to dissipate, he forced his army upwards. Dozens of slaves perished as they were thrust full into the still potent cloud of gas, but they were losses Rikkit was prepared to accept.

After the gas had dispersed and the vanguard of his warriors were stripping the dead ironbreakers of their vaunted armour, he breathed a little easier. His gamble had paid off. They were free to invade the upper halls now and claim the stronghold for Clan Mors!

‘Leave dwarf-things!’ Rikkit snapped at the looters. He pointed his claw towards the upper corridor. ‘More-more dwarf-meat to kill-take!’

The skaven host, their bloodlust stirred by the smell of dead enemies, needed only a few threats to get them moving again. Like a river of fur and fangs, the ratmen surged into the lower workings of Karak Angkul. Here the walls were not the raw, unworked stone of the tunnels, but were crafted from great blocks of granite, richly adorned with massive columns. Mighty pillars supported the arched ceiling high overhead, huge steel lanterns hanging from the hook-like crockets adorning their finials.

Rikkit revelled in his triumph as the skaven horde pressed onwards, sweeping into deserted mine-workings and empty galleries. No long-abandoned halls, these, but living chambers still thick with the smell of dwarf. Clearly the ironbreakers had spread the alarm to their fellows above! The realisation brought conflicting thoughts racing through the warlord’s mind. On the one paw, he appreciated the tactical advantage to catching his enemies unaware. By the other paw, however, his ego was glutted by the knowledge that the dwarfs had fled from him, Rikkit Snapfang, rather than face him in hopeless battle!

Packs of skaven now detached themselves from the main host, swarming into the empty galleries, hunting among the chambers for any dwarf stragglers and whatever loot they had left behind. The main horde, however, driven by the threats of their warlord and the lashes of their clawleaders, made straight for the ramps leading to the upper halls of Karak Angkul. Why pick over the leavings of miners when they could pillage the chambers of kings?

As the surging mass of ratmen raced up the ramps, the skaven saw the first dwarfs since they had broken through the guards in the tunnel. A skirmish line of dwarf warriors had arrayed themselves in one of the upper galleries. When the skaven saw how few their foes were, their creeping laughter echoed from the walls. If this was the best the dwarfs could muster, then the entire stronghold would soon belong to the ratkin.

In their murderous rush to come to grips with the dwarfs, the ratmen paid scant attention to the upturned mining carts scattered between themselves and the battle line. It was only when the attackers were a few dozen yards from the carts that they realised their mistake.

The wooden sides of the carts collapsed, revealing themselves to be nothing more than a lightweight façade. Concealed behind the simple panels were squat, bulky machines bristling with pipes and gears, their steel faces pockmarked with the ugly openings of gun barrels. As they were revealed, the machines shuddered into life. Steam jetted from their pipes, gears rumbled into motion. From the score of gun barrels set into the face of each machine, an iron bullet went tearing into the skaven horde.

Mercilessly, the automated guns ripped apart Rikkit’s army. Hundreds of skaven warriors were butchered in a matter of moments, their mangled bodies cartwheeling through the air as the vicious barrage scoured their ranks. One of the Poison Wind globadiers was struck, the round punching through his bag of gas bombs. Instantly a deadly cloud spread away from the dead globadier, its fumes searing the flesh of every skaven who came into contact with it. Rikkit shrieked in dismay as he saw his expensive jezzail teams trampled under the paws of his fleeing warriors, their heavy muskets smashed beneath the terrified clanrats.

The automated guns continued to fire at the routed skaven, reaping a bloody harvest from the shattered army. Copper belts fed fresh bullets into the steam-driven machines, allowing them to maintain their withering fire without respite. One of the guns let out a loud screech, its fire falling silent as a belt caught in its mechanism. The other dozen machines, however, continued to punish the skaven until they had fled back down the ramp and into the lower workings of Karak Angkul.

Leading the retreat, Rikkit Snapfang cursed the cowardice and stupidity of his soldiers. They should have expected some kind of dwarf trick and been ready for it! The treacherous rats had instead broken faith with their warlord and allowed themselves to be massacred! Worse, they had allowed his hired mercenaries to die, putting him further in debt to Clan Skryre!

The thought gave Rikkit pause. A cunning gleam wormed its way into his formerly panicked eyes. He still had most of Bonestash’s treasury to spend. He could buy more weapons from the warlock-engineers, weapons that would smash, burn and blast whatever the dwarf-things could bring against him! If he could force the treacherous remains of his army to stand fast and keep the enemy from retaking the mines, then there just might be a chance he could still bring the whole of the stronghold under the dominion of the underfolk!

The dwarfs let out a mighty cheer as they watched the craven ratmen turn tail and flee back down the rampway. Squads of vengeful warriors broke away from the battle line to finish the stragglers the routed army had left behind. Teams of engineers dashed across the gallery to attend the automated sentinel guns.

Among the dwarfs, a small group stood alone. They displayed only a scant interest in the decimated skaven and the functional sentinel guns. The gun which had jammed, however, warranted their full attention. Even as the last of the ratmen was vanishing back into the lower workings, these dwarfs were in action, hastening to the machine that had failed.

The dwarfs made a curious grouping, a cross-section of Karak Angkul. The first of them to reach the machine was a broad-shouldered hairy brute of a dwarf, his homely face marked by a bulbous nose and close-set eyes, his black beard wound into a trio of long braids. A weird framework of pipes and pistons supported his brawny arms and girded his thick legs. At each step, little bursts of steam rose from the framework, forming beads of condensation on his elaborate armour.

The second of the dwarfs was a spry, youthful example of his kind, his blond beard growing close about his cheeks and chin. There was a keen look in his blue eyes, reflecting the keenly inquisitive mind inside his head. Like his comrade, he was dressed for battle, his body draped in a heavy suit of mail. Thick chains were looped about his waist and neck, each of the chains sporting a wide array of small stone charms etched with ancient Khazalid runes. The oversized hammer the young dwarf bore was likewise marked by a sharp dwarfish rune, the fiery symbol of algaz, a sign endowed with potent magic.

A white-bearded dwarf bearing a horned helm and wearing a rough bearskin hide over his armour came next. He prowled about the sentinel gun with the wary air of a panther stalking prey, his roving eyes never at rest but always watching the shadows for any sign of movement. In his gloved hands, he bore a brace of heavy pistols of ornate and exotic fashion.

Each of the dwarfs had attained his own renown within the halls of Karak Angkul. The brutish dwarf was Horgar Horgarsson, once captain of King Logan’s bodyguard and one of the fiercest warriors in the entire stronghold. Goblin poisons had polluted his body and brought him to the brink of death. Only the amazing medicinal skills of the master he now served had preserved his life, and only the same mind’s genius for invention had allowed him to be anything more than a cripple afterwards. Horgar had been retired from King Logan’s hammerers after his wounding and the grim dwarf had come to serve his saviour as assistant, guard and comrade at arms.

The young dwarf was Kurgaz Brightfinger, the youngest runesmith to ever walk the halls of Karak Angkul. Often dismissed by his elders as little more than a beardling, it had taken an intellect outside the order of runesmiths to appreciate Kurgaz’s talents. With the support of his new master, the young dwarf had been able to expand his knowledge of the ancient craft and theorise new ways to use the magic symbols.

There was a reason the white-bearded dwarf studied his surroundings with such caution. Alone among his companions, Thorlek could be said to have spent more of his life above the mountains rather than inside them. A veteran ranger who prowled the surface wilderness hunting and trapping, always keeping a watchful eye out for gathering enemies, Thorlek was an accomplished fighter and tracker renowned for his puckish humour and formidable sword arm.

While the other dwarfs maintained the perimeter, the fourth member of their group inspected the malfunctioning sentinel gun. He was a tall dwarf, towering over his comrades. Powerfully built, with dark leathery skin and a beard of deep gold colour, he cut an impressive figure as he dashed to the machine and began his inspection. His eyes, peculiar orbs of flake-gold hue, pored over the mechanism. At length, he reached into the belt feed and removed a misshapen lump of lead.

‘I still say you didn’t need to sabotage your own invention,’ Horgar grumbled.

The gold-bearded dwarf flashed a sombre smile. ‘Guildmaster Thori will need something to complain about, otherwise he won’t be happy. And if he isn’t happy, then the Engineers’ Guild could make problems. I shouldn’t like to take the slayer-oath like old Malakai Makaisson.’

‘They wouldn’t dare!’ objected Kurgaz. ‘Even King Logan wouldn’t try to silence the genius of Klarak Bronzehammer!’

Klarak smiled at his friend, warmed by the young dwarf’s enthusiasm and confidence, if not his appreciation for politics. The guilds which controlled dwarf society were founded upon centuries of tradition and experience. They did not accept new ideas easily, and none of them resisted innovation so sternly as the Engineers’ Guild. Still, there were ways around the obstructions of dwarfs like Guildmaster Thori. It only took some appreciation for the traditions of the guild and a respect for its power.

Of course, the tacit collusion of a stronghold’s ruler was a big help too. Klarak had been able to create many inventions to help the inhabitants of Karak Angkul, but his devices would have withered on the vine without King Logan’s help to get around the obstructions of Guildmaster Thori. King Logan was a ruler of unique vision, who appreciated that the way to restore the dwarf kingdom did not lie in some slavish devotion to the past, but in new ideas and bold innovations.

Still, even King Logan felt the power of the Engineers’ Guild and there were limits to what he could allow Klarak to do without completely offending the conservative sensibilities of the other engineers.

This field test of Klarak’s sentinel guns had been the most audacious exhibition yet. Any dwarf with eyes could see the value of these machines, but the engineers would be slow to approve such a startling invention. It might take hundreds of years before they were satisfied that such a device was safe enough to be approved for production. In the meantime, Karak Angkul would be exposed to her verminous enemies.

Hence, Klarak had deliberately arranged for one of his guns to malfunction. It would give Guildmaster Thori something to complain about and it would give himself an excuse to conduct more ‘tests’ of his invention.

A deep, rumbling bellow echoed through the gallery, rebounding from the walls. Klarak smiled as he heard the sound. Turning he basked in the boisterous cheers of the dwarf warriors, bowing his head as he accepted their adulation.

‘They don’t need Guildmaster Thori to tell them your guns worked,’ Horgar said.

Klarak frowned and shook his head. ‘That makes things worse,’ he stated. ‘It will make Guildmaster Thori even more critical of their performance. If the common folk start questioning the caution of the guild, then the guild is just going to dig its heels in even more.’

‘Idiots,’ Thorlek spat.

‘Defenders of tradition,’ Klarak corrected him in a severe tone. ‘Theirs is the thankless duty of advancing progress without sacrificing all that has come before.’

Klarak Bronzehammer fixed each of his aides with a warning look. ‘Never forget tradition,’ he said. ‘For it is the great strength that binds our fractured kingdoms together.’

CHAPTER THREE

Thanquol rubbed his claws against his chest to polish them into a menacing sheen. His unyielding stare bore into the beady eyes of the bloated scavenge-merchant. ‘Four thousand warp-tokens,’ the grey seer reiterated, putting a little more malice into his posture.

Nabkrik Fatgut tugged at his whiskers, avoiding the intensity of the grey seer’s gaze. The merchant had been on the wrong paw from the start, ever since Thanquol had smelt fear in the scent of Nabkrik’s bodyguards. The hulking, black-furred skaven might have been ready enough to rip out the throat of a common ratman, but against a grey seer, they seemed more inclined to scratch their fleas than think about using the motley array of weapons hanging from their belts.

‘Three-three,’ Nabkrik said, holding up three of his fat little claws. Sprawled out in a sedan chair, the piebald skaven looked like some sort of misshapen pillow. The stink of the swamp was everywhere in the crumbling stone cellar Nabkrik employed as his headquarters, which was hardly surprising considering the amount of mud and black sludge oozing down the walls. Half of Skavenblight’s old waterfront had already been dragged down into the morass of the Blighted Marshes. The area around Nabkrik’s burrow was well on its way to joining its sunken neighbours.

Glancing at the frightened bodyguards, Thanquol’s lip curled back in a grisly leer. ‘Five thousand warp-tokens,’ he announced. The grey seer enjoyed watching the loathsome trade-rat wince at the figure.

Huddled between the haggling ratmen was a motley collection of dwarfs and skaven, the slaves and ex-passengers Lynsh Blacktail had been transporting before his ‘accident’ on the river. The captain’s crew had been helpful enough in locating the buyer Lynsh had waiting for their cargo. The crew had been quite angry at Thanquol’s cut of the spoils, but now that they heard how much the grey seer was going to extort from Nabkrik, they were quickly regaining some of their old confidence and avarice.

They were vile things, these disgusting pirate-rats. Thanquol wondered what sort of diseased breeder could have suckled such vermin at her teats. Preying upon hapless travellers who had placed all of their trust and hope into the treacherous paws of these marauding villains! Scum, without a shred of nobility or decency about them! Knowing no loyalty except their own slinking greed!

‘Five thousand warp-tokens,’ Thanquol repeated. ‘And I’ll toss in the scow and its crew.’ The grey seer glared malignantly at the pirates who seemed to have a moment of trouble understanding that their new captain had just downgraded their status from sailors to slaves. When they did, the ratmen howled in fury, brandishing their weapons. One of their number lunged at Thanquol, a crooked blade in each paw, spittle flying from his clenched fangs.

Thanquol watched the vengeful rat spring at him. Calmly, the grey seer raised one of his fingers and rasped a string of arcane squeaks. A blazing ribbon of electricity crackled from his finger straight into the leaping pirate. The stricken ratman was flung back through the air, his body smashing against the ceiling before plummeting to the floor. Smoke rose from the charred crater in the centre of the dead pirate’s chest, filling the cellar with a noxious reek of ozone and burnt meat.

Nabkrik’s guards were quick to pounce on the other pirates, overwhelming them with clubs and sword hilts while they were still in shock at their comrade’s violent demise.

‘Don’t think-think you’ll get much-much for that one,’ Thanquol stated, nodding at the dead pirate. As he spoke, the grey seer opened his little rat-skull box and took a pinch of warpstone snuff. Old Lynsh had had quite a stash of the stuff secreted away on his scow. Thanquol had been surprised at its high quality, feeling the stuff flow through his brain like fire each time he took a sniff. It made him feel as though he were a walking dynamo of arcane malignance, as though all he had to do was snap his fingers and the Horned Rat would reduce all his enemies into mush. He had to but stretch forth his paw and he could topple the foundation of the world and grind the land into dust. It was really quite a thrilling sensation. He rather regretted dumping Lynsh into the river before finding out where he’d gotten the stuff.

Nabkrik turned a horrified grimace towards the dead pirate, then nervously faced Thanquol once more. ‘Five thousand warp-tokens,’ the fat old ratkin fairly cried. ‘Yes-yes, Dread One!’ He fumbled about beneath his chair, removing a few heavy bags that had been soaked in some foul-smelling excretion. It was a sensible precaution when hiding money from thieves who would find it better by scent than sight. The merchant tugged open the neck of one of the bags, displaying the black and green discs inside.

Thanquol’s eyes lit up as he saw the mass of wealth. His tail twitched in excitement as he scurried forwards to accept the money.

‘Three thousand?’ Nabkrik pleaded, hugging one of the bags to his chest. ‘I-I can’t use-take barge-scow.’

‘Sell-trade it to Clan Sleekit,’ Thanquol said, jerking the bag away from Nabkrik’s fat fingers. ‘Or sell it back to Clan Skurvy, if you have the spleen.’ A sharp smell crept into Thanquol’s nose. Glancing down he noted another bag of warp-tokens still hidden in the drawer beneath the chair. ‘And another thousand warp-tokens for saving you from that vicious murder-rat!’

Nabkrik sputtered in protest, but had sense enough to refrain from mentioning that the dead pirate had been intent on killing Thanquol, not himself.

Even so, the grey seer didn’t take kindly to the argument. Sniffing another pinch of snuff, he leaned forwards and glared into Nabkrik’s eyes, his lips pulled back to expose every fang in the grey seer’s mouth. ‘Or perhaps you don’t feel-think your skin-fur is worth a thousand warp-tokens?’

Grey Seer Thanquol prowled through Skavenblight’s skrawl market, his newly-hired guard-rats battering a path for him through the teeming masses of skaven crowding the streets. Unlike the rest of skavendom, part of Skavenblight existed above ground, situated in the ruins of an ancient human city. Tradition held that the skaven had inherited the city as a gift from the Horned Rat himself, and since that tradition was taught as religious truth by the grey seers, nobody was of a mind to question its basis in fact. While the teeming masses of the Under-Empire eked out an existence in the muddy burrows beneath the city, the rich and powerful carved out nests for themselves among the grandest of the old human buildings. Each of the great Lords of Decay had his own fortified palace within the sprawl of Skavenblight and the most imposing structure in all the city, the colossal bell tower that jutted up into the sky like the bared fang of a god, held the Council of Thirteen’s meeting chambers.

With all the most powerful ratmen in the world gathered in Skavenblight, the city’s markets were second to none. Merchants and traders from every corner of the Under-Empire brought their wares to the capital, knowing that here alone could they command top price for their exotic goods. Prowling through the skrawl, Thanquol smelled the odours of a hundred lands, heard the chittering squeals of a thousand clans mixed in a cacophony of haggling. He watched a greasy Clan Verms bug-breeder selling trained fleas with shells that glistened like tiny stars. He saw a white-nosed skaven with one ear displaying narcotic salt-licks from the jungles of Ind. He listened to a balding ratman extolling the uses of mole-skin whisker brushes.

Standing amid the jumbled confusion of the market, Thanquol couldn’t remember now why he had been so dead-set on seeing Nightlord Sneek as soon as he arrived in the city. He laughed at his foolish paranoia, the puppyish fear that had dogged him all the way down the river. Clan Eshin had no authority over him! He was the mighty Grey Seer Thanquol, hero of skavendom! It was he who had slain Xiuhcoatl, the terrible Prophet of Sotek, not any of Eshin’s vaunted murder-rats! If Nightlord Sneek wanted to see him, then the cowardly old shadow-stalker could come to him!

Thanquol snapped shut the rat-skull box and sneezed as the fiery warpstone snuff seared his nasal passages. He cast a shrewd eye on the goods his train of stevedores was carting behind him. New robes fashioned from the finest weasel-fur. A sword of Cathayan steel. A marvellous dwarf-bone puzzle box, inlaid with tiny tiles of powdered warpstone.

His favourite purchase, however, had to be the horn-rings etched with the thirteen secret names of the Horned One. Thanquol lifted a claw and played idly with them as he walked along, enjoying the way the tiny bells dangling from the gold loops tinkled when he swatted them.

Yes, he would cut quite an imposing figure when Nightlord Sneek came to thank him for saving Clan Eshin from humiliation and disgrace. But, of course, there was one thing that was still missing. Guard-rats were nice, but they had a worrying tendency to take the short-sighted view that their lives were more valuable than that of their employer. Thanquol always felt a more brainless kind of loyalty was advisable to feel truly safe.

Patting his belly, the grey seer lifted his nose and sniffed around for the distinct scent of Clan Moulder’s flesh-shapers. He still had a small fortune to spend, more than enough to buy a first-class rat-ogre from one of the beast-masters.

Calling out to his entourage, Thanquol sent his guard-rats ahead to bully a way through the swarming crowd. Other guard-rats kept a close watch on his stevedores, ensuring that none of them got ‘lost’ in the shuffle.

For many minutes, Thanquol’s henchmen tried to force a way through the press of ratmen, but the tide of traffic coming down the street was too great for them to overcome. Growing impatient, and having a momentary flash of fear as he recalled how Chang Fang had tried to use just such a crowd to kill him not long ago, Thanquol directed his minions down a back alleyway. The few denizens of the blighted backpath scampered away when they saw the fearsome grey seer approach.

The smell of rat-ogre leading him on, Thanquol gave directions to his guard-rats, urging them to make speed along the narrow, winding run of alleys. A twinge of disquiet kept nagging at the grey seer, stubbornly resisting his repeated efforts to silence it with a pinch of reassurance from his snuff-box.

The alleyway was about as black as the inside of a snake’s belly when Thanquol discovered the reason for his nagging concern. A piece of shadow suddenly detached itself from one of the walls, falling silently upon his leading guard-rats. Before any of them could so much as squeak in surprise, the shadow was cutting them to ribbons, wielding blades not only in each paw, but one gripped by its tail as well!

The tangy stink of skaven blood and voided bowels flooded the alleyway. Thanquol watched the shadow leaping from one guard to the next, striking them down as though they were mewling pups instead of ten warp-tokens a day Clan Rictus sword-rats! The lack of any distinct scent emanating from the murdering shadow abolished any idea that it was anything but one of Clan Eshin’s merciless assassins!

Worse, Thanquol was pretty certain he’d seen this particular assassin in action once before. Deathmaster Snikch, Nightlord Sneek’s prize killer, a skaven who had never failed to carry out any murder asked of him.

All the reassurance the warpstone snuff had been filling his head with seemed to evaporate. The grey seer’s body began to shiver from horn to tail. He tried to focus his mind on a spell that might reduce the Deathmaster to a bloody paste, or at least something that would allow Thanquol to escape from this deathtrap of an alley. But no matter how hard he tried to concentrate, the magical words just swirled around, refusing to coalesce into anything resembling a complete incantation.

Deathmaster Snikch rose from the mangled heap of his last victim, wiping his three swords clean on the dead guard-rat’s cloak before stalking straight towards Thanquol. The assassin’s body was clad in black silk, his paws and tail dyed to blend with the darkness, but Thanquol could see the malignant gleam in the killer’s red eyes. Snikch seemed to be daring the grey seer to try casting a spell against him.

Thanquol did something more practical. He reached into his robes, removed the heavy bags of money Nabkrik had given him and dropped them onto the ground. Snikch cocked his head to one side as he heard the warp-tokens clatter against the hard earth.

‘Take-use,’ Thanquol urged the Deathmaster. ‘I want-want you to have-keep.’

Snikch didn’t even look at the bags of money, instead fixing Thanquol with his malignant stare. ‘Thanquol returns from lizard-land,’ the assassin hissed.

‘Yes-yes!’ Thanquol hurriedly agreed. ‘I kill-slay Xiuhcoatl! Other skaven ran-flee, but I stay-fight! Keep-keep promise-word to Nightlord Sneek!’ Snikch cocked his head to one side as the grey seer spoke the last part so Thanquol hastily added: ‘I want-need look good-nice before see-speak to Nightlord.’ He hoped it sounded like a reasonable excuse for his delay in seeking out the sinister master of Clan Eshin.

Deathmaster Snikch took another step towards Thanquol, his tail lashing from side to side, a dripping blade still clenched in its prehensile coils.

‘Stay away from the dojo, Grey Seer,’ Snikch snarled through the folds of his mask. ‘Stay far-far away. You were never there.’

Thanquol blinked in confusion. ‘But… Xiuhcoatl… kill-slay?’

The sword clenched in the Deathmaster’s tail arced upwards. ‘Nightlord Sneek never say-send you to lizard-land. Say-squeak anything, and never say-squeak anything again.’

Thanquol continued to mutter confusedly. What madness was Snikch talking about? Of course Sneek had sent Thanquol to Lustria! The mission had been a success! Xiuhcoatl was dead! Clan Eshin had exactly what they wanted. What did it matter if Thanquol was the only one to return to tell the tale? The Prophet of Sotek was dead!

His threat made, Deathmaster Snikch faded back into the darkness, vanishing in the wink of an eye. If not for the dead guard-rats strewn about the alley and the fear musk dripping down his leg, Thanquol might have questioned whether the assassin had ever been there.

With the source of his fear gone, Thanquol turned to berate his stevedores for not lending a hand when their employer was in peril. He ground his fangs together when he saw that not one of the luggage-rats was anywhere to be seen. Every last one of them had fled, probably the very moment Snikch started carving up the worthless vermin he had hired from Clan Rictus. The stevedores hadn’t been so terrified, however, as to abandon the valuables they had been carrying. By now all of his carefully selected gear was being sold in a dozen back-burrow dives.

Irritably, Thanquol stooped to recover the money he had dropped. Again he felt his jaws tighten. The bag of warp-tokens was gone. Spirited away by the sinister Deathmaster.

Thanquol drew the rat-skull snuff-box from his sleeve and glared at it. If not for the idiotic bravado the snuff had subjected him to, he would never have behaved so irrationally. Certainly he would have made provision to keep a spell ready to blast that annoying little flea Snikch back to his slinking master! He wished he hadn’t drowned Lynsh, because at the moment, there were a lot of things he wanted to do to that miserable pirate.

Upending the snuff-box, Thanquol spilled the contents onto the ground. He was through with the phoney strength of such vices. He did not need them! He was Grey Seer Thanquol, mightiest sorcerer in all skavendom, favoured servant of the Horned Rat! He was above such petty weaknesses!

Looking around him, Thanquol took stock of his situation. His guard-rats were piles of meat (which Clan Rictus would expect him to pay for), his luggage-rats were gone (with his luggage), and his hard-earned warp-tokens had vanished into the night (along with a master-assassin who might just decide to come back). All in all, things were looking decidedly bad.

Thanquol stooped down on all fours and began collecting the snuff he had dumped out. The stuff might be dangerous, but there was no sense allowing it to go to waste.

It was a less confident but far more irritable Grey Seer Thanquol who began retracing his way through Skavenblight’s swarming streets. He was heading towards the stone tenements where some of the lesser warlords maintained their warrens. As a grey seer, there was always a bit of money to be made offering to bless a clanleader or packmaster. Alternately, there was always a bit of money to be had by threatening to put a curse on a clanleader or packmaster. Making up what he would need to placate Clan Rictus for their dead warriors would take a bit of time.

Ordinarily, Thanquol wouldn’t have bothered, but with things as they were, there was always a chance Clan Rictus might approach Clan Eshin about the misunderstanding and engage their services to make an example of him. Thanquol considered that the only reason Deathmaster Snikch had let him live was because Nightlord Sneek needed an excuse to eliminate him that wouldn’t draw attention to the plot to assassinate Xiuhcoatl. Until he could put himself under the protection of one of the other Great Clans or the Council itself, the last thing Thanquol wanted was Clan Eshin taking any more interest in him.

Ahead, the grey seer noticed a dilapidated building lying half across the street, its bulk kept standing only by its more stout neighbour across the way. The effect was to make that part of the street almost a tunnel, with the collapsed building pressing down upon the pedestrians below. Far from shunning the spot, the pace of each skaven slackened as he bent low and scurried under the crumbling brickwork, finding the press of tons of stone overhead far more comforting than the open emptiness of the night sky.

Thanquol crouched down and joined the throng scurrying beneath the ruin. Initial thoughts of imminent squashing should the building suddenly decide to finish its descent were banished by the comfortable sensation of something solid above him. Ever since seeing the hideous snake-birds of Lustria, Thanquol’s agoraphobia had been especially pronounced. He’d even made a little hutch for himself from Boneripper’s fur during his long sea voyage to evoke some sense of security.

Skaven snapped and snarled at one another as they passed beneath the structure, angrily urging others forwards while stubbornly trying to prolong their own time under the ruin. The bickering voices and sharp squeaks echoed from the walls, the air was filled with the hot stink of so many skaven pressed close together. It was no wonder then that Thanquol failed to notice the lurking ratmen above him.

The broken windows of the toppled ruin formed holes in the roof of the tunnel, in one of which a pair of burly skaven crouched, their glistening eyes fixed upon the approaching figure of Grey Seer Thanquol. When the horned ratman passed beneath the window, the two lurkers sprang into motion. The two skaven leaned down from their perch, grabbing Thanquol by the shoulders. Before he was aware of what was happening, the sorcerer found himself being lifted through the window and deposited onto a cold stone floor.

Thanquol pawed at the wall as he began to slide down the weirdly angled floor. He was inside the collapsed building, and the floor down which he had begun to slide was in fact the outer wall of the original structure. Behind him, forming a partition across the chamber, was the rotten remains of the old wooden floor. Everywhere, filthy hammocks and strings of dried weeds hung from the ceiling, the reek of mangy fur making it clear that the collapsed building was far from uninhabited.

The only skaven he saw at present, however, were the two bruisers who had snatched him from the road. Thanquol gripped the heft of his staff, wishing he hadn’t lost the Cathayan sword he’d bought. Each of the brutes looked like he’d been sired by a rat-ogre, nasty bundles of corded muscle showing beneath their leather vests and brown fur.

‘Back-back!’ Thanquol growled as the bruisers turned away from the window-hole. ‘I’m a grey seer and I’ll hex-curse you!’

The two bruisers looked at each other and backed away, which Thanquol took as a good sign. Then they laughed, which he decided wasn’t so good.

‘Thank you for joining us, Grey Seer Thanquol,’ a raspy voice spoke from somewhere behind him. Thanquol turned slowly around to find a gang of armed skaven emerging from behind the wooden partition-floor. The speaker was dressed in a long leather coat, his arms covered in thick gloves up past the elbows and a bizarre contrivance of rods and wires winding around his head. It didn’t take a genius to figure out he was one of Clan Skryre’s warlock-engineers. The ratmen who flanked him were encased in insect-eyed iron helmets and bore an extra brace of pistols on their hips. A few cringing creatures with burnt fur and blistered skin formed the rest of the engineer’s retinue.

Mustering his offended dignity with a scowl and a quick brushing of his rumpled robes, Thanquol glared into the warlock-engineer’s glass-covered eyes. ‘Give me a good reason for not turning you into a stain on the wall,’ he hissed, instantly wondering why he’d let the words leave his tongue. Lynsh’s damnable snuff again!

The skirmishers reached for their pistols, but their master merely chuckled. ‘Peace-peace, Thanquol,’ the engineer rasped. ‘We need-use each other.’

Thanquol lashed his tail in annoyance at the engineer’s audacity. ‘You assume much-much,’ he snarled.

The warplock-engineer grinned back at him, exposing his steel-capped fangs and rubbery gums. ‘Yes-yes,’ he agreed. ‘I know-learn that Thanquol has many enemies. He should find-seek friends. Powerful friends. Friends like Warlock Kaskitt Steelgrin.’

Thanquol rolled his eyes at Kaskitt’s overly dramatic way of introducing himself, but kept a tight rein on his quarrelsome tongue. What the warlock-engineer said was true. At the moment, Thanquol needed some strong friends.

Kaskitt rubbed his paws together, taking Thanquol’s silence as a good sign. ‘I do not know how much you have heard-listened, but Clan Pestilens and Clan Eshin have had trouble. Assassins tried to kill-stab Lord Skrolk, now the two clans are at each other’s throats.’

For the second time today, Thanquol could only blink in confusion. He wasn’t sure which news was more strange, the idea that Lord Skrolk was still alive or that the carefully hatched scheme Nightlord Sneek had concocted to ally with Clan Pestilens had fallen apart. Given that the last time he had seen Lord Skrolk the plague lord had been trying to kill him and that there was no reason to think Skrolk had changed his mind about that, Thanquol decided to be more upset to hear the plague lord was back in Skavenblight.

The grey seer pulled at his whiskers as a thought came to him. It was just possible everything was all a part of Lord Skrolk’s plotting. The diseased plague lord could have placed the idea of an alliance in Nightlord Sneek’s head to begin with, sending Thanquol on the suicidal quest to kill Xiuhcoatl. Then, to ensure that even if Thanquol succeeded things would be ill for the grey seer, Skrolk goes and gets a few assassins to try and kill him! As the favourite of Arch-Plaguelord Nurglitch, all he would have to do is go whining to his master and then any chance of an alliance would be off! In that situation, Nightlord Sneek would hardly receive anybody who’d killed Xiuhcoatl favourably!

Thanquol ground his fangs together as he imagined the depth of Skrolk’s intrigues. The diseased monk was a victim of his own wicked scheming, Thanquol was blameless for whatever had befallen him beneath Altdorf! It was senseless persecution for the plague lord to turn his dear, close friend Sneek against him!

‘You can use the protection of Clan Skryre,’ Kaskitt repeated. ‘Great things are stirring, the fortunes of Clan Skryre are on the rise. We will be generous to our friends.’

Thanquol scratched at his ear as he considered the engineer’s words. There was no love lost between the grey seers and Clan Skryre. Except for the heretics of Clan Pestilens, the science-obsessed tinker-rats of Clan Skryre were the biggest thorn in Seerlord Kritislik’s side. The warlock-engineers were woefully lacking in piety towards the Horned One and his servants. Indeed, sometimes Thanquol wondered if any of the treacherous tinker-rats even believed in the Horned One. If they were not so powerful a force on the Council, if their inventions had not done so much to advance skaven society, the vermin would have been wiped out long ago in a holy war. Perhaps they still would. It was something to aspire towards, anyway.

With such a state of affairs, Thanquol had to wonder why Kaskitt wanted a grey seer involved in whatever crazy scheme he was about to propose. Particularly, why would he want the mightiest and most renowned grey seer in all the Under-Empire?

‘What-what is it you want-need?’ Thanquol asked, straightening into his most imperious posture.

Kaskitt rubbed at his eye-pieces, his steely smile growing impossibly wider. ‘A warlord of Clan Mors, one Rikkit Snapfang, needs help to drive the dwarf-things from their burrow of Karak Angkul. The skaven who help him will be paid well.’ Kaskitt gnashed his steel teeth together, as though biting into a chunk of warpstone.

Thanquol wasn’t fooled by Kaskitt’s performance. He wasn’t interested in any reward from Rikkit Snapfang, at least not directly. He was scheming to bring a better relationship between Mors and Skryre by helping Mors take the old dwarf stronghold. Clan Skryre’s great weakness was its lack of warriors. An alliance with Clan Mors would solve that problem for them. Indeed, such an alliance would be strong enough to challenge the rest of the Council, even more threatening than an alliance between Eshin and Pestilens!

Once again, Thanquol felt himself being dragged down into the treacherous world of inter-clan politics with himself caught squarely in the middle.

Still, there was the little question of why Kaskitt wanted him along. Glancing over his shoulder, Thanquol saw the reason. The two bruisers who had snatched him off the street weren’t from Clan Skryre, they were warriors of Clan Mors and they had their eyes fixed firmly on the grey seer. He could guess why. Over the years of his selfless service to skavendom, he had gained a completely ill-deserved notoriety for being an opportunist who would betray his fellow ratmen to further his own career. It was a wholly fallacious rumour, but one that had spread. Kaskitt was playing on that deception. With Thanquol along, Clan Mors would be keeping such a close watch on him that they wouldn’t be paying attention to what the warlock-engineer was up to.

That left only one question: what was Warlock Kaskitt Steelgrin up to?

It was early morning before Thanquol was able to extricate himself from his meeting with Kaskitt. The more he heard about the scheme, the less inclined he was to risk his neck. There was the rather obvious problem that his primary role in Kaskitt’s plans was to act as a decoy for whatever his real plans were. Clan Mors numbered some of the strongest and fiercest warriors in all the Under-Empire among its ranks. The last thing Thanquol needed was to get himself involved in anything likely to provoke them. Especially when it was something he wasn’t certain he’d be able to use for himself, even when he discovered whatever it was.

Then there were the dwarfs to take into account. The beardy maggots were hardly just going to lie down and hand over their stronghold to the skaven. Thanquol knew from past experience exactly how tenacious and terrifying the dwarfs could be. That ginger-furred maniac who had single-handedly destroyed some of Thanquol’s most intricate schemes immediately came to mind.

The dwarfs of Karak Angkul had been described as a particularly tough and sneaky sort. Clan Mors had lost a good many warriors to their tricks and traps, and Rikkit Snapfang had spent a small fortune buying slaves to make up their numbers. Even if the skaven managed to take the dwarfhold, they might not have enough warriors left to keep it.

Even if they did, a strengthening of the bonds between Clan Skryre and Clan Mors was hardly in the best interests of skavendom. The warlock-engineers were a godless batch of secular progressives who were woefully lax in their veneration of the Horned Rat and the respect due his holy priests, the grey seers. A powerful warlord clan like Mors certainly didn’t need the pernicious influence of such vermin upon them. The order of grey seers was quite capable of bestowing all the helpful guidance Mors could ever want. They didn’t need a bunch of self-serving tinker-rats confusing the easily-manipulated warlord clans.

Besides, a closer union between Skryre and Mors and the resultant weakening of the position of the grey seers wouldn’t exactly help Thanquol’s own prospects. No, he had every reason to run as fast and as far from Kaskitt’s proposal as he could. Not that he’d told the warlock-engineer anything of the sort. Thanquol was shrewd enough to understand that if Kaskitt thought he wasn’t interested, then he would have left their little meeting with a few dozen bullets in his body. Instead, he’d managed a very enthusiastic show of support and agreed to meet Kaskitt’s expedition when they set out in the morning.

Hurrying through the maze of Skavenblight’s crowded streets, Thanquol scurried to his own burrow. There was just a chance that another grey seer hadn’t taken over his lodgings while he’d been away – Seerlord Kritislik wouldn’t have wanted any obvious signs of Thanquol’s absence unless he was sure Thanquol wasn’t coming back.

Allowing that his home was intact, he’d have to be fast gathering his belongings and he’d have to be quite severe in deciding what to take and what to abandon. Some of his prize books and scrolls would have to go, of course, and his priceless collection of bottled breeder scent. A few of his most potent talismans, one or two of his snuff-boxes, a couple of extra robes. It wasn’t much to show for his years of faithful service to the Council, but it was better than losing his pelt to a bunch of upset warlock-engineers and their Clan Mors bully-rats.

The tunnel leading into the complex of caves and pits where many of the grey seers kept their nests was lined with flagstones plundered from throughout the city and supported by marble columns looted from the palazzos of Miragliano. A gang of white-furred stormvermin guarded the entrance, their pink eyes glaring balefully at every skaven who came too close to the tunnel, their clawed fingers wrapped about the hafts of axe-headed halberds.

The guards stiffened as Thanquol came near them, two of them even crossing their weapons to bar his way. The sergeant in command of them crept forwards, his nose twitching as he sniffed Thanquol’s scent.

Lashing his tail impatiently, Thanquol waited for the dull-witted albino to recognise the grey seer’s spoor.

Unfortunately, the sergeant did. Snapping his jaws in a silent howl, the burly stormvermin seized Thanquol by the arm. Instinctively, Thanquol smashed the head of his staff into the ratman’s face, sending blood spraying across his white fur.

‘Do you know-think who I am?’ the furious grey seer demanded, heedless of the fact that the mute skaven couldn’t answer him.

Instead other guards rushed forwards to help their injured fangleader. Seizing Thanquol, the stormvermin ripped his staff from his fingers. A rush of panic flooded through the grey seer’s brain as he felt himself being overwhelmed. Desperately he flailed about in the grip of his captors, raking his horns across their snouts, biting their fingers with his fangs.

A trap! And one he had allowed himself to scurry straight into! It was all that scheming weasel Kaskitt’s doing! The warlock-engineer had goaded him into such recklessness through his wild talk of schemes and alliances! He wasn’t sure how Clan Skryre had gone about bribing the elite stormvermin, but he was sure nobody would believe such a thing possible. Whatever happened to him, Clan Skryre would never be suspected!

The mute stormvermin lifted Thanquol from the ground, a different warrior holding each of his thrashing arms and legs. Thanquol began to shriek for help, but the louder his cries, the more resolutely the skaven in the street turned away. Everyone knew the white stormvermin were the private troops of the Council of Thirteen. If Thanquol had run afoul of them, then clearly he had evoked the wrath of the Lords of Decay.

Still struggling and squealing, Thanquol was carried off through the crumbling streets of Skavenblight.

Carried to the Shattered Tower.

CHAPTER FOUR

Heavy, cloying incense filled the air, creating an almost smothering fug that seeped clear down into the lungs of those forced to breathe it. For a skaven, the sensation was as frightening and disorientating as being blindfolded. The noxious fumes provoked fits of coughing that left a ratman almost doubled over in pain. Even if he could smell an enemy coming, he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

The stone-walled chamber had an alarmingly high ceiling, the faded ruin of a fresco peeking out through layers of soot and dirt. Great bronze sconces stood scattered all about the floor, green light glowing from their bowls where chunks of refined warpstone smouldered. The great symbol of the Horned One was painted upon the floor with a skill and precision that denoted the most diligent of care. Probably slave work, with a most violent penalty for any mistakes. Upon one wall, a great stone rat-head with double horns leered malignantly, its ruby eyes twinkling in the light.

Beneath the stone head, standing atop a small dais, his back to a long marble altar, stood one of the most powerful skaven in the Under-Empire. Seerlord Kritislik, the Grand Grey Seer of all Skavendom, Ipsissimus of the Entire Order of Grey Seers, Keeper of the Temple and the Faith of the Temple, Lord Exalted of the Shattered Tower, Ringmaster of the Black Bell, First Member of the Council of Thirteen and Voice of the Horned Rat.

The villainous old ratman held a brass pomander under his nose, sniffing liberally from the black vapour rising from its vents. Whatever the vapour was, it seemed to nullify the effects of the incense filling the room. Kritislik grinned down at his rumpled guest as the guards tossed Thanquol onto the hard floor.

‘You smell-look well, Grey Seer Thanquol,’ Kritislik announced, his eyes watching as the grey seer curled into a little wheezing ball as the incense overwhelmed him. ‘I am pleased you have not died,’ he added. The show of compassion chilled Thanquol to the marrow. A skaven was never more menacing than when he professed kindness and sympathy.

Thanquol blinked back tears as the incense began to burn his eyes. He struggled to right himself, but was careful not to make eye contact with his superior. The last thing he needed was for the megalomaniacal and thoroughly unbalanced Kritislik to mistake an innocent whisker twitch as some gesture of challenge.

‘Most-most magnificent Seerlord, Favourite Spawnling of the Horned One,’ Thanquol wheezed between coughs.

Kritislik made an impatient flick of his paws. ‘Hold-keep that fawning tongue, Thanquol,’ he snapped. ‘I don’t know how you survived Lustria…’

Thanquol’s glands clenched, spurting the musk of fear. Kritislik knew about his journey? How much more did he know? Did he think Thanquol had tried to betray the grey seers by helping Clan Eshin try to secure an alliance with the plague monks?

‘Great Devourer of Unbelievers,’ Thanquol whined. ‘I have served you and the Horned One faithfully without think-thought of myself. Bravely I have penetrated the crooked plot-scheme of Nightlord Sneek…’

‘Nightlord Sneek was the one who told me you were back,’ Kritislik said, taking a deep sniff of his pomander. ‘Since their recent unpleasantness with Pestilens, Eshin has been quite zealous in serving the Temple of the Horned One.’ There was a malicious smile on Kritislik’s face that made Thanquol wonder just how much of Eshin’s problems with the plague monks had been orchestrated by the Seerlord. Kritislik could not abide another grey seer upstaging him and was envious of Thanquol’s brilliant mind. It was just like the slippery old priest to go and poison the relationship between the two clans before Thanquol could claim the reward and recognition which was his due.

Kritislik turned away, toying with an array of knives laid out across the top of the altar. The Seerlord’s nonchalance didn’t fool Thanquol. He knew the scheming rat would have guards hidden somewhere about or some sort of spell ready and waiting to be unleashed. Perhaps there was a trapdoor in the floor between Thanquol and the altar. The grey seer’s glands clenched as he recalled the ghastly mutant crocodiles the Lords of Decay were said to keep in pits below the tower to dispose of unwanted minions.

The Seerlord gave Thanquol another toothy smile, then set down the warpstone knife he had been fondling. ‘Killing the Prophet of Sotek was inconvenient,’ Kritislik stated. ‘Ever since Xiuhcoatl’s death was discovered, Nurglitch has been trying to sell-tell the rest of the Council on a re-conquest of Lustria.’

‘Most-most Vicious Pontiff,’ Thanquol sputtered. ‘I did not-not slay-kill Xiuhcoatl. A man-thing shot him and ruined all of my plans to make sure-certain the Prophet was live-safe.’ The grey seer coughed as the incense continued to assail him, the little bells on his horns tinkling in time to his convulsions. ‘The lizard-meat was a good enemy of Nurglitch and useful to us.’

‘Yes-yes,’ Kritislik agreed. ‘The scaly little pest was a useful threat to keep Pestilens in line. But now that Nurglitch is determined to try to restore Pestilens’ burrows in lizard-land, things are changed. The expedition is sure to fail and Pestilens will lose many plague monks fighting the lizardmen. Their power will be diminished for some time.’

Thanquol perked up, straining to keep himself erect even as another fit of coughing wracked his body. ‘It is well-good that I told the man-thing to shoot-slay Xiuhcoatl,’ he stated.

Kritislik wasn’t really listening any more. Instead, he had removed a strip of tanned ratskin from under the belt of his robe. He read the hash-mark letters stained into the hide, then fixed his gaze back on Thanquol. ‘You have a talent-gift for setting our enemies against each other,’ Kritislik said. He tapped a claw against the scroll he had just read. ‘Some of Sneek’s spies tell me you have been squeaking with Kaskitt Steelgrin. He has some plan-plot to make an alliance between Skryre and Mors.’

Thanquol’s empty glands tried to squirt, sending a wave of pain flashing through his innards. ‘Lies! Not-trues!’ Thanquol whined. ‘I am a loyal servant of the Horned One! I would never betray the temple and the Council of Thirteen!’

Kritislik bruxed his fangs, the sound of his teeth grinding together echoing through the stone chamber. ‘Stop grovelling, Thanquol,’ the Seerlord commanded. ‘I want you to join Kaskitt and hurry-scurry to Karak Angkul. Let-make Kaskitt think you are helping his plan. But what you will really be doing is working for me.’

The Seerlord snapped his fingers together. From behind one of the heavy curtains, a pot-bellied old grey seer scuttled into view. The sorcerer-priest had limbs that were as thin as a rail and part of his nose had been eaten away. Combined with his paunch, Thanquol recognised all of the marks of a degenerate snuff-user. The ratman’s scent reeked of unrefined warpstone and his eyes had the unfocused look of the inveterate addict. A surge of disgust welled up in Thanquol’s belly as the other grey seer stared down at him. How such a morally repugnant and weak-willed creature could be numbered among the Horned One’s priesthood was a mystery to him.

‘Skraekual will go with you,’ Kritislik pronounced. ‘Tell-say he is your helper.’

‘I don’t need-want a helper,’ Thanquol said, remembering the last apprentice Kritislik had foisted upon him. Adept Kratch had come very close to killing his mentor several times with his selfish treacheries. Thanquol wasn’t about to repeat that experience, certainly not with the memory of what he’d done to his own mentor still fresh in his mind.

Kritislik began to chitter with amusement, the bleary-eyed Skraekual soon joining in the Seerlord’s laughter. ‘Skraekual is not your helper,’ Kritislik informed Thanquol. ‘You are his, but only the two of you will-will know that.’

It was Thanquol’s turn to brux his teeth together in annoyance. Kritislik intended to use him the same way Kaskitt intended to: as some sort of damned decoy! He was going to exploit the fame and renown of skavendom’s greatest hero so some drug-addled half-wit could blunder about on one of Kritislik’s insipid ploys!

The Seerlord glowered back at Thanquol, irritated that his minion would dare show distemper in his presence. The malignant stare had its effect. Thanquol cowered back down to the floor, oozing support for Kritislik’s genius and silently cursing the exotic snuff that continued to have a pernicious effect on his normally cautious judgement.

‘Mighty and Wise Squeaker of the Law,’ Thanquol whined. ‘It is a stroke of genius to use your humble servant as a cover-cloak for my noble colleague Skraekual.’ The grey seer coughed, almost choking on the words, a reaction that had nothing to do with the incense filling the room. Suddenly a cunning gleam came into his eye. ‘What sort of mission is it you wish me to conceal?’

There might still be a way to twist the intrigues of his scheming superior around towards his own benefit. If Thanquol could learn what it was Kritislik and Skraekual were up to, then he might be able to beat them to the scratch. Or at least make sure Skraekual wasn’t in any condition to finish the job, thereby making it essential that Thanquol take over for him.

Sadly, Kritislik had a deceitful mind that trusted no one, however loyal they had proven themselves in the past. ‘Skraekual knows what he must do,’ the Seerlord growled. ‘It is enough for you to keep Kaskitt and Rikkit from interfering with him. Do you think you can manage that, Grey Seer Thanquol?’

Thanquol felt a mad urge to lunge at the Seerlord and make him eat his words, but he knew that was just Lynsh’s snuff trying to make him commit suicide. Instead, he bowed his head and tried to keep from coughing as he waited for Kritislik to dismiss him.

Klarak Bronzehammer stood alone before the Silver Throne of Karak Angkul. Carved from living rock and silver ore, the immense seat stood as tall as any four dwarfs and was as broad as a mine cart. The great hall in which the Silver Throne sat had been constructed around the seat, for the stone of which it was made had never been moved since its discovery by miners four thousand years ago when the great hold was still being cut from the roots of the mountains. Tradition held that if the Silver Throne were ever moved, then the ancestor gods would turn their faces from Karak Angkul and the stronghold would fade into ruin.

The hall around the throne was gigantic in its proportions, with enormous fluted pillars supporting its tiled ceiling and the crystal mirrors which brought the light and warmth of the sun down deep into the mountain. The tiles depicted the sagas of the ancestor gods, of Grimnir’s doomed exodus into the Realm of Chaos, of Valaya founding the great dwarfholds of legend, of Grungni leading his people deep beneath the earth to mine gromril from the black depths. Each of the ancestor gods was depicted in marble with a halo of gold surrounding them and the weapons they bore had heads of pure gromril.

The frescoes covering the walls were of equally superb craftsmanship, though of more humble subjects. They depicted the founding of Karak Angkul, the heroic history of the dwarfs who called the stronghold home. Sections of wall were dedicated to the Goblin Wars, showing the dwarfs waging their unending battle against the wretched greenskins for control of the mountains. A section dozens of yards long showed the dwarfs of Karak Angkul making war against the arrogant elves during the War of the Beard, artillerists from the stronghold maiming the dreaded wyrm Malok at the Battle of Burned Blades. A smaller tableau showed the dwarfs marching to the aid of the fledgling Empire, cutting off the advance of the undead warlord Zahaak the Usurper before he could join the horde of his unholy master Nagash against the outnumbered army of the manling emperor Sigmar.

Trophies adorned the sides of the pillars, mementoes of the victories of Karak Angkul. The mummified husk of the devil-spider Togrildam hung from chains against one column, the gigantic beast’s carapace still showing the marks of King Glorin Thornefinger’s hammer. The immense war-axe of the orc warlord Ghazagruff, its cleaver-like blade split where it had broken against the runeshield of King Uldrik Blackhand. The armour of Lord Corirthar Swiftsword, slain by Nimbrindil Ironfoot at the Battle of Fellwind Dale. Two crimson scales as big as shields that had been ripped from the hide of the dragon Malok by Skalfri Brandbeard with his bolt-thrower during the War of the Beard.

The glory of Karak Angkul was on display all around him and Klarak felt a swelling of pride to belong to such a proud heritage. Reflecting upon his ancestors always gave him a redoubled sense of purpose, a fierce determination to bend his sharp mind towards the service of his people. It did not matter if he received acclaim and recognition for his works. What mattered was that he helped ensure the continuance of Karak Angkul and its rich history.

‘Your sentinel guns took a formidable toll on the enemy.’ The statement came from the grey-bearded dwarf seated upon the Silver Throne. Well into his fourth century of life, King Logan Longblade still cut an imposing figure. The stamp of time had been merciful to the old king, though the swords of enemies had not. The king had lost three sons in battle against the many enemies who threatened Karak Angkul. His last son, the youngest, he had dispatched as ambassador to Karaz-a-Karak some two decades past, ostensibly to represent the stronghold at the court of the High King, though many whispered he had sent him away in an effort to protect his bloodline from complete extinction.

Perhaps it was the personal tragedies he had suffered which made King Logan such a forward-thinking ruler, uncommonly open to new ideas and innovations. Without his complicity, Klarak knew that most of his inventions would have languished unused and unseen within the isolated halls of the Engineers’ Guild.

‘The contraptions performed adequately,’ the crackly voice of Guildmaster Thori admitted. If time had been kindly to King Logan, the same could not be said of Thori. The engineer was wizened, his long grey beard the only thing about him that still looked healthy. His body was withered, his skin shrivelled, his eyes bleary behind the thick crystal lenses of his spectacles. Thori’s legs would barely support him, forcing the engineer to employ a gold-tipped staff as an elegant kind of crutch.

‘Guildmaster Thori is too kind,’ Klarak said in his most diplomatic tone, bowing to the old dwarf. ‘I am troubled by the malfunction of one of the weapons. It should not have happened.’

King Logan smiled behind his beard. He was too old a hand at the game Klarak was forced to play with the Engineers’ Guild to be fooled by the verbal duelling. ‘The sentinel guns broke the back of that damned horde of ratkin filth,’ Logan declared. ‘There was barely anything left for the axes of our warriors.’

‘The skaven still control the lower mines,’ Thori pointed out. ‘Never before have they penetrated so far into our domains.’

‘Perhaps we should have posted a few of Klarak’s guns in the lower mines,’ Logan replied, his tone sharp.

Klarak intervened before an argument could erupt. ‘The sentinel guns are still unproven. One marginally successful test in combat does not mean they are proven to be dependable.’ His words brought a frown to Logan’s face and a confident gleam to Thori’s eye. His next words reversed the expressions the two dwarfs wore. ‘I should like to experiment further, Highness. I should like to post my sentinel guns at the approaches to the lower mines. With the ironbreakers overrun by the ratkin, we will need a new line of defence against them when they make another assault on the upper halls.’

Thori pounced on the idea, his voice dripping with scorn. ‘And who will watch these contraptions of yours? Do you mean to risk the lives of valiant dwarfs defending unproven…’

‘There will be no need for anyone to watch the guns,’ Klarak stated. He reached to his belt and removed a length of leather hose. ‘This is the key to making the guns completely independent. Under pressure, this hose will remain taut. Break the pressure and it will go limp.’

‘Any apprentice could make such a claim,’ Thori grumbled.

‘It is a simple concept,’ Klarak agreed. ‘But what I propose is a new way of using this simple concept. A pressurised hose will be connected to each sentinel gun, the other length trailing into a central watchpost. Each hose will be numbered and the location of each corresponding gun recorded on a map. If any gun is damaged – as it is sure to be should an enemy overwhelm it – then the hose attached to it will lose pressure. In that way, we will know where the enemy has struck and can react accordingly.’

Thori threw up his hands. ‘Of all the…’

‘A bold idea, Klarak,’ King Logan interrupted. ‘Whatever you need to implement your plan, you shall have it.’ The dwarf king glowered at the fuming Thori. ‘I am sure Guildmaster Thori will show you every courtesy.’

‘I look forward to working with my fellow engineers,’ Klarak said, bowing in turn to each of the dwarf leaders before turning on his heel and marching swiftly from the great hall.

As he left his audience with King Logan, Klarak’s mind was troubled. It was not the performance of his sentinel guns which worried him, nor even the obvious displeasure of Guildmaster Thori. His eyes had fallen upon the flayed pelt of a ratman stretched across the side of a pillar, a grey pelt which still sported ivory horns.

After the battle in the lower mines, Klarak had found a messenger awaiting him in his chambers, a messenger from the human city of Altdorf. The letter the Imperial dwarf delivered had been brief, but alarming. It had been written with a special ink and in a special script that would not make itself intelligible unless a certain incantation was spoken over it. There were few outside the cadre of operatives who served the wizard Jeremias Scrivner who had ever been made privy to that secret. Klarak Bronzehammer was one of those few.

The shadowmancer’s message had been brief. It was a warning, a prophecy of great disaster looming over Karak Angkul and Klarak Bronzehammer. Central to the warning was a horned ratman, one of the abominable grey seers.

Thanquol, the skaven was called, and he would unleash a hideous doom upon Karak Angkul unless Klarak could stop him in time.

Megalithic in its proportions, the immense tunnel known as Swampscratch wormed its way deep beneath the Blighted Marshes, connecting the festering city of Skavenblight with its far-flung subterranean empire. Armies of slaves tended the tunnel day and night, labouring under the lashes of snarling ratmen to shore up the sagging ceiling with a motley array of wooden beams, stone columns, and brick pillars. Patches of masonry dripped from the walls, steel plates bulged from the roof, timbers groaned under the strain of archways. Everywhere, the stink of the swamp oozed into the tunnel, stagnant black water sweating out from every inch of exposed earth. Pools of filth formed in every footprint that marred the floor.

In many places, heaps of mud and earth formed obstructions, great yawning pits in the ceiling letting swamp water and sunlight stream into the tunnel. Sometimes the crushed bodies of skaven poked out from beneath the slimy rubble. Occasionally, a muffled whine rose from some wretch trapped within the muck.

The teeming hordes of skaven scurrying through the tunnel ignored the cries of their less fortunate kin. Carefully they navigated around the obstructions, snarling and cursing the slaves who were tasked to clear the rubble away. The seemingly endless tide of vermin swarmed along the monstrous passage, wheeling about the confused array of pillars and columns keeping the swamp from crashing down about their heads. Many of the skaven pushed carts or carried great baskets lashed to their backs, struggling beneath burdens of goods plundered from across the world. Tribute for the Lords of Decay from their scattered vassals.

Grey Seer Thanquol glared malevolently at the dripping ceiling as a stream of stinking swamp water splashed across him. Irritably, he wiped his paw across the front of his fouled robe.

‘Where-where is that tick-licking wire-chewer?’ Thanquol growled. He tapped his claws on the little rat-skull snuff-box, restraining the urge to take a little sniff of the crushed warpstone to ease his nerves.

‘The Horned One will provide-give when it is time,’ the scabby voice of Skraekual hissed. The decayed grey seer skirted around another stream of swamp water, his rheumy eyes fixed on Thanquol’s. ‘Only fool-meat hurries to find trouble.’

A low rumble shook the tunnel. Skraekual quickly skipped forwards, his eyes narrowing into sly little slits. Thanquol’s hackles rose in suspicion. It was more instinct than thought which moved him to leap ahead and join his fellow sorcerer-priest. Behind them, a part of the ceiling came crashing down, smashing a knot of hurrying skaven beneath a morass of mud and stagnant water.

‘Fool-meat!’ Thanquol snarled, his tail curled about his ankles. ‘Why did you not warn-cry?’

Skraekual grinned back at Thanquol, exposing his yellow fangs, pitted from over-use of warpstone and clinging to gums that were riddled with cankers. ‘The Horned One saves who he will save.’

Thanquol’s fingers closed about the heft of his staff. He wondered if he could get away with bashing the dust- addict’s brains out. A quick glance about reminded him there were far too many witnesses.

‘Next time, give the Horned One some help,’ Thanquol grumbled.

Skraekual just kept grinning at him. The noseless grey seer raised a claw, pointing at the amulet around Thanquol’s throat. ‘I like-like talisman,’ Skraekual gibbered. ‘I might find-take if Thanquol has accident. Kritislik won’t mind.’

Thanquol’s paw closed about the talisman. It was an ancient artefact, dating from back before there was a Council of Thirteen, back to the time when the Under-Empire was ruled by bickering Grey Lords. It was hoary with eldritch magic, endowed with powers even Thanquol had never fully explored. The Amulet of the Horned One had been the prize possession of his old mentor, Grey Seer Sleekit, a badge of honour bestowed upon him by Seerlord Kritislik.

Thanquol felt his glands clench as he thought of the tyrannical Master Sleekit. Only a few of the villainous old rat’s pupils had survived to become grey seers. He chuckled to himself as he considered the fates of the few who had been initiated into the Order alongside him. Tisquik, Seerlord Kritislik’s favourite, had been murdered by an assassin’s blade shortly after he’d been caught meeting with Seerlord Tisqueek, Kritislik’s greatest rival within the Order of Grey Seers. Thanquol sometimes wondered if the meeting had really happened or if Kritislik had just suddenly developed some unreasoning paranoia over the similarity between the names of his protégé and his most hated enemy. Whatever the reason, the elimination of Tisquik had been a happy accident as far as Thanquol was concerned. He was only sorry he hadn’t thought of helping such a fate along sooner.

He had been less happy with the fate of Bokha. Really too weak-willed to make a good grey seer, Bokha would have proven an easily manipulated ally for Thanquol to exploit. Sadly, the idiot devoured too much warpstone while leading a skaven army against orcs in the Black Mountains. The concentration of warpstone had unbalanced the humours in Bokha’s body, causing the ratman to degenerate into an almost formless mess of lashing tentacles and snapping fangs. To his credit, the Bokha-spawn had killed a lot of orcs before he was finally crushed under a boulder. Unfortunately, the monster also killed half of his own army before he was finished.

The last of his comrades had been the ambitious Squiktat. Of them all, Squiktat had been the only serious rival to Thanquol’s genius. Squiktat had had a genuine aptitude for sorcery that made him the star pupil of old Sleekit. The scheming little maggot had been able to unleash the most devastating spells without even taking a tiny sniff of warpstone to help him master the raw power of the Horned Rat. It had troubled Thanquol greatly to know Squiktat might possess more power than himself. He’d intended to give himself a head start on his rival by sneaking a look at Master Sleekit’s collection of magic tomes. Word of his plan must have been betrayed to Squiktat, however, for the other grey seer tried to cheat Thanquol and steal Sleekit’s books first.

The result was another happy accident. Thanquol never knew what it was Squiktat had read in those books, but whatever it was had driven the sneaking little thief out of his mind. The mad, gibbering wretch was last seen wandering into the depths of the Blighted Marshes.

It was only natural that, with all his fellow apprentices gone, Thanquol should inherit Master Sleekit’s prize possessions when his revered mentor should suffer a significantly fatal accident. The Amulet of the Horned One was chief among the treasures Thanquol filched before anyone could question Sleekit’s demise too closely.

It had powers. Thanquol had never failed to feel the invigorating influence of the Amulet. His already considerable endurance was expanded to fittingly heroic levels by the power of his talisman. Inconveniences like bug bites and the odd knife wound healed with supernatural quickness. He could even brave a meeting with the diseased disciples of Clan Pestilens without getting sick.

Thanquol looked away from his amulet and back at Skraekual with his rotten face and drug-ravaged body. Did that mass of loathsomeness have any idea of the Amulet’s powers? What would that hedonistic hophead give to possess the restorative powers of such a relic? Under such magic, the maggot might undo the havoc his addictions had wrought. He would be reborn as a virile, healthy skaven at the prime of his powers even as Thanquol himself!

Thanquol bruxed his fangs together as another idea came to him. Was it Kritislik who had concocted the unscrupulous idea of using him as a decoy, or had that wormy thought originated with Skraekual? He could see in the addict’s bleary eyes the avarice scurrying about in his brain! There was no real mission at all! This was nothing more than some crazy plot by Skraekual to get Thanquol out into some forsaken corner of skavendom and then steal his Amulet!

Fur bristling, Thanquol tongued a little sliver of warpstone from his cheek-pouch. So that was the game then! Well, he would soon finish it! He’d blast Skraekual into a pool of pudding and then report the slime’s deception to Seerlord Kritislik!

Even as Thanquol’s mind began to focus upon the spell that would send Skraekual to his traitor’s reward, a sharp shout brought him about. The spell died unformed in his mind as he found himself being encircled by a pack of leather-coated Clan Skryre skirmishers.

‘Grey Seer Thanquol,’ Kaskitt Steelgrin’s shrill voice called out. The warlock-engineer emerged from behind the ring of skirmishers, scratching at the wires curling around his face. ‘I see-scent you are timely.’ The eyes behind the lenses of Kaskitt’s face-wrappings narrowed with suspicion as he noted Skraekual. ‘What-who is that?’ he growled.

Thanquol lashed his tail in annoyance. Was Kaskitt actually trying to accuse him of bringing along Skraekual as some sort of plot against the warlock-engineer? Had the rattle-brained mouse-squeezer spent so much time in his laboratory that he couldn’t recognise pure hate between two skaven when it was right under his nose?

A cunning gleam crept into Thanquol’s eye. Why dispose of Skraekual himself and risk the ire of Seerlord Kritislik when he could have Kaskitt do the job for him? All it would take would be a little cautious encouragement of the warlock-engineer’s already existing suspicions.

‘Grey Seer Skraekual help-work great and tyrannical Thanquol,’ Skraekual’s unctuous voice chimed in. The wretched priest was pawing at the rotten stump of his nose, his bleary eyes making a feeble attempt to focus upon Kaskitt. The stink of warpstone snuff, blackroot and ratnip was pronounced as he shuffled closer towards the Clan Skryre skaven.

Kaskitt chittered with amusement, directing a shrewd glance at Thanquol, then making a subtle gesture with his paw to his own bodyguards. The posture of the skirmishers became more relaxed, their hands drifting away from the warplock pistols slung beneath their belts.

‘Fine-good assistant,’ Kaskitt laughed. Clearly he had caught the smell of Skraekual’s excessive vices and instantly dismissed the decrepit grey seer as anything to be wary of. Perhaps Kaskitt thought Thanquol had brought the other grey seer in an attempt to turn the warlock-engineer’s own trickery back upon him – to give him someone to watch and worry about so that he would relax his vigilance over Thanquol. If so, Kaskitt felt his sneaky ally had chosen a poor instrument for such deception.

‘Grey Seer Skraekual is a powerful sorcerer,’ Thanquol insisted. ‘The Horned Rat favours him like no other! Great and terrible are the magics of Skraekual! Renowned throughout the Under-Empire!’

A fit of coughing came over Skraekual, the priest doubling over in a trembling fit as spasms wracked his body. A shivering hand pawed across his belt until finally closing about a dried twist of blackroot. The quaking fingers dropped the hallucinogenic to the floor. Instantly, Skraekual fell to all fours, retrieving the root with his teeth. Mud caked the front of his face as he noisily wolfed down the desiccated herb.

Caustic laughter rose from Kaskitt and his skirmishers. Even some of the foot-traffic filling Swampscratch paused to jeer at the spectacle of a decrepit grey seer wallowing in the muck like some kind of rabid mole. Thanquol felt his contempt for Skraekual swell. It wasn’t enough that the villain had abused his body and mind to the point where he was nothing but a walking mass of addictions. It wasn’t enough that he had sunk so low that he didn’t even have the wit to preserve the dignity of the grey seers. It wasn’t enough that every breath the scabby wretch took was a blight upon the glory of the Horned One. No, the scum had sunk so low that he couldn’t even evoke a bit of concern in the hearts of Thanquol’s duplicitous allies.

Filthy, drug-addled vermin, Thanquol thought as he scowled at Skraekual’s disgusting spectacle. He took a pinch of Lynsh’s snuff from his rat-skull box to take the edge off the jeers of his fellow skaven.

‘Your help-meat has seen-smelled better days,’ Kaskitt cackled. A sly quality entered his voice. ‘Seerlord Kritislik must dislike you much-much to send this with you.’

Thanquol felt his glands clench. The inference was plain. Kaskitt had had Thanquol watched since they had parted company. He knew the grey seer had visited the Shattered Tower. Somehow he’d discovered Thanquol’s meeting with Kritislik. But how much did Kaskitt know about what had transpired during that meeting?

‘Kritislik does not value you much,’ Kaskitt persisted. ‘A great-mighty hero-lord like Thanquol could do better. He could help-serve Clan Skryre.’

Thanquol’s eyes narrowed with concern. It wasn’t the fact that Kaskitt was about to make some sort of treasonous, perhaps even blasphemous proposal to him. Indeed, he’d been waiting to hear what sort of bribe Kaskitt was going to toss his way. No, what alarmed Thanquol was the very public manner in which Kaskitt was broaching the subject. There were literally thousands of ears all around them, any one of which could bring word back to Kritislik.

And clearly, that was the point. Whatever his own position, Kaskitt feared no reprisal by making Thanquol an offer. Conversely, by making his offer publicly, he wanted word to filter back to the Seerlord. Whatever Thanquol did, whatever his answer to Kaskitt, he would not be able to escape the fear that Kritislik would already believe him guilty of switching his loyalties. The only safe course for Thanquol would be to loyally maintain his bargain with Kaskitt and hope for the protection of Clan Skryre against any reprisal from Kritislik.

Even so, Thanquol thought it best to make a bold display of unwavering loyalty to the Seerlord. ‘I am content to serve-work for the Horned One and grim Seerlord Kritislik, who is the Voice and the Might of…’

Thanquol’s words caught in his throat, choked by a sudden clenching of his glands. Across the tunnel, the crowds had suddenly wheeled away, spurts of fear-musk rising into the air. He could see a clutch of Clan Skryre forge-rats scurrying his way, their bodies stinking of oil and steel. He gave them only a passing notice, his eyes drawn instead to the towering shape that lumbered behind them.

The thing was gigantic, easily twice the height of a skaven and nearly as broad. It smelled of warpstone and blood and death, all mixed with the scent of old bones and new steel. Looming over the cowering crowds of skaven, it marched across the tunnel like some primordial titan, each step gouging a fresh crater in the muddy floor.

Once, it had been a rat-ogre. Only so fierce and enormous a creature could have provided the thick bones which served as its framework. Fleshless, polished clean by time, the heavy bones glistened in the flickering warplight of the tunnel. Short thick legs supported a massive, bulky trunk. Long skeletal arms depended from broad shoulders. The chest cavity had been reinforced with plates of steel, wires and tubes running in crazed disorder from machinery hidden behind the bare ribs to sink into metal rods bolted into each arm and leg. A third arm jutted from the creature’s left side, but where the others ended in massive paws of bone and claws of steel, this arm ended in a monstrous nozzle from which a long slimy hose emerged to connect with an iron-banded barrel fastened to the creature’s back.

‘A gift-bribe,’ Kaskitt chittered, sweeping his paws in a grand gesture. ‘A token-present of Clan Skryre’s appreciation.’

The strange, ghastly abomination continued to stomp its way towards Thanquol, finally halting a few steps away. It stared down at the shivering grey seer, tiny warp-lights glowing in the sockets of its huge, rat-like skull.

‘For… for me?’ Thanquol stammered, half ready to scurry back to the Shattered Tower if the hideous machine-monster took another step.

‘Spent much-much to steal bones of Thanquol’s rat-ogre from man-things,’ Kaskitt explained. ‘Cost much-much to automate dead-thing.’

Thanquol peered more closely at the hideous construction. He could see the iron bands holding the skull together where it had been cleft in half by a mighty blow. Instantly a thrill of terror coursed through his glands. The ginger-furred dwarf-thing! That thrice-damned Gotrek Gurnisson! As vividly as though it were yesterday he could picture the dwarf slayer confronting him in the tunnel beneath the nest-home of Fritz von Halstadt. Some treacherous mouse-spleened flea had betrayed Thanquol’s brilliant scheme to use the hapless human as his ratspaw to bring the man-thing warren of Nuln under skaven control. The dwarf and his man-thing pet, Felix Jaeger, had been waiting for Thanquol, manically attacking him in a frenzy of unprovoked and unwarranted violence before the grey seer could call up a spell that would blast them into cinders. Only the selfless devotion of his rat-ogre, the first to bear the name of Boneripper, had saved his life. While Boneripper was stopping the dwarf’s axe with his head, Thanquol was able to effect his speedy, if undignified, escape.

The grey seer ground his fangs together. There would be a reckoning between him and that pair! By the Horned One, he would yet have both their hides to cover his floor! He would have his revenge upon the cowardly slayer and his companion, such a revenge that all skavendom would quiver in admiration when they heard of it! He’d make their names a byword for torture and suffering! He’d give their bones to his pups to chew! He’d bottle their blood and drink it every time…

Shaking his head to clear the delicious images of vengeance from his mind, Thanquol stared at the hulking bone-ogre with a new appreciation. Twitching his nose, he realised he could now smell the scent of his first and favourite bodyguard lingering beneath the stink of Clan Skryre’s techno-sorcery.

‘I thank you for your gift,’ Thanquol told Kaskitt, enjoying the nervous look Skraekual directed at him as he did so. If everything he did was going to be reported to Kritislik anyway, then it would pay to exploit the situation to its fullest. Besides, even the Seerlord would think twice about toying with him now that he had such a formidable, magnificent bodyguard.

Kaskitt bobbed his head in obvious pleasure. ‘This is the finest automaton to emerge from our laboratories,’ the warlock-engineer explained. ‘Powered by a warpstone heart that will keep it moving for thirty moons before replacement. The bones have been hard-made with layers of warpstone dust. The arm,’ and here the engineer’s eyes glistened with malicious appreciation, ‘conceals a small warpfire thrower, fill-fed from cistern mounted on its back.’ Kaskitt bared his fangs with murderous glee. ‘Burn-slay many dwarf-things,’ he promised.

The warlock-engineer removed a curved sliver of warpstone deeply scratched with Queekish markings and bound about with a bizarre array of wires. ‘This warptooth will let you command the rat-ogre,’ Kaskitt explained, demonstrating how one of the wires could be coiled about the ear. ‘Anything you squeak-say while wearing the warptooth will be listen-heard by the rat-ogre.’

Thanquol listened as the excited warlock-engineer elaborated every nuance of the morbid machine-beast, Kaskitt quickly losing himself in zealous aggrandisement of Clan Skryre’s technological wonders.

The grey seer paid little attention to Kaskitt’s explanations. He gazed up at the fleshless skull of his new bodyguard, revelling in its horrifying appearance.

‘Boneripper,’ Thanquol hissed. ‘I shall name-call you Boneripper.’

CHAPTER FIVE

‘Always spare a sniff for Skraekual.’ Thanquol kept his voice restrained to a conspiratorial whisper. Not low enough that the other grey seer couldn’t hear him, of course. If Kaskitt Steelgrin didn’t start getting worried about Skraekual, then it would serve Thanquol’s purposes almost as neatly to have Skraekual worried about the warlock-engineer.

Kaskitt’s eyes narrowed behind their lenses and he scratched at the wires sewn into his skin. He peered intently at the stooped figure of Skraekual as he crept down the narrow tunnel. He tried to affect an attitude of aloof unconcern, but Thanquol noticed that Kaskitt’s nose was twitching just the same.

Since the warlock-engineer’s extravagant gift, Thanquol had done his best to ingratiate himself with Kaskitt. Not that he felt any real gratitude to his benefactor, of course. Indeed, providing him with such a lethal instrument of destruction as a mechanical Boneripper simply proved that Kaskitt was as much of a delusional slack-wit as Skraekual. Thanquol was rather looking forward to the time when he could turn the tables on Kaskitt and have his gift peel the hide off the fool’s bones!

Until then, however, it behoved Thanquol to play up to the moron. He was the very model of an appreciative, fawning lick-spittle, a toady for every crackpot idea Kaskitt mentioned. Why yes, of course Kaskitt Steelgrin was the greatest warlock-engineer in the Under-Empire. He was so much more brilliant than opportunists like Ikit Claw and Gnawlitch Shun. It was a crime that Warplord Morskittar hadn’t recognised the immense genius of Kaskitt Steelgrin and elevated him to the heights of Clan Skryre’s hierarchy.

It grated on Thanquol’s pride to flatter the delusional little tick. Kaskitt was a worm, a nothing that would be smashed flat the second he popped his head out of his hole. The only thing to do was to exploit the idiot’s delusions and make certain to be far away when disaster struck. Or, if possible, make a deal with Kaskitt’s enemies before disaster struck.

Before then, however, Thanquol intended to get rid of Skraekual. He wasn’t sure what the other grey seer’s secret mission was, but clearly it couldn’t be anything of great importance. Seerlord Kritislik would never have entrusted anything valuable to such an undependable wretch. Skraekual was so debilitated by the pandemonium of drugs coursing through his veins that half the time the hophead wasn’t even capable of forming a complete sentence, much less carrying out some nefarious scheme. Obviously Kritislik was becoming slack-witted to dispatch something like Skraekual on anything of consequence. Perhaps it was time for Thanquol to look seriously into furthering Seerlord Tisqueek’s ambitions to become the Supreme Seerlord. Certainly Kritislik’s lapses in judgement and inability to differentiate between a useless, worn-out drug addict and a valuable, loyal and courageous servant like himself boded ill for Kritislik’s continued reign over the other seerlords and the Order of Grey Seers.

Thanquol took a pinch of snuff from his rat-skull, chittering happily as the fiery hint of warpstone scorched his nostrils. Skraekual! That loathsome little flea was an itch he would scratch very soon. It was taking all of his craft to work on Kaskitt’s paranoia, but by degrees he was starting to convince the warlock-engineer that the other grey seer was a threat. Taking the tack that Skraekual was actually a spy for Warplord Morskittar seemed to yield the best results. Every time Kaskitt was about to dismiss the decrepit grey seer as a worthless addict, Thanquol would pose the question: where did Skraekual manage to find the warp-tokens to indulge his vices?

Thanquol stared at the walls of the tunnel. They were of close-packed earth braced with timber and rathide. The marks of shovels and claws could still be seen scarring the passage, obvious sign that there had been a collapse some time in the recent past. They could kill Skraekual and bury his body in the wall and nobody would find him for months. By then, Thanquol was certain, not even Seerlord Kritislik would care what fate had overtaken the mouse-livered scum.

Kaskitt’s skirmishers trooped down the tunnel, their backs bowed beneath the weight of their sinister weapons. Hordes of leather-coated technicians and engineers scurried between the columns of fighting ratmen, their arms laden with a bewildering variety of esoteric apparatus. Ranks of emaciated skavenslaves brought up the rear, labouring under heavy sacks of provisions. No threat of the slaves sampling their burdens. Each of them knew that when the rations fell short, the difference would be made up in fresh rat meat.

Boneripper’s metal muscles whirred as the hulking monster lumbered after its master. Thanquol felt a rush of satisfaction as he watched the warlock-engineers part to allow the immense bodyguard to pass. Even these ratkin, the very ones who had built it, were afraid of Boneripper. They were wise to fear, because their foolish master had placed control of such a terrifying weapon into the paws of the most dangerous skaven in skavendom!

It was tempting to order Boneripper to start tearing apart Kaskitt’s minions. The rat-ogre would wreak havoc upon the closely-packed vermin, leaving Thanquol free to unleash his mighty sorcery against Skraekual and Kaskitt. He would turn the two maggots into burn-marks on the wall of the tunnel! He would send their souls shrieking into the black abyss of Kweethul the Abominable! He would visit upon them the wrath of the Horned Rat and rip their innards with his own claws!

Thanquol smacked a paw against his horn, the sharp pain helping to fight down the murderous visions blazing through his mind. It was easy to forget how potent old Captain Lynsh’s warp-snuff was. There must be a high content of warpstone in it to affect a connoisseur of Thanquol’s experience and constitution in such a manner. He scowled at the little rat-skull box, once again considering dumping out its contents. He cast a withering glance at the skaven around him. If he did that, one of these maggots would just pick it up and use it himself. Why should Thanquol let some undeserving ratkin gain such a windfall? Besides, he wasn’t Skraekual. He had an iron will. He could dispose of the wretched stuff any time he wanted and would do so just as soon as he was alone.

The tunnel ahead soon branched out into a much wider corridor. Unlike the crumbling rat-run they had been traversing, the new corridor boasted walls of solid stone supported by great balustrades of granite. Each of the skaven uttered a little squeak of relief as he passed from the tunnel into the stone passage. The new passage did not bear the crude marks of claw and pick, but was a carefully engineered and skilfully constructed corridor, part of the ancient dwarf Ungdrin Ankor, the subterranean road that once connected all the far-flung dwarfholds. Since the decline of dwarf civilisation, many stretches of the Underway had fallen to greenskins and other creatures of the dark. Whenever possible, the skaven had incorporated stretches of the Ungdrin Ankor into their own Under-Empire. No amount of prideful propaganda could prevent the ratmen from appreciating dwarf craftsmanship and the longevity of their constructions. It was rather refreshing to scurry down a tunnel one knew wasn’t going to come crashing down about one’s ears.

Thanquol shoved his way through the scrabbling mass of verminkin pouring out from the tunnel, just as eager as any of them to be quit from the earthen passageway. Boneripper lumbered after him, easily forcing a path through the press of furry bodies. Thanquol considered just letting the rat-ogre clear the way for him, but then decided it would be beneath his dignity to allow a mere lackey to go before him.

Besides, he was having too much fun smacking his staff into the noses of those skaven too slow to get out of the way of the mighty Grey Seer Thanquol.

A tug on the sleeve of his robe brought Thanquol spinning around. His staff whipped down, missing the face of the skaven who had accosted him by mere inches. If Skraekual’s nose hadn’t rotted away years ago, there would have been a most satisfying whack. It was just another example of the thousand ways the other grey seer was getting under Thanquol’s fur.

‘Mind-watch what you squeak-speak,’ Skraekual hissed. ‘Kritislik order-say you are decoy-meat, not Skraekual!’

Thanquol bared his fangs at the other grey seer. Who was this hophead to dare reprimand the greatest mind in skavendom! He’d feed the little weasel his own spleen!

Lips curled back over yellowed fangs. There was an uncomfortable focus about Skraekual’s usually bleary eyes and a hint of menace in his usually stooped posture. Thanquol cast an anxious look around to see if any of Kaskitt’s rats had noticed the threatening change that had come over Skraekual. Unfortunately, it seemed they were too focused on getting out into the dwarf passageway to pay any notice to Thanquol’s distress.

Desperate, Thanquol cast a hopeful look at Bone-ripper. The skeletal rat-ogre’s mechanics whirred as it pivoted at the waist and turned in his direction. Thanquol glared malignantly at Skraekual.

‘Call it off-back,’ Skraekual snapped. ‘I can-will burn your brain before it takes seven steps!’

Thanquol felt his glands clench as the other grey seer hissed his threat. He found himself staring at Skraekual’s fingers with their long filthy claws. Wrapped about one of the fingers was a band of black metal fashioned into the shape of a dragon’s head. Thanquol knew that particular bit of jewellery. It had been among the possessions of his late and unlamented master, Sleekit. How Skraekual had come by it, he didn’t know. He might have stolen it from Sleekit before Thanquol could find it, or perhaps it had been given to him by that treacherous rat Kritislik. At the moment, all that mattered was he had it and Thanquol knew precisely what he could do with it.

Bobbing his head submissively, Thanquol waved away Boneripper, nervously watching the lumbering brute to make sure it obeyed him. There was no sense in alarming his dear colleague Skraekual.

‘Wise and noble Skraekual,’ Thanquol said, brushing some of the filth from the other grey seer’s robes. ‘Surely you did not think-think I wanted Kaskitt to do anything to you.’ Thanquol forced a peal of chittering laughter through his fangs. ‘What I say-squeak was to make the fool suspect me, not you. The more I tell him you are untrustworthy, the more he suspects me of being disloyal. After all, if I would betray a fellow grey seer, how can he think-think I won’t betray him?’

Skraekual lashed his tail in amusement. ‘I did not get-make that impression,’ he hissed. ‘Stop telling him bad things about me. Or else…’ He raised his finger, displaying the ring so that his enemy could not mistake the threat.

Thanquol squirmed uneasily, his fur feeling as if an army of fleas was scurrying through it. He watched as Skraekual dropped back into his usual stooped posture and limped away to join the flood of skaven rushing into the dwarf tunnel.

The filthy mouse-livered worm! He wouldn’t dare treat so flippantly with a sorcerer of Thanquol’s stature were it not for that damn ring! It was just like the cowardly rat to cringe behind some magical artefact instead of relying upon his own powers! Any grey seer of real ability, anyone truly favoured by the Horned Rat didn’t rely on sneaky tricks and fancy weapons to deal with his foes.

Thanquol waved his paw at Boneripper, the giant monster lumbering ahead of him to make a path through Kaskitt’s minions. Thanquol needed time to think and the pleasant distraction of brutalising his fellow skaven would only muddle his wits. He needed a clever plan to deal with that upstart Skraekual.

Something sneaky.

Something that he could have Boneripper attend to while he was somewhere safely out of reach of Skraekual’s magic.

‘Rikkit Snapfang has promised much-much warpstone to help him,’ Kaskitt was telling Thanquol for what seemed the hundredth time. The grey seer rolled his eyes, but allowed the warlock-engineer to pursue his favourite subject: betraying Warlord Rikkit Snapfang. The plan involved getting Rikkit’s warriors engaged in an all-out assault against the dwarfs. Once Rikkit’s troops were committed, then Kaskitt and his skirmishers would turn tail and scurry back into the largely undefended burrows of Bonestash. They would find Rikkit’s treasury and plunder it to their hearts’ content.

‘We take-fetch more than he think-say,’ Kaskitt chittered.

Thanquol was less than enthusiastic about the plan. Not that he objected to the idea of stealing warpstone from a warlord who was trusting them to help him destroy some of skavendom’s most tenacious enemies. Any warlord stupid enough to leave his own burrow undefended deserved to be stabbed in the back and robbed. That was simple common sense.

No, what bothered Thanquol was the fact that Kaskitt had confided in him. That meant the warlock-engineer wanted him involved in the plot in a big way. Rikkit Snapfang didn’t belong to some three-flea clan, he was part of Clan Mors, the most powerful warlord clan in the Under-Empire. High Warlord Gnawdwell sat upon the Council of Thirteen and could bring considerable influence to bear against those who wronged his clan. Kaskitt knew this. For all of his mad talk about rising to a position of dominance within Clan Skryre, Thanquol knew he wasn’t a complete fool.

The answer was obvious, so obvious Kaskitt himself had mentioned it at their first meeting in hopes that Thanquol would dismiss it as being too obvious. He was going to use Thanquol as the decoy, place all the blame for treachery on the grey seer’s shoulders while he made good his own escape. Thanquol appreciated that in some quarters he had acquired an entirely underserved reputation for scheming against his own allies and always trying to improve his own wealth and position. Kaskitt’s lies would be readily believed and Thanquol might not have the chance to explain the reality of the situation when Gnawdwell’s outraged warriors caught up to him.

Day and night through the long march Kaskitt had been elaborating on his plan. Day and night Thanquol had been wracking his brain for a way to extricate himself from his predicament. Revealing the plot to Rikkit Snapfang when they reached Bonestash was one option, but hardly one that would put any warpstone in Thanquol’s paws. No, there had to be a way to go through with Kaskitt’s plan and shift the blame back onto somebody else.

The high ceilings of the Ungdrin Ankor didn’t help ease Thanquol’s mind. He kept expecting a Lustrian lizard-hawk to come swooping down out of the darkness to snatch him up in its claws. Or maybe a tregara, creeping along the black ceiling watching for prey. Thanquol’s glands clenched as he remembered his own near escape from one of the carnivorous insects in Kritislik’s Maze of Merciless Penance.

Unsettling smells lingered in the mammoth tunnel, saturating the dust-covered stones. Thanquol’s nose caught the stink of cave squig and goblin scat, the reek of troll and the odour of spider webs. Somewhere in the darkness, a reptilian geckamund had cast off its scaly skin. Behind the pillars, the husk of a giant beetle was quietly rotting away.

Even the softest sounds echoed through Thanquol’s keen ears. The squeaking of blind bats as they flew through the darkness, the rustle of rats as they crept along the walls. He could hear the faint drip of water from one of the stone cisterns the dwarfs had carved into niches in the tunnel walls.

Thanquol cursed the dwarf-built corridor. The miserable rock-sucking beard-brains were always trying to overcompensate for their diminutive size. That was why they built everything on such ridiculous, gargantuan scale. Why, a family of dragons could come cavorting down the Underway and still have room to spare! Anything might be lurking out there in the darkness, just waiting to pounce upon an unsuspecting skaven! A mob of blood-crazed orcs, a gang of ravenous ogres, even a distempered lion!

Glaring at Kaskitt, Thanquol could only wonder why the fool-meat hadn’t struck a deal with Clan Sleekit to take them as close to Bonestash as possible on some of their barges. It was much safer to travel by river and much quicker. The rivers were forever connecting to the Ungdrin Ankor, because the dwarfs always needed water to power their steam engines and mining machines. The moron hadn’t thought of that! If only Thanquol’s brilliance hadn’t been distracted with the petty schemes and jealousies of these small-minded lice he should have suggested such a plan back in Skavenblight.

‘We will reach Bonestash soon-soon,’ Kaskitt promised, scratching at the wires winding about his head.

‘About time,’ Thanquol sniffed. ‘I grow weary of marching through these cursed dwarf-runs!’ He dug a pawful of black corn from a pocket and chewed spitefully at the stuff. It had annoyed him to no end that Kaskitt had decided to start in on the black corn before carving up a few of the slaves. He rather suspected the idiot was trying to show off to his minions by feeding them on Skavenblight’s famed crop. Unfortunately, black corn was about as appetising as a mouse turd and had about the same taste.

Kaskitt turned about to give some manner of rejoinder when the sharp squeal of a skaven in distress echoed off the walls of the Underway. Thanquol spun about, putting Boneripper’s thick leg between himself and the source of the cry. It had been several hours since they’d lost a ratman to one of the Underway’s predators. That time it had been a giant spider hiding above a cistern. Thanquol only hoped the current danger was likewise content to stuff itself with a single skaven and then scuttle back into the dark.

More cries sounded. Mixed among them now were the distinct booms of guns. The dwarfs! It had to be! Thanquol ground his fangs together in rage. That idiot Kaskitt had marched them straight into a formation of dwarfs! His head snapped about, claws spread, but Kaskitt was already scrambling for cover. The cowardly mouse! He would strangle that tick-licking scat-sniffer when he got his claws on him!

Boneripper trembled as something smacked into its chest. Thanquol peered out from his refuge behind the rat-ogre’s leg just far enough to see a smoking crater above where the monster’s heart should have been had it been a thing of flesh and blood. The grey seer’s glands clenched at this display of marksmanship. His eyes darted across the tunnel, not to find where Kaskitt had hidden himself but to find a suitable refuge for his own precious skin.

A fallen pillar looked as though it might afford a suitable barrier between himself and the fire of dwarf guns. Hastily, Thanquol snapped orders to his bodyguard. Boneripper’s head creaked on its hinge as the rat-ogre stared down at him, then the monster’s body swung about. In an instant, the brute was dashing across the tunnel, effortlessly pushing through the confused bedlam of Kaskitt’s entourage.

‘Wait-wait for me!’ Thanquol cursed Boneripper. He wanted to use the brute as a shield until he was safely behind the smashed pillar. Now he found himself scurrying after his own bodyguard, frantic to keep pace with it. The boom of guns sounded again and Thanquol winced as a ratman beside him crumpled to the ground. The tangy smell of warpstone struck his senses. For an instant, he hesitated, staring down at the writhing skirmisher, greed arguing against his instinct for self-preservation. From the smell, the dead skirmisher must have a fair amount of warpstone on him.

‘The Horned One need-want your flesh,’ Thanquol snarled, seizing a ratman fleeing past him. Swinging the struggling skaven about, Thanquol bashed the head of his staff into his captive’s skull until the prisoner went limp. Holding the slack body up like a shield, he bent to inspect the dead body at his feet.

A thrill of alarm squirted from his glands when Thanquol saw the extent of the damage the bullet had done to the skirmisher. The ratman’s chest was a gory crater; his armoured breastplate looked as though a giant had punched it. Gazing at it, the grey seer realised that his living shield wouldn’t prove much barrier against any weapon that could dole out such damage.

Callously dropping his senseless captive, Thanquol scurried with all haste across the tunnel, freely battering and clawing at any ratkin who got in his way. The sound of bullets whipping through the air, the agonised shrieks of dying skaven, the smell of fear-musk and black blood spurred him on. He could see the comforting safety of the rubble ahead of him, Boneripper stupidly standing out in the open waiting for its master to give it new orders.

He’d give it new orders all right! Thanquol cursed the dim-witted machine and its infernally fast legs. It was all a subtle plot by Kaskitt Steelgrin to get him killed! He’d known he couldn’t trust any gift handed to him by the delusional lab-rats of Clan Skryre!

The stench of burning fur struck Thanquol’s nose and a whoosh of flames rushed past his ears. He could feel intense heat blaze across his back. A pack of confused skaven who had decided to follow him to safety gave voice to a miserable howl. Thanquol glanced over his shoulder to see a dozen ratmen writhing on the ground, their bodies engulfed in green flames.

A hideous suspicion flared up as Thanquol sniffed the dying skaven. They reeked of warpstone, even though many of them were scrawny slaves who couldn’t possibly have any of the precious mineral on them. Moreover, he’d never seen a dwarf flame cannon that tossed green fire at its victims.

The grey seer made a wild leap and scrambled behind the pile of rubble. He took a half-dozen breaths, then reached for his snuff-box. A pinch of warpstone snuff would help just now. His paw froze as his fingers closed on the rat-skull box. If he was right, then he would need his full wits about him. The emboldened mindset of a warp-addled brain wasn’t going to do him any good, however much it calmed his nerves.

Thanquol peered out from behind his refuge. The floor of the tunnel was littered with dead and dying ratmen. He could see the pile of rocks from which the ambushers were picking off Kaskitt’s minions. He could even see Kaskitt Steelgrin cringing behind the base of some dwarf king’s statue, Skraekual and a clutch of leather-coated tinker-rats trying to exploit the same sanctuary.

Resolutely, Thanquol stuffed the rat-skull box back into his robe. ‘Over here, idiot,’ Thanquol growled at the still unmoving Boneripper. The rat-ogre shifted position, dropping down behind the rubble to join its master. Thanquol noted that the lummox had been shot several times while it had been standing out in the open. Each of the ghastly impacts had pitted the brute’s skeletal frame and battered its armoured machinery. Little flecks of glowing green stone clung to the edges of the wounds. Gingerly, Thanquol extracted one of the slivers and pressed it to his tongue.

The grey seer felt a hot shock sizzle through his body, a burning sensation that was at once excruciating and invigorating. His suspicion was justified. The bullets that had struck Boneripper and Kaskitt’s hench-rats were made of refined warpstone. The fire that had consumed the skavenslaves had been of a chemical nature, liquid flame that used warpstone as its base.

The ambushers weren’t dwarfs. They were skaven! No wonder there had been no betraying glimmer of lamps and lanterns! The ambushers didn’t need to see their victims; with their sharp noses and the updraft of the tunnel, the ratmen could smell their enemies!

As if to confirm his suspicion, several ratmen emerged from behind the rubble. They wore elaborate armour, their arms and legs locked inside complicated frameworks of pipes and gears. When they moved, they clanked and clattered in the same fashion as Boneripper and with a similarly uncanny speed. While Thanquol watched, the enhanced skaven fell upon a pocket of Kaskitt’s minions, butchering them with long, hook-bladed halberds.

More attackers followed the war-rats. These were leather-coated skaven who resembled in almost every way the skirmishers Kaskitt had brought. The only difference was the red tabards they wore, each marked with a black, slash-like symbol.

And the fact that the jezzails they carried were loaded and ready to kill.

Teams of muscular ratmen scurried about the flanks of the jezzails. These wore long cloaks that glistened wetly in the faint light of the tunnel and their faces were carefully masked with leather visors. Each team consisted of two skaven, one lugging a huge cask on his back, the other holding a curious metal implement before him. Thick hoses of ratgut connected the cask the rear skaven carried to the implement the leader bore. A faint drip of flaming green liquid dribbled from the gaping mouth of the device in the leader’s paws.

Thanquol recognised the weapon for a warpfire thrower, one of the most fiendish of Clan Skryre’s inventions. He’d suspected the presence of such a weapon the moment he’d seen the burning skavenslaves. These seemed to belong to a more complex pattern than those his own minions had employed on his behalf during the Battle of Nuln, but their function was certainly the same. As he watched, the grey seer saw the attackers immolate a knot of Kaskitt’s followers with a sheet of green fire.

Thanquol tugged at his whiskers. He didn’t know what sort of game was being played, but he knew he had to take a paw in the action now while there was still time. A judicious use of magic could rescue Kaskitt’s expedition from disaster. A grateful Kaskitt Steelgrin would then be obliged to help Thanquol with his own problems. They could always tell Kritislik that Skraekual had been killed in the fighting.

Climbing atop a chunk of rubble, Thanquol gazed out across the battleground. Maliciously he selected his first victim, one of the warpfire teams. It wouldn’t take much of a spell to do what he wanted. He wouldn’t even need any warpstone to reinforce his concentration. The fire-thrower would provide that.

Opening his mind to the aethyr and his soul to the tyrannical glory of the Horned Rat, Thanquol pointed his staff at the doomed fire-team. A crackling ribbon of lightning leapt from the head of his staff. The magical energy seared across the tunnel, striking the fuel cask. Instantly the entire tunnel was lit up by a burst of green light. The weapon team vanished in the explosion, streams of unleashed warpfire spattering about the passageway, striking down ambushers and victims alike. A second warpfire thrower was caught by the blast, causing its fuel cask to explode in a similarly dramatic manner.

Unfortunately, the chain-reaction ended with the second warpfire thrower. Revelling in the destruction he had unleashed, Thanquol was almost caught in the vengeful sheet of flames that swept across the tunnel. A third warpfire thrower had marked him as the cause of their comrades’ demise. Determined not to share such a fiery fate, they viciously persecuted the grey seer.

Diving down from his perch, Thanquol glared helplessly at the green flames sizzling all around him. Another weapon team had joined the first. The combined fire couldn’t penetrate his cover, but then, it wouldn’t have to. The slinking villains could just sit back and roast him alive without ever clapping eyes on him!

‘Two can kill-slay this way,’ Thanquol muttered. He turned his eyes on Boneripper. The murderous machine was a magnificent example of Clan Skryre’s techno-sorcery. A far more advanced weapon than the cheap toys his enemies were using. It would make short work of his foes once it was turned against them, burning them alive with its own fire-thrower.

‘Boneripper!’ Thanquol howled at the rat-ogre, trying to keep his voice from sounding too panicked. ‘Go-go! Kill-slay! Burn-burn!’

The automaton’s skull creaked around, staring at its master with glowing eyes. Obediently, Boneripper emerged from behind the rocks. Thanquol hopped about in glee as the monster turned about to face the terrified warpfire throwers. He could almost smell the fear spurting from their glands as the rat-ogre lifted its third arm and pointed the nozzle of its own fire-thrower at them.

Instead of burning and dying, instead of fleeing and screaming, the warpfire throwers just stood and laughed. Thanquol blinked in disbelief. Boneripper just stood there, its arm raised to deal fiery death to his enemies. The grey seer scurried to the edge of his refuge, trying to goad his metal-brained bodyguard into action.

‘Boneripper! Burn-burn!’ he shrieked. ‘Burn them! Burn them with fire!’ he elaborated.

The hulking machine-monster just stood its ground. Contemptuously the weapon teams ignored it and began to fire on Thanquol’s refuge once more.

Reluctantly, Thanquol realised his bodyguard wasn’t going to help him. Gripped by a mixture of terror and fury, he began pawing at his robes for a sliver of warpstone. He didn’t like employing the magic that would allow him to slip into the immaterial Realm of Chaos, but at the moment the threat of being ripped asunder by daemons seemed preferable to being roasted alive. His only consolation was that Kaskitt and Skraekual were certain to be doomed once he abandoned them to their own feeble resources.

A metal scratch of a voice rumbled across the tunnel. The sheets of flame billowing about Thanquol’s refuge suddenly abated. The grey seer popped a finger-sized nugget of warpstone into his mouth, but hesitated to grind it between his fangs. Carefully, he peered around the rubble.

The ambushers were falling back, adopting a wary posture, their weapons at the ready. Emerging from the mound of rubble that had concealed them was a ghastly-looking skaven clad in slick robes of ratgut and leather. Half of the ratman’s head was locked inside a grisly metal mask; what part of his face was exposed was burned and scarred in an especially hideous fashion. Wisps of white fur emerged from the grey mess of scar tissue to form a long mane running down the side of his face. A gigantic steel claw was fitted about his left arm, a confusion of wires and tubes running from the metal hand to a cylindrical device fitted to the forearm behind it, uncomfortably reminiscent of the warpfire projector fastened to Boneripper’s arm. A brace of warplock pistols were holstered at the ratman’s belt and in his right hand he bore a black sword that stank of warpstone. The blade was bolted to a long metal pole and about it was fastened all manner of curious mechanisms. From the skaven’s back, a tall rod supported a tattered banner upon which was displayed the image of the Horned Rat blasphemously merged with the hatchet symbol of Clan Skryre.

Again, the metal snarl of the skaven’s voice echoed through the tunnel, confirming for Thanquol what his ears had thought they’d heard the first time.

‘Submit-live,’ the snarl spoke. ‘Only Kaskitt Scrapface needs to die-die!’

Thanquol cast a hopeful look towards the statue where Kaskitt was hiding. If he could contrive to eliminate the warlock-engineer, then he’d be able to ingratiate himself with this new, terrifying personage.

Skraekual, unfortunately, had the same idea. Before Thanquol could act, the underhanded sorcerer unleashed a blast of magic against Kaskitt that sent the warlock-engineer tumbling from his sanctuary. He ended his tumble in a helpless sprawl, his fur smoking and his body quivering from the fury of Skraekual’s magic.

The metal-faced skaven chuckled, a sound not unlike a knife grinding against stone. The sound of his enemy’s amusement seemed to revive Kaskitt. The stricken ratman scrambled back onto his feet, slapping at some contraption hidden under his coat. Instantly the wires wrapped about his head began to blaze with energy, crackling fingers of electricity running through the strange framework. The lenses of Kaskitt’s goggles began to darken. Raising his paw, Kaskitt now displayed a strange armature of steel tipped with a globe of polished warpstone. The speed of its deployment made Thanquol wonder if Kaskitt had conjured the weapon into being or if it had been concealed under his robes and deployed by some spring-loaded mechanism.

Whatever the source of Kaskitt’s weapon, Thanquol was genuinely shocked when he saw the warlock-engineer dispatch a bolt of warp-lightning from the glowing green globe. It was impossible! There had been no smell of magic about Kaskitt, yet here he was unleashing what was unquestionably a manifestation of aethyric energy! Thanquol gnashed his fangs at the heretical thought of a skaven exploiting magic without the wisdom of the Horned Rat behind him.

Much like Thanquol’s own spell, Kaskitt’s warp lightning crackled across the tunnel, streaking straight towards its target. Unlike the grey seer’s magic, however, Kaskitt’s lightning failed to find its victim. With an almost casual flick of his metal claw, the steel-faced ratman caused the warp lightning to dissipate, to shatter as though it had struck an unseen wall. Little sparks of energy cascaded down to the floor, scorching the flagstones of the old dwarf road.

More sorcery! A counter-spell conjured with an ease that made Thanquol’s heart tremble with jealousy and his glands clench with fear.

Kaskitt shrieked in horror as he saw his intended victim unharmed. The warlock-engineer turned to flee, but as he did so, the steel-faced skaven raised the black sword in his hand, thrusting it out before him on its long pole. The machinery connected to the warpstone blade whirred into life, energy quickly crackling across the black sword, the symbols scratched along its edge glowing with power. Before Kaskitt could run more than a few paces, a beam of dark energy snaked outwards from the sword, striking the warlock-engineer in the back.

Thanquol could feel the awful power of the coruscating black energy. It was like the harnessed soul of raw warpstone, a thing terrible in its potency and awful in its potential. He expected to see Kaskitt’s body ripped in half by the blast. Instead the energy writhed across the warlock-engineer, racing about the weapon fastened to his arm.

The warpstone globe shattered in a burst of malignant green fire that sent Kaskitt’s charred arm dancing across the floor. Streams of energy crackled away from the broken weapon, converging upon the network of wires wound about Kaskitt’s head. For a moment, it seemed as though Kaskitt had gained a dark halo. Then the moment passed and the warlock-engineer’s head burst like an overripe melon.

‘This fight-fray is done-over,’ the steely scrape of the metal-faced skaven declared. ‘Squeak-swear to serve me or join that fool-meat in death.’

The gruesome ratman swept his fiery gaze across the tunnel.

‘Ikit Claw now commands this expedition.’

CHAPTER SIX

The skaven were quick to bare their throats in submission to Ikit Claw, scrambling out from their refuges and stumbling over themselves in their eagerness to surrender. For their part, Ikit Claw’s ratmen took petty revenge on each former enemy as he presented himself. The filching of warp-tokens and food was the rule, even among these clan-kin, but a few went so far as to pull whiskers and cut ears.

From his own hiding place, Thanquol watched as the ambushers took charge of Skraekual. They treated the decrepit grey seer with a great amount of reverence, sparing him the indignity of robbery and abuse. A few even chittered their gratitude to the rot-nosed traitor. Clearly Skraekual’s opportunistic and utterly craven betrayal of Kaskitt hadn’t gone unnoticed.

Thanquol ground his teeth in frustration. His hated rival was insinuating himself with the victors while he was left cringing alone in the dark with no one to help him except a bony rat-ogre with a touch of the stupids! Betraying Kaskitt was something Thanquol had planned from the start! It was criminal that Skraekual should reap the benefits of Thanquol’s subtle plot!

A cunning gleam crept into Thanquol’s eyes. Skraekual wouldn’t profit from trying to undermine his own position. Indeed, the mouse-livered weasel was acting to the benefit of Thanquol, even if he was too warp-witted to know it! Let him flatter and whine his way into the good graces of Ikit Claw! The fool would save Thanquol the trouble of doing it himself.

The grey seer turned his attention away from Skraekual and focused on the real threat. Ikit Claw, Chief Warlock of Clan Skryre, the right fang of Warplord Morskittar himself. Ikit Claw was a name held in envy and fear throughout skavendom. Rumours claimed he was old enough to have helped Morskittar try to seize control of the Under-Empire in the dark days before the Great Summoning when the Horned Rat had manifested himself before the Shattered Tower and imposed the foundation of the Council of Thirteen upon his squabbling children. Thanquol didn’t believe such nonsense, of course, for that would make Ikit Claw thousands of birth-cycles old and only dwarf-things and elf-meat lived that long. He was prepared to accept, however, that the Claw shared his master’s ability to extend his lifespan through the techno-sorcery of Clan Skryre. There were dark rumours that the upper echelons of Clan Skryre maintained kennels of specially reared and extravagantly pampered skavenslaves which they harvested once every few birth-cycles to replace their own corrupt organs with fresh healthy ones.

Thanquol cringed in disgust at the thought. A skaven should accept the years bestowed upon him by the Horned Rat. Or else try and find some magic trinkets that would improve his longevity.

Still, that wasn’t entirely an impossibility where Ikit Claw was concerned. It was said he’d penetrated the secrets of countless wizards and sorcerers. The warren of Spitespittle was still haunted by the liche priest the Claw brought back from the Dead Lands and tortured into revealing the black art of necromancy. Ratkin in Grabkeep still spoke of his terrific battle with the sorcerer Nostramus after his theft of the human’s scrying stone. There were even stories that he’d infiltrated the polluted lands of the black-fur dwarf-things and discovered how they made their hideous daemon-machines.

Reluctantly, Thanquol decided that it would be in his best interest to keep on the right side of so formidable a personage. The Claw could even protect him from Kritislik should eluding the Seerlord’s displeasure become a problem.

First, of course, he’d wait and see if Ikit Claw blasted Skraekual. If the sly, double-dealing warp-brain could manage to talk Claw out of incinerating him with the flame projector built into his metal arm, then Thanquol would take that as a good sign. Though he’d be sorry not to watch the other grey seer burned alive, there’d be time to work towards that end later.

Thanquol held his breath as he watched Skraekual approach Ikit Claw. He felt a twinge of disgust at the way the other grey seer abased himself before the warlock-engineer, a disgust made all the more profound because it seemed to work. Cheated out of the prospect of seeing his rival summarily exterminated, he decided it was time to act.

Resisting the impulse to take a pinch of snuff to fortify his convictions, Thanquol emerged from behind the pile of rubble. He could feel his fur crawl as he saw patches of liquid warpfire still burning on the floor. As he rounded the immobile bulk of Boneripper, he delivered a vindictive crack of his staff against the skeletal brute’s leg.

The resounding impact was louder than Thanquol had expected, the smacking report of his staff echoing through the tunnel. At once, hundreds of skaven eyes fastened onto him, fingers flying to the triggers of pistols and jezzails, paws wrapping about the hafts of swords and spears. The two warpfire throwers came scuttling back into view, frantically trying to ready their cumbersome weapons.

The temptation to dart back behind the rocks was sore upon Thanquol, but his pride fought down millions of birth-cycles of skaven instinct. As he looked down upon Ikit Claw’s warriors, as he drew in their scent, Thanquol felt his heart pounding with ferocity. They knew who he was. And they were afraid. Even the warlock-engineers recognised the awful power of Grey Seer Thanquol and even they were afraid.

It did not dawn upon Thanquol that the reason for their fear might lie in their belief and the warpfire teams’ repeated insistence that he was dead. With such a dramatic entrance, with everyone concentrated upon the task of looting their vanquished clan-kin, Thanquol’s sudden reappearance seemed nothing less than a visitation by the Horned Rat himself.

‘Good-good,’ Thanquol said, straightening his back and marching in his most magnificent manner towards the horrified ratmen. ‘Kaskitt Steelgrin was traitor-meat. You all act-serve the Horned One when you kill-slay traitor-meat.’ His eyes narrowed as he looked over at Skraekual. ‘I told my servantling to make certain Clan Skryre had the chance-time to take-finish Kaskitt themselves.’

A subdued murmur spread among the ratmen. Thanquol tried to retain his dictatorial bearing, but felt his imperious tendencies shrivel as Ikit Claw fixed his terrible gaze on the grey seer.

‘I… I had to… make-look like I… with Kaskitt watch-sniffing…’ Thanquol winced as he saw Ikit draw back some of the burned skin from his muzzle and expose his scarred teeth. ‘Look-sniff!’ Thanquol whined, gesturing behind him. ‘I tell-say for Boneripper to stop-stand, not to kill-smash loyal-true skaven!’

Ikit Claw continued to glare at Thanquol for a moment, then a strange and hideous noise rattled through the warlock-engineer’s throat. It took a little time before the grey seer understood it was the Claw’s laughter.

‘You told rat-ogre to stop?’ Ikit Claw cackled. The laughter was taken up by his minions and even the subjugated skaven who had so recently served Kaskitt Steelgrin.

‘You told-say for bone-thing not to stomp-slay?’ There was a very nasty note in Ikit Claw’s mirth that had Thanquol glancing back to his abandoned refuge. A pox on that duplicitous rat Skraekual for not standing his ground and getting himself burned to a crisp! That maggot had tricked Thanquol into thinking everything was safe!

‘Yes-yes!’ Thanquol squeaked, fingering his staff and wondering if he would be able to cast an escape spell faster than Ikit Claw could have him shot. ‘I tell-say for Boneripper not to hurt-hurt Great and Powerful Ikit Claw… or any noble-mighty skaven who help-aid him. By the Horned One, I squeak-speak true-straight!’

The last comment brought a peal of blasphemous laughter chittering from every skaven throat. Thanquol felt a surge of outrage course through him. How dare they mock a grey seer invoking the name of their god? How dare they find amusement in a grey seer making a sacred oath before his divine master that he was not trying to trick them? If it wasn’t complete suicide, Thanquol would have liked to wring every one of their scrawny necks! Of course, it was suicide to do anything like that, so Thanquol just stood still and tried to join in on the laughter, but his voice sounded hollow even to himself.

Ikit Claw raised his huge metal hand, motioning the other skaven to silence. He marched towards Thanquol, his teeth bared in a fierce smile. ‘Thanquol,’ he hissed. ‘That machine-thing stopped because it has a safety valve. It didn’t smash-crush my ratkin because it can’t smash-crush anything that carries Clan Skryre’s scent.’

The explanation provoked another burst of laughter. Thanquol felt his insides wither. It wasn’t the humiliation of being caught in an impious lie, but rather the likelihood that he was about to be burned to a crisp that bothered him.

‘I still make-tell Skraekual to help kill-slay Kaskitt,’ Thanquol insisted. ‘Ask him,’ he said, then considered better of pressing that particular point when he got a good look at Skraekual’s rotten face. ‘Ask any of Kaskitt’s tinker-rats! They will speak-squeak that Skraekual is my helper, that he does what I tell-say!’

Ikit Claw continued to glower at Thanquol, lashing his tail as he weighed the grey seer’s words. ‘I know all about Kaskitt’s plan-plot,’ he said at length. ‘I know what he planned for you.’ The way he said it made Thanquol’s glands clench, but the grey seer didn’t say anything. ‘It was-is good scheme. We will go to Bonestash and help Rikkit Snapfang fight-kill dwarf-things. Clan Mors will keep their noses turned your way, Thanquol. That will make it easy for me to do what I need-want in Karak Angkul.’

Thanquol breathed a little easier when it became obvious that Ikit Claw wasn’t going to order his immediate destruction. Instead, the Chief Warlock ordered some of his tinker-rats to attend Boneripper and get the rat-ogre moving again before the locked safety valve caused it to explode. The grey seer could only mutter his thanks and watch as his new ally stalked off to inspect the survivors of Kaskitt’s troop.

Let Ikit Claw savour his small triumph, Thanquol thought. There would be a long way to Bonestash and an even longer tunnel back to Skavenblight. More than enough time for the Horned One to visit a terrible judgement upon the prideful tinker-rat and his abominable entourage.

The skaven expedition, now under new leadership, soon resumed its journey through the desolation of the Ungdrin Ankor. In their wake, the ratmen left little behind, stripping the dead of anything of value and butchering all but the scrawniest of their bodies to supplement their rations.

The skaven were brutally thorough in their scavenging, moving with a speed and skill honed by lives spent trying to survive in the merciless Under-Empire. Even in victory, the ratmen were cautious, watching every shadow, flinching at every unexplained sound, jumping at every unexpected smell. They did not like to linger in a place that smelled of battle, knowing only too well that the odour would draw scavengers bigger and nastier than themselves.

In their vigilance, however, the skaven missed one pair of hostile eyes that watched them from the darkness of a milestone. The pure hate shining in those eyes would have sent many a ratman spurting the musk of fear, but harsh experience had taught the mind behind those eyes to keep to the downwind darkness where his enemies could neither see nor smell him.

The red-bearded dwarf pounded his fist against his side. It grated upon every fibre of his being to act like this, creeping about in the dark following a bunch of filthy skaven. Every time their loathsome stink filled his nose, every time their shrill voices cut his ears, he wanted to leap out and kill them with his bare hands.

But he wouldn’t do that. To do so would shame his ancestors and offend the gods of the Karak Ankor. It had been an act of Grimnir himself that had brought him to this place and at this time. Among all the millions of ratmen who infested the world, he’d again crossed paths with the one skaven he wanted to kill more than anything.

Mordin Grimstone had come far since casting off the chains of a slave. By rights, the ratkin’s spell should have killed him, and whatever life the skaven magic left in him should have been smothered by the river. The dwarf ran his hand along the ugly burn-mark where Thanquol’s spell had struck him, then touched the scarred flesh where his back had been ripped raw by the rocky banks of the river. He had survived both foes. The river had even colluded with him once it tired of trying to drown him, its swift current bearing him through the darkness until finally washing his battered body onto a dilapidated stone pier.

Mordin had spent several days nursing his wounds before straying very far from the pier. That the river had brought him to some abandoned stretch of the great dwarf Underway was apparent, but it took locating an intact guidestone for him to fully gain his bearings.

The dwarf clenched his fist as he remembered the long journey alone in the dark, surviving on a few blind fish from the river and what mushrooms he could gather from the ruined tunnel. Only the thought of his dead brother and the awful shame of watching him die kept him going. It was in his mind to journey to Karak Kadrin and present himself before the Slayer Shrine. He would shave his head and take the Slayer Oath in memory of his brother and the death Mordin felt he could have prevented.

Grimnir, however, didn’t seem patient enough to await Mordin’s arrival at his shrine. Mordin discovered a horde of skaven prowling through the Ungdrin Ankor. At first he had hidden himself, determined not to fall into the cruel paws of the skaven again, determined not to die until he had atoned for his shame before the Slayer Shrine. Then, against all odds, Mordin had made an amazing discovery. The skaven who had killed his brother, the one who had cast him into the river, was among the ratmen. There was no mistaking that scratchy voice and the distinct curl of his horns. Any chance he was wrong was eliminated when the other skaven referred to the creature as Grey Seer Thanquol. Mordin fell to his knees and thanked Grimnir for granting him such an opportunity for revenge.

Since then, Mordin had followed the skaven, shadowing them through the tunnels. Having been caught by the ratmen before, having spent months as their prisoner, he knew what mistakes would alert the vermin to his presence. Though it plagued him to do so, he kept his distance, forcing himself to watch and wait. He did not care about dying, he had resigned himself to that fate the moment he saw his brother murdered. But to die without accomplishing his revenge was something the dwarf would not countenance.

So he followed, waiting for any opportunity to catch Thanquol alone and gut the grey seer with the rusty goblin knife Mordin had found in the tunnels. It wouldn’t matter if the entire horde came screaming down upon him after that. His brother would be avenged and his honour satisfied.

Unfortunately, Thanquol had proven as wary as he was cowardly. The grey seer was never alone, always keeping well within the middle of the skaven horde. Mordin was just about resigned to mounting some crazed berserk charge in the hope of getting through the skaven and coming to grips with his enemy when a second horde of ratmen attacked the first.

It took every ounce of willpower to remain a spectator to the ensuing carnage. Mordin watched the fight with a sense of nausea at the back of his throat, terrified that some slinking ratman would kill Thanquol and cheat him of his chance at revenge. The dwarf was actually relieved when the battle ended and the second pack of skaven absorbed Thanquol into their ranks.

His relief was soon squelched, however. From his hiding place, Mordin was able to overhear Thanquol and the other skaven leader plotting their campaign against Karak Angkul. The dwarf had spent long enough as the slave of the ratmen to understand something of their chitter-spit language. He couldn’t mistake the scheme he heard. Suddenly the dream of vengeance that was so close began to slip through his fingers. Even if the chance presented itself, he couldn’t attack Thanquol now. A greater duty had been placed upon his shoulders, one the vengeful dwarf found as heavy as a millstone.

Mordin Grimstone had uncovered a new and terrible threat against an entire dwarfhold. The life of every dwarf in Karak Angkul might depend on learning what he had overheard. If he could reach the stronghold ahead of the skaven, there was just a chance his warning could make the difference between victory and disaster. The skaven would follow the Underway as far as they could, but they would be slowed by their numbers and their ravenous metabolisms. More, it was doubtful if any of the ratmen could read the ancient Khazalid runes on the guidestones. They wouldn’t know the secret ways by which a traveller could trim days from his journey by making his way to the surface and travelling overland.

Vengeance would have to wait. It was a decision that made Mordin sick to his stomach, but it was the only decision he could make. Thanquol would have to wait.

Though there was one consoling thought the dwarf took with him as he slipped unseen into the darkness.

At least he knew where his enemy was going.

‘I do not understand why an engineer is so interested in these ancient tomes. I seem to recall that a certain engineer is always extolling the necessity for looking forwards and not clinging slavishly to the past.’

The statement was made by a stern-faced old dwarf with a snow-white beard that fell nearly to his ankles. He wore a voluminous robe of rich purple trimmed in silver thread. About his neck he wore a small stone anvil upon which was etched a single rune like a lightning bolt.

The white-bearded dwarf was Morag Frostbeard, Runelord of Karak Angkul. The chambers were his own, located several halls from the librarium within which the Guild of Runesmiths kept their tomes of lore and craftsmanship. Morag was old enough to remember Karak Angkul at its glory, though he had been a very young beardling in those days. It had been that nostalgia which King Logan had exploited to elicit the runemaster’s complicity in what was certainly a breach of custom and tradition.

Morag’s chambers were not extravagant, but there was a sense of opulence about them. Several copper etchings of extraordinary skill were bolted to the smooth stone walls, a collection of polished geodes rested upon a richly carved set of limestone shelves, an elaborate fresco depicted the family of the ancestor god Grungni, and the floor was covered in the pelts of bears and wolves. In one corner stood a small shrine to Thungni, the son of Grungni and patron god of the runesmiths.

In the centre of the room stood a large table with legs of deeply etched bronze and a surface of ancient wutroth wood richly carved with a map of the Worlds Edge Mountains and the once vast domains of the dwarf kingdoms. Much of the table’s surface was covered with voluminous tomes bound in steel, their copper pages polished to a bright sheen by the tireless efforts of the Guild’s librarians. Even so, each page bore a patina of decay about it, for the tireless march of time could not be wholly thwarted even by the most attentive of care.

A lone dwarf sat behind the table, scrutinising the open page set before him with such intense concentration that he might have been carved from stone. He wore the deep red robe of a journeyman runesmith, its edges picked out in a trim of golden thread, forming into intricate whorls as they converged upon the hem of the garment. A heavy stone pectoral was looped about the dwarf’s neck, depicting the anvil and lightning bolt symbol of the Guild of Runesmiths. His long blond beard fell only to his waist and only the first streaks of grey had started to appear within it. The runesmith’s face was broad and full, his brows knitted in their customary attitude of deliberation. Kurgaz Brightfinger never did anything without the most careful consideration. It was why the Brightfinger family had despaired of ever making him a first-rate jewelsmith, for he would spend weeks before making the first cut upon a stone. They had been quite relieved when the Guild of Runesmiths had accepted Kurgaz into their company.

Kurgaz’s mind had been a natural fit to the work of a runesmith and he had excelled within the Guild. His time as an apprentice had been the shortest ever recorded in the lore of Karak Angkul, and only decorum and tradition had kept him from achieving the rank of journeyman decades sooner than he had. It was the thought of these lost years and what he might have done with them had he been allowed the opportunity that had planted a seed of discontent in the breast of Kurgaz Brightfinger, a seed that had eventually lead him to the friendship and patronage of Klarak Bronzehammer, the daring genius and nonconformist pariah of the Engineers’ Guild.

Klarak himself stood behind Kurgaz’s chair, watching his friend labour over the ancient pages of the Rhun Kron. It was forbidden for any but a runesmith to consult the great tomes within which the ancient runes of power were recorded, and the engineer was careful to keep his eyes averted from the subject of Kurgaz’s studies. That Runelord Morag had allowed him to even set foot within the chamber while the books were unlocked and open was a mark of how unusual the king’s request had been and how deeply – albeit grudgingly – Morag respected the bold Klarak.

‘We should not cling slavishly to the past,’ Klarak said. ‘To do so is the doom of our people. But neither can we ignore the wisdom and pride of our ancestors. If we do that, then we are no longer dwarfs and no better than grobi.’

Morag huffed and grumbled at the remark. ‘Yet you flout tradition and custom at every bend in the tunnel.’ He gestured with his calloused hands at the diligent Kurgaz bent over the copper pages of his book. ‘This, for instance, is a terrible breach of precedence and propriety. The books young Kurgaz is being allowed to examine are the exclusive province of only the most learned within the Guild. Why, perhaps if he was a runemaster with a hundred more years under his chin he might be capable of understanding a fraction of what he is reading, but to think he can possibly accomplish what you intend…’ Morag threw up his hands in a hopeless gesture.

Klarak shook his head. ‘Yet you agreed to let him try,’ he pointed out, a touch of reprimand in his voice.

‘It was King Logan’s request,’ Morag said. ‘I was faced with the choice of permitting this foolishness or having my name entered in the king’s Book of Grudges. I’ve lived a long life and know I’m close to meeting the ancestors. I don’t intend to do so with a king’s grudgestone tied about my neck.’

‘There was a very important reason I asked King Logan to make this request,’ apologised Klarak.

The runelord allowed a flicker of smile to pull at his white beard. ‘I know that,’ he said. ‘If it were not so, then I would have refused the king, grudgestone or no. But I still cannot see the purpose of this. A Master Rune is something even a runelord’s wisdom finds difficult to understand. And without the proper understanding, they become dangerous. How many glory-hungry fools have taken the sacred Anvils of Doom out into battle, boldly thinking they can command the vast powers of such scared relics? And how many of these precious artefacts have been lost forever because they broke beneath the hammers of these same fools?’

‘I know the danger,’ Klarak said solemnly. ‘But I have faith in Kurgaz Brightfinger. Even you will acknowledge he is the most brilliant dwarf to ever study under one of your runemasters.’

‘Yes,’ conceded Morag, ‘but intelligence is only half the alloy that makes up wisdom. The other half is experience, and no amount of brilliance can make up for young Kurgaz’s lack of years.’

‘We will have to agree to disagree,’ Klarak said.

Morag fixed him with a stern look. ‘It would help if I knew what you intended to do. Allowing of course that trying to forge a Master Rune doesn’t shatter the brain of Runesmith Kurgaz.’

Klarak frowned and shook his head. ‘That, I fear, is something I must keep to myself. But know that if it works, then you will have helped save Karak Angkul from destruction.’ The flake-gold eyes closed for a moment and Klarak pictured again the strange mystical writing on the message he had received.

‘More than that,’ he said as he made his way to the door, leaving Kurgaz to his study. ‘You may help save the whole of the Karak Ankor.’

There was urgency in Klarak Bronzehammer’s step as he made his way through the vast halls of Karak Angkul’s Third Deep. Excavated by miners long ago, the old workings had been expanded into broad galleries and gigantic corridors. Monolithic pillars supported the vaulted ceilings far overhead, many of them etched with scenes from the dwarfhold’s long history. A steady throng of dwarfs travelled along the passageways, hurrying about the business of the hold. Goatherds bringing milk and cheese to the larders of their patrons from the pastures far above the hold. Apprentice ironsmiths and weaponsmiths pushing trolleys of ingots to the forges and workshops of their masters. Wranglers leading lode ponies down to the stables of the various miner clans. Wiry young runebearers hurrying through the crowds to deliver the messages they had been entrusted with.

Among the normal traffic of the dwarfhold, there was an added air of tension. Armoured warriors moved among the crowds in greater numbers than was commonly seen. King Logan had dispatched a great number of troops into the lower deeps, trying to drive out the skaven from their stubborn foothold in the mines. The entire household of Thane Tarbrak was armed and assembled in the Sixth Deep, charged with the duty of maintaining the sanctity of the dwarfhold against any further encroachment by the ratkin. Thane Tarbrak’s cousin had been among the ironbreakers overwhelmed by the first attack, so success in this new duty would allow him a chance to atone for the failure of his kinsman and wipe out the grudge charged against his clan.

Klarak knew the need for such precautions. A show of force was the only thing that would keep the scavenging ratmen from rushing up into the dwarfhold itself. But he also knew it would not be enough to keep them there. From bitter experience, he knew the devious ways of the skaven. Even now the ratmen were sniffing for another way into the stronghold, a way past the waiting axes and guns of the dwarfs. He had every reason to suspect the vermin would find that way, even if they had to claw it from the roots of the mountain.

The engineer’s expression became grim. The warning he had received made no bones about what he could expect once the skaven gained access to Karak Angkul. It was up to him to keep that from happening.

Klarak passed through the great gallery overlooking the icy mountain stream that provided the dwarfhold with its water. The workshops and forges of Karak Angkul were arranged about the stream like the spokes of a wheel, a tiny culvert with a little dam providing each smith and armourer with the water he required. The sound of banging hammers filled the air; the flickering glow of forgefires crept out from every tunnel, painting the walls a smouldering crimson.

Klarak’s own workshop was situated here, poised at the very edge of the stronghold. He smiled as he saw teams of lode ponies being lead away by muleskinners. Each team pulled an iron cart laden with beams of reddish-gold metal. As the muleskinners passed him, their eyes were filled with wonder and admiration. It was an expression of esteem the dwarfs were too cautious to give voice to. Here in the forgeworks of Karak Angkul, the ears of the Engineers’ Guild were everywhere.

There was a reason for their admiration. Though concerned with ponies and their care, the muleskinners were still dwarfs and knew a thing or three about metal and its properties. The beams they carted away, destined for the lower deeps and the tunnels recently recovered from the skaven, were of a remarkable nature. They had a flexibility about them that was almost organic, yet a hardness and toughness that was the equal of adamant. Never had these dwarfs seen such an amazing metal.

Of course, there was no way they could have. Until a few months ago, such metal hadn’t existed. It was a new alloy developed by Klarak Bronzehammer. It was stronger than anything short of gromril, yet with the give and flexibility of wood, he had named his metal barazhunk. There was need of his alloy now. The skaven had a villainous reputation for sabotaging the tunnels they abandoned, leaving behind sinister traps that would bury their pursuers. With barazhunk, the dwarfs would be able to quickly and safely shore up the passages as they went along, allowing a far speedier pursuit of their foes and preserving the many warriors who would otherwise fall victim to ratkin trickery.

Guildmaster Thori would, of course, pull his beard over such reckless innovation. The Engineer’s Guild would have demanded years, even decades of testing barazhunk before condoning its use by the populace. And in the meantime, dwarfs would perish trying to fight their way through skaven traps using the old tactics their fathers and grandfathers had used against the ratkin and which their scheming enemies knew only too well.

Klarak shook his head. No, there was a time for caution, but there was also a time for boldness. Dwarfs like Thori, while well-meaning, were also restraining the potential of their people. The greater the risk, the greater the reward.

He sighed as he watched the ponies carting their cargo towards the ramp leading to the Fourth Deep. Barazhunk could save many lives by shoring up the mines, but Klarak saw an even more important contribution it could make, one that would depend on Kurgaz Brightfinger and his ability to recreate one of the secret Master Runes.

One that would depend on the loathsome ratkin and what they would do once Grey Seer Thanquol arrived in Karak Angkul.

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘If I catch you sniffing around that tarp again, I’ll have to bite off your nose.’

Thanquol leapt back immediately when he heard Ikit Claw’s metallic growl. The source of the grey seer’s interest was a sledge the Claw’s slaves were dragging through the Underway. At first he had thought it simply contained ammunition or provisions, but the way the warlock-engineers hovered about it left him with serious doubts. The sledge was almost always escorted by a half-dozen skirmishers with another pair of jezzails perched atop the ratskin tarp in an attitude of paranoid vigilance. It didn’t take an intellect of Thanquol’s stature to realise that there was something important hidden away under there. If he could find out what it was, he had a feeling it would explain why the Chief Warlock of Clan Skryre was interested in the pathetic schemes of a two-flea moron like the late and certainly unlamented Kaskitt Steelgrin.

Wondering what Ikit Claw was hiding had plagued Thanquol ever since he’d been persuaded to join the reformed Clan Skryre expedition. He was mindful of the old wisdom that curiosity killed the rat, but it was like an itch he couldn’t scratch, only growing worse the more he tried to ignore it.

Finally he had hit upon a clever scheme to draw attention away from the sledge. He ordered Boneripper to behave as though it were going berserk, being careful to stipulate that the rat-ogre wasn’t to actually harm any of Ikit Claw’s tinker-rats. It wasn’t that he cared a pellet about the heretical Skryrelings, but he didn’t want to run the risk of the monster’s safety valve locking up and spoiling his plan.

There was one constant, dependable quality among the maddening array of crackpot machines Clan Skryre foisted upon the teeming masses of skavendom. That was their unpredictability. The ratmen might have installed a safety valve to keep Boneripper from turning on them, but Thanquol was certain they wouldn’t be so smug as to think the device was fail-proof.

True enough, Boneripper’s amok antics drew the guards away from Ikit’s mysterious sledge, leaving Thanquol with a free paw to inspect the Claw’s secret cargo.

Unfortunately, it seemed Ikit Claw had guessed the reason for the commotion.

Thanquol lowered his head submissively as he found the Chief Warlock glaring at him, a warplock pistol clenched in his paw. ‘I was worry-feared that Boneripper might…’

‘You told-say the machine-ogre to start trouble-fear so you could look-sniff,’ Ikit Claw accused. He drew back the hammer of his pistol. ‘Call back-off your bodyguard.’

‘I’ll see-smell what I can do-say,’ Thanquol said, wearing his most innocent look. Ikit Claw lowered his pistol and snapped orders to his wayward guards, berating them for leaving their posts and threatening a particularly gory end should they ever do such a thing again.

Thanquol picked his way through the rubble Boneripper had torn from the stone walls and the litter of gear abandoned by the skaven the rat-ogre had seemingly threatened. ‘Stop-stop!’ he cried out to the hulking brute. The skeletal monster froze in mid-motion, a thousand-pound dwarf statue held above it. The grey seer could hear the machinery inside Boneripper whining and shuddering beneath the tremendous weight. The monster couldn’t hold such a burden for long, yet it just mindlessly stood there, waiting for its next order. If not for that cursed fail-safe, the brute would have made the perfect bodyguard.

‘Drop it!’ Thanquol snapped irritably, then leapt out of the way of the statue as it came smashing down where he had been standing. Coughing on the cloud of stone dust that rose from the impact, Thanquol glared at his moronic protector. It was just like Clan Skryre not to include harming its master among the things that would lock-up Boneripper’s safety valve!

The rat-ogre’s skeletal head stared back at its master, oblivious to the destruction it had nearly wrought. The beady red eyes glowed evilly in the darkness, sending a tinge of fear crawling through Thanquol’s glands. For a moment he wondered if there wasn’t some glimmer of awareness back there in that ruined skull. Maybe Boneripper somehow remembered its previous life and meeting its violent end beneath the axe of the thrice-damned Gotrek Gurnisson. Maybe it resented obeying once more the master who had gotten it killed deep beneath the streets of Nuln.

Thanquol gnashed his fangs, dismissing the idiotic idea. ‘Come along, fool-meat,’ he growled, whacking Boneripper’s side with his staff. There wasn’t anything inside the rat-ogre’s head but a bunch of cogs and gears. It didn’t think anything except what it was told to think, and even then it had a hard time.

Plodding through the dark, Thanquol and Boneripper put some distance between themselves and Ikit Claw’s sledge. It would be wise to keep clear of the Chief Warlock until his temper cooled a bit. Just now, he was exhibiting a good deal of utterly foundless suspicion regarding his stalwart companion and ally. Thanquol would wait until the Claw was a bit less emotional before making another try at seeing what the warlock-engineer was being so secretive about.

‘Don’t think-try that again.’

It was the second time Thanquol had received the same warning in the last few minutes. This time his accoster wasn’t the fearsome Ikit but the pathetic, drug-wracked mess of fur and bones called Grey Seer Skraekual.

Thanquol’s lips pulled back in a fang-ridden grin, his claws tightening about the haft of his staff. ‘I’m in a bad mood, warp-wit,’ he hissed. ‘I’ll be in a much better one if I have Boneripper twist that ugly-nasty head off your shoulders.’

The bleariness faded from Skraekual’s eyes as he glanced in alarm at the looming rat-ogre. ‘You brave-dare not-not kill-slay Skraekual,’ he whined, cringing back against the cavern wall. A flash of anger suddenly flashed across the grey seer’s rotten face as he remembered the magic ring he wore. The cringing posture was abandoned and he leered back at Thanquol. ‘Do what I say-tell!’ he snapped, pointing the ring at his rival. ‘Kritislik put me on top. You do what I say-tell.’

Thanquol glowered at the degenerate sorcerer-priest. How he would like to crush the maggot and leave his carcass for the beetles. But he’d seen old Master Sleekit’s ring in action and wasn’t of a mind to risk ending up a charred smear on the floor. Besides, he reflected, Skraekual would be a useful scapegoat should anything go wrong. Perhaps it would be wise to confer with his fellow grey seer and gain his collusion against Ikit Claw.

‘That tinker-rat is hiding something,’ Thanquol said, his voice a low and conspiratorial whisper.

‘Not interested,’ Skraekual said, his tone making it clear that he spoke for both of them.

Thanquol’s fur bristled. The arrogant flea! Daring to talk down to the greatest mind in the Under-Empire! He’d pull out the rat’s liver and feed it to him!

‘It must be something powerful the way he guards it,’ Thanquol explained in what he considered his most convincing tone.

Skraekual coughed, spitting a broken tooth against the wall. ‘Tinker-rat heresy!’ he growled. ‘The only real-true power comes from the Horned One!’

‘That’s because you don’t know how tinker-rat machines work,’ Thanquol pressed.

‘And you do?’ Skraekual scoffed, directing a sly look at Boneripper.

Thanquol ground his fangs at the subtle reminder of his bodyguard’s spectacular failure during Ikit’s ambush. He forced himself to ignore the irritation of Skraekual’s words. Now that he’d started to form his plan, he had decided Skraekual should be a part of it. After all, if things went bad, Seerlord Kritislik did place him in charge.

‘No, I don’t,’ Thanquol admitted. He tilted his head ever so slightly, twitching his whiskers at the distant figure of Ikit Claw. ‘But he does. All we have to do is make the Claw work for us.’

Skraekual peered suspiciously at the Chief Warlock as he made his inspection of the sledge and whatever was hidden under the tarp. ‘For the Horned One,’ he hissed, correcting Thanquol’s statement.

‘Of course,’ Thanquol agreed, a gleam in his eye. ‘That is what I meant-said. We’ll make him work for the Horned One.’

The skaven settlement of Bonestash opened directly upon the Ungdrin Ankor, connected to the ancient dwarf tunnels by a series of narrow passageways. All of the openings had been clawed from the earth by skaven labour, the walls still bearing the scars of their digging. A litter of bones and pellets made it obvious which of the tunnels were in use and which were nothing more than booby-trapped blinds to snare the unwary goblin and the odd subterranean predator.

Ikit Claw ordered his entourage towards the largest of the active tunnels, the only one broad enough to accommodate the sledge his slaves had been dragging. The tunnel was situated between the legs of an enormous statue, the decapitated figure of some ancient dwarf lord. The stone head glared fiercely from the floor, its nose broken and its teeth pitted by the marks of blades. As they approached within scenting distance, a pack of sentries scrambled down from the statue’s head and scurried off into the tunnel. The sound of rattling chains and the groan of a heavy gate echoed down the passageway.

Jezzails and warpfire teams scuttled into positions facing towards the tunnel, arming their weapons on the run. Other skirmishers began struggling into cumbersome harnesses and covering their faces with garish masks. Thanquol felt his fur crawl when he saw these ratmen, recognising their gear as that of a globadier, wielders of the hideous Poison Wind, one of Clan Skryre’s most fiendish inventions.

He did not, however, recognise some of the other strange devices Ikit Claw’s minions were readying. One was a bulky mass of metal that looked as though a half-dozen muskets had been soldered together and then bound in copper wire. The brawny ratman who carried it was followed by a brown-furred helper who laboured beneath the weight of a portable furnace lashed to his back. A long hose of ratgut connected the mechanism of the strange gun to the side of the furnace. Thanquol could smell warpstone in the tiny puffs of steam venting from the furnace as it shuddered into life.

The second new weapon was even more bizarre and unsettling. Ikit Claw was renowned through the Under-Empire as inventor of the warp-lightning cannon, a mighty war machine capable of burning a hole through a mountain. Thanquol had seen that weapon displayed for the benefit of the Lords of Decay in Skavenblight, though his attention had been more focused on the huge chunk of raw warpstone the cannon derived its power from than the intricacies of the contraption itself.

What he gazed upon now seemed a smaller, more compact sort of warp-lightning cannon, carried upon the back of a single massive warrior. The skaven wore a weird sort of quilted armour over his black fur and his eyes were covered by a set of almost-black lenses. The gun itself was a long, slender tube of metal down the length of which a series of coloured lenses were fitted at intervals. The mechanism of the lightning-rifle was still a chunk of raw warpstone, much smaller than that employed on the cannon Thanquol had seen. It was housed in a mirrored box built into the back of the rifle, directly behind the end of the barrel and the focusing lenses.

While his attention was distracted by the preparations of Clan Skryre, Thanquol failed to notice that Ikit Claw had turned towards him. He cursed under his breath when he realised the Chief Warlock was staring straight at him. No doubt the vermin was expecting him to lead the attack while the brave Ikit kept himself well away from the fighting.

‘Grey Seer!’ the Claw’s steel voice rasped.

Thanquol glanced about in a vain hope that perhaps he was addressing Skraekual, but the worthless warp-wit had scurried off to some hiding spot. Grinding his fangs in annoyance, he saw no choice but to answer Ikit and excuse himself from the dubious honour he was about to bestow upon him.

‘I fear-think I cannot lead-guide the attack,’ Thanquol said. ‘I am only a poor priest who speaks-squeaks with the Horned Rat. I don’t learn-know Clan Skryre’s most magnificent weapons. I wouldn’t know how-when to use them in the attack. So you see-scent that I’m the wrong-bad choice to lead-guide the attack.’

‘I don’t want you to lead my troops,’ Ikit Claw told Thanquol. The grey seer blinked at him in momentary confusion. A scratchy chitter of laughter hissed up Ikit’s ruined throat. ‘I wouldn’t trust-leave you with my troops.’ The Claw flexed his massive metal hand meaningfully, displaying the warpfire thrower built into its palm and the sword-like blades fitted to each steel finger.

‘What-what do you want-need?’ Thanquol asked, not bothering to hide the fear in his posture. The warlock-engineers were an impious, secular breed and Ikit Claw was the worst of the litter. He’d think no more of killing a grey seer than he would popping a tick.

‘Clan Mors was expecting Kaskitt,’ the Claw explained, gesturing towards the dwarf head so recently vacated by the sentries. ‘Rikkit Snapfang may not receive us as warmly as he would my unfortunate clan-flesh.’ The burned skin pulled back from Ikit’s lip, exposing his scarred teeth. ‘Your job is to go in there and let him know the deal has changed.’

Thanquol felt his glands clench. Going alone into a dark tunnel that was probably crawling with hostile warriors from the fiercest clan in all skavendom was hardly his idea of the duties of a grey seer. Then again, getting incinerated by a crazed tinker-rat wasn’t much of an alternative.

‘What should I squeak-speak?’ Thanquol asked.

Ikit Claw’s ghastly laughter sounded once more. ‘Tell-say that Ikit Claw, Chief Warlock of Clan Skryre, Master of the Warpstorm, Flayer of Forgemaster Gharhakk Bloodtongue, Butcher of Chicomecoatl, Gutter of Jarl Alfhild Daemonkin, Burner of Magister Klaus von Doenhoff, Razer of Helwigstadt…’

The warlock-engineer was still giving himself titles when Thanquol started his reluctant dash into the black mouth of the tunnel.

The tunnel was as black as the inside of a snake – not the most pleasant of images for the grey seer to think of, but appropriate. If there had been any torches or warp-lamps in the tunnel, the sentries had doused them. Thanquol found himself hugging the right-paw wall, keeping his whiskers in constant contact with the reassuring presence of earth and rock.

Darkness alone didn’t overly bother a skaven. Indeed, they usually found it comforting. If they couldn’t see, then at least they couldn’t be seen either. No, what had Thanquol’s glands clenching was the smell. A skaven was more disturbed by an inability to smell than an inability to see, and some twisted sadist had decided to eliminate that key sense for any ratmen entering the tunnel.

When he entered the tunnel, at first there had been the expected smells of fur and dung and musk… and a tantalising hint of warpstone. The sorts of smells anyone would expect to find in a skaven warren. But only a few yards into the passageway, all of these smells had been blotted out by the overwhelming stink of ratbane, a noxious weed that dulled the usually keen senses of a skaven to a point where he could barely function. Some craven fiend was burning a bushel of the filth somewhere down the tunnel and fanning it directly towards Thanquol.

The grey seer couldn’t help pawing at his nose, the horrible smell seeming to clog his nasal passages. Only a few steps of such vexing treatment was all he was going to put up with. Extracting his rat-skull snuff-box, he took a pinch of Lynsh’s weed to clear the reek from his nose.

Immediately, the stench vanished as the fiery blast of warpsnuff sizzled through his body. Thanquol shook in the grip of the intoxicating rush, forcing him to stumble back and lean on Boneripper’s skeletal frame for support. Little pixie-lights twinkled across his vision, flittering about in the gloom. Irritably, Thanquol swatted his paw through the air, trying to disperse the annoying phantoms.

He felt himself propelled forwards by the lumbering Boneripper. The brute would keep going until doomsday unless it was given the order to stop. Such brainless obedience was admirable – up to a point. Thanquol had no great desire to be trampled by his own bodyguard.

Truthfully, he couldn’t remember just now why he needed a bodyguard anyway. He was, after all, Grey Seer Thanquol, the most feared sorcerer in skavendom. No – the world! What did he need some hulking idiot about for? It was insulting actually. The very suggestion that a mage of his powers should need protection! He should blast Boneripper into bits for having the impertinence of thinking he needed it to guard him!

Thanquol shook his head. That was the warpsnuff talking. He wasn’t going to blast anything. Not without being able to see what he was blasting. It wouldn’t do to hit a support beam and bring the whole mountain falling on top of him. Even his magic powers would be incommoded by such a happenstance.

Muttering a quick spell, Thanquol lifted his staff. The metal head blazed with luminance, as though a piece of the sun had been dragged down into the tunnel. The grey seer shut his eyes at the blinding brilliance, finding it quite a bit more than he had been planning on. A bit more restraint, perhaps, was in order.

Pained squeals sounded from further down the tunnel. Sneaks lying in wait, their scent obscured by the ratbane!

Thanquol didn’t wait for his vision to clear. Stretching forth his paw, he unleashed a stream of warp-lightning in the direction of the cries. He could hear earth sizzle as the magical force slammed against the wall. Rocks burst like boiled ticks as he continued to play the lightning about in a wild arc. His vicious assault was rewarded with an anguished howl and the scent of smouldering fur and scorched flesh.

Baring his fangs, Thanquol drew more power into his spell, feeling the aethyric energies blazing across his mind. He could see now, could see the slinking black-furred ratmen who had thought they could ambush him. Each of them carried a crooked sword and their noses were damp with some sort of salve – a provision against the ratbane, undoubtedly. Well, the vermin would have worse things to worry about than ratbane!

The warp-lightning crackled into another of the skaven, scorching him into a charred huddle of burnt fur and shrivelled flesh. Several of the ratmen tried to flee, drawing Thanquol’s ire. Redirecting his energies, he blasted a hole through the spine of the foremost of the runners, splitting him nearly in two. The lashing energy continued on, ripping across the stone lintel that braced the roof of the passage. A deep groove was gouged into the lintel and the earth overhead groaned angrily.

Let the mountain try to kill him! He was Thanquol the Mighty! He would show it the folly of daring to trifle with him! When he was through with it, there’d be nothing but pebbles left!

Thanquol dropped his staff and clapped a paw to his horned head. A thrill of terror coursed through him, beating down the crazed fury of the warpsnuff. The stream of warp-lightning faded as he willed the surge of magical energies coursing into his body to abate. The madness past, he wilted to the floor, gasping for breath. Every bone in his body felt as though it had been gnawed on by ratlings and then used to swat mosquitoes. Exhausted, he couldn’t even maintain the light that still glowed upon the end of his staff.

A new fear filled Thanquol’s heart. Not the fear of his rampant and crazed display of magic. That was over and done and he would recover from that. No, it was the realisation that he was once again blind and stifled by the ratbane. And there were still several angry skaven scattered about the tunnel.

His enemies would be blind and unable to use their noses, but the vermin still had their ears to work with! Exhausted, his body taxed to the limit by his sorcery, Thanquol could not keep from gasping at the air, could not stifle the frantic pounding of his heart. No, the cowardly mouse-lickers wouldn’t need to see or smell him to find him and take advantage of his helplessness!

A flash of cruel inspiration came to Thanquol. Between gasps, he snarled words to Boneripper. ‘Tear-crush all rat-flesh comes near-close!’ he growled, ensuring his voice was loud enough for the other skaven to hear… and appreciate.

A few moments later, there was a flurry of activity in the dark. Thanquol heard the pathetic mewing of a ratman an instant before the dull crack of a spine being snapped in two echoed through the tunnel. The smell of blood and fear-musk accompanied the crash of the body against the floor. After that, the other skaven kept their distance.

Fool-meat! Did they think Thanquol did not have contingencies to deal with their petty scheming? He would never have stepped so brazenly into their trap without taking the proper precautions. Let them try to blind him and stuff his nose with ratbane! He had the colossal Boneripper to protect him! A rat-ogre rebuilt by Clan Skryre’s remarkable techno-sorcery! An unliving juggernaut who could see in absolute blackness and who had no nose to be smothered by ratbane fumes!

‘I tell-say for Boneripper to kill-slay all-all!’ Thanquol threatened, then hastily called out to his bodyguard to stop when he heard the automaton lurching into motion. Unthinking obedience was becoming a bit of a nuisance.

‘Bring-fetch Rikkit Snapfang!’ the grey seer commanded. ‘Tell him that Grey Seer Thanquol will take-have words with him!’

There was a satisfying rush of feet when Thanquol made his demands as the lurking warriors fled up the tunnel to carry his words to their warlord. The effect of hearing who they had so stupidly thought to ambush had filled their black hearts with fear. No ratman would dare defy the will of Grey Seer Thanquol!

‘Boneripper! Stop-stand! No more kill-slay!’ the grey seer grumbled as he heard the rat-ogre lumbering after the retreating skaven.

The workshop of Klarak Bronzehammer was a flurry of activity. Every smelter and kiln was glowing with heat, pushed almost beyond endurance by the production demands he had placed upon them. His aides raced about the workshop like frightened grobi, rushing from smelter to anvil and from anvil to slack tub.

Klarak paused on the threshold, letting himself adjust to the sweltering heat. He watched with admiration as his aides hurried about their labours. No need to impress upon them the urgency of the task he had set for them. They knew that Klarak never asked anything of them without good reason.

Horgar Horgarsson was working the bellows of one of the forges, keeping it at the white-hot glow that was necessary for the smelting of barazhunk, his steam-work frame lending him the strength to maintain the fires. Thorlek had shed his customary furs and pelts, standing bare-chested and covered in sweat as he pounded away at one of the anvils, folding and refolding the near-molten alloy until it achieved the tenacity Klarak required.

Two other dwarfs laboured in Klarak’s workshop. One was a wizened old longbeard, his floor-length grey beard plaited into three tails and stuffed into the broad belt he wore. Azram Steelfoot was among the most venerable dwarfs in Karak Angkul, older even than Runelord Morag. One of the hold’s lorekeepers, the historian had benefited from the innovative engineering of Klarak Bronzehammer when one of his eyes had started to fail him. The left side of Azram’s face now bore the fruit of Klarak’s invention, an augmetic device of multi-faceted lenses and clockwork gears that now served the dwarf in place of his wasted eye. The lorekeeper’s gratitude had been boundless and firmly indebted Azram to his benefactor. Hence the old historian was here, inspecting each beam of barazhunk for imperfections before allowing it to be placed on the pile awaiting transport into the lower deeps.

The last of Klarak’s company was a short-bearded, dark-haired dwarf busying himself with feeding coke into the forge Horgar was using. Despite the length of his beard, however, Kimril was no beardling, having almost two centuries under his belt. He’d shorn his beard long ago as a token of respect and fealty to the father of his wife, Thane Borin of the Nogardsson clan. In those days, Kimril had been a tradesman, making his living transporting cargo to and from Karak Angkul. Then, while he was away on one of his trips, his wife took ill. She never recovered from her lingering sickness, though Kimril had spent every coin and favour owed to him on physicians and healers. After her death, he had taken up the physician’s staff, becoming the most accomplished doctor in the dwarfhold.

Still, the tragedy of his wife’s death hung heavy on Kimril’s heart. He blamed the conservatism of dwarf medicine for her slow decline and had devoted himself to finding new cures, however untraditional they might be. The physician’s mindset had made him something of a pariah in the hold and a natural dwarf to accumulate the friendship of Klarak Bronzehammer.

Together with Kurgaz Brightfinger, these four dwarfs made up Klarak’s Iron Throng. They had adventured far and wide with their master, but always the road led them back to Karak Angkul.

Thorlek was the first to notice Klarak’s return. The ranger set down his hammer, a wide smile splitting his face. ‘I was beginning to think you were leaving all the fun to us.’

The other dwarfs paused in their work to greet the gold-bearded engineer. ‘I had the idea that perhaps Guildmaster Thori had finally managed to give him the cogging he’s been asking for all these years,’ quipped Kimril, wiping his hands on his soot-stained apron.

‘That old grobi-fondler doesn’t have the beard to even try,’ Horgar said. He closed his armoured hand into a menacing fist. ‘And if he did, he’d trip and fall all the way down to the Sixth Deep.’

‘That would be something to see,’ Azram said, adjusting the lenses on his iron eye so he could focus on the figure of the engineer as he entered the workshop.

‘Guildmaster Thori means well,’ Klarak reprimanded his aides. While he applauded their enthusiasm and loyalty, sometimes he worried that they forgot to show the proper respect to their elders and superiors. ‘He is right to be cautious about moving forwards too fast and too recklessly. Remember the horrible abuses the dawi-zharr have put their technology to.’

Mention of the abhorred Tainted cast a pall upon Klarak’s aides. Each of them remembered the corrupt dwarfs of the Dark Lands and the monstrous things crafted by their abominable daemonsmiths. It was an image no dwarf could forget and which no dwarf could consider without a twinge of guilt and a flash of hate.

‘The beams are almost done,’ Kimril said, breaking the tension. ‘Do you think King Logan will let them be used?’

‘More to the point, will Minewarden Grundin?’ Thorlek observed.

‘King Logan has already agreed,’ Klarak stated. ‘Minewarden Grundin is under a grudge for being improperly prepared to repulse the ratkin from the lower deeps. He won’t make any obstruction to our plans.’

Horgar clapped his metal-sheathed hands together. ‘Then barazhunk is going into the mines. The filthy thaggoraki will break a few teeth trying to chew through this!’

Klarak’s expression was dour. He was thinking of all that could still go wrong with his plan and the dreadful warning he had received from Altdorf.

‘We’ll get barazhunk into the mines,’ he said, ‘but we don’t want it to stay there.’ His friends stared at him, each wearing a look of confusion. ‘Things have changed,’ Klarak told them. ‘The ratkin menace is greater than any of us thought it could be. We need a trap to catch the rats leading these vermin.

‘And barazhunk is going to be our cheese.’

Bonestash was a sprawling warren consisting of hundreds of miles of winding tunnels, chambers and burrows. There was no rhyme or reason to the layout of the settlement, it had expanded as need had dictated, chasing deposits of warpstone, water sources and food supplies. The staple diet for the warren was largely based upon the cave squigs and giant beetles cultivated by the large numbers of goblin slaves they kept, but the skaven weren’t above adding the occasional dwarf and the frequent goblin to their meals. The only crop they used as a supplement was a sort of bread-like fungus that seemed quite partial to skaven pellets as fertiliser.

The warren was thriving, if not exactly prospering. No less than thirty brood-mothers were actively producing litters five times a year, a statistic Rikkit seemed especially proud of. Thanquol could guess the reason. The slithery little villain was expanding the treasury of his warren by selling some of his extra population on the side. Most likely Clan Skaul, Thanquol decided. The drug-peddlers were always looking for ways to expand their numbers and they’d certainly be interested in pups sired by strong Clan Mors warriors. Moreover, Skaul had certain opiates that would increase the fertility of female skaven. Seerlord Kritislik had patronised them quite heavily in his efforts to develop a strain of brood-mother that would only birth horned pups.

Thanquol was beginning to appreciate the idea of looting Rikkit’s treasury. There was every reason to suspect the blood-brained war-rat had skimmed quite a bit for his own purposes before sending along his duty to Clan Mors. The best part was, if he wasn’t supposed to have it to begin with, then he couldn’t squeak about it when it was taken from him.

Still, there was the problem of Ikit Claw to worry about. The Chief Warlock was up to something and, against all reason, Thanquol didn’t think it had anything to do with stealing Rikkit’s warp-tokens. It also made Thanquol wonder if there might not be more advantage to be gained trying to ferret out exactly what the Claw was up to.

Unfortunately, Thanquol knew it would be an up-burrow battle to get Rikkit or any of his clawleaders involved in any plot against Ikit. They already thought the grey seer had been bought and paid for. From the first moment Rikkit had gotten a sniff of Thanquol’s scent, he’d considered him nothing but a lackey of the Chief Warlock.

It was all the moronic automaton’s fault! A big hulking abomination that shouted ‘gift from Clan Skryre’ with every gear and gizmo bolted to its ugly bones! Thanquol had been right to be suspicious when Ikit had so graciously allowed him to take Boneripper with him on his way to treat with Clan Mors. One sniff of that mechanical brute and every skaven in Bonestash thought Thanquol was up to his neck in Clan Skryre bribes!

If it had been true, Thanquol might have been more at ease, but he was barely tolerated by the tinker-rats and Ikit Claw wasn’t inclined to lift a whisker to help the grey seer. Worse, the Chief Warlock kept making extravagant demands on their hosts. He’d appropriated one of the largest chambers in the warren for his own uses, necessitating the relocation of a dozen brood-mothers and their pups. Then he’d started plundering the stores of timber and material Rikkit had squirrelled away, taking everything into his new lair. Finally, there had been calls for hundreds of slaves to be handed over to the Clan Skryre expedition. Instead of acting like the mercenary hirelings Rikkit had been expecting, Ikit Claw was conducting himself like a conquering warchief!

With Clan Skryre keeping almost entirely to the chamber Ikit Claw had appropriated, Thanquol and Skraekual were left to fend for themselves among an increasingly hostile population. Or at least Thanquol was. Skraekual appeared to have smoothed over a good deal of the resentment directed at him, no doubt by spinning elaborate lies about his fellow grey seer’s association with the Claw and intentions to spy on Clan Mors.

Thanquol was no stranger to being in the unenviable position of being caught between two hostile factions. However, this was the first time he couldn’t see a way of playing the one against the other and gaining some benefit from the infighting. The presence of Skraekual only made it that much worse. The scurvy flea-monger always seemed one jump ahead of him, poisoning the water before he could reach the stream.

‘Horned Rat guard-keep me from the intrigues of fool-flesh!’ Thanquol grumbled. The scheming maggots were so involved in their own plots that they had completely forgotten the real enemy. They had all come here to drive the dwarf-things out of the halls above Bonestash. Why couldn’t any of these idiots remember that? And why couldn’t they do it soon so they’d have something beside Grey Seer Thanquol to be plotting against?

Thanquol stared out across the pack of clanrats marching through the main run of Bonestash. The cave he had appropriated for his own use was ideally located to keep a careful watch on the activity of the warren, situated above a pit that opened into the very heart of the settlement. There had been a bit of disagreement with the previous owner, a decidedly impious belly-sniffer who didn’t seem to appreciate that it was his sacred duty to defer to the will of a grey seer. Boneripper had sorted him out though, which was what the trash-sifters would be doing next time they came around to scavenge through the tunnels.

The warriors of Bonestash were a fine breed. Many burly black-furred stormvermin among their numbers, which was always a promising sign. The dwarfs of Karak Angkul must be unusually tough or Rikkit Snapfang unusually stupid for them to be having such trouble taking the stronghold. Thanquol was willing to bet on either.

Boneripper suddenly rose from where it was crouched at the entrance of Thanquol’s cave. The grey seer turned around with irritation. There were two ways into the cave, one being the pit, the other being a hole that connected to one of the warren’s tunnels. Since taking up residence he’d positioned Boneripper to watch the main hole, the logical route for any intruder to come. However, the rat-ogre was again showing that annoying trait of interpreting its orders a bit too broadly. There was a pile of thirty rat carcasses lying in the corner, and a fair number that were too squished to dig out of the doorway. Thanquol wondered how much it would cost him to have Clan Skryre upgrade whatever it was rattling about inside Boneripper’s skull.

This time, however, the intruder was a bigger kind of rat than the common vermin Boneripper had been dispatching. Displaying a tattered cloth bearing the symbol of the Horned One upon it, a lone skaven poked his nose inside the cave.

‘Stop-stand,’ Thanquol ordered Boneripper. The hulking brute subsided, sinking back to its crouching position with a hiss of steam and a groan of gears.

‘Grey Seer Thanquol,’ the suitably intimidated ratman spoke. ‘I have been sent-ordered to bring-lead you to meeting-talk.’

Thanquol’s fur bristled at the words. He was no slithery lackey to be taking orders! If someone wanted to seek his counsel, then they could damn well come to him! He wasn’t about to go scampering off to see them. It was beneath his dignity.

‘Who sent you?’ Thanquol demanded, displaying his fangs.

The messenger spurted the musk of fear. ‘Warlord Rikkit Snapfang and Chief Warlock Ikit Claw,’ he said. ‘They both seek-want your advice-wisdom for attack-battle.’

Thanquol smoothed his whiskers with his paw, lashing his tail in amusement. So the two flea-scratchers had finally come around, had they? They had come to realise the limits of their intelligence and wanted the mighty Grey Seer Thanquol to bail them out of their troubles. Well, he might consider it if they made their appeal with due humility and deference to his rank. And, of course they’d have to placate him for the indignities they had subjected him to. That shouldn’t take more than Boneripper’s weight in warpstone though.

Thanquol glared at the messenger. ‘What are you gawping at, filth-fur!’ He gathered up his staff and sword from beside his nest and motioned for Bone-ripper to get up. The grey seer strode towards the shivering messenger. ‘Hurry-scurry, dung-breath! Take-lead me to this meeting!’

CHAPTER EIGHT

Grey Seer Thanquol bruxed his fangs and glowered menacingly at the skaven he had been coerced into following into the dwarf mines. Scabby, flea-bitten clanrats bearing splintered spears and rusty goblin swords. They were the mangiest pack of mouse-chewing rejects he’d ever had the misfortune of commanding, and he included the time Seerlord Kritislik had put him in charge of a litter of horned ratling pups! These sorry specimens of malnutrition and inbreeding wouldn’t last five seconds against the dwarf-things!

Of course, that was the point. It was all a conspiracy to get rid of him! Ikit Claw and that conniving little tick Rikkit Snapfang were jealous and afraid of Thanquol’s vast intellect and natural leadership. They didn’t care a pellet about taking the dwarfhold, they just wanted to get him out of the way! It was selfish traitors like them who had prevented the skaven from conquering their enemies and overwhelming the surface world! If just a few of the leaders of skavendom would set aside their personal ambitions and work towards the betterment of the Under-Empire, nothing could stand in their way!

But, then, few skaven had the brains to learn from Thanquol’s own selfless example. The trouble now was to figure out a way to extricate himself from this predicament. Preferably before they walked into dwarf axes or the ghastly shooting machines Rikkit had described so monstrously during the war council. There probably weren’t enough clanrats to hide behind if Thanquol stumbled into that kind of firepower.

The war council! Bah! More like the ‘let’s have Grey Seer Thanquol take care of all the dirty work we’re too mouse-spleened to do ourselves’ roundtable! He had never met a more conniving, cowardly bunch of maggots! And these vermin called themselves warriors!

Rikkit Snapfang was still out of sorts because he had petitioned Clan Skryre for a few warlock-engineers to help him clear away these shooting machines that were causing him such trouble. The Chief Warlock himself was a bit more Clan Skryre than he had bargained for and he was openly afraid of Ikit Claw’s presence in his warren. The sub-chiefs and clawleaders under Rikkit were no better, alternately fawning over and cowering before the fearsome Claw.

Ikit Claw, of course, conducted himself with the iron tyranny of a petty despot, pillaging Bonestash of its resources. Not for the coming battle with the dwarfs, though. Oh no, the Claw needed everything for whatever experiment he was conducting in the old brood-chamber. So much for the bravery of Clan Skryre!

That left Thanquol to pursue the campaign against the dwarfs. At the meeting, it was decided that the grey seer would lead a scouting party into the mines and investigate the new defences the dwarfs had been constructing over the past weeks. Rikkit pledged a few hundred of his ‘best warriors’ for Thanquol to lead, while the Claw had given him a dozen of his ‘finest sharpshooters’.

The Claw’s sharpshooters had deserted as soon as they were out of smell of Bonestash, slipping into the dark with the skill of an Eshin deathmaster. Rikkit’s ‘best warriors’ were too pathetic and dull-witted to manage even that much cunning. Thanquol wondered who those armoured stormvermin belonged to if this rabble was Rikkit’s ‘best warriors’. No doubt, the black-furred brutes were just fungus-farmers in disguise!

Lashing his tail in annoyance, Thanquol cursed once more the names of his duplicitous allies. One of them should be leading this suicide run, not him! They were just petty warlords and tinker-rats, but he was a grey seer and above such grubby dealings. He should be back in the warren helping plot the next phase in the campaign. And he would be too if that warp-wit Skraekual hadn’t been so debilitated by an excess of warp-weed that he couldn’t even twitch a whisker much less stand on his feet. It had taken a supreme effort of will (and sight of that cursed black ring) to keep from bashing in the wretch’s head then and there.

The scent of skaven musk gradually lessened, replaced by the smell of dwarfs and metal. Thanquol could tell from the way the passageway was sloping upwards that they would soon be quit of the ratruns dug by Clan Mors and must then enter the mines of the dwarfs. If he was going to escape this fool’s exercise, then he would have to do it soon.

Thanquol looked back over his shoulder at the skeletal bulk of Boneripper. With the desertion of the skirmishers, every skaven in the scouting party was from Clan Mors. He could tell the rat-ogre to turn on them, roast them alive with its warpfire projector. Afterwards he could claim the brute had malfunctioned, or better yet try to insinuate that Boneripper had somehow been acting upon some treacherous instruction from Ikit Claw. Would he be able to make Rikkit buy that? More importantly, could he be sure there wouldn’t be any survivors to tell the warlord otherwise?

Tugging at his whiskers, the grey seer made the depressing conclusion that he’d need to wait until the clanrats were actually locked in battle to be sure his plan would work. Caught between the dwarfs and Boneripper, there’d be only the smallest chance anybody would get back alive. Except himself, of course, but that would clearly be a sign of the esteem in which the Horned Rat held him.

A sound from one of the side passages connecting onto the main shaft brought Thanquol up short. He gnashed his fangs in outrage as the clanrats scattered, leaving their horned commander dangerously exposed to whatever was sneaking about in the gloom. The grey seer quickly spun around, putting the solid mass of Boneripper’s leg between himself and whatever was creeping towards his patrol.

‘Boneripper!’ Thanquol hissed. ‘Burn-slay! Burn-slay!’ Kill first and find out what it was later had been a good rule of claw as far as the grey seer was concerned.

With a whir of gears and a rumble of pistons, Bone-ripper raised its warpfire projector, directing the nozzle at the connecting passage. Then the automaton froze, becoming as still as a statue.

‘Burn-slay!’ Thanquol shouted, smacking his staff against the rat-ogre’s ribcage, wincing as the unyielding metal and bone sent a shudder through his arm. He knew it! Safety valve indeed! The damnable abomination didn’t work! It was all a trick to get him killed depending on a faulty rat-ogre!

An instant later, the grey seer smelled the distinct scent of Clan Skryre ratmen. He glared through narrowed eyes as a pair of cloaked skaven emerged from the shadows. If their clan-scent hadn’t betrayed them, the crazed array of pneumatic arms fastened to the harnesses they wore would have. The visage of each ratman was hidden behind a weird metal helmet, pipes and hoses running from the iron masks into a series of cylinders fastened to the harnesses they wore. Warlock-engineers! Thanquol was really coming to despise that cursed safety valve!

‘Stop-safe,’ Thanquol growled, calling off his bodyguard before Boneripper could overheat or blow up or whatever it was the lummox would do unless he told it to back down.

The warlock-engineers looked about, inspecting the cluster of trembling clanrats. Thanquol could hear the breath of the tinker-rats gurgling through their respirators.

‘Where-where are shooters?’ one of the warlock-engineers demanded.

‘Gone,’ Thanquol hissed. ‘Scurried off at the first sniff of dwarf-smell!’

The answer obviously didn’t please the warlock-engineers. Whatever they were up to, they looked of a mind to forget it and head back to Bonestash. They might have, too, had it not been for the ratman who had come with them, carefully hiding behind the Clan Skryre tinker-rats until Boneripper had been called off.

‘Ikit Claw will be displeased with them,’ the third skaven said. Thanquol ground his fangs as he recognised the voice. Grey Seer Skraekual loped out from the gloom, bowing his horned head in sneering deference to Thanquol.

‘We felt-thought you could use some help,’ Skraekual explained. There was no hint of debility about the other grey seer now. Indeed, Thanquol hadn’t even recognised Skraekual’s scent, lacking the usual stink of warp-weed and brain-dust.

A horrible thought came creeping into Thanquol’s mind as he stared at Skraekual. He was standing so straight and tall, without a sniff of addiction and weakness about him that if Thanquol didn’t know better he’d swear Skraekual was one of those zealots who never touched anything stronger than mole-milk for fear of tainting their connection to the Horned One.

It was impossible that he could have been deceived by the scurvy warp-wit! Nobody could fool a skaven of his perception and guile! Besides, if it had been a trick, why had Skraekual chosen this moment to scurry out from behind his mask?

‘I have all the help I need-want,’ Thanquol said. He gestured with his staff at the motley pack of clanrats. ‘These are best-fiercest fighters in Bonestash,’ he said. ‘Worth-equal twenty dwarf-things!’ The clanrats seemed to take the compliment with a mix of stupid pride and craven anxiety – no doubt wondering if Thanquol really expected them to take on twenty dwarfs.

Skraekual grinned at the obvious lie, displaying his rotten teeth. ‘Then we should be safe accompanying you,’ the grey seer said. ‘Surely nothing to worry-fear with great Grey Seer Thanquol and his brave-strong war-rats to protect us!’

It wasn’t so much the fact that Skraekual and the warlock-engineers started laughing that got under Thanquol’s fur, it was the way the ungracious vermin did it.

Angrily, Thanquol turned to his clanrats. ‘Onward!’ he snarled. ‘Hurry-scurry! I’ll feed the slowest fool-meat to my rat-ogre!’

The clanrats set off at an admirably frantic pace, not hesitating to wonder why a warp-powered skeleton would want to eat them. Thanquol preened his whiskers as he watched them race off down the tunnel. If he couldn’t demand the respect of his peers, at least he could still command the fear of his subordinates.

The scouting party was soon deep within the no-rat’s-land between the mines Rikkit’s warriors had been able to secure and the upper deeps still held by the dwarfs. The stink of fear rising from Thanquol’s warriors was obscene. It took a fresh tirade of curses and threats to get them moving again every dozen yards. The clanrats just about jumped out of their fur every time they heard a beam creak or a common rat kick up some dust. It vexed the grey seer to think these maggot-munchers thought they had something more terrible than his own anger to worry about. He was sorely tempted to wither a few of them with a violent display of magic just to get the point across.

Instead, Thanquol just grabbed the handiest of the skaven by his throat.

‘What-why are you coward-flesh afraid?’ Thanquol growled, making a full display of his fangs. ‘I am here. The might of my magic is great-better than any dwarf-thing!’

The frightened ratman went limp in Thanquol’s grip. ‘Mercy-pity, Horrific One!’ he whined. ‘We survive-escape first attack-raid on dwarf-things! Seen-saw nasty-mean gun-things! Many skaven die-die from shooty-kill!’

Thanquol felt a little tingle of fear run through him as he heard the description of what might be waiting for him just around the next bend. He quickly got control of himself, angered that this craven little parasite was trying to infect him with his cowardice. ‘The Horned One will protect-guard you!’ he snarled angrily. ‘No-none dwarf-thing can-will match the magic of Grey Seer Thanquol! You will be safe-safe with my power watching over you!’

Well, at least maybe the other skaven would be safe. In his fury Thanquol had put a bit too much pressure on the clanrat’s neck and strangled the wretch. He dropped the body to the ground and prodded it against the wall with his staff, trying to make its presence as inconspicuous as possible. Raising his head, he glared at the other skaven, daring any of them to comment.

‘Fast-quick,’ he growled at the clanrats. ‘I want to get this over-done quick-quick!’ Thanquol slammed the butt of his staff against the floor, causing the many talismans tied to it to rattle and jangle. The clanrats didn’t need any further display of his impatience. With indecent haste, they began scrambling through the mine shaft. Thanquol lashed his tail in amusement. Who would have thought strangling one of the fleas would be as effective as immolating them with a spell?

‘Thanquol,’ Skraekual hissed. The other grey seer was developing an annoying habit of getting around behind him. It made Thanquol’s fur crawl to know the conniving Skraekual could exploit even the most momentary distraction to put himself into such position.

‘What do you want?’ Thanquol growled, in no mood for the warp-wit’s pompous demands. Ever since joining the scouting party, the tick-tongued pizzle-drinker had been trying to assume command. He kept referring to some mangy old ratskin map and giving Thanquol directions. It was a situation Thanquol was getting very tired of.

‘At the next gallery we need turn-go left,’ Skraekual directed after inspecting his map. Thanquol tried to sneak a look at whatever was written on the old ratskin, but as soon as he did, Skraekual pressed it close against his chest and bared his fangs.

‘Not another step until you say-squeak what this is about,’ Thanquol growled.

Skraekual gestured with one of his paws, displaying the black ring circling one of his fingers. ‘Think-think,’ the grey seer snarled. ‘I am leader-chief, not you. Seerlord Kritislik chose-charge me with…’ Skraekual scratched at his rotted nose and lashed his tail, irritated that he’d almost told Thanquol what he wanted to know despite himself. ‘Just do what I say-tell!’

Glaring at the ring, Thanquol backed down. Sometime the treacherous toad-spittle would make a wrong move and then it would just be too bad for Kritislik’s little toe-licker! Looking past Skraekual, Thanquol found another source of annoyance. The warlock-engineers were dawdling far behind the rest of the scouts… again! He bruxed his fangs angrily. If it came to a fight, those two tinker-rats would bolt without lifting a paw to oppose the enemy!

‘You two!’ Thanquol yelled. ‘Keep-stay with the rest!’

He almost expected the two tinker-rats to yell back at him. Instead they jumped in surprise, then came scurrying up the shaft, the contraptions fitted to their harnesses rattling and clanking as they ran. Thanquol thought he detected something sneaky and furtive about the way they avoided looking at him as they passed. As if he’d caught them doing something he shouldn’t have seen. It seemed even tinker-rats didn’t like to have others spot their cowardly streak.

‘Next left,’ Skraekual hissed in Thanquol’s ear.

Thanquol gritted his teeth. ‘Next left,’ he agreed, forcing the words through his fangs.

The roar of guns boomed through the stone-walled gallery, making it seem as if a thunderstorm had been unleashed within the mine. Unlike the raw earth of the narrow shafts, the gallery was a broad chamber with thick stone walls and a high ceiling. Pulleys hung from archways high overhead, connecting to platforms which in turn connected to other mine shafts. Across the floor ran a rail-system, upon which several abandoned mine carts still stood. Piles of raw ore were scattered about the ground, the odd pick and hammer attesting to how quickly the dwarfs had fled this gallery during the initial skaven assault.

They had come back, however, recovering their dead and leaving something behind that would ensure the destruction of any second attack.

‘Stop dying!’ Thanquol bellowed from behind the corner of the mine shaft. It was just like the worthless stew-meat Rikkit had foisted upon him to ignore his order. While he watched, two more of the useless maggots were cut to shreds by the unrelenting fire.

It made the grey seer’s fur crawl to look at their attacker. It was no living thing, but rather a boxy contraption of pipes and belts and gears and pistons. From its front projected an array of gun barrels, each belching forth a thunderous burst of flame and smoke. The huge bullets the guns sent flying across the gallery might not be made of warpstone, but they struck the clanrats like the fist of a giant, splitting their bodies in a gory holocaust. Ten skaven were already strewn about the floor, the rest had either fallen back into the tunnel with Thanquol or were scurrying madly about the gallery trying to find cover.

While he watched, the sentry gun swivelled on some pivot and sent another volley of lead chasing Thanquol’s terrified warriors. It made for an eerie sight, these mindless machines following his troops with such uncanny precision.

‘If you don’t take a paw, we’ll never get through,’ Skraekual whined.

Thanquol studied the hellish gun array. He could see no sign of an operator. That was how the damnable thing had taken them by such surprise. There had been no dwarf scent. The thrice-damned dwarfs had made certain to cover the tell-tale stink of their hands and gunpowder when they’d set the diabolic thing up.

Given the way the sentry gun was ripping up his clanrats, Thanquol didn’t think he wanted to try his hand at knocking it out, magic or no.

‘We’ll find-take another way,’ the grey seer decided. The surviving clanrats chittered their eager agreement to this idea.

Skraekual stared at the ratskin map, then bared his fangs. ‘Seerlord Kritislik won’t like-like if we go around.’

Thanquol ground his fangs together. Of all the impertinence! ‘You’re a grey seer!’ he snapped. ‘You take a paw and get us through!’

The other grey seer pointed his claw at Thanquol, the black ring gleaming evilly in the light of the dwarf glowstones set into the walls of the gallery. ‘I will if you can’t,’ Skraekual threatened.

Glaring at the other grey seer, Thanquol wondered if he’d be able to get behind Boneripper before Skraekual could unleash the magic of the ring. A quick glance at the bony rat-ogre made him question the efficacy it would make as a shelter from enchanted dragon-fire.

Thanquol smoothed his whiskers as a similar thought came to him. He risked a quick glance at the gallery where the sentry gun was picking off the last clanrats scampering about among the mine carts. He watched the bullets pinging off the sides of the steel carts. A cunning gleam crept into the grey seer’s eyes as he looked at his bodyguard once more, taking especial notice of the reinforced ribcage.

A plan was forming in the horned sorcerer’s mind. It wasn’t the sort of plan he would normally think he should play any part in beside that of spectator, but Skraekual had made it a bit necessary. Damn the thieving flea’s spleen anyway!

Snapping commands to Boneripper, Thanquol got the automaton to crouch down beside him. Forgetting the indignity of his position (at least until he could get a good shot at Skraekual’s back) the grey seer scrambled up onto Boneripper’s back, fitting his feet between the rat-ogre’s ribs to ensure a secure hold.

Dutifully, Boneripper lumbered out into the gallery. The sentry gun pivoted and directed its murderous fire at the brute, bullets glancing from the rat-ogre’s armoured chest. Thanquol shivered against his bodyguard’s back, scarcely daring to breath. Clenching his staff between his teeth, he frantically dug into his robes and seized his snuff-box.

Just a little pinch of warp-snuff, he promised himself. Just a little something to take the edge off his precarious situation.

The intoxicating rush of burning madness flowed through the grey seer’s body. All the terror drained out of him, replaced by a bold fury that made him peep his head over Boneripper’s shoulder. Thanquol glowered down at the sentry gun. What was this puny contraption to dare pit itself against the greatest wizard in all skavendom! It was a gnat, a flea, something to be crushed with a snap of his claws!

Using Boneripper’s fleshless ribs like the rungs of a ladder, Thanquol climbed up onto his bodyguard’s shoulder, heedless of his exposed position. The grey seer’s eyes glowed, burning green as he drew aethyric energies into his body.

He was Grey Seer Thanquol! The Paw of the Horned Rat! Greatest Magician in all the Under-Empire! He’d blast this filthy dwarf-thing contraption into a thousand bits and feed them to whatever scruffy beard-meat built the ridiculous thing!

Bullets clattered against Boneripper’s chest, gradually climbing up the brute’s armoured body as the sentry gun sought out the new target perched on the rat-ogre’s shoulder. Crazed fires blazing through his brain, Thanquol ignored the certain death creeping towards him. Pointing his staff at the sentry gun, the grey seer poured all of the magic he had drawn into his body into a spell that would annihilate the infernal machine.

Green flames crackled about the head of Thanquol’s staff, forming into a great sphere of destruction, a mass of flaming ruin that swept across the gallery, hurtling directly at the sentry gun. It was a spell of such awesome power that it could knock down a castle, sink a warship, collapse an entire warren. In a more lucid state, Thanquol would never have drawn so much power into himself without the aid of warpstone. But the grey seer’s snuff-fed fury had risen to a frenzy. He would see the sentry gun obliterated in a way that would make Skraekual’s nethers shrivel.

The orb of fire crashed down upon the sentry gun. There was a flash of blinding light and a crash like that of a spitting volcano.

Thanquol sagged against Boneripper’s shoulder, exhausted by his amok display of sorcery. At least he had shown Skraekual. He would never have dared call upon the Sphere of Annihilation! The scab-sniffing little nether-nibbler would turn himself inside out if he even tried! It took a true master of magic, a skaven who was truly at one with the Horned Rat to evoke such awesome power!

Thanquol scrambled behind Boneripper’s chest as bullets continued to hammer at the lumbering rat-ogre. The terrified grey seer peeked under Boneripper’s arm to see the sentry gun, intact and unharmed, still blazing away. All around the weapon, the flagstones were scorched, but the gun itself was unmarked. Thanquol felt his glands clench as he spotted the protective runes inscribed upon the sides of the weapon glowing with the last wisps of his spell.

The cursed dwarf-things and their filthy rune-magic! What kind of coward put talismanic runes on a stinking machine!

Thanquol was too exhausted to even attempt another spell – he’d given his all to that damnable Sphere of Annihilation! What a useless spell! Whatever flea-brained moron-meat had come up with that one should be dragged out of his burrow and stomped like a rabid weasel! It was all that conniving Skraekual’s fault! Goading him into expending his powers on such a reckless spell!

Thanquol was just starting to wonder how he would get back to the safety of the mine shaft when he sensed a powerful expenditure of magic close to him. He turned his head to see Skraekual standing at the mouth of the tunnel, his arms spread wide, his eyes glowing with arcane energies.

The filthy coward was using Boneripper as a shield to protect him from the sentry gun! Thanquol gnashed his fangs in outrage at the idea of his rival using his own bodyguard to keep him safe. He’d strangle the rat for that!

Quickly, it became obvious Thanquol had other problems to worry about. In response to Skraekual’s evocation, the entire gallery began to tremble, the chains of the pulleys swinging about as though caught in a tempest, mine carts tumbling onto their sides.

Boneripper swayed and staggered. Thanquol leapt off the brute’s back an instant before the rat-ogre toppled over. Bullets skittered across the ground as the grey seer scrambled for the cover of an overturned mine cart, flinging himself behind it just as the sentry gun adjusted for his range.

The gallery continued to rumble. From his refuge, Thanquol could see a jagged crack appear in the ground, gradually snaking its way across the gallery towards the sentry gun. As the crack spread, it widened, becoming a veritable fissure by the time it closed upon the sentry gun. The protective runes glowed brightly as Skraekual’s magic struck it, but the runes could only guard the gun, not the floor upon which it stood. With a shriek of escaping steam, the sentry gun toppled into the widening fissure.

Grinding his teeth and lashing his tail, Thanquol climbed out from behind the mine cart. The look he directed at the exultant Grey Seer Skraekual was murderous.

‘Thank you for the distraction,’ Skraekual chortled, scratching at his rotted nose. The grey seer chittered with amusement. ‘But that’s why you are here-here!’

Still cackling, Skraekual ordered the surviving clanrats to pick themselves up and head for the far side of the gallery and one of the mine shafts located there. The two warlock-engineers hurried after the gloating grey seer, pausing only to stare down the black pit of the fissure. The tinker-rats didn’t linger overlong trying to find the sentry gun, making sure to keep close to Skraekual.

Thanquol watched them all go, his belly boiling with disgust. Angrily, he kicked the fallen Boneripper.

‘Up-up, bone-butt,’ he snapped. Boneripper obligingly lifted itself off the ground, gaining its feet with an awkward pivot of its socketed waist. Thanquol glared at the backs of the withdrawing scouts.

‘Hurry-scurry before that whelp-gnawer goes and conquers the rest of the dwarf-things!’ Thanquol cursed, urging his skeletal bodyguard onwards with a whack of his staff. The pair were soon scrambling after the other skaven.

Like his minions, Thanquol didn’t pay any notice to the flattened hose that had been connected to the sentry gun or the faint wisps of steam still venting from its severed end.

CHAPTER NINE

‘I don’t like it.’

The protest was voiced in the gruff tones that passed for a whisper with Thane Erkii Ranulfsson. The dour, white-bearded dwarf was Minemaster of Karak Angkul, charged not only with the expansion of the mines beneath the hold, but also with arbitrating disputes between the Miners’ Guild and the independent mining clans and wildcat prospectors who had claims scattered throughout King Logan’s domain. Of late, a new duty had fallen upon Thane Erkii’s shoulders: defending those mines that had not yet fallen to the skaven.

Thane Erkii seldom had cause to don the heavy suit of steel chain and plate that had been in his family for over a thousand years, but he still managed to move quickly in the weighty mail. No dwarf was so unfamiliar with armour as to be burdened by it. What he did find burdensome was Klarak Bronzehammer’s insistence on accompanying his warriors into the lower deeps.

No, Thane Erkii corrected himself, more than just accompanying them. Klarak insisted on leading the way.

When the hose connecting to one of the engineer’s sentry guns had fallen slack, the alarm had been given. It had been quickly sounded, despite the possibility (or probability as Guildmaster Thori insisted) that it was only a malfunction of Klarak’s new and unproven invention. According to the inventor’s own assertion, and the evidence of those dwarfs who had witnessed the sentry guns in action, only a major skaven incursion would be able to get past the automated weapons.

That made it even more unseemly that Klarak had insisted on coming down into the mines. It simply wasn’t done! A dwarf of his prominence shouldn’t be risking himself on some rat-hunt. His place was back in the upper deeps, to wait for word of exactly what Thane Erkii and his warriors found. If Klarak got himself killed, it would be a great blow to Karak Angkul’s defences. Moreover, Thane Erkii knew that if that happened, King Logan would blame him rather than the daring engineer.

‘I know you don’t like it,’ Klarak said, his voice low yet still carrying that suggestion of brooding power which never failed to impress those who heard it. ‘But we have to be sure.’

Thane Erkii had been hopeful when he’d seen the jagged crack in the gallery floor and the broken sentry gun lying at the bottom of a crevice. Certainly there was evidence the gun had dispatched a handful of ratkin, but there was no sign the vermin had been responsible for its destruction. No sign, that is, until Azram Steelfoot, Klarak’s personal lorekeeper, observed that several old histories made mention of skaven sorcerers casting spells that could create such havoc.

It made Thane Erkii even more anxious about his prestigious companion to think that a ratkin wizard was creeping about the mines. More so because such a villain would hardly be doing so alone. Any moment he expected every passageway and tunnel to vomit forth a swarm of chittering ratkin.

He was also irked that Klarak had shunned any sort of traditional armour, instead trusting to a curious steel vest of his own creation. Looking at the odd garment with its array of dials and gauges, pipes and rods, Thane Erkii could only scratch his beard. It didn’t look like it could stop a snotling’s language, much less a skaven knife. He could only wonder if the engineer was trying to get himself killed and earn Thane Erkii a place in the king’s Book of Grudges.

‘You must have a poor opinion of me and my warriors,’ Thane Erkii grumbled. ‘Whatever you need to know, we can find out for you.’

Klarak smiled at the Minemaster. ‘If you and your warriors were not the toughest fighters in Karak Angkul, I wouldn’t be down here. I know you find it eccentric for me to go hunting rats with you, but I have my reasons.’

Thane Erkii would have asked for further details about what the engineer’s reasons were, but at that moment one of Klarak’s aides interrupted them. The fur-draped Thorlek came rushing up to his master, the weathered ranger holding a fresh rat pellet in his hand.

‘Skaven,’ Thorlek explained. ‘They’ve headed into the old iron pits.’

Klarak nodded. ‘How long ago?’

Thorlek snapped the pellet in half, displaying a revolting mush of crushed seeds and mouse bones peppered with small black rocks. ‘Less time than it took us to get down here,’ the ranger said. ‘A bit before midday.’

‘I should have known you’d be familiar with ratkin dung,’ Horgar Horgarsson, the third of Klarak’s aides to accompany him into the mines, scoffed. ‘You probably eat the stuff.’

‘I’m not the one with the bad breath,’ the ranger retorted. ‘In fact, this would be an improvement.’ Malignantly, he threw the pellet at Horgar. Locked in his steel framework, the former hammerer couldn’t duck the loathsome projectile, the pellet glancing from his helm.

Horgar fumed at the indignity, stomping forwards and reaching out to grab Thorlek. The ranger dodged the clumsy assault. Horgar tottered for a moment as he almost unbalanced himself, such was his agitation.

‘If I get my hands on you,’ Horgar threatened, ‘they’ll need tweezers to pick up all the pieces.’

Thorlek shook his head, an expression of mock gravity on his face. ‘Is that before or after you fall down?’

Horgar’s face turned crimson and the dwarf sputtered wrathfully into his beard. The warriors around him watched anxiously, certain that the hammerer would soon fall upon his antagonist in a murderous frenzy. They didn’t know the long friendship between the two comrades, a friendship that most often expressed itself by one of them trying to drive the other into an apoplectic rage.

Klarak, however, had seen it all before and many times at that. The engineer moved between the two combatants as though nothing had happened. ‘Thorlek,’ he said, ‘I need you to pick up the ratkin trail.’

Thorlek immediately forgot his feud with Horgar. ‘That will be easy enough. They don’t seem to be making any extra effort to hide their tracks.’

That news met with a mixed reaction when the dwarfs heard it. If the skaven weren’t hiding their tracks then it was either because they were in too much of a hurry, too lazy, or too stupid. It was a fourth possibility that caused the dwarfs worry. The skaven might be behaving in such a bold manner because they didn’t feel the need to hide their presence. Each of them thought about the sentry gun and what Azram had said about ratkin wizardry.

‘We’ll follow the tracks,’ Klarak said. ‘But be on the watch for any trickery. If there is a sorcerer with the ratkin, then we might have a bad fight on our hands. Don’t take any chances.’

With Thorlek showing them the way, Klarak and the dwarf warriors marched into the old iron workings. In the gloom of the abandoned mine, the other dwarfs couldn’t see the troubled look that settled over the engineer’s rugged features. He was thinking of the warning he had been given. A warning about a skaven sorcerer named Thanquol.

The skaven pressed on through the mine shafts, following the tunnels at the western approach of the main gallery. Although the shafts had been dug without any plan, simply pursuing veins of ore, there was nevertheless a regularity and order about them that put them far beyond the meandering confusion of a skaven warren. Even without Skraekual’s little map, Thanquol felt confident he could find his way out of the dwarf complex. If his rival was trying to get them lost, he was failing miserably.

It was obvious from even a cursory sniff that the tunnels the skaven now wandered represented diggings that had been played out and abandoned long before the ratkin attack. The wooden beams that supported the tunnels were old and caked in dust, the walls unmarked by any fresh assault by either pick or hammer. The nests of brown rats poked out from niches that had once held lanterns, thick cobwebs stretched beneath the archways that supported each intersection. Beetles and other cave vermin skittered about the floor.

Just like Skraekual to lead them as far away from another confrontation with the dwarfs as possible. He had a yellow streak as wide as a rat-ogre running down his spine. Thanquol could guess the warp-wit’s plan now. He would lead them on some wild chase through the abandoned mines for a few days, then head back to Bonestash and report that they’d made a full reconnaissance of Karak Angkul’s lower deeps. Skraekual would be heralded as a brave hero when he got back and he’d be thick as fleas with Rikkit Snapfang.

Not a bad plan, Thanquol reflected. He should have thought of it first. Of course, there was no reason why he couldn’t still make it his own. All it would require would be for Skraekual to have a little accident.

Unfortunately, the other grey seer was being exceptionally wary, keeping well back of the rest of the skaven where he could keep an eye on both the clanrats and Thanquol. The warlock-engineers were nowhere to be found, having lost interest in the scouting mission once it became obvious the dwarfs hadn’t been active in these tunnels for many years. If Thanquol didn’t know better, he would have thought the lousy tinker-rats actually wanted to run into some enemies. Whatever the reason, they’d started playing their old game of lingering well behind the rest of the party until after turning one bend of the tunnel, they simply disappeared. Thanquol hoped the cowardly lice fell in a hole and broke their scheming necks.

‘Right-right!’ Skraekual suddenly called out, gesturing imperiously with his claw. The clanrats at the head of the pack dutifully turned about at the intersection, heading back southwards.

Thanquol lashed his tail in annoyance. It was the warp-wit who was lost! The idiot had a map and he was still unable to tell where he was going! Any skaven with half a brain could tell that these shafts were ones they’d already been through. In fact, if Thanquol was right, another half-mile and they’d be back in the main gallery where the sentry gun had been posted.

Thanquol stroked his whiskers. So he was right, Skraekual was just playing for time so he could scurry back to Rikkit and claim the job was done. The only problem was the idiot didn’t have the spleen to make a proper job of such deception. Even a mouse-brained moron like Rikkit wouldn’t believe they’d made a full reconnaissance of the dwarf positions in such a short time.

It was looking like he’d have to arrange that accident for Skraekual sooner than he’d been planning.

Suddenly, a new smell struck Thanquol’s nose, bringing him up short. The grey seer flattened against the wall of the tunnel, his heart pounding in his breast. He glanced at the clanrats and saw that they’d smelled it too. The cowards were cringing in the dark, muttering fearfully among themselves and casting eager looks at the dark tunnel behind them.

Dwarf-stink, that unmistakable mix of sweat, beer and goat-cheese that exuded from the skin of every dwarf Thanquol had ever encountered. There was more, the tang of steel, the musky fug of oiled leather, the sharp sting of blackpowder. As he keened his ears to the effort, he could hear the tromp of boots marching through the tunnels.

Thanquol glowered at the clanrats, cursing them for fifty kinds of flea-bitten fools. The dwarfs hadn’t been in these old mines in decades. There was only one reason why they’d be here now. They’d found spoor left by these third-rate sword-rats and picked up their trail! If he didn’t think they’d be more useful against the dwarfs, Thanquol would have blasted the whole lot of them with a bolt of warp-lightning for daring to endanger him by their stupidity.

‘Quiet-quick!’ Thanquol snarled at the cowering ratmen. From the sound of things, there were far more dwarfs moving through the mines than there were skaven in his patrol. However, Skraekual’s moronic map-reading abilities gave them a very good chance to avoid their enemies. The skaven had crossed and recrossed their own trail so many times it was bound to confuse the dwarfs. Dwarf-things were worthless when it came to picking up a scent. They’d use their eyes to follow the trail and the odds were good they’d pick the wrong one.

All Thanquol and the clanrats had to do was keep quiet and stay in the shadows until the dwarfs passed them by. Then they could scarper while the fools were still looking for them in the mines.

Thanquol fingered the little rat-skull snuff-box, longing for a pinch of warp-snuff to calm his nerves. Just a little bit, not enough to really make him go overboard. Just enough to keep himself steady. He had the box open before prudence and self-preservation made him stuff it back into his robe. The last thing he needed now was to start losing control – nerves or no nerves. He would need a clear head if anything went wrong.

The marching dwarfs came nearer. Thanquol could see them now, tromping down the tunnel, every one of them armed and armoured for battle. Except maybe the one up front with the gold face-fur. He just had on some weird chain-vest thing festooned with a bunch of straps and gadgets. The dwarf reminded him somehow of the thrice-cursed tinker-rats, but there was something about his scent that the grey seer really didn’t like. He couldn’t place his paw on it, but he’d be just as happy to let some other skaven tangle with that dwarf if it came to a fight.

Fortunately, it didn’t look like it would come to that. Thanquol’s eyes boggled happily when he saw the dwarfs studying the tracks on the ground. True to his prediction, they turned and started to march off down in the wrong direction.

So much for the quick wits of dwarf-things! Now all they had to do was keep quiet and wait a few minutes for the dwarfs to be well on their way. Then the scouting party could break cover and make a run for their burrows back in Bonestash.

Thanquol decided to use the delay to consider what he would tell Ikit Claw and Rikkit Snapfang. Obviously it was necessary to put all the blame on Skraekual, but it helped to plan these things out in advance.

A bright flash of light and a loud clamour suddenly exploded all around the grey seer and his warriors. Thanquol nearly leapt out of his fur, so sudden and without warning was the disturbance. He looked about him in a frantic fury, trying to spot the source of the light. The clanrats were whining and squealing, terrified by what seemed a violent explosion. Yet Thanquol could find no scent of blasting powder in the air and there was no sign either the skaven or the tunnel had been damaged.

Magic! It was the only explanation! Thanquol’s eyes scoured the confused ranks of the ratmen, but there was no sign of Skraekual. The other grey seer was gone!

A moment later, Thanquol had bigger problems than his missing rival to bother him. Scores of armoured warriors were charging down the mine straight towards the skaven. The dwarfs had heard the explosion and seen the ratmen exposed by the brilliant flash of light. Now they were running back, eager for the blood of the verminous invaders!

Skraekual! The filthy little pustule had betrayed them to the dwarfs! He was using the whole lot of them as a distraction so that he could safely slip back to Bone-stash!

Thanquol admitted it wasn’t a bad plan, except for the part where he was included among the hapless dupes left to get butchered by the enraged dwarfs.

The clanrats were caught completely by surprise. Three of them were cut down the instant the first dwarfs reached them, two more crumpling to the ground with crushed skulls an instant later. Unlike the skaven, the dwarfs wore heavy armour and carried broad shields. Their weapons were massive hammers and wickedly sharp axes, the blades gleaming in the glow of their lanterns.

Escape was foremost in Thanquol’s mind, but there seemed little chance of flight with the dwarfs hot on his tail and only a few measly skaven warriors between himself and their axes. He needed to buy some time for him to put some ground between himself and the dwarfs. Glaring up at Boneripper, he pointed a claw at the oncoming dwarfs.

‘Burn-burn!’ the grey seer snarled. ‘Slay-kill!’

Boneripper shuddered into motion, lumbering away from the walls and into the middle of the tunnel. The dwarfs must have missed the hulking rat-ogre or mistaken it for some piece of dilapidated mining equipment. Thanquol chittered with amusement as he saw the shock in the dwarfs’ eyes as they beheld his fearsome bodyguard.

The rat-ogre didn’t give the dwarfs a chance to overcome their shock. Lowering its warpfire projector, Boneripper sent a blast of green fire jetting down the tunnel. The screams of dwarfs and the shrieks of skaven echoed through the mine, the sickly stink of roasted flesh, scorched hair and burning fur filling the air. In the first blast, Boneripper caught a half-dozen of the dwarfs and five skaven who were too slack-witted to move fast. The burning ratmen lay strewn across the ground; the dwarfs writhed in agony as the green flames melted their armour into their flesh.

Before Boneripper could fire again, the gold-bearded dwarf Thanquol had noted earlier sprinted into view. He rushed towards the burning dwarfs, reaching to his vest. Thanquol saw something that looked like a ceramic egg in his hand. The grey seer watched in horror as Klarak threw the object ahead of him, thoughts of Clan Skryre and the Poison Wind filling his brain.

As the grenade burst and a thick white cloud billowed over the tunnel, Thanquol hastily ordered Boneripper to stand in front of him. The rat-ogre could soak up the bulk of whatever fiendish gas was inside the dwarf’s weapon. Thanquol could hear the remaining clanrats coughing and hacking as the gas came upon them. Frantically he focused his mind upon a spell to protect himself from the noxious fumes, evoking the minor enchantment just as the white cloud rolled over him.

Thanquol blinked as a gritty powder settled over him, something that seemed equal parts dust and snow. Petrified by what it might be he began swatting at his body to dislodge the weird powder. Around him, the other skaven were doing the same. Boneripper simply stood in place, looking like a white statue with all the dust caked on it.

The sound of a gargled war-cry drove Thanquol from his cleansing ritual. Remembering the dwarfs, he quickly grabbed a nearby clanrat and held the wretch in front of him. A broad-shouldered dwarf warrior, his armour a half-melted mess of slag, shambled out of the white cloud as it began to settle. Swinging an enormous axe, the dwarf cut down Thanquol’s living shield.

Baring his fangs in the fearsome snarl of a cornered rat, Thanquol smashed the head of his staff into the side of the dwarf’s melted helm. His burnt enemy stumbled back, but quickly recovered, lunging towards the grey seer once more.

Again, Thanquol drew upon his magic. Pointing a claw at the dwarf, he sent a bolt of green lightning smashing into the warrior, lifting him off his feet and flinging him down the tunnel like an arrow. The burnt dwarf landed in a clatter of armour, a great crater smouldering in his chest.

Thanquol looked away from his victim, finding that the cloud had now dispersed, leaving a powdery residue across the tunnel. Every trace of warpfire had been extinguished, and the stricken dwarfs who only a moment before had been burning inside their own armour were now being helped away from the battlefield by their comrades. Those dwarfs who weren’t busy with the wounded were staring straight at him and fingering their axes, none more so than the gold-bearded Klarak Bronzehammer.

‘Burn-burn!’ Thanquol snarled up at Boneripper. The rat-ogre moved to obey, but not even a puff of smoke managed to emerge from the nozzle of its warpfire projector. The powder coating the automaton had clogged the weapon.

‘Grey Seer Thanquol!’ Klarak called out. Thanquol was taken aback by the cry, shocked that this dwarf-thing should know who he was.

‘Try your tricks on me, coward,’ the engineer shouted, marching towards the grey seer.

Thanquol glared at the brazen dwarf. There was more than one way to cook a dwarf. ‘Die-die, fur-face!’ the grey seer howled, pointing his claw at Klarak and sending another bolt of warp-lightning crackling through the tunnel.

There was an unhappy feeling of déjà vu when his spell struck the dwarf, unpleasantly reminding Thanquol of the way the sentry gun had resisted his magic. The warp-lightning danced and crackled all across Klarak, but the dwarf’s strange vest seemed to absorb the fury of the spell. The armoured garment glowed as though it were fresh from the forge as the aethyric energies were reflected away from Klarak. Dials and gauges fluctuated wildly, some of the copper rods fitted to the vest corroded into nothingness or melted into unrecognisable blobs of metal, but when Thanquol’s spell was spent, Klarak himself stood unharmed.

The dwarf quickly drew a bulky pistol from a holster on his belt, aiming it directly at the grey seer. Thanquol could see steam venting from the weapon as Klarak fired it. He was knocked back as the bullet slammed into him, flopping down onto his back. The grey seer wailed in horror, a bright light flashing before his gaze.

It took an instant for Thanquol to realise he wasn’t dead. Patting his body, he felt the shattered pieces of his snuff-box rattling about in his smoking robe. Before he took another breath, Thanquol dived behind Boneripper. Baring his fangs, he glared at the surviving clanrats, pointing the head of his staff at them.

‘Fast-quick! Kill-slay gold-fur!’ he snarled. Instead of obeying him, the treacherous ratmen took to their heels, tails between their legs.

A second bullet smashed into Boneripper, heralding a veritable fusillade as Klarak unleashed the firepower of his automatic steam pistol. Thanquol squealed in fright as the bullets rattled through the rat-ogre’s hull, blasting away bits of bone and metal. Gas jetted from a shattered piston, oil exploded from a punctured pipe. The entire automaton shuddered as some gear went spinning off down the tunnel.

Cursing everything he could think of, Thanquol dug a sliver of warpstone from beneath his robe and bit down on the sorcerous rock, grinding it into bits between his teeth. He exulted as the magical energy trapped within the warpstone rushed through his veins. His body felt as though it were burning with power. He might turn around and pick up Boneripper and hurl it at the impudent dwarf who dared to attack him! He could swat aside the fool’s bullets as though they were gnats and shove that damnable pistol…

Thanquol forced himself to think clearly. The memory of the vest and the way his earlier spell had failed to harm Klarak was too fresh to forget. He couldn’t risk having the dwarf just walk through another of his spells. He needed to take a page out of Skraekual’s tome of tricks. He needed to do something that would rid him of the cursed dwarf without targeting him directly. Get rid of him the same way Skraekual had gotten rid of the sentry gun.

Bullets continued to chew away at Boneripper as Thanquol gave form to the magic boiling inside him. He could be thankful for one thing: his enemy’s foolish heroics had made him order the other dwarfs to keep back while he dealt with the grey seer. No doubt Klarak wanted to save their lives from Thanquol’s magic, trusting in his vest to do the same for him. Well, he would show the dwarf how little he knew about the power of the Horned Rat!

Swarming from every corner of the mine, summoned by the grey seer’s irresistible magic, a living tide of vermin came screeching and skittering. Rats, rats by their hundreds, rats of every size and shape. Wary of having the frenzied animals repulsed by Klarak’s resistance to magic, Thanquol ordered his minions away from the engineer. Instead he focused their crazed assault upon the wooden support beams.

Ordinarily, it would have taken a bunch of common rats hours to chew through the sturdy timbers. But these were common no longer. They were a living scourge enflamed by the malignance of Thanquol’s will, goaded into a fit of crazed fury by his sorcery. Like the cannibal fish of forsaken Lustria, the vermin assaulted the beams, shredding them to splinters with their chisel-like fangs.

Klarak called out a warning to the other dwarfs, ordering them to leave. Thanquol gnashed his fangs. Fool-meat! Did he really think he could escape the magic the grey seer had unleashed?

The supports groaned, the earth above the shaft shifting as the weakened beams began to give way. Rats began dropping to the floor, their bodies smouldering from the frenzied magic blazing through them. Others rushed in to take the places of the fallen. Dirt and rubble began to rain from the ceiling.

Thanquol’s chittering laughter raked across the ears of the fleeing dwarfs. They were brave enough against a bunch of frightened clanrats, but being buried alive by the fearsome sorcery of Grey Seer Thanquol was something else entirely! He watched the bearded wretches stumbling and scrambling down the tunnel, desperate to regain the gallery before the whole mine came crashing down about their ears.

Bullets continued to strike Boneripper. One crunched through the rat-ogre’s ribcage to come sizzling past Thanquol’s horn. He ducked, squinting from behind the brute’s steel spine to gawp in amazement at the gold-bearded dwarf. With rocks and earth crashing down all around him, the madman was standing his ground and continuing to fire at the grey seer! The cold determination in Klarak’s gold-flake eyes made Thanquol’s glands spurt the musk of fear. The dwarf was insane! He’d be smashed to paste when the roof fell in! He should be running away, not standing there shooting at a lone skaven!

‘Hurry-scurry!’ Thanquol growled at Boneripper. Dropping to all fours, the grey seer scrambled down the tunnel, hoping to reach the closest bend before Klarak’s deadly marksmanship could pick him off. A bullet crashed into the earth beside his right paw, splintering his staff. A second whizzed past his horn, causing the little bell to start jingling.

Crying out in horror, Thanquol threw himself flat. The next shot would smash through his skull, he was certain of it. The Horned Rat had forsaken him and now he would die an ignoble death because of some lunatic dwarf-thing!

The feared third shot never came. Instead, with a rumble and a crash, the roof of the mine collapsed. A cloud of dust and debris exploded down the tunnel, blinding Thanquol and filling his nose with dirt. When the grey seer was able to see again, the entire back of the tunnel was gone, buried under tons of rubble. He bruxed his fangs in triumph. Somewhere under all those rocks was the crazed dwarf-thing who had so stupidly persisted in trying to shoot him when he should have been running for his life. If only all dwarf-things would oblige Thanquol by dying so easily!

Brushing dust from his fur, Thanquol glared at the limping bulk of Boneripper. The lummox had barely escaped the collapse. Moreover it had been shot to pieces by Klarak’s steam pistol. The grey seer snorted with contempt. So much for the genius of Clan Skryre engineering! He’d have expected their mechanical rat-ogre to be able to take at least a little abuse!

Swatting Boneripper for having the impudence to be damaged, Thanquol turned his thoughts to other matters. Taking stock of his situation, he vented a titter of anxiety. He was alone deep inside enemy territory with neither map nor guide to get him back to Bonestash. The only way out of the mines, so far as he could tell, was now choked by tons of rubble and hundreds of crushed dwarf-thing corpses.

It was a grim prospect. Not knowing how deep under the earth he was, Thanquol didn’t even dare cast a spell to escape the situation. He might vanish through the aethyr only to reappear inside solid rock!

Suddenly, the grey seer turned his head. His nose twitched as he detected a faint scent. Scrambling towards it, he found that his senses were not mistaken. It was the scent of Grey Seer Skraekual. The filthy old rat was still somewhere in the mines, having high-tailed it the moment he betrayed Thanquol to the dwarfs.

Thanquol bared his fangs. Snarling an order to Boneripper, he began to lope down the tunnel, following Skraekual’s scent. His situation might be miserable, but as every skaven knew, misery is more endurable when it has company.

Whatever hole Skraekual was hiding himself in, the traitor would soon have company.

Though he wouldn’t have it long.

CHAPTER TEN

A black cloud of dust spilled from the mouth of the mine shaft, sweeping across the dwarfs as they reached the safety of the gallery. Caked in dirt, coughing from the dust in their throats, the dwarfs were thankful to reach the solidly-built gallery alive. Many of them were miners themselves when not impressed to bear arms on behalf of the stronghold. There was no greater terror in the mind of a miner than the fear of being buried alive.

Unless it was the fear of being caught off their guard by their enemies and slaughtered without a fight. Such an end would shame them into the afterworld and condemn them to wander the halls of their ancestors as the lowest of servants without a place at the tables of their clans.

During their desperate race from the mine, the dwarfs half-expected a host of skaven to be waiting for them when they reached the gallery. Finding it deserted was a relief, but hardly an excuse to lessen their caution. Gruffly, Thane Erkii arranged a line of axemen to watch the mouths of the other mines.

‘Take the wounded up to the Second Deep,’ Thane Erkii ordered the warriors who had carried the injured out from the mine. He cast a grim look over the horrible injuries the dwarfs caught by the blast of warpfire had suffered. Plates of armour had melted into their flesh, burning clean through to the bone in some cases. If they’d been scalded by lava, Thane Erkii didn’t think they could be any worse. ‘Maybe the priestess of Valaya can help them,’ he added in a doubtful voice. It was no slight against the ancestor gods, but he didn’t see how anything could help a dwarf recover from such horrific wounds.

Thane Erkii turned around at the sound of rocks crashing into the gallery. For an instant, the frightening thought that the skaven magic had been so powerful as to undo the very walls of the gallery flashed through his mind. As Minemaster of Karak Angkul, such a shameful slight against the constructions under his care was doubly horrible. He would never be able to atone for such a humiliation.

His fear proved unfounded. The sound came from Horgar Horgarsson and the ranger Thorlek. The two dwarfs were attacking the mouth of the mine with frantic energy. Horgar’s steel framework jetted great spurts of steam as the ex-hammerer ripped stones from the tunnel and hurled them aside as though they weighed nothing. Thorlek, unable to match the augmented strength of his friend, was doing his best by using the haft of his axe as a lever to roll stones from the rockpile. Azram Steelfoot, the old lorekeeper, was sitting on the ground drawing in the thick coat of dirt that now covered the floor. Lacking the strength of his companions, Azram was doing his part by trying to recall from memory the layout of the old workings and determine if there was some other way into the mine. There were tears in the lorekeeper’s eye and a trickle of moisture seeped from beneath the edge of the lens-array he wore over his other eye.

Thane Erkii could sympathise with the sorrow of the three dwarfs. They had been part of Klarak Bronzehammer’s Iron Throng, that select brotherhood of dwarfs who formed the eccentric engineer’s closest aides and comrades. He knew they had travelled far with their master and shared many adventures with him. He could understand their despair at this moment, their unwillingness to accept that the brave hero had finally met his doom. It had been a valiant death, holding off the skaven wizard and buying the time the rest of them would need to escape the sorcerer’s wicked magic.

Solemnly, Thane Erkii stepped towards the blocked tunnel. He laid a hand on Thorlek’s shoulder, gently urging the ranger to give up his hopeless efforts. ‘It’s no good. He’s in Gazul’s keeping now.’

The ranger turned angrily on Thane Erkii, shoving aside his hand. ‘I’ve seen Klarak pull himself out of worse scrapes than this,’ Thorlek growled. ‘Anybody who can trot through the lair of Malok in one piece isn’t going to let some slimy ratkin finish him!’

Horgar ripped another rock from the pile, smashing it between his iron hands. ‘We’re not giving up on him,’ the hammerer swore. ‘He never gave up on any of us, no matter how bad things looked. We’ll not give up on him now.’

Thane Erkii shook his head. ‘It’s hopeless,’ he avowed. ‘Grungni himself couldn’t survive half the mountain coming down on his head!’

Horgar fixed the Minemaster with a menacing look. ‘Leave us be,’ he warned, tearing another stone from the rubble.

Suddenly, Thorlek leaped up, turning an excited face towards Horgar and Thane Erkii. ‘I heard something moving!’ he shouted.

‘Stones settling,’ Thane Erkii said.

‘I know what stones sound like,’ the ranger replied curtly. ‘Ever know a stone to have rhythm as they settle?’

Thane Erkii was dubious, but he crouched down beside Thorlek and pressed his ear to the rubble. True to the ranger’s claim, he could hear a regular tapping, strong and strident, emanating from behind the rubble. To his ears, the tapping seemed to be a sort of code, a signal used by miners to let any rescuers know they were still alive. Quickly the Minemaster rose to his feet, shouting for his warriors to help clear the blockage.

Working with a desperate haste, the dwarfs soon had a section of tunnel some twenty yards wide cleared. It was then that they hesitated. Something was stirring the rocks from the other side. The alarming thought belatedly came to them that whoever was moving about might not be Klarak but one of the skaven. The image of the skeletal rat-ogre suddenly bursting from the rubble gave even Horgar pause. They had all seen what the monstrous creature could do with its warpfire projector and none of them wanted to court such a fate.

The rocks jostled forwards with a crash, causing a cloud of dust to rise up, blinding the dwarfs. Thane Erkii called for his warriors to draw their axes and be ready. There had been times when skaven learned the miners’ code and employed it to lure dwarfs into an ambush. The Minemaster wanted to take no chances.

When the dust cleared, however, Thane Erkii was the first to lower his weapon. He sighed with relief as he saw Klarak Bronzehammer climbing out from the rubble. The gold-bearded engineer was bruised and bloodied by his ordeal, but at least he was alive. Images of King Logan’s Book of Grudges gradually faded from the forefront of the Minemaster’s thoughts.

Klarak’s three aides rushed forwards, whooping with joy that their friend had escaped death in the cave-in.

‘You have the luck of a drunken halfling!’ Thorlek shouted, gripping the engineer’s arm. Horgar went one better, embracing Klarak in a fierce hug and lifting him off his feet.

‘That’s a nice way to see if he’s broken any bones,’ Azram grumbled, adjusting the magnification of his lenses. The reprimand had its desired effect and both the ranger and hammerer released their battered victim.

Klarak patted his bloodied scalp, then smiled at the aged lorekeeper. ‘Nothing broken, Azram, but I shouldn’t like to go through that again.’

‘You shouldn’t have tried it in the first place!’ Horgar swore. ‘What was the idea of standing there taking pot-shots at a thaggoraki with the whole mine coming down about your ears?’

‘What Horgar’s trying to say is if there’s anything stupid that needs doing, he’s the dwarf for the job,’ commented Thorlek.

Klarak shook his head. ‘It was worth the risk,’ he said, his tone grim. ‘Grey Seer Thanquol poses too great a menace to Karak Angkul to be allowed to live. If it cost my life to bring him down, it would have been a fair trade.’ The engineer clenched his fists, an angry light shining in his eyes. ‘It didn’t work though. Before the roof came down, I saw him scamper off deeper into the mine.’

‘Then we’ve nothing to worry about,’ Horgar said. ‘The stupid ratkin has buried himself alive. A few days and the vermin will starve and save us the bother of smashing his skull in.’

‘I wouldn’t count on that,’ Klarak cautioned. ‘There’s too much at risk to take any chances.’ He thought about the warning from Altdorf and the horror that Grey Seer Thanquol would unleash unless he was stopped. Frowning, Klarak started to strip the scorched and tattered mail vest, dropping the blackened armour to the floor. ‘This vest barely guarded me against Thanquol’s magic,’ he said.

‘You’ll have to have Kurgaz inscribe some tougher runes on the next one,’ Azram suggested.

Klarak looked back at the blockage filling the tunnel. ‘I don’t think it would do any good. You weren’t close enough to see how Thanquol powered that last spell of his. I saw him actually eat a piece of wyrdstone. He was fairly burning with energy, at any instant I expected him to burst into flames. The rats he summoned to gnaw through the beams did burn from the magic goading them to do Thanquol’s bidding.’ The engineer made a desultory wave of his hand. ‘No,’ he grumbled, ‘I don’t think I know enough to make a vest that could protect me from that kind of power. And I don’t think any sorcerer capable of that kind of magic is going to let a few tons of rock keep him bottled up.’

‘You sound almost like you’re giving up,’ Thorlek said, an incredulous note in his tone.

‘Maybe it would be easier if I did,’ Klarak told him. He gave his friend a grim smile. ‘But when have you ever known me to do anything the easy way?’

Grey Seer Skraekual scurried through the old mine, the ratskin map clutched in his trembling paws, his whiskers maintaining contact with the earthen wall. His mind was a confusion of terrified instinct and avaricious ambition. A skaven needed the scent of his own kind in his nose in order to feel even slightly at ease. Alone, the ratman’s natural fears rose to almost overwhelming levels. It was only by exertion of his hideous will that Skraekual was able to keep himself from fleeing in terror back to Bonestash.

He was playing for keeps now. Destroying that arrogant idiot Thanquol and the morons with him had been a step from which there was no going back. Skraekual had to succeed in the mission Seerlord Kritislik had entrusted to him. He would need the Seerlord’s protection if either Clan Mors or Clan Skryre decided to take issue with the way he had handled his supposed superior. If the fools didn’t manage to succeed in overcoming the dwarfs in their petty war, then Skraekual would make a convenient target upon which to fix the blame. For his part, it would be difficult to shift the responsibility back on the late and unlamented Grey Seer Thanquol.

Skraekual lashed his tail in anger as he thought about his scheming rival. The pompous maggot! He’d deserved to die! Thinking himself favoured by the Horned Rat! Acting as though he was the chosen child of the Horned One and lording it over anyone and everyone! Well, now Thanquol knew better. The Horned One did not favour fools!

How easily the dung-sniffer had been taken in by Skraekual’s deceptions. It had been pup-play to make Thanquol think his rival was nothing but a burned-out, warp-witted addict. A few bottled scents applied at the right time, a few well-staged fits, and the idiot had been completely taken in. He would almost have liked to see Thanquol’s face if the dullard knew Skraekual’s nose hadn’t rotted off from an excess of warp-weed. It had been bitten off by an over-enthusiastic breeder!

Chittering his amusement, the grey seer examined his map once more. It represented the labour of three months and a small fortune in warpstone incense to create that map, staring for days on end into his black mirror. But the mirror had shown him all. It had revealed to Skraekual the location of the old skaven warren of Festerhole, the first settlement to exist beneath Karak Angkul, predating Bonestash by nearly two thousand birth-cycles.

Disaster had come upon Festerhole when the mines of the dwarfs had broken into the skaven tunnels. The ratmen had fought tenaciously against the dwarfs, but at last they had been overwhelmed. The short-sighted dwarfs, however, hadn’t moved to occupy the old warren. Instead they had collapsed every approach into the tunnels and entombed the last of the ratkin in their homes. Without the numbers to dig their way out again, the skaven had perished after a few weeks of infighting and cannibalism.

But Festerhole hadn’t vanished completely. In the old records of the Order of Grey Seers, Skraekual had found reference to Festerhole’s spiritual leader: Grey Seer Thratsnik. Thratsnik, it seemed, had departed Skavenblight with a potent talisman in his possession, a talisman of such power that Seerlord Kritislik was desperate to make sure it didn’t fall into the wrong paws. He’d offered Skraekual wealth and position just to recover the thing and bring it back to him. It would be interesting to see if Seerlord Tisqueek could make an even better offer.

The Hand of Grey Lord Vecteek the Murderous, Warmonger of Clan Rictus during the Black Death. It sent a thrill of fear down Skraekual’s spine just to think of Vecteek’s genocidal reign. Under his generalship the skaven had spilled out onto the surface and very nearly enslaved the wretched race of man-things. Only the betrayal of his subordinates had prevented him from achieving his ambitions and bringing about the Great Ascendancy foretold by the Horned Rat.

What a skilled grey seer could do with such an artefact! The mummified paw of one of skavendom’s fiercest warlords! Surely Vecteek had been favoured by the Horned One, and by possessing even a bit of his remains, a grey seer would be able to augment his own connection to his god. What need for warpstone when the grey seer had such power at his fingertips!

Skraekual bruxed his fangs, imagining the might that would soon be his. Why should he kowtow to either Kritislik or Tisqueek? He could make himself Supreme Seerlord once he had the Hand of Vecteek!

Excitedly, the grey seer turned towards the wall of the mine. The dwarfs had been most thorough in disguising this section of tunnel, but Skraekual’s map showed him where the old skaven passageways had once been. He stared at the mass of rocks before him, visualising the long-lost warren behind the wall. He could see the trapped skaven dying in the darkness, beseeching Grey Seer Thratsnik for the intervention of the Horned One. If only Thratsnik had been more knowledgeable he might have saved them and himself with the relic he had stolen from Skavenblight. Now his stupidity had become Skraekual’s gain.

Drawing a sliver of warpstone from his robe, Skraekual thrust the toxic rock between his fangs and ground it into powder. Swallowing the crushed warpstone, he felt the intoxicating rush of raw magic flooding through his veins. For an instant, he lost his focus, indulging in the maddening flow of aethyric energy. Then Skraekual remembered his purpose and asserted his will, quickly turning the rush of energy into fuel for a mighty spell.

Setting his paw against the rock face, Skraekual shaped the magical power filling his body into a tremendous spell. The entire tunnel began to shake as the rocks split before the grey seer’s magic, vaporising beneath the black malignity of his will. Dust billowed out from the long-sealed passageway as the grey seer’s spell ripped through the earth.

Soon he had an opening wide enough for twenty skaven, reaching as far back as that part of Festerhole the dwarfs had been unable to collapse. The air held a musty, dead quality that set Skraekual’s fur on edge. With the warpstone energy still blazing through his body, he directed a second tremor deeper within the old warren, smashing apart another tunnel the dwarfs had demolished, one that would reconnect Festerhole to the Underway. After coming so far and risking so much, Skraekual wasn’t about to be trapped in the tomblike maze of Festerhole and share the ignominious fate of Thratsnik.

Feeling a bit more confident with the back door opened, Skraekual scurried down the dusty tunnels of the warren. The gnawed bones of skaven littered the ground, evidence of the cannibalism that had consumed the settlement once the dwarfs had cut it off. Occasionally, the mummified husk of an intact body leered at him from the desolate passages, the sorry remains of the last ratmen to perish in the cataclysm.

Skraekual ignored the morbid husks, intent only upon reaching his objective. Through his mirror, he had seen the burrow of Grey Seer Thratsnik and knew which way he must go to find the dead sorcerer’s lair. He uttered a shrill squeak of triumph when he scuttled into the cave-like burrow. Most of Thratsnik’s possessions had crumbled into dust, only a few stone cabinets cobbled together from old dwarf masonry and a handful of copper jars and trinkets remaining intact. However, behind a table crafted from the broken leg of a dwarf statue, Skraekual saw the shrivelled mummy of Thratsnik himself.

And resting before the dead grey seer, as full and fresh-looking as though it had been newly severed from its owner’s arm, was a hairless skaven paw!

Skraekual rushed across the room. He hesitated before the table, freezing as he felt Thratsnik’s dead eyes on him. He snickered nervously. The old fool had been dead for centuries. There was nothing he could do to cheat Skraekual of his victory now!

Making a quick grab at the table, half expecting the horned husk of Thratsnik to get up and try to stop him, Skraekual seized the severed hand. Springing away from the table, the grey seer made certain to keep his eyes on the old mummy while he inspected his prize.

The freshness of the paw was evidence that it had been endowed with potent enchantments, even the lowest skavenslave could have seen that. Sniffing the paw, Skraekual detected the odour of the warpstone which had been used to preserve the hand. It must have taken several pounds of the precious rock to so thoroughly saturate the paw. Further evidence that he now possessed a most potent artefact, a holy relic of the Horned One.

There was another smell too, one that was strangely familiar to Skraekual’s nose. Suddenly, the grey seer spun about. The scent he detected wasn’t coming from the paw. It was coming from behind him.

Grey Seer Thanquol stood in the doorway of Thratsnik’s lair, his fangs displayed in a threatening grin. Beside him stood the hulking figure of Boneripper.

‘Burn-burn!’ Thanquol growled, pointing a claw at Skraekual. ‘Burn-burn with fire!’

‘Wait-wait!’ Skraekual shrieked. ‘We can-will share-share!’

Thanquol motioned for Boneripper to stand down, then fixed Skraekual with an enraged stare, his foot tapping impatiently against the dusty floor of the burrow. Skraekual dipped his head in submission, making himself as unthreatening as possible. But there was a little grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

‘This is the Hand of Vecteek!’ Skraekual announced, displaying the dismembered paw. He noted the way Thanquol’s eyes boggled at the mention of the lost artefact. ‘With this we can make-take what we want-like from Seer-fool Kritislik.’

Thanquol ran a claw through his whiskers, avarice creeping into his eyes. ‘How can I trust you?’ he hissed.

Skraekual seemed to sympathise with his rival’s suspicions. Hurriedly, he tugged the dragon-head ring from his finger. ‘A gesture-token of oath-bond,’ Skraekual said, tossing the ring to Thanquol.

The motion surprised Thanquol, and awkwardly he bent about to catch the ring. It crumpled in his grasping fingers. A trick! Some cheap tin trinket! All this time it had been another of Skraekual’s deceptions! From the start he’d never had Master Sleekit’s ring!

‘Die-burn, fool-meat!’ Skraekual growled. A burst of black energy leapt from the grey seer’s paw, sizzling across the cave.

Thanquol squealed in horror, narrowly diving from the path of the deadly spell. Scrambling across the ground, putting Boneripper between himself and his enemy, he watched in horror as the wall behind him began to corrode, the rock turning to dripping mush beneath Skraekual’s magic.

‘Boneripper!’ Thanquol shrieked. He pointed a claw at Skraekual. ‘Kill-smash! Kill-smash!’

The rat-ogre vented warpsteam as its damaged mechanics ground into action. The huge monster charged straight towards Skraekual. The sorcerer’s eyes glowed a brilliant green as the brute rushed him. At the last instant before Boneripper could reach him, he vanished in a puff of foul-smelling smoke. Unable to stop, the rat-ogre kept barrelling across the cave. It smashed headfirst into the stone table, collapsing it and hurling the mummy of Thratsnik from the seat it had occupied for centuries. A great cloud of warpsteam erupted from Boneripper and the brute collapsed amid the rubble.

Thanquol did not have long to take in the spectacle of his bodyguard’s failure. A brutal impact against the back of his head sent him sprawling across the cave floor. Looking up, he saw Skraekual glaring down at him, his staff poised to smash the grey seer’s head. Skraekual had used his magic to escape Boneripper’s charge, but the vengeful sorcerer had not gone far.

The staff came smashing down, glancing off Thanquol’s horn as the grey seer scrambled from its path. Skraekual bared his fangs in a vicious snarl. Extending the Hand of Vecteek, he sent a blast of pure aethyric force ploughing into his enemy. Thanquol was flung like a rag doll across the cave by the magical blow. Skraekual tittered in amusement at his foe’s helplessness and sent another blast of raw magic smashing into him.

‘Slow-slow,’ Skraekual hissed. ‘You are first-first victim of Supreme Seerlord Skraekual and I want-will like-like watch-smell you die-die!’ In his bloodthirsty mania, flecks of foam dripped from Skraekual’s mouth and madness burned in his eyes.

Thanquol took advantage of his rival’s insane gloating to conjure his own spell. Lightning crackled about the head of his staff, surging across the cave to strike the other grey seer. Before the warp-lightning could connect, however, Skraekual made a slashing gesture with the Hand of Vecteek. As though it had been torn to shreds by a thousand invisible fangs, the tatters of Thanquol’s spell were scattered across the burrow.

‘Pain-suffer!’ Skraekual snarled, gesturing once more with the talisman. Thanquol attempted to fend off the sorcerous attack with his own counterspell, but the malignancy of Skraekual’s magic was too powerful to be resisted. All he could do was shriek in terror and spurt the musk of fear as an invisible force closed about him in a crushing embrace.

The crazed gleam shining in his eyes, Skraekual made sweeping gestures with the Hand. At each gesture, Thanquol was battered against the walls or dashed to the floor. A long gash opened along his snout as his fur was torn, a piece of his left horn went bouncing across the floor as it broke against one of the stone shelves.

‘Great-mighty Thanquol!’ Skraekual screamed. ‘Not-not great-mighty now-now!’ He raised the Hand, the unseen power gripping Thanquol responding by smashing him against the ceiling. Sparks flashed in Thanquol’s eyes as the wind was squeezed out of his lungs. Coughing and spitting, he could only flail his legs in a feeble effort at escape.

Laughing, Skraekual made a dismissive wave of his paw. Instantly, Thanquol was flung to the floor with bone-jarring force. Before he could even think about trying to rise, a tremendous force crushed him flat again, feeling as though a giant had stepped on him. He squirmed in agony beneath the steadily mounting pressure, frantically trying to concentrate on a spell, any spell, that would keep him from being squished like an insect by Skraekual’s magic.

The gloating Skraekual paced across the cave, chuckling evilly, his entire body twitching in a spasm of vermicidal glee. ‘What-what does great-mighty Thanquol say-squeak now!’

Thanquol looked past his tormentor and a vicious grin spread across his face. ‘Goodbye, Skraekual,’ he snarled, provoking a confused look on Skraekual’s face. ‘Boneripper! Rip-tear-kill-crush!’

Skraekual had been so fixated on his torment of Thanquol that he hadn’t noticed the skeletal rat-ogre stir from the rubble, or his own proximity to the hulking automaton. Before he could even turn around, Boneripper’s immense hand closed about Skraekual’s horned head. With one vicious tug, the rat-ogre pulled the grey seer’s head from his shoulders.

The force pressing Thanquol against the floor instantly vanished. Painfully, he crept across the cave, kicking Skraekual’s head. ‘Traitor-meat!’ he spat, giving it another kick. ‘Scat-rat! Tick-popper! Warp-witted snake-suckler!’ Thanquol cried out in pain as he cut one of his toes on Skraekual’s horn. Glaring vindictively at the battered head, he focused his will and sent a blast of pure aethyric energy hammering down upon the object of his ire. Beneath the wave of raw magic, Skraekual’s head burst into bloody splinters of fur and bone.

Panting from his fury and his exertions, Thanquol turned towards his enemy’s body. Exhaustion was forgotten as he spotted the Hand of Vecteek still clutched in Skraekual’s dead paws. Avarice again shone in Thanquol’s eyes. Having been on the receiving end of the talisman’s power, he was better able to appreciate its ability to augment the magic of its possessor.

With a trembling paw, Thanquol reached out to claim the Hand for his own. At the last instant, however, his natural caution reasserted itself. Skraekual had acted even more insane than usual at the end, a condition that Thanquol could only believe had been brought about by using the Hand. Granted, the fool had been nowhere near the sorcerer that Thanquol was, but still there might be some sort of curse on the thing. A skaven proverb maintained that he who sticks his neck out ends up in the larder.

Thanquol leaned back, staring suspiciously at the Hand. Again, greed and lust for power flared up in his black heart, driving back his instinctive fear. There was another skaven proverb that advised to take what you can when you can. It was sheer idiocy to leave anything so powerful just lying around. Besides, it would be safe enough to carry the Hand around. The danger would come from trying to use it. But a skaven of his stalwart resolve would hardly fall prey to that sort of temptation.

His paw trembling with an almost overwhelming mix of fear and greed, Thanquol seized the gruesome artefact.

Taking a sniff of warpstone-snuff to calm his nerves after his ordeal, Thanquol barked a sharp order at Boneripper. With the traitor Skraekual dealt with and the Hand of Vecteek now in the possession of a loyal servant of the Lords of Decay, it was time to be quit of these gloomy old burrows. He was eager to be back in Bonestash. He could explain his associate’s treason, make his apologies to Ikit Claw and Rikkit Snapfang and then be on his way back to Skavenblight. When he presented the Hand to Kritislik, the old villain would be forced to acknowledge the wisdom and cunning of his most faithful servant.

Creeping back down the passageway, Boneripper limping after him, Thanquol thought that it really was too bad Bokha had been killed. That idiot would have been just stupid and tractable enough to use the Hand on Thanquol’s behalf, thereby solving the problem of any curse attached to it.

Still, Kritislik would reward him well. It wasn’t every day an artefact like the Hand of Vecteek was returned to the Shattered Tower.

As Thanquol and Boneripper vanished around a bend in the tunnel, the dust kicked up by the fight in Thratsnik’s lair slowly settled. Thrown from its ancient seat, the mummy of the old grey seer lay crumpled in one corner of the lair. Its robes had crumbled away, exposing its bony frame and the withered stump where one of its paws should have been.

There seemed an expression of vengeful amusement on the mummy’s shrivelled face.

The war-room of Karak Angkul was a frenzy of activity. King Logan and his generals were gathered about the massive granite table which dominated the centre of the room. Arrayed before their steely stares was a three-dimensional model of the dwarfhold and its labyrinth of tunnels, galleries and deeps. Scattered throughout the model were tiny iron statues of warriors, their chests each engraved with a different rune. The statues denoted the positions of the hold’s warriors.

‘If there is trouble, it will come from the Sixth Deep,’ Thane Arngar, one of the king’s generals, warned. He gestured with his hairy hand at a section of statues arranged in the twisting maze of mines beneath the Sixth Deep. ‘We should concede the mines and concentrate our troops in the Sixth Deep.’

‘Concede the mines!’ roared the heavy-set Guildmaster Borgo Flintheart, head of the Miners’ Guild. ‘Leave the thieving thaggoraki down there with our gold? You must be bozdok!’

‘The ratkin don’t care about gold,’ Thane Arngar told Borgo, ‘and the mines are too numerous to mount a proper defence down there. No, the plan must be to concede the mines and lure the ratkin into the Sixth Deep where we can bring the full weight of our warriors against them.’

‘We can move some of the reserves from the upper deeps as well,’ opined another of the generals. ‘There’s no sense keeping them where they’re not needed. The Overguard in the First Deep has to stay, of course, just in case the ratkin have stirred up some of the grobi tribes to cause us trouble.’

King Logan nodded as he considered the proposal. Weighing the benefits and dangers, he turned towards the one dwarf who had up until now been silent during the war council. ‘What do you think, Klarak?’ he asked. ‘You’ve just come back from fighting these devils. Are they likely to strike out for the Sixth Deep if we pull out from the mines?’

Klarak Bronzehammer picked up one of the iron statues standing in a section of the mine shafts. Grimly, he set the statue down. ‘I would advise keeping the patrols in place and keeping the reserves where they are. It never pays to try to guess what ratkin will do. They are base, honourless creatures and their minds are as crooked as a goblin’s heart. We have two choices. We can try to strike them first, which means taking the fight to their warrens. To do that, we’d have to take almost every able-bodied dwarf in the hold.’

‘And the other option?’

‘We try to eliminate their leader,’ Klarak stated firmly. ‘The ratkin are all cowards. They’ll lose heart if we can kill their leader before the battle even begins.’

‘That’s why you want to keep the patrols down in the mines,’ said Thane Arngar. ‘You are hoping they can spot this Grey Seer Thanquol before he can slither back to his own kind.’

Klarak nodded. ‘Eliminating Thanquol is vital if we are going to save Karak Angkul from destruction.’

Any further debate was interrupted by a disturbance at the door to the war-room. Two of King Logan’s hammerers appeared, marching into the enormous hall with the practised precision of a steam hammer. Between them, they escorted a ragged, unkempt dwarf who wore only a set of ill-fitting breeches and the heavy blanket draped over his shoulders.

‘Sire, this dwarf was discovered at the Great Gate petitioning for entrance,’ one of the hammerers stated. ‘He claims he has urgent information he must report to your highness.’ The hammerer’s face twisted into a crooked grin. ‘He wants to warn us that the ratkin are going to attack Karak Angkul.’

The report brought a grim chuckle from some of the assembled dwarfs. Any warning about ratmen attacking the stronghold was very late in coming.

The bedraggled dwarf straightened his body when he noted the mockery in his escort’s voice. Throwing off his blanket, he puffed out his scarred chest. ‘I am Mordin Grimstone of Karak Izor,’ he said. ‘I was a prisoner of the skaven. For weeks I have been wandering the Ungdrin Ankor trying to make my way back to civilisation. While I was making my way here, I followed the ratkin warhost and overheard the plans of their leaders to attack Karak Angkul.’

‘Did you get a good look at these leaders?’ Klarak asked. It would go ill for the hold if Mordin had stumbled upon an entirely different army that was marching to join the one already threatening the hold.

‘There were two who seemed in charge,’ Mordin said. ‘One was a horned ratkin they called Thanquol.’ The escaped prisoner’s voice dripped with venom as he named the monster he had sworn to destroy. ‘The other was an iron-faced creature with a huge metal hand they called Ikit Claw.’

Klarak’s face went pale when he heard the name of the second skaven leader. He turned towards King Logan.

‘Sire, I am afraid I’ve been wrong,’ the engineer said. ‘If Ikit Claw is with our enemies then the peril is greater than I imagined.’ Klarak cast his gold-flake eyes across the dwarf generals, fixing each of them with his steely stare.

‘It is not just Karak Angkul which is now in danger,’ he told them. ‘But the whole of the Karak Ankor!’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Klarak Bronzehammer leaned against the table, his intense stare boring into the faces of the gathered generals and leaders of Karak Angkul. For once, even Guildmaster Thori kept silent, reading from the frightened pallor of Klarak’s face that he was about to relate something of dire import. Even the engineer’s worst detractors acknowledged that he was no coward.

‘I first tangled with Ikit Claw when he raided Kraka Drak and tried to take many of the hold’s engineers away as slaves,’ Klarak began. ‘Since then our paths have crossed several times. The last was in the dragon caves beneath Karak Azul. That time, he was trying to recreate an ancient ratkin weapon of vast destructive power, something he called the Doomsphere.’

‘Typically grandiose ratkin name,’ said Guildmaster Thori. ‘Every piece of trash they knock together the vermin call the Big Sharp Stick of Exploding Death or the Backscratcher of Infinite Destruction.’

‘Except this time, the weapon could really do what the ratkin expected it to do,’ Klarak said. ‘I saw the thing with my own eyes, a great orb of steel the size of a steamship and packed with raw wyrdstone.’

The description brought a few gasps from Runelord Morag and the other runesmiths. More than any of the other dwarfs present, they understood the connection between warpstone and dark magic. They had some inkling of the destructive potential for a device such as the one Klarak described.

‘What did the ratkin expect to use this weapon for?’ King Logan asked, fearing he already knew the answer.

‘Destroy every dwarfhold in the Worlds Edge,’ Klarak told him. ‘Ikit Claw constructed his wyrdstone bomb over the fault running beneath Karak Azul. If he’d been able to unleash the power of his weapon, he could have precipitated an earthquake the likes of which no dwarf has seen since the Time of Woes.’

Cries of alarm spread through the war-room, the magnitude of what Klarak described shaking many of the assembled dwarfs to the very core.

‘How did you stop him?’ asked Thane Erkii.

Klarak’s expression became even more dour, a haunted quality entering his eyes. ‘I’m not sure that I did,’ he confessed. ‘Myself and my companions fought our way through Ikit’s minions, slaying scores of the ratkin. The Claw saw us coming and in his craven wickedness, he activated the Doomsphere moments before we could reach it. The huge machine shuddered into hideous life, the stink of skaven engines venting from its exhausts in a caustic cloud of green gas. If not for the protective gear I’d ordered my companions to bring along, all of us would have met our ancestors in that moment. I saw ratkin without protection doubled-over beside the weapon, coughing out pieces of their own lungs as the gas scorched their innards.

‘A rearguard of ratkin continued to protect the Doomsphere, each wearing a heavy respirator. While my comrades fought these vermin, I charged through their ranks and assaulted the hell-machine itself. Employing a steam hammer, I tried to smash my way through the steel shell to get at whatever mechanisms were inside.

‘I had only just begun my assault before I found myself attacked by Ikit Claw himself. The ratkin had strengthened his frail body with an exoskeleton of iron powered by infernal skaven sorceries. His left arm had been fitted with an enormous metal claw within which had been built one of the ratkin’s diabolic fire-throwers.’

The engineer closed his eyes and sighed deeply. ‘I managed to elude the ratkin’s fire, but the iron frame he wore protected him from my pistol. The filthy beast then tried to crush me with his magic, but the ancestor badges I wore guarded me against his spells. I was able to close upon the monster, bringing him low with blows from my hammer until his metal claw was an unrecognisable mass of scrap. Before I could finish him, however, the Doomsphere began to shriek and shiver. One of the steel plates from the machine’s roof was ripped free, flung across the cavern as though shot from a cannon. A searing blast of greenish light burst from the resulting tear in the Doomsphere’s skin, scorching the roof of the cavern and raining rocks down upon those below.

‘Ikit Claw broke away from me, but the ratkin had lost the appetite for battle. He turned his gaze to the hole in the top of his machine, and in his eyes was an expression of such wrath as I’ve never seen. I moved to close upon the ratkin once more, but even as I did, a panel in the side of the Doomsphere was blown loose, a stream of burning light erupting from the rent and blocking my path to the warlock.

‘By this time, the entire cavern was coming apart. Rocks fell like rain from the savaged roof and the vibrations of the Doomsphere were making the ground quiver and quake. The ratkin were fleeing in their multitudes, slinking back into the dark, trying to escape the disintegrating machine. More steel plates burst as the power within the sphere continued to mount. As an engineer, it was obvious to me that the machine was going to self-destruct, that no power could restrain its raging energies now.

‘I quickly gathered my companions and together we fled from the cavern. My last look back found Ikit Claw still struggling at the controls of his Doomsphere, trying to induce it to power-down. A few minutes later, and I was bowled over by the shock wave of a tremendous explosion. The cavern, and everything within it, was buried by tons of rock.’

‘But it appears that Ikit Claw escaped the destruction of his machine,’ King Logan observed.

‘That is what concerns me,’ Klarak said. ‘From Mordin’s description, there can be no doubt he saw Ikit Claw.’

‘You think this creature would be crazed enough to repeat such a fiendish experiment?’ Guildmaster Thori asked.

‘For what the records tell us,’ Lorekeeper Azram answered, ‘we know that the ratkin are given to obsessions. Once it has entered their mind to do a thing, they will try to do it, regardless of their own losses or the obstacles in their way.’

Klarak paced along the table, staring at the three-dimensional map. ‘More to the point, we can’t afford to assume Ikit Claw doesn’t intend to construct another Doomsphere. The situation of Karak Angkul is much like that of Karak Azul. The same underground fault links us. Detonating his weapon here might serve the same purpose as detonating it beneath Karak Azul.’

‘You can’t be sure of that,’ Guildmaster Thori said. ‘There is no basis upon which to base your theory.’ The old dwarf snorted with disapproval. ‘But I’ve grown used to your unproven theories.’

King Logan ran his hand along the length of his beard, thinking hard about what Klarak had said. The dwarfs were always a cautious people, but they also weren’t prone to abandoning themselves to imaginary terrors. ‘How can we know if this ratkin warlock is up to something?’

‘You might look for anything unusual,’ Klarak said. ‘Anything that is abnormal. Something that doesn’t fit the model of ratkin raids.’

‘You mean like the mines?’ Thane Erkii asked. All eyes turned to the Minemaster, fixing the undivided attention of the war council upon him. The thane shifted uncomfortably in his seat, unaccustomed to having the king and his advisors hanging on his every word.

‘The last two patrols in the mines have reported some strange things,’ Thane Erkii explained. ‘They’ve found some of the support beams missing.’

‘Ratkin are always vandalising our diggings,’ observed Guildmaster Borgo.

Thane Erkii shook his head. ‘Not in this fashion. The beams were removed, but the ratkin had built new supports to replace them and prevent the tunnel from collapsing. Naturally, their crude constructions were spotted right-off but…’

‘Where did this happen?’ Klarak demanded, an urgency in his voice.

Thane Erkii thought for a moment, then drew the connection Klarak feared. ‘All the beams they stole were the ones from your workshop. The ones you sent…’

‘Have your dwarfs remove every beam that is still down there before the ratkin can steal them!’ Klarak ordered, forgetting his place in the magnitude of the fear growing inside him. He shot an apologetic look at King Logan. The king waved aside his remorse and repeated the engineer’s orders to Thane Erkii.

‘Why the need for haste?’ wondered Guildmaster Thori.

‘Because I was right to doubt my sabotage was enough to destroy the Doomsphere,’ Klarak told him. ‘It was a design flaw that caused the machine to destroy itself. The steel plating wasn’t tough enough to contain the energies of the Doomsphere as it started to power-up.’

Klarak slammed his fist against the table, knocking over some of the iron statues. ‘That is why Ikit Claw has come here! He means to make another Doomsphere and this time he intends to use a tougher metal to contain it.

‘He’s come here for my barazhunk!’

The tunnels of Bonestash were in turmoil. The air reeked of blood and musk, but beneath these there was the tang of warpstone, a scent that had not been quite so prominent the last time Thanquol had passed through the warren. Ratmen scurried about in confused packs, squeaking their agitation at anyone and anything that came too close to them. Clan Skryre skirmishers, heavy warplock pistols gripped in their paws, kept vigil at the mouth of every tunnel. Skaven bodies were scattered through the rat-runs, some of them scorched by what had obviously been an application of warp-lightning, others lying with their skulls shattered by warpstone bullets.

It gave Thanquol pause to return to such confusion. Unrest meant uncertainty, and that was the last thing any skaven wanted to walk into. Briefly he thought about simply turning around and making his way back to Skavenblight without putting in an appearance at Bonestash. He lashed his tail in annoyance at the idea of retreating before he found out what was going on. Besides, he now had the Hand of Vecteek. With that artefact in his possession, he was more than a match for anything Ikit Claw or Rikkit Snapfang could throw at him.

He patted the breast of his robe, ensuring that the artefact was still where he’d hidden it. Yes, it was still there, clammy and cold. Thanquol tugged at his whiskers. Did he dare use its power? He was still mindful of the maniacal madness that had settled upon Skraekual. If there was some curse on the relic, he certainly didn’t want to risk bringing it down upon himself. Then again, he didn’t have to actually use the Hand to browbeat the other skaven. He could merely threaten to use it to get them in line.

Pleased with this train of thought, Thanquol strode boldly through the tunnels, shoving aside those ratmen too slow to get out of his way. Boneripper dutifully followed in Thanquol’s wake, the rat-ogre’s damaged mechanics venting steam at every step. Squeals of protest and pain wailed as the steam scalded some of the closely-packed ratmen. Boneripper’s gait displayed an almost tipsy quality as its rattled cognisance struggled to regain its centre of balance. The brute’s battle with Skraekual had left its marks.

Two Clan Skryre skirmishers stepped out into the mouth of the tunnel, moving to block the passage. Thanquol simply glared at the two skaven until they bobbed their heads in a suitably subservient manner.

‘Where is the Claw?’ Thanquol demanded, baring his fangs in a threatening display.

‘Chief Warlock Ikit Claw makes big-big squeak-speak with Clan Mors,’ one of the skirmishers answered.

Given the state of things, it made sense that Ikit Claw would be trying to coordinate with Rikkit Snapfang to restore order in Bonestash. Thanquol wondered what had caused the breakdown. Likely some sort of dwarf attack, one that threatened the warren itself. Again, the impulse to flee coursed through his mind. Fighting a bunch of dwarfs was something he wasn’t eager to do, at least not without some substantial gain waiting for him at the end of the battle.

Still, it might be worth it to see the exact lay of the land first. Thanquol wouldn’t want to scurry back to Skavenblight and then find out the skaven of Bonestash had managed to pull out some zero-hour victory.

Following the directions given to him by the skirmishers, Thanquol headed for the central storage burrow. It was an odd sort of place for the leaders of Bonestash to be holding a meeting, though Thanquol imagined it must be among the most secure caves in the entire warren. As he proceeded through the cramped tunnels, he began to notice an increase in the Clan Skryre guard posts. Armoured stormvermin were now in evidence too, racing through the tunnels in vicious packs, brutalising just about every skaven they came across. Behind each gang of stormvermin, Thanquol saw mobs of shackled slaves, each slave laden down with a variety of foodstuffs and other supplies.

While he watched, a pack of brown-furred clanrats set upon the stormvermin, trying to get past them to the slaves and the supplies they carried. Two of the armoured ratmen were dragged down before the rest of them could fend off their attackers. Snarling and displaying their fangs, the defeated clanrats withdrew, but from their attitude, Thanquol felt they wouldn’t go far before making another attempt to steal the supplies.

Disorder was quickly consuming the warren, upsetting the strict social hierarchy. The downtrodden masses were forgetting their obligations to their superiors. Worse, they were forgetting their fear of their superiors.

At least the vermin hadn’t forgotten their fear of the Horned Rat. Thanquol went unmolested as he prowled the tunnels, rampaging clanrats and escaped skavenslaves taking one sniff of the grey seer’s scent and then quickly scrambling out of his way. Those who dared to stare at him for too long, Thanquol clubbed down with the head of his staff. If he once showed any sign of timidity, he knew the rioters would fall upon him like starving wolf-rats.

Deeper into the warren now, Thanquol could see how far the unrest had gone. He saw a pack of skavenslaves, chains still looped about their necks, munching on a clutch of squealing grey meat while behind them a gang of clanrats were trying to herd brood-mothers away from their birthing nests. The immense, almost brainless female skaven would waddle out a few steps, then swing about and try to retreat back to the familiar smells of their nests. More than a few of the rustlers had been crushed beneath the flabby paws of the breeders, their comrades callously indifferent to the fate of the stricken thieves.

A group of piebald ratmen came scampering down the tunnel, their backs bent almost horizontal by the heavy sacks of mushrooms they carried. These were hotly pursued by a squealing mob demanding a share in the loot.

Another pack of brown-furred skaven emerged from one of the side-passages. These bore an array of weapons and wore bits of bloodied armour. At their head marched a skinny white-faced ratman who carried a long spear, the head of a black-furred stormvermin spitted upon its tip like some gruesome standard.

Thanquol skirted well clear of the marching brown-furs and their snarling leader. He ducked down a side-tunnel, then frowned as he discovered it was choked with shivering ratmen, scrawny little wretches too timid to take part in the general looting. Angrily, the grey seer ordered Boneripper forwards. The hulking rat-ogre seized two of the cowering skaven in its bony claws, crushing them in its steely grip.

Thanquol bared his fangs at the rest of the cringing ratmen. ‘Out-out!’ he growled. The skaven didn’t need to be told twice, rushing past Thanquol and Boneripper in a terrified river of fur and musk. Pushing his way through the fleeing verminkin, the grey seer stalked down the tunnel. There was a scent of warpstone in the air. If Rikkit Snapfang was anywhere, the warlord would be with his warpstone, protecting it from the rampaging rat-packs that would steal it.

The scent led Thanquol into the vast cavern that had served Bonestash as a central supply cache. There were gangs of stormvermin posted everywhere, their halberds and swords at the ready, their armour stained with black skaven blood. Mobs of slaves, under the stern supervision of warriors, continued to emerge from the cavern with bundles of food. The sound of hammers, the smell of hot metal, the shriek of drills against stone, all of these drifted out to welcome the grey seer as he forced his way past the sentinels and into the cavern.

What he saw froze Thanquol in his tracks. The vast cavern was being emptied of its stores by a veritable army of slaves. While they hurried to clear the area, a second horde of slaves was bringing in a wild assortment of machinery the function of which he couldn’t even begin to guess. Wooden scaffolds and gantries were being erected all about the cavern. Teams with warp-powered drills were gouging great pits in the floor while other skaven hurried about transforming the holes into crude forges and smelters.

At the very centre of the activity, Thanquol saw an immense ovoid machine, a great sphere of exposed gears and levers. At the heart of the machine was some sort of furnace from which billowed a quantity of green smoke. The grey seer felt his heart flutter in shock as he saw a pair of ratmen in strange metal coveralls shovelling warpstone into the furnace. He couldn’t know how long they’d been feeding the machine, but just from a moment’s observation, he saw them cast a small fortune into the flames.

The sight was such a wasteful outrage that Thanquol roared at the vandals, demanding them to stop. He lifted his staff, fully prepared to visit the wrath of the Horned One upon these heretic maggots.

‘Grey Seer Thanquol,’ the steel scratch of Ikit Claw’s voice rose from across the cavern, arresting the sorcerer’s spell. Thanquol shifted his gaze to find the Chief Warlock watching him. The Claw was situated beside one of the forges. Thanquol was surprised to find the two warlock-engineers who had deserted his patrol standing to either side of the Claw. On the ground between them rested one of the strange metal beams Thanquol had seen in the dwarf mines.

‘Have you considered what would happen if you sent a bolt of warp-lightning into such a large quantity of warpstone?’ Ikit Claw demanded. The Chief Warlock made a sidewise motion with his metal claw, the scythe-like digits snapping together with a grinding click.

Slowly, Thanquol lowered his staff. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure what would happen if a stray spark of warp-lightning were to strike the cart of warpstone Ikit’s minions were feeding into the furnace. He also wasn’t willing to gamble that the Claw was bluffing when he claimed that he did know.

‘They-they destroy-ruin warpstone!’ Thanquol shrieked, pointing angrily at the furnace-tenders.

Ikit Claw stepped away from the forge. His head bobbed in a gloating manner. ‘Yes-yes,’ he hissed. ‘The essence of the warpstone feeds my machine. To create, one must-must destroy! To destroy, one must-must create!’ The warlock-engineer waved his monstrous claw towards the smoking, shuddering machine. ‘This will-will be great-best invention!’ he explained, his metal hiss becoming slurred and debased in his excitement. ‘Make-force all skaven bow-grovel! Destroy-kill all-all enemies!’

Thanquol bruxed his fangs. There was the fanatical gleam in Ikit’s eyes that reminded him uncomfortably of the plague monks of Clan Pestilens. The grey seer patted the breast of his robe, reassured by the dead touch of Vecteek’s hand. For all of the Claw’s posturing, the tinker-rat’s invention was just a toy beside the power Thanquol had at his fingertips.

‘Mad-crazy!’ squealed Rikkit Snapfang. The warlord of Bonestash came scurrying to Thanquol’s side, leaving the tangle of clawleaders supervising the removal of the warren’s supplies. ‘The Claw is mad-crazy!’ he repeated. ‘Speak-squeak that all must be moved! Speak-squeak that breeder-nest not big enough!’

In an instant, Thanquol saw why the warren had been thrown into such chaos. The removal of the food stores hadn’t been an organised affair, but rather one hastily imposed upon Rikkit by the Clan Skryre skaven. Without proper preparation and warning, the inhabitants of the warren had been thrown into a panic, believing as Thanquol had that the dwarfs were on their way. They saw the removal of the supplies as a sign that their leaders were abandoning the warren – and them along with it! No wonder the ratmen were rioting, trying to take for themselves whatever they could lay their paws on.

Thanquol’s lip curled in contempt for Clan Skryre’s foolishness. Their tunnel vision had provoked disorder in the warren at a time when they would need every available skaven to fight the dwarfs! It was like being handed a gift from the Horned Rat himself! He could head back for Skavenblight and lay all of the blame on Ikit Claw, but now he could do so and know he would be backed by Clan Mors when he made his allegations!

‘Great-mighty Grey Seer,’ Rikkit was saying, exposing his throat in a gesture of submission to Thanquol’s authority. ‘Make-stop the Claw. Tell-say the Horned One will-will smite-smash him if he won’t stop-stop.’

‘Don’t presume what the Horned One will do,’ Thanquol upbraided Rikkit for his blasphemous presumption. The grey seer’s eyes narrowed. He was planning on leaving Bonestash anyway, but now that Rikkit had begged for his help, he had to make a token gesture of publicly disapproving of Ikit Claw’s antics. He’d spew out a bit of mumbo jumbo about the Horned Rat and curses and such, then scurry off in a huff. He chuckled, patting the morbid artefact once more. When he returned to Skavenblight, he’d force Seerlord Kritislik to elevate him to the rank of seerlord, maybe even replace Tisqueek. From there he’d be only one convenient accident from becoming the Supreme Seerlord and occupying Kritislik’s seat on the Council of Thirteen.

Ikit Claw was still prancing about his invention, squeaking and babbling about it like a man-thing with a new pup. It was a revolting display, but at the same time made Thanquol uneasy. He dug out his snuff-box and took a little pinch to fortify himself against the coming unpleasantness.

‘Mad-meat!’ Thanquol snarled at the Chief Warlock. ‘You’ve wrecked–’

Ikit Claw spun about, baring his fangs in a feral snarl. ‘Mad? Mad? You squeak-say I am mad-mad?’ The warlock-engineer chittered, his laughter sounding like a knife being sharpened. ‘Yes-yes! Only mad-mad would make-bring the Doomsphere!’

Thanquol stood still, as rigid as a statue. Had the Chief Warlock really just said he was making another Doomsphere? The first had been built ages past by the sorcerer-engineers of Clan Skryre to crack open the roots of the mountains and annihilate the kingdoms of the dwarfs in one fell swoop. It hadn’t worked out quite the way they had planned. While the dwarf kingdoms had suffered immense destruction, the rampant energies unleashed by the Doomsphere had rebounded against the skaven. Skavenblight had been cast into ruins, the plain around it flooded by the sea to become the Blighted Marshes. In the wake of this destruction, the despots who had ruled skavendom up until that point had been overthrown and replaced by the Grey Lords, predecessors of the current Lords of Decay.

The Doomsphere! Here was a weapon that could, as Ikit Claw claimed, exterminate the enemies of the Under-Empire and bring the bickering clans to their knees! From fear of the Doomsphere, all skavendom could be united, forced to set aside their petty intrigues and work towards the fulfilment of the Great Ascendancy! They would answer to one voice! One will! One vision! No longer would there be a Council of Thirteen, no Lords of Decay! The skaven would answer to the Horned Emperor!

The magnitude of the glorious vision sent an icy thrill of fear coursing through Thanquol’s mind. Reason struggled against the enormity of such ambition, pleading with him that such thoughts were but the delusions conjured up by a bad batch of warp-snuff.

The grey seer grimaced. He did not need warp-snuff to tell him his destiny! His glory was foreordained by the Horned One! The very fact that he was here, present to witness the construction of Ikit Claw’s weapon, and that he did so armed with the tools to seize control of it – these were incontrovertible signs of the Horned Rat’s favour!

Yes! All skavendom would grovel before Thanquol the First! No, Thanquol the Only, for there would be no other Horned Emperor! By magic or through the arcane technology of Clan Skryre, Thanquol would ensure the Under-Empire would never be deprived of his selfless leadership. He’d use the Doomsphere and blast skavendom to smithereens first!

The grey seer stroked his whiskers and chuckled to himself. It didn’t even matter if Ikit Claw’s contraption worked or not. Simply the threat that it would work would be enough to bring the Council to its knees. The Hand of Vecteek! Bah! A worthless bit of carrion beside the awesome power the Claw now offered him!

‘Feared Thanquol, you must stop-stop this insanity!’ Rikkit Snapfang pleaded.

Thanquol glanced aside at the desperate warlord. ‘Shut up,’ he ordered before scurrying across the cavern to confer with the most noble and brilliant visionary Ikit Claw.

‘You think-want make-make new-better Doomsphere?’ Thanquol asked, unable to keep a trickle of drool from dripping off his fangs.

Ikit Claw’s eyes narrowed behind his metal mask. He scratched at his white fur with his good hand. ‘This time-time all be good-perfect!’ he hissed. ‘No-none mistake-trouble!’ The Chief Warlock reached down, lifting the stolen beam from the ground with his steel claw, holding it as effortlessly as an old mouse bone. ‘Last experiment-test, housing-skin was weak-bad. Now use-take new-better dwarf-metal!’

That was the reason Ikit Claw had come to Bone-stash! One of the mercenaries Clan Mors had hired before must have been a spy for the Chief Warlock. The spy had discovered the dwarf-metal and reported it to his master. The Claw must have had most of his Doomsphere already constructed, waiting only for a housing strong enough to restrain its immense energies until they were needed. That was what the Claw’s minions had been dragging through the Underway – the partially assembled apparatus of his weapon!

‘Thanquol stop-stop him!’ Rikkit protested. ‘He will ruin-wreck Bonestash!’

The grey seer swatted the grovelling warlord with his staff. There were far bigger things to consider now than one idiot and his three-flea warren. Conquest of the Under-Empire, for a start. The complete genocide of the dwarf race for another.

Thanquol looked around the cavern, nodding in approval at the frantic pace of work. However, they could certainly do better with more labourers. ‘Good-smart plan-plot,’ the grey seer said, his words clipped and excited. With an effort he forced a bit of dignified reserve into his voice. He didn’t want to seem too eager to exploit Ikit Claw’s invention. He would need to adopt the poise of a wise old grey seer who saw an opportunity to better skavendom through the Claw’s genius. That way the Claw wouldn’t see it coming when fate caught up with him and left Thanquol with a free paw to claim the Doomsphere as his own.

‘We need more workers,’ Thanquol said. He pressed his claw against his breast, making a half-bow towards the metal-faced warlock-engineer. ‘I shall go out into the tunnels and bring order among the Horned One’s misguided children. I will make them see-scent that the Horned One expects them all to devote themselves to this grand endeavour. They will know that they can aspire to no greater thing than to help Mighty Ikit Claw the Great in his noble work.’

The grey seer bared his fangs in a vicious snarl. ‘And any of the flea-bitten scratch-sniffers that don’t listen to me will have their bones blasted into ash and fed to the whelps!’

CHAPTER TWELVE

Thanquol’s eyes gleamed as he stared out across the vast horde of skaven who had been assembled in the tunnels of Bonestash. Here was mustered the might of the warren, thousands of clanrats and skavenslaves, hundreds of armoured stormvermin. He could smell the odour of refined warpstone rising from the skirmishers of Clan Skryre. Warplock jezzails, Poison Wind globadiers, ratling guns and warpfire throwers. The malignant power of skavendom was spread before him, anxiously awaiting his every command.

He found the spectacle invigorating, even if it was but a taste of the authority he would soon possess. Once Ikit Claw completed his devilish machine, Thanquol would be able to bring all the Under-Empire to its knees. He wondered if it would be possible to employ the Doomsphere in a limited capacity. He’d use it to smash a few warrens for a start. Destroy the holdings of a few lesser clans, perhaps even annihilate the city of one of the greater clans, just to show that he made no distinction. Then he’d turn the Doomsphere loose against the dwarfs. He’d break their miserable little kingdom like a rotten tooth, bury the whole lot of the fur-faced scum in their own halls. That would be a fair recompense for all the trouble that ginger-furred maniac and his man-pet had caused him. Never again would anyone have the temerity to trifle with Thanquol the Tyrannical!

The grey seer sneezed, shaking his head as a stray bit of warpsnuff was dislodged. He had to keep a clear head now. It was important to ensure his wits were sharp when the inevitable time came to separate Ikit Claw from his new toy. And the Chief Warlock’s head from his shoulders.

The time of the Claw’s usefulness would soon be over. This raid would bring the warlock-engineer everything he needed to complete the Doomsphere. That would be the moment when he would be at his most vulnerable. While Ikit was gloating over his invention, Thanquol would strike. Afterwards, he would say a dwarf assassin had caught the Chief Warlock unawares. He would be able to find plenty of witnesses to back him up, especially once he controlled the Doomsphere.

Thanquol bruxed his fangs. He was being foolish. Once he had the Doomsphere, he’d never need to worry about what another skaven thought ever again. He’d tell the vermin what to think! He’d tell them what to say! The entire Under-Empire would be his plaything to gnaw and abuse as he wished!

Wiping the drool from his mouth, Thanquol turned and stared down at Fangleader Frothrend. Normally, the black-furred stormvermin would have towered over the grey seer, but out of deference to Thanquol’s dominance, he’d kept his posture appropriately hunched and submissive. Since the cowardly desertion of Warlord Rikkit Snapfang, Frothrend had become de facto leader of Bonestash. Or, at least as much of a leader as Ikit Claw’s demands for labour and resources allowed. Frothrend probably had expected more power when he’d linked his ambition to that of Clan Skryre. His defection placed him in a bad spot if things didn’t work out. Clan Mors would learn of his betrayal and seek retribution, sooner than later if Rikkit had scurried off to tattle, as Thanquol was fairly certain the craven flea had.

In the short term, however, it meant Frothrend was as loyal and dependable as any skaven could be. His only hope of escaping the wrath of Clan Mors was for Clan Skryre to protect him. Unless, of course, he fell under the protection of an even mightier skaven than Ikit Claw. Frothrend had a wonderfully over-developed sense of religious fervour. It stemmed from an incident when he’d been shot by a dwarf jezzail. The bullet had barely singed the fur on his breast, something Frothrend had taken as nothing less than the Horned Rat reaching up from the depths of the earth to protect him. Thanquol found the story puerile, as though the divinity had nothing better to do than bother about the pelt of some inconsequential fangleader. Still, it made Frothrend especially tractable where the grey seer was concerned.

‘Are all my warriors here-here?’ Thanquol asked.

‘Yes-yes, Blessed Gnawer of Heaven,’ Frothrend said. ‘All-many skaven ready-wait for wisdom of Wise-holy Thanquol.’

The grey seer smoothed down his whiskers. Frothrend had a tongue for flattery that might yet serve him well. It was pleasant to have underlings who were so vocal in their appreciation of their master’s genius.

‘Strong-smart Thanquol, greatest of grey seers,’ crowed Twitchtail Burnpaw, his simpering voice rasping from behind the steel mask of his helmet, his beady little eyes gleaming from the shadows of his goggles. The warlock-engineer had been specifically appointed to obey Thanquol and execute the grey seer’s orders without question. A situation which made his loyalty all the more suspect in Thanquol’s eyes. Twitchtail had been one of Kaskitt’s pack before Ikit Claw took over the expedition. There was probably little the weasel wouldn’t do to get into the good graces of his new overlord. Thanquol would have to keep an eye on him, or at least have Boneripper ready to accidentally step on him.

‘Most murderous one!’ Twitchtail continued, deciding he needed to add more grovelling to his efforts to ingratiate himself. ‘Clan Skryre stand-wait for your blessing-command. All dwarf-things burn-die for glory of the Horned One!’ Twitchtail bobbed his head in enthusiasm as he spoke. Noting the surly look on Thanquol’s face, he hastily added, ‘and for the glory of most-dread Thanquol!’

Yes, Thanquol thought to himself, he’d have to arrange something nasty for Twitchtail before things went much farther. Any warlock-engineer who started to show a religious streak and expected a grey seer to take it at face value was simply too stupid to be allowed to breed.

Waving aside all thoughts of Twitchtail and any secret plans for treachery the Claw had given him, Thanquol stepped out from the little circle of chieftains and warlock-engineers to address the teeming masses of skaven soldiers packed in the tunnels. The ratmen were wonderfully simple, with a pup-like, unquestioning faith in the Horned Rat and his prophets. They were so utterly unlike the cynical, scheming skaven who ruled them. The faith of the ratmen in their god was the one joy in their miserable lives, the knowledge that one day they would scamper among the Horned Rat’s burrows and feast from the cornucopia which he would provide them. Never again would they know hunger or fear once they became one with their god.

It was pathetic superstition, but one the grey seers encouraged. There were times – such as now – when such beliefs could be manipulated. The Horned One would understand. He liked nothing better than watching the feebleminded being exploited by those with craftier minds.

The ringing of a bell brought the squeaking horde of ratmen to silence. Thanquol shook his head, trying to clear the clamour from his ears. He glared balefully at Nikkrit Twistear, the brown-furred clanrat who had been chosen to bear the grey seer’s standard. Affixed to the iron pole was a cage crafted from dwarf bones, a large bronze bell suspended inside. Nikkrit happily swung the standard from side to side, causing the clapper to bang against the insides of the bell. Thanquol couldn’t decide if it was religious zeal or a simpleton’s fascination with a new sound that made the clanrat attack his new duties with such over-exuberance, but he was certain he’d wring the scum’s neck if he kept ringing the bell.

Delivering a savage thrust of his staff against Nikkrit’s foot ended the problem. In the soothing silence that followed the clatter of the bell, Thanquol bestowed his pious wisdom upon the warriors who would follow his lead and precede him into battle against the hated dwarf-things.

‘My bold-strong litter-kin!’ Thanquol shouted, using a small measure of his magic to project his voice deep into the tunnels. ‘Shame-disgrace has been the ruin-wreck of Bonestash! Too long have traitor-meat led the warriors of your warren astray! They have allowed the dwarf-things to oppress you and keep you from the great halls and tunnels that have been promise-gifted you by the Great Horned One! No more! Rikkit Snapfang is gone-fled and now the blessing of the Horned One is allowed to preen you once again. Coward-traitors are no more and once again the strong-strength of Clan Mors shall bring terror-fear to the dwarf-meat!’

Thanquol leaned on his staff, enjoying the rapt attention of his audience. He savoured the moment, rolling it over on his tongue like a choice bit of spiced toad-flesh. ‘My bold-strong litter-kin! Thank-praise that you have been chosen to redeem the glory-might of Bone-stash! We have borne-suffered much-much, but all is past-gone! Now there are no more traitor-meat among us! Now we march-fight against dwarf-meat! With the blessing of the Horned One, we shall overcome! We shall be victorious! Long-long have I wanted to tell the Horned One that Karak Angkul belongs to him. Now I squeak-say to the Horned One that my litter-kin have made it so!’

A roar of squeaking applause echoed through the tunnels, the chittering cacophony of an excited horde. Thanquol bruxed his fangs, pleased at this reception to his words. Ikit Claw might know a thing or two about slapping a few bits of metal together and calling it a weapon, but he knew nothing about how to stir the hearts of his fellow skaven and mould them into a living tide of destruction.

‘My bold-strong litter-kin! The hard-long battle will be difficult. Many-many will sacrifice for the glory of the Horned One! Never will their scent be forgotten! Though the dwarf-things use fire and lightning, though they cut you down in your hundreds with steel and iron, you will-will overcome! Those who die-fall will be martyrs to skavendom! They will…’

Thanquol glanced aside in irritation as Twitchtail started tugging at his sleeve. The grey seer glared at him, ripping his robe from the warlock’s hand.

‘Maybe tell-say there’s food up there,’ Twitchtail suggested.

Thanquol scowled at the impertinent flunky. How dare the maggot suggest a grey seer needed prompting! He knew exactly what the warriors of Bonestash needed to hear! If Twitchtail thought he was going to sabotage Thanquol’s speech…

Sniffing at the air, Thanquol detected the sour musk of fear. Straining his ears, he could hear the pad of feet retreating down the tunnels.

‘Dwarf-things have much-much flesh-food!’ Thanquol exclaimed. ‘Much-much corn and grain and goats and ponies and chickens and crickets and octopuses and…’ The grey seer put a bit more magic into his voice, letting it carry even further through the tunnels as his ears told him more skaven were starting to desert his command. ‘All gift-gift from the Horned One! All for my litter-kin when they slay-kill coward-sick dwarf-things!’ Thanquol’s mind raced, picking about for a lie that would keep any more of the skaven from slinking away into the darkness. ‘Clan Skryre make-make dwarf-water bad. Poison-sick all dwarf-things!’

Twitchtail grabbed at Thanquol’s paw as he spoke. The grey seer could hear some excited squeaks again and there seemed to be a more positive smell now. He glanced at the warlock-engineer.

‘We didn’t…’ Twitchtail started to whisper.

‘Finish that sentence and you’ll have the nasty pleasure of seeing what your intestines look like wrapped around your neck,’ Thanquol threatened in a low hiss, the sound almost blasting Twitchtail off his feet. Thanquol rolled his eyes, having forgotten the magic magnifying the power of his voice.

Fortunately, it seemed none of the other ratmen understood the importance of his last words. Their attention was fixated upon the promise of food and loot and enemies already half dead from poisoned water.

Lifting his voice again, Thanquol made a hasty conclusion to his speech. ‘Squeak-swear to the Horned Rat to be faith-loyal to Grey Seer Thanquol! Rise! Rise from tunnels and kill-slay! Kill-slay all dwarf-meat! Kill-kill! Kill-kill!’

Thanquol dissipated the spell he had conjured, revelling in the fury he had whipped up among the credulous idiots of Clan Mors. They were frothing at the mouth, goaded into a bloodthirsty frenzy by their priest-prophet. With such a horde, Thanquol would sweep aside the puny dwarf defenders, even if they hadn’t really been poisoned.

It would just cost a few hundred extra skaven to get rid of them, but that was a sacrifice Thanquol was prepared to make. So long as he secured the dwarf-metal Ikit Claw needed to finish the Doomsphere, then there wasn’t a skaven in Bonestash Thanquol wouldn’t send into the enemy axes.

The dwarfs were waiting when the skaven emerged from their tunnels to assault the Sixth Deep. On the way up from the bowels of the earth, the ratmen had encountered several of the unmanned sentry guns. Dozens of slaves had been lost before Twitchtail’s engineers and skirmishers could blast the dwarfish contraptions apart with their own arcane weaponry. After his own encounter with a sentry gun, Thanquol was perfectly willing to let the warlock-engineers take all the risks. At this stage in the campaign, it would be disastrous for the army to be denied his leadership because of some reckless display of battlefield valour. Besides, he needed to husband his magic powers for the inevitable confrontation with Ikit Claw.

Entering into the Sixth Deep, however, the skaven found their progress blocked by more than a few automated guns. An entire dwarf army was waiting for them, rank upon rank of armoured warriors with broad shields and shiny axes. There were war engines too, a number of cannon and crude fire-throwers and ranks of dwarfish jezzails. A roaring mob of half-naked dwarfs with red fur and swirling tattoos caused Thanquol to spurt the musk of fear, his nose straining to detect the hated scent of the one-eyed madman who had dogged his track ever since Nuln.

It was with some relief that Thanquol failed to detect the scent of his hated foe among the trollslayers, but even so he found his gaze constantly wandering back to them, watching to make sure none of the crazed dwarfs had a human tagging along with him. He muttered a quiet prayer to the Horned One and reached beneath his robe to caress the Hand of Vecteek. The artefact made him feel a little safer.

A moment later, Thanquol’s assurance faltered. He caught the smell of magic rising from the dwarfs. Under his gaze, he saw the dwarfs lift a large altar up onto their shoulders. A grizzled old dwarf wearing scaly armour stood upon the altar, clutching an ornate hammer in his hands. An anvil rested before him on the altar, exuding an aura of malignance that made the grey seer cringe. Seldom had he ever seen such a dwarf, one who possessed an affinity with the world of sorcery. He gnashed his fangs at the thought that this was one of the high priests of the despicable bone-cult of the dwarf-things, the insane coven that made the dwarf-things lock their dead inside tombs to rot instead of employing their meat towards more practical uses.

A growl rattled through Thanquol’s teeth. His nose twitched again. Treachery! He could scent it! An entire dwarf army waiting for him here, and one of their exceedingly rare bone-mages with them! It could only mean they had been warned, told of his impending advance! That back-stabbing rat Ikit Claw had never intended to share the Doomsphere with anyone! He’d betrayed Thanquol and his entire expedition to the dwarfs!

The dwarf throng bellowed a fierce war-cry, the sound rumbling through the great hall like thunder. ‘Dwarfs got axes’, or some such nonsense, but it sounded imposing enough to dampen some of the fighting spirit of Thanquol’s horde. The grey seer glared at his minions.

‘Fight-kill!’ he snarled, trying to work them back into a frenzy. The unexpected sight of hundreds of dwarf warriors waiting for them had slowed the initial charge up into the Sixth Deep. The dwarf war-cry threatened to turn it into a rout. The crack-boom of a dwarf marksman’s musket and the sudden gory death of a slave pawleader was the spark that almost sent the whole horde scurrying back into the mines.

‘Fight-kill!’ Thanquol screeched. Selecting a nearby ratman, he drew a portion of the Horned Rat’s malignance into his body, unleashing the magic in a burst of destruction. His victim shrieked in agony, collapsing in a shrivelled husk, black smoke rising from the twitching carcass. ‘I’ll flay the fur from all coward-flesh!’ the grey seer promised.

The threat had its desired effect. The skaven horde surged forwards, the scrawny slaves pushed across the great hall by the better fed and better armed clanrats behind them. Fangleader Frothrend and his brawny stormvermin began to march after the clanrats, but a sharp snarl from Thanquol brought him up sharp.

‘Wait-see,’ Thanquol hissed. ‘Dwarf-things might have trick-trap. Let fool-meat spring it.’ The grey seer glanced over at Twitchtail and the small teams of Clan Skryre skirmishers with him. ‘Go help brave-strong war-pack,’ he ordered the warlock-engineer.

Twitchtail blinked at him in shock and confusion. ‘But you said…’

Fangs gleaming in a threatening smile, Thanquol pointed his claw at Twitchtail’s nose. ‘Are you coward-flesh?’ the grey seer asked.

Twitchtail didn’t need to be asked again. Turning about, he snapped orders to the other Clan Skryre ratmen, sending them scampering after the packs of clanrats. A lingering glance at Thanquol, a dejected look towards the tunnel leading back to the mines, and Twitchtail made a half-hearted effort to catch up to his skirmishers.

From the dwarf lines, the thunder of guns sounded. The dwarf marksmen with their ridiculously oversized jezzails sent a withering shower of bullets smacking into the front ranks of the skaven horde. The stink of gunpowder was quickly overwhelmed by the stench of fear-musk. Dead and wounded skavenslaves crumpled under the fusillade, their black blood staining the granite floor. Forced forwards by the crush of bodies behind them, the surviving slaves trampled their dead and dying kin.

Now the great hall shook with the bellow of dwarf cannons. The gunners loaded their artillery with chain-shot, small iron cannonballs linked by lengths of stout chain. The result was a whirling scythe of death and destruction, cutting down dozens more of the weakened skavenslaves. The shrieks and squeaks of the scrawny ratmen rose to a sickening wail, some of them flinging themselves back upon the swords of the clanrats in their terror. Mercilessly, the clanrats cut down the unfortunate skaven, knowing that if the slaves fled they would lose the living shield which protected them.

Another volley from the dwarf jezzails and then the skaven mob was beset by the ferocity of their enemy’s most hideous weapon. Situated at the centre of the dwarf line, an immense war engine had been biding its time, waiting for the ratkin to come in range. As the chittering horde continued to advance, the dwarf engineers sprang into action, hastily working the massive pump fitted to the rear of the barrel-shaped chassis of the weapon. From its dragon-shaped mouth, a sheet of dripping fire shot out across the onrushing skaven. Skavenslaves burst into flame as the liquid fire washed over them, transformed into living torches that squealed and howled in terrified agony.

This last attack did not go unanswered. Thanquol watched as Twitchtail popped open the mask of his helmet and stuffed something that looked suspiciously like warpstone into his mouth. An instant later, the warlock-engineer pointed his claw at the dwarf flame cannon. From his fingertips, a flickering stream of energy sizzled through the cavern. Several skaven were between Twitchtail and his target, each of them becoming a smouldering heap of fur and rags as the warp-lightning passed through them.

Whatever effect passing through a half-dozen skaven had, there was still enough potency in Twitchtail’s spell to fulfil its purpose. The violent energies crackled about the dwarf weapon and its crew. The heavy armour of the dwarfs betrayed them, the metal acting as a conductor for the murderous magic. They fell to the ground, charred bones rolling free from their smoking armour.

The cannon itself blew apart, its volatile fuel ignited by Twitchtail’s magic. Shards of bronze and iron, splinters of oak and wutroth were sent slicing through the massed troops of both sides. The thick armour of the dwarf warriors protected them from most of the shrapnel, but they were momentarily stunned by the blast.

The skaven fared more poorly, a score of slaves and clanrats injured in the explosion. The worst of the wounded were trampled underfoot by the chittering mass of ratmen following behind. The scent of dwarf blood in their noses, the skaven had found their courage and were now eager to rend and slay.

With a howl, the trollslayers obliged them. Scorning armour in their effort to court a glorious death, the slayers had suffered worse from the explosion than their fellows. Not one of them was unmarked by the shrapnel, but such was their ferocious determination that they paid their wounds little heed.

The ferocity of the skaven collided with the berserk fury of the slayers. Steel axes hacked through verminous bodies while rusty swords and sharp fangs ripped at dwarfish flesh. The slayers cut down their foes, dropping them by fives and tens for each of their own that was brought low. The floor of the great hall became strewn with the carnage, the floor turning black from skaven blood.

Even the most optimistic ratman could see numbers alone would not prevail against the crazed slayers. One dwarf, stabbed through the gut by a spear, a crooked sword thrust through his collar bone, continued to fight on, a maniacal laugh shuddering from his blood-flecked lips. Another, his hand pinching tight a throat torn by skaven fangs, had strength enough to batter his enemies with the haft of his axe. Dying, the slayers refused to quit the fray while a single spark of life still pulsed in their veins.

Thanquol was far from the most optimistic ratman. As he saw the slayers hacking their way through his troops, he imagined the crazed dwarfs routing his entire army. Such had happened before. Carefully he sniffed the air, trying again to detect the hateful scent of the one-eyed lunatic from Nuln.

Prudence was called for, and before things took a turn for the worse. Already the other dwarfs were rushing into the fight to support their beleaguered maniacs. Once a dwarf shield wall was supporting the slayers, they would be almost impossible to bring down. At least not without some help from the Horned Rat.

And maybe a sliver of warpstone for good measure.

Fangs crunched against the tiny shard of green stone, grinding it into dust. Thanquol swallowed the fiery residue, drawing its power into his veins. The grey seer’s eyes burned with eldritch energies, his staff crackling with sorcerous power. He felt the intoxicating rush of magic flooding his mind.

What did he need to fear the dwarfs for? He was Thanquol the Magnificent, Great Pestilence of the Overworld! With a snap of his claws he could bring the whole dwarfhold crashing down, smash to bits every last one of the fur-faced vermin! He would sink the entire mountain into the steaming pit of Karak Angkul!

Thanquol forced himself to calm down. Degrees, he reminded himself, everything must be done by degrees. Caution was as important as power. A safe pelt was more important than a dead enemy.

Grinding his teeth against the power-crazed impulses still trying to tempt him, the grey seer forced his mind into focus. He could see the dwarf battle line, now hopelessly mixed with that of his own troops. Twitchtail’s skirmishers were starting to fire into the melee, lobbing globes of poison gas and discharging warpfire throwers into the swirling confusion of dwarfs and skaven, heedless of which side was slaughtered by their weapons. It was the sort of ruthlessness that never failed to take the enemy by surprise and several dwarfs had already been felled by the ploy.

Thanquol intended to do better. Focusing the power burning through his body, the grey seer slapped his paws against the floor. He pictured the position of the slayers, evoking the might of the Horned Rat to burn them where they stood.

The great hall shook, trembling to its very foundations as Thanquol’s magic coursed through its stones. A great conflagration erupted from beneath the battle line, a massive fire that immolated dwarf and skaven alike in a holocaust of annihilation. The sorcerous blaze expanded, consuming troops from both sides, throwing the dwarfs into confusion and spurring the skaven into retreat.

Angrily, Thanquol broke the spell, allowing the flame to dissipate. Where his spell had burned the granite had turned black, peppered with scores of charred corpses. He chittered with amusement as he heard the dwarf leaders trying to restore order to their panicked warriors. Then the grey seer’s eyes narrowed with fury as he saw the horde of ratmen scampering towards his own position.

‘Ring-ding the holy bell!’ Thanquol snarled at Nikkrit, finding his standard bearer gripped by the same awed fascination as Frothrend’s imbecile stormvermin. ‘Rally-stop my army!’ He added a few choice threats and was pleased when the discordant clatter of the bell began to sound. Spinning about, he snapped more orders at Frothrend. ‘Form-make line-wall! No skaven leave-flee!’

Twitchtail and his skirmishers came scurrying ahead of the mob of clanrats, moving with surprising speed for all the bulk of their weaponry. The warlock-engineer uttered an angry snarl when he saw the line of stormvermin blocking his way.

‘Move-move!’ Twitchtail howled. ‘Hurry-scurry before dwarf-things come!’

Frothrend cast an imploring gaze at Thanquol. The fangleader wasn’t happy about the number of guns and bombs the skirmishers were carrying. Thanquol considered letting the more dangerous Clan Skryre ratmen past. Then he noticed the fresh loyalty-scars branded into Twitchtail’s fur. As one of Kaskitt’s former retinue, it was natural that Twitchtail had been compelled to receive Ikit Claw’s brand. What Thanquol found less natural was that every Clan Skryre ratman clamouring to escape back into the mines also bore new brands.

They had all been Kaskitt’s followers! That scheming offal Ikit Claw had tricked Thanquol! The maggot had never intended Thanquol to secure the dwarf-metal for him, he was using the grey seer as a distraction to keep the dwarfs’ attention!

Thanquol lashed his tail, his blood boiling. He was getting very tired of being used as a decoy by every scheming crook-back he came across!

‘Back-back!’ Thanquol snarled. He would show the Claw! He’d break through the dwarfs, find the metal and then force the Chief Warlock to come begging…

‘Fool-meat!’ Twitchtail spat. At a gesture from the warlock-engineer, one of the skirmishers aimed his jezzail at the grey seer.

Reflexively, Thanquol ducked, clapping his paws across his face and shouting at his bodyguard. ‘Bone-ripper! Burn-kill!’

The order brought caustic laughter from Twitchtail and the skirmishers. They knew the mechanical rat-ogre wasn’t able to hurt any skaven from Clan Skryre. Their laughter vanished in squeaks of terror as Boneripper limped forwards and sent a gout of warpflame sizzling through the jezzail, turning him into a burning heap in the wink of an eye.

Thanquol grinned at the unexpected turn his thoughtless panic had taken. Gloatingly, he glared at the crestfallen Twitchtail. ‘Get-take tinker-rats back to fight-fray!’ he ordered. ‘Make-take all clanrats too!’ he added, seeing the mass of panicked warriors surging towards them.

Twitchtail glanced at the swarm of routed skaven and began to shiver. ‘They won’t stop-stop!’ he said. The image of being trampled did wonders for the warlock-engineer’s imagination. Shrieking orders to his own ratmen, Twitchtail set his two ratling guns into position and opened fire on the fleeing clanrats. The revolving guns churned out a fusillade that tore through the ratkin, butchering them by the bushel.

Faced with a fresh source of gruesome death, the routed skaven turned about, flying back towards the dwarf lines straight into the ranks of their vengeful pursuers. Trapped between their cruel masters and their remorseless foes, the skaven became frenzied killers, fighting with the viciousness of cornered rats. The abrupt shift from vanquished enemy to amok fighter caught the dwarfs unprepared. Without the time to form into a shield wall, several of the bearded warriors were dragged down and torn to ribbons by verminous claws and fangs.

‘Keep them there,’ Thanquol warned Twitchtail. A blast of lightning suddenly arced out from the dwarf lines, smashing into the warlock-engineer and hurling him across the great hall. Thanquol cringed as he heard Twitchtail’s bones snap when his body smashed against the far wall. The tang of magic was in the air and belatedly the grey seer recalled the bone-mage he had spotted among the dwarfs at the onset of the battle.

Well, the fool had chosen the wrong enemy to strike down with his craven attack! Now Thanquol would obliterate the dwarf before he even had time to know what was happening. The grey seer climbed onto Bone-ripper’s leg, peering above the swirling combat to sight the altar and the old dwarf with the hammer. While he watched, the dwarf brought the rune-hammer crashing down on the anvil, sending little bolts of lightning flaring across the great hall.

A horrible purpose motivated the lightning, and each spark swept towards one another as it escaped the anvil, becoming a single lance of magic. Thanquol slipped around behind Boneripper as he saw the lightning speed in his direction. The bolt electrocuted one of Frothrend’s warriors, melting the stormvermin’s feet to the floor.

‘Kill-slay dwarf-mage!’ Thanquol howled at the late Twitchtail’s comrades. They didn’t seem too happy about the idea, but came around when Boneripper’s warpfire projector took aim at them. Thanquol chortled as a barrage of fire, gas and warpstone bullets sailed into the melee. He was less pleased when he saw the chaotic barrage kill more skaven than dwarfs. He was still less amused when another bolt of lightning came sparking out from the anvil to shock a stormvermin uncomfortably near where he was standing.

It was all Ikit Claw’s doing! That flea-spleen traitor-meat had planned this! He thought he would use the dwarfs to eliminate the one skaven cunning enough to save the Under-Empire from his megalomaniacal plan to threaten it with his hellish weapon! Well, now the claw would be on the other paw! Thanquol didn’t want his Doomsphere now. He could reap just as much benefit by bringing evidence of the Claw’s treachery back to Skavenblight. The Lords of Decay would hail him as the saviour of skavendom and the mightiest grey seer since Gnawdoom!

‘Frothrend,’ Thanquol snarled. ‘I must report-tell this setback to Ikit Claw. I put-make you warlord in my absence. Kill-slay all dwarf-meat!’

The fangleader didn’t seem too happy about his promotion, but knew better than to argue with Thanquol. Bowing his head in submission, Frothrend started snapping orders to his minions.

The grey seer didn’t stick around long enough to listen in on Frothrend’s plans. He had more important things to worry about, such as what Ikit Claw was up to and what sort of evidence he would need to steal to expose his sordid little scheme before the whole Council. Taking a firm grip on his staff, he ordered Boneripper to lead the way back into the mines.

Nikkrit watched the grey seer scurry into the darkness, then took one glance back at the battlefield. Still ringing his bell, the standard bearer scampered off in pursuit of his departed master.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The smelthall of Karak Angkul was nestled at the core of the stronghold, its immensity stretching through the stronghold’s Third and Fourth Deeps. Immense columns of stone, their surfaces plated in bronze, reared up from the granite floor to support the ceiling two hundred feet above. The floor, pock-marked by slag pits and cisterns, was covered in mosaics of red stone, depicting the life of the ancestor god Smednir the Shaper of Ore, showing him teaching the ancient dwarfs how to smelt iron and copper. Giant blast furnaces fed by enormous sets of bellows were arranged along the walls of the smelthall, each furnace connected by a clockwork conveying belt to the ore-heaps situated throughout the chamber. Towards the middle of the smelthall were the refining furnaces, monstrous coke-fed ovens in which ground ore would be further purified. A massive slaghearth stretched along one corner, a low stone table upon which waste slag would be re-smelted, a bed of charcoal blazing beneath it. Reducing furnaces and orehearths were lined across another wall, situated close to where the sand moulds of the metal-casters would shape the molten lead or silver into ingots.

Throughout the smelthall, clockwork conveying belts of leather and tin deposited ore onto the oreheaps or carried coke to the furnaces. Hooks and chains fitted to mechanised pulleys swung from iron gantries and stone causeways far overhead, creating weird draperies of steel and bronze. Giant copper pipes brought water down to the kilns while a fast-flowing culvert snaked its way across the floor to remove waste. The shudder of great steam-driven fans formed a perpetual susurrus as the atmosphere within the smelthall was rotated and fresh air was sucked down from the surface by fluted vents.

Within the smelthall, the heat was tremendous, each furnace and kiln burning with the fires of industry. The quartz glowstones hanging from the pillars were hardly a match for the hellish red light belching from the chimneys of the furnaces and the mouths of the ovens. Strange shadows flickered throughout the hall as dwarfs from a dozen clans worked the raw ore of the mines and recovered the precious metals locked within the stone.

Around one of the small forges arrayed throughout the smelthall, Klarak Bronzehammer and his assistants worked feverishly to rework the beams of barazhunk that had been recovered from the mines. The pounding hammers of the dwarfs rang out as each of the beams was slowly reshaped into a thin sheet of metal.

Only Kurgaz Brightfinger, the runesmith, did not partake in the frenzied labour. His face pale, sweat beading upon his brow, the dwarf had his own task to perform. Seated on the floor, he employed a long rune-etched burin of gromril to engrave the still hot plates of barazhunk. Kurgaz worked in silence, his face drawn and pale, his breath barely stirring his body as he focused on his work. Fixated upon the rune he had studied in Runelord Morag’s chambers, Kurgaz had no attention to spare for anything else. Time and again he attempted to recreate the magical symbol, time and again he failed, each time feeling a little more of his vitality drain away. It was no small thing to fail in the crafting of a Master Rune. Even to make the attempt was normally a matter of weeks of the most careful preparation. Kurgaz had been given only a few hours. Only the knowledge that Klarak desperately needed the rune-magic kept him at his work. With true dwarfish stubbornness, the only way he would accept defeat was when he collapsed from sheer exhaustion.

Klarak sympathised with his friend. He knew how great was the effort he was demanding of Kurgaz. When he’d originally set the runesmith to learning that particular Master Rune, he’d thought he’d have more time before ever needing it. Now, however, the presence of Ikit Claw and the threat of the Doomsphere was too great to brook any delay. It might mean the salvation of the entire Worlds Edge Mountains.

‘You shouldn’t push him like that,’ Kimril observed, a touch of disapproval in the physician’s voice. ‘The strain on him is too great to maintain. Something must give way.’

Klarak nodded. ‘I know,’ he said, ‘but Kurgaz is the only chance. None of the other runesmiths would dare even try and Runelord Morag would insist on a month of rituals and preparation before going ahead. By then it would be too late. I wanted this magic for my own inventions. Now I need it for Ikit Claw’s fiendish machine.’

‘How can you be so certain the ratkin will come?’ Azram objected as he brought his hammer cracking down against the heated surface of the barazhunk beam stretched across his anvil. ‘If the beast is as smart as he seems, now that he’s stolen some barazhunk, he could study it and make his own.’

‘You forget skaven nature,’ Klarak said. ‘They are all thaggoraki, thieves who will never make something for themselves if they can steal it from someone else. The Claw will come for the rest of the barazhunk. It’s our job to be ready for him when he does.’

Klarak shifted his gaze to study the complicated instrument set close by his anvil. It was a curious arrangement of tubes and rods, a variant upon the water clocks still employed by the most tradition-minded dwarfs. This clepsydra, however, was not designed to measure time. Klarak had made several changes to its workings, the most important of which were the copper stakes which bolted the machine to the floor. Sunk to a depth of several feet, the stakes acted as divining rods, feeling the vibrations in the earth below. The glass tubes would act as a gauge for these vibrations, giving a visual impression of their magnitude and intensity.

A gang of dwarfs marched from one of the other furnaces, depositing a load of barazhunk sheets upon the growing stack at one side of the refining furnace. They saluted Klarak as they passed. The engineer had warned the workers of the dangers he expected, insisting that only volunteers remain behind to help reshape the alloy. Not a single one of the metalworkers had been lacking the courage to stay and help. It had taken King Logan and a formal edict to thin their ranks, leaving only a solid core behind. The metalworkers were willing to act as bait, but King Logan wasn’t quite so eager to risk the industry of his stronghold just to spring a trap.

Klarak reflected upon the danger of his plan. If anything went wrong, the consequences could be dire. The smelthall had been chosen only after careful deliberation; the size and scope of its furnaces and the heavy smell of their smoke was an important aspect of Klarak’s plan. The skaven were ruled by their noses, scent was their key sense, far more vital to them than either sight or sound. Deprived of that sense, the ratkin would be disorientated. Hopefully they’d be confused enough to miss the trap until it was too late.

There was a contingency, however – if Kurgaz could just manage to inscribe the Master Rune upon one of the barazhunk plates. In that event, should the skaven make off with their prize, there would still be a chance to stop them.

‘Looks like we have word at last,’ Thorlek observed, turning away from his anvil to watch as a wiry dwarf in the livery of a royal messenger came rushing across the smelthall. The runner dashed straight towards Klarak, bowing his head when he came to a halt.

‘I bear tidings from His Highness King Logan Longblade, Sovereign of Karak Angkul and all its domains,’ the messenger announced.

‘Less of the jewellery-talk and more information,’ growled Horgar, more interested in hearing the tidings the messenger bore rather than who’d sent them.

The messenger flushed, but kept facing Klarak. ‘The ratkin have broken into the Sixth Deep,’ he reported.

‘Klarak told you they’d be hitting the Sixth Deep again when the sentry guns in the mines started to fail,’ Thorlek said. Though it was true that the destruction of the sentry guns had given enough warning for the dwarf army to assemble in the threatened section of the Sixth Deep, it annoyed the ranger to maintain the fallacy that the guns themselves had malfunctioned. There was only so much patronising of Guildmaster Thori’s pride he was willing to suffer.

‘The ratkin host is being led by one of their horned sorcerers,’ the messenger continued.

Klarak’s expression became grim. The horned ratman was likely Grey Seer Thanquol, a creature he had been warned posed a tremendous threat to Karak Angkul. Against this menace, he had to balance the danger of Ikit Claw and the Doomsphere. There was no question which evil was the greater. Even if Karak Angkul was lost, Ikit Claw had to be stopped.

‘Can Thane Arngar stop them?’ the engineer asked.

The messenger nodded. ‘The king has sent reinforcements to bolster Thane Arngar’s command. Runelord Morag is with them and has stated he will make every effort to destroy this creature called Thanquol.’

‘Then may the ancestors smile on their battle and may their axes strike true,’ Klarak said, but not without a note of uncertainty in his voice. Had he been wrong? Was Thanquol truly the greater menace? If Ikit Claw didn’t make an attempt to steal the rest of his barazhunk, then what foolishness would it be to stay here while the real battle was being fought hundreds of feet below?

‘King Logan requests the use of any troops you can spare,’ the messenger said. ‘He fears this is but the opening skirmish in a concentrated attack to seize the Sixth Deep.’

An ugly feeling began to grow in Klarak’s gut. ‘Or it could be a diversion,’ he said, convinced of his theory as he made it. ‘Tell His Highness that I am sorry, but I still need every warrior.’

The messenger made a deep bow, then hastened to bear Klarak’s answer to King Logan.

‘Don’t think the king is going to like you telling him no,’ Kimril observed.

‘Aye,’ agreed Horgar. ‘Maybe we should be down there in the Sixth Deep smashing skaven skulls!’

A sharp bellow rose from the nearest of the slag pits. The top of the pit was abruptly thrown back, revealing itself to be nothing but a piece of canvas with lumps of charred ore glued to it. In the now exposed hole, five armoured dwarfs now stood revealed. A sixth dwarf scrambled up the ladder leading down into the pit. Unlike his companions, he wore no armour, only a pair of leather breeks and iron-shod boots. Swirling tattoos stained his naked torso, forming complex patterns within which was depicted the Rune of Grimnir. The dwarf’s beard had been stained a bright orange, the same colour as the long crest into which his hair had been shaved.

There was fury on Mordin Grimstone’s face as he stalked towards Klarak Bronzehammer. ‘The Sixth Deep!’ the slayer roared. ‘That vermin Thanquol is attacking the Sixth Deep!’

Horgar shifted about, moving to place himself between Mordin and his master. Sternly, Klarak waved his bodyguard aside. The engineer stared into Mordin’s hostile gaze. The dwarf had taken the slayer oath almost the moment he’d left the war council, vowing to destroy Grey Seer Thanquol and atone for his brother’s death. To the bitter Mordin, nothing else would wash away the disgrace which held him in its grip.

‘You insisted on joining us,’ Klarak told the enraged slayer.

Mordin’s expression became livid, his hand closing about one of the hand axes tucked beneath his belt. ‘I came because you told me the greatest danger would be found here! Only it isn’t! Thanquol is down there and I’m up here!’ The slayer ripped the axe from his belt and threw his arm back as though to deliver a blow with the keen-edged blade.

Klarak didn’t move, just continued to gaze into the slayer’s eyes. ‘The danger is the greatest here,’ he said. ‘In that, I told you no lie. What the ratkin want is here and they will come for it.’ The engineer shifted his gaze, watching the clepsydra.

‘I don’t care about the ratkin!’ Mordin swore. ‘I only care about avenging my brother!’

Returning his gaze to Mordin, Klarak’s face became bitter. ‘Then you are the most wretched zaki who ever took up the slayer oath,’ he swore, the fury of his voice taking his assistants by surprise and shocking even Mordin. ‘If the ratkin succeed here, then the entire Karak Ankor may be threatened! Every dwarf, woman and child in the Worlds Edge Mountains! But all Mordin Grimstone can think about is his own shame! Where is the sense of duty that led you to Karak Angkul to warn us of the skaven threat? Where is the dwarf who understood that loyalty to his people comes before loyalty to his pride?’

Slowly, the fire ebbed in Mordin’s eyes. Gradually, the slayer lowered his axe.

‘Do not fear,’ Klarak said, his tone becoming sympathetic. ‘You may yet get your chance. The ratkin do not fight honourably. Just because they have sent some of their horde into the Sixth Deep doesn’t mean that’s where they intend to make the real fight.’

‘A diversion?’ Mordin grumbled, suspicion in his eyes.

‘I’m certain of it,’ Klarak replied. He pointed to the clepsydra. The water in the tubes was visibly agitated now, indicating powerful and persistent vibrations in the ground below.

A vicious grin spread across Mordin’s face. The dwarf ripped a hair from his crest and split it across the edge of his axe.

‘Best get back to your place,’ Klarak advised. ‘Even the ratkin know enough to be suspicious if they see a slayer working over an anvil.’

Mordin nodded. ‘All right,’ he said, ‘but remember: Thanquol is mine!’ The slayer turned on his heel and quickly sprinted back to the slag-pit, hooking the edge of the canvas with his axe as he jumped down into the hole. A moment later, the camouflage was tugged back into place.

‘Valaya!’ exclaimed Kimril. ‘I thought he was going to split your skull! You must be as crazy as he is to talk to a slayer like that!’

‘I just encouraged him to keep things in perspective,’ Klarak said, shrugging off the concern of his friends. ‘Whatever oaths he has made, Mordin Grimstone is still a dwarf. Just because he’s shaved his head doesn’t mean he’s forgotten his duty.’

‘Still, to take such a chance…’

‘Enough,’ Klarak decided, waving his hand. ‘We have more important things to worry about.’ He watched as the violence being exhibited by the clepsydra continued to increase.

‘Any moment now we’ll be receiving guests,’ the engineer warned. ‘Let’s make sure we’re ready for them.’

Stone shrieked as parts of the smelthall’s floor began to melt. Wisps of foul-smelling smoke rose from the melting stones and an unholy green glow began to shine through the fractured granite. The dwarfs at the furnaces drew back in alarm, shifting a little closer to where each had secreted his own weapon.

‘Steady!’ Klarak bellowed, his voice carrying above the sound of crumbling stone. The engineer gave only passing notice to the glowing craters forming in the floor, his eyes locked on the still violently quivering clepsydra. ‘Hold your places!’

From one of the glowing craters, a pair of chittering skaven emerged, the foremost holding a weird pronged instrument not unlike an oversized tuning fork bolted to the end of a long spear. Between the prongs of the fork, a fist-sized chunk of glowing black rock had been fitted, dark energies sizzling about its carved surface. Heavy hoses of ratgut and leather ran from the oversized spear, connecting it to the massive generator lashed to the back of the second ratman. Both skaven snickered with amusement as they saw the stunned dwarfs.

From the pit the warp-grinder had gouged from the floor, a rabble of verminous creatures sprang, loathsome skavenslaves, their skinny bodies covered in scars and sores, crude spears and rusty knives clenched in their paws. They sprang into the smelthall with an eagerness born of terror. Before the last of them had cleared the hole, there came a groaning rumble and the pit collapsed in upon itself. The skaven did not twitch as the squeals of their trapped kin rose from the rubble. Instead they flung themselves towards the nearest dwarfs, a slavering pack of fangs and claws.

Other warp-grinders cut their way into the smelthall, disgorging scores of emaciated skavenslaves into the chamber. The dwarfs at the furnaces dived for their weapons, drawing a wild array of axes and hammers. The sight of weapons made the slaves hesitate, forcing the warp-grinders to goad them onwards with snarled threats.

‘Steady!’ Klarak called out once more, still watching the clepsydra. Now the water was sloshing about so violently that it had almost been whipped into foam. There was no need to explain his call for patience, however. Every dwarf in the smelthall could feel the quiver in the earth, not unlike the tremor of an earthquake.

The dwarfs at the furnaces were now beset by the slavering skavenslaves. While the ratmen engaged the metalworkers, dying upon their vengeful hammers, the warp-grinders circled around the melee, seeking to assault their enemies from the rear.

‘Cowardly cheese-thieves!’ Thorlek snarled. The ranger drew one of the steam pistols Klarak had armed him with. The engineer set a restraining hand on his friend.

‘We can’t interfere,’ he said, the words bitter as wormwood in his mouth. ‘We can’t do anything that will make the ratkin suspect a trap. They mustn’t warn their master.’

One of the warp-grinders successfully completed its circuit of the melee. The strange machine whirred into life, a nimbus of green light gathering about the stone fitted between the forks. As the energy gathered, it was drawn out by the forks, crackling and sparking in a blaze of electricity. Chittering with sadistic amusement, the warp-grinder’s wielder thrust it towards the back of a dwarf. The victim cried out, his scream wailing through the smelthall. He crumpled to the floor, a ragged hole melted through his torso.

‘Klarak!’ shouted Horgar. ‘We have to stop them!’

The engineer shook his head. ‘We’ll get our chance,’ he said, pointing to a pack of slaves charging towards their own position. ‘But until their chief arrives, no shooting. We don’t want them scurrying away and warning the rest.’

The injunction was hardly popular among Klarak’s bold-hearted comrades, but each of them understood the necessity of his warning. Firming their holds upon their weapons, the dwarfs made ready to meet the enemy.

‘Keep them off Kurgaz,’ Klarak said, gesturing with his thumb at the runesmith. Unlike the rest of them, Kurgaz had made no move to arm himself. Instead, he was still set upon his task of engraving.

‘No thaggoraki is getting past me,’ Thorlek swore.

‘Bad as you smell, they’ll probably take you for one of their own,’ Horgar laughed.

Thorlek might have replied to the insult, but at that moment he was too busy separating a ratman from his head. Other slaves flung themselves at the rest of the dwarfs. Horgar smashed one down with his hammer, cracking its skull in a dozen places, then broke the spine of a second in his metal hand. Azram slashed the legs out from under another ratman, breaking its neck with a kick of his boot when the maimed skaven tried to bite him. Kimril took his walking stick, breaking it open to reveal a slender gromril blade. Plying the stick like a Cathayan spear-fighter, he dropped three more of the scrabbling ratmen.

Klarak Bronzehammer didn’t wait for the skaven to come to him. Vaulting over his anvil, he pounced upon the oncoming pack like an enraged lion. His strong fists smashed out, cracking snouts and breaking ribs. The engineer’s objective wasn’t to kill the ratmen, but simply to debilitate them as quickly as possible. He rushed past his crippled enemies, intent upon the warp-grinder crew beyond them. Already the warp-grinder was trying to circle the combatants, to come upon the rear of the fray.

The crew saw Klarak as the engineer broke the leg of the last slave standing between himself and the warp-grinder. Frantically, the ratmen activated their weapon, setting energy crackling from the stone and dancing about the prongs of the fork.

Before they could fire, Klarak threw himself into a long dive, his momentum carrying him past the two skaven. He turned his dive into a roll, tumbling past the warp-grinder. As he came back to his feet, the dwarf sprinted back towards his comrades.

Laughing wickedly, the ratman operating the warp-grinder raised his weapon, prepared to unleash the corrosive energy against his fleeing enemy. A squeal of terror from the skaven behind him, the one lumbered down by the heavy generator, brought the other ratman up short. Turning his head, he saw arcs of green lightning crackling about his comrade’s body and the ratman frantically trying to adjust the dials on the sides of the generator. A torn hose flopped obscenely from the side of the generator. The operator stared stupidly at his now inert warp-grinder, then squeaked in horror as he understood what had happened. In diving past the warp-grinder, Klarak had ripped the hose conducting energy into the weapon. With nowhere to go, all the energy was building up inside the generator!

The warp-grinder operator turned to flee almost the same instant the damaged generator decided to explode.

The destruction of the warp-grinder sent the last surviving slaves attacking Klarak’s comrades scurrying away in retreat. The ratmen stumbled and slid as the floor continued to quake. Suddenly, a green glow began to rise from the ground a few hundred yards away. The dwarfs watched with a feeling of dread as the stone started to melt, creating a pit easily ten times as vast as the holes carved out by the warp-grinders.

Across the smelthall, the embattled metalworkers suddenly found themselves alone. With their master coming, the skaven withdrew, forming into a tight knot of squeaking flesh that eagerly cheered the underlord whose brand they bore.

The shriek of dying stone shuddered the walls of the smelthall, setting chains swaying and gantries rocking. A great stream of foul smoke billowed upwards as a giant metal snout erupted from the floor. Shaped like some immense gemstone, the metal snout crackled with the same green energy as the much smaller warp-grinders. To the destructive energies had been added a cruel mechanical augmentation. Rings of metal teeth circled the snout, rotating in opposing directions at an almost blinding speed. A pair of mammoth-sized ratmen pushed the immense drill upwards, its wheels clattering on the jagged lip of the hole. The rat-ogres had suffered horribly under the ghastly influence of arcane science: each of them had had their arms replaced with metal hooks that had been bolted into the back of the drill and crude engines had been inserted into their bellies, glowing with the eerie green resonance of warpstone. Rusty smokestacks were stapled to their backs, belching the fumes from their mechanical stomachs. A ghastly ratman wearing an insect-like mask sat on a little chair between the rat-ogres, throwing levers and turning wheels as he directed the drill onwards.

Behind the drill, a swarm of ratmen came scrambling into the smelthall. These weren’t naked slaves but armed clanrats, each skaven bearing a notched sword or spiked mace in his paw. Upon their shields, the symbol of Clan Skryre shone and the fur of each ratman bore the brand of Ikit Claw. Small packs of strangely garbed ratmen scurried after the clanrats, wearing heavy coats of ratgut and leather, their faces enclosed within strange bug-like masks, their paws hugging big ratskin bags to their chests.

Bringing up the rear of the invasion were still more weirdly equipped skaven, some of them bearing oversized multi-barrelled guns while others lugged bulky contrivances that looked like the nozzles of pressure hoses. Still others of the weapon specialists were carting huge brass tubes upon their backs and wearing the insect-like face-masks. As the specialists fanned out, moving to support the onrushing clanrats, a small cadre of robed ratmen appeared, their bodies draped with belts and wires, their backs fitted with metal harnesses from which mechanical dendrites arched menacingly over their shoulders.

It was among the warlock-engineers that Klarak saw the foe he had been hoping to see. Ikit Claw had changed his armour since their last encounter, replacing and upgrading the iron frame which supported his withered body. The Chief Warlock had refined the monstrous claw that enclosed his shrivelled left arm, had made further cog-driven enhancements to his ruined body, but for all of his changes, Klarak recognised his foe. There was no mistaking the aura of ruthless evil the ratman exuded, no forgetting the insane ambition which shone in his eyes.

Ikit Claw recognised his enemy as well, locking eyes with Klarak across the immense sprawl of the hall. Hatred burned in the skaven’s gaze, his scarred lips peeling back to expose his fangs. Uttering a sharp snarl, the Chief Warlock gestured with the halberd he carried. In response, the skaven troops gave voice to a savage cry. The next moment, the entire horde was swarming over the smelthall, converging upon the few clutches of defenders still standing.

Klarak grinned back at Ikit Claw. Reaching to his belt, the engineer drew a fat-mouthed pistol. He saw the Chief Warlock instinctively flinch as the dwarf’s weapon came free of its holster. A coward like all of his breed, Klarak thought, though he doubted any bullet could pierce the iron skin the ratman had forged for himself. It didn’t matter, the shot within his dragonbelcher wasn’t for the Claw.

‘Now!’ Klarak roared, holding his pistol high and squeezing the trigger. A flare of fire exploded from the weapon, streaking high into the vastness of the smelthall before bursting in a violent flare of brilliant light. The most craven of the ratkin shrieked in fear at the sudden illumination. A moment later they had something to really fear.

From hiding places on the catwalks and gangways, scores of dwarfs appeared. Each of the hidden warriors bore a heavy crossbow or long-barrelled handgun. Mixed among them were fat-bellied engineers carrying heavy satchels filled with iron-skinned bombs. Guildmaster Thori had not approved of Klarak’s trap, but his disagreement had been overruled by King Logan, forcing the Engineers’ Guild to cooperate with their rebellious colleague. Whatever their feelings, however, the engineers would play their part in the coming battle.

Throughout the smelthall, the tops of the camouflaged slag pits were thrown back and dozens of armoured dwarf warriors burst onto the scene. The onrushing skaven recoiled as they saw the grim-faced dwarfs suddenly appear, their superstitious minds finding the manifestation as inexplicable as the conjuration of a sorcerer. The snarling clanrats faltered, no longer quite so eager to come to grips with their enemies. Happy to ply their swords in a massacre, they were less thrilled about engaging in a real fight.

First blood was still struck by the skaven. Snapping orders to the ratmen closest to him, Ikit Claw knew the only way to stir the quailing courage of his troops was to get the smell of blood in the air. Fiercely, the Chief Warlock raised his halberd overhead, pointing it at the armed dwarfs above. Energy crackled about the blade of the ratman’s weapon, soaking up the light all around it. A bolt of dark lightning shot from the blade, hitting the iron walkway above.

Storm Daemon, the Chief Warlock had named his weapon, endowing it with a hideous magic and then augmenting its destructive powers with a warp generator fitted just below the blade. The black lightning exploded across the iron gantry, crackling through the bodies of the dwarf crossbowmen positioned there, the metal acting as a conductor for the malignant sorcery. The stricken dwarfs didn’t have time to scream, only to twitch and writhe under Storm Daemon’s assault. After an agonising moment, the scorched bodies came hurtling downwards, their corrupted flesh splashing across the smelthall as they struck the granite floor.

Vengeful dwarfs unleashed a volley from their crossbows and thunderer handguns. Bolts crunched down into the skulls of ratmen, bullets from the thunderers ripped through skaven bodies. Engineers lit their bombs, dropping the explosives down into the massed ratkin. With the precision of their craft, the engineers fitted short fuses to the bombs, causing them to detonate above the heads of their enemies and send a withering burst of shrapnel slashing into the verminous bodies.

Ikit Claw’s shrieked commands echoed above the turmoil. Mobs of sword-armed clanrats converged upon the metalworkers and the dwarf warriors from the slag pits. Teams of jezzails turned their guns upon the catwalks, sniping at the dwarfs shooting down at them. Warpfire throwers played their ghastly flames across the lowest of the catwalks, incinerating every dwarf within reach of their fire.

It was the ghastly ratmen with the hollow brass tubes lashed to their backs who took the most murderous toll on the dwarf marksmen. There was a reason the specialists were garbed in the same protective gear as the bomb-tossing globadiers, for it was the same toxic Poison Wind which they employed. Loading the brass tubes with the deadly glass spheres, the mortar teams lobbed certain death over the battlefield. The Poison Wind globes shattered against stone causeways, unleashing clouds of toxic gas that slowly drifted downwards. Even when the mortars missed their original targets, the gas would often settle upon dwarfs on a lower walkway, striking them down without warning.

The skaven had walked into the dwarfs’ trap. The question now was whether they would stay trapped.

Klarak and his comrades drew their steam pistols. Ahead of them, a horde of snarling ratmen came charging towards their position, hate and bloodlust blazing in their eyes. Five dwarfs against dozens of ravenous clanrat warriors, odds that would test the valour of any human knight. Yet the defenders unflinchingly faced the onrushing tide.

At Klarak’s signal, the dwarfs unleashed a volley from their steam pistols. The repeating weapons sent a fusillade of lead punching into the rodents, spilling their mangled bodies to the floor. Taking more careful aim, Klarak targeted the masked skaven lurking about the fringes of the ratpack. With eerie precision, the engineer sent a round smashing into the heavy satchel of gas bombs one of the globadiers was carrying.

Instantly, the globadier vanished in a cloud of green gas that billowed outwards to claim the nearest ratmen. But Klarak did not wait to see the results of his shot. Without hesitating, he spun around, clipping a second globadier, one that had been braced to hurl a gas bomb at the engineer. The second globadier flopped to the ground, shrieking as the gas bomb he had been holding shattered against the granite floor. The corrosive Poison Wind spread like a low-hanging mist, searing the legs of the clanrats. Some of the skaven unwisely stopped to discover the source of their hurt, dropping as the toxic fumes burned their way into their bloodstream. Others shrieked and leaped, scrambling over dying comrades in their frantic efforts to get clear of the gas.

A lone dwarf charged into the panicked skaven, his axes cleaving limbs and smashing ribs at every turn. Bitter laughter bellowed as Mordin Grimstone slaughtered his foes, cutting them down without mercy. The slayer’s body dripped with the black gore of skaven blood and viscera, his axes slick with the slime of his enemies. Ten, fifteen, twenty of the ratkin fell before his crazed onslaught, but it was not enough to slake his lust for vengeance, to drown the guilt that twisted his heart.

‘He’ll be killed,’ grumbled Thorlek. The ranger holstered his pistol, intending to join the berserk slayer in his crazed charge, but Horgar’s steely grip stopped him.

‘Even for you, that’s stupid,’ the hammerer scolded. ‘Mordin’s looking for a glorious death. He doesn’t need any company.’

Thorlek twisted free, scowling at his friend. ‘He might not need it, but he’ll have it!’ the ranger vowed. ‘No dwarf, even a slayer, should have his bones gnawed by the ratkin!’

Horgar shook his head, but he holstered his own pistol and unfastened the massive hammer tethered to his steam-powered harness. He glanced aside at Klarak. ‘How about it?’ he asked.

‘We stay our ground as long as we can,’ Klarak answered. He let his exhausted steam pistol drop to the floor and drew a fresh weapon from his belt. He was looking past the reeling clanrats, watching as a fresh horde of skaven emerged from Ikit’s tunnel. These were no fighters, but instead were a rabble of naked skavenslaves. Overseers with barbed whips lashed the wretches mercilessly, driving them towards the furnaces where some of the barazhunk beams were still waiting to be reshaped. Several of the slaves fell as crossbows and thunderers picked them off, a dozen of them were caught in the blast from an engineer’s bomb. The overseers, however, did not relent in their brutality, forcing the slaves across the smelthall to seize the precious metal.

Klarak felt his stomach churn. Most of the barazhunk was piled nearby. As long as they could stop the skaven from capturing those supplies, he didn’t think Ikit Claw would have enough to complete his hellish invention. The problem was, it didn’t look like there were enough dwarfs to keep the Chief Warlock from escaping their trap.

‘Kurgaz,’ Klarak called out.

The runesmith didn’t look up, his eyes still focused on the sheet before him, his burin still trying to engrave the complex Master Rune into the metal. Klarak watched his friend labouring, concentrating with the grim determination of a true dawi, ignoring even the clamour of battle raging all around him. Time was growing short if the engineer was going to manage his contingency plan. If Kurgaz could just get the Master Rune enscribed in time, then Ikit Claw’s victory would become the ratkin’s defeat!

‘We’ll buy you more time, old friend,’ Klarak swore. Turning around, he repeated his order to the other dwarfs. Whatever happened, they had to make sure Kurgaz was undisturbed.

‘It doesn’t look like the ratkin agree,’ Azram remarked. The routed clanrats Mordin had been pursuing were being swept aside, bowled over by a pack of brawny vermin, their bodies protected by thick armour plates. Even under the layers of paint and filth staining it, the lorekeeper could tell the skaven had scavenged the armour from dead dwarfs. What was less obvious was the purpose of the curious pistons and cogwheels fitted to the suits of armour.

Klarak gave the armoured skaven only a brief glance, staring past them at the grisly figure of Ikit Claw. ‘No, it doesn’t,’ he said. His hand played across the dials of his chain vest, adjusting the settings of its mechanisms, trying to judge the intensity of Storm Daemon’s deadly magic. After the near failure of his other vest, Klarak had a better idea of what the device could withstand.

Mordin’s war-cry rang out. The slayer had also sighted the gruesome warlock-engineer. Carving his way through the fleeing clanrats, the lone dwarf rushed to confront Ikit Claw.

The armoured skaven interposed themselves between Mordin and their master, acting with an eerie, machine-like precision. The slayer’s axe bit through the leg of one of his attackers while he lopped the paw from another. Neither of the ratmen gave so much as a squeal of protest. What spurted from their wounds was too thick for even skaven blood and possessed a weird glow to it. Mordin stared in disbelief as his crippled foes swarmed over him, beating him down with armoured fists.

‘Zombies,’ Kimril cursed, not without a shudder. For the ancestor-worshipping dwarfs there was no greater abomination than the restless dead.

‘Automatons,’ Klarak corrected him. ‘Ratkin who have had their blood replaced with chemicals and their souls replaced with steel.’ The engineer sighted along the barrel of the long pistol he’d drawn. It was a bulky weapon, not unlike a pared-down thunderer. He sighted along the barrel, then quickly sent a shot slamming into the head of one of Mordin’s attackers. The explosive shot detonated as soon as it struck the ratkin, popping its head and sending a spray of chemicals and gears spattering across its comrades.

Ikit Claw snarled at his guards, cursing their uselessness. The Chief Warlock glared at Klarak, recognising the gold-bearded dwarf as the enemy who had foiled him in his previous attempt to build a Doomsphere. This time, his enemy would not stand in his way!

Gripping Storm Daemon in both hands, Ikit Claw activated the weapon’s warp generator, throwing it into full power. Crackling energies formed about the black blade, a nimbus of dark power expanding from the tip of the halberd.

‘Scatter!’ Klarak ordered his assistants. ‘Get behind cover!’ The engineer did not take his own device, instead coldly sighting down the barrel of his pistol. While he stood in the open, there was every reason to expect the Claw to ignore his friends. There was a chance his vest would be able to save him from the crazed warlock’s magic. Just as there was a chance that one of his explosive bullets might be powerful enough to penetrate the monster’s iron frame.

Muttering a quiet prayer to his ancestors, Klarak squeezed the trigger, the pistol belching fire as the volatile bullet was sent speeding on its way. In the same instant, Ikit Claw unleashed the ferocity of Storm Daemon upon the dwarf.

Klarak shrieked in pain as black lightning crackled across his body. He could feel his teeth being pulled from his mouth, his hair being ripped from his scalp. The pistol fell from his hand, the reinforced steel glowing red hot as it struck the floor. The engineer’s clothing caught fire, his skin blistered, his beard began to shrivel. Sparks flared through his vision as the pain impossibly intensified.

Abruptly, the black lightning dissipated. Klarak Bronzehammer crashed to the floor, smoke rising from his battered body.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Horgar Horgarsson rose from behind the cover of an anvil, berating himself for listening to Klarak instead of watching what the engineer was doing. It wasn’t the first time his master had sent his assistants scrambling for shelter while he lingered behind to face danger alone. Perhaps Thorlek was right, maybe his injuries had made him thick-witted.

The hammerer glared across the smelthall. Klarak’s last shot had struck Ikit Claw. Thick black smoke rose from the warlock’s body, but the monster’s iron frame looked to be intact and whatever hurt the skaven had suffered, he wasn’t too injured to snap orders at his minions. The weird metal-limbed ratmen in the scavenged dwarf armour began to advance, their heavy steps clanking against the granite floor. Spurts of green gas erupted from engines lashed across their backs. It was with a feeling of horror that Horgar realised the vermin were wearing crude parodies of the steam-powered harness he himself wore.

Cursing the ratkin and their fiendish talent for copying the inventions of others, Horgar turned his concern towards Klarak. The engineer’s body was still smoking from Ikit Claw’s sorcery. For a terrible moment, he thought his master was dead, but then the engineer’s body shuddered in a cough.

‘Kimril! Thorlek! Help me!’ Horgar called out. The ranger and physician scrambled out from behind their own shelters, hurrying to the side of their prone chief. Azram followed behind them, loading a fresh tube of pressurised steam into his pistol.

‘Get him moving,’ the lorekeeper warned, aiming his weapon at the oncoming skaven. The shots smashed into their armoured bodies, but the stolen dwarf mail was too tough to be pierced at such distance.

‘He’s alive,’ Kimril said, making the quickest of examinations. Truthfully, he counted it a miracle that Klarak hadn’t been killed, even if the engineer was disorientated. ‘We have to get him to cover.’

Thorlek cast about him for any spot of refuge. All around the smelthall, bullets from jezzails and thunderers were pinging from the walls, debris from bombs pelted the furnaces. What they needed was a way to get below the ricochets and shrapnel. The ranger smiled as an idea came to him. He reached down, gripping Klarak’s arm. ‘Let’s get him to the slag pit,’ he said, nodding his beard at the hole where Mordin had been hiding. Kimril didn’t argue, wrapping his arm about the engineer’s waist. The two dwarfs and their burden quickly scrambled for the shelter of the hole.

Horgar and Azram hung back to cover the retreating dwarfs. The pack of mechanical skaven were nearly upon them now. Horgar snarled at the oncoming ratkin. Crouching down, wrapping his reinforced arms about the anvil beside him, the hammerer strained to lift it from the ground. Grunting with effort, he raised it over his head.

‘This is for Klarak!’ Horgar shouted, hurling the massive anvil full into the face of his foes. Augmented by skaven cog-wheels and warp generators, the armoured skaven were still crushed beneath the heavy missile. The anvil smashed through them with the violence of an avalanche, snapping limbs and crumpling armour, crushing gears and bursting organs. The anvil rolled through the massed skaven, felling six of them before it came to a rest.

Unfortunately for the dwarfs, that left far too many still closing upon them. Horgar glanced at Azram. ‘You’d better get to cover too,’ he said as he recovered his warhammer from the ground.

The old lorekeeper grinned at Horgar. ‘Let a little beardling like yourself have all the fun?’ he scoffed, drawing the sword from his belt.

Horgar gave Azram a look of concern, but knew better than to try and force his friend to retreat. There was no time in any event. The first of the ratmen were already upon them. Horgar’s warhammer came smashing down into the snarling face of an armoured ratman, smashing its skull like a melon.

‘First to ten buys the beer,’ Horgar shouted, swinging his hammer around to collapse the ribcage of another ratkin.

‘As long as we don’t count the ones you got with the anvil,’ Azram said, thrusting his blade into the belly of a skaven trying to exploit Horgar’s flank. ‘Just like the Last Stand of Karak Varn!’ the scholar exclaimed as he stabbed his wounded foe a second time.

Horgar brought his hammer swinging around, caving the side of the skaven’s head, finishing it off. ‘You should know,’ he said. ‘You’re old enough to have been there.’

Suddenly, a sheet of green fire washed over the battlers. The mechanised skaven twisted as the flames scorched their fur and melted their armour. Azram gave voice to a single shriek as his face dripped into his beard.

Beset on all sides by his foes, Horgar was spared the lorekeeper’s fate, the skaven blocking most of the warpfire. Still, enough of the virulent flame reached him to corrode the engine of his harness. The hammerer’s steam-powered limbs locked up, freezing into place as the motivating power jetted from the ruptured tanks. Unbalanced by the sudden stop, Horgar crashed to the floor.

The dwarf struggled to turn his head. He clenched his teeth as he saw his attacker striding through the destruction. Wisps of smoke rose from the nozzle set into the metal talon of Ikit Claw. The ratman’s evil eyes glared down at the stricken Horgar. Burnt lips peeled back to expose a mouthful of fangs in a sadistic grin. Pointing his metal claw at the defenceless hammerer, Ikit Claw reached with his other hand to pull back the warpfire projector’s activation lever. Horgar closed his eyes, deciding he didn’t want to see the skaven gloating over him as the Claw melted the flesh from his bones.

Horgar heard the whoosh of the warpfire projector, could smell the corrupt stink of its flames, yet strangely, there was no pain. Daring to open his eyes, he stared in amazement to find Kurgaz standing over him. The runesmith held a heavy gromril mattock in his hands, a single rune blazing upon its surface, looking as though it were burning from within. The green flames of warpfire broke around the runesmith like waves breaking against a boulder.

Kurgaz looked down at the crippled hammerer. ‘Tell. Klarak. It. Is. Done,’ the runesmith said. Then, calling upon the names of Grungni and Valaya, Grimnir and Thungni, the dwarf charged Ikit Claw.

The runehammer Kurgaz held burst into flames as he approached the skaven warlock, tongues of yellow fire crackling about the enchanted weapon. The runes inscribed upon the hammer not only guarded against fire, but could unleash the same force against a foe.

Ikit Claw snarled at the lone dwarf, calling for his minions to stop the runesmith. The Chief Warlock’s shrieks became even more frantic when he discovered there were none close enough to stop Kurgaz. The only ratmen who might have helped him had been burned down by the Claw’s own weaponry.

Furiously, Ikit Claw stabbed at Kurgaz with Storm Daemon, the enchanted halberd scraping across the runesmith’s gromril breastplate. The dwarf brought the haft of his hammer swinging around, the granite ancestor badge chained to its butt cracking against the warp generator fixed just beneath Storm Daemon’s black blade.

Protective runes carved upon the ancestor badge met the raw malignance of Ikit Claw’s weapon, the deathly power trapped inside the generator. The confusion of energies sent a shudder sweeping through both combatants, passing through their bodies in a spasm of shaking limbs and shivering bones.

The warp generator crackled as its power was vented in a great spray of corrosive steam. Hastily, Ikit Claw flung the damaged Storm Daemon from him before its unleashed power could turn against him. Snarling, the Chief Warlock drew his warplock pistol and turned to exact revenge upon his foe.

Kurgaz’s runehammer crashed against the warlock’s iron-bound body. The skaven squealed in pain, staring in disbelief as the hammer’s magic pierced his iron frame. Slivers of torn metal stabbed into the furry body underneath, the fires of the hammer shrivelled the ratman’s flesh.

Howling in panic, the rage of a cornered rat filling him with an amok courage, Ikit Claw flung himself upon the dwarf, moving with almost blinding speed. The warplock pistol’s muzzle belched smoke and flame as it was pressed close against Kurgaz’s belly. The warpstone bullet ripped through the runesmith, burning its way through armour and flesh, erupting from the dwarf’s back in a spray of blood.

The dwarf’s runehammer came smashing down one last time, Kurgaz’s face filled with the fierce determination to take down his killer before passing into the halls of his ancestors. If he could end the villainous career of Ikit Claw, then Karak Angkul would be saved. It was the sort of heroic offering that would earn him a place near the table of Grungni and Valaya and the other ancestor gods.

Before the burning runehammer could strike, Kurgaz’s hand was caught in a steely grip. The huge metal hand of Ikit Claw held the dwarf’s weapon at bay. The ratman’s beady eyes glared at the runesmith from beneath the head of the frozen hammer.

‘Die-die, fool-flesh!’ the skaven snapped. As he spoke, Ikit Claw snapped the scythe-like fingers of his metal hand. Kurgaz screamed as the bladed fingers sliced through his own hand, leaving only a spurting stump behind. The runehammer smashed to the floor, its fires fading the moment it came to rest.

The runesmith clutched his maimed arm against his chest, his other hand fumbling at his waist, trying to staunch the blood spilling from his belly. There was nothing Kurgaz could do when the triumphant Ikit Claw reached out with his metal hand and closed the bladed fingers about the dwarf’s head.

Ikit Claw licked the mix of blood, bone and brains from his hand as he limped away from the headless Kurgaz. Angrily he shrieked for his underlings. A mass of skavenslaves and warlock-engineers came scurrying at his call, doing their best to dodge the fire raining down upon their heads from the walkways above.

‘Fetch-bring all dwarf-metal,’ Ikit Claw snarled, gesturing imperiously at the furnace where Klarak and his aides had been working. The skaven stared back at their master, greedy lights gleaming in their eyes as they considered his injuries. Baring his fangs, the Chief Warlock pointed at one of his minions. A stream of caustic words slipped off the Claw’s tongue as he evoked one of the many hexes he’d learned in his travels.

The victim squealed in agony as magical energies exploded inside his chest, causing his heart to burst. The skaven around him took note of their comrade’s destruction with whines of contrition and simpering assurances of loyalty. Suddenly, Ikit Claw’s injuries didn’t look so inviting.

The Chief Warlock pointed at the furnace. This time his minions were falling over one another in their eagerness to carry out his command. Ikit Claw watched them scamper off, catching hold of one of the warlock-engineers as he passed. ‘Get-bring Storm Daemon,’ he ordered, flicking his tail towards the damaged weapon. His henchrat took one look at the corrosive steam venting from the ruptured warp generator and spurted the musk of fear.

‘Mercy-pity, Mad-genius! Scrap-master, Junk-lord! Most Calamitous of Scavengers! Abominable Bringer of Abominations!’

Ikit Claw kicked his fawning minion away. ‘Fetch Storm Daemon,’ he hissed through clenched fangs. ‘Or I’ll kill you and get-find someone else to do it.’

The Chief Warlock’s threat sent the other warlock-engineer scurrying away to recover the damaged weapon. Ikit Claw turned away, limping back towards the digging machine. It was time they were quit of this dwarf-thing smell-hall.

The infiltration hadn’t worked quite as successfully as he had planned. The attack should have come as a complete surprise to the dwarf-things. Instead, his troops had suffered losses far in excess of what Ikit Claw had expected.

Still, they were small sacrifices. Once the Doomsphere was complete, Ikit Claw wouldn’t need armies any more. Once the Doomsphere was complete, he would control a power far more destructive than all the armies in the entire world.

And with the captured dwarf-metal, the Doomsphere would be complete!

Awareness returned to Klarak Bronzehammer, breaking through the fog of confusion that befuddled his mind. One moment, the dwarf inventor rested helplessly at the bottom of the slag pit, his concerned friends watching over him. The next moment, there was clarity in the gold-flake eyes. Klarak surged to his feet, his expression grim. Shaking off Thorlek’s restraining grip, the engineer scrambled for the ladder. Kimril cried after him, vainly trying to stop Klarak’s desperate momentum.

Ikit Claw would escape the trap. This terror twisted through Klarak’s guts like a knife. The engineer had gambled much on stopping the skaven here, before the beast could complete his hideous invention. For the Claw to escape now, the consequences would be apocalyptic. The name of Klarak Bronzehammer would be recorded among the most villainous oathbreakers – if anyone was left to write of his failure!

The engineer leaped up from the slag pit. He stared out across the devastated smelthall. Dead dwarfs and dead skaven littered the ground, great craters pock-marked the floor where bombs had shattered the stone. Strips of gantry and walkway drooped down from the heights, scorched by skaven warpfire or corroded by the awful touch of Poison Wind. Klarak felt his heart go cold as he saw the mutilated body of an old longbeard dangling from the wreckage.

The old dwarf’s sacrifice would not be for nothing. Klarak clenched his fist and vowed that the skaven would pay for every drop of dwarf blood they had spilt this day. His eyes grew hard as he noticed a large group of the ratmen retreating back into one of their holes. Snatching a war-axe from the dead fingers of a metalworker, Klarak dashed across the ravaged smelthall.

Bullets continued to rain down from the ceiling as the remaining thunderers tried to thin out the ranks of the fleeing ratmen. Several teams of skaven jezzails lingered behind to return their fire, cowering in the shelter of big oak shields when the dwarfs tried to shoot back. Klarak ran straight into one of the jezzails. His axe licked out, opening the throat of the rodent sharpshooter, his fist smashed the muzzle of the ratkin shieldbearer.

Klarak didn’t linger over his victims, but was off again, rushing towards the retreating ratmen. He could see now that many of them bore plates of barazhunk with them as they vanished down into the tunnel. The engineer roared, bellowing a war-cry that shuddered through the smelthall. As he roared, he waved his arms towards the retreating skaven.

Warpstone bullets whizzed past Klarak’s ears, smashed into the columns and pillars he darted behind as he crossed the hall. The jezzails, noting the death of their comrade, hearing the crazed screech of the lone dwarf madman, trained their guns on Klarak. Futilely they tried to bring down their nimble target.

Given a respite from the punishing fire of the jezzails, the dwarf marksmen above the smelthall were free to loose a salvo into their foes. Noting the figure of Klarak as he dashed through the havoc, waving his arms, the thunderers chose their mark. The fusillade poured down, not into the scattered jezzails, but full into the mob of fleeing ratkin.

Yelps and squeals rose from the savaged throng as the thunderers spat stone bullets into their close-packed ranks. Furry bodies thrashed on the floor, black blood pouring from their wounds. The stink of raw fear spurted from the ratkin. Many cast aside their burdens, clawing and snapping at one another as they tried to force their way through the pack and into the safety of the hole.

The despair of the embattled skaven made itself known to those who had gone before, the ratmen who had already fled into the tunnel. From the depths, a loud rumbling made itself felt, shaking the entire smelthall. Klarak was knocked from his feet as the tremor rattled the ground. Skaven screams filled the air as a thick cloud of dust rose from the yawning mouth of the hole.

With callous treachery, to prevent pursuit the ratmen had collapsed their tunnel right on top of their own fleeing comrades!

Klarak regained his feet, watching as the few surviving skaven began to pull themselves out from among the dust and debris. Bullets and bolts rained down upon the wretches, picking them off with bitter vindictiveness. The ratkin who had escaped being buried alive had only traded one kind of death for another.

The engineer turned away, pacing back towards the furnace where he and his comrades had made their stand. He could see Thorlek and Kimril labouring to pull Horgar Horgarsson upright, the hammerer’s steam-harness making the task difficult for even two dwarfs to manage. Klarak shook his head sadly. If either Azram or Kurgaz had been able, they would be helping tend Horgar. The fact that he didn’t see them sent a knife of bitter sadness cutting through his heart.

The skaven had been thorough in their attack, better armed and prepared than Klarak had anticipated. He’d underestimated Ikit Claw, a failing that had cost many dwarfs their lives.

Klarak paused, noticing a movement among the heaped bodies of the dead ratkin. Tightening his hold upon his axe, the dwarf stormed vengefully towards the ratkin. These were the hideously augmented war-rats who had served Ikit Claw as bodyguards. It would be in keeping with the Claw’s evil genius that these creatures should have greater vitality than their verminous kin. A flash of guilt gnawed at Klarak as he considered that the skaven might have been inspired by Horgar’s steam-harness when he decided to create his loathsome shock troops.

Seizing the topmost of the bodies, Klarak rolled the heavy bulk away, noting as he did the horrible injuries the skaven had suffered, the way its flesh and even its armour had been burned and melted. Caught by the warpfire of its master’s hand. Klarak clenched his teeth at this vivid display of skaven cowardice and treachery.

Rolling away another of the armoured skaven, Klarak jumped back as a third body started to move. Bracing himself to attack the maimed ratman, the engineer sighed with relief as the body sagged against its comrades. A thick dwarf voice snarled curses from beneath the heavy corpse.

‘I’ll kill you again, you yellow-backed flea nest! By Grimnir, get your carcass off me!’

Klarak set aside his axe, helping the trapped dwarf extricate himself from the pile of corpses. Mordin Grimstone’s body was coated in blood, both his own and the black filth of his enemies. Ugly patches of burnt flesh peppered his skin where melting blobs of skaven fat had dripped down through the heaped dead. A livid gash marked his brow where a ratman’s sword had glanced across the slayer’s shaven head. One of the dwarf’s shoulders had the claws of a dismembered skaven hand embedded in it.

But the most disturbing aspect of Mordin’s countenance were his eyes. Pools of fire, blazing with murderous ferocity, they glared across the smelthall, darting from shadow to shadow looking for foes to slay. Except for the few jezzail teams and abandoned slaves, the enemy was gone. Mordin clearly felt that the few dregs being picked off by the marksmen on the walkways weren’t worth his time. He fixed his fiery gaze on Klarak.

‘Where’s that metal-masked scavenger?’ the slayer growled. He stooped and ripped one of his axes from the belly of a dead ratman. ‘There’s a blade here eager to taste his blood!’

‘Gone,’ Klarak frowned. ‘Fled back into his hole.’

Mordin sneered, spitting a blob of bloody phlegm onto the floor. ‘Some trap,’ the slayer scoffed. A wracking cough gripped him, causing more blood to drip into his beard.

‘Come along,’ Klarak said. ‘Kimril will tend your wounds.’ Mordin pulled away at Klarak’s touch. ‘This is no way for a slayer to die,’ the engineer told him. ‘What of your vow to kill Thanquol?’

The slayer’s face flushed crimson. ‘What of your promise that the cur would be here?’ Mordin growled. ‘You are right when you say it is wrong for a slayer to die because of a lie.’

Klarak’s face darkened. ‘There is more at stake here than your revenge,’ he reminded Mordin.

‘Tell that to Kurgaz,’ the slayer snarled, waving his axe ahead of him.

Klarak followed the direction of Mordin’s gesture. A great sorrow settled about him as he saw the runesmith’s armoured body lying stretched out in a pool of its own blood, only a torn stump of neck where his friend’s head should be. He had asked so much of Kurgaz, depended so much upon the runesmith’s wisdom and magic. In the end, he had demanded too much and it had cost his friend his life.

‘I saw him die,’ Mordin said. ‘Peeping through the pile of corpses, I watched him battle the ratkin with the metal claw. A fine fighter, his runehammer burning like the sun. Such an end! Such a death!’ The slayer ran his hand through the filth caking his beard. ‘If he’d only managed to kill the villain, he’d be able to hold his head high when he steps into Gazul’s vaults.’

Klarak turned away from the vision of his friend’s corpse. ‘Now we both have someone to avenge,’ he told Mordin as he helped support the slayer. ‘And by Morgrim’s Hammer, Ikit Claw will pay for the evil of this day!’

‘Thinking of shaving your head?’ Mordin laughed, then fell silent as a blood-flecked cough wracked his torn body.

Klarak didn’t answer the slayer. His eyes were cold, his thoughts dark. He had risked much to trap his enemy. The responsibility was his, and even the Slayer Oath would not efface his guilt.

King Logan Longblade surveyed the carnage of the smelthall, his eyes heavy with emotion. A hundred and twelve dwarfs were dead, a score and more were maimed or wounded. The smelthall had suffered structural damages that would place it out of commission for weeks, perhaps even months. It would be years before the furnaces were again operating at full capacity. The clans of the metalsmiths would seek compensation for their dead, reparations for their lost custom. The shadow of this black day would linger over the stronghold for generations.

‘This is what comes from flouting tradition.’ Guildmaster Thori’s voice echoed the troubled thoughts boiling inside the king’s brain. ‘I warned against allowing Klarak to proceed with his reckless plan.’

‘Enough,’ King Logan told the engineer. ‘I will not have my decisions questioned by hindsight. Whatever the consequences.’ He turned away from the view of the dwarfish dead, their bodies draped in the mantle of their clans, a wizened priest of Gazul folding the hands of each corpse about a gilded ancestor stone – an offering for the dour Lord of the Underearth. The craftsmen of Karak Angkul would be busy carving new mournstones to replace the ones given to the dead this day.

The king’s mind turned back to the battle in the lower deeps, the fierce struggle against the massed skaven horde. At the time, he had thought Klarak was wrong, that the real ratkin attack was in the deeps. Right up until the moment when a messenger brought him word that the smelthall was under assault, he had felt confident that Klarak’s grim predictions weren’t real. The ratkin had been assaulting Karak Angkul for generations and each time the vermin had been driven back. As his army smashed the skaven down in the Sixth Deep, he had allowed himself to believe this time would be no different.

Now, the king had to concede it was different. The attack in the Sixth Deep had been a deception, just as Klarak had warned. But if the king had underestimated the foe, so too had the hero of Karak Angkul. Disaster seemed too light a word for the carnage that had raged in the smelthall.

King Logan circled the heap of skaven dead. Already five cartloads of the vermin had been loaded up and removed to be burned outside the stronghold, yet still the ratkin dead numbered in the hundreds. It was always the same. The dwarfs could slaughter their foes by the bushel and hardly make a dent in their numbers, yet each of their own dead was a wound from which the stronghold would be slow to recover.

Ahead of him, King Logan could see Thane Erkii and a throng of miners digging away at a rubble-choked hole in the floor. An enormous grinding machine, steam venting from its pipes, chewed into the blockage, sending a spray of dirt and rock shooting behind it. The machine was another of Klarak Bronzehammer’s inventions, one that the engineer had offered to the Miners’ Guild over the protests of the Engineers’ Guild who maintained that the machine needed a few more decades of tests before it was deemed stable enough for development.

Guildmaster Thori cursed into his beard when he saw the forbidden machine in operation. ‘By Morgrim! The reckless debaz goes too far!’ He pointed a jewelled spanner at the mechanised drill, gesturing angrily at the machine. ‘That contraption isn’t authorised! It isn’t safe!’

A lone dwarf turned away from the dig at the sound of Thori’s voice. There was a menacing intensity in Klarak’s eyes as he approached the Guildmaster. ‘My rockchewer is the fastest way to excavate the ratkin tunnel,’ he told the older dwarf. ‘Authorised by the Guild or not. Unless maybe you think it would be safer to leave Ikit Claw down there undisturbed.’

Thori’s face pulled back into a scowl of disapproval. ‘You’ll be expelled from the Guild,’ he warned, tapping Klarak’s chest with the end of his spanner. ‘Cogged and tossed out on your ear! If you would have followed accepted traditions, obeyed the proprieties of invention, none of this would have happened!’ Thori waved his arms wide, indicating the damage the smelthall had suffered. ‘The ratkin came because of your new metal!’

‘Give thanks to Grungni that he did,’ Klarak said. ‘Because that has given us our only chance to stop him.’

‘Stop him?’ Thori gasped. ‘Look around you! The thaggoraki has come and gone, and taken your barazhunk with him!’ The Guildmaster’s eyes hardened into chips of ice. ‘Tell me, without your metal, could this ratkin have any hope of completing his machine? No! It would have blown up in his face and saved us the problem of digging him out!’

Klarak shook his head. ‘Ikit Claw would have found a way to make his own,’ he insisted. ‘He would have slunk off to some hole far away and finished his Doomsphere where we would never find it.’ He shook his fist at the hole the miners were excavating. ‘At least now we have a chance of following him and stopping him.’

‘Stopping him from building a weapon with your new alloy,’ Thori reminded, spite rolling off his tongue.

‘Enough,’ King Logan ordered. ‘There is blame to spare. I still think Klarak had the right of it in trying to entice the ratkin out and trap him here.’ A hard edge crept into the king’s voice. ‘But the trap failed. That responsibility can be placed on no one’s head except that of the dwarf who made the plan. Klarak Bronzehammer, I am compelled to record grudge against you for the death of my subjects and the defilement of my smelthall.’ The king stared into Klarak’s gold eyes. ‘Recompense for this grudge is set as five hundred rat-tails and the head of Ikit Claw.’

Klarak bowed his head as he heard his king pronounce judgement upon him. ‘I accept this burden as just and fair,’ he said. ‘Let my spirit never walk the Halls of the Ancestors if I fail to balance the debt I owe to Karak Angkul and King Logan Longblade.’

Guildmaster Thori smiled to see the bold Klarak humbled. ‘Now you must drag that unproved contraption away from the dig,’ he ordered.

Klarak fixed the older engineer with a withering stare. ‘Guilt and responsibility don’t change reality,’ he said. ‘The rockchewer is still the fastest way to follow Ikit Claw. As you’ve pointed out, he has my metal now, so we need to catch him before he can finish his machine.’

‘Maybe you won’t have to.’ The interrupting words came from Horgar. The hammerer’s gait was unsteady as he came marching towards them, his head wrapped in bandages, his steam-harness shuddering at every step. He bowed respectfully to King Logan, cast a hostile glance at Guildmaster Thori, then faced Klarak.

‘You should be letting Kimril and the healers tend your wounds,’ Klarak admonished his bodyguard.

Horgar’s face spread in a lopsided grin. ‘Since when have I ever done the sensible thing?’ he asked. ‘Besides, most of my problems are with this steam-harness you made me, not my battered bones.’ The hammerer’s face grew serious. ‘Kurgaz spoke to me before he died. He wanted me to tell you that he finished what you wanted him to do.’

Horgar’s words had the effect of lightning on the engineer. From morbid melancholy, Klarak became energised with determination. Hastily, he drew a set of goggles from his belt, the lenses possessed of a curious purple hue. Staring through the goggles, Klarak hastened to the small pile of recovered barazhunk, examining each piece in rapid succession. The other dwarfs watched him in confusion, wondering if the loss of his friends had addled the adventurer’s wits.

Klarak turned away from his labours, shouting hasty words to Thane Erkii and his miners. ‘Be careful to recover each piece of barazhunk,’ he told them. ‘Set each aside for me to inspect.’ The engineer turned back to his confused sovereign.

‘When I was first warned about Grey Seer Thanquol,’ Klarak told King Logan, ‘I conceived a plan to guard my inventions from the skaven.’ King Logan nodded, aware of this part of the story. It had been his assistance that had given Kurgaz access to the secret lore of the runemasters. ‘At the time, I believed the danger lay with the theft of my inventions. Kurgaz agreed to help me by learning one of the Master Runes and using its magic to prevent my devices from falling into the wrong hands.

‘When Mordin brought us word that Ikit Claw was involved, and when Thane Erkii reported the theft of barazhunk from the mines, I saw a different way to employ the knowledge Kurgaz had gained.’ Klarak paused, holding up the burin the runesmith had used. ‘This burin was treated with a chemical that leaves a residue behind. Each plate Kurgaz tried to inscribe will have a trace of the chemical upon it.’ He tapped the goggles. ‘With these, I can tell which plates have been treated and which have not.’

‘More foolishness,’ Thori scoffed. ‘What does it matter if the ratkin have taken inscribed metal or plain metal?’

Klarak favoured the Guildmaster with a grim smile. ‘Because if Ikit Claw uses the plate Kurgaz inscribed the Master Rune on, then the skaven will do our work for us.’

King Logan sighed, glancing back at the rows of dwarf dead. ‘We can’t trust that he will.’

‘No,’ Klarak agreed. ‘That’s why it’s doubly important we excavate the tunnel. We have to find Ikit Claw’s lair and make sure he’s used the inscribed plate. We have to follow his trail back to the Doomsphere and see that it is destroyed.’

‘Hurry-scurry, fool-flesh!’ Ikit Claw glared at the horde of skavenslaves and clanrats rushing through the tunnels. He had lost a lot of the dwarf-metal when the tunnel into the smelthall had collapsed. The thought that he’d sacrificed too much of the metal was one that vexed the warlock-engineer and he was impatient to have this particular fear dispelled. Once back in his workshop, he’d be able to make certain exactly how much of the stuff he’d acquired.

The skaven poured into the now quiet tunnels of Bonestash. Between his attack on the smelthall and the diversion attack on the Sixth Deep, the warren had been almost completely depopulated. Except for the most vital sections of the warren, not a ratman had been left behind. Troops of stormvermin had ensured a complete muster of the settlement’s strength. The ratmen of Clan Mors weren’t particularly bright, but Ikit Claw had to admit their efficiency was useful. It had been almost a pity to send them out to be slaughtered. But a device like the Doomsphere wasn’t built without a few sacrifices.

The Chief Warlock rubbed his hands together in greedy anticipation. Once the Doomsphere was completed, he would be reckoned the most brilliant mind in all skavendom. Even Warplord Morskittar would acknowledge the genius of his chief acolyte. A weapon the likes of which no skaven had dared contemplate in thousands of generations! Soon it would be his! The Doomsphere of Ikit Claw!

Allowing he’d managed to steal enough of the dwarf metal. Ikit bruxed his fangs in annoyance at that thought. It might take him years to fabricate any of the stuff on his own and the stupid dwarf-things would be on their guard to keep him from stealing any more. The stone-witted scum had nearly foiled his plans already, coming alarmingly close to snuffing out the Under-Empire’s greatest mind. Gingerly he probed the rent in his iron frame with his paw, wincing as he felt blood spurt over his fingers. The wound would need seeing to, but he wasn’t so sure he could trust any of his apprentices. The short-sighted maggots had been getting uppity since his injury. One of them even had the audacity to suggest if there wasn’t enough dwarf-metal that he should downsize the Doomsphere! If not for his injuries, he would have had the rat roasted alive for such insolence!

But it would be enough! It had to be! Destiny would not cheat the mighty Ikit Claw!

Ahead, the sprawl of the old storage cavern opened before Ikit Claw’s triumphant horde. The Chief Warlock pushed his way to the forefront, eager to behold his magnificent weapon. Once he saw its unfinished beauty, he knew he could confidently say that he had enough dwarf-metal to complete it.

Ikit Claw’s eyes lingered on the Doomsphere for only a moment, then his gaze was drawn downwards. Like every member of his entourage, he found himself staring at the horned figure standing upon the Doomsphere’s platform.

Grey Seer Thanquol glared down at him, the priest’s tail lashing back and forth. What was the prayer-gnawing parasite doing here! The idiot should be lying somewhere in the dwarfhold with an axe in his chest or a bullet in his brain! Part of being a decoy meant getting killed by the thing you were supposed to be decoying!

A bell clanged, its discordant notes ringing out across the workshop. Thanquol cast a smug look at the scrawny clanrat bellringer perched beside him, then turned his snarling face back towards Ikit Claw.

‘Off-flee!’ the Chief Warlock growled. ‘Away-away! Get away from my Doomsphere!’

An evil light shone in Thanquol’s eyes. ‘My Doomsphere,’ the horned ratman hissed.

Ikit Claw’s lips pulled back in a feral snarl. ‘Kill-kill!’ he shouted, pointing with his metal claw at the grey seer.

A pack of warriors drew swords and rushed towards the platform. Skaven of Clan Skryre, they chittered with amusement when they saw Boneripper’s skeletal bulk lurch into their path. They knew the measures the warlock-engineers had taken to ensure their creation didn’t turn against them.

‘Boneripper!’ Thanquol’s voice snapped like a whip. ‘Burn-kill!’

The clanrats weren’t laughing when a gout of warpfire erupted from the rat-ogre’s third arm. Five of the ratmen were immolated instantly. Six others raced about the cavern, their burning fur making them into living torches. A squeal of horror rose from the rest of Ikit Claw’s minions. Somehow Thanquol had disabled his bodyguard’s safety valve.

Ikit Claw didn’t care. Rat-ogre or no, he wasn’t about to hand over his invention to some corrupt sorcerer-priest! Angrily, he ripped Storm Daemon from the warlock-engineer carrying it. The broken warp generator had stopped venting corrosive gas, making the halberd reasonably safe to handle. The weapon wouldn’t be able to shoot lightning at his enemies, but that didn’t bother Ikit. He would prefer chopping Thanquol’s treacherous head from his scrawny neck.

Thanquol took a step back when he saw Ikit Claw advance from the horde of Clan Skryre skaven. There was a note of fear in the grey seer’s eyes, a momentary softening of his posture. Then the horned ratman reached beneath the folds of his robe, drawing forth a severed skaven paw. Ikit Claw stared in alarm at the gruesome talisman, his sorcerously attuned eyes able to see the magical energies swirling about the desiccated paw.

‘Behold!’ Thanquol crowed. ‘The Hand of Vecteek!’

To every other skaven in the cavern, the name meant nothing. But to Ikit Claw, it spelled doom. He was familiar with the legacy of the artefact, the paw of Clan Rictus’s feared war-chief. In the possession of a murder-minded traitor like Thanquol, such a potent talisman could unleash untold havoc and destruction. Thanquol had demonstrated a callous disregard for his fellow skaven and wouldn’t care how many died in any duel between himself and the Chief Warlock. For the good of his minions, Ikit Claw couldn’t afford to provoke the weasel-spleened traitor.

‘Wise-mighty Thanquol,’ Ikit Claw said, lowering Storm Daemon. ‘Happy-glad am I that you escaped the dwarf-things. I had worry-fear something happened to you.’

Thanquol grinned down at the suddenly unctuous warlock. ‘Save your worry-fear for yourself,’ he advised. The grey seer turned his head, raising his snout as he smelled the dwarf-metal Ikit’s slaves carried. He licked his fangs.

‘You were going to finish your weapon,’ Thanquol said. He grimaced as his standard bearer punctuated the statement with an especially frenzied burst of bell ringing. Grinding his fangs together, the grey seer continued. ‘It is my wish-order that you will finish it. If it works, the Horned One tells me that I may spare your lives.’

Thanquol brandished the Hand of Vecteek so all of the skaven could see it. Even those who didn’t know what it was understood the menace it posed after seeing the way Thanquol had threatened their own terrifying master with it.

‘Work fast! Work hard! Work accurately!’ Thanquol cried. ‘If anything goes wrong with my Doomsphere, I’ll flay the fur from your skins!’

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The warlock-engineer’s pathetic mewing was silenced when Boneripper crushed the craven little weasel’s skull. Thanquol wasn’t certain the wretch had really been up to anything, but it was prudent not to take any chances. Besides, the only one of the parasites he needed to keep around was Ikit Claw himself. The rest of the Clan Skryre tinker-rats were a liability. The Claw might forget his place if he started believing he had strength in numbers on his side. Thinking it over, Thanquol was of the opinion he should probably exact a few more object lessons to put his new minions in a more pious and obedient frame of mind.

The grey seer leaned back in the throne he’d ordered brought down from Rikkit Snapfang’s abandoned lair. It was a remarkably comfortable seat, crafted from dwarf bones and upholstered in only the softest whelp fur. A pair of exceedingly energetic skavenslaves were crouched at the foot of the throne trimming Thanquol’s claws while another rubbed a sweet-smelling liniment into the grey seer’s scaly tail. Standing beside the throne, Nikkrit rang the holy bell, sending the dolorous voice of the Horned One racing through the cavern. Knowledge that their god was watching them would help spur Thanquol’s henchlings to better effort.

Thanquol’s eyes gleamed evilly in the green light cast by warp lanterns. The Doomsphere was quickly taking shape. Already the exposed mechanisms and supports were covered by plates of tough dwarf-metal. Teams of workers were crawling all over the shell, ensuring that each plate was firmly in place with no gaps or weaknesses. Other teams of workers inspected the inspectors, ensuring there were no mistakes or sabotage. Third and fourth teams continued the routine of inspection. For all his submission to Thanquol, Ikit Claw was proving a most methodical and zealous overseer.

It made Thanquol nervous to watch the fearsome Chief Warlock accepting his new role as lackey and servant with such graciousness. The Claw was up to something, Thanquol was certain of it. He felt a great temptation to err on the side of caution and blast the warlock with a bolt of magic every time his back was turned – or better yet, have Boneripper do the job while Thanquol watched from a safe distance.

Only Ikit’s repeated claims that he was the only one that could complete the Doomsphere kept Thanquol from acting upon his murderous impulses. If there was only one thing the Chief Warlock said that the grey seer believed completely, it was that the Claw hadn’t trusted the secret of his superweapon to anyone else. It was easy to believe because in the same position, Thanquol would certainly have done the same. The secret of such a weapon was too important to trust to any minion.

And that was why Ikit Claw would have to die once the Doomsphere was complete. Thanquol couldn’t take the chance that the Chief Warlock might betray him and make a second Doomsphere. That would upset all of the grey seer’s plans. The threat of one Doomsphere would make him the unquestioned tyrant of all skavendom, but if someone else had an identical weapon it would confuse the issue. The teeming hordes of the Under-Empire wouldn’t know which way to present their throats. Worse, the threat of the Doomsphere would be diminished if Thanquol’s enemies had their own weapon which they could threaten to detonate if he used his. Mutually assured destruction would dull the menace of the Doomsphere, rendering it impotent and almost inconsequential.

No! Thanquol would not be denied! He would be the unquestioned ruler of skavendom, the Horned Emperor, Scourge of Skavenblight, Lord of the Ratkin, Master of the Underearth! He was the beloved of the Horned Rat, most favoured and powerful of the rat-god’s servants. It was the will of the Horned One that he should be present to seize the product of Ikit Claw’s heretical genius. It was the Horned One’s decree that the power of the Doomsphere should be entrusted into the claws of the one ratman who would use it for the betterment of the Under-Empire. It took a skaven of Thanquol’s humble and unassuming nature to be trusted with a weapon like the Doomsphere.

Stroking his whiskers, Thanquol watched the treacherous Ikit Claw snapping orders to the scurrying warlock-engineers and skavenslaves. Only a raticidal lunatic would dare try to recreate a weapon that had nearly obliterated Skavenblight. The Claw was a danger to all skaven everywhere! It was the duty of any right-minded ratman to exterminate the threat he posed! As soon as the Doomsphere was finished, Thanquol would have the Chief Warlock killed. It was his civic responsibility as a servant of the Lords of Decay to get rid of this threat to their power.

Thanquol bruxed his fangs as he contemplated the manner in which he would be welcomed back to Skavenblight. He would be the hero who had saved skavendom from the machinations of a mad scientist! The Council of Thirteen would be falling over themselves in their efforts to reward him. And if they didn’t, Thanquol would still have the threat of the Doomsphere to get them in line. They would proclaim him Horned Emperor of All Skavendom! He would sit upon the thirteenth throne, symbolically kept vacant for the Horned Rat himself. Well, such superstition would have no place under Thanquol’s reign. What better way to show that he was superior to the Lords of Decay than by claiming the throne they dared not touch? He would be venerated as the living manifestation of the Horned Rat, adored and feared throughout the world!

Thanquol sneezed as a little fleck of warp-snuff caught in his nose dislodged itself. He really was sorry he’d been manipulated into killing Lynsh Blacktail by the pirate’s mutinous crew. He’d really like to know where the yellow-spined buccaneer had come upon such a fine grade of snuff.

‘Most Abhorrent One,’ the wheezing voice of a warlock-engineer interrupted Thanquol’s ruminations. The grey seer looked up, glaring at the snivelling tinker-rat. He glanced over at Boneripper, motioning for the rat-ogre to squash this annoyance. Then he reflected that he should probably hear what the weasel had to say first. Squishing might prove too kindly a death if the vexing little flea had something particularly repellent to tell him.

‘Squeak-speak,’ Thanquol hissed, putting an impatient and threatening gleam of teeth behind his words.

The tinker-rat scratched at some of the wires bolted into his scalp, then cast a nervous look over his shoulder at the Doomsphere and particularly at the spot where Ikit Claw was acting as supervisor. ‘Great and Horrible Thanquol, Wondrous Smiter of the Impious, Most Dread Bane of…’

Thanquol kicked his foot out, his newly cleansed claws scratching across the warlock’s snout. ‘Before I lose my patience,’ he snarled.

‘Great Thanquol,’ the warlock-engineer said, dropping his voice to a barely audible squeak. ‘I have watched the work. The Doomsphere is finished. Ikit Claw is trying to trick you by insisting it isn’t ready.’

Thanquol’s eyes narrowed. He should have expected such a ploy. Ikit Claw was no fool, for all of his heretical ideas about science. He knew that as soon as the Doomsphere was finished, Thanquol would have no reason to keep him alive. The treacherous rat was playing for time, waiting for the opportunity to hatch some plot against his beneficent master. Well, Thanquol wasn’t about to give the maggot the chance!

Snapping his claws, Thanquol dismissed his attendants. A wave of his paw had Boneripper smashing its foot down upon the warlock-engineer’s neck. Thanquol had no sentiment for spies and traitors, especially when they turned on their own masters, most certainly when they could be of no further use. The squashed tinker-rat died without uttering a shriek, so sudden was his demise.

One traitor down, one to go. Thanquol reached into his robe, bringing forth the Hand of Vecteek. He was still loath to use the hideous artefact, but Ikit Claw wouldn’t know that. While the stupid warlock was worrying about the Hand, he’d never see Boneripper until the rat-ogre sent a blast of warpfire scorching through his scabby hide.

The clatter of his standard followed Thanquol as he crossed the cavern to where the Doomsphere was being constructed. Had been constructed, the grey seer corrected himself. His informant had said the weapon was finished.

The sound of Nikkrit’s bell caught Ikit Claw’s attention. The metal-faced warlock turned, staring down at Thanquol as the grey seer approached.

The grey seer cast a look of fury upon the bell-ringer, a look that promised nasty things for Nikkrit in the not-too-distant future. So wrapped up in his own thoughts of power, Thanquol hadn’t bothered to consider that the clatter of his standard would betray his approach. The grey seer returned his attention to the Claw. Thanquol felt a flush of annoyance as he noted the Claw’s position high above him on the wooden platform. It wasn’t proper for an underling to stand higher than his master. If for no other reason, that impudence marked Ikit as worthy of death.

‘Stay your paw, Thanquol,’ Ikit Claw called out, mockery in his voice. He gestured with his metal claw, sweeping it across the shell of the Doomsphere. ‘It would be unwise to kill me before the weapon is finished.’

‘The weapon is finished,’ Thanquol growled. ‘And so are you!’ He raised the Hand of Vecteek, pointing its dead claws at the warlock. From the corner of his eye, Thanquol could see Boneripper circling to one side. Just a few more steps and the rat-ogre would be in position to burn the Claw to a crisp.

Ignorant of his peril, Ikit Claw continued to mock Thanquol. ‘Finished? Who says it is finished?’ The warlock tapped the metal shell with his claw. ‘The outside is complete, but the weapon is not operational. It needs power.’

Thanquol lashed his tail in annoyance. He didn’t like the turn this conversation had taken. ‘You take-make fuel!’ he accused. ‘Crush-grind much-much warpstone!’

Ikit Claw’s eyes were cold as he glowered down at the grey seer. ‘But it wasn’t enough,’ he said. ‘The Doomsphere won’t work without more warpstone.’

Panic started to seep into Thanquol’s belly. It wasn’t possible, the Claw was just lying again, playing for time! Unless… maybe the informant had been trying to betray Thanquol as well as Ikit Claw! Maybe the villain had been a secret spy for the Council of Thirteen! The idea of it! A spy from the Council trying to trick a loyal servant of the Council!

‘I wouldn’t kill me, Thanquol,’ the Claw was saying. ‘Don’t think you can make the Doomsphere work without me. If it has too little warpstone, the machinery will be ruined. Too much…’ The Chief Warlock flexed the metal blades of his claw open, evoking the image of a mighty explosion. ‘Only I know the correct measure. Without me, you have nothing.’

Thanquol ground his fangs. There was too much assurance in Ikit Claw’s posture for it to all be a bluff. The scheming tinker-rat had tricked him! Now there wasn’t a chance for him to simply execute the rat!

Thanquol groaned in horror as he saw Boneripper lurch into position. The rat-ogre levelled its warpfire projector straight at Ikit Claw. Before the grey seer could howl a countermand, the automaton sent a sheet of searing green flame shooting across the platform. Skavenslaves and warlock-engineers hurtled from the walkways, their bodies transformed into blazing torches. For a moment, Ikit Claw vanished behind a curtain of fire.

Cursing the Horned Rat, Thanquol leapt towards the inferno. This close to achieving his wildest dreams of power and domination, he wasn’t about to be cheated! Not because some brainless rat-ogre had taken it into its mind to attack his valuable ally just when their plans were coming to fruition! He ignored the flames that licked about him as he scrambled onto the platform. Somewhere amid the inferno, his great friend and loyal comrade Ikit Claw was in peril!

‘Ikit Claw!’ the grey seer cried out. ‘Don’t die-die! My magic heal-fix all burn-hurt!’ After all, Ikit Claw had survived a worse fire in his own laboratory, surely he’d be able to escape a stupid accident like this! Thanquol glanced down as his paws broke through the charred husk of a skavenslave, the body crumbling into ash beneath his toes. ‘Ikit Claw!’ he cried out, panic hammering at his heart. ‘Good-good friend! Don’t die-die!’ What was the use, the grey seer thought, of being Chief Warlock of Clan Skryre if you let yourself get killed by some brainless rat-ogre!

A shape stepped out from the smoke, its metal mask and iron frame glowing red from the heat of the warpfire. It seemed to Thanquol that even more of Ikit Claw’s white fur was burned away than he remembered, but at least the Chief Warlock looked mostly intact. Clearly the warlock’s magic had been great enough to preserve him from Boneripper’s idiotic attack.

‘Ikit Claw!’ Thanquol squealed in relief. ‘Are you hurt?’

There was an ugly look in Ikit Claw’s eyes. ‘Not-not as bad-hurt as you will be!’ the warlock snarled. Ikit pounced towards Thanquol, his huge metal claw raking against the Doomsphere’s shell as he tried to disembowel the grey seer.

Squeaking in terror, Thanquol leapt back. His jump carried him too far, bringing him past the edge of the platform. The grey seer’s arms waved frantically as he fell to the floor of the cavern some dozen feet below. Crashing on his backside, he yelped in pain as something in his tail broke. He didn’t have long to consider his injury, however. Ikit Claw loomed above him, a warplock pistol in his hand. Savagely, the Chief Warlock squeezed the trigger.

Thanquol blinked in disbelief as Ikit Claw’s pistol exploded in his hand, misfiring in the most dramatic fashion. That would teach the faithless flea the folly of pointing his heathen weapons at a priest of the Horned Rat! Before the grey seer could crow about his escape, he was scrambling across the cavern floor, fleeing as Ikit Claw discharged the warpfire projector built into the palm of his metal hand. The green flames pursued Thanquol as he scrambled for cover.

‘Peace-friend! Thanquol cried out. It occurred to him that while he needed Ikit Claw, the Claw didn’t need him. That gave the Chief Warlock the edge. Glancing about the cavern, Thanquol also came to the ugly realisation that almost all of the watching skaven were cheering his adversary. The only ones who didn’t seem to share that sentiment were Boneripper and Nikkrit, the latter still ringing his bell as though it were the most important job in the Under-Empire. Thanquol was beginning to think his standard-bearer wasn’t quite right in the head.

Upon the platform, Ikit Claw snarled orders at the other skaven. From dozens of hidden caches, a veritable arsenal of pistols, jezzails and even stranger weapons emerged. One of the warlock-engineers scurried towards the Doomsphere, the menacing Storm Daemon clutched in his paws. Chittering with malicious mirth, Ikit Claw snatched the magic blade from his underling. A gang of ratmen were already crawling over Boneripper, pulling the rat-ogre to the ground. Without receiving orders from its master, the machine didn’t even move to defend itself.

‘Now, Thanquol-meat die-burn!’ Ikit Claw screeched, raising Storm Daemon overhead. A bolt of crackling black energy erupted from the halberd, the new warp generator fastened to the weapon shuddering as it fed power into the blade. Thanquol spurted the musk of fear as the malignant energy scorched a hole through the pile of scrap he was sheltering behind.

‘Hand of Vecteek!’ Thanquol shouted, waving the artefact through the air, trying to remind Ikit Claw of the power he still possessed.

Ikit Claw laughed again. The Chief Warlock slapped his metal hand against the shell of the Doomsphere. ‘Kill me and you lose the Doomsphere!’

Thanquol rolled his eyes. The damn litter-runt! By the Horned One, he’d suffer for this! After the Doomsphere was finished, of course. The grey seer wracked his brain for some way to extricate himself from the situation without hurting Ikit Claw. Almost choking on the words, he called out, ‘I let-allow you to share the Doomsphere.’

His answer was a fusillade that blasted the scrap pile and sent shards of metal flying about the cavern. Thanquol was forced to hug the ground, cringing as warpstone bullets whistled over his head and Poison Wind globes shattered against the wall behind him.

Clenching his eyes closed, Thanquol prayed to the Horned Rat. Surely his god could see the trouble he was in. These deluded, misbegotten heretic tinker-rats were standing in the way of progress, obstructing the natural order of dominance that had maintained the Under-Empire for thousands of years. They were trying to upset the careful structure of leadership the Horned Rat himself had established at the Great Summoning. If they weren’t stopped, the cruel warlocks of Clan Skryre would seize control of the Under-Empire for themselves and initiate an unprecedented age of despotism and wickedness! Thanquol was the only chance there was to stop Ikit Claw’s monstrous machine from being put to such a villainous purpose! Surely the wise and beneficent Horned One could see that!

Squeaks of fright suddenly sounded through the cavern. Thanquol opened his eyes. For a moment he expected to see a legion of the Horned Rat’s daemons come to rescue him from the treachery of Clan Skryre. He was a bit dismayed to see the source of the disturbance was just a pack of grubby skaven, leftovers from Bonestash’s resident population. His ears pricked up when he caught the nature of their whines.

Dwarfs! There were dwarfs in the tunnels! Somehow the fur-faced rabble had tracked Ikit Claw down, using a great boring machine to chew their way into the skaven warren. Thanquol chittered happily to himself. All he had to do now was sit back and let his enemies annihilate each other!

The dwarfs rushed through the dirty, ramshackle tunnels, their fierce war-cries echoing through the warren. Despite the ferocity of their cries and the gleaming axes in their hands, the warriors made no effort to attack the verminous creatures that came scurrying out from every dark passageway and black cave. The orders they had been given had been blunt in their directness. They were after big prey and the quickest way to find that prey was to follow the stragglers.

Any dwarf with experience fighting the ratkin knew of their natural cowardice. Confronted by a foe, the skaven would flee unless they far outnumbered their enemy. And where would they run? To someplace where they felt they would be safe. Such as the lair of the despotic monsters who ruled over them.

Klarak Bronzehammer was thankful the warriors were so disciplined. The skaven nest was a confusing labyrinth of boltholes and ratruns, dark and narrow, a place where an army might lose itself for weeks. There was no rhyme or reason behind the layout of the warren, new tunnels and chambers appearing wherever space allowed. Klarak suspected the ratkin themselves didn’t know the layout of their home, using scent rather than memory to guide them through the confusion. One thing a dwarf lacked was the keenness of a skaven’s nose, but by flushing the ratmen out from their holes and following them, they could still exploit the olfactory advantage of their enemy.

Four hundred dwarfs marched with Klarak, as many warriors and miners as Karak Angkul could muster without sacrificing the guards watching the surface gates or those still hunting skaven in the lower deeps. Among the company were King Logan and his hammerers as well as Runelord Morag, a company of longbeards carrying the hold’s Anvil of Doom through the skaven tunnels. It was a testament to just how seriously Klarak’s warnings about Ikit Claw and his weapon had been taken. The Anvil was one of the dwarfhold’s most prized relics. To risk its loss in the murk and slime of a skaven burrow was not the sort of chance any dwarf would take lightly.

‘They’re all scurrying in the same direction,’ Horgar Horgarsson observed. He had stubbornly refused to be left behind in the smelthall, insisting that he was fine after Klarak made a few spot repairs to his steam-harness. By long experience, Klarak knew it was useless to argue with his friend.

‘So now you’re the tracker?’ scoffed Thorlek, the ranger’s furs oddly bulky. The oddity was caused by the wire vest Klarak had compelled his surviving aides to wear. The deaths of Kurgaz and Azram had struck the inventor especially hard. He wanted to take no chances of losing any more of his Iron Throng.

‘Never mind following them,’ snarled Mordin Grimstone. Like Horgar, the slayer had flatly refused to be left behind. Unlike Horgar, however, there was no question about the gravity of Mordin’s wounds. Kimril’s hasty surgery might have stopped most of the bleeding, but the slayer’s body still looked like a piece of chewed meat. ‘When do we start killing them?’ Mordin fingered his axe, a murderous gleam in his eyes.

‘A bit more patience,’ Klarak cautioned. ‘The ratkin lead us to their leaders.’ The engineer felt a twinge of dread as he spoke. The warning from Altdorf rose clear in his mind. Morag and the others who had fought in the Sixth Deep were certain they had seen a horned priest among the skaven. They were equally certain the creature had escaped. That meant Thanquol was alive and likely still helping Ikit Claw with his hellish weapon.

It was not too late. Klarak could still turn back, leave the destruction of Ikit Claw and the Doomsphere to King Logan. The engineer sighed. Even with the warning, he couldn’t turn back. Ikit Claw had to be stopped and his presence in the battle could mean the difference between victory and disaster. If Thanquol was there, then Klarak had to take his chances.

Sometimes, even prophecies went wrong.

Klarak had to be there, had to make certain that, one way or another, the Doomsphere was destroyed. If the dwarfs had to, they would demolish the infernal machine themselves.

The increased sound of skaven squeals and squeaks was the first warning the dwarfs had that they were near their goal. The cramped tunnel gradually opened outwards, linking to a network of broader tunnels. Klarak drew his steam pistol, warning those with him to likewise get their weapons ready. The fight the dwarfs had been spoiling for was almost upon them.

‘You should keep back,’ Horgar advised as they watched the last pack of skaven scuttle down the tunnel and around the corner all the noise was coming from. ‘There could be almost anything in there.’

Klarak patted his bodyguard’s shoulder. ‘If anyone has to be up front, it’s me,’ he said. He produced the special goggles, slipping them down over his head, leaving them on his forehead so they could be dropped over his eyes when needed. ‘I have to see if the ratkin have used the treated plates. I have to know that the Master Rune has been fitted to the Doomsphere.’

‘One of us can do that just as easily,’ objected Thorlek.

The gold-bearded engineer shook his head. ‘My plan, my neck,’ he said. ‘Just keep the ratkin off me long enough to make sure.’ He cocked his head to one side, listening as the squeaks of the skaven suddenly took on an angry tone. Some leader, probably Ikit Claw, was trying to whip the frightened mob into some sort of defence. If the dwarfs were going to strike, the best time was before the ratmen got themselves organised.

‘Bring the thunderers to the fore,’ Klarak advised Thane Erkii. The Minemaster nodded his head, conveying the order down the line. Klarak waited only long enough for the dwarf gunners to push their way through the press of warriors. They presented a grim, menacing appearance, their armour sooty and bloodstained from the fighting in the smelthall. They had lost kith and comrades in the battle, losses they were eager to avenge on the ratkin. It was only right that first blood should be theirs.

Klarak Bronzehammer led the way, flanked by Horgar and Mordin. Running after the last of the fleeing ratmen, the dwarfs soon found themselves at the entrance to a vast cavern. From floor to ceiling, the chamber was littered with a riotous confusion of ratwalks and platforms. Skaven were scattered throughout the elevated tiers, a motley arrangement of sinister weapons clutched in their hairy paws. The armed ratmen glared down at the invaders, their eyes gleaming with a volatile mixture of hate and fear.

Klarak gave the skaven only the briefest notice, his eyes drawn to the sinister round bulk which dominated the centre of the cavern, surrounded by wooden platforms, teams of skaven still crawling over its superstructure. The engineer felt a chill run down his spine as he gazed upon the hideous weapon. Ikit Claw had made some improvements on his previous Doomsphere. This one was easily twice the size of the last, nearly as large as a steamship, and the smell of warpstone rising from it was enough to make Klarak gag. He didn’t want to think about the kind of destruction such a weapon could unleash.

Thunderers dashed into the cavern, coming up short as they stared in fascinated horror at the sinister machine. The skaven squeaked anxiously as they saw the massed ranks of gunmen spilling into their lair. For a moment, both sides stood frozen, gripped by shock and indecision. Silence spread across the cavern.

Into that silence, came a scratchy voice. ‘Dwarf-things! Drop-leave weapons! Surrender-submit! Fight and all dwarf-meat will die-die!’

Grey Seer Thanquol rose from behind the pile of scrap he had taken shelter behind. The onset of the dwarfs had turned the attentions of Ikit Claw’s murderous crew to more important matters. Thanquol saw an opportunity to escape, to slink away while the ratmen turned their guns on the dwarfs. It was a very tempting idea, but one that made the grey seer’s mouth taste sour. This close to achieving his wildest dreams, to attaining the destiny which was his birthright as the favoured prophet-sorcerer of the Horned One – no, he would not slink off like a wounded wolf-rat! The Doomsphere was his! All he had to do was impress that fact upon the heretic vermin trying to kill him!

Thanquol saw the confusion and fear in the postures of the skaven as they hastily climbed into the ratwalks and prepared themselves for the attack. Ikit Claw had some talent for knocking together contraptions of steel and bronze, but the Chief Warlock was a poor leader. He could threaten and bully his subordinates, but he couldn’t instil anything like courage and valour, he couldn’t fire the ferocity of his underlings by invoking the holy words of the Horned Rat.

Thanquol could and he would. He would snatch leadership of these maggots away from Ikit Claw, he would fire their craven souls with the fury of the Horned One and drive them to victory over the dwarfs. They would praise him as their saviour, as their guardian and protector. Then, a twitch of a whisker, and they would turn against Ikit Claw. Under torture, the Claw would reveal everything he knew about the Doomsphere down to how many bolts it took to hold the thing together. Thanquol would enjoy teasing his secrets from the Claw’s torn flesh.

First, however, there was the annoying matter of the dwarfs to consider. Thanquol felt a flash of fear as he saw the gold-bearded dwarf from the mines leading the invaders. That insufferable animal had survived some of the worst magic the grey seer could conjure, and Thanquol wasn’t terribly happy to see the dwarf still possessed the horrible pistol that had riddled Bone-ripper with holes. His quick glance showed him the dwarf’s weaknesses as well as his strengths. There was an unmistakable expression of terror in the invader’s eyes as he stared at the Doomsphere. Thanquol could use that terror. He bruxed his fangs as an idea came to him.

Stepping out from his cover, Thanquol called out to the dwarf-things in their harsh, cumbersome language. The grey seer felt his fur crawl as the eyes of the dwarfs turned on him. He appreciated just how exposed he was, but it was a necessary risk if he was going to impress the treacherous Clan Skryre skaven. They had to know he was a brave and imposing war-leader, unafraid of the things that sent yellow fear slithering down their spines.

Thanquol’s heart pounded against his ribs as the eyes of Klarak Bronzehammer fell upon him. The grey seer cast a covetous gaze at a stack of timbers close by. They would make a convenient shelter. A sidewise glance at the Doomsphere made him dismiss the thought. The dwarf was more afraid than he was. That made him the stronger.

‘Surrender-submit!’ Thanquol hissed. ‘Or I start-begin Doomsphere! Destroy-kill all dwarf-burrow!’ The grey seer gestured imperiously towards the weapon. It looked complete. There was no way the dwarfs could know it wasn’t. He could see from the way the colour drained out of Klarak’s face that the dwarf understood the havoc the machine was capable of.

A scuffle broke out among the dwarfs. A shaven-headed maniac tried to charge Thanquol. The grey seer spurted the musk of fear when he saw the ginger-furred dwarf and the hate gleaming in his eyes. Thanquol quickly jerked his gaze across the rest of the throng, looking to see if the slayer had a human pet tagging along with him.

The threat was quickly subdued, a big dwarf with a curious metal framework supporting his body grappling the slayer in a fierce bearhug. Thanquol chittered maliciously to see the frustrated fury on the slayer’s face. After the dwarfs laid down their weapons, that fanatic would be the first one to die. Thanquol might even do the job himself, if it looked reasonably safe.

‘Drop-leave weapons!’ Thanquol cried out, pointing impatiently at the ground.

Klarak glared back at the grey seer. ‘No,’ the dwarf spat.

Thanquol lashed his tail angrily. Why was it that dwarfs were never as stupid as they looked? He pointed his staff at the Doomsphere, reminding Klarak of its menace. ‘Start-start Doomsphere! Kill-kill all dwarf-meat!’ he threatened.

The engineer shook his head. ‘No,’ he repeated. His gold-flake eyes became as cold as the black aethyr itself. Thanquol instinctively cringed under the gaze. ‘I have been warned that you are my doom. But perhaps, I am yours.’ Klarak raised his steam pistol.

Fixated upon the menace of the dwarfs, Thanquol did not hear the shot until the bullet went zipping through his robes. The grey seer leaped into the air, landing on all fours, shivering in terror. A sharp squeak of agony sounded from nearby, punctuated by the discordant clatter of a bell striking the ground. Thanquol swung his head around to see Nikkrit topple to the floor, a bloody hole gaping in his chest. The grey seer fumbled at his robes, noting with horror the blackened burn marks where the bullet had passed, missing him by the width of a whisker.

Thanquol’s would-be killer snarled, hurling the spent warplock pistol at the grey seer’s head. Ikit Claw’s eyes gleamed with outraged fury. Twice frustrated in his efforts to kill the grey seer, the warlock gnashed his fangs and spun around to retrieve Storm Daemon from where it leaned against the side of the Doomsphere.

Ikit Claw’s shot threw the cavern into pandemonium. The tense standoff was shattered in a deafening din of gunfire and the hideous whoosh of warpflame. Skaven shrieked as dwarf bullets smashed into their bodies, pitching them headlong to the cavern floor. Dwarfs screamed as their armour was gouged by warpstone missiles, the poisonous stones searing through their bodies. A swath of the entrance became an inferno of green fire as a ratkin warpfire projector doused it in flame.

Where lesser foes would have broken, the dwarfs remained steadfast. The thunderers returned the erratic fire of the skaven skirmishers while squads of axe-bearing warriors rushed into the cavern, climbing into the ratwalks and taking the fight to their cringing foes.

Klarak watched Thanquol scramble across the floor, seeking shelter behind a pile of timber. The engineer started after the fleeing grey seer, then stopped himself. His own peril wasn’t important. The greater threat to the whole of the dwarf kingdom had to be confronted first. He lowered the goggles over his eyes, smiling coldly as he saw the engravings shining out from the Barrazhunk plates that formed the Doomsphere’s shell. Most of the engravings had been scratched out, obliterated by Kurgaz’s burin when he failed to complete them. One plate, however, had not been defaced. Standing out bold and bright, it bore the Master Rune.

Activity at the base of the Doomsphere drew the engineer’s attention. Klarak felt his heart go cold with hate as he saw Ikit Claw throw away his pistol and reach for the black length of Storm Daemon. Here was the killer of Kurgaz and Azram and so many other dwarfs. Here was the monster who had built this hellish machine, the fiend who would destroy the mountains themselves in his obscene lust for power.

Klarak aimed his pistol at the Chief Warlock. Destroying the Doomsphere was only a half measure. While Ikit Claw lived, there was a chance the monster could build another.

Thanquol scrambled behind the pile of timbers, clapping his paws against his horns as bullets whistled around him. He wasn’t certain if the shooters were dwarfs or ratmen, but at the moment he didn’t much care. Things had spiralled out of control, beyond his ability to recover. It was all that traitorous weasel Ikit Claw’s fault! There was a time for disputing leadership positions, but to do so in the face of the enemy! Any decent skaven would set aside such petty squabbles and form a common front against their foes! What Ikit Claw had done was tantamount to treason against the whole of skavendom!

A thrill of satisfaction swept through the grey seer’s body as he heard the distinct discharge of Klarak’s steam pistol and saw Ikit Claw struck by the dwarf’s marksmanship. The Chief Warlock’s iron frame deflected most of the bullets, but a few struck spots not protected by his magic armour. The Claw wilted to the floor of the platform, blood gushing from wounds in his legs and shoulder. Only his grip on his halberd kept him from collapsing completely.

Good! Let the faithless maggot die! The dwarf-things were welcome to him. Thanquol might even help them if they looked unable to finish the job!

The grey seer’s nose twitched as a horrible realisation came upon him. Finish the job! Ikit Claw still had to finish the Doomsphere! It was worthless without him! Fishing a tiny piece of warpstone from his robe, Thanquol frantically ground the pebble into dust between his fangs, drawing its energies into his body.

Hastily, the grey seer formed the energy into a spell, evoking a sorcerous shield to stand between the brave Ikit Claw and his murderous persecutors. A shimmering haze of yellow fog formed in front of the wounded warlock. The hail of bullets coming from Klarak’s pistol struck the fog but went no farther, stuck like flies in amber.

Thanquol grinned at the success of his spell. Ikit Claw would be grateful for his rescue and his gratitude would place him even more firmly under the grey seer’s control. Now he’d freely offer up the secrets of the Doomsphere and then…

A fierce dwarf war-cry brought Thanquol whipping around. Ikit Claw, Klarak Bronzehammer, the Doomsphere, all of these were forgotten as a crazed, half-naked dwarf came screaming across the cavern. The dwarf’s eyes blazed with maniacal fury. Thanquol was surprised to note that the creature had a familiar smell about it. Again, he glanced nervously for any sign of a human tagalong.

‘Thanquol!’ the slayer howled, brandishing the axes filling each of his powerful hands. ‘I am Mordin Grimstone! You killed my brother! For that, you die!’

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Thanquol felt raw fear squirming through his innards as the crazed dwarf dived at him. Mordin brought both of his axes slashing down, their sharp edges shining in the green warp-light. In a panic, the grey seer threw all of his magical energies into erecting another shell of aethyric force to repulse his attacker. The yellow haze leapt into existence between himself and the slayer. Mordin struck the barrier as though it were a solid wall, rebounding from it and crashing to the floor.

Any hope that the dwarf maniac had broken his own neck vanished a few moments later when Mordin lurched back onto his feet. The dwarf’s face was a mask of blood, his nose squashed into an unrecognisable mush, but the slayer’s eyes continued to burn with the raw fury of unbridled hate. He crashed his axes together and rushed towards Thanquol, slashing his blades against the magic barrier, as though he might cut his way through the grey seer’s sorcery.

Such unreasoning insanity made Thanquol’s glands clench. What had he done to warrant such obsessed hate? Killed the dwarf-thing’s litter-kin? Surely the deranged beast had plenty of others! Why did he have to get so emotional about it?

Thanquol realised with horror that the slayer was doing the impossible. He was making progress. Step by step his axes were cutting through the barrier. For the first time, Thanquol noticed the faint smell of magic about the axes, his eyes spotting the runes gleaming in the axe blades. Cursing all dwarfs and their sneaky magic, the grey seer summoned his fading energies for another spell. He’d have to be a good deal more proactive about destroying his would-be killer.

A crackling stream of green lightning erupted from the head of Thanquol’s staff, snapping around the slayer’s body. Mordin howled in agony, electricity dancing across his axes and blazing about his teeth. Smoke rose from the dwarf’s beard and headcrest, blood boiled about his open wounds. The grey seer chittered with amusement as his enemy crumpled to the ground. So would fall all who opposed the might of Grey Seer Thanquol and the Horned Rat!

Chittering laughter died in a squeal of fright. The dwarf raised his head, his hateful eyes glaring at Thanquol. Painfully, Mordin gained his feet, spitting a blob of blood onto the floor. ‘You killed my brother,’ he growled. ‘Now you die.’

With a lunge, the slayer hurled himself towards Thanquol. Desperately, the grey seer raised his staff, pouring his fading magical energies into strengthening its wooden substance, rendering it tougher than steel. In his panic, Thanquol dissolved the sorcerous shell protecting Ikit Claw, channelling the reclaimed energies into his own defence. The Chief Warlock would have to fend for himself now, Thanquol had more pressing concerns to worry about.

Mordin’s axes rebounded from the strengthened staff, sending the dwarf stumbling backwards. Thanquol swung the heavy metal head of his staff at the slayer, the sharp edge slashing across the dwarf’s breast. Satisfied that he’d gained at least a few seconds, the grey seer scrambled onto the pile of timbers, trying to reach one of the overhanging ratwalks. Behind him, he heard the slayer’s angry voice. The timber pile shuddered as Mordin used his axes to hack away at Thanquol’s refuge.

The grey seer made a frantic leap for the lowest of the ratwalks, his flailing claws missing the edge of the platform by inches. Squeaking in fright, he crashed to the floor, his staff knocked from his hand, the breath crushed from his lungs. Thanquol rolled onto his back, his terrified gaze turning back towards the timber pile. Mordin stood there, crashing his axes together, vengeance burning in his eyes. Uttering a savage war-cry, the slayer leapt down upon his foe.

A frightened squeal rose from the grey seer as he rolled away, scurrying across the floor on all fours. Mordin’s axes gouged the earth as he landed. The slayer roared with frustration when he found there wasn’t a furry body beneath his blades. Ripping the axes free, he rounded on the cringing Thanquol.

‘Run, vermin! You won’t escape death, and you won’t escape me!’

Thanquol fingered another shard of warpstone. So soon after drawing upon the aethyric energies trapped inside it, he wasn’t anxious to take the risk of taking any more. The image of his body disintegrating into a puddle of twitching flesh wasn’t a pleasant one. Then again, the image of being hacked to ribbons by a crazed dwarf-thing wasn’t appealing either.

‘Boneripper!’ Thanquol cried out in desperation. ‘Save-guard your master-lord!’

Mordin’s axes came slashing down, one of them ripping the sleeve from Thanquol’s robe, another glancing off the side of his horn. The embattled grey seer kicked out with his legs, his claws slashing across Mordin’s belly. The dwarf grunted in pain, but the feeble attack wasn’t enough to stop his relentless assault.

The immense shape that loomed up behind him, however, was. Boneripper’s skeletal claws closed about the dwarf’s body before he knew the rat-ogre was there. Mordin cried out in rage as the mechanical monster lifted him from the ground. His axes chopped at the brute’s arms, chipping the bone and denting the steel. Boneripper gave no notice of the dwarf’s frenzied attack, oblivious to the hurt being inflicted upon it.

‘Grimnir!’ the slayer shrieked, hurling one of his axes full into the face of his attacker. The gromril blade bit deep into Boneripper’s fleshless skull, catching fast in its mechanical brain. For an instant, the rat-ogre shuddered, its body freezing. Thanquol cursed the stupid contraption, allowing itself to be destroyed before it had disposed of his enemy. Mordin laughed, a cruel sound filled with murderous mirth, and turned his remaining axe against the rat-ogre’s claws. One of the bony digits went spinning away, followed soon after by a second. In a matter of moments, the slayer would free himself.

Then Boneripper suddenly lurched back into motion, its mechanisms recovering from the trauma of Mordin’s axe. Savagely, the rat-ogre lifted its victim into the air and began to twist the dwarf’s body. Blood cascaded down the monster’s claws as it wrenched the slayer apart.

Klarak Bronzehammer raced towards the Doomsphere, determined that this time Ikit Claw would not escape. The bullets from his steam pistol clattered against the warlock’s armour, but a few shots managed to strike the gaps in his defences. Unfortunately, the Claw had more than his insidious technologies to protect him. Before Klarak could finish him off, a magic barrier sprang up between the engineer and his enemy, trapping the bullets that would have ended the monster’s evil.

Klarak tossed the spent steam pistol aside, unslinging the steam hammer lashed across his back. Around him, the battle raged. Dwarf warriors fought the teeming hordes of ratmen across the cavern, up in the rickety ratwalks and platforms, wherever their verminous foes could be found. The skaven took a deadly toll on their attackers, warpstone bullets burning through even the heaviest armour, Poison Wind smothering the fiercest of fighters. Entire ratwalks came crashing to the floor, torn from their moorings by the weight of those fighting upon them or else burned loose by the green hell-flame of the warpfire projectors.

The battle hung in the balance. The dwarfs were limited by how many of their number could charge through the cavern entrance at one time and many of their best troops were still confined to the tunnels outside. Entering the cavern, the invaders presented opportune targets for the jezzails clustered about the highest tiers of platforms. The marksmanship of the skaven was slovenly, but in the press of armoured bodies at the entrance, even the worst shot couldn’t fail to inflict harm.

If the dwarfs were to be certain of victory, then they needed to shatter the cornered courage of the ratkin. The best way to do that was to remove their leader. It was doubly important now that Klarak eliminate Ikit Claw quickly.

The engineer rushed across the cavern, his steam hammer lashing out and crushing the skull of a black-furred ratman who lunged at him from a pile of scrap. A second skaven, a glowing sword clutched in its paws, made a dive for Klarak’s back. Before he could sink his blade home, the ratman found himself smashed down by the hammer of Horgar Horgarsson.

‘You don’t make it easy on your bodyguard,’ Horgar grumbled, shaking the crushed ratman from the head of his hammer.

‘Nothing worth fighting for is easy,’ Klarak replied. He pointed at the Doomsphere. ‘I’m going after Ikit. Keep the rest of the ratkin off me.’

Horgar nodded, his steam-powered armour venting vapour as he charged ahead of his friend. A tangle of ratmen leapt out of hiding to assault the dwarf and keep him from reaching their master. Horgar laughed as he drove his hammer into the bestial mob, breaking limbs and crushing skulls at every turn. Several skaven held back, trying to train the lethal length of a warpfire projector on the hammerer, heedless of their own comrades who would be caught in the blast.

Before they could unleash the fury of their weapon, a concentrated barrage of bullets smashed into the ratmen’s ranks. Thorlek snarled as he unloaded his steam pistol into the cringing monsters, crying out jubilantly as one of his shots punctured the fuel canister for the projector and engulfed the slinking killers in a spray of burning liquid.

Klarak exploited the violence to run past the ratmen defending the Doomsphere. Throwing himself up the ramshackle ladder, the adventurer brought his steam hammer cracking into the chest of a last skaven who scurried out from hiding. Then he turned his eyes towards his real enemy.

Ikit Claw glared at Klarak from behind his metal mask. The Chief Warlock leaned heavily upon Storm Daemon, using the deadly weapon as a crutch to support his weakened body. Black blood coated the ratman’s tattered robes and stained the plates of his iron frame.

‘Bronzehammer,’ Ikit Claw hissed. ‘You try to stop me, but you cannot stop-kill progress!’ The skaven tapped his metal claw against the Doomsphere’s shell.

‘This madness ends now,’ Klarak growled back. He rushed the injured skaven, but his charge turned into a wild sprawl when his foe suddenly sprang to one side.

The steel rasp of Ikit’s laughter stung Klarak’s ears. ‘Fool-meat! The only thing ends here is your life!’ The warlock lunged at Klarak, slashing the dwarf’s vest with his steel claws. The adventurer kicked out with his boot, smashing the side of the skaven’s sensitive snout.

Ikit Claw limped back, leaning against Storm Daemon. The warlock had feigned weakness to make his foe overconfident, but he was still in no condition for a protracted fight. Snarling in rage, he pointed his metal claw at Klarak, the blades opening outwards and exposing the nozzle of the warpfire projector built into the palm.

Klarak rolled away, throwing himself over the side of the platform an instant before the Claw’s fire came for him. His fingers closed about the edge of the scaffolding, holding him just beneath the lip of the platform. He waited until the sound of Ikit’s weapon faded, then, with a display of strength incredible even for a dwarf, he pulled himself back onto the charred platform. Before Ikit could unleash a second gout of warpfire, Klarak flung a small, egg-shaped grenade at the ratman. It exploded against the metal claw, coating the weapon in white powder.

The Claw’s nose twitched and a snarl of unbridled rage screamed through his clenched fangs. He recognised the scent of Klarak’s smother-dust and knew what would happen if he tried to send another burst of warpfire after his enemy. The skaven lashed his tail in fury, his eyes blazing with a mad light.

‘Fool-meat! Now all-all dwarf-thing die!’ Ikit Claw sprang away as Klarak dived for him. The warlock turned, slashing the blades of his claw at the engineer’s head. Klarak ducked beneath the murderous sweep of his enemy’s talons, wincing as he heard the sharp blades grind against the shell of the Doomsphere.

Klarak tackled the crazed warlock, locking his arms about the ratman’s waist and spilling him to the floor of the platform. The talons of Ikit’s feet raked against the dwarf’s legs, scratching uselessly against the engineer’s armour.

‘All-all dwarf-thing die!’ Ikit Claw raged. The warlock brought his head smacking full into Klarak’s face, the metal helmet cracking into the dwarf’s skull with the force of a hammer. Klarak reeled back in pain, loosening his grip enough for his foe to squirm out from beneath him.

Ikit Claw stumbled away, lurching towards a panel of levers and gears projecting from the side of the Doomsphere. ‘Now all-all dwarf-thing die!’ he squealed triumphantly. Scratchy laughter shook the ratman as he saw Klarak stagger to his feet. ‘Too late, Bronzehammer! Your dwarf-metal was all I needed!

‘My Doomsphere is fully operational!’

Thanquol chortled with glee as Boneripper twisted Mordin in half. The deranged slayer deserved such a fate, obsessing over something as trivial as the demise of a litter-mate. No skaven would have ever been so petty in his hatred.

The immediate threat of the slayer removed, Thanquol turned his attention back to Ikit Claw. If the idiot had gotten himself killed in the last few minutes, the grey seer hoped the Horned One had an especially nasty hell arranged for Ikit’s soul! Cheating Thanquol of his rightful destiny, what greater depths of treachery could a skaven sink to?

Thanquol breathed a little easier when he saw Ikit Claw standing beside the Doomsphere, the gold-bearded dwarf bleeding and helpless at his feet. There was still some life in the dwarf, which meant Thanquol still had a chance to strike down the fool and put himself into the Claw’s good graces. Then it would just be a small matter of assassinating the warlock once the Doomsphere was complete.

Summoning up a small measure of power, just enough to send a flicker of warp-lightning searing through Klarak’s heart, Thanquol hesitated when he heard Ikit’s steel voice. The grey seer’s fangs snapped together in a snarl when he heard the warlock boast that the Doomsphere was operational.

The scheming flea had been lying to him all along! The weapon was already complete! There was no reason now to suffer the warlock-engineer’s insufferable heresy and treason! Hissing malignantly, Thanquol pointed his staff at Ikit Claw.

Before the grey seer could unleash his magic against the traitorous rat, he heard the Claw speak again. Something about killing all of the dwarfs. Thanquol’s empty glands clenched as the warlock’s true intentions struck his brain.

The mad, psychopathic maniac was going to activate the Doomsphere! In all of his plans for the weapon, Thanquol had never intended to actually use it! He’d smash the very empire he wanted to conquer!

Surely Ikit Claw wasn’t crazed enough to think he could activate the Doomsphere and not wreak untold destruction upon skavendom! The answer came to Thanquol in a burst of fear. The Claw was crazy, obsessed with his science and his technology. He didn’t care what happened to the Under-Empire, so long as he could boast about unleashing the most destructive force ever known to ratkin! The Claw would ruin all of skavendom just so he could measure the power of his bomb!

Thanquol sent the bolt of warp-lightning sizzling across the cavern. The malignant magic crackled over Klarak’s prone body, streaking straight towards Ikit Claw. The warlock’s body was engulfed in the discharge, snakes of electricity writhing about him. But the fury of Thanquol’s spell was quickly spent, draining away into the warp generator fitted to Storm Daemon’s blade. An unharmed Ikit Claw turned, fangs bared beneath his metal mask. His beady eyes fixed hatefully on his horned attacker.

‘Die-die, fool-meat!’ Ikit snapped, his metal claw closing about one of the levers and thrusting it upwards. The metal-faced warlock chittered maniacally as the immense Doomsphere shuddered into life, warp-steam venting from its sides, electricity crackling about its shell. Still laughing, Ikit Claw pressed his paw against his belt. The next instant, the warlock vanished in a cloud of purple smoke.

Squeals of horror shuddered through the cavern as the embattled skaven became aware of their master’s treachery. Better than anyone, they knew the awful potential of the Doomsphere. Sheer terror sent them scurrying down from the ratwalks, fleeing across the cavern straight into the waiting axes and hammers of the dwarfs.

Thanquol glanced at the entranceway, not terribly keen to share the fate of all the skaven being so dramatically cut down by the dwarfs. There was always the possibility of using his magic to escape. He fingered a piece of warpstone, knowing that if he could control its energies he’d be able to skitterleap through the void. The only problem was doing so would possibly result in his reappearing inside a solid wall. That sounded about as messy as anything the Doomsphere would do to him.

The Doomsphere! There was still a chance! If he could just shut the thing down, he’d overcome Ikit’s treachery and possess the most powerful weapon in skavendom! Thanquol nervously took a pinch of warpsnuff to quell the terror coursing through his veins. The difference between a leader and a slave was making sure greed was never stifled by fear.

Scurrying across the cavern, Thanquol rushed to stop the Doomsphere. He leapt onto the bucking work platform, the energies of the machine causing the scaffolding to roll and shiver like an angry sea. As he tried to gain his footing, he saw Klarak dive down from the platform. The dwarf was wearing strange goggles over his eyes and kept glancing back at the Doomsphere’s shell. Thanquol contemplated sending a blast of magic burning through the dwarf’s back, but quickly suppressed the murderous urge. First he had to stop the Doomsphere, then he could worry about the dwarf-things.

Horns blasted throughout the cavern, the deep brazen notes of dwarf trumpets. They were withdrawing from the chamber, fleeing back into the tunnels. Thanquol could hear Klarak’s voice raised in warning, urging his comrades to run, as though the fools could escape the destructive might of the Doomsphere by running! Thanquol was almost tempted to let the bomb detonate just to show the dwarfs what fools they were.

The grey seer clapped his paws to his horns. That was the warp-snuff talking!

Frantically, Thanquol raced to the control box. He stared stupidly at the bizarre array of buttons, levers and gears, trying to maintain his footing as the Doomsphere bucked and shuddered around him. The violent vibrations emanating from the machine were causing the walls to shudder, knocking great chunks of rock from the roof and collapsing the confusion of ratwalks and platforms. Thanquol’s glands clenched as the whole cavern groaned. He risked a look over his shoulder, watching as the last of the dwarfs hurried back into the tunnels. He’d have never believed the creatures could move so fast.

Fear pounding in his chest, Thanquol cursed the confusion of controls and turned his thought to some other way of disabling the amok Doomsphere. He’d never made it a point to study the workings of Clan Skryre’s obscene technology. The only proper magic for skaven to study was that which had been taught to them by the Horned Rat. Yet he remembered snatches of conversation he’d had with Heskit One Eye before the Battle of Nuln. He recalled something about the warlock-engineers using different coloured wires in their machines and how any of their devices could be shut down by pulling out the red wires.

The Doomsphere’s vibrations sent a hill-sized chunk of rock smashing down, gouging a deep pit in the cavern floor. Warp-steam exploded from the machine’s vents, corroding the walls. Fingers of lightning whipped about the platform, nearly scorching Thanquol’s tail.

The grey seer needed no further prompting. Grinding his fangs together, he lunged at the control box, slipping his claws beneath the brass covering and ripping it free. The red wire! All he had to do was rip out the red wire!

Thanquol cursed the name of Ikit Claw and the perfidy of the Horned One! All the wires were black! That deranged maniac had ensured his machine couldn’t be stopped by using only one colour wire!

The lightning storm emanating from the quaking Doomsphere increased in its fury, throwing Thanquol from the platform. He was hurled across the quivering ground, ratwalks and boulders crashing down all around him. The grey seer popped the sliver of warpstone into his mouth, grinding it beneath his fangs. He felt the intoxicating rush of aethyric power surge through his body. Then his eyes were drawn upwards.

A boulder the size of a village came crashing down from the ceiling, dropping straight towards the grey seer.

At the centre of the cavern, the immense Doomsphere continued its crazed revolutions. Warp-steam erupted from its broken casing, scorching the walls and chewing apart ceiling and floor. Skaven shrieked as boulders continued to rain down, but the rocks falling towards the whirling mechanisms of the Doomsphere shattered as they came into contact with the murderous cloud of steam.

The plates upon the Doomsphere began to buckle, sucked into the churning maw of its vengeful heart. Even the wondrous alloy which was the pinnacle of dwarf metallurgy could not resist the pull of the weapon’s churning belly. Gradually they were torn loose from their fastenings, dragged into the boiling maw of the void-engine.

As the plate marked with the Rune of Power was torn free, the entire machine crumpled, folding in upon itself. A final terrific scream rose from the warp-furnace as the Doomsphere completed its self-annihilation in one last bellow of violence.

The skaven warren shook as a tremendous explosion rumbled through its tunnels. The dwarfs covered themselves with their shields, blocking the shower of rocks and earth that rained down upon them. As the tremors grew, so did the anxiety of the dwarfs. In their own deeps, with good dwarf construction over their heads, they wouldn’t have been so scared, but none of them trusted the ramshackle skaven tunnels to withstand such violence.

Thane Erkii and his miners sprang into action, hurriedly fixing braces to the shoddy skaven construction, trying to bolster the strength of the trembling walls. Familiar with the hazards of skaven warrens, the expedition had descended into the depths fully prepared to dig their own shafts to reach their quarry as the cowardly ratmen were prone to collapse their own tunnels. Now that foresight served the dwarfs well.

As the shudders gradually passed and the cramped tunnels began to settle, King Logan and Runelord Morag picked their way through the press of dirt-covered dwarf warriors. The two lords had been too far back in the tunnels to take part in the fighting, but they were eager to get an account from those who had.

‘Engineer Klarak,’ King Logan addressed the adventurer when he reached the mouth of the tunnel. Klarak bowed respectfully to his sovereign. ‘This expedition has been a success? You have settled the grudge laid down against you?’

Klarak shook his head. ‘I fear not,’ he confessed. ‘The Doomsphere is destroyed, but Ikit Claw used his filthy magic to escape.’

Runelord Morag nodded as he heard the engineer’s account. ‘This was why you requested that Runesmith Kurgaz be allowed to study the Master Rune of Unmaking?’

‘No,’ Klarak told the white-bearded dwarf. ‘Originally I planned to use the Master Rune to protect my own inventions. To keep them from falling into the hands of our enemies.’

‘The magic of the Master Rune would do that,’ Morag conceded. ‘It was created to guard the most potent of runeweapons and to destroy them if any hand but that of a dwarf sought to use them.’ The Runelord’s expression became bitter. ‘I do not believe that allowing such a potent rune to be used upon an abominable construction of the ratkin is either proper or respectful.’

Klarak shook his head. ‘Such was not my intention. When I was warned about Thanquol, I felt the need to guard my inventions. That was my only purpose in asking Kurgaz to learn the Master Rune. When I learned that Ikit Claw was also threatening Karak Angkul, I knew there was another way the Master Rune could be used to safeguard the Karak Ankor.’

‘You let the skaven finish their machine knowing the Master Rune would cause it to destroy itself the moment it was activated?’ Thorlek was astonished by the subtlety of his master’s plan.

‘First we had to be sure they used the plate with the rune upon it,’ Klarak said, tapping the goggles resting across his forehead. ‘Once I was certain of that, I knew the skaven were finished.’

‘But you said Ikit Claw escaped,’ King Logan observed. ‘Can you be certain he won’t just make another one?’

‘He will never be able to build another on such a scale without my barazhunk,’ Klarak said. ‘And I will never forge the alloy again. Every trace of it will be taken to the smelthall and melted down. The danger it now poses to our people is greater than any benefit it can provide.’

There was a sad tone of resignation in Klarak’s voice as he spoke, acknowledging the terrible danger his alloy had brought upon his people. It was ever the way with the dwarfs. Every step forwards only seemed to bring them that much closer to their own doom.

Klarak’s eyes grew cold as he thought about doom. Ikit Claw was gone, but there was still the threat of Thanquol hovering over Karak Angkul. If one skaven sorcerer had used magic to escape the Doomsphere’s destruction, it was possible the other had done the same. The only way to make certain was to go back into the cavern and dig out Thanquol’s corpse.

‘We’ll have to collect every scrap of barazhunk from the cave,’ Horgar said. ‘Might take weeks to dig it all out.’

‘The Master Rune will have taken care of it,’ Runelord Morag said. ‘Its power will have reduced the entire machine to dust.’

‘There is something just as vital for us to find,’ Klarak said, his voice like an icy wind. ‘When I ran from the cavern, Thanquol was trying to shut down the Doomsphere.’

‘Clearly he didn’t,’ Horgar said. ‘And if he stayed around any longer than you did, then the whole cavern must have come crashing down about his ears.’ The hammerer made a graphic illustration by smashing a rock between his steam-powered gauntlets.

‘We can’t leave it to chance,’ Klarak said. ‘We have to dig through the rubble and find his body.’

‘And if we don’t?’ asked King Logan, disliking the worried look in Klarak’s eyes.

‘Then I’m afraid Karak Angkul is still in danger,’ the engineer told him. ‘We’ve saved the rest of the Karak Ankor from the skaven, but our own homes are still threatened.’

Thanquol hugged his arms against his sides, the chill of the void clinging to him like a cloak of frost. His empty glands kept clenching, trying to spurt the musk of fear, his mind racing with the raw terror of his passage through the aethyr. Every time he invoked his magic to sunder the veil between worlds he was certain he’d never emerge safely. The void was populated by numberless legions of damned spirits and ravenous daemons, each of them eager to ravage a mortal intruder.

Never again! He’d never put himself at such risk again! Next time he would find some clean way out of his troubles, plan an escape route that wouldn’t end with him in the belly of a daemon!

He hoped that Ikit Claw hadn’t been as fortunate. If the warlock’s spell had employed the same principles as Thanquol’s, then it might not be too much to hope that the traitor had paid for his crimes. Torn asunder by daemons, his spirit doomed to wander the void until it was finally devoured by some nightmarish phantom.

The braggart weasel! Boasting about his vaunted science! Claiming his Doomsphere could reshape the world, place the skaven who possessed it at the very pinnacle of power! The useless contraption! What was the use of having a superweapon if the first time you tried to use it the thing blew up in your face?

There would be a reckoning. Thanquol would lay this sordid scheme out before the Council. Clan Skryre would suffer for what they had done, threatening to upset the whole hierarchy of the Under-Empire!

Thanquol forced himself to calm down long enough to take stock of his surroundings. His spell had sent him into the Underway, but his nose told him he was no great distance from the refuse piles outside Bone-stash’s tunnels. He’d been forced to leave Boneripper behind when making his escape, but that was inconsequential. His faith in Clan Skryre technology had been shaken of late.

Still, his journey to Bonestash wasn’t a complete loss. The two-scented traitor Skraekual was dead. The Hand of Vecteek was recovered. Thanquol still wasn’t sure about the artefact. The more he thought about it, the more wrong the thing felt. He’d certainly need to find a pliable dupe to harness its powers for him.

Thanquol’s head jerked around as a curious scent struck his nose. Sniffing at the dank air of the old dwarf road, the grey seer was impressed by a heavy, musky smell. Skaven of Clan Mors, there was no mistaking their scent. Most likely refugees from Bonestash returning to see what was left of their homes.

Thanquol straightened his posture, preening himself so that he would look his most intimidating. He wasn’t eager to make the long journey back to Skavenblight alone. A bit of brow-beating, some threats of divine retribution from the Horned Rat, and he’d have this pack of wretches eating out of his paw. They’d follow him straight back to the Shattered Tower if he told them to, though Thanquol’s recent experiences made him consider he’d only need to take them as far as the slave market.

The grey seer’s whiskers twitched with uncertainty as the smell continued to grow stronger. There were certainly a lot of refugees. His ears could pick up the squeaks and snarls of a large number of skaven, the tromp of many marching feet, the rattle of armour and weapons.

Into the dim light of the Underway, a vast army of ratmen marched into view. Thanquol could see from their banners and the designs on their shields that they belonged to Clan Mors. Belatedly, he remembered Rikkit Snapfang’s desertion. His worries that the warlord was going to tattle to his superiors had been well founded.

The army came to a halt when the pickets caught Thanquol’s scent. Their leader pushed his way through the pack. Thanquol found himself staring at Rikkit Snapfang. The warlord stared back. It was all he could do, his eyes frozen in an expression of terror, his severed head spitted on a spike. Other decapitated heads grinned from the trophy rack lashed to the crimson armour of the army’s leader. Thanquol bruxed his fangs nervously as the dark-furred warlord glowered at him.

The grey seer knew this warlord, the most fearsome of Warlord Gnawdwell’s henchrats. Within the Under-Empire, the name of Queek Headtaker was infamous. Tales were told about the warlord’s fits of violence and crazed bloodlust that would have a hardened Eshin assassin spraying the musk of fear.

‘Traitor-meat,’ Queek snarled, pointing the spiked maul in his hand at Thanquol. The ranks of red-armoured stormvermin behind the warlord growled menacingly.

‘No! No!’ Thanquol whined. ‘Loyal-true! Servant of the Council! Prophet of the Horned One!’

Queek’s eyes lost none of their malignance. ‘Rikkit-meat says you betray Bonestash to Clan Skryre.’ The warlord cocked his head, pushing one of his ears against Rikkit’s cold lips. ‘Yes-yes, he say-squeak you betray Clan Mors!’

Thanquol grimaced at this display of Queek’s madness. He turned a hopeful look at the skaven warriors, but if any of them thought their leader was deranged, none of them were about to do anything about it. There was an empty spike on Queek’s trophy rack.

‘No! No!’ Thanquol grovelled. ‘Ikit Claw is my enemy too. He try to trick-lie, but I find out what he was up to.’

The warlord waved his paw and a dozen black-furred stormvermin closed upon Thanquol. The grey seer’s mind raced, trying to recall everything he’d ever heard about the Headtaker.

‘I can take-lead you to Karak Angkul,’ Thanquol squealed. ‘Most of the dwarf-things are down in Bonestash. Their own burrows are unprotected.’ Thanquol was gambling on the pathological hatred Queek was said to hold for all dwarf-things.

The gamble paid off. Queek raised his maul, motioning for his stormvermin to stay back. ‘If this is a trick, you die,’ he snarled.

‘No! No! No trick!’

Queek grinned, lips pulling away from his fangs. ‘Good. Kill the traitor-meat, then we march on the dwarf-things.’

Thanquol scurried between the advancing stormvermin. ‘Wait-listen!’ he cried. ‘I have mighty sorcery! This is the Hand of Vecteek!’ Thanquol brandished the artefact, hoping Queek would be intimidated by it the way Ikit Claw had. Unfortunately, it seemed the warlord had never heard of it. The stormvermin rushed at Thanquol, stabbing at him with their swords and halberds. The grey seer was forced to duck and dodge between their blades, desperately seeking any way past the closing ring of steel. His magic spent escaping the Doomsphere, he knew that only his cunning would save him now.

‘I can help you!’ Thanquol shouted. ‘I can help kill-slay dwarf-things! I can call upon the Horned One to kill-slay all-all dwarf-things!’

Queek uttered a savage cry. At the sound, the stormvermin fell back. The warlord approached Thanquol, his fierce eyes glaring at the horned priest. ‘Kill-slay all dwarf-things?’ he growled.

‘Yes! Yes!’ Thanquol exclaimed. He held the severed paw of Vecteek up so that Queek could see it. ‘I can use this to call up great-mighty magic! Spells powerful enough to kill-slay all dwarf-things!’

There was a fanatical gleam in Queek’s eyes. The warlord tilted his head, pressing his ear first to Rikkit’s lips, then to the toothless skull of an orc. Thanquol shuddered as he heard Queek whispering to his trophies, conferring with them, seeking their council.

‘Good-good,’ the warlord decided. ‘Thanquol will help kill-slay dwarf-things.’ Queek pressed the spiked end of his maul against the grey seer’s snout. ‘Make good magic, Thanquol. If you don’t…’ Queek twisted the maul around, pointing to the empty spot on his trophy rack.

Thanquol swallowed the lump in his throat. All things considered, he would rather be dealing with his good friend Ikit Claw again.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

‘Mordin Grimstone has found his doom,’ Thorlek said, a tremor in his voice. A path had been cleared through the worst of the rubble by Thane Erkii’s miners. Klarak and his aides had followed close behind, inspecting each of the crushed, mangled skaven carcasses, desperately hoping to find the horned carcass of Grey Seer Thanquol amongst the dead. It was ugly, nasty work, the sort to test even a dwarf’s resolve. Yet even the dwarfs could not repress a shudder when a pile of rocks collapsed under the miners’ picks and exposed the fearsome sight of the slayer’s death.

By some fluke of chance, none of the crashing boulders and falling platforms had disturbed the frozen tableau. The skeletal bulk of Boneripper stood erect amid the destruction, its bony claws closed about the mutilated wreckage of the slayer’s body. Mordin’s face was contorted in an expression of agony, his lip bitten through by his own clenched teeth.

The dwarfs reached for their weapons, waiting for the grotesque rat-ogre to turn upon them, but the skeleton remained stolid as a statue. Cautiously, Klarak approached the immobile monster. Muttering complaints about the engineer’s boldness, Horgar lumbered after his master.

‘Looks like Mordin killed it before it killed him,’ the hammerer said, pointing at the axe buried in Boneripper’s skull.

Klarak turned away from his inspection of the grotesque beast. ‘It wasn’t alive to begin with,’ he said. ‘It’s another of the ratkin’s infernal machines.’ He shrugged his shoulders. ‘As you say, it seems Mordin was able to destroy it, even if he was too late to save himself.’

‘Mordin Grimstone has found his doom,’ Thorlek repeated.

‘Yes,’ agreed Klarak. ‘But unless we find Thanquol’s body, we cannot be sure he’s had his revenge.’

Thorlek and some of the miners attacked Boneripper’s bony claws, cutting away at the bladed fingers until they were able to free the twisted corpse of Mordin Grimstone. Reverently, they laid the slayer’s body upon their cloaks. He would be borne with honour back into the halls of Karak Angkul, from there to be sent on to Karak Kadrin and interred in the Shrine of Grimnir with other fallen slayers.

Klarak and the rest of the throng redoubled their search. True to Runelord Morag’s words, there was no trace of the Doomsphere, not even a twisted beam or a crumpled plate, only a great heap of rust-coloured dust. A few plates of Barazhunk, excess that Ikit Claw had not used to create the shell of his machine, were uncovered. Of Grey Seer Thanquol, however, there was no trace.

‘He might be under one of the big rocks,’ Horgar suggested.

Klarak shook his head. ‘No, the vermin has escaped.’ As he spoke, the adventurer’s voice became heavy and there was sombreness about his eyes. ‘The menace to Karak Angkul remains.’

A dwarf runebearer, his body damp with sweat, came rushing into the cavern, glancing about the rubble with frantic eagerness. When he spotted Klarak, he dashed across the cave with an unseemly haste.

‘Klarak Bronzehammer,’ the runner gasped when he stood before the engineer. ‘I have been dispatched from the Sixth Deep to bear ill tidings from King Logan.’

The engineer felt his blood go cold at the runebearer’s words. King Logan, along with many of the dwarf warriors, had started a thorough search of the ratkin tunnels, scouring them for any lurking skaven, hunting through them for any caches of stolen gold or weapons looted from the fallen warriors of Karak Angkul. Only a matter of the greatest import could distract the king from the sombre duty of reclaiming the honour of the dead.

‘By the king’s decree, I repeat my message,’ the runebearer continued. ‘A vast horde of skaven have risen up from the depths. They have swarmed past our defences in the lower deeps and now run amok through the Sixth Deep. If we would not lose the entire hold, the army must return at once.’

‘Hashut’s Bald Beard!’ Horgar cursed, spitting the name of the profane Dark Father. ‘The filthy ratkin are above us! Between us and our homes!’ Similar oaths of alarm and outrage echoed through the cavern as word spread among the miners.

‘King Logan has ordered all dwarfs to make speed through the tunnels,’ the runebearer reported. ‘He does not hold out hope that the army can return in time to save the hold, but at least it will be there to avenge those killed by the ratkin.’ There was an unmistakable tone of accusation in the messenger’s voice as he finished. Klarak wondered if that was also something the king had told him to convey.

‘The king is right,’ Klarak said. ‘We will never reach the hold in time if we use the tunnels.’ The engineer’s words brought roars of fury from the miners. He held up his hand, motioning for silence. ‘I said, if we use the tunnels. But there is another way. We can dig our own.’

‘Guildmaster Thori is right,’ Thane Erkii snarled. ‘You are mad! Even with your steam drill, we’d never move enough rock to get back into the upper deeps ahead of the skaven! We were lucky the tunnel from the smelthall waited until we were out from under it before it collapsed!’

‘And we’ll need still more luck if we are to save Karak Angkul.’ Klarak turned and faced the runebearer. ‘Tell King Logan that I know a way we can reach the upper deeps ahead of the ratkin. Tell him we will use the skaven’s own digging machine to burn our way through the mountain.’

The runebearer looked unconvinced, but bowed his head and hurried away to take Klarak’s message back to the king. Klarak shifted his attention back to the sullen miners surrounding him. ‘We’ll have to fetch the skaven drill from the cave where they abandoned it.’

‘Klarak, it took two of their rat-ogres to push that thing,’ Thorlek objected.

‘I know,’ the engineer said. ‘It’ll mean a fair bit of exercise for all of us, but that machine is the only chance we have to cut past the skaven and get ahead of them.’

‘And what about Thanquol?’ Horgar asked, dropping the boulder he had been moving.

Again, a grim cast crept into Klarak’s eyes. ‘Unless I am much mistaken,’ he said, ‘I think we will find him leading the ratkin against our homes.’

The smell of blood in the air made Thanquol’s mouth water. Fresh blood! Dwarf blood! The grey seer’s stomach growled as his mind formed the image of dwarf-steaks garnished with mushrooms and sautéed in skalm, perhaps with just a hint of squeezed bat thrown in for added flavour. He’d wash the meal down with a strong warp-wine, preferably of at least ten-generation vintage. The best warp-wines were those that made the drinker eager to devour the warp-worm hiding at the bottom of the bottle. The really good ones were so old that the warp-worms could fight back.

Shrill screams disturbed Thanquol’s culinary day-dream. Angrily, he turned his eyes on a mob of crimson-armoured stormvermin. The ratmen were dragging a fat old dwarf breeder from between a pair of monstrously oversized beer kegs. There was a little mewing thing clutched in her arms. The grey seer snarled an oath at the stormvermin, demanding they lower their swords.

The fangleader bared his teeth, not the slightest trace of deference in his posture. ‘Warlord say-tell all-all dwarf-thing die-die!’ the black-furred ratkin snapped. In the next moment, the blades of the stormvermin came chopping down into the dwarf breeder and her whelp.

Thanquol bruxed his fangs, his eyes narrowing with hate. Queek was a lunatic and so were all of his warriors! Since reaching the dwarfhold, the vermin had gone completely amok, rushing about in a frenzy of bloodlust! What happened to traditional skaven values! What became of simple practicality! He’d led them into the dwarfhold for a regime of pillage and plunder, not to watch a pack of crazed beasts butcher and burn everything they came across!

Sadly, the grey seer stared down at the butchered mess at the base of the kegs. Dwarf pups were worth their weight in warpstone, deemed an exquisite delicacy back in Skavenblight. Dwarf breeders weren’t easy to come by either, and notoriously difficult to keep. But Thanquol had never turned his genius to the problem of mating dwarf-things in captivity. Certainly with an intellect such as his own devoted to the problem, he’d find a solution in short order. Indeed, if the dwarf-things produced only a few litters a year, he’d have enough dwarf pups to corner the market. He’d become the wealthiest meat-grower in Skavenblight!

More screams banished Thanquol’s ambitions. He glared at another gang of stormvermin rushing down the hall in pursuit of a long-haired dwarf breeder. Of course, there’d be small chance of becoming a prosperous dwarf-herder if Queek’s idiots kept killing everything!

Once again, Thanquol gnashed his fangs and lashed his tail. Had a skaven ever been given such an amazing opportunity? An entire dwarfhold ripe for the taking! And Queek’s maniacs were just throwing it all away!

When Thanquol led the army up through the old mines and the tunnels of the lower deeps, following the route of his previous expedition into Karak Angkul, the skaven had encountered only the most marginal of resistance. Dwarf pickets scattered throughout the mines, sentinels who were supposed to bear word of any attack back to the upper levels of the hold. The watchers had been spread too thin, however, never arrayed in the numbers necessary to delay Queek’s horde long enough to allow any messenger to be dispatched to carry the warning. The dwarf wasn’t born who could outrun a skaven, and the spectacle of watching a pack of enraged ratmen drag down a fleeing messenger had been one of the great amusements on the march up from the mines.

A larger force of dwarfs had been waiting in the Sixth Deep, gathered in the very hall where Thanquol had led the diversionary force while Ikit Claw ransacked the smelthall. Well-armed, stubbornly disciplined, the dwarfs could have caused Queek’s horde serious trouble had any warning reached them. As it was, they were poorly organised and caught unprepared. Thunderers were cut down while they loaded shot into their guns, cannoneers were hacked to ribbons as they struggled to shift their weapons and train them upon the skaven. Such a massacre should have been enough to quench any ratman’s thirst for battle, hundreds of dwarfs chopped to pieces at the cost of only a hundred or so skaven.

Not the Headtaker though! Oh no, not the crazed Queek! Such was his hate of the dwarfs that he shunned the traditional place of leadership far behind the troops and away from the hazards of the fighting. No! Queek was right there at the front, slashing dwarf throats with his sword, crushing dwarf skulls with his maul, the gruesome weapon he called Dwarf Gouger. Axes flashed before the warlord’s eyes, hammers cracked against his crimson armour, and all the time Queek was laughing his murderous hate at his foes.

Thanquol didn’t mind Queek trying to get himself killed. In fact, it was something the grey seer thought should be encouraged. What he didn’t like was the warlord’s paranoid insistence that Thanquol stay close beside him. He’d been forced to expend what little magic he felt strong enough to muster turning aside bolts and bullets or blasting the face of the most persistent of his attackers.

They’d broken the dwarfs at last, running down dozens as they tried to withdraw from the Sixth Deep and flee into the upper hold. A hundred or so of the dwarfs had managed to escape, spreading the alarm through their halls. But the call to action came too late to save the Fifth Deep and the skaven had caught entire clans of the face-furs as they tried to evacuate their homes.

Thanquol grimaced as he glanced about the shambles of the brewhall in which he found himself. Dwarf beer sprayed from ruptured casks, wutroth furnishings had been piled and burned, bronze tankards lay smashed, sacks of barley and hops lay slashed and befouled. The grey seer couldn’t keep a quiver from his lips as he considered the value of everything the war-rats were destroying.

‘Stop-stop!’ Thanquol growled, shaking his staff at a stormvermin who was trying his best to wreck a heavy bronze mallet by smashing it against the rock walls of the brewhall.

The grey seer got no further in his threatening. A steely grip closed about the back of his neck, lifting him onto the balls of his feet. The rancid scent of Queek Headtaker and the decaying reek of his trophies filled Thanquol’s nose.

‘Break-smash all dwarf-things,’ the warlord snarled, flecks of blood dripping from his whiskers. ‘Make all dwarf-meat long-suffer!’

Thanquol noted with some alarm that Queek, at least, had not been looting the dwarfhold. A collection of disembodied dwarf heads circled his waist, tied by their beards to his belt. The freshest of them continued to drip blood onto the warlord’s legs. Arguing with somebody who took the time to hack off heads while letting perfectly good loot be destroyed would require a good deal of cunning.

Fortunately, for all his psychotic rage and hate, Queek was still a skaven, and no skaven liked to pass up weakened prey.

‘Tremendous War-bringer, Overmaster of Sword and Maul, Gnasher of Fangs and Cutter of Throats,’ Thanquol whined in his most fawning and ingratiating voice. ‘I only mean-want to remind that there are more-many dwarf-things above. It would be wrong-wrong if they escaped.’

Queek released Thanquol, dumping the grey seer onto the sodden floor. ‘Coward-scum!’ he raged at the vandals. ‘Gather all warriors! We march on dwarf-things! Hurry-scurry!’

Cursing under his breath, Thanquol wrung out his robes, wincing at the pungent smell of dwarf beer. He spun about as an uneasy feeling gripped him. He wasn’t reassured to find Queek staring at him with a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

‘Thanquol has mighty magic,’ the warlord hissed, his fingers tapping the handle of Dwarf Gouger. ‘Where is great-strong magic of Thanquol-meat?’

Hastily, Thanquol drew the Hand of Vecteek from his robe. ‘I still have-carry the Hand!’ he insisted, feeling a flicker of fear writhe through his glands when Queek’s attitude remained unmoved. ‘I can call-summon great-strong magic! The Horned One watches over me and helps me!’

Queek bared his fangs. ‘Pray-hope hard-much, Thanquol,’ he warned. ‘I want better magic when we kill-slay dwarf-things.’

Thanquol stiffened his spine. ‘You threaten a prophet of the Horned Rat?’ he growled.

‘I give-gift Horned One many dwarf heads,’ Queek snarled. ‘He won’t miss one grey seer.’

Thanquol bent down, paws kneading his suddenly aching back. ‘Great-strong magic,’ he said in a meek voice. ‘Yes-yes, I will cast-call many-many spells. Kill-slay many-many dwarf-things.’

Queek continued to glare at the grey seer. His ears twitched and he cocked his head to one side as the clatter of armoured bodies rushing through the corridors of the Fifth Deep echoed through the dwarfhold. The marauding skaven were returning from their rampage, hastening to the summons of their ferocious master.

‘Stay close-near,’ Queek told Thanquol. ‘Stay where I can keep an eye on you.’

The warlord turned about, presenting his back to Thanquol. It didn’t take a genius to know what Queek expected of him. Bobbing his head in a series of contrite bows, the grey seer hastened from the brewhall, leading the way as Queek marched out to take command of his army.

‘The Fifth Deep is lost and I don’t know if we can hold the Fourth.’ Thane Arngar ran his hand through his beard, trying to brush away the clotted blood that stained it. A gash in his cheek continued to bleed from beneath its bandage. The general’s voice was heavy with shame. He had been entrusted with defending the Sixth Deep by King Logan. Now he’d lost not only the Sixth but the Fifth Deep as well. Looking out over the small throng mustered in the Fourth Deep, he wasn’t terribly optimistic about their chances to keep even this level from the ratkin.

‘You are not to blame,’ Guildmaster Thori consoled the general. ‘Klarak Bronzehammer talked King Logan into taking the bulk of our warriors down into the ratkin tunnels when their place was up here, protecting the hold. The responsibility for all that has happened is his, not yours.’

Thane Arngar shook his head. ‘Blame won’t help us hold the Fourth Deep,’ he grumbled. The general looked out across the rag-tag throng assembling in the Fourth Deep’s central hall. Masons, architects, stone-cutters, sculptors, rune-scribes, every available dwarf who could swing a hammer or wield an axe had been impressed into Arngar’s force. Many of the dwarfs he looked upon were mere beardlings with barely an inch of hair on their chins. Others looked old enough to be living ancestors. None of them were professional warriors. The only experienced fighters he had were those of the Fourth Deep Guard and the survivors from the army the skaven had overwhelmed down in the Sixth Deep.

‘We could withdraw to the Third Deep,’ Thori proposed. ‘The powder rooms of the Engineers’ Guild are situated on the Fourth Deep. We could detonate the powder stores and collapse the entire level, bring it crashing down on the heads of the ratkin.’

Arngar’s face went pale. ‘We… we would destroy half of Karak Angkul by doing that! The work of our ancestors, the halls of our forefathers lost forever!’ The general shook his head. ‘No, I can’t do that! Better to let the ratkin take the deeps than destroy them! What has been taken can always be reclaimed!’

‘Very well,’ Thori said. ‘Then we should fall back to the Ruby Gate. That is the most defensible position in the Fourth Deep. It will allow us to protect the ramp up to the Third Deep and also keep the king’s vault from the ratkin.’

Arngar removed his helmet, scratching at his scalp. A file of immense stone statues lined the central hall, each the representation of one of the dwarfs’ ancestor gods. As he looked up at them, the general could feel their cold eyes staring down at him, weighing his every action. What he did today, the decisions he made, would be with him always, following him into the halls of his ancestors. He was determined they would do him credit, not shame.

‘We can’t fall back to the Ruby Gate until the rest of the Fourth Deep has been evacuated,’ Arngar decided. The image of the dwarfs they had been forced to abandon in the Fifth Deep was one that plagued the general. He wouldn’t have it compounded by the lives of those who dwelt in the Fourth Deep.

‘We can’t delay!’ Thori protested. ‘It is only by the grace of Valaya that we’ve been given this much time! If the ratkin weren’t busy plundering the Fifth Deep, they would already be at our throats!’

‘Position your gun crews over there,’ Arngar told the engineer, unmoved by his objections. ‘That will give them a clean line of fire when the ratkin come up from the Fifth Deep.’

Guildmaster Thori bowed his head, favouring Thane Arngar with a look that said ‘I hope you know what you’re doing’. The engineer hurried to relay the general’s orders to the small number of cannoneers who had joined the motley throng. Arngar watched as the crews began to push their cannons into position. Again, the general felt a tremor of doubt. He’d had six cannons to defend the Sixth Deep. Now he had only half that number and a single organ gun brought down from the proving halls on the Second Deep. He could only hope the skaven wouldn’t be expecting a fight and that the mere presence of a defence would send them packing. He certainly didn’t have enough to stop them if they pressed the attack.

Arngar turned his head, watching as a pair of women herded a dozen children past his line of defence. The general smiled bitterly. Whatever happened, he would hold this hall. The ratkin wouldn’t drive him off this time. He bellowed to his aide, a grizzled longbeard named Norgrin. ‘Fetch down the oathstone of the Arnrim Clan.’ He saw the flash of surprise in the longbeard’s eyes. To fight beside an oathstone was no small thing for a dwarf lord. It would mean no retreat, however the battle turned. Even if it meant certain death, no dwarf would dishonour himself by abandoning his clan’s oathstone.

‘Here I make my stand,’ Arngar said, his voice raised so it might carry to his troops. ‘Let the ratkin come, if they dare. They shall be broken upon our shields and die beneath the eyes of our gods.’

The roar of cannon thundered through the massive corridor. The stink of gunpowder and black skaven blood spilled across the ramp. Mangled bodies were flung through the air, cartwheeling over the heads of the close-packed skaven as they surged up from the depths of Karak Angkul. Fangleaders snapped reprimands as their troops squealed in panic, some of them using the flat of their swords to keep their warriors in line, others not bothering with the flat and using the edge to lop off the ears of the nearest malcontents.

‘Perhaps we should be in the second wave?’ Thanquol squeaked, knowing as he did so that his words were falling on deaf ears. Queek’s eyes were ablaze with the sort of red madness Thanquol had thought only the eyes of an orc could ever possess.

Before them, at the head of the ramp, a cluster of dwarf cannon pointed down into the Fifth Deep. As soon as the skaven had reached the halfway mark, a concentrated volley from the cannons had smashed into them, cutting through their massed ranks like a cleaver through rotting man-flesh. Now, a file of dwarf jezzails marched out from behind the cannons while the crews reloaded their weapons.

Thanquol felt hideously exposed as the dwarfs began firing into the swarming skaven. But he’d feel even worse if one of the bullets zinging past his horns found its mark. The yelps of the skaven around him as the bullets found other victims didn’t help the grey seer’s valour. Ducking and bobbing, weaving between the armoured stormvermin, Thanquol tried to gradually let himself sink into the onrushing mob. As long as he could keep a few bodies between himself and the dwarfs, his own prognosis for survival would be markedly enhanced.

Queek, damn his mangy hide, seemed oblivious to all danger. The warlord was lost to his crazed bloodlust now. He didn’t even flinch when a dwarf bullet shattered one of the skulls on his trophy rack. The warlord reared up, smashing his sword and maul together, roaring like some escapee from Clan Moulder’s Hell Pit.

Then the dwarf cannons spoke once more, bellowing like giants as they spat death down the rampway. Thanquol shrieked as a cannonball went careening through the ratmen on his left, passing so close that his side was splashed with skaven blood. Squeals of terror rose from the rear ranks of the horde as mangled bodies were hurled into their midst. Again, Thanquol cursed the foolishness of Queek. A leader’s place was in the rear, where he could quell such panic as soon as it started.

And, of course, avoid getting too close to whatever caused such panic to begin with.

The dwarfs clearly expected the skaven attack to falter in the wake of a point-blank discharge of their cannons. They had not reckoned with the frenzied hate of Warlord Queek Headtaker. The maddened skaven warlord leapt through the cloud of smoke billowing from the mouths of the cannons. Perched atop the bore of one cannon, he brought his sword slashing down, tearing the arm from a gunner. Dwarf Gouger crashed into the face of a second foe, splashing blood and brains across the neighbouring cannon.

Queek howled his challenge, pouncing upon the dwarf warriors who came charging forwards to protect the embattled cannons. Again and again the warlord’s weapons struck, bringing death with every blow. Dwarf Gouger tore through even the thickest gromril plate as though it were cheesecloth, smashing the leathery bodies inside.

One doughty longbeard, more determined than the rest, pressed his attack even after a blow from Dwarf Gouger broke his arm. The dwarf’s blade raked across Queek’s armour, the crimson coating fracturing in a spray of metallic splinters. The longbeard screamed as the splinters dug into his flesh, sizzling as they came into contact with his skin, their warpstone content eating away at the dwarf’s body like the most vitriolic acid.

Now other skaven surged forwards, goaded on by their master’s example. It wasn’t loyalty or courage that made them hasten to Queek’s side, but rather the fear that their warlord would win his way clear and come looking for any ratman who had been too timid to press the fight.

The cannons were finished now, their crews scattered or slain. The thunderers retreated through the ranks of their own warriors, trying to form a fire line from which they could cover the eventual retreat of their comrades.

Thanquol pressed himself against one of the walls, watching as Queek’s warriors tore into the reeling dwarfs. There was little question that the skaven would overwhelm their foes now, but the dwarfs would take a lot of killing and a lot of ratmen would go down with them. Thanquol did not intend to be one of them.

Satisfied that Queek Headtaker would have his paws full killing dwarfs for a while, Thanquol began to sidle back down the ramp. He’d had more than his fill of Clan Mors and its maniacal leadership. It was time for all prudent grey seers to cut their losses and scurry back to Skavenblight. Besides, he still had the Hand of Vecteek. That would be enough to set him up good with Seerlord Kritislik. Or Seerlord Tisqueek, if it looked like Kritislik’s rival might prove a more generous patron.

A quivering sensation against his spine sent Thanquol springing away from the wall. The grey seer drew back, his staff held defensively across his chest, his beady eyes glaring at the wall. There was nothing there. Irritated at his unreasonable fright, Thanquol stepped back to the wall, placing his hand against the stone. He immediately pulled his paw back. There was a noticeable tremor running through the wall. His mind pored over the possibilities of earthquake and sabotage. Perhaps that traitorous rat Ikit Claw was back and trying to get his revenge by collapsing the ramp and sealing Thanquol up with Queek’s lunatics!

Thanquol cast a worried look back at Queek and the raging battle with the dwarfs. It still looked like a bad idea to get involved in that scrap, even if he just lingered at the edges of the fighting. He cast his gaze back at the wall. It was noticeably shaking now, little trickles of dirt running down from between the blocks. There might still be time to race back down into the lower deeps and beat a hasty retreat.

Then again, Thanquol thought as the violence acting against the wall increased, there might not be time to get clear before the whole thing came crashing down. He’d already had a near escape from that sort of thing. He wasn’t about to repeat the experience.

A stone block suddenly broke loose, smashing into the floor of the ramp and rolling down into the darkness of the Fifth Deep. Another soon followed, and then still another. Thanquol straightened himself, smoothing back his whiskers.

Why should he be afraid? Ikit Claw was the one who should be afraid! Unlike that dullard Queek, the Claw knew all about the Hand of Vecteek and what it could do. And this time the maggot didn’t have a malfunctioning Doomsphere to try and bluff his way past Thanquol’s wrath!

Oh yes, Thanquol thought as the reek of warpstone began to billow out from the expanding hole in the wall, there would be a reckoning when the Chief Warlock showed his ugly face! If the Claw didn’t grovel just right, Thanquol would snuff out his worthless life like a mouse in a troll-trap!

‘So-so,’ Thanquol snarled as he saw the grinding drillhead tear through the rock. ‘You come back to beg the Great Thanquol to forgive-forget your…’

Thanquol shook his head, his nose twitching as an impossible smell struck his senses. He blinked, trying to make sense of the scent. Surely there weren’t dwarfs hiding in the walls of their own stronghold?

The drill crashed to the floor of the ramp, slowly sliding down towards the Fifth Deep. After it came a grimy, dirt-covered dwarf. Despite the dirt, however, Thanquol couldn’t fail to notice the pitiless hate shining in the creature’s gold-flake eyes.

Klarak Bronzehammer drew the steam pistol from his belt, unleashing a barrage of bullets at the grey seer. Only Thanquol’s twitchy reflexes preserved him from the fusillade, the skaven sorcerer flinging himself to the floor the very moment the dwarf fired at him. Scurrying across the ground on all fours, squeaking in terror, he watched in mounting horror as more dwarfs emerged from the hole in the wall.

The army he had thought safely lost in the maze of Bonestash was back!

Before Klarak could reload his weapon and fire again, Thanquol picked himself up and raced for the safety offered by Queek’s massed warriors. Pushing and shoving, biting and clawing, he forced his way through the horde. The more of them he put between himself and the revenge-crazed dwarfs, the better. Especially that gold-furred maniac! That one seemed unnaturally obsessed with killing the grey seer. Thanquol was beginning to think the creature had been set on his tail by some jealous rival. Or perhaps a scheming superior. Or maybe even some uppity underling.

Thanquol’s passage through the teeming stormvermin and clanrats became a maddened dash when the sounds of battle began to sound from the area of the ramp. Klarak and his warriors were attacking the rear of Queek’s force, trying to cut their way through the press of bodies in their vindictive persecution of the grey seer. His one hope was that Queek’s mob had managed to hack their way through the rest of the dwarfs blocking the way into the Fourth Deep. Once clear of the dwarfs, Thanquol would have an entire level of their stronghold to hide himself in.

Abruptly, Thanquol found himself free from the press of bodies. His paws almost slipped out from under him as he discovered a pool of dwarf blood underfoot. Glancing around, he saw a mass of butchered dwarfs and skaven. Some distance away, a small, ragged group of dwarfs was trying to form a shield wall. Thanquol could see them rallying around some elaborately armoured dwarf standing on a ridiculous-looking block of stone. It seemed the dwarfs had lost their taste for battle.

Or maybe they were just trying to keep the skaven from escaping now that their full army was coming out of the wall. It was an unpleasant thought, but one that Thanquol was forced to consider as he looked at the grimly defiant faces of the dwarf-things.

‘Fight-die, coward-meat!’ Queek cursed the distant dwarfs, hurling the severed head of his last victim at the withdrawing enemy. Something, perhaps a cry, perhaps the smell of death, made the warlord suddenly turn. His eyes went wide when he saw the throng of dwarfs rushing from the wall and attacking the rear of his horde. His nose twitched, singling out the scent of the ratman who had told him the dwarf army was gone.

Queek pounced upon Thanquol, smashing the grey seer to the floor. ‘Traitor-meat! Snivel-scat!’ the warlord raged, fury in his eyes, froth falling from his fangs.

Thanquol scrambled out from under the warlord just as Queek’s sword came flashing down. ‘No-no!’ the grey seer whined. ‘Not my fault! Dwarf-trick! Sneaky dwarf-things!’

Queek’s fangs glistened as he brought Dwarf Gouger smashing down, missing Thanquol by the breadth of a whisker. The grey seer cringed away, his head darting from one side to the other. Either end of the hall was blocked by a wall of angry dwarfs. If he stayed where he was, the deranged Queek would either gut him like a mouse or smash his skull like an egg.

There was only one thing left. The Hand of Vecteek! He had to use its power. If he could impress Queek, if he could drive away the dwarfs, then he might still snatch victory from the paws of disaster.

‘Wait-listen!’ Thanquol pleaded. ‘Hand of Vecteek! I can-can make mighty spell! Kill-kill all dwarf-things!’

The words had lost their ability to impress Queek. The warlord’s sword flashed so close to Thanquol’s neck that he felt his fur bristle. Thanquol needed to cast a spell and cast it quick. He needed to evoke such an impressive feat of sorcery that even the crazed Queek wouldn’t dare lift a claw against him.

More than that, he needed an ally who would stand by him against Queek should the warlord refuse to see reason. Thanquol grinned as he considered the perfect solution. Vecteek. In life, he’d been Supreme Warmonger of Clan Rictus, chief rival of Clan Mors. Vecteek would have no love for Queek and his ilk.

The Horned Rat sometimes rewarded his most powerful servants. When a mighty skaven died, his spirit was reborn as one of the Horned One’s sacred harbingers, one of the dread Vermin Lords. A skaven of such might and power as Vecteek, whose very paw had become a profane relic, was certain to be numbered among the Horned One’s daemons.

Ordinarily, Thanquol would be loath to call upon a Vermin Lord. It was a humbling experience to be in the presence of such a divine manifestation. Cowards might even describe the experience as terrifying.

The proper procedure to summon a Vermin Lord from the Horned Rat’s domain was through a lengthy ritual involving complex sacrifices and elaborate ceremonies. Thanquol didn’t have the time for all that. What he did have was a part of Vecteek’s mortal remains. There was no surer way to summon a daemon than possessing a part of it.

Thanquol gnashed a sliver of refined warpstone between his fangs and drew the dark energies of the aethyr into his mind. He muttered an appeal to the Horned One that he might lend his divine assistance in the grey seer’s endeavour to summon one of his Harbingers of Doom.

Queek backed away as Thanquol’s entire body began to glow with unholy energies. Bullets from a few dwarf marksmen glanced away from the coruscating shell of energy that rippled about the sorcerer. A dull, keening moan began to whistle through the hall, the shriek of an invisible veil being torn asunder.

Thanquol focused his entire mind upon the relic he held in his paws. The slightest stray thought, the merest hint of doubt, and the spell would be broken; the energies would snap back and sear his body to a cinder. Only by using the Hand of Vecteek as a focus was Thanquol able to keep his concentration. He merged his own power with that vested in the artefact.

In his mind, Thanquol could see the wall between the mortal and immortal worlds crumble, fracturing as surely as the wall the dwarfs had broken through. He could smell the electric tang of the void, hear the shrieks of the damned, the hungry howls of hunting daemons. Swiftly, he blotted out the impressions, fixing his mind solely upon the powers of the Hand.

‘Vecteek,’ Thanquol snarled. ‘Mighty Vermin Lord. Prince of Ruin and Desolation. Heed the summons of Grey Seer Thanquol. Harken to the Voice of the Horned One’s Prophet.’

An icy chill swept through the hall as the void poured through the rent in the veil. Thanquol felt fear hammer at his heart, a terror greater than anything he had ever known.

‘Vecteek!’ he cried. ‘I, Thanquol, servant of the Horned Rat, demand you to pass through this tunnel between worlds! Obey!’

Now Thanquol could see something, a black essence, pouring through the torn veil. His glands clenched, the musk of fear dripping from his fur. There was a stench in his nose, a foul mixture of blood and steel, the smell of a dozen wars smashed together into a single reek. The sound of laughter rolled through his mind – deep and booming and utterly malignant.

Vecteek couldn’t come, a voice like fire blazed through the grey seer’s brain. So I came instead.

Images swirled through Thanquol’s mind. He could see the old grey seer sealed away inside Festerhole by the dwarfs. He could see the bitter old priest slowly starving away in his lair, his every thought turned against the Under-Empire which had forgotten and abandoned him. He could see the villain setting the Hand of Vecteek upon the table before him. He watched in disbelief as the long-dead sorcerer sank his fangs into the mummified artefact. In a few moments, the Hand was no more, consumed utterly by the starving grey seer.

The entire hall shook, trembling as though a titan lumbered across its floor. Embattled skaven and dwarfs broke away from their foes to stare in bewilderment at the shuddering walls, the quivering ceiling. An intense dread passed through them, drawing colour from faces, scent from glands. Swords faltered, axes lowered as a nameless terror swept through the hall.

In Thanquol’s mind, other images presented themselves. He could see Grey Seer Thratsnik, his body ablaze with magical energies from his consumption of Vecteek’s paw, leaning across the table once more. The grey seer laid his hand upon the table. Gradually, the power burning through him began to seep down his arm, gathering in his outstretched hand. Thratsnik raised his knife…

Now the thunder of footsteps sounded through the hall, the tromp of monstrous feet. Eyes lifted as an immense shadow began to form, wisps of smoke billowing from nothingness to slowly coalesce into something with shape and substance.

‘Is… is that-that Mighty Lord Vecteek?’ Queek stammered, even his hate of the dwarfs forgotten as worms of terror raced down his spine and through his glands.

Thanquol barely heard the question. In his mind’s eye, he was watching Thratsnik put the final touch to the trap he had left behind, the snare for any who would seek to recover the Hand of Vecteek. The grey seer’s own dismembered paw lay before him on the table, saturated with magical energy. It might still serve as a potent talisman for anyone with the knowledge to tap into its energies. But Thratsnik had planned his revenge too well for that. He set his knife against the severed hand. Across the palm, so faintly that it might be overlooked, he made a mark, scratched a symbol which no sorcerer could gaze upon without a feeling of terror.

‘Squeak-say!’ Queek shrieked. ‘Is that Lord Vecteek?’

Thanquol slowly raised his head, staring up at the gathering shadow. The smell of blood and havoc was even more pronounced now, threatening to choke the breath from his lungs.

You have called and I have answered. You sought the Harbinger of Doom. I am he, little sorcerer. I am your Doom.

I am Skarbrand.

I am your death.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Thanquol’s body quivered as though gripped by a seizure, pain shot through his bowels as his empty glands continued trying to spray the musk of fear. With an effort of supreme will, he forced his eyes away from the shadowy manifestation spilling out through the door his magic had opened. He felt something wet dripping down his claws. The Hand of Thratsnik was dissolving, turning into runny streamers of blood, losing all shape as it oozed to the floor. Only the symbol cut into the palm remained intact, mockingly defying the dissolution of its surroundings.

Disgusted, Thanquol threw the cursed artefact away. It landed on the floor, palm upwards, the Skull Rune glowing balefully from its setting of corroded flesh.

The Skull Rune! Emblem of the Blood God of Chaos, Khorne, Lord of War and Slaughter! Well had the vengeful Thratsnik set his trap! The wrathful Khorne was a god of warriors and murderers, the patron of sword and claw. For all sorcerers, all who would ply the craft of spell and hex, the Skull Lord was their bane. Khorne had nothing but loathing and scorn for magicians and wizards – only an insane fool would use magic to draw the Blood God’s attention.

Thanquol wasn’t particularly happy to think of himself as an insane fool. Yet as he watched the Hand of Thratsnik dissolve into a puddle of crimson muck, he understood how completely he had been taken in. By his own actions he’d opened the gateway into the Blood God’s realm and drawn the attention of one of his great daemons.

Given enough time, Thanquol was certain he would figure out exactly how everything was Skraekual’s fault, but just now, he had more pressing concerns. For instance, there was the nasty matter of a giant shadow that was becoming less shadowy with each passing breath. He could see shoulders now, and great black wings. Horns and claws, and terrible pounding hooves.

‘Did… did… you-you call-summon… that?’ Queek’s voice was as soft and mewing as that of a whelp torn from a breeder’s teat. The warlord’s eyes were immense pools of terror as he cringed beside Thanquol.

You have called, and I have come.

The voice of Skarbrand thundered through Thanquol’s mind. Raw terror pulsed through his body. He glanced at Queek, then back at the horrifying manifestation. There was really only one thing to do.

‘Keep it busy while I get help!’ Thanquol snarled at Queek, shoving the warlord towards the manifestation. The grey seer didn’t even wait to hear Queek’s angry snarls, but spun about on his heel and scurried across the hall. Darting and weaving between awestruck dwarfs and shivering skaven, he drove straight towards the inner gate, certain he could find some small opening to squirm through. He’d feel a lot better putting a big thick dwarf wall between himself and Skarbrand.

A coward dies a thousand deaths. All of them slow and very painful.

Thanquol clapped his paws against his ears, trying to block out the daemon’s growl. Maybe he’d keep going once he was through the gate. If one wall between himself and the daemon was good, then two would be better. Actually, it might be nice to have seven or eight. In fact, Thanquol was feeling a decidedly un-skavenlike desire to be out in the open sky and well away from tunnels and dwarfhalls.

Run, fleshling! You cannot hide!

Thanquol cried out in horror as he caught sight of the Ruby Gate. The way was shut! The treacherous, cowardly dwarfs had closed the gate already!

Some of the dwarfs around him began to stir from their horrified stupor. An axe flashed past Thanquol’s ear, a hammer smashed against the floor beside his foot. The grey seer’s staff smacked out, cracking into the hairy face of a dwarf guard, splitting his lip and breaking his teeth.

The insufferable idiots! Death itself was marching through their burrows and the moron dwarfs had the gall to bother about a lone, defenceless little skaven! If Thanquol escaped from this indignity, he’d come back with an entire army and put every one of these bearded fools to the sword!

Thanquol ducked and dodged, scurrying on all fours between the legs of his attackers. The very numbers of the dwarfs around him played against the efforts of his enemies to catch him. They couldn’t swing a hammer without the risk of hitting a comrade. It was a moral failing with the dwarf-things that they were too timid to pursue an enemy if it meant hurting one of their own.

For his part, Thanquol missed no opportunity to lash out at his confused foes. He smashed toes and bit fingers, used his tail to trip legs and his staff to bludgeon anything else that had the misfortune to come within reach. His scurrying progress through the dwarf throng was easily tracked by the trail of cursing, hopping warriors he left behind.

A voice suddenly roared out across the hall, sounding out above the frightened squeaks of the skaven and the angry snarls of the dwarfs. ‘The grey ratkin is the focus!’ the voice was shouting and Thanquol recognised the voice of his gold-bearded tormentor. ‘Kill him before the daemon takes form! Kill Thanquol!’

Hearing his own name spoken by a lowly dwarf-thing caused Thanquol to freeze. He spun about, glaring across the hall, fixing his malignant gaze on the gold-bearded dwarf. How had that creature learned his name? It was a question that vexed the grey seer, a question that made his mind turn to thoughts of betrayal and corruption. No crude dwarf-thing was smart enough to bedevil him the way this gold-fur had!

Eyes narrowed with hate, Thanquol looked for Queek, his suspicions turning instantly to the only ratman present crazy enough to betray him. He bared his fangs as he saw the warlord and his bodyguard cutting a path through the dwarfs, retreating back to the ramp and the darkness of the lower deeps. It was too late for Thanquol to share the warlord’s escape route. There was the small matter of a gigantic daemon standing between himself and the ramp leading back into the lower deeps.

Conspiracy! Thanquol writhed out from beneath the clutching fingers of a dwarf warrior and slashed his claws across the nose of a second dwarf who was trying to catch the ratman’s legs. The grey seer kicked and squirmed out from the press of his foes.

Treachery! Queek had launched this attack solely to destroy the mighty Grey Seer Thanquol! The scheming maggot had forced this chaos upon him, forced him to draw upon the malignant power of Thratsnik’s cursed relic! Now the cowardly Headtaker was fleeing, running off into the darkness, abandoning Thanquol to face the dwarfs and the daemon alone.

The daemon. Thanquol could feel Skarbrand’s malignance growing, swelling, expanding. He could smell the stench of the bloodthirster’s wrath, hear the fires of its hate. The grey seer felt very small beside that infinite wellspring of atrocity and carnage. His heart banged against his ribs, threatening to burst from sheer terror. The pain of his clenching glands made him want to scream.

But he would not scream. Not now. Not when the daemon was so near. Not when Skarbrand was so close and so hungry.

Thanquol dodged the butt of a dwarf’s gun as the thunderer tried to club him down. The grey seer’s staff smashed up between his attacker’s legs, doubling the wretch over in pain. Without hesitation, he sprang over the body of his stunned opponent, scurrying from the flailing hammers and axes of his enemies.

No longer did the dwarfs hesitate, but targeted the ratmen with enraged abandon. Warriors cried out in agony as the blades of their comrades missed Thanquol and gouged their flesh. A crazed light burning in their eyes, the stricken dwarfs fell upon their former friends, tearing at them with clawed hands, cutting at them with knives and hatchets, gnashing their teeth as they snapped at the throats of their kinsmen.

Thanquol scrambled away from the fratricidal fray. Even wracked by the black hunger, he had never seen skaven overcome by such bloodthirsty madness. The dwarfs attacked one another with the mindless ferocity of a cornered wolf-rat. The grey seer watched as one old longbeard continued to strangle the life from his younger enemy despite the axe stroke that had disembowelled him. A leather-cloaked engineer drove a heavy mattock into whatever came near him, uncaring of the red ruin dripping from his gouged eyes.

The grey seer could feel the same madness trying to snake its way into his own mind, trying to seduce him into berserk self-destruction. He drew upon every scrap of his occult knowledge to drive back the tempting cries of the daemon, clinging to the tatters of his sanity as Chaos tried to consume him.

Thanquol scrambled past a knot of fighting dwarfs, retreating into the shelter between a statue’s immense legs. The dark shadow beneath the dwarf ancestor god seemed to welcome him, enveloping him in the protective embrace of darkness. The grey seer rested his paws against the cold stone ankle, sucking breath back into his panting lungs. If he could just concentrate, just recover his strength…

As the grey seer began to think about the escape spell he would use to elude the daemon, his body was wracked by a searing pain. He cowered against the foot of the statue, blood oozing from his nose. He forced himself to keep his eyes focused upon the floor, resisting the almost overwhelming urge to gaze up at the manifesting daemon.

No, you shall not escape me so easily. You will burn, mage-rat, and then you will scream. And scream. And scream.

Thanquol’s will faltered. Slowly, he lifted his horned head, gazing up towards the roof of the dwarfhold. Staring into the face of Skarbrand.

Klarak Bronzehammer watched in mounting horror as the daemon conjured by Thanquol’s sorcery seeped through the rupture between worlds. The entity’s evil swiftly flooded the hall, flowing like a river of malignance into every heart and mind subjected to its presence. A scum of hoarfrost gathered upon the ceiling, streams of blood bubbled from bare stone walls. The light of torch and lantern flickered, smothered by the clammy clutch of Chaos. Upon the floor, dead bodies twitched, spilled blood began to boil. Steam rose from bloodied blades. Snakes of red lightning sizzled through the air.

At the core of the manifestation was the shadow. Great and terrible, growing with each heartbeat, becoming more solid, cladding itself in a shape of terror. Klarak had seen such things before, in the infernal workshops of the daemonsmiths, but even the horrors of the dawi-zharr paled before the wickedness of the horror now spilling into Karak Angkul.

This was the danger Klarak had been warned of, the unspeakable destruction Grey Seer Thanquol represented. They had stopped Ikit Claw’s Doomsphere and saved the greater Karak Ankor from destruction, but now an even more terrible doom stretched forth its claws to visit ruin upon Karak Angkul. The daemon’s taint would spare nothing. Not a man, woman or child would escape its wrath, the very foundations of the dwarfhold would be tortured and corrupted by its malignance.

There was only one chance. Klarak was no wizard, no scholar of the occult, but he knew daemons required sustenance to materialise. For the daemon to manifest, it needed a focus, an anchor to bind it to reality and keep it from slipping back into the void. If that focus could be broken before the entity’s evil could fully gather itself the dwarfhold might yet be saved.

With an effort, Klarak pulled his gaze away from the forming daemon, staring out across the ranks of awestruck dwarfs and terrified skaven. Desperately he searched for the individual whose destruction would send the monster back. The engineer bit back a cry of triumph as he saw Thanquol trying to slip away between the stunned dwarfs. ‘The grey ratkin is the focus! Kill him before the daemon takes form! Kill Thanquol!’

Klarak just had time to see his words galvanise some of the dwarfs into action before a wave of almost palpable malevolence smashed down upon him. He could feel the daemon’s rage slam into him, crushing him to his knees. The feral howl of a bloodcrazed beast snarled through the corridors of his soul. His body heaved with revulsion. When he looked back at the shadow, a pair of immense eyes glared down at him, blazing like volcanic fires in the gathering blackness.

Concentrated into the daemon’s eyes was a quality of violence and havoc that made Klarak’s flesh crawl. He could see the fountainhead of all atrocity, the nucleus of all carnage, the cornerstone of all brutality smouldering behind the daemon’s gaze. The lust of blood and destruction began to grow inside him, feeding from his every memory. He saw the goblins who had tortured and murdered his mother. He was there as his father was smashed beneath the claws of a troll. He experienced the lynching of his grandfather by human bandits as though wearing the skin of his long-dead ancestor. Each memory cried out to him with a voice of wrath, urging him to vengeance, demanding blood and slaughter as the price to wash away their pain.

The dwarf threw back his head, screaming in anguish. In that howl of agony, Klarak embraced his pain. The daemon did not need the subtlety of lies to fan the embers of rage in the engineer’s soul. How easy it would be to listen to its seductive voice, to cast aside reason and to wallow in the mindless joy of wrath! Pain would be forgotten when the world was painted red with the blood of the damned! Cast aside suffering and abandon himself to battle unending!

No! It took all of Klarak’s willpower to manage that single word, that single spark of defiance. He was a dwarf! A dwarf was nothing without his past, without his traditions and his ancestors, without the glories and the sorrows of his race! The very pain which the daemon had evoked to seduce him, to drag his mind down into a wallow of violence and massacre, now became the dwarf’s strength. What his kin had endured, what his race had endured, these became like a sword in Klarak’s fist, driving back the daemon’s call to carnage.

Blood streamed from Klarak’s eyes as he fought free of the daemon’s influence. All about him, he could see other dwarfs shaking their heads, wiping gore from their faces. There was a haunted expression in their eyes, but they had managed to cling to their sanity. By drawing the focus of the daemon’s ire, Klarak had preserved his companions from the worst of the entity’s malevolence.

Skarbrand Rage Feaster, Bloodthirster of Khorne. In that brief moment when the daemon’s gaze had pierced his soul, Klarak discovered its name and its purpose. Karak Angkul would drown in blood. Every living thing within its walls would be butchered, an offering for Bloody Khorne upon his throne of skulls. And if the offering was great enough, if the slaughter pleased Skarbrand’s god, then the entire hold would be consumed, ripped from the face of the earth and dragged into the Blood God’s realm of rampage and barbarity.

‘What… is…’ Horgar’s voice trembled as he tried to speak.

‘Death for Karak Angkul unless we can send it back,’ Klarak told him. He raised his voice so that the other dwarfs could hear him. ‘We have to kill Thanquol before the daemon can manifest itself fully.’

The dwarfs nodded grimly, moving to engage the skaven once more. A large body of the ratmen were pushing their way back to the lower deeps. Klarak could see the trophy rack of the hated Queek Headtaker rising above the mass of armoured skaven. The Headtaker had many a grudge recorded against him. It would mean glory and honour to any dwarf who could bring about the ratman’s destruction.

‘Stop!’ The command rang out above the cries of skaven and the crash of blades. Runelord Morag stood at the mouth of the tunnel, his hammer raised above his head. The venerable dwarf seemed bathed in a soft blue radiance and there was a feeling of unquestionable authority in his voice. ‘Let the vermin pass! Do not touch them!’

Reluctantly, the dwarfs started to pull back. The skaven, however, took their retreat as weakness. Instinctively they lunged after the warriors, cutting several down with their rusty halberds. Roaring with indignation, the dwarfs surged back, their axes felling many of the ratkin.

‘Let them pass!’ Morag shouted once more. This time, Klarak could see the reason behind the Runelord’s order. Every drop of blood that was shed, be it from dwarf or ratkin, bubbled and steamed as it struck the floor, vanishing in a crimson mist. Dread gripped Klarak as he turned his eyes to the bloodthirster’s black shadow. There was no mistaking it, the daemon’s shape was more distinct now and becoming even more so with each wisp of red vapour rushing into it.

‘The daemon draws strength from death!’ Klarak cried out. ‘Let the skaven run! It’s the daemon we must stop!’

The threat posed by ignoring Klarak’s words was not lost on the dwarfs. Sheltering behind their shields, they withdrew for the second time, leaving a path open for Queek and his bodyguards. The dwarfs cursed the skaven warlord as he scurried off into the darkness with his retinue. Many vengeful oaths were sworn before the last of the stormvermin scurried away. It was a hard thing for any dwarf to suffer such an infamous enemy to escape justice.

If Thanquol had been among Queek’s retinue, the dwarfs could have risked engaging them in battle, but to do so when every drop of blood fed the daemon was suicide.

Klarak turned away from the retreating skaven, drawn by the clamour of battle. All across the hall, Thane Arngar’s defenders were locked in battle once more with the skaven Queek had left behind. There were still hundreds of the dark-furred vermin scattered about the hall, trapped between the two dwarf throngs. Klarak cried out to his kinsfolk, urging them to disengage, hoping against hope that the cowardice of the ratmen would lead them to quit the battlefield.

A new horror gripped Klarak when he saw that his words went unheeded. Studying the battle more closely, he could see that it was not a simple matter of ratkin versus dwarf, but a confused melee that pit ratkin against ratkin and dwarf against dwarf. The fighters slashed away, uncaring of who they came against, cutting down their own as happily as they did their enemies. The engineer remembered the horrible madness that had done its utmost to overwhelm him. Nearer to the daemon, those he now watched had been unable to resist the bloodthirster’s call to battle. Only a small cluster of dwarfs gathered about Thane Arngar and his oathstone appeared to still be in possession of their faculties. They did their utmost to fend off their crazed attackers without harming them, a restraint that went unreciprocated.

Red fog rose from the battle, streaking above the heads of the dead and dying, rushing across the hall to lend their substance to the malignancy taking shape. From shadow, the daemon became a thing of solidity, a goliath monstrosity of tattered pinions and leathery flesh. Massive thews rippled beneath the daemon’s scarred skin, strings of gore swayed from the tips of its black horns. Plates of brass were bolted to the daemon’s crimson skin, each segment of armour scored with the Skull Rune of Skarbrand’s fearsome lord and master. In each of its mighty claws, the bloodthirster bore an immense axe of dark, lustreless metal that seemed to writhe and howl beneath its gripping talons, eager to taste mortal blood upon their sharp blades.

Skarbrand’s hound-like face split in a baleful grin, its eyes blazing with unbridled savagery. The bloodthirster’s cloven hoof smashed against the floor, cracking the flagstones and causing the very mountain to shiver. The daemon’s laughter thundered through the dwarfhold, blood trickling from the ears of all who heard it.

The daemon exulted in the stench of blood and terror that its laughter provoked. Lustily, the bloodthirster swept its axes down across the crazed ranks of the little creatures that fed him with their maddened fury. Scores of skaven, dozens of dwarfs were massacred in the blink of an eye, Skarbrand’s axes tearing them asunder. The daemon blades wailed in ecstasy as the blood of their victims was absorbed into their metal skins.

Klarak could watch no more. ‘It has to be stopped,’ he snarled, feeling again the murderous fingers of the daemon probing his mind. Glutting itself upon its bloody harvest, Skarbrand would soon grow powerful enough to sustain itself without the focus of Thanquol’s lifeforce. If that happened, the daemon would only fade back into the world of phantoms when it ran out of victims to slaughter.

‘By Grungni, it will be stopped,’ Runelord Morag vowed. Moving with surprising speed for a dwarf of his age, he hurried back to the mouth of the tunnel where King Logan and his hammerers were bringing forth the stronghold’s Anvil of Doom. The Runelord scrambled onto the litter, taking his place behind the ancient relic. Hurriedly, he brought his magic hammer smashing down onto the black surface of the anvil. Blue sparks of lightning erupted from the pounding hammer, crackling across the hall to strike the rampaging daemon.

‘Khazuk! Khazuk! Khazuk!’ Morag roared, foam flecking his beard as he uttered the famed dwarfish war-cry. The shout was taken up by the warriors around him. Sternly, the armoured dwarfs formed ranks before the Runelord, King Logan taking his place among the vanguard. The daemon might bring destruction to their homes, but it would not do so without knowing it had been in a fight.

As the magic lightning sizzled against its crimson flesh, Skarbrand turned about. The bloodthirster’s face spread in a gruesome snarl. Rearing to its full height, spreading its torn wings, the daemon bellowed its challenge to the dwarfs. Clashing its wailing axes together, Skarbrand stormed across the hall, heedless of the crazed warriors it trampled beneath its hooves.

Gunfire cracked from the muzzles of a hundred thunderers, the barrage smashing into the charging daemon’s body. The daemon roared onwards, unfazed by the bullets that tore at its flesh. A sheet of lightning danced from Morag’s hammer, scorching the bloodthirster’s face. Skarbrand’s nostrils flared as it snorted in amusement. It enjoyed destruction so much more when its prey tried to fight back.

Seeing the uselessness of their bullets, the thunderers clubbed their guns and rushed at the daemon, determined to drive the beast back by simple force of arms. Many of the warriors broke ranks, charging forwards alongside their comrades. This day they might walk the halls of their ancestors, but they would not do so knowing they had spent their final moments as cowards.

Klarak rushed alongside King Logan’s bodyguard. If he would die, then it would be alongside his sovereign. Thorlek and Horgar accompanied their master, relishing the chance to fight beside him in one last battle.

Lightning from the Anvil of Doom crackled overhead as Morag continued to draw upon the relic’s magic. The bolts seared the daemon’s hide, leaving behind ugly dripping scars. But instead of weakening, the bloodthirster seemed to draw strength from its injuries, savouring the smell of even its own foul blood.

A small mob of crazed skaven lingered between the dwarfs and the daemon. The charging warriors smashed into the amok ratmen, cutting them down before the creatures could turn away from their fratricidal mania. Verminous spines shattered beneath the blows of hammers, rodent limbs were hewn beneath the biting steel of axes. One ratman, more crazed then the rest, lunged at Klarak, ending its existence when Horgar’s steam-powered hand squeezed its head into pulp.

As the dwarfs broke through the ranks of the skaven, they hesitated. Skarbrand glowered down at them, the daemon’s eyes like glowing pits of blood. Nothing now stood between the dwarfs and their ghastly foe. Nothing save the grisly carpet of butchered bodies the bloodthirster trampled beneath its hooves.

The hound-like muzzle parted in a bark of murderous laughter. Then the daemon’s snarling axes came hurtling downwards.

Before the daemon’s hellish weapons could reap their harvest of blood, Klarak sprang forwards. The engineer reached to his belt, hurling a small egg-like oval straight into Skarbrand’s bestial visage. The grenade exploded as it smacked against the daemon’s forehead, a bright flare of fire erupting across the bloodthirster’s face. The daemon staggered back, its axes dangling limply from their chains as it pawed at its burning face.

Klarak knew the grenade had done little damage to the bloodthirster, causing it more surprise than injury. Yet as the beast drew away, its gargantuan body suddenly contorted in agony. Skarbrand’s fanged mouth fell open in a howl, the chemical fire flickering across its snout forgotten as it reeled about with pain. A great swathe of the daemon’s back was torn and bloodied, burned black by some incredible force.

Klarak ignored the daemon’s wails of rage, his keen eyes seeking out whatever had done such damage to the seemingly invulnerable beast. He considered the way Skarbrand had recoiled from his bomb, the direction in which the daemon had retreated and the location of its grisly wound. The engineer’s gaze rose, staring in wonder at the stone face of one of the statues which flanked the hall. The dour countenance of Valaya stared back at him, the goddess’s granite eyes frozen in an expression of defiant watchfulness.

From the face of the statue, Klarak turned his attention to the mighty axe clutched in Valaya’s outstretched hand: a masterful representation of Kradskonti, the famed Peacebringer. The engineer could see Skarbrand’s boiling ichor dripping from the statue’s weapon.

The dwarf’s mind raced, stunned by the implication of what he saw. Immune to mortal weapons and unfazed by Morag’s magic, the daemon had proven itself vulnerable to this stone figure, this effigy of the dwarfish goddess of protection and healing. Klarak did not question the source of this power, whether it lay in some enchantment cut into the stone by the statue’s sculptor or whether the power might be a manifestation of Valaya’s divine strength. It was enough that the statue held the power to hurt the daemon.

‘Thorlek! Horgar!’ the engineer called out. He did not wait to see if his friends had heard him, instead rushing across the hall, hurdling the dead and dying. The engineer’s eyes kept drifting back to Valaya’s statue, studying the angle of her outstretched arm and the distance between her axe and the enraged Skarbrand.

A crazed dwarf lurched into Klarak’s path, the heavy iron length of a cannon worm gripped in his bloodied hands. The gunner thrust the corkscrew-shaped head of the worm at Klarak, trying to impale him upon its barbed tip. The engineer twisted aside, driving his fist into his attacker’s throat. The gunner staggered back, gasping for breath, the worm falling from his hands.

Before Klarak could fully disable his foe, a filthy weight pounced upon him from behind. The sharp nails of a ratman’s claws tore at his neck while chiselled fangs worried at his ear. A second skaven, fully as mad as the first, rushed at Klarak from the side, slashing at him with a notched sword.

The sword-rat’s blow never landed. An axe whistled through the air, slamming into the beast’s back and sending its broken body rolling across the floor. The skaven on Klarak’s back squealed in agony as powerful hands ripped it from the dwarf’s body and smashed its face into the unyielding stone floor.

‘Daemons aren’t foe enough for you?’ Horgar asked as he finished crushing the life from Klarak’s skaven attacker.

‘Watch out!’ cried Thorlek, pointing to the crazed dwarf gunner. His throwing axe gone, the ranger could only watch as the berserk gunner charged his friends.

Klarak met the gunner’s attack, driving his fist into the other dwarf’s face. The gunner crumpled, his jaw broken by the powerful blow. Even so, he struggled to rise until Klarak brought both hands smashing down into the gunner’s skull. The gunner slumped to the floor as consciousness fled his body.

‘If this madness does not pass, it would be more merciful to kill him,’ Klarak said, turning the gunner over and examining his body. ‘Please to the gods that I do not have the blood of my kinfolk upon my hands.’

The engineer stared intently at the belt circling the gunner’s waist. It was the leather workbelt of a cannoneer. Quickly, Klarak’s hands searched the belt, an idea forming in his mind. He cursed when he did not find what he was looking for. Sometime before attacking Klarak, the gunner had battled other foes. One of them had slashed the belt, spilling its contents somewhere on the battlefield.

‘Klarak,’ Thorlek said, his voice low with dread. ‘The daemon is moving again.’ The ranger gestured across the hall with his thumb. Skarbrand had recovered from its injuries and was once more moving against King Logan and his warriors. The bloodthirster’s twin axes licked out, butchering brave dwarf soldiers with every sweep of the daemonic blades.

‘Search the battlefield,’ Klarak ordered, glancing frantically at the dead bodies strewn all about them. ‘Find another cannoneer!’ Even as he gave the order, his eyes were drawn to the little circle of dwarfs surrounding Thane Arngar and his oathstone. The engineer’s gaze hardened when he saw Guildmaster Thori among Arngar’s dwarfs. Standing beside Thori was a black-bearded dwarf in the soot-stained clothes of a gunner, the broad workbelt of a cannoneer straddling his waist.

Klarak raced across the battlefield, dodging the small knots of crazed dwarfs and skaven still prowling among the carnage. Again, his eyes kept straying back to the statue of Valaya and the axe she held. He judged the distance between statue and daemon, the murderous progress Skarbrand was making through the ranks of King Logan’s warriors. With every sweep of its axe, the daemon took another thunderous step away from the statue and the one thing that might end its monstrous rampage.

The adventurer redoubled his efforts. He could hear Thorlek and Horgar behind him, savagely beating back any of the berserkers who took an interest in their master. Klarak could give only scant notice to their efforts, his mind focused upon reaching Thane Arngar’s holdouts and the cannoneer.

Klarak fought his way through the small cluster of maddened dwarfs and skaven which yet surrounded the oathstone. The warriors within the circle nearly brought him down with their axes until they heard the engineer cry out, until they saw the intense, yet wholly sane, expression in his eyes.

‘Bronzehammer!’ Thane Arngar exclaimed, shocked by the engineer’s sudden and dramatic appearance beside the oathstone. ‘You bring news from the king?’ the general asked, trying to fathom what could have sent the adventurer rushing across a hall filled with daemons and madmen.

‘I am on my own mission,’ Klarak said, turning from the perplexed general and dashing to an equally confused Guildmaster Thori.

Mistaking the engineer’s intensity and excitement as a threat, Guildmaster Thori drew away at Klarak’s approach, his hands clenched about the haft of a warhammer. ‘Don’t even think about touching me!’ Thori threatened.

Klarak gave the Guildmaster a withering look. ‘I’m not thinking about you at all,’ he growled. He turned his back to the indignant Thori and set upon the gunner beside him. Quickly, Klarak ripped the workbelt from the dwarf’s waist, his fingers deftly probing its many pockets and pouches for what he needed.

‘This is all your fault!’ Thori raged as Klarak spun around, eyes locked on the distant figures of Skarbrand and Valaya’s statue. ‘If not for your recklessness, the ratkin would never have besieged our halls with such viciousness!’ The Guildmaster shook his fist in rage as Klarak sprinted back towards the battlefield. ‘You are expelled from the Engineers’ Guild!’ Thori bellowed. ‘You are finished! Through!’

Klarak ignored Thori’s threats. He did not have the time to worry about such trifles, not when the very existence of Karak Angkul depended upon him. As he again charged through the ring of deranged attackers laying siege to Thane Arngar, the engineer’s face broke into a grim smile. Fighting their way through the crazed dwarfs and amok skaven, Horgar and Thorlek shouted a hurried greeting to their master.

‘Stay with Thane Arngar,’ Klarak told them.

‘Our place is at your side,’ Horgar objected.

‘Not this time,’ Klarak said.

Thorlek eyed his friend with suspicion. ‘You’ve some idea to destroy the daemon?’

There was no point in lying to them. Both of them knew him too well for that. ‘Yes, I have a plan,’ Klarak said. ‘And it needs only one dwarf to do it. If this doesn’t work, the daemon is sure to take its revenge.’ He raised his hand, silencing any other protests. Staring at Horgar, Klarak made a request of his bodyguard. ‘I’ll need your hammer, old friend.’

Horgar looked sadly at the steam hammer, a weapon that had become as close to him as his own skin. Yet he did not hesitate to hand it over to the engineer. ‘Need the weapon but not the hand that holds it,’ he grumbled.

Klarak looped the heavy weapon’s strap over his shoulder and gripped the former hammerer’s arm. ‘Not today,’ he said.

Horgar and Thorlek watched as their master rushed away, sprinting across the gory battlefield.

‘Why do I feel like we’re not going to see him again?’ the hammerer said.

‘For once,’ Thorlek replied, ‘I think you’re right.’

Klarak charged across the hall, his heart pounding in his chest. His eyes kept roving between the daemon and the statue, his mind calculating distances and velocities. There was yet a slight window of opportunity, a small chance to put his plan into action. He clenched his teeth against the pained screams of those being butchered by the bloodthirster, tried not to hear the daemon’s murderous bellows. If this didn’t work, then nothing would. The taint of Skarbrand would mark Karak Angkul forever.

The dwarf raced to the feet of Valaya. Without hesitation, without thinking too much upon the imposing height of the statue above him, Klarak reached to his belt and withdrew a set of spiked crampons. Hurriedly, he tied the spikes to his boots, then produced a similar set of climbing claws which he slipped over his hands. Drawing a deep breath, Klarak started to mount the leg of Valaya’s statue.

As he started to climb, Klarak did not notice the grey shape huddled behind the statue’s ankle or the spiteful eyes that glared at him as he made his ascent. The dwarf’s thoughts were focused upon the task at hand, upon the terrible act of desecration and destruction which had become the only hope of stopping Skarbrand’s rampage.

Higher and higher the engineer climbed, his eyes constantly drifting back to the daemon and the mutilated corpses strewn about its feet. The sight urged Klarak to greater effort, forcing him to exact still more speed from his fading strength. Every breath, every heartbeat brought death to another dwarf.

When he finally reached Valaya’s outstretched arm, Klarak could only sag wearily against the stone sleeve. It was the sound of Skarbrand’s roars that urged him to the final effort. Gazing across the hall, he could see the daemon pressing onwards. Another few steps and it would be beyond reach. If he were to act, it must be now or never.

Hurrying across the uneven surface of Valaya’s arm, Klarak drew a spike from his belt. The engineer studied the statue’s arm with a practiced eye, judging where he must make his mark if he would bring destruction to the daemon. For an instant, his mind rebelled against the unforgivable vandalism he was contemplating. But the image of crazed dwarf-wives strangling their own children, of daemons and skaven running rampant through Karak Angkul’s desolate halls, fought against his moral objections.

Setting the spike against the statue’s elbow, Klarak brought Horgar’s steam hammer smashing down. The stone beneath the spike cracked, a small fissure opening beneath the fang-like length of steel. Klarak cast aside his tools, reaching now for the small packet he had taken from the cannoneer. It was a little square of leather, a length of fuse projecting from one side, a lumpy mass locked between the packet’s folds.

The thing was a blasting charge, a more specialised and powerful sort than those employed by miners. Dwarf gun crews carried such charges in order to spoil their weapons in the event of defeat and prevent their cannons from falling into enemy hands. Judging the distance between Valaya’s axe and Skarbrand, Klarak cut away most of the fuse, then savagely tamped the blasting charge into the crack he had made.

With a last prayer to the ancestors for their forgiveness and understanding, Klarak lit the fuse and dived for what shelter Valaya’s shoulder might offer him.

A roar more violent and thunderous than that of the daemon boomed through the hall as the charge ignited. Chips of granite smashed against wall and ceiling, a cloud of debris pattered to the floor. All eyes turned to the source of the explosion and even Skarbrand’s blood-crazed awareness was distracted. The daemon turned, its glowing eyes glaring at the goddess, its nostrils flaring with challenge.

Then the statue’s arm came apart. The explosion had done its work. The forearm snapped clean from Valaya’s elbow, hurtling downwards, tons of stone rocketing towards the floor hundreds of feet below. Standing in the path of the falling arm stood the brutish figure of Skarbrand. The daemon howled wrathfully as the massive stone axe chopped down, sinking between its curled horns and cleaving its bestial skull in half.

To the dwarfs, it seemed almost as though Valaya herself had struck down the bloodthirster. The carved representation of the Peacebringer cut down the exultant daemon, spilling its steaming ichor in a cataract of boiling blood. The glow in Skarbrand’s eyes died, the malignant power of its spirit faded. Torches flickered back into life, frost faded from the roof and walls. Before the stunned eyes of the dwarfs, the daemon’s body began to wither, to sink into a quickly spreading pool of gore. The daemon’s disintegrating body twisted and writhed, the axe of Valaya slowly sinking with its victim to the floor far below.

Cries of ‘Valaya!’ and ‘Peacebringer!’ echoed through the hall as the surviving dwarfs began to recognise their deliverance. Soon another name rang through the hall as sharp-eyed dwarfs spotted a lone figure standing upon the statue’s shoulder.

‘Bronzehammer!’ the dwarfs roared, extolling the hero who had brought destruction to the daemon. Klarak stood upon the statue’s shattered arm and accepted the adulation of his kin. For the moment, he was their champion, their saviour. It was a moment he knew he would savour all his life.

Grey Seer Thanquol cringed behind the dwarf goddess’s foot, his mind shivering with the anguished scream of Skarbrand. The daemon was far from happy about its fate, about being banished back to the void before it had glutted itself upon mortal blood. Yet even in its rage, the bloodthirster spared a thought for the skaven sorcerer who had summoned it.

When you call for me again, I shall be waiting.

The daemon’s words were far from comforting to Thanquol. Indeed, he found the prospect of crossing paths with Skarbrand again more terrifying than meeting up with Deathmaster Snikch in a dark alley. Somehow, he didn’t think the bloodthirster’s words were just an empty threat.

Bitterness grew in Thanquol’s throat as the cheers of the dwarfs rang through the hall. He glared balefully from the shadows, wishing the daemon had finished its work before being banished. The filthy fur-faced dwarf-things! They had conspired with his enemies, allowed themselves to be used by Ikit Claw and Queek Headtaker in a craven plot to discredit and destroy the mightiest mind in all skavendom!

Well, their nefarious scheme had failed! Thanquol lived! He had survived the worst his enemies had thrown at him! Bravely defying even the daemonic malevolence of Skarbrand!

As Thanquol heard the name of Klarak Bronze-hammer being shouted, he crept out from behind the statue’s foot. So, the gold-bearded dwarf had survived and now his people cheered him as a hero. The credulous fools thought the dwarf had somehow vanquished the daemon! He could readily imagine how Klarak would exploit such fame!

The grey seer reached into the pocket of his robe, withdrawing a sliver of warpstone. He hadn’t dared draw upon such power with Skarbrand’s voice thundering through his head, but now he felt it was safe enough to partake of the stone’s energies. A quick spell, and he’d be beyond the reach of the murderous dwarfs and their treacherous intrigues.

Thanquol’s fangs ground the sliver into dust, the burning energies of the warpstone rushing through his body. His mind blazed with power, his eyes glowed with a green light. He felt his entire being saturated with the limitless power of the aethyr.

Yes, he could use his magic to escape. But first he would teach the dwarf-things a lesson. He would remind them of the heavy cost for daring to trifle with Thanquol!

Emboldened by the warpstone, Thanquol scurried out into the open. He tilted his horned head upwards, glaring at Klarak standing upon the statue’s broken arm. He felt a thrill of excitement as the dwarf spotted him. There was no mistaking the fear in the creature’s eyes.

‘Die-burn, dwarf-thing!’ Thanquol shrieked. Raising his staff, he sent a bolt of green lightning searing into the dwarf’s body. Klarak’s vest crackled as it struggled to dissipate the malignant energies, but it could do nothing to prevent his body from being thrown back by the impact. Klarak cried out as he lost his footing and hurtled to the floor far below.

Stunned silence held the Fourth Deep as the dwarfs watched their hero fall, as they saw his body smash upon the flagstones.

Thanquol chittered in triumph, hopping up and down in glee as he saw his enemy’s body crash to the floor. So perish all who defy Thanquol!

A bullet whistled past the grey seer’s ear, snapping him from his revelry. Another shattered against the foot of the statue, and a third tore splinters from the side of his staff. Thanquol spun about, his eyes going wide as he saw a vengeful throng of dwarfs charging towards him.

Of course, it would be a small thing for a sorcerer of his stature and power to annihilate the scruffy villains, but Thanquol was too humble to abandon himself to such gratuitous abuses of his magic. It was better to retire and leave the dwarfs to contemplate the lesson he had taught them.

Another bullet smacked into the foot of the statue. Frantically, the grey seer focused his mind on the spell that would part the veil between worlds. If he happened to find Skarbrand waiting for him, he hoped the daemon would be grateful that Thanquol had slain the gold-furred dwarf.

Only foul-smelling smoke met the dwarfs when they reached the feet of Valaya.

EPILOGUE

Silence reigned in the Fourth Deep as the surviving dwarfs gathered their dead. The assault by Queek Headtaker had wrought havoc among Thane Arngar’s defenders, but even these losses paled beside the daemon’s toll. Hundreds of dwarfs had been struck down by the bloodthirster’s axes. Even the slightest wound defied the efforts of Karak Angkul’s physicians and chirurgeons to heal, the injuries refusing to be staunched. Blood drained from the stricken dwarfs until their flesh was white and their breath faded into a ragged gasp. The priestesses of Valaya recited the litanies of mercy over each dying warrior, beseeching the goddess to ease their passing. The sombre priests of Gazul burned sacred incense in the hope that the Lord of the Underearth would guard the spirits of the dead and protect them on their journey to the Halls of the Ancestors.

Trains of wagons drawn by stout mine ponies carted the skaven dead away. There seemed to be thousands of the butchered ratmen, many of them killed by the claws of their own kind when the madness of Skarbrand conquered their feral minds. The skaven dead would be burned outside the walls of Karak Angkul, where the stench of their foulness would be borne away by the wind and their ashes washed away by the rain.

Across the hall, the saddest casualties of all sat huddled in blankets, their eyes gazing emptily at the walls, their ears deaf to the soothing voices of the priestesses. These were the survivors of Thane Arngar’s army, those who had not been protected from Skarbrand’s influence by the magic of the oathstone. Though the daemon’s madness had passed, it had left deep scars within the mind of each dwarf. With care and compassion, it was hoped the warriors might recover, but such hopes were tempered by the grim reality etched into the haunted face of each victim. The horrors that had raged through their minds would never heal. However many years the gods saw fit to give them, they would remain mad idiots.

King Logan watched his subjects labour to remove the broken arm of Valaya. Though the arm of the goddess had smote the daemon and brought about its destruction, Runelord Morag had urged the massive debris be removed from the hold and cast into a deep chasm. The stone axe had touched the vileness of Skarbrand, there was no telling how much of the daemon’s essence had seeped into it through that contact. He recalled the saga of Uzki Ranulfsson, the famed daemonslayer whose axe became a cursed thing eager to taste the blood of friend as well as foe. Uzki’s fame crumbled into infamy and he was remembered in the Book of Grudges as Uzki Kinslayer.

King Logan’s thoughts turned to another dwarf whose fame would leave debts in the Book of Grudges. He glanced away from the broken arm and stared at the bier where the battered body of Klarak Bronzehammer reposed. Even in death, there was a powerful dignity about the adventurer. Each dwarf bowed his head as he passed the bier, leaving a gold coin at Klarak’s feet as a token of their gratitude for his sacrifice.

There was no question that Klarak had saved Karak Angkul. His plan had destroyed Ikit Claw’s machine. His boldness and bravery had vanquished Thanquol’s daemon. Yet King Logan could not still the doubt that nagged at his heart. The words of Guildmaster Thori and Runelord Morag stoked the embers of conflict in his mind. True, Klarak had saved the stronghold and perhaps all of the Karak Ankor, but had he not been the one to place it in jeopardy? Thori had always cautioned against Klarak’s impetuous flouting of tradition, his reckless innovation and invention.

King Logan had always believed Klarak’s position that great good could come from casting aside the cumbersome restrictions of tradition. Now, he was not so sure. Klarak himself had said Ikit Claw was drawn to Karak Angkul only to steal the alloy he’d created, that without the alloy the skaven Doomsphere would be impossible to complete. Klarak had saved Karak Angkul, but perhaps without the engineer’s recklessness, the hold would never have been threatened to begin with.

It was a grim thought, but one which the king could not cast aside. He watched Horgar Horgarsson and Thorlek and Kimril, the only survivors of Klarak’s Iron Throng, standing in mournful silence about their dead master. Horgar and Thorlek had acquitted themselves well in the battles against Skarbrand and the skaven. Kimril had served with equal honour tending the many injured in the battle in the smelthall. King Logan felt the weight of the decision he would need to make. It left a bad taste in his mouth, but the duties of kingship were not always pleasant.

Klarak would be buried with the honour of a fallen hero. The dwarfs of Karak Angkul would demand nothing less. But then the engineer’s name would be stricken from every record. His inventions would be confiscated and handed over to the Engineers’ Guild for proper testing and evaluation. His workshop would be dismantled and its apparatus locked away.

Only in one place would the name of Klarak Bronzehammer linger. It would be found in the Book of Grudges, charged with the misfortunes which had nearly destroyed Karak Angkul. The debt against him would not be cancelled until the heads of Queek and Ikit Claw were set before the Silver Throne and until the horned pelt of Grey Seer Thanquol was pinned to the Ruby Gate.

As he made the decision, King Logan knew how Klarak’s surviving friends would react. Their master had no clan to redeem the grudge laid out against him, so they would take up that task as their own. They would not rest until the spirit of Klarak Bronzehammer could enter the Halls of the Ancestors with honour.

King Logan shook his head as he observed the three dwarfs standing over Klarak’s bier. Perhaps his decision was not such an imposition. After the cowardly way Thanquol had struck down their master, revenge against the grey seer was written upon the face of each of them.

Whatever hole Thanquol had crawled into, King Logan was certain the friends of Klarak Bronzehammer would find him.

The stink of death was all around Grey Seer Thanquol as he picked his way through the deserted tunnels of Bonestash. Any skaven left alive by the vengeful rampage of the dwarfs were long gone, fleeing into the Underway to seek refuge at some other outpost of the ratkin. There was no sign of the dwarfs either; they’d withdrawn all of their warriors to reinforce the defenders of the Fourth Deep. The only sign of life in the entire network of tunnels and burrows were the slinking rats nibbling at the dead skaven scattered throughout the warren.

Thanquol gave the noxious vermin a sharp kick when one of them tried to gnaw on his toes. Spitefully, he expended some of the magic still flowing through his veins. With a squeak of surprise and pain, the inquisitive rat exploded in a burst of fire and smoke.

Immediately, the grey seer regretted his action, a headache pounding against the inside of his skull. After taxing his sorcerous powers to skitterleap far from the halls of the dwarf-things, Thanquol knew better than to place any strain upon his magic. He blamed the irrational hate and viciousness of the dwarfs for setting his nerves on edge. It was their maniacal vindictiveness that had caused him to abuse his powers, casting such powerful spells without the proper preparations and ceremonies. It was a testament to his mastery of the arcane arts that even under such distressing circumstances he’d been able to successfully evoke the aethyr and bend it to his will. A lesser skaven would have teleported himself smack into the centre of a stone wall. But where such a feckless wretch would have perished, Thanquol had succeeded, rematerialising in the dank passages of Bonestash.

In case the Horned Rat had played some small part in his escape, Thanquol made the sign of the Horned One with his claws and mumbled a prayer of gratitude. Just to be on the safe side, he struck down a creeping rat with the edge of his staff, offering its blood to the Blood God. After all, there was just a chance Skarbrand’s essence was lingering close and there was no sense antagonising the daemon needlessly.

His prayers made, the grey seer began scurrying down the cramped tunnel. It would be a long journey back to Skavenblight and a far from pleasant one. He had no slaves to carry provisions for him, no guards to protect him from goblins and spiders and the multitudinous other terrors of the underworld. Worse still, he didn’t even have enough warp-tokens to buy what he needed. Indeed, considering the warpstone shards he’d used to fuel his spells, he was more destitute now than he had been when he left Skavenblight!

Thanquol gnashed his fangs at the thought. Angrily he pointed his finger at a black-furred rat picking the eye from the skull of a stormvermin. The rat burst apart in a flash of green light. The grey seer groaned as he felt his headache worsen.

They were all to blame, those scheming cowards who had thought to exploit the renown of skavendom’s greatest hero! Kritislik and Ikit Claw, Queek and thrice-damned Skraekual, Snikch and that decapitated maggot Rikkit…

Thanquol’s thoughts broke off in mid-curse. Rikkit Snapfang! Of course! That greedy little weasel would never have come back to Bonestash without good reason. He must have had an excellent one to take his problems to Queek Headtaker and risk getting his head lopped off. Even more if he was going to try and play Queek’s army against the weird science of Ikit Claw. Granted, even with the unpredictability of Clan Skryre’s corrupt inventions, Rikkit knew he would be facing the awesome sorcery of Thanquol upon his return. It would take a lot to make a ratman take such a risk.

The answer was clear and bright in Thanquol’s mind. Rikkit had left a stash of wealth behind when he fled. A cache of warpstone big enough to put some steel into the coward’s spine! The same treasure that had lured Kaskitt Steelgrin into making the journey from Skavenblight!

Thanquol hesitated, staring down the tunnel which would lead him back to the Underway and a dangerous, ignominious return to the Under-Empire. He glanced back over his shoulder at the corpse-strewn warren of Bonestash. If he was Rikkit Snapfang, where would he hide his treasure? Of course, it was a difficult thing for a skaven of Thanquol’s brilliance to try and imitate the intellect of a half-wit mouse-chewer like Rikkit…

Uttering a bark of excitement, Thanquol turned and dashed off through the winding corridors of the warren. If he was a spineless rat like Rikkit, he would have taken his treasure with him when he fled! The moment Ikit Claw had started taking over, he would have gathered his warpstone and headed for Skavenblight. Since Rikkit had tried to get Queek to come and reclaim the warren, obviously the warlord had been unable to recover his treasure. And that meant he’d hidden it in a place constantly under Ikit Claw’s observation, a place that afforded him no chance to steal in and get his loot.

There was only one such place! The great storage cavern where Ikit had assembled his woefully defective Doomsphere!

Thanquol raced through the narrow corridors, leaping over dead skaven and darting around fallen boulders. It took him a moment to recognise the smell of the cavern over the lingering smells of dwarf-scent and the ill vapours of the Doomsphere’s dissolution. Yet, after a bit of scrutiny and some guesswork, he reached the half-collapsed chamber. He ground his fangs together as he looked over the destruction. The dwarfs had put the cavern into some semblance of order, rolling aside many of the rocks in their morbid mania to take away their own dead.

Thanquol glanced fearfully at a particular boulder. No mistaking that one, it had come very near to smashing him. The grey seer lashed his tail in annoyance, angry at the twinge of fear he felt. Well, the damnable thing wouldn’t hurt him now! He’d use it as a marker to maintain his bearings while he searched the cave.

Scurrying across the cavern, Thanquol didn’t quite reach the boulder before his eyes caught a gleam of metal off to his right. Instinctively, he sprang back, raising his staff to beat in the brains of whatever scavenger was lurking down here.

Bitterly, the grey seer lowered his staff. What he’d seen was simply the steel armature of his late bodyguard. The rat-ogre stood frozen in place, its paws broken, its bones chipped, its mechanics dripping oil and fluids. Clan Skryre’s vaunted science! Bah! This shoddy contraption hadn’t even the sense to lay down when it died, or the decency to have some meat on its bones to feed its hungry master!

Imperiously, Thanquol strode towards the unmoving rat-ogre. It was annoying to him that the brute should be standing there like it was. He didn’t like having the gruesome thing looking down at him with its empty eyes. A good kick would solve the problem, and there might even be a few bits of warpstone left in its fuel tanks.

As soon as he came within five steps of the rat-ogre, the brute shuddered into life. Boneripper’s crouched body straightened itself and green lights blazed from the sockets of its skull. A hiss of warpsteam erupted from the rat-ogre’s damaged engine.

Thanquol scrambled for cover, diving behind his boulder. The frightened grey seer peered out from behind his refuge, staring wide-eyed at Boneripper. The huge beast stood where it was, its shoulders shuddering as the vibrations of its mechanics pulsed through its bones.

What was the monster waiting for? Why didn’t it attack?

Slowly it dawned on Thanquol what Boneripper was waiting for. Lashing his tail in anger, the grey seer stood up and brushed the dirt from his robes. Stalking towards the rat-ogre, he swatted its fleshless snout with his staff.

‘Bone-brained tick-popper!’ Thanquol snarled at Boneripper, striking it again. In mute silence, the rat-ogre bore its master’s abuse, waiting patiently for the grey seer to give it orders.

Panting, his anger spent, Thanquol leaned against his staff and glared up at the skull-faced rat-ogre. ‘Bone-ripper! Find-search warpstone!’ he commanded.

Obediently, Boneripper began shifting the rubble, searching for the treasure its master coveted. Thanquol watched his bodyguard toil away, uncaring for the toll its exertions were taking upon its already damaged mechanics. Either the brute would find Rikkit’s treasure or it would break down.

The grey seer accepted both possibilities. If Boneripper did break down, he would at least be able to recover the warpstone from its fuel tanks.

MIND-STEALER

The sharp stench of solder and melted copper made Thanquol’s whiskers twitch. The grey seer’s body shook as his nose rebelled against the smell and his body was wracked by a terrific sneeze. The little bells fixed to his horns jangled discordantly as he tried to cleanse the odour from his sinuses.

‘Fast-quick,’ the grey-robed ratman snarled, spitting each word through clenched fangs. His paw clenched tighter about the heft of his staff, the icons and talismans tied about its metal head clattering against the scarred wood. Never a particularly patient skaven, Thanquol’s temper was coming to a boil.

The object of his ire didn’t seem aware that messy sorcerous death was hovering just over his shoulder. The brown-furred skaven continued to fiddle with his spanners and hammers, sometimes reaching into the pockets of the leather apron he wore to fish out some strange tool or instrument. The stone slab which was serving as his workbench was littered with a confusion of metal gears and copper wire, ratgut tubes and little slivers of refined warpstone. The sickly glow of the warpstone was reflected in the thick goggles the skaven wore, making it seem as though his eyes had been replaced with hellish flames.

‘Soon-soon,’ the brown skaven chittered. ‘No worry-fear, Great-Mighty Thanquol! Krakul Zapskratch is good-smart warlock-engineer! Best-best in Under-Empire!’

Thanquol scowled at the magnitude of Krakul’s boasting. Only an empty-brained slack-wit would spew such an outrageous lie and expect his betters to believe him! To think that any warlock-engineer with real ability would be wasting his life as an itinerant tinker-rat wandering from burrow to burrow, selling his services to whatever three-flea warlord he could find! Just for daring to make such a bold-smelling lie, the grey seer was tempted to call down the wrath of the Horned One upon the fool-meat and burn him to a cinder!

Of course, there was a very good reason why Thanquol couldn’t do that. Krakul Zapskratch might be a loathsome, lying, sneaky ill-smelling braggart, but he was also the only warlock-engineer in Greypaw Hollow. Kill the tinker-rat, and there was no one else in the miserable, misbegotten warren capable of making the repairs Boneripper needed.

The grey seer’s eyes narrowed as he glared down at the enormous body lying stretched across the stone slab. Had it been standing, the creature would have been three times the size of its master, a towering construction of steel, bone and wire fuelled by a warpstone heart and driven by the arcane mechanics of Clan Skryre’s techno-sorcery. In shape, it retained a morbid resemblance to a living rat-ogre, and the warlock-engineers had even used the bones of Thanquol’s first Boneripper when assembling their creation. The skeletal automaton had been a gift-bribe by Kaskitt Steelgrin, meant to buy the grey seer’s services in a crooked scheme to ransack the treasury of Bonestash while the skaven were busy fighting the dwarf-things of Karak Angkul.

Thanquol lashed his tail in amusement. Kaskitt had paid for his treachery and presumption. Boneripper belonged to him now, without any obligations to a wire-chewing scrap-rat and his larcenous schemes. Even the control valve the warlock-engineers had hidden among Boneripper’s gears, designed to shut the rat-ogre down should it be ordered to attack any skaven of Clan Skryre, was gone, disabled by dwarfish pistol-fire. The grey seer had impressed upon Krakul what would happen to him if he so much as thought about repairing that particular mechanism.

Of course, that didn’t keep Thanquol from watching every move the warlock-engineer made. It didn’t matter if he had no idea what Krakul was doing with all his strange gizmos. The only important thing was for Krakul to think the grey seer knew what he was about. There was, after all, a chance that Krakul wasn’t the mouse-brain he seemed.

Krakul frittered around with a nest of corroded wires and punctured tubes situated behind Boneripper’s metal chestplate. Thanquol could hear the tinker-rat tutting under his breath as he removed the damaged mechanisms. There was a distinctive green glow about the wires, and Krakul was careful to handle them only with a set of insulated tongs.

Thanquol’s ears sank back against the sides of his skull, his head crooking back in a glowering gesture. He wasn’t about to listen to Krakul chide him about having Boneripper lug a large quantity of warpstone for days on end. The corrosion could have been caused by anything! Maybe some of the smelly fluids Clan Skryre used as coolants, or the warpfire projector built into Boneripper’s third arm. The lummox had suffered enough damage from bullets and boulders that almost anything could have leaked down inside its chest. The green glow emanating from the wires didn’t mean anything!

Agitated squeaks rose from the tunnel outside Krakul’s burrow. Thanquol pulled aside the man-hide curtain which separated the workshop from the main tunnel. Across the narrow corridor, he could see other skaven faces peering out from their holes. He followed the direction of their gaze, his nose twitching as the smells of blood and fear-musk excited his senses. Greypaw Hollow sat beneath a forest and it wasn’t unusual for Warlord Pakstab to send groups of clanrats out to scavenge the wilderness for food and materials.

What was unusual was for one of these expeditions to return in such a sorry condition. Thanquol could see the miserable little ratkin, their fur bloodied, their eyes wide with fright. Several of them bore ugly gashes and deep wounds, hobbling about on broken legs and hugging broken arms to their chests.

Thanquol clapped a paw against his ear to stifle the shrill, wheedling voices of the scavengers as they reported their misfortune to a furious Pakstab. Whatever had befallen the fool-meat, whether they had scurried right into a troll hole or been stampeded by a herd of cattle, it was Pakstab’s problem. Another petty inconsequence that was far beneath the dignity of a grey seer to notice. Thanquol had more important things to occupy himself with.

He was just turning his head to return to Krakul’s workshop when a particular whine froze him in his place. Thanquol felt a tingle of fear squeeze at his glands and a cold hand close about his heart. It was a shaking paw that drew the rat-skull snuff-box from his robe.

The grey seer felt an intoxicating rush of warmth course through his body as he sniffed the pulverised weed, burning away the fear and allowing hate free reign. Thanquol gnashed his fangs, spinning about and marching out into the tunnel. Skaven heads vanished back into their holes as the enraged sorcerer stalked past.

Had he heard right? He would find out! He would find out if these flea-spleened maggots had really seen what they had seen!

The few skaven bold enough to emerge from their burrows to investigate the curious squeaks and smells of the returned scavengers quickly scurried out of Thanquol’s way as the sorcerer marched up the corridor. Even the armoured stormvermin, their claws wrapped about the hafts of hatchet-headed halberds, cringed when they saw the intense hatred blazing from the grey seer’s eyes and sniffed the murderous aggression in his scent.

Grey Seer Thanquol brushed past Pakstab as though the warlord wasn’t even there. His paw trembled with rage as he closed his fingers around the throat of one of the scavengers. The little ratman’s eyes boggled in terror as Thanquol pulled him close.

‘What did you smell-see?’ Thanquol hissed. ‘Speak-squeak! Quick-quick!’ The only sound the crippled ratman could make was a wet rattle as the grey seer throttled him. Absently, Thanquol released his choking clutch, glaring as the dead skaven toppled to the floor. The temerity of the worm-fondler to die when the mighty Thanquol had questions to ask him! Out of spite, the grey seer kicked the corpse in the head, then turned his attention to the other scavengers.

‘You!’ the grey seer pronounced, pointing a claw at one of the ratmen, a portly creature missing an ear, half his tail and most of one paw, each of the injuries so fresh that black blood leaked from his wounds.

‘Mercy-pity!’ the ratman whined, awkwardly falling to his knees and exposing his throat in a gesture of submission. ‘No-no hurt-harm, most merciless of priests, great gnawer of–’

Thanquol ground his fangs together, in no mood to be flattered by this fool-meat. ‘What did that to you?’ he snarled, jabbing the end of his staff into the scavenger’s mangled paw. The wretch squealed in agony, quivering on the floor. Thanquol lifted his head, casting his eyes across the other scavengers.

‘We smell-track man-things in forest,’ one of the scavengers hastily spoke up. ‘Many-few man-things carrying many-many strange-meat in wheel-burrow. We try-fetch food-fodder from wheel-burrow.’

Thanquol’s eyes narrowed with impatience. He didn’t care a lick for any of this. ‘What kept you from stealing the food?’ he demanded, smacking the quivering skaven on the floor with his staff. The fresh squeal of pain had the desired effect. The other scavenger couldn’t finish his story fast enough.

‘Breeder-thing see us!’ the scavenger cried. ‘Call-bring much-much man-thing! Fight-kill much-much! Many-many die-die from one-eye and dwarf-thing!’

Thanquol swatted the quivering skaven again as he slowly strode towards the talkative scavenger. ‘A man-thing and a dwarf-thing did this to you?’ he growled. He raised a claw to emphasise his next point. ‘With one eye?’

The scavenger’s fright had risen to such a state that he couldn’t speak, simply bobbing his head up and down in a desperate effort to appease the fearsome sorcerer.

Gotrek Gurnisson and his mangy man-thing, Felix Jaeger! By the malicious malevolence of the Horned One!

Vengeance boiled up inside Thanquol’s black heart. The grey seer rounded upon Pakstab, pointing a claw at the startled warlord’s nose. ‘Get-fetch your battle-rats!’ the enraged sorcerer snarled, foam dripping from his mouth. ‘Great enemies of skavendom have hurt-harm your valiant scouts! I will avenge their injuries upon these heretic-things with your army!’

Pakstab blinked in confusion. His whiskers trembled, his eyes narrowed with suspicion. Thanquol could read the warlord’s thoughts. He wanted no part in fighting whoever had savaged his scavengers. He certainly wanted nothing to do with Thanquol’s vengeance.

Hissing a curse, invoking one of the thirteen forbidden names of the Horned Rat, Thanquol gestured with his staff at one of the injured scavengers. An emerald glow suffused the metal icon fitted to the top of the staff. The same green glow surrounded the doomed scavenger. The ratman had time to shriek once before his body collapsed into a pool of steaming green mush.

‘We march-kill enemy-meat now!’ Thanquol screamed, turning his blazing eyes back upon Pakstab. The warlord nodded his head with an eagerness that was obscene. That was the beauty of a gratuitous display of destruction magic: there was never a need to repeat it.

Thanquol turned away to leave Pakstab to gather his warriors. He could be confident that Pakstab would marshal his forces quickly. After all, the warlord would be right there beside Thanquol when they made the attack. Anything that happened to the grey seer would happen to Pakstab too.

Worse, Thanquol promised, if Gotrek and Felix slipped through his paws! What he would do to Pakstab would be such a horror that his screams would be heard in Skavenblight!

As the grey seer stalked back down the tunnel towards Krakul’s workshop, he barked orders at the tinker-rat, using a bit of his magic to magnify his words so that they carried into the farthest corners of the burrow.

‘Fix-finish Boneripper, wire-nibbler! I want my rat-ogre on its feet and ready to kill-slay!’ Thanquol brushed aside the curtain, fixing his imperious stare on the warlock-engineer. Krakul’s eyes might have been hidden behind his goggles, but there was no mistaking the frightened posture and smell of the tinker-rat.

Thanquol reached into his robe and removed a little sliver of black cheese from his pocket. He stared at it for a moment, then glared at Krakul. ‘You have until my third nibble to fix Boneripper,’ the grey seer pronounced. ‘After that, I will burn off one of your fingers every time I take another bite.’

Krakul was an eccentric, scheming scrap-fondler, but he had the good sense to know when a sorcerer was making an idle threat. With almost unseemly haste, the warlock-engineer leapt back to the stone slab, tools clattering against Boneripper’s metal chassis, as he hurried to finish the repairs.

The confusion of smells emanating from the caravan threw each of the skaven into a state of anxiety and excitement. The good, familiar odours of oats and wheat, the appetising scents of horses and oxen, the reek of human sweat and the stink of iron and bronze; these all mixed in a single aroma that tantalised the skaven, made their bellies growl and their paws itch. The promise of full bellies and a bit of plunder was one that every ratman dreamed about.

Still, there were other smells teasing the keen skaven noses. There was a heavy, greasy stench one old crook-eared ratman said was troll. There was a musky, reptilian fug none of the skaven could identify. There was a sinister coppery smell that reminded Thanquol of the abominations Clan Moulder kept in Hell Pit, though he wasn’t about to offer that insight to any of his yellow-spleened underlings.

The other smells didn’t matter, because Thanquol had detected the scent he was looking for. It was that vile mix of tattoo ink and cold steel, animal starch and cheap beer, all wrapped around the dirt-stench of a dwarf.

Gotrek Gurnisson! He was travelling with the caravan, and if he was there, then that damnable Felix Jaeger was with him! Thanquol didn’t know what trick of fate had thrust his two most hated enemies into his clutches, nor did he care. It was enough that the Horned Rat had smiled upon him and bestowed this delectable gift upon him. Before he was through with them, he’d offer the human’s two eyes and the dwarf’s single, blood-crazed orb as a burned offering to the Horned One by token of gratitude. Maybe he’d even teach them how to pray to the Horned One for mercy.

Not that it would do them any good.

When the humans made camp. That would be the time to do it. Their horses would be grazing, their wagons unhitched; at least some of their number would be sleeping. The skaven could set upon them and slaughter half the company before they had a chance to blink!

Yes, it was a good plan. The audacity of Pakstab’s weasel-tongued track-sniffer Naktit to try and take credit for developing such a plan! Because the scout-rat had mentioned something of the sort first, he had the temerity to believe the same idea hadn’t already occurred to Thanquol! Why should a grey seer share his innermost thoughts with the sort of verminous rabble Greypaw Hollow dared call warriors? It had been sorely tempting to let Boneripper smash the creeping little nuisance into paste for his arrogance.

But that would have been the petty, spiteful reaction of a lesser skaven. Thanquol was grand enough to be gracious and forget the failings of his underlings. With Gotrek and Felix nearly in his grasp, he felt magnanimous enough to ignore the stupidity of lesser ratmen. The Horned One had granted him a mighty boon; surely Thanquol could allow similar beneficence. Yes, he’d let Naktit keep his worthless little life.

Unless something went wrong! If that happened, he’d have Boneripper squeeze the creepy little tick-tracker until his eyes popped out of his skull.

It was early morning when the skaven started trailing the caravan, slinking through the dense thickets and close-set trees, always keeping out of sight while maintaining a clear view of the trail. The wagons were unusual, the sort of thing that even Thanquol with his vast experience and study of humans had never seen before. Their sides were painted in bright, garish colours, flags and pennants waving above them, bold words emblazoned on their sides. The horses and oxen which pulled the wagons were similarly arrayed, bright plumes fastened to their bridles and garlands of flowers tied about their necks. The men driving the wagons were also dressed in bright, gaudy clothing, sporting billowy breeches and vibrant vests and headscarves.

Most perplexing of all were the half-dozen cage-carts. These followed behind the other wagons, their contents hidden beneath tarps. The smells rising from them and the brief view of bars afforded by the trailing edge of the tarps, left no doubt that each cage held some living beast. Low growls, sullen snarls or angry howls rose from some of the carts. Most of the sounds were new to the skaven, though a few of the cries were familiar enough to send shivers down their spines. The old crop-eared ratman started whining about trolls again – at least until Boneripper stepped on his head. Fear was a useful thing, but only when the ratkin knew what they should be most afraid of.

Thanquol peered through the bushes, trying vainly to spot his hated foes, but there was no sign of either Gotrek or Felix. The grey seer concluded the two were inside one of the wagons. It would be in keeping with their perfidious natures to hide themselves away.

Taking a pinch of warpstone snuff, Thanquol resisted the burning desire to launch the attack immediately. He didn’t care that more of Pakstab’s clanrats would die in such an impulsive raid than in a carefully planned assault. It was the possibility that Gotrek and Felix might escape that stayed his paw. However much it vexed him, he would have to wait. Naktit insisted the time to attack would be when the caravan settled down to camp and it was Thanquol’s experience that humans, with their pathetic vision, wouldn’t travel at night. He could wait.

As it transpired, however, he didn’t have to wait that long. Thanquol blinked in bewilderment when, just a little past noon, the caravan came to a halt. He watched in wonder as the wagons moved into a wide clearing and the men driving them began to unhitch their teams. There were still a good six hours of daylight left, a fact each of the light-sensitive skaven appreciated quite keenly. Surely the humans weren’t stupid enough to squander…

Thanquol grinned, turning his eyes to the ground at his feet, envisioning the deep, dark burrow of the Horned Rat. Truly his god was favouring him! First to deliver Gotrek and Felix to him, then to make the stupid humans stop well before nightfall. The skaven could rest and recuperate from their forced march through the forest.

The only thing Thanquol didn’t like was the size of the clearing. Every skaven was agoraphobic and the clearing elicited a feeling of unspeakable dread. The forest had been dense enough to be almost comforting, but all the open sky above the clearing was another thing entirely. It would be a bit better at night, but even so, the thought of all those stars glaring down at them like so many hungry eyes was something to make the glands clench.

A few of the humans were sent away on horseback, galloping off down the trail. Thanquol dismissed them from his thoughts after snarling an order to Pakstab that no opportunistic sword-rat should bother them. He didn’t want the humans breaking camp when their outriders failed to return and they became uneasy. He wanted the stupid creatures to think themselves perfectly safe and alone until the very moment of the attack.

For the second time, Thanquol blinked in disbelief. The humans that remained in camp were removing poles and an immense roll of canvas from one of the wagons. While he watched, they spread the canvas out across the clearing, then began to prop it up from beneath with the poles. It was unbelievable, but the humans were constructing some kind of massive tent, effectively placing a roof over the clearing! Truly the Horned One had decided to recognise and reward his selfless and valiant servant!

Gratitude to his god died on his tongue when Thanquol spotted two figures climbing down from one of the wagons. One was a tall human with long blond hair, the other was a stocky dwarf, his head shaved except for a single strip of ginger fur running down the centre of his scalp. Flecks of foam dribbled from Thanquol’s mouth as he glared at his hated enemies. His fingers closed around a nugget of warpstone hidden in the seam of his robe.

It would be so easy! Bite down on the warpstone, draw its sorcerous energies into his body and unleash a spell of such devastation that the two blood-ticks would burst into a thousand gory fragments! All the humiliation and disgrace that these two had brought upon him would be avenged in one moment of sadistic violence!

Thanquol let his paw fall empty at his side. It was too easy. Too easy for Gotrek and Felix. All the times they had meddled in his affairs… No, they wouldn’t get off so easy! For them, there would be no quick death.

‘Pakstab!’ Thanquol snarled. The warlord scurried forwards, his posture displaying a submissiveness rooted in fear, but his fur bristling with a far less docile resentment. The grey seer bared his fangs at Pakstab until the warlord was well and truly subdued.

‘Keep your tree-rats quiet,’ the grey seer hissed. ‘We wait until nightfall and the man-things sleep.’ He jabbed a paw towards the wagon where his enemies stood. ‘I want those ones alive!’

Dismissing the warlord from his mind, Thanquol returned his attention to the clearing. Soon it would be dark and then the humans would go to sleep. That was when he would lead Pakstab’s brave warriors into combat.

He only wished there was a way to make Gotrek and Felix understand they had only a few hours left to live!

Thanquol reached over and snatched the far-eye from Krakul’s hand, an effort made easier since the warlock-engineer was short a few fingers. The grey seer ground his fangs together in a fit of anger.

Crickets chirruped, owls hooted, bats flittered about the trees. It was night, as black and welcoming as the tunnels of Skavenblight.

Why, then, were the humans still awake! Even worse, there were more of them! The outriders had returned after only a short time, but it wasn’t long after that more humans began to trickle into the camp. These weren’t so brightly dressed as the ones from the caravan, and they stank of dirt and manure: typical odours of the slavelings humans used to grow their crops and tend their flesh-beasts.

Thanquol didn’t care who they were or where they came from. What he wanted to know was what they were doing! By the horns of the Horned One, none of it made sense to him! The field-humans, obviously a lesser clan than the brightly dressed ones, had wandered about the camp as though they each of them were a fangleader inspecting a new burrow. The caravan humans hurried about, performing every sort of bizarre labour at the slightest command of the field-humans.

The grey seer was still scratching his ears at some of the things he had seen. There was a gangly human who could spit fire and another one that was able to stick a sword clear down his throat without skewering himself! He saw a grungy little man-thing in voluminous robes engaged in the rather despicable antic of biting the heads from live chickens. As he would soon spit out the chickenhead, Thanquol could make absolutely no sense of this particular activity. There was a pair of breeders who capered about on a thin rope stretched between two poles, displaying an agility that would have impressed even a murder-adept of Clan Eshin. He watched another human gallop around the camp on a horse, flipping and jumping all around the animal, making the grey seer wonder if some saboteur had slathered grease across the horse’s back.

None of it made any kind of sense! The field-humans would slap their hands together in moronic fashion, howling loudly and baring their teeth at the caravan-humans. Yet the threatening display only excited the caravan-humans to new efforts.

Thanquol removed the spyglass from his face long enough to scowl at Naktit. So, the humans would go to sleep once it was dark, would they!

The grey seer’s nose twitched as a new smell reached him. It was the odour of magic, crude but powerful. Forgetting Naktit for the moment, Thanquol swung back around and directed the spyglass upon the source of the aethyric energy.

What he saw made his glands tighten. Some of the brightly-clad humans were opening the door to one of the cages. Locked inside was an enormous troll! As soon as the door was open, the brute lurched out into the clearing, roaring and thumping its chest! Thanquol could only scratch his ear in disbelief. The humans were insane to let such a monster loose!

The field-humans screamed and started to scatter, but before they could get far a caravan-human wearing a broad-brimmed hat called out to them, ordering them to stop. He turned and faced the troll, drawing from the crimson sash he wore not a sword or axe or blunderbuss but a slender flute. Before the amazed grey seer’s eyes, the troll stopped, its dull eyes staring down at the little man.

Expecting any sort of horrific violence to follow, Thanquol’s wonder increased when the man began to play his flute. The troll lifted up its huge feet and began to dance!

Thanquol scowled as he heard the field-humans screeching and slapping their hands together. He focused his attention not on what he could see, but upon what he could feel. Sniffing the patterns of magic in the air, he could follow the slender strands of energy emanating from the troll. One strand led back to one of the wagons where a bound human lay hidden, his mouth tightly gagged. As he struggled, his movement struck Thanquol as peculiar, more like an idiot’s fit than the resistance of a grown man-thing.

The other strand of magic led to a dark little pavilion set aside from the main tent. Just visible at the entrance of the pavilion was an old breeder, her flesh withered, all the meat shrivelled by age. Thanquol could tell at a glance that the breeder-thing was a mage by the grey hue of her hair. It was easy to forget that human breeders sometimes developed such abilities, a sure sign of their inferiority to the skaven whose breeders’ only purpose was to make and nurse more skaven.

The breeder-witch was doing something, weaving her magic between the idiot-flesh and the troll. Whatever she was doing, it gave her control over the troll, control more perfect and precise than any cave-lurking goblin chief had ever dreamed of.

The presence of a sorceress made Thanquol reconsider the wisdom of the planned attack. It was always dangerous to risk the powers of an unknown wizard, even if it was just a breeder-thing. If he had an apprentice to send out to cast spells and draw the witch’s attention, he would have felt better.

A cruel smile flashed upon Thanquol’s verminous face. Lowering the spyglass, he turned towards Krakul. Few among the warlock-engineers had true magic, and he rather doubted that Krakul was one of those who did. However, many of the contraptions crafted by Clan Skryre mimicked magic in their effects. Surely enough to trick a stupid breeder-witch!

‘Brave-wise Krakul,’ Thanquol said. ‘I give you the honour-glory to lead the attack.’

Krakul looked like he’d swallowed one of his own spanners. The warlock-engineer looked about him, as though hoping there was some other skaven named Krakul standing nearby.

‘Great and holy Thanquol the Terrifying!’ Krakul squealed. ‘I am not worthy of such distinction. I am only poor-small tinker-rat–’

‘Stop whining,’ Thanquol snapped. ‘You’re going.’ He drew upon the smallest measure of his sorcery, causing his eyes to take on a ghoulish green glow. ‘Or would you rather stay?’ he hissed. Krakul didn’t have any real magic, but Thanquol certainly did. It was perhaps wise to remind him of that fact.

‘Take the clanrats and attack from the right,’ Thanquol ordered. ‘Naktit’s scouts will come from the left. Once you have the man-things’ attention, Pakstab will lead the stormvermin and strike the centre.’

‘Where will you be, invincible one?’ Pakstab asked, his tone not quite as servile as it could have been.

Thanquol smoothed his whiskers. ‘I will stay here and ensure nothing goes wrong with your plan.’ Now that so many unforeseen complications had become part of the situation, Thanquol felt it was time to distance himself from responsibility for organising the attack. After all, these were Pakstab’s warriors. Why shouldn’t the warlord shoulder the responsibility if they couldn’t adapt to changes on the battlefield?

Pakstab glared murderously at the grey seer, his fingers twitching about the hilt of his sword. The warlord glanced past Thanquol at the imposing hulk of Boneripper. Grinding his fangs together, Pakstab relented. Turning away, he began squealing orders at his underlings. If he was expected to lead the attack, he was going to make sure there were plenty of skaven around him to do the brunt of the fighting. It was exactly the sort of cowardly, selfish scheming Thanquol had come to expect from a greedy, grasping thug like Pakstab. It was unfortunate for Greypaw Hollow that there was no leader of Thanquol’s calibre ruling the warren, a leader with the cold resolve and iron self-control to set aside his own desires for the betterment of all skavendom.

The grey seer drew a sharp intake of breath as his eyes fell upon one corner of the clearing. Most of the field-humans had gathered to watch the dancing troll, giving Thanquol a better view of the rest of the space. Now he could see a burly dwarf standing beside a pile of boulders, an immense hammer in his thick hands. Judging by the broken stones around him, the braggart had been showing off his brainless physique, smashing rocks for the entertainment of the field-humans, glutting his drunken ego on the empty-headed praise of buffoons and churls!

Gotrek Gurnisson! Well, this was the last time he would interfere in Thanquol’s affairs!

Spinning around, the enraged grey seer snapped commands at Boneripper. ‘Kill-burn-slay!’ Thanquol shrieked at the skeletal rat-ogre, the warp-tooth fitted to the sorcerer’s ear pulsing with power as it transmitted his fury to the hulking automaton. Without hesitation, Boneripper reared up and charged out from the forest, hurtling towards the clearing like a warp-fuelled avalanche.

Squeaks of shock and dismay rose from the bushes and underbrush. The creeping skaven warriors of Greypaw Hollow weren’t in position yet. They wailed against losing the element of surprise when Boneripper charged past them, bemoaning the squandered opportunity for massacring the humans without a fight. Many of them turned tail, ready to scurry back to their dark burrows.

Thanquol dissuaded the warriors from their cowardly retreat with a show of force. Summoning the might of the Horned One into his body, harnessing the aethyric currents around him, the grey seer pointed his staff at the closest of the fleeing ratmen. A crackle of green lightning leapt from the head of the staff, coiling about the retreating stormvermin, cooking him inside his armour. As the smouldering ratman crashed to the ground, Thanquol’s magically magnified voice thundered over the clearing.

‘All-all fight-kill!’ Thanquol roared. ‘Kill much-much or suffer-die!’

The threat turned the frightened skaven around. By now Boneripper had reached the clearing. The carnage it was causing among the hapless humans helped to further bolster the fragile courage of the ratmen. Squeaking their war-cries, the verminous horde descended upon the caravan.

Thanquol lashed his tail in frustration. That idiot Boneripper! Stupid, brainless oaf of a scrap-heap! Couldn’t it tell when he wanted it to do what he said and when he didn’t? The brute had spoiled the ambush by its moronic interpretation of its master’s outburst!

But was it Boneripper’s fault? Might that treacherous tinker-rat Krakul have done something to the rat-ogre, changing it from Thanquol’s clever, loyal, unquestioning bodyguard into a lumbering dolt with only the vaguest semblance of intelligence? Yes-yes, that certainly sounded probable! It wasn’t so long ago that Ikit Claw had unreasonably developed some paranoid ideas about Thanquol and tried to kill him. It was more than coincidence that Krakul was of the same clan as the Claw!

Thanquol yipped in alarm as another idea came to him. Hiking his grey robe up above his knees, he dashed towards the clearing. The timing of Krakul’s treachery had spoiled the perfect ambush, opening the possibility that Gotrek and Felix might escape! And now it occurred to him that this might be Krakul’s real purpose. Thanquol had long known that there had to be someone using the two insufferable interlopers against him. Neither one of them was clever enough to continually be interfering in the grey seer’s schemes. There had to be a traitor, a villain from the lowest dregs of skavendom whose pride and arrogance couldn’t abide the greatness of Thanquol’s genius. It was another skaven who kept thrusting the pair in his way!

It was up to Thanquol to see that his enemies were taken alive, that they might confess who it was that had…

Again the grey seer yipped in alarm. The mangled body of a stormvermin went flying past him, almost bowling him over as it went tumbling into the bushes. A second body crashed to earth almost at his feet.

Thoughts of traitors and vengeance abated as Thanquol began to appreciate his surroundings. In his haste, he’d scurried well ahead of the main body of Pakstab’s warriors. He was in the clearing, under the tent, with a frightened mob of humans rushing about, screaming and wailing in abject terror.

Unfortunately, the troll wasn’t frightened of the skaven. It had stopped dancing, too. Instead it had lumbered out and intercepted the boldest and most eager of the stormvermin. With decidedly un-troll-like deliberation, the monster brought its scaly fists pounding into one ratman after another, each powerful blow smashing a furry body into ruin.

Thanquol froze as the ugly brute turned towards him. The musk of fear spurted from his glands as the troll opened its jaws wide, roaring at the grey seer. The monster’s hand tightened about the squealing clanrat it held, breaking every bone in the skaven’s body. The fearful display forced Thanquol into action. Drawing upon his sorcery, he pointed his staff at the troll, sending a blast of malignant magic full into the monster’s face.

Wisps of black smoke rose from the troll’s head as the spell crackled across its flesh. But the brute didn’t fall. As the smoke cleared, it glared at Thanquol. The scaly, blackened skin of the monster’s face may have been scorched by his magic, but already the incredible regenerative powers of the troll were undoing the damage. Before Thanquol’s eyes, the burned skin began to heal. Snorting and huffing, the troll lumbered towards the skaven sorcerer.

‘Boneripper!’ the grey seer squeaked as the troll swung at him. The monster’s tremendous fist smashed into the ground Thanquol had been standing on before making a frantic leap for one of the posts supporting the tent. He wrapped his limbs about the post, clinging to it as though it were the mast of a sinking ship. A sideways glance showed him the troll using its other hand to pull its fist from a crater that had punched clear down to bedrock. His glands spurted fear-musk as he considered what such a blow would have done to him had it landed.

‘Boneripper!’ the sorcerer shrieked again. He wasn’t certain if his bodyguard heard him; the range of the warp-tooth which controlled the rat-ogre had never been explained to him. Worse, there was the possibility that Krakul had done something to limit Thanquol’s control. He should never have trusted that snivelling scrap-rat!

Something else heard him, however. Turning its head upwards, the troll glared at Thanquol. There was a chilling intelligence in the monster’s eyes, a keenness of hate that he’d never seen any troll exhibit before. Frantically, Thanquol pawed at his robe, seeking a piece of warpstone to fuel another spell – a spell strong enough to overcome the troll’s regeneration.

Bellowing its rage, the troll charged towards Thanquol’s post. The grey seer squeaked in terror, the sliver of warpstone slipping from his paws. He watched as the glowing green stone hurtled downwards, seeing his last hope of survival falling with it.

Suddenly, Boneripper’s skeletal bulk was between Thanquol and the oncoming troll. The rat-ogre’s piston-driven arms closed about the troll’s enormity, crushing it in an embrace of steel and sinew. The troll flailed about in Boneripper’s grip, trying to tear its way free.

The two monsters might have stood there all night, immovable object against irresistible force. But Thanquol had other ideas. Baring his fangs, glaring at the troll’s ugly visage, he snarled an order at Boneripper: ‘Burn-slay!’

Obediently, Boneripper lifted its third arm, pressing the nozzle of the warpfire projector against the troll’s skull. There was a tremendous flash of light, a resounding boom and a thunderous crash that knocked Thanquol from his perch. The grey seer smashed to earth, moaning as the impact rattled his bones.

When his head stopped ringing, Thanquol darted a look over at the troll. It was dead now, only a smoking stump of neck rising from its shoulders. Boneripper’s warpfire had burned the monster’s head off! The threat to himself vanquished, Thanquol looked for his bodyguard. The explosion had thrown Boneripper to the ground, its third arm nothing but a jumble of twisted metal and shattered bone. The rat-ogre didn’t move, even when Thanquol snarled an order at it to do so.

Wonderful! The slack-witted dolt had destroyed itself! Surely it should have understood not to use its warpfire at such close quarters! By the Horned One, what could have possessed the lummox… But, of course, it was Krakul and his treacherous meddling with Boneripper’s mechanisms! When Thanquol got his paws on the filthy maggot-chewer…

The grey seer forgot about Krakul when he spotted two figures rushing at him from across the clearing. Thanquol’s empty glands clenched as he recognised the hated Gotrek and Felix! His paw drew another shard of warpstone from his robe, popping the sorcerous rock into his mouth, sending magical energy coursing through his veins. He could cast a quick spell that would get him a hundred miles away, far from Gotrek’s murderous axe and Felix’s flashing sword!

Only… the dwarf wasn’t carrying his deadly axe. He was still lugging around that huge hammer. It was the human who was brandishing an axe, but a far smaller one than the weapon of Gotrek Gurnisson.

It was a trick! That was why they weren’t using their usual armaments! That was why Felix had grown so tall and muscular, why the dwarf had changed his tattoos and added a ring of metal studs across his brow! They knew the mightiest sorcerer in the world, the most favoured disciple of the Horned Rat, a genius so insidious that even the Lords of Decay trembled in his presence – they knew that there was no hope of resisting their unconquerable foe! They had taken these stupid measures to try and disguise themselves, as though anyone could hide from Thanquol’s wrath!

Thanquol stretched forth his paw, the malignity of his magic erupting in a blast of terrific force. The pulsation of raw aethyric energy sizzled across the clearing, causing grass to wither and cloth to burst into flame. The head of the human’s axe dripped to the ground in a molten mess, the wooden heft of the dwarf’s hammer became a mass of fire. Thanquol chittered in triumph as his hated enemies stopped their crazed charge and stared stupidly at their ruined weapons!

‘Die-die now-now!’ Thanquol hissed, unleashing a withering blast of green fire against his foes. Their screams fell silent as their bodies boiled beneath the fury of his sorcery. The grey seer cackled wildly as he watched his enemies writhe and twist in the malignant flames.

He had dreamed of this moment for so long! There was no restraint now, no thought of interrogation and torture, just utter destruction – the extermination due to these low creatures who had dared trifle with his greatness! He grinned savagely as he watched the agony blazing in the eyes of his dying enemies.

And then cold, hateful realisation forced itself upon Thanquol in his moment of triumph. Looking into the eyes of his enemies, he couldn’t escape the observation that the dwarf had two and the human only one! His mind went back to the wounded scavenger-rat’s report. What Thanquol had heard was ‘one-eyed dwarf’, but what the scout had said was ‘one-eye and dwarf’. The grey seer was prepared to believe many things, he might even accept that Felix would put out one of his eyes in an effort to hide from Thanquol’s wrath, but the one thing he couldn’t believe was that Gotrek had similarly been able to grow a new eye. As loathe as he was to admit it, these two weren’t his hated arch-foes!

Outraged fury caused Thanquol to send another blast of magic into the twitching bodies. His enemies in Greypaw Hollow were behind this, goading him into this foolish attack! He’d see that they paid for playing upon his selfless drive to exterminate the enemies of skavendom!

Before the grey seer could visit further destruction upon the corpses, a roar sounded from behind him. Thanquol spun about, staring in horror at a gigantic beast. The thing was bigger than either Boneripper or the troll, so large that there was something absurd about it as it crawled out from its cage, about the idea that something so enormous had been able to fit inside so small a space.

Where the troll had been a scaly brute, this creature was a shaggy monstrosity, its body covered in greasy, black fur. Four arms projected from its muscular torso, two of them terminating in great bony blades like the pincers of a tunnel-mantis. The beast’s head was like that of a goat, three spear-like horns thrusting outwards from its forehead. For all its monstrousness, there was a terrible gleam of intelligence in the beast’s eyes, the same expression of hate and determination he had seen in the troll’s eyes.

Once again, Thanquol could smell magic in the air, tendrils of energy that drifted between the beast and a human who was flailing against three others who were trying to bind him with chains. Again, the grey seer followed the coils of energy back to the aged breeder-witch. She stood, glaring back at him, her wrinkled face drawn back into an expression of loathing.

‘Keep Abela’s body safe!’ the witch shouted at the men trying to chain the lunatic thrashing about on the ground. ‘We must give him time to use the ghorgon to destroy the underfolk!’

The ghorgon, for such Thanquol decided the four-armed beast must be, lost no time trying to follow the witch’s orders. The creature came charging forwards, swatting aside those skaven unlucky enough to get in its way, slashing them with its bony blades or clawing them with its powerful hands. One stormvermin, driven mad with fear, tried to gut the monster with a pole-axe. For his efforts, the ratman was knocked to the ground and pulverised beneath the ghorgon’s hoofed feet.

The air was heavy with the musk of fear now, Pakstab’s craven warriors fleeing before the ghorgon’s assault. Thanquol could hear the warlord’s weasely voice calling off the attack, enjoining his weak-spleened vermin to retreat. The traitor-meat had no compunction about abandoning his confederate and spiritual advisor on the battlefield, even after all the generosity and beneficence Thanquol had showered upon Greypaw Hollow!

The ground trembled under his feet while Thanquol stared after his vanished allies. Spinning back around, the grey seer squeaked in fright. Barrelling down upon him, each of its four arms raised to visit murderous death upon him, was the ghorgon! Without any of Pakstab’s cringing ratkin to slaughter, the beast had made incredible time crossing the clearing.

Thanquol’s own terror saved him. Where a second of thought or deliberation would have doomed him, instinct rose to his rescue. Pointing his claw at the charging ghorgon, the grey seer unleashed the full force of the spell he had conjured.

A sheet of crackling green lightning crashed into the ghorgon. The beast howled in agony as its fur burst into flame, fingers of warp-lightning searing through its flesh and blackening its bones. The smouldering carcass of the monster crashed to earth, its momentum propelling it onwards. Staggered by the reckless release of such a mighty spell, Thanquol couldn’t even muster the energy to dash aside as the huge bulk came sliding towards him. Even dead, the ghorgon was massive enough to smash the grey seer into paste.

Thanquol sighed with relief when the sliding body came to rest almost at his very feet. That relief ended with a shrill screech that made him jump.

‘You’ve killed Abela!’ the breeder-witch wailed, pointing her withered hand at Thanquol. ‘You’ve killed my son!’

Thanquol could smell the currents of magic gathering about the old witch as she summoned the aethyric powers to her with vengeful abandon. Before he could raise his own defences, he felt the unleashed fury of the witch wrap itself about him in an invisible coil. He could smell the thread of energy writhing back to the witch. Worse, he could sense the thread working its way across the clearing, closing upon a little cage suspended near the troll-wagon. A small, wiry green creature moped about in the cage, its long arms dangling between the bars.

Fear thundered in Thanquol’s heart. He understood the magic of the breeder-witch. She had placed the mind of her whelp into the ghorgon, and she had done the same with the troll and another human. Now she intended to force Thanquol’s mind into the loathsome body of a snotling!

Panic seized the grey seer. He struggled frantically against the hag’s curse, pawing at the air, trying belatedly to raise a magical barrier against her spell. Bit by bit, he could feel the magic taking hold of him, could sense his inner being ripped from his flesh, sent drifting towards the cage.

‘Boneripper!’ Thanquol yelled, crying out to his bodyguard to save him, forgetting for the moment the brute’s collapse after destroying the troll.

The rat-ogre seemed to have forgotten as well. Awkwardly, Boneripper rose up from the ground, its shattered arm still smoking. The automaton swung about, facing towards Thanquol, obediently waiting for further orders, oblivious to the stream of magic winding past its towering bulk.

Before Thanquol could call out to the rat-ogre to order it to kill the witch, he felt the last vestiges of his essence drawn out from his body. His spirit, his mind, was sent hurtling across the clearing. A flash of unspeakable cold, a confusion of whirring light and sound, and then there was only darkness.

It took a tremendous effort of willpower to vanquish that darkness, an effort that Thanquol found almost beyond him to make. Only the thought of all the enemies and traitors who would outlive him sustained him in his moment of despair. Feeling as though a thousand daggers pierced every corner of his being, as though a great fire had been sent raging through his chest, the grey seer fought his way back to consciousness.

The first thing that struck Thanquol was the almost complete absence of smell. What little he could discern were the aroma of old bone and the stink of metal, both underlaid with a tantalising hint of warpstone. The next thing which impressed him was his vision. It was much sharper than before, but everything had a strange, unworldly green hue to it. There was no sensation of touch: he couldn’t feel the bars of the cage or even the floor under his feet. He couldn’t even feel his heart beating in his chest!

Terror flooded through Thanquol’s mind as he considered the only possibility. The spell had been too much for the snotling’s fragile body to endure. His spirit had been hurled into a corpse! Any moment now his essence would be sent on its long journey to the burrows of the Horned One, there to answer for his failures and mistakes!

Thanquol shivered in horror at that fate. The Horned Rat knew he existed only to serve the vicious god of the skaven, that there was no more loyal or steadfast priest to enter the Order of Grey Seers! Yet, even in the afterworld there might be spies and traitors, filling the Horned One’s ears with lies about Thanquol’s devotion.

For a second chance! Thanquol would give himself utterly to the Horned One, devote himself purely to service to his god if only the Horned Rat would give his humble priest another opportunity to serve him!

In his terrified grief, Thanquol raised his hand to cover his eyes. It wasn’t the fact that the arm of what should have been a corpse moved when he willed it to move that shocked Thanquol. It was the shape of that arm. Not the leathery green limb of a snotling, but the massive, bony arm of a skeletal colossus!

Something had gone wrong with the breeder-witch’s spell!

Thanquol swung his body around, feeling the immense power of his new form. He glared down at the witch, savouring the terror gripping her features. The hag had not brought about his destruction, but her own. The transfer of Thanquol’s spirit into the body of the snotling had been intercepted, blocked when Boneripper lurched up from the ground. Instead of being cast into the fragile body of a greenskin runt, Thanquol had been invested into the mighty frame of a rat-ogre!

The grey seer opened his skeletal jaws and chittered malignantly, the sound crackling like lightning across the clearing.

The witch turned aside, glaring towards Thanquol’s real body. Her voice cracked as she shouted orders to the other caravan-humans.

Thanquol watched the humans go racing towards his old body. Let them have it, the weak, puny husk of rat-flesh! What need had he of a body of fragile flesh when his genius was enshrined in a hulk of bone and steel, merged with the pinnacle of Clan Skryre engineering!

He raised his skeletal paw, intending to send a spell searing down into the witch’s body. Thanquol cringed when nothing happened. He couldn’t feel any magic coursing through his new body. Worse, he couldn’t sense the aethyric emanations around him! He tried sniffing at the witch, but couldn’t discern even the faintest whiff of magic!

Suspicion flared through Thanquol’s mind. If he couldn’t smell magic, he could see confidence, and the witch was much too confident now. Somehow, in some way, Thanquol sensed he was still bound to his old body. He remembered the care the humans had taken with the bodies of their kinsmen when the witch cast their minds into the monsters.

Howling in panic, Thanquol charged across the clearing, the skeletal claws of the rat-ogre swatting aside the converging humans as though they were flies. He didn’t waste the time to savour the havoc, but sprang for the horned ratman standing alone and vulnerable. Invested with Boneripper’s mind, Thanquol’s old body stood unmoving, gripped by the idiocy that required commands from its master to give it motivation.

Thanquol tried snarling at his old body, to get Boneripper to flee, but without the warp-tooth, he had no way of commanding the stupid brute. Instead, he resorted to scooping up his body and tucking it under the rat-ogre’s arm. Without further hesitation, Thanquol dashed into the forest, leaving the clearing and the caravan behind.

He needed time to understand what had happened to him, time to study the effects of the witch’s curse. Then, once he was master of this condition, he would come back and settle with the witch and his hated enemies Gotrek and Felix!

Thanquol spent almost an hour lurching through the gloom of the forest before he found the other skaven. He cursed the dim-senses of his new body. With a proper nose, he would have been able to find the fools quickly. Instead, he had been forced to grope about in the brush looking for tracks.

After deserting him, his duplicitous allies had retreated to a shadowy patch of scrubland a league or so from where the caravan had made camp. Thanquol could hear them arguing amongst themselves, trying to concoct some lie that would make their abandonment of skavendom’s greatest hero believable when Skavenblight sent its representatives to Greypaw Hollow.

Thanquol listened to the vainglorious squeaking of Warlord Pakstab for a full minute. It was just as well Boneripper’s body didn’t have a stomach, because it surely would have turned hearing the weak-spleened maggot-nibbler touting his brave effort to reach the embattled grey seer. Only the arrival of three gigantic beast-things had driven him away. He knew that the noble Thanquol wouldn’t have wanted Greypaw Hollow’s valiant warlord to throw away his life needlessly.

Snorting with contempt, Thanquol lumbered out from the trees. The sudden appearance of the skeletal rat-ogre brought squeals of fright from the skaven. Thanquol lashed his bony tail in amusement. Unable to smell, he’d been forced to judge the wind by sight alone, but he’d managed to prevent Boneripper’s scent from betraying his presence to the treacherous ratmen. Surprise was his, and he intended to use it to the fullest.

‘Pakstab-meat,’ Thanquol snarled. The skaven were doubly horrified to hear the grey seer’s voice thundering at them from Boneripper’s jaws. ‘Stop-speak, before I ring your neck!’

The warlord fell to his knees in shock. ‘Terrible Thanquol… is-is that you?’

The rat-ogre loomed over Pakstab, swatting him across the muzzle with a bony claw. The blow sent the ratman tumbling through the scrub. ‘Next stupid question?’ Thanquol growled, turning his skull-like visage so he could stare down at each of the skaven in turn.

‘What-what happened?’ Krakul asked, the warlock-engineer’s eyes boggling excitedly behind his goggles.

Thanquol took a shaking step towards the tinker-rat. ‘You should have stayed quiet,’ he warned. He lifted Boneripper’s massive claw, intending to swat the treasonous little scrap-licker. As he did so, however, he felt a cold pain in his side. His entire body shivered to a stop.

Krakul clapped his paws together, chittering maliciously. The reason was obvious to Thanquol: the faithless weasel had repaired the safety valve, making it impossible for Boneripper to hurt a skaven of Clan Skryre.

Boneripper, however, was a being without mind or will of its own. Thanquol possessed the finest mind in the Under-Empire and a willpower that could resist the wiles of gods and daemons alike. Snarling against the cold pain, Thanquol reached down to his side, clawing at his back until he ripped Krakul’s gizmo from its fastenings. Holding the device between his skeletal talons, he glared down at the warlock.

‘This belongs to you,’ Thanquol hissed, hurling the gizmo down at Krakul. The warlock-engineer shrieked once as the heavy bronze safety valve struck him, shattering his skull into a pulpy mess.

The other skaven wailed in horror, falling to their knees, exposing their throats in submission. It was sorely tempting to annihilate every one of the vermin, but Thanquol knew he needed them. He’d had time to do a lot of thinking while hunting for his disloyal underlings. He didn’t like the conclusions he’d reached.

Strong and powerful, mightier than any vessel of flesh and bone, the rat-ogre’s unliving body was nevertheless cut off from the aethyr, denying Thanquol access to the divine power of the Horned Rat and the black sorcery which emanated from such power. For a grey seer, being denied this was even more terrifying than the diminished sensory stimulation offered by Boneripper’s mechanical senses.

There was another aspect which chilled Thanquol to his very marrow and made him feel very small and timid despite his new brawn and bulk. How many Bonerippers had there been? Each of them dying in some spectacular and gruesome fashion? There was something hideously unlucky about rat-ogres, something that was positively fatal to them. Thanquol didn’t like the idea that he had inherited the current Boneripper’s ill fortune when he’d switched bodies with the brute. He felt as though he were scurrying about a drain, fighting against time and current before he was sucked down to a horrible doom!

No! He had to get back into his own body – and he had to do it quickly. The only way to do that was to force the breeder-witch to undo her curse. She had to know the secret of such magic, she must have used it many times with the beasts of her carnival!

‘Hear-listen!’ Thanquol growled at the grovelling skaven. ‘All of you obey! Find-seek breeder-witch! Don’t hurt, only find!’ Thanquol could see the scheming wheels turning in the brains of his underlings, so he decided to add a threat to his command.

‘Hurt-harm breeder-witch and I will go to Greypaw Hollow!’ Thanquol snarled, rearing up to the rat-ogre’s full height. He thumped both bony claws against his chest, recalling how formidable the troll’s performance had been. The effect was only somewhat lessened when he dropped his real body to the ground.

‘I will kill your breeders, crush your whelps and take your warpstone!’ Thanquol threatened. ‘I will make Greypaw Hollow the lowest of thrall-clans! You will all be fodder-meat for the snake-maggots of Clan Verms!’

The dire threat brought renewed promises of fealty and obedience from the skaven, their whines and squeaks echoing through the forest. They could be counted upon to do what Thanquol demanded of them. His threat would keep them in line.

Of course, after all he had suffered, Thanquol intended to carry out every part of his threat, whether the simpering ratkin obeyed him or not.

Thanquol stared down at the little village, cursing for the umpteenth time Boneripper’s lack of smell. With a proper nose, he’d be able to pick out the breeder-witch’s scent from the air. He could tell in an instant if Naktit was lying to him and punish the track-rat accordingly. The only thing that made him dubious of such treachery was the fact that the other skaven had no way of knowing about this particular infirmity. As far as they knew, Thanquol could smell as keenly as any of them.

Unless, of course, that filthy tinker-rat Krakul had said something before he died.

Flexing the massive arms of the rat-ogre, Thanquol glowered at his underlings. The scouts had been gone only a short time before reporting that the caravan had been abandoned. There were signs of a fight that must have happened after Thanquol’s… withdrawal. From the evidence, the fighting had been between two groups of humans. The scouts couldn’t say which of the humans had won, but they had been able to follow the witch’s scent back to this village.

Thanquol ground his fangs in annoyance. Naktit said that the witch had been taken to the biggest building in the village. The grey seer knew that sort of structure; it was one of the god-burrows the humans built to worship the confusing pantheon they followed. This particular one had a big hammer on its spire. Thanquol knew that particular cult quite well – the followers of Sigmar had a positive mania for burning any wizard or witch they could get their hands on. If he didn’t act fast, the breeder-witch would be dead and the secret of her curse lost with her!

He couldn’t let that happen! More and more, Thanquol felt the gnawing dread that something dire would happen, that the same fate which had overtaken six other Bonerippers would soon befall this one! To save himself, he had to save the witch from the witch hunters!

‘You are sure-certain there is a tunnel?’ Thanquol snapped at Naktit.

The scout bobbed his head in frantic eagerness. ‘Yes-yes, Horrible One! Man-thing temple-place always have tunnel! Use to hide-flee when man-thing gods make war!’

Thanquol reached a huge claw to his face to brush his whiskers, only belatedly remembering that Boneripper didn’t have any. It was true enough that the different priests of the humans sometimes made war against each other. The first thing they would do in such a war would be to burn down the houses of other gods. But would humans have enough brains to build an escape tunnel?

The rat-ogre’s skull twisted about, craning downwards to regard the horned ratman standing at Thanquol’s feet. There was such a look of dull idiocy on the grey seer’s face that Thanquol felt a gnawing horror crawl through him. Whatever happened, he had to return to his own body. He couldn’t abandon it to the mindless Boneripper. He had to be back inside his own fur, feeling blood coursing through his veins, a heart pounding in his chest! He had to restore his connection to the Horned One’s power! More, he had to get a sniff of snuff. His nerves, or whatever he had in the rat-ogre’s body, were on edge for lack of a pinch of warpsnuff. It didn’t do any good to dump the stuff into the rat-ogre’s nasal cavities; it would only burn up in the automaton’s furnace.

Yes, they would attack the human village. Pakstab would lead the majority of the skaven in an assault against the village walls, drawing the humans away from the temple. While the humans were occupied with Pakstab’s diversion, Thanquol and Naktit’s scouts would use the tunnel to sneak into the crypt beneath the temple. Humans had a tendency to lock their captives underground, so he was hopeful the breeder-witch would be there.

If not – well, every last ratkin in the expedition knew what Thanquol would do to them if anything went wrong!

Thanquol snarled as his metal shoulders brushed against the ceiling of the tunnel, sending a cascade of debris raining down upon him. Belatedly, he remembered to shield the horned body strapped to his back, twisting about awkwardly so the rat-ogre’s metal chest took the brunt of the rubble. After all he had gone through, it would be a cruelty beyond imagination to have his real body mangled before he could return to it.

Or was that the point? He glared suspiciously at the narrow tunnel and at Naktit. Had that been the scout’s scheme, to lure Thanquol down here where the rat-ogre’s ridiculous size would prove disadvantageous? Where Boneripper’s very bulk threatened to bring the entire hole crashing about his ears?

Thanquol bit down on his suspicions. As much as it galled him, he had to trust Naktit. He had to trust that the breeder-witch was where the scout said she was. He was a bit reassured by Naktit’s presence – surely the tracker would know he’d be the first casualty if Thanquol found out he was lying.

Eventually, the tunnel wormed its way beneath the stone foundations of a building. So far, it appeared Naktit’s report was accurate. The only building in the human warren large enough to warrant such ponderous foundations was the temple. Thanquol began to feel a bit more optimistic. When this was all over, he might even allow Naktit to live.

Human voices, low and distorted, began to filter into the tunnel. Ahead, Thanquol could see a heavy stone wall with a ring set into it. This, as Naktit hurried to explain, was the entrance to the temple. On the other side was the crypt.

‘…confess, woman, while you still have a tongue to do so!’ The voice was harsh and cruel, almost skaven-like in its vicious inflection.

‘You will torture me anyway, templar, so what use are my words?’

The second voice set Thanquol’s jaws clacking together. It was the breeder-witch! From her tone, she sounded weak, possibly wounded. Maybe dying? Thanquol fought down the panic that threatened to overwhelm him. He had to wait, let Pakstab draw away the other humans. Then he could safely step in and snatch the breeder-witch.

‘By Sigmar’s hammer, you will confess all your evils!’ the witch hunter snarled. ‘You will confess that you are in league with the creatures of Chaos, that you lured the people of this community to your encampment in order to feed their flesh to your hideous masters!’

‘The Strigany are no servants of the Old Night,’ the witch spoke, her voice weary. ‘The monsters you speak of attacked my people as well as yours.’

‘Evil will always turn upon itself,’ the witch hunter snapped. He might have said more, but the sound of frantic voices and hurried steps interrupted him.

‘Brother Echter! The monsters are attacking the village!’

‘They have come to save their infernal mistress,’ the witch hunter swore. ‘Rally the militia! These abominations must not be allowed to reach the temple!’

The sound of rushing feet faded as the humans raced upstairs. Thanquol gave them enough time to be well and truly gone before telling Naktit to open the secret door. Pakstab’s warriors would keep the humans occupied while they slipped in and stole the breeder-witch.

Naktit and his scouts tugged at the iron ring, slowly pulling back the block that sealed off the tunnel. Thanquol bristled at the delay. Lumbering forwards he seized the top of the stone with his claws and dragged the ponderous obstruction aside. Glaring at the skaven, he motioned for them to hurry onwards into the crypt.

The room on the other side of the wall was long and narrow, its sides lined with deep niches. Within each niche reposed the mouldering bones of some long dead human, the remains sealed away by an iron gate. A set of stone steps rose up into the ceiling, blocked by a trapdoor.

Except for the skaven, there was only one other living occupant in the crypt. The breeder-witch was locked inside one of the niches, her arms bound to her sides with heavy leather straps, her face disfigured by a heavy wax seal marked with the sign of the twin-tailed comet.

Thanquol brushed aside the scouts, rushing to the witch’s niche. The hag groaned in terror when she saw the ghastly rat-ogre peering at her through the bars. Then a cackle of amusement wracked her aged body.

‘Not liking your new home, rat-fiend?’ she laughed.

Thanquol’s claw lashed out, pounding against the gate and denting its iron bars. ‘Fix-change!’ he snarled at her. ‘Away-take curse-hex or I smash-kill slow-slow!’

The witch peered at him with hateful eyes. ‘Kill me and you’ll never get back,’ she threatened, pointing her chin towards the horned ratman lashed behind the rat-ogre’s shoulders.

Thanquol recoiled at the witch’s words. He crouched lower, trying to assume a meek posture. It was difficult to manage with a body as massive as Boneripper’s.

‘Fix-change,’ he repeated, trying to keep his voice low and pleasing. ‘Save-help me and I save-help you. Other man-things not hurt-harm.’

Again the witch laughed. ‘Help me? Can you give me back my sons who you and your vermin slaughtered?’

Thanquol smashed his fist against the ceiling, bringing a trickle of dust down upon his head. Of all the times for a human to start acting stupid! Here he was offering this one a chance to escape torture and slow death, and all she could talk about were her dead whelps!

A sound behind him caused Thanquol to turn. Running feet in the temple above, people rushing towards the trapdoor. The humans were coming back!

Another sound drew Thanquol’s attention to the far wall. Naktit and his scouts were back in the tunnel, pushing the block back into place. At once the enormity of Pakstab’s treachery was apparent. The warlord had led the attack only long enough to make Thanquol think everything was going according to plan. As soon as the grey seer had time to get into the crypt, the coward had called off the attack. Now Naktit was closing off the only route of escape! Once again, the traitors of Greypaw Hollow were leaving him to face the humans alone!

Thanquol lurched towards the closing tunnel, then turned back around. What use to escape if he left the witch behind? He needed her to break the curse! If he left her behind, the priest-humans would kill her and then he’d be trapped inside Boneripper for the rest of his life. Which, given the durability of rat-ogres, wasn’t likely to be long.

The trapdoor was being pulled open even as Thanquol turned back towards the witch’s cell. The harsh voice of the witch hunter shouted from the top of the stairs.

‘Behold! The heretic’s creatures have come to save her!’

Brother Echter’s statement was punctuated with a pistol shot. Thanquol could dimly feel the bullet crack against the rat-ogre’s back. From past experience, he knew it would take more than that to slow down Boneripper. However, there was just a chance that the human would reach the same conclusion and start shooting at Thanquol’s body.

Turning around, protecting the body lashed to the rat-ogre’s back, Thanquol roared at the frightened men clattering down the stairs, pounding his claws against his chest. The display appeared to impress the humans just as much as it had Pakstab’s skaven. The men following the witch hunter cried out in despair, then turned and fled back up the stairs.

‘You’ll not frighten me, mutant!’ Brother Echter swore, undaunted by the defection of his followers. Boldly, he drew a second pistol from his belt.

Thanquol was in no mood for such nonsense. Lunging forwards, he brought Boneripper’s massive claw slashing down, tearing deep furrows through the witch hunter’s flesh. The mutilated man screamed through the tatters of his face and crashed to the floor.

The skeletal rat-ogre turned back towards the witch’s cell, shaking his bloody claw at the obstinate hag. ‘You will suffer much-much unless you fix-change!’ Thanquol growled.

‘You killed everything I cared for,’ the witch told him. ‘And if you kill me, you’ll never get back!’

Thanquol clenched his bony hands, shaking with frustration. How could he threaten something that didn’t care if she lived or died? Worse, how could he threaten something that in dying would doom him as well?

Before he could work out the dilemma, the crypt echoed with the explosive report of a pistol shot. The hag’s gloating countenance became twisted with pain, a bright bloom of blood springing from her breast. Wailing in horror, Thanquol brought Boneripper’s giant foot smashing down upon the mangled witch hunter. Vengefully he stomped out the lingering spark of life that had enabled Brother Echter to shoot the witch.

Filled with despair, Thanquol went back to the cell. The breeder-witch was lying upon the floor, bleeding out from her wound. If he had had his magic, he could have helped her, much as it offended his senses. But the hag’s own curse made this impossible. He could only watch helplessly as the witch died, and in dying sealed his own fate.

Thanquol railed against the injustice of it all! To be doomed to such a cruel end because of the crude magic of a filthy breeder-thing, and all because a bunch of slack-witted fool-meat had led him to believe his mortal enemies were near! If he had the chance again, he would kill every last rat in Greypaw Hollow for goading him into this useless flea-hunt! By the Horned One, they should suffer for doing this to him!

As Thanquol bemoaned his fate, as he watched the witch die, a strange sensation came upon him. A flash of unspeakable cold, a whirring blur of light and darkness…

The grey seer fought against the darkness, though this time the struggle was far less than it had been before. When he could see again, it was with the clear vision of skaven eyes. A thousand smells rushed into his nose, a hundred sounds trickled into his ears. He could feel the blood flowing through his veins, the heart pounding in his chest. For good measure, he twitched his whiskers.

He was back in his own body! Again he could feel the aethyric forces flowing about him, the glory of the Horned Rat waiting to shape itself at his command. Thanquol couldn’t understand how the curse had been broken. Some final, desperate effort to gain the grey seer’s aid on the part of the witch?

Thanquol struggled to peer over Boneripper’s shoulder to see into the cell. Irritably, he snarled an order at his bodyguard, telling it to turn around. With its usual slavish obedience, the rat-ogre shifted its position.

The witch was dead, there was no mistaking that smell! Thanquol ground his fangs together as the solution to his deliverance came to him. The hag had been toying with him! She had told him if she died he would never break the curse when it was her very death that had ended the enchantment! How he wished she was alive so he could wring her neck!

For the moment, however, he had more pressing problems. The humans would recover from their fright soon, and when they did, they would come back to the crypt in force. It would be best for him to be far away when they did.

Then there was the small matter of Greypaw Hollow and the treachery of its denizens. Thanquol would teach those rats the price for betraying him!

But first he’d have one of them cut him loose. The idea of travelling all the way to Skavenblight tied to Boneripper’s back wasn’t exactly appealing.

He’d spent more than enough time around the rat-ogre.

THANQUOL TRIUMPHANT

Four tons of solid stone came hurtling down from the sky, blotting out the stars and moons. Its great shadow stretched across the earth like the hand of some malignant god. The musky stink of fear rose from a hundred terrified skaven as death came smashing down upon them.

Grey Seer Thanquol stood in terrified fascination as the massive boulder crushed a dozen skaven beneath it and then began to roll down the slope towards him. Clanrat warriors threw down their weapons and squealed in horror, scattering in every direction, clawing and climbing over each other in a frantic effort to save their lives. The sickening crunch of pulverised bone formed a gruesome accompaniment to their squeaking.

Paralysed by his own fear, Thanquol watched helplessly as the boulder rolled directly towards him. Musk emptied from his glands as he saw skaven after skaven ground into pulp beneath the rolling stone. With each revolution the boulder’s surface became ever more caked in the smashed residue of its victims, a sticky morass of fur and blood that clung to the ground in greasyribbons.

Black blood spurted across Thanquol’s face as the body of a shrieking clanrat burst beneath the boulder. The tangy smell of skaven gore snapped Thanquol from his paralysis, but with his mind overwhelmed by the onrushing juggernaut, all he could think to do was raise his staff and cover his eyes while squeaking the Horned Rat’s name.

It took Thanquol a few seconds to realise he hadn’t been crushed. Opening one eye in a suspicious squint, he saw the boulder resting only a few feet from his whiskers. The pulp of crushed bodies dragging at it had finally arrested the stone’s momentum. The grey seer whispered a hasty thanks to the Horned One, then quickly wiped the blood from his robes.

The narrowness of his escape sent cold fury racing through his glands. Thanquol glared at the frightened clanrats scampering off in all directions. Chittering, mouse-licking, flea-brained whelp-eaters! How dare they abandon a prophet of the Horned One? Thanquol would see them stretched out and skinned alive. He’d see their whiskers plucked out one by one, their tails docked with a chipped chisel. The treacherous, faithless, dung-sniffing vermin!

He shouldn’t have been surprised. The warriors of Clan Krawl were infamous for their shameless cowardice. It had taken such a web of intrigue to bring Krawl to the battlefield that it made Thanquol’s head hurt just thinking about it. Seerlord Kritislik was right to want the mouse-spleened clan annihilated. Allied to Clan Mors, Krawl could be an obstacle to the power-base of the grey seers. Dead, the cowards wouldn’t be a problem to anyone.

Thanquol raised his muzzle and sniffed at the wind. He picked up the scent of Krawl’s elite stormvermin, locked in combat with the most brutal assemblage of orcs the grey seer had seen in quite some time. Each of the greenskin monsters towered over the armoured skaven, and in their fists they bore crude blades that weighed more than a ratman in full armour. The orcs were wreaking a hideous slaughter upon the core of Warlord Fissk’s warriors. It would not be long before their drug-boosted ferocity collapsed into stark terror and the stormvermin broke. Once they started to run, the rest of Fissk’s army would disintegrate into a panicked mob. The orcs would have a grand time running them down and slaughtering them.

Those who actually made it back to their tunnels would have another surprise waiting for them: slavers from Clan Skully. Thanquol expected to make a nice percentage for facilitating the acquisition of so many slaves. Kritislik had said he wanted the threat of Clan Krawl eliminated, but he hadn’t said Thanquol couldn’t make a profit at the sametime.

The grey seer bruxed his fangs and wrung his paws together. That fool-meat Fissk had fallen into Thanquol’s scheme perfectly, believing the claims of a prophetic vision that he must do battle with the orcs in their own warcamp. Fissk had even accompanied the stormvermin personally, trusting that the Horned One was on his side. The presumptuous maggot. As though the Horned Rat would notice such a miserable bag ofoffal.

Suddenly, Thanquol’s sharp eyes noticed that the stars were going dark again. His eyes went wider as he watched another boulder come hurtling earthward – once again in his direction! The grey seer squealed in terror, leaping onto the top of the first boulder and hugging himself close to its surface.

He’d never heard of an orc that was precise enough to hit the same spot twice. It was a comforting idea until he remembered that the boulder hadn’t actually landed where it was.

The ground shook as the second stone came smashing down. Thanquol lashed his tail in amusement when he saw the rock go careening down the slope, far from his own position, crushing hapless clanrats and slaves in its path. Then he noticed the rock beneath him starting to move. The impact had broken his refuge free from its mire of pulp and gore. For a horrifying instant, he felt himself slipping down the face of the boulder – straight into its path.

Clenching his glands, clamping his staff between his jaws, Thanquol scrabbled up the bloody surface of the rock, every second expecting to lose his hold. By an almost miraculous effort, he gained the top of the rolling stone. The grey seer didn’t hesitate, but leaped from his precarious perch, throwing himself to the earth behind theboulder.

Thanquol rose from the ground, his robes caked in the crushed bone and pulped flesh of dead clanrats, his body shivering with fury. Twice now the filthy greenskins had tried to kill him with their stupid stone thrower. That was two times too many!

Holding his staff aloft, Thanquol drew upon the winds of magic. His beady eyes glared through the darkness, sighting the crude catapult. Snarling a Word of Malignance, the grey seer sent a bolt of crackling green lightning rocketing towards the catapult. Instantly, the war engine was in flames, burning orcs staggering away from it like fleas from a drowning rat.

Thanquol grinned in triumph, chittering maniacally. But the laughter caught in his throat when the burning catapult slumped to one side and loosed one last boulder. He watched in horror as the stone went careening into the orcs fighting the stormvermin. Scores of orcs were pulverised by the runaway rock, and the stone didn’t stop until it had ground the hulking figure of their warboss beneath it.

A great moan of confusion and fear arose from the ranks of the formerly formidable orcs. In dismal disarray, the monsters began to quit the field, hotly pursued by Krawl’s warriors. Where certain doom had been apparent only a moment before, now the skaven were utterly victorious.

If there was anything left in his glands, Thanquol would have emptied them. How would he explain this fiasco to Kritislik? Who would he blame?

But as he heard his name shouted by a thousand jubilant ratmen, a sly gleam came into Thanquol’s eye. Why, his brilliant plan had worked perfectly. He’d won the battle for Warlord Fissk and brought the clever-brave Clan Krawl into a closer devotion to the Horned Rat and his chosen prophets, the grey seers.

This was a triumph beyond what Kritislik had planned, and it was one that belonged to Thanquol alone.

Unless the Seerlord said otherwise, of course…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

C L Werner’s Black Library credits include the Age of Sigmar novels Overlords of the Iron Dragon, The Tainted Heart and Beastgrave, the novella ‘Scion of the Storm’ in Hammers of Sigmar, the Warhammer novels Deathblade, Mathias Thulmann: Witch Hunter, Runefang and Brunner the Bounty Hunter, the Thanquol and Boneripper series and Time of Legends: The Black Plague series. For Warhammer 40,000 he has written the Space Marine Battles novel The Siege of Castellax. Currently living in the American south-west, he continues to write stories of mayhem and madness set in the Warhammer worlds.

An extract from

‘The Sands of Grief’

by Guy Haley.

Featured in the anthology Myths & Revenants.

‘I don’t like it here, master. Please, let us go. Too much magic, hurts my bones.’

‘Hush, Shattercap, they are nearly done, and then we can leave. Be patient.’

The second speaker was Maesa, a proud aelf prince in the bronze armour and green-and-grey clothing of the wayfarer peoples. The first was a vicious spite, a small, gangrel creature of ill intent. His appearance did nothing to disguise his nature. He was a clutch of bones and twiggy fingers, garbed in wizened green skin. From a small, apelike face, his button black eyes peered at the world with fearful malice, in marked contrast to the calm benevolence radiated by his keeper. But though a captive, Shattercap was more or less content to live among the folds of the prince’s cloak.

Content, because the aelf offered a way out of wickedness, and Shattercap desired that in a half-grasped way. Less, because the prince and the spite were at that time within the shop of Erasmus Throck and Durdek Grimmson, providers of the finest alchemical instruments in Glymmsforge in the Realm of Shyish, a place Shattercap feared greatly.

Throck and Grimmson were comical opposites. Grimmson was a stout duardin with a blue beard and bald head. Throck was a tall scrap of a man with a shock of white hair and clean-shaven chin. The duardin rooted about behind the counter near the floor. The man was balanced upon rolling steps, searching cubbyholes high up by the ceiling.

Grimmson hauled out a leather-covered box and placed it on the glass countertop.

‘This is it, aelfling, the soul glass you wished for.’

Throck tutted from the top of the steps at his colleague.

‘Come now, Durdek! Prince Maesa is high-born and worthy of respect.’

Durdek’s granitic face maintained its scowl. ‘He’s an aelf, and I call it as I see it, Erasmus.’

Throck shook his head, and pulled the wheeled ladder along to the next stack of cubbyholes.

‘Don’t worry, your worthiness,’ said Grimmson to Maesa. ‘I’ve outdone myself for you. Look at this.’

With a delicacy his massive fingers seemed incapable of, Grimmson took out a tiny hourglass. Its bulbs were no bigger than a child’s clenched fists, decorated with delicate fretwork of silver and gold.

Durdek flicked open a lid in the glass’ top. ‘Life sand goes in here. Seal it. Tip it over when it’s near run out. Keep on with that to prolong the life within. Away you go. Very simple concept, but simple usage is no reason for drab work.’

‘We pride ourselves on the finest equipment,’ said Throck. ‘Durdek here makes the devices…’

‘…and it’s him as does the enchanting,’ said Durdek.

‘It is a beautiful piece,’ said Maesa. He took the hourglass from Grimmson and turned it over in his hands. ‘Such fine workmanship.’

Grimmson hooked his fingers into his belt, gave a loud sniff and pulled himself up proudly.

‘We do what we can.’

‘Aha! Here is the other item,’ said Throck. He jumped from the ladder. From a soft velvet bag, he took out a complex compass. It too had a lid in the top, covering over a small compartment. ‘A soul seeker. This should lead you to the realmstone deposit you seek.’

Grimmson took the glass and placed it carefully back into the box so Maesa could examine the compass.

Eight nested circles of gold, each free moving against the other, surrounded the central lidded well. On one side of the well was an indicator made in the shape of the hooked symbol of Shyish. Maesa pushed it with his finger. It spun silently through many revolutions at the gentlest touch.

‘It floats on a bath of ghostsilver,’ said Throck. ‘Very good work.’

‘Should be,’ said Shattercap. ‘For the money you are being paid.’

‘You get what you pay for,’ Grimmson growled. ‘Quality. We are Glymmsforge’s foremost makers of such devices.’

‘We are expensive, I admit, but you will find none better,’ said Throck.

‘Indeed,’ said Maesa. ‘I have no issue with the cost. Ignore my servant, he has yet to learn manners.’ He handed the compass back and produced a white leather pouch from his belt. ‘Five hundred black diamond chips, from the Realm of Ulgu, as you required.’

Grimmson took the bag from Maesa’s hand and tugged at the drawstring ready to count the contents.

Throck patted his partner’s burly arm. ‘That won’t be necessary. I am sure the prince is good to his word.’ Throck was awed by the prince’s breeding, and couldn’t help but give a short bow. Maesa returned the gesture with a graceful inclination of his head. Grimmson looked at them both fiercely.

‘You best be careful out there,’ the duardin said. ‘We sell maybe eight or nine of these a year, but the folks that buy them don’t always come to the best end. Most go out into the Sands of Grief, and vanish.’

‘How do you know they work then?’ said Shattercap, slinking around the back of Maesa’s head from one shoulder to the other.

‘Ahem,’ Throck looked apologetic. ‘Their ghosts come back to tell us.’

‘Ghosts? Ghosts! Master!’ squealed Shattercap. ‘Why did we come here?’

‘I trust you have supernatural means of sustenance?’ said Throck amiably. ‘I do not mean to pry into your business, but where you intend to go is no place for the living. There is no water, no food, no life of any kind, only the dead, and storms of wild magic. We can provide the necessary protections – amulets, enchanted vittles, all you would require – if you have none of your own.’

‘Oh, no!’ Shattercap shrieked again. Maesa ignored him.

‘I have what I need. My kind have wandered in every place. This realm is no alien land to me. I shall return in person to inform you how well your goods performed.’ Maesa bowed and picked up his packages. ‘My thanks, and good day to you, sirs.’

The door of the shop banged closed behind the prince. Shattercap cowered from the strange sights of Glymmsforge. The sky was a bruised purple, forever brooding, its long night scattered with amethyst stars. Outside the walls were afterlives ruined by the war with Chaos, and haunted by broken souls. But the streets of the young city were full of life, bathed in the light of magical lanterns that held back the dark.

Throck and Grimmson’s shop was located on Thaumaturgy Way, along with dozens of other purveyors of magical goods. Market stalls narrowed the street, leaving only a slender cobbled passage down the centre. Humans, aelves, duardin and all manner of other creatures thronged the market, and not only the living, but the shades of the dead also, for Glymmsforge was situated in the afterlife of Lyria, where some vestiges of past glory still clung.

The crowd moved slowly. People browsed goods, creating hard knots in the flow that eddied irritably around each other. Maesa could pass through a thicket of brambles without disturbing a twig, but his aelven gifts were of no use in that place, and he was forced to shove through the crowd along with the rest.

‘Market days, I hate market days!’ hissed Shattercap. ‘So many people. Where is the forest quiet? Where is the mossy silence?’

‘You will yearn for their fellowship where we are going, small evil,’ said Maesa. He slipped through a gaggle of ebon-skinned men of Ghur haggling over an imp imprisoned in a bottle, and reached the relative quiet of the main street.

Free of the overhanging eaves of Thaumaturgy Way, more of the city was visible. Concentric rings of walls soared to touch the sky. The innermost held within their compass the Shimmergate, a blue slash of light high up in the dark sky. Shattercap and Maesa were in the second district, thus close to the Stormkeep, the College of Amethyst and all the other wonders of the deepest ward.

Maesa turned his back on the central spires. His destination lay outside the city.

Click here to buy Myths & Revenants.

A BLACK LIBRARY PUBLICATION

Grey Seer first published in 2009.

Temple of the Serpent first published in 2010.

Thanquol’s Doom first published in 2011.

‘Mind-Stealer’ first published in Gotrek & Felix: the Anthology in 2012.

‘Thanquol Triumphant’ first published digitally in 2012.

This eBook edition published in 2019 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.

Produced by Games Workshop in Nottingham.

Cover illustration by Kevin Chin.

Map by Nuala Kinrade.

Thanquol and Boneripper © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2019. Thanquol and Boneripper, GW, Games Workshop, Black Library, Warhammer, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Stormcast Eternals, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world.

All Rights Reserved.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-78030-677-3

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

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Table of Contents

Cover

Backlist

Title Page

Warhammer Chronicles

Map

GREY SEER

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

TEMPLE OF THE SERPENT

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

THANQUOL’S DOOM

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Epilogue

MIND-STEALER

THANQUOL TRIUMPHANT

About the Author

An Extract from ‘Myths & Revenants’

A Black Library Publication

eBook license

Table of Contents

Cover

Backlist

Title Page

Warhammer Chronicles

Map

GREY SEER

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

TEMPLE OF THE SERPENT

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

THANQUOL’S DOOM

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Epilogue

MIND-STEALER

THANQUOL TRIUMPHANT

About the Author

An Extract from ‘Myths & Revenants’

A Black Library Publication

eBook license

Table of Contents

Backlist

Title Page

Warhammer Chronicles

Map

GREY SEER

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

TEMPLE OF THE SERPENT

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

THANQUOL’S DOOM

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Epilogue

MIND-STEALER

THANQUOL TRIUMPHANT

About the Author

An Extract from ‘Myths & Revenants’

A Black Library Publication

eBook license

Table of Contents

Backlist

Title Page

Warhammer Chronicles

Map

GREY SEER

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

TEMPLE OF THE SERPENT

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

THANQUOL’S DOOM

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Epilogue

MIND-STEALER

THANQUOL TRIUMPHANT

About the Author

An Extract from ‘Myths & Revenants’

A Black Library Publication

eBook license