
A WARHAMMER NOVEL
NIGHT OFTHE DAEMON
Daemon Gates - 02
Aaron Rosenberg
(A Flandrel & Undead Scan v1.0)
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 World's 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.
Clouds drifted across the night sky, obscuring stars and slivered Mannslieb. Their shadows fell across the town, rippling over its tall sturdy walls, momentarily dimming the torches set along the tops. Within, the sounds of revelry continued unabated.
Something moved in the shadows beyond the base of the wall. A tall figure stood in the darkness, staring up at the barrier. Dark cloth concealed features, even gender, although something about the figure's posture and motion suggested a man. Beneath a long hood his eyes glittered in the dim light as they studied the wall. He stripped off thick gloves and raised one long-fingered hand, fingers splayed, to rest his palm against the rough stone. The hand stopped just shy of contact, a shudder passing though him.
The man raised his hand for a second time, and the air around him thickened. Wisps of fog or smoke swirled around his fingers as he pushed, his entire body leaning into the motion. Again his hand stopped inches from the stone.
After a moment the man tried again. This time the darkness seemed to rise around him, shrouding him until he was little more than a sensation of motion, a hint of substance. He did not move suddenly but advanced by inches, his raised hand closing the distance slowly but surely. Until, once again, it stopped. This time little more than a hairsbreadth separated flesh and stone. The air suddenly filled with a powerful stench, burning flesh and something far worse. For an instant the air was filled with hideous wailing torn from ravaged throats, but then the wind shifted and they were lost behind the music that issued from the town.
The man stood for a moment longer, unmoving, although his hand and arm shook with effort. Finally he pulled his hand back and stepped away, cradling it against his chest.
"Very well," he muttered, his deep voice almost a growl. "Your defences hold, for now." He glared at the tall, wide front gate, securely fastened for the night, as if his eyes could pierce the wood and see the people beyond. "Enjoy yourselves while you can, degenerates," he warned, although his words were swallowed by the night. "Soon I will return, and when I do," he said, his hands clenched into fists, "your barriers will fall before me."
Turning, he slipped away, his footfalls silent even in the still night air. Behind him a faint mark, a swatch darker than its surroundings, marred the wall where his hand had approached it. The grass nearby was blackened as well, as were patches further on, marking a trail as if scalding liquid had been poured out at regular intervals. By morning the marks would have faded, and no one would notice them.
"Halt! Who goes---wait, I know you!" The guard lowered his crossbow and peered at them, the weapon resting atop the heavy wooden barricade before him. The sounds of other soldiers marching around, patrolling the pass that disappeared into the mountains above, emerged behind him.
"Indeed you do," Alaric replied. "I am pleased to see our assistance has not been utterly forgotten so soon." He preened slightly, adjusting the short sleeves of his soft leather jacket and the silk shirt-ties at his throat, brushing back a stray hair that had drifted across his handsome face. Then he shifted the weight of the rapier at his side, making his horse shuffle. If either of them felt the summer heat they didn't show it, but Dietz was sweating up a storm, his raw-boned face dripping moisture, his simple, serviceable leathers clinging to his long frame. Perhaps ignoring the heat was a noble thing. That might explain why the slender young man beside him was able to shrug it off so easily.
"You were here when the orcs attacked," the soldier said, eyes widening as he remembered. "You helped us fight them off."
"That is correct," Alaric agreed, nodding graciously. Dietz thought his friend and employer looked like a king receiving accolades and managed to stifle the amused groan that rose in his throat. Glouste, less concerned with propriety, chittered what might have been a rebuke from her perch upon his shoulder, although whether aimed at Alaric or himself, Dietz could not tell. He scratched the wiry, long-tailed tree-fox behind her small rounded ears to calm her and his pet's complaints changed to burbles of delight. Interrupting Alaric when he was so clearly enjoying himself might put the younger man in a foul mood.
Nonetheless, they were on a schedule, and couldn't waste much more time impressing some poor soldier.
"Time," Dietz murmured, edging his horse close to Alaric's so only his young employer would hear him. He saw Alaric glance at him, frown slightly, and nod.
"Yes, well, we are in a hurry," Alaric said, never turning from the guard. "We need to use the pass."
"Use it?" That had the guard confused again, although Dietz wasn't sure he blamed the man. The Black Fire Pass was one of the only routes through the Black Mountains and into---or out of---the Empire. It was always heavily guarded, and this time they weren't working for one of the elector counts, or really for anyone. This time they were on their own, not that Alaric planned to let that stop them.
"Yes yes, we need to reach the Border Princes," he said testily. He raised his chin, blue eyes flashing, blond hair streaming behind him, for that instant every inch the imperious noble. "Now, either let us pass or take us to Captain Verten or Commander Haas."
The guard straightened at the mention of his superiors. He glanced over his shoulder, as if expecting to see the two officers there. Then he chuckled at himself, nodded, and said something to someone below. A moment later two soldiers moved the barricade door aside.
"The captain is down in Grenzstadt with Sergeant Druber, getting supplies," one of the men admitted, evidently having overheard their conversation, "but Commander Haas is probably in his tent or near enough to make no difference in finding him. You know the way?" Dietz knew the man was debating whether to leave his post to accompany them or let them wander the pass unescorted. The three guards were alone at the barricade, but they were enough to secure it against anything but a major assault. Two might be hard-pressed to defend it and that was probably the guard's concern.
"We know it," he assured the guard. "We'll go straight to Haas."
"Good." The guard nodded, pushed the stout iron-banded door back into place, and then paused. He glanced up at them, his eyes wide. "There isn't another orc warband coming, is there?"
"Not that we know of," Alaric reassured him. "We're simply passing through."
Suiting the action to the word, he spurred his horse on, and he and Dietz rode up the trail and into the pass.
"What are you two doing here?" Haas asked when Alaric and Dietz reined in. The stocky army commander had obviously just returned from a patrol and rock dust clung to his face and hands, although his uniform was no dirtier than usual. Dietz was pleased to see his friend Adelrich beside Haas, and exchanged friendly nods with the scout. The ride to the army camp had taken two hours, but fortunately Dietz had remembered the route. He didn't relish the idea of wandering aimlessly through the narrow trails that branched off the main pass, hoping to avoid any stray orcs that might still lurk in the mountains. The camp looked much as he remembered it, an orderly array of tents set in rows in a large clearing, the larger command tent at the centre. There were men everywhere, sharpening weapons, drilling with blades, eating, sleeping, mending uniforms and marching on patrol.
"Sorry to trouble you, commander," Alaric said smoothly, bowing from his saddle with the grace of the nobleman he was. "We are simply passing through and felt it courteous to inform you of our presence."
"Passing through? Where are you going?" Haas' eyes narrowed. "What does Todbringer have you doing now?"
"Well, actually," Alaric coughed nervously, "we are not here on the elector count's orders."
"No?" Haas studied him for a moment, and then turned his gaze on Dietz. "Who did send you, then?"
"No one," Dietz answered honestly. He didn't see any reason to tell Haas about the map, or about their reasons for investigating it.
"Are you bringing trouble to my door again?" Haas demanded.
"I'll have you know we were here to remove---" Alaric began, but Dietz cut him off.
"No trouble," he assured the commander. "We're just on our way to the Border Princes."
Haas locked gazes with him for a moment, and then nodded. "Fine, just so long as you're not leading another orc warband towards us." The faint upward curve to his mouth indicated that he might in fact be joking, although Dietz decided not to chance it. You never knew with officers when they were joking and when they were deadly serious.
"We didn't lead that warband here," Alaric objected. "If anything, we---" Again Dietz cut him off.
"Can we stay the night?" he asked. "We'll be gone in the morning."
Haas hesitated for only a second before nodding. "Fine, you can take that tent over there, its owners won't be needing it again." He turned on his heel and walked away, although Dietz knew better than to take offence. The commander was probably preoccupied as usual with the all-important job of defending the pass and the Empire.
Dietz dismounted and let out a soft groan of relief as he stretched to his full height. Damn and blast, it felt good to be out of the saddle! He didn't mind riding, but after the past few months he'd be happy never to see a horse again, much less climb into another saddle.
Adelrich was at Dietz's side, grinning, by the time his feet had settled on the ground. They clasped hands, the wiry little scout and the tall, raw-boned traveller, both relieved to see the other still alive. Of all the men who'd accompanied Alaric and Dietz during their months-long quest to find and destroy the Chaos statues scattered across the Empire, Dietz had identified with Adelrich most strongly, and the two had become fast friends.
"No drinks, I'm afraid," Adelrich said sadly, "not until Druber returns with supplies." The two men had agreed to share a drink the next time they met and the scout was clearly disappointed that the army sergeant's poor timing would delay that.
It was Dietz's turn to grin as he reached back up to his saddle and untied a wineskin hanging there. "Fortunately I brought my own," he said, passing it to Adelrich, who took a long draught and sighed appreciatively.
"Ulric's beard, I needed that!" he said, returning the wineskin so Dietz could drink as well. "Now, tell me how you've fared since we parted. No more strange encounters, I hope?"
"You have no idea," Dietz replied, shuddering. He and Adelrich found a place to sit on the rocks near the camp's edge and traded the wineskin back and forth while Dietz scratched Glouste behind her ears and told of their experiences in Middenheim. Alaric wandered over to join them after a few more words with Haas, and chimed in from time to time as Dietz related their discovery of the first statue's disappearance.
They had parted ways after destroying the third statue in the pass and had thought their quest finished, the Chaos statues gone and the daemon attempting to use them safely repelled. Unfortunately that had not been the case. The original statue, which they had assumed was destroyed, had been spirited deep beneath Middenheim, and Alaric and Dietz had been forced to pursue it and its owners. Adelrich growled when they told him of their former companions, of Kristoff's treachery and Fastred's death, and shuddered when they described the mutants and cultists in the tunnels below the city. His face turned pale when Dietz spoke of the ceremony Kristoff had performed, the gate it had created through the remaining statue, and the daemon that had begun to emerge. Alaric was white as a sheet too, clearly reliving those horrific events, and Dietz could feel his pulse beating rapidly and knew his voice was shaking as he remembered the mind-bending, sanity-shredding terror of the daemon. Glouste whimpered softly, the little tree-fox sensing her master's distress, and coiled herself around Dietz's neck in an effort to comfort him.
"Morr's breath," Adelrich whispered finally when Dietz had finished his tale. "I thought what we faced together was grim enough, but this! You beheld a daemon in the flesh! And fought it!" His voice held a note of awe.
"It did not fully emerge," Alaric corrected, his voice shaky. "We did not so much defeat it as destroy the gate and foil its attempt to cross over." He shuddered, recalling the daemon's ever-shifting features, and its voice as it had bellowed at him even as the gate collapsed. His hand rose idly to rub at his neck.
"Even so," Adelrich replied, "you faced a daemon, a true daemon, and survived! And triumphed!" He took the almost empty wineskin from Dietz. "You saved Middenheim, certainly, and most likely the Empire as well." With that, the scout hoisted the wineskin in salute. He took a quick sip before handing it to Alaric, who sipped as well before giving it back to Dietz.
"How is Holst?" Alaric asked, trying to change the subject. He had not seen the Middenheim army sergeant since they'd arrived and was curious as to why. They all owed their lives to Holst and his men several times over after the hunt for the Chaos statues. Alaric regretted asking, however, when he saw Adelrich's face fall.
"Dead," the scout admitted quietly. "We've been cleaning up the remains of that orc warband we fought, killing scattered groups that escaped the battle and hid among the cliffs. Last week we came across a group of a dozen or so. Two of them had bows, those short horn bows they favour. One got off a lucky shot when he saw us. It took Holst in the throat. He was dead before he hit the ground."
"Damn and blast!" Dietz lifted the wineskin, realised it was empty, and tossed it aside. He'd liked the quiet, competent sergeant.
"Commander Haas sent word to Middenheim," Adelrich added. "He said Holst had been a fine soldier and had given his life defending the Empire. The same thing he says about the others we've lost."
"Holst deserved better," Dietz said quietly. "They should have given him a medal, after all we faced."
"He wouldn't have worn it anyway," Alaric pointed out. "It would have made too much noise clinking against his armour." All three of them laughed, realising it was true, and felt a little better.
Still, it was with some relief that they watched Sergeant Druber's return, a few hours later. He was carrying supplies, including several fresh wineskins, one of which they appropriated to toast their fallen friend.
The next morning Alaric and Dietz spoke briefly with Haas, thanking him for his hospitality and catching him up on recent events in the Empire. They had come well provisioned for their journey, but accepted a wineskin and a few packets of dried fruit and travel bread from Druber anyway, to supplement their own fare. Then they left the camp, following the winding path back to the larger pass and turning their backs to the Empire, their horses pointed towards the Border Princes. Adelrich accompanied them until noon before turning back.
"Be careful," he warned as he said goodbye. "We've cleared the immediate area of orcs, but they are like rats; there're always more of them lurking somewhere nearby, and if they are lurking, they're likely to be hungry."
"We'll watch ourselves," Dietz replied, patting the crossbow at his side. It had belonged to Fastred Albers, another friend who had died recently, and it reloaded automatically. Dietz was sure that the big, generous explorer would have wanted him to have the weapon, and he took good care of it.
"I still expect that drink in Middenheim," Adelrich said as they clasped hands.
"Definitely," said Dietz. He waved and kicked his horse forwards, Alaric's steed moving beside his. Within minutes they had rounded a small bend in the pass and Adelrich was gone from view.
They rode in silence for some time, both glancing nervously around in case of ambush. The pass was wide enough for ten men to ride abreast, but somehow it felt as if the walls were closing in on them, and the sky seemed to weigh down upon them. The ground was rough, bare stone still jagged despite centuries of travel, and here and there Dietz saw hints of old ruins. For once his companion showed no interest in investigating them, a rare thing indeed.
"I hate these mountains," Alaric commented finally, hiding a faint shudder. "It's as if they're frowning at me, glowering at me."
Dietz looked around, studying the high cliffs on either side, and nodded. Too much blood had been spilled here for these peaks to be anything but ominous.
"Let's leave them behind," he suggested, and spurred his horse into a fast trot. He heard Alaric's mount clattering along behind him, and together they raced towards the far side of the pass and the lands that lay beyond.
"You didn't tell him about the map," Alaric commented when they slowed their horses an hour or so later. The Black Fire Pass was a hundred miles long so there was little point in tiring out their horses at the start of their trek. Thus far they had encountered nothing worse than a few loose rocks, a few cracks they had been forced to jump and some startled lizards. It was the first thing either of them had said since spurring their horses, but Dietz understood what Alaric meant.
"Didn't see the need," he admitted, patting his horse's sweat-covered neck. Alaric nodded. He liked Adelrich and trusted him, and knew Dietz did too, but his friend was right. Why go into the story about the map when it wasn't necessary? Besides, the fewer people who knew about it, the better. That was one of the first lessons he had learned in his antiquities classes back at the university. Keep the information to yourself and those who have to know it and you minimise the chances of someone stealing your discovery out from under you.
And this could be quite a discovery. They still couldn't read the entire document---lack of care or deliberate malevolence had destroyed portions of the old parchment. What they could read, however, was fascinating and drew him like a moth to a flame.
"It seems to be a map to an ancient tomb... in the Borderlands... famed for... treasures beyond imagining."
The name was impossible to make out, although Alaric had stared at that portion of the manuscript so many times he felt he could trace its shattered lines in his sleep. Whatever had come before and after was also gone, but this was enough to inflame his curiosity.
A tomb in the Border Princes! He had heard of such things, of course. Several of the university professors had mentioned such troves and one, Professor Auguste, had even taught a very popular class on ancient tombs. The Border Princes were littered with old ruins, which was not surprising since the stretch of land between the orc and goblin infested Badlands and the Empire had been invaded, conquered, and occupied by at least four different cultures in the past thousand years. At least two of those civilisations had revered their dead enough to bury them in elaborate tombs, along with astounding treasures. Of course, most of those places had been looted long ago, and many of them had been outfitted with a variety of deadly traps to kill any who dared disturb them, but that only made the attempt more exciting.
They had another reason for going. The ancient scroll that accompanied the parchment, the one with the map on it, was also difficult to read but a few landmarks stood out on it. So did the glyphs along the side, which were already far too familiar for Alaric's comfort.
The glyphs matched several of the marks he had seen etched into the Chaos statues they had recently destroyed. Something in or near this tomb bore the mark of Chaos.
Their friend Rolf had died because of those statues, and his son Hralir had passed the two parchments to Alaric, following instructions that his stone-carver father had left before his execution. Alaric considered it something of a last request for him to find that tomb, and poetic justice for him to destroy any Chaos taint he found there.
So far as Alaric was concerned, there was no reason for Adelrich to get wrapped up in their problems a second time, and Dietz had evidently felt the same way.
"He might have helped us find it, though," Alaric pointed out, as much to himself as to his companion. Dietz only grunted in reply. "After all, we don't know where we're going, exactly. Adelrich might have had some idea, some suggestion on where to start." The Border Princes was said to be a nightmare to navigate, in part because it was broken into a cascade of petty nations and in part because those miniature kingdoms frequently changed their borders, and their rulers.
Dietz didn't bother to reply, but the expression on his face told Alaric they were probably thinking the same thing. The scout wasn't the ideal person to show the map to. The real expert had been Renke, the Imperial geographer who had accompanied them to the first two statues and who had been killed by the treacherous Kristoff when Renke suspected his loyalties. This quest could prove equally dangerous. That was another reason they had not told Adelrich about the map. The scout might have insisted upon accompanying them, and Alaric suspected that neither of them could handle causing another friend's death.
"We have the river," Dietz commented finally. They had puzzled over the map every night during their ride back across the Empire and had finally realised that the wide, wavy line at the bottom was a river. More specifically, it was the Blood River, which separated the Border Princes above from the Badlands below. Not having anything else to go on, Alaric had agreed they should head towards the Blood River and then reorient from there. By that time they'd have been in the Border Princes for several weeks and were more likely to recognise other landmarks from the map.
"I know," Alaric agreed. "I just wish we had a clearer idea of the location, and of how long it will take to get there."
They rode on in silence for a while, allowing the scenery to distract them. The Black Mountains were certainly impressive, their dark peaks towering high above, and the pass itself would have fascinated Alaric at any other time. He spotted definite dwarf architecture several times, the remnants of outposts and forts they had built long ago to defend the entrance to the Old Dwarf Road that ran nearby and led off to the fabled Karaz-a-Karak. In other places he spotted monuments, or what was left of them. They rode past---and twice through---old battlefields, bones and bits of metal and wood still scattered across the bloodstained ground. Once Dietz's sharp eyes spied the remains of a funeral pyre, the blackened wood and ash probably marking the destruction of orcs after a major conflict. Alaric felt the itch to explore the sites, but memories of their mission, and of Rolf, kept him to the pass, as did more practical concerns.
Haas was a fine commander and his men had done an excellent job, first destroying the large warband that had threatened to tear through the pass and into the Empire and then mopping up the remaining orcs. But the mountains were vast and filled with hiding places. The orcs were very good at burrowing into caves and crevices, and even with a force ten times the size Haas would not have been able to find them all. Alaric and Dietz spotted orcs moving about several times, and three times orcs spotted them as well. The first time they kicked their horses into motion and galloped away before the handful of orcs could descend from the ledge where they perched. The second time, the orcs emerged from a cave just off the pass, but Dietz shot the first one in the chest and they safely passed the rest. The third time the orcs appeared almost underfoot, but Alaric had kicked one away and then skewered it with his rapier. Dietz had shot two more, and the rest had backed away just long enough for the horses to break free. They rode hard for an hour before slowing again, but the remaining orcs had not pursued them.
Finally, after almost ten days of travel, Alaric and Dietz reached the end of the Black Fire Pass. Grey cliffs closed in above, the pass narrowing to a single wagon width and then dropping down steeply as the mountains fell away. Both men took deep breaths as they emerged into the lands beyond, enjoying the smell of trees and dirt after so many days surrounded by nothing but rock.
The small village of Munzig stood near the end of the pass. It was little more than a crude trading post with a few ramshackle homes for those who traded there all year round. It had high, sturdy walls, however, and armed guards patrolled them, crossbows and spears in hand. Alaric and Dietz paused long enough to get a few additional supplies, although the prices were so steep they bought sparingly, before heading out again. A few of the traders had eyed Alaric's fine clothing and handsome sword a little too long and he wanted to put some distance between himself and those men before they decided his finery would look better on them.
Dull brown dirt cloaked the rocks on either side of the pass and stunted bushes clung to them, masking the terrain with sickly greenery. An hour's travel saw the end to the stone altogether. The soil was deep brown and the small bushes were replaced by large, looming trees with dark dull bark and grey-green leaves. The foliage formed a thick canopy overhead, blocking out the light of the sun, which was both a blessing and a curse. The sun was high overhead and they would have been broiling out in the open, but the shade made their surroundings dark, gloomy, and difficult to navigate. A road had been cleared through the forest but the massive trees seemed determined to reclaim that ground. On several occasions, they were forced to step their horses carefully past tangled roots and thick vines, or hack through interwoven branches that hung across the path in a leafy barrier.
"Charming place," Alaric commented as they picked their way along. "I cannot imagine why more people do not visit it simply for its natural beauty."
"Heh?" Dietz hacked at a vine blocking their path and absently swatted away the snake that ducked down from a low-hanging branch. "Less beauty, more speed."
Despite their best efforts it was past nightfall by the time they found a place to make camp. The forest had offered several tempting little clearings, but both men had agreed they felt too much like traps, as if the forest was lying in wait for them to drop their defences. The copse they finally selected was really just a cluster of three sad-looking trees amid the denser forest, but there was enough space between them to build a small fire and stretch out and they could see not only the sky but also anyone approaching. The forest around them seemed to glower like a put-out old woman who'd been denied what she saw as her rightful reward.
The next morning the sun blazed down on them, the copse's foliage doing little more than adding a flurry of small shadows to the onslaught. Dietz and Alaric blinked against the early morning light as they stoked the fire enough to brew water for tea, ate a quick breakfast, and then dowsed the fire with dirt and gathered their gear and their horses. The sun was still inching its rays across the land, chasing away the shadows, when Alaric and Dietz were up and riding, their horses plunging back into the welcoming shadows of the forest to seek relief from the heat the day promised.
They reached Akendorf three days later.
"Lovely," Alaric said facetiously, glancing around as they topped the rise and headed down towards the town. "I can see why people forsake the Empire for this paradise."
The valley below was narrow and shallow, little more than a long depression in the surrounding hills. The town filled the valley floor and had a sturdy wooden wall ten feet high around it. Gates on both sides stood open, but only a few people were visible near them. The land around the town was clearly given over to farms, their crops forming a patchwork across the valley, the lighter hues standing out against the forests all around. They could just make out the broad ribbon of the Thunder River to the east, its waters separated from the valley by a single ridge of low hills. Enough water trickled through in places to provide decent irrigation, it seemed, and the farms seemed to be prospering.
"Not so bad," Dietz replied, taking in the sight. Alaric sighed. Dietz was a good man, an excellent companion, and a trusted friend, but despite his upbringing in Middenheim he was horribly provincial in some ways. The town below probably didn't even have a decent tavern! Still, they probably had an inn, or at least a farmer willing to rent them his barn for the night. It would certainly beat sleeping on hard-packed dirt and scraggly grass as they had the last few nights.
"Best be wary," Dietz continued. "People who flee here are often running from something."
He was right, of course. They had both heard the stories, although neither of them had been here before. The Border Princes were renowned across the Empire, and not always for the best of reasons. Stories claimed that a man could rise from slavery to kingship here, just on the strength of his own right arm. Certainly some of the local petty tyrants had once been peasants or worse and now ruled lands of their own. Life here was brutal and usually short, and each person was out for himself, willing to kill for power, money, or simple pleasure. Criminals often fled the Empire and took refuge here, knowing it was not worth the Empire's trouble to send men after them. Some of those villains rose to power here too, carving out realms where they could act out their depravities without restriction---paradise, indeed.
As they drew closer---for the distance proved greater than they'd realised---Alaric and Dietz could see that the town was of a decent size. It boasted at least three two-storey buildings, all handsomely crafted from mountain stone and aged wood. They saw farmers working in the fields though none of them returned the travellers' friendly nods as they rode past. It never hurt to make a good impression on the locals.
Then, a mile or more from the town gate, they heard a commotion---the sounds of raised voices and of wood on flesh.
"Ah yes," Alaric said out loud as they followed a bend in the path and discovered a scene laid out before them, "the bedrock of the civilised world---random senseless violence."
They saw a man clutching onto a thick wooden fence post, struggling to stay upright. His simple, mud-spattered clothes and the deep tan on his face, neck, and arms suggested someone who worked the fields, either a farmer or a farmhand. The eight or nine men who were beating him looked much less wholesome, with their battered mail, dirty cloaks, ragged beards and simple but well-honed weapons. Two of them were holding the farmer's arms, prying him away from the post, while a third prepared to brain him with a large tree branch.
"Damn and blast!" Dietz was charging before Alaric even realised his friend had moved.
"What the...?" Alaric turned his horse and hurried after his friend, cursing under his breath as he did so. Dietz could be a hard man, but he had a good heart and sometimes his moral outrage got the better of him. He was charging the motley crew of warriors, enraged at the notion of so many trained, armed and armoured men attacking a single man. "Excellent way to meet new people, Dietz," Alaric muttered under his breath, even as he drew his rapier. Then they were in the thick of things, as always.
"Leave him be!" Dietz shouted, his hand straying to his crossbow, but then moving past it to the club that hung beyond. There was no sense shooting if he didn't have to. Several of the ruffians turned, hearing his horse's hooves, and shouted as they stumbled back to avoid being trampled. Dietz let his horse barrel into the man with the club, knocking him aside like a wind-blown leaf. Then he turned his horse and halted, facing them.
"Pathetic!" Dietz said, the word coming out sharp as a thrown dagger, carrying the weight of his contempt and rage. He'd seen men like these too many times in his life. They were bullies too weak to threaten anyone by themselves, but high and mighty when in a pack. Somehow the like-minded always found each other, and they grouped together, roving the streets and hills, throwing their collective weight around, terrorising good folk. They were always eager to use violence because they were thrilled to finally have opportunity, and exhilarated to know they could beat someone senseless without getting mauled themselves. He'd been the victim of gangs like this himself a few times and still bore scars from such encounters. He'd steered clear of some of them afterwards, but he'd paid others back in kind, and he'd sworn not to let another suffer the same fate if he was near enough to offer aid.
The good news was with a pack like this, any show of superior force usually sent them scurrying like rats. His sudden charge and harsh tone should spook them and put an end to this.
Or not, he thought, as he saw the man he'd felled clamber to his feet. The ruffian had dropped his makeshift club and did not bother to retrieve it, drawing a nasty-looking short sword from the scabbard at his side, instead.
"Should have kept on riding, stranger," the man said, levelling his sword at Dietz. "Mind your own affairs. It'll cost your life, this will."
"Not likely," Dietz replied shortly. He kicked out, his boot striking the man solidly in the chest and sending him flying again, while he pulled the club free from its place among his saddlebags and thwacked another ruffian on the head with it.
Two down, seven to go.
His actions only served to enrage the other bullies. Drawing swords, axes and maces, they charged his horse, shouting and cursing. It was a lot more resistance than he'd expected.
Nor was the man he'd saved any help. He still hung from the fence post, wide-eyed and apparently frozen with fear. Great.
Fortunately, Dietz had not come alone.
Glouste uncoiled from his shoulder, launching herself at one of the attackers. Her sharp claws latched onto the man's scalp and cheek, eliciting hoarse screams that turned shrill when she clamped tiny, needle-sharp teeth into his left ear. He dropped his sword and grabbed at her desperately, but the quick little tree-fox scurried up over his head and around to the back of his neck, clinging there as she bit down on his other ear. In his panic, the man staggered too close to Dietz, and a quick kick put him into soothing unconsciousness. Glouste leapt from the bully as he fell, onto Dietz's boot and then up his leg, winding her way around him until she was back on her perch on his shoulder, chattering proudly.
"Yes, very helpful, thank you," Dietz told her as he clubbed another man.
Four down. Five left.
Unfortunately those five had seen enough to grow wary. They backed away, out of Dietz's range, and circled him, weapons ready. It was clear they were planning to charge him all at once, knowing he could not club them all before at least one reached him. His horse gave him the height advantage but limited his ability to sidestep blows or turn quickly, and his leather jerkin, while sturdy, would not stop a strike by one of those blades. This was not good.
"Pardon me, coming through!" Alaric galloped into the fray, his polite words hanging in the air as his horse ploughed through the remaining ruffians. Alaric laughed with delight at his little ploy, but the rapier in his hand was wielded by a master as it snaked out and removed a short sword from one of the men's grips. Dietz grinned. Sometimes his friend had impeccable timing.
"You took a while," he said, although he was still grinning. Alaric snorted in reply.
"Perhaps if you'd told me you were going to throw yourself into someone else's affairs, I'd have been here sooner."
The charge had taken out one more ruffian, leaving four still standing, although one of them had lost his blade to Alaric. Those four were angry now, rage driving fear or even caution from their minds, and they leapt at both riders, snarling wordlessly. It was past the time for jokes and playful manoeuvres.
The first bully, the one with the club, rose from Dietz's far side while another ruffian swung at him with a heavy axe. Dietz had already raised his club to block the blow, but the first man advanced towards his exposed side, sword poised for a fatal strike.
There was nothing else Dietz could do. His left hand maintained the block with his club while his right dropped to his belt. In one smooth motion he drew the long knife there and threw it in a quick sideways arc, the blade gleaming as it spun through the air and caught the man in the throat just as his arm pulled back to lunge.
The ruffian toppled, blood spurting from the wound. The other man attacking Dietz shouted, a wordless cry of fear and anger, and Dietz used the distraction to grip his club in both hands, twisting it up to knock the axe aside, and then swivelling it around to catch the man a solid blow to the temple. He toppled with a groan and Dietz glanced around for the rest of the pack.
Alaric had apparently kicked one into another, and the two bullies had fallen in a tangle of limbs and steel. The one on the bottom did not get up but the other rose shakily to his feet. A third had attacked Alaric clumsily and the blond nobleman's rapier had made short work of him, since Alaric had reflexively gone for a killing blow to the throat rather than some lesser wound.
That should leave one more, Dietz realised. He glanced around and finally saw the remaining ruffian. He was crouching behind their intended victim, over by the fence post, and was busy setting a bolt into a heavy crossbow that had apparently been waiting there, unnoticed.
"Morr's blood!" Dietz kicked his horse and it responded by leaping into motion, its first steps carrying it almost to the man. The second flurry of hooves struck the bully in the chest and head, and Dietz didn't need to hear the crack of bone to know that this bully would never threaten anyone again.
Alaric had disarmed the remaining man, and rather than attack again the man showed surprisingly good sense. He grabbed his fallen friend and ran off, as did two of the others. There were two more on the ground, unconscious at the very least, and three fit for burial.
One very frightened former victim, probably a farmer judging by his dirt-stained hands and mud-caked clothes and boots, cowered back from Dietz and Alaric as if they were to take their turn at beating him next.
"Quite invigorating," Alaric commented, dismounting and wiping his blade on one of the men's cloaks before re-sheathing it. "You do find ways to keep our trips interesting, don't you?"
"Me?" Dietz started to point out all the times Alaric had got them into trouble, and then stopped. It wasn't worth the time and aggravation. Besides, Alaric was joking, or so he thought.
Instead he dismounted, reclaimed his knife from the dead man's throat, and turned to the farmer.
"Are you all right?"
The man continued to stare, but when Dietz repeated the question he finally nodded. Then at last, rubbing his wrists where the two ruffians had held him, he spoke.
"Shouldn't 'a done that."
"Well, there's gratitude for you," Alaric muttered.
Dietz just stared.
"What?"
"Wouldn't 'a killed me," the man continued, taking a shaky step away from the fence post. "Just rough me up some."
"Why?" Dietz asked.
The farmer looked embarrassed. "Didn't pay," he admitted, shuffling his feet in the trampled, blood-spattered dirt and grass. "Should'a, but didn't."
"Why should you have paid?" Alaric asked, leaning forwards, "Just to avoid being beaten?"
"Taxes," the man replied, shrugging. "Gotta pay 'em. I was going to pay next week." He glanced around quickly, and Dietz didn't need words to know what the man was thinking now: How am I going to pay enough to make up for this?
"So these men," Alaric asked, "they were not mere bullies or brigands?"
The farmer actually laughed at that, showing a few broken teeth. "Bullies, sure," he agreed, more relaxed now that he'd decided he wasn't in immediate danger from the two strangers, "but they ain't no brigands." He pointed towards one of the fallen men, and nudged the body with one foot, indicating the large brass-buckled bracer the man wore on his left forearm. The same bracer, Dietz realised, that all the ruffians had worn, almost like a uniform.
The farmer continued speaking, words that Dietz had begun to suspect and fear but could not stop: "They're the town guard."
"Ah, excellent," Alaric said with a sigh. "A fine welcome indeed."
"How was I to know?" Dietz protested again. They had left the farmer with a few gold coins to help cover not only his taxes but also any punishment he might receive for the recent events. Although, truth to tell, he wasn't to blame for that. Any sensible man would see that the farmer had merely been the cause of the violence, not its instigator. No, the ones responsible for the death of at least three town guards were the two strangers who were riding towards Akendorf as quickly as their horses could carry them. They had no choice, the valley was the only way to continue south and the town was the only way through, unless they wanted to trample through the surrounding farmlands. That would not only slow them down, it would leave them exposed to anyone watching. Besides, why would anyone go that route instead of through the town unless they had something to hide? Their best option was to get to and through Akendorf quickly, before anyone found out what had happened.
"No way," Alaric admitted. He shook his head. "Even if it had been bandits, as you thought, why interfere? They would have beaten him up, taken whatever money he had, and left. End of story. Everyone still alive."
"You don't know that," Dietz protested. "They might have killed him!" He couldn't believe Alaric was suggesting they turn a blind eye to such things.
Apparently Alaric couldn't either. "I know," he said after a second's pause. "You're right, we couldn't just stand by, but now we're heading straight for a town filled with guards whose fellows we have just killed. Not the ideal way to enter a region, would you say?"
Dietz didn't bother to respond. He just spurred his horse on.
They reached Akendorf's north gate, a large gap carved into the stout wall of rough logs that tapered to crude points up above. A pair of sturdy doors stood open, guards standing at either side. Several more guards stood above, evidently on a catwalk behind the wall, their weapons aimed casually down at the approaching travellers. Alaric and Dietz slowed their horses as they approached, keeping their hands in plain sight of the guards.
"What is your business here?" one of the guards shouted as they neared, swinging his crossbow towards them.
"Just passing through," Alaric replied easily. The guard nodded and stepped aside for them to pass by, and Dietz followed his friend into the city.
"Perhaps they haven't returned yet," Alaric said too softly for the guards to hear, although his tone suggested he was not going to rely upon that.
Dietz nodded and clucked at his horse, guiding it along the narrow street. Up close and within the walls, Akendorf was even bigger than it had seemed before, a substantial town that might have expanded further if the valley had allowed it. Buildings lined the street, wooden signs overhead proclaiming the businesses within, and people thronged the hard-packed dirt street, some selling wares from carts and small stands while others shopped or simply moved from place to place. Several stopped to stare at the strangers, but no one barred their path except a few urchins asking for loose coins and a man offering them the finest in food and drink if they would just follow him.
Alaric refused the last offer with a heavy sigh. So there was a decent tavern here, possibly even an inn. It was too bad they could not stay to sample its wares.
They kept riding, instead, navigating through the crowd as they worked their way across the town. This was the main road and would have been wide enough for two or even three wagons across if it wasn't for the people and horses and carts everywhere. It was a teeming throng of humanity, and Alaric longed to lose himself in it for a few moments, soaking up the sights and sounds and smells. Akendorf was hardly Nuln or Middenheim, or his beloved Altdorf, but it was the largest settlement they'd seen for weeks and held many of the luxuries they'd forgone on their journey.
Alas, they would have to forgo them for a while longer yet.
As they rode, both men kept glancing around, both to see their way through the crowd and to look for more of the town guard. Several were in evidence, men in a variety of armour and carrying what must be personal weapons, but they were all marked by the same heavy bracers on their left arms. A few of the guards nodded at Alaric and Dietz, but seemed to be doing no more than greeting the newcomers and letting their own presence be noted. Alaric and Dietz both nodded back every time, half-expecting each guard to shout for them to halt and relieved when that did not occur.
"Perhaps we did outrun them," Alaric suggested quietly as the south gate came into view. "We did not see horses, after all."
Dietz merely grunted. Alaric knew his friend was too pragmatic to relax until they were well beyond the town, but he had begun to feel a bit more cheerful. The gate was not far ahead and they would be through it soon. Surely they were safe now?
He always remembered too late that thinking such thoughts usually got him into trouble.
The first hint was the wave of sound that washed over them from the rear. The street was filled with noise already, people talking and haggling, and animals snorting and chewing and clomping along. But this was a discreet thing, a sudden shift in the voices from mixed emotions to fear, anger, and even grief. Here and there they caught a few words from the tumult:
"...guards dead..."
"...strangers attacked them..."
"...no reason..."
"...Rillian's own son..."
"...said it was two men on horses..."
"...blond and fancy..."
"...lean and weathered..."
"That's them!"
Alaric had no idea whether the last shout had come from a guard or merely a resident, but the result was immediate. People turned to stare at them, a collective gasp rose from the crowd, and everyone backed away.
"Run!" Dietz suggested quietly. Alaric had had the same idea and was already spurring his horse back into a gallop. The two mounts leapt forwards side-by-side, racing down the suddenly cleared street towards the gate that waited so invitingly up ahead: the gate that guards were already rushing to close.
"Stand aside!" Alaric shouted, drawing his rapier even though he knew it would not do much good. He was too far away to strike at the guards and his blade was not meant for use from a galloping horse. Strong as it was, the blade that Todbringer had given him would snap from the impart. He only hoped that waving it about would at least menace the guards into ducking back long enough for them to pass.
Fortunately Dietz had a better idea. The older man drew the crossbow at his side, levelled it, and fired. Then he fired again, the mechanisms within raising a fresh bolt into the groove automatically. He fired a third bolt, each one striking not flesh but wood, the wood of the gate, where men had rushed to push it shut. The guards leapt back as the first bolt thunked solidly into the gate and wisely kept their hands to themselves as the next two bolts hit as well. Alaric knew his friend was a fair shot, but he also knew that no one could be expected to hit a target from a galloping horse. The guards didn't know that though, and he was glad that they were erring on the side of caution.
The gate had been pushed partially closed already but it did not close any further, and Alaric raced through it, followed closely by Dietz, who swivelled in his saddle, to keep the crossbow trained on, first the men by the gate and then the men stationed above it. One of the guards fired a crossbow of his own, the bolt narrowly missing Alaric's cheek. Dietz loosed three more bolts, the third one chipping wood from the logs mere inches from where the guard stood, and the man did not make a second attempt.
Then they were out of range, at least of crossbows. The valley stretched before them and beyond it the farmland faded and the forest beckoned.
They kept riding, forcing their horses to maintain the gallop for as long as possible. Surely Akendorf's ruler, the Rillian they had heard mentioned, would send mounted guards after them. Their only chance lay in maintaining their lead.
Once out of the valley Dietz turned his horse sharply west and led Alaric off into the trees on the opposite side from the river. They slowed out of necessity, both because the horses were slathered in sweat and because it was too dangerous to ride full-speed through an unfamiliar forest, but they continued moving for several more hours before finally halting beside a narrow stream.
"I think we lost them," Alaric said quietly, and after a moment Dietz nodded.
"We'll stick to the trees for a while," he said, "just to be safe." Then he dismounted and began rubbing down his horse.
Alaric did the same. "The one with the club must have been the mayor's son," he said after a while. "He seemed like the leader."
"Would have been a lousy mayor," Dietz pointed out. Alaric nodded. Yes, the man had all the earmarks of a classic tyrant: crude, violent and not too bright. The town was probably better off without him.
"I would have liked to have tried the wine, though," Alaric said with a sigh. Dietz tossed him a wineskin from his horse and Alaric caught it and took a long drink, but of course it wasn't the same.
Crack!
Alaric shifted and peered about blearily. "What was that?"
"What?"
"I heard something."
"It's the wind. Go to sleep." Dietz's slurred words indicated he was still mostly asleep himself.
"It wasn't the wind," Alaric insisted. "It sounded like a branch breaking."
"Then it was a branch. Go to sleep."
"Who would be breaking branches in the middle of the night? Doesn't that seem odd to you?"
Dietz paused for a moment before responding, and Alaric thought he might have fallen asleep again. Then his friend spat out a single word, "Animals."
"In the middle of the night?"
"Night animals."
"Oh."
"Go to sleep."
"Fine." Alaric lay back down and closed his eyes, trying to ignore his own misgivings.
Crack!
"Up!"
Alaric blinked. "But you just said---"
"Up! Now!"
Alaric took the command literally and leapt to his feet, which proved to be a good thing. The space his head had occupied on the ground was suddenly beneath a hairy paw. A paw that was followed immediately by another, as a large wolf leapt into their campsite. Its fur was matted, its claws gnarled, its mouth open and slavering, and its eyes were glittering in the last embers of the fire. But the wolf wasn't what held their eyes. No, what really demanded their attention was the figure mounted on the wolf, swinging a heavy war axe. Alaric ducked just in time.
A goblin wolf rider!
Dietz had heard tales of such creatures, of course. They roamed the Empire as well as the Border Princes, although not as frequently or in such large numbers. They were goblins who had tamed wolves, or at least broken them enough to use them as savage steeds, and ride the wild canines in raids and battles. Now, a wolf and his rider had invaded their camp, the animal's jaws snapping at Alaric while the burly goblin readied his axe for another swing.
Unfortunately, one of the things Dietz had heard was that wolf riders never travelled alone.
He grabbed his crossbow and fired, putting a bolt through the first goblin's left eye. Then he spun and crouched just in time to avoid losing his face to a second wolf as it sailed into the tiny clearing. The goblin on its back had a spiked club and Dietz blocked the blow with the crossbow stock. The solid wood took the hit without splintering, but the force sent a shiver through his arms.
A third wolf circled them, growling, its rider shouting something in the harsh goblin tongue, while at least one more prowled beyond. Fortunately they had selected a site within a small cluster of trees, boulders and low bushes, and the other beasts could not reach them. The horses were tethered within the trees and were snorting their terror, but the wolf riders ignored them. There would be time enough to handle the mounts once the men were no longer a threat.
Except that Dietz intended to remain a threat for a very long time, and so did Alaric. The younger man had used the first goblin's fall to distract its wolf long enough for his rapier to stab it through the eye and into the brain. The beast had collapsed, as dead as its rider, and provided an additional barrier blocking the other wolf riders from reaching them.
Alaric took advantage of that, sheathing his rapier and drawing his crossbow from his saddlebags. It was not a self-loading model like Dietz's, but he slipped a bolt into place quickly enough and paused to aim before firing. The bolt took the third wolf rider in the chest, knocking him out of his saddle. His wolf launched itself furiously towards the clearing, jaws snapping, and clambered over its fallen pack mate. It could not have made the climb while burdened with a rider, but the awkward scramble slowed it long enough for Alaric to drop his crossbow, grab the axe the first goblin had dropped, and swing it. He was not familiar with the heavy weapon and the attack was clumsy, but the wolfs own momentum imbedded the heavy blade in its skull and it collapsed, still trying to bite even as it died.
Dietz had blocked a second blow from his opponent but could not move back far enough to fire his crossbow without getting mauled in the process. He drew a knife instead, plunging it into the goblin's neck while mace and crossbow were locked together. The first stroke tore a deep bloody wound, but it did not slow the goblin, so Dietz withdrew the knife and stabbed again. This time he hit a vital spot and blood fountained forth, the goblin dropping its mace to clutch at its throat. The creature turned its mount, trying to flee the battle, and Dietz stepped back far enough to get a clear shot at the wolf's head, putting a crossbow bolt through its skull and dropping both wolf and rider in a heap as they leapt to apparent safety.
He fired at another rider, hitting it in the shoulder, and Alaric took a shot at a fourth, also winging it. That was evidently enough to persuade the wolf riders that this would not be an easy kill, and they retreated, leaving their dead behind as they vanished into the forest's gloom.
"I told you I heard something," Alaric pointed out as he cleaned his blade and tugged his cloak out from under a wolf carcass. "Now it smells of wet dog," he complained, adjusting the cloak over his shoulders.
"At least you're alive to wear it," Dietz pointed out. They spent some time retrieving usable bolts from the bodies. There was no sense wasting them, especially when they couldn't be sure of finding more any time soon. Alaric also found a handsome lady's ring, gold with a small pink pearl, in one goblin's ear and took it, pouring wine over it to clean it before wrapping it up and putting it in his belt pouch. The goblins had a few coins on them as well, no doubt taken from previous victims and kept for their shine, and Dietz took them, reasoning that the wolf riders owed them for disturbing their rest.
Then, since there was no chance of going back to sleep and they had no desire to remain among the corpses, Alaric and Dietz saddled the horses and set out again.
Akendorf was almost a week behind them. Any pursuit on the part of the town guard had long since ended, but they still kept off the roads to be safe. The land was heavily forested, although not as dark or gloomy as the first stretch past the mountains. They could see the World's Edge Mountains looming up to the far left, the vast mountain range forming the eastern border of both the Border Princes and the Badlands and effectively cutting the continent in two. The Thunder River had merged into the Skull River, which ran along to their immediate left, its fast-moving current providing a pleasant accompaniment to their horses' hoof beats as they rode.
Alaric had suggested taking a boat downriver, for the Skull was wide enough to be navigable and boats plied the water from just below its juncture with the Thunder to the Blood River itself, but Dietz had pointed out the problem with that notion.
"No regular travel," he explained, and Alaric interpreted his friend's typically terse statement and realised he was right. This wasn't the Empire. The Border Princes were still wild, and the various rulers fought one another constantly. The river was wide enough to allow boats, yes, but no one wanted the risk of maintaining such vessels. They might see fishing boats here and there but few would venture beyond their immediate area. It just wasn't safe for them.
Besides, he reasoned, river travel might make it difficult to follow the map. It indicated that the tomb was somewhere above the Blood River, but how far above it? They could travel all the way down, only to learn that they should have turned westward several days earlier. At least they wouldn't pass it by so quickly if they were on horseback.
Every night when they camped, Alaric took out both parchments: the map and the document describing it, and puzzled over them until it was too dark to read them properly. He had made some progress, both through careful examination of the worn markings and several educated guesses.
"It is Nehekharan," he announced one night, looking up from the map to beam at Dietz. "It must be!"
"Nehekharan?" Dietz shook his head. "I thought they were desert people."
"Nehekhara is a desert, yes," Alaric explained, shifting into lecture mode as he often did, "but the Nehekharan Empire was once the greatest civilisation in the world. They conquered and occupied most of the nations we know today, including the Border Princes. I believe it was Amenemhetum the Great, back in---"
"You're sure this tomb is one of theirs?" Dietz interrupted. He wasn't in the mood to hear ancient history.
"Fairly certain, yes," Alaric admitted. "It makes sense. The Border Princes have been held by many different civilisations, including both the Nehekharans and the Arabyans. Both cultures revere their dead and build elaborate tombs and memorials in their honour." He paused, waiting, and finally Dietz sighed.
"Why isn't this an Araby tomb, then?" he asked, knowing his friend had been waiting for just that question.
"Ah, you see, that is the really interesting part." Alaric's eyes lit with excitement. He was a good enough fellow, and an excellent companion and employer, but he got far too worked up over musty old details that no one but scholars would ever care to hear. Dietz tuned out the rest of the explanation, about how the tomb's entrance, marked clearly on the map, showed it had to be Nehekharan because the direction was all wrong for an Araby memorial, owing to their different cultural beliefs about facing or shielding from the sun and on and on and on. Eventually Alaric ran down, as Dietz had known he would.
"Any idea whose it is?" he asked, both to fill the silence and because he actually wanted to know the answer.
"No idea," Alaric admitted cheerfully. "The name is too worn away or defaced to read on the manuscript, and it isn't mentioned on the map." He frowned. "Actually, I heard once that they didn't mention their dead by name, something about it calling the soul back to this world and delaying or even ruining its journey to the next phase of existence." He pointed at several marks on the map. "This talks about the tomb's occupant, though. If I'm reading it correctly he was a great war leader, although there is also a word that usually denotes a king. He could have been both, of course, a war leader and king, or a war leader who became a king."
"What about those?" Dietz stabbed a finger towards the strange, scratchy marks along the side, being careful not to actually touch them. True, they were only ink on parchment here, but he'd seen what similar marks could do, and there was no sense in risking it.
"I haven't been able to decipher them yet," Alaric replied, "but at least one of those marks appears not only here and on the statues but on the mask as well." He frowned. "If only I had the mask here," he added pointedly, "I could tell for certain."
They'd had this argument several times before, and Dietz suspected they would have it several more times in the near future. When they had decided to follow the map Alaric had planned to bring the mask with him so he could study it more closely. Dietz had pointed out that this was a bad idea.
"It's valuable," he had said, "and rare, maybe even unique."
"I know," Alaric had replied, "that's precisely why I need to study it."
"We're going into the Border Princes," Dietz had pointed out. "Bandits, orcs, mutants: you want to bring the mask there? You'll lose it."
"I won't lose it," Alaric had protested. "I'm very careful with things!"
"I meant someone would take it from you," Dietz had clarified, "and then it'd be gone forever."
"Oh." He'd thought that might work. Alaric was confident, sometimes too confident, in his own abilities, but the thought of losing such a precious item gave him pause.
"What should I do with it, then?" he'd demanded after a moment, "Leave it with the innkeeper until we return?" Dietz had repressed a smile. If Alaric was considering alternatives he had already conceded the point.
Dietz had already had an answer for that. "Give it back to Hralir," he'd suggested. Rolf's son had held it for them once already and would keep it safe a second time.
After a few additional protests Alaric had finally agreed, and they had left the mask, still in the box Rolf had placed it in, with Hralir. The carpenter had promised to put it somewhere safe and not to let anyone near it but them. Dietz knew he would keep the promise.
Alaric had of course sketched the runes on the mask before handing it over, but he continued to grouse about the difference between his drawings and the original markings.
"Should have done better drawings, then?" was Dietz's standard reply.
\*
Unfortunately, puzzling over the map and the runes were not the only things on Alaric's mind. As they continued their journey his dreams were occupied by other thoughts, images and events he wished he could put behind him.
The first night after leaving Middenheim, he had dreamed. In that dream he had been back in the chamber beneath the city, watching Kristoff and his cultists complete their foul ceremony. The statue had stood undamaged in the chamber's centre, directly beneath the large circular grating through which blood had poured from the witch hunters' execution stands up above. The statue was as repulsive and horribly fascinating, towards the end, as it had ever been, its shifting surface covered in blood, its stone features writhing and pulsing like a monstrous heart.
This time he and Dietz were not there to interfere. This time the statue remained upright as the curtain of blood fell, enveloping it, and the statue began to glow, just as it had before, that glow spreading around it to form a wide disc with the statue at the centre. The statue flared into a strange dark-light, disappearing from view, and somehow that light created the illusion of depth, as if the disc were a cone, a tunnel connecting this plane to another far away.
That was exactly what it was. For in the centre of that disc, at the tunnel's far end, something moved, and came closer.
Alaric had shrieked and bolted upright as the daemon began once more to emerge.
Dietz was on his feet in an instant, crossbow in hand, but had relaxed slightly when he saw Alaric sitting there, staring sightlessly into the banked fire.
"A nightmare," Alaric had assured his friend, "just a nightmare."
"Not surprising," Dietz had replied, setting the crossbow back down and handing Alaric a water skin instead. "After all we've faced, it's a wonder we can sleep at all."
Dietz was right, of course. They had fought Chaos cultists, destroyed Chaos relics, encountered a true daemon in the flesh---at least partially---and survived. It was amazing they were still sane, let alone able to sleep. A few nightmares were a small price to pay for the good they'd done and the evil they'd averted.
That didn't stop him from screaming himself awake several times on their journey. For each time he dreamed he was back in that chamber as the daemon neared the end of the tunnel, and Alaric knew that if it stepped forth, through that statue, into this world, it would claim his soul as its own.
Something told him that part would not be a dream.
Ever since the battle with the cultists, ever since he had carelessly looked up and locked gazes with the daemon, ever since he had been so close to the creature, Alaric had felt a strange sensation. It was like the prickle of feeling watched, but different. This was more internal, as if the eyes upon him were not physical, as if they were peering into his very soul. It was a feeling he could not shake, and it made him jittery, jumping at sounds and starting at shadows. Dietz did not snap at him, however. The older man understood.
Two weeks later they reached the base of the Skull River. They had passed several small tributaries, all coming east from the mountains, but on their side the way had remained clear, or clear of waterways, at least. The land had been littered with ruins, some recent and others far older.
One had been the burnt-out remains of a farmhouse, the blackened wood still warm to the touch and the ground still saturated in places with blood. Not all of the blood had been human.
Another had been a tower of some sort, the foundation built from stones made perfectly square and almost silk-smooth. Little of the building remained above the foundation, although a few of the upper blocks littered the area, all covered in moss and half-buried beneath brambles and thorn bushes. Alaric had wanted to linger, but had settled for sketching down the marks he had found carved into the top of each block, and drawing the foundation's general design.
The land was soft and marshy, the bank of the Skull low and easily overrun during heavy rains. Tall, tough grass grew everywhere, interspersed with reeds near the river, and no trees shielded them from the warm midday sun. Stinging insects, drawn to the warm, damp climate, were everywhere, and Dietz was forced to add green wood to the fire each night. The smoke made them cough, but at least it kept the bugs at bay.
They had only seen a few people since leaving Akendorf behind. The first had been a hunter of some sort, judging by the longbow on his back, and he had clearly seen them but had not returned their nod or greeting. He had disappeared into the taller rushes of the bank when they had drawn closer, and they had not pursued him.
The other people had been a small merchant train, perhaps twenty strong, their heavy covered wagons staying far to the west of the river and its soft ground. Guards armed with crossbows had ridden before and behind, and had levelled their weapons at Alaric and Dietz when they had waved hello. The caravan had not slowed but one guard rode out to speak with them and inquire about any dangers that lurked in the direction from which they had come. Alaric warned them of the wolf riders and the guard gave him a silver coin as payment for the information. He had also told them they had come from Zenres and then Tengey, and that the land was quiet.
"Prince Levrellian keeps a tight grip on his lands," the guard said, although it was hard to know whether he meant it as a compliment or a warning. He had returned to the caravan after that, and Alaric and Dietz had continued on their way. They suspected Zenres was the large town, really a small city, that they had first sighted a few days back, but the Skull River was far too wide to cross without a boat and they had decided to stay on this side of the water for as long as possible.
They had not been attacked since the wolf riders, even though Dietz had seen shadows moving among the trees and later in the tall grass, more than once. Each time he had hefted his crossbow in what he hoped was a menacing fashion, and the shadows had faded away.
Now they stared at the spot, not far ahead, where the Skull River met the River Starnak and the two continued down towards the Blood River. Both were large rivers in their own rights, and swift-moving, but here their currents merged seamlessly, only a little spray and a touch of churned white indicating where the two became one. The result was a wider but equally fast Starnak, which ran south until it was swallowed by the massive Blood River. The Blood River in turn widened into the Black Gulf that led to the Tilean Sea.
Alaric and Dietz paused for a moment to take in the scene and ponder their options. They would have to cross somewhere, either by fording the Skull River and staying to the combined river's east side or by crossing the Starnak and venturing west into the Varenka Hills.
"We should stay east," Alaric decided after consulting the map again. "The Blood River runs below and a little west of the tomb, judging from this. If we head into the hills we'll be too far to the west."
Dietz agreed, and they rode at a leisurely walk to the juncture of the rivers. A small fishing town sat there and it was an easy enough matter to hire one of the locals to take them and their horses to the town on the far side in his wide, flat-bottomed fishing boat.
"Tengey, that is," the man said when they asked. It was all he said during the hour-long crossing, which was fine. Alaric was busy studying the map again and Dietz was staring at the town as it grew nearer.
Tengey was a fair size, and the side facing the river had only low stone walls so he could see much of the town as they approached. Long wooden piers stuck out into the water, each supported by rows of thick poles sunk deep into the riverbed, and boats of all sizes were tethered there or anchored nearby. Dietz tried not to shudder as he thought about taking one of those craft down the river. At least with this crossing he could see the far side the whole time, so the terror was lessened.
He could see sturdy wood and stone buildings past the docks, and what looked like a central market as well. They'd probably find fresh produce there, sold by the farmers who worked the lands nearby. That was something to look forward to, since they had been making do with the dried meat and hard bread Haas had given them, and with whatever fish or small game they could catch each day.
Their boat reached the docks and Dietz leapt out before it was fully tied down. He hated the feel of the water beneath him. It was far better to stand on properly fastened planks, than in some flimsy shell tossed about by the currents. Alaric followed behind, the amused look on his face showing he knew all too well the source of Dietz's hurry. They had paid the fisherman in advance and once they had led their horses onto the dock he pushed off again, not even waving a farewell, but then he probably did this so often that a few more travellers were nothing to remark upon.
"Ah, civilisation at last," Alaric said, rubbing his hands together happily. He shot an arch look at his companion. "Do you think we can stay in this one long enough to have a drink, at least? And perhaps some decent food?"
Dietz only growled in reply. Alaric's laughter followed him as he led their horses towards the market that he had spied from the river.
The market was exactly as Dietz had guessed it would be from his earlier glimpse. It was set up in the town square, an aptly named area between a small temple and several other important-looking buildings. People had set up stands, stalls and long tables and were offering produce, prepared food, drinks, and a variety of crafted goods. The prices were far better than they had seen in Munzig, as was the quality, competition keeping anyone from charging too much or from offering inferior goods. Dietz bought some sort of round green fruit, similar to a small apple but crisper and not as tart, to munch as he walked, and a small round of cheese, a strand of sausages and several small loaves of bread to store in his saddlebags. Alaric sampled a drink from one merchant and, delighted with the sweet, fruity taste, bought three wineskins, one of which he and Dietz passed back and forth.
They were beginning to enjoy themselves when Dietz turned from examining a box of tubers to find himself staring down a crossbow. The man holding it wore serviceable mail, a plain cloak, and a red tunic marked with a large black "L" in the fancy cursive script of the Tileans.
"Come along quietly," the man, obviously a guard of some sort, said. "No trouble and you stay breathing."
"Sounds fair," Dietz replied. He could see that another guard had accosted Alaric and two more waited just beyond on horseback. Dietz was marched back to his horse, where the guard disarmed him while the two mounted warriors kept their weapons fixed upon him. Alaric was next. Heavy ropes were tied around their necks, the other ends fastened securely to a guard's saddle, and after they'd remounted shorter lengths were used to bind their wrists behind them.
Dietz had to admire the concept. He could spur his horse on, but he'd hang himself in the process. This way the guards weren't slowed by escorting prisoners on foot, but didn't have to worry about an escape. The mounted guards led the way through town, forcing Alaric and Dietz to follow by the simple means of tugging their ropes, while the guards with crossbows flanked them on foot.
"May I ask why we have earned such a noble escort?" Alaric asked after they had left the market and were making their way down the main street. If being trussed like meat headed for the slaughterhouse bothered him he gave no indication.
"Shut up," the guard to his side replied. "You'll find out when we get there."
"Get where?" Dietz asked, noticing that the town's outer wall and front gate had just come into view. They were heading right for it, and the guards there nodded and waved them through. The two guards behind them paused long enough to mount horses before catching up, and all six moved on together.
"Zenres," another guard answered. "Prince Levrellian wants to see you."
"Well," Alaric said, glancing at the wineskin he'd bought in the market, which now hung from a guard's saddle, "at least we got that drink this time."
It took them six days to reach Zenres. The four guards, whose names they learned were Armin, Klaus, Matthias and Wim, were efficient and took no chances. The ropes around Alaric's and Dietz's necks never came off, but were transferred from saddle horn to lowlying branch when they camped each night. Their hands remained bound and at night their feet were bound as well. The guards rarely spoke to or even acknowledged them, although Armin and Klaus kept up a running conversation together and baited Matthias mercilessly. None of them could cook worth a damn, not that it mattered much since they only gave the prisoners water and stale bread.
Taking too long to get up in the morning or dismount in the evening earned a cuff to the head or a jab to the ribs, not vicious but certainly not friendly, and both Alaric and Dietz were tired, dirty, hungry, thirsty and bruised within days. At least the countryside was calm and pretty, the ground more solid on this side of the Skull River and the foliage more trees and crops and less marsh grass, and the weather was pleasant, warm with a cooling breeze off the river.
Then they reached Zenres and everything took a turn for the worse.
The city itself was pleasant enough. It was easily twice the size of Tengey despite not having as ideal a location, and the walls around it were high and strong. A dozen guards waited for them at the front gates and took the two foreigners from their four recent travelling companions. Matthias cuffed Alaric one last time as a parting gesture. Alaric and Dietz were led down several side streets to an imposing stone building that looked like either a courthouse or a prison.
Judging from the cell they were tossed into, Alaric guessed it was the latter.
"A bit nicer than the last cell we spent time in, at least," he said to Dietz, trying to lighten the mood. It wasn't true, actually. The last time they'd been thrown in prison, back in Middenheim, the cell had been dark and dank and filthy. This one did not seem any better. The floor was hard-packed dirt, or at least he guessed that's what it was through the layers of grime and blood and other old bodily fluids. The walls were rough stone and almost as dirty, and what little straw still covered the floor was rotted and slick to the touch. They had been searched thoroughly upon arrival and had been left their shirts and trousers but not their boots, which meant that Alaric knew for certain how the straw felt against bare flesh. At least the heavy wooden door had a barred opening, which allowed them air and some light. Alaric did his best to concentrate on that while he wondered what punishment was planned for whatever crimes they were supposed to have committed.
He didn't have to wait long to find the answers to those questions. Less than an hour after they arrived, Alaric heard a door open and then footsteps. He stepped back from the door and Dietz rose beside him as the sound grew louder, finally stopping before their door. There was a clanking of keys, a loud grating sound, and then the door opened.
Several guards stepped into the small cell, two of them with cocked crossbows. Those two moved to the corners, covering Alaric and Dietz as three more guards filed in. Behind them was a man wearing a similar tabard but it was black-trimmed and he wore it over finer mail. He had a close-cropped beard, black with a few strands of silver, and his hair was equally short but more salt-and-pepper. His face was broad and bored and he barely glanced at Alaric and Dietz before nodding to the men beside him. One of the guards, a heavyset man with a broken nose and a ring of keys on his belt, took command. "All right, you two," he barked, "move it!"
Alaric and Dietz were marched out of the cell and down the hall. They were led up a flight of stairs, which Alaric took to be a good sign; torture chambers were usually found in dungeons for some reason, not in airy upper rooms. He'd never understood that one, actually. He would have thought that if he was going to be doing something messy and tedious, he'd want a room with some ventilation and a bit of light. Perhaps it was the noise people worried about, though.
They walked down a wide hall with white-washed walls and floors of rough tile. Finally they stopped at a set of wide, polished wood doors. The man in the black-bordered tabard, who Alaric took to be a guard captain, knocked once and the doors swung inward, opened by a pair of guards. Again, everything felt eerily familiar. After their last prison sojourn Alaric and Dietz had been escorted into Todbringer's throne room and, unless Alaric missed his guess, that was exactly the sort of place they were entering now.
The room was nowhere near as impressive, of course, since this was only a small kingdom in the Border Princes and that had been the court of the Elector Count of both Middenheim and Middenland, one of the most powerful men in the Empire. Alaric supposed it would seem imposing to the locals, however, with its slate floor and wood-plank walls. Thick white-plastered pillars ran down either side, and a single tall window marked the far end of the room, light streaming through the real stained glass to cast pools of colour upon the dais below. A throne was set there, really nothing more than a large, heavy wooden chair with thick crimson cushions. A man, presumably the Levrellian that Alaric had heard mentioned, sat on the throne awaiting their approach. He tapped his fingers idly on the chair arms as the guards shoved Alaric and Dietz forward, using the crossbows to propel the two along. A few other men---most likely courtiers---stood between the dais and the far columns, watching the small party approach and talking quietly.
As they closed the distance Alaric studied Levrellian who was, in turn, studying them. The prince was slender and seemed to be of medium height, although it was hard to be sure with him slouching in his chair. His features were plain, nose and chin both a little narrow, and he had dusky skin and the oily brown hair that suggested Tilean ancestry. His clothes made up for his uninspiring features. He wore a handsome crimson velvet doublet and fine black trousers, with a fur-trimmed cape around his shoulders and matching boots upon his feet. He wore a heavy gold ring, set with a ruby, on his right hand, a slightly smaller ring with a black stone on his left, and a thick gold chain bearing a diamond hung around his neck. An ornate crown, gold with gems at each point, encircled his head and made him look very much a king. It was an excellent presentation, Alaric thought.
"Who have we here, then?" Levrellian asked when the guards finally brought Alaric and Dietz to a halt a few paces from the dais.
"These are the men brought from Tengey, my liege," one of the guards replied.
A pained look crossed the man's face, although it was gone in an instant. "I meant what are their names, you fool," he said, his voice little more than a hiss. Alaric's blood ran cold. Men generally came in two sorts. When angry they either turned to fire and passionate rage or to ice and calm malevolence. Levrellian was clearly the latter type, and in Alaric's experience they were the more dangerous.
"I don't know, my liege," the guard replied. "We didn't ask."
Again that pained look, although this time it left behind a glance of irritation. "Never mind," Levrellian told the guard. "Who are you, and what are you doing in my kingdom?" he demanded, turning his dark, shrewd eyes towards Alaric and Dietz.
"Alaric von Jungfreud, at your service, your majesty," Alaric slated grandly, bowing as best he could with his hands bound. "This is my associate, Dietrich Froebel." Dietz nodded. "As for our presence here, we are merely travellers, passing through."
"Indeed?" The prince smiled; a slow, unpleasant expression. "And which way did you enter our domain, Herr von Jungfreud?"
Alaric considered lying but decided against it. If Levrellian knew anything about their trip, lying about it would only make them look guilty of whatever he thought they had done. "We arrived from the Empire, your majesty," he answered, "by way of the Black Fire Pass. From there we travelled down along the Skull River until we reached its end and ferried across to Tengey. It was there your guards found us and escorted us here to your fair capital."
"Nicely put," Levrellian congratulated him, "but tell me, did you stop anywhere along the way? Say, in Akendorf?" The last word had the crack of a whip behind it, and the prince leaned forwards, his face eager. In his eyes Alaric saw the look he'd seen in his youth when one of his cousins, an avid hunter, had been about to spring a trap on some unsuspecting animal.
"I believe we did pass through a town of that name," Alaric replied as casually as he could. "It is difficult to keep all the names straight after a while."
"Oh, you would remember this one," Levrellian replied nastily. "After all, I'm sure it's not every town where you slaughter a dozen men, including the mayor's own heir!"
"Slaughtered a dozen? What!" Dietz had been silent until now, no surprise given his natural taciturnity and his tendency to let Alaric take the lead in conversation, but this proved too much for him. "More like defended an unarmed man against a pack of nine!"
"Ah, I see." The prince leaned back and stroked his chin, a smug smile on his face. "Obviously my cousin was mistaken when he sent me the details." Alaric's face must have given away his surprise, for Levrellian pounced on it. "Oh yes, didn't I mention? The mayor there, Rillian, is my kin, and so was the son you killed!" He leaned forwards again, the smile breaking into a grin. "That must be why he placed such an impressive price upon your heads."
A price? Alaric and Dietz exchanged a glance. That was something they had not counted upon. Weren't the petty kingdoms here supposed to be poor and autonomous, with each one hating its neighbours? But this was family, apparently.
While Alaric was thinking this, one of the guards stepped forwards and slammed a mailed fist into his stomach. Alaric doubled over from the pain, the breath escaping him in a loud gasp. Tears came to his eyes as he struggled to breathe. Through the thudding of his heart he could hear a groan close by and gathered from it that Dietz had received similar treatment.
"That was in case you felt like lying to me," Levrellian explained, his tone conversational but his eyes glittering. "I find it best to lay the ground rules beforehand. Now you know that dishonesty will bring you pain. So tell me," he continued, "what are two such dangerous criminals doing in my lands?"
Still gasping for breath Alaric opened his mouth. He meant to say again that they were only passing through, that they meant no harm, that the incident in Akendorf had been an unfortunate misunderstanding that had escalated beyond their control. But those were not the words that emerged. Instead what he heard escape his lips was "We're seeking an ancient Nehekharan tomb."
Dietz stared at him as if he had gone insane, and for an instant Alaric thought his friend might have a point.
If Levrellian was startled by this honest answer, he did not show it. Instead he laughed.
"Ah yes, the tombs," he said after a moment, still chuckling. "They litter the Border Princes, you know. Damn things are everywhere. You can barely walk around without tripping over a ruined this or that. Most of them were picked clean long ago. Pity, really. You've wasted your time... and your lives." He gestured again and once more the guards pummelled Alaric and Dietz, their mailed fists striking heavily against ribs, bellies, chests, shoulders, and heads.
Alaric withstood the assault as best he could but after the second blow his head was ringing, his vision blurred, and his side burning every time he took a breath.
"Wait," he gasped finally, twisting so the guard's latest blow glanced along his cheek rather than smashing his jaw. "Wait!"
"Yes?" Levrellian leaned forwards slightly, indicating that the guards should pause in their attack.
Alaric had intended to reason with the man, or make up a story about their importance or offer services in exchange for their freedom, anything really to keep the beating from being renewed. Instead he once again found his voice working without his consent or control. "I doubt this one has been ransacked," he said clearly. "It's hidden, and only I have the map."
A man emerged from the shadows behind the Border Prince's chair and stepped forwards to whisper in Levrellian's ear. He was tall and narrow, with long pale hair and piercing eyes, and was dressed in handsome dark clothing and fine leather gloves. Alaric had not noticed him before but something about the man made him uncomfortable.
Levrellian listened intently before glancing up again.
"Let us speak of this tomb," he said, turning a disarmingly friendly smile upon them, and gesturing to his guards. "Give my guests chairs at once," he commanded. "And bring me this map Herr von Jungfreud has mentioned."
Two gilded chairs were slid up behind them and Alaric and Dietz were pushed down into them, although Alaric noticed that no one bothered to untie their hands first. After a few moments a guard entered the room and handed the man in the black-bordered tunic Alaric's scroll case. He in turn handed the case to his prince. Levrellian removed the scroll and the accompanying document carefully and examined them closely, the tall man leaning in to study them as well.
"How did you come by these?" Levrellian asked, his friendly manner barely hiding the steel in his tone.
"A friend thought I might find them interesting," Alaric replied, pleased to discover his voice was once again his own. "Do they interest you?"
"Oh, indeed," Levrellian replied, matching Alaric's casual tone. "I've a powerful curiosity about such things. Have you deciphered this map?"
"Not yet," Alaric admitted after a moment. He had debated whether to lie. If he said he had learned the tomb's location, however, Levrellian might have him killed to make sure that only he had that information. It seemed safer to tell the truth. "I am working on it, though," he added.
Again the tall man and the prince had a whispered conversation, and Alaric's ears twitched trying to catch what they were saying. Whatever it was, the prince did not seem to agree with his advisor's suggestion. Alaric was not sure which of the two he hoped would win the debate, but he was certain his and Dietz's fate hung upon the outcome.
Finally Levrellian turned back towards them.
"It seems I have a dilemma," he admitted, leaning back in his chair and twirling the scroll case idly. "You killed my cousin, and his father---also a cousin---has appealed to me for aid in catching and punishing you. He has also offered a handsome reward. Thus, for reasons of both blood and money, I should kill you now." Guards appeared on either side of them, drawn blades in hand, and Alaric tried not to shrink back. If he were to die now, he would do so with dignity.
"You have brought me this very fine map, however," Levrellian continued, "and as Strykssen points out it may be worth more than the price on your head." Strykssen was evidently the tall man, who stood nodding behind his prince. "So what am I to do?"
It seemed like a genuine question and Alaric decided he didn't have much to lose by answering. "Let us go, your majesty," he suggested. "Let the map's value cancel out our debt." He hated the idea of losing the map, but if it was that or his life he'd gladly see the scrap of parchment gone.
"Hmm, yes, that was what Strykssen suggested as well," the prince admitted. For a moment he looked like a child denied its favourite toy. "Strange, really, normally he's the first to suggest a little torture or an execution." Behind him the gleam in his advisor's eyes told Alaric that the statement was true. This was a man who enjoyed bloodshed. His gaze flicked back to Levrellian even as the spoiled child was replaced once more by the cool monarch. "Fortunately, I've never much liked Rillian," the prince confided. "I practically handed him that town as a favour to our mutual aunt, and this is how he handles it? He deserves what he gets, and young Anders was a nasty piece of work, I doubt anyone else will miss him."
Levrellian stood and guards hauled Alaric and Dietz to their feet. "I am a reasonable man and a king, not a thief. I will not steal, even from criminals." Alaric doubted that was true but knew better than to say so. "I give you your lives in exchange for the map."
He beckoned to the man with the black border. "Take them back to their cell," he commanded.
Alaric gasped despite himself. "You just said you'd give us our lives!" he accused.
"Yes, and you won't be killed," the Border Prince snapped. "Now be gone before I change my mind!"
As the guards dragged them away Alaric heard the Border Prince saying to his advisor, "You really think the map is worth all this trouble?"
Alaric was certainly starting to wonder that himself.
\*
It was dark when Dietz regained consciousness. The guards had taken it upon themselves to beat him and Alaric upon their return to the cell, and that combined with their earlier treatment in the throne room had mercifully allowed Dietz to pass out. Now he slowly, carefully levered himself up from the floor and glanced around. His head was pounding, his vision blurred, his entire body alternately aching and throbbing, and each ragged breath caused sharp stabbing pains through his chest, but at least his limbs felt intact and he still had all his fingers and toes and most of his teeth.
The little cell was quiet, too quiet.
"Alaric?" Dietz whispered. No response. He tried again and this time got a soft groan. His eyes were adjusting to the darkness and finally he made out a huddled shape against the far wall. "Alaric?" The cell was small enough for him to cross it in only two steps, but the exertion had been enough for him to be glad for an excuse to drop to his knees.
The shape shifted as Dietz approached, and by peering closely he could see it was his friend. Alaric looked every bit as bad as Dietz felt and possibly worse.
"At least we're still alive," the younger man murmured. He tried to smile and winced instead.
Dietz left his friend and went to examine the cell door. It was solid and heavy, too thick for him to break even when he hadn't been beaten recently. Nor was there another way out of the room. He leaned his head against the door, trying to think, and heard a faint noise from the other side: a tiny scraping sound, accompanied by a soft, almost musical chirping.
"Glouste?"
The chirping increased in speed and volume until it became his pet's usual chattering. Then he heard a scrabbling, along with a metallic clinking, and a second later Glouste had slipped through the window bars and was wrapping herself ecstatically around his neck.
"Yes, yes, I missed you too," Dietz assured her, laughing as she nibbled his ear affectionately. He hadn't seen her since they'd entered the city and had been worrying about her. She'd managed to hide from the guards they'd travelled with, but was gone before he'd been searched. Apparently she'd followed them here, and she'd been busy since, judging from the key-ring she proudly dropped into his hands.
"Nice," he told her, scratching her between the ears while he fumbled with the keys. The fourth one opened their cell door.
"How did you---?" Alaric started to ask, sitting up at the sound of the hinges creaking. He laughed when he saw Glouste. "I might have known." The younger man managed to clamber to his feet unaided and only swayed a few times on the way to the door. "Best not to linger," he suggested, walking as quickly as he could down the hall. "There's no telling when the guards might return."
As it turned out, they needn't have worried. Upon rounding the corner Alaric almost tripped over one guard. The man was leaning back on a stool, his head and shoulders in the juncture of the walls, an empty tankard on the ground beside him, and he was snoring.
They found three more guards in a room nearby, sitting around a rough wooden table, also asleep.
"Strong ale," Dietz commented, glancing at the tankards in front of the men. He took the opportunity to search the room, which was clearly a guard station. "Aha!" he said quietly after opening a small chest in the corner. Their boots were in it along with their belt pouches, his club and his jacket and cap. The chest held several other articles of clothing, presumably from other prisoners, but he left those alone.
Dietz turned around, holding his prizes up for Alaric to see, and froze. His friend had his hands around a guard's waist and was carefully unfastening the man's belt.
"Got it!" Alaric said after a moment, lifting the belt triumphantly. It was his own and his rapier and dagger still hung from it. The guard had not moved during the process.
They quickly donned their boots, grateful for the footwear. The table held a wineskin, a water skin, a small piece of cheese, a loaf of bread, and a small cask. The cask was empty.
Dietz sniffed at it suspiciously, shrugged and shoved the rest of the provisions into a sack he found on the floor. "Strong stuff," he commented. Too strong to be mere ale, he thought, but he didn't say that out loud.
"Time to go," Alaric said, and Dietz agreed. They saw one more guard, stationed at the front door, also out cold, and Alaric reclaimed his jacket from the man. Then they were outside and moving hastily towards the front gates.
"How are we going to get through that?" Alaric asked as they approached. Six guards were visible around it and several more probably lurked nearby.
"Confidence," Dietz told him. "Walk like you have a right to leave." Trying to ignore his injuries he stretched and consciously adopted his usual loose stride, walking towards the gate as if he hadn't a care in the world. He saw Alaric beside him after a moment, the nobleman reclaiming his customary posture and pace as well. Together they approached the gate.
"Halt!" One of the guards stepped forwards, holding his spear before him, and Dietz stopped obediently just beyond its tip. "Where are you going?"
"Tengey," Dietz replied. "We have business with a wine merchant there."
Alaric nodded and managed to look impatient, annoyed, and superior, all at the same time.
The guard studied them for a moment. He started to ask a second question when a second guard came running up. "Fire!" the new arrival shouted. "The jailhouse is on fire!"
As one, the guards ran towards the jailhouse, leaving Dietz and Alaric alone by the gate. They didn't waste time running through it as fast as they could.
"Did you---?" Alaric asked as they limped away from the city walls.
Dietz shook his head. "Did you?" But he knew the answer before his friend denied it. They hadn't started any fire.
So who had?
"It could be worse," Alaric pointed out. They had been walking for perhaps an hour, skirting the road when possible. It made for easier walking but also left them open to pursuit. Unfortunately they were in no shape to trek through the wilder parts of the forest.
"No crossbows," Dietz pointed out sourly.
"At least we have our other weapons back," Alaric pointed out. He understood his friend's concern, though. Without those crossbows hunting---not to mention defending themselves---would be a lot more difficult. He knew Dietz particularly regretted the loss of Fastred's crossbow, both for its usefulness and for sentimental reasons.
"I guess you were right about the mask," Alaric admitted, wincing as he stretched. "If I'd brought it Levrellian would have it now."
"As it is, he's got the map," Dietz pointed out. He glanced at Alaric in what might have been meant as a glare but was too pained to be more than a look. "Why did you tell him about that?"
"I don't know," Alaric admitted. "I did not intend to. The words emerged without my control." It had been a terrible feeling, those words bubbling up from somewhere deep within, his lips and tongue forming sounds his brain fought desperately to block.
"Didn't know what you were saying," Dietz commented, misunderstanding.
"No, I knew," Alaric replied, feeling a bit testy after their recent encounter. "I just couldn't stop it."
"Well," Dietz said, "that's it then. We can't find this place without a map."
Alaric studied his friend. "I thought you weren't keen on finding it to begin with."
"I wasn't," Dietz agreed, "but now I am." He grinned, wincing as the smile tugged at his split lip and swollen jaw. "Imagine Levrellian's face if we get there first."
"That would be worth it," Alaric agreed.
"But he's got the map," Dietz said, "and that's the only way to find the tomb."
"True," Alaric said. Then he grinned, which caused a pained grimace of his own. "But I still have most of it," he added, enjoying the look of surprise on his friend's face. "Up here." He tapped his forehead, wincing as his finger touched a sore spot.
"You memorised the map?"
"It wasn't all that complicated," Alaric admitted, starting to shrug and thinking better of it. "The map didn't have much detail, and I have been staring at it for the past month or more."
"You can redraw it, then?"
"I can, although I'm not sure that's a good idea." At Dietz's puzzled look Alaric explained. "If I draw a new copy it just means someone else could steal it."
"If you draw it, I can see it," Dietz replied with a tone that suggested he was being daft. It was a tone he heard all too often.
This time, however, it seemed justified. It hadn't occurred to him that Dietz would want to see the map as well, and it did make more sense for both of them to have some idea where they were going.
"I'll redraw it when we stop to rest," he assured his lanky friend. No one seemed to be pursuing them, but he knew they'd still both feel better with more distance between them and Zenres.
By that night the city was further behind them, although the distance they had covered was pitiful compared to what they could travel on horseback, or even walking when in good health. It would have to do, however. Alaric felt as if his legs were going to turn to dust beneath him, and he was drenched in sweat despite the fact that his mouth felt as dry as a desert under a hot sun.
They chose a campsite less by scouting than by simply collapsing at the first available spot. It wasn't as if they had much to set up camp with anyway. True, Dietz had flint and tinder in his pouch, and after a few minutes to catch his breath he assembled a small fire for some much-desired warmth, but they had no blankets, no bedrolls, no cook-ware, and nothing to cook on it if they had. It was going to be a long, cold night, followed by several more just like it.
After eating the piece of cheese and the loaf of bread---there was no point rationing it when it would already be barely enough to keep them going tomorrow---Alaric pulled a quill, a small vial of ink, and a blank scrap of parchment from his belt pouch. Apparently the guards had not been impressed with Alaric's gear because they had shoved it all back into the pouch and left it there.
Meanwhile Dietz was thinking again about their recent escape, and about how easy it had been.
"Too easy," he said aloud as Alaric drew.
"What's that?"
"Our escape was too easy," Dietz repeated. "Why?"
"Just luck, working in our favour for once," Alaric suggested, still focused on the map he was making from memory.
"That was more than luck," Dietz countered. "Somebody drugged the guards and then set fire to the jailhouse to cover our escape. Why? Who would want to help us?"
"Perhaps that guard captain took pity on us. He seemed a decent sort," Alaric suggested.
"Not that decent," Dietz argued, "and it wouldn't be worth the risk for him." He shuddered as he remembered the tall man behind the throne, Strykssen, and his obvious enthusiasm when Levrellian had mentioned the torture. He could only imagine what they did to traitors. "Why would it be worth the risk for anyone?"
"I don't know," Alaric admitted. He set down his quill and looked up. "What matters is that someone did decide to take the risk, and thanks to them we're free again. It could have been far worse."
Dietz couldn't argue with that, but he still couldn't shake the feeling there was more to it than mere generosity. Someone had helped them escape for a reason. The question was why?
"There!" Alaric scratched one final mark with his quill, and then carefully wiped the tip clean and returned it to his belt pouch, along with the stoppered vial. Dietz stepped over to inspect the piece of parchment over the younger man's shoulder.
Alaric had indeed redrawn the map. A few of the marks were missing, perhaps, and some of the lines seemed... different, somehow.
"Are you sure those are right?" Dietz asked, gesturing towards a handful of long, wavy lines that intersected one another at various points. "I don't remember those from the original."
Alaric frowned. "I'm sure they were there," he insisted. "I can still picture it clearly."
Dietz shrugged. He would have said the lines were something new, but Alaric did have an impressive memory for maps and history, and he was the one who had been staring at the thing all those nights. Perhaps those marks had simply been too faint to notice on casual inspection and Alaric had drawn them in darker because he had found them on the original and so remembered them clearly.
"What are they?" he asked after a minute.
"Roads, I think," Alaric replied, "trails of some sort." He brightened. "They may be paths that lead to the tomb!"
"We still have no idea where it is," Dietz couldn't help but point out as they both studied the parchment together.
"I know," Alaric said, "but at least we have this as a guide again." He rolled the parchment up carefully and stuck it inside his jacket for safekeeping. "If nothing else, we hold to our original plan---head towards the Blood River and hope something along the way strikes a chord."
"Find the nearest town and buy fresh supplies," Dietz suggested, stretching out on a patch of ground with more grass and fewer twigs and rocks. He considered taking off his jacket and bundling it behind his head, but the fire he'd built was small and the nights were chilly. He was better off wearing the garment than sleeping on it.
"Definitely," Alaric agreed, also bedding down as best he could. "Horses, blankets, bedrolls, and we'll be as good as before."
"You still have money?" Dietz asked. He was surprised that the guards had left that as well.
"Not as such, no," Alaric admitted. "They took my coin, but I do still have this." He held up something small and round that gleamed in the firelight, and after a second Dietz recognised it. It was the ring Alaric had taken from that fallen wolf rider. "It was buried in my pouch, beneath the ink."
"Good thing," Dietz said, settling down and closing his eyes. Glouste took the opportunity to move around to the front, curling up across his chest and neck like a massive red-brown beard. "Don't think we'd get much for that sack, or our boots."
"Oh, I have great faith in your bargaining ability, my friend," Alaric replied sleepily. "You could get us two horses for one old sock if you had to."
Dietz spared himself the need to reply by falling asleep.
It was four more days before they reached any sort of settlement, and that was only a sturdy farmstead nestling among its fields. Many of their bruises had faded to a dull purple, and walking only brought aches rather than sharp pains. Breathing was still a chore and both men had to be careful not to draw breath too quickly or too deeply, but they were getting better. Dietz had rigged snares with bootlaces and twigs and caught them a brace of hares the second night, which had gone a long way to making them both feel considerably better. Even so it was morning when they spotted the farmstead and almost dusk before they reached it.
Alaric told the suspicious farmers they had been waylaid and robbed. Their bruises and lack of any belongings supported the story, and the farmer let them stay the night in his barn. He gave them directions and a few crusts to eat, and a loaf of bread and rind of cheese in a sack the next morning. Alaric and Dietz left quickly, determined not to outstay their tentative welcome.
Three days later they reached what the farmer had assured them was the Howling River. Their bruises had faded considerably, and if people did not look too closely the discoloration would not be noticed. They were also moving more smoothly, the pains in the limbs fading to aches and the aches to memories. The food from the farm was gone but it had done its work well and Alaric felt almost fully recovered.
Of course, none of that helped with the problem of finding the tomb.
"It's no use!" Alaric shouted one night, tossing the parchment from him. It fluttered, caught by a light breeze, and wafted towards their fire---only Dietz's quick dive saved it from incineration. "I've no idea where we're going!" Alaric continued petulantly, although he was relieved his little tantrum had not cost them this second map.
"Blood River," Dietz replied, handing the parchment back to him.
"Yes, yes," Alaric said testily, "but what then?" He held the map up so Dietz could see it as well. "The river is here," he said, jabbing at the map with one finger, "and the tomb is here," another jab. "But what does that mean? We have no sense of scale here. The blasted thing could be right beside the water or halfway across the Dark Lands!"
"We'll find it," Dietz assured him calmly. "Something will turn up."
When they reached the Howling River, however, they had another problem.
"I don't know where we are," Alaric admitted glumly. "This has to be the Howling River---it's too big to be a stream, too small to be the Blood River, and the few scraps I've read about this region mention that high-pitched hiss you're hearing, the one that gives the river its name."
Dietz nodded. "So you do know where we are."
"I know we're by the river," Alaric corrected. "It's not a short span, though---this river runs from just above the Blood River all the way up into the World's Edge Mountains---or down, I should say, since that's upstream from here." He squinted towards the east, where the mountain peaks were clearly visible on the horizon. "I've no idea where we are along that length."
Alaric pulled out his journal---it had still been in his jacket when he had reclaimed it from the guard---and flipped it to a page that held a rough map. "You see, this is the area." He showed Dietz a line that ran almost straight down the page until it intersected another and stopped. "That is the River Starnak," he explained. "This one," he said, pointing to another line that intersected the first two-thirds of the way down on the right side, "is the Skull River. That's what we followed. Here, where they meet, is Tengey, and over here," he pointed to a spot farther up along the Skull River's south side, "is Zenres. This," he indicated a line that branched out as it rose to the right, "is the Howling River. We could be anywhere along here."
Dietz studied the map for a moment and shook his head. "No sign of the Starnak," he pointed out, indicating the land to their west. "So we're not that close to it. We haven't crossed any water, so we're still above the top branch." He glanced towards the mountains. "Not that close, either. We're somewhere in here." He indicated the middle of the Howling River's northernmost branch.
"Yes, you're probably right," Alaric agreed, staring at the lines. Once again he marvelled at how his friend could make sense of things so quickly. "We must have walked south from Zenres, which puts us about here." He looked up and grinned. "Well then, now I know where we are." Dietz chuckled, as Alaric had hoped he would. This trip had hardly been a laughing matter thus far.
"So we follow it west?" Dietz asked as they stood and gathered their gear again---they'd paused to eat lunch while they discussed their options.
"Yes, west," Alaric said. "If we follow the Howling River it will take us to the Starnak, which flows right to Blood River." He frowned, "Of course, at some point we will need to go east, since we know the tomb is east of Blood River. The question is when to start turning."
Dietz had already started walking west but he stopped and came back, stifling a groan. "So we go east?"
"Perhaps we should," Alaric said absently, taking the map out again. He glanced down at it, and Dietz took a step closer, staring at it upside-down. After a minute he reached out and took the map from Alaric, who protested until Dietz turned it around and handed it back to him.
"They're not roads," the older man said, indicating the thin lines between the river and the tomb. "They're rivers."
"What?" Alaric stared down at them, and then stared again. "Oh. Oh!" He pulled out his journal again and hurriedly flipped back to the region map he'd sketched there. Then he compared the two. "You're right!" he all but shouted. "They're rivers! How did you know?"
Dietz shrugged. "Saw it differently this way," was all he answered.
But Alaric could see why. The lines weren't complete, which was why he hadn't realised their nature before. They looked like paths, or hills, or even just arrows pointing towards something, but upside down it was clearer that they converged into a single line. Once he turned it right side-up again, he could see that they were really four small rivers merging into a single larger one: the Howling River.
"We're here!" he shouted happily, stabbing his finger at a spot on the parchment. "That's the Blood River, that's where the Howling River branches, and this is where we are! And this," he traced the line with his finger, following it up until it branched again and then following the lower branch, "will lead us almost directly to the tomb!"
"So we go east," Dietz confirmed. He sounded more relieved to have a chosen direction than to know the location of the tomb, but Alaric knew his friend was also pleased he'd been able to figure out the map. Dietz just didn't like to show it.
Of course, it probably didn't help Dietz's mood that the tomb almost had to be in the World's Edge Mountains. If the map was right it was past the river, which ended at the mountain's feet, and Dietz didn't much care for heights.
"Oh, cheer up," Alaric told him as they walked. "At least it's better than crawling through dank caves or musty tunnels."
"Speak for yourself," Dietz said. "You can't fall to your death in a tunnel."
It took them three more days to reach the place where the Howling River branched again. A small fishing village sat there, and they traded the ring Alaric carried for more food, two backpacks, a second coil of rope, a small pot, a pair of short, hook-backed hammers and a sturdy lantern. The ring was worth considerably more than that but it was a matter of what the fishermen had to trade. They could have traded for a boat or a donkey but they needed to head upstream and, without knowing how they would get up the mountain, the donkey might not have been able to follow them.
The sale of the ring also got them a ride across the river, this time in a fast, narrow boat owned by a man who claimed he made a living diving in the river for pearls, shellfish and sunken treasure. The boat swayed dangerously and leaked more than a little but it carried them swiftly across the currents. An hour later they were clambering out of it and onto the river's south bank. The boatman backed his boat away without a word and spun it around, letting the current carry it away quickly. Dietz watched the man go, shuddering, and then turned deliberately away, shouldered his new pack, and started walking. Alaric was right beside him. The mountains were close, their peaks looming high above, and Dietz felt slightly dizzy tilting his head back to study them.
"Are you sure we need to go up?" he asked for the third time. "Tombs are usually down."
"The tomb itself will be underground," Alaric agreed cheerfully, "but the entrance is up there." He grinned, clearly enjoying Dietz's discomfort. "Come on."
"Fine," Dietz grumbled, clambering up onto the rocks behind Alaric, "but if I fall you get to haul your own treasure back."
The first day wasn't so bad, actually. They were in the foothills still, and though rugged they were no worse than the hills back home. Dietz kept from looking back, knowing if he saw the land and the river far below he'd regret it, and focused on the path ahead, picking his way among loose stone, clumps of dirt and scraggly bushes.
That night, as they rested, Alaric pulled out the map again. Dietz was cooking one of the fish they'd traded for and after pulling it from the fire he glanced over to see Alaric drawing something onto the parchment. The younger man seemed almost asleep, his eyes half-closed and not even looking at his hands.
"What are you doing?" Dietz demanded, and Alaric glanced up, startled.
"What?"
"You're ruining the map!" Dietz accused stepping over to see what his friend and employer had done.
"No I'm not," Alaric protested. Then he noticed the quill, and started. "I... I was dreaming," he said quietly. "I saw the river, and the mountains, and the path, all just like they are on the map."
"What path?" Dietz didn't remember anything like that.
Alaric frowned. "This one," he answered, pointing to a line Dietz hadn't noticed before. It started just below where the Howling River branched, apparently in the same foothills they occupied. It wound its way through the foothills and up into the mountains proper, and stopped just shy of the tomb itself.
"That wasn't there before," Dietz said. He was sure of it.
"Really?" Alaric studied the map again. "It must have been," he replied finally. "I was just dreaming about it, wasn't I? And this is exactly how it looked in my dreams." His frown deepened. "Although I don't remember seeing it here last night," he admitted.
Dietz felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck. That line hadn't been there before and now it was. Had Alaric just drawn it? Was it real, or just something he had dreamed up?
Still, if it helped them find the tomb...
"Perhaps it was on the original map," Alaric suggested, "and I forgot it until now. Yes, that must be it," he decided. "It must have been faint on the other map and that's why I didn't redraw it right away, but I knew it was there, and finally I remembered it well enough in my dreams to draw it again."
"Maybe," he said. It did sound plausible, but Dietz wasn't convinced.
"Well, there's only one way to be sure," Alaric told him. "Tomorrow we'll look for this path. If it does exist, it must have been there."
Dietz wasn't sure that made sense, but he was too tired to argue and it rarely did any good anyway. So he gave up and went to sleep.
Sure enough the next morning they headed slightly south, deliberately distancing themselves from the river to approximate the path's position on the map. And after a few hours Dietz literally stumbled onto a narrow trail that stretched up into the hills.
"That's it!" Alaric exclaimed when he caught up to Dietz a moment later. "You found the path!" Dietz couldn't argue. It was clearly a path, narrow and worn away and only visible if you were looking, but definitely someone or something had once worn a channel through these hills, and it was too close to the position on the map for it to be a coincidence.
They followed the path into the hills and Dietz had to admit it was much easier than climbing. The path did turn steep at times, and often it wound up and around like a corkscrew, but it never got so steep that they needed the climbing hammers they'd bartered in the village. They could have brought a donkey through here, in fact, and Dietz regretted not getting one, but of course he hadn't known that at the time.
After two days they had left the hills behind and were in the mountains proper. The World's Edge Mountains were hard granite and everything around them was cold grey and black stone, most of it sharp-edged enough to cut flesh. The path was actually easier to follow here. In the hills it had been worn away and obscured by rocks and dirt, but here it was a clear channel cut through the rock. Dietz even found he didn't mind the altitude that much, since the path stayed well below the peaks, leaving sturdy cliffs on either side to block the vision of just how high up they really were. The air was crisp and clean, sharp enough to burn slightly on a deep breath, and sound travelled easily through each valley, but was quickly dampened beyond, while the clear sky, strong sun and thin cool air combined to let the eyes see for miles.
It was exhilarating and Dietz wondered why he'd ever griped about climbing mountains. Alaric clearly felt the same way and each day he grew even more confident about their route, moving quickly among the rocks, climbing onto small ledges and cliffs to survey the valleys ahead and chart their course. He was adding detail to the map as they went, changing it from a vague indicator to a clearly defined route, and each day brought them closer to the spot marked as the tomb's location. Dietz marvelled more than once at how his friend had acquired an uncanny sense of direction, for he seemed to know instinctively which direction the map would lead them in next.
For three days, as they climbed through the mountains, they did not see another living soul beyond a few birds of prey overhead and the occasional mouse or lizard. They had run out of fresh fish and meat and were down to the salted goods, supplemented by mushrooms they dug from cracks in the surrounding rocks.
Then one morning they came across a shallow valley. Its narrow floor was strewn with debris, small rocks and jagged stone and dirt. Alaric led the way without concern and Dietz followed but caught his foot against something and stumbled. Looking down he saw a glint that could only be metal.
Curious, Dietz knelt to examine it more closely. It was rusted, whatever it was, and had the jagged edge that indicated a break. Only a sliver of it was visible but it looked no wider than his finger and roughly as long.
"What is it?" Alaric asked, turning back towards him.
"I don't know," Dietz replied, studying the small piece again. Then he froze for an instant before slowly, carefully rising to his feet and backing away.
"What's wrong?" Alaric asked, but Dietz motioned him to be quiet. Glouste sensed her master's unease and craned her neck from her usual perch, her nose quivering with curiosity but her tail vibrating slightly from anxiety.
"It's moving," he answered when he was beside his friend, one hand on his club. More of the metal had been exposed when he'd looked a second time, as if it were shifting forwards, out of the ground.
"That's---" Whatever Alaric had meant to say was lost as they both froze, listening. There it was again: a scratching noise, like Grouse's claws on rock but louder, deeper, and repeated, again and again.
As they watched, unable to move, the ground shifted in front of them. It continued to move in several patches, the dirt and rock shoved aside as objects began to rise from the earth. Dietz saw that the metal he'd first noticed was a sword, a broken, rusty sword, as its shattered blade pierced the earth and then rose into the air.
Nor was it alone, because clutching it, raising it, was a skeletal hand, still caked with dirt, ragged bits of what might be flesh still clinging to the yellowed bone.
A second hand appeared beside it, empty, its finger-bones digging into the ground just beyond. Then a dull yellow globe rose between the two. After a second he saw two dark gaps beneath the upper dome. The smoky red light deep within those sockets confirmed what he had already realised and somewhere deep inside he wanted to curl up and hide.
The objects rising from the ground were not objects but people. Or at least they had been.
Now they were the undead, and according to legends all undead hated the living.
Dietz had a feeling he was about to find out if that was true.
"Sigmar's Beard!" Alaric cried out when he saw the first skeleton pull itself out of the ground, an unfamiliar breastplate over its decayed torso and a few tatters of yellow cloth clinging to its ancient, yellowed bones. His heart was pounding and his breath came in short gasps as he stared at the walking bones. He wanted to cower, to run and hide, to curl up somewhere small and dark and pray that the long-dead warriors did not come for him, but somehow he knew that running was not an option. These creatures would never tire, never stumble and never lose focus. Once they began to pursue him they would chase him forever.
The only way to deal with them was to destroy them.
The first skeleton was making straight for Dietz, who stood frozen as it approached, knife still in his hand. Four more had emerged behind the first, and Alaric slipped around a boulder to get a clear line on the rearmost. "Sigmar preserve us," he prayed as he moved, hoping against hope that the god might be listening for once. He ran forwards, deciding speed was more important than caution, and stabbed, a clean lunge that took his rapier's point through the warrior's chest and out the other side, sliding neatly between two ribs.
"Damn!" Of course the sword would be useless, he thought, cursing his own stupidity. These creatures had no flesh to pierce and no blood to let, and his rapier was useless for hacking. He needed something heavier, something more like---
The straps of his new pack cut into his shoulders as he turned, and he glanced up to see the handle of the hammer he had bartered for in the village. Perfect!
Alaric tugged the hammer free. "Dietz, here!" he shouted, and lobbed it at the older man.
Fortunately Dietz's reflexes kicked in. He looked up at the sound of his name, caught the hammer instinctively, and used its thick wooden handle to block the sword the lead skeleton swung at him. Then he knocked the blade aside and used the heavy iron hammer to bash in the creature's face. It staggered back and he swung again, this time at its neck. Alaric could hear the crunch of bone giving way and the skeleton's head tumbled from its body, which collapsed in a heap at Dietz's feet. His friend's lips were moving and Alaric thought he saw the name "Ulric" on them. Of course his friend would be praying to the Winter Wolf, guardian of Middenheim and its people, and here, in these cold grey mountains, Ulric might even pay attention.
He was distracted from watching further when the skeleton he had stabbed before attacked him in turn. Alaric barely managed to sidestep the undead creature's mace, idly noting the fine workmanship as he did. Unfortunately he had given his hammer to Dietz, leaving him nothing but the rapier that he had already demonstrated was useless against these creatures.
His friend had come to the same conclusion. "Alaric, catch!" He glanced up in time to see the hammer flying towards him even as Dietz pulled the second from his own pack. Alaric fumbled at the hammer and barely caught it. Then he staggered back from the skeleton's second attack while he shifted the weapon into a proper grip. He swung with it but the hammer was very different from his rapier and he misjudged the balance, missing the creature by a narrow margin. It swung again, a clumsy enough blow that Alaric easily dodged, and this time his own return strike was better aimed, connecting with the skeleton's upper left arm. The limb shattered and the lower portion fell to the ground and lay still.
It had been clutching the mace with both hands and the loss of one, which lingered on the grip a moment before dropping free, unbalanced it. Alaric took advantage and struck again, this time collapsing the creature's chest. He almost lost his weapon to the tangle of bones and had to wrench it free, taking a weak blow from the mace as punishment. Then he attacked its right arm and destroyed that limb as well, leaving the skeleton unarmed both literally and figuratively. That allowed Alaric to take careful aim and demolish its neck, leaving nothing but a scattered pile of bones on the ground.
Glancing back over at Dietz, he saw his friend was more than holding his own. Dietz had his knife in one hand and the hammer in the other, and was using the blade to fend off skeletal attacks while the hammer made short work of limbs, necks, and even heads. One of Dietz's preferred weapons was the axe and this hammer was similar in shape and heft so he was proving very proficient in its use. In the time it took Alaric to destroy a second skeleton, Dietz had put down two more, until at last the two men faced each other over a mound of bones, weapons and armour.
"What in Ulric's name---" Dietz started. Alaric simply shook his head, letting his hammer drop to the ground now that the attack was apparently over.
"I have no idea," he admitted, sinking down onto a nearby boulder. He was having trouble getting his mind to focus on what had happened. Pull yourself together, he told himself roughly. You've faced a daemon, for Sigmar's sake! This should be nothing to you!
But daemons were not of this world. These creatures had been. They had been human, once, and somehow that made it worse.
Finally he realised that Dietz was still standing, staring at nothing, and roused himself enough to reply further. "I've heard stories of the walking dead but I've never seen such things myself, not until now." He glanced over at the remains. "I know one thing, though."
"What's that?"
"These are not recent bodies." Alaric stepped over to the first skeleton he'd destroyed and crouched beside it, forcing his mind to focus on the immediate details and thus force back the horror of their recent experience. "See this?" He pointed to a ring around one finger, the band blackened by age. Shapes were visible beneath the tarnish, geometric forms representing stylised suns, moons, and animals. "That sun, the way it's carved, that is Nehekharan." He glanced up and grinned. "I'd say we're close indeed, close enough for someone to send out a welcoming party."
"It's a tomb," Dietz growled at him, kicking the pile of bones out of his way. "They're all supposed to be dead!"
"They are," Alaric pointed out. "They're just still moving." The idea horrified him too, of course, as did the fact they had just fought several men who were literally nothing but animated bones. But they had been easy enough to defeat once he and Dietz had recovered from their initial fear, and the fact that they were near their goal was exciting enough for him to overcome the terror lurking just below his skin.
"You're saying there may be more?" Dietz asked, his voice huskier than usual, and Alaric shuddered, suddenly imagining a small army of walking corpses waiting for them deep underground. He forced himself to consider the problem from an academic perspective.
"The Nehekharans buried their kings with servants and warriors," he explained, calling up the memory of those old lectures at the university. "That way, the king would still have warriors to protect him and servants to wait on him in the next life, thus demonstrating his importance. This king will likely have a sizeable retinue. So yes, if some dark magic awakened these skeletons from the tomb, it may have awakened all the bodies there. We could be facing dozens, scores, even hundreds more like these."
"We can't fight that many," Dietz pointed out.
"We don't have to," Alaric replied. He managed a weak smile. "All we have to do is get in and get out. I've heard how these tombs are traditionally built, all narrow corridors and winding paths. We shouldn't have to face more than a handful at a time. We did that here and took care of them easily enough."
That made Dietz pause and consider the combat they'd just survived. "They're clumsy," he said finally, "and slow, all except that one." He pointed at the first body, the one that had led the charge. Alaric had barely noticed details at the time, but now he saw the breastplate, the sword, and the other accoutrements. In an instant he was kneeling by the remains and eagerly examining the items.
"This must have been magnificent!" he said, lifting the breastplate free to study it in the light. "Look at the workmanship! The detailing!" He poured a little water on the armour and used a sleeve to wipe some of the dirt away, revealing the markings beneath, and traced a flattened oblong shape set into the piece's upper corner, upon the left shoulder. "This would have been a cartouche, a word-box, a signpost. It probably tells the owner's name, and this one," he indicated a similar box on the other shoulder, "most likely tells his rank and perhaps any military decorations he had received." He studied the gem set just below the centre of the breastplate's ringed collar. It was a glossy black stone, onyx perhaps, and carved in the form of a winged beetle. "A black scarab," he whispered, more to himself than to Dietz. He thought back, trying to remember if he'd heard anything about such a symbol. "Scarabs are for protection," he said out loud, remembering, "powerful figures granting strength, defence, wisdom, magic, a whole host of attributes, but a black one suggests death, protective death? Killing others to spare you?"
Alaric set aside the breastplate for the moment to pick up the helm, a matching piece inscribed with runes and Nehekharan hieroglyphs. Another black scarab was placed just above the nose. Bracers and greaves completed the set, all encrusted with centuries of dirt and rust but still showing hints of their former glory.
The creature's sword was also amazing. It was longer than most blades Alaric had seen and as wide as a longsword but thicker, with a small round guard, a circular pommel and a blade that curved like a question mark. The sword was bronze and rusty but still serviceable, although the guard and pommel were covered in grimy but otherwise intact gold and the handle was wrapped in treated leather that had long since turned black and brittle. The sword's tip hooked back slightly, forming a nasty barb.
"Strange shape," Alaric mused, hefting it experimentally. "I've seen a few Nehekharan reliefs and the warriors were holding something that looked almost like a flattened sickle. I wonder if this is what the artists meant. It seems it would be good for both chopping and slashing." He set it aside. If they did encounter more skeletons he might do better with that blade than with the hammer.
Each of the skeletons had jewellery, they discovered upon checking. Most had simple rings and bracelets and necklaces, tin and bronze with stones they recognised as only moderately valuable. The first skeleton had items of silver and even gold, and the gems on his jewellery seemed more valuable, amethysts and citrines instead of agates and marbles. Most of the items were rusted or corroded or tarnished and some of the gems had cracked from time and exposure.
"This one was definitely a warrior," Alaric finally confirmed, indicating the first skeleton. "These others were servants, not soldiers. That's why they were weaker, slower. One real soldier and a handful of servants sent to pretend."
"Great, skeletal hierarchies," Dietz muttered just loud enough to be heard, and Alaric laughed.
"It's a good sign for us," he pointed out. "If they had enough warriors to send a full patrol of them, why not do so? This suggests whoever commands them has only limited troops. He's padding his army with servants to make his forces look bigger."
Then he hauled himself to his feet.
"Well, we're close now," he announced, clapping his hands together. "I doubt those things range far from home, especially on a lovely morning like this. Most likely they patrol right around the tomb to keep away any unwanted visitors."
Alaric glanced over at Dietz, who nodded and scooped up their packs. They took a moment adjusting their gear again, and then Alaric picked up the skeletal warrior's sword and turned to his friend. "Well?" he asked with a grin, "What are we waiting for?"
The next valley over was empty, a mere cleft in the surrounding cliffs, but the one past that was larger and rounded, circular save for a bulge to the west. The path wound down into the valley, and Dietz was surprised to see sand below, pale sand that belonged in a desert or on a beach, not here in these grey mountains.
That wasn't the only surprising sight.
Alaric ignored everything else, of course.
"Look there!" he shouted, pointing. "The way that side bulges then flattens in front. That must be the entrance! Look, those are columns on either side!" All Dietz saw were ridges in the cliff face, but he knew his young friend's eyes were sharp and also trained to notice such details. Besides, he'd been distracted.
Instead of studying the rock walls, as Alaric had, Dietz had focused on the people.
He saw five of them. They were clustered in the valley centre, one of them kneeling while the others stood arrayed in a half-circle. From here Dietz thought they looked like flesh and blood rather than skeletons. Certainly their clothing and armour was more familiar than the antiques the undead warrior had worn.
That didn't mean they were friendly though.
"Careful," he cautioned as Alaric started down the path as fast as possible. "We don't know them."
"Hmm?" Typically the nobleman had been so fixated on finding the tomb he had barely noticed the strangers. "Oh, right." He slowed his descent slightly and turned the rusty bronze sword so its blade was low and in front as he reached the valley floor. Dietz was right behind him. He'd taken a heavy mace from the remains. Its engraved brass was rusty but still good and solid in his grip, and he kept it at his side, ready to use it if necessary.
The people below had seen them approaching, of course---Dietz was sure they'd been nicely silhouetted against the sun as they'd topped the rise and started down---and clustered together, one man stepping forwards slightly. Dietz could see the man was around his own age, perhaps forty, with thinning hair fading from black to grey at the temples and a short beard covering a weak chin. The man wore leathers and carried a short sword and a hand axe, the sword in his hand but the axe still hanging at his belt. Behind him stood three other men, one of them big and burly, one slight and stooped, and the third of average height and wiry. A dwarf stood there as well, hefting an impressive pickaxe in his massive hands. The figure on its knees proved to be a woman, judging from the long red hair.
"State your name and business, friend," the first man called out while still several paces away, raising his sword slightly to indicate they should stop where they were.
"Alaric von Jungfreud," Alaric replied, sweeping into a bow, "and my associate, Dietz Froebel, and yourselves?"
"That's yer names," the dwarf rumbled, glaring at them under his heavy brows. "What o'yer business?"
"We seek knowledge and occasionally fortune," Alaric replied easily. He glanced at the leader again, "And your names, good sir?"
The man hesitated, and then nodded, apparently swayed by Alaric's friendly smile and good manners. "Aye, fair enough," he said. "I am Woldred, Woldred Adelof. These are Goran, Ehrl and Johann." He indicated the burly man, the stooped one, and the wiry one in turn. "That is---"
"Thorgrek Bellison," the dwarf interrupted, "of the Thunderstone clan from beneath the Black Mountains." He glowered as if daring them to contradict him. Alaric merely bowed again.
"And the lady?" he inquired politely.
"That is Therese," Woldred replied with a smile. "She'd greet you herself but she's busy."
"So I see," Alaric said. Dietz could hear the woman chanting something and noticed a small bundle of some sort spread out before her. Was she a priestess? Or a witch? It was hard to say from here, although her clothing seemed too normal and too patched for a religious figure. In the Empire, of course, only those trained by the Colleges were allowed to practise magic, but Dietz had heard stories that the Border Princes were less controlled and that random people practised hedge magic and other strangeness. Was this woman one of them?
"We were here first," Thorgrek growled, raising his pickaxe so its long point caught the afternoon light. "Whatever lies within is ours!"
"Now, let us not be so hasty, good sir," Alaric replied calmly. "We all stand here together, and there is nought to be lost by a little polite conversation."
The big man, Goran, stepped forwards. He was Dietz's height but considerably broader and his bulk looked to be all muscle. He moved easily despite the mail shirt and leather jack he wore, and carried a longsword in one hand and a shield upon the other arm, although the handle and pommel of a larger blade poked up from behind one shoulder. His blond hair was cut short and his features were not unpleasant, even though they were set in a fierce scowl.
"You want I should run 'em off?" he asked Woldred, raising his sword so they could not mistake his meaning.
Woldred, clearly the leader, considered for a moment. "We do have the prior claim," he pointed out to Alaric casually.
"Perhaps," Alaric agreed. "You certainly arrived first, but we have been seeking this tomb---if it is the one we seek---for months. Surely that counts for something."
"Intent is not sufficient," said the stooped man, Ehrl. He had narrow features and lank brown hair. "Possession alone is important."
"Yet you have not entered," Alaric replied. "So you do not possess it yet. No one does. We stand before the entrance, all together. Does that not make us all equal owners in whatever lies within?"
"You only stopped because you saw us here," Oran said, his hand tightening on the sword grip.
"Not so," Alaric replied. "We have been seeking this very place." He pulled out his map and held it up long enough for them to notice a few details, and then tucked it away again. "So as you can see, we already possessed this valley and its contents because we held the map to guide us here."
"A map is not a place," Woldred replied, although he seemed almost amused by Alaric's argument.
"It details the place and defines it," Alaric argued. "By holding the map I hold the details, and what is a place but its details? Therefore I own the place as well."
Dietz stood back and kept quiet, admiring yet again his employer's quick mind. Alaric could be a scatter-brained young man at times, but when he wanted something he was as sharp as any merchant or trader Dietz had met, and his good manners hid a keen eye and a clever wit.
"A pretty argument," Woldred admitted, "but it means little. We are already here and we outnumber you. We could kill you or run you off easily." He was kind enough not to point out that he and his band were properly equipped and provisioned, while Alaric and Dietz had only their packs and their weapons. Dietz saw all that in the man's look, however, and understood. If the situation had been reversed he would have considered them mere ruffians or wanderers, certainly not rivals.
"Perhaps," Alaric admitted, "but what would that gain you?"
"Fewer hands to grab our gold," Thorgrek said sharply.
"Why should we cut you in?" Woldred asked. Dietz took it as a good sign the man had not yet ordered his companions to attack. He was certainly right about the numbers, and Dietz didn't doubt Goran alone could take both him and Alaric on, but so far Woldred seemed content to discuss the matter sensibly.
"Because we are experts," Alaric answered. "My friend and I have searched many a tomb and catacomb. We have a great deal of experience that could help you." He tilted his head to one side, "Unless you're already an expert on Nehekharan tombs, of course."
"Nehekharan?" Ehrl cut in, eyes wide. "How do you know?"
Alaric gestured towards the wall he had noticed from above. "Those are the front gates, are they not?" He didn't bother to wait for confirmation before continuing. "A set of double doors, unless I'm mistaken. There should be five steps leading up to them." Now Dietz could see a crack starting partway down the cliff face and running to its base. It was too smooth and too perfectly vertical to be anything but manmade. Running his eyes along it Dietz could just make out another crack at the top and one at the bottom, both running to the left. It was a door and it was partially open.
Alaric had moved on. He gestured towards the columns he had mentioned to Dietz before. From this close Dietz could see that the young nobleman had been right about them, although they were worn almost smooth by years of sand, wind, and rain. "The columns flanking them would have been covered by reliefs originally, showing scenes from the king's life. There should be a cartouche over the door there, bearing his name and titles."
"I see nothing," Ehrl replied. The haughtiness in his tone told Dietz at once that Alaric had met a fellow scholar, and one thing he knew from their time together was that scholars hated to be proven wrong.
"Most of it has been worn away," Alaric admitted. He stepped closer, holding up both hands to show he meant no harm, the bronze sword dangling blade-down from his waist. Woldred stepped away and the others followed suit, swivelling to keep both Alaric and Dietz in clear sight. Alaric ignored them and concentrated on the cliff face instead. "Ah, here," he said after a moment. He used the long bronze sword to indicate a spot on the wall between the column's curve and the crack that might be a door. Dietz could just make out a shape, roughly rectangular although the top and bottom were curved.
Ehrl stepped up beside Alaric and stared at the spot. "A cartouche!" he whispered, dropping to his knees for a better look.
"Yes, most tombs had one to the left and right of the door," Alaric explained, clearly pleased with his discovery. "The one on the right tells of the curse anyone desecrating the tomb would suffer. This one simply warns that the tomb is not to be disturbed."
"Can you read it?" Woldred asked his scholar, who nodded eagerly.
"Given a little time, yes," Ehrl said, already tracing the worn hieroglyphs with a forefinger, brushing away sand and dirt to get a better look. "It says something about a scarab---"
"Not 'a scarab'," Alaric corrected gently. "That's a definitive mark there, you see? It's 'the scarab', a specific one rather than the generic item."
"Yes, yes," the stooped scholar agreed. "I see that now, and here, this mark, the dog or wolf?"
"Jackal," Alaric supplied. "It's a jackal head, for Djaf, their god of the dead." Dietz repressed a shiver. Any talk of the gods made him nervous. "It says 'the Death Scarab'."
"The Death Scarab!" Ehrl exclaimed, his eyes like saucers, "Karitamen!"
"Of course!" Alaric was so excited he looked as if he would explode. "Karitamen, the Death Scarab! It fits!"
Woldred exchanged a look with his other men and even with Dietz, a puzzled and slightly annoyed look that Dietz knew he had made himself many times. It was the look of someone wondering what all the fuss was about, and why these two men were so excited about a simple name, even an odd one like that.
"Carrot-who?" Dietz asked, knowing he'd regret it but also knowing it probably wasn't a good idea to walk around a tomb without at least knowing who was buried there.
"Karitamen. He was said to be a Nehekharan general under Amenemhetum the Great," Alaric explained to Dietz. "Amenemhetum was both a king and a sea captain, and scholars believe his fleets conquered all these lands," he added when Dietz still had no idea what he was talking about. "According to legend, Karitamen was one of his greatest generals and helped him defeat the natives. Amenemhetum gave him his own kingdom, as a reward."
Alaric looked around, as if seeing the valley for the first time. "We're near the western edge of the mountains," he mentioned absently. "I've heard the Nehekharan kings often built their tombs and pyramids where they would still be able to look out upon their subjects and their lands, to symbolically protect them even after death. If Karitamen's lands were the eastern half of the Border Princes, which is what we suspect from the few mentions we've found in scrolls and histories over the years, this location would let him see his entire domain."
"Your grasp of Nehekharan is impressive," Ehrl admitted to Alaric, standing and brushing the sand from his legs.
"I've always been good at languages and histories," Alaric replied modestly. "Although I admit, I remember more than I had hoped." Then he stopped and turned back to Woldred. "You didn't know this was here, did you?" he asked.
"That cartouche? No." But that wasn't what Alaric meant and Woldred obviously knew it. After a minute of silence, with Alaric watching him pointedly, the other man shrugged and looked slightly embarrassed. "No, we did not know it was here. We suspected a tomb might lie somewhere in these mountains and felt it worth the risk to explore. We happened across this place by sheer chance."
Alaric nodded. "Luck led you here; impressive, but now you need an expert to get you inside. I can do that."
Woldred looked at Ehrl, who nodded reluctantly. "My knowledge of Nehekhara is sketchy at best," the scholar admitted. "He would be an asset."
"Well," Woldred said, sheathing his sword and gesturing for the others to do the same. "That casts things in a different light, hey?" They all visibly relaxed and so did Dietz, although he kept an eye on the big fighter and the grumbling dwarf. Either could still be trouble. "A third of whatever we find," he suggested to Alaric.
"Done." Dietz wasn't surprised at Alaric's ready agreement. They weren't looking for riches, exactly, just for whatever linked the runes on the map to this place. Besides, a third was fair, given their smaller numbers, and the others clearly thought so as well. Even the dwarf loosened the grip on his pickaxe.
"What is she doing?" Alaric asked as he moved back over towards Woldred, gesturing to where Therese still mumbled and chanted.
"Checking for magic," the other man replied. "Some of these tombs are guarded by fierce spells."
Alaric shook his head. "The Nehekharans apparently did not hold with that," he said. "There will be traps aplenty inside, but they would not put spells on this tomb. It would be sacrilege." Dietz was watching his friend and employer but a sound distracted him and he glanced around. He noticed Goran and Johann glancing around as well.
"They had mystical guardians," Ehrl protested, "I've read of such."
"Guardians, yes," Alaric agreed, "and those may bear enchantments, but not the tomb as a whole." He started to say more but Dietz cut him off.
"Company," he said softly, his hand tightening on his mace. The sound had been footfalls, more than a few, and they were close by. The wiry man had noticed them as well and had tapped Woldred to whisper in his ear just as Dietz spoke.
"Friends of yours?" Woldred asked, drawing his sword again.
"No, we came alone," Alaric replied honestly. "We've no more desire for company than you have." He glanced at Dietz, one eyebrow raised slightly, and Dietz shook his head quickly. The sounds were boots on stone, not bone Whoever approached was alive or at least not skeletal.
They saw them a moment later, as a large group of men topped the rise and started down towards them. They came from further south than the path Alaric and Dietz had taken and were forced to pick their way down the cliff, but several men stayed up top with loaded crossbows while the first handful made the ascent, and then climbed down while their fellows provided defence Alaric counted twenty-two in all.
The men were clearly soldiers, all but one dressed in similar mail and all working as a single unit. As they reached the valley floor Dietz saw that they wore tabards over their armour, red with a stylised black "L". He groaned and so did Alaric.
"You know them?" Woldred asked quietly, turning so he could see both Alaric and Dietz, and the newcomers. His sword tip wavered between the many targets before him.
"Unfortunately yes," Alaric answered. "It looks as if we may have competition after all."
"There is no competition," one of the newcomers called out, striding forwards. He moved boldly, clearly in control, and his tabard was black with the "L" in red upon it. Tall and broad-shouldered, with a broken nose and sharp blue eyes, the man's scarred face and hands told Dietz that he had seen many battles and survived them all. A longsword, a dagger and a pistol hung at his side, but he did not bother to draw them.
"I claim this tomb and its contents in the name of Prince Levrellian," he announced in a gravelly voice. Behind him his men levelled their crossbows at Alaric, Dietz, and the others. "You will stand aside or you will die."
Alaric could see at once there was no reasoning with the newcomer. He took two steps back, putting him further from the opening, and raised his empty hands, letting the sword fall to the sand behind him. Dietz also moved aside although he did not drop his new mace, and after a moment's hesitation Woldred motioned for his small troupe to back away as well.
"I've seen you before," Alaric said to the newcomer, who nodded brusquely. "At the prince's court in Zenres?" he guessed.
"Correct," the man replied. "I am Paulus Gunther, the prince's lieutenant." He glanced at Alaric with a visible mixture of contempt and amusement. "And you were the criminals my lord let live."
"That was merely a misunderstanding," Alaric protested, more for Woldred's benefit than anything else. He was still hoping the two groups could explore the tomb together, although with Gunther present the chances had lessened significantly. Alaric considered staying quiet but his curiosity got the better of him. "How did you find this place?" he finally asked.
Gunther laughed and held up a piece of worn parchment that Alaric recognised instantly. "We have your map, remember?" The map! He had forgotten that his copy was not the original. Alaric was surprised, however, to see that it held less detail than he remembered. Where were the marks for the rivers, or for the mountain path? Where were the lines that had drawn them here?
"There's not much to follow there," Alaric pointed out. "Believe me, I tried."
That earned him a tight grin from Gunther. "This," he said, tapping a mark in the lower right corner. It looked like a dog's head and Alaric had assumed it was a crude copy of the Djaf hieroglyph. "It's a dog," Gunther explained when Alaric clearly didn't understand, "for the Mad Dog Pass."
Ah, Alaric had heard of that. Mad Dog Pass cut through the World's Edge Mountains. In fact, thinking back to the area map in his journal, the pass was probably not far south of this valley.
"So the map led you to the pass," Alaric guessed, "but how did you get here from there?"
Gunther pointed to a scribbled note along the parchment's right edge. "It says ''tween canine eyes'," he said, and Alaric nodded again. He'd read that cryptic missive and taken it for a warning about something in the tomb, perhaps a trapped statue of Djaf. "The pass is the dog's mouth," Gunther went on. "That puts the eyes right about here." He scowled. "Although even with those directions we have been searching for the past two weeks." He grinned. "Fortunately one of my men spotted the two of you as you entered the valley. Your help is certainly appreciated."
Alaric hated to admit it but he was both impressed and embarrassed. The map had told them the tomb's location all along, and he had never guessed it because he'd been too busy being clever. He could feel Dietz glaring at him and couldn't meet his friend's eyes.
"What will you do with us?" Woldred asked quietly. If he was worried about being surrounded by armed guards it didn't show.
Gunther considered the situation. "Killing you would be easiest," he said bluntly. "That way you couldn't cause trouble later."
"Murder," Dietz commented, and Gunther glanced at him.
"What's your point?" he asked.
"Killing us in battle is one thing," Dietz explained. "Killing us where we stand is murder. You're a soldier, not an assassin."
One of the guards stepped forwards, crossbow pulled back to smash Dietz across the face, but a gesture from Gunther stopped him.
"You're right," he agreed. "I won't kill you in cold blood." He nodded. "Drop your weapons and you will live."
Dietz immediately released his mace. Woldred was next, letting his sword fall and removing the axe from his belt so it could join the sword on the sand. Alaric had already dropped his bronze sword but he undid his belt as well, leaving both rapier and dagger sheathed on it. The rest of Woldred's crew also disarmed, although Goran scowled before surrendering his blades.
"What's she doing?" Gunther asked, having apparently noticed Therese for the first time. She was still chanting, apparently oblivious to the drama unfolding behind her.
"She's checking the tomb for curses and other magics," Woldred replied. "She's a mage."
"A mage!" Gunther turned to Woldred. "She's with you?" The explorer nodded. "Get her out of the way, and if she casts a spell she dies instantly." He indicated a guard, who immediately trained his crossbow on the woman. Woldred motioned to Johann, who stepped forwards and tapped Therese on the shoulder. She glanced up, her chant dying mid-stream, and he said something too softly for the rest of them to hear. Whatever it was it caused her to glance over her shoulder, and her eyes widened as she saw the armed strangers for the first time. Alaric noticed that she had pretty eyes, although her features were plain. Johann led her back over to the others and she added her dagger to the pile.
"Tie them up," Gunther instructed. Two of his guards moved to obey and within minutes Alaric found himself sitting in the sand halfway across the valley, his hands bound behind him and his feet tied securely as well. The others were treated the same way.
When that was done Gunther motioned two guards into position on either side of the group, each with their crossbows trained upon them. "Sit quietly," he told his prisoners, "and when I return I'll release you. Fair?"
"More than fair," Alaric said calmly. The others nodded.
Gunther turned away from them and pointed to two guards. "You two go first, no more than ten feet in, then stop and report." They nodded and moved towards the crack in the wall.
"This could get ugly," Alaric muttered as the men marched towards the tomb entrance. Fortunately he spoke too softly for the guards to hear him.
To distract himself, Alaric studied the sand around him. It was strange to find sand in the mountains. Had the Nehekharans imported it to remind them of home? He dredged up what he remembered about Nehekharan tombs---which was considerably less than he had led Woldred to believe, since few had entered such crypts and survived---and remembered a lecture about their general layout. According to that professor and to the scrolls he had deciphered there should be a---
He sank his bound feet into the sand before him and grinned when his heels hit something solid. Yes!
Meanwhile one of the guards pushed against the cliff wall next to the gap and it slid back with a loud creak and a shower of rock dust, revealing a dark space beyond. Alaric was pleased to see he'd been right about the doors. Wouldn't Professor Brecht be thrilled to know at least one of his former students was putting his lectures on Nehekhara to good use? Alaric craned his neck to make out additional details. All he could see from here, however, was darkness.
The first guard stepped in and reached to one side, apparently plucking an unlit torch from a wall sconce. Then the man shrieked and collapsed. The other guard skirted his fallen fellow. Alaric could not see what happened next but after a second he heard the second guard screaming and flailing about. After a few seconds he too collapsed, falling backwards across the first guard.
"Hold your weapons!" Gunther shouted too late, as one of his guards fired a crossbow bolt into the darkness past his fallen comrades. Several of the other guards had drawn their blades and looked ready to attack despite the absence of any obvious foe. Some of them were shaking and a few had turned pale.
"It is cursed!" One of the guards whispered, but Alaric laughed at him. So did Woldred and several of the others. Dietz did not, but Alaric recognised the calculating look in his eyes and knew what his friend was thinking: two less soldiers meant better odds for them. It was a depressing thought but a practical one.
"It's not cursed," Alaric corrected, "just well-defended."
"What in Myrmidia's---?" Gunther started, and then turned and glared at Alaric. "You!" He bellowed. "You knew this would happen!"
Alaric shrugged. "I know this type of tomb," he admitted, "which means I knew there had to be certain traps at certain places spread throughout." He grinned up at the lieutenant. "I can help you navigate it safely, or at least with fewer deaths."
Gunther eyed him warily, "And in return?"
Alaric considered for a moment. He debated explaining why they were really here but decided against it. No sense borrowing more trouble when they already had plenty. "We get a share of the treasure," he said finally, "a small share, and it's up to you to decide how much, but we get something for our time and effort."
"I have a better idea," Gunther replied. He reached down and hauled the woman, Therese, to her feet. He held her in front of him, one arm across her neck, preventing her from crying out. Through the mane of hair covering her face Alaric could see that her eyes were wide with fear. "She goes first," Gunther announced. "You tell me how to get past the traps or she's the one who suffers."
"It doesn't work that way!" Woldred said. He glared at Alaric. "Tell him!"
"He's right," Alaric agreed. "I can't tell you what to do because I haven't been inside. It's not like drawing a map. I know some of the signs, that's all. I'd have to go with you to get you past them."
"Fine." Gunther gestured and one of his men pulled Alaric up. "You and her."
"You'll need me," Dietz spoke up. "I'm his hands and his eyes. We work together."
Gunther glared at him. "I decide who goes," he said quietly.
"Then you and your men will die," Woldred replied. He met the lieutenant's glare with one of his own. "Therese is a mage and her magic has aided us many times, whatever you think of such things," he explained, "but she'll need her hands free to cast her spells. Ehrl is a scholar and good at finding and disarming traps. Goran is protection against any creatures that might be lurking down there. I know my way around a tomb. And Thorgrek," he grinned. "Thorgrek is a miner, and a dwarf to boot. There's little he doesn't know about stone."
Gunther mulled that over, frowning. Finally he looked up. "Fine," he decided, "we all go." His men began pulling Dietz and the others to their feet and cutting their bonds.
"Sir," one of the guards protested. He was a short, solidly built man and his dusky skin and dark hair and eyes suggested Araby heritage. He wore leathers rather than mail, carried a short sword instead of a longer blade, and had a short bow and a quiver of arrows instead of the usual crossbow. Everything about him screamed scout. "They could turn on us," he pointed out.
"I know that, Hammlich," Gunther snapped, "but with them we stand a better chance of getting out of this trap alive!" He glared at each of his men. "Nobody lets them out of their sight and nobody hurts them unless they try anything. Clear?" They all nodded and mumbled agreement and Alaric was impressed. This was a man who knew how to control his troops. Alaric's father would have approved.
"Right," Gunther said, turning back towards Alaric and Woldred and severing each of their bonds in turn. "Attack me or my men and we cut you down." He waited for a response and both of them nodded. "Good," he said. "Get moving."
Johann and Ehrl were already halfway to the front gates and Alaric shook his head but followed them. Dietz was right behind him. He had wanted to pick up his new mace but the guards had gotten there first, gathering all their weapons together and holding them. Well, at least if something attacked them inside he'd know who to beg for a weapon.
Alaric and Ehrl were examining the two dead guards and Dietz took the opportunity to glance around. The room was small and square and did not have a far wall, stretching off into another space beyond. The other two walls held mosaics of some sort, as did the floor.
Then Dietz noticed the figures. They were large, powerful men, wearing the same armour as the skeletal warrior he had destroyed. Bronze hook-swords hung at their sides and the figures held torches aloft. They were positioned in the four corners of the room, facing the centre. He guessed they were statues, although the armour glinted like real metal. The one to the left of the door was missing its torch, which lay in the first dead guard's hand.
"Compressed salt," Alaric said, indicating the first man, "horribly corrosive." He tried not to look at the man's face, which had melted away to reveal the bone and muscle beneath. "It was triggered by moving the torch, no doubt." One of the guards stopped mid-motion, his hand inches from another statue's torch.
"What about him?" Dietz asked, nudging the other man with his foot. He still wasn't happy about having to enter this place, but at least he could keep an eye on Alaric and try to keep him out of trouble, and he had to admit the tomb was fascinating. Glouste apparently did not agree, and tucked herself inside his jacket, occasionally hissing her disapproval.
One of the guards lit a torch and Dietz could see the details of his surroundings. They were incredible. The floor of this small chamber was covered in concentric rings, each one a pattern of symbols and characters that he was sure told a story. A large black scarab was set in the centre. The walls had similar designs, although not as tightly constricted, and the ceiling showed the night sky, golden stars winking from the deep blue surface. The far end of the chamber led to several steps, each as wide as the room itself, which led down in turn to a long corridor.
Alaric turned to study the second guard. Gunther knelt beside him, clearly concerned as to what had killed his man. Dietz found that comforting. At least Levrellian's lieutenant worried about his troops. Hopefully he was also the type who kept his promises.
"Here," Alaric said after a minute, indicating what Dietz had thought to be freckles or birthmarks, tiny dots on the man's neck, "darts. They're tiny darts, probably just needles, really."
"Needles killed him?" Gunther asked.
Alaric nodded, "Poisoned ones, yes." He glanced around. "Don't anyone touch that scarab!" he ordered, which was a good thing since Johann had been eyeing it. "That was probably the trigger."
"Aye, it were," Thorgrek agreed. The dwarf crouched and inspected the carved black stone. "It's set on a plate. Pressure moves it and sets off the trap."
Dietz was examining the shiny thing along one wall. It was a large disc and one side glittered gold while the other had the dull grey look of iron. The gold side was carved into rings, each one patterned and filled with the Nehekharans' pictographic writing. It did not look like it belonged here leaning against the wall, and the back of it still bore several short nails.
"What's this?" he asked finally. Alaric came over to inspect it, as did Ehrl and Woldred.
Woldred answered first. "Door seal, I'd say." He grinned when Alaric looked at him, one eyebrow raised in surprise. "I've seen my share of tombs too."
Dietz's friend nodded at that. "Yes, well, you're right. That was fitted to the front doors to hold them closed, both physically and symbolically." They all glanced at the door. Now that Gunther's men had pushed both sides open they could make out a faint outline of a man across both. "That would have been Karitamen himself," Alaric mused, "standing with arms crossed to proclaim this tomb as his and to bar passage. As a king he would have had a golden disc behind his head, indicating the sun that blessed his reign. This disc was attached across the tomb when the doors were closed after his burial." He grimaced. "They were never meant to be opened."
"Someone did, though," Woldred pointed out. "It was like this when we got here."
Dietz glanced at the doors again. They opened inwards, and the exterior had no handles of any sort. How had they been opened if they were sealed shut?
The entrance chamber led into a long corridor, which ended in a set of double doors. Dietz didn't see any other entrances.
"It looks like a trap," he muttered to Alaric, who nodded.
"It is," his friend agreed cheerfully. "No one was meant to walk these halls once the doors had been sealed. Every inch of that corridor is probably deadly."
"You seem far too cheerful for someone about to walk it," Gunther commented.
"That's because I'm not going to," Alaric replied. "We're not going this way."
Everyone turned to stare at him and Dietz could tell that his friend was enjoying himself immensely, and because Alaric enjoyed his dramatic moments, he paused for a moment before continuing.
"This is the front entrance," he explained finally, "but it is not the only way in."
With that he walked past the stunned Gunther and his guards and back out into the valley.
"There's another way in?" Woldred was the first to react and caught up to Alaric in a few strides. He glanced back at Ehrl behind him, who simply shrugged.
"There is," Alaric confirmed. Dietz was back beside his friend, his long strides covering the distance between them quickly. "It's concealed within the temple."
"What temple?" That was from Gunther, who was marching after them. "And when were you planning to mention this?" His scowl suggested he blamed Alaric for the death of his two guards.
"I wasn't sure it existed," Alaric explained apologetically, stopping on the spot where they had been tied up earlier. "I only found it while we were watching your men attempt the front gates." He dropped to his knees and swept the sand aside, revealing a smooth grey surface beneath. At first Dietz thought it was simply the valley floor but then he spotted a clean break running across it. Those were flagstones!
"The Nehekharan pyramids have small mortuary temples attached," Alaric said, standing and walking a few paces before checking the ground again. "The two structures were linked by a grand causeway. That's what I found here."
"Pyramid?" Woldred looked puzzled and Dietz didn't blame him as the man glanced back at the doors behind him. "There's no pyramid here!"
"I know, but there should be," Alaric replied. "Every Nehekharan king had one." He frowned, glancing back at the clear lack of a towering triangular structure. "Perhaps it was because of the mountains," he mused aloud, "or the distances, or the materials available. I don't know, but he did have a causeway, which means he had a temple."
Alaric had already covered twenty paces, but Gunther, realising what he was doing, had set his guards ahead of him at regular intervals, each one shoving aside the sand. It was the second-to-last guard who called out, "Over here!"
The rest of them raced to his location. Dietz was one of the first there and saw not grey flagstone but a carved circular pattern similar to the mosaics on the entryway walls.
"Yes!" Alaric skidded to a stop beside them, and then paused to kneel and touch his head to the ground, muttering something. "A prayer to the Nehekharan gods," he explained to Dietz as he straightened up, grinning, "just in case."
"What is it?" Gunther demanded as his men scraped the rest of the sand away.
"It's a door," Alaric replied, admiring the pattern. He took out his journal and did a quick sketch of the design before speaking again. "This was the temple's inner chamber. They often put a hidden door here, allowing the dead king symbolic access to the temple and to the worship of his people."
"Where does it go?" Hammlich asked. If he still doubted the wisdom of bringing them along he did not mention it.
"To the lower levels," Alaric answered. He looked up at Gunther. "We can bypass more than half the tomb this way, and the treasure room will be in the lower portion."
The lieutenant nodded. "Open it," he said, but Dietz could tell the man was pleased.
Opening the hidden door took time, as Alaric had never encountered one before, but eventually he, Woldred, and Ehrl figured it out.
"Of course," Alaric said as the door slid to the side, "the blue band represents the sacred river, the heart of every journey, and the second circle is for burial, the start of the spirit's journey to the next stage." Ehrl was nodding but everyone else was more interested in the narrow channel the door had revealed.
"Slick," Johann commented, running a finger along the interior. "I think it's glass."
"No stopping once you start," Alaric agreed, "but it does lead straight into the tomb." He glanced over at Gunther, who nodded.
"You," he said, tapping one of the guards on the shoulder, "go first."
The guard swallowed nervously, sweat standing out on his forehead, but he nodded. Sheathing his sword and handing his crossbow to another guard, he sat down on the lip of the tunnel, his legs dangling over the empty space. Then, after taking a quick breath and muttering a prayer, he pushed himself off and disappeared down the chute.
Dietz winced as he heard the distinctive thwack of metal striking bone, and a stifled scream echoed up the narrow passage.
"It's probably safe now," Alaric said, "but still..." Before anyone could react he grabbed the dead guard's crossbow and tossed it down the chute as well. Any protest Gunther might have made died on his lips as they all heard a second impact, this time of metal slicing into sturdy wood.
"Why didn't you suggest that first?" Gunther demanded.
"Because you wouldn't have believed me," Alaric replied, shrugging, "and there was a chance the traps had broken down over time."
"Fine," Gunther snapped, "you go next." He shoved Alaric forwards. Dietz saw the surprised look on his friend's face as his feet were propelled over the tunnel entrance and then the young nobleman had dropped from view.
"Morr's teeth!" Dietz shoved a guard aside and leapt into the tunnel, feet first. If he was going to die, at least he'd do so by his friend's side.
He didn't die, however. The trip down the tunnel was fast, the glass-coated sides sliding him along without resistance, and it seemed like only moments later that the tunnel fell away behind him and he dropped to the ground in a small room. Alaric was right beside him, having just twisted to avoid being landed upon. The dead guard was there as well, his head a few feet from his body. The crossbow lay beside the corpse, chopped neatly in half.
"Cheery place," Alaric remarked. He pulled himself up and was looking around. Dietz saw at once what he meant. The room they were in was not large, although it had a high ceiling. The wall was covered with murals and friezes, every inch decorated and none of it pleasant. Dietz saw men and women being hacked apart, being strangled, being drowned, dying of terrible diseases, and more.
"What is all this?" he asked.
"A warning," Alaric replied. He gestured towards one of the images, that of a man and a woman being torn apart by wild beasts. "Look what they're carrying." Dietz studied the image and saw gold and gems in the ill-fated couple's hands. "It's telling us what happens to those who try stealing from this tomb."
"That might scare away simple grave-robbers," Gunther commented, "but it will not dissuade us." He and his men were all there now, as were Woldred and his group, and the room was decidedly crowded. Alaric shifted slightly to get a guard's elbow out of his side and it felt for a second as if the floor was moving beneath him.
Apparently he had not been the only one to notice it. "Don't move!" Thorgrek announced, dropping to his knees. The dwarf spread both large, gnarled hands upon the floor. He tilted his head and closed his eyes as if listening.
"We must leave here at once," he announced finally, rising to his feet.
"Why?" Gunther demanded.
"Because the floor is trapped," Thorgrek snapped. "I can feel our weight shifting it. When it stops, it'll set something off. Best we aren't here for that."
That made sense and everyone turned towards the only door. It had been carved with a single image, that of a large man with the head of a jackal, his arms crossed and his fangs bared in a snarl.
"Djaf, god of the dead," Alaric said softly. "He's warning us that no one living may pass this point."
"Then why is there a handle?" one of the guards asked, pointing at the plain knob protruding right below the deity's elbow. Before anyone could stop him the man turned the knob and pushed the door open.
"Idiot!" Gunther snapped, shoving the guard to one side. He spat in disgust as the man stiffened, not from fear but from the first effects of whatever poison had coated the handle. The lieutenant drew his dagger almost casually and cut the guard's throat, ending the man's suffering. Then Gunther wiped and sheathed his blade, neatly sidestepping the falling body, and gestured for Alaric and Dietz to lead the way through the door.
The room beyond was considerably larger and extremely long, a narrow walkway running its length. Alaric noticed that the ground to either side seemed pockmarked, and realised after a moment's study that it was actually an intricate latticework. Beneath that he saw only shadows but they seemed too uneven to be flat spaces.
Glancing behind him Alaric saw Thorgrek by the still-open door, watching the previous room. They heard a faint click and then a blade swept across the room only a foot above the floor. Thorgrek grinned.
"I said we'd best be gone," he pointed out. A second click made him turn back and Alaric saw a second blade cut across the chamber, this one roughly five feet high.
"Nasty," he said as the dwarf caught up.
"But effective," Thorgrek replied.
The others had passed them by already, and Alaric turned to catch up to Dietz, who was crouching roughly halfway across the room where another walkway intersected the first, dividing the long room into quarters.
"Lovely design," the older man muttered as Alaric reached him. He was indicating the latticework and it took Alaric a moment to see what he meant. At first the pattern seemed abstract but then elements came into focus and he realised what he was seeing. They were people! The entire latticework had been carved to show people writhing as if in pain. Glancing around he saw a matching theme on the walls, which had been carved into an array of agonised faces. The room reeked as well, smelling much like a charnel house.
"How do we get out of this place?" Gunther demanded from in front, and that made Alaric notice something else. The room had no other exits.
"There's nothing over here," one of the guards reported from the far wall. He walked back towards them, paying more attention to the carvings than to his path, and strayed from the walkway onto one of the latticeworks.
"Get off that!" Gunther shouted but it was too late. With a snap the latticework split in half, dropping the guard into the pit they all saw below. Alaric thought the man's weight might have broken the screen but then the two halves swivelled back up and snapped back into place, leaving the guard groaning below.
"No one steps foot off the paths!" Gunther ordered. No one argued. They had all seen what would happen if they strayed.
"Careful on it as well," Thorgrek said. He had made his way across the room and was starting back, weaving from side to side as if drunk. "This floor be trapped in many places, though I think I've found them all." He paused, studied a spot before him, crouched down to sniff it, glanced to either side and then up, and then stood again, nodded, and stepped carefully around it. "Yes, that's the last of them."
"So we can get from one side to the other safely," Hammlich commented, "but that still doesn't get us past this room!"
"There must be a hidden entrance somewhere," Woldred pointed out, "and if it's not along one of these walkways there's only one other place it can be." He glanced down at the latticework beside him, and the pit below.
Johann nodded. The scout took a coil of rope Gunther's guards had left at his belt and tied one end firmly around his waist. He handed the other end to Goran, who wrapped it around his own waist and then firmly around one hand. Once the big man nodded Johann stepped deliberately off the path and crouched atop the latticework. It opened almost immediately but he was ready for it and dropped lithely into the pit, the rope slowing his descent.
"It's close to twenty feet down," Johann called up, "and there are bodies down here."
They all peered over the edge. The pit was large, filling all the space under the latticework, and the walls glittered like glass in the torchlight. Alaric could see the bodies Johann had mentioned. Most of them were little more than bones and scraps of cloth. A few were more recent, however.
"Would-be grave robbers," Ehrl commented, stepping up beside him. "They must have fallen prey to traps somewhere within the tomb, but how did they wind up in here?" Alaric had an idea but wasn't sure he should mention it. Was the tomb infested with the same skeletal undead they had fought in the mountains beyond? He hoped not. Still, he would feel better armed.
"Will you give us back our weapons?" he asked Gunther. "Something killed all these people. If we're attacked we'd be more useful armed."
"And you'd be able to strike at us in turn," the lieutenant replied. He turned away, ending the conversation, and continued to supervise the guards who were repeating Johann's trick on the other three latticeworks.
Soon all four pits were being explored. Alaric and Dietz found themselves in the back left, along with two guards. It was the same pit where the first guard had fallen and his body lay not far from them. He wasn't moving.
"He must have broken his neck when he fell," Alaric said, nudging the body with his foot. Dietz started to nod, and then stopped and stepped closer. The older man flipped the body over with his boot.
"No fall caused that," he said, pointing to the jagged wound across the man's throat.
"Gunther!" Alaric called, looking up. As he straightened his gaze swept past the bodies that covered the floor, and he blinked as one of them moved.
"Watch the bodies!" he shouted, reaching for a sword that wasn't there. "They're still alive!" Or at least still fighting, he thought.
"What?" One of the guards with them turned, laughing. "Don't be an idiot. Just because you're scared---"
The man broke off as a body rose in front of him, a rusted axe gripped in one hand. The guard was too stunned to react as the blade chopped forwards and down, but he did scream as his hand and forearm fell to the ground. The axe bit into his neck and the guard toppled, blood spurting from both wounds.
"Myrmidia's spear!" The other guard didn't need any more convincing and leapt forwards, his sword taking the attacker through the chest. Unfortunately that did nothing to stop the figure, whose ragged clothing fell away, revealing its skeletal form.
"Weapons!" Alaric shouted up. "We need weapons!" Gunther must have agreed, because an instant later his belt and the strange hook-bladed sword fell into the pit, followed by Dietz's knives and mace. "About time!" Alaric grabbed up the bronze blade and hacked at the skeleton, which had killed the second guard and was turning towards them. The heavy sword smashed its forearm, causing it to drop the axe. Then Dietz's mace smashed its skull to pieces and the hones collapsed and did not move again.
"What is this place?" Hammlich demanded above them. He had his sword out and his face was pale beneath his dusky skin. "The dead still walk and attack?"
"Dark magic," Therese replied, her eyes flashing. "This tomb reeks of it."
Several other skeletons rose within the pits but the guards and seekers were forewarned. They made short work of the undead attackers, although a few people took minor wounds. Scorpions emerged from some of the bodies as well, but no one was stung. Gunther had returned Woldred and his crew their weapons, and after the skirmishes he nodded at Alaric.
"You were right," the lieutenant admitted wearily. His cheeks were still pale. "Better armed."
Alaric started to reply but Dietz stopped him. "Take a look at this," his friend said. He indicated a spot on the back wall in their pit. Alaric felt it carefully and discovered a narrow depression that ran down to the floor and up to a matching line that cut across and then down again. A door!
"There must be a trigger here somewhere," he told Dietz and the two of them began searching. Others quickly joined them. It was Ehrl, in fact, who stumbled upon it, as his foot tapped a small bump on the ground a few feet from the doorway. They all heard a faint click and froze, expecting another trap, but then Woldred pointed at the wall.
"Look!"
That section of the wall had shifted slightly in response, swivelling outwards along the left side. Dietz inserted his knives into the gap, one high and one low, and tugged gently. The stone slid aside without a sound, revealing a narrow staircase that rose as it led away.
"Up?" Alaric thought about that one for a minute. Normally the treasure room would be down, not up, but then this should be a pyramid and wasn't, so obviously some allowances must be made.
"Where will this lead?" Gunther asked as he gathered his men into a single line, Alaric and Dietz and the others mixed in among them.
"To the treasure room, if we're lucky," Alaric replied. He didn't bother to list the places it could go if their luck ran out. Why worry about that? It wasn't as if they had anywhere else to go.
Dietz's first thought, upon emerging from the stairway, was that the large room around him was made of beaten gold. Then he caught glimpses of white and corrected that impression. No, the walls were actually white, clean simple white. The floor was simple granite flagstone and the ceiling showed a starless night sky. The golden glow that dazzled him and everyone else came entirely from the heaps of coins, jewellery, and other precious objects filling the room from end to end, top to bottom. It was an astounding sight, literally too much wealth to comprehend.
Woldred and his people began giggling like small children as they danced among the treasure, lifting this and that piece, tossing coins and gems at each other as if they were snowballs. Gunther and his guards were less exuberant but even they were grinning as they shovelled coins and gems into sacks at their belts. Alaric wandered here and there, examining various items, apparently less interested in wealth than artistry. Dietz wasn't sure how to react. A single handful from this hoard would be enough to set him and his entire family up for life, anywhere he wanted to live. Gunther had claimed it all for Levrellian, of course, but short of searching them afterwards the lieutenant couldn't prevent the others from taking something away with them, and Dietz knew ways to hide things that he doubted the guards would want to discover.
He pocketed a few small gems, knowing they would be difficult to dig out of his pouch and pockets, and swallowed a few more as a precaution. Then he simply looked around, admiring the workmanship. He saw a suit of golden links, so bright he could barely look at it the metal strong and sturdy but the weave as light as doth and soft as silk. A helmet and large shield stood with it also of gold, intricately wrought. Nearby he saw a miniature building, clearly a palace or castle, carved from rubies fitted together like bricks and cemented with gold. Tiny people stood within it each one also carved from gold.
A massive creature dominated the room, ten times the size of a horse with a strange snout like a pig's at the end of a thick snake-like body, flap-like ears on either side of a round head and beady eyes. The creature was carved of solid gold, its eyes sapphires, and wicked tusks curved up beside the snout, gleaming like polished bone. Elsewhere he saw Therese admiring a pair of drinking goblets, carved from some dark blue stone with gold stems shaped like elegant birds, their necks intertwined. Thorgrek was hefting a massive axe, lust in his eyes as his gnarled hands wrapped around the gold-wrapped handle. Woldred and Johann were studying a small throne, its golden surface covered by thousands of rubies, all exactly the same size, shape, and colour.
"This is amazing!" One of the guards was saying as Dietz walked past. The man dug his hands into a nearby casket and let coins cascade through his fingers. "Levrellian will be the richest prince in history!"
Another guard was looking at a row of warriors stationed across one wall. They were encased in golden armour of the same style Dietz had seen on the skeletal warrior he'd fought, and armed with similar hook-swords and tall rectangular shields.
"Keep your distance," Therese warned, gliding forwards and resting a hand on the guard's arm. "They will strike at you if you approach them."
The guard hesitated, clearly not sure whether to believe her or not, and looked at Dietz for advice. He shrugged.
"Best to listen," Dietz suggested. "There's plenty else to see and touch." The guard nodded and moved away. Therese also urged everyone to steer clear of the quartet of sculpted lions grouped near one corner. They were life-sized and made of gold, with emerald eyes and diamond claws, but the mage claimed they contained cats whose spirits were hound within their decayed bodies. Several of the guards scoffed until Woldred reminded them of the skeletons they'd faced in the pits. That shut them up, and they gave the four golden cats a wide berth.
Hammlich had been studying the walls and Dietz saw him tap a spot, listen, and then tap another spot a foot to the side. "I've got something!" the scout called out. "I think it's a hidden door!"
"To where?" one of the guards asked.
"The burial chamber," Ehrl replied. "It would lie beyond this treasure trove, and would contain Karitamen's body, and his personal treasures."
That drew everyone's attention. They all gathered around as Hammlich tapped his way around the door he'd found, feeling for anything that might open it. He didn't find anything, however, and stepped back, frustrated, but one hand brushed a golden urn next to the wall and it shifted slightly. They heard a click as the urn moved and suddenly the portion of the wall Hammlich had found swung open, revealing a room beyond.
"You," Gunther said, gesturing towards Johann, "and you two," indicating two of his guards, "check it out." All three nodded and stepped cautiously through the doorway. Alaric and Dietz followed them and peered through the portal, Dietz noticing as he did the relief carved into the door itself. It was a man, tall and powerfully built, bearing two swords at his side and a strange cloth hood atop his head. His collar was ornate and carved at its centre was a large scarab, painted black. Remembering what Alaric had said, Dietz realised this might well be Karitamen himself.
Turning away from the door, Dietz studied the room beyond. It was a single large room, easily fifteen feet deep and with a ceiling almost as high. The floor was a mosaic but he couldn't make out the pattern from this angle. The walls displayed scenes that looked like battles, and guard statues like the ones they'd seen by the entrance were arrayed around the room, although these held swords instead of torches. A massive coffin sat in the centre of the room, carved of some pink stone that Dietz couldn't recognise. Something else gleamed in the far corners.
"What are those images on the wall?" Alaric asked, trying to make out details from where he stood.
"Battles," Johann answered after glancing behind him, "bloody ones."
"And the floor?"
"A scarab," the scout replied, "with smaller ones set throughout."
Gunther had a question of his own. "What is that in the far corners?"
"A suit of armour and a sword and shield," one of his guards shouted back. "They look to be gold!" The guard started walking towards the items he had just mentioned but Alaric stopped him.
"Do not move!" Alaric commanded.
Gunther was furious. "What? What is wrong? Tell me!" he demanded.
"It's not the right room," Alaric replied, shaking his head. "Everything is wrong about it. It's a trap, one big trap."
"What? It is the right room," the lieutenant insisted. "His body is in that coffin, this king of yours, and his armour and weapon are beside him! He was a general, you said, and the walls show his greatest victories! His soldiers stand around him to protect him! This is it!"
"No," Alaric insisted. "Listen: the Nehekharans didn't display battles on the walls of a burial chamber. That room should show his spiritual journey, not bloodshed. The floor is too representational; all the others have been abstract patterns, not a specific image. The guards shouldn't have their weapons out, it's disrespectful. They shouldn't be there at all---no one but Karitamen himself should be in that chamber. If he was such a great warrior and general why isn't he buried in his armour? Why is it hanging on a stand beyond his sarcophagus?"
"You don't know everything," Hammlich sneered at him, looking as if he would strike Alaric. Dietz stepped closer to his friend and raised his mace slightly but Hammlich laughed and turned away. "The room does not match what you think it should, and so you say it is false, but this is the end of the tomb! There is nowhere else!" He turned to his lieutenant, who nodded but glanced at Alaric again before speaking.
"Check the perimeter, and bring me the armour and the sword," Gunther finally commanded the two guards already over there. "Make sure nothing lurks in the shadows. Then I'll send others in to help carry everything back."
"It's wrong," Alaric whispered, though only Dietz heard him. "It's a trap. The whole thing is a trap."
Dietz watched with him as the two guards stepped further into the room, their torches aloft. Johann glanced at Woldred, shrugged, and followed them.
The scout had only taken a single step from the door when it slammed shut. They all heard the lock click.
"What happened?" Gunther demanded, first of the door and the guards behind it and then of Alaric. "Who closed the door?"
"The tomb's builders," Alaric replied sadly. "They set the trap and your men just triggered it."
"Johann!" Woldred shouted. "Are you all right?"
"Fine," the scout shouted back. "The door just shut by itself!"
"Get down!" Alaric called out. "Drop to the floor! Now!"
They heard someone drop and then there was a rush of air, like the sound Dietz had heard before when the one guard had died, only louder. Someone screamed, and another body struck the ground. Someone, maybe the same someone, gurgled, and they heard another heavy thud.
"What was that?" Gunther asked.
"Darts," someone called back, and Woldred visibly relaxed. It was Johann. "They were everywhere, several missed me by inches. The guards weren't so lucky."
"Careful," Alaric warned. "That may not be all of it."
"I know," Johann replied. Judging from the sounds, he was climbing back to his feet. "I'm going to---" He was interrupted by the sound of stone grinding against stone. It came again, and again, and then he screamed.
"The statues!" the scout cried out. "They're alive! They're all turning towards me! I---" Dietz clearly heard the swish of a heavy blade and the chunk of metal cleaving flesh and bone. Johann's words died in a shriek that turned to a burble and faded to silence. They all heard the sound of a body striking the floor, and then the shifting of stone. Then all was silent.
"Ulric's beard," Goran whispered. His face was pale. "The statues are alive?"
Alaric didn't answer, but Ehrl shrugged. The scholar looked as if he was about to retch but his voice was steady, if weak. "I've heard legends of walking statues," he admitted, "that guard royal tombs, nothing more."
They all stood in silence for a moment, staring at the door. Then a click resounded in the shaft, followed by a strange shifting sound. Dietz heard the distinctive sound of something heavy sliding across a floor, and then it was gone. The other sounds repeated, first the shifting and then the click.
"What was that?" Someone whispered.
"At a guess, I'd say the floor opened," Alaric replied, "just in case the darts and the guards missed anyone."
"Is this entire tomb a trick then?" Gunther asked finally. He sounded tired, even defeated, and Dietz knew he was afraid that his men had died for nothing.
Alaric shook his head. "No, the tomb is real," the young nobleman replied, glancing around. Dietz saw the look on his friend's face with some relief. Alaric was still too sensitive to death, particularly when it was someone he knew, but the best way to get him moving again was to give him something to puzzle out. "There must be another door," he decided after a moment's thought. "That room was a trap to trick us and keep us from finding the real door and the real burial chamber."
"Back the way we came?" Dietz asked him, but Alaric shook his head.
"No, it's bad luck to go back," he explained. "The journey must go forwards, not back." Alaric glanced at the doorway. "It also has to continue westwards, which means it's on that wall," he said. "Either there's another door or---"
"Or what?" Gunther demanded. Dietz, watching his friend's face, recognised the expression there. Alaric had just thought of something.
"Strange," Alaric said to himself, "why would that be?"
"What?" Dietz knew the right tone to use, and motioned Gunther back. "What is it, Alaric?"
"The carving," Alaric answered, his natural desire to explain kicking in. "It's of Karitamen."
Dietz nodded, pleased to find that his earlier guess had been correct, but he knew better than to interrupt.
"The collar, though," Alaric continued. "It's in sunken relief, not bas-relief."
"Sunken? Bas? What does that mean?" Gunther demanded. Fortunately Alaric was intent enough upon his explanation not to object to the lieutenant's tone or his interruption.
"Sunken relief is when the image is carved out," he replied. "Bas-reliefs are the opposite, the stone around the image carved away so the image protrudes." He indicated the figure, and the collar. "The Nehekharans were masters of bas-relief and used it everywhere. So why is one portion of this figure done in sunken relief instead?" He stepped up and examined the carved collar more closely, and then glanced around. "I need a scarab, one of the onyx ones," he demanded, "now!"
Moved by the urgency and command in his voice, everyone leapt to obey. They began handing him scarabs from all over the room, some of them pried from various objects, others found loose and laying about. Alaric tried each one in the collar in turn but none of them fit. Then Dietz noticed the gem-encrusted war banner hanging along the wall and tore one of the scarabs from it.
"Yes!" Alaric laughed as the scarab slid into place in the collar. Standing right behind him, Dietz heard a faint click. Then Alaric pointed at the scarab and laughed again. "It's upside down," he said, and with a quick twist he turned it around.
The click was louder this time, and Alaric stepped back as the door slid to the side, taking the wall behind it with it.
"Clever," Alaric whispered, "one door, two entrances." Everyone gathered behind him and peered at the opening, and the long staircase beyond.
"That's it," Alaric said, the relief clear in his voice. "That is the way to the real burial chamber."
They found a single wide stone door at the bottom of the staircase. The door bore a carving of Djaf, the jackal-headed death god, his arms crossed and a fierce scowl baring his fangs. Unlike the doors from the shaft this one had a normal handle made of gem-inlaid silver.
"That's it," Alaric said softly. "The burial chamber should be behind that door."
"What we waiting for, then?" Thorgrek demanded. Before anyone could stop him he reached out and grasped the door handle, giving it a quick turn and a hard shove. The door flew open and several guards stepped back, glancing around and raising their weapons in case anything attacked them.
A vast room opened out before them, easily the largest they had seen yet. Six massive pillars lined the walls, three on each side, and the flowers carved into them were so fantastical that Alaric could not believe they came from real plants. More of the imposing giant stone guardians stood there, one beside each pillar, wearing different faces from the four in the receiving room. The floor was a mix of mosaic stone and granite flagstone worked together, and Alaric did not see any of Karitamen's scarabs. Perhaps the king was symbolically beyond such trappings now. The walls certainly suggested that, showing the former king being led through an imposing hall by a priest.
"Have a care," Therese called out, "for these statues too are marked by magic!" She indicated the guardians with one hand.
Gunther laughed and Hammlich sneered but Woldred took her seriously. "Can you stop them?" he asked.
The mage shook her head. "No, they are too strong. I can cloak us, however. If they do not see us they will not attack."
That sounded good enough for Alaric. He watched with interest as Therese made a series of elaborate gestures in the air, leaving faint trails like wisps of flame hanging before her. Her fingers glowed blue-white as she traced a symbol on Woldred's forehead and then repeated the process for Goran, Thorgrek and Ehrl. Alaric let her do the same for him, smiling his thanks and receiving a surprisingly pretty smile in return. Dietz also allowed it, and Gunther finally nodded for his men to permit the marking as well. The symbols did not fade, leaving each of them with a faint blue design upon their skin.
Therese looked exhausted after the process but she nodded. Woldred helped support her as they walked into the room, which was empty save for the pillars and their statues. Whether it was her magic or some other factor Alaric could not be sure, but the statues remained as still as stone and they passed by unhindered. There were several broad steps at the far end of the room, which led down into a smaller room that Alaric knew would be the crypt proper.
"Who's that?" Dietz asked quietly, nudging him and pointing back the way they had come. The door had swivelled shut again and carved on its back was an enormous snake, rearing up as if to strike. Jagged lines radiated from its head.
Alaric stopped to stare and Dietz bumped him to keep up with the others and stay within Therese's protective chanting. "I think it's Asaph," he whispered back, "goddess of vengeance and magic. She takes the form of a giant asp." He continued to stare at the image. "That shouldn't be there," he said finally, turning back around.
"Why not?"
"This is the burial chamber," Alaric explained. "No one should be here but the king and the god of the underworld. Asaph isn't used on doors except as a mystic barrier, but to put her on the inside of the door, she'd have to be blocking something from exiting rather than entering!"
"Karitamen?" Dietz asked, but Alaric shook his head.
"No, the king would never reverse his steps," he told his friend. "He's moving forwards, not back. Strange."
The others were descending the stairs and Alaric and Dietz hastened to join them. The steps were plain granite, not marked or decorated in any way. So was the granite floor beyond. The room itself was short but as wide as the rest of the burial chamber, with white plaster walls bearing a green wave motif along the bottom third. The ceiling showed the scarab constellation again, and the sun beginning to rise in the east. Two plain wooden doors were set into the back wall. Alaric noticed these details in passing because most of his attention was drawn to the sarcophagus.
It occupied most of the crypt. Made of some red stone, its top had been carved to show the Death Scarab, stretched out as if asleep although his eyes were open, dressed in full armour over funeral wrappings, the crook and flail crossed upon his chest. The lid had been set aside, however, and was leaning against the far wall between the two doors. A coffin rested inside the sarcophagus. It was made of wood inlaid with gold, and its lid was painted to show Karitamen but it had also been removed. A third coffin lay within that and then another, although this last was made of gold and precious gems rather than wood or stone. Its lid leaned against the side wall as well, so that four Karitamens seemed to stand around the room watching them.
The innermost sarcophagus was open, and Alaric's eyes were tugged in that direction. The coffin was lined with crimson silk, including the small headrest, and a figure was laid out there, its head upon that cushion, the flail and crook in its hands. It was Karitamen.
The Death Scarab had certainly seen better days. Unlike his carved and painted doppelgangers the king's body had crumbled away, the bandages rotting off to reveal bleached bones beneath. His armour hung about him loosely, empty air visible between its blue-enamelled metal and the white of his ribs. Below his blue helm was a bare skull, its sockets empty.
Then the skull turned towards them.
Alaric froze, as did the others. He stared, unable to move, as the skeleton shifted and hauled itself upright. Then one foot flopped over the edge of the sarcophagus, followed by the other. With a faint creak and the clatter of bones against metal, the long-dead king rose from his coffin and stood facing them. A fiery light glowed in its eye sockets, bright as the sun but no larger than a pinprick.
Then it opened its mouth, the jaws groaning, and words issued forth from between its rotted, blackened teeth. Alaric knew he was hearing true Nehekharan spoken for the first time, although the voice was little more than a rusty croak. He could not decipher the speech but it was clear that the long-dead king was speaking to them, and somehow the tone sounded less angry than... welcoming? Hungry?
It lurched towards them.
"Grungni's beard!" Thorgrek gasped, almost falling as he back-pedalled rapidly, his pickaxe rising to present its axe blade to this new foe. "Tis a liche!" The name made Dietz's skin crawl. He had heard stories of the foul undead creatures, although he had always thought them mere legends and ghost stories.
"Back, foul creature!" Therese shrieked, her hands working in some intricate pattern. Dietz could only hope it was meant to protect them.
Most of the others stood frozen in fear, Alaric among them. Dietz swallowed his own terror and shouldered into his friend, knocking the younger man to the floor just as the skeletal king swung his flail. The heavily beaded lashes whipped past Dietz's shoulder, right where Alaric had stood an instant before, one of the beads bruising his upper arm as the creature pulled its arm back for a second strike.
"Kill it!" Gunther shouted, drawing his own blade, apparently not realising the folly of his statement. How could you kill something that was clearly already dead?
There was no doubt about it, Karitamen was long since deceased. Dietz could see the king's bones clearly through armour and wrappings, and the king's skull stared out at him from its imposing blue helm.
The guards understood their lieutenant's command. Two of them fired their crossbows at the approaching king, but the bolts passed harmlessly through its body. The others dropped the ranged weapons and drew their axes, swords and maces, clustering around their commander. Woldred had his sword out, and Goran drew his longsword, leaving the larger blade on his back because the crypt was too tight to wield it effectively. The two men and Thorgrek arrayed themselves in front of Therese, who was once again chanting.
Ehrl, unfortunately, was as stunned as Alaric had been, and Woldred could not reach him in time. They all heard the sickening crack as the liche's crook flashed out, its gold and blue bands gleaming, and struck the scholar solidly in the temple. He fell like a sack of flour, dark blood spilling from his shattered skull to seep across the floor.
"Damn you!" Thorgrek roared, his pickaxe describing a fierce arc as it sliced through the air. But the liche was too fast and sidestepped before the blow could land. It swung its flail in return, the lashes striking the dwarf solidly across the helm, and he staggered but did not fall.
Two of Gunther's guards stepped forwards, wielding an axe and a mace respectively, and attacked Karitamen from either side. The liche shrugged off their blows and his crook and flail struck in return, the former caving in one guard's chest while the latter crushed the other guard's throat. Only six guards were left around Gunther and Hammlich, and they seemed less inclined to attack after seeing their companions' fates.
Unfortunately for them, Karitamen was not willing to wait. The liche king advanced up the steps, closing on the guards before they could retreat. Gunther's sword licked out, only to be blocked by the liche's crook, but the lieutenant had his dagger in his other hand and used it to block the responding flail attack. His guards attacked while the liche was occupied and managed to score several hits, although the creature's bone somehow withstood the attacks from blade and mace.
Alaric had slipped down the stairs and behind the sarcophagus while this occurred, and Dietz hastened after him, even though he was torn when Glouste suddenly chose this moment to vacate her safe haven in his jacket. His pet leapt free and dashed back up the stairs and across the burial chamber, chattering as she went. Dietz almost ran after her, but decided she could probably look after herself better than Alaric could.
It proved to be a wise choice. The young nobleman was peering into the inner coffin, and as Dietz approached he reached in and lifted something from the cushions there. It was a gauntlet of some sort, although Dietz had a hard time seeing it clearly. Perhaps it was the lighting, or the confusion from battle, but all he could tell was the general shape and the presence of sharp spikes down its length.
Unfortunately he was not the only one who noticed Alaric's find. The liche had just impaled a guard on his crook, hooking the curved rod into the man's abdomen right through his mail, but it turned as Alaric lifted the gauntlet clear of the sarcophagus.
Karitamen shrieked something, dropping the crook where it lay imbedded in the dying man and turning towards them. It screamed in obvious rage and leapt down the stairs, tossing aside its flail as it came and drawing two hook-swords from scabbards at its side. Alaric ducked in time to avoid being split by the first bronze blade and Dietz's mace blocked the second, even though the force drove the mace back into his head and nearly downed him from the impact.
The liche spat something in its native tongue, swinging again. Dietz ducked the blow and dodged towards the stairs, seeing as he did, that Gunther and his men had already taken advantage of the respite to quit the crypt for the relative safety of the larger room.
Unfortunately they had forgotten about the statues there, and Therese was busy mumbling something and flinging lines of wavy light at the bloodthirsty liche. Apparently whatever she had done before had worn off or required her constant attention, and without her protection the statues awoke to their presence. One guard did not even have time to scream as a hawk-faced stone guardian's sword severed his head from his torso with a single swipe.
"Get out of here!" Gunther shouted, retreating. He sidestepped a blow from one statue and returned it with a strike that would have killed a man but bounced harmlessly off the guardian's stone torso. He and his guards ran across the room, another dying under a guardian's attack. The remaining three reached the far door with Gunther and Hammlich and burst through it.
That left Woldred, Goran, Thorgrek and Therese trapped with Alaric and Dietz, and the liche.
"Go!" Dietz shouted at the other explorers. "Get out while it's distracted!" Woldred hesitated for a second, and then nodded. He and Goran made a break for it, charging across the room, dodging the statues and reaching the far door safely.
Thorgrek had turned to follow them. As he did, however, he spied a large ruby sitting upon one of the steps. Dietz had not noticed it either, but he saw it sparkle in the torchlight as the dwarf bent down to retrieve the gem.
"Thorgrek, no!" Dietz shouted, but it was too late. The dwarf clutched the ruby in his thick fingers, and as he lifted it from the step they heard a click. Then a large stone block smashed the dwarf onto the step, crushing him beneath its weight. Blood oozed out from between the stones and Therese screamed.
"Sigmar's hammer!" Dietz cursed. "Alaric, get out of here!"
Alaric nodded and ducked back around the sarcophagus, still clutching the strange gauntlet. He sidled past Thorgrek's grisly remains and grabbed Therese by the arm. "Come on!" he told her urgently.
The mage nodded and reached up to sketch a new pattern on Alaric's brow. Then she dashed over to Dietz, barely avoiding a stroke from the liche's sword, and did the same to him. Then she began to chant again...
...and Karitamen lowered his sword, turning this way and that in confusion, his glowing eyes peering right through Dietz and past him.
The spell! Therese had somehow rendered them invisible to the creature! Dietz took back everything bad he had ever said about magic and about mages in particular as he turned and made his way carefully back up the steps and across the pillared room. Alaric was right beside him, guiding Therese across.
Fortunately the spell worked on the statues as well, and they returned to their stances by the pillars, convinced that the intruders had all been dispatched. Karitamen knew better but could not locate them. The liche did climb the steps, however, and stalked across the floor, his blades spinning around him. If those swords came close enough he wouldn't have to see them.
Just as Dietz reached the far door he heard a familiar chattering sound. He looked up and saw Glouste on the doorframe above him, a strange amulet hanging from a chain in her mouth.
"Get down here!" he told her sharply and the tree-fox leapt onto his shoulder and curled up, buzzing happily about her find.
Unfortunately Therese had not marked Glouste with her magic, and Dietz saw the liche's head swivel around, until its glowing eyes locked upon her, there on his neck. The dead king charged towards them, both blades held high for the attack.
"Out! Now!" Dietz grabbed Alaric and all but tossed him through the door. Then he did the same with Therese and darted through after her, shutting the door just before the first sword connected. He heard the thud of bronze on stone and a low hiss as the liche voiced its frustration.
They were out.
"Will that hold it?" Gunther asked. The others were all clustered in the room before the burial chamber, weapons up, faces pale.
"It should," Alaric gasped, catching his breath. "The door has been warded." He grimaced. "Now we know why."
"Time to leave," Dietz insisted, and everyone nodded their agreement.
"If Levrellian wants anything else from that room," Gunther added, glancing at the door behind them, "he can get it himself!"
They passed back through the treasure room, Gunther and his remaining men collecting more gold and gems as they went, and from there out into the pits.
They would have run at that point. Alaric certainly wanted to and he was sure the others felt the same. The urge to abandon all reason and flee full-speed for the entranceway and the calm, rational world outside was almost overwhelming. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed. One guard started to bolt once they'd climbed from the pits but Gunther and Hammlich caught him before he could take a single step.
"Don't be a fool," Hammlich hissed. "The floor is trapped, remember?" The guard froze, eyes wide. "Now," the scout said, "follow me."
He retraced the route Thorgrek had plotted exactly, an impressive feat, but stopped halfway across, staring at something atop one of the latticeworks. Alaric looked as well and saw a mummified cat. It had not been there earlier. As he watched, it turned glowing eyes towards them and uttered a series of sharp meows, the sounds strangely like words.
"Kill it!" Therese said behind him, gasping. Her efforts in the crypt had exhausted her. "Quickly!"
One of the guards obediently raised his crossbow but the creature had leapt across the grille work and was upon him before he could pull the trigger. The man screamed, the cloth-wrapped feline's jagged claws having sliced open his face, but the screams turned to shrieks as the wounds burst into flames. The others backed away as the man fell to the ground, convulsing, and half-rolled, half-jerked off the path, the lattice snapping open to drop him into the nearest pit. After a moment he stopped moving. The cat, meanwhile, sat daintily in front of them and began licking its claws with a desiccated tongue.
"Now what do we do?" Gunther demanded, raising his hand to stop another guard from trying the same tactic. Most of the others looked equally confused but Alaric glanced at Dietz, who grinned.
"You need to be the right size," he said. Then he whistled. Alaric bit back a laugh as he saw some of the guards start at the small, furry head that popped up out of his friend's jacket. Apparently some of them hadn't noticed Glouste until now.
He'd never been sure just how smart the tree-fox was but fortunately this situation didn't require any explanation. Glouste glanced around, spotted the strange mummy-cat, and hissed. The cat hissed back, spine arching, tail pointing straight up. Then the tree-fox leapt from Dietz's jacket to the ground and the fight was on.
Glouste was hampered slightly by a chain she had clutched in her mouth, but the cat's bandages hampered it in turn, and of the two, the tree-fox proved to be the faster. They exchanged blows, claws raking fur and wraps respectively. Then Glouste ducked beneath an attack and, faster than Alaric could follow, somehow wrapped herself around her undead foe. All four paws fastened securely, claws deep in the bandages across the cat's chest and then Glouste gave a fierce tug and the cat was torn open, what was left of its innards spilling out onto the walkway. Two of the guards and Therese were sick over the side, but the cat slumped, the glow in its eyes fading away. Glouste preened for a moment before returning to Dietz's shoulder and he scratched it affectionately.
"Shall we?" Alaric asked Hammlich, who had been staring with some admiration at the tree-fox. His words made the scout start but the little man nodded and continued along his path. The others trailed him across the room, doing their best to ignore the feline remains off to one side, and to the antechamber beyond. Alaric was wondering how they would escape the small room, since the chute they had used ended well above their heads and was far too slick to climb, but Gunther had obviously thought of that. He nodded to Hammlich, who fired an arrow up the shaft. A moment later a rope appeared.
"Smart," Alaric admitted. The lieutenant had left one or more of his men up above for just such an eventuality.
"I plan ahead," Gunther replied, and something about the way he said it made Alaric uneasy. There wasn't much he could do about it now, so he followed Hammlich up the rope with Dietz right behind him.
It was a relief to see the sky again, and Alaric allowed himself to breathe deeply as one of the guards gave him a hand out. He sprawled to one side of the tunnel entrance, staring up at the night sky, thankful their journey through the amazing, awful tomb was finally over.
They numbered eleven and all but the guards who had pulled them up were wounded to some degree. Therese had suffered a minor scratch from one of the statues and Dietz had taken a grazing blow to the temple from a skeletal guard. Alaric had a few small cuts and scrapes from the various encounters, and Gunther and Hammlich looked to be in the same shape. Woldred had a cut to one arm and was limping from a blow to the leg and Goran's left arm was all but useless. Both of the guards who had been below had taken blows from skeletons and statues, and were bruised and bloodied. They were all a mess, but they had survived.
Gunther and his men had all the treasure they had taken from the treasure room, and Alaric had the gauntlet. He wasn't sure why he'd taken it, but he had a feeling it was important.
Everyone was out, and Gunther was speaking to the two guards who had remained above. Alaric turned to say something to Therese, who was sitting up next to him, sipping from a water skin Woldred had handed her. As he watched she jerked, the skin falling from her hands, her eyes grown wide as she stared down at the crossbow bolt blossoming from her chest.
"No!" Alaric reached for her and caught her as she fell, her blood drenching his hands where the bolt emerged from her back. Even as he held her, the mage's eyes glazed and dimmed, and her face slackened. Her body shuddered one last time and went limp. Alaric stared down at her. He hadn't known Therese long but he had liked the quiet woman with her sparkling eyes and shy, lovely smile. For her to die now, after surviving the horrors of the tomb, was more than he could stand.
He turned to Gunther, to demand an explanation, just in time to see the lieutenant draw a long knife and slash Woldred's throat from behind.
"Damn you!" Alaric shouted, dropping Therese's body and scrambling to his feet, his hand reaching for his rapier. He had lost the bronze hook-sword somewhere in the tomb. The lieutenant just laughed as he and his men arrayed themselves against Alaric, Dietz, and Goran.
"Did you really think I would let you live?" Gunther asked quietly, his sword raised as he approached Alaric, "After you knew the way in, and to the treasure room? I can't risk your coming back here to take what's left, or telling anyone else about it. I'm sorry." He didn't sound very apologetic but he didn't seem to be enjoying the betrayal either. Alaric suspected that it wasn't personal.
That didn't make it any easier for him, Dietz, and Goran. The big fighter, enraged at Woldred and Therese's murders, smashed one of the guards aside with his shield, despite his own injuries. He swung his sword at another, blocking the guard's own blow and bringing his blade back around to stab the man through the stomach. Then he stabbed downwards, his blade driving deep into the chest of the guard he'd knocked aside. Hammlich slid up behind the big man and stabbed Goran in the side while his sword was still caught in the guard's torso. Goran dropped to his knees, trying to retrieve his blade and defend himself even as the life drained from his body. Then he collapsed and did not move again.
Gunther advanced on Alaric and made the first move, lunging forwards, his longsword sweeping across to carve Alaric's chest open. He blocked the blow and took a step back, giving himself more space to manoeuvre, and parried the next blow before assaying a strike of his own. The tip of his blade licked past Gunther's defence and caught him on the cheek, leaving a line of blood there.
"We would have left," Alaric said quietly, trying to force back the rage building within him. The lieutenant was a good enough warrior for him to need a cool head to beat him. "We would have stayed away."
"I couldn't take that risk," Gunther replied, trying another attack. This time he pulled a long knife from his belt and used it to block Alaric's sword, stabbing with his own at Alaric's head. Alaric managed to twist and avoid the blow, but he left his side open as a result. Gunther did not miss the opening and stabbed him in the gut with his knife, sending a spike of pain through Alaric's stomach and leaving him weak in the legs.
Alaric caught a brief glimpse of Dietz as he went down, his friend fending off one of the remaining guards while Glouste clawed at the face of the other. Then he was on his knees, peering up as Gunther raised his blade for the killing blow.
A shot rang out.
Gunther looked down in surprise, and Alaric stared up, both of them fixated on the gaping hole that had suddenly appeared in the lieutenant's chest. Gunther managed to turn before he fell, staring at the face of his attacker.
It was Hammlich.
The scout stood there, pistol still smoking, his face utterly blank of emotion. Alaric idly wondered where he had found the firearm, and then realised it had been Gunther's own. His assistant must have taken it from him at some point during their flight.
Dietz had clubbed his opponent with his plundered mace and stood a few feet from Hammlich, staring at the gun. Alaric knew his friend was wondering if he could reach the scout before he could reload or draw a new weapon.
"Don't," Hammlich warned, stepping back a few paces. He dropped the pistol and crouched, and when he stood again he had a shortbow in his hands, an arrow already nocked. It was his own bow, Alaric realised, he'd seen it on Hammlich back when Levrellian's troops had first arrived, what seemed like ages ago now. The scout must have left it here when they entered the tomb, and now he was armed again, and could shoot one or both of them before they could get close enough to harm him.
"Kick that over here," Hammlich said, jerking his chin towards something in front of Alaric. With a start he realised it was the gauntlet, lying on the sand where he must have dropped it. Alaric did as he was told, nudging it with his foot, and Hammlich nodded.
"I'm taking this," he said, taking a step forwards and kicking the gauntlet behind him a few paces. Then he backed up so it was in front of him again. It was a smart move, Alaric thought. Even if they rushed Hammlich he might still have time to grab the gauntlet, stand, and fire at least one arrow. "I leave, you live, everyone's happy."
Dietz glanced pointedly at Gunther's body, and the scout laughed.
"Fine, everyone left is happy," he corrected. He looked at both of them. "Agreed?"
Alaric nodded. There was little else he could do. With the wound to his stomach he couldn't even stand, let alone fight, and he could see that Dietz knew it.
They both watched as the scout reached down, grabbed the gauntlet, and stuffed it in the sack at his side with the rest of the treasure he'd taken. Then Hammlich was backing up, his bow still sighted on them. The scout scooped up the other three sacks where Gunther and the two guards had dropped them, slinging each one over his shoulder in turn. Once that was done he continued backing up to the valley's far wall. He reached the path Alaric and Dietz had taken to get down into the valley and started up it. After a few paces he turned, un-nocked his arrow, shouldered his bow, and ran. Within minutes Hammlich had vanished over the rise.
Dietz had run over to Alaric the minute Hammlich had started his escape. The older man sank to his own knees, helping Alaric lay back on the cool sand. "How bad?" he asked, his fingers already gently probing the wound.
"Bad," Alaric admitted. He was feeling light-headed and alternately burning hot and freezing cold. Dietz offered him a water skin and he drank a little, even though it hurt to swallow.
"We'll get you patched up," Dietz assured him. "I'll bandage this and then we'll get out of here. We'll go slowly."
He was reaching for his backpack and the meagre supplies there when a voice stopped him.
"Slow is good," it said. "So lift your hands, real slow, and keep 'em there."
Alaric looked up. A man stood nearby. Apparently he had come over the cliff while they were watching Hammlich. He was short and stocky, with sandy, greying hair, but what Alaric noticed most was the crossbow aimed at him, and the short sword pointed at Dietz.
"Nasty wound," the man said, glancing down at Alaric. "Good thing the price on your head is the same dead or alive."
"Price?" Alaric asked, staring at the stranger, and clearly distracted by this strange new information. Dietz kept his own attention focused on the man's weapons. They looked far too well used for his liking.
"Akendorf," he reminded his friend quietly, "the ruler there."
"Oh? Oh!" Alaric sat up straighter as he remembered what that self-styled Border Prince Levrellian had told them, and then winced as the motion caused his wound to shift.
"That's right, Akendorf," the stranger agreed, showing that his hearing was as sharp as the sword tip he kept pointed in Dietz's direction. "Prince Rillian put a handsome sum on both your heads. I aim to collect."
"Look, my friend is injured---" Dietz began, but the newcomer cut him off.
"Obviously." He eyed Alaric as if he was a slab of meat. "The only question is: will it be easier to bring him back injured, or dead?" From the look in his dark eyes Dietz didn't think the man was joking.
"Look, let's discuss this like reasonable men," Alaric said, keeping one hand pressed tight to his side. Dietz could see blood welling up around his friend's fingers despite the obvious pressure on the wound, but Alaric managed to keep his voice steady, even pleasant. "I'm sure we can work something out."
Sometimes Alaric's friendly manner swayed people unexpectedly, but not this time.
"Why don't you work out that blade of yours?" the stranger suggested, although his tone made it clear this was not a request. "Just kick it away from you, nice and easy."
"He's hurt!" Dietz shouted, resisting the urge to leap at the man. He knew doing so would mean both their deaths. "He can't kick anything!"
"Then you do it," the man said, "and toss that fancy club of yours over there, too, while you're at it."
Growling under his breath, Dietz did as he was told, collecting Alaric's rapier and tossing both that and his own plundered mace several feet away.
"Toss those little blades, too, while you're at it," the man added, and Dietz cursed softly. He'd hoped the stranger wouldn't notice his knives but of course the man was too sharp for that.
"Fine, they're gone," Dietz said, flinging the knives over by the other weapons and turning back, hands raised. "Now can we talk?"
"Now you can lie down, face in the sand," the man replied. When Dietz didn't move, the crossbow swivelled from Alaric to him, the bolt centred on his heart. "Now."
Gritting his teeth to bite back a retort Dietz complied. He felt the stranger walking closer, and standing over him. Then suddenly a knee landed in the small of Dietz's back, forcing all the air from his lungs in a swift gasp, and something cold and metallic clinked tight around his right wrist. The left followed, something rattling between them, and then both ankles.
"Better." The man stood and hauled Dietz to his feet. His hands were bound behind him, but Dietz could see the heavy iron manacles around his ankles, the thick chain between them long enough to allow him to take short steps but nothing more. He realised that he'd been shackled like a common criminal.
A groan distracted him from his own plight and he glanced at Alaric. The younger man was turning pale and swaying slightly where he sat.
"Look," Dietz began again, turning back towards his captor, "we---Oh hells, I don't even know your name!"
"Is that all?" The man grinned, although his eyes stayed cool as he executed a rough bow. "Merkel Lankdorf, bounty hunter, at your service."
"Dietz," Dietz replied, lifting his chin, "and that's Alaric." He glared at Lankdorf, "and he's badly wounded!"
"I can see that," the bounty hunter agreed. "Stomach wound. Blade of some sort, I'm guessing a dagger."
"Well, help him!" Dietz pleaded. "Or let me do it!"
Lankdorf stepped back a pace and studied Alaric for a moment. Then finally he shrugged. "Don't matter to me if he's alive or dead," he admitted, "but I don't much like lugging a corpse around. The smell tends to bother the mule." He had sheathed his sword at some point, probably when Dietz had been facedown on the ground, and now he gestured Dietz to back up several paces, away from both him and the weapons. Dietz did so, careful to avoid the corpses that littered the ground. He also stayed well clear of the temple ruins and well away from the massive doors that led down into the tomb. Going in there once had been more than enough.
Once he was comfortable with the distance the bounty hunter gestured for Dietz to stop and sit. Then he set the crossbow on the ground behind him, within easy reach, and knelt beside Alaric, prying the nobleman's fingers away so that he could get a better look at the wound.
"Nasty, all right," he said after a minute, "not mortal, though, not with proper treatment." Reaching to his belt Lankdorf removed a water skin and a small pouch. He poured some water directly on the wound, cleaning away the blood and eliciting a small gasp from Alaric. He took a large pinch of something from the pouch and placed it in his palm. Then he added water, mixed them together, and spread it over the wound.
"That'll help stop the bleeding," Lankdorf said, although Dietz wasn't sure whether the bounty hunter was talking to him, Alaric, or himself. The man tore the rest of Alaric's shirt away and ripped the still-clean portions into strips, which he bound around Alaric's waist.
"Will he live?" Dietz asked when the bounty hunter stood.
"If he's strong enough," Lankdorf replied. Then he grinned that humourless grin again, "Leastways, 'til we get to Akendorf."
The bounty hunter gathered the discarded weapons, not just Dietz's and Alaric's but those of the others in the clearing. He also searched the bodies carefully, removing anything of value. "Waste not, want not," he said when he noticed Dietz watching him. Finally he searched Dietz and Alaric as well, which led to an unpleasant surprise as the bounty hunter reached towards Dietz's chest.
"Myrmidia's spear!" The man jumped back, shaking one hand even as he drew his sword with the other. Dietz did his best to back-pedal without tripping over those thrice-damned chains. Glouste, chattering like mad, bounded from her place in his jacket and scurried away, hiding behind Alaric when Lankdorf approached.
"It's my pet!" Dietz shouted. She had hidden within his jacket throughout the trip into the tomb but must have somehow wriggled around to the side when he was being shackled. He whistled and Glouste ran towards him, ducking a half-hearted swipe from the bounty hunter's blade and wriggling between Dietz's bound arms and his back. "She won't hurt you!"
"Hurt me? Damn thing already bit me!" Lankdorf snapped, examining his fingers carefully. Dietz could see a drop or two of blood, although it looked as if the bounty hunter had gotten off lightly. Glouste was capable of doing considerably more damage when riled. "No one said anything about a pet," the bounty hunter muttered, apparently deciding the wounds weren't serious. He approached cautiously, he and Glouste eyeing each other warily. "What's that, then?"
"Her name is Glouste," Dietz explained as the tree-fox climbed up to her usual perch around his neck and butted her head against his cheek affectionately. "She's a tree-fox."
"Is it valuable?" He didn't like the way the bounty hunter was looking at her now.
"To me, yes," Dietz replied, "but no, I doubt she's worth much to anyone else."
Lankdorf sheathed his sword, slowly. "Well," he said, "it stays over there and that's fine, but it makes a try for me with those sharp little teeth and it'll be turning on a spit. Got it?"
"She won't bother you," Dietz said, rubbing his cheek against his pet's head, although she was bristling angrily. "She'll be good."
"Uh huh." The bounty hunter resumed his search, but carefully, one eye on the tree-fox at all times.
"What's this?" he said after a minute, pulling something small from Dietz's pocket. It was the amulet that Glouste had found in the tomb. She must have deposited it in his pocket during their trek back out.
"I don't know," Dietz admitted. "We found it inside." This was the first time he'd really looked at the jewellery and he could see immediately why Glouste had been drawn to it. The amulet seemed to be a pair of flattened silver discs, set one atop the other, although one had slipped slightly so that a crescent of the lower disc showed along the upper left. A large gemstone, pale green, took up most of the upper disc's surface, with strange markings carved all around it. A small silver ring was attached to the lower disc right above the exposed section and that linked the amulet to a fine silver chain.
It was definitely a handsome piece, but something about it made Dietz uncomfortable. Lankdorf obviously didn't feel the same way and he looped the chain over his head, letting the amulet settle around his neck and beneath his shirt collar.
"Time we were moving," the bounty hunter said after he'd searched Alaric as well and been disappointed to find nothing of value. Dietz noticed that he shoved Alaric's notebook back into the young noble's pouch, and wondered if the man simply hated to leave anything behind. "Wait here." He walked away without another word, towards the valley wall, taking the weapons with him, and for a second Dietz thought this might be their chance to escape, but how? He was shackled, Alaric was wounded and unconscious, they had no weapons, and they were trapped in a valley that any minute could fill with the undead. He glanced uneasily at the tomb's front entrance, but for whatever reason the Death Scarab's skeleton guards had not pursued them. Perhaps the liche assumed they were all dead, or perhaps he was holding his warriors back to give them the thrill of the chase.
Dietz was almost relieved when Lankdorf reappeared a few minutes later, leading a pack mule. He'd take a live bounty hunter over undead soldiers any day.
Lankdorf unceremoniously dumped Alaric over the mule's saddlebags, although at least he was careful not to put any direct weight on the wound. Then he tied a length of rope around Alaric's middle, holding him to the mule, and another length from the mule's halter to the chain connecting Dietz's wrists. A longer rope ran from the halter, and Lankdorf picked up the end and wrapped it around his hand, giving a short tug. With a grunt the mule started walking and the little procession moved out, climbing a narrow trail up along the walls and out into the mountains beyond.
Dietz wasn't sorry to see the valley disappear behind them, although he wished they could have buried Woldred and the others. Gunther had been a backstabbing ass and deserved to rot in the sun but the grave robbers had been good men---and woman---despite their occupation. Dietz whispered a short prayer to Ulric under his breath, asking the White Wolf to guide their souls to a better place, but that was all he could do.
"Unh." Alaric woke, feeling as if a mule had been dancing on his chest while men stabbed his stomach with red-hot pokers. Opening his eyes blearily he saw that he had been at least partially right. There was a mule, and its slow, steady plodding was sending jolts through his chest, although he was lying across the beast and not the other way around. Below the mule's feet was hard grey granite, and that and the thin cool air suggested they were still in the World's Edge Mountains. Not in the valley, though, since he saw no sign of sand within his limited view.
"You're awake!" Alaric turned his head and saw Dietz walking beside him, hands behind his back. At first Alaric thought his friend had adopted a casual pose but then he heard the chink of the chains and saw the manacles around the older man's wrists.
"It seems so," Alaric agreed, trying to push himself up enough to look around. A sharp pain through his middle stopped him, however, and he collapsed over the mule's back with a low groan. "What happened?"
"Gunther stabbed you," Dietz reminded him quietly.
"Ah, yes. Now I remember." And he did. The betrayal came flooding back. The double betrayal, really, since Hammlich had then turned on Gunther. Alaric glanced around. "Where are we?"
"Making our way to the Mad Dog Pass," the man walking in front, holding the mule's reins, replied, and Alaric remembered the other events as well. This stranger had arrived after the battle and taken them prisoner. "Feeling better?" he asked.
"A bit, yes," Alaric admitted, and he did, now that he stopped and took stock. His stomach was still tender and he could feel the wound pulsing angrily, and trying to straighten up had caused him to break out in a sweat and made his vision swim, but at least he wasn't shuddering or freezing as he had been right after taking the wound. "I don't believe we've met."
The stranger laughed. "Such polite prisoners," he said, tipping his hat slightly. "Merkel Lankdorf, and I already know your name, Herr Alaric." Alaric glanced at Dietz, who nodded. "I should check your dressings, since you're finally awake."
Lankdorf halted the mule in a shallow basin between two mountain ridges, untied the rope around it, and dragged Alaric off, setting him on the ground none too gently. He also pounded a metal stake into the nearer ridge wall and attached Dietz's manacles to it. Then he removed the bandages Alaric found around his waist, cleaned the wound, and packed some sort of paste into it before binding it with fresh bandages. He finished by tying Alaric's hands and feet and then looping the rope around the stake as well, but at least he left Alaric enough slack to sit on the ground.
"I take it I've got you to thank for this," Alaric said, gesturing weakly at the bandages, "my thanks."
"Thank your friend," Lankdorf replied, jerking a thumb back towards Dietz, "he convinced me." Alaric noticed that it was getting dark, as the bounty hunter stood up and took something from the far side of the mule. "We'll camp here," he announced, raising the crossbow and sliding a bolt in place. "Don't go anywhere." Then he turned and walked away, vanishing into the lengthening shadows.
"How long was I out?" Alaric asked once Lankdorf was gone. He tried to pull himself into a more upright position but gave up when his vision swam again.
"Two days," Dietz replied, crouching by the wall. That was apparently as far as the manacles would allow him to go. "You were feverish at first but Lankdorf fed you a broth of some sort and put a compress on your forehead. That helped." He nodded in the direction they were heading. "He says there's a pass not far from here and that's how we'll get back out of the mountains."
Alaric nodded. "He seems... efficient."
"He is," Dietz agreed, frowning. "I just hope it doesn't become easier for him to kill us and haul our heads back as proof."
Lankdorf returned an hour or so later, a dead mountain goat slung across his shoulders. The bounty hunter gutted the animal, built a fire, and roasted the meat on Alaric's rapier. Lankdorf ate his fill but he only gave Dietz and Alaric small pieces of meat, barely enough to stop their stomachs growling. Nor did he release Dietz's hands, setting the meat upon the mule's back and forcing Alaric's friend to eat by bending down and snaring each piece with his teeth.
"Can we have a bit more?" Alaric asked after he'd finished the meagre meal and accepted a water skin from his captor. "We're still hungry."
"I know," Lankdorf replied, carefully wrapping the rest of the meat and storing it in one of the saddlebags, "but I don't know how often we'll find meat up here." He grinned. "Besides, I feed you more and you might feel strong enough to escape. I like you better this way." The bounty hunter didn't seem inclined to further conversation and moved to the far side of the mule after holding the water skin for Dietz to drink. He kept a clear line of sight on both of them, however, and lay down with the loaded crossbow on his chest, ready to fire at a moment's notice.
"Charming fellow," Alaric muttered, stretching out carefully and wincing as the movement pulled at his wound. Dietz only grunted a reply.
The next day they continued to make their way through the mountains, following narrow trails between cliffs and peaks, and wending generally southward. Alaric was well enough for Lankdorf to set him upon the mule in a sitting position, piling the saddlebags behind him to provide some support and tying his legs below the beast and his hands to the halter. Alaric swayed slightly but held on, pleased not to be banging his face against the mule all day.
He tried to engage Lankdorf in conversation several times but the bounty hunter proved almost as taciturn as Dietz. When he did respond his replies were short and to the point, and he offered very little information about himself, their surroundings, or what might happen to them once they reached Akendorf.
"Don't know, don't care," was Lankdorf's answer to that last question, but Alaric certainly cared, and since their captor wouldn't talk about it he spoke to Dietz instead.
"Do you think they mean to kill us?" he asked his friend as they picked their way slowly through the mountains. Lankdorf was out in front scouting for loose rocks and unstable ledges, and then returning to lead the mule and Dietz carefully from crevice to crevice and peak to peak.
"Probably," Dietz replied. The older man's eyes were downcast, although Alaric suspected it was more to watch his footing than from some sense of foreboding.
"I wonder if it will be a public display or a private execution?" Alaric mused. He knew the thought was morbid but he had little else to think about, and he kept hoping that Lankdorf would offer his opinion, since the bounty hunter clearly knew the Border Princes and its customs far better than they did.
"How much did you say they'd offered for us?" Alaric asked as the bounty hunter returned and took the mule's lead again.
"I didn't."
"All right then, how much did they offer?" When Lankdorf did not reply Alaric pressed him. "Oh, come now, surely I have the right to know my own price!"
For a moment he thought the bounty hunter was going to ignore him again, but finally the man grunted out an answer. Alaric leaned forwards to hear it, and then sat back, astonished. He had to grab the mule's halter to keep from topping from his makeshift seat.
"Did you say five hundred gold?" he asked finally.
"I did," the bounty hunter replied.
"Each?"
"That's right."
Alaric whistled, even though it made his side twinge. "Dietz, we're rich!"
Dietz laughed. "How's that?"
"Well, we're worth five hundred gold apiece," Alaric told him giddily, part of him realising that it was the pain, the fatigue and the hunger talking. "That's as good as carrying around the money ourselves, for who's closer to it than us?"
"Can't spend it, though," Dietz pointed out.
"Of course we can," Alaric argued. "We can buy things on credit. We make a purchase, accept the debt, and they can collect the money when we're caught and killed, simple as that."
"Except I caught you already," Lankdorf said softly, "and I'm not inclined to share."
"Well, it's hardly up to you, is it?" Alaric retorted. "You cannot very well stop us from owning ourselves, and thus the money is as much ours as yours, more even."
Lankdorf half-turned, his sword hissing from his scabbard, and Dietz took several quick hops forwards, placing himself between Alaric and the bounty hunter. "He doesn't know what he's saying," Dietz said quickly. "He's delirious."
Lankdorf stared at Alaric past Dietz's shoulder, the bounty hunter's cold grey eyes hard. Finally he turned away again, the blade returning to its sheath. "The money is mine," he said again as he distanced himself from them.
"Sigmar's hammer, Alaric, are you trying to get us killed sooner?" Dietz demanded once their captor was away again. "He'll gladly cut us both down and drag our corpses back."
"Sorry," Alaric said, although he didn't feel very repentant. "I was just passing the time."
"Pass it more quietly next time," Dietz warned.
That night, Alaric and Dietz waited, bound and staked as usual, for Lankdorf to return from hunting. The man had already shown himself to be an excellent shot, particularly with the crossbow, although Dietz had noticed a sling at the man's belt as well. While they sat Alaric let his thoughts drift back to the tomb and its hideous occupant.
He had been trying not to think too much about the valley and the structure built within it, because he was already having nightmares about walking, rotting corpses, mummified cats with eyes of fire and statues that came to life and carved people to pieces. Plus he kept seeing Therese and the others in his dreams, their skin chalk-white, their eyes milky, and their wounds still dripping blood as they came for his flesh. He knew he could not avoid the memories forever, and something about the doomed expedition was nagging at him, something that didn't make any sense.
Alaric leaned back against the cold stone cliff and tried to lock down the errant thought. What was it that had bothered him? The tomb's construction? No, even though the exterior had not matched---no pyramid---the interior had been consistent with what he'd read of the Nehekharans. The inhabitants? Certainly, but he'd heard stories of such creatures being found in pyramids and tombs before. No, that wasn't it. It was something he'd seen, something that didn't seem to belong.
Then he knew what it was.
It was the gauntlet.
"Hammlich wanted that specifically," he said softly.
"What's that?" Dietz had been petting Glouste, as best he could with his cheek.
"The gauntlet," Alaric replied. "It was the one thing Hammlich specifically wanted. He took the gold, of course, but the others had gathered trinkets as well. He ignored all of those, but the gauntlet he took."
Dietz shrugged. "Maybe he thought it was worth more."
Alaric nodded, "Yes, clearly, but why? It wasn't made of gold, I don't think, and it didn't have any gems that I recall." He closed his eyes, trying to see the gauntlet again in his mind. There! Not gold, no, some sort of strange, banded stone, he remembered, with overlapping plates, and barbs everywhere. There were engravings as well, but he hadn't been able to examine it properly and couldn't say what they were, exactly. It was certainly an intriguing piece, but worth more than the rest put together? He doubted it.
He thought there was something else about its appearance. Alaric concentrated, forcing himself to ignore the pain, hunger and fatigue, and push through it. What else had he seen about the gauntlet?
Then he remembered. It had been covered in runes, and he had seen those runes before.
Reaching for his belt pouch, Alaric winced as he tugged at the wound yet again. Moving more carefully he managed to retrieve his notebook, which he flipped open.
"There!" he said after finding the right page. Dietz glanced over at the mark Alaric was indicating. "That's it!"
"That's what?" his friend asked.
"That mark," Alaric explained, "was on the gauntlet."
"You're sure?"
"Of course I'm sure!" Alaric snapped. "I know what I saw." He stopped to think. "The entire surface was covered in runes." He straightened up, carefully, knowing how painful it might be.
"That gauntlet was marked by Chaos!" he whispered. "It's another artefact!"
Dietz groaned. "What, another one?"
"I know," Alaric agreed, "but that's partly why we came out here, to make sure nothing like that was set loose upon the world." He grimaced. "I suppose we haven't been doing much to stop that lately, but now we will."
He thought about the gauntlet again. Now that he knew its origins the design made sense. No human would have designed it with so many spikes and barbs. Perhaps he had even recognised the gauntlet's inhuman nature subconsciously and that was why he had taken it from the crypt.
"But that doesn't make any sense," he realised. Dietz waited patiently for an explanation. "The gauntlet was in the Death Scarab's crypt, the very heart of his tomb," Alaric explained, "but the Death Scarab is a liche, one of the undead. The undead may be evil but they're tied to this world, not another. I've never heard of such creatures consorting with the forces of Chaos. It should be anathema to them."
"Maybe they've got a pact?" Dietz suggested, and shivered. "Sigmar's hammer, just thinking about those skeletons mixed with that daemon makes me sweat."
"It wouldn't happen," Alaric reassured him. "Artefacts of Chaos make us uncomfortable because they come from another world. The undead are powered by magic, and Chaos magic would disrupt that. They'd never work together. If anything, I would think the undead would be even more determined to destroy anything Chaos-tainted."
He thought back. What was it Karitamen had done when he'd found the gauntlet? The liche had looked almost crazed with anger and it had shouted something, but Alaric didn't know enough Nehekharan to understand the words. The long-dead king had certainly wanted him dead, however.
Or perhaps he simply had not wanted that gauntlet to leave his tomb.
If it had belonged to Karitamen, an artefact like that, why hadn't he been wearing it? It had been tucked safely into his sarcophagus instead, almost as if it had been placed there for safekeeping.
"Morr's blood," Alaric whispered as he realised exactly what the liche's actions meant. "I'm an idiot."
"No argument here," Dietz replied, leaning against the rock wall.
"He wasn't trying to protect it," Alaric said absently, replaying the scene in his head. "He was trying to guard it." Alaric tried pulling himself to his feet but gave up after a second, forced to content himself with sitting a little straighter than before.
"If the gauntlet had been Karitamen's he would have been wearing it," Alaric pointed out. "It had to be one of the most potent items he possessed, but he had it stashed in his sarcophagus instead. It was hidden in the innermost layer, which is the most important one, and the most heavily guarded. He was trying to keep anyone else from finding and taking the thrice-cursed thing. That way the servants of Chaos wouldn't have access to something so powerful; until now."
"So how does a liche get hold of a Chaos artefact, anyway?" Dietz asked.
"I don't know," Alaric admitted. "We know he had some sort of foul sorcery, bestowed on all the walking dead, but why wouldn't he tell them to keep anything Chaos-tainted well away from his tomb?"
"We need to find that gauntlet," Alaric announced, feeling some of his aches and pains fading to the background.
"How are we going to do that?" Dietz asked. "Hammlich is long gone."
"Doesn't matter," Lankdorf pointed out, appearing from the shadows and dropping a brace of birds by the fire, "since I'm taking you straight to Akendorf." Obviously his sharp ears had picked up at least part of their conversation and Alaric wondered how long Lankdorf had been listening. The mountains were quiet enough, and the small crevice where he'd made camp would amplify any sounds so that he could have heard the entire discussion.
"You don't understand," Alaric told him as the bounty hunter began plucking the birds and getting them ready for the fire. "That gauntlet is very powerful and very dangerous."
Lankdorf shrugged. "Not my problem. All I have to do is get you back to Akendorf. End of story."
"Well, it is my problem," Alaric replied heatedly. "I found the gauntlet and I'm the one who removed it from the tomb. That means I'm responsible for letting it loose. I've got to put that right by finding it and either destroying it or returning it to the tomb!"
The bounty hunter finished gutting the birds, cleaned his knife against his trouser leg, and slammed the short blade back into its sheath. "We are not going anywhere near that thing," he announced. "I'm taking you back to Akendorf. End of discussion."
"I let it out, but you're stopping me from correcting that," Alaric responded. "That makes it your responsibility, too! If anyone dies from that thing because we couldn't go after it, it will be your fault."
Suddenly Lankdorf was on his feet, the knife back in his hand. In two quick steps he was across the clearing and the blade was against Alaric's throat. "Another word and I'm bringing back a corpse," he hissed, his eyes as cold as the stone around them, "understand?"
Alaric nodded carefully, the sharp blade pressing into his flesh, and the bounty hunter backed away. Then, without a word, he stormed off into the night, climbing the shallow incline to one side that led back towards a higher peak, leaving them, the mule, and the uncooked birds behind.
"Bit of a temper, hasn't he?" Dietz commented dryly after a moment.
Alaric nodded, rubbing the line that still tingled along his throat. "These artefacts certainly bring out the worst in people," he said absently. Then his gaze fixed on the birds and the fire beside them, both out of reach, and he shook his head.
"I guess I should have waited until after dinner to anger him."
Lankdorf returned an hour or so later, tossed the birds into the fire, and lay down, all without speaking to Alaric and Dietz. He didn't mention the incident the next morning, either, but he did alter their bonds slightly. He tied Alaric's hands but not to the mule, leaving him free to twist about a bit more. His feet were still tied together below the beast's belly, of course, and Lankdorf kept a tight grip on the mule's lead, so there was no chance of escape. The bounty hunter also shifted Dietz's bonds, moving his arms around in front instead of behind and then refastening the manacles. Now Dietz could eat more easily, and walk more comfortably, which was certainly a blessing.
Shortly before noon they topped another rise, this one taller than most of the previous ones. Below them lay a wide, deep channel, cut as straight as the stubborn rock would allow and broad enough to accommodate several wagons abreast.
"Mad Dog Pass," Lankdorf said, clearly pleased, "takes us straight down out of these bloody mountains. Then we'll follow the river north to Akendorf." He glanced at Alaric, as if daring him to argue, but Alaric simply nodded. The bounty hunter seemed to be in a good mood and he didn't want to jeopardise that.
Lankdorf located a narrow trail curving down to the floor of the pass and they navigated it carefully, the bounty hunter in the lead, followed by Dietz and then the mule. It was slow going, the trail so tight in places the mule's sides scraped the rock, and all their attention was on the next step and the one after that. They were almost to the bottom when they heard noises and glanced up.
They saw a group of men, perhaps a dozen or more, emerging around a bend in the pass. From this distance, Alaric could make out very little about them, beyond the fact that they significantly outnumbered him and his companions.
"Unchain me, quick!" Dietz hissed, but Lankdorf shook his head.
"Could be someone else after your heads," the bounty hunter explained, readying his crossbow and tugging the mule forwards several paces, where a handful of boulders almost blocked the end of the trail, "or bandits. I can't take that risk. Get down and keep quiet."
Dietz growled but did as he was told, missing his step on a loose rock and stumbling against the wall but not falling. He found a place to crouch just in front of Lankdorf, who was in front of the mule, his crossbow aimed through a gap between two of the rocks. Alaric, leaning down as best he could to hug the mule's back, knew there was another reason why Lankdorf wasn't going to arm them. They were both too weak from days of reduced meals to be able to fight, and his wound was still bad enough for him to be able to do little more than cling to the mule and hope the strangers passed without noticing them.
As the strangers drew closer, Alaric made out more details. The first thing he noticed was that they were ragged, their clothing little more than tatters and mismatched items, their hair wild and filthy, and their beards thick and matted. Each wielded a weapon of some sort, from sword and axe to crude club, and those were held in hand, unsheathed. The way the sunlight reflected on them, he was fairly certain the weapons were encrusted with blood, and some of it not that old, but two other details made Alaric's blood run cold.
The first was the gleam in the strangers' eyes. They had the look of fanatics, men gone beyond reason, utterly wrapped up in their own obsessions.
The second was the mark each bore on his forehead. It had been carved there, he was sure; he could still see dried blood in several places. It was a rune he recognised, and despite being cut into flesh it had a strange malleable look about it, that same skin-crawling sensation he had felt too many times before.
It was a Chaos mark, and these men wore it as a mark of devotion.
"They aren't bandits, or bounty hunters," he whispered to Lankdorf, in case the bounty hunter hadn't noticed. "They're cultists! If they see us they'll kill us... or worse!"
Lankdorf nodded and Alaric saw his shoulders tense. "Then let's hope they don't see us," he whispered back.
Unfortunately as the cultists neared their hiding place Alaric smelled a foul stench rising from them. Clearly religious fanaticism did not include an interest in bathing. The blood and gore caked on their weapons and clothes probably didn't help either.
As good as Alaric's nose was, the mule's was better.
The beast brayed, shaking its head to drive away the smell. The sound was impossible to miss and the cultists turned towards the rocks, weapons shifting in their hands, grins splitting their faces to reveal rotting, bloody teeth.
"I hear meat," one of the filthy men declared loudly, a rusty axe held high above his head, "and meat like that does not hide on its own. That means people. We shall feast on their hearts and offer their livers to our lord and master!"
The cultists surged forwards, several directly at the boulders while others curved around towards where they met the cliff wall. Lankdorf took that opportunity to fire, the bolt taking the lead cultist through the throat and flinging him back with the force of impact. There was not time to reload and so Lankdorf tossed the weapon down and rose to his feet, drawing his sword with one hand and a dagger with the other. As Alaric watched, the bounty hunter stepped forwards, blocking the end of the trail, blades swinging, and caught one cultists sword stroke on his dagger while his own blade darted in to gut the man. Lankdorf clearly knew how to handle himself, but would that be enough?
After a moment it was clear that the answer was no. The bounty hunter was a competent fighter, but he was badly outnumbered. There were ten cultists in all, and several were trying to scale the boulders and climb down behind Lankdorf. Neither Dietz nor Alaric were in any shape to help, even if they'd had their hands free and weapons to hand. Lankdorf was holding his own, for the moment, fending off those who approached the trail's mouth, but it was only a matter of time before one of the weapons around him found an opening or one of the cultists made it over the boulders and cut him down from behind, and once his blade dropped they were all dead.
"A little help would be good," Alaric said softly. He wasn't even sure who he was talking to, certainly not any of the gods, but it seemed that one of them heard him anyway, for an instant later they heard a shout from the other end of the path.
"By Grungni's beard!" A deep, rough voice cried out. "Looks like a fight up ahead!"
"Help!" Alaric responded, trying to catch a glimpse of the newcomer. "We're under attack and badly outnumbered!"
"Outnumbered?" A second new voice replied. "Looks like bandits! Well, they'll soon regret their actions. Fall before Sigmar's light!"
Suddenly the strangers came into view through a gap between the boulders. Alaric saw the dwarf first, a short, stout figure with swirling blue tattoos, a long red beard and the distinctive orange crest of a Slayer. He bore a massive war axe in each hand. A tall, broad-shouldered man with a shaved head and stern features emerged behind him, wearing the armour of a Sigmarite, his bronze hammer catching the light as he called Sigmar's fury down upon the heathens before him. Behind them were two other men, one dressed in a long red robe and the other a massive white-bearded man with an eye patch, a longsword and an array of daggers and knives about him. A silver-haired woman strode with them, lovely and fine-featured even though she wore full armour and carried both a shield and a sword.
The dwarf reached the cultists first, roaring something in his native tongue, his axes lashing out to cut the nearest cultist in half, the blades sliding past each other as they met through the man's middle. The Sigmarite's hammer shattered another's skull even as the man with the patch stabbed one through the chest with his longsword and the woman knocked another aside with her shield, following the blow with a slicing attack from her delicate but clearly sharp blade. The robed man did not use a weapon but fire danced around his clenched fists and he struck out with that, the flames licking around his target as the cultist fell, blackened marks appearing where the man's fists had connected.
Lankdorf did not miss his opportunity, either. As the surviving cultists turned away from him to deal with this new threat his sword arm snaked out, catching the nearest cultist around the neck. A quick tug backwards and a slice with his dagger and the man fell dead at his feet, blood spurting from his cut throat.
The dwarf had already taken down another foe, his blades shearing one of the man's legs off and then lopping off his head as he toppled. The one-eyed man also killed another, and the Sigmarite battered down the final cultist before either the woman or the robed man could reach him.
"Thanks for the help," Lankdorf called out. He seemed to be directing his speech towards the Sigmarite, which made sense, since a man like that was not likely to take orders from anyone else, so he was most likely the leader of the strangely assorted group.
"I could not in good conscience let you battle alone against such vermin," the Sigmarite replied, his manner of speech reminding Alaric of their witch hunter friend Oswald Kleiber. Why did religious fanatics all speak the same way, he wondered? Or at least why did Sigmarites? The cultists had certainly not bothered with such careful diction.
"Are you injured?" The robed man asked, stepping over the bodies towards the trail entrance. He had wild red hair and a flowing beard, and a flame tattoo around his left eye. Alaric noticed that the man's robes also bore flame patterns at the cuffs and a set of silver keys hung prominently around his neck.
"Nothing important," Lankdorf answered. He had a few small cuts where blades had nicked him, but none of them seemed to hamper him.
The robed man glanced up and saw Alaric and Dietz behind the bounty hunter. His eyes widened, clearly surprised to see anyone else there, and then narrowed as he noticed their bonds. His companions had approached and stood arrayed before Lankdorf. For a second Alaric thought this might be their chance to escape, but the bounty hunter was no fool.
"I'm a bounty hunter," he explained. "These two are wanted for crimes in Akendorf."
"A misunderstanding," Alaric corrected, keeping his tone light, "nothing more. Why the prince felt the need to take such extreme action for so minor a disagreement is beyond me."
"Doesn't matter," Lankdorf countered, turning slightly and cuffing Alaric on the cheek. "They're my prisoners and that's that."
The strangers stood for a second without speaking, but then the Sigmarite stepped forwards.
"We have no wish to interfere," he assured Lankdorf, who visibly relaxed. "Yours is a rightful task and we will not impede you."
"Thanks." Lankdorf nodded and sheathed his blades. "Merkel Lankdorf," he introduced himself.
"I am Alaric von Jungfreud, at your service," Alaric interjected, bowing carefully from his seat to avoid aggravating his wound, "and this is my companion, Dietrich Froebel." Dietz nodded. Lankdorf glared at him but didn't try to strike him again.
"Jurgen Heim," the Sigmarite responded, "and these are my companions." He gestured at the dwarf, the robed man, the lady, and the one-eyed man in turn. "Urrel Two-Axe, Otto Enbar of the Bright Order, the lady Kera of Ostermark, and Gorge von Oswald."
Dietz gasped when he heard the last name. "The Butcher of Middenheim!" he blurted out, and then looked embarrassed as the man in question scowled. "Sorry, it's just... I've heard all about you! I'm from Middenheim myself. My father was a wheelwright there."
"Oh?" von Oswald brightened. "What did you say your name was? Froebel?" He thought for a moment, and then snapped his fingers. "Not Denholm Froebel?"
"That's my father!" Dietz straightened. "My older brother Dracht runs the shop now."
"Ah, a fine man, your father," von Oswald said. "Yes, an excellent craftsman. I bought from him more than once." His face clouded, as if remembering that time in his life had led to other, less happy thoughts, and he fell silent once more.
"The Bright Order?" Alaric asked the robed man, trying to fill the uncomfortable pause. He'd heard that somewhere, but where? After a second he had it. "You're a fire mage!"
"Yes." Enbar seemed pleased at the recognition. "You know of our order?"
"Only a little," Alaric admitted. "I've heard of the various magical orders but not in detail." This was actually the first time he'd met a Bright Wizard in person and he had several questions to ask, but the way Lankdorf was looking at him he knew he'd best not push his luck.
"Lucky our paths crossed when they did," the bounty hunter commented, forcing attention back away from his prisoners.
"Yes," Heim agreed, "particularly since we will not stay on this road long. Our path lies somewhere within the mountains, through less travelled routes."
"Assuming we can find the damned thing at all," Enbar muttered.
"We'll find it," the dwarf, Urrel, growled back. "I can find anything buried in the ground."
"Anything belonging to your people," Enbar agreed, "but what do you know of the ancient Nehekharans?"
Alaric's ears pricked at the name, and he resisted the urge to see if Dietz had caught the mention as well.
"Stone is stone," Urrel was insisting. "If it's here, I shall find it." His grip tightened on his two axes as if daring anyone to contradict him again. No one did.
"Which way did you travel?" The lady, Kera, asked them. Her voice was smooth and soft, her speech delicate, and Alaric knew at once that he was dealing with a fellow noble. Yet she wielded a blade and wore armour and shield, more like a guard or man-at-arms than a lady. He wondered what her story might be.
"We came from the north," Lankdorf told them grudgingly. He indicated the peaks behind them.
"Did you see anything... unusual?" Enbar asked, his eyes bright.
The bounty hunter seemed unwilling to yield information. "A lot of rock," was his only reply.
"Unusual in what way?" Alaric asked, unable to stay quiet.
"Oh, strange formations, carvings, that sort of thing," Enbar replied as casually as he could.
"You mean like a pair of massive doors, carved in the image of a dead Nehekharan king?" It was the first time Dietz had spoken since mentioning his brother, and several of the newcomers started at his comment, their eyes widening as his words sank in. Dietz grinned at them.
"Aye, that's what I thought," he said slowly. "You want the tomb."
"Shut up!" Lankdorf struck Dietz in the stomach, hard enough to double him over. "You speak when I say you speak!"
"I would hear what they know of this tomb," Enbar announced, stepping forwards. Perhaps Alaric was imagining it but the air around the man seemed to shimmer, the way it did around a strong fire.
"Aye, so would we all," Heim agreed. He studied Lankdorf soberly. "It would be a great aid to us if you would allow them to speak, friend."
"Fine." Lankdorf spat the word out. "Talk, then." All eyes turned back towards Dietz, who suddenly looked less thrilled about that.
"We've been there," Alaric interjected, drawing the newcomers' attention away from his friend. Now he had all their attention. "Karitamen the Death Scarab, his tomb, we've been there."
"You carry no treasure," von Oswald pointed out, his one eye piercing. "The tomb is said to be filled with gold and other baubles."
"It is," Alaric admitted. "More than ten men could carry." He shook his head and winced at the motion. "We were in a bit of a hurry."
"And inhabitants?" Heim asked, his hands tightening on his hammer.
"Undead," Dietz told him, "skeleton warriors, mummified cats, living statues... oh, and the king himself." He shuddered, clearly remembering the fight in the burial chamber. "He's like a skeleton but much worse, more alert, for one thing, and much stronger."
"A liche!" The way the Sigmarite's eyes lit up, Alaric might have thought the man had found a treasure beyond value, and perhaps the idea of killing such a creature was that valuable to him.
"Go due north for three days," Dietz told them, "head between the cleft that resembles a bent fork tine and aim for the peak that looks like a hawk's beak. Look for a valley with a flat wall along the west side." His expression shifted. "You'll see bodies there as well."
"Bodies?" Urrel asked.
"Some of our recent companions," Alaric explained, "and several local soldiers fought over the treasure." When Heim's gaze shifted to them and to Lankdorf, Alaric felt compelled to admit, "he wasn't there. We were wounded and he found us afterwards."
Lankdorf spoke up. "What about the way you came?" he asked, clearly bored with all this talk of the tomb. "Anything we should watch for?" He dragged the mule down into the pass proper, and then hauled Dietz along as well, leaving the way clear for the adventurers.
"Aye," von Oswald replied, his face twisting into a snarl of disgust. "That town, the one we heard of. What was it again?"
"Vitrolle," Enbar reminded him.
"That one," the one-eyed man agreed. "Steer clear of it."
"It stands at the head of the Howling River, where it splits in twain," Kera explained. "We heard strange stories of that place and its people. They say all there are fanatics, all worshipping the same god. They say many who enter that region disappear, never to return." She shuddered slightly, although she masked the tremor almost immediately.
"Good luck, and may Sigmar be with you," Heim told them, raising his hand in benediction. Then he gestured ahead of him with his hammer and the others followed as he passed Alaric and Dietz, and Lankdorf began climbing the trail up the cliff side.
The other four said goodbye, each in his or her own fashion, and marched past them and up the winding trail. Before long Heim had reached the top and disappeared over the peak, the others following behind him.
"You meet the most interesting people," Alaric murmured as Lankdorf gathered the mule's reins and led her down the pass. None of them spoke much for the rest of the day as they followed Mad Dog Pass, but Lankdorf kept his crossbow close at hand and his eyes peeled, and all of them started every time a rock fell or the wind howled through the mountains.
It took them two more days to reach the path's end, walking down out of the mountains, out of the foothills, and finally to the edge of rolling green countryside. They hadn't seen anyone else along the way.
They were still camped on the third day, enjoying the shift from hard rock to dirt and trees, when they heard a strange rustling noise. Before any of them could react, the bushes erupted, a flurry of leaves and branches rising into the air around them. Then the steady drumbeat reached them, shaking their feet, making them want to die. The pounding increased, someone drawing closer, until suddenly the shadows around them burst into life as a trio of horsemen emerged. The men wore studded leather armour with wine-red sashes across their left shoulders, and carried shields and longswords. The shields were deep red, with a brown horse rearing upon them. The riders closed in around Alaric, Dietz and Lankdorf, leaving no path for escape.
"Who are you and what is your business here?" the lead horseman asked, addressing Lankdorf. His hand rested on his sword hilt, but he didn't draw it.
"I'm a bounty hunter," Lankdorf replied, carefully keeping his hands away from his weapons. He didn't sound very concerned. "I'm taking these two criminals back to Akendorf."
"Under what authority?" the rider demanded.
"My own," the bounty hunter replied. "What else is there?"
One of the other riders laughed. "In these lands, you must have our ruler's permission to engage in such activities."
"I didn't know that," Lankdorf admitted. "I didn't mean to break any laws."
"Yet you have," the first horseman informed him. He frowned. "You will come with us," he said after a second's pause, "all of you."
"Is that really necessary?" Lankdorf asked. He let one hand rest on his belt pouch and shifted it slightly, causing a clink that could only come from coins rubbing together. "Isn't there some fee I can pay instead? I don't like long delays."
"You will delay for as long as necessary," the rider informed him. He studied the three of them carefully. "I do not trust your presence here," he said finally, "especially at such a time. We will take you to our ruler and let her decide your fate."
Alaric noticed the pronoun shift. The local ruler was a woman? He'd never heard of a female ruler here, and he was curious to meet her. Not that they seemed to have much of a choice.
Apparently the ruler's camp was nearby. One of the three horsemen removed Lankdorf's weapons, tied his hands behind him, and pulled him up onto the horse in front of him. Another hoisted Dietz up onto his horse, leaving the wrist manacles but taking the key from Lankdorf and removing the anklets. The third clearly considered treating Alaric the same way, but after seeing his bandages the rider decided it was better to leave Alaric where he was, and so it was three horses and a mule that rode away from the last sight of the pass and plunged back into the Border Princes.
The land was not as heavily forested as it was to the north, although there were trees aplenty. The copses were smaller and further apart, however, creating small plains and valleys in between. Tall grass covered the ground between the trees, but Dietz also saw cultivated fields bordered by sturdy wooden fences.
The horsemen led them along a wide dirt path that was clearly well used, judging by the way every bit of grass had been trampled flat. It took only two hours for them to reach a large camp staked out on a decent-sized plain. The tents were sturdy and well anchored, suggesting this was a long-term encampment. Armed guards barred the path but moved aside when they saw the horsemen coming. Soldiers were everywhere, most of them sitting or pacing, drinking, gambling, honing weapons, cleaning armour, cooking or sleeping. Alaric was glancing around, a strange look on his face, and Dietz remembered that his friend had seen such gatherings before, in his youth, when his father had forced him to accompany his kin into battle.
The horsemen had barely spoken during the ride, although they did offer all three captives water skins and even wizened apples and hunks of dried meat. Now they tethered their horses at a convenient hitching post and helped Dietz and Lankdorf to the ground. Alaric had to be lifted down. The hard ride had opened his wound again, and he was barely able to stand unaided.
The horsemen led them into a large tent near the centre of the encampment, its heavier material and better construction indicating that it belonged to someone important. Stepping through the entrance flap, however, Dietz saw only a low table and seating cushions off to one side, and a sturdy, high-backed chair to the other. The three of them were forced down onto the rug before the chair and left there. The horsemen disappeared but two other men stood by the entrance flap, spears in hand, watching their every move.
After a few minutes a woman entered the tent. She was short, broad-shouldered and busty, with strong features, dusky skin, dark hair and large dark eyes. Dietz might have called her "handsome" and certainly she had a charisma that made him and his two companions pay attention. She was wearing plain, well-made clothes and wore a sword at her side, its handle worn from use. Nothing about her appearance or attire suggested anything other than an unusual woman warrior, possibly a mercenary. Her presence, however, said that she was far more than a mere fighter, and this was confirmed when she sank down into the chair with the ease of long practice and the grace of someone whose reflexes had been honed from years of hard use.
"You are on my lands and have broken my laws," she told them, her voice deep and rich. "Explain yourselves. Who are you and what do you want here?"
As usual Alaric managed to speak first. "Alaric von Jungfreud, madam, at your service."
"Ignore him, madam," Lankdorf said quickly. "He's my prisoner. They both are. I am a---"
"Yes, a bounty hunter," she interrupted, her flashing eyes warning him not to test her patience. "I have been told. Yet I gave you no permission for anyone to hunt people on my lands. You have no authority here." She returned her attention to Alaric. "You were saying?"
"Yes, madam." Alaric executed a graceful bow, although Dietz saw him sway slightly. "As I said, I am at your service. This is my friend and companion, Dietrich Froebel." Dietz nodded, "but I do not believe I know your name, fair lady."
The woman frowned, eyes narrowing, and for a second Dietz thought his young friend's charms had backfired. "Fatandira is my name," she answered finally, "and I will ask the questions. Now, Herr von Jungfreud, why are you here?"
Dietz thought his friend would launch into an explanation of their plight, and of the events at the tomb. Instead Alaric chose a different tack. "We are pursuing a man, a spy," he answered, ignoring the shock on Lankdorf's face. "He stole something from us, something of great significance, and we must restore it to its rightful place."
Fatandira leaned forwards in her chair, clearly intrigued. "A spy, you say? This sounds little like a bounty hunter and his prisoners, does it?" She glanced at Lankdorf and Dietz shuddered. He had seen similar looks from cats when they had cornered their prey.
"We were captured by this man while pursuing the spy," Alaric explained.
"What is his name, this man you seek?"
"Hammlich," Dietz offered, knowing his friend and employer's problem with names. Alaric could speak half a dozen languages well, write more of them, and recite chapter and verse from various dry old tomes on archaeology or what have you, but he couldn't remember most people's names five minutes after meeting them.
"Yes, Hammlich," Alaric confirmed. "He---"
He was cut off by the sound of laughter. Fatandira was chuckling, a deep throaty laugh. This was not a delicate woman, but Dietz appreciated her direct nature.
Alaric was less amused. "Did I say something funny?" he demanded.
"Oh yes," Fatandira replied. She raised her voice so the guards at the tent entrance could hear it. "Has Hammlich recovered yet? If so, bring him to me!" One of the guards saluted and vanished from the tent.
"You know him?" Alaric asked.
"Of course I do," she replied. "He works for me."
While Alaric absorbed this information the guard returned, supporting a familiar figure. Hammlich started slightly when he saw the two of them, and then nodded and smiled.
"Well, you survived," he said by way of greeting. "I didn't think you would. I almost didn't make it, myself." He had a small sack hanging from his belt and Dietz noticed bandages around the scout's left arm and torso.
"This is the man you wanted to chase down?" Lankdorf asked. He had been looking around before, but had glanced up when Hammlich and the guard entered and had started slightly. Now he was watching both men carefully.
"Yes," Alaric agreed. "He betrayed his commander, stole something from us, and fled just before you arrived."
"I did not betray anyone," Hammlich corrected haughtily. "Gunther was never my true commander, nor is my loyalty to that filth, Levrellian. My allegiance lies here, with Fatandira."
Fatandira smiled at his statement. "That is true," she said. "Hammlich has been true to his oaths. I sent him to spy on Levrellian and inform me if that weasel attempted another attack on my lands." She eyed Hammlich. "Now that your wounds have been tended, report. I had not expected you to come here in person," she told him, her tone indicating he was on dangerous ground. "You have compromised your cover."
"I know," the scout admitted. "I can never go back there. I would not have betrayed my position but we found something, something I knew Levrellian should never see."
"Oh?" She glanced back over at Dietz, Alaric, and Lankdorf. "And who is this 'we'?"
Hammlich straightened, eyes focusing straight ahead, clearly a soldier rattling off a report. "Levrellian learned the location of an ancient Nehekharan tomb," he said. "He sent Gunther to locate it, explore it, and bring back any treasures it contained. I accompanied him, along with a patrol unit. We encountered these two"---he indicated Alaric and Dietz---"at the mouth of the tomb, with several others. Apparently Levrellian had taken their map. We explored the tomb, which belonged to a king named Karitamen."
Fatandira shuddered at the name, going slightly pale below her normal dusky hue. "The Death Scarab!" she whispered.
"We encountered many horrors," Hammlich continued without pause, "including the dead king himself, now a hideous creature of bones and foul magic." That got a shudder from everyone present, including Lankdorf, who had never asked about the tomb or what lay within it. "However, there was indeed treasure, enough to buy an army large enough to rule all the Border Princes. Only a handful of us escaped alive, but I knew if Levrellian got his hands on that gold he would be unstoppable." He straightened. "So I killed Gunther, took the treasure we had carried out, and brought it here, although I was attacked twice along the way. The rest of Levrellian's men are dead. No one else knows how to find that tomb." He looked straight at Alaric and Dietz when he said this, and the meaning was clear: no one else but the three of them.
"You left something out," Alaric pointed out softly. "You didn't tell her about the artefact."
"What artefact?" Fatandira looked back and forth between the two men, her dark eyes piercing, and Hammlich finally looked away.
"I was going to tell you of it privately," the scout claimed, although his words sounded false to Dietz. "That one"---he gestured towards Alaric again---"found an item, clearly something of great power. Gunther was going to kill him after we escaped the tomb and claim it for Levrellian. I knew you wouldn't want that."
"So he took it from me," Alaric clarified, "after he'd killed Gunther with his own pistol."
"I see." Fatandira stroked her chin absently as she thought. "This item... you have it with you?"
In reply Hammlich opened the sack and pulled out the gauntlet, holding it up so it would catch the torchlight.
Everyone in the tent gasped as they gazed upon the gauntlet. Dietz found himself entranced and he knew where it had come from, knew that it was tainted, but it was still utterly captivating.
It was hideous, actually. It had segmented overlapping plates and wicked claws like insanely long fingernails. It had barbs and spikes all over. Runes covered much of the surface, but in between them were small carvings of some sort. Dietz strained to make out the carvings, but gave up, realising that he might be better off never knowing.
Hammlich lowered his arm, extending the artefact towards Fatandira, who reached towards it... and recoiled as a gleaming blade slid through Hammlich from the back, piercing his heart.
The scout dropped to the ground without a sound, the gauntlet tumbling from his limp fingers.
The guard behind him, the one Lankdorf had been eyeing, wiped his blade off and, raising it again to the ready, reached down and retrieved the gauntlet.
"I'll be taking this," he said, wrapping the item in his cloak, "and as for you---" He turned towards Fatandira, his sword raised. She simply watched him approach, apparently calm, her hand not straying to her blade because she knew she would never be able to draw it in time.
Lankdorf burst into action, just as the guard pulled his arm back to strike Fatandira. He took a quick step forwards, scooped up a heavy brazier, and smashed it into the treacherous guard, toppling him like a felled oak. Then the bounty hunter shoved both the brazier and its victim aside and offered Fatandira a hand up.
"Thank you," she said, accepting the gesture and the aid without a hint of reluctance. She looked down at Hammlich's body and shook her head. "I am sorry, cousin," she whispered, so softly that Dietz barely heard her. Then she walked over to the fallen guard and kicked him hard in the side. "To think, I trusted you, Rorschach," she snarled. "Well, good riddance!"
She turned and took a step towards the entrance to give an order to the remaining guard. She froze. For an instant Dietz couldn't understand why. Then he heard the unmistakable sound of a man dragging himself to his feet.
The guard, the one she had called Rorschach, was awake and somehow standing right behind them. He had the gauntlet cradled under one arm still, and his sword tip wavered slightly but not enough to make him less than a severe threat.
"Die, you filthy she-beast," he growled, "for the glory of---"
For a second time he was interrupted, this time as someone hurled himself forwards, colliding with Rorschach's legs and knocking him to the ground. Alaric groaned with the impact and Dietz could see blood seeping through his bandages, but he was impressed. No one would ever call his friend a coward.
Unfortunately Rorschach proved resilient, and Dietz saw that the collision had knocked the guard down but not out. More guards were entering the tent, however, and the traitor must have realised that the moment was past, for he leapt to his feet and bolted for the entrance, shoving two other guards aside and escaping before they realised that he was their intended prey. They took off after him while Dietz turned and knelt by his friend's side. After a moment Fatandira joined him.
"Thank you," she said, gazing down at Alaric, who seemed dazed. "I owe you my life." Then she noticed the blood. "You're hurt!"
"He was stabbed a few days ago," Dietz explained. "It's a nasty wound."
"I will not have him die in my tent, not after he put himself at risk to save me." Fatandira exclaimed. She turned to her guards. "Fetch Estia at once!" she said. They saluted and hurried out.
"Do not worry," she assured Dietz, glancing down at Alaric again. This time she wasn't frowning. "He will survive. I will see to that."
Dietz believed her. If necessary he thought this woman could challenge Morr himself and come out ahead.
Estia proved to be a short, slight woman with dark skin, close-cropped black hair, and pale blue eyes. She wore the emblem of Shallya around her neck and bustled in, carrying a basket filled with strange smells that made Dietz's eyes water. Her sharp eyes took in the scene at once and she directed the guards to move Alaric to a nearby pile of thick rugs. She then knelt at his side, checking his forehead with the back of her hand before unwrapping the wound. Alaric had apparently passed out, although he did groan as she pulled the blood-soaked bandage from his flesh.
The healer lifted the bandages clear, and then paused and sniffed at them. "Alfunas, Sigmafoil and Spiderleaf?" she murmured. Her voice was deep and throaty, far too rich for such a tiny woman. "Who dressed this wound?"
Lankdorf stepped forwards. "I did."
Estia eyed him for a second, her hands still busy wadding up the old bandages and lifting new ones from her basket. "You know your herbs," she said approvingly. "That's rare."
Dietz thought he saw the bounty hunter flush, although it was hard to be sure in the torchlight. "My parents," he said shortly. "They were herbalists."
"They trained you well," she said. "That compress may be all that's kept him alive. When was he wounded?"
"Three days ago," Dietz told her. She nodded without looking at him, intent upon cleaning the wound with a cloth she wet from a small water pitcher.
"He'd have bled out for sure if it wasn't for that compress," the healer confirmed as she studied the wound. "Thank your friend there for saving his life."
Dietz glanced at Lankdorf, who shrugged and actually looked uncomfortable. Neither of them bothered to point out that they weren't friends.
While the healer worked, one of Fatandira's guards approached. "Rorschach is gone," he told her. "He didn't go by horse but he must have had a back way out of the camp. None of the sentries saw him leave."
"Ilyria's teats!" Fatandira cursed, earning a shocked smile from the healer. "How long has he been planning this? Who is he working for? Where did he go? Find out, now!" The guard scurried away quickly, clearly happy to escape his leader's wrath so easily. Then she turned her attention to Dietz and Lankdorf.
"Remove their bonds," she ordered, and another guard hurried forwards.
"These two are my prisoners," Lankdorf protested, but Fatandira turned on him, fire in her dark eyes.
"You are all my prisoners," she snapped. Then she softened slightly. "What existed between you before this is not important." She faced the bounty hunter down, "unless you wish to remain a prisoner, while they go free?" Lankdorf backed away, shaking his head. "I thought not." She gestured for the guards to continue. The three horsemen must have handed over Lankdorf's keys because they unlatched Dietz's manacles without pause, and removed Lankdorf's ropes as well. Estia had already cut away Alaric's so she could treat him more easily.
"You will be our guests," Fatandira explained. "For our security we will hold your weapons for you, but you may have the run of the camp." Dietz understood what that meant: they were free to roam within the encampment but not allowed to leave it. Still, it was better than being a prisoner, or a casualty.
"Find them a tent," was the ruler's next command. "Clear one out if necessary." She glanced at Estia, who shook her head.
"I will keep watch over this one," the healer replied to the unspoken question. "We will move him to my tent for now." She had replaced the bandages, first applying another compress of some sort, and began chanting something over the fallen nobleman. Dietz could not make out the words, but the melody was soothing.
"Very well." Fatandira turned back to Dietz and Lankdorf. "He will receive the finest care, I assure you. Estia has a true gift for healing. The moment he awakens you will know of it, and once he is recovered more he will be moved into your tent." She glanced at Alaric again. "He will be fine," she murmured.
Then the guards helped Dietz to his feet and led both him and Lankdorf from the command tent.
The tent they'd been given had clearly been vacated recently by some of the local guards, and contained only bedrolls, a camp table, and several stools. It was enough, however, and Dietz gratefully collapsed once the guard left. He was about to drift off to sleep when he realised that Lankdorf was staring at him.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing," the bounty hunter replied, turning away and laying down.
"If you're worried I'll get away, don't be," Dietz said, fatigue making him irritable. "I wouldn't leave Alaric here and it's not as if we can leave anyway."
"I know," Lankdorf said, setting his hat over his face. "I just don't like it, that's all."
There wasn't much to say to that, so Dietz didn't bother. In a minute he was asleep anyway.
\*
When he woke up the sun was low on the horizon and the bounty hunter was nowhere to be found. Getting up, Dietz stepped to the tent's entrance flap and glanced outside. Men and women milled around, handling the normal business of a camp, and he could see the edge of the command tent. A familiar figure crouched next to it.
"Find something?" Dietz asked once he'd walked over. He crouched beside Lankdorf, who didn't bother to turn around or look up.
"Here," the bounty hunter said finally. He traced something on the ground. Peering at it, Dietz made out a half-moon indentation. Just ahead of that was a second depression, shaped more like a blunted arrowhead but far larger.
"A footprint?" He glanced at it again. "So what? This is a camp. There are a lot of people here, all of them walking about."
"None of the others have boots like these," Lankdorf replied. He glanced up and met Dietz's eyes. "Most of these people have riding boots, high and stiff, with no heel but a groove from the stirrup. These are softer boots with sturdier soles, made more for walking." He grinned. "I've been watching people's feet the past hour or more. I haven't seen any like this. I've only seen one set here like this, not counting ours."
"That guard's?" Dietz guessed. He knew he was right even before the bounty hunter nodded. "So you're saying you can track him?"
Lankdorf nodded again. "If we're not stuck here too long," he added, "but if I can figure out his direction now, while they're still mostly fresh, I can guess his direction and his destination."
"Have you told the guards?"
The bounty hunter shifted his weight, settling back on his haunches. "No," he replied finally. "Not sure if I will, either."
"Why not?" Dietz stared at him. "He killed Hammlich, and he's got the gauntlet."
"I know. That's why I want to track him down."
Dietz frowned. "I thought you said the gauntlet wasn't your problem."
"It isn't." Lankdorf looked down and idly traced the boot print with one finger. "But maybe it's worth something. A thing like that, it's got to be. It might be worth my while to retrieve it." Dietz was sure there was more to it than that, but he wasn't about to press it.
"So once Alaric's better, if they let us go, you plan to track that guard?" Lankdorf nodded. "Good. We'll go with you."
"Oh, count on it," Lankdorf replied, straightening up. "You're still my prisoners. I'm still taking you to Akendorf."
Dietz snorted and stood. "I don't think so." The bounty hunter rose to his feet and they stared at each other for a moment. Dietz was a full head taller. "You had a crossbow last time, and we were tired and Alaric was wounded," he pointed out. "None of those things are true now."
"I can still take you," Lankdorf claimed, but even he didn't sound convinced.
"Look, you were only taking us back for the money, right?" The bounty hunter nodded. "Well, you've got the rest of the things we found in the tomb and they're probably worth as much as the price on our heads." He wasn't exactly sure, but they were certainly worth a good deal. "Why not just take that and be done?"
Lankdorf scowled. "I've never failed a job and I don't aim to start now."
"It's not a failure," Dietz argued. "It was taken beyond your control." He thought the bounty hunter was starting to weaken. "And we can help you with the gauntlet," he added.
"How? I can track it fine on my own."
"True," Dietz agreed, "but Alaric is an expert on artefacts like that. If anyone could tell you what it is and what it's for---and what it's worth---it'd be him."
That caught Lankdorf's attention, and his eyes looked through and past Dietz as he mulled that over.
"I keep whatever we get for it," he said finally, "part of the price for letting you go."
"Done," Dietz agreed.
"Done." They shook hands and then relaxed. Dietz was relieved it wouldn't come to a fight---although he'd still keep an eye on Lankdorf if and when they got their weapons back---and thought the bounty hunter probably felt the same. Why risk life and limb when you could get as much or more with less danger?
"So what do we do now?" he asked.
"We track these prints as far as we can," Lankdorf replied, "and then we wait."
The wait ended up being four days. Alaric woke up that night but was feverish again and too weak to do more than whisper and sip at the broth Estia had prepared. The next day his fever had broken and he could sit up and talk more normally. The third day he was finally allowed out of bed. On the fourth he insisted on leaving the tent.
"It's an amazing recovery," the healer said, shaking her head as she watched Alaric moving around carefully. "That alfunas must be the cause. He shouldn't even be able to sit up yet, and here he is, walking around."
"I heal quickly," Alaric replied lightly, but Dietz could tell that he was only putting on a brave face. He was a little alarmed at his young friend's pallor, and at the way his arm shook when he held the water skin to his lips, but it was good to see Alaric up and about, at least.
"The fresh air will do you good," Estia agreed as she helped him step out of her tent. She had placed a stool right by the entrance and sat him down with the water skin and a bowl of broth.
"What, no meat?" Alaric joked, but he drank the broth meekly enough.
While the healer ducked back into her tent to air out the bedding and remove the old bandages she had just replaced, Dietz filled Alaric in on recent events.
"Glad to hear we're no longer captives," Alaric said afterwards, grinning at Lankdorf, who only grunted in reply, "and it's excellent news about pursuing the gauntlet, even though it may not be as valuable as you think, at least not in terms of money." Dietz winced, wishing for the hundredth time that his friend and employer was not so honest.
Fortunately the statement didn't seem to faze the bounty hunter. "I'll take that risk," was all he said. His tone suggested he thought Alaric was holding out on him, and Dietz silently cheered the man's inherent greed and suspicion.
"Has anyone spoken to our hostess?" Alaric asked next. Both Dietz and Lankdorf shook their heads, but Alaric stopped whatever he'd been about to say and looked past them. "Well, her timing is certainly excellent," he commented. The statement didn't make much sense until Dietz glanced behind him and saw Fatandira striding towards them.
She was wearing mail today, as she had the past two days when he'd seen her from a distance. The gear looked solid and well worn, and clearly she was accustomed to its weight. A longsword and a dagger hung at her side, and she carried a spear in one hand, its edge glinting slightly in the late morning light.
"You have recovered," she said without preamble, marching past Dietz and stopping just beyond arm's reach from Alaric.
"I am on the mend, yes," he replied, doing an abbreviated bow so as not to aggravate the wound further, "thanks to the kind attentions of your healer. I am in your debt, madam."
"No, I am in your debt," she replied with a faint smile. "You saved my life. All I did was help to save yours." Estia emerged from the tent, and nodded when the ruler glanced her way.
"He is recovering well," the healer said, "surprisingly well. A few more days and he will be healed completely, I think." She shook her head. "I have never seen such an apt patient," she admitted quietly. "Surely Shallya has blessed you with her touch."
"Then I am in her debt as well," Alaric said with a smile. "I will offer up my thanks to her as soon as I am able."
"Rest today," Fatandira told him. "Recover your strength. Tonight you dine with me." Then she turned and stalked away.
The three men watched her go, Alaric with a familiar look of confusion on his face. Lankdorf, however, was chuckling.
"Looks like you'll get a chance to show your gratitude after all," the bounty hunter said.
"Why me?" Alaric grumbled as he was dressing for dinner. A guard had delivered a set of clothes to Estia's tent earlier, with instructions that he wear them tonight. It was nobleman's garb---where they had acquired it he had no idea---and a reasonable fit, although the jacket and shirt were a bit loose in the shoulders and across the chest. It was taking him forever to fasten the shirt ties, however, because too much stretching still caused a nasty twinge in his stomach.
"It's the curse of good looks," Dietz replied from where he sat in the corner. "If you weren't so pretty you wouldn't have this problem."
"That's not particularly helpful," Alaric snapped. He knew his friend was laughing at him. Dietz seemed to have a way with women, at least if the encounters he'd had in several towns and ports were any guide. Alaric had always been too busy with his books for romance. He'd been raised as a noble, of course, and so he knew the social niceties and could spout poetry if necessary, but that was as far as it went. Still, he supposed a little light conversation and some witty banter wasn't beyond him. Hopefully that was as far as it would go.
Not that Fatandira was bad looking; a bit mannish, perhaps, with that square jaw, but she was certainly fit and full-figured and she had striking eyes.
Of course, she was also a military commander and could have him killed if he displeased or upset her.
"Why not?" Dietz suggested for the third time. "Make her happy and we go free. Upset her and she slits our throats."
"I know, I know," Alaric groused. He finished tying the shirt to his satisfaction and buttoned the jacket. Then he unbuttoned it again when it tugged his bandages uncomfortably. She would simply have to accept that he was wearing the jacket open, he thought crossly.
"How do I look?" he asked Dietz, turning around and holding his arms out so his friend could see the full effect.
"Like a peacock," Dietz replied, "all dressed up to impress the ladies."
"Yes, well, let's hope this lady is impressed."
As he walked to the command tent, stepping between smaller tents and corrals and passing several guards and several soldiers on horseback, Alaric allowed himself to think about the other things that had been bothering him since their arrival. There were three, in fact: his recovery, his dreams, and that cursed gauntlet.
Estia was still amazed at how quickly he had recovered. She had praised Lankdorf's use of herbs, but the bounty hunter admitted that they shouldn't have caused such a rapid healing process. Estia spoke of her goddess, Shallya, taking a hand and Alaric wanted to believe that. The problem was, he worried that someone---or something---less benign had been knitting his wound together instead.
That was because of the dreams. He had been having nightmares, the same ones he'd had since their battle under Middenheim. He kept seeing the cultists in his dreams, and the portal they had created. He saw the shadowy form of the daemon they had summoned, slowly making its way through that otherworldly tunnel. Each time it drew closer and closer, and each time he woke up screaming, or whimpering.
The dreams had gotten worse since he'd been wounded. They were longer, and clearer, and somehow more vivid. He could smell the dank mould of that underground chamber, and feel the heat of the torches placed around the room, and the strange hot breeze that blew from the portal, carrying with it the stench of decay and old blood. The stone felt solid beneath his feet. It took him several minutes after waking to convince himself that this was the reality and that had been the dream, and not the other way around.
The gauntlet had also appeared in his dreams recently. In one he was wearing the artefact and had stood frozen in horror as barbs from the inside stabbed into his arm and hand, piercing his flesh and sending blood spilling into the tainted relic. Then the barbs, plates and runes had spread from the gauntlet, seeping up his arm and over his torso, finally covering his head and causing him to choke as they transformed his face into something horrific. He had woken up gasping for breath.
In another, the daemon was wearing the gauntlet. The artefact had glinted from its place on the creature's forearm, visible even through the darkness of that long tunnel, and then that arm had shot forwards, somehow covering the distance instantly, so that the mailed hand burst free of the portal. At its arrival the air around the portal seemed to split open and Alaric felt as if the world was tearing apart. The daemon lumbered forwards, the distance halved and its speed increased by the presence and use of that gauntlet. Alaric knew it would be free of the portal in moments rather than hours, free to smother the world with its hatred and its madness and its bloodlust. Even while the rest of the daemon remained caught in the portal it proved itself dangerous beyond measure. It reached for Alaric with the gauntleted hand, locating him through the crowd of chanting cultists, its reach impossibly long. It caught him by the neck and lifted him off the ground, the barbs digging into his flesh. Then it had twisted, and he had woken clutching his neck, making sure it had not been broken like a dry twig. His neck had stung where one barb had cut him, although he couldn't find an actual wound there.
What did it all mean? Was it just his mind, taking all the things he worried about and throwing them together? Or were they really linked: his recovery and that daemon and the gauntlet? The gauntlet was definitely tainted by evil, and the daemon was born of Chaos, but it had not been wearing anything like that object when they had last met. Nor had he heard of such an artefact in his studies, and how or why would the daemon still be pursuing him after it had been banished back into Chaos when they had destroyed the statue and its portal? He didn't know, but something in his gut told him they all had a purpose, and none of it was good for him.
Now he had dinner to deal with; dinner with a ruler who was also a warrior and a woman. To his mind that was a dangerous combination.
Alaric reached the front of the command tent, only to find Estia waiting for him.
"Not here," she said with a smile. She led him to a second, slightly smaller tent off to one side. Its flaps were closed. "Here."
The healer woman pulled open the flap and stuck her head inside. Then she re-emerged and gestured for Alaric to enter. As he did she touched his arm. "Do not exert yourself too much," she warned, her pale eyes alight with mischief. "It might reopen your wound."
Nodding and trying to look amused even though he felt a little faint, Alaric entered the tent. The flap slid back into place behind him.
This was clearly Fatandira's personal tent. It was made from a thicker material than most of the other tents in the camp. They were canvas or oilskin or sometimes a layer of both, while this had been oilskin on the outside but had a layer of short golden fur for the interior walls. The ground was covered in thick, colourful rugs, and a large, short-legged brazier stood in the centre, generating heat and light. Silk cushions were piled here and there around the space, for use both as seating and as beds. Alaric gulped at that last thought. A faint scent hung in the air, rich and musky, and scarves hung from the tent's peak, softening the sharp point and creating the impression of a low ceiling and a warm, intimate space.
The ruler herself lounged on several cushions not far from the brazier. Gone was the mail he had seen her wearing, and in its place he was surprised to see a vivid red skirt covered in an elaborate pattern of curling, swirling gold, and an embroidered vest, pulled tight across her impressive chest and fastened with buttons carved to resemble tiny flowers. Her dark hair, normally pulled back in a tight military braid, hung loose and flowed over one shoulder, and in her ears were large gold discs engraved with similar designs.
Slender gold bracelets hung around her wrists, minute charms upon them flashing and tinkling as she moved, and as she shifted her legs he heard a soft chiming as if she wore tiny bells upon her ankles as well.
The garb and the tent's furnishings, along with her exotic looks, suddenly made sense to him.
"You're Arabyan!" he blurted out, and then felt foolish. That wasn't a very good way to start a dinner conversation.
Fatandira did not seem offended, however. Instead she laughed a rich throaty laugh.
"I am of Arabyan blood, yes," she admitted, raising both arms over her head and then swivelling her wrists, a move he remembered the Strigany women using when they danced, the chiming of their charms providing a delicate counterpoint to the beat of the drums and the melody of the flute. He remembered several scholars theorising that the two, the Strigany and the Araby, were cousins, begun from a single source but travelling through different lands, and he thought that might be true. Perhaps, if he survived this strange quest of theirs, he might present a paper on it someday.
"My people have roamed this land for centuries," Fatandira was saying, her wrists still moving to provide an accompaniment to her words. "We were here long before your Empire existed, long before your people forged weapons and conquered your own lands. My forefathers were here when the Nehekharans first set foot upon these shores, and one of my ancestors greeted Amenemhetum himself as he landed."
"Really?" Alaric felt his interest in antiquities overwhelming his nervousness. He moved closer, and at a gesture from her he took a seat on a pile of cushions right beside her. "Amenemhetum the Great? Your ancestors knew him?" That reminded him of the tomb he had recently explored, "And Karitamen?"
She shuddered slightly, her hands dropping to her lap, the right clenching as if on a sword hilt. "The Death Scarab?" she said, "Yes, we knew of him. For many years my people were welcome in his lands, until his mind grew dark and we turned away, fearing for our lives." She looked at Alaric, who found himself lost in her intense dark eyes. "You entered his tomb." It was not a question.
"Yes." He found himself fidgeting beneath her sharp gaze. "We were seeking something there."
"The gauntlet?"
"Yes."
"And Karitamen?"
Alaric took a deep breath. He wasn't sure he should tell her the truth, but at the same time he realised she would see through any lies. "He walks within his crypt," he admitted, shuddering as he remembered that skeletal form and the hunger it had expressed. "He is undead, a liche."
Beside him he heard Fatandira gasp slightly, but she nodded. "So the legends are true, then," she said, almost to herself. "My people heard of his obsession with the dark arts, his desire to rule his people forever. The stories claim he only slumbers within his tomb in the mountains, awaiting the right moment to awake and return to his throne, and now he has."
"You think he will come here?" Alaric asked her.
"These were his lands," she replied, tugging absently at the buttons on her vest. "His domain once stretched from the World's Edge to the Starnak, from the Black Mountains to the Sour Sea. If he has returned, he will wish to rebuild his kingdom, and we will all fall beneath his shadow."
"Perhaps not," Alaric said. He told her of the door to the burial chamber and the carvings he had seen upon it. "Those were wards," he explained, "and I suspect they were set there to contain Karitamen. I do not think he can leave that chamber."
"Ah, this is good news!" Fatandira beamed, the smile transforming her face. She would never be lovely but she was certainly striking, and Alaric found himself getting flustered. This was not the formal, pleasant dining he'd expected. "First you save my life and then you rescue my people," she continued, eyeing him as if he were a prized possession. For a second they sat there, not speaking. Then she roused herself and lifted two golden goblets from the floor beside her.
"We drink," she told him, her voice once more tinged with command, and he accepted one of the goblets from her. They both raised them in a silent toast and sipped, and Alaric was pleased to find that he was drinking an excellent wine. Whatever else might be said of her, Fatandira was a gracious hostess.
A platter by the side of the brazier was laden with food, olives and dates, and cheeses and soft flat bread. Metal spits lay across the fire, roasting delicately spiced meat. They ate, wrapping the meat within the bread, and drank more wine, conversing about this and that. Fatandira was an interesting woman and held a wealth of information about these lands and their people. She told him of their surroundings and in return Alaric told her of some of his travels.
"You have experience with servants of the Dark Gods," she noted after he had given her an abbreviated version of their encounters with the Chaos statues. "That will be most useful."
"Oh?" Alaric felt a warning prickle at the back of his neck. "Why?"
"Soon we ride against them," Fatandira explained, shifting instantly from woman to commander. Even her posture changed, becoming straighter, bolder. "The town of Vitrolle," she said, "they nest within it, like poisonous snakes, and from there they attack travellers and traders, and anyone foolish enough to cross their path."
Alaric remembered what Enbar and the other adventurers had said of the place. "It is by the split in the Howling River, is that right?"
"Yes." She glanced at him, clearly wondering how he had known that.
"Some travellers we met warned us to avoid it," he explained.
"They were among the lucky ones," Fatandira replied, "for few who pass close to that place survive." She scowled. "They sit upon my lands, for all that lies between the mountains and the forks of the river is my domain. They prey upon my people. They must perish!" Her hands had bunched into fists and Alaric noticed the heavy muscles along her upper arms. This woman could snap him in half.
"The town holds treasures as well," she added, suddenly surprisingly coy. "It is rumoured the cultists have amassed a great fortune there, both money taken from their victims and wealth they brought with them when they arrived. I have heard stories of a sceptre carved from jade, worth more than all our weapons and horses together. With such wealth I could hire more men, equip them, and drive off my rivals once and for all!"
She turned back towards Alaric, leaning towards him. He couldn't help noticing how her vest dipped severely in front and suddenly found himself sweating. "You could accompany me," she said, her voice going throaty, her posture shifting again. Once more she was all woman. "You could ride at my side. With your knowledge and my might we could dispose of these cultists. Then we might have time for... other activities."
Alaric was taken aback. He had expected an evening of pleasantries, perhaps even flirtations, not this suggestion of more physical involvement. It didn't sound as if she was talking about a brief tryst, either, but about something more extended, months if not years at her side! His first impulse was to flee but then he reminded himself where he was and who he was with. If he spurned her so callously his life might be short indeed.
"That is a most generous and enticing offer," he began slowly, "and were I free to choose I would be honoured to stay beside you, but my life is not my own to give."
"You are indebted to someone?" Her dark eyes flashed. "Tell me his name and I will kill him for you."
"Ah, no," he back-pedalled quickly, "no, I am not indebted. No, what I meant was, that I am bound to a higher purpose and cannot deviate from it, not even for such pleasures."
Her gaze narrowed. "You are no fanatic," she accused. "I have seen many such, and you lack their religious fervour."
That made him laugh. "No," Alaric agreed, "I am not religious, although I do respect the gods and even call upon them in need. My purpose is not tied to one of them, however, at least, not specifically. I spoke to you of the statues we found, and the evil that lay behind them, waiting to emerge?" Fatandira nodded. "It is that evil I have pledged to stop. That is why I seek the gauntlet. I must prevent evil from using that artefact to enter our world." Something else occurred to him. "We share a common interest in fact. Both of us wish to see such influences removed from your lands. You seek to destroy that town and its inhabitants, while I seek to remove the gauntlet. The result is the same, to drive the taint from your realm."
"So you will destroy this gauntlet, and after that you will be free to return?" Fatandira asked bluntly.
Alaric frowned. "I would say yes, but something tells me otherwise. I think there is more waiting for me. There is the mask I mentioned, and I am sure that also plays a part here." He shrugged. "I do not know when this quest will end, only that I must continue it. I am caught up in this evil's plans and must foil them or the world will perish." Although he had initially mentioned the quest as an excuse, the more he spoke of it the more Alaric realised the truth behind his words. He really was caught up in the daemon's attempts to enter this world, and somehow it had fallen to him---and to Dietz---to stop the Chaos creature's plans.
"So you refuse my offer?" The words were soft but made of steel, and he could see from her face and her pose that woman and commander both spoke, and both were angry.
"I have no choice," he said. "I must continue my mission. It takes precedence over all other interests, and my feelings are insignificant beside it."
Fatandira glared at him for an instant, and then turned away with a huff. "Very well. Leave me, at once!" She lashed out with one hand, knocking the pitcher to the floor, dark wine spilling out and seeping into the rugs and cushions.
"I am sorry, my lady," Alaric told her, and a part of him was. She was a fine woman, and he could imagine how desperately lonely she must be. She had to be a commander here and nothing more. She could never dally with any of her subjects, not without losing their respect. An outsider like him was her only chance at romance, and he had spurned her, as politely as he could, but it was still a rejection. He bowed and left, moving quickly but without hurry, trying to ignore the shiver in his back as he half-anticipated a blow from behind. Nothing happened and he exited the tent, walking quickly to the tent that Dietz and Lankdorf shared.
"Get up," he said as soon as he'd entered. Dietz was there, laying back on his bedroll, Glouste curled contentedly on his chest. The older man was smoking a pipe and lazily scratching the tree-fox, but he sat up as soon as he saw Alaric.
"That bad, eh?" was all he asked.
"We're leaving," Alaric replied. "Gather what you can." He glanced around. "Where's Lankdorf?"
"No idea." Dietz shrugged. "Does it matter?"
Alaric frowned. "I don't know that it's safe for any of us to stay," he said, "and I would feel responsible if he suffered from my actions."
"What'd you do, laugh at her?" Dietz asked. He was already up and rolling the bedroll, Glouste in place across his shoulders.
"She asked me to stay with her," Alaric replied. "I turned her down."
"Sigmar's beard, you do inspire them," his friend said. He shoved a few things in his pack and hoisted it. "Ready."
"Good." Alaric turned and found himself face to face with one of Fatandira's guards.
"You will leave in the morning," the guard said to both of them. He thrust a scrap of parchment at them. It had the horse image Alaric had seen on the shields crudely burned into it. "This will allow you to pass through these lands unmolested." Then the guard was gone.
"Well," Dietz said, dropping his pack and collapsing back onto his bedroll, "at least we can get a night's sleep before they kill us."
"Ha ha." Alaric dropped onto the other bedroll and, despite his concerns, was soon fast asleep.
The next morning a guard roused them at dawn. Several more warriors stood outside the tents, spears in hand, but at least the points were not levelled at them.
Alaric and Dietz were escorted back to the command tent and led inside. Lankdorf was already there.
"What's all this?" the bounty hunter asked as they joined him before the tall wooden chair that Fatandira used as a mobile throne.
"Alaric refused her," Dietz explained quietly.
"What? You idiot!" Lankdorf snapped.
"You sleep with her, then," Alaric snapped back. "We can't stay here."
Whatever the bounty hunter had meant to reply, faded from his lips, as Fatandira entered and took her seat before them. The woman was completely masked again. She was in her customary mail, her hair bound back, every inch the ruler once more. Only he thought he saw a hint of sadness in her eyes.
"You have saved my life and revealed a traitor among us," she announced without preamble. "For that you may go. Keep your pass close at hand, for you will need it whenever you encounter one of my guard patrols. My men will escort you beyond our camp, and your weapons will be returned to you there." She glanced at Alaric. "Return and you will die." Alaric opened his mouth to speak but she gestured with a hand and guards appeared at his side. They motioned with their spears and he turned away, knowing that she did not want to hear whatever he had been about to say.
Outside the command tent Lankdorf was handed his pack, and his mule was led to him, its saddlebags already in place. Alaric's pack had been brought as well, and he could tell it was heavier than it had been, although he did not have time to inspect its contents. Once they were equipped the guards led them through the camp. They marched for two hours without a word. Then the guards suddenly stopped.
"Go," one of them said, and tossed a bundle onto the ground. Dietz was closest to it and managed to reach it before Lankdorf, giving the other man a grin as he straightened. The clank of metal suggested it was their weapons.
"Thank you," Alaric told the guards, who were already turning away, "and tell your ruler we are truly grateful for her hospitality." The men were already marching back and he wondered if they'd heard him, and if they would bother to relay his message. Not that it mattered. He suspected that he was the last person Fatandira would want to hear from.
After the warriors had disappeared over a low rise, Dietz opened the bundle. He handed Alaric his rapier and dagger and restored his knives to their sheaths, lifting out his mace as well. Then he tossed Lankdorf his sword and daggers.
"What about the crossbow?" the bounty hunter asked, as he belted his weapons back into place.
Dietz cocked his head, studying their companion. "I'm not so sure I want that thing pointed my way again," he said softly.
"We have a deal," Lankdorf reminded him. "I get these"---he tapped the sack at his side, which clinked---"and any money we get from that gauntlet, and I don't pursue the price on your head."
"That makes us partners," Dietz pointed out.
"That's right."
"So I'll carry this for you, partner," Dietz said, shouldering the crossbow.
Lankdorf scowled for a second, and then nodded.
"Fine." He felt for the sling at his belt. "Better we both have range, anyway."
Alaric had checked his pack during this exchange, and was surprised and pleased by what he found. Fatandira had provided food, water and wine, and had given him a fresh set of clothes as well. His own shirt had been carved into bandages when he'd been injured, but Estia had found him one when he'd been allowed to leave the sickbed, and that was here as well, along with his trousers. Even when she had been angry Fatandira had proved generous.
His companions had provisions as well, and they were in excellent shape as they gathered their gear and prepared to move out.
"We should circle down to the south," Lankdorf told them as they walked. "That was the direction of the boot prints."
Alaric nodded. Levrellian was to the north and the mountains were to the east. Rorschach probably did not work for Levrellian, which meant he would have to head either south or west, and if his footprints were heading south, that was good enough for him. He shouldered the bag.
"Let's go," he said. "I'd feel safer if we put a little more distance between us and the camp, anyway." He knew from the stories he'd read---and a few of the ones Dietz had told him---that a woman scorned could have a very long reach.
They camped that night, locating a small clearing in the forest once they were too tired to continue, and rose again at dawn to renew the search. Lankdorf had followed Rorschach's boot prints to the edge of Fatandira's camp the first day after the attack and knew roughly which direction to follow, assuming the treacherous guard had not deviated once he'd fled.
"How did you know?" Dietz asked as they walked. His question was directed to the bounty hunter, who was on his left. Alaric was on his right, whistling as he walked and grinning as the sun touched his face and the light breeze stirred his fair hair. Dietz was glad to see his friend looking cheerful. The younger man had looked almost mournful last night. Dietz found it both amusing and comforting that the young nobleman felt such sympathy towards a woman who had tried to seduce him and failed. It proved yet again that his young friend had a good heart, even if it was easily bruised.
"Know what?" Lankdorf asked, his eyes intent upon the ground.
"Rorschach," Dietz said. "You knew he was dangerous."
"Did you?" Alaric glanced over. "I hadn't noticed." He stared off into space, clearly thinking back to that night. "You did respond quickly when he attacked," he agreed after a moment.
"He was mumbling," Lankdorf replied.
"Mumbling?"
"When he came back in with Hammlich, he was mumbling," the bounty hunter explained. "I heard him. It sounded like a prayer to Sigmar, and that didn't make any sense." Dietz nodded. Fatandira was too Arabyan to approve of the Empire's principal god, and most of her people seemed to have the same heritage. "So I kept an eye on him," Lankdorf finished.
"Good thing you did," Dietz commented.
The bounty hunter nodded, and then dropped to one knee. "Aha! Gotcha!" He pointed at the ground and Dietz could see a depression there: Rorschach's boot print. "Good thing it hasn't rained these past few nights," Lankdorf said, standing again. "The ground was damp enough to hold his print and dried around it afterwards, and he was walking off to one side, whereas the riders stick to the middle of the path." He checked the ground a few paces to the south and nodded. "He went this way."
They followed the tracks, which eventually led them to a break in the forest. A short stretch of tall grass filled the gap between the trees and a wide, deep river. Dietz suspected it was the southern branch of the Howling River, given what he remembered of Alaric's map, and the strange whistling sound, almost like moaning, that rose from the water as it rushed by. Dietz could see a similar landscape on the far side. A wide furrow had been scraped in the shore not far from where they stood, and the boot prints were heavier beside it.
"A boat," Lankdorf said, confirming Dietz's own guess. "He pushed off from here and went across."
Alaric peered across the water. "I don't see anything," the young nobleman said after a minute. "He must have hidden it once he reached the bank."
"How do we get across?" Dietz asked, shuddering slightly. He hated water.
"Do you have a boat?" the bounty hunter asked him.
"No."
"Then we swim," Lankdorf said with a grin.
They tied their weapons and packs atop the mule and struck out into the cold water. Fortunately the current was not too strong, strong enough to tug them off-course but not strong enough to sweep them uncontrollably downriver. Dietz had never been much of a swimmer---Middenheim had no rivers---but he could tread water and he clutched the mule's saddlebags, letting the animal pull him along. Lankdorf held the mule's lead as he swam, and Alaric took to the water like a fish, moving rapidly and gracefully to the far side despite his recent injury. By the time Dietz pulled himself out of the water Alaric had lit a fire, and he collapsed gratefully next to it, letting the heat stop his shivers.
Lankdorf had suggested removing all but their breeches before entering the water, which meant they had dry shirts, socks and boots to wear. He and Alaric had spare trousers as well, but Dietz had only the one pair---the re of his clothing had been on their horse and had vanished into Zenres---so he was stuck in sopping-wet breeches until they finally dried. He distracted himself by cooking some soup over the fire, which both kept him near the flames and gave them all something warm to overcome the chills. While he cooked Lankdorf scouted the shore.
"Found the boat," the bounty hunter said when he returned a short while later, "hidden over there, behind some bushes."
"Well, at least we won't have to swim back," Dietz muttered.
"Tracks lead south and west," Lankdorf continued, ignoring the remark, "still nice and clear. They shouldn't be hard to follow."
After they'd eaten they did just that, the bounty hunter taking the lead again. Since reaching Fatandira's camp he and Dietz had spent some time together, and although he still didn't entirely trust the bounty hunter, Dietz admitted to himself that the man was a good travelling companion. He was quiet and competent, and very efficient. Lankdorf was also an excellent hunter, and had proven as skilled with the sling as he had been with the crossbow, bringing down a bird one night and a fleeing rabbit another. The man had a sense of humour, too, even though he kept it well hidden. Dietz also suspected that Lankdorf was still uncomfortable with their changed status, and was still adjusting to the notion of him and Alaric as companions rather than captives. The more time they spent together however, the more accustomed they became to one another and the more easily they worked as a team.
The tracks led them across a shallow valley and then up a small hill. As they walked, Alaric sidled up to Dietz.
"Where do you think we're going?" he asked. "I mean, where do you think this Rorschach fellow was heading?"
Then they topped the rise.
"Oh," Alaric said. "There."
A large armed camp was spread out before them, its tents neatly arrayed in rows. For a second Dietz thought they had somehow circled back to Fatandira's headquarters, but that was impossible. They'd crossed the river and had not forded it a second time, and now that he looked more closely he could see the differences. This was someone else's military.
The first thing he noticed was the absence of horses. Most of Fatandira's men were cavalry, lightly armoured and fast. They wore leather, scale and some chain, and carried spears and short bows. They also seemed as comfortable on horseback as they were on the ground. He suspected, from what Alaric had said of the ruler's background, that her Arabyan heritage made her more inclined towards combat from horseback, certainly her people were known for their fast horses and their lightning raids. The camp below had some horses but only a few, and even from here Dietz could tell they were larger and heavier than any of the sleek mounts in Fatandira's camp. They were too far away to make out details but it looked as if the men also moved more slowly, and he had the feeling they wore heavier armour.
The one thing that really caught his attention was the banner that flapped above the central tent. It bore the hammer of Sigmar, proudly displayed.
"You said Rorschach was muttering a prayer to Sigmar?" Alaric asked, mirroring Dietz's thoughts. Lankdorf nodded.
"Then I think we've found the right place," Alaric said. He grinned. "Well, at least followers of Sigmar usually feed their guests. I'm starving!" he said, and began walking down the hill.
"Alaric, stop!" Dietz shouted, catching up with him in a few long strides and grabbing his young friend by the arm. "This isn't a temple in Middenheim," he pointed out crossly. "That's an armed camp down there, and we're strangers! They'll most likely shoot us first and search our bodies for answers later."
"I doubt that," Alaric replied, pulling his arm free. "You know as well as I do that, if they really do follow Sigmar, they'll wait to see if we share their faith." He glanced around. "They've probably already seen us anyway. If we try to go around them or run it'll look suspicious, better to walk right up to them and say hello."
Dietz looked at Lankdorf, who had caught up, and the bounty hunter shook his head. "He may be right." Lankdorf looked as if he hated saying those words. "Skulking past a Sigmarite's practically a sign of guilt to them. If we approach them directly it looks like we've got nothing to hide."
Dietz stared at both of them. "You're both mad," he said finally. Then he threw up his hands. "Fine, what are we waiting for?"
Alaric grinned and led the way. After a few paces he started whistling again. Dietz and Lankdorf exchanged another glance and then followed behind the young nobleman. Yes, the bounty hunter was fitting in just fine.
At first Dietz thought whoever controlled the camp below must be lax indeed. He had not seen a single guard since they began their approach, and no one had called out to them or interfered with their descent in any way. Perhaps Alaric had been wrong when he'd guessed that they'd already been seen?
As they drew closer, however, he saw his mistake because four men rode directly towards them, stopping just shy of stepping on Alaric's feet. Clearly someone had been watching them, probably for quite some time, and had relayed that information back to the camp. Whoever was in charge must have felt they weren't a significant threat, and he'd let them get this close to make sure they were not an advance party for a larger force.
The four riders all wore heavy mail, the leader in full plate, and carried shields. Three of them had spears in hand, and their shields had a strange irregular cross. The fourth, who was in the lead, carried a massive warhammer across his saddle. His shield bore the sign of Sigmar's hammer, as did his battered but well-tended breastplate. A helmet hung from the saddle, and without it on they could see that he had rugged, almost handsome features, dark hair, and blue eyes lit with the flame of the fanatic. Great, thought Dietz, more religious fervour.
"Hold, strangers!" the man called out, his voice deep and resonant. "State your names and your purpose here."
"Alaric von Jungfreud, sir," Alaric replied, sweeping into a bow. Dietz was surprised but pleased to see only a slight hitch in his friend's motion, a sign that he was all but healed. "These are my companions, Dietrich Froebel and Merkel Lankdorf." Dietz managed a rough bow, as did Lankdorf beside him. "We are pursuing a man we must speak with, on a matter of great personal significance." Alaric did not explain further, and Dietz was glad to see that his young friend was finally learning some tact. There was a good chance Rorschach had come here, and accusing him of theft to his own people might not be the best way to make new friends.
"I am Mir Haflok," the strange knight told them, bowing from his saddle. "These are my lands, by the grace of Sigmar. Are you followers of his way?" The question had hints of impending judgement.
Fortunately Alaric was a noble, and when he chose he could be graceful both verbally and physically. "I am not an adherent," he replied, "but I am a man of the Empire and I have only the greatest respect for Sigmar and his teachings." He gestured to the two of them. "My friends, also, are of the Empire, and thus we owe allegiance to Sigmar through Karl-Franz, his spiritual heir." Dietz was surprised, not by this argument but by the identification of Lankdorf as a fellow Empire man. Upon considering it, however, he realised that Alaric was right. The bounty hunter's speech did bear traces of Empire upbringing, although he could not be sure which of the lands Lankdorf was from.
"Well met, then," Haflok said heartily, apparently satisfied with Alaric's answer. "Come, you will breakfast with us and we will speak of your business." He turned and started back towards the camp. Alaric nodded and walked forwards, a safe distance behind the Sigmarite's charger. Dietz and Lankdorf shrugged and joined him. The other horsemen held back until they had passed. Then two of them urged their mounts into walks, flanking the trio, and the fourth moved in behind them.
As they walked through the camp Dietz saw several other differences between this and Fatandira's base. The other camp had seemed orderly and martial, but compared to this it was a swirling mass of colour and confusion. Every tent here was the same in size, shape, and colour. Most of the men had matching armour in one of three varieties. Weapons were consistent, as were hairstyles. Paths were perfectly straight and sentries were posted at regular intervals. This was a true military operation, and Dietz found himself both impressed and a little frightened. What was a commander like Haflok, a true Sigmarite, doing out here in the Border Princes, playing at being a petty noble?
Alaric had obviously wondered the same thing, and once they were seated with their host in the command tent---a tent no larger or fancier than the others but with the Sigmarite symbol flying above it---and eating a simple meal of bread, cheese, and meat, he made a polite inquiry.
"I am surprised to find a Sigmarite knight so far from home," was how Alaric put it, sipping at the cool water in his glass. There was no sign of wine, beer or ale, not just here at the table but anywhere along their way through the camp. "May I ask your purpose here?"
"We seek to protect the holy Empire," Haflok replied, lifting his glass. His hands, Dietz noticed, were surprisingly delicate, with long, tapering fingers. "The best way to shield her from her foes is not to battle them within her borders but to stop them well short."
"So you are securing the Badlands?" Lankdorf guessed, tearing a piece of bread in half.
"That is correct," the Sigmarite agreed. "My men and I hold the Blood River against the orcs and other foul creatures that would cross it. We protect not only the Empire but the rest of these lands from their corrupt incursions."
"You hold the Blood River?" Dietz was so surprised he couldn't stop himself from speaking, "With these men?"
Their host laughed. "We hold it as best we can," he amended. "You are right, I would need a great many more warriors to secure its full length, or even the stretch between the mountains and the Starnak, which is my chosen ground, but at least we drive them back where the danger is greatest and prevent more than a handful from crossing in one go."
"You came to defend the Empire, yet you rule here," Alaric asked. "How is that?"
Haflok frowned. "In truth, I know not," he admitted. "When we arrived my men and I were no more than warriors, set to guard the bank. Then people began sheltering with us, taking refuge behind our shields. More and more arrived, forming towns and villages in our wake, and calling me their prince." He shrugged, although his eyes seemed troubled. "If Sigmar has chosen me to protect these people by ruling them, who am I to argue? Certainly he has not said otherwise."
"Talk to him regularly, do you?" Lankdorf muttered, but the Sigmarite's hearing proved as sharp as his own.
"Of course." Haflok looked surprised that anyone would even ask. "He speaks to me in my dreams, guiding my hand. It was his will that I travel to this place and set myself here to deny his foes passage."
"Truly you are blessed with his favour," Alaric said quickly, cutting off any further comments from Lankdorf. "Now, if I might, this man we pursue?"
"Ah, yes," Haflok said, draining his glass and setting it down. "Tell me of him. You say you must speak with him?"
"Yes, about a piece of armour," Alaric replied. "It has great... personal value for me." Dietz was certain that he alone heard Lankdorf's snort. "I believe he may know its whereabouts. We still had it when we encountered him, as guests of your neighbour, Fatandira." Dietz was impressed. His friend had managed to say "this man stole something from us while in your rival's camp" and made it sound like a casual, friendly encounter.
An unreadable expression crossed the Sigmarite's face, followed by another that Dietz could make out: guilt. "Ah, you speak of Rorschach," he said softly.
"The very man," Alaric agreed. "You know him, I take it?"
"Indeed, he is a devout follower of Sigmar," Haflok admitted, "and I set him to observe Fatandira and inform me of her movements. She and my other neighbour, Levrellian, attack from time to time, although I have told them that I have no interest in their lands. I seek only to guard the borders and protect such people as have placed themselves in my care." He shrugged. "Alas, my peers often fail to appreciate our motives and misinterpret our actions. I was forced to send Rorschach there if only to avoid any further damage to my own lands and any distractions to my men."
"Shouldn't he still be there, then?" Alaric asked. "It doesn't do you much good if he's here instead of there."
Haflok looked genuinely displeased. "He was indeed instructed to remain in her camp," he rumbled. "He arrived a few days past, saying he had urgent news for me, but he took ill crossing the river and has been in his tent since." He gestured, and one of the guards stationed by the tent flap approached. "Bring Rorschach to me," the Sigmarite leader commanded, "regardless of his health." The man saluted and departed.
"Thank you, sir," Alaric told him. "This armour is important to me, and I appreciate your aid in recovering it."
"Of course," Haflok said, waving one hand absently. "If this armour is yours it is only right for you to reclaim it, and if my man knows anything about it I will insist he tell you of it." Then he lapsed into silence.
A moment later a different guard entered the tent and whispered something to Haflok, who nodded and said something in return. The man saluted and left again.
"Is there a problem?" Alaric asked cautiously.
"Nothing to concern yourself with," their host replied, "only a status report from my men." He glanced up at them. "Tell me, which way did you travel? Before encountering Fatandira, I mean."
"We came from the east," Alaric answered, "from the mountains. Why?"
Haflok had lost interest the minute he'd heard the word "east" and only shook his head.
"Trouble from the west?" Dietz asked, and started when the Sigmarite's head whipped around to study him, his blue eyes narrowed.
"How did you know that?" Haflok demanded.
Dietz shrugged, trying to look unruffled. "You wanted to know where we'd been," he answered. "It had to be north, east, or west to reach Fatandira's camp. You didn't care about the east and the north is on the other side of her lands, so are nothing to you, but the west butts up against you at the river."
"That is correct," the Sigmarite agreed, relaxing slightly. "My concern lies just above my own lands, at the edge of hers, where the halves of the Howling join." He leaned forwards. "There is a town there, a place of true evil and infamy."
"Vitrolle," Alaric offered, and held up a hand when Haflok's gaze swept to him. "We were warned against it by a fellow traveller, a Sigmarite named Heim."
"Jurgen Heim?" Haflok's eyes widened. They all nodded. "He is here, in the Border Princes?"
"In the mountains," Dietz told him. "Or he was a week or more ago."
"Ah, truly, his aid would be most welcome now," Haflok said quietly, "for truly his deeds are mighty and his faith unassailable, but Sigmar has said nothing of his presence here, and thus Heim must be sent upon a separate mission. This task remains mine alone."
"You're going to destroy the town," Dietz guessed, and this time it was the Sigmarite who nodded agreement.
"Truly it is a blight upon the land," Haflok proclaimed, his words ringing. "They practise foul rituals there, and spread filth by their very touch. Sigmar himself has ordered them destroyed and their town razed, and it shall be done!" His eyes blazed with determination and piety, a combination Dietz had always found unsettling.
Haflok's declarations were interrupted as a guard burst into the tent. "He is dead, lord," the man blurted out.
"Who?" Haflok was on his feet in an instant, one hand reaching for the hammer at his side. Dietz and the others rose as well.
"Rorschach," the guard replied, eliciting a groan from Alaric. "We found him in his tent."
Haflok was already moving, and Dietz was right behind him as they exited the tent. The Sigmarite strode quickly past a row of tents, stopping at one whose flap had been tacked back. The stench of blood was overpowering.
"Who would do such a thing?" Haflok demanded, ducking inside. If the smell affected him he gave no sign.
Dietz and Lankdorf entered as well, but Alaric waited at the entrance.
Rorschach was certainly dead, that much was obvious. He had been carved open, and the tent walls all but painted with his blood. Several of the splashes seemed to form patterns, and Dietz heard Alaric gasp as he saw them.
"Runes," the young noble said quietly.
"Runes?" Haflok whirled and confronted Alaric. "You say these are marks of the Dark Powers?" Alaric nodded. "How could such horrors have crept into my very camp, here beneath Sigmar's watchful eye?"
"The gauntlet," Alaric asked softly, "do you see it anywhere?"
Dietz and Lankdorf both looked. The tent had few furnishings so it was not hard to search, except for the blood and gore everywhere. The gauntlet was nowhere in sight.
"Gone again," Alaric said with a sigh. "What is it about this thing? It just won't stand still!"
"Clearly there is more to your story," Haflok said with a trace of annoyance. "You will tell me the rest, that I might be better apprised of the evil loosed among my men." He gestured to one of the nearby guards. "Marshall the men and check them against the rosters. If any are missing, or anyone has appeared unannounced, I would know of it at once." The guard nodded and hurried away with two others, and Haflok returned his attention to Alaric.
"All right," Alaric said, taking a deep breath. "You want to know what's going on? Well, it all started in Ind..."
By the time he had finished the tale Haflok's face had paled, and his wasn't the only one. Lankdorf also looked a bit green.
"You faced all that," the bounty hunter asked, "and you're still going after this thing?"
Dietz nodded. "Somebody has to," he answered.
Alaric had worried that the Sigmarite commander might not believe them, but that turned out not to be a problem. "Truly, you serve Sigmar well," Haflok announced, clapping him on the back hard enough to rattle his teeth. "This Kleiber of yours was correct: you are noble men and well worthy of praise!" Alaric had made sure to mention Kleiber, knowing the Sigmarite would value the Witch Hunter's opinion.
"Thank you," Alaric replied modestly, "but we are just doing what is necessary."
"This foul artefact has passed through my camp, and beneath my very nose," Haflok muttered, "and I knew nought of it!" He was clearly upset, but didn't seem angry with them at all, just at himself for not knowing, and perhaps at his god for not telling him.
"Sigmar must have wanted your full attention on Vitrolle," Alaric suggested diplomatically. "He did not want you distracted with our problems."
"Yes, that must be so," Haflok agreed with the ready acceptance of the fanatic. "For the Jade Sceptre must be stopped, and I have been granted that task!"
"Did you say Jade Sceptre?" Lankdorf asked. He had gone from green to red in an instant.
"Yes, for it is the foul cult that holds the town in thrall," Haflok said. "I know little of them beyond their name and the depravity of their deeds."
"I've heard of them," Alaric admitted, shuddering as he remembered the stories. "They were in the Empire several years ago. Many of their members came from the noble class, and several of my fellows at school belonged, although only to the outer fringes." He winced. "A few even tried to recruit me, saying it wasn't about worship, only about pleasure, but I didn't believe them. I'd heard even those casual members saying mumbled prayers to the Prince of Chaos." He refused to say the name, but he thought it: Slaanesh. "They were strong in Middenheim, if I remember right," he said with a glance at Dietz, "but I'd heard that a rival cult destroyed them."
His friend nodded. "I remember some of the stories," he said. "People would disappear and their bodies would be found days or even weeks later." He shook his head, and Alaric could hear the bitterness in his voice. "They say only nobles belonged to the cult, and that they preyed upon us 'lesser folk'."
"Animals," Lankdorf said sharply, and looked surprised at his own outburst. "They thought us little more than animals."
"Truly they deserve their fate," Haflok agreed. "They do not allow any but their own within their walls, and so we shall tear those walls down, expose their filth to the bright light of day, and purify the land with salt and fire."
Just then one of the guards rode up. "We have marshalled the men as ordered, lord," he announced after saluting. "Braechen is missing. No one has seen him at all today and he was supposed to report for duty two hours since."
"Braechen," Haflok said, shaking his head. "He has ever been one for solitude, yet he has served faithfully and I did trust him. Clearly I was deceived."
"Which direction would he have taken?" Lankdorf asked.
"I cannot say," their host admitted. "I thought him loyal despite his faults, and know not who else he might report to."
"Vitrolle," Dietz suggested. Alaric turned to look at him, as did the others, and his friend shrugged. "Runes here," the older man said, gesturing at the tent behind them, "cultists there. Makes sense to me."
"You're right," Alaric agreed. "It does make sense." He sighed. "It's back across the river, then, since the town's in Fatandira's lands, where we're not supposed to go, on pain of death." He brightened. "At least we can use that boat this time."
"Assuming he hasn't taken it," Lankdorf pointed out. "In fact, he may have been delayed in his flight because he saw us and couldn't risk running into us on the river."
"Then we may not be far behind him," Alaric realised, leaping to his feet "We need to go now!"
He had worried that Haflok might detain them for some reason, but the Sigmarite nodded. "Yes, your mission must continue!" he announced. "I will lend you horses. Braechen has none, and thus you will close the gap still further. Use them with my blessing, although I will expect their return afterwards. Anything else you need, name it."
"A second crossbow," Dietz admitted, handing Lankdorf's back to the bounty hunter. "We only have the one." Lankdorf seemed surprised to be offered his weapon back, but nodded and accepted it without a word, "Maybe another pair of trousers."
"Done," Haflok said. He gestured a guard over. "Saddle three horses, and hang a crossbow and bolts on one, and spare clothes for all," he ordered. "Our friends must depart at once!"
The camp really was well run and within minutes they were mounted and off again, Lankdorf's saddlebags transferred to one of the horses from his mule and a second crossbow hanging from another. Haflok offered Sigmar's blessing as they departed. "May he guide us all to victory!" he shouted as they rode away. "Good luck, my friends!" Then he was behind them.
"He could have been worse," Dietz commented as they crested the hill at a gallop, covering in minutes what had taken them hours to cross on foot.
"Fanatics can be great," Alaric agreed, "as long as you agree with their ideas." Dietz was right, of all the people they had met in the Borderland thus far, Haflok had been the one most willing to help them for no reason other than their common heritage and a general belief that they were doing the right thing.
They reached the river a few hours later, and sure enough the boat was gone. This time they had horses, and their mounts forded the river far more quickly than the mule had last time. Then they were up on the far bank, back in Fatandira's territory.
"Let's not get caught by her guards," Alaric warned as they paused to change into dry trousers. "I doubt she'd be happy to see me again so soon."
"Stop breaking women's hearts," Dietz advised with a laugh, "or some day one of them will carve out yours."
They turned west and rode for two days, pausing only when necessary for the horses. As dawn rose on the third day they crested another hill and looked down on the fork of the Howling River, and the town that nestled between its branches. They all stared in utter shock.
"That's not a town," Dietz said, voicing what all of them were thinking, "it's a bloody fort!"
It was true. From where they stood they could see Vitrolle clearly, outlined against the rushing waters above and below it. The town did not cover much area, trapped as it was between the two banks, but it had high, sturdy walls and the structures within were linked by walkways, creating the impression of a single massive building broken into smaller sections. The sun struck the walls wrong for them to be wood or metal---they were too smooth and flat for the one and too dull for the other---which meant they were made of heavy stone. Even from here they could see men walking those walls, which showed how thick the battlements were. Alaric had seen castles with weaker fortifications.
"How in the Emperor's name are we going to get into that?" Lankdorf demanded. His gaze narrowed. "It's only got the one entrance," he said after a moment's scrutiny, "and it's those bloody great gates!" The gates in question were enormous and clearly too heavy for even the three of them together to open. They would certainly be barred on the inside anyway, and would swing outwards to prevent intruders from battering them down easily.
"Getting in may not be the problem," Alaric said. "Look!" He pointed past the town and the others followed his gesture, seeing what he had noticed a moment ago.
Fatandira's lands lay behind the town. To the north, on the far shore, were Levrellian's lands. Both regions were crawling with tiny figures that they knew must be men.
"Fatandira's attacking the town," Alaric reminded the others. "She wants them gone from her lands, and she wants the sceptre she claims they have."
"Levrellian must have his own reasons for attacking," Lankdorf said. "He never does anything unless it serves his purpose."
"He could claim that land for himself if he takes the town," Alaric pointed out, remembering the lessons his father had drilled into him long ago. "From there he can strike out at Fatandira, driving her back against the mountains and finally crushing her altogether. He could control both lands then."
"And the third is massing behind us as we speak," Dietz said pointedly. "Perhaps we should discuss this somewhere else?"
"There!" Lankdorf pointed. East of the town, on a small slope, they saw few brown splotches, and by squinting Alaric could tell they were stones of some sort. "It looks like an old ruin," the bounty hunter explained. "We could tether the horses there and get a closer look at the town's defences. It's an ideal vantage point."
"It's below the line of Fatandira's men," Alaric said, musing aloud, "and Haflok will follow our path, which is the most direct approach, so it's east of his attack as well. It's perfect." He kicked his horse into a fast trot, the best they could manage on such a steep slope, and raced down the hill, heading for the ruins. The others were right behind him.
Upon approaching it, they saw that the building was in better repair than they had realised. It stood atop a low hill and had apparently been a single storey stone building. One corner was still largely intact, offering a stretch of wall on two sides. The rest had tumbled down but the builders had used large rough blocks and they were piled here and there like bales of hay, offering more shelter if necessary. The roof was long gone, of course, and so the ruin was open to the elements, but they only needed a place to stop and think, and plan.
Unfortunately someone else had apparently had the same idea.
As they dismounted they heard a faint noise, like muttering. Dietz and Lankdorf both had their crossbows ready in an instant.
"Someone's here," the bounty hunter said, gesturing towards the standing corner. They crept forwards, Lankdorf in the lead, and rounded a pile of blocks to see two men conversing. One of them was of average height and build, although Alaric could see that the man had powerful arms. His back was to them but he had sandy brown hair and wore serviceable mail that looked like it had been patched many times. A sword and an axe hung at his belt.
The other man was facing them and reaching for something from the first when they approached. They could see him clearly as a result, and Alaric couldn't prevent the gasp that escaped him. He had seen the tall thin man with the piercing eyes once before, weeks ago, in Levrellian's throne room back in Zenres.
"Strykssen!" he said, the name slipping out.
Levrellian's chief advisor glanced up at them, and Alaric took a step back. Strykssen had struck him as a fanatic and a sadist during their first encounter, but he had been handsomely dressed and impeccably groomed. This was almost a different man. His face had sagged in places as if made from warm wax and clumps of his long pale hair were missing around his head. He wore a long cloak and beneath it his body protruded strangely, as if someone had rearranged his limbs and perhaps added several spares. Alaric was instantly struck by a memory of equally twisted creatures in the sewers beneath Middenheim, and understood at once. Strykssen had been touched by Chaos!
The deformed advisor laughed, a horrible strangling sound, and resumed his previous motion. Braechen had turned as well, however, and in his hands Alaric saw the gauntlet.
"No!" he shouted, leaping forwards, drawing his rapier as he went. Dietz and Lankdorf simply fired their crossbows. Both of them aimed at Strykssen, apparently seeing him as the bigger threat, and both bolts struck home, sinking into his chest with meaty thunks and driving the mutated man back against the crumbling wall.
Strykssen staggered and righted himself. His eyes were glazed and gleamed with an unhealthy red glow. He snarled, more an animal sound than human, and lunged forwards again, one twisted, claw-like hand scraping Braechen's arm. Then he laughed, a chilling, wet sound that still haunted Alaric's dreams every night, and collapsed.
"Is he dead?" Lankdorf asked, already loading a second bolt, his crossbow swivelling to cover Braechen, who stepped back, eyes wide.
"I think so," Alaric replied. He moved forwards, sword still at the ready, and kicked the advisor's body. It shifted but the man made no sound. Nor was there any motion under the cloak. "Dead," he confirmed.
Dietz had approached as well, and the three of them stood over the body. "Too easy," the older man said. "Something's wrong."
As if on cue they heard a strange gurgling behind them. Whirling around, Alaric saw Braechen standing there, writhing, his body contorting wildly. The man's eyes had rolled back in his head, and froth was erupting from his mouth, and blood from his nose and ears. Alaric thought he saw strange flashes of colour and even odd images dancing across the man's face and body. Then Braechen straightened. He looked right at Alaric and laughed, the same liquid, rasping laugh they had just heard from Strykssen. The same laugh that Alaric had heard months before, in the chamber beneath Middenheim.
Then Braechen donned the gauntlet.
"No!" Dietz hadn't reloaded yet so he tossed his empty crossbow aside and raised his mace, intending to club the man down before matters got any worse. Then Braechen glanced at him and Dietz felt his arm go weak, the mace dropping to the floor beside him with a dull clatter. His eyes!
Lankdorf had apparently not been affected. A crossbow bolt flew towards Braechen's head, and was knocked aside by the gauntlet. Dietz wasn't sure what Alaric was doing in the meantime. He could see his friend off to one side, but most of his attention was trapped by the spectacle before him.
The gauntlet had been hideous when Dietz had seen it back in Fatandira's tent and here he had a clearer view, too clear, in fact, as if the artefact had somehow come into sharper focus than it should. He could see, for example, that the armour was constructed of some strange, murky stone, the light causing bands of colour to shimmer across and through each plated segment. Between the runes were small carvings, which he could see were faces, eyes open wide with horror, mouths pleading for release. He was sure he saw several of them move. Vicious barbs curved out along the edge of each plate and from the fingertips and over the knuckles. It was a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
That had been before, but now it was worse. As he watched, unable to turn away, he heard something like the click of a key in a lock, only quieter but repeated many times. Braechen's entire body tensed, and then shuddered, and Dietz saw the gauntlet flex and tighten as if it was swallowing his hand and arm whole. Blood began dripping from beneath the gauntlet's edge, thin rivulets all around, and somehow he knew it had pierced the man's flesh many times within.
As if fuelled by this bloodletting, the gauntlet's appearance shifted slightly. Instead of flat stone the plates seemed more like living scales or armoured hide. The barbs writhed as if alive. The runes glowed with a black nimbus that burned his eyes.
The gauntlet was growing. It had extended over most of Braechen's forearm, leaving the area around the elbow free for mobility, but now it ran right to the elbow, the mail there vanishing somehow, replaced by another row of barbed, rune-etched plate. His elbow was already changing appearance, darkening and stretching to match.
Nor were those the only changes in Braechen. He seemed taller and fuller across the chest and shoulders, yet his legs had somehow changed stance, moving farther apart at the hips and resembling a horse's or bull's more than a man's in their conformation. The man's skin had mottled along his face, neck and other hand, darkening with strange splotches that moved of their own accord, and his eyes... Dietz knew better than to look into that gaze again.
He finally managed to tear himself free by glancing at Alaric. The young nobleman was right beside Braechen, having crept closer during the transformation, and as Dietz watched Alaric lunged, his rapier piercing the man through the throat. Braechen gurgled once and staggered back a pace, the blade pulling free with a wet sucking sound, blood trickling from the wound.
As Dietz watched, horrified, the blood flow increased. The wound widened, becoming a deep cleft all the way around Braechen's neck, and the blood that poured forth turned darker, almost black. It spilled down over his chest and stuck there, solidifying, raising bumps and grooves that made Dietz think of diseased animal flesh.
Then the tear in Braechen's neck widened further. The edges curled outwards, thickening, and within the gap shreds of flesh poked out and hardened, into what were unmistakably rows of teeth.
Braechen laughed through his new second mouth. A laugh that Dietz remembered all too well, even though he had been busy fighting off cultists and smashing a statue the last time he had heard it. It was a laugh that could never have come from a human mouth, a laugh that did not belong in this world: the laugh of the daemon.
"It's coming through!" Alaric shouted, falling back and tugging Dietz with him. Lankdorf was already behind them, having stayed back to attack with his crossbow. He sent another bolt into Braechen, and it struck him dead centre on the chest, and sank in with an odd ripple, as if the man's torso had turned liquid. "The daemon is using him as a living gate!"
"What can we do?" Dietz asked, letting his friend and employer pull him back until they were almost out of the ruins.
"I don't know," Alaric admitted, his eyes wild. "Last time we destroyed the gate. This time it is the gate!"
"We have to do something," Lankdorf pointed out, already loading another bolt despite the uselessness of his last attack.
"I know!" Alaric shouted.
A movement behind the young nobleman caught Dietz's eye and he turned, just in time to duck an axe swing that would have removed his head. The man screamed and swung again, and Dietz drew his knives reflexively, blocking the axe with one and driving the other deep into the man's stomach. The blade entered with a gratifying thunk and the man shuddered and collapsed, blood frothing from his lips. At least this attacker had been human!
Unfortunately he hadn't been alone. Several more men and a few women charged into the ruins, each wielding at least one blade. They were strangely dressed, so much so that Dietz almost stopped and stared despite the danger. None of the newcomers wore much, just flimsy wisps of cloth and odd leather straps that seemed designed to accentuate their forms rather than for any defence or other practical purpose. They all had long hair, although several had theirs braided while others wore it loose, and he noticed idly that at least one of them had painted nails. Jewellery glistened from fingers, wrists, arms, ears, and other areas where Dietz didn't normally see such adornments. They were also all bare-chested, even the women.
"Die for the glory of our lord!" one shouted as he lunged at Lankdorf with a nasty looking short sword and caught the crossbow stock in the jaw for his troubles.
"The Prince of Pain welcomes your suffering!" A handsome blonde woman declared, stabbing at Alaric with an ornate longsword. He parried the blow easily and disarmed her, although her naked chest seemed to distract him slightly. He had to sweep his blade free when she lunged at him again, her empty hands tensed into claws. He knocked her out with his sword pommel and turned to Dietz.
"Cultists!"
"I thought cultists were all ragged, filthy people, like the ones in the pass?" Dietz asked without turning, his hands already full with two more. Someone from the town must have noticed them as they rode towards this place, or perhaps this band had simply been set to patrol the area. Not that it mattered.
"Different gods," Alaric explained, sidestepping an attack from a man wielding a pair of long daggers and covered in thin strips of ribbon and gauze that danced around him as he moved. "These worship a god of pleasure and pain. They believe in beauty and style, or at least their version of it."
Not all of the cultists were attacking the three of them. Several had brushed past and charged Braechen, who was still somewhere behind them near the building's surviving corner. One of the cultists who had darted past screamed, a high-pitched wail of sheer terror. He must have seen the daemon-mutated man clearly, Dietz guessed, remembering the cultists in Middenheim whose sanity could not withstand even a partial view of the very champion they had summoned. The others either did not get as good a look or were less susceptible, because they continued to shout about their own god and the pain they would visit upon these intruders. Dietz heard the sounds of blades striking flesh. Then there was a sudden silence, followed by gasps of surprise. He didn't have time to turn around and look, and was glad of that.
Then the screams began.
Fortunately they did not last long.
Unfortunately, the daemonic laughter began at the same time, and continued to echo after the last of the cultists had fallen forever silent.
Dietz, Alaric and Lankdorf had dispatched the rest, although one ducked Lankdorf's blade, stumbled back out of the ruins, and turned back towards the nearby town.
"To arms, my brothers!" he shouted. "Strangers have entered our realm! They seek to usurp our lord with their own foul creation, but we will teach them the error of their ways and the primacy of our Prince." Dietz wanted to protest that last part---what, the man thought they were allied with the daemon?---but it didn't matter. The cultists' cries were drowned out by a new sound rising up from the field below the hill: the sound of battle.
Dietz knew it far too well to be mistaken. He heard horses charging, men bellowing and war horns sounding. Then he heard the grinding of a massive gate, and answering shouts and screams. Close behind them, he heard the sound of clashing metal.
Clearly the Border Princes had arrived, and the cultists of Vitrolle had come forth to meet them.
The remaining cultist paused, surprised, and Lankdorf used the opportunity to knock the man out with his crossbow. Another sound reached them as the man dropped, and Dietz recognised this one too.
It was the sound of stone shattering.
The armies must have reached the town's outer walls. He had noticed battering rams and ballistae among the armies when they had looked down towards the town earlier, and had seen similar weapons in Haflok's camp. Clearly one or more of the local rulers had unleashed these weapons, and judging by the sounds they'd done so to good effect. Vitrolle's defences were caving.
Dietz glanced at Alaric but the younger man looked as uncertain as he felt. They couldn't fight an entire army, let alone four, and getting into the town would be impossible with all those warriors running around, just looking for targets. Not that they wanted to enter Vitrolle anyway. They had only been going there because they thought it was Braechen's destination, but now he was wearing the gauntlet and the daemon had taken hold. They had no idea what the daemon would try to do next, nor how they would stop it, even in this partial state. So what could they do?
He was about to ask Alaric when they all heard Braechen laugh again. It was different this time, more liquid, horribly reminiscent of blood draining from a gaping wound, complete with bubbling gasps, and, although he hated himself for knowing it, Dietz could tell that it was a sound of pure joy. The daemon inside the man was thrilled.
Dietz wasn't sure he wanted to know why.
Then he noticed that the laughter was growing fainter, its hideous sound swallowed up by the battle beyond.
"He's getting away!" Alaric shouted. He dashed around the edge of the ruins, looking down the hill and towards the town. Dietz followed him, shaking his head. Lankdorf was right behind him.
Sure enough, they saw Braechen striding away from them, heading right towards Vitrolle. He had evidently stepped through one of the gaps in the shattered building.
Past him, Dietz saw a massive battle to match the sounds he'd already heard. He couldn't tell much, beyond the fact that there were people everywhere, some on horseback and some on foot, and weapons were swinging wildly. He saw the glint of sunlight off metal here and there, suggesting heavy armour, but beyond that it was all a blur: a blur that the daemon-infested warrior was heading straight for.
"After him!" Alaric said, breaking into a jog.
"Why?" Dietz asked, although he only paused for long enough to reclaim his mace before catching up with his friend. "What can we do?"
"I don't know," the young nobleman admitted, "but we have to try something. Anyway, I want to know why he's going towards the town. What does he need there?"
That was a fair point, Dietz thought. Besides, he didn't have any better ideas. So he and Lankdorf flanked Alaric, and all three of them sprinted after the daemon-possessed soldier. He was moving slowly but purposefully and they caught up before he had reached the base of the hill, or the battle that raged just beyond. They slowed perhaps ten feet behind Braechen and then stayed far enough for him to be unable to reach them easily, but close enough to follow.
Not that Braechen paid them the slightest attention. He lumbered onto the field and towards the town, cutting a swathe through the raging battle.
"Stay close!" Lankdorf shouted, taking the lead. The bounty hunter had his crossbow slung on his back, his dagger in one hand and his sword in the other, and charged into the battle without looking back to see if they were following. For a second, faced with the daunting prospect of entering that wild melee, Dietz considered backing away. Let the daemon reach the town, assuming it wasn't killed in the process. Let Lankdorf die at the hands of the four clashing armies. He and Alaric could walk away and never look back. Who cared if the Border Princes fell?
Unfortunately, he did care, and so did Alaric. That was the problem. That was why, with a sigh, Dietz checked to make sure Glouste was secure inside his jacket, hefted his mace in one hand and gripped one of his knives in the other, and plunged after Lankdorf. Alaric was right beside him, rapier at the ready.
It was utter madness. Dietz had been in fights before. He'd even fought a pitched battle before, back in the Black Fire Pass, but that had been only two forces, the Empire armies against the orc warband. There were four separate groups here, and only one could claim the victory.
Warriors from the three armies were everywhere, as were the cultists. Dietz was amazed at how many people must have been packed inside that one town, and, as best he could tell, no one was worrying about who was fighting whom. He saw one of Fatandira's men battling a soldier wearing the garb of Levrellian's troops, while another of her warriors fought a cultist only feet away. One of Haflok's knights charged past, cutting down both the cultist and his opponent without pause. It was a free-for-all, a complete madhouse.
Dietz sidestepped a blow from someone, he didn't even see whom, and struck back, feeling his mace connect with a body and the resulting crack of bone. Someone else swung at him just beyond the first assailant and he blocked with his knife, hitting again with the mace and shattering an arm. Then he grabbed Alaric and yanked him forwards, his long strides carrying them both to Lankdorf's back. With the bounty hunter close by, they were better able to defend themselves and Dietz was able to concentrate on their left flank, knowing that Alaric had the right and the bounty hunter the front. He swung at anyone who approached them, knowing that everyone else on the battlefield would do the same to them.
They marched their way slowly through the fighting. Dietz had a handful of small nicks and bruises where something had got past his defences, and his head swam from fatigue, tension and trying to focus through the tumult. The town walls were growing closer, however. He just hoped they'd survive long enough to reach them.
Surprisingly enough, the possessed soldier's own focus helped them immensely. Braechen, whom Dietz had half-expected to stop and revel in all the confusion and bloodshed, continued on without stopping. He dispatched anyone in his path, ripping warriors limb from limb, snapping blades with his gauntleted hand, sending battle-hardened men screaming or dropping them to the ground in quivering balls with a mere glance.
Dietz could see that the changes were continuing: Braechen's back had some of the same bumps and lumps and discoloured patches that had appeared on his arm. His boots had merged into his legs and sprouted both claws and flattened appendages like fins, and two small protrusions had sprouted from above his shoulder blades and were rising higher and curving in slightly, forming the unmistakable base for a pair of wings. Still he kept going, not hurrying but never turning aside, straight towards Vitrolle's walls. Dietz and his companions marched in the creature's wake, taking advantage of the carnage he'd created to keep pace with him.
Dietz expected Braechen to batter his way into the town, but that proved unnecessary. He had heard the armies tearing at the outer walls and that had apparently been what had pleased the daemon-bearing soldier because he angled directly towards one of the breaks. It must have been a ballista attack because Dietz saw cracks in the stones up above and a great gouge smashed through several more. Chunks had fallen, littering the ground, but near the base of the wall the cracks widened into a gap large enough for a small wagon to enter.
Braechen walked straight for and then through this gap, into Vitrolle itself. Alaric followed the daemon, with Dietz and Lankdorf right beside him.
"Sigmar's beard!" Alaric said softly as they passed through a stable and into the town proper. Dietz nodded. He was impressed despite himself, and of course Alaric, with his scholarly tendencies, would be spellbound.
Vitrolle had only a handful of buildings, the ones they had seen from the hill. Dietz had thought there were nine, but he wasn't sure any more. They all seemed to be built mostly of stone, with some wood, and they were rough but solid. Walkways connected each building, forming a latticework of shade and shelter throughout the town and reinforcing the sense of the town as a single large building.
That, however, wasn't what had caught his eye, or made his gorge rise in his throat.
From the rumours back in Middenheim and what little Alaric had told Haflok, Dietz knew that the Jade Sceptre cult focused on torture. They were into pleasure and pain, seeing the two as irrevocably linked, and tormented their victims slowly, drawing out each horrible mutilation until the person finally died. He had heard claims that victims might last weeks, even months, receiving just enough medical care each time they collapsed to revive them and let the torture start anew.
He had thought they were only stories, or at least exaggerations.
Now he knew better.
The one thing he had not been able to see from their vantage on the hill was the town's decorations.
The stable doors they pushed past had been made of skin stretched over a rough wooden frame, a traditional method that Dietz had seen in many farms and small villages. Symbols were scrawled across them in what was clearly blood, however, and recent blood at that. Dietz recognised several of them from Alaric's notebook and they all seemed to crawl across his vision, shifting even as he stared until he had to turn away for fear of nausea.
Compared to the obscene runes, the bodies nailed across them were nothing, even though he now knew where the blood had come from. Judging by the corpses' hands, which were smeared with it, these victims had been forced to write the runes themselves, using their own blood, before being crucified across their handiwork.
The entire town was like that, Dietz saw as he shuddered and glanced around. Walls and doors were covered in runes, and bodies---or parts of them---hung everywhere. The town had statuary as well, and the nearest one depicted two beautiful women in the throes of passion. That seemed benign enough until Dietz noticed the man trapped between them, and the sharp little knives they were using to dig at his flesh. Charming, he thought. The rest of the statues seemed much the same, a combination of beauty and torment that left him feeling vaguely unclean.
Everywhere he looked Dietz saw more examples of utter depravity that no daemon had perpetrated, not directly, anyway. These cultists followed the Chaos god Slaanesh and through worship they allowed their master to tap the darkest recesses of their souls. That was what he saw displayed. This was the result of human cruelty. The very worst of the human soul had been dredged up and spewed out upon innocent victims. It sickened him, but the worst part was that some tiny portion in the back of his mind, at the bottom of his soul, understood each and every one of these foul creations. The cultists' god had taken a side of man that normally hid deep within, never seen or even suspected, and exposed it to the light of day.
"Haflok was right," Lankdorf rasped. "They all deserve death, and this place must be destroyed." Beyond even the disgust Dietz heard something else in the bounty hunter's tone---anger, pure and hard and deep---and he wondered at its source.
"They will be," Alaric assured them both, "but right now that's not our problem; he is." He pointed ahead of them. Braechen had continued on, clearly unaffected by the sights around him.
Apparently, not all the cultists were fighting beyond the walls. Dietz saw several battling soldiers who must have found similar holes in the town's defences, and others who seemed to be panicked beyond rational thought. Several ran past, apparently not seeing the three men near the stable doors but easily spotting the lone figure walking brazenly through their stronghold. The cultists launched themselves at Braechen, shouting their defiance, and he slaughtered them without even slowing down. As Dietz watched, Braechen entered the town's central building.
"Quick, before we lose him!" Alaric ran forwards, dodging those few cultists still inside, and Dietz followed, glad of the distraction. He wanted to get the job done and get back out of this twisted place as soon as possible.
The building was easily the largest structure in Vitrolle. It consisted of a massive square with wide square-arched entrances on each side. Steps cut into the walls led up to the flat roof, reminding Alaric of the temple he and Dietz had seen in Ind. Was this the cultists' temple? It would certainly make sense to have it so large and so centrally located, but what did the daemon want in here?
Braechen had vanished into the building and they were right behind him. Blinking in the sudden gloom, they were just in time to see his mutated form disappearing down a massive staircase. It had been cut right into the ground and then faced with stone, and Alaric could tell from the cool air wafting up that the stairs must go well beneath the surface. Ah, Sigmar's beard, why did it always have to be tunnels? But he knew they had no choice. The daemon wanted something here, wanted more than just a chance to kill cultists, and whatever it was, they had to keep him from it.
They crept down the stairs as fast as they dared. Alaric was sure they would encounter more cultists---no religious group would leave their temple unguarded, even during an attack---and they had to step over several, still twitching bodies, but saw no one else. One of the fallen cultists had been bearing a curve-bladed axe and Dietz appropriated it, shoving his mace in his pack.
"What are we going to do once we get wherever we're going?" Lankdorf asked behind him. The bounty hunter had his crossbow loaded and ready, but Alaric suspected that it was as much for comfort at this point as for real use. They'd already seen how little effect the thing had on Braechen.
"No idea," he admitted, wincing as his head finally dropped below the level of the floor above, and the daylight behind them vanished. Calm, he reminded himself, calm. You're chasing a daemon into a Chaos temple. Surely the fact that a few tons of rock sit above us and could crush us in an instant is the least of your concerns. He muttered a prayer to Sigmar under his breath anyway, just in case. "Let's see what we find first."
What they found was the base of the staircase, a good hundred feet or more below the surface. The floor was solid rock, carved and carefully smoothed, and it widened out into an enormous rough-walled chamber. The curving ceiling was at least forty feet high and that made Alaric feel better. It was hard to feel claustrophobic in such a large space. The walls curved slightly as well, although with no discernible pattern, and he suspected that the cavern was natural. The cultists had found it somehow and crafted the staircase to it, but beyond smoothing the floor they had done little else to alter the room's original elements.
This was clearly their temple, and silk curtains and banners hung upon the walls, masking the harsh stone with smooth fabric. Torch brackets had been imbedded at regular intervals, as had manacles and a variety of straps, bars, and cages. Alaric saw several devices he recognised as torture implements and many more he guessed were equally vile, although thankfully he did not understand their use. Not all of the devices were empty, and Alaric was glad the lighting was dim enough to hide some of the wounds he could almost see on those bodies. Rugs covered the floor and cushions had been strewn upon them, several already trampled by Braechen's passing. Couches and chairs were grouped together here and there, often around strange metal racks covered in thick leather straps. Small bronze braziers still smoked, sending delicate incense fumes to tickle his nostrils, and he also saw implements heating in many of them. This place was like a lady's boudoir or a high-class brothel's sitting room mixed with a torture chamber.
Then he noticed the centrepiece.
Rearing high above them, her head almost brushing the ceiling, was the statue of a woman, or at least of something with certain feminine attributes. Her face was stunning, with full lips, wide eyes, a strong brow, high cheekbones and a surprisingly sharp nose. Golden hair billowed around her, framing her features in a golden halo that did little to dim the proud, demanding look upon her face. Two pairs of curving horns sprouted from her temples, each adorned with gold and gems. Her skin was smooth and white, most likely alabaster, and gleamed in the torchlight.
Her body was equally perfect, with broad shoulders, proud, prominent breasts and a smoothly curved stomach, her belly button pierced by a pair of overlapped silver crescents. Her arms were strong and well muscled but still smooth: all six of them.
Just below the belly button she began to change, however. Her skin developed a pattern of overlapping scales that quickly covered her lower form, and instead of legs she narrowed from the hips into a single thick column that coiled twice before rearing up behind her. The scales were a varied green, from deep emerald to a pale milky colour, and formed patterns that made Alaric's eyes ache.
He knew who he was looking at. The intense, almost frightening beauty, offset by the unsettling combination of human and animal, meant it could only be one of the four Chaos gods. Slaanesh: the Prince of Pain and Lord of Pleasure. This must be one of his many forms, the beautiful woman with the six arms and the lower body of a massive serpent.
The daemon-possessed soldier was already halfway across the large chamber and appeared to be heading straight for the statue. Lankdorf fired another crossbow bolt, striking it in the back near one proto-wing, and Braechen stumbled, snarling. Apparently the change had not progressed as far there, because the bolt stuck out from his flesh, and blood dripped from the wound. He glanced behind him and grunted when he saw them, and Alaric was careful not to meet his gaze. Then Braechen turned back towards the statue once more.
"We've got to stop it!" Alaric said, his mind racing. Perhaps it contained some tainted energy of its own, as had the Chaos statues they'd encountered before, something the daemon could tap to increase its own strength. Whatever its reasons, if the monster wanted to reach the statue they had to prevent that from happening, but how?
"The gauntlet!" Dietz shouted, already running towards the mutated man. "We broke the statue and closed the gate. If we destroy the gauntlet maybe it'll be forced out again." He raised his new axe, saying something that Alaric recognised as a prayer to Ulric. Lankdorf was right behind him and Alaric saw the bounty hunter also muttering something, although he couldn't make out the words.
Alaric nodded to himself. That made sense. At least, it was worth a try. The only problem was, the daemon didn't want to cooperate. Braechen was walking again and seemed oblivious to the two men rapidly approaching from behind. If he didn't stop he would reach the statue before they could get close enough to attack the gauntlet.
That meant they had to distract him, and Alaric knew just how to do it.
Taking a deep breath, he called out. "Hey! Braechen!" He thought he heard the man grunt but Braechen didn't react otherwise. Alaric took a few steps closer and tried again. "You, daemon! Turn and face me!" This time the daemon-infested soldier laughed, making that horrible sound again. That gave Alaric another idea.
He closed his eyes and let the memories he had held at bay for so long overwhelm him. He was back in that chamber once more, facing the daemon as it struggled to enter this world. Dietz had shattered the statue and the gate was closing, but still the daemon lurched forwards. He raised one hand absently to rub at his neck, where the daemon's tentacle had struck him just before it vanished. He remembered what it had said.
"K'red'lach!" he shouted, his eyes flying open again.
Braechen stopped dead.
He turned, slowly, to look at Alaric, and Alaric forced himself to look right back.
Studying what had been Braechen in an effort to maintain his sanity, Alaric saw that the changes to his body had continued. His entire arm was now scaled, ridged and barbed, right up to the homed shoulder, and his chest had traces of alteration as well. Right in the centre, a dull glow rose through his flesh, reminding Alaric of the throbbing sphere he had seen in the daemon's flesh. Was that its heart, he wondered? Braechen's flesh had all gone dark all mottled, and his face had shifted, growing longer and narrow, with cheekbones that literally carved through his flesh and reared like small axe blades along his face. His sandy hair had clumped together, looking more like spikes or horns scattered atop his head, and darkening to black at the tips, and his eyes glittered and burned, tugging at Alaric again as they had once before.
This time the daemon was trapped within a man. Even though it had claimed that body, and was changing it to suit itself, it was still mortal flesh, and the gaze, though powerful, was muted by its terrestrial prison. Alaric found he could still think, could still move a little, even as those eyes bored into his.
"You know me, don't you?" he asked, advancing a few more feet. Dietz and Lankdorf were almost in position, swords at the ready. "You remember me."
The mutated warrior eyed him, both mouths split into wide grins. Then the lower mouth, the one across its neck, moved, hissing something he could not begin to comprehend, and the upper mouth, the one that had belonged to Braechen, formed one word.
"Alaric."
He shuddered and the creature laughed. It knew his name! But how?
Dietz chose that moment to attack, his borrowed axe flashing out and down, landing right at the juncture of gauntlet and mutated flesh. Lankdorf's sword was right beside it, hitting the arm just a little higher up.
Braechen roared. His arm flailed, knocking both blades away, and then his other arm swept the two men aside, sending them tumbling to the floor.
"How do you know me?" Alaric shouted, desperate to draw the daemon's attention. The ploy worked. Braechen turned back to face him, still grinning, but Alaric thought he saw blood along the arm where the blades had struck.
"I know you," the daemon-altered man replied simply, the Braechen-mouth apparently translating the mind-numbing sounds that issued from the wider mouth below.
"Yes, but how?" Alaric demanded. It wasn't just a ploy. He needed to know. "From the statue?" he asked.
Braechen laughed. "The statue," it repeated. Was that agreement? "Yes, and from this." He raised his left arm, the gauntlet gleaming and flickering, and apparently moaning between them.
"The gauntlet?" Alaric was confused. "How?"
"Yes, gauntlet," the daemon replied, "Hraklonesh." The Braechen-mouth mimed the word, which apparently defied translation. "Expanding Maw, his."
"That belonged to... Hraklonesh of the Expanding Maw?" The name made his teeth feel numb and his mind shriek but Alaric continued. He could see Dietz and Lankdorf out of the corner of his eye. They were on their feet again and ready for a second attempt.
"Mine now," Braechen replied. He laughed. "Soon you will be, as well: body and soul." Alaric had continued his approach during their conversation and wondered if that was his doing or the daemon's. He suddenly remembered being drawn towards it once before against his will, and panicked as he discovered he could not stop himself from taking the next step. Only a few feet separated them.
He was saved, surprisingly enough, by cultists. A wave of men and women came charging down the stairs, straps, ribbons and gauze flying, and weapons raised, shouting their defiance. They paused at the sight before them, unsure who to attack first. Dietz solved that problem for them.
"He's an unbeliever," he shouted, gesturing towards Braechen. "He defiles this holy place!"
That was enough for the cultists. They launched themselves at the mutated soldier. He laughed and turned to meet them, ripping the first attacker's arm clean out of its socket and beating the stunned man's head with the limb hard enough to crack both arm bone and skull. More attacked, however, and even with the daemon inside him Braechen was forced to focus on this new threat.
Several braziers had been knocked over already and more were overturned, their coals smouldering atop the rugs and pillows. The cavern was getting darker, but it was still light enough to see what was happening. Alaric blinked, noticing a light oddly placed at the upper edge of his vision, and turned to look. It was coming from the statue. In the uppermost of her right hands the statue held a large sceptre of cunningly wrought gold set with bands of milky jade. It was the jade sceptre, the symbol of the cult and the Chaos god's greatest treasure.
Jade didn't usually glow.
Alaric stared. Then he blinked and stared again. Yes, he was sure: the jewel at the very tip of the sceptre, a large rounded gem, possessed a dull glow, invisible before but evident now that the room had grown darker. That wasn't jade!
"Ulric's beard! It's enchanted!" Dietz gasped out, also staring at the sceptre. "It's probably another relic!"
Alaric nodded. That could be the daemon's goal, to claim not one but two artefacts. Certainly Braechen was heading in that direction, shoving his way past couches and benches, and piles of cushion without slowing. Why would the daemon need a second artefact? And why was only the tip glowing? The rest of the sceptre, although it appeared to be of excellent workmanship and extravagant materials, did not appear unusual in any way.
"Warpstone!" It was Lankdorf who hissed the word, and Alaric remembered again the bounty hunter's sharp eyes. "I think that thing's a warpstone!"
"That's what he wants!" Alaric said, suddenly putting the pieces together. "The gauntlet must not be enough of a gate to bring him through completely. He needs that warpstone to complete or at least speed up the process!" Then his mind took another leap. "The gauntlet lets him manifest through Braechen," he realised, speaking out loud, "but that's still not his full presence. With the warpstone he can step through completely, just as he'd planned with the statues. We have to keep him away from that sceptre!"
He turned back towards the battle before him, just in time to see the remaining cultists fall back and to the sides, making room for a new figure.
"Begone, foul daemon!" The man now speaking was tall and slight, making Alaric think of Strykssen, although his hair was dark, dyed a deep red like wine, and bound back in a long braid, and his features were delicate, almost feminine. He wore an assortment of leather straps around each limb and a series of looped chains around his waist, covering a flimsy loincloth of some shimmering fabric. Gems hung from his ears and naked chest, and adorned his fingers and neck, and he moved with the assurance of command. Clearly this was a high priest of some sort.
"I know your allegiance," the senior cultist continued, stopping several feet from Braechen's reach as his brethren attacked again. "Your master is not welcome here! We worship Slaanesh!"
Braechen took a step towards him, slow and menacing, but the cultist did not retreat. "Begone," he said again, "before I call upon our master's power to destroy you!"
The daemon-infested soldier took another step. "Very well," the cultist said, paling slightly but still standing his ground. "Ss'I'biart'ah!" he shouted, tilting his head back, the word echoing around the room, "your servant calls upon you! Ss'I'biart'ah! Aid me!" His hands began to glow, a soft green that matched the statue's scales, and violet light poured from his eyes. The room grew noticeably colder, and Alaric felt a wind tug at his hair and clothes, carrying the too-sweet scent of decaying flesh.
Braechen actually paused at the first utterance of the name. Then he threw back his head and howled, both mouths emitting wordless cries of defiance, rage, and perhaps fear? Did the daemon really fear this Ss'I'biart'ah? Alaric didn't know and right now he didn't care. All he knew was that Braechen was distracted and his body was his own again. He began to creep forwards, trying to get closer to the daemon-possessed soldier without drawing attention to himself. Dietz and Lankdorf had clearly had the same idea, and all three of them advanced quietly, trying to find an approach that would sidestep the cultists and put them within striking range of Braechen.
Fortunately the priest was keeping both Braechen and the other cultists distracted. "Kneel before the Prince of Chaos!" he commanded, his hands snapping forwards as if punching. The green glow shot across the gap and struck Braechen in the chest, sending the daemon-infested man staggering, and again he howled, this time clearly in pain and rage. Again the priest struck and again Braechen reeled, blood and some other liquid dripping from tears and cracks across his battered chest.
"Yes!" shouted the priest, stepping forwards. His eyes were the brightest spots in the chamber and Alaric could still see their pinpoint glows when he blinked. "Bow before the greatest of the gods," the cultist demanded, raising his hands, the glow intensifying. "Cower for mercy from Slaanesh and his servants!"
In his exultation the priest had gotten too close. Braechen suddenly straightened, growling like a maddened beast, and his gauntleted arm shot forwards, grasping the cultist by the neck and squeezing. The captured cultist gasped, his face turning dark and his hands flailing, but their green energy washed over the gauntlet like water, unable to harm it or make Braechen release his grip. The cultists lunged at his other side, but the mutated warrior laughed and brushed them aside. They did distract him, however.
"Now!" Alaric shouted. He took a quick step forwards and lashed out, his rapier slicing across Braechen's forearm right above the gauntlet. Dietz and Lankdorf had not missed the opportunity, and both of their blades also landed, carving deeper into the flesh. The mutated warrior shrieked and tried to pull away, but the priest grasped Braechen's arm right where the gauntlet ended. The barbs sank deep into his flesh but the cultist ignored the wounds, focusing upon the forearm in his grip. The glow around his hands intensified, turning a searing greenish white, and Braechen screamed as the strange fire burnt away his mutated flesh, and his hand clenched in response, preventing him from pulling loose.
Alaric, Dietz and Lankdorf were on both sides of the arm and continued hacking at it. The cuts had turned to deep gouges, and Alaric saw bone through the blood. Just as Braechen managed to wrench his fingers open, the priest falling to the cushion-strewn ground, Dietz struck one last mighty blow and his axe sheared through the bone. With a resounding splintering sound the arm separated and Braechen's own convulsive jerk sent the gauntlet flying. It disappeared somewhere behind the statue, lost in the shadows.
Alaric glanced over at Dietz. "We have to make sure it's destroyed," he said, starting to turn away. He didn't get very far.
Alaric had hoped that with the gauntlet gone, the daemon would also disappear. He soon realised that wasn't the case, as Braechen struck at them, knocking the three of them off their feet. The daemon-infested soldier staggered back several paces, shoving aside the gathered cultists, blood and ichor dripping from the ruin of his arm, but he still stood, and his eyes still blazed as he gnashed his teeth at them and roared his defiance.
"Ulric preserve us," Dietz said, shoving cushions aside as he stood and grasped his axe again. "Now it's angry."
Dietz shook his head, trying to clear it. Braechen's last punch had made his head ring and his vision was still slightly blurred, but he didn't have time to be groggy. The daemon-possessed warrior was clearly enraged at the loss of the gauntlet---not to mention his forearm---and it was lumbering towards them, murder glinting in its glowing eyes.
"Die, Chaos spawn!" Lankdorf had been faster to recover and was already back on his feet, sword in one hand and ever-present crossbow in the other. He fired a bolt into Braechen's head, where it protruded from the temple like a strange, feather-edged horn, and swung with his sword.
The mutated man merely laughed that chilling laugh again and knocked the blade aside with his stump. His remaining hand lashed out, slicing across the bounty hunter's chest, the long barbed nails sprouting from the fingers carving through cloth, leather, and flesh. Lankdorf groaned and dropped to his knees.
Braechen growled, the horrible second mouth drooling in anticipation, and raised his clawed hand. Then he abruptly dropped his hand and turned away, wading into the cultists instead.
What? Dietz shook his head to make sure he wasn't seeing things. No, the daemon really had turned away from Lankdorf, leaving the bounty hunter wounded but alive, but why? He stepped quickly to the other man's side and knelt beside him.
The cultists, for their part, swarmed Braechen like angry bees, clearly incensed at his presence in their temple and outraged by his treatment of their high priest. Even though they wore no armour---and little clothing, for that matter---the cultists made up for their vulnerability with grace and speed, dancing around Braechen, darting in to stab him and then ducking away again before he could strike. Dietz hoped they would at least keep the creature busy for a while.
"Get off me! I'll be fine!" Lankdorf tried to shove him away, but his injury left him too weak to resist as Dietz quickly examined it. The wound was nasty but not life-threatening. He saw a row of gashes across the chest that would probably scar, and he could see the bounty hunter's flesh beneath the tatters of his shirt and jacket. Then he saw something else.
"What's this?" It was a gleam of silver and emerald and as Dietz reached out to touch it he remembered---the amulet! The one Glouste had found in the tomb, over the burial chamber door. Lankdorf had taken it when they'd first met and he'd forgotten all about it. It had been hidden beneath the bounty hunter's shirt, but the blow had exposed it. Was this why the daemon had backed away?
"You want it back?" The bounty hunter laughed weakly, and then groaned as the movement shifted his torn flesh. "Take it, then." He bowed his head to let Dietz slip the chain free.
"Alaric!" Dietz glanced up and saw his friend nearby, clearly torn between going after the daemon, going after the gauntlet, and coming to their aid. "Look at this!" He tossed the amulet to the nobleman, who caught it, and almost dropped it when he glanced at it fully.
"That's a mark of the Dark Gods!" Alaric said, studying the piece, and Dietz's blood ran cold. "It's the sign of the Lord of Pleasure," he continued, and then glanced up at the wall hangings all around them. "Look, the same mark is on these banners!" Of course! He'd heard of the symbol---the signs for male and female combined---but had never seen it, and he'd thought that the layers of the amulet had slipped loose from age or damage.
"This has runes all around it," Alaric continued, holding the amulet up to examine it more closely. "I wonder, perhaps this too is enchanted?"
Another enchanted item, maybe even another artefact, and Glouste had found it and brought it to him! Dietz couldn't stop himself from groaning. Of all the times for his pet to be generous!
"It didn't like it," Dietz said, gesturing towards Braechen, who was still battling the cultists. He also noticed that two had helped the priest to his feet and the tall man's eyes were glowing again, albeit weakly. Despite his revulsion for the cult and its practices, Dietz hoped the priest was capable of fighting again. They needed all the help they could get.
"No? Strange, it's a Chaos artefact and he's a daemon," Alaric mused. Then he brightened. "Of course, it's what that one cultist said, about allegiances. This is dedicated to Slaanesh and carries that god's power. The daemon answers to Khorne. The two are opposing forces, rivals, and so their power counteracts one another, like fire and water."
"So that thing will keep him away?" Dietz asked. He was helping Lankdorf to his feet as they spoke. The bounty hunter was a little unsteady but he'd bound what was left of his shirt around the wound and seemed to be doing better. Behind them the cultists were down to a handful, although Braechen had at least a dozen cuts that should have been mortal, mute testament to their skill. The high priest was standing unaided, and his hands were glowing again, although not green this time. They shone with a pale purple light that danced around his fingers almost like butterflies. It was very pretty, almost hypnotic, but Dietz had a feeling the effect was a lot nastier than a flying insect.
"It may do more than that," Alaric replied. He glanced at Dietz, and then at Lankdorf, and at something at the bounty hunter's waist. "Here!" he pitched the amulet back and Dietz caught it, though only barely. "Lankdorf!" The bounty hunter glanced up. "Can you still wield that sling?"
Lankdorf nodded brusquely. "I could use it blind and limbless and still take out a man's eye at a hundred paces."
"Never mind the eye," Alaric replied. "Aim for the mouth, the lower one."
The bounty hunter nodded. Dietz stepped back to give him some room as he freed his sling, dropped the amulet into it, and began to whirl it over his head. "Ulric guide you," Dietz whispered as he readied himself for whatever might happen next. It wouldn't be a bad thing, he figured, to have the Winter Wolf looking out for them. He thought he saw Alaric mouth something suspiciously like a prayer, and suspected that his friend was invoking Sigmar's blessing.
"Your time on this plane has ended, foul beast!" the priest was shouting as the last of his cultists fell, but the air seemed thick and his words were quickly muted. "You have trespassed upon our master's property, and for that you must pay the penalty!" He raised both hands, and the glow from them intensified, growing almost too bright to look at.
"Hey, K'red'lach!" Alaric shouted. He had backed up and was almost directly in front of Lankdorf and Dietz, between them and Braechen. The daemon-infested soldier had torn the last cultist in half, turned back to the statue and had just reached up, its remaining hand grasping the bottom edge of the sceptre despite the statue's towering height. Had Braechen grown somehow, or did the normal rules of distance simply not apply to the creature within him?
At the sound of that word---its name? Dietz wondered---the mutated man turned towards Alaric, and spat something at him, a curse or just a shout of defiance, as he tugged the sceptre from the statue and grasped it firmly. The glowing warpstone cast a strange glow upon his twisted face. The daemon-corrupted warrior grinned in triumph, his mouths opening wide, and Lankdorf let fly the amulet at the same time as the priest hurled his magic.
The bounty hunter's aim was perfect, and the rune-inscribed missile shot into the daemon's mouth: its real mouth, not the one it had stolen from Braechen. Purple bursts of energy hit it, striking it in the head and chest and leaving pinpricks of light where they had pierced the skin. The daemon swallowed convulsively, threw back its borrowed head and howled in rage, a sound that changed rapidly to a shriek of inhuman pain.
"Return to your own world!" the priest bellowed, his words gaining volume suddenly as the air turned thin and cold like the air of the mountain peaks. "This body will hold you no longer!"
Braechen began writhing, his body mutating rapidly and uncontrollably, spines, barbs and tentacles, and even tiny limbs sprouting at random and disappearing just as quickly. He staggered and glared not at Lankdorf or the priest but at Alaric, and both mouths moved in unison.
"Soon," the Braechen-mouth said, slurring the word badly, "I come for you."
Then energy exploded outwards from the daemon, waves of light and shadow crashing across one another, the very air in the cavern flickering from their passage. Violet light lanced out from his eyes and incandescent blood gushed from his mouth as shards almost like black crystal burst from various parts of his body. The daemon-infested soldier dropped to his knees, his body shredded, and then collapsed further, as if his bones had all been splintered into tiny fragments. He was still clutching the sceptre somehow, but it too was bathed in strange light, and as he dropped, its base struck the ground. The entire sceptre vibrated from the blow, shaking free from his weakened grasp, and then the jewel at the top shattered with a tinkling sound, its glow dispersing into the cavern's gloom. The rest of the sceptre, blackened as if by intense flames, crumbled as it hit the floor.
"Nice shot," Dietz commented, stepping forwards just in case, the axe he'd claimed at the ready. He was too numb to register what had happened. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the priest sway and then collapse, apparently drained by the use of such potent magic. Good. Hopefully he'd stay unconscious for long enough for them to leave unnoticed.
"Thanks." Lankdorf was right beside him, his sword in his hand as they approached the fallen daemon. The bounty hunter looked dazed and Dietz suspected he bore a similar expression. Had they really just defeated a daemon? The body before them certainly confirmed that.
Only it wasn't a daemon anymore. They could see that right away. It was Braechen again. A shattered, torn, maimed Braechen, who shuddered and died before they could reach him.
"He wouldn't have survived," Alaric said, sounding as if he was trying to reassure himself. "The daemon twisted his body too much. Its magic was all that was keeping him alive. Once it left he was doomed." Dietz could see that his young friend was shivering, not that he blamed him. It had taken them days to recover from the shock of facing a daemon back in Middenheim and that time it had only been able to peer through the gate. This time it had looked full upon them and had fought against them, even if it had only by using a man's body for a host.
"Brought it on himself," Dietz pointed out wearily, and Lankdorf nodded. Braechen had been offering the gauntlet to that man Strykssen when they'd spotted him. He had to have known what it was. He was probably a Chaos worshipper himself, which meant he'd given himself willingly. He had no one but himself to blame for the outcome.
Alaric started to say something but was interrupted by a shower of dust and tiny rock fragments. Glancing up, Dietz saw cracks spider webbing across the cavern ceiling. A quick survey showed similar damage appearing along the walls.
"We need to go," he urged, taking Alaric by the arm and leading him back towards the staircase at a quick walk. The numbness was pushed aside by more immediate panic. The bounty hunter was ahead of them, limping but moving quickly despite that, and had somehow retrieved his crossbow.
"The gauntlet!" Alaric argued, trying to twist free. "We have to make sure it's destroyed!"
A chunk of stone the size of a horse's head narrowly missed them, triggering a small avalanche from above. The statue was hit by another chunk that shattered the right side of its face and sent a long crack down through its impressive torso. Several other pieces fell, one of them near where the priest had collapsed. Dietz thought he heard a grunt as it struck the ground, but he wasn't sure. "It'll be buried," he assured Alaric, "and so will we, if we don't move!"
Dietz half-led, half-dragged his friend to the stairs and they raced back up, taking the steps two at a time. Several more cultists had just descended the stairs, apparently intent upon aiding their brethren, but they turned and fled when they saw what was happening. Dietz and Alaric were right behind them. He heard more crashes as they neared the top of the stairs and a thick cloud of stone dust rose from the cavern, choking him for a second before they burst back onto the main level and gulped in fresh air from outside.
Lankdorf was waiting for them by one of the building's entrances, leaning against the wall for support. "We'd better get out of here," he said. "No telling how much damage that'll do. The entire town could collapse into the ground." Alaric shuddered and Dietz, remembering his young friend's fear of enclosed spaces, knew the bounty hunter had found the perfect motivation to get him away from this place and quickly.
"Fine," Alaric said, pulling free of Dietz's hand and dusting his sleeve. "Let's go."
Alaric staggered out of the building and into the street, Dietz and Lankdorf right behind him. None of them could resist glancing back as they left the building, but the stairs were quiet. Even the dust had settled, and they heard nothing from below. The earth had reclaimed the cavern and everything in it, hopefully for good.
He was so thrilled to be alive that it took him a second to register the activity occurring all around them. The shouts, thuds and groans finally got his attention, however.
The walls had apparently been breached and the attacking armies had entered the town proper. As Alaric glanced around he saw soldiers from all three forces battling cultists and each other. It was the same scene they'd witnessed on the way into the town, only now it was all around them. So far they hadn't been noticed because they were still in the shadow of the temple, but Alaric knew that it was only a matter of time before they were seen, and this time they didn't have Braechen wading through the conflict in front of them, clearing the way.
"Great," Lankdorf said, stepping up on his left side. Dietz was on his right. Already several shouts were aimed in their direction. "How in Myrmidia's name are we going to get out of this?"
"I---"Alaric started to reply, but then he saw the bounty hunter stiffen. Lankdorf's face twisted into a look of pure rage and he leapt into the combat, his wound apparently forgotten, shouting something incoherent and raising his crossbow like a club. The crowd swirled around him and in seconds he was lost from view.
"Damn and blast!" Dietz swore. "What got into him?"
"I don't know," Alaric replied. "Obviously something important." He shook his head. "We need to get out of here." A soldier, any markings he'd had torn away or covered in blood and gore, lunged at them and Dietz almost absently clubbed the man down with his axe.
"What about Lankdorf?" Dietz asked, and chuckled at Alaric's expression. "I know, I know," the older man said, shaking his head. "He's a piece of work, all right, but he's been damned useful and he's not a bad sort to have around."
Alaric nodded. He still didn't quite trust the bounty hunter, at least not where money was concerned, but he had fought beside them without hesitation, and he certainly hadn't been the worst travelling companion they'd had in recent months.
"He'll turn up," Alaric assured his friend, turning away for a second to parry a sword thrust from a cultist and stab the woman in reply. His point took her between bare breasts and he glanced away as he yanked the blade free. "He's a survivor. The smart thing is for us to get out of here and wait for him somewhere beyond all this fighting."
Dietz nodded, hefting his axe and pulling his mace from his pack to use in his other hand. "Right, let's go."
They turned and made their way towards the town's outer wall, figuring there had to be one or more breaches that they could use for an exit. Soldiers attacked them, as did cultists, and Alaric and Dietz found themselves forced to advance back-to-back, sidling like a crab while using sword, dagger, mace and axe to fend off blows. Fortunately the fighting was so confused that most of their opponents got swept away after only a quick flurry of blows. Many of their assailants were cut down from behind, by foes who then attacked Alaric and Dietz before also being targeted. This was not a war anymore, Alaric realised. It was mere carnage. Most of these people were no longer thinking about anything, just fighting on instinct. He and Dietz had a plan and a purpose, however, which gave them the advantage.
Another cultist charged him, and Alaric defended himself, but the man fell before Alaric's blade touched him, a heavy sword point sprouting from his chest amid the ribbons and straps. The cultist toppled, a surprised frown on his lips.
Alaric found himself staring at a familiar face.
Levrellian was still dressed in finery, but at least this version was more practical. The prince wore a suit of glittering mail and wielded a golden broadsword that flashed in the sunlight. A crown had been worked into his gleaming helm but the faceplate was open and Alaric saw at once that the man's eyes were wide and a little dazed as he tugged his sword free of the cultist's back. Several men in the border prince's livery fought nearby, presumably Levrellian's personal guard, but the melee was too confused for them to stay at his side, and for the moment the prince was alone.
"I know you!" the prince shouted upon seeing him. "You were in my throne room!"
Alaric nodded. He didn't think it would help to remind the prince why they'd been there.
"Ah, yes, the travellers!" Levrellian glanced over at Dietz, whom Alaric noticed had his axe at the ready. "You killed my nephew!"
"You never liked him much," Alaric pointed out, leaning to one side to stab a soldier who'd been approaching with a mace held high to strike. Then he quickly changed the subject. "Will you win this battle?"
"Hmm? Yes! Ah, of course!" Levrellian glanced around again, taking in the confusion. "Although I don't remember why I wanted this place so much." A wave of warriors crashed through before Alaric could reply, carrying the prince with them.
"A little confused," Dietz commented as they continued on, fending off a cultist, one of Levrellian's soldiers and one of Haflok's in rapid succession. They had crept past the main square and the fighting around them lessened slightly, although they still had to keep their backs together and their weapons ready.
"I suspect Strykssen manipulated him," Alaric said, parrying a surprisingly skilful attack by a cultist wielding a rapier. A stray blow from a hammer took out the duellist before they could cross blades again and Alaric consoled himself by stabbing the hammer-wielder instead. "He was the one who wanted the map, so he could get the gauntlet, and he wanted this town so he could get the sceptre." He shook his head. "I've seen that before, counsellors who take control, but Levrellian let him. He's no one to blame but himself."
They continued to fight for several minutes, both of them feeling the strain. The initial adrenaline had worn off and fatigue was setting in, as well as the effects from the numerous small wounds they'd each received. There were fewer opponents now that there was also less confusion, which meant those who did attack them were less likely to get distracted a moment later. Alaric was starting to wonder if they would escape alive when Dietz nudged him.
"There," the older man said, pointing with his mace. Alaric looked and felt his spirits lift slightly. Somehow they had arrived before the town's main gates, and they were open! Well, battered apart was more accurate, but the wide portal stood open, and with much of the fighting inside the town, the gates and the field beyond looked almost empty by comparison.
"Right," Alaric said, nodding. He took a deep breath, batted aside a longsword, and raised his own blade in reply. "Let's not keep the horses waiting."
"Who do you think will win?" Dietz asked, gesturing at the town below. They were back at the ruins, peeking out from behind the still-standing corner and watching the last gasps of the battle they had just waded through. Large parts of Vitrolle were in flames, but they could still see small patches of fighting through the smoke.
"Who cares?" Alaric replied absently, tending to a cut along his side, fortunately not the side where he'd been stabbed before. They had managed to cut and bash their way through the gates and across the field to the hill but it had not been easy and neither of them was exactly unscathed. He frowned. "Levrellian doesn't care anymore," he pointed out, now that he thought about it, "and Haflok only wants it destroyed. I suspect they'll both back off after the town is gone, leaving the land to Fatandira." He shrugged. "Not that it matters to us."
Dietz nodded, apparently satisfied with the answer, and Alaric lapsed into his own thoughts again. He had so many questions. Why had Karitamen had that gauntlet? How had it got into his tomb? Had it been interred with him, or smuggled in later? And if the latter, by whom? What about the wards and the amulet, both of which might have stopped the liche from leaving his burial chamber? Who had put them there?
How had the daemon known about all this? And about the warpstone in the sceptre?
"I don't get it," he said finally, throwing up his hands and wincing as the motion tugged at one of the wounds he'd just clumsily bandaged.
"Looks like you were right," Dietz said over his shoulder, still watching the town. He was absently stroking Glouste, who had hidden within his jacket throughout the battle and had only emerged, chattering a sharp rebuke, when they'd collapsed onto the stones of the ruin. "Haflok's gathering his men. So is Levrellian, and they're both facing away, as if they're about to leave. Fatandira's got the town, or at least what's left of it." Then he turned, Alaric's comment apparently just registering. "Don't get what?"
"Any of it," Alaric replied sharply. He shook his head. "None of this makes any sense." He gestured towards Vitrolle. "The daemon wanted the warpstone, correct?" His friend nodded. "So why not go and get it?"
Dietz frowned. "He did. Or he was about to."
"No, why not go get it before the battle? He waited until the battle had started. Why?"
"Maybe the bloodshed made him stronger?" Dietz suggested.
"Maybe." Alaric thought back, trying to remember the sequence of events. They entered the ruins, Strykssen died, Braechen put on the gauntlet, the attack on the town began, the daemon laughed---
"That's it!" he said softly. "It was excited when the attack began!"
"Like I said, bloodshed." Dietz nodded.
"No, that's not it," Alaric corrected his friend. "If it was that, the daemon would have stayed on the battlefield longer. Instead he made straight for the town, and for that hole in the wall. That's when he laughed, after he heard the stones break." He pounded one hand against the old stone beside him. "He didn't go in before that because he couldn't!"
Dietz didn't have much education but he was quick on the uptake and he had a good memory. "Fire and water?" he asked.
"Exactly," Alaric replied. "The cultists held the town in... in the name of their god. The daemon serves a different god. The town must have been shielded against him, but once the attackers broke through he could use that gap to enter."
He frowned, his mind racing. "Strykssen manipulated Levrellian into attacking," he said out loud, working through the ideas as they hit him, "so he knew the town would be attacked. That's why he was waiting here, but he also needed that gauntlet, and we found it for him."
"He'd have found it anyway," Dietz pointed out. "He had your map."
"Maybe," Alaric agreed, but he wasn't convinced. The original map had been less detailed than the one he'd drawn, supposedly from memory. Where had those extra details come from? Without them he couldn't have found the valley, which meant he wouldn't have found the gauntlet. Had someone helped him? If so, why?
Alaric didn't much like the idea of anyone else manipulating his thoughts or actions. He tried to tell himself it had simply been bad luck, but something in his gut told him that wasn't true.
Something was toying with him.
He shuddered as he remembered what the daemon had said down in the cultists' temple. "Mine now," it had said, meaning the gauntlet. "Soon you will be, as well: body and soul." Right before its borrowed body had been destroyed, the daemon had proclaimed, "Soon I come for you." Alaric shivered, suddenly covered in a cold sweat. He gulped desperately at the wine that Dietz had pulled from one of their saddlebags when they'd reached the ruins and found their horses still here.
The daemon wasn't gone. He knew that somehow. It had been banished, yes, but it was not destroyed. That meant it was still out there, and he had a feeling he would see it again. Their fates were intertwined, and he worried that, the next time they met, the daemon might be right. Next time it might claim him utterly, and he wasn't sure he would be able to resist it.
Scanning, formatting andproofing by Flandrel,additional formatting andproofing by Undead.

