Knightsblade
Page 30
‘It will be the last hunt for the Witch of Adrastapol,’ said Luk. ‘And it will end in nothing but blood.’
Hundreds of miles distant, Jennika Tan Draconis padded silently through long grass, beneath the pale light of Adrastapol’s moons. Cradled in her arms was a cloth-wrapped bundle. Around her loomed tall shadows, dark edifices of stone and marble that radiated a sepulchral stillness. The wind soughed softly, a whisper through grass and stone.
Jennika slowed, her stablight picking out the structure she sought. She played her light upwards, over steps of black granite inlaid with theldrite moonsilver. Up over an engraved plinth until she illuminated the stern features of King Tolwyn Tan Draconis, graven in cold marble.
‘Father,’ she murmured. ‘I have something for you.’
Jennika picked her way up the steps to Tolwyn’s mausoleum, passing through the stone archway into the blackness beyond. There, her father’s crypt, in which nothing but echoes and memories lay entombed. The High King’s body, his crown, his throne, none of it had ever been found.
She halted, making the sign of the aquila and whispering a prayer for her father’s soul. Walking softly past the tomb, she made her way into the offering chamber behind it, and set her stablight upon a marble shelf.
Jennika drew her draconblade and slowly, carefully, worked loose one of the marble slabs that covered the floor. Setting her sword aside she dug into the cold soil below, working with steady tenacity, pulling out small rocks by hand and ignoring the dull ache that built in her fingers. At last, hands stained and fingernails bloody, she was satisfied.
Jennika took up the bundle. Surrounded by shadows, she laid it gently into the hole she had dug. She looked down at it, the silken banner shrouding the mysterious sword, and for a moment she believed again that she felt a faint warmth upon her skin. One hand moved slowly towards the wrapping, took hold of a corner as though to pull it back and look again upon the magnificent weapon.
Instead, Jennika pulled her hand back and shook her head.
‘Not until I know what you are,’ she said. ‘Father will stand guard over your secrets, as well as he stood guard over his own.’
Taking a deep breath, she started to push the soil back into the hole.
Minutes later it was done, and Jennika emerged back into the warm summer night. She let out a slow breath, feeling the goosebumps fade on her flesh, and looked out over the rows and rows of mausoleums that stretched away into the darkness. Hundreds of High Kings, thousands, stretching back over millennia into the dim shadows of the past.
Squaring her shoulders, Jennika set off through the grass, back to where Fire Defiant waited. Back to the Draconspire, to prepare for war.
About the Author
Andy Clark has written the Warhammer 40,000 novels Kingsblade and Shroud of Night, as well as the short story ‘Whiteout’, the Age of Sigmar short story ‘Gorechosen’, and the Warhammer Quest Silver Tower novella Labyrinth of the Lost. Andy works as a background writer for Games Workshop, crafting the worlds of Warhammer Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000. He lives in Nottingham, UK.
For Murray, in recognition of his ongoing and heartfelt love of the world’s many pandas.
A Black Library Publication
Published in Great Britain in 2018 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.
Produced by Games Workshop in Nottingham.
Cover illustration by David Alvarez.
Knightsblade © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2018. Knightsblade, GW, Games Workshop, Black Library, The Horus Heresy, The Horus Heresy Eye logo, Space Marine, 40K, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, the ‘Aquila’ Double-headed Eagle logo, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world.
All Rights Reserved.
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-78572-798-6
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.