Gotrek & Felix- the Second Omnibus - William King

by Warhammer

  ‘I would oppose such wizards,’ said Max. Felix could feel the tension in the air. The wizard and the vampire resented each other, perhaps because in some ways they were so alike.

  ‘Perhaps we could save this discussion until tomorrow,’ he said. ‘There will be time enough then for such a debate. Right now we are wasting time, and the lair of our common enemy lies before us.’

  Both of them looked at him for a moment, and seemed on the verge of a snappish rejoinder. He met their gazes as calmly as he could, and slowly the tension dissipated.

  ‘Your words make sense, Herr Jaeger,’ said the countess.

  Max nodded agreement. Felix saw that the rest of their party was already disappearing among the trees down slope.

  ‘Then let us join the others before they get too far ahead of us, and we have to work our way through this accursed forest on our own.’

  As they came closer to the mighty keep, Felix felt more and more as if he were walking in the shadow of some terrible giant which might at any moment spring to life and crush him.

  The sheer scale of the ruin was oppressive. It made even the ancient trees around them seem no more than weeds. Its sense of antiquity made him feel like a mayfly. What sort of person would choose to dwell here, he wondered? Or was it simply the power of the warding spells the countess had warned about that he was feeling?

  Wearily the warriors trudged towards the building’s gaping entrance. Their earlier courage seemed to have evaporated. No one spoke. The only sounds to break the silence were the occasional groans of the wounded as the sled hit a rut in the earth.

  The cold wind tugged at Felix’s cloak. Flakes of snow struck his face. Under other circumstances he might have looked forward to getting inside out of the wind and the chill. Now he found his feet dragging, as if reluctant to carry him any closer to their destination.

  As the darkness deepened, he heard a shout from up ahead. He glanced up and saw what the commotion was about. An eerie green witch light had appeared in one of the highest towers. It flickered for a moment and then receded. It seemed that the place was occupied although what sort of creature used one of those devilish lights did not bear thinking about.

  ‘Looks like we’re expected,’ Felix said. Gotrek glanced at him.

  ‘There’s a surprise, manling.’

  ‘What do you think of this place?’

  ‘The stonework is crude even by human standards.’

  ‘That’s not what I meant.’

  ‘I think we shall see what we shall see once we are inside. There’s no sense in speculating until then.’

  Felix shook his head, astonished by how calm the dwarf could remain in the face of horror and danger. No, that was not true. He knew the Slayer well enough to recognise the underlying note of anticipation in his voice. A frenzied light had appeared in the dwarf’s one good eye. His expression might be as bleak and uncaring as usual, but Felix knew Gotrek was as tense as himself.

  As well he might be, Felix thought.

  ‘This place is wrapped round with spells,’ said Max. He stood for a moment, leaning on his staff and appeared to reconsider his words. ‘No. That is not quite correct. The walls hold all the usual defensive wards you would expect in a castle of this size, but they seemed twisted somehow.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Felix.

  ‘I am not sure I can explain it to one who is not a magician.’

  ‘Try!’ said Gotrek.

  The magician started walking again, easily keeping pace with the two of them. Felix thought he detected a small flow of heat from around him. Was he using magic to keep himself warm, Felix wondered? That would certainly explain a lot of things.

  ‘There is something else at work here. The whole keep is saturated with dark magic. Tainted in some way, as if some of the stonework contained warpstone or somewhere deep below is a mother lode of the stuff. Whatever it is I think its influence has modified the defensive spells, mutated them, if you will.’

  ‘And?’ Felix probed.

  ‘And I don’t know what the overall effect will be. I suspect it might be nasty, and I also suspect that it will interfere with the casting of spells within the keep.’

  ‘Wonderful,’ said Felix sardonically. ‘You are saying that your magic will be useless.’

  ‘Not necessarily. Just that their effects might be dampened or unpredictable.’

  ‘You think it’s the effect of the talisman?’

  ‘No. The very stones here are steeped in evil magic. It would take centuries for that to happen. I think this place is a locus of dark power. I have no idea why.’

  ‘Any more vague warnings you would like to give us?’ sneered Gotrek. ‘Maybe I should consult Snorri Nosebiter and see what he thinks. It would probably be clearer.’

  ‘We are all a little tense here, Gotrek,’ said Max with what Felix considered to be a masterful use of understatement. ‘There’s no need to be sarcastic.’

  Gotrek grunted and then spat on the ground. Ahead of them the entrance to the keep loomed massively. Felix could see that once there had been a portcullis but the blades had rusted into position. The metal struts that had once reinforced the door lay in pieces on the ground. It looked deserted, but appearances could prove deceptive. Ahead of them, the Kislevites paused to light torches and pour oil into their few lanterns. The horses whickered nervously. Max gestured and a ball of golden light came into being just above his outstretched fingers. Another gesture sent it orbiting outwards.

  Felix wished he knew the trick for doing that. He could imagine that once he was within the keep the ability to conjure light would prove very useful.

  ‘This is the great hall,’ said the Countess Gabriella. She had the trick of speaking in a quiet-sounding, calm voice that somehow managed to carry to the furthest of the group.

  ‘You don’t say,’ said Gotrek.

  ‘Snorri would never have guessed that,’ said Snorri and then chortled at his words.

  It was huge. The vaulted ceiling was almost lost to sight above them. Massive galleries ran round the chamber. The posts of the banisters were carved to resemble naked skeletal humans. The floor underfoot was covered in a vandalised mosaic that Felix guessed had once shown the heraldic symbol of the keep’s owner.

  The air smelled of rot and chill. A massive staircase at the far end of the hall rose up to the galleries. Max’s gesture sent his sphere of light arcing towards the ceiling. It stopped at the remains of a massive crystal chandelier, and its beams were reflected eerily about the chamber.

  Gotrek wandered around the edges of the vast room. Felix followed him. He had long ago learned that his best chance of survival lay in sticking close to the dwarf and his massive axe. There were many doorways leading off into smaller passages and chambers. Here and there were vandalised pictures. Huge patches of black mould covered parts of the walls. Massive cockroaches scuttled away from the light.

  ‘This is an evil place,’ said Felix.

  To his surprise, the dwarf laughed. It was a sound as cold as ice floes cracking together.

  ‘It seems our wizard is not the only one with a gift for stating the obvious.’

  They strode back towards the assembled troops. All the warriors and their mounts were present, and the sledges had been dragged through the huge gate of the keep. The countess and her knightly companions seemed to be debating something with Max and Ivan Petrovich. As they closed Felix could hear what was being said.

  ‘I say we set up camp here for the evening, set the fires burning brightly and ready ourselves for an attack,’ said Ivan Petrovich. ‘I do not doubt one will come.’

  ‘This is not a very defensible position if an enemy comes at us in any numbers,’ said Max. ‘It’s too open, with too many entrances. We should find a smaller chamber.’

  ‘And be trapped in it like rabbits in a burrow when a weasel comes?’ asked Ivan Petrovich. The use of such an analogy told Felix how nervous the Kislevite was beneath his bluff exterior.

  ‘Yo
u forget who and what had this place built,’ said the countess. ‘The whole mansion is riddled with secret passages. At least if we camp here we will see our opponents coming at us.’

  ‘And we will have a clear field on which to fight,’ said Rodrik. ‘I will not cower from the foe.’

  ‘Not like when we fought the wolves, eh?’ bellowed Gotrek. If looks could kill, the knight’s glance would have struck him down on the spot. He glanced contemptuously at the countess. ‘Secret passages, eh? I am a dwarf and the secret passage has not been built that a dwarf could not find.’

  ‘Are you suggesting we should hide like frightened children?’ said Quentin. His high-pitched voice sounded even closer to breaking than usual.

  Gotrek looked at him nastily. ‘That is certainly what you remind me of.’

  Ever the diplomat, thought Felix. A room full of armed people, scared and ready to come to blows, and what do you do? Try to set a spark to that dry tinder. ‘No one is suggesting that we hide,’ said Felix quickly before the situation could deteriorate further. ‘We are discussing the best plan to proceed and destroy the monster that dwells here. That is all.’

  Much to his surprise the others nodded as if he had just said something sensible; even Gotrek managed to hold his tongue. He decided to press his advantage. ‘We need a place to keep the wounded safe, and our supplies guarded. We will need them when we leave, unless any of you have discovered a way to eat snow.’

  He glanced around. ‘This darkness is probably not the best time to go searching through the adjoining chambers looking for a refuge. Who knows what we will find, and we don’t want to split our forces.’

  He saw they were getting restive once more. They did not want a balanced assessment of their situation. Most of them were scared and wanted decisive leadership. Just this once he would give them it. ‘We build fires here, split into watches and wait for the night to pass. On the morrow, when there is more light, we will seek our foe.’

  They nodded agreement. Men had already begun to move off to build fires in the centre of the chamber. Some of them tethered the horses to the runners of the coach and the sledges. Men nocked their bows and put lanterns up where they could provide the most light. Max set more balls of light spiralling towards the ceiling. They wavered and flickered eerily but at least they continued to provide some illumination.

  From somewhere in the distance came the high-pitched shrieking gibber of a ghoul. With all the echoes it was impossible to tell from where the call had come. From the opposite direction came a response.

  Felix was suddenly glad that they were not going to check the adjoining rooms. He could tell the others were too.

  From the balcony above the grand hall Adolphus Krieger looked down on the assembled mortals. His magesight saw the glittering web of magical wards the wizard wove. They flickered as the keep’s own wards interfered with them but somehow maintained their integrity.

  The vast setting made them look like ants but appearances were deceptive. He was not going to underestimate his foes. That was the cardinal mistake so many of his kind had made when dealing with mortals. He considered using overwhelming force, assembling all the walking corpses and animated skeletons and throwing them against the intruders in one mighty hammer blow, and dismissed the idea. There would be time enough for that later. This was his home ground. The ghouls and his mortal followers knew their way around it better than those men down below and the old wards would not interfere with their movements. First of all, he would pick off a few of the interlopers, one at a time, and then when the force was weakened and morale low, he would destroy them.

  He watched them, feeling quite pleased with himself until he caught sight of a familiar figure moving through the assembled mortals. The countess! What was she doing here? He had not expected to see her so soon. It was strange how she still affected him after all these years. He still felt like a schoolboy about to be confronted by a domineering mother. He told himself not to be ridiculous, he had the Eye of Nagash, and there was nothing she could do to him now. It was all very well telling himself this but it did not lessen the shock or the strange echo of old emotions washing through his brain.

  Doubtless she was scheming with his enemies, but why? How would accompanying these foolish mortals advance her schemes? He shrugged. It was fairly easy to understand. She obviously hoped that they would kill him, and allow her to take the Eye of Khemri. As ever, she preferred to use others as her cat’s-paws. The wonder of it was that she had come all this way and exposed her precious self to danger. He smiled revealing his teeth as anger flowed through him.

  He stalked along the balcony fingering the precious talisman. Then again, she had never been a coward, and he supposed she was desperate. It was unlikely those particular mortals down there could simply be tricked into taking the Eye back to her. And now that the summoning had begun others of the Arisen would soon be here. She could hardly take the risk of them getting it. It seemed her motives were simple and comprehensible after all.

  He wondered if her mortal dupes knew what they were letting themselves in for. They were caught between him and the countess and there was no way they could survive the experience. In a way, he would be doing them a favour by killing her before she could work her will on them.

  Of course, they would serve him too, in their own way, as soldiers in his resurrected legions.

  ‘I feel as if there is something watching us,’ said Felix. He glanced upwards, his flesh crawling, knowing somehow that there was something on the balcony above, looking at them with the same glance a hawk gives a field mouse.

  ‘That would be a fair bet, manling,’ said Gotrek. ‘Perhaps we should go up and take a look.’

  Are you mad? Felix wanted to ask, but didn’t. He already knew the answer. The Slayer was not sane as most men measured sanity. So instead, he said, ‘I don’t think that is a good idea.’

  However, the Slayer was already stomping off towards the huge staircase. Felix considered letting him go alone for an instant but then followed. In part because he had sworn an oath to follow the Slayer and record his doom, and in part because he suspected that in this place it was safest to stay close to the Slayer and his axe. Then, realising he had no light, he rushed back into the mass of men and grabbed a lantern.

  ‘Oi! Where are you going?’ Snorri Nosebiter shouted. Felix could see the others around the fire were looking at them.

  ‘Just going to scout about for a bit,’ Felix responded.

  ‘Not without Snorri you’re not. If there’s fighting to be done, Snorri wants to be part of it.’

  ‘Suit yourself,’ said Felix, as the second Slayer rushed over to join them. Seeing the uneasy looks of the men around the fire, Felix was not surprised when there were no other volunteers.

  Krieger looked down in disbelief. The two dwarfs and the human were actually coming looking for him. Either they were mad, or they were supremely overconfident. In either case, he did not really care. This was a hell-sent opportunity. His foes had split their forces and thus reduced their effectiveness. He intended to take full advantage of it. For the moment, all he had to do was wait.

  ‘This place could use a little cleaning,’ said Felix, as they stalked upstairs. Cobwebs hung between the spokes of the banister. Very big spiders scuttled away from the light. The stairs creaked eerily beneath his boots. Not for the first time he wished he could see in the dark like the dwarfs. This lantern made him an easy mark for anything in the dark. None of the creatures they had encountered so far seemed to have any difficulty functioning without light.

  ‘Complain to the servants, manling,’ said Gotrek, pausing at the top of the stairs to inspect their surroundings for a moment.

  ‘I suppose good help is hard to find these days,’ said Felix, glancing over the dwarf’s shoulder. ‘My father always used to say that.’

  The stairs ended in a gallery running left and right around the edges of the great hall. There were more doors leading off into more chambers. Here and th
ere large paintings covered the walls. About halfway down the hall on either side, more stairs led off upwards. It was very quiet. Felix could hear the voices of the men below, and the soft, scared whinnying of the horses. Felix ran his fingers over the edge of the banister. They came away caked with a thick layer of dust. There was no sign of any enemy but still Felix’s flesh crawled. He looked up at the ceiling, half expecting to see a massive spider about to drop on his head. Instead he saw nothing except the painted and blotched plasterwork of the ceiling, which was also the floor of the gallery above.

  Felix stepped forward onto the gallery. The floor flexed beneath his foot. He wondered how safe this place was. After all, it had not been maintained in two centuries. He proceeded forward cautiously, half expecting the floor beneath him to give way at any moment.

  He moved over to the nearest painting, holding his lantern up close so that he could inspect it. Within an elaborate gilded frame was a portrait of a tall, pale woman, classically beautiful, black hair piled high in an ornate coiffure. She stood by a window. A huge crescent moon dominated the night sky behind her. In one hand she held a crystal glass of what Felix hoped was red wine. The other rested on the head of a kneeling man. There was something disturbingly bestial in the features of the man.

  The painter had contrived to convey the impression that the woman was stroking him, as a noble lady of the Empire might a pet leopard. A broken silver chain dangling from the man’s neck added to the impression.

  ‘Snorri thinks she was a bad one,’ said Snorri Nosebiter, from just behind Felix. He had to agree. There was something about the woman’s features that suggested great power and a refined cruelty. Perhaps it was the faint flaring of the nostrils and the slight twist to those pouting red lips.

  ‘One of the vampire countesses, no doubt,’ said Felix. ‘They all gathered here once or so I am told.’

  They stalked on across the crumbling gallery to the next portrait. This time it was of a tall, pale-skinned man, bearded and aristocratic looking. His clothes were rich and dark. He too held a goblet of red wine in one hand. A massive golden hunting horn dangled from his neck. His booted foot rested on the chest of a dead man like a hunter standing triumphant over a stag. Once again it was night. This man smiled confidently, revealing two long prominent fangs. He radiated power and confidence, certain of his authority and right to dominate others. Like the first, this painting was executed with a skill amounting to genius. It almost seemed like the subject was about to step out of the painting. Felix shivered. That was a concept that did not bear thinking about.