by Warhammer
He looked up from watching Boneripper suck the marrow from a femur as his simpering, tailless servant, Issfet Loptail, pulled back the manskin door curtain and bowed in a lean skaven in the black garb and mask of a night runner. The skaven, an accomplished assassin known only as Shadowfang, who Thanquol had hired from Clan Eshin at great expense, knelt before him, head down, tail flat and meek. He only flinched a little as he heard Boneripper crack the leg bone with his teeth.
‘I return, oh sage of the underdark,’ whispered the assassin.
‘Yes-yes,’ said the seer impatiently. Wasn’t it obvious he had returned? ‘Speak-speak! Do you have them? Are they mine at last?’
Shadowfang hesitated. ‘I… I crave your pardon, grey seer. The kidnap did not go as planned.’
Thanquol slammed his bony claw on the table, almost upsetting his inkpot. Boneripper rumbled ominously. ‘You promised me success! You promised you had anticipated every contingency!’
‘I thought I had, your supremacy,’ said the assassin.
‘You thought? You thought incorrectly then, yes? What happened? Tell me, quick-quick!’ Thanquol’s tail lashed with impatience.
‘Yes-yes, grey seer. I begin,’ said Shadowfang, touching his snout to the floor and casting a nervous glance at the rat ogre. ‘The crested one blocked Mao Shing’s sleep darts – he has been punished for his incompetence, I assure you – then, as I foresaw, the crested one and the yellow fur ran, fast-fast, out of the drinking place to fight. There they fell into my second trap, and success was nearly ours.’
‘Nearly?’ asked Thanquol, sneering.
The assassin’s tail quivered at his devastating disdain. ‘The fault is not mine, most benevolent of seers!’ he shrilled. ‘Had I been able to employ brave, proud gutter runners instead of sickly man-slaves, the targets would be even now in your noble claws. But outside in the day-sun in the over-burrow, skaven might have been discovered, so man-slaves must suffice.’
‘But suffice they did not,’ snarled Thanquol.
‘No, grey seer,’ said Shadowfang, swallowing nervously. ‘They failed. The dwarf and the human kill-maimed them all, then escaped.’
‘Escaped?’ said Thanquol. ‘Where-where?’
‘I… I know not.’
‘You know not?’ Thanquol’s voice was quickly rising to an imperious squeak. Boneripper sensed his distress and lowed unhappily. ‘You know not? You, who I was told could sniff-sniff the trail of a crow through a swamp seven days after it had flown past? You know not?’
‘Mercy-mercy, your eminence,’ whined Shadowfang. ‘I… I made a strategic withdrawal after the man-slaves died, and when I returned to the drinking place, they had vanished.’
‘A strategic withdrawal,’ said Thanquol dryly. ‘You skitter-ran. You squirted the musk of fear.’
‘No-no, your magnificence,’ insisted Shadowfang. ‘I merely redeployed to a rearwards position.’
Thanquol closed his eyes, so that he would not have to see the miserable excuse for an assassin that knelt before him. He was tempted to blast the worthless incompetent with a bolt of sorcerous fire, or feed him to Boneripper, but then he recalled how many long-hoarded warp tokens he had spent procuring the fool’s services, and resisted the urge. He would get his money’s worth out of him, and then he would let the rat ogre eat him.
‘If I might speak, your fearsomeness,’ said Shadowfang.
Thanquol sighed and opened his eyes. ‘Oh yes, pray speak, enlightened one. Speak-speak. Let your wisdom shine upon us.’
Behind his mask, the assassin’s red eyes blinked, confused. He was apparently a stranger to sarcasm. ‘Er, had you allowed me to kill-maim the overdwellers instead of snare-catching them, even lowly man-slaves might have succeeded…’
‘No-no!’ shrieked Thanquol, causing Boneripper to bellow and Shadowfang and Issfet to curl their tails around them in fear. ‘No! It must be I that take-takes their lives. It must be I that wreaks my vengeance upon their helpless bodies for all the pain-shame they have caused me. Only I can have that joy. Only I! You hear?’
He scrabbled among his papers until he found a stoppered bottle, then uncorked it and stuffed it up one cankered nostril. He inhaled deeply, shivering to the tip of his tail as the powdered warpstone began to spread throughout his system. Issfet and Shadowfang took a further step back as the seer’s eyes glowed a malefic green.
‘They will die,’ Thanquol said, after he had at last controlled his trembling. ‘Yes-yes, but only at my whim, and long after they have beg-cried to be free of life.’ His glowing eyes snapped back to the assassin. ‘Find them! Find them! And this time you must not fail to take them!’
‘Yes, grey seer,’ said Shadowfang, touching his snout again to the floor. ‘At once, grey seer. I go, grey seer.’
‘Master,’ said Issfet, wobbling unsteadily on his hind paws. ‘A man-spy tells me that the crested one and the yellow fur have left the drinking burrow, taking their hoardings with them. It may be that they journey again.’
‘They have left?’ said Thanquol, turning on him. ‘Why did you not tell me this before?’
‘I only just learned of it, your malfeasance,’ said Issfet. ‘I was coming to say when Master Shadowfang arrived.’
‘But how will I find them?’ whined Thanquol. ‘They might vanish again for another twenty years.’
‘I will send my gutter runners to every corner of the over-burrow,’ said Shadowfang.
‘I will question my man-spies,’ said Issfet.
‘No,’ said Thanquol, raising a yellowed claw. ‘I have it!’ The powdered warpstone was once again clearing his head and allowing his genius to blossom. ‘The yellow fur spoke with its brood sire today, yes-yes?’
‘Yes-yes, your excellence,’ said Shadowfang. ‘It was from there I followed him.’
‘Then to there you return,’ said Thanquol, baring his teeth to admit a squeal of triumph. ‘To learn what the man-sire knows of its offspring.’
Max raised a glass of wine in one beringed hand. ‘To fond reunions,’ he said, then took a drink.
Felix raised his glass and drank in turn. ‘To fond reunions.’
Gotrek just drank.
They sat in Max’s handsome stateroom on board the Jilfte Bateau, only slightly larger, but several steps more luxurious, than Gotrek and Felix’s little cabin, with mahogany panelling on the walls and coloured glass in the windows. An iron stove against one wall radiated a pleasant warmth. If it weren’t for the motion of the boat upon the river, Felix would have thought himself in some tidy study.
‘We all thought you dead, you know,’ said Max. ‘When you failed to return from that strange portal in Sylvania we lost all hope.’
Felix nodded. ‘Malakai said the same thing.’
Max raised his greying eyebrows. ‘You’ve seen him?’
‘We were on the Spirit of Grungni when it crashed,’ said Felix. ‘You hadn’t heard about that?’
‘I heard, yes,’ said Max. ‘But your names weren’t mentioned.’
Max had aged well, Felix thought. He was still handsome, and the grey streaks in his neatly trimmed beard added to the air of grave dignity he had always projected. His hair was mostly grey now and flowed down past his shoulders in a kingly mane.
‘I have only recently returned from Middenheim,’ he said. ‘There was much to be done after the final battle. Much cleansing.’
Gotrek gave an angry grunt at the mention of Middenheim.
‘How did the Grungni come to crash?’ Max asked.
Felix paused. Where to begin? It was a story that could take an evening to tell. Before he could start, there was a knock on the door.
‘Come,’ called Max.
The door opened and in stepped the young seeress, dressed now in a much less ostentatious robe of dark blue wool with no embroidery. She inclined her head to Max. ‘Good evening, magister,’ she said, smiling. ‘I hope I’m not intruding.’
‘Not at all,’ said Max as he and Felix stood.
Gotrek didn’t look up.
‘Let me make the introductions we were too rushed to make on deck,’ said Max. ‘Felix, Gotrek, may I present Fraulein Claudia Pallenberger, a journeyman of the Celestial College, and a seeress of great perception.’
Felix bowed. Gotrek grunted.
‘Fraulein Pallenberger,’ continued Max. ‘May I introduce to you Felix Jaeger, poet, adventurer and swordsman of renown, and Gotrek Gurnisson, Slayer of trolls, dragons and daemons, and the most dangerous companion with whom I have ever had the honour of travelling.’
Gotrek snorted at that.
Claudia curtseyed and smiled at Felix and Gotrek. ‘I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Herr Jaeger, and you Herr Gurnisson.’
‘The pleasure is all mine,’ said Felix, bowing again. ‘Are you travelling to Marienburg, fraulein?’
‘To Marienburg and beyond,’ said Claudia as she crossed to a chair next to the stove and sat down. She raised her chin and looked mysterious. ‘I’ve had premonitions.’
Max almost dropped the glass of wine he was pouring for her. ‘This is a secret mission, fraulein,’ he murmured.
Claudia blushed and her mysterious look collapsed. She suddenly looked closer to seventeen than twenty. ‘I’m sorry, magister. I didn’t think. I…’
Max smiled and handed Claudia her wine. ‘Don’t worry, we’re among friends. But please try to be more cautious in the future.’ She nodded her head, sheepish.
Max turned to Felix and Gotrek. ‘You’ll not speak of this.’
‘Of course not,’ said Felix.
Gotrek shook his head and drank again.
‘Thank you,’ said Max. ‘Then you may tell the rest of it, seeress.’
Claudia nodded again, then looked solemnly at Felix. ‘I have seen Altdorf destroyed in fire and flood. I have seen Marienburg swept from the face of the earth by a towering wave. I have seen death and ruin on an unimaginable scale, and the coming of a great dark age.’
‘Ah,’ said Felix. ‘I see.’ There didn’t seem to be anything else to say.
‘And I am drawn to the north by the feeling that the prevention of these events may be found there.’
‘Fraulein Pallenberger’s visions have been confirmed as true divinations by the magisters of her College,’ said Max. ‘They have also determined that she is particularly attuned to these strands of possibility, and have sent her to follow them to their source. I accompany her as mentor and, ah, protector.’
Felix frowned, confused. ‘You are with the Celestial College, Max? I always thought…’
Max smiled and took another drink. ‘No, I am of the Order of Light. But it was felt that, er, that a man who had seen something of the world…’
‘The magisters of my College,’ interrupted Claudia, her eyes flaring, ‘are a lot of dusty old greybeards who never leave their rooms. Their eyes are always at their telescopes and their minds are always in the clouds. They hid behind their doors like old biddies when I asked who would accompany me.’
Max coughed to hide a laugh. ‘I was chosen because, in my youthful wanderings before I found employment with the Graf of Middenheim, I had spent some time in Marienburg and came to know some of the leaders of the magical fraternity there, such as they are.’
‘And because you have actually cast a spell in battle,’ added Claudia hotly.
Max nodded. ‘That too. Although I hope that this will be nothing more than a reconnaissance mission and that there will be no reason for violence.’
Felix frowned at Max. ‘Forgive me, Max, but I’m confused now. When Makaisson said that you were at the Colleges I didn’t think anything of it, but weren’t you…? That is, how did it come about? I seem to remember you telling me that you had, ah, broken with them. Wasn’t that the cause of your “youthful wanderings”?’
Max smiled wistfully. ‘There comes a time in a man’s life–’ He shot a sharp glance at Felix here. ‘At least in some men’s lives – when he puts wandering behind him, and wants some security.’ He had another sip of wine. ‘I was honoured by the Tsarina for my help in the defence of Praag that year. This won me the grudging acceptance of the Colleges, and a few years later, after some hemming and hawing, they offered me a teaching position, and a chance to continue my studies – within reason.’ He cast a look at Gotrek, who continued to stare dully into his mug. ‘Adventuring wasn’t the same after you two vanished anyway, so I took the job. Been there ever since.’
Claudia smiled over the rim of her glass. ‘Have you all shared adventures before, then? Is that how you know each other? Were you brave friends on some noble quest?’
Felix and Max exchanged an uncomfortable glance. They had certainly shared numerous adventures, but they had not always been the best of friends.
‘Herr Jaeger, Herr Gurnisson and I travelled together into the Chaos Wastes once,’ said Max. ‘On an airship.’
‘And we fought a dragon,’ said Felix.
‘And the hordes of Chaos,’ said Max.
‘And defeated a… a vampire.’ Felix stammered, wishing as soon as he said it that he hadn’t spoken. He remembered the outcome of that nightmarish episode and how Max had reacted to the news of Ulrika’s undeath. Should he tell Max he had seen her? Would Ulrika want him to know? What would Max do if he knew? Would he seek her out? Would she fall in love with him again? The bitter bile of jealousy suddenly welled up in Felix’s heart as if the hurt had happened yesterday instead of nearly twenty years before. He fought it down, angry with himself for being ridiculous. What did he possibly have to be jealous about? Ulrika had said that love between the living and the unliving was impossible. She could no more betray him with Max than with anyone else, and yet still the wound burned. He cursed himself. Men truly were fools.
Max was looking at him curiously.
Felix flushed and turned back to Claudia, forcing a smile. ‘So, yes, we have had a few adventures together, I suppose, but all many, many years ago.’
Claudia’s full lips curved into a smile. ‘You don’t look old enough to have had adventures many, many years ago, Herr Jaeger.’
‘Ah, well, I…’
‘Yes,’ said Max, eyeing Felix with a bemused frown. ‘Herr Jaeger is remarkably well preserved.’
‘Mm, yes,’ said Claudia, looking at Felix from under a curtain of golden tresses. ‘Remarkably.’
Felix started like he had been goosed. The girl found him attractive! That was no good at all. He shot a look at Max. The wizard was scowling. He had seen it too. Felix swallowed. This could all get very awkward. ‘I think perhaps it is time for us to retire,’ he said, standing quickly. ‘You no doubt have many things to speak of regarding your mission. Ready, Gotrek?’
‘There’s no need,’ said the seeress. ‘Really.’
‘No no,’ Felix insisted, stepping to the door. ‘The Slayer and I have had an exhausting day, thank you all the same.’ He nodded respectfully to Max. ‘Max, a pleasure to see you again.’ Then he turned to Claudia. ‘Fraulein Pallenberger, an honour to make your acquaintance. I bid you both a very good night.’
Gotrek stood and downed the last of his beer in one long swallow, then put the mug down and stumped out after Felix.
‘Thanks for the beer,’ he said.
The journey down the Reik from Altdorf to Marienburg took twelve days, according to the ship’s pilot, but by the end of the second day, Felix was convinced it was more like twelve years. It seemed as if it would never be over.
Gotrek, never the most effervescent of travelling companions, had become a monosyllabic lump that sat in the dark in their cabin and stared at the wall, never leaving except to find food and beer. Without the Slayer‘s company, Felix had little to do but pace the decks and try to avoid the attentions of Fraulein Pallenberger, which proved no easy task.
She seemed to be everywhere: on the stairs coming down when he was coming up, stepping out of her cabin just as he was stepping out of his, walking on the foredeck just when he wanted to stretch his legs, and sipping tea
in the taproom just when he was in the mood for a drink. And always, somewhere in the background, like a hovering grey owl, was Max, glaring at Felix as if it were he who was instigating things.
Felix always excused himself as quickly and politely as possible, and Claudia never made any fuss, just exchanged pleasantries and moved on, but there was something in her smile, and in the gleam of her dancing eyes, that suggested that, like a cat who waits at a mouse hole, she knew that her patience would eventually win out over his reticence.
On the third evening, when Felix had scurried to the aft deck after seeing Claudia engrossed in a book on the foredeck, Max finally sought him out, joining him as he leaned on the stern rail and looked out at the trees and fields that glided by on either side of them. The wizard filled a long clay pipe with tobacco, lit it with a flame from his finger, then exhaled a long plume of smoke.
‘You would do well to keep your roving eye to yourself, Felix,’ he said at last.
Felix felt his hackles raise. The accusation was unfair. And even if it weren’t, who was Max to tell him what to do? ‘I have no intention of allowing my eye to rove,’ he said sharply. ‘Nor any other part of my anatomy, for that matter.’
‘I am glad to hear it,’ said Max. Then he sighed. ‘I’m sorry, Felix. She is a bright girl, but very sheltered. She entered the College at eleven, and has seen nothing of the world except its cloisters since. Recently, according to her masters, this has begun to chafe.’
‘That’s hardly surprising, is it?’ said Felix. ‘An energetic, inquisitive girl, coming to maturity in a monastery of – what did she call them – dusty old greybeards? You can’t blame her for wanting to experience something of life while she’s young.’
‘No, I can’t,’ said Max sadly. ‘I certainly wanted to see the world when I was her age. Nevertheless, I have been charged by her College to keep her safe from any entanglements or embarrassments while she undertakes this journey, and if I fail… well there will be some unpleasant political repercussions.’ He looked up at Felix with a rueful smile. ‘So, as a favour to your old travelling companion…?’ He let the question hang.
Felix sighed and looked down the river winding away south and east behind them, as if he could see all the way back to Nuln. ‘Trust me, Max. I’ve no interest in her, nor any woman, at the moment. My heart is locked in an iron box and I’ve lost the key.’