5 tainted blood

by ich du

  'Scholar!' barked Reiner. 'Darius! Patch him up!'

  'I know no spells,' Darius mumbled.

  'I'm not asking for spells,' said Reiner. 'Doctor him, curse you!'

  'I know no spells,' Darius repeated.

  'Forget it, captain,' croaked Gert. 'Too late. Listen...'

  'None of that,' said Reiner, kneeling and unbuckling his sword belt. 'We must tie off that leg. Help me.'

  The others knelt as well, but Gert waved a feeble hand. 'No! Listen, damn you, Hetzau!' His eyes flashed. 'Let me speak!'

  Reiner turned, surprised at the use of his proper name from a common soldier.

  Gert glared up at him, grey and sweating. 'You were right. Manfred had a... spy.' He tapped his chest. 'He didn't trust you. 'Spected you would try some... trickery.'

  Reiner's heart was pounding, shaken by a score of simultaneous emotions. The Blackhearts exchanged glances.

  'Thought I was minding a villain.' Gert shook his head weakly. 'Yer less a villain than he, though we was comrades once.' He tapped his chest again. 'Captain Steingesser. Time was I would'a died for him, but he's changed. Now I...' He chuckled and looked up at Reiner. 'Well, seems I died for you, eh?'

  Reiner's throat constricted. 'Gert, if you'd just shut up, you might not...'

  'How did you kill Halsteig?' asked Hals, bluntly. 'Yer no sorcerer. You never said no spell.'

  'Hush,' said Augustus. 'Let the man die in peace.'

  'Ye weren't there,' said Pavel. 'Ye didn't see. We might have all died like that.'

  Gert grimaced. His gums were white. 'Phylacteries,' he said. 'Made by Manfred's magus. Carry 'em in my pouch. Throw one in a fire and...' He made to snap his fingers but could barely raise his hand.

  Reiner's blood chilled at the thought of the risks Gert had taken while wearing that pouch. But he said nothing, only clasped his hand. 'Thank you, captain. Sigmar welcome you. You've... eased our minds.'

  When he let go, Gert's hand sank to his side. The crossbow-man, or captain, or spy, or whatever he had been, was dead. Reiner wasn't sure when he had gone.

  Hals and Pavel made the sign of the hammer. Augustus muttered a prayer to Taal. Franka made Myrmidia's spear. Reiner closed Gert's eyes and took his pouch. He opened it. At the bottom he found a rolled length of leather, sewn with nine little pockets. Inside each was a glass vial labelled in florid script. Reiner pulled out the one with his name as the others watched. Inside a lock of hair floated in a red liquid. Around the hair was a strip of parchment inscribed with arcane symbols. He shivered and slipped the vial back into its sheath, then put the roll in his pouch.

  'Be careful with that, captain.' said Pavel.

  'Indeed.' said Reiner. He looked beyond the shacks. The battle was over. The companies were chasing down the last cultists and cutting the throats of their wounded. 'Right, we'll take the old fellow back to Manfred. But we don't let on we know what's what, aye?'

  The others nodded in agreement, but as Hals and Pavel began making a litter, Darius tugged on Reiner's sleeve.

  'Captain.' he said. 'Captain.' He spoke with a feverish intensity.

  'Have you returned to us, scholar?' asked Reiner.

  'The gate lets in as well as out.' Darius said.

  'Eh?'

  'I cannot close it. I cannot close the gate. The wind.' His voice rose. 'It howls in me. It whispers through my skull. Whispers. Captain, the whispers. The whispers, captain.' There were tears in his staring eyes. The others watched him, uncomfortable.

  'I'm here, lad.'

  Darius crushed Reiner's wrist. 'Kill me, captain. I beg you. Kill me before I listen.'

  'Come, lad.' said Reiner, his heart sinking. 'Is it that bad?' He didn't want to believe Darius had gone mad - didn't want to believe it was his fault.

  'Captain, please,' said Darius. He held out his hands in supplication.

  Reiner stepped back involuntarily. In the centre of each of Darius's palms was a mouth like a vertical slit, filled with sharp little fish teeth. It was 'that bad.' Reiner moaned and cursed himself for ever thinking he could be a leader of men. He'd forced the boy. Forced him.

  'Please, captain.' said all three mouths. 'The gate is open. I cannot close it. I cannot.'

  'Captain.' said Jergen, drawing his long sword. 'Let me.'

  Reiner shook his head, though he wanted more than anything to pass the responsibility. 'No. I caused this.' He drew his sword. 'Bow your head, scholar. I'll stop the wind.'

  The mouths in Darius's hands were jabbering at him, telling him to run, to attack, to drink Reiner's blood, but with a great effort, Darius clenched his fists and lowered his head, exposing his neck.

  Reiner raised his sword over his head with both hands, praying he would make a clean job of it. Franka turned her head. Reiner chopped down, felt the jar as his sword hit Darius's spine, and then he was through, and Darius's body fell forward onto his head.

  'Well struck.' said Jergen.

  Reiner turned away, hiding his face. 'Right. Leave him. The priests won't bury him with those hands. Let's go.'

  As Hals, Pavel, Jergen and Augustus walked Gert's body back to the companies, Hals tried to catch Reiner's eye.

  'Ye did what y'had to, captain.'

  'Did I?' asked Reiner angrily. 'Was there a need for the spell? We might have accomplished the same thing with arrows and shouting.'

  'And we might have not.' said Hals.

  Reiner stepped ahead. He didn't want to speak of it.

  There were less than fifty Talabheimers and Reiklanders left. In their centre Manfred, Boellengen, and Schott and Keinholtz stood around Teclis, who leaned against the cave wall as if he could not have stood without it. They were the only commanders left.

  'We could lower men into the chasm.' Keinholtz was saying as the Blackhearts approached. 'Then fix ropes to the waystone and raise it.'

  'If it isn't shattered.' said Boellengen.

  Teclis raised his head. 'The waystone would not shatter.'

  'But we know nothing of the chasm's depth, or what might be down there.' said Schott. 'It might be a river, or a lake of fire.'

  'Then we will have to mount another expedition.' said Manfred with a weary sigh.

  'We must return to the surface before any new venture.' said Teclis. 'I must restore myself.'

  Manfred groaned. 'Days if not weeks.' He saw the Blackhearts setting Gert's body down and turned to them. 'Is... is he dead?'

  'Aye.' said Reiner casually. 'As is your witch.' He smiled to himself as he saw Manfred looking for Gert's pouch.

  'Did he have...' Manfred started, then thought better of it. 'Well, I'm sorry to hear it.'

  'As am I.' said Reiner. 'He stopped a blade meant for me.'

  'Did he?' Manfred looked uncomfortable. 'Well-'

  'Quiet!' said Teclis. He looked around sharply. 'Listen.'

  Manfred, Reiner and the others listened. At first Reiner heard nothing. Then came a vibration in the ground and a sound like far off rain. It grew steadily closer until Reiner recognised it as the rumble of an army on the march.

  Manfred and Schott and Boellengen shouted to their troops to form up. The Blackhearts went on guard with the rest, looking from tunnel to tunnel, waiting to see from which this fresh menace would come.

  It came from all of them - three endless columns of ratmen in green-grey jerkins armed with spears, swords, and long guns, spilling out in a silent flood that filled the enormous cavern from wall to wall. There were thousands of them. The fifty men huddled together, all facing out. The ratmen surrounded them entirely, staring at them with glossy black eyes.

  TWENTY-TWO

  The Hero Of The Hour

  'WELL, LADS,' SAID Hals. 'Nice to know ye.' 'See ye in Sigmar's hall,' said Pavel. 'Lord Teclis?' said Manfred nervously.

  'I am at the end of my strength, count,' said Teclis. 'I can kill many, but not all.'

  Manfred firmed his jaw. 'Then we will sell our lives as dearly as we may.'

  The other commanders nodded and their m
en dressed their lines, but still the ratmen stood motionless. 'Why don't they attack?' asked Franka. A disturbance began at the rear of the vermin army, and out of the tunnel beyond the chasm came a cluster of ratmen. They crossed the bridge and pushed slowly toward the front. There were at least twenty of them, led by a tall, snow-white ratman who carried a long, verdigrised staff. The front line parted and the knot of ratmen stepped forward. The companies gasped. The vermin carried the waystone.

  The white-furred ratman pointed imperiously at Teclis. 'You, sharp-ear,' he said with a voice like a knife on a plate. 'Fix elf-thing. Make good. Seer Hissith say!' Manfred, Schott and Boellengen exchanged baffled glances. Teclis frowned at the rat-mage. 'You wish me to reset the waystone?'

  'I command!'

  'Why?'

  'No why!' spat Hissith. 'Do!'

  'Why?' asked Teclis, calmly.

  The rat-mage trembled with rage, and Reiner expected him to order his troops to attack, but at last he spoke. 'We Greenfang clan! Warpstone only for us! Then elf-thing break. Other clan smell warpstone. Come stealing. Crippletail Clan. Deadeater clan. We fight.' He pointed to Teclis. 'You fix elf-stone. They smell no more. Warpstone only for us again!'

  Reiner exhaled, relieved and amazed. They weren't going to die. As insane as it sounded, the ratmen needed them.

  'Lord Teclis,' said Schott, aghast. 'You cannot do this. The Empire does not treat with evil! We must fight them!' He looked to Manfred. 'Is it not what the Emperor would wish, count?'

  'Er...' said Manfred. He looked like he wished to smash Schott in the face.

  'Fortunately,' said Teclis. 'Your emperor does not rule me.' He nodded to the rat-mage. 'I will do this.'

  'M'lord!' cried Schott, outraged.

  'Silence, Schott!' hissed Manfred. 'Would you lose Talabheim and the stone for a point of honour?'

  The rat-slaves set down the waystone and backed away as the rat-mage pointed at Teclis. 'You trick, you die! We come! Kill all! Hissith say it so!'

  'He threatens us, lord count!' said Schott, eyes blazing.

  'Let him,' said Manfred, and bowed, smiling, as the rat-mage returned to his troops.

  Without a word, the horde of vermin withdrew into the tunnels again like an ebbing brown tide. The men looked around at each other as if they couldn't believe they were still alive.

  'Don't stand there!' snapped Manfred at Reiner. 'Pick it up and let's be off before we lose it again!'

  The Blackhearts picked up the waystone and, surrounded by the shattered remnants of the Talabheimers and Reiklanders, walked it wearily back to the surface.

  FOUR DAYS LATER, deep under Talabheim, Teclis reset the waystone, binding it with powerful wards, then burying its crypt below thousands of tonnes of rock. He then cast a spell of forgetting upon all the labourers who had built the new vault so that they could tell none where it was, and a similar spell upon the vault itself, which would make any who came looking for it forget what they had come for.

  Instantly upon the setting of the stone, the mad plants of the Tallows began to wilt, the clouds and strange aurora over the city dissipated, and the madness that had plagued Talabheim faded. There was still much to be put right - neighbourhoods to be rebuilt, mutants to be hunted down, cultists to be hung, but no new cases of mutation were reported and Taalagad was reopened to trade.

  To celebrate, the countess threw a grand ball, to which Manfred and the Reikland legation were invited. Reiner did not expect to be invited. He thought Manfred would shove him into the shadows and take all the glory for himself, but to his surprise the count ordered him to attend, while Lord Schott was sent back to Altdorf early to inform the Emperor of their success.

  'Damn stubborn bull wouldn't play the game,' Manfred said as they rode to the Grand Manor. 'In order to save the countess embarrassment and keep relations with Talabheim smooth, we must pretend that Scharnholt and Danziger died heroes' deaths fighting the mutants. There can be no suggestion that her court was plagued with cultists. Schott refused to cooperate in the deception, so I've sent him home.' Manfred glared at Reiner. 'Instead, you will be the hero of the hour - the noble secretary who led Scharnholt, Danziger, and von Pfaltzen to the lair of the evil elf. And if you don't play it just as I've said, and praise Scharnholt and Danziger to the heavens, I'll have your head, you understand?'

  'Your lordship always makes himself perfectly clear,' said Reiner, bowing.

  AFTER TELLING HIS story - or rather, Manfred's story - a dozen times, Reiner saw, across the countess's grand ballroom, Lord Rodick and Lady Magda, talking and laughing with the countess herself. Reiner broke off in the middle of a humourous anecdote. The cursed woman landed on her feet like a cat. How were the traitors back in the countess's good graces? Lack of evidence? Or did the countess not want one of her own family to be accused of treason?

  Reiner had no such qualms. He excused himself from his audience and crossed to Manfred, who was talking to Talabheim's high priest of Taal.

  'M'lord.' he whispered in his ear. 'If I might speak with you?'

  Manfred finished his conversation then turned to Reiner. 'Yes? Why aren't you telling your tale?'

  'M'lord, if you are still interested in destroying your brother's corrupter, I believe I have a way. Only invite me to tell our adventure before Magda, Rodick and the countess.'

  Manfred nodded. 'Come.'

  Magda and Rodick attempted to excuse themselves when Manfred approached the countess, but Manfred begged them to stay and hear the tale of his rescue and the waystone's retrieval. 'Reiner was the discoverer of the plot, and tells it so much better than I.'

  And so they listened, fidgeting, while Reiner told how he had seen mutants dressed as priests of Morr sneaking from the Grand Manor and warned Danziger, Scharnholt and von Pfaltzen of the theft, then led them to the dark elfs lair. When he began to tell of the hooded thieves who had tried to steal the waystone in the middle of the battle he noticed that Magda's upper lip was sweating.

  'My man Franz is a dead shot.' Reiner said. 'And when Scharnholt cried that thieves were taking the stone, Franz loosed an arrow after them. Unfortunately, the range was long and his shot only hit one of the leaders - a little fellow - in the arm, and he and the other escaped before the dark elf blasted the others off the bridge.' Reiner frowned, disappointed. 'I am mortally sorry those men got away. It would be a great service to Talabheim to learn what traitors had designs on that stone. Unfortunately, it is beyond practicality to ask every man in Talabheim if he had been shot in the arm just "here".'

  As he said 'here' he squeezed Magda's arm hard, just above the elbow. Magda shrieked. Her knees buckled.

  Reiner gasped, as if shocked. 'Lady, I am terribly sorry! Are you wounded there? What an unfortunate coincidence!'

  'Take your hands from her, you oaf!' cried Rodick angrily. 'You've crushed her arm.'

  'M'lord, I swear I only touched her!' Reiner said. 'I meant no harm.'

  'An unfortunate coincidence indeed,' said the countess, looking levelly at Magda. 'Come with me, lady. I will have my royal physician look at you.'

  'There is no need,' said Magda, smiling though she was white as a sheet. 'He only surprised me. I am fine.'

  'I insist,' said the countess, and there was no mistaking the threat in her voice. She turned and signalled her guards, who stood nearby. 'This way. Cousin Rodick, won't you join us?'

  Magda shot a look of pure venom at Reiner as she was lead away.

  Reiner bowed deeply. 'Goodbye, lady. The pleasure was all mine.'

  AND SO, ON the morning that the Reikland legation left for Altdorf, Reiner and the other Blackhearts watched with satisfaction as Lady Magda Bandauer was hung from the gallows before the Grand Courthouse of Edicts. Lord Rodick, being cousin to the countess, had been allowed to take poison. Magda had then been charged with his murder - all neat and tidy with no awkward questions about waystones and statues of Shallya asked.

  Magda carried herself with great poise on the gallows, and might have gone to her
death with all dignity intact had she not, when the executioner offered her a chance to speak, begun to denounce the countess and the Talabheim parliament for covering up Scharnholt and Danziger's corruption and the threat of the ratmen who lived under the city.

  Reiner chuckled as she was gagged and hooded and the noose snugged around her neck. Spiteful to the end, the bitch. He'd have done the same, of course.

  'And that's for Captain Veirt,' said Pavel, as Magda dropped and jerked at the end of the rope.

  'And poor Oskar,' said Franka.

  'And Ulf.' said Reiner.

  'Too bad she's that sack over her head.' said Hals. 'I want to see her face now she's tasted death herself.'

  'And yet.' said Reiner. 'We have her to thank for our lives. Without her scheming we would have all been hung long ago in the Smallhof garrison.'

  'This is a life?' asked Pavel.

  The others, who hadn't known the men Magda had caused to die, watched silently as she twitched and fought under the gibbet.

  Manfred seemed distracted throughout the proceedings. Reiner smiled, for he knew why. The night before, after Reiner had helped pack Teclis's belongings - for with his guard dead the elf had no servants - he had done the same for Manfred. The count made Reiner go through every case and box three times looking for a small leather-bound journal. When it couldn't be found, he had accused Reiner of stealing it, and searched his belongings as thoroughly as he had searched his own, but when he found nothing he had finally dismissed Reiner, furious. Reiner had heard him rummaging all night long.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Unfinished Business

  THEY REACHED ALTDORF seven days later, and the Blackhearts were once again installed in Manfred's townhouse while the count closeted himself with the Emperor and his cabinet, explaining what had occurred in Talabheim.

  The Blackhearts fidgeted and fumed, for nothing had been said of their release, and Manfred was never there to question. But at last, on the evening of the third day, Reiner was told the count would see him in the library.

  Manfred sat in a high-backed chair by the fire when Reiner entered, flipping through official papers. Reiner stood at attention until, after a few moments, Manfred looked up, pretending he hadn't noticed him before.