Wardens of the Everqueen

by C. L. Werner

  Heralds of the dying time, Morbus had called the jotunberg. The giants were the bearers of winter.

  As the ice spread towards their piece of shoreline, Grymn saw the sylvaneth start forwards. The tree-creatures stepped out onto the ice, making their way across the frozen sea. It was a strange sight, a walking forest marching over the frozen waves. Grymn was solemn as he watched that exodus, wondering where the sylvaneth would go, what it was that awaited them on the other side. Would they find the refuge towards which the Everqueen had been leading them? Was there indeed anywhere in the realm of Ghyran that could be called safe from Nurgle’s corruption?

  Grymn looked down when he heard Tallon start growling. The gryph-hound’s fur was on end, his feathers ruffled. He knew the creature well enough to recognise it sensed the nearness of enemies.

  ‘Tegrus!’ Grymn shouted. ‘Get your Prosecutors into the air and scout for the enemy. Numbers and disposition. I want to know how long we can buy for our allies to cross the ice. Angstun, gather the Liberator conclaves and form a shield wall along the beach. Judicators on the flanks to provide supporting fire.’

  Even as Angstun started deploying the Stormcasts, the clatter of armour and the snarls of beasts reached the Hallowed Knights. Plague warriors were indeed close, nearer than Grymn had feared them to be.

  ‘Commander, what about us, do we follow them?’ Markius asked, pointing at the sylvaneth.

  With the sylvaneth marching out onto the ice, the Hallowed Knights Grymn had deployed to guard the flanks and act as pickets were falling back towards the stony shingle lining the shore. He started to answer Markius, to tell him there was no reason to follow the sylvaneth, but then he noticed that the Lady of Vines was standing at the edge of the ice, hesitating to join the march. Still singing her eerie song.

  Slowly, almost reluctantly, her eyes fastened upon Grymn’s. The branchwraith held her hands towards him, her fingers parting to show him the seed. Deftly she reached to a hollow in her breast, carefully setting the seed into the recess. Then she turned, quickly disappearing into the moving forest of sylvaneth, her keening song drifting away with her as she walked out towards the ice.

  No words had been spoken, for the Lady of Vines couldn’t allow her song to falter, but Grymn understood the meaning the branchwraith had tried to convey. She knew the duty that the Hallowed Knights were sworn to. They had been sent to protect the Radiant Queen. Grymn had thought they’d failed in that purpose, but now he understood he was wrong. The seed was more than a relic or a legacy: it was Alarielle herself, the Everqueen’s essence collapsed into a soulpod, waiting to be reborn.

  ‘Join the sylvaneth,’ Grymn told Markius. ‘We must protect the Lady of Vines and guard the seed she carries.’

  ‘You think Alarielle lives on in the seed?’ Morbus asked.

  ‘I do not think it, I know it,’ Grymn said. ‘The Lady of Vines has told me it is so.’ He saw the uncertainty in the Lord-Relictor’s eyes. ‘We still have a chance to fulfil our duty here and deny the enemy his victory.’

  ‘It is true no man can every fully understand the ways of magic,’ Morbus said. ‘But to believe the Radiant Queen lives on as a seed…’

  The sound of wings brought the eyes of the Stormcasts skywards. Tegrus and his Prosecutors came swooping down, diving towards Grymn and his companions. At the last instant, the winged warriors pulled back, arresting the momentum of their dive. Ordinarily the daunting exhibition would be accomplished with an air of bravado and showmanship. Now, however, it was laced with an air of urgency.

  ‘Lord-Castellant,’ Tegrus addressed Grymn with a bow. ‘We’ve sighted a vast throng of enemy warriors advancing in this direction.’

  ‘A confederation of scavenging warbands?’ Markius suggested.

  Tegrus shook his head. ‘They are too many to be mere scavengers,’ he reported. ‘We flew low enough to see the banners they bore. I recognised the emblems of Torglug the Despised.’ His tone grew still darker. ‘There is an enormous daemon with them, some gigantic obscenity spat out by Nurgle himself.’

  Morbus clenched his fist. ‘Then the Radiant Queen’s magic was for naught,’ he snarled. ‘She sped us away from Athelwyrd only for the enemy to catch up to us just the same.’ A grim laugh sounded from behind his skull-like mask. ‘At least we can make Torglug regret finding us.’

  ‘We still have our duty,’ Grymn told Morbus. ‘We protect the queen-seed. That is more important than killing the enemy.’ He looked back to Tegrus. ‘How far away would you say Torglug is?’

  ‘If not for the snow-storm, they’d already have seen us,’ Tegrus said.

  Grymn nodded. He turned and faced towards the ice, studying the shoreline and the march of the sylvaneth. The chilling effect of the jotunberg’s fall had been capricious in its action. There were gaps in the ice, great expanses of frigid water sloshing around the frozen crests. A hundred yards out from the shore the ice narrowed into a bridge between two stretches of icy water.

  ‘Tegrus, take your Prosecutors and watch Torglug’s legion. Any change, fly back here and report it to me.’ Grymn saluted the Prosecutor-Prime as he climbed back into the air with his warriors. Turning, he addressed Markius. ‘Take your Retributors and form up around that bridge,’ he said, pointing at the span he’d noticed. ‘When Diocletian comes up, I’ll send his paladins to join you.’

  ‘What is it that you have in mind?’ Morbus asked.

  ‘Once we’re out on the ice, if we break that bridge there’ll be no connection to the shore,’ Grymn said. ‘Torglug’s warriors will be trapped on this side of the sea.’

  ‘A sound plan,’ Morbus said, ‘but I think it will need more than lightning hammers and thunderaxes to split the ice.’ He waved at the snow falling around them. ‘The enemy has his own magic to call upon. I don’t think we can rely on this flurry to hide us from Torglug for long. There may not be time to crack the ice by force of arms.’

  Grymn felt cold inside. Morbus was right, of course. He couldn’t depend upon the enemy giving him the time to execute his plan. But what was the alternative? What would Gardus have done if he were here? How would he have made use of the assets at his command?

  ‘Morbus, breaking the ice is your job,’ Grymn told the Lord-Relictor.

  Morbus patted his hammer’s head like it was a gryph-hound. ‘I’ve shattered the bones of troggoths and broken the backs of daemons with this,’ he said. ‘It would be shameful if I told you I could be beaten by a little ice.’

  The last of the sylvaneth were crossing the bridge when the vanguard of Torglug’s horde emerged from the snow-storm. Even from his position out on the ice, Grymn could see the look of surprise on the first marauder’s face as he suddenly found his quarry in front of him. Before the barbarian could shout to his fellows, one of the Judicators loosed an arrow into him, knocking the man back into the oblivion of the storm. Tallon growled at the fallen enemy, his hackles raised. Grymn quieted the gryph-hound with a curt command.

  It was only a momentary respite. More of Torglug’s warriors appeared, loping out of the storm like ravening wolves. Now there were too many for the Judicators to put down before their cries of discovery reached the ears of the horde. Through a rain of sigmarite arrows and bolts, the enemy pressed forwards, rushing out onto the shingle in a howling mob of men and monsters.

  The line of Liberators bringing up the rear were just crossing the bridge. Grymn scowled as his mind turned over the distance between them and the foe. It was going to be close. Closer than was comfortable. The same thought must have come to Morbus. The Lord-Relictor started back towards the bridge. Grymn laid a restraining hand on his shoulder.

  ‘Wait,’ Grymn told Morbus.

  The Lord-Relictor looked at him, but didn’t offer an objection. Morbus had a penchant for seeing the dark side of everything, of always finding the worst possibilities. Grymn prayed to Sigmar that this time the dour warrior was wr
ong.

  Packs of beasthounds loped out from the storm, rushing past the enemies already on the shingle. The mutated beasts howled and snarled as they pursued the scent of the Hallowed Knights, moving with such speed that only a few of them fell to Judicators’ arrows as they came. Their claws raking the ice, the hideous brutes charged after the Liberators, baying in triumph as they came rushing onto the bridge.

  Grymn felt a chill rush through his heart. If the Liberators turned to face the beasthounds, then the enemies on the shingle would gain the time they needed to reach the bridge. The Judicators couldn’t loose their arrows directly into the dogs because their own comrades were in the way. Grymn had to depend on the inability of the brutish creatures to realise that fact.

  ‘By volley… loose!’ The command was given by Angstun, the Knight-Vexillor. The Judicators with him raised their skybolt bows and sent a rain of arrows arcing into the air. The missiles came hurtling downwards, a dozen yards behind the withdrawing Liberators. Many of the beasthounds were caught in the descending volley, their thick hides pierced over and again by the sigmarite shafts. Yelps of pain rang out as the injured creatures writhed on the ice, others toppled into the icy slush to either side. Panicked by the whines of the other beasts, even those hounds that had charged ahead of the volley turned around and fled back towards the shore.

  Now Grymn motioned Morbus forwards. The Lord-Relictor marched past the Liberator rearguard and raised his relic hammer high. Invoking the divine power of Sigmar, he called out to the God-King. Even as the first marauders and gors ventured out onto the ice, mighty blasts of lightning came hurtling downwards. Where the bolts struck, the ice was vaporised, steaming craters gouged out of the bridge by each strike, exposing great pits of icy water and slush. The main span of the bridge was fractured and fragmented, but the aftermath left behind dozens of smaller, slighter spans.

  For once, Morbus’ pessimism had missed a possibility. The relic hammer’s power had failed to crack the bridge completely and there was no guarantee another lightning-strike would accomplish what the first had not. When the enemy recovered from the shock inflicted on them by Morbus’ magic, they’d come swarming across the spans that remained. If only a few of them held, it would be a disaster.

  The creaking groan of marching sylvaneth drew Grymn’s attention away from the bridge. He watched as a file of towering treelords came striding back across the ice, their branches heavy with snow from the storm. The huge sylvaneth walked past him, converging upon the near side of the bridge where Morbus stood.

  As the first of the Chaos warriors came charging out onto the battered bridge, the treelords slammed their massive feet against the seaward edge. Roots snaked out from their feet, burrowing into the ice. A tremor rushed through the frozen waves, and the sharp crack of splitting ice rang out. The enemies rushing onto the span shouted in horror. Not a man or beast lingered; almost as one they turned and fled back towards the shingle.

  The cracks caused by the treelords widened, catching the slowest of the enemy warriors and pitching them into the icy slush of the sea. Still the sylvaneth roots burrowed, causing the spans to split and collapse into the water. Only when the gap between the frozen sea and the shore was too wide for even the most agile beasthound to leap did the treelords relent. Glaring at the men and monsters on the shore, the huge sylvaneth strode back the way they had come, vanishing into the swirling flurries of snow.

  Grymn looked over the vast expanse of water that now lay between him and the shore. It would take Torglug’s forces hours to throw a bridge across that span. By then, the Hallowed Knights and the sylvaneth would be far across the ice. With the snow-storm to hide their trail and conceal their position, they just might be able to slip away entirely.

  ‘Withdraw,’ Grymn called out to his warriors, turning a deaf ear to the jeers and curses of the foes clustered along the shoreline. The Hallowed Knights turned at his command, falling back across the ice. As with the treelords, it wasn’t long before the storm hid them from the eyes of their foe.

  Torglug the Despised looked down at the corpse of the beastlord. Rakthor had been one of his chieftains ever since it had slaughtered its own leader in single combat. Vicious and cunning, it had been a capable enough lieutenant. Still, at the moment, Torglug didn’t need a lieutenant. He needed an example.

  ‘I am not being cheated of my prize!’ Torglug bellowed, pointing his axe at the rest of his champions. ‘I am not being denied my destiny!’ He kicked the horned head at his feet, causing blood to slosh out of the gaping wound in Rakthor’s neck. ‘Whole of Ghyran can be falling to Grandfather, but it is being nothing to Him without Everqueen!’

  The warlord’s minions were silent. They knew Torglug’s rages and knew that the best way to survive them was to escape his notice. Only a brave man, or a foolish one, would tempt the anger of Nurgle’s chosen. Walking out across the shingle and diving down into the icy slush would be preferable to falling foul of their master. Guthrax alone seemed to find humour in the situation, chuckling darkly at the warlord’s distress and the fright of his chieftains.

  The Great Unclean One’s mockery vexed Torglug. Guthrax was a formidable ally, but an obnoxious one. Whirling around, the warlord pointed his axe at his most powerful sorcerer. Slaugoth Maggotfang muttered a nervous laugh when he felt the warlord’s eyes on him. The chieftains around him edged away. If Slaugoth was due a tortuous doom from the warlord, then let the sorcerer suffer alone.

  ‘You are boasting always of your magic. You are telling always how mighty your sorcery is being. Now I am to be putting your magic to test. You are knowing what I am offering those who fail me,’ Torglug warned. He settled back into the seat of the throne that had been raised for him on the shingle, a chair crafted from the corpses of warriors who’d failed to cross the ice before it cracked.

  ‘I can get your army across,’ Slaugoth grinned. ‘But the cost will be high.’ He raised his swollen hand to fend off the fury he saw blazing in Torglug’s blemished eyes. ‘It is not a reward I seek,’ he hurried to explain. ‘This particular sorcery is dangerous and demanding. It will need the lives of many of your followers.’

  ‘To be dying in my service is a glory all who are serving me should be happy to embrace,’ Torglug said, threat bubbling behind each word.

  Slaugoth came closer to the throne. He thrust one hand towards Torglug, while the other he held before his own mouth. When he spoke again, only the warlord could understand him – the rest of the chieftains heard only the buzz of flies. ‘I will need the Coin of Thak. It is in the possession of Vorak of Fell.’

  ‘Agreed,’ Torglug said.

  The sorcerer smiled, worms dripping from between his teeth. ‘I will also need Vorak himself. I will need another twenty sorcerers from among your legion, drawn from the strongest of your shamans and warlocks.’ Slaugoth let a note of mock severity slip into his tone. ‘I must warn that it is unlikely they will survive the ritual.’

  ‘Be careful, Woodsman,’ Guthrax advised, the daemon’s vast gut quivering with amusement. ‘Wormteeth intends to eliminate all of his rivals. He’ll make himself even more vital to your ambitions.’

  One glance at the face of Slaugoth was proof enough that the daemon, for once at least, was speaking the truth. It was a gamble, but the plaguelord felt the risk was worth the stake. Besides, if Slaugoth forgot his place, he still had Guthrax to put him down again. Torglug chuckled, the sound slobbering up from the depths of his bloated bulk.

  ‘Be getting me to my prize and I am letting you kill any that are surviving.’

  The putrid blightkings were dispatched to subdue the needed materials for Slaugoth’s ritual. Some of the more recalcitrant required Guthrax to convince them to cooperate, the daemon’s power easily swatting aside the wards and protections they tried to use to preserve themselves. It was as well that the rite needed intact minds rather than intact bodies. Torglug himself secured Vorak’s participa
tion, ignoring the warlock’s assurances that he could perform the rite just as adeptly as Slaugoth could. When Vorak was dragged before his rival, he was missing the Coin of Thak as well as his left leg.

  The sorcerers chosen by Slaugoth were dumped along the shingle, facing out towards the ice – three great circles of witches, warlocks and shamans, the rock about their feet stained with cabalistic sigils and the profane runes of Nurgle. A few of the most powerful among them, such as Vorak, had some inclination of what was coming, but their wisdom only made them appreciate that there was no escape.

  Slaugoth stood at the centre of the three circles, the speck in the middle of the fly-rune. With the Coin of Thak hanging about his neck, he was certain he’d be able to protect himself from the hazards involved in such a hasty ritual. He raised his arms high and began an invocation to his diseased god. Nurgle’s armies infested the whole of Ghyran, and it was here that the god’s attention was fixed. It wasn’t strange then that the Grandfather heard Slaugoth’s appeal and answered his cry.

  The diseased might of Nurgle poured into the gathered sorcerers. Slaugoth felt his bloated belly churn and quiver with the boiling corruption of his god. Crying out in agony, he disgorged the filth growing inside him. A stream of foul water, stagnant muck from the swamps of Nurgle’s own domain, vomited from his mouth, flowing out across the shingle, towards the distant ice.

  From each of the other sorcerers, a stream of putrescence erupted and cascaded towards the ice. The diseased fluid merged with the other streams, gathering into a single rancid river. As the flow struck the frigid air, it began to harden, congealing into a mire of corruption. Gallon upon gallon spewed from the sorcerers, channelled from the Grandfather’s garden. Horned shamans and bloated witches perished as the malignant spell ripped them apart from the inside out, yet even death didn’t end the foul discharge spilling from them.