Alwyn was back on her feet, either supported by Conrad or holding him up, it was hard to be sure. Maybe they were supporting each other, Rudi thought. She was staring in their direction, her hand moving, although it was hard to focus on: the air around it seemed to be thickening, the sunlight glittering on sharp metallic points. Abruptly, they were moving, and Rudi became aware that a trio of daggers was hurtling through the air towards them.
One, at least, seemed to be missing the mark, expending itself harmlessly in the cover of the hot sausage cart, which was quickly abandoned by its diminutive owner with a shrill squeal of alarm. Then, to his horror, he saw the phantom knife shimmer in the air like summer heat haze as it passed clean through the obstacle and bore down on them as relentlessly as the other two. Somehow, he knew, they would be uncomfortably solid when they arrived at their target nevertheless.
“Party tricks,” Hanna said scornfully. “Shield your eyes.” Before Rudi could react a wall of vivid yellow flame, almost exactly the same colour as her hair, erupted from nowhere in the space ahead of them. The phantom daggers hit it and vanished, as if they’d never been. The holiday mood among the onlookers evaporated, panic-stricken cries of “Witchcraft!” beginning to rend the air, and the spectators scattered, running for whatever cover they could find.
Hanna’s jaw tightened. “If you want to play rough…”
The wall of flames seemed to shiver, contracting into a small, tight ball, and turning the same shade of hellish red as the blazing bolts that had dispatched the skaven and immolated Magnus’ mutants. Before Rudi could protest, the tangled knot of fire hissed through the air towards Alwyn and Conrad, the shadow mage’s eyes widening with shock. The air in front of them began to shimmer, like a summer heat haze, and the two spouses’ outlines became indistinct. The fire bolt began to waver, and Rudi thought he could see the pair of shadowy figures begin to evade…
“Too late,” Hanna said, with vindictive satisfaction, and then the protective illusion vanished abruptly. Alwyn was down again, thrashing around on the cobbles like the victim of a fit. The fireball streaked over her head, missing Conrad by inches, and burst against the facade of the tavern behind them. The backwash of heat engulfed them both, and Conrad fell too, screaming as their clothes burst into flames.
“Rut this!” Theo said. “We’re not being paid enough to fight witches.” He turned, sprinting towards his fallen comrades, slicing down the awning of a market stall as he went with the blade of his sword. Clearly seeing what he had in mind, Bodun followed, seizing the other end of it. Between them, they swung the heavy canvas over Conrad and Alwyn, smothering the flames that surrounded their writhing forms.
“Oh dear,” Hanna said with heavy sarcasm. “She fumbled it. That’ll teach her to try doing magic with a headache.”
“If she lives,” Rudi said, sick with horror. Hanna shrugged.
“Speaking of which…” Bruno was still on the attack, bearing down on them regardless of the fate his friends had just suffered, brandishing his sword as he came. Not for the first time, Rudi found himself wondering just how sane the youth really was: not terribly, judging by his current demeanour. His face was contorted with hatred, and he was screaming incoherently, a peroration of malediction against every god Rudi had ever heard of and at least one he hadn’t.
“You’re going to die! Sigmar can’t help you, Shallya can’t help you, festering Tzeentch can’t help you, Taal can’t help you.” The crazed youth swung his sword wildly, without any trace of the precision or skill that Rudi remembered from previous battles. He blocked the clumsy stroke easily, and countered. Bruno parried, more by reflex than intent, Rudi thought, and he drove in past the attack, slashing down at the youth’s unprotected leg.
Bruno howled as the blade laid the back of his calf open almost to the bone, and turned to face Rudi, his face still twisted. Rudi had expected him to fall, but the berserker rage kept him moving, and the torrent of blasphemy continued without respite. “Rhya rolls in what Ursun leaves in the woods!”
“Run!” Rudi shouted to Hanna, fearful that she might resort to magic again. “Before someone cries witch on you!” It was no idle fear. Faces were visible at the windows of the shops and taverns, where many of the bystanders had fled, and most wore expressions of shock and terror. He’d been expecting her to argue, but she clearly accepted the wisdom of retreat, merely turning and sprinting away.
“The gods only help themselves!” Bruno screamed, returning to the attack. Rudi had no idea what was possessing him, but simply blessed the fact that whatever it was had struck. A babble of voices in one of the alleys dragged his head round for a moment, and he caught a brief glimpse of sunlight reflecting from the heads of halberds above the knot of panic-stricken backs trying to shove their way out of the square. There was no sign of the bearers yet, but from the random motions of the shafts, they seemed to be mired in the crowd that was attempting to flee the other way.
It had to be the watch. He turned his head. Theo and Bodun were standing now, having done all they could for their fallen friends, and even at this distance Rudi could see the cold rage on their faces. Without Hanna to keep them scared off, they’d return to the fray at any moment, eager to claim the thirty crowns on his head. Weapons in hand, they started back towards him.
Rudi sighed with regret. He had no desire to kill, but he had to end this at once. Evading another clumsy rush, he struck Bruno’s sword aside, and thrust his own blade deep into the youth’s chest. Bruno’s eyes widened in shock and pain, and Rudi raised a foot to push against his ribcage, withdrawing the blade. It came reluctantly, as if from thick mud, and the steel grated against Bruno’s ribs. The youth fell, the light of madness dwindling in his eyes, to be replaced for a moment by astonishment. Then he fell to the ground, gurgling. Bloody froth gushed from his lips, and his heels drummed on the cobbles.
Taking his own advice, Rudi turned and ran, heading downhill towards the docks as fast as he could. Ahead of him, Hanna’s blonde head shimmered and twisted through the crowd of ordinary citizens, going about their everyday business, blissfully unaware of the life and death drama that had just been enacted a couple of streets away, the crimson dress across her shoulder standing out like a beacon. Aware that the bloody sword in his hand was attracting unwelcome attention, Rudi wiped and sheathed it, still keeping up the best pace that he could. He risked a quick glance over his shoulder. Theo and Bodun were indeed in pursuit, a quartet of watchmen a few paces behind them.
“Rudi! Come on!” Hanna had stopped outside the hall of Mannan, just a few yards into the street leading back to the harbour.
“Keep going!” he yelled, unable to fathom why she would take such a chance.
“I intend to.” She fell into place at his shoulder, skirting the shattered barrel. A thin puddle of sweet-smelling liquid had spread across the width of the street, forming a wide pool as it flowed downhill. Hanna sniffed the air. “Brandy. That’ll do nicely.”
“Nicely for what?” Rudi panted. Hanna said nothing, but a moment later the volatile liquid burst into flames behind them, forming a blazing barrier across the street. “Oh. I see.”
“I think we can slow down a bit,” Hanna said after a moment. The dock area was just ahead, the never-ending bustle of commerce swallowing them up and hiding them from observation. “No need to draw attention to ourselves.”
“It’s a shame you didn’t think of that before,” Rudi said, a little shortly. Hanna shrugged.
“She started it. Luckily she got hit by Tzeentch’s Curse before she could do too much damage.”
“By what?” Rudi looked at her in surprise. “Bruno used that word too, while he was raving.” He frowned in even greater perplexity. “What the hell was that all about anyway? I’ve never seen him like that before.”
“It’s a sickness of the mind,” Hanna said. “My mother told me about things like that, although there’s not a lot a healer can do for it.” She shrugged. “Given the life he’d led, and some of the thi
ngs he’d seen and done, I’m not surprised he cracked. Toasting his friends was probably the final straw.”
“I see.” Rudi didn’t quite, but maladies and their treatment were Hanna’s area of expertise, and he was prepared to take her word for it. “So what does that word mean?” Hanna glanced around, and led the way into a narrow gap between two warehouses, just wide enough to walk through in single file. It was evidently a well-used short cut, but no one was taking it at the moment, and she stopped halfway along, turning to face him, sure that they wouldn’t be overheard. Nevertheless, her voice dropped so low that Rudi had to strain his ears to catch it.
“It’s the name of one of the Dark Gods,” she whispered. Rudi felt his bowels turn to ice.
“How do you know that?” he asked, shocked to the core. Gerhard had accused Greta Reifenstahl of following one of the Chaos Gods, and although he hadn’t wanted to believe her daughter was also a cultist, how else would she know of such things?
“They told us about his curse at the college in Marienburg,” Hanna said. The university there was the only place in the Old World other than the colleges of Altdorf where the study of magic was permitted, and Hanna had briefly enrolled as a student, before being forced to flee the city. “That’s what they call it when a spell goes wrong.” She shrugged. “He’s supposed to control change and mutation, so I suppose it’s a sort of joke.”
“Not a very funny one,” Rudi said. Hanna shook her head.
“Not a safe one to talk about, either. If I were you, I’d forget you ever heard it, and the name.” Rudi nodded.
“So how do you suppose Bruno knew about it?” He remembered the story they’d been told of how the mercenary band had rescued him from a herd of beastmen while he was still a child, and shrugged. The youth had encountered the minions of Chaos at least once before, and that had probably only been the first time of many. “Never mind. I don’t suppose it’s important.”
“Maybe not.” Hanna shrugged too, but her eyes remained troubled. “Although, they say everything’s significant to the Changer. Every coincidence has his hand in it.”
“Well, I don’t think running into them was much of a coincidence,” Rudi said slowly. “This is the only significant stopover on the river before we get to Altdorf. Gerhard probably sent them here to wait for us in case we were travelling by boat.”
Hanna considered it, and nodded, clearly much relieved.
“I suppose you’re right,” she said. A troubled frown appeared on her face. “Do you think he’s waiting for us too?”
“I doubt it.” Rudi shook his head. “We’re only a day or so from Altdorf. He’s probably gone back there to report or something.” That meant that every witch hunter in town would be keeping an eye out for them when they reached the capital. Hardly a comforting thought, but at least that was a problem for tomorrow. Squeezing past Hanna in the narrow passage, which was surprisingly pleasant despite the hard look she gave him, he peered cautiously out into the next thoroughfare.
The road was wide, with a wharf on the other side of it, and the keen wind carried the scent of the river. A couple of river boats similar in size to the Reikmaiden bobbed at anchor in the water, and beyond them a flat-bottomed barge was just putting in, sweating dock workers hauling in the lines.
“At least I know where we are,” he said, recognising the vessel as the ferry from the other side of the river. Pieter had pointed it out while they were entering the harbour. It connected with the coach road running between Altdorf and Marienburg on the south bank, and was presumably how the bounty hunters had managed to get to Carroburg ahead of them. Despite his assurances to Hanna, he was unable to resist glancing up and down the roadway, half expecting to see the black-clad figure of Gerhard waiting to pounce on them, but the shouted challenge never came. “Come on, we’re almost there.”
Hanna joined him, and they hurried along the dockside, dodging stevedores and handcarts as they did so. The Reikmaiden was only a few berths away, on the next wharf but one, and they should be there within moments. With any luck, Shenk would have concluded his business, and would be ready to get under way again. Certainly the news of a fight between two magicians would be all over the city by nightfall, and Rudi wanted to be well away before any of the crew had the chance to hear the story.
“Excuse me. Sorry.” They were passing the ferry dock, and the crush of disembarking passengers was beginning to spill out across the roadway, impeding their progress. Most of the new arrivals were on foot, but there were a handful of riders on horseback too, and even a couple of carts. Rudi and Hanna ducked around a wagon apparently loaded with turnips, and almost collided with an elegant young man in a neatly tailored doublet and cloak, his face hidden by a hat with a large floppy brim and an extravagant feather protruding from it. “Oops, sorry.”
“Don’t mention it.” The young man turned, eyes widening in surprise as he took in their faces. “Sigmar’s hammer, what are you two doing here?”
“Fritz?” Rudi shook his head in astonishment. “I thought you were still in Marienburg.”
“Same here.” Fritz Katzenjammer shrugged, looking for a moment like the slow-witted yokel Rudi remembered growing up with in Kohlstadt, and then grinned widely. “You’ll have to tell me all about it over a meal and a drink, as soon as I’ve run a little errand for the boss.”
“What sort of errand?” Hanna asked suspiciously. Fritz worked for the Graf von Eckstein, an Imperial nobleman involved in some clandestine business back in Marienburg, the man that Sam Warble had asked Rudi to find some information about on behalf of the Fog Walkers. Fritz shrugged.
“I’m supposed to pick up a package and see that it gets to Altdorf.” He glanced around, taking in the scale of the harbour surrounding them with the air of vague bafflement, which Rudi remembered well. “I don’t suppose either of you have seen a boat called the Reikmaiden around here by any chance?”
CHAPTER TEN
“The Reikmaiden?” Rudi repeated, exchanging a stunned glance with Hanna. For a moment, he wondered if their conversation about the Chaos god of coincidence had somehow invoked that baleful power, and a flood of irrational terror swept through him. A moment later, that was swept away in turn by a storm of hatred, welling up from somewhere deep in his mind, so strong and powerful that it left him physically trembling with the reaction.
“Yes,” Fritz confirmed, apparently oblivious of his friend’s inner turmoil. “I’m supposed to collect the package from her captain.”
“Then you’re in luck,” Rudi told him, steadying his voice and forcing the unwelcome emotions away with the same effort of will that he used to overcome the rush of exultation in combat. As his rational mind took over and common sense began to reassert itself, he glanced across at Hanna again, wondering if she’d noticed anything, but her eyes were still on Fritz. “That’s the Reikmaiden over there. We’ve been sailing on her ourselves.”
He led the way towards the riverboat through the thinning crowd of ferry passengers, evading the bustling dockworkers as they went, pondering the implications of this unexpected turn of events. If the artefact that Shenk was smuggling really was for von Eckstein, that would explain the Fog Walkers’ determination to intercept it. The attempted piracy and the attack on Shenk were all part of whatever covert power struggle was going on between Marienburg and the Empire, which he’d become peripherally involved in himself, and which he’d hoped had been left far behind them when they quit the city to begin their journey upstream.
Fritz’s presence was equally explicable. His mission in Marienburg complete, von Eckstein would have wanted to return to Altdorf as quickly as possible, which would have meant travelling by the coach road. No doubt he had continued his journey along the south bank, after giving Fritz his instructions and seeing him off on the ferry to Carroburg.
“That’s right,” Fritz confirmed, as soon as he’d put the thought into words. “He and Mathilde are going on by coach, while I pick up the package and finish the journey by boat
.” He grinned ingenuously. “He thought anyone trying to get hold of it would think he had it himself, and concentrate on the road, while I slip into the city through the docks. Nobody in Altdorf knows I’m working for him, you see.”
“Neat idea,” Hanna said shortly, “but it didn’t work. His enemies have tried to steal it twice already.” She looked faintly surprised as Fritz stood aside to let her board the boat first, and Rudi suppressed a smile. Clearly, the lessons in etiquette that Rudi had noticed the effects of at their last meeting in Marienburg had extended to more than just table manners. Fritz looked concerned as he followed her up the gangplank, his eyes narrowing as he looked behind them for signs of pursuit. Rudi followed, scanning the dockside in case any more Fog Walkers were lurking among the stevedores, but if there were any, they were concealing themselves as well as the lumberjack in the logging camp had.
“Twice?” Fritz asked. Rudi nodded.
“They tried to board us a couple of days back. Then the night before last, they tried to kill Shenk after we put in at a riverside settlement.”
“Luckily, Rudi was around to see them off,” Hanna added. Fritz nodded, taking in the unwelcome news remarkably quickly.
“I suppose that would explain why no one tried to stop us along the coach road,” he said thoughtfully.
“I suppose it would,” Hanna said dryly.
Fritz frowned, the familiar puzzled expression on his face.
“I wonder how the Fog Walkers got on to us?” he mused, although without really expecting an answer. Rudi shrugged, feeling oddly embarrassed.
The information he’d cozened out of the simpleton over their last meal together hadn’t included any travel plans, but he suspected that it might have helped the agents of Marienburg to deduce them a little more easily.
“That’s their job, isn’t it?” he asked. “To find out things?”
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