Whatever its mission, Alundra offered a prayer of thanks to the Angel of Death’s God-Emperor. Just because she didn’t believe in Him didn’t mean He wouldn’t listen. He might even deliver her from this madness, transport her far away from the vengeful Space Marine and the Flayer that was dancing like a deranged marionette under the Death Spectre’s onslaught.
‘Alundra. This way!’
She looked up, amazed not just to hear her name but also to recognise the voice that said it.
‘Husim?’
Her brother was leaning out of the window above her, a toned arm reaching down. ‘Keep climbing.’
Alundra didn’t need telling twice. As the Space Marine emptied its weapon into the stricken Flayer Alundra climbed, ignoring the pain from her palms and calf. The pipe creaked under her weight and with a sickening ping started to pull away from the brickwork. As it arched back, she threw up her hand, finding her brother, and let herself be hauled up.
Her fingernails scraped against the stone sill as she scrambled for a hold. Husim leant further out of the window, grabbed the thin material at the back of her tunic and pulled her through. They tumbled to the floor on the other side. She was inside. She was safe.
The bolter fire had ceased.
‘I need to see,’ she exclaimed, scrabbling back up to the window.
‘Alundra, wait!’ Husim made a grab for her, but she shook him off, almost throwing herself back over the sill in her haste. The Flayer lay on the ground, twitching where it had fallen. As if the punishment hadn’t been severe enough, the Death Spectre raised its grinding chainsword and severed the raider’s head in one practised move. The metal skull rolled away from the decapitated torso, coming to rest face up, staring straight at Alundra. Their eyes locked for a second, before the lights beneath the Flayer’s heavy brow flared and extinguished forever.
She became aware of another set of eyes upon her. The Death Spectre pointed its chainsword up at the window, uttering a single, solemn command.
‘Stay where you are.’
Husim pulled her away from the window. ‘What are you waiting for?’ he shouted. ‘Come on. We’re upstairs.’
Dazed, Alundra dragged her eyes away from the Space Marine and limped after her brother.
‘This way. Quickly.’
Husim grabbed her hand, guiding her down a corridor and through a storeroom. The place was crammed with sacks of grain and empty wooden trays. They were above the bakery.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked, as her brother ushered her up a stairwell.
‘Hiding, what do you think?’
She took the stairs two at a time, coming up into a sawdust-covered room stacked with boxes from wall to wall.
‘Are you alone?’
‘No. Galeb’s here too,’ Husim said, following her.
‘What about Torin?’
Husim simply barged past, ignoring the question.
‘Galeb needs your help.’
‘He’s hurt?’
‘See for yourself.’
Husim pushed back the tattered curtain that was covering a doorway at the back of the room.
‘What happened?’ Alundra asked, rushing over to the boy lying on the floor. Yes, she knew that she should think of Galeb as a man now, but he’d always be her little brother’s playmate, getting into scrapes and always coming out the worst.
But never as bad as this
‘One of them got Torin,’ Galeb wheezed, breaking into a wet, hacking cough.
‘The idiot tried to stop it,’ Husim said, his voice wavering despite the tough talk. ‘Got slashed across the belly for his trouble.’
‘It was killing him,’ Galeb argued, wincing as he tried to push himself up.
‘He was already dead,’ replied Husim, flatly.
Alundra examined the blood-soaked shirts wrapped around Galeb’s stomach.
‘You did this?’ she asked her brother.
‘It was all we had,’ Husim snapped back. ‘I had to think quick.’
‘You did well,’ Alundra said, trying to still her brother’s defensiveness. ‘But we’re going to need to find more supplies if we’re going to get him out of here. Proper bandages.’ She glanced around the room. There was a small pile of food in the corner, a couple of loaves, some migan fruits and a few nuts. It wouldn’t last them long.
‘We can’t go back out there.’
Alundra fixed Husim with a look that told him he was being stupid. ‘We have to.’
‘No way,’ Husim insisted, pacing back to the curtain and checking the room outside. ‘We’re safe here. We’ll wait until the raid is over and then we’ll get him home. Mother will know what to do.’
Alundra felt tears prick her eyes. She knew she should tell him why that wasn’t possible, that Mother was no longer waiting at home, but it wouldn’t have helped. He’d stick his heels in even further.
‘He’s right, Alundra,’ Galeb wheezed, grabbing her arm with a trembling hand. ‘If we head outside, we’ll be taken.’
Alundra looked up into the rafters, feeling a fresh breeze across her face, cool against the stifling heat of the small room. She could just make out a hole in the ceiling. There must be an attic above them, maybe a way out onto the roof. Not that Galeb was in any fit state to clamber up and out of the building.
She closed her eyes for a second, letting the draught wash over her. She wished Grandfather were here. He’d know what to say, how to persuade the boys.
She squeezed Galeb’s hand, forcing a smile. ‘Listen to me, both of you. We’ve got to keep moving. Everyone is gathering in the town hall. They’re going to find a way of getting us out of this.’
Husim snorted. ‘What are they going to do? Reason with them?’
‘They’re going to try,’ she snapped back. ‘Better that than hiding in darkened rooms.’
‘That’s what we always do,’ Galeb pointed out, his voice catching with the pain.
‘This time is different,’
‘Yeah,’ snorted Husim. ‘This time the ghouls aren’t the problem.’
Alundra sighed, stood and walked back to her brother, placing her hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze in the same way Mother always had when she tried to get through to him.
It was amazing how soon you started thinking of someone in the past tense.
‘We’ve got to move Galeb.’
‘And how do we do that, genius?’ he asked, shrugging her off.
‘We’ll carry him. If we’re careful–’
A noise from below cut her off.
‘What’s that?’ Galeb whimpered, only to be told to shut up by Husim who peeked around the curtain.
‘There’s nothing there.’
‘It’s coming from downstairs,’ Galeb insisted, fixing Alundra with a panicked stare.
Footsteps.
They weren’t alone in the building. It could have been the baker, of course – if the baker had started wearing exceptionally heavy boots.
‘Husim...’ Alundra hissed, willing her brother to make the right decision.
‘Okay, okay,’ he finally agreed, throwing his hands up in surrender. ‘There’s a hole in the wall in the far room. We can crawl through to the next building.’
‘I won’t be able to,’ Galeb sobbed.
‘You’ll have to,’ Husim insisted, moving over to his friend. ‘Put your arm around me and keep quiet, will you?’
Alundra crept over to the little food Husim had scavenged, trying not to make too much noise as she shoved it into her brother’s leather satchel.
The stairs creaked.
‘It’s coming up,’ Galeb snivelled, drawing a glare from Husim. The three of them froze, staring at the thin curtain as they listened to the hydraulic pumps hissing with every step.
I should have got them to move straig
ht away, Alundra scolded herself. Stupid. They could have been out of the building by now, heading to the town hall.
Whoever was on the other side of the curtain stopped. Alundra glanced at her brother, Galeb’s arm around his shoulder, his own hand looped around his friend’s waist, holding him close. Galeb’s eyes were so wide they looked like he was no longer blinking.
Then, above them, something moved. Wood creaked. Metallic limbs glinted over their heads.
Alundra yelled a warning, forgetting about keeping quiet. Husim looked up to the ceiling and tried to pull his friend to the side, but it was too late. The Flayer dropped down from the rafters, landing on top of Galeb. Husim was shoved back, cracking his head on the far brickwork before slumping to the floor.
Galeb screamed as the monster’s tapered claws pushed deep into his belly. The cry was replaced by the sound of someone choking on their own blood as the raider yanked free a handful of intestines and attempted to cram the fresh meat into metal jaws that couldn’t even open. The entrails spilled through its fingers, slopping back down onto Galeb’s convulsing body.
Trapped behind the Flayer, Husim threw himself forward, slamming against the metal body, trying to shove the ghoul from Galeb. The Flayer merely thrust out a hand, claws puncturing Husim’s chest, pinning him against the wall.
Alundra looked around, frantically searching for something to use as a weapon. A water pipe ran around the foot of the wall. She gripped it hard, the rusted surface cutting into already punished hands, and yanked. It shifted, but not enough. She dropped down, pressing a foot against the wall and heaved again. Once, twice, until finally it came away from the wall.
Screeching like a banshee she rushed forward, bringing her makeshift quarterstaff down on the skin-covered back. It connected sharply with the ghoul’s exo-skeleton, sending vibrations shooting back up her arms, almost forcing her to drop the pipe. But she carried on battering the living robot, screaming in fury with every strike.
The attack was short-lived. With a hiss of annoyance, the Flayer turned, slashing out with bloodied claws, and swatted her aside. Gashes opened cleanly across her side and she was propelled headfirst into the wall, the pipe clattering across the floor. Alundra threw up her hands to protect herself, the skin tearing from her arms as she skidded down the bricks.
She landed in a crumpled heap, reeling from shock and pain, her head spinning. Husim’s screams seemed to be coming from all directions at once.
‘Leave him, abomination, and feel the Emperor’s teeth.’
A shadow fell over Alundra, a giant figure pushing its way into the tiny room, ripping the curtain from its pole, chainsword held aloft and growling like a mechanical hound. Her saviour from the alley. The Death Spectre.
The Flayer whirled around, flinging Husim aside, but it was already too late. The chainsword bit into the Flayer’s shoulder plate, cleaving the monstrosity in two in a blaze of coruscating sparks.
Alundra scrabbled behind the Space Marine, gathering Husim into her arms, trying to gauge how badly he was hurt. Her brother’s chest was a spider’s web of lacerations, each ebbing dark, treacle-like blood. His eyes were rolling in their sockets, his body going into shock. She shouted his name, trying to get him to stay with her.
‘You must come with me,’ a reverberant voice growled above her. The Space Marine was looming over her, its power armour splattered with gore and oil. ‘Leave the boy.’
Alundra all but snarled at her rescuer. ‘He’s my brother.’
The Death Spectre reached out a gauntleted hand and pushed her aside to examine Husim, the Angel of Death’s touch gentler than Alundra had expected.
‘The injuries are severe,’ the hulking figure concluded categorically. ‘He will not survive.’
‘He won’t if we leave him here,’ she snapped back, her fury giving her courage she never knew she possessed. The Space Marine could snap her neck in an instant, but she didn’t care anymore. There was no hope of rescuing Galeb, trampled beneath the Flayer’s bisected corpse, but she wasn’t going to abandon her brother.
A shower of sawdust rained down from above. The fight had attracted more ghouls, hoping to scavenge carrion. Three of the creatures were attempting to claw their way through the hole in the ceiling, stuck halfway in their haste. It wouldn’t take long for them to burst through. The ceiling was already bulging, cracks spreading as they struggled, consumed with blood lust.
‘Get out,’ the Death Spectre barked, snatching his mag-locked bolter from his leg and firing into the Flayers, the report of the gun like thunder in the enclosed space. ‘Get out now!’
Alundra grabbed Husim, ignoring his screamed protestations, and bundled him out of the room even as the ceiling gave way. Behind her, flensing claws squealed against ceramite armour.
She didn’t look back.
‘We’re nearly there,’ Alundra coaxed, half carrying her brother down the back stairs to the ground floor. She’d slipped twice, Husim landing painfully on her own injuries. There was no time to rest. It sounded as if the building were about to come down around them.
‘Hurts,’ Husim whined, sounding like the child she had known growing up. ‘Really bad.’
‘I know, Hu, but you’ve got to help me. We can do this together.’
‘Okay, Ma,’ Husim replied weakly, at least attempting to put one foot in front of the other. Alundra didn’t correct his mistake.
The stairs ended in another storage area, crammed with mops and buckets. She struggled over to the door, praying that it wouldn’t be locked, that they wouldn’t be trapped here. She could hear talons skittering on floorboards above. Perhaps even an Angel of Death hadn’t been strong enough to hold back a flood of ravenous Flayers. A renewed volley of bolter fire told her differently. If the Space Marine could keep the Flayer busy she might still be able to get Husim to a semblance of safety.
She twisted the handle, cursing when the door wouldn’t budge. Hefting her brother, she put her shoulder to it, offering thanks to a Throne she still didn’t believe in when it shifted in the frame. Just stiff. They could get out of this. She tried again and it sprang open, nearly sending them sprawling across the bakery’s tiled kitchen.
Outside she could hear concussive blasts and the deafening howl of transports thundering through the air. The evacuation had already started.
‘This way,’ she said, guiding Husim around a large wooden preparation table and into the passageway. There was a heavy thud from above, knocking plaster from the ceiling. Husim had stopped responding, but at least was allowing himself to be mindlessly led by his sister. ‘Not long now,’ she lied.
Something crashed down the stairs, clattering into the buckets and trays.
‘Just keep going,’ she said, barrelling into a narrow corridor that led out to the street, unsure if she was encouraging herself or Husim. ‘A few more steps, that’s all.’
They reached the door. They were going to get out. Shifting Husim’s weight, she reached forward, pulling on the handle. It didn’t move. She panicked, her heart thudding in her chest. Why wasn’t it moving? Then the realisation dawned. Push to open. She laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation, and shoved at the metal door. It swung open easily; too easily. Alundra and her brother tumbled forward, Husim’s legs giving way, dragging her down. The two of them splayed on the floor, Husim crying out. It was the last sound she’d ever hear him make.
Alundra groaned, her wounds, shallow though they were, burning like a furnace in her side. She looked up, realising that she was staring at melanoid boots that crunched on the dirt as they turned. She cast her eyes skywards, squinting in the sun, not one but two unmistakable silhouettes above her.
‘No,’ Alundra cried out, trying to throw herself over Husim as armoured fingers pulled her roughly back to her feet.
‘Superficial wounds,’ rumbled a red-helmed Death Spectre, yanking her arm up to examine the dark
stain across her tunic. ‘Scan her, Quintus.’
‘At once, Sergeant Vilda.’
Alundra tried to wriggle free but the sergeant just stood as immovable as a statue, its brother sweeping a handheld augury up and down the length of her body. The device buzzed and chirped as the results scrolled on a screen.
‘She is surprisingly well-nourished, sir. No known maladies or infections,’ the Death Spectre called Quintus reported, looking up from the augury. ‘Safely within selection parameters.’
Her captor nodded. ‘Excellent. She will be taken with the others.’
Alundra fought against Vilda’s grip. ‘What about my brother? You need to help him.’
The Death Spectre released her, and she tumbled back into the dirt, instinctively reaching out to touch Husim. He was so still.
Quintus didn’t even check his scanner.
‘Subject rejected,’ he intoned. ‘Injuries fatal.’
‘No,’ Alundra yelled, springing back to her feet and pounding her fists against the Space Marine’s chest, no longer caring if such actions were tantamount to a death sentence. ‘You’ve got to do something. He can’t die.’
The red-helmeted sergeant grabbed her arm once again, but this time the fingers bit deeper, bruising muscle, making her cry out.
‘And spirited too,’ he commented, sounding what, amused? She wanted to kill both of them.
From the passage behind them a voice rumbled out, agreeing with the sentiment. Alundra twisted to see her saviour marching down the restricted space of the corridor, his pauldrons scraping against the narrow walls. As he stepped out into the sun, Alundra couldn’t help but stare. The Space Marine had lost his helm in the battle, revealing a stark visage, almost completely devoid of pigment. The skin was corpse white, with closely cropped hair the colour of snow and eyes as red as the blood that flowed freely from a fresh wound across his pale cheek.
‘She took on a Flayed One single-handed,’ he reported, almost sounding proud. ‘Strength of will as well as body. Unusual for a human.’
‘Then we have chosen well, Karnos,’ Vilda replied, shoving Alundra towards the albino. ‘Prime stock. Take her to the transport.’
Lords and Tyrants Page 15