Marriage of Moment Page 5
‘What did I tell you, manling?’ Gotrek muttered. ‘Greedy.’
‘But it was worth it. Or it was at the time,’ Shandeux continued. One hairy toe prodded a coin from the spilled bag. ‘Not so much now. Gold has a way of slipping through your fingers, even out here. But you can have it, if you like. A deal’s a deal. Leave my treacherous niece and her lover to me and you can be about your way.’
It was a reasonable offer, and one that, in other circumstances, Felix might have encouraged Gotrek to take. But one look at the frightened faces of Esme and her lover was enough to prod Felix to open his mouth to refuse the offer. But Gotrek beat him to it.
‘It’s not gold I’m after,’ Gotrek said. His eye was on Shandeux. He seemed to have thought of something, Felix thought. There was a familiar gleam in his eye.
Shandeux’s eyes narrowed. ‘Then what do you want?’ he asked flatly. His hand went to his amulet.
‘The map,’ Gotrek said. ‘I’ll be having that.’ He pointed.
‘Map? What map?’ Shandeux asked.
‘The map you use to keep yourself wealthy, Shandy,’ Gotrek said. ‘The wealth of Mourkain – it’s scattered all through these hills, in ruins and barrows. And you know where it all is, don’t you, you hairy-footed crag-rat?’
Shandeux hunched forward, clutching his amulet so tightly that his knuckles turned white. Felix almost laughed as he realised what Gotrek had been pointing at. So that was why Stefano hadn’t been able to find the map. It made sense. You wouldn’t want to part with something that valuable. ‘You can’t have it. It belongs to me. Take your gold, and be glad I show you mercy.’
‘The map, runt, or you’ll be the one needing mercy,’ Gotrek growled. The haft of the Slayer’s axe creaked in his grip. The sound of skittering had grown louder. For a moment, Felix thought he was the only one to hear it and then he saw the guards’ eyes widen in sudden horror.
One cursed and ripped his sword from its sheath, even as a horde of miniature jabberslythes poured out from the tunnel, stunted wings flapping, tiny mouths open in a sibilant cacophony of mingled shrieks. Men screamed as the typhoon of biting, clawing, screaming monsters enveloped them. Felix cursed and swept his cloak out and around him, knocking the creatures from the air. He lashed out with his torch, setting several alight. Others landed on him, biting and snarling shrilly.
Gotrek was cursing and roaring, whirling his axe about with brutal abandon. Shandeux screamed as he was bowled over by a number of the creatures. The halfling kicked and howled and then fell silent as he disappeared beneath the creatures. Felix hesitated and saw Esme and Stefano striking out at the attacking beasts with their daggers. ‘Quick, under my cloak,’ he shouted. The two halflings did as he said, and Felix did the best he could to keep them all covered beneath the thick wool garment.
Gotrek had picked up a fallen torch and was whipping it about along with his axe. ‘Get the hair-foots out of here, manling!’
‘What about you?’ Felix shouted.
‘I’ll be along in a moment! Go!’
Hunching his shoulders against the battering cloud of monsters, Felix started moving towards the exit. Through a rip in the material, he saw a guard pitch forward, covered in a living blanket of struggling, frog-like bodies. From the sound of his screams, Felix thought the man was being eaten alive. He flailed about him with his torch as they ran through the corridors and back into the keep.
The jabberslythes seemed intent only on attacking everything that moved. Servants and guards and halflings alike were running through the keep, screaming and cursing as the plague of little creatures spread through the interior of the keep in an orgy of gnashing teeth and foul, frog-like bodies. Shaking the last few determined creatures off his cloak, he turned, hoping to see Gotrek following them. But there was no sign of the Slayer.
‘We have to get out of here, highboots,’ Esme said, grabbing his arm. ‘Those things will be on us in a few minutes. And your torch has set everything that’s not stone alight.’ She gestured and Felix felt a moment of embarrassment as he saw that the embers from his torch had caught the wood and bedraggled tapestries that marked their path. Servants were forced to choose between fighting jabberslythes and the growing fire.
‘It’s not just me,’ he said defensively. Men and halflings were using logs from the fireplaces and torches from the stanchions to fight the biting, screaming cloud that sought to envelop them. Burning jabberslythes spread through the keep like miniature comets, shrilling in agony and anger in equal measure.
‘We have to get out of here,’ Stefano said, grabbing at his arm.
‘Not without Gotrek,’ Felix said. Gripping his torch, he prepared to head back towards where he’d last seen the Slayer, but even as he started forward a heavy shape stomped into sight, covered in blood and gnawing, biting beasts. Gotrek tore the creatures from his body, cursing all the while. As he stamped on the last shrieking jabberslythe, he held up Shandeux’s amulet. Gotrek prised it open and revealed an etched interior. Even in the dim light, Felix could tell that the marks made a crude map.
‘Had to go back for the map, manling,’ the Slayer said, and laughed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Josh Reynolds is the author of the Warhammer 40,000 novellas Hunter’s Snare and Dante’s Canyon, along with the audio drama Master of the Hunt, all three featuring the White Scars, and the Blood Angels novel Deathstorm. In the Warhammer World, he has written The End Times: The Return of Nagash, the Gotrek & Felix tales Charnel Congress, Road of Skulls and The Serpent Queen, and the novels Neferata, Master of Death and Knight of the Blazing Sun. He lives and works in Sheffield.
From the undead-ridden marshes of Hel Fenn, to the court of a foul skaven lord, Warhammer’s original heroes battle the forces of evil across the Old World.
A BLACK LIBRARY PUBLICATION
Published in 2014 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd., Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.
Cover illustration by Winona Nelson.
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ISBN: 978-1-78251-878-5
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Table of Contents
Cover
Gotrek and Felix: Marriage of Moment – Josh Reynolds
About the Author
Legal
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