Conquest unbound, p.43
Conquest Unbound, page 43
‘Watch your step, lord.’ Bas grabbed Kantus’ shoulder, preventing him from stumbling headlong into the pit that bisected the path. The old veteran’s face was bone pale, his eyes tight and worried.
The pit was about ten feet wide and perhaps twice as deep, with an uneven, roughly excavated look. Herat lay splayed across the bottom, moaning faintly. Blood pooled around the sharpened stakes that pierced her body. Kantus noticed a disturbing, oily sheen to the wood, far different from the quicksilver sap of freshly cut serashem.
‘Tie this off.’ Bas handed the cut vine to the other guard, throwing the length into the pit. ‘I’m going down.’
Another pained moan came from the pit.
‘Get her out. Quickly. I’m less worried about the pit than whatever fashioned it. Fishing her out for too long will leave us exposed.’ Kantus shook his head, his dreams of power and patronage vanishing like morning mist. ‘Then the Order will have to wait. We are turning back.’
‘Thank you, lord.’ Bas gave a grateful nod.
Kantus sheathed his blade, stepping up to help lower Bas. The mirrorvine scraped across his gloves as he let the length play out, the other guard braced behind him.
Bas took the descent slowly. With each step loose dirt trickled down upon Herat.
‘Almost there,’ the veteran called up. ‘Keep it steady, a moment more and I’ll have her.’
Elabrin’s panicked shriek echoed up the path. ‘Their eyes are upon us!’
Unable to see the prisoners down the tree-shrouded hill, Kantus half-turned to shout at the mage for silence, but the vine suddenly jerked in his hands, dragging him towards the pit.
As Kantus teetered over the edge, he saw what had snagged the vine. One of Bas’ boots had triggered some manner of snare set into the side of the pit. This had released a tensioned branch anchored in the other wall. The branch, covered in long, thin spines, had whipped across to sink into the veteran’s exposed back.
Bas let out a soft cough, blood painting his lips.
‘Hold on!’ The witch hunter fought to regain his balance. ‘We will pull you out.’
‘Skittering! Crawling!’ Elabrin’s voice had risen to a mad howl. ‘Struggling only draws the noose tighter!’
Something fell from the branches above the witch hunter, dropping upon the guard behind him. Little more than an angular blur in the gloom, the spider was about the size of a large gryph-hound, with a bulbous body and profusion of long, slashing legs. The unfortunate guard shrieked as it sunk vicious fangs into his neck.
Unable to anchor the vine alone, Kantus was forced to let go or be dragged into the pit. The heavy thud from below was like a spear driven into the Kantus’ his breast. Anger and despair warred within him. He reached for the fury, let it lend him strength. Only survivors could mourn the dead.
Snatching his blade from his belt, Kantus charged the spider. An arrow hissed by the witch hunter’s face, and, with a start, he realised there was a grot crouched atop the beast, giggling and howling as the spider mauled Kantus’ guard.
He slashed at the grot, a looping strike that lopped the top from the creature’s bow and carved a thin red line across its hateful face. Instead of recoiling, the grot leapt at him, spitting blood as it brandished a wickedly curved dagger.
Kantus pivoted, the grot’s slash cutting fabric rather than flesh. Before it could attack again, Kantus slashed it across the chest then kicked the shrieking creature into the pit.
A flicker of motion at the edge of his vision gave Kantus warning just before the spider leapt at him. He spun, blade piercing the chitin just above the creature’s dripping fangs, sliding through its head into its body. The beast’s knife-sharp legs cut long gashes on the witch hunter’s shins, its jaws gnashing inches away from his exposed flesh. But he bore down, teeth gritted, and finally the creature’s spasms stopped.
Panting, Kantus gave the blade one final twist and stood, prepared for more grots to leap from the dark branches, but the forest remained still and silent.
After a long moment, Kantus glanced down at the spider-bitten guard. Foam dribbled from lips that had turned a deep, bruised purple. His eyes bulged sightlessly from his head, and his hands were hooked into agonised claws.
Suddenly, a yell pierced the night. Kantus hurried back towards the prisoners. As he approached, he saw Yusán trying to control the terrified ibuq, while Heko and Captain Lim stood head to head. From this distance, he could only hear snippets of what they were saying.
‘I warned you, captain,’ Heko hissed. ‘If you–’
The rest of the woman’s words were drowned out by a loud moan from Elabrin.
‘Too late…’ The mage turned his bloodshot eyes on Kantus. ‘Far too late.’
‘What happened?’ Yusán’s voice cracked. ‘Where are Bas and the others?’
Kantus shook his head.
Captain Lim shifted with a jangle of heavy chains. ‘I am sorry. They seemed like good soldiers.’
‘They were.’ Kantus gathered up the ibuq’s reins, dragging the beast’s head around as it snorted and stamped, pale yellow eyes terrified.
‘What are you doing?’ Heko asked.
‘It is too dangerous to press forward,’ Kantus replied. ‘We must head back and take the old Lantic road.’
‘You will never leave this forest.’
Elabrin’s words sent a shiver up Kantus’ spine.
‘Quiet, mage, before I gag you.’
‘He’s right, actually,’ Captain Lim said. ‘I’ve fought the Spiderfang before. That grot back there was just a scout. There are probably a dozen more closing in on us right now.’
Kantus tugged at the ibuq, scowling as the lizard tossed its heavy head in agitation. ‘And what would you have me do?’
The captain held up her manacled hands.
‘Free us.’
‘And risk the murderer slipping a dagger into my back?’
‘You’ll never outrun the Spiderfang, not like this,’ Lim replied. ‘When they come, and they will come, you are going to need every blade.’
As if to echo the captain’s warning, a low, hollow drumming echoed through the forest, still distant, the direction impossible to place.
‘What use is any of this if we’re all dead?’ Heko asked.
Kantus glanced at Elabrin, but the mage was staring sadly at his feet, silent for once. Yusán seemed on the verge of panic, terrified gaze sweeping the darkened branches, his axe gripped in white-knuckled fists.
‘If I am going to die, let me do it with a blade in my hands.’ Lim shook her chains. ‘Not bound and hobbled like a beast marked for slaughter.’
Kantus felt a rare uncertainty well up through the cracks in his resolve. The captain was right – if he continued as planned, he would never reach the Order’s stronghold, never stand before his superiors with the revelation of who murdered the governor.
Knowing he had no other choice, Kantus set his jaw and drew the key from his belt and opened the chest secured to the ibuq’s back. Throwing the lid back, he revealed the weapons and equipment he had seized from the prisoners.
‘Lord?’ Apprehension whetted Yusán’s question to razor sharpness. ‘Is that wise?’
Kantus gave no reply, instead turning to unlock the chains binding the prisoners.
‘You should get rid of the ibuq. It will slow us down.’ Captain Lim retrieved her blade from the land lizard’s back. ‘Drive it into the forest. The noise might distract the Spiderfangs.’
‘I thought you said we couldn’t outrun them.’ Heko massaged her chafed wrists as Kantus removed her manacles and leg irons.
‘We cannot.’ The captain tried a few practice cuts in the air, then nodded, apparently satisfied. ‘But that does not mean we shouldn’t try.’
Heko nodded, helping herself to her crossbow, quiver and brace of daggers from the chest.
‘Promise me, when the time comes…’ Elabrin’s eyes were little more than shadowed hollows in a face weathered as old parchment. His gaze flicked to Kantus’ blade then back to the witch hunter’s face. ‘Do not let them take me alive.’
‘No one is taking you anywhere but me,’ Kantus replied.
Elabrin’s laugh was almost a sob.
The clang of boots on fallen leaves caused Kantus to turn. He saw Heko sprinting down the path towards the pit.
‘Do not let these two move,’ the witch hunter growled to the guard. With a curse, he ran after Heko, rounding the bend in the trail to see her kneeling by the dead spider.
‘Calm yourself, witch hunter.’ Heko used one of her daggers to cut into the spider’s mouth, deftly working the blade around to remove a bloodied bit of viscera. ‘Venom sac. The spiders may be immune to it, but I’m willing to bet the grots aren’t.’
She slit it open, then dipped her daggers and quarrels into the venom.
Kantus drew his blade. ‘How does a person come to know so much about poisons?’
‘That’s a foolish question.’ Heko stood. Sheathing her dagger, she stepped around Kantus, apparently untroubled by the blade hovering inches away from her throat. ‘A good purveyor knows all her trappings.’
Kantus did not lower his blade.
‘I didn’t murder Bettrum, witch hunter.’
‘The governor wanted to see you hanged.’
‘The governor was an imbecile.’ Her lip curled into a half-snarl. ‘What was Bettrum’s count? A dozen murders, and he couldn’t find one shred of evidence to link me to them. Why would I poison someone that inept?’
Before the witch hunter could answer, Lim jogged up, heavy boots thudding on the path. The captain had helped herself to a pack and torches from the ibuq’s back.
‘You caught her.’ Lim raised her own sword. ‘Now, kill this criminal and be done with it.’
‘I administer justice here, not you, captain,’ Kantus said.
‘Elabrin is a mad old man. I am a Freeguild captain with years in Sigmar’s service. She is as dangerous as the grots.’ Lim gestured to Heko. ‘She is the assassin, a poisoner with a dozen killings to her name. The answer is clear, witch hunter. We do not have time to argue.’
‘You are correct.’ Kantus sheathed his sword and turned to move. ‘We do not.’
The witch hunter’s shoulders tensed as he jogged down the path, but neither the captain nor the poisoner stuck a blade in his back. He paused to retrieve a pack of supplies from the ibuq’s back, then slapped the beast on the haunch to set it careening into the forest. It was almost fully dark now, the trees little more than smudged shadows at the edge of the path.
‘I will light our path,’ Elabrin said as the others jogged up.
The mage muttered a few words, and an orb of soft blue light appeared in the air above the witch hunter. Without another word, they hurried down the path.
‘How is it these creatures can hunt so close to Uliashtai?’ Kantus asked between panting breaths.
‘I wanted to lead patrols through the Rustwood,’ Lim replied. ‘But the governor thought our forces were better deployed elsewhere.’
They ran through the corroded gloom for what seemed an eternity, grot drums echoing around them steady as the beat of a hideous heart.
Branches trembled in the murky dark, angular shadows skirting the circle of Elabrin’s light. The trees opened into a clearing where someone had piled a small cairn of earth and stone.
Heko leapt atop the mound, levelling her crossbow at the path ahead. ‘They’re all around us.’
Red eyes glittered in the gloom. With mounting desperation, Kantus noticed the slick flash of chitin glinting in the pale blue light.
Lim drew her blade. ‘This seems as good a place to die as any.’
‘We need to find cover,’ Kantus said, casting about for something to shelter behind.
‘Lord, over there!’ Yusán gestured towards where more cairn stones formed a natural barrier. The guard had barely taken a step towards the cover when an arrow flicked from the shadows to strike him just above the collar bone. Yusán raised one trembling hand, probing at the wound as if to assure himself of its reality. Blood dribbled down his chin as he opened his mouth to speak, but all that emerged was a wet rasp.
Another arrow thudded into the young guard’s chest, and he toppled limply to the ground.
Elabrin raised his hands, words of power spilling from his cracked lips. The mage’s voice took on an uncanny resonance – not quite an echo, but more as if another inhuman voice were incanting the words and Elabrin merely repeated them. Beams of pale radiance criss-crossed the clearing like the web of a mad spider.
Kantus watched, wide-eyed, as a grot arrow flitted along one of the beams, the glow winking out a moment after the arrow thudded into the ground.
‘Beware the light,’ Elabrin called. ‘Our attackers cannot see it, but it will mark the path of their missiles before they fire.’
As if to echo the mage’s words, a shaft of light illuminated Kantus’ shoulder, and he stepped aside as an arrow hissed past.
Shielded by Elabrin’s sorcery, he and his companions slunk and ducked around the clearing, arrows hissing harmlessly by. Heko sent a bolt of her own into the jagged shadows, grinning as a grot tumbled from the branches to crash bonelessly to the ground.
Again, Elabrin’s incantation split the air, this time summoning a spinning maelstrom of tiny comets around the mage. Arcane wind blew his hair and beard into wild gusts as he set the points of light streaking into the trees, their impacts marked by chittering shrieks.
Chitin cracked and spiders dropped from the branches to skitter at the mage, their riders brandishing crooked spears and long, serrated knives.
Kantus swept in front of Elabrin and ran through one of the grots as Lim hacked at its mount. Her heavier blade sheared through the spider’s bloated body, spattering all of them with bits of oily viscera. One of Heko’s bolts caught another rider in the shoulder, and the grot tumbled from its mount, convulsing as white foam poured from its mouth.
A spider dropped onto Kantus’ back. Off balance, he twisted to dislodge it, pitching forward as he broke free of the creature’s knife-like legs. Impact with the ground knocked the wind from the witch hunter. He clenched his jaw against the white after-images flickering across his vision and rolled over just in time to raise his blade to meet the spider’s skittering leap.
The spider’s legs scrabbled for purchase even as its fangs twitched closer to Kantus’ throat, stopped only by his blade. On the creature’s back, its grot rider screeched and spat, stabbing at the witch hunter with its crooked-bladed spear.
Kantus shifted in the stony dirt, desperate to avoid the spear and fangs, both of which were undoubtedly poisoned. Unable to throw the spider, he grabbed the blade of his sword. The sharp edge cut through his glove and into his hand, but he only cursed and sawed the sword across the spider’s mouth. It made a high-pitched shriek and scuttled back into the darkened trees, leaving a trail of greenish-yellow blood.
Kantus had no sooner rolled to his knees when the screeching grot returned from the shadows. The witch hunter threw himself to the side to avoid the Spiderfang’s spear thrust, reaching up to grab the haft of the spear and drag the grot down. Unable to bring their weapons to bear, the two struggled on the ground. Kantus hammered a fist into the grot’s ribs, then screamed as the little monster sank its fangs into his bicep.
Filthy fingernails clawed at the witch hunter’s face, reopening the cut on Kantus’ cheek as the grot tried to hook a claw into his eye. Kantus wedged his blade between the grot’s jaws in an attempt to pry it free from his arm. He felt the creature try to pull away, and reached up to hook his bloody fingers behind its head. The grot shrieked and struggled, but slowly, Kantus ground its hideous face into his bared blade. Hot ichor spilled across the witch hunter’s arm as the sharp edge cut into the grot’s flesh.
At last its jaws released, and Kantus hurled the beast aside. Struggling to his feet, he ran it through before the grot could scamper off into the night.
A glance around the clearing showed Lim engaged with a pair of spider riders, and Heko atop the cairn, launching bolt after bolt into the canopy. The sight of his prisoners surrounded by grots sent a shiver of helpless fury through Kantus. He had led them all to their deaths, and every moment brought him closer to failing in his mission to present Governor Bettrum’s murderer to the Order.
Elabrin’s scream cut the air as a rope of webbing caught his leg. He clawed at the dirt as the unseen spiders dragged him from the clearing.
Kantus lunged after the screaming mage, dropping his sword to catching Elabrin’s flailing arm with both hands.
‘No!’
The witch hunter pulled until he thought his shoulders might tear. But with hands slick with blood and the dead spider’s ichor, it was hard for Kantus to get a good grip. Slowly, Elabrin slipped from his grasp.
‘Please.’ The mage’s voice was terrified. ‘Do not let them–’
His plea was choked off as a strand of webbing looped around Elabrin’s neck, jerking the mage from Kantus’ hands.
The witch hunter spun to snatch up his blade, thinking to cut the webbing. When he turned back, Elabrin was gone, his thin, choked wail vanishing amidst the retreating thunder of Spiderfang drums.
As if to punctuate the mage’s fate, Elabrin’s magical light flickered and disappeared, reducing the clearing to almost total darkness.
Kantus put his back against a tree, sword at the ready, but no new monstrosities leapt from the shadows. Even the drums had fallen silent for the moment.
Panting, he rooted around in his pack for a torch. The firelight showed a scene of slaughter, grot and spider bodies strewn across the clearing, the cairn stones stained with dark ichor.
There was a spark in the shadows, then a bright flare as another torch was lit. Heavy footfalls approached. Squinting into the glare, Kantus discerned Lim’s broad-shouldered shadow. The captain sported a nasty gash across her forehead and several bloody patches on her uniform.
