‘You can thank Ranald that part of the floor in the old escape tunnel dropped down into the sewers,’ Erich said, yet even as he said it a flicker of doubt tugged at him. He still couldn’t escape the impression that the floor had been dug out, not fallen in.
Baron Thornig scowled at the muck on his boot. ‘I’d thank him better if he kept his gifts a bit cleaner.’
Better than you deserve, you manipulative bastard. Erich resisted the temptation to push the Middenlander back into the channel. He couldn’t forget that this man had used his own daughter as a sordid weapon against his enemies. A weapon who had clearly failed based upon the quick deployment of the Kaiserjaeger to the Imperial Palace. The hideous sacrifice Baron Thornig had allowed Princess Erna to make had been for nothing. Even if she had eliminated Kreyssig, Emperor Boris would just appoint another monster in his place.
‘Where the blazes are we?’ Baron Thornig grumbled, squinting at the murky walls. ‘It all looks the same to me.’
Erich turned the lantern around, shining it at the channel between the ledges. A faint current was detectable in the stream of filth. ‘If we follow the direction of the flow, we’ll eventually reach the ri…’
The knight bit off the last words. From ahead he could see the glow of moving lights and the murmur of whispering voices. Instantly, his mind was thrown back to the reckless escape from Lady Mirella’s cellar. There were Kaiserjaeger ahead of them, searching the sewers for them! They must have discovered the old escape tunnel.
‘We can’t go that way,’ Erich whispered to Baron Thornig.
‘Where do we go?’ the Middenlander asked.
Erich shook his shoulders. ‘It doesn’t matter, just as long as we keep Ghal Maraz out of their hands.’ Carefully, the knight backed away, leading his companion down one of the older culverts. The two fugitives raced along the ledge, hurrying to the next intersection, trying to put as irregular a path between themselves and their pursuers as they could.
So intent were they upon the Kaiserjaeger they had seen that they weren’t aware of the other group of hunters until they came around a slime-covered corner and saw a squad of black-liveried thugs marching in their direction. At their head, his face like the leering visage of a forest devil, was Adolf Kreyssig.
‘There you are,’ Kreyssig hissed. He pointed a finger at the two rebels. ‘Kill them,’ he growled at the thugs behind him.
Outnumbered and outguessed, the two fugitives turned and ran back into the darkness. Erich cursed himself for being outsmarted. Finding the sewer opening, Kreyssig had sent a gang of his thugs to the river entrance while he followed the route the fugitives had taken. Underestimating the peasant was a mistake Erich swore he would never make again.
If there was an ‘again.’
This section of the sewers, flowing beneath the manors and townhouses of the nobility, was a confusion of side passages and cul-de-sacs. If they could just put enough distance between themselves and their pursuers, Erich was certain they could lose them. The biggest factor against them was the glow of their lantern. The light was like a beacon, drawing the Kaiserjaeger on, yet neither of the rebels dared even consider dousing it.
Ahead, the tunnel twisted into a much narrower channel, the ledges disappearing entirely, forcing the men to slog their way through the filthy channel. They struggled to make way through the sucking mire, the sluggish current just enough to make each step a trial of balance and determination. All around them, they could see the glistening eyes of rats and hear the rodents slithering through the water.
Suddenly, something stepped out from a fissure in the tunnel wall. It was the same sort of shadowy, slouching shape Erich imagined he had seen before. Only now it stood revealed in all its loathsome horror. A twisted monstrosity, merging the verminous flesh of an enormous rat with the posture and build of a man. Grimy armour and a filthy cloak girded the obscenity’s body while in its claws it held a rusty sword.
Erich cried out in disgust and horror. Baron Thornig turned and staggered away, losing his footing and plunging into the muck. It took every ounce of courage he possessed for the knight to turn his back on the rat-fiend to help the foundering Middenlander.
Kaiserjaeger or no, the men fled back the way they had come. Whatever fate they might expect from Kreyssig, at least it would take place in the clean world of man, not the abominable realm of myth and legend. Better to die in the clutches of a tyrant than to slip into the paws of the underfolk!
Neither man could keep from looking back as they retreated. Erich shuddered at every turn, fancying he could see the ratman’s eyes shining in the darkness. Nor, if his impression was true, was the monster alone. The terrifying retreat from the vermin under Lady Mirella’s now repeated itself, only magnified a thousandfold. Erich called out to Sigmar, to Ulric, to Taal and Shallya, to any god that might hear for deliverance from such nightmarish abominations.
Around the next corner, the fugitives again saw the glow from Kreyssig’s lanterns. The triumphant shouts of the pursuing Kaiserjaeger stirred a last desperate urge for survival. With the ratmen at their back and the Kaiserjaeger ahead, Erich darted down the side-passage to their left, the only option open to them now.
The knight could feel his heart thundering against his ribs as he squirmed and squeezed his way through the narrow opening. He gripped Baron Thornig’s arm, pulling the Middenlander after him. For one terrible instant, the baron became caught. Shrieking in horror, he drew away from Erich. A moment of panicked activity, and the baron removed the impediment. Erich heard the metallic crash as Ghal Maraz was dumped unceremoniously onto the slime-coated flagstones.
‘We can’t leave it behind!’ Erich shouted, but the terrified baron was already forcing the knight forwards. Erich fought back, refusing to abandon the most sacred symbol in all the Empire. To an Ulrican like Baron Thornig, it might be just another dwarf trinket, but to a Sigmarite, there was no more holy relic in the entire world. Redoubling his efforts, the knight forced the panicked Middenlander back. The baron wrapped his hairy arms around Erich, trying to lift the knight and carry him.
In his struggle to resist, Erich dropped the lantern, plunging them both into darkness. Terror rushed in to flood the knight’s brain. Impelled by the panicked persistence of Baron Thornig, he shifted about and squirmed down the narrow crack.
The two men emerged into a rough chamber, its crumbling stone walls and piles of broken masonry making it seem like a cellar. A number of shattered stone sarcophagi made it clear they were in some sort of family crypt of incredible antiquity.
Erich had only a moment to take in his surroundings, however. The light was that being cast by the lanterns of the Kaiserjaeger. Kreyssig stood upon a sarcophagus, his arms folded across his chest, a contemptuous smirk on his face.
‘You should have used the main channel,’ Kreyssig said, nodding his chin at a broad opening in the southern wall of the crypt. ‘It’s quicker.’
Baron Thornig dropped to his knees, his eyes still wide with terror. ‘Adolf, please! You must listen! There are… things… following…’
The commander of the Kaiserjaeger chuckled malevolently. ‘Is that really my dear father-in-law? I would never have believed him a party to any conspiracy to depose our great and gracious Boris Goldgather.’ His voice lowered into a vicious hiss. ‘At least right up until the moment my wife tried to slit my throat. Tell me, father, after I execute you, how long do I have to keep her alive before I can claim the title?’
With every word, the horror in Baron Thornig’s eyes faded a little more, burned away by a swelling hatred. Kreyssig saw the change, dropping down from his perch and taking a few steps back. ‘Kill them and bring me the hammer,’ he said, waving his thugs forwards.