—<EIGHTEEN>—

The Empire at Bay

 

 

The army of Cormac Bloodaxe began the assault on Middenheim at dawn the following day, after a night of braying howls, echoing war-horns, sacrificial pyres and blood offerings. Their chants and songs of war drifted up to the defenders, promising death and rich with the primal urges of the gathered Norsii tribes.

Where the men of the empire craved peace and the warmth of hearth and home, the Norsii craved battle and conquest. Where progress and development were the watchwords of the empire, slaughter and the lust for domination drove the northern tribes. The gods of the south watched over their people in return for worship, but the baleful gods of Chaos demanded worship, and offered only battle and death to those that venerated them.

Eight thousand empire warriors stood ready to defend the city, around half the number opposing them. More than just men were poised to attack: bull-headed monsters, winged bat-creatures, and twisted abominations so far removed from any known beast that their origins could never be known. They bellowed alongside packs of slavering, black-furred wolves, and towering troll-creatures lumbered through the host with clubs that were simply trees ripped from the earth.

Sigmar had long since planned the defence of Middenheim, knowing the Flame of Ulric would draw the followers of the Dark Gods like moths to a lantern. The bulk of the enemy would surely come at them up the viaduct, and despite the best efforts of Middenheim’s engineers, the stonework connecting it with the city could not be dislodged. The skill of its dwarfen builders was such that not a single stone could be removed. To compound this problem, the citadel and towers designed to defend the top of the viaduct had yet to be completed. The barbican walls were barely the height of a tall man, and the towers were hollow and without ramparts. Blocks of stone intended to raise the wall to a height of fifty feet were even now being used to plug the unfinished gateway or hauled into position to form a fighting step for the men behind it.

This was where Sigmar would make his stand, and he would do it with a thousand warriors drawn from every tribe gathered in Middenheim. Thuringian berserkers stood shoulder to shoulder with Udose clansmen, Jutone spearmen, Unberogen swordsmen and the city’s greatswords. Though the White Wolves fought elsewhere, Redwane had refused to leave Sigmar’s side, claiming that Alfgeir would have his hide nailed to the longhouse’s wall if anything were to happen to the Emperor.

Pendrag and Myrsa commanded a thousand Middenlanders on the city’s northern flank, its count and Warrior Eternal facing their foes’ homeland as tradition demanded. The White Wolves stood with the Count of Middenheim and his champion, given the duty of their protection by Sigmar. Though unhappy not to be fighting at their Emperor’s side, each warrior had sworn himself to this duty before the Flame of Ulric. The eastern districts were held by Conn Carsten’s Udose, while the west was the domain of Marius and the Jutones.

Every able-bodied man and boy in the city carried a weapon, though the very oldest and youngest were spared fighting on the front lines. To them was entrusted the defence of the streets and crossroads leading towards the temple being built at the centre of the city.

Middenheim groaned at the seams with people from the surrounding settlements and refugees fleeing the Norsemen’s brutal invasion. The city’s wells were covered with iron grates and what food remained was under armed guard. At a conservative estimate, Pendrag’s quartermasters calculated there was enough to last a month.

Sigmar stood behind the unfinished wall at the top of the viaduct, and watched as the Norsii gathered behind a smoking construct of brass and bone. Beside him, five hundred warriors of the empire stood with spears and bows and swords, ready to fight alongside their emperor. Behind him, five hundred more awaited his order to advance.

A rhythmic booming echoed from far below, the northern tribesmen banging axes and swords against shields as they marched up the viaduct. Monotonous chanting droned in counterpoint to the clash of iron, and the howls of monstrous beasts completed the dreadful, courage-sapping noise. It was a sound that spoke of destruction for destruction’s sake, the urge to kill and maim for no reason other than the suffering it would cause.

No courage or faith a man might possess could fail to be shaken by such a noise, for it had been the primordial sound of mankind’s doom since the beginning of the world.

Sigmar felt the fear take root in the hearts of his warriors, and vaulted to the top of the wall, resplendent in the glittering armour of his coronation. Each plate shone like silver, each wondrously-crafted engraving dazzling the eye and capturing the heart with its glory. The visor of his winged helm was raised and all who looked upon him saw his determination to resist this attack. He raised Ghal Maraz in defiance of the Norsii and his golden shield, a gift from Pendrag to replace the one destroyed at Black Fire Pass, captured the sunlight.

“Men of the empire!” he shouted, his voice easily carrying to the farthest extent of the defences. “The warriors before you have been forged in the harshest lands of the north, yet they have not your strength. Their gods are bloody avatars of battle, yet they have not your faith. They live for war, yet they have not your heart! Because they live only for themselves, they are weak. Because they place no value on the lives of their fellow men, they have no brotherhood. Look around you! Look at the face of the warrior beside you. He may be from a land far distant to your home; he may speak a different language, but know one thing: he is your brother. He will stand beside you, and as you will fight and die for him, he will fight and die for you!”

Sigmar turned to face the Norsii, standing tall and proud and mighty.

“Together we are strong,” he shouted. “Together we will send these whoresons back across the sea and make them wish their mothers had never birthed them!”

 

Pendrag hefted his axe, and watched in disbelief as the beasts began climbing the Fauschlag Rock. They swarmed its sides, clawing their way up the impossible face of the sheer rock. Sigmar had climbed this rock once and it had almost killed him, but these monsters ascended with no more trouble than a man might climb a ladder.

The sky was the colour of ashes, dripping with clouds, and Pendrag felt a queasy sense of vertigo as he looked beyond the northern horizon. No one knew what lay beyond the eternally snowbound landscape, but the legends of every tribe described it as a land of gods and monsters, where the very air carried madness and the power of creation.

He took a deep breath as he altered his grip on the haft of his axe. His silver hand tingled with the memory of fingers and the scar at his neck, from where the long dead warrior-king had struck him, itched abominably. All his old wounds were retuning to haunt him, and he tried not to think what kind of omen that might be.

Beside him, Myrsa stood in perfect stillness. Pendrag had fought countless foes and stood with heroes in the greatest battle in the history of the race of men, yet still his heart hammered at his chest and his mouth was dry.

Six hundred warriors of Middenheim stood at the defensive wall encircling the city, a chest-high barrier built where the ground sloped down to the vertical face of the Fauschlag Rock. Three hundred warriors occupied perches on roofs and towers further back, armed with hunting bows and slings. Their faces were dour and stoic, a clich� of the grim northern tribesman. In the years since he had come to Middenheim, Pendrag had come to see that stoicism as simple practicality and a recognition of the futility of wasted emotion.

No glorious war cries roused the warriors of Middenheim, and bitter experience had taught Pendrag that grand speeches would be wasted on such men. All that mattered to them was the courage in a man’s heart and the strength of his sword-arm. Pendrag had proved himself to them, and thus they stood with him to defend their city. Their presence was symbol enough of his acceptance.

What more could any man ask?

The city’s blue and white banner flew above him, and Pendrag was honoured to fight in its shadow. He had fought the dead creatures of the necromancer beneath the Dragon Banner, and it felt good to face an enemy beneath a battle flag of honour, not one of murder.

Among the Middenlanders were a hundred White Wolves, their red armour and white wolfskin cloaks marking them out among the city’s defenders. Though they should have fought with Sigmar, Pendrag was glad of their strength.

A group of men clad in the neutrally coloured tunics of foresters scrambled from the very edge of the rock towards the defensive wall. They climbed towards Pendrag, and a host of hands helped them across it.

“They’re close,” said one of the foresters. “A hundred feet or so and climbing fast.”

“Good work,” said Pendrag. “Join the rest of the archers.”

“Be wary,” said the forester as he pushed through the tightly packed defenders. “There are flying beasts as well as climbing ones.”

Instinctively, Pendrag looked up, but the sky was empty save for circling carrion birds gathered in anticipation of a feast of flesh.

He turned to Myrsa.

“Fight well, Warrior Eternal,” he said.

“And you, Count of Middenheim,” replied Myrsa.

 

Sigmar and his warriors threw the Norsii charge back three times before the strange construction of brass and bone reached them. The morning was only a few hours old and Morr had come to claim the souls of the fallen time and time again. The enemy dead were thrown from the viaduct, and the screams of the wounded warred with the battle-chants of the Norsemen.

Each charge was a furious scramble of blades and blood, screams and courage, with Sigmar killing dozens of frenzied Norsii champions seeking his head.

This latest attack promised to be something different.

“What in Ulric’s name is that?” asked Redwane, voicing the question on every man’s lips.

“I do not know,” said Sigmar. “But it can be nothing good.”

It towered over the Norsii, a mighty altar of blood and blades pulled by two mighty steeds with curling ram’s horns and smouldering coals for eyes. More nightmares made flesh than animals, the beasts’ skins smoked with furnace heat and their flanks ran with steaming blood. Skulls tumbled from the monstrous construction, and endless rivulets of boiling blood poured from the altar, staining the flagstones with hissing red streams. Black smoke twisted and billowed in defiance of the wind, and Sigmar blinked as he thought he saw screaming skulls in its depths.

The Norsii gathered around it, howling a single name that sent spasms of nausea stabbing through his body. It was a name of death, yet Sigmar felt his warrior’s heart stirred by the damnable syllables. A towering warrior in blood-soaked armour marched to the fore, bearing a black banner that seethed with the power of a storm, its surface alive with chained arcs of black lightning.

With one last screamed exhortation of their dread god’s name, the Norsii charged, a foaming mass of tattooed warriors. A volley of iron-tipped crossbow bolts from mercenaries hired with Jutone gold hammered the Norsii, splintering shields and punching through armour. The front rank fell, only to be trampled by the warriors behind them. Another volley and another hit home, each one reaping a fearsome tally.

Archers loosed shafts, but without the power of the crossbows, many thudded home into heavy shields without effect. Sigmar offered a silent thanks to whichever of the gods had sent Otwin to prevent him killing Marius. Without these crossbows, the Norsii might already have broken through.

Then it was too late for arrows and crossbows.

The Norsii hurled themselves at the wall, and the bloodshed began again.

Sigmar blocked a slashing axe, and smashed his hammer into the face of a screaming warrior. The man fell back, his skull caved in, but another clambered over his body, and thrust his blade at Sigmar’s neck. He swayed aside and slammed his shield into the warrior’s chest.

Screaming Norsemen used their dead to gain height, and the mound of corpses at the wall was crushed beneath their armoured weight. Sigmar stood firm in the face of the enemy, striking out with killing sweeps of Ghal Maraz and, where he fought, the Norsii were hurled back. The warrior with the black banner raised it high, and Sigmar heard a dreadful hissing as smoke from the diabolical altar was drawn towards it.

A howling bellow seemed to come from the bloody altar, and the monstrous beasts pulling it reared and slashed the air with iron-shod hooves. Sigmar felt the ancient power bound within the terrible altar as a stocky tribesman with one eye and hair spiked with chalk and resin hurled himself forward.

He turned to meet the man’s attack, but no sooner had he raised his shield than a flickering black light erupted from the dread banner and a terrific impact tore at him. His shield flared and crumbled to ash, its edges hot and golden like parchment in a fire.

“Ulric’s teeth!” he yelled, hurling the last remnants of the grip away. The one-eyed tribesman slammed into Sigmar, and he fell from the ramparts. They landed hard, and Sigmar lost his grip on Ghal Maraz. He rammed his helmet into the tribesman’s face, but the man seemed impervious to pain. He bit and spat at Sigmar as iron talons erupted from his fingertips. He clawed at Sigmar with bestial ferocity.

Along the length of the wall, the Norsii threw themselves at the men of the empire with renewed fury, the ancient power of their northern gods searing their veins and filling them with rage. It was a destructive power that would consume them without care, but not one of the Norsii feared such an end.

Sigmar rolled, feeling the man’s skin ripple and bulge beneath him, as though a mass of snakes writhed in his chest. The tribesman’s lengthening fangs snapped at his neck, and only the silver gorget saved Sigmar from having his throat ripped out.

He punched the man in the face. Bone broke and fangs snapped, but the man’s flesh was like iron. His skin was darkening, and a pair of bony horns erupted from his forehead in a frothing shower of pink flesh. A spear plunged into the tribesman’s side, and he reared up to tear the belly from the spearman. Sigmar scrambled clear, and swept up Ghal Maraz as the tribesman, now more beast than man, sprang at him once again.

He loosened his grip on his warhammer, letting it slide until he held it just beneath the head. Sigmar stepped to meet the monster and punched Ghal Maraz straight at his enemy’s face with all his strength behind the blow.

The creature’s head burst apart and its grey-fleshed body dropped to the cobbled esplanade. The body jerked and kicked, as though the change wracking its body was not yet done and fresh horns, limbs and bony protuberances erupted from its flesh.

Sigmar leapt back to the makeshift fighting step, seeing that the entire mass of the Norsii were fighting like beasts, their bodies infused with dark magic and warping to render them less than human. Transformation ran amok through the Norsemen, and Sigmar saw a group of warriors whose skin had become scaled and reptilian. Some sprouted horns like those of a mighty bull, while the bodies of others writhed with blazing green flames. A few hurled themselves from the viaduct, their minds unhinged by the dreadful power coruscating through their ranks.

Redwane fought with a tribesman whose body had swollen to gargantuan proportions, his muscles corded with veins like ropes, whose armour had ruptured into fragments. Crossbow bolts peppered the giant’s body, but they were little more than irritants to the berserk warrior. Redwane held the beast at bay long enough for Jutone spearmen to drive the maddened creature back to the wall, where Unberogen swordsmen finally hacked it down.

In the centre of the Norsii charge, the ghastly altar of skulls and brass pulsed with unholy light, a foul beacon of dark sorcery. Its dreadful power surged through the Norsii. Beside the altar, the warrior in bloody armour laughed with the sound of thunder.

It had to be destroyed or this battle was as good as over.

A mass of screaming, maddened tribesmen stood between him and the altar.

Only one group of warriors had a chance of reaching it.

“King’s Blades!” shouted Sigmar, vaulting the wall to land in the midst of the Norsii. “With me!”

 

The rocks swarmed with beasts, and Pendrag fought to keep his feet as snarling monsters with the heads of black wolves and lean, sinewy bodies snapped and bit. Blood fell like rain from the top of the Fauschlag Rock, and the ground underfoot was slippery with the stuff. A screeching beast with a cat-like face hissed and pounced towards him, and he buried his axe in its chest. He kicked the body from his blade as an arrow clattered from his breastplate, and he glanced up long enough to see a winged creature with a face like a bat swooping through the air above him. The skies swarmed with such beasts, showering the men below with crudely-made arrows tipped with sharpened flint. Most such missiles either missed or bounced from helmets, but every now and then a warrior would fall as an arrow found a gap in his armour. The archers placed in the buildings behind the defenders at the wall tried to bring them down, but the beasts were fast-moving and difficult to hit. Pendrag had ordered them to ignore the flying creatures and save their arrows for the climbing beasts.

A black-shafted arrow slashed out from his archers behind him, taking the monster in the chest. It squealed in pain and vanished from sight. Pendrag smiled as he watched it die, glad that one archer had thought to disobey his order.

He returned his attention to the battle around him as the beasts roared and howled, clawing their way up the craggy slopes to the low wall at the city’s edge. White Wolves and Middenlanders fought side by side, battling furiously to deny the beasts a foothold in the city. Bodies fell from the rock, pierced by arrows or cloven by axes and swords. The creatures fought with fangs and talons, for it was next to impossible to climb with a weapon, and they had come close to gaining the city on four separate occasions.

Myrsa killed with a clinical efficiency, his mighty hammer sweeping out with killing strikes that smashed skulls from shoulders. Where the Warrior Eternal fought without emotion, Pendrag’s blows were struck with the knowledge of all that would be lost should they falter.

Along the circumference of the wall, the White Wolves sang songs of battle as they fought, while the men of Middenheim hacked at the beasts in grim silence. These men fought without cries of fear or anger, simply attending to the business of battle with as much emotion as they might butcher cattle. Their foe attacked without strategy or intelligence, simply using their hatred and hunger. Pendrag’s axe hewed furred limbs from bodies and split snarling jaws, his arm moving like a mechanical piston on one of Master Alaric’s steam bellows.

An enormous, bull-headed beast with a spiked collar reared up and both he and Myrsa leapt to meet it. The Warrior Eternal ducked a savage sweep of its clawed hand and swung for its belly. Pendrag slammed his axe into its side. The blade bit barely a handspan before thudding into hard bone.

The creature reared up, tearing the axe from Pendrag’s hands, and slashed its horns towards him. Pendrag leapt back, but not fast enough. The razor edge of the horn caught the leather strap securing his breastplate. He was wrenched from his feet and lifted high into the air as the tip of the horn gouged into his side. Mail links parted and the sharpened horn of bone gored his side. Blood streamed from the wound as the horn sawed through the leather strap of his armour.

Pendrag felt himself falling and landed with bone-jarring force. He rolled, seeing sky and rock swirling above him as he tumbled downhill. He scrabbled for purchase as he slid, his limbs battered bloody by the rocks. Suddenly, there was nothing beneath him and the world dropped away.

He thrust his silver hand out, the metal gouging rock and sending sparks flying. The dwarf-forged metal bit, and Pendrag’s shoulder wrenched in fiery agony as he jerked to a halt. Breath hissed from behind clenched teeth as he swung helplessly from the edge of the rock, suspended thousands of feet in the air. His vision swam and his stomach lurched at the vertiginous drop.

Far below, swarms of beasts climbed the Fauschlag Rock, and yet more winged creatures took to the air. Larger than the bat-creatures with their short-bows, these beasts carried others in their claws, though the distance was too great to make out who they were. He heard sounds of battle, and bodies fell past him, both man and beast. A monstrous creature, part-hound and part-bear almost dislodged him, but as his grip began to loosen, a hand grabbed his and hauled him back over the lip of the rock.

Pendrag swung his other hand around, and clawed his way to safety, laughing hysterically at his survival. Hugging the rock, he looked up at his rescuer, a man he didn’t recognise, but who wore a blue and white ribbon of cloth around his upper arm.

“I’ve got you, count,” he said, hauling him upwards.

“The beasts?” gasped Pendrag.

“Driven off. For now. Now come on, don’t let’s be hanging about down here, eh?”

Pendrag nodded, scrambling up the slope through sticky patches of blood and broken fangs. His legs were shaking by the time he reached the wall. With infinite care, he hauled himself upright, and the warriors of Middenheim cheered to see him alive.

He lost sight of his rescuer as the man returned to his position on the defences. Myrsa pushed his way through the press of fighting men, and his face broke apart in a wide grin.

“Gods, man! I thought we’d lost you!” said the Warrior Eternal.

Pendrag bent double, still in shock at the nearness of his death. He held out his battered silver hand, and said, “I have the craft of Master Alaric to thank for my survival.”

Myrsa looked at the battered limb and said, “Then I owe him my thanks too.”

Pendrag lifted a fallen axe.

“If we live through this, we’ll travel to King Kurgan’s halls together and thank him,” he said. “But there are more beasts on the way.”

“Stand to!” shouted Myrsa, and the warriors around them braced themselves at the edge of the wall, spears and bows aimed down the slopes. There was no panic in these men, no undue haste and no fear, simply duty and courage. Pendrag had never been prouder to be their leader.

“Men of Middenheim, this is your hour!” he shouted, and no sooner had the words left his mouth than a hundred or more beasts with wide wings and broad shoulders flew up past the edge of the rock. Most carried strangely twisted warriors that thrashed and howled, while others bore robed figures that crackled with sorcerous light.

“Bring them down!” cried Pendrag.

Flocks of arrows slashed upwards.

 

Hundreds of feet below, in a lightless cavern beneath the city, Wolfgart listened to the dark. He had presumed it would be quiet down here, but he could not have been more wrong. Metal scraped on stone and the tumble of pebbles and dust echoed from far off caves and distant passageways.

His breathing sounded impossibly loud, and he could feel his heart thudding painfully and fearfully in his chest. Behind him, the heavy breath and muffled curses of a hundred men armed with long-bladed daggers, picks and heavy maces filled the lamplit darkness.

“What was I thinking?” he whispered as Sargall stooped at the mouth of a rough-cut tunnel in the rock. The miner stopped to examine a cut mark on the wall, listening at a hollow in the rock before grunting and moving to another tunnel. The man seemed to know his way, but how anyone could navigate this labyrinth of hewn passageways, high caves and rocky galleries was a mystery to Wolfgart. Moisture glinted on the walls, reflecting the lamplight, and Wolfgart wiped sweat from his brow.

“Is it hot or is it just me?” he asked.

“It’s just you,” said Steiner, little more than a silhouette beside him.

Steiner was a siege engineer, a thin, nervous man more at home with calculations, measuring rods and diagrams of castle walls than a weapon, but he had been pressed into service to aid the warriors who volunteered to fight below the city. Like Wolfgart, he was uncomfortable below ground, but where Wolfgart was a warrior, Steiner was an academic.

Nearly five hundred warriors had gone into the secret tunnels beneath Middenheim, split into five groups to better cover the known passages and watch for intruders. Voices and shouts from the disparate groups echoed weirdly through the rock, but it was impossible to tell how much distance separated them.

“How far down do you think we are?” asked Wolfgart.

Steiner shrugged. “Perhaps a few hundred feet?”

“Don’t you know?”

“I can’t see anything, and we’ve twisted up and down through these rocks more times than I can count. How am I supposed to know for sure?” snapped Steiner.

“Quiet, both of you,” hissed Sargall, appearing next to them from the darkness. “Listen.”

Conversation ceased, and Wolfgart swallowed hard, trying not to imagine all the horrible things that might be lurking somewhere in the dark: oozing black insects, slimy creatures of the night that hated sunlight and feasted on the decaying bodies of those lost in the tunnels…

He shut out such thoughts and tried to concentrate.

“You hear that?” whispered Sargall.

“Aye,” said Steiner, bringing the lamp closer to the wall. Wolfgart couldn’t hear anything and pressed his ear to the rock. He still couldn’t hear anything, and opened his mouth to say so when he heard it: a tiny tink, tink, tink sound. It was like a long fingernail gently rapping on an iron breastplate.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Sounds like a drill of some sort,” said Steiner. “Nearby. Parallel to this gallery I think.”

“Close?” asked Sargall.

“Close enough,” agreed Steiner. “Too close.”

“So what do you think it is?” asked Wolfgart. “Invaders?”

“Who else would be stupid enough to be down here?” asked Sargall.

The noise was getting louder and faster. Wolfgart drew his dagger and unhooked the iron-headed mace from his belt. Though it had grieved him to leave his sword in the city above, it simply wasn’t a practical weapon for tunnel fighting.

Steiner placed his head to the rock once more, his face creased in puzzlement.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “It’s like a drill, but it sounds much closer now. No drill can go through that much rock that quickly. It must be an echo from somewhere, perhaps a bell chamber that’s magnifying the sound.”

“Then we need to find it,” said Wolfgart, “quickly.”

A sharp crack of splitting stone shot through the tunnel, and cries of fear echoed from the walls as everyone hunched down and looked at the ceiling. Rock dust drifted down and a groan of cracking stone rumbled from somewhere close by.

“What in the name of Ranald’s staff was that?” demanded Wolfgart, hearing what sounded like a distant rock-fall. Screams sounded close by, and he brought his dagger up as he heard a metallic scraping sound, like a groundbreaking auger.

“The wall!” he cried. “Get away from the wall!”

But it was too late. The deep crack of stone split the wall next to Steiner and a roaring, whirling cone of metal speared from the rock. It slammed into the engineer, and the tunnel was suddenly filled with screams and blood. A spinning drill punched into his back and exploded from his ribs. Gouts of red sprayed from the man’s convulsing body. Rocks crashed from the wall, and a strange green light filled the tunnel as dust and smoke billowed outwards.

Lamps fell and shattered. Men screamed, and a cluttering mass of rats boiled from the hole in the wall. Wolfgart cared nothing for vermin; it was the enormous creature standing in the newly-opened cave mouth, its arm ending in a bloody, spinning auger that captured his attention.

Taller than the mightiest warrior, it was a monstrously swollen, patchwork beast of furry flesh and metal piercings. Though it stood upright, it was no man, for its head was that of a gargantuan rat. Filthy bandages matted in blood wrapped its arms and head, and brass circlets with thin golden wires trailing from them were sewn into its shaven scalp.

Scars and welts covered its body, and it roared with a deafening screech. Shapes moved behind it. Scores of hunched forms in rusted armour bearing jagged swords, pushed past the great beast and into the tunnel.

“Into them!” shouted Wolfgart.