If the gods heard, if Ulric was listening, they gave no sign.
‘Your grace,’ Ar-Ulric was speaking, clutching at Mandred’s arm. ‘You are injured!’ The old priest turned, shouting across the temple, for the first time in his long years forgetful of decorum within the sanctuary. He shouted for those wolf-priests versed in the healing arts, for the handful of herbalists and doktors who had trickled into the Ulricsmund amongst the other refugees.
Mandred pulled free from Ar-Ulric’s grip, continued to hobble down the aisle. He would reach the altar, abase himself before Ulric, offer that last flicker of his own life in return for his father. Nothing would sway him from his purpose.
Vitholf and Beck spoke with Ar-Ulric as they passed him, bearing the graf towards the altar. Mandred knew they were talking about him, explaining that grief had disturbed the mind of their prince. They enjoined Ar-Ulric to get his healers and to likewise bring some of his Teutogen Guard to restrain the prince. As servants of Ulric, they were beyond the prince’s authority, a duty which bound both of the knights to follow Mandred’s commands regardless of the madness behind them.
There was no anger in Mandred’s heart when he heard his subjects speak of him in such manner. They were concerned that he was neglecting his own welfare. In their minds, they had already abandoned Graf Gunthar to Morr’s gardens of death. The prince would not.
The altar loomed before him. Mandred dropped to his knees, pressing his forehead to the floor. An inarticulate sob wracked his abused body as he cried out to Ulric. There were no words in it. There was no need for them. Ulric knew what Mandred prayed for and what he was prepared to offer in exchange.
A shriek pierced the solemnity that had fallen upon the temple, soon followed by other cries of fear and horror. Mandred raised his head just in time to see the cloaked shapes that dropped down from the beams overhead. Verminous voices chittered in obscene delight as three black-furred skaven lashed out with dripping blades, cutting down wolf-priests and refugees with abandon. Mercilessly, the monsters fought their way towards the altar.
Deathmaster Silke and his apprentices, the master killers of Clan Eshin, had come to avenge their dead overlord and reclaim the honour of their murderous order.
Silke slashed down a knight who stood in his way, leaping over the sprawling man and lunging towards the altar in a seamless blur of lethal fury. His apprentices followed after him, keeping the way clear. One of them was borne down when he was set upon by Kurgaz Smallhammer, the dwarf’s brawny arms driving his warhammer into the beast’s spine. The other parried Grand Master Vitholf’s blade, struggling to hold the knight back.
Mandred rose to meet the Deathmaster. His weakened grip would never have drawn the sword hanging at his side, the blade Beck had given him as they withdrew from the Eastgate. The skaven assassin was beyond the swiftness of the most hale and hearty man. Silke would fall upon him before his hand even closed around the hilt.
A ragged, bleeding figure flung himself between the assassin and his prey. Exhibiting a sudden spark of vitality, a burst of unguessed strength, Graf Gunthar pulled free from Beck’s arms and propelled himself into Silke’s path. The Deathmaster’s sweeping blade hewed across the man’s chest instead of finding the neck of his son. The ratman blinked in disbelief at the unexpected intrusion that had cheated him of his intended prey.
In that instant, while Silke freed his poisoned dagger from the collapsing body of Graf Gunthar, Mandred freed his own sword from its scabbard. A brilliant light blazed from the edge of the blade as it was drawn. No common sword had Beck given to the prince, but no less a weapon than Legbiter, the runefang of the Teutogens!
Deathmaster Silke cringed before the enchanted sword. All skavendom had lived in terror of Warmonger Vecteek, and here was the sword that had killed that dreadful tyrant. An emotion that the Nightlord of Clan Eshin had tried to torture and burn from the glands of the Deathmaster returned to assail the ratman’s pounding heart. Fear, so long rejected and denied, came flooding back into Silke’s body.
The surviving apprentice saw the change in Silke’s posture, the bristling of the assassin’s fur, the weak flick of the killer’s tail. Nartik’s lips curled back in a snarl as he saw fear overcome his hated master. In a contemptuous display of skill, Nartik ended his duel with Vitholf, springing past the grand master’s guard to slash the muscles of his sword arm and leave the limb hanging limp and useless at his side.
Before another opponent could close upon him, Nartik dashed towards the altar where Silke was turning to flee from Mandred. Chittering malignantly, Nartik dived at the combatants. His poisoned blade flashed out, slicing through flesh and bone.
Deathmaster Silke squealed as he crumpled to the floor, the tendons in his leg slashed by Nartik’s blade. The treacherous apprentice glared at him for an instant, then went racing away, dodging past men and dwarfs as the fleet-footed killer made good his escape.
Mandred ignored the fleeing Nartik, intent only upon the sprawled Silke, the slayer of his father. The prone assassin lay limp and helpless as the prince stabbed down with Legbiter, driving the sword at the vermin’s back.
In a blur of motion, Silke rolled aside before Legbiter could strike him. The Deathmaster’s motion continued in a reverse twist that caught the edge of the blade in his cloak and wrenched it from Mandred’s weakened hands. At the same time, the skaven’s paw came sweeping out from beneath his leather tunic, flinging a clutch of ugly black throwing stars into the prince’s body.
Mandred crumpled atop the monster, sprawling across Silke before the Deathmaster could twist away. Every speck of his being cried out in pain, the venom tipping the edges of the stars adding to the poison already in his veins. Mandred was deaf to the misery of his flesh, hearkening only to the misery in his soul. Fiercely, he forced his hands to close about Silke’s throat, willed his numb fingers to tighten, to crush the life from the inhuman murderer.
Deathmaster Silke flailed beneath Mandred’s strangling hands. Twisting and rolling, the skaven threw his attacker to the ground, yet still the hands would not release their terrible grip. The ratman’s claws raked the prince’s body, his fangs closed upon his shoulder, yet still Mandred wouldn’t relent. All the strength in his battered frame was focused into the fingers clenched about Silke’s throat.
Men were rushing to help the prince now, shouting and roaring at the skaven pinned beneath him. Kurgaz kicked his boot into the side of Silke’s head, trying to force the skaven to loosen his fangs. Desperate, the Deathmaster twisted from his tormentors, rolling himself and the prince across the floor. Their bodies glanced from the altar, bounced across the patch of bare earth beyond it.
A gasp of horror rose from every man, woman and child gathered in the temple as the two struggling combatants rolled into the blazing fire of the Sacred Flame.
For an instant, the flame burned brighter, blinding the panicked observers. Then they could make out the shadowy shapes of Mandred and Silke lying within the pillar of fire. The prince’s hands were yet wrapped about the ratman’s throat, even in the midst of the Sacred Flame.
As the stunned assembly watched, Silke’s body began to disintegrate, charred into ash by the spectral energies of the fire. Soon there was nothing left of the Deathmaster.
Silence dominated the temple as the remaining combatant emerged from the midst of the Sacred Flame. Where the fire had obliterated Silke entirely, it hadn’t so much as scorched the tattered cloak hanging from the prince’s shoulders. When he stepped from the flame, Mandred’s step wasn’t the limp of a cripple, but the steady march of a conqueror. There was no blood on his face, no wounds marring his body. An almost ethereal glow burned behind his skin, slowly fading as he approached the stone altar.