When Trachos returned, he nodded to the far end of the platform, where wide, sweeping steps led up to the beginning of another huge structure. ‘That way?’
‘Yes,’ said Lhosia. ‘And we had better move fast. The whole princedom might be infested with those flesh-eaters. They could come back at any time.’
They climbed the steps and, despite Lhosia’s request for urgency, had to pause at the top to admire the strangeness of the view. They stood at the entrance to a great road built of the same combination of bone and iron as the temple below. It swept out over the sea, curving as it vanished into the gloom. Far away, sections of it were illuminated by what looked like pale, low-hanging moons.
‘The prominents,’ explained Lhosia, nodding to the lights. ‘Home to the living and the Unburied.’ She looked pained. ‘There should be far more of them. The whole sky should be lit up.’ She turned and looked south, where there were almost no lights at all. One half of the sky was only punctuated by the faint spectral stars.
‘They’ve been destroyed?’ asked Maleneth.
‘Perhaps. But even if they are still intact, they must have been defiled. They were built to preserve the souls of the Unburied. And the light of the Unburied should be visible from here. I had hoped that Prince Volant would have done as he planned and evacuated the occupants – keeping the Unburied and their guardians in the capital where we can keep them safe. But something must have gone wrong. My own temple had not been emptied. My family were still there when…’ Lhosia shook her head.
Gotrek studied her for a moment, then peered down the road. ‘Is that a fortress? Is that one of your “prominents”?’
Lhosia and the others came to stand next to him. There was a light flickering lower than the others, on the surface of the road. It was hard to gauge distances in such a strange landscape, but Maleneth guessed it was only four or five miles away. Rather than the blue lights of the others, this was a golden glow, the colour of flames.
‘That would be the gatehouse,’ said Lhosia. ‘Each branch of the wynd is guarded at various points along its length by gatehouses.’
Gotrek waved his axe at the surface of the road. There were bloody footprints leading away into the distance. ‘It looks like the gatehouse received the same visitors as this temple.’
Lhosia nodded. ‘We should move. The sooner we reach the prince, the better.’
As the group rushed down the road, Maleneth heard a familiar voice in her head. Did you hear what that girl said?
She slowed down until the others were a few paces ahead of her. ‘What?’ she whispered, glancing down at the amulet hung from her neck.
Before she joined herself to the little dead thing – didn’t you hear her? When she was talking about Separating Chambers. She said something interesting. Surprising, I know, from someone so ugly and boring, but she did.
Maleneth frowned. ‘She said the Unburied could lead us to the prince and that the prince can help Gotrek find Nagash.’
Not that, simpleton. What did she say when she shooed you away?
‘She said she had to concentrate. She said that if she lost her thread, there was a risk she might not return intact.’ Maleneth stumbled to a halt, realising that her old mistress had a point. ‘What did she mean by that?’
You always were such a poor student. So dim.
Maleneth smiled as she started walking again. ‘And how does that reflect on you, mistress? Even someone this dim-witted was able to out-think you.’
You never out-thought me, you–
‘I killed you.’ Maleneth smiled. ‘Surely that is the very definition of out-witting you?’
And what now, you ridiculous creature? What will become of you when you finally return home to Azyr?
‘I will return with the rune. Nothing else will matter.’
That Slayer won’t die. Can’t you see that? He’s not like the others. Even if you could get some poison through his thick hide he wouldn’t notice. Something has changed him. Look at him! He talks about god-killing, but he’s half god himself.
Maleneth nodded. ‘The rune changed him. He’s not like any other duardin I’ve met. He has so much power.’
It’s not just the rune. Think what he was like when you first met him in the fyreslayers’ cells. That was before he took their Master Rune, but he was already unstoppable. Something more than blood burns in his veins.
‘What do you want to tell me about the Separating Chamber?’ snapped Maleneth, irritated by her mistress’ games.
The amulet fell silent, and Maleneth whispered a curse.
She picked up her pace and caught up with the others as the road curved and gave them their first clear view of the gatehouse. It looked like a larger version of the cocoon Lhosia was carrying, like a pale, curved tear, built around a pair of large, leaf-shaped gates. It must have once been an impressive structure, but there were now flames washing across it, filling the darkness with embers and smoke. The walls had cracked in several places, dropping huge slabs of bone onto the road.
‘No sign of mordants,’ said Lhosia, hurrying on.
‘Not that way,’ laughed Gotrek, nodding back the way they had come. There were dark shapes pouring from the temple they had just left. Even from here, it was clear that there were hundreds of them.
Lhosia spat a curse and drew her scythe.
‘We’ll never outrun them,’ said Maleneth. ‘Look how fast they’re closing the gap.’
‘Move!’ yelled Gotrek, waving them on to the gatehouse.
As they neared the building, they began to see bodies scattered across the road. At first it was only ghouls – identical to the wiry, semi-naked wretches they had fought on their way into the princedom. But then, a while later, they saw the corpse of a man who looked far less savage. It was a tall, powerfully built knight, dressed in black armour and a white, feathered cloak. His throat had been ripped out and he was clearly dead, but there were dozens of butchered ghouls lying all around him. Even in death, he was still gripping a bloody, two-handed scythe.
Lhosia shook her head. ‘Gravesward. There’s not much hope if even they can’t hold these things back.’
‘Hope’s overrated,’ said Gotrek. ‘Sheer bloody-mindedness, that’s the thing.’
As they reached the gatehouse they had to shield their eyes from the glare. The fire was ferocious.
‘Not much good as a gate anymore,’ laughed Gotrek. The front curve of the building had completely collapsed, consumed by the flames. It was possible to see the road on the far side, littered with more corpses. Again, they were mostly ghouls, but Maleneth spotted a few more of the black-armoured knights.
Gotrek crouched down on the road, looking at the metalwork at the base of the building. ‘Is that an axle?’ He glanced back at Lhosia. ‘How do these gatehouses work? Do they just bar the way? Are they just gates? Or something more complicated?’
Lhosia shook her head and then nodded, her eyes narrowed. ‘Yes, I see what you mean – they are more than just gates. It’s possible to raise a section of the road, like a drawbridge. I’d have no idea how to operate it though.’
‘Here’s your chance, manling!’ Gotrek grinned, pointing Trachos to the mechanism beneath the walls. ‘You’re an engineer, aren’t you?’ He stepped back and gazed up at the burning building. ‘Looks like the whole structure works as a counterweight. We saw a bridge that worked this way when we were back in Nuln. Do you remember? The one that crossed the Reik.’