Elfslayer (Gotrek and Felix Book 10) by Nathan Long

Author:Nathan Long [Long, Nathan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2011-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

Gotrek lunged forwards, snarling savagely, the violence of his motion making the pipe creak at its joins.

Felix strained forwards too, shouting as fury boiled within him. ‘What have you done to my father, you filth?’

The ancient skaven leapt back from them, squeaking with alarm, and the rat ogre stood, rumbling dangerously and looking around. The seer turned to its minions and screeched in its own language, pointing a trembling claw at Gotrek.

‘Answer me!’ shouted Felix. ‘What did you do to my father?’

One of the armoured guards backhanded Felix across the cheek with a mailed gauntlet as the black-clad assassin hurried towards Gotrek, taking a coil of thin, grey rope from its belt. The blow snapped Felix’s head around and made his head ring with agony. He could feel blood trickling down past his ear. He decided he would wait to ask any more questions about his father until he had the ancient skaven at sword’s point.

‘Loose me, you skull-faced bag of sticks!’ Gotrek grated.

He snapped at the assassin with his teeth as it wound the rope tightly around his chest and shoulders and the pipe, and the old skaven squealed orders from a safe distance. Aethenir stared around at all this as if it might be some strange nightmare.

The assassin hauled at Gotrek’s ropes until Felix saw the thin strands bite deep into the Slayer‘s flesh, drawing blood in places, then it tied them off and backed away. Gotrek struggled but couldn’t move an inch. With a grunt he seemed to resign himself to his situation, conserving his strength.

The old skaven breathed a phlegmy sigh of relief, and stepped forwards again, gazing at them triumphantly.

‘My nemeses,’ it whispered. ‘At last I have you in my claws. At last you will pay for all the indignities you have heaped upon me.’ It hissed, like steam from a kettle. ‘Horribly, you will die, yes-yes, but slowly, slowly. First, you will pay for all the long years I have suffered by your cruel schemes.’ The mad ratman’s eyes shone with wild glee. ‘For every defeat, a snip-cut. For every setback, a blood-bruise. For every misery, a bone break.’ It stepped closer, its tail and its frail limbs twitching with fevered excitement, until Felix could smell its acrid breath with each whispered word. ‘You will beg-beg for mercy, my nemeses – but to no avail.’

‘But…’ said Felix, completely at a loss. ‘But, who are you?’

The ancient skaven stopped. It blinked and stepped back. ‘You… you know me not?’

Felix looked to Gotrek questioningly.

The Slayer shrugged. ‘They all look alike to me.’

Felix turned back to the skaven and shook his head.

The ratman staggered back, eyes rolling, and collided with its tailless servant. The servant squeaked and the ancient whirled on it, swiping at it with its staff and spitting shrill abuse. The servant cringed back, then scurried unsteadily out of the chamber, leaving the old skaven screeching after it. The rat ogre lowed anxiously and thumped the deck with its huge paws.

The skaven spun back towards its captives again, shaking with rage and tearing at the few tufts of fur on its skeletal head.

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