The Claws of Chaos by Gav Thorpe

Author:Gav Thorpe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2011-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

CONSPIRACY

Badenhof, Winter early 1709

As their horses trotted through the gate along the Bechafenstrasse, Kurt and Jakob gazed around in horrified astonishment. They had seen the haze of smoke from a few miles away and ridden swiftly, and the scene that greeted them was not at all the homecoming Kurt had imagined. The buildings showed the scars of burning and looting, even here on the outskirts. For a moment he thought he saw someone looking furtively at the pair of them from a shattered window, but the figure scuttled out of sight. Jakob pointed out a charred body in the ruins of one burnt-out shell of a warehouse and Kurt quickened the pace.

The town was strangely quiet and as they progressed the signs of the violence that had engulfed Badenhof became more evident. It was not long though before the eerie silence was broken by the distant sound of shouting. Spurring Heldred into gallop, Kurt raced out onto the Sigmarstrasse where he was confronted by a scene from a nightmare.

Hundreds of people were running in all directions and the streets swarmed with rats, some of them as large as dogs. The vermin were biting and clawing at everything in their way, and Kurt watched in horror as people fell and disappeared beneath the tide of rodents. He tried to ride through the mayhem, but the press of bodies was too much for Heldred and he dismounted, slapping the horse’s rump to make him run clear. Jakob appeared beside him, a bow in his hands. They exchanged glances.

‘What’s happening?’ Jakob shouted over the din of the shouting mob.

‘I have no idea!’ Kurt bellowed back, drawing his sword. ‘We must find Ursula!’

The two of them pushed against the throng that was now moving down the Sigmarstrasse towards the outskirts of the town. A rat scurried over Kurt’s foot and he kicked it away. He was being buffeted left and right by the fleeing crowd, and someone made a grab for his sword. He smashed his fist into the face of the bearded man responsible and flung him aside. They pushed their way towards the side of the road where there was a little more space. The panicked townsfolk were making no attempt to hide, they were simply fleeing down the road as fast as they could.

‘Ursula might be at the shrine,’ Kurt said to Jakob. ‘It’s a little further up this way.’

The pair punched and barged their way through the mob, who seemed more interested in getting clear than fighting. The rats were everywhere, crawling across bloodied corpses, in people’s hair, clawing at faces and causing mayhem. They scurried underfoot, making Kurt stumble on more than one occasion, and their keening squeaks drowned out the cries of distress and pain that surrounded the knight.

Further up the street, the crowd suddenly thinned and Kurt got his first view of the shrine and the churchyard. There were still a sizeable number of men standing at the walls of the church. Many of them were

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