The Best Of Hammer & Bolter Volume Two by Christian Dunn

Author:Christian Dunn [Dunn, Christian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: WHF, 40K
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2013-06-08T23:00:00+00:00

Slayer Of The Storm God

Nathan Long

'Knock again, manling,’ said Gotrek Gurnisson.

Felix Jaeger raised his fist and rapped on the door of Hans Euler’s Marienburg town house, louder this time.

A window opened in the house next door and a maid in a winged cap leaned out.

‘Herr Euler is away, mein herren,’ she said. ‘You won’t find him home.’

Felix would have been very surprised if he had, for he had stabbed Euler through the heart on the dark elves’ black ark more than a week ago, and the treacherous pirate was hopefully rotting at the bottom of the sea at the moment.

He was about to tell the girl some lie about leaving a card, or delivering a letter, but then Gotrek turned towards her and her eyes went wide. She disappeared into the house with a squeak of fright.

Felix didn’t blame her. Gotrek was a fearsome sight. He was a dwarf trollslayer, and ugly even for that ugly breed. Short, broad, and muscled like a jungle ape, his scarred, sun-browned flesh was covered in swirling blue tattoos, and a crest of flame-orange hair rose from his shaved head. Add to this an eye-patch, a face like a weathered boulder, and a rune-inscribed battle-axe in a fist the size of a baked ham, and one had a vision to make a hardened veteran blanch, let alone a Marienburg housemaid.

Felix knocked again. Again there was no answer, but this time he thought he heard faint shufflings and thumpings inside.

‘Someone’s after your safe,’ said Gotrek. ‘Stand aside.’

Felix stepped back and the slayer gripped the doorknob, twisting it with slow, inexorable strength. His biceps bulged. The lock mechanism squealed for a moment in pain, then, with a sharp snap, the knob spun loose and the door creaked open.

There were more thumpings and rustlings from within. Felix drew his sword as Gotrek pushed the door wide and stepped into the dim interior. All was as he remembered it – or nearly all. The wood-paneled entry hall was still dark and stuffy, with a spiral staircase to the left and a door that opened into a richly furnished parlour at the back. The parlour’s bay window still had a big hole – now partially boarded up – where Gotrek and Felix had been shoved out of it during their last visit, and the small safe that Gotrek had thrown down the stairs was still half-sunk into the wooden floor where it had smashed through the polished planks.

The dead butler sprawled on the floor was new, however, as were the chisels and hammers and files that were scattered in a puddle of water surrounding the safe. Felix turned away from the butler, whose brains were spilling out of the hole in his head. The thieves must have been hard men indeed to murder the man and then leave him where he fell as they went about their work.

Gotrek snorted as he looked at the safe-cracking tools. ‘Cheap human chisels. No match for dwarf workmanship.’

Felix rolled his eyes at this typical dwarfen bias, but had to admit that the safe showed hardly a mark.

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