Covens of Blood (Warhammer Age of Sigmar) by Anna Stephens & Liane Merciel & Jamie Crisalli

Author:Anna Stephens & Liane Merciel & Jamie Crisalli [Stephens, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2020-11-13T16:00:00+00:00

‘She came back,’ Etanios murmured, astonished.

There was no one to hear him. Othoros had taken the rest of the Stormcast Eternals to scout the aftermath of the witch-aelves’ attack on Redhollow Ruin. In part they’d gone to pick off any surviving followers of Khorne they could kill without revealing themselves, but mostly Othoros had wanted to see whether any of the fortress’ secrets had cracked open in the fighting. The Lord-Aquilor had been visibly agitated when he’d received news of the witch-aelves’ attack – the first time Etanios had ever seen him show any emotion that might be characterised as even a distant cousin to ‘fear’ – but whatever Othoros had been afraid might happen had, evidently, not come to pass.

Still, the Lord-Aquilor had gone with some urgency to reconnoitre the battle’s bloody leavings, and he’d taken almost all of their fighting force with him. Only Etanios remained behind to watch over the scorched wastelands surrounding their camp, and so only Etanios saw the lone aelf approaching over the blasted hills.

It was the same one who’d come before. Thaelire. He was certain of it. She dyed her hair dark red, almost black, where most of the Daughters of Khaine wore theirs white, or stained a vibrant crimson with the spell-touched blood of their victims. While the shadowsilk cloak might have belonged to any witch-aelf, and she was too far distant for Etanios to make out her face even through his spyglass, the sorceress’ hair was distinctive.

It was her. It could be no one else.

He was surprised by the relief he felt. There was no particular reason that Etanios should care whether Thaelire had survived the attack on Redhollow Ruin. As far as he knew, it didn’t matter to the Stormcast Eternals whether every last one of the Daughters of Khaine had perished in the hag queen’s foolish charge. The aelves were not important to any strategic concern. And Etanios had been sent to spy on the aelves’ camp a few times, enough to see how they treated their captives, and to lose whatever illusions he might have had about their sometime allies’ morality. The Daughters of Khaine were very nearly as cruel as the worst of Chaos’ servants.

And yet…

Etanios couldn’t explain, even to himself, why he cared that the sorceress had survived. But he did. With more anticipation than he would have liked to admit to any of his fellow Stormcasts, he watched her approach across the hills, appearing and disappearing with the smoke that drifted across the slopes. When finally she reached his sentry post, he had to subdue a little thrill under his mask of solemnity.

‘Sorceress. What brings you back to our camp?’

Thaelire lowered her hood, looking up at Etanios with a curious, lopsided little smile. ‘You’ve surely noticed that our hag queen made her attack on Redhollow Ruin.’

‘Yes. It appears fortune did not favour her.’

‘I’d lay the fault more with her planning than with the whims of fortune,’ Thaelire said, with a little shrug that suggested she considered this to be of no moment.

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