Daemon Gates Trilogy (21 page)

The older man sighed, used to his requests, and closed his eyes. 'Tall buildings, with balconies and walkways,' he recounted after a moment. 'Sloping roofs. Narrow win­dows. Paved streets. It was close enough together so that it could all be one building, or it could be a city or town built compact.'

'You didn't see any writing?' Alaric pressed.

'Never got that close,' Dietz replied. 'They had guards,' he reminded Alaric.

'Well, there's nothing for it,' Alaric decided. 'You'll just have to show me.'

His friend gave him a familiar look, the one with the sin­gle raised eyebrow, the one that said he was both amused and puzzled. 'You do realise we're probably attacking it?' he asked.

Alaric nodded. 'Yes, of course,' he answered. 'I knew that.' He frowned. 'I just hope I have time to have a look round before Kleiber's men destroy the place.'

'You haven't seen the place yet,' Dietz commented. 'I'm more worried about staying alive long enough to take a leisurely look at the architecture.'

Alaric smiled and gestured towards Kleiber and Wilcre­itz, who were speaking with Lankdorf and the mercenaries. 'Weren't you listening?' he asked his friend. 'Sigmar is on our side, how can we possibly lose?'

Dietz didn't bother dignifying that with a reply.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

'What of the
humans?'

'Leave them. They are unimportant.'

'They have desecrated the forest. The woods must be cleansed of their foul touch.'

'Do not lecture me on what the woods demand, Cel- lomir,' Lasalnean snapped, turning and glaring at the other elf. 'I can feel Athel Loren's displeasure as keenly as you, and perhaps more so.' He took a breath to calm himself. 'We will deal with the humans soon enough, but they will keep. We must first clear the ruins of the filth that has occupied them and stained them for far too long.'

The others of the kinband murmured their agreement, and Cellomir nodded, his head bowed to acknowledge the cor­rection. Lasalnean had already shifted his attention back to the ruins, and the stretch of open dirt between them and the forest, where he and his kin lay hidden and watching.

'We lost the element of surprise last time,' Lasalnean said softly, although whether to himself or to the other elves

was unclear. The beastmen spotted us, and thus we sur­rendered any advantage. That must not be the case this time.' He glanced at Ulmael. 'You know what to do?'

The other elf nodded. 'I do.'

'If it works, Athel Loren will laud you,' Nelyann assured him with a quick grin. She looked towards Lasalnean. 'It is a good plan,' she confirmed, 'and with it we shall slaugh­ter the creatures and reclaim the sacred ruins, but you should not be part of the charge. Your wound-'

'Is healing,' Lasalnean interrupted her. 'I am fully capa­ble, and I will not send others on such a task if I am not willing to go myself.'

'Willing, yes' Nelyann agreed, 'but able? I don't-'

'I am able,' Lasalnean replied, 'and that is that.' His tone made it clear that the discussion was over. 'Do it now,' he instructed Ulmael.

Ulmael nodded and started to build a fire from twigs and leaves. He carefully called forth a tiny wisp of smoke, followed by an almost invisible flicker, and then, sud­denly, fire.

Lasalnean and the others watched as Ulmael added more tinder to the fledgling blaze. He had been careful to select green leaves and twigs, and the fire began smoking almost immediately, sending a thin trail of dark grey smoke aloft. He added more material, and the flame expanded, the smoke thickening and beginning to billow. Soon the fire covered a narrow strip as long as a tall elf, and the smoke formed a curtain flapping in the wind: a curtain that was blocking them from sight of the ruins, and was wafting closer to the stones and their foul inhabitants.

'Not yet,' Lasalnean said quietly, extending a hand to block Ridsitil as the latter moved to slip past the trees and into the clearing, 'another moment or two.'

They waited impatiently, clutching their weapons, as the smoke spread, casting a pall across the clearing and even back among its creators. Then the elves' sharp ears picked

up raised voices from the beastmen, and soon they heard footsteps, heavy, clumsy ones, drawing closer.

The beastmen had sent a scouting party out to investi­gate the smoke.

This was what the elves had been waiting for, and Lasal­nean smiled, a cold quiet expression that brought shivers to those that saw it. He nodded, and his kinband took up their positions, each elf poised behind a tree or perched atop a low branch. When the beastmen stepped through the smoke curtain, they barely had time to realise that the smoke began just within the clearing and was deliberate rather than accidental. Then the elves were upon them.

Knowing the need for silence, Lasalnean bit back his cus­tomary battle cry as he rose to confront the first beastman. His long, silvery sword leapt forward, its blade angling down to glide past the creature's upraised club, and the tip pierced the beastman's throat, turning its emerging cry into a soft gurgle. Lasalnean continued the thrust, the blade emerging a second later from the back of the crea­ture's neck, and then twisted and tugged sideways, slicing the beastman's neck open and freeing his blade. The next beastman stumbled upon its dead comrade, eyes widening at the sight, and Lasalnean's blade took it through the mouth before it could scream. Nelyann had already carved a third beastman open with her twin blades, and spun gracefully to behead another even as she blocked its axe with her second sword.

The smoke effectively cut them off from those within the ruins, preventing anyone from aiding those battling within the smoke or beyond it, and it took little time to dispatch the eight beastmen, who had not been expecting a full ambush by determined elf archers and warriors.

'They will be wondering what became of their comrades,' Nelyann reminded Lasalnean, kicking the nearest body

Lasalnean nodded. They will send a second wave to find out,' he replied. 'We will kill them as well, and each band

they foolishly let pass through our curtain. Once the crea­tures learn their mistake, once they no longer let scouting parties dare to enter the smoke, then we will use this smoke for cover and take the fight to them.'

The others in his kinband grinned at the thought, and Lasalnean bowed, acknowledging their support.

Then the elves settled in, alert for the sound of addi­tional beastmen approaching their hiding places. Lasalnean suspected they would not have long to wait.

'Charge?' Alaric asked
, his blue eyes wide. That's your plan, your strategy? This is what a full night of contempla­tion has led you to decide? To charge?'

'From two directions at once,' Kleiber corrected. 'This will confuse the defenders, and they will be forced to split their attention, thus allowing one or even both groups to reach the ruins safely.'

'It still boils down to a charge, just a two-pronged one,' Alaric argued.

Sitting across the small fire from him, Kleiber shrugged. 'It has the virtue of simplicity,' he replied, perhaps a touch defensively.

'So does "run headfirst into a wall",' Dietz muttered, low enough for only Alaric to hear him. 'I still don't see many people trying it, and never more than once.'

Alaric laughed, but quickly smothered the reaction, which Dietz thought displayed unusual common sense for his employer. Kleiber was without a doubt the most open- minded witch hunter they had ever encountered, but Dietz knew that only went so far, and most people didn't like being laughed at.

They may have rifles,' Dietz reminded Kleiber.

The witch hunter nodded. 'Indeed, friend Dietz, they may have rifles.'

'So they'll shoot you down before you can get anywhere near them,' Dietz explained further.

'Only if we allow them time to spot us, convey that information, and take aim,' Kleiber corrected, 'and I have no intention of granting them such an opportunity.'

Alaric was still too amazed to even consider being tact­ful. 'So your strategy is actually "Charge from two sides, very fast"?'

'That is the essence of it, yes,' Kleiber admitted.

'It's not as bad as it sounds,' Lankdorf offered. He and Jarl were also sitting there. Wilcreitz was speaking with the rest of the mercenaries. 'We have to get across that clearing and to the ruins quickly. There isn't any cover or any way to approach from another direction.' He shrugged. 'So if we've got to charge, we should do it fast and take them by surprise.'

'You're all insane,' Alaric said, shaking his head. 'You've got a fort there, from what you described, well-placed and well built. You've got an untold number of foes holding it, physically powerful and utterly unrestrained. They have blackpowder rifles, which they know how to use, and they've got higher ground; and you want to charge the place at a dead run?'

'Do you have a better suggestion?' Wilcreitz asked, hav­ing walked over in time to hear Alaric's last statement. Dietz could tell that the short witch hunter was spoiling for a fight. He tried to catch Alaric's eye so he could warn him, but Alaric wasn't looking.

'Misdirection, first of all,' he answered calmly. 'Give them something else to watch, someplace else, and you're more likely to make it across the killing field alive.' He frowned. They're up against the mountains, you said?' Lankdorf nodded. 'Send a few men up there and drop rocks on them,' Alaric suggested. 'That will keep them busy.'

Dietz couldn't help grinning as both Wilcreitz and Jarl stared. Lankdorf and Kleiber looked surprised, but not as stunned. They'd both travelled with him and Alaric for

long enough to know that Alaric's dashing appearance and flighty scholarly demeanour hid a sharp mind and years of strategic training.

'Second, obfuscation,' Alaric continued, either oblivious to the looks or simply ignoring them. 'There's no cover from the rifles, so make your own. Smoke would be best, so light a fire and use the smoke to confuse their aim. Cut some tree limbs and wave them in front of you as you charge, anything to make it harder for them to shoot you.'

'A ballista would be excellent,' Alaric added, more to himself. 'That'd distract them, all right, but building it, get­ting all the tolerances right.

'Sigmar has blessed us indeed,' Kleiber announced, ris­ing to his feet and stepping around the fire to clap a startled Alaric on the shoulder. 'He sent us to your rescue, and now you will come to ours. These suggestions will allow us to reach the ruins safely, and from there we can deal with the beastmen without hindrance.' He turned to Wilcreitz. 'Tell the men to gather branches and leaves along the way, for the fires, the greener the better, and send two men, whichever are best at climbing, to see about scal­ing the cliff above the ruins and sending a rockfall down upon them.'

Wilcreitz nodded and strode off at once.

'Not bad,' Dietz complimented Alaric. 'Not bad at all.'

His friend grinned back. 'Well, it's better than "Run for­ward really fast", anyway.'

An hour later
they were approaching the ruins.

'Not much farther,' Dietz whispered to Alaric. They were right behind Lankdorf and Kleiber, with Wilcreitz after them and the mercenaries ranged out behind him. 'Once we round this bend we should be able to see it.'

'Why are you whispering?' Alaric asked in a more normal tone of voice. 'If the beastmen have such superlative hear­ing that they can make out a conversation from this

distance, don't you think they'd have already heard the approach of two dozen men?'

Dietz chose to ignore that, in part because something had distracted him. 'Do you smell that?' he asked, lifting his head to sample the air.

'Smell what?'

'That.' Dietz sniffed again. Yes, there was definitely some­thing there. It smelled like... 'Smoke!'

'Smoke?' Alaric squinted up at the sky, and Dietz did the same. After a few seconds, he picked out a haze just ahead of them and to the left, away from the mountainside.

'There!' Lankdorf and Kleiber had seen it as well, and without a word the four of them nodded and started for­ward again. They rounded the bend, and there was the clearing ahead of them and the ruins along its far side, just as Dietz had seen them yesterday.

The clearing was different, however. It was muddled and indistinct, because it was filled with dark smoke billowing from somewhere ahead of them and along the forest's edge.

'It seems someone else had the same idea,' Alaric said softly, peering into the haze. The question is, who?'

Dietz stared, trying to see through the smoke. After a minute, he noticed movement, and tried to track it. It was a dark shape, looking roughly human and human-sized, but moving like a shadow, fast and smooth and slippery. After a few seconds, and seeing a second shadow, and then a third and a fourth, he realised why the motion looked so familiar.

'Elves,' he told Alaric and the others. There are elves in the smoke.'

'Elves?' Alaric stared, not at the shadows, but at the ruins, which were still visible, if difficult to see in any detail. 'Why would they care about-' A breeze blew a few curls of smoke aside, granting him a clear glimpse of the ruins, and he stopped mid-sentence, staring as if he had been frozen. 'It can't be!'

'What?' Dietz asked. He had a feeling that whatever his employer had just seen or realised was important.

Those ruins are elven,' Alaric answered. They have to be.'

'Of course they do,' Dietz replied. Lankdorf and Kleiber were clearly confused. Meanwhile, they were beginning to hear other sounds in front of them: grunts, shrieks and shouts, and the thud of metal and stone striking flesh and leather. The elves and the beastmen had found one another, and the battle had begun.

'Why elven?' Lankdorf asked.

Alaric slipped automatically into lecture mode. 'Long, long ago, the elves were allied with the dwarfs. They wanted places where they could meet their allies, and so they built settlements around the edges of the mountains.' Alaric was still fixated on the ruins, barely remembering to blink. 'But then came the wars between the elves and the dwarfs, and many of these settlements were destroyed or abandoned. This must be the remains of one such place. Imagine how old it must be - thousands and thousands of years!'