The Great Betrayal (29 page)

‘Is that your old friend?’

‘Who?’

‘The dawi from Karak Zorn.’

Morgrim looked but couldn’t see Drogor amongst the crowds.

‘Possibly, though he’s been spending more time with my cousin of late.’

Morek turned to him. ‘With the prince?’

‘Yes, my
cousin
. That’s what I said.’ Morgrim tried to find Drogor again but it was like looking for chalk dust in an ancestor’s beard. ‘Is something wrong?’

Morek was leaving.

‘My master will be waiting.’

Left alone with the priestess, Morgrim sighed. ‘I’ll never understand runesmiths.’

A commanding voice
got Snorri’s attention. ‘Son of mine,’ said Gotrek Starbreaker, not even deigning to glance at the prince, ‘see here a lesson in axecraft.’

Even as the High King spoke, goblins were scurrying into the arena armed with knives and cudgels. Furgil and his rangers had rounded up the creatures, caging them until this very moment.

Sitting a short distance from the High King, Forek Grimbok was busy speaking with the elven lords. Using a mixture of elaborate hand gestures and a halting dialect, the reckoner described to them what was about to happen next. As Snorri listened to the crude bastardisation of Elvish and Khazalid tumble and crash off Forek’s tongue like weighted anvils, he smiled. For a dwarf, Forek sounded like a very good elf.

The reckoner need not have bothered with the convoluted explanation. It was a waste of effort. Snorri could have explained the outcome of the fight with a single word.

Slaughter.

The elf and the hill dwarf had unsheathed their weapons and went to opposite ends of the arena, the former releasing his longsword with a perfunctory flourish, whilst the latter merely fastened a tight grip around the haft of his axe. Both combatants looked determined on what they were about to do. Despite himself, Snorri found himself admiring the toughness of the elf. He seemed less airy than Imladrik, a warrior not a statesman, a slayer not a conciliator.

Perhaps it would not be such dull entertainment after all.

In the middle of the arena were the greenskins, penned off from the two fighters by a cage. Wrought of heavy iron, spikes decorating the points of intersection on the latticed metal, the goblins were well secured. Capering and hooting, biting each other and rolling around in the muck, the greenskins did not seem to understand what was about to happen to them.

Snorri did a rough count in his head and reckoned on close to eighty greenskins on the field. Furgil must have been busy to capture so many for the brodunk.

‘All the grobi at once?’ he muttered, intending to keep it quiet, but the High King had sharp ears like a wolf’s and heard him anyway.

Gotrek jabbed his son playfully in the side.

‘Would you balk at such a feat, lad?’

Snorri affected a dismissive air. ‘They are just grobi. I could kill a hundred on my own, but since you have banned me from taking up an axe…’

‘Ha!’ Gotrek’s bellowed laughter woke some of the sleepier members of the elder council and sent tremors of unease through the elves, for which Grimbok hastily apologised. ‘And that is not about to change because of your petulance. Remember why you are sat here and not out there fighting alongside Lord Salendor.’

‘Is that his name, the elgi?’

‘Aye lad, and he is a brutal bastard of a warrior. You just wait and see.’

Snorri had already made that same assessment.

‘Sounds like you admire him, father.’

‘I respect him, as should you. They are not so thin boned and soft of spine as many dawi think.’ He eyed the elves again at this remark, as if testing that theory by sight alone. He need not have been so cautious, for the elves did not understand him. True Khazalid was beyond even their most gifted ambassadors. Even so, Gotrek leaned in closer to his son, nudging him conspiratorially. ‘Tell me, what do you think of the skarrenawi? You have seen him fight.’

Gotrek pointed at the hill dwarf. He was crisscrossing test swings over his body to loosen his shoulder. Every loud
whomp
of his blade through the air drew a cheer from the small crowd of hill dwarfs that had gathered at the arena side.

‘Years ago,’ said Snorri, recalling a similar feast time. ‘He was decent with an axe.’

‘Now I know you are lying, son.’

Snorri was disinterested and had no qualms about giving his father that impression. His gaze wandered over to the healing tents, where the priestesses of Valaya practised their battlefield ministrations.

The High King seemed not to notice and went on, ‘Rundin son of Norgil is the skarrenawi king’s champion. He shuns the rinkkaz but sends his axe-battler to humble our warriors in the brodunk. Petty, King Grum, very petty,’ he grumbled.

‘What does it matter if he does? Let me go over there and show him up for the pretender he is. The skarrenawi do not care about us, why should we care about them?’

‘Spoken like a true wazzock,’ Gotrek said angrily. ‘Does nothing I say ever sink into your thick skull, Snorri? The skarrens are our kith, if not kin. They are dawi, albeit of a different stripe. You should care about them, for the day may come when we need them. Relations between our two disparate clans, hill and mountain both, are important. Grum is the problem, not the skarrenawi.’

‘Yet you do nothing when he thumbs his teeth at you.’

‘Diplomacy is a delicate business, lad,’ the High King replied, though he agreed with his son that something needed to be done to bring Grum back in line. Bad enough dealing with elves and the ambitions of King Varnuf, without adding the hill dwarfs to his list of immediate problems.

Snorri scoffed, his gaze drawn back to the healing tents where it lingered in hope.

‘Skarnag Grum is an oaf and a glutton, grown fat on excess,’ he declared, lowering his voice to add, ‘I’ve even heard rumours of an elf consort.’

Forek, who had evidently been earwigging, nearly spat out his ale and ended up tipping most of his tankard over his finely tailored tunic.

‘I seriously doubt that,’ said the High King, though there was a glint of amusement in his eye as Forek did his best to apologise to the elves and wipe down his attire at the same time.

‘If I could beg your leave, my liege,’ he began, coming over. ‘I need to–’

‘Yes, yes,’ Gotrek told him dismissively, ‘just go. You don’t need me to tell you when to go for a piss, Grimbok, neither do you for this. Away.’

Bowing profusely, crafting a dagger stare at Snorri who was finding it hard to maintain his composure, he left the pavilion to get cleaned up.

‘Bit of an ufdi, that one,’ Gotrek said behind his hand to Snorri once the reckoner was gone. ‘But he’s good with words and the hardest bastard reckoner in the Karaz Ankor. Grimbok has settled more debts than any other for this hold.’

Snorri wasn’t really listening. His attention was on the healing tents.

‘Do not look for her,’ said the High King. Though his tone was stern, it was also paternal. ‘She isn’t there, son.’

Turning away ostensibly to watch the tournament, Snorri feigned ignorance. ‘I look for no one, father. My eye merely wandered for a moment.’

‘See it does not wander back then.’

Snorri didn’t answer but his face was flushed.

‘Don’t take me for a fool, lad. I know for whom you hold a torch. It is as glaring as Grungni’s heart-fire. A pity that Helda was not more to your liking,’ he mused briefly, ‘a marital union between Karaz-a-Karak and Karak Kadrin would have been very useful about now. Though I trust him to be an ally, Grundin is a thorny hruk at the best of times. If we could have bonded his daughter and his clan to ours…’

‘Father,’ Snorri implored, ‘she was–’

Gotrek waved away his protest. ‘The size of an alehouse and with a face like an urk licking dung off its own boots. Yes, I know, lad. But the rinn you want is not for you. She is sworn to Valaya and as such is off limits, even to the son of the High King.’ He gestured in the direction of another tent put up nearby. ‘Besides, her brother would not look on it favourably either.’

Snorri opened his mouth to protest, but Gotrek silenced him.

‘Off limits, lad,’ he told him again, but for all that the mood between them was improving. ‘Now, let’s watch this son of Norgil and see if he’s as good as he claims… for a skarren, anyway.’

Father and son smiled together, and Snorri found he was glad of the rare moment of bonding. There had been precious few of them recently.

In the arena, the cage was lowered into a thin trench through some mechanism fashioned by the engineers’ guild and the goblins were finally released. Twin war cries in Elvish and Khazalid curdled the air.

Before it was over, there would be much blood.

A foul mood
was upon Forek Grimbok as he entered the healing tent.

Several dwarf warriors taking part in the various games had laughed at him as he strode across the field and the memory of it still simmered. His breeches were wet from the spilled tankard, and it looked as if he’d pissed himself. Their derision only worsened when they realised it was beer that Forek had wasted. One even offered to sup it from his sodden garments, until the fearsome reckoner had glowered at him. At that the half-drunken clanner had sobered up and left quietly with his friend.

Grimbok might enjoy the finer things that life had to offer, he might enjoy the silks the elves brought from far-off lands and keep his beard trimmed, maintain neat and pristine attire, but he knew how to crack skulls too and had done so often during his tenure as reckoner.

It was warm inside the healing tent, and light from suspended lanterns cast a lambent glow over cots and baths. In the centre stood Valaya, a small stone effigy of the ancestor goddess removed with respect from one of the lesser temples and brought here to watch over the wounded. Her rune-emblazoned banners hung from the leather walls.

During the course of the games so far, there had been mercifully few serious injuries to trouble the priestesses. Therefore he was surprised to see his sister Elmendrin tending to the wounded. She was carrying an armful of fresh linen bandages to a wooden trunk.

‘Were you planning on wringing that out into your tankard later, brother?’ she teased, gesturing to his soiled tunic.

‘An unfortunate accident,’ Forek replied formally, cheeks reddening. ‘I thought you were performing rites in the temple?’ he asked, looking around for something to swab his tunic with.

Elmendrin proffered a clay bowl and a sponge she picked from the trunk, which Forek took and proceeded to dab his tunic with.

‘Scrub it,’ she chastised, showing him how until Forek got hold of the sponge again to save his expensive attire from ruination.

‘You are such an ufdi, Forek,’ she said, smiling.

A dwarf in a nearby cot sniggered. He had one foot up, exposing a missing toe.

‘Never was much of a dancer,’ he said.

Forek scowled back before returning his attention to his sister.

‘So why are you here, then?’

‘Another of the priestesses came down with
kruti
flu, so I took her place.’

The scowl turned into a disapproving frown.

‘
He
is here, but I daresay you’ve already noticed that.’

‘Who?’ asked Elmendrin as she started to wash a batch of soiled, ruddy bandages in a pewter tank.

‘Halfhand.’

She paused, failing to suppress a small smile. ‘Is that what they’re calling him?’

‘I don’t need to tell you–’

Elmendrin turned sharply, cutting off Forek in mid-stream.

‘No brother, you
don’t
need to tell me anything. I am here to perform my duty, not to fawn over the High King’s son,’ she snapped. ‘For good or ill, Valaya has sent me here.’

Forek sagged down onto an empty bench, holding his hand up apologetically.

‘Sorry, sister. I am drawn, that is all.’

Indignation became concern on Elmendrin’s face and she went to him and sat down.

‘You look very troubled,’ she said, resting her hand on Forek’s shoulder. ‘Tell me.’

‘I am tired, worn like metal overbeaten by the fuller,’ he confessed, using his knuckles to knead his eyes. ‘Failing to reckon the many misdeeds done to dawi by elgi has left me ragged. Reports flood in daily of more attacks, more unrest, and our kin grow ever more belligerent.’ He met her worried gaze with a look of fear in his eyes. ‘I can see but one outcome.’

‘But what about the brodunk? Surely it will help salve whatever wounds these troubles have caused between our peoples.’

‘Weak mortar to mask the cracks, sister. Nothing more.’

Remembering the other priestesses moving quietly around the healing tent, Elmendrin whispered, ‘I had no idea it was this bad.’

‘Few do. My every effort is bent towards urging the clans not to retaliate unless they know for certain who the bandits responsible for this perfidy are.’

‘Surely the High King can restrain them.’

‘Not for much longer. Relations with the elgi are worse than ever.’

She pursed her lips, unsure how to ask her next question. ‘And what do you think? About the elgi, I mean?’

Forek looked down at his boots, worry lines deepening the shadows on his forehead. ‘I think the world is darkening, sister.’

Elmendrin rubbed her brother’s back and held his hand.

‘They will be caught. This will stop and the bloodshed will end,’ she assured him. ‘Elgi do not want to kill dawi, nor dawi kill elgi. It is madness.’

‘And yet the killing does not stop. Only the other day, a band of rangers from Karak Varn slew a band of elgi traders bound for Kagaz Thar. Aside from hunting bows, they were unarmed but did not speak much Khazalid and could not explain why they had blundered onto the sovereign territory of the Varn. With all that has happened, what else could they do but kill them?’

Elmendrin rubbed his back harder, fighting back her tears. ‘It will pass. It has to. You always see the worst, Forek, but that is just how Grungni made you.’

Forek gripped her hand and she embraced him warmly.

‘Not this time, sister.’

He let her go, and her eyes followed him all the way to the flap of the tent. Forek turned just before he left. ‘I need to return to the king.’ He smiled, but it was far from convincing. ‘You’re right, sister. All will be well again soon.’