Age of Sigmar: Omnibus

‘You won’t come back, they never do,’ said Brokkengird. He stood up and lifted his axe. ‘No. Brokkengird kill you now, if it’s all the same to you.’

‘I will come back!’ protested Drokki. ‘I need to. I need you.’

Brokkengird lowered his axe a touch. ‘It’s a long time since anyone needed Brokkengird, longer since anyone wanted him. Why?’

‘I need a guide through Gaenagrik. I want to get to the realmgate.’

‘Got a little message to deliver?’ said Brokkengird. ‘Going to see his mother?’

Drokki shook his head. He reached out for Brokkengird’s hand. Brokkengird looked at it, then back at Drokki’s face.

Drokki pulled his hand back, and got heavily to his feet. His chest burned, and his throat felt like it was clogged with hot rocks.

‘We’re leaving, to found a new lodge.’

‘Nowhere to go. Nothing to see. Only Chaos. Chaos everywhere,’ said Brokkengird. ‘Stay home, little priest.’

‘The end is coming,’ said Drokki. ‘And you can either kill me now and die with everyone who won’t leave, or you can take us to the realmgate, be handsomely paid for it, and live.’

Brokkengird cocked his head on one side. His filthy, stinking crest flopped sideways. ‘Forty runes.’

‘Twenty.’

‘Thirty-five,’ said Brokkengird.

‘Twenty-seven…’ said Drokki.

‘Done,’ interrupted Brokkengird.

‘…and an oath,’ continued Drokki.

Brokkengird snarled. ‘No oaths!’

‘Brokkengird better swear not to harm me, and to lead the lodge to the Gaenagrik realmgate, or Brokkengird won’t get anything,’ said Drokki. For one awful second he thought Brokkengird would strike him down, but the renegade berzerker let his axe head thump to the floor, and reached out one hand. He spat on it. His spittle sizzled in his palm.

‘Brokkengird swear.’

Drokki spat in his own hand and shook. ‘Be here in one week.’

‘Brokkengird here. Brokkengird swore!’ shouted Brokkengird.

Brokkengird retreated backwards. The last thing to vanish into the dark of the abandoned hold was his face. Drokki had a glimpse of gleaming eyes and gold, and then he was alone.

Drokki waited five minutes to make sure Brokkengird had gone before taking to his heels and running home as fast as he could.

Ulgathern-Grimnir gripped his new latchkey grandaxe tightly. The steel haft was still slippery with oils from the smithy. It smelled like home, and he felt a pang of regret. The doors of the Ulgahold were shut to him. The axe was taller than he was, toothed like a key. It would work as one too, once the lock had been crafted to fit it. For the time being there was no magma-vault for the meagre supply of ur-gold he had been apportioned, nowhere to hang his axe, nowhere to sleep. He had nothing.

And so I lead my people to beggary on the say-so of Drokki, he thought. Despite his disquiet, his heart told him he was doing the right thing. To say that to Drokki, however, was one effort too many, and he scowled at him instead.

The slot through the gates to Gaenagrik was a black, uninviting rectangle. Behind the short column of his people — those three hundred warriors, matrons, maidens and youngflames that had decided to come with him — was a tunnel with a collapsed roof open to the enemy, should they have the wit to look for it. They were vulnerable, front and back, and with nowhere to run to.

This was looking like a very bad idea.

‘Where is he?’ growled Ulgathern-Grimnir.

‘Um, well. He said he would be here,’ said Drokki.

‘Did he now? You know he’s a murderer?’ said Ulgavost. ‘Forty years ago Brokkengird was denied his eighteenth rune — more ur-gold than any Fyreslayer in the Ulgahold has had hammered into his flesh for centuries. He was accused of the gold-greed, and did not take it well. Brokkengird cursed our father, fought his way out of the hold leaving several dead duardin behind. Since then he’s roamed the halls of Gaenagrik, killing whoever he comes across, and if they be duardin, taking their runes of power.’ Ulgavost grinned sadly. ‘If I’d have known what Drokki was about, I might have stayed. Brokkengird is a kinslayer, and insane.’

‘Loremaster Kaharagun said the same thing about Hulgar the Farseeing,’ said Drokki.

‘Now then, Drokki, doesn’t that tell you something when folks keep warning you about crazy people?’ said Ulgathern-Grimnir testily. He shivered. His innate fire was a small warmth to hold on to in so grim a place. He sought out Amsaralka in the gloom behind him. She smiled at him nervously.

‘You came. Ulgavost came,’ said Drokki.

‘Aye. I did. I’m beginning to regret it,’ said Ulgathern-Grimnir. Ulgavost made a sour face.

‘He’ll be here. I made him swear. An oath will bind even a duardin as broke-minded as he.’

‘I’m willing to hope, but it’s far from a certainty, isn’t it? I prefer certainty. Hope is fool’s coin,’ said Ulgathern-Grimnir.

The gate jerked, and opened wider. Grit squealed in the bearings of the wheel on the bottom, setting up an unholy racket. Ulgathern-Grimnir’s hearthguard levelled their magmapikes.

‘Ah, yes. I think that’s him,’ said Drokki.

A filthy duardin emerged.

‘Brokkengird here,’ he said cheerily.