Contents

Cover

Lair of the Skaven – Extract

Warhammer Adventures

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Prologue

Ten months ago…

The morning sun crested the peaks above the city of Lifestone, painting the rooftops, the courtyards and the crumbling towers in hazy shades of gold. Elio stood at his window gazing up towards the Arbour, the vast, tumbledown palace at the top of the hill. Its white turrets pierced the sky and its shield wall stood like a row of sentinels, watching over the city. That would be his destination, once he was done here. Once he’d decided which of his possessions he could afford to take with him, and which he was leaving behind forever.

He threw open his canvas satchel, stuffing in the weighty, leather-bound Beastarium that Vertigan had given him, along with a slender tome of local herblore. Around his neck he slipped a two-sided medallion bearing both the symbol of Sigmar’s twin-tailed comet and the mark of the Lords of Lifestone, a silver fountain in a circle of branches. Then he opened the wardrobe and thumbed through his collection of decorative gowns – three for feast days, two for diplomatic occasions and one bright orange one that his mother had insisted would make girls notice him. He grimaced. He didn’t need any of these. From now on his life would be free of formal dinners and dressing up. He was going to be a scholar.

He selected a simple white robe from the back of the closet, and took a last look around the velvet-curtained chamber that had been his study and his refuge for as long as he could remember. There was the stain on the carpet where he’d spilled a cauldron of boiled ikara root – one of his first experiments trying to brew a healing potion, and all it had done was turn his hair green. There was the Wild Birds of Lifestone chart he’d drawn himself, after months of research. The Verdian goshawk had almost taken his eye out when he got too close to its nest.

And there was the bed he’d slept in every night of his life, piled with cushions and coverlets. He wondered what would be waiting for him up at the Arbour – a nest of hay in the stables, an old stretcher in the medicus’s quarters. Whatever it was, it was better than the cold barracks his father had in mind. One way or another, he had spent his last night in comfort.

He slung the satchel over his shoulder and crept to the door. The servants might wonder what he was doing wandering about at such an early hour, but they wouldn’t stop him; it wasn’t their place. So he stole out across the landing, tiptoeing past his father’s staterooms. The family portraits seemed to frown at him as he descended the winding stairs – generation after generation of lords, glaring in disapproval at this traitor to tradition.

Elio lowered his head, crossing the pillared entrance hall with its twin shrines to the immortal King Sigmar and the Lady Alarielle. A pair of hunting dogs lay stretched by the fire, raising their heads as he passed. But the doors ahead stood wide, a pair of Freeguild guardsmen dozing in the entrance. He gripped his pack, forcing himself not to run. He was almost free.

‘Son,’ a voice said, and Elio’s heart sank into his leather boots. His father had always been a light sleeper. Or maybe he’d suspected this would happen. The Lord of Lifestone was nobody’s fool.

Elio turned, feeling his cheeks burn. He’d rehearsed everything he was going to say if he was caught. But as he looked up into his father’s stern face, his mind went completely blank.

Lord Elias strode down the steps, eyes flaming above his bristling black moustache. The silver fountain gleamed on his morning cloak, and his mouth was tight with anger.

‘I’d ask where you’re going, but I already know the answer. Well, you can forget it. You have a responsibility to your family and to your future, so put that bag down and return to your chambers.’

Elio almost weakened, the instinct to obey rooted deep within him. But instead he gritted his teeth, reaching inside for the strength Vertigan had assured him was there.

‘No,’ he said. ‘Father, I’m leaving.’

‘You’re doing no such thing,’ Elias said dismissively. He wasn’t a tall man but he was a powerful one, and he would brook no insolence. ‘Your place at the barracks is prepared. You will report there at midday, leaving your childish books and your childish clothes and everything else behind. You will train with the Lifestone Defenders until you come of age, just as I did, and my father, and his father. You will become a man.’

‘I don’t want to be a man,’ Elio blurted, then realised how ridiculous that sounded. ‘I mean, that’s not the life for me. I don’t belong in the barracks.’

‘So where do you belong?’ the lord sneered. ‘With that crazy old man, that Shadowcaster? Learning how to sew and cook and boil up ointments?’

‘Vertigan is a warrior too. He’s going to teach me to defend myself.’

‘Ha!’ Elias snorted. ‘Good luck to him!’

‘I’ll be his apprentice,’ Elio insisted. ‘I’ll learn everything he has to teach.’

‘Has he told you this?’ Elias demanded. ‘Has he said you’ll be his apprentice?’

Elio frowned. ‘Not in those exact words. But he’s taught me so much already. I’m going to help people, father. The way he does.’

‘Who does he help?’ Elias asked. ‘As far as I can see he just sits in that dusty old Arbour, brooding on the way things used to be. Well, I am more concerned with the ways things are now. You were born to rule this city, Elio. Born to be a soldier and a leader of men. You will go to the barracks if I have to march you there myself.’

‘I won’t,’ Elio insisted. ‘I’m going to join Vertigan. This is my life.’

‘No it is not!’ his father bellowed, stamping his foot so hard that the floor shook. ‘I brought you into this world. Your mother, Sigmar keep her, nursed you and raised you. And this great city sheltered you. You owe a debt, and you will repay it.’

‘Mother wanted me to be happy,’ Elio said. ‘She told me I should follow my heart.’

Elias’s face softened, just for a moment. ‘Do you know the last thing she said to me? Keep him safe. Whatever else you do, keep him safe. And I intend to honour that request.’ He shook his head bitterly. ‘Honestly, what do you think she’d say if I let you shirk your responsibilities and go off with some crazy old coot whose past is always one step from catching up to him? This Vertigan of yours has enemies, the kind of enemies you couldn’t possibly conceive of.’

‘What do you mean, enemies?’ Elio asked, surprised. ‘He never–’

‘That old man’s past is his business,’ Elias said. ‘The future of Lifestone is mine. You’re my only son, Elio. What will happen when I pass on, and there’s no one to take my place?’

‘But I’m not saying I’ll never come back,’ Elio said. ‘When I’ve learned all I can from Vertigan I’ll return. Healers have been lords in the past, and scholars too. Back before… before…’

‘But this isn’t before,’ Elias said, lowering his voice so the servants couldn’t hear him. Elio had seen their faces in the shadows, watching intently. ‘This is now. This city is not what it was. It needs to be protected from those who wish it harm. The Lifestone Defenders have played that role for centuries, you should be proud to join their ranks.’

‘Vertigan says they used to be a force to be reckoned with,’ Elio told him, ‘but now they couldn’t fight their way out of a wool sack.’

As soon as the words left his mouth he knew he’d gone too far. He hadn’t just insulted his city, but everything his father stood for. Elias’s cheeks flushed and for a moment he was so angry he couldn’t speak. Then he took a step back, drawing his ceremonial broadsword from its scabbard.

‘You always thought you were clever,’ he said. ‘If you’re clever enough to fight me and win, I’ll let you leave. How about that?’

‘I d-don’t…’ Elio stammered. ‘I don’t want to fight you, father. Anyway, I don’t have a blade.’

‘Give my son a sword!’ Elias screamed to the guards on the door.

‘But I’ll lose,’ Elio protested as one of them brought him a two-handed sabre. ‘You’re older and stronger and you’ve been doing this all your life.’

‘Precisely,’ Elias said. ‘I have earned the right to be obeyed by my own son. Now take it.’

Elio was surprised by the sword’s weight. He fumbled, almost dropping it.

‘Hold it up,’ Elias demanded. ‘Come on, we don’t have all day.’

‘I w-won’t fight you,’ Elio said, starting to sob.

‘Stop whimpering and swing it!’ Elias barked. ‘Come on, if you hate me so much, hit me.’

‘I can’t!’ Elio screamed back. His vision was blurred, his heart racing. He saw the shadow of his father’s blade and moved to block it, but he was much too slow. He felt the flat striking his backside, heard the clatter as his own sword dropped to the flagstone floor. ‘Father, I’m sorry.’

‘No,’ Elias said. ‘You don’t get to call me that any more. I don’t know who you are. I don’t even know what you are. You’re ungrateful, you’re disrespectful, you don’t care about this family or this city. You’re no soldier. You’re no lord. And you’re certainly not my son.’

Elio raised his head. Elias’s expression was one he knew from long experience. It was the one he’d worn when a kitchen maid stole his silver censer; the one he’d worn when two of his guards were caught drinking on duty. It was the expression he’d worn when a silk-spider had bitten him, right before he crushed it with his heel.

He waved a hand. ‘Get out before I have these men arrest you, for intruding in the lord’s manse.’

‘F-father,’ Elio managed. ‘Please, d–’

‘Go.’ The word fell like a stone.

Elio backed to the doors, his pack heavy on his shoulder. He felt the servants’ eyes on him, saw them turn one by one and slip back to their duties. The manse was silent, but through the open doorway he could hear Lifestone waking. He hung his head, and left his home forever.

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Warhammer Adventures

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Warhammer Publishing,
Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK..

Produced by Games Workshop in Nottingham.
Cover illustration by Cole Marchetti.
Internal illustrations by Magnus Norén & Cole Marchetti.

Lair of the Skaven © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2019. Lair of the Skaven, GW, Games Workshop, Warhammer Adventures, Space Marine, 40K, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, the ‘Aquila’ Double-headed Eagle logo, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Stormcast Eternals and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world.
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ISBN: 978-1-78030-798-5

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