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The Road to Helsmarch – Extract

A Black Library Publication

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THE ROAD TO HELSMARCH

Luke Scull

Darian Kage’s luck had finally run out.

It might be said that his current predicament began with the ill-advised pilfering of the tower of Alazandrius, a powerful mage of the Collegiate Arcane, but that would be a lie. For Kage, as with so many others, the die had been cast on the grimy streets of Cinderfall: a once wealthy district of Hammerhal Aqsha that the city’s ravenous expansion had seen rise and decline within a generation. Criminal gangs had claimed Cinderfall as their own, and to survive there one had to become as hard as the volcanic rock upon which the greatest of Sigmar’s cities had been built.

Kage had learned the rules of the game at a young age. He was quick of wit, deft of hand, and had a winning smile the higher-born ladies seemed to find endearing. It also got him into no end of scrapes with jealous husbands and drunk ruffians keen to unleash their rage on the world. He’d been quite the rake until Asha had led him astray.

He gave a rueful grin as he watched the sleeping figure of Asha Darkeyes; the curve of her back and the lustrous hair that cascaded down her bare shoulders, rising and falling in the gentle swells of sleep. Like him, she was dark of skin and darker of hair, a descendent of one of the native Aqshian tribes that were said to carry the fires of the Bright Realm within their blood. They were kindred spirits, forged on the anvil of the Cinderfall district under a burning sky and above the stygian shadows of the vast Adramar Rift that scarred Hammerhal Aqsha like a giant blade wound. It was because of Asha that Kage had embarked on the foolhardy mission at Alazandrius’ demesne. One last job, he had told himself. Get in, steal whatever powerful magical artefacts they could carry, and sell them on the black markets of Cinderfall or the Drudges for enough gold to purchase a small compound in the Old City. Gold was becoming unfashionable these days, but that suited Kage. Aqua Ghyranis, the healing water imbued with the magic of the Realm of Life, was now the favoured currency in Hammerhal, but it was highly regulated. The last thing Kage wanted was the Order of Azyr poking around.

Once he and Asha had shifted their stolen wares, their former lives would be behind them for good. A quiet life had beckoned; the renowned ladies’ man Darian Kage was ready to settle down. He reckoned he’d make a good father. Much better than the old bastard who used to beat him as a boy and once almost drowned him in a pool of sulphurous water, that’s for damned sure. Asha didn’t speak about her own childhood, and Kage – for once – had been wise enough never to press the issue. The scars on her legs and the way she sometimes cried out in her sleep told their own story.

He sighed and plucked the Coin Malleus from his pocket, turning it over and examining both sides in the flickering light of the lone candle which illuminated the tent he shared with Asha. On one side, etched into the unknown metal by a skilled artisan, was the hammer of Sigmar. On the opposite side, the coin depicted a Sigmarite fortification straddling a stretch of land cradled between a mountain range and a great sea. Helsmarch – the destination of the Dawnbringer Crusade the two runaways had signed up for to avoid the scrutiny of the Hammerhal Watch.

The robbery had been going perfectly until the moment Alazandrius had returned early to the tower. Had Kage’s contact betrayed him? Kage couldn’t say for sure. When the mage had unexpectedly teleported back into the tower, catching them completely unawares, the only thing on the minds of the two thieves had been to make a break for it and lose themselves in the winding streets of the city. They’d made it out, but not before the wizard had got a good look at their faces, his brow narrowed in fury. The words of some fell incantation had died on his lips as the ornate dagger Asha had stolen sank into his shoulder. There had been a look in her eye that had chilled his blood: a murderous ecstasy that held nothing of the woman he knew.

Kage had dragged Asha away, leaving the groaning mage bleeding on the floor, wounded but alive. Everyone knew that assaulting a wizard was a death sentence. Their friends and allies would give them up in an instant, for the Collegiate Arcane were known to be both ruthless and implacable. But even that wasn’t the worst of it. Kage had begun to suspect there was something very wrong with the artefacts the thieves had made off with. Asha seemed obsessed with the curved, darksteel dagger with its six purple amethysts set in the pommel. The strange orb Kage had plucked from a golden pedestal worked into the shape of a taloned, avian claw was not outwardly as sinister, but something about the orb made him uneasy – whenever he examined it, he had the sense it was somehow watching him.

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A BLACK LIBRARY PUBLICATION

This eBook edition published in 2023 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.

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ISBN: 978-1-80407-386-5

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