Contents

Cover

Forest of the Ancients – Extract

Warhammer Adventures

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Chapter One

The Burn

Elio lay on the balcony beneath the dome, his brown eyes wide and sightless. Thanis crouched, touching his cheek. His skin was cold. Kiri leaned in, inspecting the purple-veined burn in the centre of the boy’s forehead. Alish clutched his hand and Kaspar just looked away, biting his lip.

The mark had been made by a fragment of warpstone, a mystical crystal that the ratlord Kreech had pressed into Elio’s head. They’d barely escaped the Skaven, fleeing back to their home at the Arbour, the crumbling palace in the city of Lifestone. At first, Elio’s wound hadn’t seemed too serious, just a fading red circle. But then he’d passed out, here on the high platform under the dome of the Atheneum, the great library that lay at the Arbour’s heart.

‘We should go to his father,’ Kiri said, breaking the silence. ‘We should ask him for help.’

‘I think Lord Elias might be a bit busy,’ Kaspar said, gesturing down through the coloured glass. In the valley beyond the city wall spectral lights blazed, surrounded by legions of shadowy figures. The dark army had come in the night, encircling the city.

‘What do they want?’ Thanis wondered out loud. ‘And why aren’t they attacking? Look at those ladders, those siege engines. They could scale the walls any time they wanted. It’s not like the Lifestone Defenders could do anything about it.’

‘That’s exactly why we should find Lord Elias now,’ Kiri argued. ‘Before things get even worse.’

‘But Elio told us not to,’ Alish protested, squeezing the boy’s hand. ‘He said they haven’t spoken in ages.’

‘This is more important than some family squabble,’ Kiri insisted. ‘The lord will have money, and he’ll know the best healers.’

‘But there are no good healers left in Lifestone,’ Thanis argued. ‘They all went away when… when everything changed.’

None of them knew what had happened to the city in which they lived. In recent decades it had gone from a thriving place of learning and healing to a half-deserted ruin. The only one who might have known was their master Vertigan, but he’d been kidnapped by the Skaven on the orders of a mysterious woman, leaving only his staff behind.

‘Thanis is right,’ Kaspar said. ‘There are some who claim to be medics, but they’re just as likely to make him worse. And this isn’t some ordinary burn – it’s a magical injury.’

‘Adila would know what to do,’ Thanis told him, remembering the old woman from Bowerhome. But she was gone now, passing away peacefully in her sleep just a few weeks after Thanis and Kaspar left for the Arbour. ‘She always said the Aelf-folk were the best healers. Them and the Sylvaneth.’

Kiri looked surprised. ‘The walking trees? They’re a myth, aren’t they?’

‘They’re real,’ Thanis said. ‘They’re meant to live out beyond the Stonewoods, past the Everlight River. The place the old folks call the Forest of the Ancients. They even used to come to Lifestone, in the times before.’

‘But the Sylvaneth don’t help humans,’ Kaspar said. ‘Remember the story Marlo used to love, about the foolish thief who hid his gold in the forest, and the Sylvaneth turned him into a tree?’

‘But they let his son go,’ Thanis reminded him. ‘The babe, remember? The tree-folk left him outside the city walls. They were kind because he was so little.’

‘Elio’s not a baby,’ Kiri pointed out. ‘And the woods are dangerous. I heard men have disappeared out there.’

‘So what are we meant to do?’ Thanis asked, a strange certainty building inside her. ‘Just sit here and watch him suffer? I mean, I hate trees and nature and all of that stuff. The thought of seeing a Sylvaneth scares me to death. But it’s Elio’s life we’re talking about. He saved us in the warren, now it’s our turn to help him.’

‘And what about the army camped outside our walls?’ Kaspar asked. ‘Are we meant to fight our way through?’

Thanis cursed. She hadn’t thought of that.

‘I, um…’ Alish said nervously. ‘I might have a way we can get out of the city.’ And she lowered her gaze down into the old library, where a large black shape hung suspended in the shadows.

‘Are you joking?’ Kaspar asked. ‘Please, tell me you’re not serious.’

Alish had been working on her flying machine for months, but so far she’d been unable to get it off the ground. It was a huge, unwieldy thing, the patched canvas balloon supporting a wooden gondola festooned with steam-pipes and furnaces.

‘I’m this close to making it work,’ Alish insisted, holding up her thumb and forefinger. ‘Give me one night, and in the morning we’ll fly out of here.’

Kiri frowned dubiously. ‘You’re sure we wouldn’t just crash?’

Alish nodded. ‘I’m sure. We can save him, I swear.’

Thanis gritted her teeth. ‘I’m in,’ she said. ‘I trust you, Alish.’

‘Me too,’ Kiri said. ‘But this is a big decision. Not just the airship, but the tree-people, too. Everyone has to agree, or we don’t go.’

They looked at Kaspar, who gave a long, uncertain sigh. ‘Well,’ he said at last. ‘I suppose if we all die horribly there’ll be no one left to say I told you so.’

They made Elio comfortable on the floor of the Atheneum, covering him with blankets and stacking pillows beneath his head. His skin was ashen and his breathing was shallow, twisted purple vines snaking from the centre of his burn. Kiri volunteered to watch over him while Alish started work on her flying machine, its pipes hissing as she stoked the boiler.

‘Watching her won’t make it any less terrifying,’ Kaspar said, taking Thanis’s arm. ‘Come on, let’s try and get some sleep.’

They wound through the corridors of the Arbour towards their respective sleeping quarters.

‘I hope the Scraps are okay,’ said Thanis, as they turned into the old armoury. ‘I promised to check in this week, then all this happened.’

‘They’ll cope,’ Kaspar said. ‘Marlo’s turning into quite the leader, I hear the Scarlet Shadow tried to recruit him. He turned them down, of course. He’s a sharp one.’

‘He learned that from his hero,’ Thanis said. ‘Don’t blush, it’s true. He loved how you always kept a level head, even when everything was going crazy. I wish I could say the same. But I’m scared, Kaspar. Vertigan’s gone, Elio’s sick, and our only plan is to get in some crazy flying thing and look for a race of talking trees who’ll almost certainly murder us. I even lost my lucky penny, the one that convinced me to come here in the first place.’

Kaspar leaned forwards, touching her ear. When he drew back there was a coin shining in his palm. ‘It must have been hiding back there all along.’

Thanis laughed. ‘Where did you really find it?’

‘It fell out of your pocket in the warren. I meant to give it back but I forgot.’

‘You’re always looking out for me, aren’t you?’ Thanis asked. ‘Whatever happens, you’re there.’

‘Of course,’ Kaspar said. ‘And I always will be. One of us falls, the other one catches them. Whatever happens, remember that.’

His face had grown suddenly serious, one hand sliding beneath his robe, touching something at his chest. Thanis saw a string around his neck and wondered – when did Kaspar start wearing a pendant? But then he turned away, and the moment passed.

‘See you bright and early,’ he said, striding off down the passage.

Thanis watched him go. There was no one she trusted more than Kaspar; he’d saved her neck countless times, and she’d saved his. So why did she feel a sudden chill deep inside, as though something terrible was going to happen?

Because something terrible is going to happen, she reasoned. We’re about to be eaten by trees. Sighing, she entered her room and closed the door.

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Warhammer Adventures

First published in Great Britain in 2019.
This eBook edition published 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.

Forest of the Ancients © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2019. Forest of the Ancients, 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.
All Rights Reserved.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-78999-433-9

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This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

See Warhammer Adventures on the internet at
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For my cohort Cavan Scott, with immense gratitude.

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