Zaragoz Read online

  THE OLD WORLD

  TIMELINE

  A brief guide to the histoiy of the

  Warhammer World

  Year Event

  0001 The time of Sigmar - founder of the Empire, and its first Emperor. The Goblin Wars end as the Goblinoid hordes are driven back over the World's Edge Mountains into the Dark Lands.

  0050 Sigmar takes his magical Warhammer back to the Dwarves who made it and is never seen again.

  1111 Devastating outbreak of Black Plague reduces whole populations throughout the Empire.

  1500 Religious war between Tilea/Estalia and Araby.

  1547 Grand Duke of Middenland declares himself the rightful Emperor without election, starting the Age of the Three Emperors.

  1750 Kislev separated from the Empire.

  1839 Birth of Genevieve Dieudonne (future heroine of Drachenfels), in Parravon.

  1851 Count Drachenfels sacks Parravon.

  1855 Genevieve is turned into an immortal vampire by v

  Chandagnac the Ancient (cf Drachenfels).

  1937 Drachenfels' poison feast; death of Emperor Carolus.

  1979 Empress Magritta becomes last elected Emperor for 400

  years.

  2150 Sea Elves return to the Old World.

  2177 Death of Chandagnac the Ancient - vampiric 'father' of Genevieve Dieudonn^.

  2262 Birth of Yevgeny Yefimovich, future high priest of Tzeentch - the Chaos God known as The Changer of the Ways.

  2302 The Incursions of Chaos begin a new assault on the Old World. Magnus the Pious appears in Nuln to deliver his now legendary rallying call to arms. Under Magnus'

  leadership, the chaos forces are beaten back. Magnus is crowned Emperor, and goes on to restore the Empire's former glories.

  2369 Death of Magnus the Pious, the crown passes to Count Leopold of Stirland.

  2370 Birth of Gotrek the Dwarf - future Trollslayer.

  2401 Disappearance of Emperor Matthias IV.

  2429 The Burgomeisters of Marienburg declare the Wasteland's independence and secede from the Empire. Emperor Dieter IV is deposed.

  2446 Birth of Vukotich the mercenary - future retainer of the von Mecklenbergs of Sudenland.

  2456 Birth of the mercenary, Wolf - future companion of Konrad.

  2460 Birth of 'Filthy' Harald Kleindeinst (hero of Beasts in Velvet).

  2459 Birth of Oswald von Mecklenberg - Imperial Elector, Baron of Sudenland and father of Johann and Wolf (cf Ignorant Armies).

  2465 Birth of Orfeo (narrator of Zaragoz, Plague Daemon, and Storm Warriors). At 8 months of age he is adopted as a foundling by the Wood Elves of the Loren forest.

  vi

  2470 Harmis Detz - veteran soldier of the Border Guard of Khypris in the Border Princes - witnesses the first in a new series of attacks by followers of chaos. Against his better judgement, Harmis joins in the hunt for the plague daemon, Ystareth (cf Plague Daemon).

  Vukotich in the Northern Forests/Chaos Wastes in the service of Tsar Radii Bokha.

  2471 Birth of Detlef Sierck, greatest playwright and impressario of the Warhammer world.

  2475 Birth of Johann von Mecklenberg, son of Oswald, the Baron Sudenland.

  2477 Prince Oswald von Konigswald recruits a band of adventurers - including the vampire Genevieve Dieudonn£ - and leads them into the Grey Mountains to seek out and destroy the evil enchanter Drachenfels.

  2478 Birth of Konrad; Birth of Wolf von Mecklenberg -

  Johann's younger brother.

  2483 Vukotich impressed into the service of the von Mecklenbergs as Johann's tutor.

  2490 In a village on the edge of the Forest of Shadows, the young Konrad rescues Elyssa from a Beastman, and their friendship begins (cf Konrad).

  2491 The Chaos Champion Cicatrice mounts a raid on the summer home of the von Mecklenberg family, in the Southlands. While Johann and Vukotich escape the slaughter, Wolf is captured (cf Ignorant Annies).

  Emperor Luitpold dies, and is succeeded by his son Karl-Franz. Birth of Prince Luitpold.

  2492 On the island of Morien, Herla, King of Plenydd, and his bard Trystan come up against the malevolent influence of a group of strange Elves. Trystan later travels to Great Albion, then on to Bretonnia (cf Storm Warriors).

  2495 Gotrek the Trollslayer, accompanied by his human companion, Felix, investigate strange goings on in the Reikwald Forest (cf Ignorant Armies).

  2496 On their way to search for treasure in Carag Eight Peaks, vii

  Felix and Gotrek join up with the followers of Baron Gottfried von Diehl, travelling through the Black Mountains to exile in the Border Princes (cf Wolf Riders).

  Far beneath Carag Eight Peaks, Felix retrieves the lost sword KaraghQl (cf Red Thirst).

  Summer solstice - Konrad's village is attacked and razed by Beastmen. Konrad meets up with the mercenary Wolf, and agrees to be his squire for 5 years (cf Konrad).

  Around this time, the wizard Litzenreich is in Middenheim, experimenting with warpstone.

  Trystan Harper meets Orfeo in Bretonnia and tells him the tale of Storm Warriors.

  2499 Orfeo meets Harmis Detz in the Border Princes and hears the story of Plague Daemon.

  Konrad and Wolf employed in gold mine near Belyevorota Pass in Kislev. Litzenreich the wizard is in the service of Gustav the Mad of Talabecland.

  2500 Siege of Praag - this Kislevite city in the far north of the realm is attacked by massed forces including followers of all four of the Great Chaos Powers.

  2501 Johann and Vukotich finally catch up with Cicatrice and Johann's brother, Wolf, in the Northern Chaos Wastes (cf The Ignorant Armies).

  Summer solstice - Konrad and Wolf head north in search of treasure buried in an abandoned Dwarven temple.

  Following his escape from a warband dedicated to Khome

  - the Chaos Power known as the Blood God - Konrad joins forces with the wizard Litzenreich. Driven out of Middenheim for pursuing forbidden warpstone experiments, they travel to Altdorf (cf Shadowbreed).

  2502 Under the patronage of Prince Oswald von Konigswald of Ostland, Detlef Sierck attempts to stage his play Drachenfels in the Castle Drachenfels itself. The performance nearly ends in disaster when the Great Enchanter returns to claim his revenge... (cf Drachenfels); Konrad uncovers the true enormity of the Skaven scheme vm

  in Middenheim and Altdorf (cf Warblade).

  In Estalia, Orfeo the Minstrel becomes embroiled in the internal politics of Zaragoz, and barely escapes with his life (cf Zaragoz).

  2503 Orfeo is captured by the pirate Alkadi Nasreen, and recounts to him the tales of Zaragoz, Plague Daemon and Storm Warriors.

  Following the breakdown of Grand Theogonist Yorri, Lector Mikael Hasselstein, the Emperor's confessor, becomes the most powerful individual in the Cult of Sigmar (cf Beasts in Velvet).

  2506 A vicious murderer stalks the streets of Altdorf. The tough copper Filthy Harald and the scryer Rosanna desperately search for the killer against a backdrop of growing civil unrest and the machinations of Chaos (cf Beasts in Velvet).

  Johann von Mecklenberg returns to his family's estates in Sudenland as Baron and Elector.

  Genevieve leaves Altdorf.

  ix

  PROLOGUE

  Orfeo recovered consciousness, slowly and painfully.

  Images flickered briefly in his mind as he struggled for command of his memory: turbaned fighting-men leaping from deck to deck, brandishing curved swords...

  .. .the tip of his own blade drawing a great gout of blood from a man's neck...

  .. .the oarsmen rising up, rattling the shackles which held them in a mad cacophony of delight...

  .. .the reek of blood and sweat and fear...

  ...the blinding light...

  .. .and then the darkness...

  He found that he w
as lying on a stone floor beneath a window, close enough to the wall to be shadowed from the bright light which streamed through it. His hands were bound behind him, and when he tested the strength of the rope the burning pain told him that he had already struggled hard against their confinement, making the skin of his wrists very sore. His head was pounding and his right shoulder was aching badly, as if his collar-bone had been broken.

  He could not remember the blow which had knocked him senseless. He had been backed up against the mizzen mast of the galley, defending himself with his slender sword—all too slender, 21

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  it had seemed, against the scimitars of the pirates. The Estalian sailors had been hopelessly outnumbered to begin with—more so once the attackers had broken the chains which confined the rowers, fully three-quarters of whom were slaves or felons only too eager to join the fight against their masters. The pirates had brought two dhows and a light brigantine from a concealed harbour, and with the wind blowing from the land had overhauled the Estalian galley with absurd ease.

  Orfeo remembered that his blade had drawn blood from at least three opponents, one of whom had surely been killed—but that had not made the attackers angry enough to murder him. They fought for profit, not for the pleasure of slaughter, and were well accustomed to sacrificing a man or two of their own in order to harvest a good crop of human flesh, ready for the auction-block.

  He wondered whether it might have been better to have received a fetal blow, but he knew that it was only the pain in his head which made him regret being alive. He had been a prisoner before, and a slave too—though never in such an alien land as Araby. In time, he might be free again, if only he could conserve his strength and his cunning.

  He had no shortage of either.

  He turned over, so that he was no longer facing the blank wall beneath the window. The room was not well-furnished, but was certainly no dungeon. It was carpeted, with thicker rugs for sitting upon—which suggested that he was in the hands of men descended from the nomads of the great sand-sea, who had never cared for chairs.

  There was one other person present—another prisoner, bound like himself and lying still, feeing the other way. It was the youngest of the Estalian sailors, a boy not yet out of his teens. Orfeo had to search his memory for the boy's name, and remembered that his fellows had called him Maro. Orfeo called out to him, and was glad to see the youth stir in response.

  Orfeo tried to get to his feet, propping himself up on his left elbow in order to avoid putting strain on his injured shoulder. He managed to clamber up, and glanced out of the window before going to the boy's side. The window was high above stony ground, in a tower of some kind of citadel which looked over a precipitous cliff. The plain at the foot of the cliff was under cultivation, but Zaragoz

  the soil was very poor and the region arid; in the distance he could see the rocks and dunes of the Sahra—the great desert of Araby.

  When Orfeo stirred the youth's body with his boot Maro opened his dark eyes. They were glazed and very weary, but Orfeo saw that he was not badly hurt. He too had been knocked unconscious by a cudgel, applied with sufficient skill to avoid damaging the goods.

  "Where are we?" whispered the bey, the direction of his stare darting about the room as soon as he was able to see clearly again.

  Orfeo knelt down, and then moved—not without difficulty—to a sitting position.

  "I cannot say for sure," said Orfeo, "but I think it is the citadel of Arjijil, which is an infamous nest of pirates. The fortress is said to be impregnable, and it houses the servants of one who styles himself Caliph of Mahabbah and Lord of the Twin Seas.

  His fame has undoubtedly spread to the Estalian Kingdoms."

  "Oh yes," said the boy, bitterly. "I have heard of him. He demands tribute from the vessels which move in these waters—but our own ship was guaranteed safe passage by the Sultan of All Araby himself! The captain carried his seal!"

  Orfeo smiled grimly. "A seal impressed on a document is only as good as the men who will respect it," he said. "I do not think the Sultan will be too disappointed by its failure. Our cargo will make its way to him in any case, and I do not think he will care so very much what merchant takes the profit from its sale. Of course, he will send messages to your masters in Almagora expressing his alarm at the loss of their ship, with extravagant promises of revenge to be taken by his armies upon the perpetrators of the vile act—but somehow, I do not think that Arjijil will yet be crushed by his wrath."

  Maro stared at Orfeo while he spoke, not quite able to follow the line of the argument. He tried to sit up, and eventually managed it; he seemed to have gathered fewer bruises than Orfeo, and probably had not joined in the fight aboard the galley in any serious fashion.

  "What will become of us?" he asked.

  "We will be sold," said Orfeo, as gently as he could. "They have put us here together because they do not know quite how to value us. You are young, unseasoned as a sailor, and they may 17

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  hope to find a cleverer use for you than to put you to the oar. I am an unknown quantity, and they will want to know my skills.

  They will come soon to question us, and you may care to ask yourself what answers you will give."

  Maro thought about this for a moment or two. Orfeo could see that there would be little point in advising the boy to invent an elaborate lie in the hope of finding easier employment. With luck, it might not be necessary—the youth had not the power in his arms and legs to make a useful rower, and would probably be sold as a household servant. As for himself, he had no particular need to plan and practice his lies. Improvisation had always come naturally to him, and lies came ever more easily to his lips than the truth.

  "What answers will you give?" asked the boy, plainly hoping for a good example.

  "I will give them an honest account of my nature and skills,"

  Orfeo said. "I will tell them that I was a passenger on the ship, bound for the great cities of Araby, where I hoped to amuse rich men with songs and stories, and learn some new tales which, in the course of time, I might bring back to the lands of Estalia and Bretonnia, and to the Empire itelf."

  And it is an honest account, Orfeo added, within the silence of his own thoughts, as far as it goes.

  After a moment's pause, the boy said: "I beg you, sir, will you speak for me also? I know not what to say."

  Orfeo did not want to be unkind, but neither did he want to accept any responsibility for the boy. He would have said no, as diplomatically as he could, but before he could speak the door of the room was thrown open. As he turned to see who had entered, the thought flitted through his mind that a plea unrejected would seem to the boy a plea accepted, but there was no opportunity to say anything further. He could do no more than say to himself that he must do what he was able for the youth, provided only that he did not compromise his own position.

  Three men came into the room. All wore turbans after the customary fashion of all the Arabs, and all had the coloured jackets, wide trousers and soft slippers which were worn indoors in these parts. One of the three, however, had garments much finer in quality than the others, and though he wore no jewellery or Zaragoz

  embroidery of golden thread it was easy to see that he was a man of importance. The others, though they carried no scimitars, were plainly bodyguards; the fact that they carried no weapons was a quiet boast to the effect that their skill in the arts of combat was such as to make mere blades unnecessary.

  The guards took up positions to either side of the door, while the third man came to look down at the two captives. Orfeo studied him closely. His skin was darkened by the sun and his eyes were equally dark, and to a casual glance he looked every inch the Arab, but Orfeo could see that the cast of his features was somewhat different from the Arab type. Orfeo was not altogether surprised by this. Shipmasters from Estalia and the Border Princes who elected to turn pirate often came to this ragged coast, where there were abundant harbours for
shallow boats. In order to be reconciled with the stern priests of Araby they were required to "take the turban" and swear devotion to the Arabs' single god, but that was no great hardship to men who were used to offering prayers to any deity which seemed appropriate to the moment.

  "But this will not do," said the pirate, in a silky voice. "We are civilized men and must talk in the fashion of civilized men."

  So saying he took a small knife from his sleeve and reached down to .cut the bonds which secured Orfeo's wrists. Then he did the same for the boy, and signalled with his hands that they should sit cross-legged in the fashion of Arabic merchants taking tea to mark the conclusion of a deal. Orfeo assumed the position easily, but the boy—who was used to chairs—seemed very uncomfortable.

  The pirate also sat down, facing them both. Without turning round he clapped his hands once, and one of his guards opened the door wider, to allow the entrance of a servant carrying a silver tray. Upon the tray were a jug of tea and three shallow cups, each with two handles. No one said a word until the servant had poured out the tea. Orfeo was very thirsty, but he did not reach for his cup until the other man had picked up his own. Orfeo was not moved by this demonstration of politeness to doubt that he was still a prisoner, intended for a slave. He knew when someone was toying with him.

  "May we be allowed to know whose generous hand is thus extended to us, my lord?" asked Orfeo, lifting the cup in mock-appreciation.

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  "I am Alkadi Nasreen," replied the other, in the language of the Old World—adding, almost as an afterthought, "Caliph of Mahabbah and Lord of the Twin Seas."

  Orfeo was surprised, not so much that a man who termed himself Caliph should present himself in ungrandiose guise, but that a man who was not an Arab could have ascended to a high position in a land such as this.

  Orfeo tried to sip from the cup, but the movement of his arm drew a shock of pain from his shoulder. He would have picked up the cup in his left hand, but knew well enough that among Arabs to do so would have been considered a kind of insult. Alkadi Nasreen noticed his distress.