03 - Death's Legacy Read Online Free Page A

while they were trying to
escape the landlord who’d threatened to turn them over to the Roadwardens. It
seemed that his companion was still able to use her abilities after all.
    “How did you manage that?” he asked. “I thought you were all
in?”
    Hanna shrugged. “So did I,” she said, pulling the skaven’s
stone out from beneath her bodice. As Rudi had half expected, it was still
glowing faintly. “This seems to be helping me somehow.”
    “Good.” Rudi hauled on the oars until he felt his back would
break with the effort. “Right now, we need all the help we can get.”
     
    At least one of the gods must have been keeping an eye on
them, Rudi thought, because they made it across the shipping channel without
drowning or being swept out to sea. The tide was just on the turn, the water
slack, and the realisation lent him renewed vigour. Shenk would want to make use
of the surge of incoming seawater to help counteract the current of the Reik,
making the going easier as the Reikmaiden began her long journey. The
riverboat would be casting off any time now, just as soon as the water level in
the canals began to rise.
    Despite the surge of adrenaline the thought gave him, he
began to slow down again after only a handful of minutes. Since waking around
noon the previous day, he’d fought for his life more times than he could
remember, become a fugitive again, and walked or run across what felt like half
the city. Even the unusual reserves of strength he was somehow able to call on
in times of stress weren’t limitless. He was exhausted, and hard as he tried to
force his body to do what was necessary with the clumsy oars, he misjudged his
stroke several times, doing nothing more than flick a spray of freezing water
into the boat. Each time he did it they wallowed, losing their way and the prow
of their tiny craft veered alarmingly.
    “Move over.” Hanna reached out and took the oars briskly. Too
numbed to protest, Rudi acquiesced, changing places with her, so that he was now
facing forwards, towards the far bank. At least there was no chance of getting
lost in the darkness, he thought. Despite the obscuring snow, still enclosing
them in a pocket of chilling anonymity, the lights of Luydenhoek were clearly
visible in the distance.
    He fought down the memory of their frantic swim for the banks
of the Reik, after Shenk had realised they were fugitives and became determined
to collect whatever reward they were worth. Then they’d only made it to safety
by luck, or so it had seemed at the time, the pitch darkness surrounding them
and the chilling water robbing them of any sense of direction. Now they were
trusting their lives to the riverboat captain again, a prospect he hardly
relished, but at least this time he’d be on guard for any treachery, he thought.
That, at least, was a lesson he’d learned well since leaving Kohlstadt. No one
could really be trusted, however benign they seemed to be.
    “Can you manage?” he asked, although Hanna seemed to be
rowing the boat with no difficulty at all, the strange energy imparted by the
skaven’s stone still evidently suffusing her body. He tried not to think about
that either. Magic, he knew, always exacted a price for its use, and he hoped
his friend wouldn’t pay too dearly for the assistance she was getting.
    “I’m fine,” Hanna assured him, her strokes deft and fluid,
propelling the tiny craft faster and more efficiently across the water than he
had. She grinned, with the closest thing to good humour he’d seen on her face
for some time. “I could do with the exercise. Helps warm me up.” Knowing that
one of her talents was regulating the temperature of the air around her, Rudi
doubted that, but tried to smile in response.
    “I think there are some steps over there,” he said, craning
his neck to see past her shoulder. Hanna turned the boat in the direction he’d
suggested, as expertly as if she’d been on the water all her