Daemon Gates Trilogy by Black Library Page B

screaming, knowing they could not cross the flames to reach either their food or the humans who had robbed them of it.
    'Nicely done,' Alaric congratulated his friend as he stepped carefully over the ring. Dietz had been careful, too; the oil was thick enough not to spread, so the rest of the building and the adjoining warehouses were not at risk. Alaric fought back a wave of nausea as he approached the bodies. In the new light, they could clearly see bones and organs, and in several places what remained of heads, limbs, and faces.
    'Torn apart,' Dietz all but whispered, shaking his head, 'and recently. No blades did this.'
    Alaric nodded. They had seen enough death to know the difference between an axe blow and a sword thrust, and this was neither. Dietz was right, these men had been torn apart as if by animals, but by something far larger than rats.
    'Not enough left to identify,' Dietz commented, but this time Alaric shook his head. He had just seen something, a gleam amid the blood, bone and flesh, and he reached out to lift it gingerly from the strewn remains.
    'Here,' he said, holding his find aloft at arm's length. It looked like a simple nail bent into a crude oval, except that it gleamed gold beneath the blood. The ear it had pierced was still attached, at least part of it was.
    'It was the cultists, then.'
    'Yes,' Alaric agreed. He glanced around, tossing the ear­ring and ear aside and selecting a half-stripped and much-gnawed arm to stir the bones and viscera. 'No sign of the mask, though.' Dropping the arm back with the rest, he rose to his feet and carefully backed away. 'Whatever did this to them must have taken it.'
    'Beastmen?' Dietz asked.
    'They're capable of terrible savagery/ Alaric said, remem­bering the men who had died fighting the creatures beside them in the Howling Hills.
    'Kleiber was investigating beastmen in Nuln/ Dietz reminded him.
    'Yes he was.' Alaric frowned. 'I wonder if he is still here? The two might be connected.' Then he shook his head. 'The boat he said was robbed, that must have been a week or more ago, and this happened today or yesterday, I'd judge, recently enough for no one to have noticed the stench. Still, two packs of beastmen sneaking into or around one city; that is odd.'
    'Mutants, perhaps?' Dietz scratched at his jaw. 'Like the ones beneath Middenheim?'
    They both glanced at the bodies again, thinking about the Chaos-mutated creatures living, and hunting, in the tunnels under that city.
    They might be strong enough, and certainly savage enough/ Alaric agreed. 'I don't know if Nuln has them, but then no one knew about the ones below Middenheim.' He frowned and rubbed at his eye. 'Regardless of who did this, the mask is gone. We need to find it. If someone wants to go around killing Chaos cultists, well, I've no quarrel with that.'
    They walked around the room, paying as much attention to the walls as to the grisly mess in the centre. 'Over here/ Dietz said after a minute. He was near the far corner, beside a large grating set in the floor; the shadows and filth had concealed it before. 'It leads down into the sewers.' He kicked it and it rattled. 'And it's loose.'
    Alaric shuddered. He hated enclosed spaces. That's how they got in and out unseen/ he agreed reluctantly.
    'We'll need to follow/ Dietz pointed out, lifting the grate and setting it carefully back against the wall.
    'Wait/ Alaric said quickly. He was thinking frantically, looking around the room for any excuse not to crawl into
    the darkness. His eyes touched upon the door through which they'd entered.
    'That handprint just outside the door/ he said, glancing back at Dietz. 'That was not made by a beastman.' He frowned as he followed through with the thought. 'That means at least one other person has been here since this carnage, and whoever he is, he probably took the mask.'
    Dietz considered that and finally nodded. 'Then we fol­low the handprints.' He let the grating drop back down with a loud clang that