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  His partner needed no further encouragement. He swiftly backed off from Coilla, turned and ran. With a last flash of his blade in Stryke's direction, Lekmann did the same. The orc captain and corporal went after them.

  Aulay tripped and fell. As he got up, Lekmann raced past him. He made the dais, arriving at a point between Haskeer's and Blaan's fight to the left and the battling orcs and goblins to the right. Unimpeded, he scrambled up.

  Swerving to evade a lone orc trying to stop him, Aulay got there too. Lekmann stretched a hand and hoisted him up. They turned to fend off Stryke and Coilla, who swept in a second later. All the humans and remaining goblins were on the platform. All the Wolverines battled to climb it.

  All save Haskeer. Trading punches with Blaan at their end of the platform, he was oblivious. The human was more conscious of the need to withdraw. Still sparring, he began edging towards his comrades.

  Alone among the Wolverines, Coilla managed to ascend the dais. She fetched up nearest Aulay and went for him.

  'What does it take to stop you, bitch?' he snarled.

  'Just die,' she said.

  He attacked. Coilla deflected the blows. Aulay turned his sword and started to advance again.

  She held fast. Giving way to rage, he came at her recklessly with wild, ill-judged slashes. His guard was careless. A thrust missed her head by a good three inches. Seeing a chance, Coilla quickly spun to one side and chopped downward with all her strength.

  Her blade sliced cleanly through the flesh and bone of his left wrist. The hand fell away and slapped wetly on the boards. A fountain of blood gushed from the stump. Agony and disbelief stamped on his face, Aulay began screaming.

  Coilla drew back her sword to finish him.

  From behind, a pair of massive arms encircled her waist. As though she weighed nothing, Blaan tossed her from the dais. She landed heavily on the floor below.

  Lekmann pulled Aulay away. He was wailing. Copious quantities of his blood drenched the platform.

  Haskeer caught up with Blaan. The human elbowed him in the stomach. Gasping, Haskeer doubled over. Blaan thundered in the direction of his fellow bounty hunters and the goblins. He stopped short of them and took hold of Razatt-Kheage's ponderous wooden throne. Haskeer was on his feet again and charging. Hoisting the chair like a toy, Blaan swung round and struck Haskeer with it. The force knocked the orc across the platform and slammed him into the wall.

  Then Blaan hefted his load to the edge and hurled it down on the orcs. They scattered as it smashed to the floor.

  Taking advantage of the confusion, the slaver led his henchlins and the bounty hunters to the door at the back of the dais. They were going through it before Stryke shouted out and everybody rushed the platform.

  Too late. The door slammed in their faces. They heard bolts being thrown on the other side. Stryke and a couple of grunts shouldered it several times. Haskeer joined them and added his strength. But it wouldn't give.

  'Forget it,' Stryke panted.

  Haskeer pounded his fist against the door in frustration. 'Damn!'

  Recovering from her fall, stretching her aching limbs, Coilla walked across the platform towards them. 'I'm going to kill those bastards if it's the last thing I do,' she vowed.

  'Look out!' Jup yelled, pushing her aside.

  A spear winged past and embedded itself in the wall.

  It had been thrown by a goblin in the body of the room, wounded and bleeding but on his feet. Now he had a sword in his hand.

  That was too much for Haskeer. He leapt from the platform and ran at the creature. The goblin took one ineffective swipe at him. Then Haskeer dashed away the sword with his bare hands and battered the henchlin senseless. Not content with that, he took the goblin by the scruff of its neck and hammered its head against the wall, again and again and again.

  The others came over and watched the limp and lifeless body being reduced to pulp.

  Jup said, 'I think he's dead.'

  'I know that, short arse!' Haskeer snapped. He unceremoniously dumped the goblin's body.

  Stryke smiled. 'Good to have you back, Sergeant.'

  From their rear came the splintering crash of wood. They turned.

  A Watcher, grim faced and unstoppable, was beating its way through what was left of the door to the street. There were others beyond it.

  Coilla sighed. 'Fuck, what a day.'

  16

  'Don't try taking on the things,' Stryke warned. 'Let's just get away from them.'

  'Easier said than done,' Jup reckoned, staring at the lumbering homunculus.

  They backed off as the Watcher moved into the room. The vast head slowly turned, its gem eyes, animated by synthetic life, surveying the scene. Two of its fellows filed through the door behind it.

  The foremost Watcher lifted its hands, palms up. There was a loud click. Shiny metallic blades sprang from slots in the heels of the hands. They were half a foot long and wickedly keen. As though on signal, the other Watchers snapped out similar weapons.

  'Uh-oh,' Jup said.

  'Minimum engagement then,' Stryke amended. 'Just what it takes to get out of here.'

  'That could turn out to be whatever it takes to get out of here,' Coilla remarked, eyeing the Watchers. 'I've seen them in action. They're faster than they look, and mercy's not their strong point.'

  'You do realise they've seen the weapons and that means they're in execution mode?' Jup asked.

  'Yes,' Stryke replied. 'But remember the bleeding of the magic's made them less effective.'

  'There's a comfort.'

  The Watchers were on the move again. Their way.

  'Can we do something?' Haskeer growled impatiently.

  'All right,' Stryke said. 'Simple mission. All of us through that door.'

  'Now?' Coilla prompted.

  He studied the advancing Watchers. 'Now.'

  The band rushed forward, flowing to either side of the lead Watcher, intending to go around it. Dazzlingly fast, its arms shot out horizontally, barring the way. The other two did the same. Light glinted from their extended blades. Everybody stopped.

  'Any more bright ideas?' Haskeer wondered, flirting with insubordination.

  The homunculi kept coming, arms outstretched as though shepherding cattle. The band backtracked.

  'Maybe we shouldn't go at this as a group,' Stryke suggested. 'They might find individual action harder to deal with.'

  'If you mean every Wolverine for themselves,' Haskeer grumbled, 'I wish you'd say so.'

  'You and me are going to have to have a little talk, Sergeant.'

  'Let's try getting out of here alive first,' Coilla reminded them.

  Jup had a notion. 'Why don't we attack this one all at once? I mean, how invulnerable can they be?'

  'I'm game,' Haskeer rumbled, hefting a goblin's mace.

  'We'll go for it,' Stryke decided. 'But if it doesn't work, don't linger. Ready? Now!'

  They charged again, and set about the first Watcher. They slashed at it with swords, stabbed at it with daggers, pounded it with maces, crashed spears against it. Haskeer tried kicking it.

  The Watcher stood impassive, stock still and completely unaffected.

  The band moved back and regrouped. The Watchers resumed their inexorable advance.

  'We're running out of room,' Jup said, glancing behind them. 'One more time?'

  Stryke nodded. 'And give it all you've got.'

  They thoroughly assaulted the creature. To the extent that spears snapped, blades broke and knives were blunted. None of it had any greater effect than before.

  'Retreat!' Stryke yelled.

  Coilla jerked her head at the dais. 'Up there, Stryke. It's all we've got left.'

  Haskeer grinned. 'Yeah, I bet they can't climb!'

  They made for the platform and swarmed on to it. The Watchers turned and followed.

  'Now what?' Coilla wanted to know.

  'Let's try that door again.'

  Battering it with maces made no difference. />
  'Inlaid with steel, I'd say,' Stryke judged.

  'We have to get out of this building fast,' Coilla said, 'before more of those damn things get here.'

  The three already in the room reached the platform and stopped.

  'See?' Haskeer announced smugly. 'Can't climb.'

  As one, the trio of Watchers retracted their blades. Their hands curled into fists. They lifted them above their heads. Then they brought them down on the dais with the force of a small earthquake. The platform shook mightily. They did it again. Wood cracked and splintered. The platform lurched at an angle. Wolverines fought to keep their footing. A final triple blow did it.

  The dais collapsed with a roar.

  Planks, struts and Wolverines crashed to the ground in a cloud of dust and chaos.

  'They don't need to climb, bonehead!' Jup yelled.

  'I think it's back to every orc for themselves,' Coilla spluttered, extricating herself from a tangle of timber.

  'I've had enough of these fucking pests!' Haskeer bellowed. He seized a large joist and made for a Watcher.

  'No! Get back here!' Stryke ordered.

  Haskeer ignored him. Muttering, he strode to the nearest Watcher and smashed the beam across its chest. The joist snapped in two. Nothing changed for the Watcher.

  Suddenly it brought up an arm and delivered a weighty back-hander that sent Haskeer flying. He collided with the remains of the platform. A couple of grunts ran to help him up. Haskeer cursed and waved them away.

  Stryke spotted something that gave him an idea. 'Calthmon, Breggin, Finje. Come with me, I want to try something.'

  As the rest of the band played cat and mouse with the Watchers, he led them to the other side of the room. The chain Haskeer had brought with him was lying on the floor. Stryke explained the plan.

  'The chain's a little short for our purposes,' he added, 'but let's give it a go.'

  Finje and Calthmon took hold of one end, Breggin and Stryke the other. He decided there weren't enough of them, and beckoned over Toche and Gant.

  Three orcs at each end of the chain, they positioned themselves behind a Watcher. It was busy having chunks of wood thrown at it by the others. The missiles bounced off uselessly. At Stryke's word his group got a good grip on the chain, then they ran.

  The taut chain hit the back of the Watcher's legs. The orcs kept going, pulling on the chain like two tug-of-war teams. At first nothing happened. They strained on the chain. The Watcher swayed a little. It took a step forward. They kept tugging, muscles standing out, breath laboured. The homunculus started swaying again, more pronounced this time. They pulled harder.

  Suddenly the Watcher toppled. It hit the floor with a deafening crash.

  Almost immediately its arms and legs began working frenziedly. It thrashed and wriggled in an attempt to right itself, making a metallic scraping noise on the flagstones.

  'That'll give the bastard something to think about,' Stryke said.

  They were targeting another Watcher when the sound of Haskeer whooping distracted them.

  Launching himself from the platform debris, he landed on the back of a Watcher. The creature twisted and shook, in a stiff kind of way, trying to dislodge him. Its arms were too rigid to reach the orc, so it snapped out its blades to poke at its unseen assailant. That made it even more dangerous for Haskeer, who had to dodge the probing steel.

  He got his arms around the Watcher's neck and his feet in the small of its back. Pulling with the former and pushing with the latter, he rocked back and forth. The Watcher was soon rocking with him. Its efforts to skewer the tormentor on its back grew more urgent. Haskeer was hard put to avoid a hit, but he kept on pushing and pulling with all his strength. The fact that the Watcher was already moving and had its arms up helped Haskeer's scheme. It reeled like a drunk. Then its balance deserted it.

  As it fell backwards, Haskeer swiftly disentangled himself and leapt clear. The Watcher smacked on to the floor with a resonant clang.

  Stryke and the others, watching this, ran in and showered the downed creature with blows from their weapons. They needed a little fancy footwork to evade its flailing blades, but its accuracy was out of whack. Haskeer joined them, snatched a mace from a grunt and set to on the Watcher's face. He struck one of the gem-like eyes and it cracked. Encouraged, he hammered at it again. It smashed.

  A high-pressure plume of green smoke spurted from the fissure. Almost reaching the ceiling, it formed a small cloud that shed verdant-coloured droplets. The smell it gave off was foul and some of the orcs clamped hands over their noses and mouths.

  Following Haskeer's example, Stryke leaned in and hacked at the other eye with his sword. That shattered too, releasing another gassy spout. The Watcher shuddered, its legs and arms hammering the floor. Gagging at the odour, the band backed off.

  'I don't think we could have done that in the old days,' Stryke told them.

  The remaining Watcher was nowhere near the door now and engaged with the rest of the band.

  'Get out!' Stryke shouted at them.

  'Orcs don't retreat!' Haskeer exclaimed.

  Jup and Coilla arrived in time to hear that.

  'We do this time, dummy!' Jup said.

  'The way your kind does, eh?'

  'For fuck's sake, move, you two!' Coilla urged. 'Argue later!'

  Everybody ran for the door.

  Four more Watchers were coming along the alley from its open end. Enough to block that as an escape route. The Watcher in the house was moving to the doorway.

  'Don't give up, do they?' Jup remarked.

  Stryke realised the only chance was to try getting over the wall that blocked their end of the alley. It was tall and plaster smooth. He got two of the band's beefier members, Haskeer and Breggin, to give leg-ups.

  Two grunts went straight up and balanced on the wall's narrow top. They reported another alley on the other side, then started reaching down to help the next in line. Troopers began scrambling up and dropping down the other side. Because of his shortness, Jup needed an extra boost from a grumbling Haskeer, and the grunts above had to stretch lower for his hand.

  Only Coilla, Stryke, Breggin and Haskeer were still to go when the Watcher came out of the house. Stryke and Coilla got to the top of the wall.

  'Hurry!' Haskeer called out.

  He and Breggin stood, arms above their heads. Eager hands clasped theirs and began pulling. The Watcher made a grab for Haskeer's foot. He shook free and scrambled frantically. The four other Watchers were near now.

  Haskeer and Breggin made the top. Everybody lowered themselves into the next thoroughfare.

  Jup made a face. 'Phew, that was close!'

  A section of the wall they'd just climbed exploded. Masonry fell, powdery dust billowed. Tearing aside the obstruction like paper, a Watcher appeared, white plaster coating its metal body. A little further along, the fist of another blasted through.

  'Get out of here!' Stryke ordered. 'And conceal your weapons! We don't want to attract even more attention.'

  Swords were awkwardly hidden. Larger weapons like spears and maces were reluctantly discarded. The Wolverines ran.

  They got themselves into the main thoroughfares of the quarter and slowed down a bit. Stryke had them break up into three groups rather than attract attention as a mob. He led with Coilla, Jup, Haskeer and a couple of grunts.

  'I don't know if the Watchers have a way of communicating with each other,' he told them in an undertone. 'But sooner or later they're all going to know and be after us.'

  'So it's the horses, the weapons and out of here, right?' Jup said.

  'Right, only we forget the weapons. It'd be too risky hanging around at the entrance checkpoint. Anyway, we've got some weapons.'

  'Getting the horses is a risk too,' Coilla said.

  'It's one we've got to take.'

  'I need one myself,' she remembered. 'We'll be short.'

  'We'll buy another.'

  'With what?'

  'Pellucid's all
we've got. Fortunately it's as good as any currency. I'll dig out a little before we go into the stables. Don't want to flaunt the stuff.'

  'Pity about those weapons,' Haskeer complained. 'I had a couple of favourites there.'

  'Me too,' Jup agreed. 'But it's worth it to get you and Coilla back.'

  Haskeer couldn't work out if the dwarf was being sarcastic, so he didn't reply.

  All the way to the stables, near the main entrance, they were nervous of what might happen. At one point a pair of Watchers appeared ahead of them. Stryke signalled everybody to be calm and they walked past them without incident. It seemed the homunculi didn't have any way of communicating over distances. Stryke speculated that perhaps that was another consequence of the fading magic.

  They got to the stables. Their horses were collected, and another bought, without too much delay or attracting suspicion.

  Back on the street, Jup said, 'Why don't we stay in three groups while we make our way out? Less attention.'

  'Hang on,' Coilla put in. 'Won't it look suspicious when the first group leaves without collecting any weapons? Could go bad on groups two and three.'

  'Perhaps they'll just assume we didn't bring any.'

  'Orcs without weapons? Who's going to believe that?'

  'Coilla's right,' Stryke decided. 'What we're going to do is stay together. We get as near the main entrance as we can on foot then mount up and make a run for it.'

  'You're the boss,' Jup conceded.

  They were in sight of Hecklowe's main gate when a number of Watchers, perhaps a dozen or more, appeared a way behind them. They were marching purposefully in the same direction. A crowd was gathering and walking with them, aware that such a large number of the homunculi meant some kind of drama was about to unfold.

  'For us, you think, Stryke?' Jup asked.

  'I don't think they're out for a ramble, Sergeant.' The band was further from the exit than he would have liked. But there was no choice now. 'Right, let's go for it! Mount up!'

  They hurriedly obeyed as passersby stared and pointed.

  'Now move out!'

  They spurred their horses and galloped for the open gates. Elves, gremlins and dwarves scattered, shaking fists and bawling insults.

  The gallop became a charge. Up ahead, Stryke saw a Watcher starting to close the gate. It was heavy work, even for a creature of such prodigious strength, and went slowly.