The battle had been bad enough, but it looks like the aftermath will be worse. As I approached the Lord and Lady’s rooms I could see Davrus comforting his daughter in Ulla’s cabin. On the floor was the ruined corpse of the maid we picked up in Nuln. When I spoke Davrus’s name they both looked up. The girl’s face had a porcine snout. She turned away immediately, but not before I saw the terror in her eyes. And now, as I meet her father’s anguished stare, the conflicting instincts of sympathy, revulsion and a desire for brutal mercy burn in my veins.
Only a few minutes ago I had been woken by Jurgen Heyder shaking me by the shoulders. Behind him was an oxen-headed beast man intent on eating one or both of us. We fought the thing until it lay dead. Albert had been awoken by the wild sprays of blood from the thing’s wounds; his eyes were wide and white in the gloom. About this time I finally realised fully somthing that I had only noticed peripherally a moment before. There was no sound – not a whisper as Albert gibbered and Jurgen yelled. I gestured Jurgen upstairs and Albert to raise the men.
On deck there were a couple of beastmen carcasses, but, on the other side of the barge, my men were taking a pounding from four more of the monstrosities. Carlotta was down with what looked a mortal injury. Changil was flailing away, but to little effect. I barrelled into the mêlée wearing only my nightshirt and underbreeches landing blows left right and centre with my axe.
Soon we had all but one of the beastmen felled. The last one, the bastard, pulled two of my men overboard. I dropped my axe, reached out and grabbed a leg, but I, too, was pulled off my feet. A massive hand grabbed my own leg, but soon I was in the water. The beastman swam for its life and we returned to the barge.
By this time Felix was on deck attending to Carlotta. I hope he saves her. She’s a good man. With her broad, short form, she looks a little like a dwarf woman. Shouting alerted us to more trouble belowdecks. (Sound also appeared to have returned.) I took the men down and we found that Faustus (who I will always think of as ‘the jahgrapher’ in old Rudegar’s speech) had killed two men as they slept. The others had him restrained. I looked into his eyes and saw staring back at me the blue eyes of that whore-witch, Lenora. I don’t know whether there was anything of Faustus left in there, but I wasn’t taking any chances with chaos sorcery. I killed him – but those damned eyes stayed alive. I had the body bound and covered. We’ll burn it later – and that of Leo, who suffered a similar fate.
Kultzmann had barely managed to kill his own bodyguard – Leo, the guard I had assigned him. The guard I knew had some association, however slight, with chaos magic, even though Kultzmann had demanded someone with no such connection. I ignored this because, on the basis of his past work for me, I trusted Leo. It got him killed and nearly finished Roland off, too.
After dealing with Faustus I went to investigate what had happened – and found Davrus and his daughter. In the cabin’s wall I can see a small hole – certainly not big enough for a person to come through. What made it? I’m going to have to do something with that girl.
The night’s attacks must have something to do with seeing the Quintus barge earlier today – I suppose I mean yesterday, now. Ada informed me that the luxury barge was ahead of us early in morning. I recommended that we keep it in view so we could make sure it wasn’t about to set some ambush for us. Maybe it got away after I went off duty in the evening.
The day was mostly eneventful. In consultation with Albert (I don’t know why, but the little fellow likes to hang around so I might as well humour him) I reassigned the men into three patrols: Wolf, Bear and Eagle. We also saw just what kind of snotty bitch this Ulla Walder is: she wanted to stop people walking on deck above her cabin. I organised a little bit of sparring up on the sun deck. When Kultzmann came up with his nearly-betrothed, he seemed pissed off – evidently the noble half of his blood had come to the fore.
Shit. If the Osaner girl has become a mutant, it means something changed her. Something that is probably still in that cabin. I need to get Davrus out of there. Now.
