Necromancer Read Free Page B

new, more optimistic, chapter in his life.
    It was claimed that town was the third largest in all the
Reikland with a huge population at around the five thousand mark, and that did
not include the passing travellers, bargemen, merchants, guard contingents,
peddlers, pilgrims, livestock farmers and dispossessed, vagabonds, beggars and
travelling actors, troubadours and other entertainers.
    This wooded stretch of highway ran parallel to the imposing
eastern wall of the town that looked like it could hold an army at bay for
weeks, if not months. Fortunately for the people of Bögenhafen, during the Great
Incursion of the Imperial year 2302, the invading armies of the north failed to
reach as far south as the Reikland, although there was a rise in the activities
of proscribed cults at the time and herds of beastmen ran amok throughout the
forests, terrorizing the roads through for the best part of the year. Roadwarden
patrols had been doubled at the time and templar purges of their forest
strongholds were increased to deal with the growing menace.
    At the north-eastern corner of the towering town wall
another, much lower dry-stone wall enclosed the town’s graveyard, covering an
area of some two acres, by the looks of it. Dieter could see only one gate
leading into Morr’s field and he caught sight of a squat, grey chapel through
the pillars and lintel of the lych-gate, hunched between the tumble of ancient
gravestones and statues of mourning angels. For a moment, on seeing this, Dieter
felt strangely at home. The sight of the cemetery was strangely comforting to
him.
    Beyond the graveyard a stand of trees ran down to the banks
of the River Bögen in the distance.
    The carriage continued along the main highway until it
reached a broad, churned and rutted crossroads. The winter had made a muddied
mess of the road here and work crews had yet to be sent to put it right. The
last frost of winter still speckled the muddied channels formed by the passage
of cart wheels and the hoof holes of animal traffic, making it look like the
ground had been liberally sprinkled with tiny, glittering diamonds.
    They turned right, approaching the town’s imposing east gate.
It certainly was an impressive edifice, two tall, arrow-slitted towers
dominating this view of the town wall, rising as they did on either side of a
narrow, unassuming gateway. Lacking a castle, the walls and guard towers of
Bögenhafen were impressive fortifications in their own right.
    Hearing the strident, croaking caw of a carrion bird, Dieter
turned his gaze on the thick oak post he could see firmly hammered into the
ground beside the road. Looking up, he saw a cartwheel silhouette starkly dark
against the dove grey sky. Hanging from it by the wrists were three naked
corpses—those of thieves or murderers no doubt—secured by their ankles to
the post itself. The carrion birds were already taking their breakfast from the
peck-hole riddled cadavers, the flesh greening, the congealed blood black.
    A trundling farmer’s cart laden with bales of straw was on
the road ahead of them, being drawn by two lumbering oxen. They passed the cart
as it turned off the road and passed between the hazel hurdles demarcating the
perimeter of the livestock market. The Schaffenfest, renowned throughout the
Reikland as one of the greatest livestock fairs to be held in the Reikland, was
still two months away, but there was always a semi-permanent market based here
for most of the year, only really closing down for the coldest winter months of
Ulriczeit and Vorhexen. With Nachexen already a week old, the market had started
up again.
    Beyond the hurdle fence Dieter could see that the tents and
temporary lean-to structures of the livestock market had already been erected
for the new season. In truth, however, many of the barns had become
semi-permanent also, possibly only changing location within the market field
itself between the monthly gatherings