03 - Death's Legacy (41 page)

“Is there anything at all you can do for him?” Rudi asked
Hollobach. He supposed he ought to feel something after Hanna’s death, but he
had no energy left for emotions, and there would be time enough to consider
everything later. For a moment he quailed anew at the thought of the eternity of
suffering that lay ahead, and then he steeled himself again. He’d made his
choice, and he knew now that he’d lost Hanna a long time ago, if he’d ever even
had her in the first place, which he doubted. The mage shook his head.

“I can ease his passing,” he said gravely, “but that’s all.”
Gerhard stirred, shaking his head feebly.

“No magic,” he whispered.

“It’s your choice, of course.” Hollobach nodded to Fritz. “Do
you wish to intervene?”

“No,” Fritz said shortly, turning away, “let him suffer.”

“We’ll finish it,” Rudi promised the dying witch hunter.
Gerhard nodded once, and tried to say something, and then the breath rattled in
his throat and his body convulsed. A few flakes of snow drifted down from the
leaden sky, settling across the still face and unblinking eyes.

Rudi turned away, remaining upright and unsupported purely by
willpower. There wouldn’t be a better time, he thought. All the instincts of a
lifetime spent outdoors told him that the first flurry of snow was only the
precursor of a much heavier fall. By the time his companions had bricked up the
cellar and returned to the mansion, there would be no trace of their handiwork
visible until the spring by which time the new mortar would have weathered to
the point where it would be almost indistinguishable from the old. No one else
would ever know he was there, entombed in his own private hell, fighting an
eternal battle to preserve the Empire from the ravages of the daemon within him.
He staggered, feeling the toxins in his body doing their baleful work. He was
almost out of time.

He took a step towards the dark hole in the floor of the
derelict building, savouring the sight of the last sunset he’d ever know.

“Let’s get this done,” he said simply, and went to meet his
destiny.

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