The tingle of her instincts warned her of something worse, however. Crying out a warning, Aelyn threw herself flat. Romilla heard her and half-ducked, half-fell onto her face. There came a crackling roar and a foul fungal stench, and a roiling orb of green energy flashed over their heads to hit a chimney stack two roofs ahead. The stonework detonated in a greasy green fireball, and Thackeray and his companion shielded their heads as blazing lumps of rock rained about them.

Aelyn spun, and saw a greenskin with a gnarled staff clutched in one hand and half a cat’s worth of animal bones piercing his nose and ears. The creature was festooned with amulets and gewgaws, and pale green energy crackled around his head as he capered and shrieked. As Aelyn sprang back to her feet, the sickly moonlight condensed around the greenskin’s staff then leapt out as another coruscating blast of energy. Aelyn flipped backwards, cartwheeling through the air and landing in a crouch on the roofboards a dozen yards closer to the guild hall. The roof where she had been standing erupted in a blast of green energy that left a twisted, glowing crater that belched spore-thick smoke.

‘Shaman,’ shouted Aelyn as she turned and pelted along the shuddering roofboards. She heard the cries of emboldened grots rise behind her as they gave chase again.

Ahead, Romilla turned and raised her amulet in her fist. All the pain and exhaustion left her for an instant as she raised her voice in a booming prayer, and blue light haloed her head.

‘Sigmar almighty, God-King of the heavens, hear my prayers! Abjure the foul sorcery of thy base foes, that we might prevail in thy name!’

There came a crackling boom from behind Aelyn, and a flare of green light. She glanced back to see that the shaman’s staff had shattered in his hand with such force that the grot’s broken body was bounding away down the rooftops trailing smoke. The damage was done, however; dozens of grots poured from top-floor windows and shattered rooftops to join the chase. They swarmed after her, sure-footed and maniacally courageous beneath the gaze of the monstrous moon.

Aelyn reached Romilla, who was staggering with the effort of calling upon the God-King’s aid. She looped the priest’s arm around her shoulders, took some of Romilla’s weight and urged her onwards.

The two of them kept going, limping as fast as they could across the rooftops. Fungi splattered and broke underfoot, more than once giving Aelyn a nasty shock as they threatened to pitch her and Romilla from the boardwalk. Arrows fell around them, several coming close enough to nick her flesh through her cloak. Aelyn hoped none of the heads were poisoned.