Corrod’s neon eyes glowed, yellow heat behind a milky surface.
‘Now you may see us,’ he said.
‘What are you?’ Jan Jerik stammered.
‘We are the Anarch’s chosen of chosen, the blessed reworked, the blessed of his voice, which drowns out all others.’
‘I don’t…’ Jan Jerik gasped.
‘We are his favourite sons. And we are few,’ said Corrod, ‘granted our rare and precious gifts by the holy Changer of Ways through the Ministry of the Great Anarch. We are the Qimurah, and within the Sabbat Worlds, a mere sixty-four of us exist as the Anarch’s elite.’
Corrod paused, wiping a neon tear off his cheek with the back of his thumb.
‘And all of us,’ he said, ‘all sixty-four, in unprecedented unison, have come to perform this task.’
‘I’m sorry!’ said Jan Jerik. ‘I’m sorry!’ He had backed to the far wall of the car in terror, and was pressed against the cage.
‘Apology accepted,’ said Corrod. He reached for the lever. ‘Shall we continue?’
Gaunt led Kolea into his quarters, took one warning look at Sancto and the Scions as they took up position outside, and shut the door.
‘Sit,’ he said.
Kolea breathed heavily, and sat down on one of the chairs.
‘Talk,’ said Gaunt. He crossed to a cabinet and poured two cap glasses of amasec.
Kolea looked like he was in pain. He couldn’t make eye contact.
‘I don’t know where to start, sir,’ he said.
‘Try,’ said Gaunt. He handed one of the glasses to Kolea, who took it carefully, but didn’t sip. Gaunt dragged over another chair and sat down, facing Kolea.
‘Gol?’
Kolea sighed.
‘What has she got on you?’ asked Gaunt.
‘I don’t know. Falsehoods, lies.’
‘She’s making it up?’
‘No. I mean… there are things that I don’t… I don’t even know if they’re true. Things that have haunted me.’
He looked up into Gaunt’s eyes for the first time.
‘Things I should have told you long ago,’ he said.
‘About Aigor? The supply drop?’
‘Mostly. Yes.’
‘Now’s the time, major,’ said Gaunt.
Kolea looked down at his drink. He paused, then he sank it in one gulp.
‘There was something there,’ he said.
‘You told me that. It was in your report.’
‘A voice, that demanded the eagle stones.’
Gaunt nodded.
‘Demanded they be brought to Urdesh.’
‘All this I know, Gol.’
‘It said it was the voice of… of him. Sek. It said it had power over me.’
‘To deliver the stones?’
Kolea hunched his shoulders. ‘We brought them anyway,’ he said. ‘To Urdesh, I mean. It’s what we were doing. It’s not like I had to steal them, or break orders, or do its bidding…’
‘And this was all in your report, Gol. So what has Laksheema got hold of? What didn’t you tell me?’
‘It said I was marked,’ said Kolea, his voice thin. ‘It knew my name, and said I was… susceptible. That the harm done to me on… the injuries that were healed on Herodor, that they had made me vulnerable.’
‘To Sek?’
‘To the warp. Throne help me. The voice told me I was… I was a conduit for daemons.’
He looked up at Gaunt.
‘How can a man say that? It damns him. It walks him to the scaffold or the stake.’
‘Probably better to say it than to hide it, Gol. This is late to learn it.’
‘I know!’ Kolea snapped. He subsided. ‘I know. But I told myself… I told myself it was all lies. Sir, we both know how the Ruinous Powers game us. Play with our minds. Whispering and polluting. I thought it was that. The warp trying to… to play me.’
‘So your report was incomplete because you were protecting yourself?’ asked Gaunt.
‘No,’ said Kolea, in the tiniest whisper.
‘What, then?’
‘The voice told me that if I didn’t comply, it would kill my children.’
‘Your children?’
‘Dalin and Yoncy. It told me they’d perish, if…’
Gaunt nodded. ‘They’re safe, you know?’ he said. ‘Both of them. They got here safely. It was lying to you.’
‘It’s what I thought.’
‘But what? Gol?’
Kolea sighed again.
‘It’s like I don’t know what to trust any more. I thought it was my head, the old damage… so many things that don’t make sense. I just locked it all up. Kept it to myself.’
Kolea rose to his feet abruptly. He fiddled with his empty glass, as if wondering where to put it down.
‘I thought if I told you, you’d execute me,’ he said. ‘That, or the Black Ships. And the kids too, by extension. Named by the darkness. Feth, what? The Black Ships for them too?’
‘So you told yourself it was all lies?’ asked Gaunt.
‘Yes,’ Kolea replied. ‘But I made a promise to myself. An oath, that I’d keep the children safe. Protect them. That if this darkness, this bad shadow, was real, I’d deny it and kill it. That’s what we do. We’re soldiers of the Throne.’
He looked at Gaunt.
‘Aren’t we?’ he asked.
‘We are,’ said Gaunt.
‘But it was getting too… too hard,’ Kolea said. ‘Spinning out of control. Just so much. Once Laksheema got her claws in me, I knew it was just a matter of time. That it would all come out.’
Gaunt got up, took the glass from Kolea’s hand, and went to refill it.
‘We didn’t know what the eagle stones were, Gol,’ he said. ‘Not back then. Not at Aigor. It was much later we made that connection. Bask saw them after the accident. Spread out like wings.’
‘Yeah,’ said Kolea. ‘That’s when it all really started to unravel. Sir, I should have told you right at the start, damn the consequences. I was a coward.’
Gaunt held out the refilled glass. ‘You’re one of the strongest men I’ve ever served with, Gol,’ he said. ‘Whatever you are, you’re no coward.’
‘What happens now, sir?’ Kolea asked. ‘I’ll resign my pins. You’ll want me in the stockade at least.’
Gaunt wiggled the glass he was holding out slightly, reminding Kolea to take it.
‘What happens now, Gol,’ he said, ‘is you tell me the rest.’
‘The rest?’
‘What started to unravel?’
Kolea took the glass. ‘Have you heard…’ He began, then winced as if he couldn’t believe he was saying it out loud. ‘Have you heard the rumours? About Yoncy?’
‘Rumours?’ asked Gaunt.
‘I thought Dalin and Yoncy were dead and gone with Livy on Verghast,’ Kolea said. ‘Lost and gone. But then, like a miracle, it turns out Criid had saved them. Brought them into the fold. Raised them.’
He sighed.
‘I guess a man can only have one miracle in his life, and mine was the Beati saving me. The kids were alive after all. I blessed the Throne for that. I let them be. I stayed back. They were too young to remember me, and they’d been through too much. But, you know, Dalin’s grown into a fine man. A good lasman.’
‘There’s distinction in him,’ Gaunt agreed.
Kolea nodded. ‘And Yoncy. Everyone’s favourite. More of a damn mascot than that fething bird. All the women dote on her. And Criid, well, she coaxed me back into their lives. Said it was dumb for me to be apart from them. So I made that connection again and… well, I was glad of it. For all the obvious reasons. I don’t need to tell you how it is to make a bond with a child you didn’t know existed.’