As if to contradict her, Euphrati pointed upwards through the viewshield towards the belly of an ugly vessel they would pass beneath if they continued on their current course. The weak sun of Isstvan glinted from its unpainted gunmetal hull.
'Head towards that one,’ commanded Euphrati and Mersadie was surprised to see Qruze turn the controls without a word of protest.
Mersadie didn't know a great deal about spaceВcraft but she knew that the cruiser would be bristling with turrets that could pick off the Thun-derhawk as it shot past, and could maybe even deploy fighters.
У\Плу are we getting closer?' she asked hurriedly. 'Surely we want to head away?'
Trust me, Sadie,’ said Euphrati. This is the way it
has to be,’
At least it will be quick, she thought, as the vessel grew larger in the viewshield.
'It's Death Guard,’ said Qruze,
Mersadie bit her lip and glanced at Sindermann.
The old man looked calm and said, 'Quite the adventure, eh?'
Mersadie smiled in spite of herself.
What are we going to do, Kyril?' asked Mersadie, tears springing from her eyes. 'What do we have left to us?'
'This is still our fight, Mersadie,’ said Euphrati, turning from the viewshield. 'Sometimes that fight must be open warfare, sometimes it must be fought with words and ideas. We all have our parts to play,’
Mersadie let out a breath, unable and unwilling to believe that there were allies in the cruiser loomВing in front of them. 'We are not alone,’ smiled Euphrati. 'But this fight… it feels a lot bigger than me,’ You are wrong. Each of us has as much right to have their say in the fate of the galaxy as the War-master. Believing that is how we will defeat him,’
Mersadie nodded and watched the cruiser above them drawing ever nearer, its long, dark shape edged in starlight and its engines wreathed in clouds of crystalline gasses.
Thunderhawk gunship, identify yourself,’ said a gruff, gravel-laden voice crackling from the vox-caster.
'Be truthful,’ warned Euphrati. 'All depends on it,’
Qruze nodded and said, 'My name is Iacton Qruze, formerly of the Sons of Horus,’
'Formerly?' came the reply.
Yes, formerly,’ said Qruze.
'Explain yourself,’
'I am no longer part of the Legion,’ said Qruze, and Mersadie could hear the pain it caused him to give voice to these words. 'I can no longer be party to what the Warmaster is doing,’
After a long pause, the voice returned. 'Then you are welcome on my ship, Iacton Qruze.' 'And who are you?' asked Qruze. 'I am Captain Nathaniel Garro of the Eisenstein.'
PART THREE
BROTHERS
FOURTEEN
Until it's over
Charmoisan
Betrayal
'I've lost count of the days,’ said Loken, crouching by one of the makeshift battlements that looked over the smouldering ruins of the Choral City.
'I don't think Isstvan III has days and nights any more,’ replied Saul Tarvitz.
Loken looked into the steel grey sky, a mantle of cloud kicked up by the catastrophic climate change forced on Isstvan III by the sudden extinction of almost all life on its surface. A thin drizzle of ash rained, the remains of the firestorm swept up by dry, dead winds a continent away.
'They're massing for another attack,’ said Tarvitz, indicating the tangle of twisted, ash-wreathed rubВble that had once been a vast mass of tenement blocks to the east of the palace.
Loken followed his gaze. He could just glimpse a flash of dirty white armour.
World Eaters,’
Who else?'
'I don't know if Angron even knows another way to fight,’
Tarvitz shrugged. 'He probably does. He just likes his way better,’
Tarvitz and Loken had first met on Murder, where the Sons of Horns had fought alongside the Emperor's Children against hideous megarachnid aliens. Tarvitz had been a fine warrior, devoid of the grandstanding of his Legion that had so antagoВnised Torgaddon.
Loken barely remembered the journey back through the Sirenhold, scrambling through shattered tombs and burning ruins. He remembered fighting through men he had once called brother towards the great gates of the Sirenhold, and he had not stopped until he had his first proper sight of the Precentor's Palace and its magnificent rose-granite petals.
'They'll hit within the hour,’ said Tarvitz. Til move men over to the defences,’
'It could be a feint,’ said Loken, vividly rememВbering the first days of the battle for the palace. 'Angron hits one side, Eidolon counter-attacks,’
His first sight of Tarvitz's warriors in battle had resembled a great game with the Emperor's ChilВdren as pieces masterfully arranged in feints and counter-charges. A lesser man than Saul Tarvitz would have allowed his force to be picked apart by
them, but the captain of the Emperor's Children had somehow managed to weather three days of non-stop attacks.
"We'll be ready for it,’ said Tarvitz, looking down into the depths of the palace.
Loken and Tarvitz had climbed into the structure of a partially collapsed dome, one of the many secВtions of the Precentor's Palace that had been ruined during the firestorm and fighting.
Sheared sections of granite petals formed the cover behind which Loken and Tarvitz were shelterВing, while in the rubble-choked dome below, hundreds of the survivors were manning the defences. Luna Wolves and Emperor's Children manned barricades made of priceless sculptures and other artworks that had filled the chambers beneath the dome.
Now these monumental sculptures of past rulers lay on their sides with Astartes crouched behind them.
'How much longer do you think we can hold?' asked Loken.
'We'll stay until it's over,’ said Tarvitz. 'You said so yourself, every second we survive, the chance grows that the Emperor hears of this and sends the other Legions to bring Horus to justice,’
'If Garro makes it,’ said Loken. 'He could be dead already, or lost in the warp,’
'Perhaps, but I have to hope that Nathaniel made it out,’ said Tarvitz. 'Our job is to hold them off for as long as we can,’
That's what worries me. This probably all started when Angron slipped the leash, but the Warmaster could have just pulled his Legions out and bombed this city into dust. He would have lost some of them, but even so… this planet should have been dead a long time ago,’
Tarvitz smiled. 'Four primarchs, Garviel. That's your answer. Four warriors not given to backing down. Who would be the first to leave? Angron? Mortarion? If Eidolon's leading the Emperor's ChilВdren then he's got a lot to prove alongside the primarchs, and I have never known Horus show weakness, not when his brother primarchs might
see it,’
'No,' agreed Loken. 'The Warmaster does not back down from a battle once he's committed,’
Then they'll have to kill us all,’ said Tarvitz.
'Yes, they will,’ said Loken grimly.
The vox-beads in both their helmets chimed and Torgaddon's voice sounded.
'Garvi, Saul!' said Torgaddon. 'I've got reports that the World Eaters are massing. We can hear them chanting, so they'll be coming soon. I've reinВforced the eastern barricades, but we need every man down here,’
'I'll pull my men back from the gallery dome,’ voxed Tarvitz. 'I'll send Garviel to join you,’
'Where are you going?' asked Loken.
'I'm going to make sure the west and north are still covered and to get some guns on the chapel too,’ said Tarvitz, pointing through the ruins of
the dome to the strange organic shape of the Warsingers' Chapel adjoining the palace comВplex.
The survivors had instinctively avoided the chapel and few of them had even seen inside it. Its very walls were redolent of the corruption that had conВsumed the soul of the Choral City.