Uriel's heart filled with pride at the heroism of his brothers of the blood and he made a solemn vow that he would do honour to this armour, which had belonged to one of those heroes of long ago.
'The Sons of Guilliman fought alongside the planetary armies, but they were no match for the host of the Daemon Prince, who swept them aside and slew them in a great battle fought within a city in the shadow of the mountains.'
Uriel and Pasanius shared a glance with one another, and they could see that everyone in the room knew, without knowing how they knew, that the Sons of Guilliman had died in Khaturian.
The Killing Ground was, it seemed, a magnet for death.
'Death, unimaginable bloodshed and slavery followed for a decade before warriors from the Grey Knights arrived at the head of a crusade force. My order met the Prince of Chaos in battle and the great Ignatius defeated it, hurling its unclean flesh back to the hell from whence it had come. Salinas was cleansed of taint and displaced peoples from across the sector were brought in to repopulate the planet. Within three generations, what little evidence remained of the invasion had been eradicated and the planet was on its way to becoming a world of the Emperor once more.'
Leodegarius paused, his eyes closed as though remembering and doing honour to the brave hero who had defeated the mighty daemon prince. The Grey Knight opened his eyes and took up the tale once more.
'Salinas was freed from the grip of the daemonic, but great was the damage done beyond the merely physical. Though no trace of the warp remained, the very presence of so powerful a creature is anathema to the fabric of reality, and the invisible walls that separate our realm of existence from that of the immaterium were worn dangerously thin. And the daemonic will always seek to return to the places they once trod.'
'So you've been watching Salinas ever since?' asked Pasanius suddenly. 'That's why you're here now, isn't it?'
'Indeed,' said Leodegarius. 'Since that great victory, we have maintained a secret outpost, hidden from all, that we might stand vigil on Salinas and watch for the return of the daemon prince banished by the great Ignatius.'
'You intercepted our astropathic message,' said Uriel, understanding how the Grey Knights could have known of their whereabouts. 'You heard the call of the Janiceps.'
Leodegarius nodded. 'We did and our warp-seers felt the surge in the warp caused by your arrival. Vast quantities of dangerous energies were released by the machine that brought you here and they have been seized upon by a dark presence lurking on this world.'
'Dark presence?' asked Cardinal Togandis, his voice trembling. 'The daemon prince?'
'Thankfully not,' said Leodegarius, and Togandis visibly sagged against the table, 'but there are powers at work on Salinas that are drawing on that energy and that is further weakening the barriers between us and the warp.'
'What are these powers?' asked Daron Nisato. 'And how do we stop them?'
'We all know what it is,' blurted Togandis, his eyes filling with tears. 'Don't we? Come on, admit it, we've all seen them, haven't we? Daron? Leto? Serj… I know you have!'
'What are you babbling about, Shavo?' snapped Barbaden.
'The dead!' shrieked Togandis. 'The dead of Khaturian! They won't let go of their anger! They want to punish us for what we did… for what we allowed to happen.'
Togandis fell to his knees, and Uriel reached out to grab him. The cardinal held onto Uriel's arm for support, fat tears streaming down his glossy cheeks.
'We were there,' whispered the cardinal. 'We were there.'
'Shavo, shut up,' said Barbaden.
Shavo Togandis looked up at the governor, and Uriel was surprised at the steel he saw in the cardinal's eyes. 'No, Leto,' said Togandis, 'not any more. You did it. You doomed us all that day. I must confess. I have to speak!'
Before Togandis could say more, Eversham moved from behind Barbaden with his pistol drawn. Uriel was too far away to react, but there was a flash of silver mail followed by a heavy crunch and Eversham dropped to the floor.
'Emperor's blood!' swore Uriel as he saw Barbaden's equerry lying crumpled on the carpet, blood leaking from the enormous crater that Leodegarius had punched in the side of his head. The man's legs twitched and his eyes fluttered as though he couldn't quite comprehend that he had been killed.
Everyone backed away from the corpse and Leodegarius loomed over Leto Barbaden.
'What has to be said here will be said,' commanded the Grey Knight.
'Of course,' replied Barbaden, looking down at the corpse and for once appearing to be cowed by the warrior.
Leodegarius turned back to the shaking cardinal and took hold of his shoulder, lifting him to his feet as though he weighed no more than a child. He marched the unresisting Togandis towards the room's only chair, and the sweating cardinal gratefully sank into the plush leather.
'Was… Was he going to kill me?' asked Togandis, his gaze switching between the corpse and the warrior who had spilled its blood and brains over the floor.
'He was,' nodded Leodegarius, 'to protect his master.'
All eyes turned on Leto Barbaden and the governor drew himself up to his full height, pulling his coat tightly around him and folding his arms.
'I apologise for nothing,' he stated. 'I did what I had to do. Any commander would have done likewise.'
'No,' said Uriel, rounding on the governor, 'they would not. You murdered the population of Khaturian just because it was the quickest and easier solution. A whole city, tens of thousands dead just to get to one man.'
'Khaturian was a legitimate military target,' said Barbaden.
'Military target?' exclaimed Pascal Blaise, his face purpling with rage and only prevented from launching himself at Barbaden by Daron Nisato's restraining hand. 'There were never any weapons or supplies in Khaturian! We deliberately kept it out of the troubles so there would be somewhere safe for our families to live. You murdered them all!'
'The city was harbouring wanted terrorists and its people shot at my soldiers, so I don't know why you're throwing words like murder around.'
'No!' cried Togandis, rising to his feet. 'You knew, Leto. You knew that many of the Sons of Salinas had families in Khaturian. That was why you picked it. You knew before the first tank rolled that you were going to raze the city to the ground. You sent in Verena Kain and she killed them all. Just to drive Sylvanus Thayer mad with grief and rage and draw him into battle.'
'It worked, didn't it?' snarled Barbaden. 'Why don't any of you see that? We destroyed him and the Sons of Salinas. We brought peace!'
'Brought peace?' laughed Serj Casuaban bitterly. 'You are a fool if you think that, Leto. Spend a day in the House of Providence and you will see what your ''peace'' has brought to Salinas.'
'So that's it,' laughed Barbaden. 'This is all some grand charade to condemn me, is that it? Gather up all the weaklings who didn't have the spine or will to do what needed to be done and have them all point their grubby little fingers at me?'
Leto Barbaden moved to his drinks cabinet and poured a fresh glass of port. 'We were at war with these people,' he said, carefully enunciating every word, as though speaking to a roomful of simpletons, 'and people die in wars.'
'That's your excuse for mass murder?' asked Uriel.
'Mass murder, military necessity, genocide,' said Barbaden, shrugging, 'it's all the same thing, isn't it? The great Solar Macharius did not shy away from tough decisions that needed to be made, Captain Ventris. He left worlds burning in his wake and entire planets were destroyed in his campaigns, and he is a hero. His name is lauded throughout the Imperium and his generals are revered as saints. Would you have levelled the same accusations at him? Wars are won by the side that is willing to go the furthest, to take the decisions their foes are too squeamish to take. Or have you been so long away from your Chapter that you have forgotten that elementary fact?'