by Dan Abnett
He uttered the last part of his sentence mechanically via the toneless voice box built into his chair and the grating, emotion-free electronic words made us all laugh with surprise.
Though I was too late to save the Distaff, I got Kara, Harlon and Alize-beth to safety off-world/
'For that, you have my gratitude. But why summon me so far off the beaten track to meet with you?'
'Promody has secrets that we need/ he said.
'What manner of secrets?'
'I have been allowed to see the future, Gregor/ Ravenor said. 'And it isn't pretty/
'Imperial culture has never set much store by divination/ Gideon told me. 'I have come to suspect that is a great weakness/
It was much later. Night had fallen over the swampy bayou and the air was dancing with bioluminescent flies. Ravenor and I had taken a stroll along the grav walks behind his camp.
A weakness? Surely it is a greater weakness to take it seriously? If we believed the rantings of every dribbling marketplace seer, of every demented Ecclesiarchy prophet who claimed to have been granted divine revelations-'
We would be mad, true. Most of it is rubbish, lies, mischief, the delusions of broken minds. Sometimes prophetic insights are genuine, but they are usually made by psykers who have either done it by accident or who are insane. In either case, the visions are untrustworthy or too confused to be interpreted in any practical, useful way. But just because mankind isn't very good at it doesn't mean it can't be done/
'It is my understanding that other races are reputed to excel at it/ I said.
That has certainly been my experience/ he replied. 'Serving the Ordo Xenos has been enlightening. The more I have studied alien races in order to discern their weaknesses, the more I have learned their strengths/
We are talking about the eldar, aren't we?' I risked the question. He didn't reply immediately. His last words had been close to heresy. The force sphere around him flickered slightly with anxiety.
'They are a strange breed. They are able to read the invisible geography of space-time and unravel probability with great precision. But they are mercurial. Sometimes they use their insight as a lever to change the outcome of events. Sometimes they stand idle and watch as prophesies play out. I believe there is no human alive who could explain why they make the choices they do. We just don't see things the way they do/
'Their greater lifespan gives them greater perspective...'
'It's partly that. Although orthodox thinking would say that greater perspective is their curse. The Ministorum believes the eldar are too resigned to destiny. That they are indolent and almost cruel, or else brutally manipulative/
'You don't think so?'
'I'll admit only a selfish fascination, Gregor. They interact with the fundamental structure of the universe. As you might well appreciate, any talent for living or perceiving beyond one's physical body is attractive to me. My work has-'
He broke off.
'Gideon?'
'I wanted to learn something of the way their minds witness reality independent of their bodies. Their farseers, for example, have a kinaesthetic sensibility that operates regardless of the restraints of time and space-'
We paused at the edge of a walkway and looked out across the misty nocturnal swamp. Glowing insects and airborne spores drifted in the air, their paths occasionally punctuated by the sudden swoops of aerial night hunters. Sinuous things moved through the glistening water below the floating walkways, barely disturbing the oily surface.
'I've said too much/ he murmured.
"Vou do not need to be guarded with me, Gideon. I will not judge you for seeking knowledge. I'm... not the puritan you once knew.'
'I know. I would tell you if I could. But in order to learn certain things, I have been forced to make promises.'
To the eldar?'
'I cannot even confirm mat. I am not proud of the promises, but I will honour them.'
'Then what can you tell me? You said that things had been revealed to you.'
'One of their kind has foreseen a great darkness ahead of us all. It is so abrupt and acute that it has twisted and altered the skeins of probability that the eldar read. It was revealed to him in a sequence of connected visions. One of those was the destruction of the Distaff. When that came true, I was shaken. It proved the visions were not fanciful.'
What else has he seen?' I asked.
'A living blade, a man-machine, bestriding a long-dead world and preparing to strike a blow that will spill human and eldar blood alike/ he said. 'After that... nothing.'
I looked down at him. 'Nothing?'
'Nothing. That vision is the most distant thing he is now able to see. It's no more than six months from now. Beyond that, he has been unable to glimpse anything at all/
Why?'
'Because there is no future left to see/
SEVEMTEEN
Psychoarchaeology.
Ghul.
The Barque of the Daemon.
Gideon's message to me proved that he already knew the name Khanjar the Sharp, but as we talked, I discovered he knew very little besides the name.
'Nayl and I tracked the janissaries after they fled Messina in an effort to discover who had hired them. It was well hidden. The Vessorine take great pains to protect the identity of their clients. There were false trails, payments from bogus accounts and via holding companies. But we wormed it out eventually. Khanjar the Sharp/
Which meant what to you?'
'Nothing... except that he was the individual who had ordered the systematic destruction of your operation... and that his name featured prominently in a number of the farseer's visions. We believe Khanjar and the man-machine from the climactic revelation are one and the same/
'Khanjar the Sharp is Pontius Glaw/1 said.
He was astonished and excited. The revelations had said nothing of Glaw. The Khanjar guise had masked his true identity from the eldar.
Why target you?' he asked.
'Self-preservation. I am one of the few people who knows he still exists. In fact, I'm sorry to say, he exists because of me. He was also searching for something that he believes I possess/
'Like what?'
I had no choice but to tell him everything. My dealings with Glaw, Maria Tarray, the Malus Codicium...
'You weren't joking when you said you weren't the puritan I once knew/ he said.
'Are you shocked?'
'No, Gregor, I'm not. I believe radicalism is inevitable. We all become radicals eventually as we appreciate that we must know our enemy in order to defeat him. The real dangers come from extreme puritans. Puritanism is fuelled by ignorance, and ignorance is the greatest peril of all. That's not to suggest the path of the radical is easy. Eventually even the most careful and responsible radical will be overwhelmed by the warp. The real judge of character is what good a man can do for the Imperium before he is drawn too far.'
'There is one other thing. In the mind of his daughter there was an image of a desiccated world that closely matches the one you describe from the eldar revelations. There was a name connected with it: Ghtil!
'Let me investigate that further/ he said, and turned his force chair back down the walkway towards the camp.
Ravenor had brought me to that remote jungle world because Promody had featured in another of the eldar visions. Khanjar the Sharp had been there recently, perhaps as little as six weeks before. Ravenor intended to find out why.
Ravenor's field team numbered about ten individuals - several technicians, six astropaths and an archaeologist called Kenzer, the grey-haired man I had seen earlier.
'But there are no ruins on Promody/ I remarked shortly after I had been introduced to him.
'Not any more, sir/ he agreed. 'But there is compelling theory that Promody was once one of several worlds inhabited by an ancient culture/
'How ancient?'
He glanced at me nervously. 'Pre-Dawn/ he said.
A culture from before the rise of Man. That was breathtaking.
'So this compelling theory/ I pressed, 'this comes from the eldar?'
He didn't want to answer but my rank gave him little option.
'Yes, sir. But this culture predates even them. And was quite dead long before even they came to the stars/
Ravenor's technicians had spent their time since reaching Promody conducting a survey with the assistance of the astropaths. They had studied the surface and atmosphere of the planet for signs of Khanjar's visit, looking for traces of landing sites, the residual pollution of vehicle exhausts, the echoes of human minds. They were certain now that the campsite on the bayou was close to the place where Khanjar made planetfall. Now the astropaths were preparing for an auto-seance on a scale greater than any I had ever attempted.
* * *
Gideon called me to the force tent.
'Ghiil is the name of a planet/ he said.
The dead world in the vision?'
'Quite probably/
And where is it?'
'We don't know/
'Who's we? Where did this information come from?'
He sighed. 'Lord seer?' he called.
One of the inner screens drew aside and a slim, very tall figure in a long, hooded robe stepped through from the privacy of the inner rooms. The robe was made of a gleaming blue material that flashed like shot-silk but seemed heavier and more fluid. There was a strange, unpleasantly sweet scent, like burnt sugar. I knew that hood would never be drawn back in my presence. I was not fit to see the face beneath.
This is Eisenhorn/ the figure said. It wasn't a question. The words flowed melodically with a strange cadence that no human could ever approximate.
Who am I addressing?' I said.
The book is in his coat/ the figure said to Ravenor, ignoring me. 'An insult that he carries it so casually/
'Gregor?'
I took the Malus Codicium from my pocket. The figure made a warding gesture with its gloved right hand.
'It's an insult that your friend will have to tolerate, I'm afraid/ I said. 'This isn't leaving my person/
'It has contaminated him. It smoulders in his blood. It has yoked him to daemons/
And more besides, no doubt/ I countered. 'But take one look into my mind and tell me I'm not dedicated to the salvation of all of us/
I dropped my psi-shield provocatively, but though I could sense the eldar's temptation to look, he did not touch my mind.
'Ravenor vouches for you/ the hooded figure said after a moment. 'I will content myself with that. But do not come any closer/
'So what do I call you?'
You won't have any need to/ the eldar replied bluntly.
'Please/ Gideon cut in. He was clearly very uncomfortable. 'Gregor, you may refer to my guest as "lord seer". My lord, perhaps you could tell Gregor about Ghtil?'
'In the First Days, a race came from the maelstrom and raised settlements in this space. Seven worlds they made, and the greatest of these was Ghtil. Then they were overturned and left no trace behind/
'From the maelstrom? From the warp? You mean a daemon race?'
The lord seer said nothing.
'Are you saying daemons once colonised seven worlds in our reality?'
'They fled a war. Their king was dead and they carried his body for burial. On his tomb they raised the first city, and then made six worlds around it to honour his rest forever/
'Ghiil is the tomb of a daemon king?'
There was no response.
'What? Are you just going to answer every other question? Is Ghiil the tomb-world? Is that what Glaw is after? The tomb of a daemon?'
'I have not seen the answer/ said the eldar.
'Then take a wild guess!'
The daemon king is dead. Khanjar cannot hope to raise him/
'Unless he has the Malus Codicium,' I said.
'Not even then/
'So what, then?' I snapped.
'Traditionally/ Gideon put in, 'in human culture, anyway, a king is buried with great treasures and artefacts beside him/
'So there's something in this tomb. Something so valuable that the Malus Codicium is just a key to get it. Where is Ghiil?'
'We don't know/ said Ravenor.
'Does Glaw know?'
'I think that's why he was here/
The eldar withdrew and I was glad to be out of his presence. I found it hard to know how Ravenor tolerated him.
Outside, the final preparations were being made. All of Ravenor's people except Kenzer and the six astropaths were withdrawing to his ship. Nayl and Kara were going to the Essene.
A message from Maxilla/ Nayl said to me. 'You've had a communique from Fischig/
'Fischig? Really?'
'It seems he's changed his mind. That he regrets his clash with you and wants to come back/
'I think it's too late for that, Harlon/
Nayl shrugged. 'Cut him some slack, I say, boss. You know how hardline he is. He's had time to think about things. Get his head around stuff. Let him come back. From what Gideon's been saying, we could probably use him/
'No. Later maybe. Not now. I don't think I can trust him/
'He probably thinks the same thing about you/ grinned Nayl. 'Joke!' he added, raising his hands to pacify me. 'Good luck/ he finished, then walked off to the shuttle where Kara Swole was waiting.
It was iust dawn. Before their departure, the technicians had extended the antigrav walkways to form a circular path across the bayou fifty metres in diameter. The astropaths spread out around the suspended walkways under the thick, steaming vegetation. I stood with Gideon and Kenzer on one of the central sections. The evenly spaced astropaths began to murmur as they sank into their trances and the air became charged with psypathic energy. Instead of focusing on a single object, as Jecud Vance and I had done with Midas's jacket, the astropaths were opening the entire area up,
conjuring its psychic traces. A cold, blue glow began to spread around us, quite at odds with the light of the rising sun. Things became filmy and misty.
'I see something...' Kenzer said.
So did I. Shapes, like clouds, writhing and forming above the water at the centre of the circle. Nothing distinct.
I felt Ravenor reach out with his mind and fine tune the coherence of the image. Just standing there beside him, I could feel how strong his mind had grown. My old pupil was frighteningly powerful.
Suddenly the image resolved. Three figures, wading through the bayou's knee-deep water. One, a massive ogryn with a blaster cannon, followed in the splashing wake of a sturdy male human dressed in beige combat armour, his face hidden by a rebreather. This human was scanning the area with a hand-held auspex. The third figure was beside him. It was tall, broad, and moved with a strange stiffness, its body partially draped with what looked at first like a cape of feathers.
They weren't feathers. They were blades. Tongues of polished, sharpened metal interlaced into an armoured garment. Beneath it, 1 could glimpse a body of burnished chrome, duralloy and steel, a mechanical humanoid body of marvellous design.
The work of Magos Geard Bure, I had no doubt. The late Geard Bure.
This is was Khanjar the Sharp. The man-machine... the 'living blade' from the eldar vision. Pontius Glaw.
I could see his face. It was the face of a beautiful young man with a mane of curled hair, but the hair didn't move and the expression didn't alter from a curling smirk. It was a mask worked from gold, like the head of a noble gilded statue. I had seen the face before, in old records that showed Pontius Glaw in his prime.
There was no sound, but Glaw said something to his point man. Then he turned and seemed to address someone or something we couldn't see.
There was a long pause as they waited and then the ogryn shuffled back, as if alarmed by something. The point man set his auspex to close focus. Glaw stood still as if awestruck for a moment, then clapped his metal hands in delight.
'I can't see what they're doing...' Kenzer said.
There's nothing there to see/ Gideon snapped in d
isappointment. That seemed to be the case. There was a faint visual distortion where the psychic ghost of the location failed to match its real counterpart exactly. But nothing else.
'No/ I said suddenly. 'I think there is. Get your astropaths to widen the field of the seance/
'What?' Gideon asked.
'Just do it/
With a little effort, Ravenor's telepaths managed to increase the diameter of the conjured scene. Almost at once, were able to make out shadowy figures lurking around the edge.
'Psykers!' said Gideon.
'Exactly/ I said. 'The reason we can't see what he's up to is because he did what we're doing!'
'An auto-seance.'
That's right.'
'How did you guess, Gregor?'
'Mr Kenzer here said there were no ancient remains on Promody. Glaw has to be looking for the past by other means.'
'But we can't resolve what it is he's seeing.
'Go back,' said a voice behind us. Silently, the eldar seer had joined us on the walkway.
'Go back,' he said again.
It took a few minutes for the astropaths to compose themselves and reestablish the image. Now I could feel the eldar's mental strength supporting them.
We watched as the scene replayed. The three figures approached us just as before. Glaw conversed with his point man and then called back to his psykers.
The world changed.
There was no jungle. No water. Great, smooth cliffs of rock blocked out the sky. Stone columns like giant fir trees towered over us. We were seeing what Glaw's psykers had allowed him to see. The surface of Promody as it had been eons before the age of man. A cyclopean city of glassy black rock that had long since vanished so completely only its psychic phantom remained.
'God-Emperor!' Kenzer gasped and collapsed in a faint. It was terrifying. Mesmeric. The scale was so big. We felt like microbes or motes of dust on the streets of an Imperial hive.
I stared, fascinated. Now when the ogryn shuffled back in fear and Glaw stood awestruck, I could see why. Glaw dapped his hands in delight and the point man began scanning a wide section of the ghostly wall with his auspex.
'There's an inscription!' Ravenor cried.
I leapt off the walkway and waded through the oily water until I was beside the images of Glaw and his men. We need to get this before it fades!' I shouted. Ravenor flew his chair in over the water to join me. Recording sensors in his chair began to whir and store the images.
