by Ben Counter
'It's not much.' said Genhain as he scanned it.
'It's all the truth we have.'
'Perhaps that's the point.'
Alaric thought for a moment. What did he know? There had been a man named Evisser who claimed inspiration from the Emperor and was proclaimed a saint. That was it.
And of course, that was the point.
Alaric stood up, grabbed the book, and strode out of the room, pausing only to glare at the novice who stood shivering just inside the door.
'Where is Serevic?'
The boy pointed nervously. Alaric headed in the indicated direction, walking into a long, low gallery where the walls and ceiling were covered in pages torn from books, pinned to wooden supports or stuck in a ragged patchwork to the stone. Serevic was standing in the middle of the gallery, gazing at the thousands of words as if he was looking out of a window at Farfallen's landscape in its prime.
'There never was a Saint Evisser.' said Alaric simply, throwing the book down at Serevic's feet. 'The Ecclesiarchy never confirmed his ascension. He was proclaimed by the people and the Ecclesiarchy had to accept it, but to them he was nothing more than just another man.'
Serevic seemed to deflate, if anything looking even less imposing than before. He shook his head sadly. 'That so much good can come from a man we could never accept. It was shame that kept our secret.' He looked up at Alaric, and he seemed on the verge of tears. 'Can you think what harm would have come to the Trail, if the cardinals had denounced him? There would have been terrible strife. Hatred would be turned not on the Emperor's enemies but upon his faithful.'
'But he had miracles. He forged the Trail out of frontier space. He should have been a prime candidate for canonization. What did they find?'
'It was too late then, you see.' continued Serevic. The knowledge had been bottled up inside him for so long that now he had committed the sin of revealing it, he had to get it all out. 'Evisser had been a saint to the people for decades before the Inquiry Beatificum was even begun. By the time it reported to the Holy Synod it was too late. Our own cardinals preached in cathedrals built to his spirit. Men spoke his name in prayers. You cannot root out that kind of belief, not when it holds a place like the Trail together.'
Alaric knew now that Ghargatuloth had not just chosen the Trail. He had very probably made it in the first place. 'So the cardinals had their clergy cease his worship until the Trail decayed and Evisser could be forgotten. But why was he never a saint? What did they know about him?'
Serevic choked back a sob. Outside, the sound of foul chanting filtered through the walls as the ferals made ready for another attack.
'All this.' said Serevic in a near-whisper, 'all this will burn.'
Alaric picked up Serevic by the throat and slammed him up against the wall of the gallery, head against the ceiling. Alaric only had to will it and his gauntlet would crush the archivist.
Serevic forced his eyes to meet Alaric's. 'His... his home world. There was a taint there. If... if the cardinals had ignored it, and it was discovered, there could be even worse strife... Evisser a traitor, holy war, another Plague of Unbelief...'
Alaric let go and Serevic slipped down to the floor in an undignified heap.
'It's what you didn't write that betrays you.' said Alaric, kicking the book at Serevic. 'No home world. No burial place. No canonization. Because the Ecclesiarchy knew that Evisser could be tainted, and that he could have been warped by some dark power. And they were right. But they would rather let it take root amongst Imperial worlds than admit they could not control this new prophet. Where was he born? Where is he buried?'
Serevic whimpered.
'Now! Or it all burns, and you will go with it!'
Serevic buried his head in his hands. He was broken. Since he was a novice, a child, he had been trained to keep the sacred knowledge of the Trail, remember and protect it in the Emperor's name. Now he had nothing left. Nothing at all. And knowing that no matter what, all that knowledge would burn eventually, he gave up. 'He was born on Sophano Secundus.' said Serevic weakly. 'But we buried him on Volcanis Ultor.'
Chapter Fifteen
VOLCANIS FAUSTUS
THREE DAYS AFTER Valinov escaped his execution on Mimas, the Conclave on Encaladus sent a fast messenger ship to the Trail. The information it carried was too sensitive to be transmitted by astropath - every Imperial organisation on the Trail was considered compromised by the hidden cults rising up on every system, and corrupted astropaths had leaked vital Inquisitorial intelligence before. A messenger was the only option.
Its message was simple. Valinov was probably heading for the Trail, and he was a man considered so dangerous merely speaking with him carried an intolerable risk of corruption. Killing him on sight was the only acceptable response.
The message was entrusted to Interrogator DuGrae, an ace pilot and trusted agent of Lord Inquisitor Coteaz, and she had been given multiple cortical enhancements that allowed her to convey sensitive information in her head without the possibility of anyone retrieving it by psychic means. DuGrae was once a fighter pilot who had thrown a Thunderbolt across the skies of Armageddon, racking up scores of kills against the flying contraptions the greenskins used. The craft which she now flew through space was as responsive as a fighter. It was a sleek, glossy black dart of a ship, the smallest and quickest warp-capable ship the Ordo Malleus could scramble at such short notice. It hit the warp like a knife, the sole crew members DuGrae and her Navigator.
The ship cut through the immaterium quickly at first, but three days out warp storms blew up without warning: a sudden flare of black madness in the warp that rippled in a wide crescent across the Segmentum Solar from Rhanna to V'Run. A clumsier craft would have been cut off completely but DuGrae, flying blindfold while her Navigator talked her through the warp currents, flung the sleek messenger ship through roiling banks of hatred towards the Trail.
But it used up time. Too much time - if Valinov got a big enough head start they might not catch him now.
DuGrae, without an astropath to contact Encaladus, had no way of reporting back or receiving news of the Trail. She had to trust that the Emperor would foil the Enemy's plans for a few hours more, and that she would fly fast enough.
DuGrae sliced out of the warp just beyond the edge of the Volcanis system, the light of the livid red star flooding the cockpit. Volcanis Ultor was the seat of authority on the Trail - once the cardinal and governor there had been warned, the next stop was the Inquisitorial headquarters on Trepytos.
Straight away it was obvious the state of the Trail had worsened. There were Imperial Naval ships in the system, doubtless drawn there by the rising tide of Chaotic activity. The Mars-class battlecruiser Unmerciful, an old craft left over from when fighter-carrying warships were the weapons of choice, sent patrols of fighter-bombers out to sweep for marauding enemy ships - The Lunar-class cruiser Holy Flame and the three Sword-class escorts of Absolution Squadron kept close orbit around Volcanis Ultor itself.
With no astropath, DuGrae couldn't contact them until she flew in closer. But she was still uneasy. Were there Chaos ships prowling the system that would make short work of her lightly-armed ship if they found her? She held off approaching Volcanis Ultor until she could get more information from the ship-to-ship traffic picked up by her close-range comms. She sent her craft in a slingshot around Volcanis Faustus, the barren, baked rock planet closest to the star Volcanis. The scraps of information she picked up suggested very nervous captains waiting for an inevitable conflict, as if the chaos on the Trail was rising to critical mass that would explode into open warfare. Crews were pulling multiple maintenance shifts to get older craft battle-ready. Ordnance was at a premium and the Departmento Munitorum couldn't provide enough fuel for the fighters.
From out of the shadow of Volcanis Faustus drifted the battered, proud shape of the old warhorse Unmerciful. The proximity of the star warped communications and the carrier deployed three wings of figh
ter craft to get closer. When they were in range, they scanned DuGrae's ship and transmitted a simple message - the Volcanis system was not safe. The Unmerciful's fighter wings would escort DuGrae into the spaceport on Volcanis Ultor's principal hive.
DuGrae thanked the squadron leader and shut down her engines while the fighters approached her to take up escort formation.
While she was hanging helpless in orbit, the captain of the Unmerciful gave the order and the fighter wings fired every missile they had, turning DuGrae's ship into an expanding cloud of plasma. And with her died the message she carried, that the man calling himself Inquisitor Valinov was in reality a servant of Chaos.
GHOLIC REN-SAR VALINOV watched the blinking triangle representing the messenger craft wink out. The blue squares representing the Unmerciful's fighters whirled around for a couple of minutes, skirting around the debris field. The large orbital command display mounted in the suite Valinov had commandeered was set to depict the area around Volcanis Faustus, and as Valinov watched, the fighters scattered back to join their parent ship on the other side of the barren world. Recoba had thrown out two noble hangers-on to give Valinov free rein of an entire floor, and he had set himself up with cogitators, pict-consoles, several holomats and the orbital command display to ensure he knew as much about what was going on in the system as possible.
'Kill confirmed.' came the static-masked voice of the squadron leader.
'Good hunt, Squadron Theta.' was the captain's reply. The large blue rectangle of the Unmerciful began to bring its ponderous bulk around for the short journey back to the outer orbits of Volcanis Ultor. The fighters followed it, like pups hurrying back to their mother.
There was a commotion at the door and Cardinal Recoba entered, shrugging himself into his voluminous official robes, followed by a gaggle of lesser clergy.
'Inquisitor!' called Recoba. 'I just heard. Was it an intruder?'
'It was good we found them when we did.' said Valinov. 'If I had not been informed they might have been escorted straight here. The ways of the Enemy are many and foul, Emperor only knows what they could have done had they reached us.'
Recoba swallowed. 'It was an agent of the Dark Powers?'
Valinov nodded. 'As soon as the Unmerciful's fighters scanned it, I knew. It was a sorcerer, I am sure. It was good the fighters could destroy it quickly, otherwise their crews might have been corrupted.'
Recoba shook his head. 'Then they were so close. Thank the Ever-Living that they were stopped. Indeed, the Throne protects.'
'The Throne protects, your blessedness.' said Valinov humbly.
They really had been close. Valinov wondered who had been sent - probably one of their best. Maybe Nyxos had sent someone, since he had probably survived Mimas and wanted to have a personal hand in stopping Valinov. No, more likely it was one of the lord inquisitors on Encaladus, taking matters into their own hands to cover up the mistakes they had made. Probably that showman Coteaz, preaching blood and thunder and sending off one of his star pilots to die. Valinov allowed himself a small smile - it was crusaders like Coteaz who could be the easiest to use. Of course they would send a messenger ship. And of course Valinov would use it to heighten the fears of the Trail's defenders.
It was as if the rest of the galaxy knew its role in the grand dance of Chaos, and obeyed its tune without complaint. And what was more pleasing to the Lord of Change, than letting his enemies forge the chains of their own slavery?
'Should I have the captains increase our patrols?' Recoba was asking. 'We have promised a dozen fighter wings to Magnos Omicron, but we could fly them out to the far orbit watch stations...'
Valinov held up a hand. 'No. Bring the captains into close orbit. But bring the extra fighters in, too. The rest of the Trail will have to fight their own battle, Volcanis Ultor itself is the keystone that must not fall. Put a wall of steel around our world, cardinal. It will not be long before it will be the only protection we have.'
'Of course, inquisitor,' said Recoba, sounding almost obedient. This pleased Valinov, as Recoba began snapping off orders to his hangers-on.
Gholic Ren-Sar Valinov glanced back at the orbital command display before he switched it off, knowing that the empty space where the messenger ship had been represented the death of the Trail's last hope.
CANONESS LUDMILLA OF the Order of the Bloody Rose looked through the magnoculars at the place the bat-de would be fought. Her Battle Sisters, the soldiers of the Ecclesiarchy, held a strongpoint of bunkers and trenches surrounding a chemical reclamation plant on the shores of Lake Rapax.
On her left flank were trenches held by the Balurian heavy infantry, well-armoured and well-drilled Guardsmen who could be trusted not to break and leave her Sisters vulnerable. On her right flank was Lake Rapax itself, an expanse of liquid so befouled by pollution that it couldn't be called water any more. Ludmilla commanded the extreme right flank of the defensive line in front of the capital hive, and she had hundreds of Battle Sisters to help her do it. Many considered the Sisters of the Adepta Sororitas to be the most effective troops the Imperium had save for the Space Marines themselves, and with power armour and disciplined bolter fire there were few who could fend off the hordes of Chaos any better.
The plains in front of the capital hive were barren and broken, stained the colour of livid wounds by centuries of pollution, drained and battered until fractured stony desert and dunes of ash were all that remained. In the dim distance foothills rose, framing the much smaller Hive Verdanus, but behind Ludmilla rose the true prize of Volcanis Ultor - Hive Superior, the seat of government for the planet, the system and the Trail.
The battle could be over in moments if the Ordinatus stationed amongst wasteland fringing the hive could home in on the landing enemy forces and send pinpoint salvoes of multiple warheads on top of them. Ludmilla, however, knew it would not happen that way. The attack would be spearheaded by Chaos Marines, the heretics of the Traitor Legions, who would use the speed and strength of all Space Marines to get amongst the defenders before most knew they had even landed. This battle would be won not on the plains but at the range of a bayonet, the attack dragged down and stifled by the ranks of defenders.
Ludmilla looked over her own defences, which had been built in admirable time by drafted hive citizen labourer gangs. The squat, ugly plascrete processing plant formed a bastion that went right up to the edge of the lake itself, and Ludmilla had placed several Retributor support squads on the plant's roof to cover it with heavy bolters and multi-meltas. Two Excorcist missile tanks guarded the sealed gates of the plant and several Sisters squads were in cover around rockcrete defences. They could not enter the plant itself because of the volatile open vats of chemicals, but nothing would get that far.
Around the plant looped long lines of trenches, bristling with razorwire. Rockcrete blocks studded the broken plains in front of the trenches to break up tank assaults, and there were points on the line where these defences had been removed to channel armoured assaults into crossfires from Retributor squads and antitank teams supplied by the Balurians. The Sisters who manned the front trenches could easily fall back into bunkers behind them that still sat in shallow craters where they had been dropped, pre-fabricated, from low orbit when the defences were first being marked out.
To break through, the attackers would have to push through several trenches, then bypass dozens of bunkers. The Balurians had a large body of reserves who could sweep from their own rear lines to meet any assault that got that far, pinning them down so the Sisters could emerge from their bunkers and charge into the attackers from behind.
That was the plan. Plans, as Ludmilla knew as well as anyone, only lasted as long as it took for the first trigger to be pulled. But it would take a massive assault indeed to shatter the line at this, probably its best-held point, where the resolute Sisters formed as impassable a barrier as the toxic waters of Lake Rapax.
Ludmilla watched the Balurians down the line presenting themselves
for inspection to their regimental commissar, a black-uniformed figure who had the authority to execute anyone - man or officer - who was suspected of failing in his duty to the Emperor. Ludmilla could just catch his voice as he barked short speeches at each platoon he inspected. The enemy was coming, he was saying. It would try to take their minds even as it broke their bodies. Any man found wanting when his faith was put to the test would be lucky to get a bullet from his own squad-mates. This was a war of the soul, not just of physical conflict.
Ludmilla closed up the magnoculars and climbed back down the short ladder into the interior of her command bunker. Two of her Celestians, elite Sisters who served as her command squad, stood to attention by the door and Sister Superior Lachryma was waiting to speak with the canoness.
'Canoness,' said Lachryma with a bow of the head. 'The Seraphim are in position.' Lachryma led the Seraphim squads, units of Sisters skilled in hand-to-hand combat who wore jump packs to charge into the thick of the fighting. They would be used as a rapid counterattacking force to charge any enemy getting past the first line of trenches.
'I want priority given to the join in the lines. The Balurians are good but the enemy will exploit the gap.'
'Of course. My Sisters positioned with the Balurians say the Guardsmen are getting nervous.'
'As well they might. Make sure you lead the battle-hymns personally in that sector. The Balurians must hear our example.'
'And... Canoness, may I speak freely?'
'Go on.'
'Inquisitor Valinov's speech has caused some doubt amongst the Guardsmen and, I believe, in the Sisters too. Very few of us have met the Traitor Legions in battle before. The Schola Progenia taught us they didn't exist.'
'Pray that one day, that will be true.' Ludmilla thought for a moment. 'If any of the Balurians ask, let them pray with you. If they break we could be lost.'
'Understood.'
'And Sister?'
