The Cost of Command

Home > Other > The Cost of Command > Page 4
The Cost of Command Page 4

by Sandy Mitchell


  Twisting the trapped arm, Lanthus prepared to strike down with his shard, but Aldwyn was too quick. Just as the razor-sharp crystal kissed his flesh, raising an amber welt across his ribcage which burst through the rent in his tunic, he grabbed Lanthus’ leg and threw him. Lanthus crashed to the ground and rolled away, making distance from his opponent. Both men scrambled to their feet, their shards glittering in the diffuse glow from the stars above.

  ‘You were wise not to accept first blood,’ Lanthus taunted, then hurled himself back into the fray.

  Goaded, Aldwyn charged again, all caution forgotten, intent only on bringing down his enemy. Lanthus evaded easily, feeling Emperor and primarch alike at his back, sure now that their judgement would be with him. He kicked out, shattering Aldwyn’s nose, and sending him sprawling, then moved in for the coup de grace. His shard was in his hand, and he raised it, bringing it down in a short, terminal arc, burying it to the hilt in Aldwyn’s throat.

  This time, the collective gasp of his battle-brothers was louder; no enemies of the Emperor, or horrors of the warp, could dismay these hardened warriors, but the spectacle of fratricide struck at the heart of all they believed in. Numb disbelief overtook Lanthus, at the sight of a fellow Astral Knight’s life blood pouring over his own fingers. Then pain flared as his kneecap shattered, and he fell heavily, the mortally wounded Aldwyn lashing out with the last of his ebbing strength. Before Lanthus could block it, Aldwyn stabbed his shard into the exposed nerve point he’d tried to attack before. White agony coruscated through Lanthus, paralysing his left side, and he fell heavily to the sand.

  ‘The judgement of Emperor and primarch is clear,’ the Chapter Master said, his voice carrying easily across the silent arena. ‘Brother-sergeant Lanthus is exonerated.’

  Feet crunched on the carpet of blood-flecked crystals. Lanthus turned his head, expecting to see the Apothecary approaching to tend him, but to his surprise he looked up into the shadowed eyes of Chapter Master Amhrad himself.

  ‘My lord.’ He tried to rise, but his shattered body refused to obey him. He looked round. Beves, Prius and Kurtin, the last survivors of the squad he’d inherited, were waiting on the fringes of the arena, though whether to tend to him or mourn Aldwyn, he couldn’t tell. But no one would approach the fallen combatants while the Chapter Master wished to have words with the survivor.

  ‘Your first taste of command has cost you much,’ Amhrad said quietly. ‘Half your squad. And the taint of fratricide can never be expunged.’

  Lanthus was silent for a moment. ‘We beat the greenskins,’ he said at last. ‘Any sacrifice is acceptable if the stakes are high enough. Aldwyn should have realised that.’

  ‘Indeed.’ For a moment the Chapter Master seemed lost in thought. ‘And your honour?’

  Lanthus didn’t hesitate. ‘An acceptable loss,’ he replied.

  About the Author

  Sandy Mitchell is the author of a long-running series of Warhammer 40,000 novels about the hero of the Imperium, Commissar Ciaphas Cain. The most recent book in that series is The Greater Good, and there is also the audio drama Dead In The Water. He has written a plethora of short stories, including 'The Last Man' in the Sabbat Worlds anthology, along with several novels set in the Warhammer world. He lives and works in Cambridge.

  A Space Marine Battles novel – The Astral Knights Chapter take on an apocalyptic necron super-weapon.

  A BLACK LIBRARY PUBLICATION

  Published in 2015 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.

  Produced by Games Workshop in Nottingham.

  The Cost of Command © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2015. The Cost of Command, GW, Games Workshop, Black Library, The Horus Heresy, The Horus Heresy Eye logo, Space Marine, 40K, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, the ‘Aquila’ Double-headed Eagle logo, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world.

  All Rights Reserved.

  A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN: 978-1-78572-175-5

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  See Black Library on the internet at

  blacklibrary.com

  Find out more about Games Workshop’s world of Warhammer and the Warhammer 40,000 universe at

  games-workshop.com

  eBook license

  This license is made between:

  Games Workshop Limited t/a Black Library, Willow Road, Lenton, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, United Kingdom (“Black Library”); and

  (2) the purchaser of an e-book product from Black Library website (“You/you/Your/your”)

  (jointly, “the parties”)

  These are the terms and conditions that apply when you purchase an e-book (“e-book”) from Black Library. The parties agree that in consideration of the fee paid by you, Black Library grants you a license to use the e-book on the following terms:

  * 1. Black Library grants to you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free license to use the e-book in the following ways:

  o 1.1 to store the e-book on any number of electronic devices and/or storage media (including, by way of example only, personal computers, e-book readers, mobile phones, portable hard drives, USB flash drives, CDs or DVDs) which are personally owned by you;

  o 1.2 to access the e-book using an appropriate electronic device and/or through any appropriate storage media; and

  * 2. For the avoidance of doubt, you are ONLY licensed to use the e-book as described in paragraph 1 above. You may NOT use or store the e-book in any other way. If you do, Black Library shall be entitled to terminate this license.

  * 3. Further to the general restriction at paragraph 2, Black Library shall be entitled to terminate this license in the event that you use or store the e-book (or any part of it) in any way not expressly licensed. This includes (but is by no means limited to) the following circumstances:

  o 3.1 you provide the e-book to any company, individual or other legal person who does not possess a license to use or store it;

  o 3.2 you make the e-book available on bit-torrent sites, or are otherwise complicit in ‘seeding’ or sharing the e-book with any company, individual or other legal person who does not possess a license to use or store it;

  o 3.3 you print and distribute hard copies of the e-book to any company, individual or other legal person who does not possess a license to use or store it;

  o 3.4 you attempt to reverse engineer, bypass, alter, amend, remove or otherwise make any change to any copy protection technology which may be applied to the e-book.

  * 4. By purchasing an e-book, you agree for the purposes of the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 that Black Library may commence the service (of provision of the e-book to you) prior to your ordinary cancellation period coming to an end, and that by purchasing an e-book, your cancellation rights shall end immediately upon receipt of the e-book.

  * 5. You acknowledge that all copyright, trademark and other intellectual property rights in the e-book are, shall remain, the sole property of Black Library.

  * 6. On termination of this license, howsoever effected, you shall immediately and permanently delete all copies of the e-book from your computers and storage media, and shall destroy all hard copies of the e-book which you have derived from the e-book.

  * 7. Black Library shall be entitled to amend these terms and conditions from time to time by written notice to you.

  * 8. These terms and conditions shall be governed by English law, and shall be subject only to the jurisdiction of the Courts in England and Wales.

  * 9. I
f any part of this license is illegal, or becomes illegal as a result of any change in the law, then that part shall be deleted, and replaced with wording that is as close to the original meaning as possible without being illegal.

  * 10. Any failure by Black Library to exercise its rights under this license for whatever reason shall not be in any way deemed to be a waiver of its rights, and in particular, Black Library reserves the right at all times to terminate this license in the event that you breach clause 2 or clause 3.

 

 

 


‹ Prev