Demon in White

by Christopher Ruocchio

  Heavy bronze doors ground open ahead of me. My shadow—cast by the newly liberated sun—led the way. There are silences and silences, Reader, and they are not the same. So many times I had heard the empty silence of space, or the deep quiet of the wild. They are empty silences. This silence was full. Thousands of faces looked at me from the atrium ahead. There was Lorian, and there Pallino and the warden of the gate. And there was Barda among the Irchtani, their beady eyes and beaked faces mingled with the wide-eyed stares of men. And every one of them was silent.

  Crowds that size are never silent.

  Or never silent long.

  “He’s alive . . .”

  “Did you see?”

  “We all saw, Iorath!”

  “Alive? But how?”

  “That shot should have blown him to atoms . . .”

  “Alive! Alive?”

  “Let me at him!” came the familiar voice, full of relief and raw anger. “I’ll knock his teeth in!” I could not help but smile. Pallino had broken free and came racing out the gateway toward me. I raised my hands, a sign both of greeting and surrender. The big myrmidon seized me by the lapels and shook me. “You absolute whoreson!” he screamed, mere inches from my face. “You fucking lunatic! What the hell was that?” He did not let go.

  Placing my hands on both his wrists, I forced him to release me. “If you’d come with me, Pallino, you’d be dead.”

  “And they say Valka’s the fucking witch, man. Black Earth!” He drew back, shaking his head. “Black fucking Earth . . . did you know it was going to do that?”

  I could not look the man in the eyes. “No. No, I didn’t. I didn’t want you throwing your life away.” Looking past him, I saw Lorian standing beneath the sculpted image of Time. “What’s happening up there?”

  The little man kept a finger on the patch behind his ear to ensure good conduction. “Their worldship just jumped to warp. You must have really rattled them with that stunt of yours.” An evil-looking smile cut across the intus’s bony face. “We did it.”

  “And not a moment too soon,” Pallino said.

  Thinking of the two shots that should have killed me, I said, “They could have come sooner.”

  “Lord Marlowe!” one of the soldiers cried, coming forward. “Is it true?” The fellow came only a little forward, but stopped at the gates and fell to his knees like a man in temple. “Are you the Chosen?”

  It was the same question Renna had asked me when the battle began. The question doubtless on the lips of every man and woman in the hall.

  “Is he the Chosen?”

  “The Chosen?”

  “The Son of Earth!”

  “The God Emperor reborn!

  “The Chosen! The Chosen One is here!”

  My answer did not even matter. Everyone last one of them had seen, had witnessed the confrontation on the plain. No answer of mine could make a difference. No answer at all. I had lost control of my dream. I was Chosen because they believed me to be, whatever the truth may be. That was what the Chantry would say, what they would tell the Emperor.

  I could not hide anymore.

  As if summoned by that thought I looked up to the concourse overlooking the customs stations and saw red hair among the peasant taupe and brown. Alexander caught my eye and held it. There was nothing in his face but cold fear and suspicion. I hung my head, wishing I could be anywhere else, while all around me ten thousand voices rang against the filigreed vaults:

  “The Son of Earth! The Son of Earth! The Son of Earth has come!”

  * * *

  There are endings, Reader, and this is one: a victory . . . and a defeat. A victory because we turned back the Scourge of Earth and its army. A defeat because no victory—no change—comes without loss. A defeat because so many thousands lay dead in the city of Deira and in the skies above it and beneath its Wall. A defeat because thousands more were taken to serve and fodder the Pale armies of the enemy. And a defeat because it cost me my secrecy. As I stood in the shadow of that cyclopean gate, I knew . . .

  . . . there was no going back. My feet were on the path, though whether that path led to a black dome or a day of fire I could not say, and so stood by beneath the hateful gaze of a human prince while his people cheered and called me a living god.

  If what I have done disturbs you, Reader, I do not blame you. If you would read no further, I understand. You have the luxury of foresight. You know where this ends.

  I shall go on alone.

  Dramatis Personae

  THE MEIDUA RED COMPANY

  FOLLOWING HIS INDUCTION INTO the ranks of the Royal Knights Victorian, Hadrian Marlowe’s Red Company entered the service of His Radiance, William XXIII. They served the throne for decades at more than half a dozen battles, including Arae, Cellas, Thagura, Oxiana, and—most famously—at Aptucca, where Hadrian Marlowe slew the Cielcin Prince Ulurani. At its height, the Red Company numbered nearly 100,000 men, mostly plebeian soldiers kept in cryonic fugue aboard the ISV Tamerlane, an Eriel-class battleship. Marlowe’s Red Company is peculiar among companies in the Imperial service, in that its upper echelons were composed primarily of Norman foederati personally loyal to Hadrian himself and not Imperial loyalists, though this changed somewhat with the passage of time.

  Here follows a list of those members of the Red Company mentioned in this third volume of Lord Marlowe’s account:

  LORD HADRIAN ANAXANDER MARLOWE, Royal Knight Victorian, Lord Commandant of the Red Company, Hero of Aptucca. The Halfmortal, the Sun Eater, Starbreaker, Palekiller, Deathless. Notorious genocide responsible for the death of the entire Cielcin species.

  —His paramour, VALKA ONDERRA VHAD EDDA, a Tavrosi demarchist and xenologist interested in the Quiet phenomenon. Scientific advisor to the Red Company.

  —His myrmidons, friends and former coliseum fighters from Emesh:

  —PALLINO OF TRIESTE, chiliarch and Hadrian’s bound armsman. A veteran of the Cielcin Wars, raised to the patrician class. Originally lost his eye in the Battle of Argissa.

  —His paramour, ELARA OF EMESH, quartermaster for the ISV Tamerlane and Hadrian’s bound armsman. Raised to the patrician class.

  —SIRAN OF EMESH, first centurion and Hadrian’s bound armsman. Raised to the patrician class.

  OTAVIA CORVO, captain of the ISV Tamerlane, former Norman mercenary recruited during the Pharos Affair. Possibly a homunculus.

  —Her First Officer, BASTIEN DURAND, commander, former Norman mercenary from Algernon recruited during the Pharos Affair.

  —Her officers:

  —RODERICK HALFORD, commander, the so-called night captain, in charge of running the Tamerlane while the rest of the crew rested in cryonic fugue, the seventh son of a minor palatine lord.

  —LORIAN ARISTEDES, commander and tactical officer for the ISV Tamerlane. The bastard son of the Grand Duke of Patmos and one of his knights, a palatine intus plagued by idiosyncratic pain and connective tissue disorders.

  —KARIM GARONE, called CRIM, lieutenant commander and Security Officer for the ISV Tamerlane, former Norman mercenary recruited during the Pharos affair.

  —His paramour, ILEX, lieutenant commander, ship’s engineer. A dryad homunculus recruited on Monmara.

  —FELIX KOSKINEN, lieutenant and ship’s helmsman. A young palatine officer.

  —ADRIC WHITE, lieutenant and ship’s navigator. A young palatine officer.

  —JULIANA PHERRINE, lieutenant and ship’s communications officer. A young palatine officer.

  —LUANA OKOYO, lieutenant commander and ship’s chief medical officer. Former Norman mercenary recruited during the Pharos affair.

  —TOR VARRO, Chalcenterite scholiast and scientific advisor.

  Certain junior officers:

  —PETROS OF PALLIOCH, CALLISTA OF ALTRIFAE, and DASCALU VOIVANEU, lesser chiliarchs, the latter
of Durantine origin.

  —CADE, DORAN, and ORO, centurions under the command of Pallino of Trieste.

  —CASDON, a lieutenant in the security department on the Tamerlane.

  —MALAG, Siran’s optio and second-in-command.

  Certain enlisted men:

  —BARO, BREDA, TENNER, GAERT, and VIDAN, soldiers under the command of Pallino of Trieste.

  —RENNA, a soldier under the command of Pallino of Trieste.

  —ARDI, an aquilarius.

  —MARTIN, a batman in service to Hadrian Marlowe on the Tamerlane.

  The Irchtani Auxiliary Unit:

  BARDA, kithuun and chiliarch of the unit, an older Irchtani.

  —His first centurion, UDAX, a brash young warrior.

  —His compatriots, GAARAN, IVAR, and LUEN.

  —His subordinate, MORAG.

  THE AVENTINE DYNASTY & THE ETERNAL CITY

  The planet Forum is an oddity: a gas giant, the presence of enormous, membranous creatures called pseudocnidae in the lower atmosphere has led to an enormous amount of nitrogen and carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere. In time, terraforming efforts have made the planet’s air breathable.

  Construction on the Eternal City began early in the sixth millennium under the direction of Emperor Raphael IV while the Empire—and Avalon in particular—was still recovering from the devastation caused by Boniface Grael’s brutal interregnum. The City itself comprises several thousand floating barges, each held up by repulsors and monstrous balloons that float atop the denser air at the bottom of the habitable layer of Forum’s atmosphere. There is no place like it in all the universe. Each successive Emperor has added to its splendor until it sprawls across thousands of miles of open sky, all shielded by a series of cloth sails and Royse shields that protect it from the high-altitude winds. Nearly thirty billion people—nobiles, soldiers, servants, and court functionaries—call the city home, including the bulk of the Imperial family and the Emperor himself (with the rest remaining at the old capital on Avalon or else spread throughout the Imperium).

  Here follows a list of those members of the Imperial Aventine House mentioned in this third volume of Lord Marlowe’s account:

  His Imperial Radiance, the EMPEROR WILLIAM THE TWENTY-THIRD OF THE HOUSE AVENT; Firstborn Son of the Earth; Guardian of the Solar System; King of Avalon; Lord Sovereign of the Kingdom of Windsor-in-Exile; Prince Imperator of the Arms of Orion, of Sagittarius, of Perseus, and Centaurus; Magnarch of Orion; Conqueror of Norma; Grand Strategos of the Legions of the Sun; Supreme Lord of the Cities of Forum; North Star of the Constellations of the Blood Palatine; Defender of the Children of Men; and Servant of the Servants of Earth.

  —His wife, EMPRESS MARIA AGRIPPINA AVENT, Princess of Avalon, Archduchess of Shakespeare, and Mother of Light.

  —Her friend, LADY SIBYLLA, a Jaddian eali noblewoman.

  —Their children:

  —AURELIAN, Crown Prince and firstborn child.

  —IRENE, second-born child.

  —FAUSTINUS, thirteenth-born child. Famously said to resemble Hadrian Marlowe.

  —MATTHIAS, thirty-fourth-born child.

  —RICARD ANCHISES, forty-seventh-born child.

  —PHILIP, fifty-second-born child, a notorious gambler and womanizer.

  —His servant, IRSHAN, a Jaddian Swordsmaster of the Fifth Circle, in the service of PRINCE PHILIP AVENT, formerly the sulshawar protector of the Jaddian PRINCE CONSTANS DU OLANTE.

  —ELEANOR, seventy-seventh-born child.

  —ELARA, seventy-eighth-born child.

  —SELENE, ninety-ninth-born child, potentially betrothed to Hadrian Marlowe.

  —Her handmaids, CYNTHIA, KIRIA, and BAYARA.

  —ALEXANDER, one-hundred-seventh-born child and squire to Sir Hadrian Marlowe.

  —TITANIA, one-hundred-eighteenth-born child.

  —VIVIENNE, one-hundred-twenty-sixth-born child.

  —His ancestor, {KING WILLIAM VII WINDSOR}, called WILLIAM THE ADVENT, the God Emperor, Emperor of Avalon and Eden, Last King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, King-in-Avalon, and Lord Sovereign of the Kingdom of Windsor-in-Exile. The first Sollan Emperor, deified by the Chantry.

  —His predecessor and mother, {TITANIA AUGUSTA III}, whose reign first brought humanity into contact with the Cielcin. Fondly remembered for her hawkish response to the crisis.

  The Imperial Council:

  —PRINCE HECTOR AVENT, Supreme Chancellor of the Imperial Council, Prince of Aeolus, a brother of the EMPEROR.

  —SYLVA, the Chancellor’s secretary.

  —LORD AUGUSTIN BOURBON, Minister of War and member of the Lion Party. Son of the disgraced {PRINCE PHILIPPE BOURBON}, who attempted to usurp the rights of his late brother, {PRINCE LOUIS LIV}.

  —SIR LORCAN BREATHNACH, patrician, Director of the Legion Intelligence Office.

  —SIR FRIEDRICH OBERLIN, a junior functionary in the Legion Intelligence Office and possible member of the Halfmortal mystery cult.

  —SIR GRAY RINEHART, a logothete in the Legion Intelligence Office.

  —His cousin, PRINCE CHARLES LIV BOURBON, Lord of Verehaut, King of France, Duke of Anjou, Lion of Earth.

  —LORD ALLANDER PEAKE, Minister of Justice, a member of the Lion Party.

  —LORD PETER HABSBURG, Minister of Works, a member of the Lion Party.

  —LADY LEDA ASCANIA, Minister of Public Enlightenment, a member of the Lion Party.

  —LORD HAREN BULSARA, Director of the Colonial Office, a member of the Lion Party.

  —LADY MIANA HARTNELL, Minister of Welfare.

  —LORD NOLAN CORDWAINER, Minister of Revenue.

  —LORD CASSIAN POWERS, Special Advisor on the Cielcin Question and Baron of Ashbless. The so-called Avenger of Cressgard, formerly a strategos in the Legions who led humanity to their first victory against the Cielcin in the Second Battle of Cressgard. A member of the Lion Party.

  —His Holy Wisdom, VERGILIAN XIII, Synarch of the Holy Terran Chantry, First-Among-Equals of the Synod and the Choir, Grand Prior of Forum, Metropolitan High Priest of the Eternal City, and Speaker for the Vanished Earth.

  Unnamed members of the Council:

  —The LORD MINISTER OF RITES.

  —The DIRECTOR OF THE HOME OFFICE, a member of the Lion Party.

  Also in the Eternal City:

  The GRAND INQUISITOR, a chief investigator of the Holy Office in Forum system.

  —Her subordinate, GEREON, an Inquisitor.

  PRINCE MARIUS HOHENZOLLERN, Lord of Swabian Prime, King of the Germans, King of Prussia and Brandenburg. A member of the Lion Party.

  —His wife, PRINCESS WILHELMINA HOHENZOLLERN.

  CARAX OF ARAMIS, a common legionnaire, veteran of the Battles of Aptucca and Hermonassa.

  —His superior officer, {PETER THAILLES}, decurion, killed in the Battle of Hermonassa.

  LORD ANDREW CURZON, a minor lord of House Curzon of Dhaka.

  MANN, FEDER, CAMBIAS, CARRICO, MASSA, and GANNON, military officers and members of the War Ministry’s offices on Forum.

  ON GODODDIN

  The planet Gododdin has been of strategic importance to the Sollan Empire’s Colonial Office since humanity first began expanding into the Centaurus Arm of the galaxy. The Gododdin system lies midway between the Sagittarius and Centaurus Arms, in the midst of the great Sullen Gulf—an island on the otherwise decades-long route through empty space to the nearest settled system, making it an important trade hub and military base. For this reason, it has remained under direct control of the Sollan Emperor, who appoints a governor-general to oversee the territory. It is famous for the role it played in the Cielcin Wars, where it was the site of Emperor William XXIII’s last stand against the combined forces of the alien invaders—and the site of Hadrian Marlowe’s great
and terrible victory.

  Here follows a list of those persons appearing on Gododdin in this third volume of Lord Marlowe’s account:

  LORD NICHOLAS AVENT, Governor-General of Gododdin, a cousin of the Emperor.

  SIR AMALRIC OSMAN, Lord Castellan of Fort Din, supreme commander of the legionary forces in the Gododdin system.

  —His Officers:

  —RUAN INSEN, Strategos, Commandant of an orbital hospital and deployment station.

  —MAHENDRA VERUS, Captain of the ISV Mintaka.

  —CORNELIUS ELDAN, Captain of the ISV Pride of Zama.

  —WEN ADINA, Captain of the ISV Cyrusene.

  —MAGNUS YANEK, Captain of the ISV Androzani.

  LODGE, a prisoner.

  ON COLCHIS

  Colchis is the primary moon of the planet SAG-8813D, colloquially known as Atlas. Human settlement on Colchis goes back to the fifth millennium ISD, following the Hundred Year Terror, in which House Avent was removed from the throne by Boniface the Pretender. In the wake of that civil war, the newly reinstated Emperor Gabriel II ordered the Imperial Archives moved from Avalon to the newly minted colony of Colchis, then a remote military outpost. Ever since, it has been the site of the Imperial Great Library and maintained by the scholiasts. Despite this crucial function, the rest of Colchis has remained relatively undeveloped, its human settlements scattered wildly across the planet’s many little islands. Large-scale settlement of the moon is forbidden by Imperial decree, and those not living in the Library and in the capital city of Aea are mostly descended from those few settlers whose presence on Colchis predated the construction of the Library.

  Here follows a list of those persons appearing on Colchis in this third volume of Lord Marlowe’s account:

  TOR ARRIAN, formerly LORD MARCUS AVENT, a cousin of the Emperor. Primate of Nov Belgaer athenaeum and master of the Imperial Library.