Penitent

by Dan Abnett

‘I don’t dispute the extent of the danger,’ Gideon replied. ‘But there may still be less heavy-handed ways of denying it. In the space of a month I might yet–’

  Dry, wire-on-velvet words interrupted him.

  ‘A week,’ said Gideon. ‘Very well. If that’s all you will compromise. I am disappointed. I fear our relationship will not be the same afterwards, and that is lamentable. You have few friends on my side of the line. I trust you will not break your word.’

  They did not respond. And then, they were suddenly not there any more.

  I started slightly. Their departure had not been visible. They had simply, silently, vanished.

  ‘Do not be concerned,’ said Gideon. ‘They were a projected telepresence. Pyskanically manifested thought-forms.’

  ‘I could smell them,’ I said. ‘I still can.’

  ‘Their visitations are precise and fully sensory,’ he said. ‘Asuryani technology–’

  ‘That’s not what concerns me,’ I said, turning to him, and stepping more fully into the room. ‘This is what delayed you? Why you abandoned me to conclude the business at Stanchion House?’

  ‘Yes, Beta. The envoys made contact some short while after you set out. One does not deny a formal request for audience from ambassadors of the Ancient Empire. Especially when affairs are so critically balanced.’

  The Chair turned slowly to face me.

  ‘But that is not what concerns you either,’ he said.

  Mam Mordaunt’s stern advice was still in the forefront of my mind, but even without it, I would have been sorely troubled.

  ‘You consort with xenos kind,’ I said.

  ‘Consort is a charged word,’ he said.

  ‘Whatever word you care to use, it seems ill-judged,’ I replied. ‘It seems in conflict with your station and office.’

  ‘We have had this conversation,’ he said. ‘Inquisitors are obliged to bend the rules.’

  ‘We have had the conversation indeed, but never to any satisfactory conclusion. The very basis of your pursuit of Eisenhorn was that he had transgressed. Yet you are capable of significant transgression too.’

  ‘Are you suggesting hypocrisy?’ he asked. ‘Beta, the judgement against Gregor was the Ordos’ not mine.’

  ‘Yet you upheld it, and acted upon it.’

  ‘For greater ends–’

  ‘So you claim,’ I said. ‘You told me yourself that your pursuit of Eisenhorn was in part an attempt to regain the favour of the Ordos. Because, clearly, you were in some disgrace. Due to unwise associations, it would seem.’

  ‘The aeldari are categorised as enemies of mankind,’ he said. ‘Certainly their goals and ambitions are not entirely compatible with ours. But there is overlap. Their conatus is not always at odds with our own, their enemies are often our enemies too. Early in my career, I encountered agents of the empire, and we bonded over mutual interests. I am not prepared to make an account of those dealings to you, but the outcome was of lasting benefit to humanity. Things were accomplished and threats turned back. I do not regret ­brokering that cooperation. And the cordial bonds of respect established back then have endured.’

  I admit I felt betrayed. It felt as though I had discovered a trusted family member had been conducting a torrid affair.

  ‘I have not had dealings with them for many years,’ Gideon said. ‘Many years, Beta. As you remark, the Inquisition looks unfavourably on such connections and I am required to conduct myself without blemish. But the aeldari made contact with me yesterday–’

  ‘Matters on Sancour have now reached such a dire pitch, even the xenos kind are forced to become involved,’ I said. ‘Yes, this much I have learned for myself.’

  ‘Really?’ He seemed intrigued.

  ‘I have been told as much. Shown as much.’

  ‘By whom? I would know more of this. What did you achieve at the port? Clearly, it was fraught.’

  ‘I located Eusebe dea Mordaunt, and learned a number of things from her. She was willing to cooperate, to a degree. But we were surprised, and I don’t know if she is now living or dead. Saur certainly is dead. Lightburn is currently watching over some significant interests that I believe will be revelatory, while I attend you, according to your summons. I have left my work unfinished. And you left me to finish it. It was indeed fraught.’

  ‘I had no choice,’ he said.

  ‘I believe you always have choices,’ I replied.

  ‘The aeldari contacted me when you were already on your way,’ he said. I could tell I had annoyed him a little. ‘They did so as a courtesy to me, in light of our history. The contact was urgent and, besides, it is unwise to rebuff the formal overtures of their kind.’

  ‘So you left me to it?’

  ‘I told you that you were quite at liberty to disengage.’

  ‘So were you.’

  ‘He’s spent the last day and a half in audience with their envoys,’ said Kara. She had entered the room behind me. ‘Six meetings, like this one, some of them lasting hours.’

  ‘There were delicate matters to negotiate that could not have waited,’ said Gideon.

  ‘Even though all of your own people are clearly bothered by this interaction?’ I asked. I looked at Kara. She had none of Kys’ anger or disgust, but the worry in her was clear.

  ‘Eltahec. Ulthwé. Nyatho. Alaitoc. Olhn-Tann,’ he said.

  ‘Xenos words,’ I snapped. ‘What are you saying?’

  ‘The envoys communicated to me that their kind has become increasingly aware of the King’s activities,’ Gideon said. ‘Over the last few years, their concerns have grown, to the point where they have classified him Iyanic Kaelas, which means an object that must be vanquished. What we might term a Priority Alpha threat. They have tracked him to this quadrant, and have begun operations against him. But they hoped, it is clear to me, that we would deal with it.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because the threat originates from our territories, and thus lies in our jurisdiction. They were reluctant to embark upon action that would risk the fragile peace between empires.’

  ‘They don’t want to provoke an open war with the Imperium?’

  ‘They do not.’

  ‘Did not, rather,’ I said. ‘They have run out of patience, haven’t they?’

  ‘They believe the threat is greater than we have assessed, and they are despondent at the progress the Imperium is making in its efforts to contain it. They believe we have badly underestimated the danger. Thus they feel they are obliged to undertake their own measures, despite the risk of war. Eltahec. Ulthwé. Nyatho. Alaitoc. Olhn-Tann.’

  ‘Again, those words–’

  ‘They are the names of craftworlds, Beta. Five craftworlds, currently converging on the Sancour region. An unprecedented assembly of aeldari strength in peacetime. They are about to unleash their combined wrath upon the Sancour System.’

  ‘This world is going to die?’

  ‘This entire system is likely to die,’ he said. ‘And whatever the outcome, whatever the success of their sanctioning assault, it is likely to trigger an era of savage and widescale hostilities with the aeldari.’

  ‘If they would risk that, then the King in Yellow’s menace must be very great indeed,’ said Kara quietly.

  ‘They gave you a week’s grace,’ I said to Gideon.

  ‘I asked for a month–’

  ‘And they gave you a week. They seem to set little store by your past association.’

  ‘A week was a gain, the result of long negotiation. They were intent on commencing deployment tomorrow. And notifying me was a courtesy anyway–’

  ‘Not a great deal of courtesy,’ I suggested.

  ‘It is decided,’ he replied. ‘What was urgent is now imperative. All secondary investigations are suspended. We will move immediately, and with singular purpose, to affect an entry
to the King’s realm via the King Door.’

  ‘I do not believe that is viable,’ I said. ‘I have told you this repeatedly. I don’t believe it is viable or survivable.’

  ‘And your opinion has been noted,’ he said. ‘This is my decision.’

  ‘Sir, I believe I am on the verge of finding an alternative means of entering–’

  ‘The verge is not close enough, Beta,’ Gideon said. ‘Not any more. I commend you for the efforts you’ve made and the work you’ve done. There is no longer any time for speculation or enquiry.’

  At that moment, I was going to tell him directly of the startling notion that had come to me on my way there. But I hesitated. I was not withholding, but I had reservations. Yet again, I felt my trust in him was tested. He had professed openness from the start, but in too many small ways he had not been straight with me. He had shared my thoughts without permission, he had abandoned a plan and left me alone without a word of explanation. His connection to the xenos aeldari had been a bitter blow. He was too often closed to me. This, I reflected, was only to be expected. He was the inquisitor and I was but his associate. I accepted that. His were the decisions to make, and his orders were mine to follow. My notion would require time to be assessed and tested, and he would not tolerate further delay.

  Yet still I felt, as a certainty, he was making a mistake, an error of judgement forced upon him by circumstances. So I drew a breath, and decided to risk his anger by telling him anyway.

  But then someone spoke for me.

  ‘I think you should listen to her, Gideon.’

  The voice came from the doorway behind me. I turned.

  It was Eisenhorn.

  CHAPTER 28

  There is ruthless, and there is them

  I felt the Chair’s weapon systems begin to charge.

  Eisenhorn made a vague gesture with his hand.

  ‘Let’s not, shall we, Gideon?’ he said. ‘I haven’t come to fight.’

  ‘I am required by order to detain you as Extremis Diabolus,’ Ravenor replied.

  ‘Then we will curtail such disagreement,’ said Eisenhorn.

  The floor in front of Ravenor’s chair bubbled and blistered briefly as something retched up out of the ground in a gust of smoke. It unfurled from the molten flagstones like a banner.

  The daemonhost Cherubael manifested before Ravenor, chains trailing, steam fuming off his taut flesh.

  ‘Hello, little thing,’ he said to Ravenor, his smile all teeth. ‘Would you like to try me?’

  The doors at the far end of the chamber burst open, little slivers of wood flying off the sheared latch. The vast and shadowed shape of Deathrow stood in the doorway, aiming a boltgun at the Chair. I saw the red dot of the targeting system settle, steady, on the Chair’s armoured skin. Deathrow’s mangy cattle dog trotted in beside his master, and stood, teeth bared, a low mumbling growl issuing from its throat.

  Kara, displaying immense courage in the face of all this, started to move, her hand reaching for the gun in her rig. She stopped quickly as she felt the muzzle of a weapon brush the back of her head.

  Medea had entered silently behind Eisenhorn. She held a Glavian needlegun in her red-gloved hand, pressed to Kara’s skull.

  ‘Please don’t move, Kara,’ she said. Kara clenched her jaw and slowly raised her hands.

  Medea looked at me. I hadn’t moved at all.

  ‘Hello, Beta,’ she said.

  ‘I thought you were gone,’ I said to her, but to Eisenhorn too. My throat was tight. My hands were shaking.

  ‘I am so sorry about that,’ said Medea. ‘So very sorry.’

  ‘There’s one more,’ said Eisenhorn, apparently not sorry at all. He stepped aside as Kys walked in from the hall. Her face wore quite the most murderous expression I have ever seen. Her fingers were laced across the back of her head.

  Nayl walked behind her, nudging her in the spine with the barrel of his lasgun.

  ‘She’s contained,’ he said to Eisenhorn. Nayl glanced at me, a bleak and apologetic look.

  It hadn’t been the aeldari at all. This was the moment he had warned me of. This betrayal was the thing he had begged me not to react to, because it would make me angry.

  He had been right.

  ‘How long?’ I asked him. ‘Since the start?’

  Nayl seemed about to answer, but Eisenhorn cut him off.

  ‘That’s not the conversation we’re here to have,’ he said. ‘Get over your feelings. There’s more at stake. That applies to all of you.’

  He looked at the Chair.

  ‘Gideon, you could still resist. I know that. But understand it will be your people who suffer if you do. So… We’ll open a dialogue.’

  ‘If you wanted to talk,’ said Ravenor, ‘there were less confrontational ways of achieving that. And countless prior opportunities.’

  ‘Actually, there weren’t,’ said Eisenhorn. His clothes and boots were scuffed and dusty, as though he had been through recent, rough travails. He walked, quite casually, across the wide drawing room, apparently oblivious to the tense stand-off, slid a farthingale chair out from under a corner table, and sat on it with his back to the panelled wall.

  ‘I know you, Gideon,’ he said. ‘Too well. I know the orders you’re saddled with. If I’d shown my face, you’d have been obliged to act.’

  ‘I still am,’ said Ravenor.

  ‘You are, but this is a more propitious moment. We need to work together. We should have been working together from the moment you got here. But you are a resistant bastard. So I had to engineer a way we could collaborate without you realising it.’

  ‘Bequin,’ said Ravenor.

  ‘Yes, Bequin,’ Eisenhorn replied. ‘Oh, she had no idea. No blame can be attached. But I had to get her in with you in a way that couldn’t be questioned.’

  ‘To learn what I knew?’

  ‘And to share what I knew,’ said Eisenhorn. ‘We both had pieces of the puzzle, incomplete and useless. Through her, they could be fitted together.’

  ‘You got the book to Dance?’ he asked me.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Translation?’

  ‘Another few hours.’

  Eisenhorn’s gaze returned to Ravenor.

  ‘You see?’ he said. ‘More progress than either one of us has managed in years. And you have a way in, too? A way into the extimate realm?’

  Ravenor did not respond.

  ‘Potentially,’ said Nayl. ‘Not a good one. Hazardous, to any mortal.’

  ‘I have a daemonhost and an Astartes,’ said Eisenhorn, ‘so I bring that to the table. We should discuss strategy.’

  ‘We should?’ Ravenor began. His voice trailed off. If he had possessed any capacity for human affect, I am sure he would have been shaking his head and laughing in bitter disbelief.

  ‘Let me rephrase,’ said Eisenhorn. ‘This is a fleeting chance to set aside the pathetic game we are playing and do something of significance. I would like you all onside. Kara, Patience… and you, Gideon. So let’s discuss how that may be achieved.’

  Ravenor didn’t reply. Kara glanced at the Chair nervously. Kys glared at the floor.

  Eisenhorn sighed. He looked at Kara.

  ‘Will you talk some sense into him?’ he requested.

  She shook her head.

  ‘For Throne’s sake, Swole.’ Eisenhorn sniffed. ‘You’re not stupid.’

  ‘I am not,’ Kara replied. She looked Eisenhorn in the eyes, something very few people were bold enough to do. ‘I do as he instructs. I see the merit of what you suggest, if your word can be trusted. But I act on his command. No other.’

  Eisenhorn frowned. I wondered if he was not slightly impressed. He turned his attention to Kys.

  ‘No point asking you, I suppose?’ he said.

  ‘None at all,’ she replie
d.

  ‘Thought so.’

  ‘But I have a suggestion,’ she added.

  ‘Which is?’

  Kys stared at him, and slowly unlaced her fingers and lowered her arms.

  ‘You could die,’ she said.

  Telekine force smashed Nayl backwards into the hall. His lasgun tumbled in mid-air and flew directly into Kys’ waiting hands as though drawn by wires. Her kine blades were already streaking like bullets towards Eisenhorn’s face.

  Eisenhorn did not move. He remained seated, almost at ease. The whistling blades parted at the last moment, diverted to either side of Eisenhorn’s head, and speared the wall panels behind him. Kys froze, her body locked, unable to fire her captured weapon.

  ‘No,’ said Ravenor. ‘Not like this.’

  Kys moaned, paralysed.

  ‘Not like this, Patience,’ Ravenor repeated. Deathrow’s target dot was now painting Kys’ temple. The daemonhost put his hand around her throat, ready to squeeze. Medea took Nayl’s lasgun from Kys’ rigid grip.

  ‘Is that a choice made, then?’ Eisenhorn said to Ravenor. ‘A decision?’

  ‘If everyone stands down,’ said Ravenor. ‘I mean everyone.’

  Eisenhorn stared at him for a moment, then nodded.

  Medea lowered her pistol. Cherubael uttered a disappointed whimper, let go of Kys, and drifted away towards the ceiling. The red dot flicked off, and Deathrow put up his weapon.

  ‘As equals, or not at all,’ said Ravenor. He released Kys from the psykanic vice he had seized her in, and she fell forward with a gasp.

  ‘Help her, Beta,’ said Ravenor. I was moving to Kys anyway. She tried to shake me off, but she was too weak. I got her into a chair. Medea holstered her weapon, and went into the hall to check on Nayl.

  ‘Funny,’ I said, ‘through all of that, you never asked me.’

  Eisenhorn looked at me.

  ‘What?’

  ‘You never asked me which side I would stand on.’

  ‘I…’ he began, then regarded me with an even deeper frown, as though the question quite confused him.

  ‘Did you stage it?’ I asked.

  ‘Stage…?’