Part 21 (1/2)

a”For Home and the Throne!a” the soldiers chorused. Zailena's recital of the Litany of Courage continued, muted but audible, in the background of the general vox channel.

a”For Home and the Throne,a” Thade echoed. a”The Emperor protects. Now move out.a”

The monastery was cold and dead, which surprised no one. Yet the silence was still unnerving. Booted footfalls echoed strangely through the cavernous halls, all sound bouncing from the skeletal architecture while stern-faced and disfigured statues of saints, angels and Astartes peered down from their alcoves.

Thade had given the four remaining members of Dead Mana's Hand a choice: remain outside with the tanks or abandon their Sentinels and join the rest of the regiment. To a man, theya'd voted to remain in their walkers. Thade had given them a final salute before entering the monasterya's towering double doors. The regiment knew the chances of the Sentinels surviving out there alone were too slim to contemplate. Only the fact every man knew he was marching to almost certain death under the monastery prevented them from seeking to dissuade the walker pilots.

a”Ia'll let them die how they wish,a” Thade had said. a”Theya'll kill more of the Archenemya's host if theya're sat in their Sentinels.a”

a”We need everyone that can still carry a weapon!a” Tionenji insisted.

a”Four pistols will make no difference,a” Thade shook his head. a”They stay and die how they wish to die. They stay and fight however they choose. This conversation is over.a”

Now the 88th advanced through the ruined cathedral, the occasional gunshot blasting out to silence a stray plague-slain that shambled through the empty halls. Over the vox, Zailen spoke on, now reciting the Litany of Defiance in the Face of the End. His voice grew fainter as time pa.s.sed.

a”The vox-link is getting weaker. And choppy. I can barely hear Zailen,a” Darrick said.

Thade nodded. He didna't have it in him to play along with the lie. Neither did Master Sergeant Jevrian, but he didna't stay silent on the matter.

a”Hea's breathing his last, joker. Dona't s.h.i.+ne it up for smiles.a” The Kasrkin leader tossed aside an empty gla.s.s vial, and tensed his hand into a fist a few times. a”Thata's better.a”

a”Did you just gland something?a” Darrick asked, his irritation rising. Cadian regulation discouraged all use of combat drugs, and Thade was especially hard on those he found indulging. With the temporary boost to reflexes and strength from most combat narcotics, came unreliability and dangerous side-effects. Stimm abuse might be common in other regiments, but it was rare in the Shock.

a”Shut your whine-hole.a”

a”Go to h.e.l.l, stimm junkie,a” Darrick snapped.

a”Ban,a” Thade turned to him and stopped walking. a”Is that frenzon?a”

a”Like it matters if it is?a”

There was a click and the nearby hum of a charged weapon. Jevrian flicked his glance to the left, where Commissar Tionenji was holding his laspistol to Bana's temple.

a”Be a good little soldier and answer the captain, you shaved ape,a” Tionenji warned. Thade shared a look with the commissar. He was pleased; this was almost the first thing Tionenji had said in the hours since their confrontation, and the first signs of the atmosphere thawing between them. Still, this was hardly ideal a”Naw, ita's not frenzon,a” Jevrian growled.

a”This isna't some penal legion, and youa're not a Catachan jungle thug who gets to gland combat drugs that are forbidden in the Primer.a” Thade was as close to angry as Darrick and the others had ever seen him.

a”Is this a Ten-Ninety, sir?a” asked the commissar.

a”That depends. Is that frenzon, Jevrian?a”

a”A Ten-Ninety? For glanding stimms? I already said it wasna't b.l.o.o.d.y frenzon.a”

a”So what is it?a” Thade asked. a”I wona't have that c.r.a.p in my regiment, Kasrkin. Wea're all better than that.a”

a”Dying with dignity is awfully important to the Cap,a” Darrick interjected.

a”Shut up, Taan.a”

a”Shutting up, sir.a”

a”Listen,a” Jevrian said, reaching up to lower Tionenjia's pistol with his brutishly large hand. a”Ita's not frenzon or satrophine, we clear? Throne in flames, dona't we have a job to do? Therea's still a war on, last time I checked. Ita's just a c.o.c.ktail of a”slaught with a little downer to stay sharp. Reflex juice.a”

The captain let it slide. As the command team moved on, Jevrian walked next to Thade.

a”That was some fine loyalty you showed me there, hero. Next time the Garades.h.i.+ has his gun pointed at your face, I might not leap to your defence.a”

a”Get over it,a” Thade said. a”You were in the wrong then, too.a”

a”Ia'll remember that.a” Jevrian fell back into line with his Kasrkin. a”Ia'll remember that, captain.a”

Seth was hearing the voice with astonis.h.i.+ng clarity now.

And that was the problem. It was coming from everywhere now, from the dust on the ground, from the bloodstains on the walls, from the pores of his sweating skin.

The inquisitor trailed his every step now. Seth knew what this was about a- they needed him to find the source of the voice. It was obvious. But as Thadea's small army descended down the wide stone stairs into the undercroft, he knew they were setting their hopes on a false path. He couldna't make out any sense of place or direction in the voicea's ululating scream. Even with his senses opened wide to the hidden world, all he could feel was the illusory sensation of unseen fingernails scratching lightly at his mind.

He began to wonder after a while if the feeling was really just an illusion. A taste appeared in his mouth, raw and rancid and tingling on his tongue like burning copper. He was stronger than this. He knew it. He could listen for the voice and remain untainted. Caius did, didna't he? Zaur had?

Seth placed one foot in front of the other, at times shambling forward like one of the plague-slain and remaining upright only by gripping his black staff. He felt their eyes on him Thadea's, Caiusa', the b.a.s.t.a.r.d Jevriana's.

They didna't care if he died. Whatever it took to get their prize. Whatever it took to reach the crashed s.h.i.+p. Here he was, swallowing the taste of blood and trying not to choke on it, while they silently willed him on with smiles on their faces.

He could, he realised, kill them if he wished. Within that realisation was a flare of shame, quickly quenched in Setha's rising anger. Cadian Blood, the fuel of the Imperium Born to die in service to the Throne. It was laughable, Seth realised. Laughable and grossly wrong.

d.a.m.n the Throne. The Throne was a meat-grinding engine feeding on the souls of those that wasted their lives wors.h.i.+pping it. d.a.m.n the Throne. To the Eye with all of them for wis.h.i.+ng me dead.

They were in a vault with a ceiling so low many of the taller soldiers had to slouch as they walked. It helped the popular opinion that the entire cathedral, raised over several decades of toil by tens of thousands of workers, was thrown together more by faith than sensible design.

As Seth pa.s.sed between rows of stone sarcophagi, each one adorned with golden decoration and bearing long-faded names carved into the stone, the Cadians detected a curious noise.

a”You hear that?a” Thade asked Caius.

The inquisitor nodded, gesturing to the sarcophagus closest to Setha's trailing coat. As Thade pa.s.sed it, he heard a- something inside, something made of dry bones, furiously scratching to get out a-

something within. An eerie sound, like vermin running over stone.

a”Tell me thata's the rats,a” he said to Caius, loudly enough for the men nearby to hear.

a”Ita's the rats,a” the inquisitor replied, not looking back.

From that point on, Tionenji followed Seth with his laspistol drawn.