Hammer of Daemons (Grey Knights Book 3) by Ben Counter

Author:Ben Counter [Counter, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2011-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

Alaric awoke on a pinnacle of rock standing high over a raging ocean. He did not recognise this world. Perhaps it was another part of the same planet that Raezazel had created in his mind.

‘Do you see what they do to you?’ said Raezazel. The daemon was standing behind Alaric. Alaric stood up, and Raezazel took flight, hovering over him. ‘Do you ever put down your implements of death long enough to realise?’

‘End this witchcraft!’ shouted Alaric. The wind whipped around his ears, sharp with the taste of the sea, and stole his words away.

‘What is a man,’ said Raezazel, ‘if he means nothing to his fellow men? If he is an island, cut off from all others? What kind of an existence is this, Alaric? Everyone you trust, everyone who trusts you, dies. It is a death sentence. Look at what they made of you.’

Alaric looked down over the edge of the pinnacle. Slick rock receded all the way to the battered shore. This was the tip of a barren peninsula, devoid of life. Alaric was completely alone.

‘I offer you a human life,’ said Raezazel, ‘a real one.’

‘I need only to know that my duty is done!’

‘When will that be? When all of Chaos is gone and the warp extinguished? Such a thing cannot be, and you know it as well as I do. What is the point of fighting a battle that cannot end, when the sacrifice you make is everything that makes a human what he is? A human life, Alaric, happiness, fulfilment. I show you now what you are. Let me show you what you can be, free of your Imperium, free of the duties you cannot fulfil. Let me show you contentment.’

‘Burn, daemon. Pick your hell and stew there.’

‘Was there ever a prisoner who so loved the bars that kept him captive? Let go of this, Alaric. All that sets you apart. No man can expect to be more than human. Give up on that dream and live.’

Raezazel was right. Alaric was completely alone, set apart from the human race he was sworn to defend.

He looked once at his reflection and accepted that it was a small price to pay. Every servant of humanity had to make a sacrifice to their duty. This was Alaric’s.

Alaric looked up at Raezazel. Then he stepped off the edge of the pinnacle and fell.

He plunged into the ocean, and the ocean became air. It was a void without light or substance, only the wind in his ears.

‘Take what you want,’ said Raezazel’s voice in his head. ‘Take it. What is there to existence but that?’

The cold void tore at Alaric. It had fingers like ice, and it would tear him apart. Alaric wanted to land somewhere, to get his bearings, and find Raezazel so that he could work out what the next trick was.

Land appeared under him. Alaric thudded into it. It was dry and sandy, and went on forever. He wanted to see where he was.

A sun bloomed in the eye like a white flower.

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