The Rose in Anger by Danie Ware

Author:Danie Ware
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2020-10-05T09:38:38+00:00

Chapter Seven

The waters’ hunger, however, had not been quite sated.

As if they demanded some final sacrifice, the very last vehicle – the Exorcist at the rear of the Order – fell as it had almost reached safety. The edge of the road gave way beneath its tracks, the ferrocrete crumbling with a thundering splash. The rails themselves held, two thin lines of steel stretching out over the water, but the roadway between them had given its last.

Yards from safety, the vehicle had teetered, rocked backwards, and then splashed to its death.

Its commanding Sister had called one final prayer before the density of the water had cut off her vox.

Watching through the weapon-ports, hating her own enforced helplessness, Augusta had prayed for the drivers, and for the spirits of the tanks that they had lost. It would be a slow and horrifying end, the polluted sea steadily eating its way inwards, and inwards, but her fallen Sisters would show no fear, even in the face of such an ordeal. Each knew, as she did, that His light and blessing awaited her.

What awaited the company was something else entirely.

And Augusta held hard to her prayers, as their objective loomed ahead.

A very short time later, they reached the shoreline of the citadel.

The road and the tracks continued, now supported above a grey and ashen beach. Here, the wind-driven water frothed and hissed, dumping a tidemark of bubbles, dirt and rubbish, but that was not what pulled the Sister Superior’s attention.

Through the weapon-port, she could just about see the outskirts of Lycheate’s central citadel: rock and beach both curved slowly upwards and into the dark, harsh side of a huge and headless mountain.

And somewhere, in there, there waited the controls for the Emanatus force field.

Borne by His blessing and courage, the Order had reached its target. The canoness’ prayer of thanks came over the vox, and was repeated vehemently by the surviving Sisters.

‘Nos gratias ago nomen Eius!’

We give thanks to His name!

Repeating the stanzas, one after another, just as she had for so many years, Augusta shifted in her seat to scan the mountainside. Beside her, Mors and Rufus exchanged a glance – this was the place of their redemption, their final stand, and they both knew it.

Once they entered the citadel, neither of them would ever see the light again.

Augusta wondered if her own squad faced the same fate.

The black stone was disturbingly familiar, reminding her of the jungle-planet Lautis. It was porous and severe, glittering with dark stars of scattered obsidian…

…and, just like before, it concealed horrors within its depths.

One thing, however, was immediately apparent.

From the Kyrus’ orbital scans, Augusta knew that the main entranceway waited some half a mile ahead of them, a colossal cave mouth that swallowed the road, and that allowed the servohaulers, and the waiting machines, access to the factorum complex.

Looking at their situation, she felt the hairs on her neck prickle with tension.

Their route back was shattered, and they could only move ahead. And somewhere, behind that vast and unseen doorway, the heretek’s assembled forces would be waiting.

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