Honour Guard by Dan Abnett

Author:Dan Abnett
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf

Well over a day behind them, Corbec’s thrown-together team rolled past the site of the ambush, skirting around the wrecks of the Salamanders and the Chimera that the task-force’s Trojans had pushed to the roadside verges.

Corbec called a halt. The Chimera’s turbine was overheating anyway, and the troopers dismounted for a rest Corbec, Derin and Bragg wandered over to the roadside where a plot of dark earth and rows of fresh-cut stakes marked the graves of the fallen.

“One we missed,” said Derin.

Corbec nodded. This site marked the first Ghosts action that he hadn’t been a part of. Not properly. All the way from Tanith he’d come, to be with his men. Here, they’d fought and died while he had been lying in his bed miles away.

His chest hurt. He swallowed a couple more pain-pills with a swig of tepid water from his flask.

Greer had dismounted from the Chimera on the road and had yanked back its side cowlings to vent greasy black smoke. He reached in with a wrench, trying to soothe its ailing systems.

Milo thought he’d talk to Sanian, but the esholi had wandered down to the water’s edge with Nessa. It looked like the Verghastite girl was teaching the student the rudiments of sign language.

“She likes to learn, doesn’t she?”

Milo looked round and met Captain Daur’s smile. “Yes, sir.”

“I’m glad you found her, Brin. I don’t think we’d last long without a decent guide.”

Milo sat himself down on a roadside stump and Daur sat next to him, cautiously nursing his wounded body down.

“What do you know, sir?” Milo asked.

“About what?”

“About this mission. Corbec said you knew as much as him. That you — uh—felt the same way.”

“I can’t offer you an explanation, if that’s what you’re asking for. I just have this urge in my head…”

“I see.”

“No, you don’t. And I know you don’t. And I love you like a brother for daring to come this far in such ignorance.”

“I trust the colonel.”

“So do I. Have you not had dreams? Visions?”

“No, sir. All I have is my loyalty to Corbec. To you. To Gaunt. To the God-Emperor of mankind…”

“The Emperor protects,” Daur put in dutifully.

“That’s all. Loyalty. To the Ghosts. That’s all I know. For now, that’s all I need.”

“But you delivered to us our guide,” a calm, frail voice said suddenly.

“I did what?”

Daur paused and blinked.

“What?” he asked Milo, who was looking at him mistrustfully.

“You said ‘but you delivered to us our guide’, just then. Your voice was strange.”

“Did I? Was it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I meant Sanian…”

“I know you did, but that was a pretty odd way of saying it.”

“I don’t remember… Gak, I don’t remember saying that at all.”

Milo looked at Daur dubiously. “With all respect, captain, you’re weirding me out here.”

“Milo, I think I’m weirding myself out,” he said.

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