Horus Heresy: Deathfire by Nick Kyme

Author:Nick Kyme [Kyme, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781849708920
Amazon: 1849708924
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2015-06-14T22:00:00+00:00

Thirty-Four

Miracles

Battle-barge Charybdis, strategium

Zytos met the gaze of Kolo Adyssian with hard resolve. In his mind, there was no other choice.

‘She has to try again, shipmaster.’

‘It’ll kill her.’

Adyssian looked haggard, his youthful verve drained by seeing Circe after the aborted warp translation. Zytos had heard from Arikk Gullero that Adyssian practically had to break open the door to the sanctum so he could stop Circe’s screaming.

‘Hecht believes there is a way.’

Adyssian frowned and glanced at the shadowed figure of the grey legionary standing in the corner of his strategium. The low-lit room abutted the bridge and was filled with star charts and cartographs, those the shipmaster had used to plot the Charybdis’s staggered route through the Ruinstorm. To have any hope of getting through it, each warp translation needed to be small and meticulously plotted across known routes. They had barely begun the journey and already there was talk of abandonment.

‘With the greatest respect, what way is there that won’t kill my Navigator and likely your Librarian into the bargain?’

Ushamann had suffered too. Not as badly as Circe but he looked drawn, standing in the background. Zytos hadn’t seen it during the conclave, but now he did, the slow fraying of resolve.

Hecht stepped into the light of a single overhead lumen.

‘You must want to enter the storm,’ he said simply.

‘That’s it?’ Adyssian looked unimpressed. ‘That’s your insight?’

‘You forget yourself, shipmaster,’ warned Zytos.

Adyssian held up his hand.

‘Apologies, my nerves are a little on edge. You have to understand, when I dragged Circe from her novatum, she was raving.’ He licked his lips. ‘To put her back so soon… I fear for her.’

‘Don’t let her see that,’ said Hecht. ‘In the warp, will is everything. Every weakness you have, every frailty will be exposed and exploited by what lurks in the Sea of Souls.’

Adyssian shook his head. ‘I have travelled the warp. I’ve even seen men driven mad because of it, but what happened to Circe was something else. Endless night, she said. That there was no light. What does that even mean?’

‘That a veil has been drawn across the galaxy, cutting out all light, all voices save those trapped within the storm. Those voices are souls, and they scream in torment.’

Adyssian gave a humourless laugh. ‘And you wish for me to fly into that?’

‘It isn’t our desire, shipmaster,’ said Zytos. ‘They are your orders, and you will follow them.’

Adyssian held his tongue for a moment, wisely considering his words. When he spoke again, it was to Hecht.

‘Tell me then, how is it to be done?’

‘Imagine the veil as a thin ream of black cloth,’ said Hecht. ‘From a distance, anything that touches it, any light – be that the Astronomican or the psychic impression cast out by an astropath – is absorbed. Nullified. But a narrow sliver of light can penetrate what a shaft cannot, eking through the minute imperfections in the cloth, shining on what lies ahead and, eventually, beyond the veil. If we can see the way ahead, we can see our path.

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