Oaths Of Damnation by Robbie MacNiven

Author:Robbie MacNiven
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science fiction: space opera (FLS)
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2024-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

RESOLUTIONS

The Present Day, on Fidem IV

Torrin Vey considered his powers to be subtle, a dagger in the dark rather than a warhammer wielded at dawn.

There were times, however, when subtlety had to be laid aside, when it was not enough to reach into the minds of enemies and conjure up illusions, or perform tricks that misdirected and ensnared. Sometimes, he had to open himself to the maelstrom and delve in with both hands, using his gift, his curse, his mutation, in the most brutal ways he could imagine.

He used it in those ways beneath the valley between Pilgrim Town and Deliverance. He realised in the space of a heartbeat that the tunnel entrance to the dugout where they had met the Word Bearers was about to collapse, just as the dugout itself had behind them. And he realised that he was the only one who could stop it.

He called upon the warp, upon the very powers that were shaking apart the earth all around, and commanded it to obey him. Clamping Kerubim, he raised his arms, spitting an invocation that cut the insides of his throat like a razor. He snatched the howling gale of the storm and ordered it to tear reality, sacrificing a little part of himself in doing so. A little morsel more of his already ragged soul gone. At this stage, what did it matter?

The fabric of the mortal plane had grown dangerously thin. Vey was able to use it to change the meaning of existence, much as he had done when he had caught Zaidu in the dugout, just for a few seconds more. Arms still raised, he demanded the earth and splitting timbers above him hold firm, to defy Fidem IV’s gravity and in doing so break the laws of nature itself.

The collapsing roof, against all reason, remained unmoving, an avalanche of dirt and shattered struts kept in check by no visible force. It was like a vid recording that had been freeze-framed, a heartbeat away from disaster. Only a tiny cascade of dust trickled down as Vey held his arms raised, even his locked servos unable to hide the trembling in his body.

He managed to look at Zaidu. The Sin Slayer had stopped resisting him as he had finally hauled him from the dugout. He now stood still and silent, staring up at the frozen earth.

‘Go,’ Vey snarled through gritted, bloody teeth.

‘Not without you,’ Zaidu responded. ‘I have left one brother beneath the earth – I will not leave two.’

‘Then… on my mark… run.’

He held it for a moment more, feeling as though he was simultaneously on fire and being frozen solid, his hearts close to rupturing, his spine snapping, his brain boiling inside his skull. He knew the Belisarian Furnace was seconds away from triggering. His body was responding to the strain stimuli as though he was dying. It was correct.

The howling of the warp had dropped to a low murmur. Timber creaked and earth shifted ponderously around them, a deep,

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