The Lost and the Damned (The Horus Heresy Siege of Terra Book 2) by Guy Haley

Author:Guy Haley [Haley, Guy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Games Workshop
Published: 2019-10-11T22:00:00+00:00

We are symbols

Grounded Angel

A subterranean break

Eternity Wall, 3rd-7th of Quartus

Forethoughts of death afflicted Sanguinius more often as the days passed. The vision of Horus, standing over him in leering triumph, leaked into his waking hours.

Dorn had little time for him, and when he sought out the Sigillite for company he was nowhere to be found. Consumed with foreboding, the Great Angel sent himself out upon a tour of the walls. He did not tell Dorn. He had no wish to hear another lecture about keeping himself safe.

‘I am more than a symbol,’ he had said to Dorn.

‘Your value as such should not be underestimated,’ Dorn replied.

‘Then I should put myself to use and be seen on the wall.’ He would be gainsaid no further, and left Dorn fuming.

Dorn was right. All of them were symbols, and though he hated the role his father had placed upon him and which Guilliman had exploited, he took upon himself the burden of humanity’s hopes again. This time he did not fly. He went on foot, surrounded by all the ceremony his position allowed so that the people would better see him.

Azkaellon insisted they stay upon the walls and not venture into the city wards.

‘The streets are not safe,’ he said. There was unrest throughout the Palace, the worst in the outlying districts close to the walls. Food and water were scarce, fear was in plentiful supply. Privation did the work of ten thousand enemy operatives, tying down troops to watch civilians when they would better serve the defence on the walls.

Eventually Sanguinius relented, and they stayed out of the city on the perimeter defences, where the Angel might be seen by the populace from afar, and the warriors of the Legions stood at guard with predictable discipline.

He set out with a dozen standard bearers, both imagnifers and signifers. The serried banners of the IX Legion made an awe-inspiring sight in ranks behind the primarch, and the winged figures of the Sanguinary Guard swooped overhead, weapons ready. Their wargear glinted in the fires of the bombardment, but there was more – an inner light that shone from the primarch, so those who saw him said. To these lucky witnesses, the Blood Angels appeared as a procession of demigods passing along the walls. Wherever Sanguinius went, memories of sunlit dawns were kindled, and people remembered better times, and hoped that those times might yet return. The arbitrators and enforcers of each city block he passed reported a calming of mood, and a cessation of violence that lasted several days.

His procession took him many days, past several areas facing various siege camps of the Dark Mechanicum, but in time he found himself staring down the Daylight Wall, on that section overlooked by the heaped massif of the Eternity Wall space port.

Sanguinius’ stride was the speed of a legionary’s jog, which was the speed of an unmodified human running, so they travelled many kilometres in a few hours, and by the closing of the day, by which

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.