[Warhammer 40K - The Horus Heresy 34] - Pharos by Guy Haley

Author:Guy Haley [Guy Haley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Military Fiction, Science Fiction, Warhammer 40K
ISBN: 9781785723407
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2015-12-02T10:59:09+00:00

Lucretius Corvo, captain of the 90th ‘Nova’ Company of the Ultramarines, was deep in concentration. Upon the lectern he kept in his dayroom—he always stood to read—was a text of ancient Terran battle-sagas from the ship’s library. Despite their archaic and somewhat sanguinary nature, he was thoroughly engrossed. There were echoes of the present in the exploits of these long-gone tribes. Such savagery he had seen from the traitors, particularly the World Eaters, that he had become somewhat single-minded in seeking out historical examples of the same. What education he might gain from this activity he was not sure, but he had come to look forward to the brief times he had for reading. For all his cold manner, Corvo enjoyed stories.

A discreet cough made him raise his head. It was a mark of his nature that the only sign of the immense surprise he experienced was a slight raising of his eyebrows.

One side of his quarters had disappeared. In its place was an image of a large cavern of sinuous, glossy black stone, dimly lit and crammed with ugly cogitator banks. At first he thought he looked into a Mechanicum facility, for the Mechanicum rarely bothered applying fine aesthetics to devices made for their own uses. Then he saw the essayer of the cough, a masked figure in battered Mark III war-plate seated in a heavy wooden chair, and he realised what he saw.

‘Warsmith Dantioch, I presume?’ said Corvo. He shut his book softly and came out from behind the lectern to better regard the room that should not be there. He passed his hand over the boundary between ship and mountain. That the air did not change temperature or consistency told him what he saw was simply an image, but every other sense denied its illusory nature. ‘This must be the marvel of the Pharos,’ he added, once he had examined the phenomenon to his satisfaction. ‘I am impressed.’

‘I am Barabas Dantioch,’ said the warsmith. He spoke raspingly, the words catching in his throat. ‘And this is the Pharos.’

‘To what do I owe this honour? We have not spoken before.’

‘Until now, your orders have not needed to be updated, Captain Corvo. Now they do. Listen to me well, for I have news of the gravest import and a new command from your primarch. Sotha is under attack by an overwhelming force of the Night Lords. Roboute Guilliman orders you to our aid.’

Corvo remained as expressionless as a stone. ‘Your reputation precedes you, warsmith, and I am aware of the importance of the beacon. But this is no routine change. How will you verify these orders?’

‘Guilliman himself gave them. He said that if you were to question them, I was to remind you of a promise you made him.’

A rare smile crossed Corvo’s face, gone so quickly that its existence was debatable.

‘Not only him. A promise I made to my birth-father first, and that I will forever stand by—to always remember who I am, and who I have been.’ Corvo nodded.

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