Nemesis

for the Stars, no! Not the Warmaster, please!”

“Orders?” said Korda, ignoring the babbling nobleman. Koyne could not hear the

reply transmitted to the sergeant’s ear-bead, but the shift in set of the Space Marine’s

jaw told the tale of exactly what had been said. With a jolt of fear, the Callidus turned

and broke away, sprinting down the steps towards the crowds.

200

Koyne heard the peal of Nicran’s voice over the rush of the mob and turned in

mid-run. The Governor was shaking his hands, wracked with sobs in front of the

impassive, grey-armoured Astartes. His words were lost, but he was doubtless

begging or pleading to Korda, vainly making justifications.

With a small movement, the warrior raised the barrel of his bolter and shot the

Governor at point-blank range, blasting his body apart. As one, Korda’s men

followed his example, turning their guns towards the nobles and executing them.

Over the bass chatter of bolt-fire, the Astartes roared out an order, and it cut

through the bedlam like a knife.

“Burn this city!” he shouted.

Soalm stumbled through the butchery clutching the bact-gun and dragging the chest

behind her. Sinope was with her, trying to support the other end of the container as

best she could. The noblewoman’s men were all gone.

The dust-filled air was heavy with the sound of weapons-fire and pain, and there

seemed nowhere they could turn that took them away from it.

Soalm stumbled against a shack just as a wave of ephemeral terror radiated out

and caught her in its wake. The air turned thick and greasy with the spoor of psionic

discharge—and then she heard Iota’s echoing screams, amplified through the

vocoder of the Culexus’ helmet.

“Holy Terra…” whispered the old woman, It could only have been Iota’s deathcry;

no other voice could carry such dreadful emotion in it.

Soalm turned towards the sound and saw the ending of her happen. Particles of

sickly energy were liberated from Iota’s twitching body in a rush of light and noise,

and then her stealthsuit collapsed, the silver-steel helmet falling away. Clogged puffs

of grey cinders spilled from the black uniform as it crumpled into a heap, the body

that had filled it disintegrated in a heartbeat. The skull-faced helmet rolled to a halt,

spilling more dark ash into the churning winds.

“Jenniker!” Sinope cried out her name as a shape blurred towards them. The

Venenum felt a massive impact against her and she was thrown aside, losing her grip

on the chest. She managed to fire two quick bursts from the bact-gun as she tumbled,

rewarded with the pop and hiss of acids striking flesh.

Iota’s killer loomed out of the buzzing sands, back-lit by the harsh light of the

sunrise. She was reaching for a toxin corde as he punched her savagely, disarming

her with the force of the blow. The bact-gun tumbled away and was lost. Soalm felt a

jagged slash of pain in her chest as her ribs snapped. Falling to the ground, she tried

to retch, and found herself in a damp patch of earth, mud formed from sand and

spilled arterial blood. A clawed foot swept in and struck her where she had fallen,

and another bone snapped. Soalm looked up, hearing laughter.

The writhing shadow loomed, bending towards her; then a length of iron pipe

came from nowhere and slammed into the killer’s spine, drawing an explosive hiss of

fury. Soalm moved, agony racing through her, trying desperately to retreat.

Sinope, her face lit with righteous fury, drew back her improvised weapon and hit

him again, the old woman putting every moment of force she could muster into the

blow. “For the God-Emperor!” she bellowed.

201

The killer did not allow her a third strike, however. He arrested the fall of the iron

pipe and held it in place, his other hand snapping out to grasp Sinope’s thin, bird-like

neck and pull her off her feet. With a vicious shove, he twisted his grip on the pipe

and used it to run the noblewoman through; then he discarded her and strode away.

He came upon the chest where it had fallen, and Soalm gave a weak cry as the

murderer’s inky, liquid flesh streamed into the locking mechanism and broke it open

from within. The ancient book fell into the sand, and Soalm saw the stasis shell

around it sputter out and die.

“No,” she croaked. “You cannot… You cannot take it…”

The killer crouched and picked up the Warrant, flipping through the aged pages

with careless speed, the paper fracturing and tearing. “No?” he said, without turning

to her. “Who is going to stop me?”

He reached the last page and released a booming, hateful laugh. Soalm felt a lash

of sympathetic pain as he ripped the leaf from the binding of the priceless Eurotas

relic and cupped the yellowed vellum in his hand. For a moment, she thought she saw

the shimmer of liquid on the page, catching the rays of the sunlight.

Then, as if it were some delicacy he was sampling at a banquet, the killer tipped

back his head and opened his mouth, his forked jaws opening like an obscene