Nemesis

Adeptus Astartes, out of the darkness the man who had observed the meeting was a

threat made flesh, and he moved with a grace that caused his rust-coloured robes to

flow like water. A hand, tawny of skin and scarred, reached up and pulled back the

voluminous hood over a shorn skull and queue of dark hair, to reveal a face that was

grim and narrow of eye. At his throat, gold-flecked brands in the shapes of lightning

bolts were just visible past the open collar.

“Speak your mind, Captain-General,” said Malcador, reading his aura. “I can see

the disquiet coming off you like smoke from a fire pit.”

Constantin Valdor, Chief Custodian of the Legio Custodes, spared him a glance

that other men would have withered under. “I have said all I need to say,” Valdor

replied. “For better or for worse.” The warrior’s hand dropped to the table top and he

absently traced a finger over the wood. He looked around; Malcador had no doubts

that the Custodian Guardsman had spent his time in this chamber working out where

the room might actually be located.

The Sigillite drowned the beginnings of a waxen smile in another sip of the

bittersweet tea. “I confess, I had not expected you to do anything other than observe,”

he began. “But instead you broke open the pattern of the usual parry and riposte that

typically comprises these meetings.”

Valdor paused, looking away from him. “Why did you ask me here, my lord?”

“To watch,” Malcador replied. “I wanted to ask your counsel after the fact—”

The Custodian turned, cutting him off. “Don’t lie to me. You didn’t ask me to

join you in this place just for my silence.” Valdor studied him. “You knew exactly

what I would say.”

Malcador let the smile out, at last. “I… had an inkling.”

Valdor’s lips thinned. “I hope you are pleased with the outcome, then.”

25

The Sigillite sensed the warrior was about to leave, and he spoke again quickly to

waylay him. “I am surprised in some measure, it must be said. After all, you are the

expression of Imperial strength and nobility. You are the personal guard of the Lord

of Earth, as pure a warrior-kindred as many might aspire to become. And in that, I

would have thought you of all men would consider the tactics of the Assassinorum to

be…” He paused, feeling for the right word. “Underhanded. Dishonourable, even?”

Valdor’s face shifted, but not towards annoyance as Malcador had expected.

Instead he smiled without humour. “If that was a feint to test me, Sigillite, it was a

poor one. I expected better of you.”

“It’s been a long day,” Malcador offered.

“The Legio Custodes have done many things your assassins would think beyond

us. The sires and siresses are not the only ones who have marque to operate under…

special conditions.”

“Your charter is quite specific on the Legio’s zone of responsibility.” Malcador

felt a frown forming. This conversation was not going where he had expected it to.

“If you wish,” Valdor said, with deceptive lightness. “My duty is to preserve the

life of the Emperor of Mankind above all else. That is accomplished through many

different endeavours. The termination of the traitor-son Horus Lupercal and the clear

and present danger he represents, no matter how it is brought to pass, serves my

duty.”

“So, you really believe that a task force of killers could do this?”

Valdor gave a slight shrug of his huge shoulders. “I believe they have a chance, if

the pointless tensions between the clades can be arrested.”

Malcador smiled. “You see, Captain-General? I did not lie. I wanted your insight.

You have given it to me.”

“I haven’t finished,” said the warrior. “Vanus was right. This mission will not

please the Emperor when he learns of it, and he will learn of it when I tell him every

word that was spoken in this room today.”

The Sigillite’s smile vanished. “That would be an error, Custodian. A grave

misjudgement on your part.”

“You cannot have such hubris as to believe that you know better than he?”

Valdor said, his tone hardening.

“Of course not!” Malcador snapped in return, his temper flaring. “But you know

as well as I do that in order to protect the sanctity of Terra and our liege-lord, some

things must be kept in the dark. The Imperium is at a delicate point, and we both

know it. All the effort we have spent on the Great Crusade, and the Emperor’s works,

all of that has been placed in most dire jeopardy by Horus’ insurrection. The conflicts

being fought at this very moment are not just on the battlefields of distant worlds and

in the void of space! They are in hearts and minds, and other realms less tangible. But

now, here is the opportunity to fight in the shadows, unseen and unremarked. To

have this bloody deed done without setting the galaxy ablaze in its wake! A swift

ending. The head of the snake severed with a single blow.” He took a long breath.

“But many may see it as ignoble. Use it against us. And for a father to sanction the