Nemesis

poured a heavy measure of wine into a glass goblet, which he snatched up and drank

deeply. He gulped it down without savouring it. “We are done with our visit to this

world,” Eurotas told him, his manner veering towards a brooding sullenness. “And it

has taken our dear Perrig along the way.” He shook his head again and fixed Spear

with an accusing glare. “Do you know what she cost me? A moon, Hyssos. I had to

cede an entire bloody moon to the Adeptus Terra just to own her.” He walked on,

across the mosaic floor. The cabinet raised itself up on brass wheels and rolled

obediently after him.

Spear searched for the right thing to say. “She had a good life with us. We all

valued her contribution to the clan.”

The baron turned his glare on the vanishing planet. “The Governor would not

stop talking,” he said. “They wanted our fleet to remain in orbit for another week,

something about вЂ˜helping to stimulate the local economy’…” He snorted with

derision. “But I have little stomach for the festivals they had planned. I walked out on

them. More important things to do. Imperial service and all that.”

141

Spear nodded thoughtfully, deciding to feed the man’s mood. “The best choice,

my lord. With the situation as it is in this sector, it makes sense for the clan to keep

the flotilla moving. To be in motion is to be safe.”

“Safe from him!” Eurotas took another drink. “But the bastard Warmaster is

killing us by inches even so!” His voice went up. “Every planet he binds to him costs

us a weight in Throne Gelt that we cannot recover!” For a moment, it seemed as if

the baron was about to give voice to something that might have been considered

treasonable; but then he caught himself, like a man afraid he would be overheard, and

his expression changed. “We will head for the edge of this system and then make

space to the rendezvous point at the Arrowhead Nebula.”

Spear knew already what their next port of call would be, but he asked anyway.

“What will our intentions be there, lord?”

“We will lay to wait to assemble the clan’s full fleet, and while we are there meet

a ship from Sotha. Aboard are a party of remembrancers under the Emperor’s aegis. I

will personally take them home to Terra, as the Council has requested.”

“The security of the remembrancers is of great concern,” said Spear. “I will make

all arrangements to ensure their safety from the moment they board the Iubar to the

moment we bring them to the Imperial Palace.”

Eurotas looked away. “I know you’ll do what is required.”

Spear had to fight down the urge to grin. The path was open, and now all that he

needed to do was follow it all the way to the end. To the very gates of the Emperor’s

fortress—

NO

The voice crackled in his ears like breaking glass, and Spear jerked, startled. NO

NO NO

The baron did not appear to have heard it; the killer felt a peculiar twitch in his

hands and he glanced down at them. For one terrible moment, the skin there bubbled

and went red, before shifting back to the dark shades of Hyssos’ flesh. He hid them

behind his back.

NO

Then the echo made the origin of the sound clear. Spear let his gaze turn inwards

and he felt it in there, moving like mercury.

Sabrat. Until this moment, Spear had believed the purgation that the idiot reeve’s

cohort interrupted had gone to plan, but now his certainty crumbled. There was still

some fraction of the stolid fool’s self hiding in the shadowed depths of the killer’s

mind, some part of the false self he had worn that had not been expunged. He pushed

in and was sickened by the sense of it, the loathsome, nauseating morality of the dead

man staining his mind. It was bubbling up like bile, pushing to the top of his

thoughts. A scream of recrimination.

“Hyssos?” Eurotas was staring at him. “Are you all right, man?”

“I…”

NO NO NO NO NO

“No.” Spear coughed out the word, his eyes watering, and then with effort took

control of himself once more. “No, lord,” he went on. “I… A moment of fatigue,

142

that’s all.” With a physical effort, the killer silenced the cries and took a shuddering

breath.

“Ah.” The baron approached and gave him a kindly pat on the shoulder. “You

were closest to the psyker. There’s no shame in being affected by her loss.”

“Thank you,” said Spear, playing into the moment. “It has been difficult. Perhaps,

with your permission, I might take some respite?”

Eurotas gave him a fatherly nod. “Do so. I want you rested when we reach the

rendezvous.”

“Aye, lord,” Spear bowed again and walked away. Unseen by anyone else, he

buried the nails of his hand in his palm, cutting the waxy flesh there; but no blood

emerged from the ragged meat.

Rufin found another intercom panel on the station’s mezzanine level and used it to

send out an all-posts alert; but if anything he became even more afraid when the only

men that reported back were the ones at the armoury. He told them to hold the line