Fear And Fire Part 15

CHAPTER TWELVE.

Vaun was not smiling now. 'Your curiosity is all that keeps me breathing, isn't it?' He moved his head slightly to look at Sister Verity. 'I thank you for these additional moments of life.'

'He has nothing to give us. Ca.s.sandra murmured irritably. 'Sister Superior, if you will break the lord deacon's edict to keep this witch alive, then do it now, before he tries to talk us to death.

Vaun blinked at Miriya, and she searched his face for truth and lies. The psyker's aspect was one she had never seen on him before, without masks or artifice. In his way, he was naked to her. 'Is it abso-lution you want?' she asked him.

'Will you confess your sins to me?'

'Oh, there shall be a confession. he nodded, 'but not mine. I'll give you LaHayn's in proxy. Tell you the secrets. Vaun raised a bloodied hand and tapped a spot at the base of his skull. 'Show you things.

Miriya's eyes narrowed as she remembered the strange device Verity had found implanted in the head of Vaun's cohort Ignis. With a quick motion, she holstered her plasma pistol.

A moment of relief crossed Vaun's face. 'You've seen the value in my words.

The Sororitas shook her head. 'I have learnt that every sentence you utter is just one more gambit in the strategies you spin. She looked at the other women. 'Hold him down.

Before Vaun could struggle, Ca.s.sandra and Isabel took Vaun's wrists and pressed him against a slab of hull metal.

Portia kept her gun on him. The psyker blinked, trying to muster his powers, but his injuries had made him weak and tired.

Salvaging a turn of ragged, sharp-edged wire from the wreck, Miriya fashioned a makeshift binding to hold the criminal's wrists together. She glanced at Verity. You have a sanguinator in your medicus kit, and neuropathic drugs.

Show them to me.

The Hospitaller did as she was asked. 'What do you want me to do?'

'Sedate him. There was a long moment before Verity understood that Miriya was not telling her but ordering her to do it.

Vaun struggled. 'I told you, I will freely explain everything!'

The Sister Superior gave him a measuring stare. 'I must be convinced. She pointed at his arm, and Verity reluctantly discharged the gla.s.s injector into the psyker's clammy skin.

The rush of chemicals struck his bloodstream. He let out moans and the occasional coughing yelp, thesounds rolling about the burnt landscape. Now and then, small fires puffed into life around the clearing as Vaun's pain exhibited itself through his witchery. The whites of his eyes showed. Like the fluids that had contained him in the gla.s.s prison capsule on the Black Ship, the potent philtre robbed him of the will to create his mindfire. He became groggy and pallid.

Finally, when she was sure he was quietened and unable to attack them, Miriya allowed him to answer questions. You have your audience. she told him, 'now enlighten us.

Verity gently cleaned the dirtied sanguinator. 'How did you escape custody?'

Vaun sniffed wetly. 'Unimportant. You know the answer to that already.

You were in league with Sherring. He brought the men of the Mercutio to Metis and coerced them.

'Clever, clever Holt. Too clever for his own good. Yes, a simple task, really. With the reach his clan gave him, to the shipping guilds and the commerce station, he found it easy. A man's mind can be moulded quite quickly, if one has the right tools and is untroubled by morals. Those that did not take to the imprinting...

They were allowed to die. The others he made my erstwhile saviours, although they would never know it, seeds of my control sleeping in their heads. The psyker coughed and spat. The one who came to the cargo bay... ? He car-ried the order in his unconscious, then spoke it to all the others.

Ca.s.sandra's lip curled. You expect us to believe that you allowed yourself to be captured on Groom-bridge?

Just so you could be brought to Neva?' She snorted. There must be simpler ways to come home.

The ghost of a smile emerged. 'Indeed. But I am such a slave to my sense of drama. His self-amus.e.m.e.nt faded. 'I wanted to make sure Viktor would let his guard down. I knew his arrogance would make him complacent and careless, but for that to happen, he had to believe he had beaten me. Vaun's teeth flashed.

'All to give him a greater height to fall from!'

Your hate for him must consume you. said Verity, pity in her words.

He glared at her. 'Hate7. There's not a word strong enough to describe my loathing for your precious deacon. A million deaths won't pay back the years he took from me, the life he stole.

'Explain, witch. demanded Miriya. 'I grow weary of your obtuseness.

Ask yourself this, Sister. If my talents were so deadly, then why was I not surrendered to Black Ships whilst I was still a mere child? Why was I not put down? What happened to me between then and now?'

The datum. said Verity quietly. The records of the librarium. There were missing pieces...'

Years!' spat Vaun. 'Made into an experiment for him, a tool, a plaything*. He took only those he could conceal, only those with the strongest potential. Broke us like animals, used us!' With a savage yank, Vaun tore a clutch of hair from the back of his head to reveal the distortion where a metal implant lay under his skin. This was just one of his gifts!'

'Like the pyrokene in Sherring's mansion. said Isabel.

Yes. We were all his playthings, doctored and neutered by LaHayn's secret scheming.' His eyes were wide and manic. 'Do you see now, Sister? Can you begin to understand? His agenda is not that of your church - it is not even that of your G.o.d. With his pup-pet governor and willing slaves in one hand, and those blind and hidebound to your dogma in the other, LaHayn does as he wishes. He plays his long game-'

'Must we listen to any more of this?' Portia growled. We have dallied long enough with this wastrel.

Canoness Galatea must be informed of his capture, and the witch must be processed.

'Aye. added Ca.s.sandra. 'Can any of these creature's ramblings be corroborated? Is there more evidence than his treasonable spewing?'

There is. said Verity, after a long moment. 'In the deeps of Noroc's librarium, I found facts that back up what he has told us. I am certain there would be more to find, if only we could search deeper.

'Facts? Enough to take the word of a witch over that of a High Ecclesiarch?' demanded Portia. 'I imagine not.

'But there is doubt, yes?' Vaun broke in. You must have seen the edges of LaHayn's grand falsehood, you felt it out there. I know you have, else your Sister Superior would have executed me the moment I was pulled from the airship. You want to know, don't you? You have to be sure!'

'Doubt is the cancer in the minds of the unright-eous. said Portia, quoting a dictum from the Cardinae Noctum.

'Only the certain can know faith. Only they are fit to judge. countered Miriya.

"Whose words are those?' asked Verity.

The great Sebastian Thor's, from his speech at New Hera during the Age of Apostasy. She turned a penetrating stare on Portia. 'Are you sure, Sister? Beyond all shadow of uncertainty?' Portia's silence was answer enough.'Heh. managed the psyker. As entertaining as it is to listen to you cite your turgid scripture at one another, may I continue?' Vaun blinked. 'By your own admission, the Canoness knows nothing of my survival as yet.

Keep that silence for me and in return I will open the doors of the deacon's duplic-ity to you. Better than that, I will take you to the site of his blackest and most mendacious secret. He took a breath, his eyes glittering. 'I will take you to the Null Keep, and you will see for yourself.

'A covenant with a witch?' Miriya made a dis-gusted face. 'You would dare to utter such a suggestion to a Sister of Battle?'

The man gave a sigh of false contrition. 'It is your choice, Sister Superior. But you know as well as I do that the moment I leave your sight, it will be my death and you shall never have the answers you want. You will never know why I came here, or what it was that the Hospitaller's sibling perished for. He ignored Verity's sharp intake of breath and focussed all his attention on Miriya. 'By the time you realise that I speak the truth, all the scripture in the galaxy won't be able to stop Viktor LaHayn from ripping your precious Imperium apart.'

'And what would you gain from this selfless act?' demanded the Battle Sister.

'The satisfaction of watching you realise that I do not lie. It will be sweet to see you recognise the betrayal of your own priest-lord.

None of the women spoke, and the moment seemed to stretch out into hours. Only the crackle of distant fires on the wind crossed between them. Then at last, Sister Miriya cast a glance at the tech-priest, where the adept stumbled around the damaged aeronef.

She called out to him. 'You, cleric. Will the flyer be able to make sky again?'

The priest gave a jerky nod. 'Many systems were damaged, but the machine-ghost is well. It will fly once more, although without such grace as before.'

'Make it ready to lift. She turned on Vaun. 'This Null Keep of which you speak, this place of secrets.

Where does it lie?'

'A few hours by 'nef. I was on my way there myself when you, uh, joined me.

'You will take us to it.

A chorus of disbelief erupted from the other Battle Sisters, but Miriya silenced them with a stern gesture.

'Galatea will not allow this. said Ca.s.sandra. 'Her orders were most emphatic.

'I know what her orders were. Miriya replied, 'but I also know that since we arrived on Neva, at all turns we have been confounded by a bodyguard of lies. I want the truth, and if it takes this blasphemy to lead us to it, so he will. She beckoned the psyker up from where he lay. 'No word of Vaun's capture will go beyond the five of us. We shall not return to Noroc, nor surrender our prisoner to the church. These are my orders, and you will obey them, if not for me then to honour the sacrifices of Lethe and Iona. She cast her gaze upon them all, and one by one the women returned nods of agreement. Portia was the last, but finally she bowed her head.

You shall not regret this. said Vaun, a razor behind his smile.

You know nothing of regret. she told him, and shoved the witch towards the damaged aeronef.

Galatea stepped over the debris of a broken win-dow and surveyed Sherring's chambers with a cold eye.

The baron's centre of operations was a poor attempt at a war room, something that an armchair warrior might create in order to play the role of gen-eral. A group of Battle Sisters had already been detailed to isolate and attend to the corpses, placing strips of sanctified parchment over the dead men that bore warnings not to approach the bodies of the traitors.

The heavy stink of cooked meat still hung about them, mingled with the omnipresent musk of burnt wood from the city. It occurred to the Canoness that she had not taken a single breath of clear air for hours, since the advance into Metis had begun. With sadness, she watched two women carefully wrap a dead Repentia in a funerary cloth.

'My lady.' A veteran of the Seraphim corps entered the room and gave a short bow.

'Sister Chloe? What is it?'

'We have completed our sweep of the mansion house grounds and put the disloyal to the sword.' The powerful Seraph-pattern jump pack on Chloe's back made her seem taller and broader across the shoul-ders than the rest of the women in the room. Galatea knew her from campaigns of old, where the arrow-faced warrior had led her unit on pillars of orange jet flame through throngs of heretics. 'Evidence of the baron's treachery is being gathered as we speak.

The Canoness nudged Sherring's corpse with her boot. The fact that Chloe had not told her the news she wanted to hear was confirmation enough, but she asked the next question anyway. 'And the witch Torris Vaun?'

'No trace. The baron's personal aircraft was seen departing the mansion's grounds. It is likely the witchkin fled, my lady. A unit of Sisters went in pur-suit.

'Whose?' she demanded.

'Unverified at present. Several units have yet to respond to status queries.

'Miriya...' said the Canoness, under her breath. She waved Chloe away. 'Keep me apprised. You are dis-missed.The Sister Seraphim rocked on her heels, self-consciously. 'With respect, Canoness, there is another matter. I also bear a message from one of the adepts in the command vehicles. The lord deacon's office has been attempting to contact you for the last hour. They seem most vexed.

Galatea concealed a wan smirk. 'Of course. I would imagine so. The Battle Sister had purposely tuned her vox frequencies to take in only local sig-nals immediate to the engagement at hand, not the high channel communique links that would con-nect Lord LaHayn to her ear. She wanted little distraction, reasoning that anything of great import would be relayed to her eventually. Galatea hooked her fingers over indents in the neck ring of her Sororitas power armour and was rewarded by an answering chime in her ear bead relay. 'Canoness Galatea, returning to network. she announced.

Within seconds, the even voice of the PDF officer Colonel Braun came to her. 'Honoured Sororitas. he began, an edge of irritation creeping into his words, 'at last. Stand ready. I have the Governmen-tal Palace for you. No doubt the soldier chafed at being ordered to sit by a vox and wait for Galatea to come back on stream.

A message from the Governmental Palace? The Canoness pursed her lips in thought. Had Emmel recovered enough to resume his duties already?

The next voice she heard answered that question immediately. 'Canoness, this is Dean Venik. Thank you for your attention. We have been observing the confrontation via scrye-scans from the Mercutio in orbit. Lord LaHayn demands a report on the situa-tion there.

'Put him on. she replied, walking out into the halls and atria of the mansion. 'I'll brief him myself.

There was a miniscule pause. The lord deacon is... indisposed. You may brief me in his stead.

'Indisposed? I had thought he would wish to hear of the witch's fate first-hand. She frowned. 'No matter.

My honoured dean, please let the deacon know that by his decree, Metis is burning and all who stood against the rale of the Emperor have been made to show due contrition... or they have died. Baron Holt Sherring and his city cabinet have been terminated, as have a number of pyrokenes that we encountered acting in his employ.

Vaun?' demanded Venik impatiently.

Galatea thought it curious that Venik showed no concern over her mention of the other fire-witches they had dispatched. 'Status unknown, presumed at large. The Sisterhood is engaged in a search for him.

Fury erupted from the dean. 'You burn a city and still you cannot cage this creature? Lord LaHayn's disappointment will be great.

'I will explain it to him-'

'I told you, Sororitas, he is unavailable.

'And why might that be?' snapped Galatea, the tension from the day's fight and her dislike of the dean breaking the veneer of her civility. 'What is of such import that he cannot speak to me himself? Is he even there in the palace with you?'

She could almost hear Venik's look of shock at her retort. 'The... The deacon does not have to jus-tify his movements to you, Sister Galatea.

The woman waved her hand, as if she were dis-missing a nagging insect. 'Yes, of course. Permit me then to inquire after the health of the n.o.ble Gover-nor Emmel. Is he recovering?'

Venik's voice changed in a moment, from irksome to disingenuous. 'Ah, yes, but of course. You would not have heard. It saddens me to report that the gov-ernor pa.s.sed away a few hours ago. The deacon was there at the time to administer last rites and the Emperor's blessing.

'Dead?' Galatea weighed this in her mind. Then who presides over the government now?' She racked her brain for the name of Neva's sub-viceroy and Emmel's second, a large fellow and the scion of a family of Imperial Guardsmen. 'Baron Preed, is it not?'

'It is not. replied Venik with more than a little swagger. The lord deacon determined that for the best of the Nevan people in this time of great moral and spiritual crisis, the Imperial Church should take a more direct role in the management of the planet. Until further notice, I have taken on the honour of a.s.suming the governorship.

The Canoness fell silent. Such a decision was unprecedented in the modern Imperium. Since the Age of Apostasy, when the High Ecclesiarch Goge Vandire had tried to turn the galaxy to his rale, the separation of church and state in the ruling of human worlds had become an unbreakable dictum; a dictum that LaHayn had swept away while the Sis-ters of Battle were deep in the thick of the fighting.

Galatea frowned. While she believed utterly in the church's Tightness in all things, this was a develop-ment that did not sit well with her, but it would do her no good to let Venik know her mind. Finally she spoke. 'My congratulations to you on your new duties, honoured dean. May they bring you what you deserve.' She turned back to the burnt-out chambers. 'I will contact you again once Vaun is ours. Before Venik could speak further, she deacti-vated the link studs on her vox control and walked away, brooding.

Once the aeronef had reached its optimal alt.i.tude, the ship's nature as a racing yacht came to bear. Even with the damage it had suffered, even with only the lone, twitchy tech-priest at its controls, Sherring'sairship cut through the clouds of Neva's skies with the swiftness of a raptor, at times riding on the rapid jet streams of the planet's upper atmos-phere as fast as a cruising Thunderhawk.

Verity watched the landscape below alter as they travelled further north. The habitable zones of countryside gave way to valleys choked with dense grey snows and these to chains of black, basalt hills. In among them, stubby volcanic peaks spat desul-tory chugs of ash, and in many places there were thin streams of lava. Neva was at its most geologi-cally active in this region, riven with small earthquakes and outga.s.sings of fumes. Nothing lived here beyond the hardiest plant life and a few dogged invertebrate life forms. So the mythology of the planet said, the toxic lands would have one day expanded to engulf the entire world if not for the arrival of the Emperor of Mankind, who, with a ges-ture to His magnificent technologies, halted the march of the volcanoes and reined them in. The blighted landscape remained now as a reminder of the planet's turbulent core and one more example of Neva's unanswerable debt to the G.o.d-Emperor.