The Unremembered Empire Part 41

*In what particular?' asked Sanguinius.

*I want Roboute to tell you about his efforts to keep the very essence and spirit of the Imperium alive,' the Lion said. *I want him to tell you about Imperium Secundus.'

The three brothers stood and looked upon the body of Vulkan for a long time. The fallen primarch had been placed in a golden casket, fashioned by artisans of the Mechanic.u.m.

*Vulkan. Terra, you should have told me, Roboute!' said the Lion.

*Just as you should have told me about Konrad,' Guilliman replied.

*What was it? "You keep too many secrets, brother",' the Lion reminded him.

*Point taken,' Guilliman said. He sighed.

*It is a preservation capsule,' Guilliman told his brothers. *It is intended to sustain our dear brother Vulkan's body in the slightest hope that his extraordinary gifts may yet return him to life.'

The top of the casket was clear gla.s.s. Vulkan's body had been dressed in fresh wargear taken from Guilliman's armoury and decorated in the livery of the Salamanders. His hammer, Dawnbringer, lay upright across his breast. No one had been able to remove the spear lodged in his heart.

*It is a sorry sight,' whispered Sanguinius. *How many more of us must fall? How many more of us will Horus take?'

*Vulkan lives,' said Guilliman. *This is the cry of the Salamanders, and I heartily uphold it. Even in his state of death, he represents the will in us to survive.'

*It is still a sad fate,' said Sanguinius, *to be held in a casket here in the cold cellars of your Fortress, consigned for all eternity.'

*It is not a fate I would wish,' Guilliman agreed. He gestured towards the figures of Zytos and the other Salamanders survivors who had blown to Macragge from the bosom of the storm. They knelt around the golden casket, forming a mourning vigil.

*I have pledged that, once the storm has abated, good Zytos and his brothers will transport our brother's body back to Nocturne and inter him in the clean soil of his home world.'

*This is more fitting,' the Lion said.

They withdrew from the vault. Guilliman turned and took a last sad look at the casket.

Engraved upon it, on a gilded scroll, were the words *The Unbound Flame'.

*Will he do it?' Euten asked.

*I believe the Lord Sanguinius is somewhat unwilling,' said Farith Redloss.

*Well, they are talking at least,' Dolor pointed out.

The three primarchs had withdrawn to the seldom-visited chamber where Guilliman had set the long table and the twenty-one seats draped with banners. The broad doors were closed. Euten and the ranked officers of all three Legions were obliged to wait in the hall for a verdict or command.

*He is the most suitable,' Euten said. *To see him up close... Lord Sanguinius is the most...'

She searched for a word.

*He is angelic,' said Dolor.

*He is numinous,' added Farith Redloss. *He is more like his father in that respect. Some of the primarch lords are very much of the flesh. Horus is one, and your lord Guilliman another. They have physicality. But the Emperor... To be in his presence is to be in the presence of that which is spiritual, and has no constant form. It is said the Emperor appears to each man in the image that man wishes to see. I think Lord Sanguinius has inherited much of that trait.'

Euten nodded.

*It is true. I do not think of him as a face or a figure. I think of him as a light. The very colour of his hair and his eyes seems to change with his mood, and with mine.'

*This has been noted by others,' Dolor agreed. *Several of the primarchs have this quality beyond simple physical stature, but none more than Sanguinius.'

*He would be perfect,' she said.

*Many think so,' said Farith Redloss. *Just as many wonder why Horus and not Sanguinius was chosen as Warmaster after Ullanor. If Horus was preferred, and yet has revealed such mortal flaws since, one wonders what secret flaws reside in the Lord of the Blood Angels?'

*Imperium Secundus represents continuity,' Guilliman said. *Since Calth, it has been all I can do to hold the fractured parts of the Five Hundred Worlds together. Ultramar is all that we know we have. If the Imperium endures, then we will re-join it when the storm dies, but if it has not endured elsewhere, then we have preserved it here.'

Guilliman had sat in the seat marked with the cobalt-blue banner of his Legion. Likewise, the Lion had placed himself in the seat covered by the Dark Angel's proud flag. Sanguinius had chosen to remain standing. He paced, troubled but thoughtful.

*Roboute has made this argument to me at length,' said the Lion, *and though I have been troubled by some of its details, I find myself seeing the value of it more and more.'

*How so?' asked the angelic lord.

The Lion sat back, his hands flat upon the edge of the table.

*The events of last night alone,' he said in a quiet tone, *have made me value life and kinship more than ever. We have lost another brother, and Macragge, great heartstone of the Five Hundred Worlds, was almost brought low by the deeds and machinations of just one demented traitor. I have witnessed the venom of our enemy, and I have seen the sad fragility of those a.s.sets and lives that remain to us. Roboute and I do not think alike on many subjects. We disagree. But we also stand together, loyal. We fight for the Imperium, and this is all of the Imperium that we have.'

*But regent?' Sanguinius said. *That smacks of usurpation...'

*It smacks of necessity,' replied Guilliman. *If Terra and our father have gone, then so has Malcador. We must rally our shattered strength before it is too late. Neither the Lion nor I can stomach the other a.s.suming the role, but we are unanimous when the choice is you.'

*You always were the most like our father,' said the Lion.

Sanguinius looked up at the light of the storm spilling through the chamber's high windows.

*Let me say, brother,' said Guilliman, *you showed no great delight in being delivered from the storm and reunited with us. You seem troubled and burdened. That tear marked beneath your eye? Is that a new notation of your anguish?'

*We have all seen troubles,' said Sanguinius. *Brothers fight and fall, and the stars die. Daemons walk abroad. I fear that Old Night steals in upon us anew. I would rage against that.'

*Then make your stand here, for now,' said Guilliman. He stood up. *Take this oath of moment, and I will make a pledge. The first moment the storm abates, the first moment we see the light of Terra or hear word that she still stands, I will light my ship-drives, and, with all measure of my forces, guide your Legion back to the home world. There will be no delay or argument. We do not build a second empire here. We maintain the original, founded anew on this globe as circ.u.mstance demands.'

*You would make this pledge to me?' asked Sanguinius.

*With all solemnity,' Guilliman replied.

*And you will back this?' Sanguinius asked the Lion.

*With my blood,' the Lion replied.

Sanguinius sighed.

*I notice, in the hours since I set foot upon the soil of Macragge, that there are no remembrancers in your court, nor in the retinue of the Lion.'

He regarded them.

*Is this mere coincidence?'

*Discretion,' Guilliman replied. *If Terra stands, then future generations may see, whether true or not, a heresy and usurpation in the foundation we make here. I would not stain the memory or legacies of the loyal sons with such a smirch, however unintentioned. Therefore, I did conclude early in my deliberations, that no piece of this undertaking should become history until history it needs to be. No chronicles will be made, no remembrancers charged to observe this business and commemorate it. If Ultramar is all the Imperium we have, then in due time and with great effect, its histories will be written and will become the single Imperial record. But, if Terra yet survives, as I most dearly hope, then this will become, in future days, an unremembered empire, an unthinkable act undone and unthought.'

Sanguinius took a deep breath. *Then it is down to us? We three decide?' he asked.

*There is only us,' said the Lion, rising to his feet.

*Tell us, Sanguinius,' Guilliman said, *which seat will you take at this table?'

It may have been the moment, or merely his imagination, but Magna Macragge Civitas seemed to glow, as it had done in more glorious years. The great towers and spires of the city shone with a golden l.u.s.tre, as they had done in the first era of the Five Hundred Worlds.

The sky was full of ships. They moved overhead, in series and formation, a procession of honour and a display of might. High up, illumined by the light of the Pharos star, the great capital ships drifted like leviathans. Below them, in the lower atmosphere, formations of fighter craft and gunships made fly past after fly past. The six great war horns of the ancient Battle Kings sounded across the storm-lit Civitas in unison.

The streets were full. Cheering crowds filled every via and avenue, and processions of the Legiones Astartes, Army, Mechanic.u.m and praecental forces converged from their various barracks and fortresses on the broad s.p.a.ce of Martial Square.

Guilliman took the salute of the roaring crowds on the platform of the Propylae t.i.tanicus.

He turned to the Lion at his side.

*This we do?' he asked.

The Lion nodded. *This we do, for it is right,' he said.

Guilliman stepped to the side of his brother Sanguinius. He grasped his right wrist and raised his hand to the sky in triumph.

Sanguinius raised his head and looked out over the cheering sea of faces and punching fists. He allowed his hand to be thrust aloft. He spread his mighty wings in a salute, like the sign of the aquila.

At the top of his voice, Guilliman declared the regency, but the noise of the mult.i.tude was too great for the words to be heard.

25.

Ends and

Beginnings

*Alpha and Omega, the first and last, each within the other.'

a The Apocrypha Terra, date unknown Lights came on. The heavy cell door opened. t.i.tus Prayto stepped into the chamber.

Seated upon a metal bench and shackled by the throat, ankles and wrists to pins set in the rockcrete floor, Narek of the Word looked up, but did not speak.

*So, friend. We begin again,' said Prayto. *Will you say more today?'

*There is no more to say,' replied Narek.

*You are hard to probe, Word Bearer, and hard to open,' said Prayto. *I am impressed. Others would have broken days ago.'

*There is nothing in me to break,' said Narek.

*Did you slay the lord primarch Vulkan?' asked Prayto.

*Asked and answered,' Narek grumbled.

*For the record today.'

*No, I did not. Though I would have if I had possessed the means.'

*Who did?'

*I don't know. I can only offer the conjecture that it was the immortal human known as John Grammaticus, or perhaps his unknown confederate.'

*We have no record of a John Grammaticus on Macragge, ora'

*I told you,' said Narek. *Where he pa.s.ses, he does not leave traces. I do not know what happened to him, but his aim was to slay Vulkan.'

*What was the weapon he used?'

*I do not understand it. A spear, forged from the power of the Emperor.'

*And this is what he employed?'

*Perhaps he did. Perhaps it was Curze. Curze was there too.'

*What happened to Curze?' asked Prayto.

*I know not.'

*Were the eldar present? There were clear signs of eldar munitions.'

*No. Grammaticus's confederate used those weapons. Though it was told to me that their masters are eldar-born.'

*Anything else?' asked Prayto.