Tarvitz wanted to laugh and wished his old friend was standing next to him so he could throw his arms around him and thank him for his trust, knowing that Nathaniel Garro had made the most monumental decision in his life on nothing but what had passed between them moments ago. The depth of trust and the honour Garro had done him was immeasurable.
'Yes,’ he said. 'You were right to trust me, my friend,’
Tell me why?' asked Garro.
Tarvitz tried to think of something reassuring to tell his old friend, but knew that nothing he could say would soften the blow of this treachery. Instead, he said, 'Do you remember what you once told me of Terra?'
Yes, my friend,’ sighed Garro. 'I told you it was old, even back in the day,’
You told me of what the Emperor built there,’ said Tarvitz. 'A whole world, where before there had been nothing, just barbarians and death. You spoke of the scars of the Age of Strife, whole glaciers burned away and mountains levelled,’
Yes,’ agreed Garro. 'I remember. The Emperor took that blasted planet and he founded the Imperium there. That's what I fight for, to stand against the darkness and build an empire for the human race to inherit,’
That's what is being betrayed, my friend,’ said Tarvitz. 'I will not allow that to happen, Saul,’ 'Nor I, my friend,’ swore Tarvitz. What will you do now?'
Garro paused, the question of what to do, now that he had chosen a side, uppermost in his mind. 'I'll tell the Andronius that I shot you down. The flare of the explosion and the fact that you're in the upper atmosphere should cover you long enough to get to the surface,’ 'And after that?'
'The other Legions must be warned of what is going on. Only the Warmaster would have the daring to conceive of such betrayal and he would not have begun an endeavour of this magnitude without swaying some of his brother primarchs to join him. Rogal Dorn or Magnus would never forsake the Emperor and if I can get the Eisenstein
out of the Isstvan system, I can bring them here: all of them.'
'Can you do it?' asked Tarvitz. 'The Warmaster will soon realise what you attempt.'
'I have some time before they will suspect, but then the whole fleet will be after me. Why is it that men have to die every time any of us tries to do what is right?'
'Because that's the Imperial Truth,’ said Tarvitz. 'Can you keep control of the Eisenstein once this gets out?
'Yes,’ said Garro. 'It will be messy, but enough of the crew are staunch Terrans, and they will side with me. Those who do not will die,’
The port engine juddered and Tarvitz knew that he didn't have much time before the gunship gave out beneath him.
'I have to make for the surface, Nathaniel,’ said Tarvitz. 'I don't know how much longer this ship will stay in the air,’
'Then this is where we part,’ said Garro, an awful note of finality in his voice.
'The next time we see one another, it'll be on Terra,’ said Tarvitz.
'If we meet again, my brother,’
'We will, Nathaniel,’ promised Tarvitz. 'By the Emperor, I swear it,’
'May the luck of Terra be with you,’ said Garro and the vox went dead.
Moments ago, he had been on the brink of death, but now he had hope that he might
succeed in preventing the Warmaster's treachery from unfolding.
That was what the Imperial Truth meant, he realised at last.
It meant hope: hope for the galaxy; hope for humanity.
Tarvitz gunned the Thunderhawk's engine, fixed its course towards the Precentor's Palace and arrowed it towards the heart of the Choral City.
TEN
The most precious truth
Praal
Death's tomb
The sub-deck was packed with people come to hear the words of the saint's apostle. Apostle: that was what they called him now, thought Sindermann, and it gave him comfort to know that even in these turbulent times, he was still a person that others looked up to. Vanity, he knew, but still… one takes what one can when circumstances change beyond one's control.
Word had spread quickly through the Vengeful Spirit that he was to speak and he glanced nervously around the edges of the sub-deck for any sign that word had reached beyond the civilians and rememВbrancers. Armed guards protected the approaches to the sub-deck, but he knew that if the Astartes or Maggard and his soldiers came in force, then not all В°f them would escape alive.
They were taking a terrible risk, but Euphrati had made it very clear that he needed to speak to the masses, to spread the word of the Emperor and to tell of the imminent treachery that she
had seen.
Thousands of people stared expectantly at him and he cleared his throat, glancing over his shoulВder to where Mersadie and Euphrati watched him standing at the lectern raised on a makeshift platВform of packing crates. A portable vox-link had been rigged up to carry his words to the very back of the sub-deck, though he knew his iterator trained voice could be heard without any mechaniВcal help. The vox-link was there to carry his words to those who could not attend this gathering, faithВful among the technical staff of the ship having spliced the portable unit into the ship's principal vox-caster network.
Sindermann's words would be heard throughout the Expedition fleet.
He smiled at the crowd and took a sip of water from the glass beside him.
A sea of expectant faces stared back at him, desВperate to hear his words of wisdom. What would he tell them, he wondered? He looked down at the scribbled notes he had taken over the time he had been sequestered in the bowels of the ship. He looked back over his shoulder at Euphrati and her smile lifted his heart.
He turned back to his notes, the words seeming trite and contrived.
He screwed the paper into a ball and dropped it by his side, feeling Euphrati's approval like a tonic in his veins.
'My friends,' he began. We live in strange times and there are events in motion that will shock many of you as they have shocked me. You have come to hear the words of the saint, but she has asked me to speak to you, that I may tell you of what she has seen and what all men and women of faith must do,’
His iterator's voice carried the precise amount of gravitas mixed with a tone that spoke to them of his regret at the terrible words of doom he was about to impart.
The Warmaster has betrayed the Emperor,’ he said, pausing to allow the inevitable howls of denial and outrage to fill the chamber. Shouted voices rose and fell like waves on the sea and Sin-dermann let them wash over him, knowing the exact moment when he should speak.
'I know, I know,’ he said. You think that such a thing is unthinkable and only a short time ago, I would have agreed, but it is true. I have seen it with my own eyes. The saint showed me her vision and it chilled my very soul to see it: war-tilled fields of the dead, winds that carry a cruel dust of bone and the sky-turned eyes of men who saw wonders and only dreamed of their children and friendship. I tasted the air and it was heavy with blood, my friends, its stink reeking on the bodies of men we have learned to call the enemy. And for what? That
they decided they did not want to be part of our warmongering Imperium? Perhaps they saw more than we? Perhaps it takes the fresh eyes of an outВsider to see what we have become blind to.'
The crowd quietened, but he could see that most people still thought him mad. Many here were of the Faithful, but many others were not. While almost all of them could embrace the Emperor as divine, few of them could countenance the War-master betraying such a wondrous being.
AVhen we embarked on this so-called "Great CruВsade" it was to bring enlightenment and reason to the galaxy, and for a time that was what we did. But look at us now, my friends, when was the last time we approached a world with anything but murder in our hearts? We bring so many forms of warfare with us, the tension of sieges and the battlefield of trenches soaked in mud and misery while the sky is ripped with gunfire. And the men who lead us are no better! What do we expect from cultures who are met by men named "Warmaster", "Widowmaker" and "the Twisted"? They see the Astartes, clad in their insect carapaces of plate armour, marching to the grim sounds of cocking bolters and roaring chainswords. What culture would not try to resist us?'
Sindermann could feel the mood of the crowd shifting and knew he had stoked their interest. Now he had to hook their emotions.