Ahriman: Exile Read Free Page B

wield the powers that had once been as much a part of him as his own flesh. It was as if a part of his soul had shrunk to a wasted shell.
    Perhaps that is why they do not see me for what I am , thought Ahriman . He had not used his powers to their full extent for many years, lifetimes to some; at first it had been a denial, but now he wondered if they had died as the memory of Ahriman died. He could still feel and touch the warp, but it was an ember remaining as the sign of a smothered blaze. They do not see transcendent power because it is not there. The shell of my weakness hides my past; they see only a half-broken creature, and do not ask what it once was.
    ‘Yet, I keep you,’ said Gzrel. ‘Why do I keep you, Horkos?’
    ‘For my service, lord,’ replied Ahriman. Even through his helmet seals he could smell the offal and iron reek that gathered around his lord.
    ‘For your service,’ repeated Gzrel carefully. ‘And now I give you the honour of paying me with that coin. We have prey, and you are to help me take it.’ Gzrel paused. ‘You will be part of the opening assault. You will join Karoz’s pack in the first wave.’
    Ahriman thought of Karoz, of the Harrowing champion chained in one of Maroth’s cells, mewling to himself, unable to remove his armour. Maroth had seeded something in Karoz’s soul, something that was eating him from within. Ahriman glanced at Maroth. The soothsayer smiled back.
    My fate is to die in this battle, thought Ahriman.
    ‘A great honour,’ said Maroth. The soothsayer’s aura was red with malice in Ahriman’s eyes.
    ‘Thank you, my lord.’
    Gzrel let go of Ahriman’s chin.
    ‘I give this honour to you, Horkos. Repay my kindness well.’ Gzrel turned and walked away through the parting ranks of slaves and the clamour of the Harrowing readying for war.
    ‘I will, my lord,’ said Ahriman, but no one was there to hear.
    ‘We have to find her. We owe her that. Our oaths still stand.’ Astraeos looked at each of his brothers in turn. They stood in a loose circle at a junction of five passages close to the Titan Child ’s engine decks. The light was so scarce Astraeos’s eyes saw the three warriors as monochrome statues, their bronze armour reduced to grey, the lines and scars of their faces valleys of shadow. They stared back, their eyes moon-white discs of light. Kadin shook his head, and looked away. Thidias kept his face impassive. Cadar looked like he was stopping himself from saying something. Astraeos noticed Thidias’s hand move to brush the scarred ceramite where the aquila had once spread its wings across his chest.
    Break one oath and the rest crumble , thought Astraeos. He remembered Hadar, the old Chaplain, speaking those words. ‘The hearts of warriors hold as one,’ he had said, ‘or they break one splinter at a time.’ The Chaplain had died in the fires of treachery a year later.
    They are lost, thought Astraeos as he stared at the last of his Chapter. And I am no Chaplain. I do not know how to lead them out of the dark. He opened his mouth to speak, but the deck heaved, and the metal walls rang like a struck bell. Rust fell from the ceiling, spicing the air with a gritty iron tang.
    ‘The witch has finally killed us,’ snarled Kadin.
    ‘Another hit, lower port towards the bow,’ said Cadar. Thidias nodded.
    ‘Low yield. Whoever it is they are just testing, seeing if we are as dead as we seem.’ Thidias paused. ‘They will board the ship to take it.’
    They all looked back to Astraeos.
    They look to me, he thought, but I have no answers . Inside he muttered his own curse on Carmenta. The tech-witch must have left the bridge after they exited the warp. She had left them defenceless, floating in the void on the edge of an unknown star system. After the first strike he had tried to reach her. Static had filled the vox, and when he tried to reach into the warp, a wind that had seemed to laugh had been his only answer. Kadin was right, she had killed