Deathwing Read Free Page A

     the
     four-armed
     Emperor,
     to
     save
     than.
     They cursed
     and
     raved
     and
     pleaded
     under
     a
     polluted
     sky.
     Two
     Heads
     Talking
     watched
     the
     poor
     steal
     from
     the
     poor
     and wondered
     how his people
     had
     come to be laid so
     low.
    He
     remembered
     the
     tall, strong
     warriors
     who
     had
     dwelled
     in
     the lodgetowns
     and
     asked
     nothing
     of
     any man.
     What malign magic could
     have
     transformed
     the
     People of the
     Plains into these
     pathetic
     creatures?
    He felt e shock
     as
     a child tugged
     at his arm. "Tokens,
     Elder. Tokens
     for food."
    Two Heads
     Talking sighed
     with relief. His spell still held.
     The
     child
     saw
     only
     a
     safe. unobtrusive
     figure.
     He
     could
     feel the
     strain
     of binding
     the
     spirits
     gnawing
     away at him subconsciously,
     but
     they
     had
     not
     yet
     slipped
     his grasp.
    "I have
     nothing
     for you.
     boy,"
     he said. The urchin ran off mouthing obscenities.
     
* * *
     
    Depressed
     and
     angry,
     the
     Marines
     left
     the
     cave
     village.
     Cloud
     Runner
     noticed
     that
     Lame
     Bear's
     face
     was
     white. He gestured
     for the
     big man and
     Weasel-Fierce to follow him. The two
     squad
     leaders
     fell
     in
     beside
     him.
     They
     marched
     up to a great
     spur
     of rock and
     looked down into a long valley.
    "Stealers,
    "
     he said. 'We must inform the
     Imperium."
    Weasel-fierce spat
     over the
     edge
     of the
     cliff.
    "'The
     dark
     city
     is
     theirs."
     said
     Lame
     Bear.
     There
     was
     a depth
     of
     hatred
     in
     his
     quiet
     voice
     that
     Cloud
     Runner understood.
     "They
     must have conquered
     the
     People and
     herded
     than
     within."
    "Some
     clans resisted."
     Cloud
     Runner
     said.
     He
     was
     proud
     of
     that.
     The
     fact
     that
     his
     clan
     had
     chosen to
     continue
     a hopeless
     struggle
     rather than
     surrender
     gave
     him some comfort.
    "Our world is ended;
     our time is done,"
     said
     Weasel-Fierce. His words
     tolled like great, sad
     bells within Cloud
     Runner's skull. Weasel-Fierce was right. Their entire culture had
     been
     exterminated.
    The only ones
     who could
     remember
     the
     world
     of
     the
     Plains
     People
     were
     the
     Marines
     of
     the
     Dark
     Angels.
     When
     they died the
     clans
     would live only in the
     Chapter Fleet's records.
     Unless
     the
     Dark Angels
     broke with tradition
     and
     recruited from other
     worlds, the
     Chapter would end
     with the
     death
     of the present
     generation
     of Marines.
    Cloud
     Runner
     felt
     hollow.
     He
     had
     returned
     home
     with such
     high hopes.
     He
     was
     going
     to
     walk
     once
     more
     among
     his people,
     see
     again his village before old age took him. Now he found
     his world was dead,
     had
     been
     for a long time.
    "And
     we never
     knew," he
     said
     softly.
     "Our
     clans
     have
     been
     dead
     for
     years,
     and
     we
     never
     knew.
     It
     was
     a
     cursed
     day when we rode the
     Deathwing back to our homeworld."
    The
     squad
     leaders
     stood
     silent.
     The
     moon
     broke through
     the
     clouds.
     Below
     them.
     in
     the
     valley.
     they
     saw
     the
     faded outline
     of a giant
     winged skull cut
     into the
     earth.
    "What
     is that?"
     asked
     Weasel-Fierce. "It was not
     here when last I stalked
     in the
     valley."
    Lame Bear gave
     him an odd
     look. Cloud Runner knew that
     his old friend had
     never
     pictured
     the
     brave
     of an
     enemy
     clan walking in his people's
     sacred
     valley. Even after a century,
     the
     taciturn,
     skeletal man could
     still surprise
     them.
    "It was where our spirit talkers made magic." answered
     Lame Bear.
    "They
     must have
     tried to summon