Dan Abnett - The Horus Heresy - Horus Rising

'What?'

'Of Chaos, and how it is our greatest common foe. He feared it was in us. He said that is why they had been so careful with us, because they feared we had brought Chaos with us. Lord, what did he mean?'

Horus looked at Loken. 'He meant Jubal. He meant the Whisperheads. He meant the warp. Have you brought the warp here, Garviel Loken?'

'No, sir.’

Then the fault is within them. The great, great fault that the Emperor himself, beloved by all, told me to watch for, foremost of all things. Oh gods, I wished this

place to be free of it. To be clean. To be cousins we could hug to our chests. Now we know the truth.’

Loken shook his head. 'Sir, no. I don't think that's what was meant. I think these people despise Chaos... the warp... as much as we do. I think they only fear it in us, and tonight, something has proved that fear right.' 'Like what?' Torgaddon snapped. Tull said the Hall of Devices was on fire.' Horns nodded. This is what they accused us of. Robbery. Deceit. Murder. Apparently someone raided the Hall of Devices tonight and slew the curator. Weapons were stolen.'

What weapons, sir?' Loken asked. Horns shook his head. 'Naud didn't say. He was too busy accusing me over the dinner table. That's where we should go now.'

Torgaddon laughed derisively. 'Not at all. We have to get you to safety, sir. That is our priority.'

The Warmaster looked at Loken. 'Do you think this also?' "Yes, lord.'

Then I am troubled that I will have to countermand you both. I respect your efforts to safeguard me. Your strenuous loyalty is noted. Now take me to the Hall of Devices.'

THE HALL WAS on fire. Bursting fields exploded through the lower depths of the placer and cascaded flames up into the higher galleries. A meturge player, blackened by smoke, limped out to greet them.

'Have you not sinned enough?' he asked, venomously.

4Vhat is it you think we have done?' Horus asked.

'Petty murder. Asherot is dead. The hall is burning. You could have asked to know of our weapons. You had no need to kill to win them.'

Horus shook his head. 'We have done nothing.'

The meturge player laughed, then fell.

'Help him,' Horus said.

Scads of ash were falling on them, drizzling from a choking black sky. The blaze had spread to the oversweep-ing forest, and the street was flame lit. There was a rank smell of burning vegetation. On lower street tiers, hundreds of figures gathered, looking up at the fire. A great panic, a horror was spreading through Xenobia Principis.

They feared us from the start,' the Warmaster said. 'Suspected us. Now this. They will believe they were right to do so.'

'Enemy warriors are gathering on the approach steps.’ Kairus called out.

'Enemy?' Horus laughed. When did they become the enemy? They are men like us.’ He glared up at the night sky, threw back his head and screamed a curse at the stars. Then his voice fell to a whisper. Loken was close enough to hear his words.

"Why have you tasked me with this, father? Why have you forsaken me? Why? It is too hard. It is too much. Why did you leave me to do this on my own?'

Interex formations were approaching. Loken heard hooves clattering on the flagstones, and saw the shapes of mounted sagittars bobbing black against the fires. Darts, like bright tears, began to drizzle through the night. They struck the ground and the walls nearby.

'My lord, no more delays.’ Torgaddon urged. Gleves were massing too, their moving spears black stalks against the orange glow. Sparks flew up like lost prayers into the sky.

'Hold!' Horus bellowed at the advancing soldiers. 'In the name of the Emperor of Mankind! I demand to speak to Naud. Fetch him now!'

The only reply was another flurry of shafts. The Luna Wolf beside Torgaddon fell dead, and another staggered

back, wounded. An arrow had embedded itself in the Warmaster's left arm. Without wincing, he dragged it out, and watched his blood spatter the flagstones at his feet. He walked to the fallen Astartes, bent down, and gathered up the man's bolter and sword.

Their mistake,' he said to Loken and Torgaddon. Their damn mistake. Not ours. If they're going to fear us, let us give them good reason.' He raised the sword in

his fist. 'For the Emperor!' he yelled in Cthonic. 'Illuminate

them!'

'Lupercal! Lupercal!' answered the handful of warriors around him.

They met the charging sagittars head on, bolter fire strobing the narrow street. Robot steeds shattered and tumbled, men falling from them, arms spread wide. Horns was already moving to meet them, ripping his sword into steel flanks and armoured chests. His first blow knocked a man-horse clear into the air, hooves kicking, crashing it back over onto the ranks behind it. 'Lupercal!' Loken yelled, coming to the Warmaster's right side, and swinging his sword double-handed. Torgaddon covered the left, striking down a trio of gleves, then using a lance taken from one of them to smite the pack that followed. Interex soldiers, some screaming, were forced back down the steps, or toppled over the stone railing of the street to plunge onto the tier

beneath.

Of all the battles Loken had fought at his commander's side, that was the fiercest, the saddest, the most vicious. Teeth bared in the firelight, swinging his blade at the foe on all sides, Horus seemed more noble than Loken had ever known. He would remember that moment, years later, when fate had played its cruel trick and sense had turned upside down. He would remember Horus, Warmaster, in that narrow firelit street,

defining the honour and unyielding courage of the Imperium of Man.

There should have been frescoes painted, poems written, symphonies composed, all to celebrate that instant when Horus made his most absolute statement of devotion to the Throne.

And to his father.

There would be none. The hateful future swallowed up such possibilities, swallowed the memories too, until the very fact of that nobility became impossible to believe.

The enemy warriors, and they were enemy warriors now, choked the street, driving the Warmaster and his few remaining bodyguards into a tight ring. A last stand. It was oddly as he had imagined it, that night in the garden, making his oath. Some great, last stand against an unknown foe, fighting at Horus's side.

He was covered in blood, his suit gouged and dented in a hundred places. He did not falter. Through the smoke above, Loken glimpsed a moon, a small moon glowing in the corner of the alien sky.

Appropriately, it was reflected in the glimmering mirror of ocean out in the bay.

'Lupercal!' screamed Loken.

Parting shots

The Sons of Horus

Anathame

'WHAT WAS TAKEN?' Mersadie Oliton asked.

'An anathame, so diey claim.'

'One weapon?'

'We didn't take it.’ Loken said, stripping off the last of his battered armour. We took nothing. The killing was for nothing.’

She shrugged. She took a sheaf of papers from her gown. They were Karkasy's latest offerings, and she had come to the arming chamber on the pretence of delivering them. In truth, she was hoping to learn what had befallen on Xenobia.

'Will you tell me?' she asked. He looked up. There was dried blood on his face and hands.

'Yes.’ he said.

THE BATTLE OF Xenobia Principis lasted until dawn, and engulfed much of the city. At the first sign of commotion, unable to establish contact with either the Warmaster or the fleet, Abaddon and Aximand had

mobilised the two companies of Luna Wolves garrisoned at the Extranns. In the streets surrounding the compound area, the people of the interex got their first taste of the power of the Imperial Astartes. In the years to come, they would experience a good deal more. Abaddon was in wrathful mood, so much so that Axi-mand had to rein him back on several occasions.