James Swallow - The Flight of the Eisenstein

the mind. I've seen the mess Solun makes of the practice cages. That's where the lad's strength lies, in his fists.'

Andus smirked. 'You shouldn't underestimate him. He wouldn't be part of the battle-captain's cadre if he was a dim candle.'

The veteran cast a look over at the table, where Decius had just moved a soldat to take one of Sendek's iterators. 'He's young, that's true, but he has a lot of potential. I've seen his kind before. Let him grow unguided, he'll turn down the wrong path and wind up a corpse. But mould a man like him with care and intention, and at the end you'll have a brother fit to be a captain himself one day.'

Rahl blinked. 'I thought you didn't like him.'

"Why, because I make sport of the lad? I do that to everyone. It's part of my charm.' Andus leaned closer and lowered his voice. 'Of course, if you tell him I said any of those things, I'll deny it to the hilt, and then I'll break your legs'

There was a decisive clack of wood on wood, and Rahl glanced around to see Sendek pressing his empress to the board, surrendering the game to Decius with a grudging smile on his face. 'Well played, brother. You are a singular opponent.'

'You see?' prodded Hakur.

'Ah, he must have let him win,' Rahl said lamely, 'as a small mercy.'

'Mercy is for the irresolute/ broke in Voyen as he entered the exercise enclosure, intoning the battle axiom with insincere solemnity. Who asks for it?' He shrugged back the hood of his off-duty robes.

Andus nodded to the other Astartes. 'Brother Rahl does. He has once again been proven wrong and it no doubt chafes upon him.'

Rahl finally bared his teeth in mild annoyance. 'Don't make me hurt you, old man.'

Hakur rolled his eyes. 'And what of you, Meric? Where have you been?'

The question was a mild one, but Rahl saw a frac­tional flicker of tension in the Apothecary's eyes. At my business, Andus, little more than that.' Voyen quickly turned the conversation away from him. 'So, Pyr, I trust you are ready for the coming fight? I think the score is in my favour still, yes?'

He nodded. Rahl and Voyen had a casual competi­tion between them as to which man would take a kill first on any given mission. 'Only combatants count, remember? That last one was only a servitor.'

'Gun-servitor/ corrected Voyen. 'It would have killed me if I had let it.' He looked around. '1 believe we will have ample chance to test the mettle of these defec­tors on Isstvan. There's to be a multi-stage offensive, first a landing to deny the monitor stations on the outermost world. Then on to the inner planets for an assault in full.'

Hakur's lip curled. 'You're very well informed. Cap­tain Garro has not returned from the Warmaster's barge and yet already you know the details of the mis­sion.'

Voyen hesitated. 'It's common enough knowledge.' His tone shifted, becoming more guarded.

'Is it?' Rahl sensed something amiss. 'Who told you, brother?'

'Does it matter?' the Apothecary said defensively. 'The information came to me. I thought you would wish to know, but if you would rather remain unap­prised-'

That is not what he said/ Andus noted. 'Come, Meric, where did you learn these things? Someone in

the infirmary babbling under the influence of pain nullifiers, perhaps, or a talkative astropath?'

Rahl became aware that the rest of the men in the room had fallen silent and were watching the exchange. Even Garro's housecarl was there, observ­ing. Voyen saw Kaleb too and shot him a frosty glare.

'I asked you a question, brother/ said Hakur, and this time it was in the tone of voice he used on the battlefield, one accustomed to giving orders and hav­ing them obeyed.

Voyen's jaw hardened. 'I can't say' He stepped around the veteran and took a few paces towards his arming alcove.

Hakur caught his arm and stopped him. 'What is it you have in your hand?'

'Nothing of your concern, sergeant.'

The elder Astartes was easily twice the Apothecary's age, yet for all those decades Hakur's martial skills were deft and undimmed. He easily took Voyen's wrist and applied pressure to a nerve cluster, trapping his hand. Meric's fingers uncurled of their own accord and there in his palm was a mottled brass coin.

'What is this?' Hakur demanded in a low voice.

'You know what it is!' Voyen snapped back. 'Don't play me for a fool.'

The dull disc bore the imprint of the Legion's sigil. A lodge medal/ breathed Rahl. You're in the lodges? Since when?'

'I can't say!' Voyen retorted, shaking off Hakur's grip and walking to the alcove where his sparse collection of personal effects were kept. 'Don't ask me anything else.'

You know the battle-captain's feelings on this mat­ter/ said Andus. 'He refutes any clandestine gatherings-'

'He refutes/ Meric interrupted. 'He does, not I. If Captain Garro wishes to stay beyond the fraternity of the lodges, then that is his choice, and yours too if you wish to follow him. But I do not. I am a member.' He blew out a breath. 'There. It is said.'

Decius was on his feet. We are all part of the Sev­enth,' he growled, 'and the company's command cadre at that! Garro sets the example we should fol­low, without question!'

'If he would take the time to listen, he would understand.' Meric shook his head and gestured with the medal. 'You would understand that this is not some kind of secret society, it's just a place where men can meet and talk freely'

'That seems so/ noted Sendek. 'From what you have implied, in this lodge it appears that even the most sensitive of military information is bandied about without restraint'

Voyen shook his head angrily. 'It's not like that at all. Don't twist my meaning!'

'You must end your membership, Meric/ said Hakur. 'Swear it now and we'll speak no more of this conversation.'

'I won't.' He gripped the coin tightly. 'You all know me. We are battle-brothers! I've healed every one of you, saved the lives of some, even! I am Meric Voyen, your friend and comrade in arms. Do you really think that I would take part in something seditious?' He snorted. 'Trust me, if you saw the faces of the men who were there, you'd understand that it's you and Garro who are in the minority!'

'What Grulgor and Typhon do with their compa­nies is their own lookout/ added Decius.

'And the rest!' Voyen replied. 'I am far from the only soldier of the Seventh in the association!'

'No/ insisted Hakur.

'I would never lie to you, and if holding this token makes you think any less of me, then…' After a long moment he bowed his head, deflated. 'Then perhaps you are not the kinsmen I thought you were.'

When Voyen looked up again someone else had joined the other men in the chamber.

Rahl heard a razor-edge of anger in Captain Garro's voice as he spoke a single command. 'Give me the room.'

When they were alone and Kaleb sealed the door behind him, Garro turned a hard stare on his subor­dinate. His mailed fingers tensed into fists.

'I never heard you enter/ Voyen muttered. 'How much did you hear?'

'You do not refute/ he replied. 'I stood outside in the corridor a while before I entered.'

'Huh/ the Apothecary gave a dry laugh. 'I thought your housecarl was the spy'

What Kaleb speaks of to me is guided only by his conscience. I do not task him.'

'Then he and I are alike.'

Garro looked away. *You say then that it is your principles that made you join the lodge, is that it?'

'Aye. I am the senior healer for the Seventh Com­pany. It's my duty to know the true feelings of the men who are part of it. Sometimes there are things a man will tell his lodge-mate that he would not tell his Apothecary.' Voyen stared down at the deck. 'Am I to assume that you will have me posted to another com­pany in light of this disclosure?'