Dan Abnett - Eisenhorn Omnibus

We made preparation to break orbit the following night. Ravenor explained to me that the eldar had requested to be taken to a secret location en route, where he could access something called a warp tunnel. Ravenor was beholden to him.

We agreed to rendezvous at Jeganda, three weeks short of 5213X, prior to the final leg of our chase.

'Do we inform the ordos?' Ravenor asked.

'No. What strength they could lend us would be outweighed by problems they'd cause. I will prepare a full documented account of everything we know to be transmitted back in the event that we…'

'We?'

'Fail/1 finished.

Before we departed, I dared to visit Ravenor's ship, the Hinterlight. I took Crezia and Harlon Nayl with me. Medicae Antribus showed us to the low-lit chamber off the starship's infirmary where Alizebeth lay inside a softly glowing stasis field.

Crezia and Harlon hung back by the hatchway.

Alizebeth looked like she was asleep. Her skin was as pale as the snows of the high Atenates.

'Is she alive?' I asked Antribus.

'Yes, sir/

'I mean… without these vital supports, the stasis field-?'

'If we shut them down, she may remain the way she is. But she might also fade. It is never easy to tell in cases of such significant injury/

'Will she recover?' I asked.

'No/ he said, caring enough to look me in the eyes. 'Except for some miracle. She will never regain consciousness or mobility/

'So she's dead to us? Has she any quality of life?'

4Vho can say, sir? She's not in any pain. I believe she is dreaming an endless, tranquil dream. If you consider that to be cruel, we can disconnect the machines and let nature take its course/

He withdrew. Crezia appeared at my side.

'What are you going to do, Gregor?' she asked.

'I won't turn the machines off. Not yet. My mind's too full of that bastard Glaw. I'll make a decision afterwards.' If there is afterwards, I thought. 'I'd like you and Nayl to stay with her. Look after her. Will you do that?'

'Of course/ she said. I realised this was the first time she'd ever set eyes on Alizebeth Bequin.

'Really? It's a big thing to ask of you.'

'I'm a doctor, and your friend, Gregor. It's not a big thing.'

I turned to go.

'She can probably hear you,' she said suddenly.

'Do you think so?'

Crezia shrugged and smiled. 'I don't know. There's every chance she can. And if she can't, does it matter?'

'Does what matter?'

'Tell her, Gregor. Now, before you go. Tell her, for goodness sake. Do the right thing by one of us at least.'

She left me alone and I sat down beside Alizebeth's cot.

And then, though I don't know to this day if she ever heard or understood, I told her all the things I should have told her years before.

I said goodbye to Ravenor and promised to wait for him at Jeganda. I kissed Crezia goodbye and went to the Hinterlight's hangar to cross back to the Essene. Nayl came to see me off.

I shook his hand. 'Keep an eye on Gideon/1 said.

He frowned. 'You don't trust him?' he asked.

With my life. But I don't trust his friends/

As the Essene pulled away from Promody, gathering speed as it headed for the immaterium translation point Maxilla's navigator had calculated, I went to find Aemos.

He was in his suite of rooms, puzzling his way through a deep stack of books he'd borrowed from Maxilla's library.

'Something else to divert you/ I said, handing him a pile of data-slates and record tiles. Before we had parted company, Ravenor had copied for me everything he had been permitted to copy, including a pict-file of the inscription as his force chair's sensors had recorded it.

'Gideon has marked some key passages in his notes to get you up to speed, but the inscription, which is a chart, is what really interests me. Gideon's… associate… told me what it means, or the part of it that applies to Ghiil, anyway. I'd like to know a little more, in literal terms/

'You want me to decipher an alien text that was long dead before man appeared?'

Put like that it was a tall order. 'There are some other samples of the same script that Ravenor obtained from other sites. I don't know. Do what you can with it. Anything you can turn up will be useful/

* * *

The voyage to Jeganda was not the longest I have ever undertaken, but it felt like it. I was fretful and ill at ease, impatient to arrive. My mind would not stop thinking about Glaw's head start, or how close the farseer's nothingness loomed.

To fill the time, I meditated and exercised, burrowed my way through Maxilla's library in search of anything pertaining to the eldar and their legends. Kara worked to get Medea up to fitness and, after two weeks, the three of us were running through demanding combat training each day. Sometimes Eleena joined us for the lighter sessions to keep in shape. I was glad I had an untouchable with me, given our destination and Glaw's abilities.

Except for Alizebeth, who didn't really count under the circumstances, Eleena was the last living member of the Distaff. I wondered if 1 would ever recruit and build it again.

I wondered if I would even get the chance.

During the third week, Aemos called me to his suite to discuss his findings so far. I wondered why he hadn't simply told me over dinner. We all met for a meal each evening anyway.

He told me he was making progress. The ancient culture which had built Ghiil appeared indirectly in several old sources. It seems that early Imperial explorers had known myths of a dead, precursor race from some of their first contacts with xenos species, though Aemos was concerned that some of the references could be to other dead cultures, or to species that had migrated or transplanted themselves.

One theme emerged. The race of Ghiil were marked as 'others' or 'outsiders' because they had not originated in our galaxy. The name 'Ghiil' itself didn't appear anywhere.

'One minor culture, the Doy of Mitas, have a legend concerning the "xol-xonxoy", daemons who ruled once and would return. The word meant "warped ones"/

'A good enough description as any. The eldar seemed convinced that the culture was a colony of daemons from the warp. Not even a race in its own right, more a host, an army… a nation. An exiled daemon-king and his followers, perhaps/

'There are a few more bits and pieces, not much. I'm getting nowhere with the inscription, though it is extraordinary, and Gideon's footage of that seance most perturbatory. I'd like to borrow your book/

'You what?'

Your damned book. I use the adjective advisedly/

You said you never wanted to see it again/ I reminded him.

'I don't, Gregor. It chills me to know it is even on board. But what chills me more is what we're going out there to find. And you've asked me to do a job. And that's the only tool available to me that I haven't used/

I took the Malus Codicium from my pocket. For a moment 1 couldn't bring myself to pass it to him.

'Be careful/ I hissed.

'I know the procedures/ he said grumpily. 'You've had me study prohibited texts before/ 'Not like this one/

I kept an eye on Aemos after that, visiting him regularly and making sure he came to meals. He became tired and short-tempered. I wanted to take the book away from him, but he said he was nearly done.

We were a week from Jeganda when he finished his work.

'It's incomplete/ he warned, 'but the main elements are there/

He seemed even more fatigued than before and had developed a slight shake on his left side. His suite was a mess of papers and slates, notes and scrawlings, scattered books. In places, where he had apparently run out of paper, he had continued his notes on tabletops or even walls.

Uber Aemos had performed his greatest work of service for me, the hardest task I had ever set him. And it had cost him. It had damaged his health and, I was afraid, his sanity.