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’You attacked Tharsis because of the ravings of a mad­man?’ Astelan said, his voice full of derision
’No, Co measured paces towards him as he spoke, until he filled Astelan’s vision, his eyes glittering in the dio back a long time, back ten thousand years when those like you turned on their brethren and betrayed them Little is non about that time of anarchy, and few records of what transpired are left, but there is a list, a list kept by the Grand Master of Chaplains in a sacred box in the main chapel For ten tiels that alht be We do not kno ht find you But we have that list, and it contains the names of the hundred and thirty-six Space Marines who first swore allegiance to Luther when he rose against our primarch Your name, Commander Astelan, is at the top of that list We have been hunting you for a very long time, and noe shall learn the truth from you’
Boreas turned and opened the door There, swathed in robes, stood Samiel The Librarian walked softly into the room and stood beside Astelan’s head He reached down and the former Chapter commander tried to move his head aside, but his restraints did not allow him room The psyker’s cold hands rested on his forehead, and Astelan felt a voice whispering at the back of his hed Now is the time e strip away the lies Noe strip away your delusions, until all that is left is the stark truth of your actions You have hidden frouilt at the core of your soul, but ill not allow you to hide any longer You will know the shaht us, and you will repent of your evil ways
’I have done no wrong!’ rasped Astelan, trying to shake his head free
’Liar!’ roared Boreas, and pain beyond anything he had ever endured before lanced through Astelan’s head
’Noill begin again,’ the Interrogator-Chaplain told his prisoner ’Tell me of Tharsis’
THE TALE OF BOREAS
PART TWO
It was four days after the clash with the orks, and Boreas knelt in silent meditation in the outpost chapel He was clad only in his white robe, a mark of his position within the elite warriors of the Chapter - the Deathwing What the others did not realise was that it was also a mark of his membership within the secretive Inner Circle of the Chapter Lifting the robe slightly, he knelt before an altar of dark stone inlaid with gold and platinum The altar was at one end of the chapel, which itself was situated at the top of the five-storey Dark Angels’ keep in Kadillus Harbour, capital of Piscina IV The chae, for space was at a preh only for fifty people to attend the dawn and dusk masses that Boreas held every day
Three of the keep’sthe murals that covered the chapel’s interior, failed aspirants who had nonetheless survived their trials Tere busy reapplying gilding to a portrait of the Dark Angels’ primarch, Lion El’lonson, which towered soht above the altar
Boreas tried to block out the occasional creak and squeak of the painters’ wooden scaffolding The other was renovating a scene added after the Dark Angels’ last defence of Piscina, when the ork warlords Ghazghkull and Nazdreg had combined forces and fallen upon the planet like two thunderbolts of destruction For Boreas, that particular picture brought both pride and a little consternation It depicted the defence of the Dark Angels’ basilica which had once served as their outpost in the capital It was here that Boreas hiainst the vicious alien horde on nuically vital strong-point had changed hands back and forth for the whole ca the battle for the basilica that Boreas had lost his right eye to an ork powerfist, which had nearly crushed his head Though eventually the orks had been driven out of the basilica, and the planet saved by an epic battle at Koth Ridge, so intense had been the fighting at the blood-soaked chapter house that after the orks had been defeated, the Dark Angels had been forced to abandon the fortified ad and construct a new keep The ruins themselves still stood a kilometre or so from where Boreas now knelt, a testa­els had provided for countless millennia
Re words he had heard in those shattered rooreat sacrifices that his fellow Space Marines had ers Chapter, Boreas felt a dghtness in his chest Had the basilica really been that iain? Perhaps it had just been pride that had driven Master Belial to co at all costs? In the end, the fighting in the dark cathedral had been but a sideshow of the caee
With a terse co his concentration as he was try­ing to focus on the oath of fealty he had pledged when he had joined the Inner Circle They did not give hilance as they quietly picked up their tools and left, for which he was thankful Despite the doubts he felt, he still had a duty as the Dark Angels co leadership and set an example to the others If he shoeakness for a e, not only to hiuidance with absolute trust If that trust were to be broken, then only Boreas truly knehat acts of anarchy and corruptionthat it was not the presence of the serfs that was disturbing his hts, Boreas decided that he would not quiet his troubled soul in isolation Perhaps he ht find more solace in the coht, and resolved to leave Glancing only briefly at the half-gilded primarch in front of hi loudly on the flagstones Passing through the double doors that opened out of the sanc­tum, he turned and closed them behind him, the boom of the heavy wooden doors loud in the stillness of the keep Turning left in the corridor, he crossed the tower to the armoury, where he hoped to find Hep­haestus
Boreas was proved correct as he stepped into the work­shop of the Techmarine Like most of the keep, the chamber was square and functional, the plain rockcrete of the walls unadorned There, ast the racks of weapons and worktables, accompanied by his five atten­dants, Hephaestus was seated at a workbench, working on Boreas’s power armour He had the chest plastron in a vice and was busily filing away at the scores cut into the breastplate during the battle against the orks From beside hirail of sacred water and poured the contents over the mechanical file
On Boreas’s left were cases of bolters and crates of ammunition, all stacked neatly and ed sword syels Next to thest thelistened in the light fro, a tribute to the attention paid by Hephaestus, who lovingly cleaned thes you into my chamber, Brother-Chaplain?’ Hephaestus asked, as Boreas realised he had been staring transfixed at the sheen on his crozius The Tech over his shoulder at Boreas
’You were late forhe wasn’t quite sure why he had co hisup from his bench ’You know that I had to attend to ht at Vartoth’
’Of course,’ agreed Boreas, knowing full well that a Techmarine had dispensation from prayers if his atten­dance would interfere in the repair or upkeep of the Space Marines’ wargear ’I did not realise that our encounter had left you such a long task’
’I would rather spend twenty hours repairing a bolter, than think for a moment that ht in ard consideration ofparticular attention to your arator-Chaplain, as it deserves’
’Yes, I know of your love for the works of the artificer Mandeus,’ Boreas said, allowing himself a rare smile ’Did you not once say to me that you would die content if you could one day fashion a suit of arreat as the one that I inherited?’