False Gods

'Of course. En route to Sardis and our rendezvous with the Two Hundred and Third fleet, the revered Lord Kor Phaeron bade me detour to Davin that I might ensure the Word of the Emperor, beloved by all, was being maintained by Commander Temba and the forces left with him.'

'Where is Temba anyway?' demanded Horus. 'I gave him enough men to pacify any last remnants of resis­tance. Surely if this world was no longer compliant I would have heard about it?'

'Eugan Temba is a traitor, my lord,' said Erebus. 'He is on the moon of Davin and no longer recognises the Emperor as his lord and master,’

Traitor?' shouted Horus. 'Impossible. Eugan Temba was a man of fine character and admirable martial spirit, I chose him personally for this honour. He would never turn traitor!'

'Would that that were true, my lord,’ said Erebus, sounding genuinely regretful.

'Well, what in the name of the Emperor is he doing on the moon?' asked Horus.

The tribes on Davin itself were honourable and read­ily accepted compliance, but those on the moon did not,’ explained Erebus. Temba led his men in a glorious, but ultimately foolhardy, expedition to the moon to bring the tribes there into line,’

Why foolhardy? Such is the duty of an Imperial com­mander,’

'It was foolhardy, my lord, for the tribes of the moon do not understand respect as we do and it appears that when Temba attempted an honourable parley with them, they employed… means to twist the perceptions of our men and turn them against you,’ 'Means? Speak plainly, man!' said Horus.

'I hesitate to name them, my lord, but they are what might be described in the ancient texts as, well, sorcery,’

Loken felt the humours in his blood swing wildly out of balance at this mention of sorcery, and a gasp of dis­belief swept around the yurt at such a notion.

Temba now serves the master of Davin's moon and has spat on his oaths of loyalty to the Emperor. He names you as the lackey of a fallen god,’

Loken had never met Eugan Temba, but he felt his hatred of the man rise like a sickness in his gorge at this terrible insult to the Warmaster's honour. An aston­ished wailing swept round the yurt as the assembled warriors felt this insult as keenly as he did.

'He will pay for this!' roared Horus. 'I will tear his head off and feed his body to the crows. By my honour I swear this!'

'My lord,’ said Erebus. 'I am sorry to be the bearer of such ill news, but surely this is a matter best left to those appointed beneath you,’

'You would have me despatch others to avenge this stain upon my honour, Erebus?' demanded Horus. 'What sort of a warrior do you take me for? I signed the Decree of Compliance here and I'll be damned if the only world to backslide from the Imperium is one that I conquered!'

Horus turned to the Mournival. 'Ready a Speartip –now!'

Very well, my lord,’ said Abaddon. 'Who shall lead it?'

'I will,’ said Horus.

The War Council was dismissed; all other concerns and matters due before it shelved by this terrible devel­opment. A frantic vigour seized the 63rd Expedition as commanders returned to their units and word spread of Eugan Temba's treachery.

Amid the urgent preparations for departure, Loken found Ignace Karkasy in the yurt so recently vacated by the incensed War Council. He sat with an open book before him, writing with great passion and pausing only to sharpen his nib with a small pocket knife.

'Ignace,’ said Loken.

Karkasy looked up from his work, and Loken was sur­prised at the amusement he saw in the remembrancer's face. 'Quite a meeting, eh? Are they all that dramatic?'

Loken shook his head. 'No, not usually. What are you writing?'

'This, oh, just a quick poem about the vile Temba,’ said Karkasy. 'Nothing special, just a stream of consciousness kind of thing. I thought it appropriate given the mood of the expedition.'-

'I know. I just can't believe anyone could say such a thing.'

'Nor I, and I think that's the problem.'

What do you mean?'

'I'll explain,' said Karkasy, rising from his seat and making his way towards the untouched bowls of cold meat and helping himself to a plateful. 'I remember a piece of advice I heard about the Warmaster. It was said that a good trick upon meeting him was to look at his feet, because if you caught his eye you'd quite forget what it was you were going to say,’

'I have heard that too. Aximand told me the same thing,’

'Well it's obviously a good piece of advice, because I was quite taken aback when I saw him up close for the first time: quite magnificent. Almost forgot why I was there,’

'I'm not sure I understand,’ said Loken, shaking his head as Karkasy offered him some meat from the plate.

'Put it this way, can you imagine anyone who had actually met Horus – may I call him Horus? I hear

you're not too fond of us mere mortals calling him that – saying such a thing as this Temba person is supposed to have said?'

Loken straggled to keep up with Karkasy's rapid deliv­ery, realising that his anger had blinded him to the simple fact of the Warmaster's glory.

'You're right, Ignace. No one who'd met the Warmas­ter could say such things,’

'So the question then becomes, why would Erebus say that Temba had said it?'

'I don't know. Why would he?'

Karkasy swallowed some of the meat on his plate and washed it down with a drink of the white liquor.

Why indeed?' asked Karkasy, warming to the weaving of his tale. 'Tell me, have you had the 'pleasure' of meet­ing Aeliuta Hergig? She's a remembrancer – one of the dramatists – and pens some dreadfully overwrought plays. Tedious things if you ask me, but I can't deny that she has some skill in treading the boards herself. I remember watching her play Lady Ophelia in The Tragedy of Amleti and she was really rather good, though-'

'Ignace,’ warned Loken. 'Get to the point,’

'Oh, yes, of course. My point is that as talented an actress as Ms Hergig is, she couldn't hold a candle to the performance given by Erebus today,’

'Performance?'

'Indeed. Everything he did from the moment he entered this yurt was a performance. Didn't you see it?'

'No, I was too angry,’ admitted Loken. That's why I wanted you there. Explain it to me simply and without digressions, Ignace,’

Karkasy beamed in pride before continuing.

Very well. When he first spoke of Davin's non­compliance, Erebus suggested taking the matter somewhere more private, yet he had just broached this

highly provocative subject in a room full of people. And did you notice? Erebus said that Temba had turned against him, Horus, not the Emperor: Horus. He made it personal. '

'But why would he seek to provoke the Warmaster so?'

'Perhaps to unbalance his humour in order to bring his choler to the fore, it's not like he wouldn't have known what his reaction would be. I think Erebus wanted the Warmaster in a position where he wasn't thinking clearly.'