False Gods

'No. Should I?'

'Let's take a closer look,’

Horus followed as Sejanus set off into the crowd, mak­ing his way towards the centre of the plaza, and the crowds parted before them without so much as a raised eyebrow.

'Can't these people see us?' he asked.

'No,’ said Sejanus. 'Or if they can, they will forget us in an instant. We move amongst them as ghosts and none here will remember us,’

Horus stopped in front of a man dressed in a thread­bare scapular, who shuffled around the statues on bloodied feet. His hair was tonsured and he clutched a handful of carved bones tied together with twine. A bloody bandage covered one eye and a long strip of parchment pinned to his scapular dangled to the ground.

With barely a pause, the man stepped around him, but Horus put out his arm and prevented his progress. Again, the man attempted to pass Horus, but again he was pre­vented.

'Please, sir,’ said the man without looking up. 'I must get by,’

'Why?' asked Horus. What are you doing?'

The man looked puzzled, as though struggling to recall what he had been asked.

'I must get by,’ he said again.

Exasperated by the man's unhelpful answers, Horus stepped aside to let him pass. The man bowed his head and said, The Emperor watch over you, sir,’

Horus felt a clammy sensation crawl along his spine at the words. He pushed through the unresisting crowds towards the centre of the plaza as a terrible suspicion began forming in his gut. He caught up to Sejanus, who stood atop a stepped plinth at the foot of the statues, where a huge pair of bronze eagles formed the backdrop to a tall lectern.

A hugely fat official in a gold chasuble and tall mitre of silk and gold read aloud from a thick, leather-bound book, his words carried over the crowd via silver trumpets held aloft by what looked like winged infants that floated above him.

As Horus approached, he saw that the official was human only from the waist up, a complex series of

hissing pistons and brass rods making up his lower half and fusing him with the lectern, which he now saw was mounted on a wheeled base.

Horus ignored him, looking up at the statues, finally seeing them for what they were.

Though their faces were unrecognisable to one who knew them as Horus did, their identities were unmistak­able.

The nearest was Sanguinius, his outstretched wings like the pinions of the eagles that adorned every struc­ture surrounding the plaza. To one side of the Lord of the Angels was Rogal Dorn, the unfurled wings haloing his head, unmistakable; on the other, was someone who could only be Leman Russ, his hair carved to resemble a wild mane, and wearing a cloak of wolf pelts draped around his massive shoulders.

Horus circled the statues, seeing other familiar images: Guilliman, Corax, the Lion, Ferrus Mannus, Vulkan and finally Jaghatai Khan.

There could be no doubting the identity of the cen­tral figure now, and Horus looked up into the carved face of the Emperor. No doubt the inhabitants of this world thought it magnificent, but Horus knew this was a poor thing, failing spectacularly to capture the sheer dynamism and force of the Emperor's personal­ity.

With the additional height offered by the statues' plinth, Horus looked out over the slowly circling mass of people and wondered what they thought they did in this place.

Pilgrims, thought Horus, the word leaping, unbidden, to his mind.

Coupled with the ostentation and vulgar adorn­ments he saw on the surrounding buildings, Horus knew that this was not simply a place of devotion, but something much more.

'This is a place of worship,' he said as Sejanus joined him at the foot of Corax's statue, the cool marble per­fectly capturing the pallid complexion of his taciturn brother.

Sejanus nodded and said, 'It is an entire world given over to the praise of the Emperor,’

'But why? The Emperor is no god. He spent centuries freeing humanity from the shackles of religion. This makes no sense,’

'Not from where you stand in time, but this is the Imperium that will come to pass if events continue on their present course,’ said Sejanus. The Emperor has the gift of foresight and he has seen this future time,’

'For what purpose?'

'To destroy the old faiths so that one day his cult would more easily supplant them all,’

'No,’ said Horus, 'I won't believe that. My father always refuted any notion of divinity. He once said of ancient Earth that there were torches, who were the teachers, but also extinguishers, who were the priests. He would never have condoned this,’

Tet this entire world is his temple,’ Sejanus said, 'and it is not the only one,’

There are more worlds like this?'

'Hundreds,’ nodded Sejanus, 'probably even thou­sands,’

'But the Emperor shamed Lorgar for behaviour such as this,’ protested Horus. 'The Word Bearers Legion raised great monuments to the Emperor and persecuted entire populations for their lack of faith, but the Emperor would not stand for it and said that Lorgar shamed him with such displays,’

'He wasn't ready for worship then: he didn't have con­trol of the galaxy. That's why he needed you,’

Horus turned away from Sejanus and looked up into the golden face of his father, desperate to refute the

words he was hearing. At any other time, he would have struck Sejanus down for such a suggestion, but the evi­dence was here before him.

He turned to face Sejanus. 'These are some of my brothers, but where are the others? Where am I?'

'I do not know,’ replied Sejanus. 'I have walked this place many times, but have never yet seen your likeness,’

'I am his chosen regent!' cried Horus. 'I fought on a thousand battlefields for him. The blood of my warriors is on his hands, and he ignores me like I don't exist?'

'The Emperor has forsaken you, Warmaster,’ urged Sejanus. 'Soon he will turn his back on his people to win his place amongst the gods. He cares only for himself and his power and glory. We were all deceived. We have no place in his grand scheme, and when the time comes, he will spurn us all and ascend to godhood. While we were fighting war after war in his name, he was secretly building his power in the warp,’

The droning chant of the official – a priest, realised Horus – continued as the pilgrims maintained the slow procession around their god, and Sejanus's words ham­mered against his skull.

This can't be true,’ whispered Horus.

What does a being of the Emperor's magnitude do after he has conquered the galaxy? What is left for him but godhood? What use has he for those whom he leaves behind?'

'No!' shouted Horus, stepping from the plinth and smashing the droning priest to the ground. The aug­mented preacher hybrid was torn from the pulpit and lay screaming in a pool of blood and oil. His cries were carried across the plaza by the trumpets of the floating infants, though none of the crowd seemed inclined to help him.

Horus set off into the crowded plaza in a blind fury, leaving Sejanus behind on the plinth of statues. Once