Eisenhorn Omnibus

I break them. Snap them. Shatter them. However and wherever I may. In that regard alone, 1 am a kindred spirit. You are bending the rules of the Imperium, of the Inquisition. You are, undoubtedly, what they call a radical. But that's where the similarity ends. I break the rules for my own gain. To get what I want, to amplify my wealth and status. To make things better for me. Me. Just me. But you're not doing it for yourself. You're doing it for the system you believe in and the God-Emperor you worship and by damn, that means your conscience can be clean/

I was taken aback by the passion of his speech. I was also taken aback by the suggestion – one that no one had dared make before – that I had become a radical. When had that happened? My actions may have been radical but did that make me a radical to the marrow?

Sitting there, in that opulent room, I realised Maxilla had hit on the truth, a truth I had been denying. I had changed without recognising that change in myself. I would always be grateful to Tobias Maxilla for that bruising realisation. I felt better for it.

'I suppose you can't turn to your superiors for help?'

'No/ I said, still reeling from the fresh viewpoint.

'Because you'd have to tell them things you don't want them to hear?'

'Of course. To get any kind of official help, I'd have to make a full report. And that report would fall apart under the lightest scrutiny if it omitted the Codicium, Cherubael. By the Throne, the list goes back! I even hid Pontius Glaw from them. What could I say? Pontius Glaw is exterminating my forces. Where did he come from, my lord grand master? Well, to be honest, I've known of his existence for centuries, but I kept him hidden from you. And he's only up and around now because I decided to give him a body/

He chuckled. 'I see your point. What will you tell Fischig? Dear Godwyn is as straight up and down as any man I know/

'I'll deal with Fischig/

'So what is your next move? You mentioned this daughter of his, the psyker. You saw things when you killed her, didn't you?'

I had indeed. Maria Tarray's entire mental shield had crumbled just before the vortex annihilated her. The picture I had obtained was far from complete, but it was plentiful.

'Maria Tarray was much older than she looked or claimed. She was the bastard offspring of Pontius Glaw and a serving girl from Gudran that Glaw had taken with him to Quenthus Eight. Maria was born in 020, corrupted from conception by the tainted tore Pontius wore. Several notorious heretics who have evaded the Inquisition in the last three hundred years were actually her under different guises. Many cases could be closed now she is dead/

'Pontius won't be too pleased/

'I imagine Pontius Glaw now wants me dead even more than before. But they were after the Malus Codicium, you see. I learned that from her undefended mind. Glaw knew Quixos must have it and, once Quixos was dead, realised it must be in my possession. He wants that book so much/

'Do you know why?'

'I saw images of an arid world just before Maria Tarray died. A dried out husk where primaeval cities lay buried under layers of ash. Glaw's after something there, and he needs the Codicium to help him/

'What?'

'I don't know/

Where?'

'I don't know that either. There was a name, a word in her mind. Ghtil. But I don't know what it means or what it refers to. Her mind was in collapse. Very little made sense/

'I'll consult my charts and my navigator. Who knows?' He sat forward and looked at me. 'This book. This Malus Codicium. May I see it?'

Why?'

'Because I appreciate unique and priceless objects/

I took it from my jacket and passed it to him. He studied it with reverence, a smile on his face.

'Not much to look at, but beautiful for what it is. Thank you for the opportunity to hold it.' He handed it back to me.

'I can't believe I'm going to say this/ he added, 'me of all people. But… I'd destroy it, if I were you,'

'I think you're right. I believe I will.'

I put down my empty glass and walked to the doors. Maxilla evaporated the privacy field.

Thank you for your time and hospitality, Tobias. I think I'll turn in now.'

'Sleep well'

'One last thing,' I said, turning back in the doorway. 'You said you break the rales to get what you want. That you serve no one but yourself and everything you do is for your own ends.'

'I did.'

Then why do you help me so often?'

He smiled. 'Good night, Gregor.'

The Essene put in at Hubris four days later. Hubris was an outlying world in the Helican sub-sector and Fischig, Bequin, Maxilla and I had all met there for the first time in 240.

Indirectly, that's where we'd first stumbled across Pontius Glaw too. Everything was turning full circle in the strangest way.

I had rerouted Fischig here as a convenient and out of the way meeting place, but it seemed apt. He'd been a chastener in the local arbites when he'd first crossed my path. It was his homeworld.

For eleven out of every twenty-nine months, Hubris orbits so far beyond its star that the population are forced to hibernate in massive cryogenic tombs to survive the blackness and the cold. Those winters of eternal night are called Dormant and I had experienced one on that last visit.

But now we arrived at the start of Thaw, the middle season between Dormant and Vital.

The tombs had emptied and the great cities were waking under a pale sun. The population was engaged in a frenzied jubilee of feasting and dancing and general excess that lasted three weeks and was supposed to celebrate the society's rebirth, but which probably had deep rooted origins in the traditional methods of recovery from extended cryogenic suspension such as forced physical activity and high-calorie intake.

I offered to travel to the surface to meet him, partly because I thought Crezia, Eleena and Medea could do with the relaxation of a festival and Maxilla had never been one to turn down a party.

But Fischig answered he would as soon come up to the Essene, and he arrived, piloting his own shuttle, a few hours later.

I could tell he was tense from the moment he stepped aboard. He was polite, and seemed pleased to see Medea, Aemos and Maxilla. But with me he was reserved.

I told him it was good to see him, and that I was relieved he had escaped Glaw's purge.

'Glaw, eh?' he said. He had heard all about the fall of the Distaff and our other holdings. 'I had wondered who it was.' 'We need to talk,' I said. 'Yes/ he said. 'But not here/

Maxilla lent us his stateroom and I turned on the privacy field.

There's nothing you couldn't say in front of the others, Godwyn/ I said.

'No? Glaw's killed everyone except us few. Because-'