Eisenhorn Omnibus

'Your heresy/ said Osma.

'I am not a heretic. And this is not a tribunal of my peers. I cannot be judged so/

I knew damn well I could. Grand master or no grand master, Osma could deal with me however the hell he wanted.

'Confess/ he said again, sitting down in the seat next to Heldane with a whine of armour servos. He really was fascinated by Barbarisater, turning it over in his gauntleted hands.

'Confess what?'

'We have a list of charges/ Heldane said, producing a data-slate from his cloak. 'Your man Fischig was very specific about his concerns. You have consorted with daemons and conjured one of them as a daemonhost on more than one occasion. You have hidden proscribed texts from the Inquisition. You have shielded a known heretic from the Inquisition and allowed him to roam free/

I fixed Heldane with a hard stare. 'You mean Pontius Glaw? I'll admit nothing, but I'll tell you this much. If you detain me here, you'll pay a much greater price than you can ever imagine. I am sworn to stop Pontius Glaw and you are preventing me from performing my holy duties/

Your days of performing holy duties are long gone/ said Osma.

Where is the Malus CodiciumV Heldane asked.

I toughened my mind shield, hoping against hope that the simple surface truth would not get out. In my pocket. In my damn pocket. Your men searched me for weapons but they didn't bother about a battered old book in my coat.

Heldane didn't read it/ 'He's still wonderfully resilient/ he told Osma.

They were assuming the Codicium would be in a secure place. A void safe, a strong box, under my damn mattress! They had no idea it would be right there in front of them, covered only by a layer of leather coat. I had to keep that simple, stupid fact from them.

'Millions will die. Tens of millions perhaps. If you don't let me finish my work/

'That's what they all say/ said Osma. He rose and leaned over at me, his blunt, grizzled face looming close. 'You're going to burn, Eisenhorn. Burn

and suffer. I am only grand master today because I have never suffered heretics like you. You are the worst kind of fool/

'Tell us about the daemonhost/ said Heldane. Where is it secured? How can we find it? What are its command words?'

'Command words?' I replied. 'Why would you need those? Do you intend to control the daemonhost yourself?'

Heldane sat back and glanced at Osma.

'Of course they don't!' said Fischig, who had been lurking on the mezzanine steps. 'They're not heretics like you… they wouldn't-'

He looked round at Osma and Heldane.

You don't want the daemonhost, do you, masters?'

'It must be contained and dealt with,' said Osma. 'Leave this business to your superiors, please. You interrupt too much.'

'But the daemonhost? You talk like you want it for yourselves.'

Osma glanced at the long-snouted inquisitor. 'Heldane? Tell this man to go away. He's served his purpose.'

'Go, Fischig!' Heldane snapped, and my former friend descended the stairs and sat down on one of the couches, gazing at Eleena and Medea, who were trying to make Maxilla comfortable.

'The daemonhost!' Heldane rasped. 'Give it to us!'

'And you call me a heretic.

Heldane's psychic slap rocked me back in my seat.

A guard approached Osma. We have searched the infirmary, lord. There is no one there.'

Thank the Emperor, I thought. Kara has freed Aemos.

'Kara?' said Heldane suddenly. 'Who is Kara?'

No one, I willed.

There is a sixth person aboard/ Heldane told Osma. 'Probably now working with the savant/

'Find them!' Osma snapped, and half of his guard unit hurried from the stateroom. 'Bring more squads across from our ship if you have to/

There was jolt, followed by a terrible raking squeal of metal on metal from somewhere outside.

'What was that?' Heldane demanded.

He got up and hurried down the steps towards the entrance to the main bridge. The Essene jolted again.

Osma rose and pointed the tip of Barbarisater at me. 'Move!' he ordered. 'Watch the rest of them/ he told the guard captain.

We followed Heldane onto the bridge. Fischig joined us, along with Maxilla, who was being held upright by a guard.

We were listing badly. On the main screen, we could see a forward view of the waystation.

The Essene had disengaged from its moorings, and was slowly tearing backwards away from the dock. Docking gantries were grinding and buckling against the ship's hull.

'What have you done?' Osma said to me.

This is none of my doing/ I replied.

A series of minor explosions ripped through the control stations on the right hand side of the huge bridge area, showing the marble floor with sparks and machine-part debris.

Another blast rocked the starboard chapel annex that contained the astropathic vault and buckled the hatch. A helm servitor combusted and toppled over, smashing open its sculptural golden casing.

'Sabotage!' said Osma.

Heldane turned on Maxilla. 'Your handiwork!'

'Mine?' said Maxilla. 'Why the hell would I risk damage to my precious ship just to help these criminals? They mean nothing to me!'

'You're lying, you metal freak!' Heldane barked and grabbed Maxilla by the throat, lifting him off the ground. 'Tell us what you've done! Put it right! Get your crew to stabilise the ship!'

'I've done nothing…' Maxilla choked.

Heldane hurled him across the chamber. The inquisitor was strong by any standards, but he supplemented his physical strength with telekinesis. Maxilla hit the wall with a terrible splintering impact, and Heldane held him there with his powers for an awful moment, squashing him against the duralloy with his mind. There were several loud cracks of bone and metal.

Then he let him go and the limp, broken body of Tobias Maxilla fell to the marble deck and lay still.

'Why did you do that?' Fischig cried.

'Shut the hell up, you idiot/ Heldane answered. We need to get this vessel locked down/

Fischig and one of the guards took a few steps forward towards the main bridge consoles. Fischig knew the Essene. He probably thought he could access the thrusters and level us out before the dock gantries did any more damage to the hull.

The astropathic vault blew out in a sheet of white flame that atomised two of the