My own blood was dripping off Barbarisater's hilt between my doubled handed grip. I raised the blade.
And made the ewl caer.
The blade split his head and shattered the crystal into flecks of glass.
Pontius Glaw's metal body convulsed, jerked back and fell off the edge of the plinth, down into the gulf, into the blackness of the daemon-king's tomb, its cloak-blades chiming.
* * *
I was sitting on the plinth, with my back against the tomb wall, blood slowly pooling around me, when a flight flashed out in the darkness of the vault.
It came closer.
At last, Cherubael floated down and hovered over me. Its face, limbs and body were hideously marked with weals, burns and gashes.
I looked up at it. It was hard to move, hard to concentrate. There was blood in my mouth, in my eyes.
'Glaw's daemonhost?'
'Gone.'
'He claimed it was more powerful than you/
'You don't know how nasty I can be/ it said.
I thought about that. The last of the diabolic book's pages were mere tufts of black ash, scattered across the plinth.
'Are we finished here?' it asked.
'Yes/1 said.
It frowned.
'I'm going to have to carry you after all, aren't I?' it sighed.
Dossier addendum Notes concerning the key individuals in this account
Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor supervised the annulment of 5213X, also known in some records as Ghtil. Despite long debates amongst the Sector ordos, no attempt to recover an artefact and material from5213X was ever permitted. Under orders from Battlefleet Scarus, under the command of Lord Admiral Olm Madorthene, annihilated the planet in392.M41. Ravenor continued to serve the Inquisition for several centuries, performing many notable acts, including the destruction of the Heretic Thonius Slyte, but his posthumous fame results more from the quality of his writings, especially the peerless work The Spheres of Longing.
Inquisitor Golesh Heldane survived the destruction of the Essene at Jeganda. His bodyguards were forced to sever his leg to free him and carried him to his ship. He spent many years recovering from his horrific injuries, which required still more severe augmetic reconstruction than he had already undergone. He returned to active service, but his career was blighted by his reputation. He was killed, following injury, on Menazoid Epsilon in 765.M41.
Harlon Nayl continued in the service of the Inquisition for many years and, along with Kara Swole and Eleena Koi, joined the staff of Inquisitor Ravenor. Their individual fates are not recorded in the Imperial archive, though it is believed that Nayl died circa 450.M41.
* * *
Crezia Berschilde returned to Gudrun, where she served as Chief Medicae (anatomica) at the Universitariate of New Gevae until her retirement due to failing health in 602.M41. Several of her treatise on augmetic surgery have become standard authority texts.
Medea Betancore returned to Glavia and became the director of her family shipwright business, a post she held for seventy years. She disappeared en route to Sarum in 479.М41, although several later reports suggest she survived that date.
Lord Inquisitor Phlebas Alessandro Rorken recovered from his ill- health and became grand master of the Ordos Helican after the disappearance of Leonid Osma. He held the post for three hundred and fifteen years.
Inquisitor Gregor Eisehhorn is believed to have continued in the service of the ordos after the events on 5213X, though recorded details of his life and work after that date are conjectural at best. His eventual fate is not recorded in the Imperial archives.
There is no archived mention of the being known as 'Cherubael'.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dan Abnett lives and works in Maidstone, Kent,
in England. Well known for his comic work, he
has written everything from the Mr Men to the
X-Men in the last decade, and received particular
acclaim for his five-year run on The Legion for
DC Comics. He is currently writing Majestic for
Wildstorm, and Sinister Dexter and The VCs
for 2000 AD.
His work for theblack library includes the popular strips Lone Wolves, Titan and Darkblade,
thebest-selling gaunt's ghosts series, the
Ravenor novels and Double Eagle. He was voted
'Best Writer Now' at the National
Comic Awards 2003.
