Fischig and I dived headlong over a crumbling section of wall that had once surrounded North Qualm's market yard.
The grenade went off. And so did the stack of mining explosives it had been sitting on.
The Shockwave concussion flattened every wall for thirty metres. The upwards force of the blast, driving before it a blistering fireball, lifted the whole modular shed twenty metres into the air and sent the shredded remains of the structure crashing down onto neighbouring buildings.
Scraps of metal, cinders and shreds of burning flak-board rained down on Fischig and myself. There was a dazed silence broken only by the warble of alarms, cries of the injured and desperate shouting. The air was
fogged by ash dust. Pulling on our rebreathers, we stumbled through the murk.
I felt a jab of pain in my head. Deep, insidious, burning. Dazzo was reaching out with his terrifyingly potent mind, looking for us.
We stumbled through the smoke down an aisle between modular sheds whose windows had been blown out in the detonation.
The pain grew more intense.
'Eisenhorn. You cannot hide. Show yourself.'
I gasped as the pain took deeper hold.
Suddenly, it eased.
'Fischig! In here!'
I pushed him into an old stone outbuilding. I guessed it had once been a wash- house in North Qualm's more rural heyday.
Bequin was cowering in a corner, filthy, tearful. The sight of the Child of the Emperor Mandragore had sent her fleeing in blind panic. Like me, she had made the mistake of looking at the runes and marks on his foul, dazzling armour. Unlike me, she hadn't had the sense to look away.
She couldn't speak. She barely registered us. But we were back inside her muzzling aura and out of Dazzo's clutches for the moment.
'What now?' asked Fischig. They'll regroup quickly enough.'
'Midas is coming. We have to get back to the landing yard. It's the only area big enough for him to set down in.'
Fischig looked at me as if I was mad. 'He's going to fly into this? He'll be killed! And even if he does pick us up, they'll launch interceptors from the fleet. They'll launch them the moment he powers up for take off!'
'It'll be tight/1 admitted.
We dragged Bequin with us and moved out of the derelict wash-house. Outside, the settlement was still swathed in ash lifted by the blast. Fierce fires glowed in the smoke. Voices screamed orders and cygnids bayed. There was a deeper, furious bellowing too. I had a nasty feeling it was the Chaos Marine.
'Thorn attending aegis, main yard area/ I voxed.
'Aegis, main yard in three, the heavens falling/ So, they were on to him. The fleet had launched ships after the cutter.
We ran now. The smoke was slowly clearing.
A guard gang moved past us and we were forced to double back around. More guards blocked the next street.
'Through the buildings!' said Fischig.
We were behind a modular building, one of the newest and largest that Dazzo's unholy mission had set up. There was no door, but we scrambled up onto the low roof, pulling Bequin with us, and entered through a skylight.
The room we dropped into was carpeted and well furnished, an office or private study for one of the senior supervisors. There were racks of data-slates, and piles of charts and storage tiles. Several large travel trunks had been piled in one corner, with a cloak and two overcoats draped over
them. One of the new arrivals from the launch had left these things here and not yet unpacked them.
'Come on!' hissed Fischig, checking the door that led out of the office into the rest of the building.
'Wait!' I said. I cut the locks off the trunks with my powersword and threw the lids back. In the first, clothes, slates, a boxed lasgun, ornate and inlaid with the name Oberon. Other miscellaneous effects.
'Come on!' Fischig repeated, frantic.
Aegis, main yard in two/ crackled the vox.
'Eisenhorn? What are you playing at?' Fischig demanded.
These are Claw's things!' I said, searching
'So what? What are you looking for?'
'I don't know/ I turned to the second trunk. More clothes, some crude and unpleasant religious icons.
Fischig grabbed me by the shoulder. 'With respect, inquisitor, that would suggest this isn't the time to be doing it!'
We have to get out of here, we have to get the hell out of here/ Bequin murmured, her eyes darting back and forth at every sound from outside.
There'll be something… an edge, a clue… something we can use when we get out of here…'
We'll be lucky to escape with our lives!'
Yes!' I stared up at him. Yes, we will – and if we do, we'll want to continue our struggle against Glaw, won't we?'
He threw his hands up in despair.
'Please… please…' Bequin murmured.
Aegis, main yard in one/ crackled the vox.
The third trunk. A wrapped set of stainless steel surgical tools whose purpose I didn't even want to imagine. A small dice and counter game in a hardwood box. Clothes, more damn clothes!
With something solid wrapped in them.
I took it out.
'Satisfied?' asked Fischig.
I would have smiled if Locke had left me able.
'Go!' I said.
Beyond the stateroom was an outer annexe. More luggage trunks stood on the grilled floor, as well as wooden boxes draped in plastic.
'Don't even think about it!' Fischig snapped, seeing me look at the trunks.
Aegis, on site!' The vox-burst was partly drowned out by the vibrating roar of a powerful aircraft passing low and fast overhead. There was a chatter of small arms, the whip of las-rifles.
I led the way out of the annexe, through a hatchway that opened onto the landing yard. Figures milled around, mainly slave-guards and naval troopers, looking skywards and firing at the looming gun-cutter that banked overhead. On the far side of the yard, by the lowered ramp of the navy launch, Malahite saw us and shouted out. The men swung around, firing. Shots crackled around us.
Then I saw Mandragore, over to the right of the yard, charging towards us with a baleful howl.
'Back inside! Inside!' I yelled and the three of us tumbled back in through the door.
The outer wall of the building didn't stop the Chaos-beast. Neither did the hatch.
