Necropolis

looking for, erm, Surgeon Curth and Medic Dorden.” He unfolded a scrap of vellum. “I had a request to talk to me… about that terrible incident at the carriage station weeks ago. God-Emperor, it was awful!”

Curth let go of Dorden and turned round to the guilder.

“I’m Curth,” she said, stepping forward. “Thank you for coming. I need to know: what did you see?”

“I want Dorden here too, before I speak,” Worlin said.

“That’s me,” Dorden said, rising and wiping his eyes.

“Both of you? Dorden and Curth?” Worlin grinned.

“Yes? What did you want to tell us? What did you see?

Worlin pulled out his needle pistol and grinned. “This.”

Dorden threw himself at Curth as Worlin opened fire. The first shot punched through Dorden’s right hand, the second through his left thigh. The third hit Curth in the shoulder and threw her across the room.

Worlin advanced on Dorden, aiming the sleekly murderous pistol, eyes burning.

“Let’s keep this between ourselves, doctor,” he hissed.

A bolt round blew Worlin’s head off in matted chunks. Gaunt, gun raised, limped into the swab-room, supported by the bewildered Corbec.

“I heard shooting,” Gaunt said as he passed out.

TWENTY

NECROPOLIS

“Enough of this. Too many ghosts.”

—Ibram Gaunt, at Verghast

The outboards purred. The Magnificat lurched away from the dock into the middle of the Hass. It left behind a vast city-hulk still burning and smouldering. Folik steered them out, chasing the last tides of the day.

He left the bridge and dropped down onto the rear skirt of the old ferry, approaching the man in the long coat and peaked cap who leaned against the rail as if in pain. For a week, Folik had been ferrying Guardsmen to the north shore, the beginning of their long journey to who knew where next.

This was the very last run.

In the cabin seating, Dorden looked over at Curth, her shoulder bulked up by bandage.

“Are you sure about this, surgeon?”

“Utterly. I’ve given Verghast all I have.”

Dorden nodded.

“So have you, Tolin, and so much more than me. I want to repay the Guard. Don’t tell me you can’t use another medic.”

“Indeed not, Curth.”

She smiled sadly. “I think, by now, it’s all right for you to call me Ana.”

* * * * *

“It’s a pleasure to have you aboard, sir,” Folik said to Gaunt. “You being the People’s Hero and all.”

“Are you sure you’re not getting me mixed up with someone else?”

“I don’t think so. You’re Commissar Gaunt, aren’t you?”

Gaunt nodded. He looked back across the Hass at the dead ruins of Vervunhive. They continued to burn in the low, morning light.

He took the shattered petals of the metal flower Dorden had cut out of his flesh and cast them out across the water.

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