Abaddon walked to Layak. Blood bubbled from under the priest’s mask, dark and thick. Voices rose from the vox in Abaddon’s ears, but he did not listen. He was looking at the grey-armoured priest of the Word Bearers. He blinked his vox-channel to a direct link to Layak.

‘Saving a life forms a bond, First Son of Horus,’ said Layak looking up at him, the eyes of his horned and fanged mask glowing. ‘Remember that, always.’

Eleven

The bitter angels of our hearts
Limit of kindness
Here for you

Freighter ship Antius, Jovian Gulf

‘Signal contact. Distance adjusting.’

The tech-priest’s drone buzzed across the bridge.

The watch officer, who had been nodding off, jerked upright, blinking. Vek had been sitting in a vacant helm cradle, trying to stave off the alternating fatigue and nerves.

‘What is it?’ asked Vek.

‘Uncertain,’ said the tech-priest. She had come up from the engine decks and wired herself into the helm and sensor instruments after they had broken from Uranus’ orbit. That had reassured Vek a little. The tech-priest, who he thought was called Chi-32-Beta, was cold and unfeeling, but she did not seem to sleep, nor to be as open to panic as the all-too-human bridge crew. ‘It is a small void-craft, fast, and its signal signature is tenuous,’ continued Chi-32-Beta. ‘If I was extending analysis to informed speculation, I might venture that it was equipped with counter-auspex systems.’

‘It’s hiding,’ said Vek.

‘That analysis is not accurate. It is less that it is hiding, and rather that we do not have the eyes to see it.’

‘Military?’

‘Almost a certainty,’ said the tech-priest.

‘Has it seen us? Is it coming closer?’ he asked.

‘To the first question – I would theorise that if its sacred machine systems are enough to fog the fidelity of our own auspex, then it will be more than blessed with the ability to have been aware of us for some time.’ The tech-priest paused. Vek saw cogs turn inside the sculpted lips of her brushed-steel mask. ‘As to whether it is closing, passing or attenuating, I have no data.’

Vek bit his lip. He thought of calling for Koln, but the brevet captain of the Antius had withdrawn further and further over the days since they ran from Uranus. When she spoke it was often as though she were not fully aware or present, and when she was focused she seethed with barely suppressed rage. She was seen on the bridge less and less, and Vek was happy not to know where it was she was going. But he was no void officer…

‘Go and find Sub-mistress Koln,’ he called to one of the junior deck officers, who looked barely old enough to hold rank. ‘Get her back to the bridge now.’

The officer nodded and left.