both his greatest strength and his most profound weakness.
We went from the cell, taking a picter image of the map and leaving the original in its stasis field. As we went, I could tell that he was communicating, sending urgent requests for a meeting ahead of us, even as he kept up the flawless stream of Thoughtmark with me. We passed into finer parts of the Palace, with high stained-glass windows and gold-chased columns. I saw few warriors but many menials and even more Adeptus scribes, all racing from one task to another like a herd of startled bovines. The scale of it all was numbing rather than impressive – an endless warren of chamber after chamber, hall after hall, linked by a filigree of bridges and transit arches that wove through the toxic air and turned the mind.
He guided us expertly, walking swiftly but never hurrying. His wound, which I had thought might have been terminal, was by then hardly in evidence. His powers of recuperation, I surmised, were as impressive as his ability not to take offence.
Soon we had entered some truly grand regions – basilicas and mansions that piled atop one another in a bacchanalia of cumulative construction. Through narrow portals I caught glimpses of the very centre of it all, the colossal Sanctum Imperialis itself, rising against the northern horizon like some continental landmass, part masked by the haze of distance. I wondered briefly if we would go anywhere near it, and my interest was piqued. Hestia had always told us that only two orders were permitted into the presence of the Emperor Himself – the Custodians and ourselves.
One day, I thought to myself. One day.
But then our path turned away from it, and we were climbing into ostentatious rooms lined with mirrors and hung with thick tapestries. The luxury was obscene – just one of the many artefacts that littered those galleries could have been ransomed for the annual tithe of an entire planet. The courtiers that we passed by in those places I found repugnant. They bowed low to Valerian, and to me, but I found the shallow subservience disgusting. One woman had the temerity to flash me a timid smile, so I shot her a Thoughtmark stun-gesture that sent her reeling into a table full of glassware.
At the end of it, we found ourselves ushered into one of the most opulent rooms of all, a veritable magpie’s nest of ancient objects and antiquaries. I looked around at it all, trying to gauge how much coin it must have taken to assemble.
Soon afterwards, heavy doors at the far end of the chamber opened smoothly and two figures entered. One was a woman, fairly young with a clever face and a dancer’s erect bearing. The other was a man, older, with a heavy paunch and thick lines under his eyes. Neither of them looked like they’d slept for a long time, and their fine robes couldn’t hide a certain quiet desperation. The man greeted Valerian with warmth, though.
‘Shield-captain,’ he said, holding out both hands. ‘This is an unexpected pleasure.’
‘I wish it were under better circumstances,’ Valerian replied. ‘Chancellor Tieron, this is Tanau Aleya of the Sisters of Silence.’
Honoured, Tieron signed.
‘I will be swift,’ Valerian said. ‘Is this chamber secure?’
‘Come, now.’
‘The Sister has evidence of imminent attack on worlds within a single warp stage of Terra. I have images to show you, ones that I am prepared to vouch for. The targets are all in close proximity, and might be reached and defended if a task force were launched soon. The High Lords should be informed, and arrangements made for immediate response.’
‘Have you informed your Captain-General?’ Tieron asked.
‘He is with the Emperor.’
The chancellor nodded, understanding what that meant. He looked at me. Where did this evidence originate?
Hellion Quintus, I signed back. Though that matters little. They have knowledge of the coming state of the warp, and have isolated eight open conduits leading here. All of them are so close as to be virtually on top of us.
Tieron looked pained by that, as if those tidings could possibly have been unexpected. I don’t know what he thought the enemy would do after coming so near to destroying the Palace walls – a secondary assault would always have been on its heels.
‘Grave tidings indeed,’ he said, moving awkwardly over to a chair and sitting flabbily in it. ‘And they come at the worst possible time.’ He looked up at Valerian. ‘You remember our old dealings with that issue