47. Serpent seen
Asla stood over her father, his body had atrophied even more over the brief conversation he had with Horus. She could see his chest still rose but it was slow and laboured, she knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up for long. As she silently stood over him she heard the door open and someone enter, she didn't have to turn around to know who it was her enhanced hearing allowed her to easily identify people by the sound of their gait.
"There's not much to document right now" Asla said as Petronella came to stand next to her
"I came to see how you were doing"
Petronella looked over the gaunt form of the primarch, he lay shirtless on the surgical slab and the contrast to just a few hours ago was stark, it was terrifying to think that someone so powerful could be brought so low so quickly. Petronella put a hand on his chest and felt it was ice cold, she moved her hand to a necklace the primarch still wore. It was clearly handmade, a leather cord with alternating needle like and triangular teeth and in the middle of them was a sapphire sent in to gold. She picked up the sapphire to see the symbol of the 11th legion etched on it.
"You shouldn't touch that" Asla warned
"Sorry" Petronella quickly pulled her hand back
"It's fine, my mother made that for their wedding, I don't think she'll like another woman handling it"
"So what are you going to do?" Petronella asked
"What makes you think I can do anything?"
"Captain Garth obviously wanted to talk to you about something important and at a time like this I doubt it would be unrelated"
"You really are smarter than you let on"
Petronella smiled slightly at the compliment, "Will it save him?"
"It might but I still can't do it"
"He's your father, why?"
Asla looked down at the emaciated form of her father, she spoke with a quiet voice, "My homeworld has terrible storms; rain, thunder and lightning that can last days sometimes and even sink some islands, when I was a little girl I was always terrified of these storms and would be unable to sleep. I would go to my father's office in the middle of the night and I would find him at his desk, he would put me on his lap and I would watch him work until I fell asleep there. Now that I look back at it I think he only stayed in his office on nights when there were storms" Asla was on the verge of tears, "If it was your father, how far would you go? Would you give up your position as Horus' remembrancer, surrender your wealth and titles or even forsake the Emperor himself"
Petronella thought about her own father, he was a strict man who drilled in to her from a young age on the history of their house and the prestige that carried with it. He didn't outwardly express his affection but she didn't doubt he loved her, she remembered he would make her memorise the histories written by her ancestors and would give her a sweet if she could recite passages verbatim. She wasn't close to her father now she was older, she didn't hate him or hold a grudge for how he raised her but the distance between worlds had made a distant relationship even more distant. She wouldn't do any of those things to save her father and she knew it.
"No I wouldn't"
Asla seemed to understand, "I would do all those things but I can't do this"
Petronella placed a hand on Asla's back, "I don't know what you'd need to do or why it is so terrible but you should ask yourself what is more important to you, your father's life or your own soul"
Asla looked down at her father for a moment, she knew what she should do, what he would want her to do but despite her superhuman power she didn't have the strength to do it.
"Tell Garth to get in here"
Petronella nodded and left the room and a few moments later Zaruthel Garth entered. No words were exchanged, neither wanted to put to words what they were about to do but he understood and left to inform Erebus of her decision.
The circle of conspirators had to be small, Asla knew that Horus would stop them if he knew what they were planning to do. She employed apothecary Hesit to aid them in transferring him although she only told him they were taking him to the Krake. They took out many of the tubes feeding him a complex cocktail of antibiotics and stims and placed him on a gurney, Asla and Garth wheeled him down the halls as Hesit monitored his condition. They had to take a long and deserted route but Erebus already had Word bearers in the launch bay with some World beasts preparing stormbirds to take them to Davin.
The trio ran through one of the rarely used maintenance corridors, there were only rodents here and they wouldn't tell anyone. They turned a corner and suddenly came face to face with Aximand, standing in the middle of the corridor and forcing them to stop dead.
"What are you doing?" he asked
"That is none of your concern, now stand aside" Asla stood up to him
"Take him back to the apothecarium and I won't say a word to anyone"
"Stand aside and I won't cut out your tongue so you won't say a word to anyone" Asla moved her hand to her knife
"Where are you taking him?" Aximand made no moves for his own knife but he didn't step aside either
"To get him help"
"He has help here"
"Not the kind of help that can save him, he needs something more that the science of the Imperium"
Aximand's eyes widened and he looked at them all in surprise, "You're talking about sorcery, you are the last people I expected to turn to such means"
Hesit stepped forward slightly, "Is what he's saying true, we're not taking him to the Krake"
Asla pushed the apothecary back, "It's the only way"
"Where did you even get this idea?" Aximand asked
Asla remained silent, Garth was the one to come forward with an answer, "It was Erebus, he told us about a group of healers on Davin, the primarch is dying and we can't afford to stand around doing nothing"
Aximand was clearly conflicted as he looked to Erebus, "Are you sure this will save him?"
The chaplain was resolute, "It will save the primarch"
Aximand trusted Erebus and he hadn't known the chaplain to be a liar so he relented, "I have other duties to see to, I still have yet to clean my armour" he moved aside and walked away as they wheeled the primarch away
They secreted him on to a stormbird and launched it towards Davin, heading to the planet with all speed.
Atris' stormbird came in fast, coming to violent and sudden stop. Horus came in to the embarkation deck as Atris exited the stormbird, Abaddon and Aximand right behind their primarch. Atris strode towards the primarch and handed over the box with the blade inside to him.
"Get this to the apothecarium as quickly as you can and find Erebus"
Aximand was the one to ask the obvious, "What do you want with Erebus?"
"This is all his doing" Atris revealed their discovery to the shock of Horus and his sons
Horus opened his mouth to say something but Aximand cut him off, "What do you mean!?"
Loken came forward to explain, "Erebus caused all this and much more, the weapon used to wound Ovis was Kinebrach, stolen from the interex and the cause of the breakdown of negotiations, he delivered the weapon to Temba when he went ahead to prepare for our arrival. It was all part of his sick plan"
"To what ends?" Horus asked
Loken shook his head, "We don't know, we know he wanted to kill you but why? We don't know"
Horus was fuming at this revelation, he had taken Erebus' council and let the chaplain in to his inner circle and the entire time he was a serpent in the grass just waiting for the moment to strike, "I'll have this ship scoured so we can ask him and then I'll take his head for this treachery"
Everyone present smirked at the thought of separating Erebus' head from his shoulders but that small bit of happiness was shattered by Aximand. He had seemed even more shocked and panicked by the news of Erebus' treachery than even his gene father, Loken paid it little attention but he quickly found out how important it was.
"He's not here" Aximand revealed
"What!?" everyone turned to Aximand, the warrior looking racked with guilt
"Erebus isn't here" he repeated
"WHERE IS HE?" Atris demanded
"He took your fath…" Aximand couldn't finish as Atris sized him by the throat
"WHAT! WHERE IS MY SISTER?!" Atris roared as his grip on Aximand tightened, threatening to crush his neck
Aximand struggled in Atris' grip, "They took him to Davin… Erebus said there were healers there… I…. We thought he was offering hope for the primarch's recovery"
Atris dropped Aximand to the deck, a sense of panic and blindness came over everyone, no one had any clue what Erebus was planning but they could only guess it wasn't good.
"Why didn't you inform me of this?" Horus asked his son
Aximand pushed himself up as he massaged his nearly crushed throat, "You wouldn't have allowed it, she was desperate and didn't know what else to try"
Horus connected his vox to the bridge, "Turn this ship around and make for Davin with all haste!"
The Vengeful spirit turned with all the speed such a behemoth could and blasted all her engines at full to make for Davin with all speed but even at full speed it still took hours to reach Davin's orbit. The ship hadn't even fallen in to orbit when a stormbird was launched with Atris, the Warmaster and his mournival onboard along with a squad of marines. It sped towards the surface as fast as its engines could, pushing them to the very limit, Atris sat in the transport with his anger coming off him like heat that forced everyone else present to look away from him except for the Warmaster himself.
Horus sat in deep thought, putting together all the facts he had about the situation and trying to come to some conclusion. Erebus had attempted to kill him but he didn't cover his tracks well at all, it was obvious he was behind it so he must have been planning to do something that would get Horus to forgive him but that was too far fetched. Everything Erebus was doing made no sense, why offer to heal Ovis if he was the one that struck him down, would he have done the same if Horus had been the one poisoned like he intended. A revelation suddenly struck Horus. Erebus never intended to kill anyone.
Horus got out of his seat and moved to the cockpit, "How far are we from my brother?"
"We're about 10 minutes out my lord"
"Make it 7"
Horus moved back to his seat, taking up his helmet and putting it on, he opened up a private vox with Atris, "Has he told you?"
"Told me what?" Atris looked up from his seething, the glowing red eyes of his helmet staring at Horus
"About the dark gods"
"So he told you" Atris confirmed his own knowledge
"Yes and I believe Erebus is enacting their will"
Atris nodded slightly, "They would want to get rid of my father, his very existence is a powerful weapon against them, so why is he bringing him to healers?"
"To corrupt him" Horus revealed the conclusion he came to, "I am sure my father knows of these so-called gods and is working against them and as powerful as my brother is working against the dark gods he will be just as powerful working for them, maybe even powerful enough to kill the Emperor"
Atris thought on this for a moment, "This was all meant for you, you were supposed to be here to become the champion of the dark gods"
"And then what?" Horus wondered as he thought of a galaxy where he had been struck by Temba's blade
He imagined his sons panicking and mourning him, blaming themselves and desperately searching for any cure and then Erebus using that desperation to bring him here and drag him under the thrall of the dark gods. Horus wanted to believe he would resist, that he would stay true to his oaths and the love he had for his father but a small part of him doubted and he knew that would cause him to fall under their sway and then all his sons following him and then he wondered what events would play out after that.
"Isn't it obvious?" Atris asked, "You would seek the throne of Terra"
"I am not the Emperor, I have no claim to the throne"
"Don't be foolish, you know as well as I that if you called for the Emperor to be deposed many worlds would declare for you and many of your brothers as well"
Horus could barely imagine it, the chaos and carnage that such a war would deliver on to humanity would be terrifying, it would be a wound the Imperium would never heal from and it would likely be fatal.
"Such a war would be madness"
"That's exactly what the dark gods are"
"Then we must hurry and stop your father from being corrupted"
The stormbird flew low and fast over the valleys of Davin, heading towards the mountains as they tracked another stormbirds beacon. The pilots were weaving their way through the mountain valleys when the stormbirds auspex started picking up more stormbirds and other transports tailing them.
"My lord we have stormbirds on our tail" the pilot opened a vox channel with Horus
"Are they Word bearers?"
"No" the pilot looked at the identifying tags that showed up on the auspex, "They seem to be World beasts, launched from the Krake"
Horus switched to a channel with Atris, "Did you call for reinforcements from the Krake?"
"No, everyone who knows what we're doing is here"
Horus gumbled, "Then I think word has gotten out"
The stormbird flew through an ancient valley that had been carved in to the hard red rock of the mountains, the weathered and eroded statues of ancient kings and heroes were carved in to the walls, guarding the path to the temple. The temple itself sat in the middle of a perfectly circular depression, thousands of feet across and surrounded by mountains, the sheer walls of the depression made it look like a circular stamp had simply come from above and cut out the depression.
The temple sat in the centre, a large octagonal building that was clearly carved from the same rock as the mountains, a brazier topped tower rose from each of the corners and along with the thousand other flames that spiralled around the building it lit up the entire depression. Horus looked down at the temple and found it gave off a sinister and occult feeling.
The stormbird that had brought Ovis to the surface was easily spotted but what no one could see was the primarch or those that had carried him there. Horus panicked as he realised they might be too late.
"Get this bird down now!" he ordered, "And lower the ramp"
Horus grabbed his blade and rushed towards the ramp, Atris released his grav harness and followed him. Both jumped before the stormbird had come close to landing, landing on the rocky ground with no trouble from a height that would have possibly injured a marine.
The two of them ran through the humid night air towards the temple, the Davinites tending the flames moving aside to let the two giants pass. They entered the temple and were greeted by a long set of stone steps, flaming braziers and stone snakes travelled up with the steps. Coming in the opposite direction were three narrow streams with one flowing down the middle of the steps and the other two on each side.
Horus and Atris started up the steps just as the other marines came in behind them. They reached the top of the stairs to find two stone snakes twisted around a set of pillars, their jaws open wide and menacingly, they guarded a path to a great bronze gate that the two could see was slowly closing. The beaten bronze had images of snakes covering it, some coiling themselves in spirals or eating their own tails or twisted together as if mating.
Horus and Atris broke in to a sprint as they sought to reach the gate before it closed but as they were drawing close the gates slammed shut with an echoing thud. The full carving could now be seen, the snakes twisted and coiled in to a great tree with two great snakes twisting around the trunk, the roots were carved in to the floor and fed in to a pool that fed the streams that flowed down the steps. Asla and those that had brought Ovis to Davin stood around the pool, all except Erebus.
Atris started running even faster and slammed against the gate at full speed but surprisingly it didn't even dent.
"Atris" his sister moved towards the gate with a small group of marines, "I can explain, I ha…"
"DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" Atris rounded on his sister
"I had to do something! He's dying, traditions be damned!" Asla snapped back
"Our father would have your head for just saying that!" Atris towered over his sister, his anger focused solely on her
"If I don't then he won't be alive to take it" Asla stood against her brother unflinching, "He'll thank me when he's healed"
"Do you really think that?"
Asla faltered for a moment, "I have to"
Atris shook his head and turned from his sister, "You really don't know what you've done"
"I did the only thing I could"
"Where did you learn about this place?"
"Erebus told us about it, they are accomplished healers, they will heal him"
"They won't, Erebus is a traitor" Atris revealed the truth, "This is all his doing, all of this is part of his plan and you've played perfectly in to his hands"
"What do you mean?" Asla looked stunned
"The weapon that injured our father was Kinebrach, stolen from the hall of devices by Erebus, he's been planning this since before he joined up with the Warmaster, Temba was never the traitor it was always Erebus"
Asla went pale as she looked at the bronze gate, she looked as if she was about to break down in tears but Horus interjected before that could happen, "What has already been done doesn't matter, right now we need to break down these gates and stop whatever foul ritual is taking place"
"It won't open" Garth leant against a wall in shock at what he had done
"What do you mean?" Horus asked
"Once the gates are shut they can't be opened save for from the inside, if the spirits deem the man worthy to live he will open the gates himself and if they don't then they will open in 9 days and his body burned and scattered in the pool" Garth recited what had been told to him
"We'll see about that" Atris drew his chainblade and swung at the bronze gate, fully expecting to cut right through
His blade bounced right off without even making a scratch on the gate, he swung a couple more times but each time the blade simply bounced off and left the gate unharmed. Atris threw down his chainblade down in frustration and threw punches at the gate, throwing all his strength behind each one but still the gate held. Horus made his own attempt but even the power of a primarch wasn't enough to break down the gate.
"I told you, you can't open the gate"
Atris stepped back from the gate, staring it down, "Then we'll destroy the temple" Atris turned from the gate and started walking to toward the steps, "We'll strike this place from orbit, turn it in to a smoking crater"
Asla grabbed her brother, "We can't do that, he'll die!"
Atris shrugged his sister off, "He's dead anyway at least this way his corpse isn't desecrated"
Atris walked towards the steps, "We don't know for sure what is happening, someone could be framing Erebus, our father could resist the corruption and still be healed, there is still hope!" Asla pleaded with her brother
Atris stopped as he listened to her, not turning to look at his sister, "The burden of leadership falls to me, I'll follow the example left by my father, he wouldn't hesitate to destroy this foul place"
"I'm not leaving" Asla declared, "I'm staying until the gate opens and our father steps out"
Atris shook his head, "You'll die"
"You'll kill me?"
"In this case I don't have the privilege of letting you live" Atris stepped towards the steps
Atris reached the steps just as someone was climbing up them. Herist Kerson, captain of the 31st company, came up the stairs followed by a squad of marines.
"Kerson, what are you doing here?" Atris asked but he was ignored
"Where is the primarch" Kerson demanded
"He's behind those gates" Atris answered
"What is going on here?" Kerson asked
"My sister has put her faith in witches and heretics in a desperate bid to save our father but I will have none of it"
"I am doing what is necessary to save my father!" Asla interjected
Kerson looked from brother to sister, Atris refused to look at her and Asla was screaming at his back. The two were rarely openly affectionate with each other but one always supported the other, in his centuries of fighting alongside them he had never seen them so divided.
"The people wish to see the primarch" Kerson informed Atris of the people coming to Davin after hearing Ovis had been taken to the planet, remembrancers and crew not just from the Krake but also other ships had come to see if the rumours of the primarch's resurrection were true
"I don't care what the people want, anyone who is still in this canyon when I get back to orbit will die"
"Much of the legion is here"
"Then tell them to return to orbit"
"You are not the primarch"
"I am in charge when he is unable to lead" the two stood off, Atris daring Kerson to refuse him
"I will not follow orders that will put the primarch in danger" Kerson stood his ground, "And neither will the other captains"
"So you stand with my sister"
"I do"
"Then you can die with her, I'll be…"
The sound of Horus' boot stomping on the ground echoed through the temple, silencing everyone, "You won't do anything, I will not have an entire legion wiped out over this" the Warmaster had sat back and observed for too long
"Saving my father's soul is worth the lives of this mutinous legion" Atris moved towards Horus, the mournival stepping between the two, "And it's worth your life as well"
"I believe in my brother, he won't be corrupted, I believe he will remain true, don't you?" Horus struck back
Atris let out a low threatening growl that caused the mournival to reach for their weapons, for a moment it seemed like he would attack Horus but he just let out a deafening roar before storming down the steps and out of the temple.
The mournival moved to follow him but Asla stepped in front of them and blocked their path, "We have to go after him, before he gets to orbit and call for a strike" Loken protested
"He won't do that"
"How do you know?"
"I know my brother"
Asla walked over to the pool and looked in to it, staring at the reflection of the yellow moon that rippled with the water's surface.
Next time: A world of truths and lies