It was difficult to predict where the sylph-like girl was going to go next, the glowing flex of her fire wings confusing the eye of the shooters. For a moment, Miriya wondered if the venerable Sister Seraphim would be needed to down her, but the order"s swift attack cadre was elsewhere in the batde, engaging the few remaining flyers still circling high above. Taking heed of Portia"s cry, the Batde Sisters turned on the psyker, and in seconds she ran out of places to fly.
Shots from Isabel"s gun, Galatea"s inferno pistol and the bolters of a dozen keen women crossed at a point where the witch"s flight took her, and ripped her open in mid-air. The fiery toxins in her chest ignited and she blew apart, raining down gobbets of torn flesh.
Miriya averted her eyes and shielded her face. She had no desire to become dirtied by the fallout from the death of such a creature.
"Suffer not the witch to live. Isabel spoke the words with grim finality.
"Aye. said the Canoness, "but there are more than these two to bring to their end. My orders have been given. Advance and take the mansion.
Are we free to kill Vaun?" Miriya asked, a litde too eagerly.
The lord deacon"s commands were clear. Torris Vaun is to be taken alive. She turned away. "Baron Sherring and any other conspirators are to share the fate of these mutant freaks.
All the watchtowers of Metis had been cut down or torched, and the overcomplicated pipeworks thatcontrolled the city"s rainbirds - the water nozzles for damping down the dry season - were severed. There remained nothing but wells and water buckets left to quench the encroaching fires, and those too were soon abandoned when the people understood that the conflagration would not be beaten. Sherring"s subjects fled, choking the main avenues to the gates, but they streamed out into the woodlands only to find the trees ablaze there as well, the crackling necklace of heat beating at them with heavy hands. The Sisters of Our Martyred Lady had come to bring fire to the faithless, and they would only quit this blighted place when every building in Metis was ash. The flames reached high into the darkening sky, fingers of orange and black rising like hands in supplication and prayer. The city cried out for forgiveness, begging the Throne on distant Terra for respite that would never come.
Deep in the centre of the caldera, the Sisterhood heard the calls and closed their ears to them. Baron Holt Sherring had disobeyed the Nevan diocese, and so by order of Lord LaHayn, he was declared excom-municatus. The Ecclesiarchy had signed the warrant at dawn, charging that Sherring had turned his face from the Imperial Church and made a myriad of false accu-sations. No matter how strong his belief might be, no matter how misguided, Sherring was a ttaitor and a heretic in the eyes of the Sisterhood - and in the object lesson that would be his death, LaHayn had ordered that the baron"s citizens share in his punishment.
Metis burned, the city slowly surrendering to the unstoppable flames as street after street turned to h.e.l.l.
Sister Miriya led with Ca.s.sandra, Portia and Isabel at her side, moving low and swift across the gentle rise of the ornamental lawns. The rattle of shots came from somewhere ahead of them, and the Celestian saw puffs of exhaust gas lick out from arrow slots in the walls of the mansion house. She surveyed the structure, looking for a means of approach, for a place where a breach might be made.
Ca.s.sandra was turning over the same thought, her eyes pressed to her magnoculars. There, the two ornate doors. Do you see them?"
Miriya nodded. "Heavily guarded, though. I see stub-bers. We"ll need to take those down before we can enter the building."
Further up the rise shapes in red and black emerged from the smoke and charged at the cavalrymen"s bar-ricade. What in the name of Celestine is that?" Isabel pointed a finger. "Look there, do you see them?"
Ca.s.sandra gasped. The Repentia. By my blood, they"re attacking them with just their blades!"
Miriya sprang to her feet. "We"ll not let them throw their lives away. To arms. Follow them!"
The Batde Sisters scrambled to take up the slack behind the red-hooded fighters, adding bolter and plasma gun to the chorus of strident death that came from the chainswords. Ahead of them, Miriya saw sueaks of firepower from the stubbers hammer into the Repentia women. Some of them were killed instantly, others wounded mortally, but only those who died faltered. Their Mistress cracked her whips at their backs or turned the punishing neural lash on the enemy.
Isabel and Portia took up a flanking position while Miriya and Ca.s.sandra fell in behind the Mistress. The Sister Superior marvelled once more at the righteous fury the Repentia exhibited, the masked women beheading and gutting any one of Sherring"s soldiers too slow to avoid their ceremonial eviscerators. Back-ing them with gunfire, the two units quickly made short work of the barricade"s defenders. The cavalry-men were wheat before the scythe of their holy vengeance.
Stepping over the broken barrier, Miriya saw a Repentia drenched in blood as she struggled to get to her feet, the stuttering blade of her chainsword still buried in the skull of a turncoat officer. By reflex she extended a hand and helped the woman stand. The face shadowed by the red hood turned to hers and she saw pale skin dotted with scarlet, shaved straw-blonde hair fine against a scarred scalp. "Iona?"
"Sister Miriya..."
The harsh sting of a neural whip darted at Iona"s back and she stiffened, but did not cry out. will not speak. shouted the Repentia Mistress. The edicts forbid communion with those of your life before the oath!"
Miriya"s hand shot out and caught the end of the whip, the barbed tip spitting out pain through her armoured glove. She jerked it, hard. What say you?"
The Mistress tore her lash from the Sister Supe-rior"s grip. know the lore as well as any of us, Miriya.
She may not speak to you!"
The Celestian opened her mouth to spit out some rebuke, but one look from Iona"s hollow gaze silenced it.
Yes. Of course. She turned away and let the Mistress rea.s.semble her women.
Ca.s.sandra was speaking into the vox pickup on her armour. "Canoness. The way into the mansion lies open at the doors beside the gardens. She flinched; there was a livid laser wound along her forearm.
"Sweep and clear," Galatea"s voice crackled through a dozen ear beads. "Find Vaun. No survivors."
Miriya acknowledged the command with a nod and glanced at her second"s injury. "Can you fight with that?""I will compensate-" began Ca.s.sandra.
"Let me help. the new voice brought the Celestians to a halt, and Sister Verity emerged from her conceal-ment in the lee of an overturned half-track. Miriya was without words for a moment. Verity"s eyes were haunted, and there was blood of many hues across her robes even though she appeared to be unhurt.
You should not be here. snapped Portia.
They brought me. said the Hospitaller, indicating the Repentia.
"A miracle she lives still. said Isabel in a low voice.
Yes. agreed Miriya, "a miracle. She stooped and found a boltgun close to the slashed corpse of a Sister man who had once owned it. She offered it to Verity. "We shall not test the whims of the fates further.
Defend yourself.
The Hospitaller shook her head. "I"m not a com-batant. She clasped the scentwood case of her medicus ministorum to her chest to make more of the point.
"It was not a request. said Miriya, an edge in her tone. Take the gun. I cannot have a Sister at my side who will not fight.
"In the G.o.d-Emperor"s name, my remit is to save life, not destroy it. Verity"s voice was quiet but it was as steady as a rock.
"Even traitors such as these?" The Sister Superior swept her hands about at the dead men. Their lives are forfeit. The Emperor"s church has declared it so.
The other woman nodded. That is true. But still, I am not an instrument to bring death. She met Miriya"s gaze. That is your job.
Miriya"s eyes narrowed. "It is. But perhaps you have been spending too much time carrying out more secular duties. You forget yourself. Vaun and his traitors will not make so keen a definition between a Sister Hospitaller and a Sister Militant.
That is why the Emperor has you walk with me. replied the nurse.
Take the gun. repeated the other woman.
For a moment, it seemed as if Verity would deny her again, but instead, she took the boltgun and tucked it into her habit.
The Repentia Mistress"s call to arms stopped the Celestian from answering. "A spiritu dominatus. Domine, libra nos. Death to the heretic and witchkin!"
Miriya held her plasma gun high and pointed after the raging Repentia. She could think of no bat-de cry, no stirring quote at that moment. In silence, the Battle Sisters followed their hooded kin into the echoing halls.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
The words pressed into Ignis"s brain like burning darts. Now"s the time, lad. We"re casting off. Get to the roof pad, fast.
The youth clutched at his head and staggered, a thin trickle of blood leaking out of his nose. He b.u.mped into the chart table that dominated the centre of the baron"s chambers, setting the confu-sion of markers and tiny flags upon it tumbling.
"What are you doing?" snapped Sherring, pushing past one of his soldiers. "Answer me. What is going on?"
His expression was taut with anxiety.
Ignis waved a vague hand at the n.o.bleman. "I... I have to go..." He shook his head to rid it of the after-effect of Vaun"s telepathic touch. Bile rose in his throat and he coughed.
Sherring grabbed his arm as the youth tried to make for the door. "Stop where you are!" He pulled Ignis around to face him, pinched and furious. Where is Vaun? He"s abandoned me. Tell me where he is!"
"I"ll go look for him-"
Quick! came the mind-speech, and a fresh wash of nausea washed over Ignis. The Sororitas are here!
We can"t tarry!
"Can"t tarry..." Ignis echoed the words under his breath.
The baron saw the moment of glazing in the young man"s eyes and understood what was unfold-ing. "You hear him, don"t you? d.a.m.ned witchkin can know each other"s thoughts, eh? Where is he? What is he doing?" He shook Ignis violently. Tell me now, you worthless gutter rat."
"Get off me," Ignis retorted, fighting to free himself from Sherring"s frantic grip. "I"ll bring him to you-"
"Liar. roared the baron. "He used me. You did this to me, made me ruin my beautiful city!" Sherring"s free hand came up with an ornamental dagger in it. "I"ll kill you!"
"No!" Ignis shouted, and the word hammered at the air in the room. In the echo of his cry, every pho-ton candle and view-tube spat sparks and burst into flames.
Sherring shrank backwards in shock, still bran-dishing the gold blade. You... You can"t defy me. I am your better!""Shut up, you pathetic lackwit. Ignis spat back at him. "All the money in the galaxy isn"t going to save you now. You were played. You"re just a mark!" With each word, the sputtering electrical fires pulsed with flashes of heat.
The baron shot imploring looks at his men. "Slay the witch. Destroy him. I order you.
The cavalrymen had their guns in their hands, but they were pointed at the floor. The officers exchanged glances: all of them had seen Sherring"s rapid deterioration over the past hours, and none had the desire to cross the psyker on the baron"s word. Outside, beyond the tall gla.s.s windows, Metis was hidden beneath a curtain of smoke, and through the walls came the sounds of gunfire and men dying. The soldiers watched in silence, waiting for the battle to end. In their eyes was the mute knowledge that they had already lost.
"We are leaving, baron," sneered Ignis, "and there"s nothing you can do to stop us. The youth turned and strode towards the doors.
"You will not. Sherring threw himself at the boy and buried the knife in his back. Ignis was caught unawares and collapsed to the floor. He tried to drag himself away, the little fires around the room throbbing with his heartbeat. "You will not. shrieked the baron again, his lips trembling with agitation.
Something hissed and spat outside the sealed security doors to the chamber, then in the next sec-ond a flat report of sound tore through the air and the heavy wooden portal crashed open.
Wreathed in smoke, Sister Miriya and her cohorts strode into the room. Sherring baulked as he caught sight of the remaining Repentia, scarred and soaked in the blood of his men.
Too late..." whispered Ignis, reaching with trem-bling fingers towards the knife in his back.
"Baron Holt Sherring, city-lord of Metis and its ter-ritories, you are bound by Imperial law. The Battle Sister advanced, her plasma gun aimed at his chest. Your crime is heresy, declared and made known by the Lord Deacon Viktor LaHayn.
Sherring raised his hands in a halting motion. They were wet with the youth"s blood. "Wait. Please. You don"t understand, it"s LaHayn who is the heretic. You don"t know what he has been doing. He wants to usurp the Golden-"
The sentence is death, to be carried out with all due alacrity. Miriya raised the pistol to come level with his face.
The baron threw Ignis a pleading look. "Please!"
Verity caught the gesture and her heart went cold. "Miriya, the boy-"
Ignis was as quick as lightning. His eyes flashed and the guttering fires about the room erupted like blowtorches. In a split-second the chamber"s walls were yellow with streaks of conjured flame, licking up at the opulent tiles and scrollwork of the man-sion"s ceiling.
Bedlam broke out among the cavalrymen, some of them diving for cover beneath the chart table, others turning their guns on the Battle Sisters. Isabel and Portia shot back, but the blaze funnelled out under the psyker youth"s control, ripping into a burning tornado. Verity was shouldered to the floor by Iona as the flames spiralled past her. Ignis sent the column of fire into the Repentia Mistress and the other hooded woman, setting them alight. Their death screams were piercing, the flames carrying them out into the open as the back draft shattered the chamber"s armoured windows.
A tail of trailing heat slammed into Miriya and sent her flying across the room, smashing her into a cogitator bank and spinning her about like a top. A streak of energy from her pistol went wide, knock-ing down one of the cavalry officers with the force of its plasma nimbus.
Iona pushed away and threw herself at Ignis, bran-dishing her eviscerator, the ragged red hood flying from her shoulders. The psyker was on his feet, mar-shalling the fire into a spinning shield of flames, burning the chart table and the heavy brocade cur-tains. A wordless cry of vengeance on her lips, Iona charged him and thrust herself through the heart of the firewall. Her clothing and armour combusted about her, the incredible heat controlled by the boy burning off layers of her skin as she cut through it. Streamers of blackened flesh curled off her as she fell on him.
Ignis raised his arms to ward her off, but the chainsword came down upon him with an execu-tioner"s hand upon the hilt. The spinning tungsten-carbide teeth ripped into the bone and matter of his shoulder and cut into the youth"s chest. Rendered nerves firing for the last time, the boy grabbed at the Repentia as she buried her blade in him, and took her in a burning embrace. Ignis perished drawing his witch-fire into himself, and his blackened corpse crashed through the chart table with Iona in a fatal grip. The Repentia wailed as she followed the psyker into death. They were a mon-strous parody of two lovers, melded as one in a halo of orange flames.
Without the psyker to keep the inferno alive with his unholy power, the guttering fires shrank and spat, crawling like fat insects over the walls. It took a monumental effort for Verity to turn her face from the carnage. She attended to Miriya, pulling barbed injectors from the depths of her medicus ministorum.
Nearby, Ca.s.sandra spoke a few words of the Oath of Katherine over the dead Repentia. "You are redeemed," she told the corpses. "Go to the next life free of your burden. With a flick of her wrist, the Battle Sister salted the body of the psyker with drops from a vial of holy water. The liquid hissed into steam where it met the heated bones.
The Hospitaller frowned and applied a bra.s.s syrette to Miriya"s jugular vein, forcing the injector rod into her skin. The Celestian twitched with shock as the chemical philtre charged her blood-stream, fighting off the hydrostatic shock from Ignis"s psy-strike. After a long moment, Miriya blinked and opened her eyes.
"What... did you give to me?" she demanded.
"A restorative," said Verity. A blend of witch-bane and tetraporfaline, blessed by the apothecarium. You should rest a moment, you are bleeding.
Miriya pushed her aside and dragged herself to her feet. "I have no time to shed blood for trai-tors. The Celestianfound Sherring on his knees, cowering by his desk. "Where were we?" she asked him. The drug in her system made the pain of her wounds seem distant and unimportant.
"I am not the enemy. whispered the baron. "The deacon is the devil.
"If that is true. she told him in a low voice, "then when the time comes I will judge him as harshly as I have judged you.
Miriya pulled the trigger and vaporised the upper torso of the kneeling man with a single shot. Bolter fire joined her from the guns of the other Battle Sisters as they executed the remaining men in Sherring"s cham-bers.
Vaun felt Ignis die like a light going out in his mind, and he swore violently. In the control cupola of the aeronef, the baron"s tech-priest gave him a worried look. The psyker had already killed the two comrades of the adept as a show of force and the priest was fearful he would be next if he displeased the criminal in the slightest.
"Don"t stare at me. growled Vaun. "You have a job to do. Get this thing airborne.
The tech-priest blinked tin eyelids with a click-ing noise. "But, there was another to come? You said we should wait.
Vaun tugged the escape ladder and the metal frame folded up into the belly of the sleek airship racer. "I changed my mind. We"re going now. He strode over to the cowering adept and thrust a data-slate under his nose. "You know where these co-ordinates are?"
Cogs inside the tech-priest"s elongated skull case clicked and whirred as he stored the numbers on the slate in a datum buffer. Yes, but that zone is restricted. It is a geologically unstable region, dan-gerous volcanic flows and sulphur swamps-"
Take me to it. Vaun stabbed a finger at the smoke-filled sky. "Now.
"It"s a toxic wasteland. the adept twittered. "We will die there!"
Vaun gripped the tech-priest"s robes and squeezed. "You"ll die here unless you get this "nef moving, understand?"
The adept nodded and began to work the con-trols. With clanks of oiled steel, Baron Sherring"s personal flyer detached from the tethers holding it to the roof and unfurled its sails. The powerful ther-mals blooming up from the burning city took hold of the craft and guided it skyward.