Read Online False Gods by Graham McNeill - Free Book Online

it was you were going to say.’
    ‘I have heard that too. Aximand told me the same thing.’
    ‘Well it’s obviously a good piece of advice, because I was quite taken aback when I saw him up close for the first time: quite magnificent. Almost forgot why I was there.’
    ‘I’m not sure I understand,’ said Loken, shaking his head as Karkasy offered him some meat from the plate.
    ‘Put it this way, can you imagine anyone who had actually met Horus – may I call him Horus? I hear you’re not too fond of us mere mortals calling him that – saying such a thing as this Temba person is supposed to have said?’
    Loken straggled to keep up with Karkasy’s rapid delivery, realising that his anger had blinded him to the simple fact of the Warmaster’s glory.
    ‘You’re right, Ignace. No one who’d met the Warmaster could say such things.’
    ‘So the question then becomes, why would Erebus say that Temba had said it?’
    ‘I don’t know. Why would he?’
    Karkasy swallowed some of the meat on his plate and washed it down with a drink of the white liquor.
    ‘Why indeed?’ asked Karkasy, warming to the weaving of his tale. ‘Tell me, have you had the “pleasure” of meeting Aeliuta Hergig? She’s a remembrancer – one of the dramatists – and pens some dreadfully overwrought plays. Tedious things if you ask me, but I can’t deny that she has some skill in treading the boards herself. I remember watching her play Lady Ophelia in The Tragedy of Amleti and she was really rather good, though—’
    ‘Ignace,’ warned Loken. ‘Get to the point.’
    ‘Oh, yes, of course. My point is that as talented an actress as Ms Hergig is, she couldn’t hold a candle to the performance given by Erebus today.’
    ‘Performance?’
    ‘Indeed. Everything he did from the moment he entered this yurt was a performance. Didn’t you see it?’
    ‘No, I was too angry,’ admitted Loken. ‘That’s why I wanted you there. Explain it to me simply and without digressions, Ignace.’
    Karkasy beamed in pride before continuing.
    ‘Very well. When he first spoke of Davin’s noncompliance, Erebus suggested taking the matter somewhere more private, yet he had just broached this highly provocative subject in a room full of people. And did you notice? Erebus said that Temba had turned against him, Horus, not the Emperor: Horus. He made it personal.’
    ‘But why would he seek to provoke the Warmaster so?’
    ‘Perhaps to unbalance his humour in order to bring his choler to the fore; it’s not like he wouldn’t have known what his reaction would be. I think Erebus wanted the Warmaster in a position where he wasn’t thinking clearly.’
    ‘Be careful, Ignace. Are you suggesting that the Warmaster does not think clearly?’
    ‘No, no, no,’ said Karkasy. ‘Only that with his humours out of balance, Erebus was able to manipulate him.’
    ‘Manipulate him to what end?’
    Karkasy shrugged. ‘I don’t know, but what I do know is that Erebus wants Horus to go to Davin’s moon.’
    ‘But he counselled against going there. He even had the nerve to suggest that others go in the Warmaster’s place.’
    Karkasy shook his hand dismissively. ‘Only so as to look like he had tried to stop him from his course of action, while knowing full well that the Warmaster couldn’t back down from this insult to his honour.’
    ‘And nor should he, remembrancer,’ said a deep voice at the entrance to the yurt.
    Karkasy jumped, and Loken turned at the sound of the voice to see the First Captain of the Sons of Horus resplendent and huge in his plate armour.
    ‘Ezekyle,’ said Loken. ‘What are you doing here?’
    ‘Looking for you,’ said Abaddon. ‘You should be with your company. The Warmaster himself is to lead the speartip, and you waste time with scriveners who call into question the word of an honourable Astartes.’
    ‘First Captain Abaddon,’ breathed Karkasy, lowering his head. ‘I meant no disrespect. I was just apprising