Read Online Legion by Dan Abnett - Free Book Online Page B

Rukhsana asked. ‘You were about to undress,’ he said in demotic Scythian.
    ‘Was I indeed?’ she laughed, answering in the same language. ‘I had no idea you were fluent in my native tongue, or knew me to be of Scythian extraction. You’re very clever, Konig.’
    You don’t know the half of it, he thought. I’m fluent, instantly, in every tongue, every language I encounter. It’s my particular talent, and my curse.
    ‘I’m sorry to be forward,’ he said, again in Scythian, ‘but I’ve seen the way you look at me.’
    ‘And I’ve seen the way you look at me, sir.’
    ‘Is it so bad?’
    Rukhsana smiled. ‘No, Konig, it’s flattering. But I’m no aide-cadre hussy. I’m not about to disrobe for some sordid little tryst in this briefing room. I’m not sure I’m going to disrobe for you at all.’
    Grammaticus allowed a smile to cross Heniker’s face. ‘My dear uxor,’ he said, ‘the simple doubt expressed in that sentence is all I could ever ask for.’
    I N THE OLD times, in the time of inchoation, races built their fastnesses in places of safety, and left the darker places unexplored. It had been the primitive instinct of man to behave this way. It had kept him safe from the wolf and the sabre-cat. Grammaticus wished his species had kept hold of this instinct, and not forsaken it. The darker places were darker places for a reason. He was fairly certain it was the eternal influence of the Emperor that had quashed that particular taboo.
    He thought of Terra’s old maps, with their quaintly phrased notations of warning, here be dragons. That had always been a shorthand motto of man’s ignorance of the darker places of his universe.
    ‘What did you say?’ Rukhsana asked, rolling over sleepily.
    ‘Nothing,’ he replied.
    ‘You said something about dragons, Konig.’
    ‘I may have.’
    ‘There are no dragons, Konig.’
    It was late afternoon. The palace compound had sweltered out another day, so close to the sea everyone could smell it, yet so far away its cooling influence did not reach.
    The sex had been exceptional. The emotional intimacy had almost reduced him to tears. He hated allowing himself to get so close. Seven hundred years was a long time, long enough for him to forget the consequences of proper connection. He had felt her hunger, her appetite to prove she was still something of significance even though her uxorhood was sloughing away like dead skin.
    He had allowed himself to love her, and allowed her to reciprocate, and now he faced up to the consequences of that decision.
    ‘Konig?’
    She didn’t even know his real name. He wanted to tell her.
    ‘Do you have to go back in?’ she asked, rolling over and lying sidelong. Her lithe, naked body made him stir, but he resisted the temptation.
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘I’m sure we can do the rest of the tactical plan with drone spotters and the fleet appraisal.’
    ‘You can’t. You need me in there.’
    +John.+
    ‘Oh no.’
    ‘Oh no, what?’ she asked, sitting up. He rose to his feet. ‘Nothing, my love.’
    ‘My love. That sounds very serious.’
    +John.+
     Not now.
    ‘You’ve gone quite pale, Kon. Are you all right?’
    He paced away from the bed, bare-foot, towards the wash room. ‘I’m fine. Absolutely fine. I just need a sip of water.’
    Rukhsana rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. ‘Don’t be long,’ she called.
    Grammaticus entered the wash room, closed the door behind him, and paused for a moment, head down, leaning his hands on the edges of the stone basin. ‘Not now, really not now,’ he moaned softly. The stone was cool under his palms. He poured some water into it from the jug. All the while, he could feel the old, chipped mirror hanging on the wall behind him.
    He turned around.
    Gahet looked out at him from the mirror’s cloudy surface.
    +You have taken a wrong step, John Grammaticus. The intimate bond you have made with this female is impairing your mission.+
    ‘Go away.’
    +John, you are