Ciaphas Cain: Choose Your Enemies

Thus it was that triumph and tragedy were so fatefully to meet. Having determined that the fate of his world hung in the balance, and that his own life was a small price to pay for the deliverance of the billions who looked to him for protection, Governor Fulcher took it upon himself to rid Ironfound of the eldar scourge once and for all. Quite how he managed to contact their leaders and convince them to meet him face-to-face, we’ll never know; but contact them he undoubtedly did. And when the alien pirates marched brazenly into that most holy of sanctums, the gubernatorial mansion itself, no doubt expecting the ignominious surrender of the resources they sought to seize by force, all they received was death itself.

For, no doubt inspired by the example of the booby-trapped spacecraft among the flotilla in which he arrived, Governor Fulcher had secreted a small but effective fusion warhead in his residence, which he detonated as soon as the invasion’s leaders arrived in his presence.

The effect on the eldar was catastrophic. Decapitated and leaderless, its pirate fleet fled into the void, while their compatriots on the surface of Ironfound fled equally precipitately, by whatever arcane means they’d first arrived. From that day to this, the entire Ironfound System remains free of their depredations, a lasting monument to the sacrifice of the hero of the hour, Governor Septimus Fulcher.

Twenty-nine

I’d been expecting a lot of awkward questions from both inquisitors once the eldar had, for reasons which still escaped me, broken off their assault and left the system. To my relief, however, Vekkman seemed satisfied that my intervention with the null rod was what had broken Emeli’s link to the spirit stones, which rather neatly allowed Amberley to keep the secret of my aide’s peculiar gift to herself.

‘It wasn’t exactly a lie, anyway,’ she told me, over the dinner table in her villa. ‘Jurgen’s gift alone would not have been enough to dispel a daemon that powerful.’ A shudder only someone who knew her as well as I did would notice rippled through her, as she contemplated how close we’d all come to damnation, before her usual insouciant demeanour returned. ‘But the null rod strengthened it, or supplemented it, or something. According to Vekkman it’s supposed to have the same kind of effect as a living blank.’

‘Talking of Vekkman,’ I said, a trifle indistinctly round a mouthful of poached ploin, ‘how is he?’

‘Recovering,’ Amberley said, a touch of something curiously close to admiration in her voice, ‘in the medical bay aboard the Externus Exterminatus. He’s a lot tougher than he looks.’

‘I suppose he must be,’ I conceded, ‘tackling things like Emeli all the time.’

‘Or barking mad,’ Amberley said. ‘But probably in a good way.’ She pushed her dessert plate aside.

‘Sounds like the beginning of a beautiful friendship,’ I said, unable to resist teasing her a little.

Amberley sighed, with a hint of regret. ‘Inquisitors tend not to be friends,’ she said. ‘But I’d certainly ask his advice under similar circumstances.’

‘Even though he thought it was a good idea to detonate a fusion bomb on a crowded habitat?’ I asked.

Amberley shook her head. ‘That was me. He wanted to vaporise the entire orbital, just to be sure the Chaos taint had been completely eradicated. I persuaded him just the estate would be enough. For the time being, anyway.’

I nodded, sipping at my post-prandial amasec. ‘At least it gave you a convenient martyr.’ Something which stuck in my craw, I have to admit. By rights, Fulcher’s name should be execrated for as long as the Imperium endures, which means pretty much forever, not be venerated as a hero. ‘Someone to take the credit for the eldar buggering off.’ I took another mouthful of the smooth, fragrant spirit, finally getting to the question I’d been longing to hear an answer to. Not just me, either; Kasteen and Broklaw had both been vocal in their bafflement, not unmingled with relief – it seemed the war on the surface had begun to tip in the xenos’ favour before their sudden and unexpected withdrawal, even the 597th being forced to give ground in the face of their advance. ‘So why did they? They seemed pretty determined to take the planet.’

‘They were in our debt,’ Amberley said. ‘You saved countless eldar souls from being devoured by a daemon, or possibly Slaanesh itself. Sambhatain wasn’t entirely clear on the distinction.’

‘So they renounced their claim to Ironfound in exchange for the souls we saved?’ I asked, not entirely believing it. It sounded pretty weird, even for xenos.

But Amberley nodded. ‘Pretty much. Besides, they weren’t too happy about the state we’ve left it in. I got the impression that even if they did succeed in taking it, the time and resources they’d need to get the place to their liking would be too great.’

‘Really?’ I thought about that. ‘I’d always got the impression that they think pretty much in the long term.’