Gaunt pursed his lips. ‘No.’
‘But it got me close to them, you see?’ Kolea went on. ‘And I thought, “here’s how you look after them, Gol. If there’s any fething truth in that voice’s threat, I can be here. Right with them. Protect them, like I promised.” Because I thought… thinking like a solider, you understand, that the threat would be violence. An attack.’
‘But?’ asked Gaunt.
‘I think the threat was more venomous than that,’ said Kolea. ‘More… what’s the word? Insidious.’
‘How?’
‘This rumour,’ said Gol. He took a sip of amasec and glanced at his seat. Gaunt nodded, and Kolea sat back down. ‘This rumour. Don’t know where it started, but some women in the entourage, Verghast women, they thought my kids had both been boys. Two boys. Well, this got back to me, and I laughed. No, a boy and girl…’
He looked at Gaunt again, solemn. ‘Now I’m not so sure. I can’t trust my memory. I can’t trust anything in my mind, not since the harm done to me, or since the voice was in my head. I get headaches and… well, anyway, I think it’s right. There was no girl child. Two boys. I asked Hark to check, but there’s been no word back from the Administratum.’
‘It was just a mistake,’ said Gaunt. ‘You’d know. The women got it wrong. You know what camp rumour is like.’
‘I don’t reckon so,’ said Kolea.
‘Why would you think like that?’ Gaunt asked, sitting down again and leaning forward.
‘Yoncy, she’s an odd child. Always has been. A little girl, reluctant to grow up.’
‘She’s had a tough life.’
‘Not just that.’
‘Exactly that. Lost her mother. Lost you. Been through hell. Her life now as part of a nomad regiment.’
Kolea shook his head. ‘I don’t know,’ he said.
‘I do,’ said Gaunt. ‘I’ve seen her. She acts young because it’s safe. Subconscious, I’m sure, but she acts like a little girl, because people always look after the little girl. It’s just a defence mechanism.’
‘No, sir,’ said Kolea. ‘I’ve had… I’ve had memories. I’m increasingly sure she isn’t my Yoncy. Before you say it, I know. Maybe that’s the punishment. Maybe that idea, that uncertainty, is the cruel trick the voice threatened, playing with me. In which case, I’m tainted and damned. But maybe…’
‘Maybe what?’
‘Maybe I’m right,’ said Kolea. ‘Maybe the true punishment is this. This is what the voice promised on Aigor. My girl, my Yoncy. Not mine at all. Maybe this is the way the warp shreds me.’
‘What do you think she is, then?’ asked Gaunt.
Kolea exhaled hard, his eyes wide and wondering.
‘Who the feth knows?’ he said. ‘Something placed among us? Some changeling thing. Something malevolent.’
Gaunt smiled. ‘Yoncy?’ he asked. ‘You think the Ruinous Powers planted her among us years ago? Years, Gol. As what? Some elaborate plan to destroy us from within? That it’s just been waiting?’
‘Well…’
‘Come on! If Yoncy’s a daemon, Gol, or whatever… she’s had plenty of chances. We’d know by now. The warp plays games, but not long-term games like that. And for what? To cripple or destroy a regiment that, until recently, was just another Guard unit? We’re not that important.’
‘We are now,’ said Kolea. ‘You are now.’
‘So it could see the future too?’ Gaunt laughed. ‘Predict? Project? Put an agent in place waiting for the day, the remote chance, years to come…?’
‘The eagle stones–’
‘Feth’s sake, Gol!’
‘I know how it sounds. But I know what my heart says.’
‘We’re sheltering a creature of the warp?’
‘All right, when you put it like that…’
‘Gol, you’re all mixed up,’ said Gaunt. ‘I get why. I understand. We’ve been through many hells, all of us. We’ve all faced the darkness and felt it mess with us. It’s what it wants. It’s what the Archenemy does to us. It wants to ruin our bonds, our trusts… it wants us to suspect each other and collapse in fear and hatred. And we’re not going to let it. That’s our job, after all. Our calling. Of all the citizens in the Imperium, we’re the ones that hold fast. The Imperial fething Guard. We’re the ones that are supposed to fight. You’re just messed up.’
‘But–’ Kolea began.
‘Whatever state your mind’s in,’ said Gaunt, ‘whatever confusion, maybe you don’t know. But Dalin does.’
Kolea blinked.
‘He’d know, wouldn’t he?’ asked Gaunt. ‘Forget your doubts. A brother would know his sister.’
Kolea wiped his mouth. He took a few deep breaths.
‘I suppose there’s that,’ he admitted.
‘Fething right there’s that,’ said Gaunt.
‘So what do we do?’
‘We fix this. We deal with the actual problem. Coordinate with Laksheema and divine Sek’s true intention. I need all the good men I can get, so I’m not losing you. And I have a way to get the inquisitor off your back and clear your mind about this.’
‘You do?’
‘Yes. Drink up, then come with me. I’m going to talk to Laksheema again. Later on, you can go down to the billets and see your kids. See them and hug them and know that everything’s all right.’
Gaunt raised his glass.
‘You know why?’ he asked.
‘Because you’re Lord Executor and you said so?’
‘No. Because the Emperor protects.’
The glasses clinked together.
They all rose to their feet as Gaunt walked back into the ward room with Kolea.
Kolea stood by the door. Gaunt resumed his seat, and gestured for them all to sit.
‘So here we have it, inquisitor,’ he said. ‘I believe, absolutely, that we share the same desire. To serve the Throne. To deny and destroy the Archenemy of Mankind. To end the pernicious blight of Anarch Sek, and to achieve victory in this crusade for Terra. Sek, or at least his schemes, live on. Only a fool would believe the eagle stones play no part in them. So let’s combine our efforts. Identify the nature and value of the stones, their use and implication. Defend them. And ascertain through that effort the Archenemy’s intent, so that we may not only block it but also accomplish a total victory.’
Laksheema nodded. ‘The Holy Ordos would find the cooperation and assistance of the Lord Executor invaluable.’
‘Good. Where are the stones?’
‘As I said previously, sir, the location is necessarily classified–’
‘Laksheema,’ said Gaunt. ‘No more games. The ordos do not have combat forces of sufficient scale present on Urdesh to defend a location against mass attack. The Astra Militarum does. Please don’t presume that keeping their location a secret is an adequate defence against a monster who deals in secrecy.’
‘My lord,’ Laksheema began to protest.
‘You said it yourself,’ said Gaunt. ‘The Archenemy battleship withheld fire from my vessel – indeed, perhaps fought to save it – because something valuable was on board that it could not bring itself to destroy. We can safely assume it was the eagle stones. It knew they were aboard without even seeing them.’
‘I will supply data on the location,’ said Laksheema. ‘But it must remain classified, even within the Guard and the high command. We are certain the enemy has spies throughout Eltath. It has been enemy ground for too long.’
‘And the city leaks like a sieve,’ agreed Gaunt. ‘I have a regiment at my disposal that is cleared at my level. Have Grae give the data to Captain Daur.’