‘It doesn’t have to be that way,’ said Vangorich.
‘Then stop it,’ she said sharply. She looked into his eyes properly for the first time since she had arrived. His face softened. ‘Please. We’ve proved good allies to one another. Let’s not cast it all aside. We’re better than them.’
Vangorich nodded with relief. ‘I was hoping you were going to say that. I’m sorry, I had to check.’
‘There was no need to goad me.’
‘Goading people is part of my charm, and part of my plan.’
‘Killing people is the culmination of it,’ she retorted. ‘I take it the beheading of the ork was your idea?’
‘Naturally.’
‘I am surprised you got the Chapter Master to agree to it.’
Vangorich smoothed out his habit and made an apologetic noise. ‘Poor Thane has learned that bolter and blade are not the only weapons of war, and that not all wars are obvious.’
‘Careful there, Drakan. If you continue his education so effectively you might make him dangerous.’
‘Perhaps,’ said Vangorich. ‘They are a peculiar breed, the Adeptus Astartes, so deadly in some respects, almost childlike in others. Thane is cannier than Koorland was, less of a naïf, if you will. He has more experience, after all. I wonder how things would have gone had he been the last Imperial Fist rather than Koorland. Would this crisis have lasted so long?’
‘Koorland was more easily led. A man needs to be malleable if you would turn him into a hero. He was right for the role.’
‘The Emperor sent him at the right time,’ said Vangorich.
‘Now I know you don’t believe that,’ scolded Wienand. ‘Be careful with Thane. You cannot manipulate him. He needs to be contained.’
‘Ah, well, that might be a little tricky,’ said Vangorich. ‘I’ve asked you here because I think we should make him the Lord Guilliman.’
‘What?’ said Wienand.
‘He is dangerous, you are right. More so now the war is over. The enemy is defeated. Space Marines need enemies, it’s their whole reason for being. He’ll be looking for more soon.’
‘And you want to put him in a room where he has nobody to look at but us?’
‘Oh, I think we’re quite safe,’ said Vangorich amiably. ‘He doesn’t trust me, but he does listen. And you, you have his respect, my dear Wienand. You fought by his side. You proved yourself to him. You know, those new scars you have are very fetching.’ He looked at her meaningfully.
‘You’re suggesting that the Inquisition table the motion that he take the post? No,’ she said.
‘I was actually thinking you should do it. But the Inquisition, yes, the right hand of the Emperor Himself. Who could refuse that?’
‘Don’t mock me, Drakan.’
‘I’m teasing you. It’s affectionate.’
‘You can put teasing on my file along with “my dear” as things not to do to me.’ She gripped the edge of the desiccated wood. It was as hard as stone. She bowed her head in thought. ‘Veritus will not agree,’ she said, ‘but I cannot deny that your plan is appealing. Thane in charge of the Senatorum might put a stop to the squabbling, at least for a while. He is more than a Space Marine, more than a son of the Emperor, he is the slayer of the Beast. The saviour of the Imperium.’
‘He is a symbol,’ said Vangorich. ‘Seeing as we’re out of primarchs, he’ll have to do.’
She couldn’t stop a smile at the thought of the reactions of the others. ‘They could say nothing against him. Thane would have the backing of every man, woman and child in the whole of the Imperium.’
‘You’re coming round to the idea, I can tell,’ said Vangorich.
‘I am not sure. Putting so much power into the hands of one man, at the height of his popularity?’
‘Just like Horus?’
‘That is exactly what Veritus will say,’ she said.
‘Only I can’t imagine someone like Thane going bad. Can you? Tell me truthfully.’
‘Power corrupts,’ said Wienand. ‘There is a reason why the Emperor created the Senatorum Imperialis to rule. The Imperium was too much even for Him alone.’
‘And like so many things since the time of the Great Crusade, it’s worked just marvellously,’ said Vangorich. ‘The Emperor was not infallible. Thane is no primarch. His rule won’t last forever, and the Imperium needs a steady hand for a while. We need reform. He can push it through.’
‘Reforms you suggest?’
He shrugged. ‘Or you. Tell me it makes no sense, and I will drop the issue. You agree with me though, and I know you can handle Veritus.’
She paused, and became suspicious. ‘There is something you are not telling me,’ she said. ‘What play are you making, Drakan?’
He became serious. ‘The play I am making is for stability at a time when we so desperately need it. The Beast nearly finished us, Wienand. Neither you nor I believe things can go back to the way they were. You know this isn’t about personal power. It never has been. I am not made that way. If I were, I would never have been recruited as an Assassin, nor would I have been elevated to Grand Master.’
‘Psych screening doesn’t always work.’
‘But you know me.’
‘I’m afraid I do, all too well.’
They looked at each other, neither willing to drop eye contact. Wienand broke their silence.
‘Verreault and Lansung will not agree to this,’ she said.
Vangorich smiled.
She gritted her teeth. If she was at the point of making individual objections that could be dealt with one by one, she’d lost the argument.
‘I’ll handle them. They will back your proposal. So will I. Zeck will too. He understands the situation. All I have to do is convince one more and we will have a majority.’
‘How can you be sure of Verreault and Lansung? They will be the biggest opponents to the idea. They have the most to lose.’
‘I am sure they will back you,’ he said confidently.
‘Do I want to know?’
‘Mmm, I don’t think so,’ said Vangorich.
Wienand bit her bottom lip. It wasn’t clear there was any other way. ‘I’ll consider it, but it will not be without cost.’
‘And what would that cost be, Inquisitorial Representative?’
Her face hardened. ‘Don’t be disingenuous, Drakan.’
Vangorich passed three cowled menial priests on the stairs leading to the Monitus. When he walked through the high marble gate he was gratified to see that his orders had been obeyed. The Monitus, empty of all but dust until a few days ago, had been attracting increasing numbers of pilgrims since the fall of the Beast. They had all been removed.
There was but one other living being in the Monitus that evening. Surrounded by his noble antecessors rendered three times life-size in stone, Thane looked entirely in place. He stood at the centre of the semicircular balcony that led out from the hall, framed against the dirty warmth of Terran skies. He was one of the heroes of old come back to life and stepped down from his plinth to survey the modern age with sorrowful eyes. Vangorich pitied him. Such was the fate of all heroes, their lives short, their souls captured in stone, their reputations used to rebuke generations yet to come. All of them would be disappointed to see the dream they had fought for.
‘Vangorich. High Lord,’ Thane said. He bowed his head.
‘Lord Thane,’ Vangorich returned his courtesy. He pulled out a blocky box from under his robes.
‘What is that?’ said Thane.
Vangorich waved the device. ‘An audio damper. Nothing sinister.’
‘Put your silence field away. You’ll talk to me openly or not at all,’ said Thane. ‘I’ve no appetite for subterfuge.’
‘As you wish,’ said Vangorich. He had had the place swept for listening devices earlier that day. He was sure nobody would be listening. And if they were, what they might learn would not help them. Never act, Vangorich held, until it is too late for anybody to do anything about it.
Thane looked around the ranks of heroes. They were paired, back to back, one looking down at the floor, the other staring sternly at the dome of the Great Chamber. Thane’s own eyes followed the stone gaze of the statues and settled on the house of the Senatorum, and he half turned away from the Grand Master to share their view.