'No, my lord. The mountain sundered and we were separated.'
Honsou looked up sharply. 'Then where are they?'
'That is what I am trying to tell you. They broke past us and made for the breach!'
'Damn!' cursed Honsou. 'Then why in the name of Chaos are you still standing here?'
'My lord, a river of molten metal separates us. For now, there is no way across.'
'For you, perhaps,' sneered Honsou, striding through the battle to where he had left his trapped champion. 'Onyx!'
Iron Warriors still struggled with the debris that buried the symbiote, but seeing their master's fury and urgency, redoubled their efforts. Within minutes, they had shifted enough of the rubble to allow Onyx to pull himself free of the debris. Lithe, supple and showing no signs of having been almost crushed to death, Onyx made his way gracefully towards Honsou. His black armour bore not a single scratch and Honsou saw Onyx's daemonic powers rippling just below the surface of his crawling, silver-etched skin. His eyes blazed with deadlights as Honsou pointed to the breach.
'Find the renegades,' he ordered Onyx. 'Find them and bring them to me.'
The daemon creature nodded and set off up the slopes of the mountain.
The shattered remnants of this part of the ramparts were eerily deserted, the noise of battle muted from here, as Uriel pulled himself over the tattered lip of stone with the aid of the orange-steel rebars. He rolled to his feet, alert for danger, but finding none. The brooding presence of the fortress still towered above him, but he kept his eyes averted from its monstrous geometries for now, turning and helping the remainder of their force onto the battlements.
The walls swept around the mountain, curving and angled, seemingly at random, hordes of human soldiers and mutants firing from the embattled ramparts into the masses of attackers below. Thousands of warriors fought in the breach, looking from here like some great serpent that heaved and convulsed as it pushed its way, metre by metre, up the rubble slopes.
Pasanius and Vaanes climbed up, followed by Leonid and Ellard and the rest of the warrior band. Uriel could scarce believe it. They were within the walls of the fortress!
'Throne of Terra,' breathed Pasanius. 'That was bloody work!'
'It's not over yet,' cautioned Uriel, turning and more fully surveying their surroundings. A row of great archways led deeper into the fortress, each one as tall as a battle Titan and ringed with grotesque carvings that squirmed within the rock, as though the unquiet matter of the blocks was reshaping itself as they watched.
'Which way?' asked Vaanes as the last of the Space Marines climbed to the ramparts.
'I don't know,' admitted Uriel. 'There is nothing to choose between them.'
'Then we've nothing to lose, whichever one we take,' pointed out Vaanes, heading towards the middle archway.
'I suppose,' said Uriel, though a gut feeling told him that there was something different about this archway. He could not put his finger on what, but since he had no better idea of which one to take, he set off after Vaanes. The Space Marines followed him, bolters levelled in cautious apprehension.
Vaanes waited for him at the entrance to the archway, and as Uriel passed beneath its Stygian immensity, he sketched the sign of the aquila across his chest, hearing a distant pounding, like the slow heartbeat of a sleeping monster.
'We are in the belly of the beast once more, Uriel,' said Pasanius, the guttering blue tip of his flamer throwing their faces into stark relief and causing the carvings on the inner faces of the archway to leer and dance across the walls.
'I know,' nodded Uriel, praying that the white cloak he had put over his soul would protect it from the vile things they were sure to see in the heart of the Enemy's lair.
Onyx ghosted over the lip of the ruined bastion, his bronze claws sliding slowly from his flesh. His silver eyes scanned the battlements for any sign of the renegades, but they were nowhere to be seen. Moving like a shadow, Onyx tasted the air, the crawling silver veins beneath his skin burning brighter as he channelled the daemonic energy within him into tracking the intruders.
His vision shifted into realms of sight beyond the ken of mortal men, where that which had already come to pass could be seen by listening to the echoes in the air. He watched as shadowy forms climbed over the ramparts, in much the same way as he had just done: many warriors, led by one whose soul burned brightly with purpose and another whose soul was withered and dead.
As though formed from swirling particles of smoke, their forms were ethereal and insubstantial, but Onyx could see them as clearly as though he had been here to watch them arrive. They had passed this way but minutes ago, their phantasmal echoes walking from the battlements and heading in the direction of the monstrous archways carved into the mountainside.
Onyx watched as the ghostly figures were swallowed up by the whispering darkness of the archways and sheathed his claws. He would need to take another route into the fortress to hunt the intruders, for if Khalan-Ghol had lured them into the bedlam portals, there was a good chance they were already dead.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The journey through the darkened archway was one that Uriel knew he would never forget. The sensation of being spied upon by every square centimetre of wall was intolerable and he was sure he could hear a susurration of whispered voices, just on the threshold of hearing. Their words, if such they were, were unintelligible, but on some primal level, Uriel knew that they whispered of vile, terrible things.
…dishonour, disgrace and failure…
This at least he felt he could bear, having already seen the most terrible things imaginable in the presence of the Nightbringer, but still…
The twilit darkness seemed to go on forever and Uriel soon lost track of how long they had been travelling along the damnable tunnel.
…it doesn't ever stop, it goes on and on…
'Imperator! Does this ever end?' growled Vaanes as they delved further and further into the never-ending darkness.
'I know,' said Uriel. 'I get the feeling that we do not travel normal paths here. We can trust nothing, not even the evidence of our own senses.'
'Then how will we find what we're looking for?'
…you won't…
'We will have to trust that the Emperor will show us the way,' said Uriel, irritated by Vaanes's constant questions.
Vaanes shook his head in exasperation. 'I knew I should have never come on this mission. It was doomed from the start.'
…yes, doomed, only death awaits…
'Then why did you come?' snapped Uriel, rounding on the former Raven Guard, his temper fraying.
…he hates you and will betray you…
'Damned if I can remember,' snarled Vaanes, his face centimetres from Uriel's. 'Perhaps I thought you had more of an idea about how you planned to get in here and find what we came for!'
…he doesn't, he will see you dead soon…
'Damn you, Vaanes. Why must you always undermine me?' said Uriel, hearing soft, malicious laughter and the whispers of the walls growing louder in his ears. 'Every step of this journey you have done nothing but tell us that we are on a fool's errand. That may be so, but we are Space Marines trapped on a daemon world and it is our sacred task to fight the enemies of mankind wherever they may be.'
…not any more. Give in, you are worthless…
'Don't you understand? We are not Space Marines,' shouted Vaanes, the reflected blue light of the tunnel glittering in his eyes. 'Not any more. We are all outcasts, shunned and banished from our Chapters. We owe neither them nor the Emperor anything any more. And I, for one, am getting sick of hearing your sanctimonious voice telling me what I ought to be doing.'