Hellsreach - Aaron Dembski-Bowden [23]
‘Princeps Majoris,’ Grimaldus nodded to the swimming husk. ‘An honour to stand in your presence.’
There was a distinct pause before she replied, though her gaze never left him. ‘You are keen to speak with me. Waste no time on pleasantries. Stormherald wakes, and soon I must walk. Speak.’
‘I am told by one of this Titan’s pilots, as an ambassador to Helsreach, that Invigilata may not walk in our defence.’
Again, the pause.
‘This is so. I command one-third of this Legio. The rest already walks in defence of the Hemlock region, many with your brothers, the Salamanders. Do you come to petition me for my portion of mighty Invigilata?’
‘I do not beg, princeps. I came to see you with my own eyes and ask you, face to face, to fight and die with us.’
The withered woman smiled, the expression both maternal and amused.
‘But you have not yet completed your intended duty, Astartes.’
‘Is that so?’
This time, the pause was longer. The old woman laughed within her bubbling tank. ‘We are not face to face.’
The knight reached up to his armoured collar, disengaging the seals there.
Without my helm, the scent of sacred oils and the chemical-rich tang of her amniotic tank are much stronger. The first thing she says to me is something I am not sure how to respond to.
‘You have very kind eyes.’
Her own eyes are long-removed from her skull, the sockets covered by these bulbous lenses that twist as she watches me. I cannot return the comment she made, and I do not know what else I could say.
So I say nothing.
‘What is your name?’
‘Grimaldus of the Black Templars.’
‘Now we are face to face, Grimaldus of the Black Templars. You have been bold enough to come here, and honour me with your face. I am no fool. I know how rare it is for a Chaplain to reveal his human features to one not of his brotherhood. Ask what you came to ask, and I will answer.’
I step closer and press my palm against the casket’s surface. The vibration is twinned with that of my armour. I can feel the eyes of the Mechanicus minions upon me, upon my dark ceramite, their reverent gazes showing their longing to touch the perfection of the machinesmith’s craft represented by Astartes war plate.
And I look into the mechanical eyes of the princeps as she floats in the milky waters.
‘Princeps Zarha. Helsreach calls for you. Will you walk?’
She smiles again, a blind grandmother with rotten teeth, as she presses her own palm against mine. Only the reinforced glass separates us.
‘Invigilata will walk.’
Seven hours later, the people of the city heard a distant mechanical howl from the wastelands, eclipsing the cries of the lesser Titans. It echoed through the streets and around the spiretops, chilling the blood of every soul in the hive. Street dogs barked in response, as if sensing a larger predator nearby.
Colonel Sarren shivered, though he smiled at the others in his command meeting. Through bloodshot eyes, heavy with sleeplessness, he regarded them all.
‘Stormherald has awoken,’ he said.
Three days, just as promised, and the city shook with the tread of the god-machines.
Invigilata’s engines walked, and the great gates in the northern wall rumbled open to welcome them. Grimaldus and the hive’s command staff watched from atop the viewing platform. The knight blink-clicked a rune on his retinal display, accessing a coded channel.
‘Good morning, princeps,’ he said softly. ‘Welcome to Helsreach.’
In the distance, a walking cathedral-fortress pounded its slow, stately way through the first city blocks.
‘Hail, Chaplain.’ The crone’s voice was laden with barely-contained energy. ‘I was born in a hive like this, you know.’
‘It is fitting then, that you’ll be dying here, Zarha.’
‘Do you say so, sir knight? Have you seen me today?’
Grimaldus watched the distant form of Stormherald, as tall as the towers surrounding it.
‘It is impossible not to see you, princeps.’
‘It’s impossible to kill me, as well. Remember that, Grimaldus.’
No human had ever dared use his name so informally before. The knight smiled for the first time