Carcharadons: Void Exile, page 34
‘Correct. Even banished, the bond we share with our Never-brothers is potent. It affects us all in different ways. Now that Caedus is free, those effects will be even more pronounced. Tell me, why did you follow me here?’
‘It felt like something was calling to me,’ Zaidu said. ‘In my blood. And outside too. Not just the usual echoes but…’
‘Whispers,’ Vey said.
‘You have heard them too?’ Zaidu asked sharply.
‘I hear much, and see more, Sin Slayer,’ Vey said, falling back on the time-honoured mysticism of the Librarius. ‘Speak to me again of your vision. The one you experienced in the psykhanium. Was it the first occurrence since returning from Demeter?’
‘Yes. A warrior like us, Adeptus Astartes, clad in golden-yellow light, battles a Neverborn of the Blood God amidst towering ruins. The daemon is Caedus. The warrior defeats it and banishes it to a place beyond all human understanding.’
‘And you still believe this warrior is you?’ Vey asked.
‘It is a vision that has been shown to me and no other since my initiation,’ Zaidu said. ‘Sometimes I see it second-hand, but often I view the fight through the golden warrior’s own eyes. I have always known my purpose is to destroy Caedus in the material realm. The fact that it has come back to the Chapter and broken free, and the fact that I now stand ready to hunt it down, only confirms it. You know as well as I, Lie-Eater, that there are no such things as coincidences when it comes to the workings of the warp.’
‘True,’ Vey allowed, keeping his counsel about Zaidu’s vision to himself. ‘But you must know too that you will be tested on this hunt. And not merely your battle skill or your art with those daggers of yours. All of our Never-brothers detest us. Caedus will seek to twist the pieces it left behind in you, and break you in every conceivable way.’
‘The daemon will be the one who is broken. I will consign the Red Marshal to the warp so utterly that it can never again threaten the Emperor’s domains,’ Zaidu growled. ‘I will give you an Oath of Damnation on it, right here and now.’
‘I do not require that,’ Vey said, raising a hand to placate his younger brother. He had pushed him far enough, for now. ‘And in all honesty, there are none in the Chapter I would rather have at my side during an undertaking as vital as this. You have never been found wanting before, Sin Slayer, and neither have the Hexbreakers. I do not expect that will change.’
‘It will not,’ Zaidu agreed. ‘With your permission, Brother-Librarian, I will go and ready them.’
Vey dismissed Zaidu. Only when he was gone did the Librarian slam the Daemonarchia shut and lash chains of psi-deadened steel about it, snarling the necessary Oath of Binding as he felt it shudder in his grip, like a living beast brought to heel.
No such thing as coincidences. He could hear the clanging of a heavy bell from somewhere high above, its clapping the only sound from outside permitted within the Librarius. The eighth toll of the day, Vey realised. Expulsiars.
Time was still slipping through his fingers.
He hurried to the astropathic relay.
More Warhammer 40,000 from Black Library
• CARCHARODONS •
Robbie MacNiven
Book 1: RED TITHE
Book 2: OUTER DARK
Book 3: VOID EXILE
• DAWN OF FIRE •
Book 1: AVENGING SON
Guy Haley
Book 2: THE GATE OF BONES
Andy Clark
Book 3: THE WOLFTIME
Gav Thorpe
Book 4: THRONE OF LIGHT
Guy Haley
Book 5: THE IRON KINGDOM
Nick Kyme
Book 6: THE MARTYR’S TOMB
Marc Collins
Book 7: SEA OF SOULS
Chris Wraight
Book 8: HAND OF ABADDON
Nick Kyme
Book 9: THE SILENT KING
Guy Haley
• DARK IMPERIUM •
Guy Haley
Book 1: DARK IMPERIUM
Book 2: PLAGUE WAR
Book 3: GODBLIGHT
LEVIATHAN
Darius Hinks
THE LION: SON OF THE FOREST
Mike Brooks
HELBRECHT: KNIGHT OF THE THRONE
Marc Collins
SILENT HUNTERS
Edoardo Albert
A BLACK LIBRARY PUBLICATION
First published in Great Britain in 2025.
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Cover illustration by Cheol Joo Lee.
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ISBN: 978-1-83609-031-1
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Robbie MacNiven, Carcharadons: Void Exile
