Sitting there, in that opulent room, I realised Maxilla had hit on the truth, a truth I had been denying. I had changed without recognising that change in myself. I would always be grateful to Tobias Maxilla for that bruising realisation. I felt better for it.
'I suppose you can't turn to your superiors for help?'
'No/ I said, still reeling from the fresh viewpoint.
'Because you'd have to tell them things you don't want them to hear?'
'Of course. To get any kind of official help, I'd have to make a full report. And that report would fall apart under the lightest scrutiny if it omitted the Codicium, Cherubael. By the Throne, the list goes back! I even hid Pontius Glaw from them. What could I say? Pontius Glaw is exterminating my forces. Where did he come from, my lord grand master? Well, to be honest, I've known of his existence for centuries, but I kept him hidden from you. And he's only up and around now because I decided to give him a body/
He chuckled. 'I see your point. What will you tell Fischig? Dear Godwyn is as straight up and down as any man I know/
'I'll deal with Fischig/
'So what is your next move? You mentioned this daughter of his, the psyker. You saw things when you killed her, didn't you?'
I had indeed. Maria Tarray's entire mental shield had crumbled just before the vortex annihilated her. The picture I had obtained was far from complete, but it was plentiful.
'Maria Tarray was much older than she looked or claimed. She was the bastard offspring of Pontius Glaw and a serving girl from Gudran that Glaw had taken with him to Quenthus Eight. Maria was born in 020, corrupted from conception by the tainted tore Pontius wore. Several notorious heretics who have evaded the Inquisition in the last three hundred years were actually her under different guises. Many cases could be closed now she is dead/
'Pontius won't be too pleased/
'I imagine Pontius Glaw now wants me dead even more than before. But they were after the Malus Codicium, you see. I learned that from her undefended mind. Glaw knew Quixos must have it and, once Quixos was dead, realised it must be in my possession. He wants that book so much/
'Do you know why?'
'I saw images of an arid world just before Maria Tarray died. A dried out husk where primaeval cities lay buried under layers of ash. Glaw's after something there, and he needs the Codicium to help him/
'What?'
'I don't know/
Where?'
'I don't know that either. There was a name, a word in her mind. Ghtil. But I don't know what it means or what it refers to. Her mind was in collapse. Very little made sense/