The boltgun roared. The shot exploded my left knee. I cried out and fell, leaning on Barbarisater. There was blood everywhere. I couldn't believe he'd found the will to do it.
With a yelp of pain I hauled myself up on the sword. He fired again and now my right leg went out from under me, also mangled at the knee.
I lay on my back. I could feel the death throes of the Essene quaking and thundering through the deck beneath me. Fischig stood over me.
'Stop this…' I gasped. 'Get me to the hangar/
He drew back the slide of the bolt pistol. He was shaking with distress, wracked by grief and disappointment and duty and belief.
'Please/ he said. 'Renounce it all. Repent your sins and accept the Emperor for the-good of your soul. It's not too late/
'You're still trying to save me/ I managed to get the words out through the pain. 'Glory be, Fischig… you actually shot me so you could try and save my soul?'
'Renounce the warp!' he stammered. 'Please! I can save you! You're my friend and I can still save you from yourself!
'I don't need saving/1 said.
He aimed the gun at my head. His finger tightened on the trigger. 'May the Emperor protect you, Gregor Eisenhorn/ he said.
He twitched. Once. Twice. He swayed. The bolt pistol wandered in his lolling hand and fired, harmlessly, against the corridor wall. He dropped to his knees and then fell forward onto his face as if he was praying.
I struggled to pull myself up so I could lean my back against the wall. My legs were crippled, bloody and useless.
Medea crouched down next to me. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. She let go of the needle pistol and let it clatter onto the deck.
Kara appeared behind us, a las-carbine in her hands, with Eleena and Aemos at her heels. They all looked in horror at the sight of me and Fischig.
Aemos was deathly pale, and leaning on my runestaff like a penitent pilgrim.
'Help me up/ I said, from between clenched teeth. Kara and Medea hoisted me up between them.
I looked at Aemos. 'You summoned Cherubael? It was you, wasn't it? You summoned him into one of the Essene's poor bloody astropaths?'
'They were going to burn us as heretics/ he said softly, 'and then we'd never be able to stop Glaw/
'But how did you perform the rituals, Uber? You didn't even have the book any more/
'That book/ he sighed. 'That damn book. It's all in here now/ He tapped his wrinkled forehead with a scrawny finger.
He'd memorised it. During those weeks of study he'd memorised the Mains Codicium. Thanks to a meme-virus, he was a data addict. That's what made him such a fine savant. And now his addiction had taken him to overdose.