Free The Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow

jocularity. Hakur had lost men from his squad on the world-ship, and the pain of it was just below the surface. 'We all fought well this day,' said the captain, the words coming of their own accord. 'Once more the Death Guard have been the tools that carve the Emperor's will into the galaxy.'
    None of the other Astartes spoke. Each of them had fallen silent, faces turned over Garro's shoulder. As he cast around to learn why, as one, the men of the Seventh Company came to their knees.
    'My battle-captain.'
    It perturbed Garro to realize that he had not even heard the approach of his primarch. As in the assembly hall before the assault, Mortarion made issue of his presence only when it suited him to do so.
    Garro bowed low to the master of the Death Guard, dimly aware of Typhon at his lord's side, and a servitor lurking behind the first captain's cloak.
    'My lord,' he replied.
    Mortarion's face shifted in a cool smile, visible even behind the breath collar around his throat and lips. The Sisterhood has taken leave of us. They spoke highly of the Seventh.'
    Garro dared to raise his gaze a little. Like him, the primarch was no longer clad in his brass and steel power armour, but instead in common duty robes over a set of more utilitarian gear. Still, even in such simple garb, there was no mistaking his presence. High and gaunt, a man spun from whipcord steel muscle, he was as tall in his deck boots as Typhon was in the First Company's Terminator armour.
    And of course, there was the manreaper. Sheathed across his back, the arc of the heavy black blade curved behind his head in a lightless sweep. 'Stand, Nathaniel, please. It becomes tiresome to look down upon my men.'
    Garro drew himself up to his full height, looking into the primarch's deep amber eyes and steeling himself not to draw back. In turn, Mortarion's gaze burned deep into him, and the captain felt as if his heart were held in the primarch's long, slender fingers, being weighed and considered.
    'You ought to watch your step, Typhon,' said the Death Lord. This one, he'll have your job one day'
    Typhon, ever sullen, only grimaced. Before the first captain, the primarch, and at the edges of his sight, the twin guards of the Deathshroud, Garro felt as if he was at the bottom of a well. The nerve of a common man would probably have broken beneath such scrutiny.
    'Lord,' he asked, 'what service may the Seventh Company do for you?'
    Mortarion beckoned him. 'Their captain may step forward, Garro. He has earned a reward.'
    Nathaniel did as he was told, darting a quick look towards Hakur. His words at the lakeside echoed in his mind. We don't seek accolades and honours. Garro had no doubt that the veteran was keenly amused by this turn of events. 'Sir,' he began, 'I deserve no special-'
    That is not a refusal forming upon your lips, is it, captain?' warned Typhon. 'Such false modesty is unwelcome.'
    'I am merely a servant of the Emperor,' Garro managed. That is honour enough.'
    Mortarion gestured the servitor forward, and the captain saw that it carried a tray of goblets and bowls. Then instead, Nathaniel, might you honour me by sharing my drink?'
    He stiffened, recognizing the ornate cups and the liquid in them. 'Of... of course, lord.'
    It was said that there was no toxin too strong, no poison so powerful and no contagion of such lethality that a Death Guard could not resist it. From their inception, the XIV Legion had always been the Emperor's warriors in the most hostile of environments, fighting through chem-clouds or acidic atmospheres that no normal human could survive in. Barbarus, the Legion's base, the adoptive home planet of Mortarion himself, molded this characteristic. As with their primarch, so with his Astartes: the Death Guard were a resilient, invincible breed.
    They hardened themselves through stringent training regimens as neophyte Astartes, willingly exposing themselves to, chemical agents, contaminants, mortal viral strains and venoms of a thousand different