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The Path Forsaken

Rob Sanders

The spirehalls and chambers of Great Iyanden seemed to float on the distant reverence of shrinesong and mournful mantras. For Una Belphoebe – ranger and outcast – the haunting chorale was simultaneously what was most beautiful and oppressive about her craftworld home. Wherever she travelled in a galaxy broad and deep, she carried its serenity in her heart. A calm and certainty that called her back to mighty Iyanden. Here, however – saturated in the intensity of order and at the intersection of so many of her people’s paths – it drove her to the wayport. To the portals and the possibilities that lay beyond.

As she buried provisions and spare crystal cores into the depths of her cameleoline cloak and satchelpack, the ranger felt that she was no longer alone in her preparations. She stopped for a moment.

‘Farseer Kelmon.’

‘Una Belphoebe,’ the aged eldar said. As the Farseer entered the chamber, his staff tapped against the wraithbone of the wayport floor. ‘I see the frightened child I once knew in the eldar before me. Running away again, ranger?’

‘I fear nothing...’ Belphoebe said.

‘That’s what scares me, child.’

‘More lectures, farseer. Must we do this again?’

‘No lectures, child.’

‘Then I bid you farewell,’ the ranger said, scooping up her helm and long rifle. ‘Please pass on the dutiful respects of a daughter, should you see my father.’

‘Where are you headed?’ Kelmon asked.

‘You tell me, farseer.’

‘You return to Ephraeleon,’ Kelmon told her, ‘to enjoy the embrace of the Exodite, lovesick and starry of eye.’

‘Metaphors do not become you, sir.’

‘Nor the backwater worlds you, my child.’

‘Did my father send you?’ Belphoebe asked.

‘The bed of Isarion Stormsmourn calls to you,’ the farseer accused.

‘That is none of your concern, venerable seer,’ the ranger told him. ‘Stay out of my future.’

‘I wish that I could,’ Kelmon said, turning the ranger towards the webway portal, ‘but you walk into it blind. The romance of adventure cripples you. Use your foresight, child. See the doom that awaits you and your backwater prince.’

Belphoebe allowed the rush of time and distance to wash over her. She peered briefly into eternity and found her way to the Exodite world of Ephraeleon. She soared above its rugged peaks and the cloudy canopy of its vapour forests. The exotic cacophony of life rose to meet her. The hiss of the steam vents grew to a harsh, alien seething. The profusion of forest life descended into the clacking, snapping and the screeching of beasts from the beyond.

‘No,’ Belphoebe whispered.

‘The Great Devourer stakes its claim,’ Kelmon told her. ‘Swarm fleets appearing from the coldest void, fresh from feasting on the mon-keigh and the outlying empires. The worlds of wine and honey stand in the Devourer’s path. Exodite worlds. Myrandias. Q’sandritoc… Ephraeleon.’

‘I have to warn them,’ Belphoebe said.

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A BLACK LIBRARY PUBLICATION

First published in Great Britain in 2013.
This eBook edition published in 2015 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS UK.

Cover illustration by Hardy Fowler.

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ISBN: 978-1-78251-696-5

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