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The Staff of Asclepius

Graham McNeill

Isstvan Cantaro runs, though he knows he cannot escape his pursuer. Dzyban has hundreds of cultists genetically enslaved to his will. They are mortals, but they are well armed and surgically altered not to fear the Adeptus Astartes.

Especially a wounded, unarmed one.

He can hear them rampaging through the ship, uttering foul names of things best left nameless. They are little better than beasts or lab experiments that should have been incinerated at inception.

Isstvan presses a palm to the wall of the corridor as a stabbing pain from his groin rips up through his belly and into his chest cavity. His primary heart judders arrhythmically. It is failing, but has not yet switched functionality to his secondary organ.

And yet he is not mortally wounded.

At least, under normal circumstances, he would not consider himself so.

He leans against a bulkhead of bare metal, the absence of any vibrations from the Soju’s engine decks only reinforcing the hopelessness of his situation.

But Isstvan Cantaro is an Apothecary of the Ultramarines and has faced hopelessness before. He has defied it time and time again. He looks down at his bloodied gauntlet, pressed against the ivory breastplate and Ichar IV honour seal. Blood bubbles up through his fingers as he releases the pressure. The entry wound is perfectly round and utterly innocuous.

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Published in 2015 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK.

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The Staff of Asclepius © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2015. The Staff of Asclepius, GW, Games Workshop, Black Library, The Horus Heresy, The Horus Heresy Eye logo, Space Marine, 40K, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, the ‘Aquila’ Double-headed Eagle logo, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world.
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ISBN: 978-1-78572-035-2

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