Malleus (Novel)
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This article is about the novel by Dan Abnett; for the Inquisitorial Ordo, see Ordo Malleus. |
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| Author | Dan Abnett | |
| Performer | Toby Longworth | |
| Publisher | Black Library | |
| Series | Inquisitor, Eisenhorn | |
| Preceded by | Xenos | |
| Followed by | Hereticus | |
| Released | December 2001 | |
| Pages | 288 | |
| Length | 10 hours 13 minutes | |
| Editions | 2001 softcover: ISBN 1-84154-204-0 2011 ebook: 2021 softcover: | |
Malleus is the second novel in the Eisenhorn novel series by Dan Abnett.
The 2021 edition also includes the short story Missing in Action.
Contents
Story Description[2]
A century after his recovery of the alien Necroteuch, Gregor Eisenhorn is one of the Imperial Inquisition's most celebrated agents. But when a face from his past returns to haunt him, and he is implicated in a great tragedy that devastates the world of Thracian Primaris, Eisenhorn's universe crumbles around him. The daemon Cherubael is back, and seeks to bring the inquisitor to ruin – either by his death, or by turning him to the service of the Dark Gods.
Synopsis
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The following paragraphs contain spoilers for: | Malleus (Novel) |
337.M41. Inquisitor Javes Thysser of the Ordo Xenos reports his encounter with the daemonhost Cherubael, and shares his concerns that the latter may be in collusion with none other than Gregor Eisenhorn.[1a]
Part One: Thracian Primaris
338.M41, Lethe Eleven. Eisenhorn and his retinue take out a xenophile cult headed by Beldame Sadia, in the hope of finding the antidote to the substance her arch-poisoner Pye administered to the inquisitor. Eisenhorn is barely rescued from Sadia’s clutches by Witchfinder Tantalid, who accuses him of heresy.[1b] Informed that Tantalid was driven away by Medea Betancore, Eisenhorn faces his losses: Sweydyr dead along with Qus and Gonvax, Ravenor hospitalized. A fortnight later, he receives summons to attend the Holy Novena on Thracian Primaris, a Jubilation in honour of the Ophidian Campaign’s successful conclusion.[1c]
Disgruntled with the incoming formalities, Eisenhorn heads for his estate deep under the seas of Thracian Primaris, where he is informed that intruders have been testing the house’s security system. Later that night, he stumbles upon Endor who came in unannounced.[1d] His friend warns Eisenhorn about higher-ups in the Inquisition investigating his integrity. The day after, Rorken tells him about Thysser’s report before they join the Apotropaic Congress: a gathering of inquisitors meant to assess the 33 Alpha-level and above psykers captured at the end of the Ophidian Campaign.[1e]
During the Novena’s parade, Eisenhorn is struck by a sense of foreboding moments before a flypast of Lightning fighters turns to disaster when some of the aircraft crash into the procession.[1f] As panic spreads, some of the surviving Lightnings strafe the Triumph and the captured psykers escape, unleashing their powers.[1g] Voke barely saves Eisenhorn from one of the psykers' mind control powers, and they endeavor to coordinate the effort to recapture the runaway psykers. Although Voke raises suspicions at Eisenhorn’s luck in being shielded from the initial slaughter, they lead a kill-team to catch one of them, Esarhaddon, who has taken over a fortified mansion.[1h] Weakened by an improvised null pulse, Esarhaddon is incinerated by Lyko. As order is slowly restored, Eisenhorn learns that Ravenor got grievously wounded and decides to relocate his assets to Gudrun. As he plans out two missions—one to meet an operative on Cadia, the other to find out who was behind the Thracian Atrocity–Inshabel informs him that whoever Lyko killed earlier was not the actual Esarhaddon.[1i]
Part Two: Cadia
Undercover as mutants, Nayl and Eisenhorn approach Phant Mastik, an Eechan crime boss about to auction off an Alpha Plus psyker.[1j] They and their compatriots are tracking Lyko, who fled Thracian Primaris, to determine the extent of his responsibility. Joining the auction in the wake of titanic vegetation harvesters, Eisenhorn is confronted by none other than Cherubael passing as one of the bidders.[1k] While Eisenhorn seeks to find out who the mastermind is, Lyko springs his ambush, intending to eliminate all witnesses. The traitor flees aboard a land speeder and, after a perilous chase, is cornered in one of the harvesters. Before Eisenhorn can read his mind, Cherubael fries his brain and disappears with Esarhaddon.[1l]
On Cadia, Eisenhorn meets with Fischig, who found traces of Cherubael using a cult to investigate the planet’s pylons. Introducing himself to local Inquisitor General Neve, he manages to catch her attention when he mentions the cult being linked to a daemonhost, itself controlled by another inquisitor.[1m] Using the orbiting Essene as base, the retinue tackle the task of going through the archives of the Cadian Inquisition at Kasr Derth.[1n]
Three months later, a breakthrough turns up the name of Quixos, one of the most lauded inquisitors in the annals, but thought long dead and whispered to be more than a radical. As Neve and Eisenhorn discuss the implications, Fischig tells them of suspicious activity at a pylon. Accompanied by a squad of Kasrkin, they confront the intruders and come face to face with another daemonhost, Prophaniti.[1o] A firefight breaks out, and Prophaniti’s body is vaporized by Medea. But the daemon possesses Husmaan and vanishes away, just before Osma barges in with a contingent of Cadian Shock Troopers and arrests Eisenhorn for crimes against the Imperium.[1p] Detained in a remote prison, he is questioned for three months before the Black Ships arrive to take him to Thracian Primaris. As Osma intends to break him through torture before then, his compatriots spring him out and fake his death.[1q]
Part Three: Cinchare
340.M41. On the run, the Essene evades pursuit and picks up astropath Ungish, making its way to Cinchare. Eisenhorn, Aemos, and Betancore head down to a mining operation there, but the place seems deserted. They learn from enforcer Kaleil and superintendant Bandelbi that everyone but a skeleton crew of twenty left because of the increasingly dangerous gravity fluctuations of the star. Pretending to be on a research mission, the investigators are suspicious of the story, but play along to look for their objective: Magos Geard Bure.[1r] Ambushed by some of the skeleton crew, they escape aboard a prospecting pod. Losing their pursuers, they make contact with Bure aboard his mobile digging machine.[1s] The magos explains that three months earlier, mining teams found the Lith, a sentient geode tainted by Chaos which has contaminated Cinchare’s population, and which he intends to destroy. Once that is done, they go back to the surface and the inquisitor is shown what he had left in Bure’s care a century earlier: a casket containing the psy-memory of Pontius Glaw.[1t]
Part Four: Farness Beta
341-343.M41. Offering to have Bure build the heretic a body, Eisenhorn demands information about daemonhosts in return. The magos also makes the inquisitor a runestaff, and forges a force blade out of the remnants of Sweydyr’s sword. The retinue splits into several teams as communiques are sent declaring Quixos Heretic and Extremis Diabolus. Eisenhorn goes to Orbul Infanta to have his new weapons sanctified and meet fellow inquisitor Gladus, but is attacked by Tantalid who kills Ungish.[1u] After killing the Witchfinder, Eisenhorn reaches Thessalon to meet with those inquisitors who responded favourably to his communiques: Titus Endor, Commodus Voke, Raum Grumman, and Massimo Ricci. While not all trust him unconditionally, they agree to their mission: destroying Quixos, who Ravenor has determined is on Farness Beta, at the edge of the Eye of Terror.[1v]
343.M41.While the Cadian Gate experiences the worst Chaos incursion in 300 years, the inquisitors launch their assault—with the backing of Thracian Astra Militarum—on the mountain where Quixos has had a Blackstone pylon replica shipped. Eisenhorn faces Cherubael, which tricks him into freeing it from Quixos’s grasp by banishing it to the warp. He then destroys Prophaniti, which killed Voke, obliterating its essence with his runestaff. Then comes the confrontation with Quixos, who dispatches Ricci and Grumman.[1w] As they duel, the foes engage in a psychic conversation, Quixos revealing that he intends to use the pylons of Cadia to collapse the Eye of Terror in upon itself. Eisenhorn runs him through as the fallen inquisitor accuses him of heresy.[1x]
345.M41. reinstated as inquisitor, Eisenhorn contemplates a figure held in a hidden cell of his Gudrun estate: Cherubael, whom he has bound to a new host thanks to the Malus Codicium he purloined from Quixos’s corpse.[1y]
Dramatis Personae
Eisenhorn's Retinue
- Gregor Eisenhorn
- Uber Aemos
- Alizebeth Bequin
- Godwyn Fischig
- Gideon Ravenor
- Arianhrod Esw Sweydyr
- Mescher Qus
- Medea Betancore
- Harlon Nayl
- Jan Husmaan
- Alain von Baigg
- Duj Husmaan
- Jarat (Ocean House)
- Aldemar Psullus (Ocean House)
- Jubal Kircher (Ocean House)
- Tasarea Ungish
The Inquisition
- Lord Grandmaster Inquisitor Ubertino Orsini
- Lord Inquisitor Plebas Alessandro Rorken
- Lord Inquisitor Bezier
- Lord Inquisitor Sakarof
- Titus Endor
- Commodus Voke
- Heldane
- Neve
- Lyko
- Roban
Xenophile Cult
- Beldame Sadia
- Pye
- Unnamed Haemonculus
Quixos's Cabal
- Quixos
- Cherubael
- The Sons of Bael
- Prophaniti
- Esarhaddon
- The Mystic Path
- Cherubael
Cinchare
- The Lith
- Kaleil
- Fyn Bandelbi
- Geard Bure
Others
Images
See also
Sources
- 1: Malleus (Novel)
- 1a: Prologue
- 1b: One – I discover I am dead. Under dark fire, the lair of Sadia. Tantalid, unwelcome.
- 1c: Two – Something so typically Betancore. My fallen. The Summons.
- 1d: Three – Capital World. The Ocean House. Intruders, past and present.
- 1e: Four – Between Friends. An interview with Lord Rorken. The Apotropaic Congress.
- 1f: Five – The Triumph. At the Spatian Gate. The line breaks.
- 1g: Six – Doom comes to Thracian. Chaos unslipped. Headshot.
- 1h: Seven – Voke, and speculations. Esarhaddon. Through the Void.
- 1i: Eight – Esarhaddon’s lair. Lyko the victor. A vestige.
- 1j: Nine – Eechan, six weeks later. A word with the Phant. Knives in the night.
- 1k: Ten – Ruminations on Lyko. The Chew-after. The highest bidder.
- 1l: Eleven – Face to face. No witnesses. Death along the line.
- 1m: Twelve – Cadia, by terce. The pylons. Talking with Neve.
- 1n: Thirteen – A reunion. War-bells. The long, slow task begins.
- 1o: Fourteen – Winter brings a chance. The damned has a name. The pylon at Kasr Gesh.
- 1p: Fifteen – Rosethorn. What Cadians are born for. The last thing I expected.
- 1q: Sixteen – The Hammer of Witches. Three months in the Carnificina. Flight from Cadia.
- 1r: Seventeen – Rogue star. Doctor Savine, Cora and Mr Horn. In the annex.
- 1s: Eighteen – Pattern thimble. Going Rockside. Geard Bure’s translithopede.
- 1t: Nineteen – Walking through stone. Lith. The Inmate.
- 1u: Twenty – Interview with the Damned. Bure, warsmith. Orbul Infanta.
- 1v: Twenty-One – Death at St Ezra’s. The long hunt. The cell of five.
- 1w: Twenty-Two – Farness Beta. Cherubael and Prophaniti. Quixos.
- 1x: Twenty-Three – The heretic. Afterwards.
- 1y: Epilogue – Winter, 345.M41.
- 1z: Illustrated and Annotated edition
- 2: Black Library: Malleus
