Grey Knights (Novel)
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Grey Knights is the first book of the trilogy of the same name by Ben Counter, originally published in 2004.
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Summary
Justicar Alaric is wounded while participating in the capture of the rogue Inquisitor Gholic Ren-Sar Valinov. After Valinov's interrogation by the information psyker and Inquistor Briseis Ligeia, the Ordo Malleus determines that the rogue inquisitor is attempting to summon Ghargatuloth, Daemon herald of Tzeentch, originally banished a millennium ago by Grey Knight Grand Master Mandulis. Identifying the place of Ghargatuloth's return to realspace as the Trail of Saint Evisser, Inquisitor Nyxos dispatches Alaric and Ligeia with a small contingent of Grey Knights aboard the Strike Cruiser Rubicon to prevent the Daemon's resurrection by any means necessary.
Synopsis
Journeying through the Trail, the Grey Knights slowly begin to uncover the clandestine corruption of the imperial worlds by the agents of Tzeentch, battling heretics, sorcerors, and lesser daemons as they encroach upon the hidden temple that marks where Ghargatuloth will rise again. Deeper investigations of the chaos taint gradually reveal that Kelkannis Evisser was originally a construct of the Prince of a Thousand Faces, a false saint created by the Daemon Prince to prepare the worlds of the Trail for his resurrection. Meanwhile, Valinov's final interrogations by the Inquisition reveal the bolt-shaped Nemesis sword of Mandulis will be instrumental in preventing the Daemon Prince's return, and Ligeia dispatches her bodyguard of Death Cult Assassins to the Grey Knight garrisons on the moons of Saturn, supposedly to acquire and deliver the Nemesis sword into Alaric's possession.
Covertly, however, Ligeia has ordered her bodyguard to prevent Valinov's execution at the hands of the Inquisition, and her death cult assassins successfully secure the rogue Inquisitor's release and escape. As Valinov flees to the worlds of the Trail with the intention of completing his master's ritual, Ligeia, corrupted by her prolonged exposure to the knowledge of Tzeentch, is restrained by her former comrades and tried as a heretic. Nyxos's attempts to interrogate the former Inquisitor meet with apparent failure as Ligeia replies in the blasphemous daemon tongues of the warp, and she is ultimately executed and her body destroyed.
Valinov, masquerading as a legitimate member of the Inquisition, arrives on the Trail world of Volcanis Ultor. Exploiting the veil of secrecy surrounding the Grey Knights chapter, the rogue Inquisitor convinces the Imperial Guard and Adepta Sororitas on Volcanis Ultor that the Grey Knights and their unknown strike cruiser are actually the vanguard of a chaos battlegroup, and must be eliminated. The Rubicon is subsequently destroyed by the Imperial Navy that was originally sent there to quell the multiple cults erupting across the Trail, but the Grey Knights run the imperial gauntlet and successfully make landfall with their contingent relatively intact.
Alaric and the Grey Knights are then forced to engage the Sisters of Battle, but their timely recognition by Canoness Ludmilla as forces of Ordo Malleus halts the slaughter between the imperial forces. The remains of the Adepta Sororitas escort the Grey Knights to Ghargatuloth's hidden acropolis, where the Grey Knights do battle with the corrupted remains of Saint Evisser, and the Grey Knight Terminator Tancred successfully beheads the false saint with the sword of Mandulis.
It is then revealed that, rather than preventing Ghargatuloth's resurrection, the Grey Knights are ultimately responsible for completing the ritual that returns the Daemon Prince to realspace. After killing the majority of the remaining Grey Knights, Ghargatuloth, now manifested in physical form, explains to Alaric that he has manipulated the forces of Ordo Malleus into bringing the sword of Mandulis to the Trail, and that use of the relic that banished him a millennium ago was a necessary requirement for his return. Alaric in reply, asks to be allowed to speak some heroic last words, and the Daemon Prince arrogantly grants the Justicar his request.
Alaric responds by quickly reciting the Daemon's True Name, granting him supremacy over Ghargatuloth. Ultimately, it is revealed that Ligeia, while driven to heresy, had successfully identified the Daemon Prince's True Name and conveyed it in what Nyxos and the other Inquistors had assumed to be the blasphemous daemon tongues spoken during her interrogations. Rendered vulnerable by the revelation of his True Name, Ghargatuloth is methodically banished back to the Warp by the combined efforts of the surviving Grey Knights, Sisters of Battle, and elements of the Imperial Guard. Valinov, his physical form decimated by his master's untimely destruction, is finally discovered by Alaric and promptly executed.
The book concludes with Inquisitor Nyxos recording the events and details leading to Ghargatuloth's second banishment in the second book of the Codicium Aeternum, and Alaric praying for Ligeia's soul.
List of Characters
The Inquisition
| The Grey Knights Omnibus | Grey Knights • Dark Adeptus • Hammer of Daemons |
|---|---|
| Other Novels | The Emperor's Gift |
| Short Stories | Sacrifice |
