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|Released =June 2006
|Pages =416
|Editions =2006 softcover:<br> ISBN 9781844163700 2010 ebook:<br> ISBN 9780857870223
2011 abridged audiobook:<br> ISBN 9781849700573,<br> ISBN 9780857871145
2012 hardcover:<br>ISBN 9781849703833
The [[Sons of Horus]] 1st, 2nd, 5th, 10th, 13th and 19th companies form the 'speartip' that will land on Davin's moon accompanied by the [[Byzant Janizars]], three [[Titans]] of the [[Legio Mortis]] and Erebus's Word Bearers. During the approach they are unable to detect any of Temba's ships but pick up a ship's broadcast extoling the power of [[Nurgle|Nurgh-leth]], reminding Loken uncomfortably of [[Horus Rising (Novel)|the Whisperheads incident]]. Upon landing the speartip step out into a stinking, rotted swamp where a dry forest should be, and Loken declares to [[Tarik Torgaddon]] that something is very wrong.{{Fn|1b}}
=== Part Two: Plague Moon === Advancing through the swamp, the Sons of Horus find the corpses of Temba's men which [[Plague Zombies|suddenly animate and attack them]]. The Legio Mortis Titan ''[[Dies Irae]]'' is blinded by the thick fog and, sensing an incoming aerial object, shoots it out of the sky. The object, Petronella Vivar's skiff that she took to the surface against Horus's orders, crashes in the swamp. Vivar's bodyguard [[Maggard]] holds off attacking plague zombies as long as he can but the pair are only saved when the skiff's burning wreckage acts as a beacon for the Sons of Horus, who marshal around it and slaughter the undead. Moving forward they discover the wreck of Eugan Temba's crashed flagship the ''Glory of Terra'', suffering from extreme rot and apparently the source of the unnerving broadcast. Despite Loken's objections Horus decides to enter with 1st, 5th, 13th and 19th companies, leaving Loken and Torgaddon's companies to defend the entrance. Once inside, the Sons of Horus are scattered by a shift in the ship's position and Horus is separated from his men. Advancing alone, he encounters a horde of plague zombies whilst a simultaneous attack begins outside the ship. Fighting his way to bridge Horus finds the bloated monstrosity that was once Eugan Temba armed with the [[anathame]] and sitting over the corpse of [[Verulam Moy]]. Engaging Temba in a fight, Horus is wounded in the shoulder before mortally wounding the traitor governor who repents as he dies, confessing that he gave in to the promises of [[Chaos]]. Horus destroys the machinery powering the broadcast, causing the army of plague zombies to revert to inert corpses just in time to save Loken and Torgaddon's companies from being overrun. The Sons of Horus find Horus on the bridge, mourning the loss of Temba and bleeding freely from his shoulder wound. They carry him outside, where he suddenly collapses to the ground.{{Fn|1c}}
Grief-stricken and terrified that their commander might die, the [[Mournival]] rush the [[primarch]] back to the fleet where the news has reached the civilian population, who crowd the hangar bay to express their fear and distress. Impeded by the crowds, the desperate Mournival lash out and kill or badly injure the civilians in their path. Ignace Karkasy and [[Mersadie Oliton]] look on in horror from an observation bay, seeing [[Euphrati Keeler]] and a group of others hand out ''[[Lectitio Divinitatus]]'' pamphlets to the wounded in the wake of the Astartes. Horus is handed over the the Legion [[Apothecaries]] who are able to keep him alive but cannot fight the toxins preventing his blood from clotting. Dying, Horus gives Petronella Vivar his valediction, admitting many secrets about the primarch brotherhood. Desperate for something constructive to do Loken and Torgaddon return to the ''Glory of Terra'' to search the bridge for the weapon that wounded Horus, and they are joined by [[Tybalt Marr]] who wishes to see where Captain Moy died. In their absence the Sons of Horus' [[Warrior-lodge|warrior-lodge]] convene, and Erebus convinces them to entrust Horus to the temple of the [[Serpent Lodge]] on Davin, where he says the lodge's occult magic may be able to heal him.{{Fn|1d}}
Back on Davin's moon Loken and Torgaddon discover the anathame, which Loken recognises as the weapon stolen from the Hall of Devices on [[Xenobia]], leading him to conclude that Erebus was behind Horus's wounding. They return to the fleet but find all its landing ships headed for Davin, where they arrive at the Temple of the Serpent Lodge to find that the warrior-lodge has interred Horus inside behind doors that only open from within. The Mournival splits down the middle as Loken and Torgaddon fall out with Abaddon and Aximand over this course of action, and Loken darkly predicts that they will all come to regret it.{{Fn|1e}}
Inside the Temple of the Serpent Lodge Erebus observes the ritual that will send his mind into the spirit world to converse with Horus. In order to complete the ritual Lodge Priestess [[Akshub]] treacherously slits Erebus's throat. Awakening in a verdant meadow, Horus accepts his own death and goes exploring, but is disturbed by glimpses of a hellish industrial wasteland beneath the surface of the landscape. He finds Erebus disguised as [[Hastur Sejanus]] floating face-down in a stream and 'Sejanus' encourages him to flee a pack of wolves with the Imperial [[Aquila Imperialis|Aquila]] on their fur. Sejanus tells Horus that he has come as an emissary from [[Chaos Gods|great powers]] within the [[Warp]] whom he describes as benign and with no interest in the material universe but under attack by the [[Emperor]] who desires their power for himself. He shows Horus a shrine-world from the [[Imperium of Man|Imperium in the 40th millenium]] where the Emperor and the nine primarchs who will remain loyal in [[The Horus Heresy|the war to come]] are worshipped as gods but Horus is not, deceiving him with the lie that the Emperor abandoned the [[Great Crusade]] in order to obtain godhood and will leave [[Primarchs|his sons]] behind upon his apotheosis. He then takes Horus to the secret laboratories beneath Terra where the Emperor housed the [[Primarch Project|primarch project]], revealing that he used knowledge taken from the Warp gods to create Horus and his brothers and has orchestrated a vast lie in propagating his secular creed. The moment of the primarchs' scattering occurs and Horus's apparition is attacked by [[Custodian Guard|Custodian Guards]], but he kills most of them before allowing himself to be sucked into the raging Chaos vortex.
As days pass in the material universe nearly the entire 63rd Expedition camps outside the Temple of the Serpent Lodge. Loken visits [[Kyril Sindermann]], who has hidden himself away in the ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'''s archives, and is horrified to learn of the connection between serpent cults and Chaos. Ignace Karkasy, inspired by the Astartes' brutality on the embarkation deck, writes damning poetry about it and begins distributing it throughout the ship. Euphrati Keeler is attacked on Davin by a group of soldiers angry at her commitment to the Lectitio Divinitatus, but is rescued by Torgaddon who brings her to see Sindermann, who now doubts the secular creed and wants to know about the Emperor as a god. They begin translating text from the [[Book of Lorgar]] and accidentally summon a [[daemon]]. Chief [[astropath]] [[Ing Mae Sing]] comes to their aid, but they are only saved when, in a miracle, Euphrati channels the Emperor's power and banishes the daemon before collapsing into a coma.
In the Warp, Horus is met by his brother [[Magnus]], the leader of the wolf pack, who strips Erebus of his glamour and warns Horus that he is being manipulated into turning on his father and the Imperium. Aware that the visions he has seen are meaningless without context but mistrustful of Magnus who is obviously flouting the [[Edict of Nikaea]], Horus asserts his own will and, full of pride, betrayal and lust for power, decides he will rebel against the Emperor. Healed of his wound, he emerges from the Temple of the Serpent Lodge to thunderous cheers.{{Fn|1f}}
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[[Category: Novels]]
[[Category:Sources (Black Legion)]]
[[Category:Sources (Word Bearers)]]
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[[Category:Works by Graham McNeill]]
[[de:Horus Heresy (Romane)]]
[[fr:Les Faux Dieux (Roman)]]
