Nick Kyme

Book 5 in the Warhammer 40,000 mega series, Dawn of Fire. A war-weary Battle Group Praxis arrives at the Knight world of Kamidar, ruled by the Iron Queen Orlah, to return the queen’s slain daughter and heir, who died fighting in Guilliman’s name. In truth, the Imperium’s mission here is twofold: to strip Kamidar of its resources in order to resupply the flagging armada, and prepare the Ironhold Protectorate to become part of the defensive Anaxian Line, a crucial bulwark for the Indomitus Crusade. With Kamidar having survived many years without the Imperium’s aid, what should have been a simple reunion between allies soon becomes a vicious feud. As division turns loyal souls against one another, the agents of Abaddon move in the shadows, seeking to manipulate this growing rift to their own ends. Can the Imperium bring itself back from the brink before it’s too late, or will the Hand of Abaddon arise triumphant, halting the Avenging Son’s reclamation in its path?

The Iron Kingdom

Really hope she lives, time for the final battle 💪🏽

Giovanni Silva

A Knight Valiant, Lioness was a peerless war engine clad in white and gold, its royal-blue banners emblazoned with the lioness of Kamidar. She should have run diagnostics on her armaments, a brutal pairing of thundercoil harpoon and conflagration cannon, but Orlah’s mind drifted, flitting between reverie and dream. To old days of the glory of Kamidar; of Jessivayne in her arms as a babe; of Uthra in his prime before the sickening took him; of a kingdom in flames, brought back from the brink, and the triumph that followed. She saw feasts and the graves of noble warriors. She saw nightvein petals fluttering on an icy wind and felt the memory of its chill. She walked amid forests ablaze from Harnfor all the way to Wessen, a great serpentine trail of amber light, the smoke so thick she could barely see. And she crawled amongst endless fields of bones, the ossuary mounds climbing to the height of a mountain, their hollow-eyed skulls mocking. 

And she wept for the passing of her world, the culture and history that would be forever lost.

By the time true consciousness found her again, the long and purposeful strides of Lioness had brought Orlah to the edge of a battlefield. Here she saw the burnt-out carcasses of Imperial tanks and the corpses of soldiers strewn across the ground like leaves. It was quiet, like only a place of death can be, and only a single enemy remained. To the east, a red sun was rising like a bloody eye and it framed the other Knight ominously.

Orlah felt her life slowly bleeding out through the tear in her side, the interior of her Knight reeked with it, but she had enough about her still to recognise an old foe and spit through clenched teeth.

‘A sundered name, for a sundered house…’

After killing Parnius, Lareoc had wandered in a daze. Adrift at first, a lost soul in the underworld of his own grief, he managed to anchor himself with anger for the old priest. Albia had gone though, as if spirited away on the breeze by Hurne himself, and his wrath for the mendicant had raced off unfettered. A wildness overtook him and even as the sky above Kamidar began to crowd with drop-ships, Lareoc raged on without purpose. The other Knights of Hurne stayed with him, albeit at a respectful distance. In the few moments of lucidity he had, Lareoc saw Klaigen nearby, close enough that the seneschal could keep an eye on him. He couldn’t remember clambering back into Heart of Glory but proximity to the ancient machine restored some of his cognisance. The red haze lifted a fraction and he could think again. He wanted to vent his wrath and shed blood and oil, find a worthy foe to challenge. In that, perhaps, he could find again his honour. Thankfully, the invasion provided an abundance of targets. 

Although he headed unerringly in the direction of the palace, Lareoc and his Knights hunted and slaughtered every enemy they came across. He remembered little of the kills, aside from the roaring exultation and weeping despair that came with every one. It took Lareoc a few moments to realise they were his shouts and his tears. He had only wanted his world restored to what it had been before the darkness, a fair and just world free of tyrants, yet he found himself making a different bargain.

The Iron Kingdom quotes

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