But even among their hallowed ranks, there are those who would turn their backs on their brothers and follow the path of the traitor. Gathered within these pages, you will find tales from the dark side of the Imperium – remember, that which can defend, can also betray...New York Times bestselling editor Christian Dunn presents a selection of short stories from some of Black Library’s finest authors: Anthony Reynolds, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Matthew Farrer, Sarah Cawkwell and many more

    When a troupe of these deadly warrior-performers discovers a dead Craftworld festering in the webway, they are determined to find the one responsible and exact punishment. Using the ancient craft of their Shadowseer, the trail of destruction leads the troupe to the Sable Marches, a fringe realm of the dark eldar. With several possible suspects of this heinous crime, the Harlequins decide to draw out the guilty one by staging the Masque of Vyle for the archons, a performance that will expose the truth and lead, fatally, to the perpetrator.The Masque of Vyle is archaic ritual performance, used to lure out the guilty to face the fickle justice of the harlequins. Amongst the Dark Eldar however, there are plenty of guilty souls. This tale gives a fascinating insight into both the splinter realms of Commorragh, and the enigmatic rituals of the Laughing Gods followers.

    Led by High King Tolwyn Draconis, the Knights are peerless in battle and strike deep into the enemy’s ranks. But the war soon turns when a terrible tragedy strikes, casting the Imperial campaign into anarchy. As desperation grows, unblooded Knights Errant Danial and Luk must quickly learn the ways of war to prevent an unholy ritual or Donatos will be lost and all the noble Houses of Adrastapol with it.It's war on a larger scale – Imperial Knight scale! Two novice Knight pilots against an entire world of enemies – sounds like a story for the ages.

    For the Necron Lord Oltyx, the Ithakas dynasty was his by right, but the machinations of the court see him stripped of his position and exiled to a forgotten world.READ IT BECAUSESee the struggles of the Necron court through their own eyes, and discover the lengths one Lord will go to for the status they desire.THE STORYExiled to the miserable world of Sedh, the disgraced Necron Lord Oltyx is consumed with bitterness. Once heir to the throne of a dynasty, he now commands nothing but a dwindling garrison of warriors, in a never-ending struggle against Ork invaders. Oltyx can think of nothing but the prospect of vengeance against his betrayers, and the reclamation of his birthright. But the Orks are merely the harbingers of a truly unstoppable force. Unless Oltyx acts to save his dynasty, revenge will win him only ashes. And so he must return to the crownworld, and to the heart of the very court which cast him out. But what awaits there is a horror more profound than any invader, whose roots are tangled with the dark origins of the Necrons themselves.

    Now, as the 41st millennium draws to a close, the tau have returned. As the world of Agrellan falls under attack, the White Scars and Raven Guard rush to its defence, but with the skilled Commander Shadowsun leading the alien forces, the Space Marines and their allies are hard pressed. Kor’sarro Khan, Huntmaster of the White Scars, swears that he will win the day in the most direct way possible – by taking Shadowsun’s head.Gathered within this volume are four novellas that focus on the events of the second Damocles Gulf Crusade. This book contains: Blood Oath by Phil Kelly Broken Sword by Guy Haley Black Leviathan by Ben Counter Hunter’s Snare by Josh Reynolds

    Some swim closer to the light, drawn by the beacon that is the Astronomican, while others stalk the Void, predators in the dark. The Carcharodons have hunted for millennia, but now they are drawn into a new blackness… the Dark City of the drukhari itself. Commorragh.For a thousand years, Chaplain Tangata Manu has searched for a relic lost under his watch – an ancient thing, once charged into the keeping of the Forgotten One himself. But at the brink of seeing his hunt fulfilled and the relic returned, it is stolen from under him. Now, if Tangata would see his honour restored, he must lead his hunt against some of the vilest predators the galaxy has ever seen, before they can turn the artefact to their own purposes…

    Only the Lord of Death himself, Blood Angels Chief Librarian Mephiston, has any hope of discerning the fate of this once pious world. After enacting a powerful blood ritual, Mephiston and an honour guard of his fellow Blood Angels reach the stricken shrine world to find it seized by religious civil war. Each faction fights for dominance of a potent artefact, the Blade Petrific, said to be wrought by the Emperor Himself. Yet there is more at work here than a mere ideological schism, for Mephiston believes Divinatus Prime could offer answers to how he became the Lord of Death, he who resisted the Black Rage, and possibly even a way to end the curse of ‘the Flaw’ in all Blood Angels.Read by Richard Reed.

    Now on a mission to retrieve an ancient relic, the Soul Drinkers Chapter of the Space Marines is forced to make an impossible choice between remaining loyal to the Emperor of Mankind and being true to themselves.

    In a galaxy riven by eternal war, they and the other armies of the Imperium are all that stand between mankind and damnation.Their ship damaged by warp storms, the Ultramarines of strike force Cassian make for Kalides Prime. They hope to find safe harbour to repair their craft before rejoining the Indomitus Crusade. Instead, the Primaris Space Marines discover a world reduced to rot and ruin by the plague-ridden warriors of the Death Guard.Also within this book is a host of awesome short stories to give you a flavour of the many warring armies that exist within the worlds of Warhammer 40,000The Lightning Tower by Dan AbnettYarrick: Sarcophagus by David AnnandaleExtinction by Aaron Dembski-BowdenA Sanctuary of Wyrms by Peter FehervariThe Purity of Ignorance by John FrenchThe Word of the Silent King by L.J. GouldingThe Lost King by Robbie MacNivenCulling the Horde by Steve ParkerThe Zheng Cipher by Josh ReynoldsRed & Black by James SwallowHonour of the Third by Gav ThorpeHowl of the Banshee by Gav Thorpe

    Spat out of the Realm of Chaos after an eternity of battle, Gotrek Gurnisson finds himself in the unfamiliar surroundings of the Mortal Realms. With no axe, no oaths and no Felix, he sets out to find his place in this new universe…LISTEN TO IT BECAUSEGotrek's back, he's voiced by Brian Blessed, and this epic boxed set contains four full length audio dramas making up one exhilirating adventure that takes Gotrek across the realms and introduces him to new companions and enemies. It's truly unmissable."Realmslayer is the most exciting project I have worked on in years, and playing Gotrek fired my imagination with wonder. He possesses enormous courage and imagination, and is totally fearless – more powerful than any hero in literature and history.What a challenge! It was like playing ten King Lears at once! He will live forever."– Brian Blessed, the voice of Gotrek Gurnisson in RealmslayerTHE STORYGotrek Gurnisson was the greatest monster slayer of the age, who met his doom at the End Times. The heroic duardin stepped forth into the Realm of Chaos to fight the daemons gnawing at the world's ending and satisfy his death oath, leaving behind his companion Felix Jaeger. Now Gotrek has returned, having outlived the old gods and the Old World. Spat from the ruinous depths with his redemption unfulfilled, he emerges into the Mortal Realms, a strange new world where gods walk the earth and dark forces are ascendant. Nothing is as he remembers. His oaths are dust, and the lands are torn asunder by Chaos. Yet when Gotrek learns of human champions being elevated to immortality for Sigmar’s fight against this darkness, the so-called 'Stormcast Eternals', he knows why fate has brought him into this new age. To find Felix. For only then can he find the peace in death he seeks. But is there more to Gotrek's apotheosis than even he can fathom? Has he truly been chosen by Grimnir and for what purpose?This audio drama boxed set contains a four-part story read by a stellar cast, recounting the much anticipated return of Gotrek Gurnisson.Running time 4 hours and 15 minutes. Starring Brian Blessed as Gotrek Gurnisson. Performed by John Banks, Steve Conlin, Vanessa Donovan, Matthew Hunt, Jonathan Keeble, Toby Longworth, Connie M'Gadzah, Penelope Rawlins, David Seddon, Joe Shire & Andrew Wincott

    Each of them has a tale to tell of a narrow escape from death. Amid the toll of funerary bells and the creep and click of mortuary-servitors, the truth is confessed. But whose story can be trusted? Whose recollection is warped, even unto themselves? For these are strange stories of the uncanny, the irrational and the spine-chillingly frightening, where horrors abound and the dark depths of the human psyche is unearthed.

    His widow and murderer, the Lady Chettamandey, stands to inherit his power and influence. Her plans for ascension are curtailed when she’s drawn into a dark world of ritual killings and cult murders, with planets being dragged into the warp seemingly at a whim, the threat to Chettamandey’s legacy is dire, and only she can avert potential disaster.

    From the doomed world of Ilissus, through the embattled corridors of the Endeavour of Will, to the borders of the Eye of Terror itself – friend and foe alike follow the great plan that he set in motion many thousands of years ago. But not even the Architect of Fate himself can foresee the destiny that lies in wait for him...Collected for the first time, all four parts of the Architect of Fate novella series are presented in a single printed volume. The infamous Kairos Fateweaver, greater daemon of Tzeentch and master of manipulation, has discovered the limits of his power – even one so prescient as he cannot divine beyond the event horizon at the end of the 41st Millennium.This anthology collects four novellas:Accursed EternityEndeavour of WillSanctusFateweaver

    On the Imperial Hive World of Ikara IX, Chaplain Kastor and Apothecary Polixis, brothers in blood as well as in battle, stand firm against the endless Greenskin horde. But a threat is looming. An invasion like no other assaults the broken city of Shebat, as the crazed warlord Urgork arrives to lay waste to the Imperial forces and capture a Primaris Marines for his own twisted ends. As Kastor and Polixis find themselves separated by the disaster that unfolds, the brothers must turn the tide of war to win the battles that rage within their very natures, as well as those upon the battlefield.

    Each is obsessed with their own speciality, and their rivalry spans millennia. Yet together, they may hold the secret to saving the necron race…READ IT BECAUSEExplore a story told across the millennia that delves deep into a pair of fascinating necron characters, their relationship and their plans for the galaxy.THE STORYBefore the being called the Emperor revealed Himself, before the rise of the aeldari, before the necrontyr traded their flesh for immortal metal, the world was born in violence.Even when they inhabited bodies of flesh, Trazyn the Infinite and Orikan the Diviner were polar opposites. Trazyn, a collector of historical oddities, presides over a gallery full of the most dangerous artefacts – and people – of the galactic past. Orikan, a chronomancer without peer, draws zodiacs that predict and manipulate the future. But when an artefact emerges that may hold the key to the necrons’ next evolution, these two obsessives enter a multi-millennia game of cat and mouse that ends civilisations, reshapes timelines, and changes both forever. As riddles unwind and ancient secrets are revealed, the question remains: will their feud save the necron race or destroy it?