Taking place after the events of Ahriman: Unchanged, John French’s Warhammer 40,000 short story A Coin for the Carrion Thieves sees Thousand Sons sorcerer Ctesias called upon to put his particular set of skills to use in service of Ahzek Ahriman. Their forces drastically reduced in number and resources, the ragged remnants of Ahriman’s followers find sanctuary in the Eye of Terror, to hide from their enemies and to regroup and resupply. In the currency of Eyespace, what Ahriman needs most carries a high cost, so he turns to Ctesias’s daemonology to pay the price demanded by the scavenger-traders known as the Carrion Thieves.
While you could read and enjoy this as a standalone Thousand Sons story, with its evocative demonstration of Ctesias’ considerable psychic prowess, it works best as a continuation of both Ahriman’s and Ctesias’ character arcs from French’s previous work. On the face of things it’s essentially a brief ‘what happened next’ vignette, but it also offers another opportunity to see Ahriman and the Thousand Sons through Ctesias’ old, embittered eyes – a welcome reminder, five years after Ahriman: Unchanged was published, of just how interesting French’s take on these characters can be. It offers a tantalising glimpse of what Ahriman might be up to next, and hopefully lays the groundwork for more longer-form Thousand Sons stories to come.
See also: all the other Ahriman-related reviews on Track of Words.
Buy A Coin for the Carrion Thieves on Amazon*
If you enjoyed this review and would like to support Track of Words, you can leave a tip on my Ko-Fi page.
*If you buy anything using this link, I will receive a small affiliate commission – see here for more details.