‘We will be,’ Chetta confirmed. ‘But the distances involved are deceptive. They’re built further apart than you think. This was all meant to be a pleasant parkland once, but someone didn’t realise that if you build a city in a valley, the smog has nowhere to go.’ She looked around, but nothing met her eyes except creamy-green murk. ‘Finding a hab block at least means we’ll have somewhere we can start climbing out of this mess, but we’ll likely encounter people, too. And down here, I don’t fancy our chances for them to be friendly.’

‘You’re saying we may as well pick a direction at random?’ Ngiri asked. Chetta shrugged, despite the fact that no one would see it.

‘Had I been paying attention to exactly where we were when we started to lose altitude, I may have been able to hazard a better guess as to our location. As it is, the best I can do is that we’re somewhere between the Brobantis and Dukarr palaces, which means my home is somewhere to the south-east of here.’

‘That sounds like as good an idea as any,’ someone said. Chetta recognised Fell’s gravelly tones. ‘So, does anyone know which way south-east is?’

‘The auspex is blank,’ Jekri said, when no one else spoke.

‘Fine, we do this the hard way,’ Chetta muttered. ‘Fell, I want you three paces in front of me and to my left, because there’s no way I’m having that flamer pointing anywhere near my back. Hickett, you three paces in front of me to my right.’

‘What are you doing?’ Ngiri demanded.

‘Navigating,’ Chetta told her bluntly. ‘I’ve found my way home flying blind through warp storms before – if a bit of dirty fog is enough to throw me off then I may as well end it all here and now.’

There was a moment of silence.

‘Fine,’ Ngiri said. ‘Fell, do as she says. You’re on point with Hickett. Wroze and Grangar, you’re rearguard. Viller and Carmine, left flank. Jekri and I will take the right. Nero, you stay in the middle with Chetta, and warn us if you sense anything.’

‘Yes, my lady,’ Nero said, and her form – somewhat slighter than the others – shuffled closer. Chetta didn’t think she was imagining the reluctance in her former aide’s body language.

‘“Sense anything”?’ she asked, disabling her comm-bead for a moment as Nero came within proper earshot, even of words spoken into a respirator mask.

‘I have mild precognitive abilities,’ Nero replied primly, ‘and sporadic divination talents.’

‘A shame you never used them for me,’ Chetta bit out.

‘Oh, I did,’ Nero hissed back. ‘Just not when you could see. I was told to be the best damned aide for you that I could be, and I was.’