There were stars in the gap. Sanguinius could see the face of the galaxy again. Among the stars was the brightest light. He could not see it, but he felt its return like the sudden warmth of dawn after a flood. Its light was the cause of the new cry, the one that came on the vox. The cry was voiced first by the Navigators of every surviving ship, and it spread to every member of the crew, and every legionary.

‘Terra!’ came the cry as the Astronomican blazed. ‘Terra! Terra! Terra!’ A shout and not a scream. A chorus of triumph.

‘Terra! Terra! Terra!’

Sanguinius closed his eyes. The shouts washed over him like a balm. There were no screams, for now. He had purchased the triumph at the cost of a scream in the future. He listened to the roar of his sons. He tried to forget what that roar would sound like when fate came to collect its ransom, the Black Rage in its claws.

Epilogue

Epilogue

The way to Terra was clear, and it was not.

The primarchs met once more aboard the Red Tear. They spoke in the Sanctorum Angelus. ‘The astropathic messages paint a disturbing picture,’ Guilliman said.

‘I am grateful that we are receiving them at all,’ said Sanguinius.

‘We are receiving intelligence,’ said the Lion. ‘That is very much to the good. But I agree, the news is far from reassuring.’

‘Multiple blockades,’ Guilliman mused. ‘If Horus didn’t anticipate we would defeat the Ruinstorm, he was leaving nothing to chance.’

‘Your Navigators concur with ours?’ the Lion asked.

‘They do. A single warp jump to Terra is impossible. The empyrean is still too unstable.’

The Lion drummed his fingers on the hilt of the Wolf Blade. ‘They’ll tie us up,’ he said. ‘They seek to entangle the fleets and delay us until Terra has fallen.’

‘Our information is far from complete,’ Sanguinius pointed out. ‘We don’t know the full scale of their deployment.’

‘We know enough,’ said Guilliman. ‘We know they are more than three Legions. Our brother is correct. Even if we hit them with our combined force, that will be nothing more than what Horus wants us to do.’

Sanguinius hissed with frustration. Then he closed his eyes for a moment. He calmed himself with the knowledge of what had to be. ‘The blockades do not stop me,’ he said. ‘I will reach Terra, because I must fight Horus. It is written. The fate of the Imperium will be decided then. Even the daemon believed that.’

Guilliman and the Lion exchanged a look. Guilliman was no happier with the idea of predestination than he had been on Macragge. There was far less resistance in the Lion’s expression.

‘Then we must learn how we achieve what we are fated to accomplish,’ said the Lion.

Guilliman’s brow furrowed in sudden pain. ‘You reach Terra,’ he said to Sanguinius. ‘That does not mean we do.’