‘So would I. We must be wary of secrets. We have all been guilty of keeping them, and we have seen the disasters their corrosive power can bring.’

Guilliman thought about the athames in his quarters. He knew what the Lion would have to say about those. He was troubled by his own hesitation to deal with them one way or the other. The possibility of turning the enemy’s weapons against him stopped him from destroying them. The threat they presented made him keep his distance from them. Uncertainty was a state inimical to his being. It was through certainty that he had forged Ultramar. Certainty was the bedrock of action, the fulcrum that pivoted the theoretical into the practical.

Imperium Secundus had not been an act of certainty. That was the flaw that marred its foundations, that changed it from salvation to heresy.

‘Do we have the Lion’s location?’ Guilliman asked.

‘We do. Thrinos, in the Anesidorax System.’

Guilliman frowned. ‘That is not on the most direct route to Terra.’

‘No.’

‘Your thoughts?’

‘We do not know how the Lion comes by some of his knowledge. We…’ Prayto hesitated.

‘Say it,’ Guilliman told him. ‘We’re both thinking it.’

‘We don’t trust those sources, whatever they may be.’

‘No, we don’t.’

‘But we trust in the Lion’s loyalty.’

‘Completely.’ No matter how great the hostility had grown between them on Macragge, loyalty had not been the question. They had fought over the correct prosecution of the war. And the Lion had humbled himself before Guilliman in the end, in the desperate act of showing that the Emperor must still be alive. For a man with his brother’s pride, bringing himself to beg was a truly heroic feat.

‘Theoretical. Broadcasting an astropathic signal from that distance through the Ruinstorm would be a very costly effort. The Lion would not engage in it without a strong conviction. Practical. We should treat his conviction as justified.’

‘And make the jump to Thrinos.’

‘Yes.’

‘I agree. Getting there will be costly for us too.’ Anesidorax was further than anyone had travelled since the beginning of the Ruinstorm. It would take many short jumps, draining the Navigators. Unless he used the Word Bearers’ Navigators.

‘Less costly than not going,’ Prayto said.

Guilliman glanced at the interrogation cell. His jaw clenched in frustration. ‘I want you to see something,’ he said. ‘Come with me.’

He led Prayto into the cell. The Navigators smiled their mock greeting.

‘Anesidorax,’ Guilliman said. ‘You will take us there.’

‘We will,’ said Nekras. ‘So it is willed by the gods.’ She answered quickly, and with ferocity. Yathinius laughed.

‘Your willingness to sacrifice yourselves surprises me,’ Guilliman said.