‘Enough is enough. My mercy is not inexhaustible. Prepare the court. These two can go today. In fact, they can go now.’

Something stirred within the cell. A moaning cry, a wordless expulsion of woe and denial. A pair of confessors peeled off from the escort, running back up the stairs with their gear jangling. The gaoler was sitting up straight now, keys in her blistered hand. Chel felt numb, even the cold in his fingers was distant.

‘Oh, you have something to say, do you?’

The crying continued, becoming a repeating syllable, no, no, no, no, no. Shifting, becoming hoarse, pleading screams. ‘Take them! Take the others! They’re to blame! It wasn’t me!’

Dalim, the erstwhile glaive-wielding mercenary, had spoken little since Brother Hurkel had crushed him against the wall of the Primarch’s tower, and what he’d said had been indistinct. This was the most vocal he’d been since the cells had welcomed them.

Corvel addressed the cell’s other occupant. ‘You see, Palo? You could have saved them all, every soul in this place. What kind of monster are you?’

Without another word, Corvel swept back past Chel’s cell, a flowing wave of golden hair and robes. The clank of the cell door opening was followed by the grunting and cursing of the confessors as they extracted the kicking and wailing Dalim. His screams echoed down the stairwell as they carried him up, weakened but struggling, out of the light and out of sight.

‘It’s their fault! Their fault! They did this!’

Ayla Palo, last survivor of the Rau Rel leadership, emerged from the cell and followed at her own slow pace, a confessor on either side. Chel hadn’t seen her since they’d been confined, countless weeks before. She looked thin, colourless, diminished, but her expression was resolute.

She paused as she passed their cell, the confessors stopping alongside. Chel started to find his cellmate at his elbow, his gaze locked on Palo’s.

‘He’s right, you know.’

Her first words in weeks. Chel tried to puzzle out who she meant.

Beside him, Rennic nodded.

‘He is.’

‘Should have listened to me.’

‘I should.’

She nodded, eyes blank, then turned to follow Dalim up the stairs.

‘Palo?’

Rennic called after her, and she paused. His fingers were wrapped around the freezing bars, but he wasn’t letting go.

‘Yes?’

‘Be seeing you.’

***

The gaoler was roasting something over the brazier and greasy fat drops were sizzling on the glowing coals. The smell reached Chel’s nostrils, making his mouth water, despite his growing unease at the cries and creaks from the courtyard beyond the narrow window. The sounds of a gathering crowd.

Chel leaned against the freezing bars. His mind drifted, thoughts blurry, indistinct, whirling like a leaf in a gale.

‘Hey.’