The assault pod struck the Antius on its spine. Claws snapped down from the pod’s flanks, dug in and pulled its bulk close against the hull. Rings of drill teeth began to rotate. Melta-beams fired at point-blank range. The skin of the hull bubbled and oozed orange. Shaped charges in the pod’s base fired. The blast punched into the blistering metal and turned it into a jet of white-hot liquid. The pod rocked, but its blade-legs dug deeper, pulling the spinning teeth of its maw down into the glowing wound.

The second set of charges fired and tore through the last inches of the ship’s hull. A shock wave ripped down the passageways near the breach. Half-sealed hatches ripped off their hinges. A lone crewman close to the impact point was slammed into the wall and became a broken doll of crushed meat and shattered bone.

An iris hatch set between the pod’s drill teeth snapped open. Figures dropped through. Crimson void armour bulked their forms. Pressure hoses snaked from the canisters on their backs to their domed helms.

In the staterooms towards the ship’s stern, Mersadie came up off the floor to standing as the breaching blast sent a shiver down the hull.

Aksinya was already in motion, scooping up the two children and making for the door in a blur. The bodyguard had a long-barrelled pistol in one hand.

‘Aksinya,’ called Mersadie. There was something wrong, something blurring at the edges of awareness that Mersadie could not focus on. The skin on the back of her neck and arms was prickling. In her mind’s eye she could see the dream image of the wolf, smiling at her with its sharp, bloody teeth. ‘Don’t go. There is something–’

The bodyguard turned, keying the door.

‘I need to reach Master Vek.’ The door opened, and she glanced back at Mersadie, the mask of control slipping for a second to show only contempt. ‘You brought this down on us. They can have you.’ She turned. Noon’s eyes were wide as he looked back at her from beside Aksinya’s grasp.

‘No,’ called Mersadie. She was shaking, the tremor running out from her core like a charge searching for a way out. In her mind the image of the symbols she had seen in the dream with Keeler rose, planets and signs, symbols and meanings. The marks had changed, had shifted; they were glowing with heat, weeping smoke. And as clearly as if it had been shouted in her ear, she knew that it was a warning. ‘There is something else… something coming… Don’t go!’

Aksinya looked like she would not even pause. Then she stopped, pulled a compact laspistol from inside her robes and threw it onto the floor at Mersadie’s feet.

‘Consider that the limit of my kindness.’