‘He may have changed,’ growled Dorn, now as still as the Khan, the low light of the displays setting his face in cold lines and hollows of night. ‘But the constraints he faces have not. Time. He does not have time. Guilliman breathes at his back. Horus has to come for us with everything he has as quickly as he can, or he will have nothing.’ Dorn shook his head, a smile that was a ghost passing across his face. ‘Besides, it is not his way.’

The silence flowed back in.

‘So, we let him take the gates?’ said the Khan, his voice soft but edged. ‘We wall ourselves up and wait, and hope that those walls will prove strong enough?’

Dorn did not answer, his gaze locked with his brothers.

‘We hold every wall and we make them pay in time and blood for every step forwards.’

‘Just so,’ said Sanguinius, lowering his hand and gaze from the holo-display, and turning to look at his siblings. ‘And a price in blood it shall be.’

Malcador’s staff struck the floor. The blow was not powerful, but Su-Kassen felt the air leave her lungs.

‘There,’ he said, looking around, his eyes bright and hard. Everyone in the chamber, primarch and human alike, was looking at him. Su-Kassen watched a sad smile form on his face. ‘You see? Peace is possible, if only for a moment and amongst ourselves.’

The Khan laughed, and the frozen tension in the chamber vanished.

‘Quite so, quite so. We forget our place and company.’ The primarch of the V Legion unfolded from his stillness and came forwards, his movements fluid and relaxed. He circled the display, glancing up at it and around. ‘This is fine work.’ He looked at Su-Kassen and nodded. ‘Your cadre is to be commended, admiral.’ She bowed her head. For a second, she had felt as though the Khan had looked right through her.

Beside her, apparently oblivious to what had been occurring, Kazzim-Aleph-1 glanced up from where he had been fidgeting through the raw data-screed.

‘The customary astropathic communications from across the system are absent,’ he said. His eye-lenses rotated in a way that created the distinct impression of a frown. ‘At this time, and given the delay in other signals, delays inherent in the distances involved, it would be most advisable to make use of telepathic methods of communication. Also, the astropaths’ ability to sense warp displacement would be a significant advantage.’ He paused, looking up at the primarchs and command staff as though just seeing them. ‘Do you not concur?’

‘There will be no astrotelepathic messages from inside or outside the system, magos-emissary,’ said Malcador, his voice low and edged by a weariness. ‘Nor any warning of more ships or fleets exiting the immaterium.’

‘Why is that?’ asked the magos.

Malcador closed his eyes, and Su-Kassen saw him shift his weight to his staff. ‘Because all around us, the warp is howling.’

Battle-barge Monarch of Fire, Trans-Uranic Gulf