‘Uranus holds?’ she asked at last. She thought of the ships, the hundreds of ships that had been redeployed from other planets to bolster the defence of the Elysian Gate. She thought of the resources pulled from Neptune to bolster Uranus’ defences. She thought of the cost paid by every enclave left undefended so that the traitors would have to fight and bleed to control Uranus and the gate it guarded.

‘I am called the Warhawk,’ said the Khan, ‘but maybe only because I was given a sky to fly in. My brother, Dorn, has only ever known cages – duty, honour, strength. And for every bar of every cage that has been placed around him by someone else he has made those bars stronger. He has made his cages smaller and stronger until to spread his wings would rip him apart.’

The Khan raised his arm and Kelik spread its wings and glided back to Su-Kassen’s shoulder.

‘You are right to question the way that this battle is being fought, admiral,’ he said. ‘You are right to allow your heart to doubt, and you are right to speak those doubts to my brother. He listens to you. He trusts you. And the way that he is choosing to fight this battle is maybe the last cage that he has made for himself.’

‘You think he is wrong?’

‘No, I think he is right, but that what he is having to do is breaking him. But he needs to hear the voice that tells him the price and lets him choose to do as he must. He needs to be allowed the moment of flight before he returns to the cage of necessity.’

The Khan stood and bowed. Su-Kassen rose to her feet, but he raised a hand to still her.

‘My thanks, admiral, for your hospitality, and for letting me speak as I will.’

She bowed her head, unsure what to say.

The Khan walked to the door, opened it, and then turned, looking back at her.

‘The enemy have come through the Elysian Path off Uranus in great force. The orbits of its moons are aflame. But Uranus holds.’ He gave a sad smile. ‘It holds.’

PART TWO

Five

Lord of Summer Lightning
Inferno at the edge of light
Brotherhood

Battleship Lance of Heaven, Supra-Solar Gulf

The Falcon fleets turned in the abyss at the edge of the light. Quartets and trios of grey-white ships, they sailed alone in the dark, the orbital plain of the Solar System beneath them, the light of the sun a burning dot. They were ships of the V Legion, sleek and swift killers all. Having come to Terra, the Khan had broken his fleets into shards and cast them above and below the Solar System’s plane of orbit. There they circled the light of the sun like hawks around a falconer.