‘The Emperor is our wall within now. He and He alone,’ said Sanguinius. ‘He is… He is holding it back alone.’

‘And He can hold,’ said Valdor. The Chief Custodian seemed to shiver. ‘At great cost, but He holds and protects.’

‘Holds?’ said Su-Kassen. ‘Not triumphs?’

‘That is triumphing. As things stand, Horus cannot win the battle within,’ said Malcador, ‘and so his hope must be to break us without.’

‘Then they will fail,’ said Su-Kassen. ‘The enemy do not have time. We will move primary fleet forces to intercept them, and even at great loss, they will not be able to have victory before Lord Guilliman arrives at their back.’ She looked at Dorn. ‘I was preparing the fleet redeployment orders. I assume you are ready to order the Phalanx into the line?’

Dorn’s face showed no expression.

‘Not yet,’ he said quietly.

‘My lord…’

‘He knows,’ said Dorn, and Su-Kassen could see in the stillness around the table that they had arrived at the point they had been unable to resolve. ‘Horus knows all that we have said and seen already. He knows what we know of this battle so far, and he knows what we cannot see. And he is Horus.’ Dorn looked at Sanguinius, and the two primarchs’ gazes met. A small, sad smile formed and faded on Dorn’s lips. ‘Was he ever less than brilliant? Can we assume he is less than that now?’

‘This is the question,’ said Valdor. ‘For my judgement, we must proceed against what we can see, not what we can’t.’

‘Agreed,’ said Su-Kassen. Dorn looked at her sharply, but she held his gaze. ‘We have planned for this battle, my lord. We have laid the ground. You know better than I that the unexpected is inevitable. We must not let it lead us. We must be firm in purpose.’

From behind her she heard Andromeda-17 give a snort of approval.

‘And if that is what Horus wishes us to do – for me to follow my nature, which he knows so well?’

‘I don’t see that we have a choice,’ said Su-Kassen.

‘And that is one of the things that worries me more than anything,’ said Dorn, softly. He looked up and away, his gaze focused somewhere far beyond the tapestry-hung walls. Su-Kassen felt a shiver run down her back at the implication in the words. In all her years at his side she had never seen a crack of doubt in the stone of his being.

‘He needs to be allowed the moment of flight before he returns to the cage of necessity,’ said the memory of the Khan’s voice.

‘With all respect, my lords,’ she said. ‘There is no choice to make. We can only fight the war we can see, and so that is what we must do.’

‘See?’ said Andromeda-17 from the side of the room. ‘I told you she would set you true.’

‘What else worries you, brother?’ asked Sanguinius, frowning.