'We are to return to Fenris,' said Russ. 'There I will take counsel with Kva and the other gothi. At home, the priests will be protected by the spirit of our world. There we can learn his weakness.'

'You cannot do this here?' asked Hvarl. 'We are at the birth world. The Emperor is the greatest warlock of them all. He will shield you.' There was nothing traitorous in what Hvarl said. He named the Emperor honestly. Men of the Fenryka spoke without falsehood.

'The Allfather is of Terra, we are of Fenris. Perilous things may be done there,' said Kva. 'Things that cannot be attempted elsewhere, even here. We are of the ice and of the fire. Fenris' world howl will drive back the wights and the ghosts and the Neverborn. There we need not wait upon the Allfather's indulgence.'

'What do you hope to find?' asked Huscarl Grimnr Blackblood, chief of Russ' personal guard. 'I do not know,' said Kva. 'A man's wyrd cannot be changed, but if it appears without hope, that does not mean it is so. I was born with this disease already rooted in my bones. My right arm was reed-thin - a sure sign of a poor wyrd. So sure were the elders of my tribe that I could not survive they declined to present me with the child gift. My father insisted that his son at least be given the chance, urged on by the tears of my mother. And lo! I grasped the axe in my strong left hand.' He shook his staff. The runes dangling from the wolf's skull atop it jangled. 'And I would not let it go. They said I would not live, but I did. They said I would not prosper, but I did. When the Sky Warriors came to our aett and took me, they said I would fail their trials, and I did not. They said I would fail the flesh-making, and I did not. Nor did I fail Morkai's test. Here I am. There is often a way, when all hope seems lost. I am living proof.

'Fine,' grunted Amlodhi Skarssen Skarssensson. 'I'll go wherever the primarch says, to Hel and back if need be. I'm not dissuaded by a small thing like death. You want to gather battle-cunning in the Underverse, it makes no odds to my thread. It'll be cut when it's cut. Tell me first though, two-sided man, where is the Warmaster? We can't kill him if we can't find him.'

Words of agreement rose up in the group, making it seem three times their number were in the hall.

Kva looked to Russ. The primarch inclined his head in permission. Kva reached into a tasselled hide pouch at his side, and tossed a handful of fragile bark squares into the air.