'Don't worry,’ said Loken. That will never happen.'
Aximand looked through a gap in the netting and said, 'Erebus is here.'
Horus nodded and turned to face the four members of the Mournival. 'You all know what to do?'
'No,’ said Torgaddon. 'We've completely forgotten. Why don't you remind us,’
Horus's eyes darkened at Tarik's levity and he said, 'Enough, Tank. There is a time for jokes, and this isn't it, so keep your mouth shut,’
Torgaddon looked shocked at the Warmaster's outburst, and shot a hurt glance at his fellows. Loken was less shocked, having witnessed the commander raging at subordinates many times in the weeks since they had departed the marches of the interex. Horus had known no peace since the terrible bloodshed amid the House of Devices on Xenobia, and the deaths and the missed opportunity of unification with the interex haunted him still.
Since the debacle with the interex, the Warmaster had withdrawn into a sullen melancholy, remaining more and more within his inner sanctum, with only Erebus to counsel him. The Mournival had barely seen their commander since returning to Imperial space and they all keenly felt their exclusion from his presence.
Where once they had offered the Warmaster their guidance, now, only Erebus whispered in his ear.
Thus, it was with some relief that the Mournival heard that Erebus would take his leave of the Expedition and journey ahead with his own Legion to Davin.
Even while en route to the Davin system, the War-master had not had a moment's peace. Repeated requests for aid or tactical assistance came to him from all across the galaxy, from brother primarchs, Army commanders and, most loathed of all, the army of civil administrators who followed in the wake of their conquests.
The eaxectors from Terra, led by a high administratrix called Aenid Rathbone, plagued the Warmaster daily for assistance in their dispersal throughout the compliant territories to begin the collection of the Emperor's Tithe. Everyone with an ounce of common sense knew that such a measure was premature, and Horus had done all he could to stall Rathbone and her eaxectors, but there was only so long they could be kept at bay.
'If I had my choice,’ Horus had told Loken one evening as they had discussed fresh ways of delaying the taxation of compliant worlds, 'I would kill every eaxec-tor in the Imperium, but I'm sure we would be getting tax bills from hell before breakfast,’
