'You would have me despatch others to avenge this stain upon my honour, Erebus?' demanded Horus. 'What sort of a warrior do you take me for? I signed the Decree of Compliance here and I'll be damned if the only world to backslide from the Imperium is one that I conquered!'
Horus turned to the Mournival. 'Ready a Speartip –now!'
Very well, my lord,’ said Abaddon. 'Who shall lead it?'
'I will,’ said Horus.
The War Council was dismissed; all other concerns and matters due before it shelved by this terrible development. A frantic vigour seized the 63rd Expedition as commanders returned to their units and word spread of Eugan Temba's treachery.
Amid the urgent preparations for departure, Loken found Ignace Karkasy in the yurt so recently vacated by the incensed War Council. He sat with an open book before him, writing with great passion and pausing only to sharpen his nib with a small pocket knife.
'Ignace,’ said Loken.
Karkasy looked up from his work, and Loken was surprised at the amusement he saw in the remembrancer's face. 'Quite a meeting, eh? Are they all that dramatic?'
Loken shook his head. 'No, not usually. What are you writing?'
'This, oh, just a quick poem about the vile Temba,’ said Karkasy. 'Nothing special, just a stream of consciousness kind of thing. I thought it appropriate given the mood of the expedition.'-
'I know. I just can't believe anyone could say such a thing.'
'Nor I, and I think that's the problem.'
What do you mean?'
'I'll explain,' said Karkasy, rising from his seat and making his way towards the untouched bowls of cold meat and helping himself to a plateful. 'I remember a piece of advice I heard about the Warmaster. It was said that a good trick upon meeting him was to look at his feet, because if you caught his eye you'd quite forget what it was you were going to say,’
'I have heard that too. Aximand told me the same thing,’
'Well it's obviously a good piece of advice, because I was quite taken aback when I saw him up close for the first time: quite magnificent. Almost forgot why I was there,’
'I'm not sure I understand,’ said Loken, shaking his head as Karkasy offered him some meat from the plate.
'Put it this way, can you imagine anyone who had actually met Horus – may I call him Horus? I hear
you're not too fond of us mere mortals calling him that – saying such a thing as this Temba person is supposed to have said?'
Loken straggled to keep up with Karkasy's rapid delivery, realising that his anger had blinded him to the simple fact of the Warmaster's glory.
