He took a swallow from a proffered waterskin and rinsed his mouth. When he spat the water out it was brown. ‘He’s doing it – he’s committed the Honai at last. They charged into the Dogsheads like the end of the world. Corvus, he is about to cut us in two.’ Corvus nodded. He did not look in the least surprised. ‘How are the Dogsheads faring?’ ‘They’ve lost near half their number, but you know what they are. They’ll not retreat, not with Rictus there to hold them.’ A flash of something like anger passed over Corvus’s face. ‘That damn fool,’ he said, exasperated. ‘He’ll end up dying there.’ ‘You should have told him,’ Ardashir said. ‘That I was sacrificing his men – again? I needed the Dogsheads to hold for a long time – that’s why I put them there. I had to get the Honai moving. But I did not mean them to stand to the last.’ ‘There will be none of them left if we don’t start things in motion,’ Druze said. ‘The Honai can fight – they fight like us, and they’re the biggest bastards I’ve ever seen.’ Corvus nodded as though some internal argument had been decided.
