Heralds of the Siege (The Horus Heresy #52)

by Nick Kyme

hidden bedrock. All the water is sucked back up by the Palace, to be used again and again. Between the dark clouds, the sky is a sickly vanilla shade. It is a bruise gone past its worst lividity. Ordinarily the armour of the giants stamping along the wall is a rich gold, far cleaner than the ailing skies, a yellow as bright as Terra’s extinct wildflowers. The quality of the sun desaturates the hue of their armour until it is a leper’s pallor. When the clouds scud over the sun, it becomes a murky green. The wind carries the rain in steeply. In eddies created by angles in the wall, it turns in soaking gyres. The water runs over the armour, gathering in corners, streaking eye-lenses, pouring over their emblems of a black fist upon a white field. Both seem grey in the rain. The Imperial Fists march relentlessly. Their armour is impervious to energy blast, explosion and the