THERE WAS AN impact, and a spray of dust and blood. Vamberfeld fell over clumsily, a corpse on top of him. Blinded for a moment, face down in the dirt, he slowly found his vision returning. He was suffused in blue light. Power sword smoking, Ibram Gaunt dragged him up by the hand. 'Good work, Vamberfeld. We've taken the breach,' he said. Vamberfeld was dumbstruck. And also covered in blood. 'Stay sane,' Gaunt told him. 'It gets better...'

The vox-link went mad. Gaunt could hear sustained bursts of las-fire and auto weapons. Herdsmen, suddenly several dozen in number, were surging out from the cover of their agitated animals. They had weapons. As their robes fell away, he saw body art and green silk. He grabbed his bolt pistol. The Infardi were all over them...