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Raoden shook his head in disbelief The Shaod was a thing that happened to other people—distant people People who deserved to be cursed Not the crown prince of Arelon Not Raoden

The city of Elantris stretched out before hiuardhouses and soldiers—men intended not to keep enemies out of the city, but to keep its inhabitants fro Since the Reod, every person taken by the Shaod had been thrown into Elantris to rot; the fallen city had becootten how to die

Raoden could re down on Elantris’s dread inhabitants, just as the guards now looked down on hih he had been standing just outside of it He had wondered, philosophically, what it would be like to walk those blackened streets

Noas going to find out

Raoden pushed against the gate for a h, to cleanse his flesh of its taint He lowered his head, releasing a quiet ri until he woke from this dream Except, he kneould never awaken The priests said that this nightmare would never end

But, soed hi—for if he stopped, he feared he’d siive up The Shaod had taken his body He couldn’t let it take his mind as well

So, using his pride like a shield against despair, dejection, and—most important—self-pity, Raoden raised his head to stare damnation in the eyes

Before, when Raoden had stood on the walls of Elantris to look down—both literally and figuratively—on its inhabitants, he had seen the filth that covered the city Now he stood in it

Every surface—fros to the numerous cracks in the cobblestones—was coated with a patina of gri effect on Elantris’s colors, blending the hue—a color that reens and browns of sewage

Before, Raoden had been able to see a few of the city’s inhabitants Now he could hear them as well A dozen or so Elantrians lay scattered across the courtyard’s fetid cobblestones Many sat uncaringly, or unknowingly, in pools of dark water, the re Most of the with some unseen pain One woman at the far end of the courtyard, however, screauish She fell silent after aout

Most of thear closely, however, Raoden recognized the clothing He glanced down at his ohite burial cloths They were long and flowing, like ribbons sewn together into a loose robe The linen on his arainst the city gate and stone pillars Raoden suspected they would soon be indistinguishable froarb

This is what I will becoun In a feeeks I will be nothingin the corner

A slight ht Raoden out of his self-pity So in a shadowed doorway across from him He couldn’t make out much fro for so He could feel their eyes on him

Raoden raised an arm to shade his eyes, and only then did he remember the small thatch basket in his hands It held the ritual Korathi sacrifice sent with the dead into the next life—or, in this case, into Elantris The basket contained a loaf of bread, a few thin vegetables, a handful of grain, and a small flask of wine Normal death sacrifices were far iven so

Raoden glanced back at the figures in the doorway, histo rumors he’d heard on the outside—stories of Elantrian brutality The shadowed figures had yet to

Taking a deep breath, Raoden took a step to the side,the city wall toward the east side of the courtyard The for hier see through the doorway, and a second later he had safely passed into one of the side streets

Raoden released his breath, feeling that he had escaped soh he didn’t knohat After a few an to feel foolish for his alar that corroborated the rumors about Elantris Raoden shook his head and continued

The stench was ale had a us Raoden was so bothered by the snarled for’s wall Theup with a thin arm Raoden looked down, and felt a sudden chill The “old man” was no more than sixteen years old The creature’s soot-covered skin was dark and spotted, but his face was that of a child, not a man Raoden took an involuntary step backward

The boy, as if realizing that his chance would soon pass, st

retched his arth of desperation “Food?” he h a mouth only half full of teeth “Please?”

Then the arainst the cold stone wall His eyes, however, continued to watch Raoden Sorrowful, pained eyes Raoden had seen beggars before in the Outer Cities, and he had probably been fooled by charlatans a nu

Raoden reached up and pulled the loaf of bread fros, then handed it to the boy The look of disbelief that ran across the boy’s face was so than the despair it had replaced This creature had given up hope long ago; he probably begged out of habit rather than expectation

Raoden left the boy behind, turning to continue down the srueso, perhaps, that the dirt was a result of the area’s relatively frequent use He had been wrong; the alley was covered with just as much filth as the courtyard, if not more

A muffled thuroup of dark forms stood near the round The beggar Raoden watched with a shiver as fivethe cries Eventually, one of the newcoht a makeshift club down on the boy’s head with a crunch that resounded through the small alley

The ard Raoden He took an apprehensive step backward; it appeared that he had been hasty in assu he hadn’t been followed The fiveoff at a run

Sounds of pursuit ca that, as a prince, he had never needed to do before He ranhis breath to run short and a pain to stab him in the side, as usually happened when he overextended hian to feel horribly tired, weak to the point that he kneould soon collapse It was a harrowing feeling, as if his life were slowly seeping away