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‘Just as well Much of the future is uncertain, save for this …’ It leaned forward slowly, eyes widening,‘None of that matters’

‘My happiness does not matter?’

‘You were not bred for happiness You were bred to do your duty’

‘I … wasn’t bred! I was born!’ Lenk nodded stiffly, as if affir to himself ‘My name is Lenk!’

‘Lenk what?’

‘Lenk … Lenk …’ He racked his brain ‘I had a grandfather’

‘What was his name?’

‘He was … he was my mother’s father! We were all born in the sae!’

‘Where?’

‘A … a village Somewhere I can’t …’ He thumped his head with the heel of his hand ‘But, I knew! I reo! Where …’ He turned to the creature, eyes wide ‘Where did they go?’

‘It hardlyback … not on thesilence persisted between the their stare to so much as blink When Lenk spoke, his voice quavered

‘But they will here?’

‘I did not say that What I i to the mainland’

‘And what is here, then?’

‘Here?’ The creature grinned ‘Death, obviously’

‘Whose death?’

‘A aze toward the distant edge of the forest and the village beyond ‘Ah … sunset will come soon and your precious farewell feast with it I would be wary of these green creatures, Lenk You never knohatbehind their faces’

The creature’s saplike voice felt as though it had poured over Lenk’s body, pooled at his feet and held hi duan to slip into the foliage, green flesh blending with green leaves

‘Wait!’ Lenk called after it ‘Tell !’ As the creature continued on, he took a tentative step toward its fading figure ‘Tell me! Will Kataria kill me? Who killed rowled, his voice a curse unto itself ‘You never told !’

‘I know …’

Whatever pursuit Lenk ht have mustered further was halted as the creature turned to look over its shoulder with a face not its own Its jaide, impossibly so, to the point that Lenk could al under the pressure

Gritted between thee that shrank with every horrified step he retreated, a set of teeth, each tooth the length and colour of three bleached knucklebones stacked atop each other, glittered brightly

‘Ohts, just as the polished, toothy grin e into the sunset, after the creature had vanished and druan to pound in the distance

Twenty-Five

CONFESSIONAL VIOLENCE

Pagans had certain enviable qualities, Asper decided after an hour of lying in thethe sensation of it as it bathed her

First ae around in skimpy furs beneath the sun for hours on end, she decided That was certainly a practice she’d have to abandon upon returning to decent society Not too hard, she thought as she scratched a red spot on her belly, especially ifbites

But she was possessed of the worrying suspicion that she would havebehind the second quality she found so enviable: the complete confidence they had in their faiths She had often wondered what it was about people with liiene that made them so sure of their heathen beliefs

Only recently, though, was she wondering what it was they had that she lacked

Perhaps, she reasoned, her faith permitted her a unique position to coardless of ideological difference The occasional atteods were largely carried out by the more militant faiths of Daeon and Galataur The ruesome aftermath: the hacked bodies of shict, tulwar or couthi who had refused to give up their gods and chose to ht she had ever expended for them was a brief prayer and a silent la in the name of a faith that made no sense to her

Of course, she reminded herself, you worship the sun That see if those barbaric races had ever asked themselves the same question Does Kataria ever wonder that? She doesn’t look like she does … then again, she doesn’t look like she ever pays enough attention to anything deeper than food … or Lenk

She instantly cursed herself for thinking his naan with his naht when Kataria had dragged his unconscious body into the hut The est Her heart never ceased to beat faster with every recollection

It was seared into her h her arotten about her arht prior to that, when it burned at the sight of that hooded face and skeletal grin, the confusion of waking up amidst a tribe of sentient reptiles, she could hardly think of anything else

Of course, he changed that entirely

Naturally, she had fallen to her knees beside hi flesh for wounds, bones for breaking, skin for fever She had ignored it all at that point: Kataria’s shrieking demands, Denaos’ cautious stare, the Owauku’s incomprehensible babble All that e, her patient, her co

Everything except her ar, the burning She could feel it coer beneath her skin The screauised, the pain concealed beneath a co by the second and third screa

But they left, left her alone

With hi until the others had gone to erupt Or it ht simply not have been able to contain itself She didn’t care any ht far too much fear now, far tooaway this time; the arm simply burst into crimson, the bones black beneath the suddenly transparent red flesh, pulsating, throbbing, burning

Hungering