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Since the debacle at Darujhistan, the captain had been feeling adrift, tossed this way and that by the chaotic transforade army The Malazans’ anchor had been cut away Support structures had collapsed The burden upon the officer corps had grown overwhel Almost ten thousand soldiers had suddenly acquired an almost childlike need for reassurance

And reassurance was so, the turmoil within him had deepened Threads of bestial blood coursed his veins Frage, unearthly visions plagued his nights Daylight hours passed in a confused haze Endless probleid needs offlood of physicalill for weeks, and Paran had his suspicions as to the source The blood of the Hound of Shadow A creature that plunged into Dark’s own real this crest more like a child’s A child’s…

He pushed the thought away oncefull well it would soon return -- even as the pain in his stolance up to where Trotts held sentinel position, continuedhis way up the hillside

The pain of illness had changed hie, a scene both peculiar and poignant He felt as if his own soul had been reduced into soled, sweat-s through cracks in a desperate search for a place where the pressure -- the vast, shifting weight -- relented A space in which to breathe And the pain all around , the spaces between the like water …

Whatever triumphs had been achieved in Darujhistan now see the lives of Whiskeyjack and his squad, the shattering of Laseen’s plans, they had one and all crumbled into ash in the captain’s mind

He was not as he had been, and this new shaping was not to his liking

Pain darkened the world Pain dislocated Turned one’s own flesh and bones into a stranger’s house, from which no escape seemed possible

Bestial blood it whispers of freedom Whispers of a way out -- but not from the darkness No Into that darkness, where the Hounds went, deep into the heart of Anonipur

He al the hillside trail overlooking the Divide Day’s light was fading The wind co voice retreating to a murmur

The blood’s whisper was but one ofcontradictory invitations -- disparate paths of escape But always escape Flight This cowering creature can think of nothing else even as the burdens settle and settle

Dislocation All I see around me feels like someone else’s me the summits, and when the sun sets and the wind cools, the sweat on my face dries, and darkness comes -- and I drink its air as if it was the sweetest water Gods, what does that mean?

The confusion within him would not settle I escaped the world of that sword, yet I feel its chains about hter And within that tension, there was an expectation Of surrender, of yielding an expectation to becohast sat a the Divide The day’s flow of traders had begun to ebb on both sides of the barricade, the clouds of dust fading over the rutted road Others were setting up ca into an unofficial wayside If the situation remained as it was, the wayside would take root, becoe

But it won’t happen We’re too restless for that Dujek’s mapped out our immediate future, shrouded in the dust of an army on the march Even worse, there’re creases in that eburners are about to fall into one A deep one

Breathless and fighting yet es, Captain Paran moved to crouch down beside the half-naked, tattooed warrior ’You’ve been strutting like a bull bhederin since this , Trotts,’ he said ’What have you and Whiskeyjack brewed up, soldier?’

The Barghast’s thin, widelike a s fixed on the scene down in the valley ’The cold darkness ends,’ he growled