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I will fail you all

CHAPTER FIVE

He rises bloodless from dust,

with dead eyes that are pits

twin reaches to eternal pain

He is the lodestone

to the gathering clan,

made anew and dream-racked

The standard a rotted hide,

the throne a bone cage, the king

a ghost from dark fields of battle

And now the hornthe disparate host

To war, to war,

and the charging frenzy

of unbidden memories of ice

Lay of the First Sword

Irig Thann Delusa (b 1091)

Two days and seven leagues of black, clinging clouds of ash, and Lady Envy’s telaba showed not a single stain Gruer pulled the caked cloth froround He never thought he’d bless the sight of a sweeping, featureless grassy plain, but, after the volcanic ash, the undulating vista stretching northward beckoned like paradise

’Will this hill suffice for a ca over to stand close to hihtfully exposed What if there are marauders on this plain?’

’Granted, marauders aren’t usually clever,’ Toc replied, ’but even the stupidest bandit would hesitate before trying three Seguleh The wind you’re feeling up here will keep the biting insects away coround -- on any prairie’

’I bow to your wisdo to scan the area ’Can’t see your four-legged friends anywhere’