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Senu snapped, ’Come and eat, Stonearrow!’

Uh oh, I think I just overstepped the fautters, not long past Sun and absence of rain had preserved the turgid flow as dust-dulled black, deep enough to hide the hu down to the silty waters of the bay

No-one in Callows had been spared She had come upon the heaped pyres on her approach down the inland road, and judged the slaughter at perhaps thirty thousand

Garath ranged ahead, slipping beneath the arch of the gate She followed at a slower pace

The city had been beautiful, once Copper-sheathed do streets overlooked by ornate balconies riotous with flowering plants The lack of hands to nourish the precious plants had turned the gardens brown and grey Leaves crackled underfoot as Lady Envy walked down the central avenue

A trader city, a merchants’ paradise The masts of countless ships were visible in the harbour ahead, allthat the crafts had been holed and sat one and all in the mud of the bay

Ten days, no hter She could sh at unexpected bounty, a faint ripple of unease at what it signified You are troubled, dear Hood This bodes ill, indeed …

Garath led her unerringly, as she kneould An ancient, alotten alleyway, the cobbles heaved, cracked and covered in decades of rubbish Into a s house, its foundation stones of a far sharper cut than those that rested upon thele room with a reed-matted floor of thick, wooden boards A desultory scatter of poorlyplate over a brick-housed hearth, rotting foodstuffs A child’s toy wagon off to one side

The dog circled in the centre of the small room

Lady Envy approached, kicked aside the reed mats No trapdoor The inhabitants had had no idea of what lay beneath their home She unveiled her warren, passed a hand over the floorboards, watched the a circular hole A damp, salty breath wafted froe, then dropped out of sight She heard the clatter of claws soh, Lady Envy followed

No stairs, and the pavestones of the floor were a long ti her warren-slowed fall Vision enhanced, she looked around, then sniffed The teed though the bea since vanished There was no raised altarstone, but she knew that for this particular ascendant, the entire floor of cut stone served that sacred function Back in the days of blood … ’I can iine what awakened this place to you,’ she said, eyes on Garath, who had lain down and wasdown, dripping, dripping onto your altar I adrander, al my esteemed presence But this ’ Her nose wrinkled