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Not water, but blood

Buke wheeled closer, and the closer he flew, the more horrified he became He could see s, shutterless, on the first visible floor Packed with bodies The same on the next floor, and on the one above that, directly beneath the roof

The entire building was, he realized, virtually solid Afroiant ures on the roof A dozen, huddled here and there beneathapart, head bowed as if studying the horror in the street below Tall, hulking Broad, sloping shoulders Strangely barbed in shadows A cutlass hung heavy in each gauntleted hand, stripped and glea like bone

A dozen paces behind hiht be food packs, such as the Grey Swords issued Sodden, yellow stained with dark bars of blood, a child’s tunic

Buke drew still closer, then swung away He was not ready Not for Gruntle Not for the man as he was now, as he had becoe

As are we all

Blinking, Itkovian struggled to , the sh woollen blanket on his chest He was lying on a narrow cot, and so his hand

He slowly turned his head, wincing at the lash of pain the motion elicited fro incomplete

Karnadas was at his side, collapsed onto his haunches, folded and motionless, the pale, wrinkled pate of his bowed head level with Itkovian’s eyes

The hand gripping his was all bone and deathly dry skin, icy cold

The Shield Anvil squeezed it slightly

The Destriant’s face, as he lifted it into vieas skeletal, the skinfrom the joints of his jaw; his red-webbed eyes sunken within charcoal-black pits

’Ah,’ the old man rasped, ’I have failed you, sir …’

’You have not’

’Your wounds-’

’The flesh is sealed -- I can feel as ht but a tenderness, sir Easilyhis expression cal his knee left hihtheaded He did not alter his firift ever humbles me, sir’

Karnadas settled his head on Itkovian’s thigh ’I am done, my friend,’ he whispered