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At his side, the Barghast spokesrowled, ’Your kind crowd your barrows’

The Shield Anvil glanced at the man ’Sir?’

The warrior nodded towards the smoke-hazed tenement and went on with his co a pit outside the city, then the lines passing buckets of earth You like a clear view fro our dead in the manner of your people

Itkovian turned back to study the teneht His eyes narrowed The barricades blocking the s Once more, flesh and bone Twin Tusks, ould build such a necropolis? Surely, it cannot be the consequence of defence?

’We wandered close,’ the warrior at his side said ’The walls give off their own heat Jellied liquid bleeds between the cracks’ He , hilt of his hook-sword clattering against the coin-wrought ar his torso ’By the bones, soldier, we fled’

’Is that tenement the only one so … filled?’

’We’ve seen no other, though we did pass one estate that still held -- enlivened corpses stood guard at the gate and on the walls The air stank of sorcery, an emanation foul with necrolad to quit this city’

Itkovian was silent He felt rent inside The Reve of Fener voiced the truth of war It spoke true of the cruelty that hu upon its own kind War was played like a game by those who led others; played in an illusory arena of calm reason, but such lies could not survive reality, and reality seemed to have no lilory to be found was not to be a blind one, rather a glory born of soleard Within limitless reality resided the pro Itkovian now He was recoiling like a caged animal cruelly prodded on all sides Escape was denied to hi born of his conscious will, given shape by the words of his vow He eance had undergone a transformation within him He would be, at the last, the redemption -- for the souls of the fallen in this city

Redemption For everyone else, but not for hiod But, dear Fener, what has happened? Where are you? I kneel in place, awaiting your touch, yet you are nowhere to be found Your realo?

Aye, I am not yet done I accept this And when I ah him

Who shall embrace me?

The Shield Anvil pushed the question away, struggled to renew his resolve He had, after all, no choice He would be Fener’s grief And his Lord’s hand of justice Not welcome responsibilities, and he sensed the toll they were about to exact

They neared the plaza before the Thrall Other Barghast were visible, joining in the convergence The distant sounds of battle in Jelarkan Concourse, which had accoh most of the afternoon, now fell silent The enemy had been driven frohast would pursue They had achieved what they had coods had been removed

Probably, if Septarch Kulpath still lived, he would reform his tattered forces, reassert discipline and prepare for his next move Either a counterattack, or a ithdrawal There were risks to both He ht have insufficient force to retake the city And his ar lost possession of their camps and supply routes, would soon suffer from lack of supplies It was not an enviable position Capustan, a small, inconsequential city on the east coast of Central Genabackis, had beconified but the beginning of the war to coed onto the plaza

The place where Brukhalian had fallen lay directly ahead, but all the bodies had been re Pannions Flesh for yet another royal feast It doesn’t n of honour, or petty gloating on the god’s part?

The Shield Anvil’s gaze held on that stained stretch of flagstones for a ate

The gloas gone In the shadows beneath the gate’s arch, figures had appeared

Every approach to the plaza had filled with Barghast, but they ventured no further

Itkovian turned back to his company His eyes found his captain -- who had been thethe recruits -- then Velbara He studied their tattered, stained armour, their lined, drawn faces ’The three of us, sirs, to the centre of the plaza’