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‘That does not concern , for what part of this journey have you not already anticipated? Even so, two more Rathyd valleys lie before us I would know There will be villages-do we ride around them or do we collect still more trophies?’
‘We shall be burdened with too many trophies e reach the lands of the lowlanders at Silver Lake,’ Deluhed, then considered ‘Bairoth Gild, we shall slip through these valleys like snakes in the night, until the very last village I would still draw hunters after us, into the lands of the Sunyd’ Delu up the valley side Karsa checked on the dog liside it, and it occurred to Karsa that the three-legged beast ht well keep its mate He was pleased with his decision to not slay the wounded creature
There was a chill in the air that confirher elevations The Sunyd territory was higher still, leading to the eastern edge of the escarph the escarpment, marked by a torrential waterfall that fed into Silver Lake The climb doas treacherous Pahlk had naan to wind sinuously a winter-cracked boulders and treefalls They could now see the summit, six hundred steep paces upward
The warriors dis into his arms He set it down across Havok’s broad back and strapped it in place The animal voiced no protest Gnaw moved up to flank the destrier
They resu the slope in brilliant gold light by the time they had closed to within a hundred paces of the suh a sparse forest of straggly, wind-twisted oaks-to run the length of the valley side Scanning the terrace’s sweep to his right, Delurunt, then said, ‘I see a cave There,’ he pointed, ‘behind those fallen trees, where the shelf bulges’
Bairoth nodded and said, ‘It looks big enough to hold our horses Karsa Orlong, if we are to begin riding at night…’
‘Agreed,’ Karsa said
Delu the terrace Gnaw scra the caveforward
The Uryd warriors paused, waiting to see if the dog’s hackles rose, thus signalling the presence of a grey bear or soalmost flat before the cave entrance, the beast finally rose and glanced back at the party, then trotted into the cave
The fallen trees had provided a natural screen, hiding the cave fro, but it had collapsed, perhaps beneath the weight of the trees, leaving a rough pile of rubble partially blocking the entrance
Bairoth began clearing a path to lead the horses through Delum and Karsa took Gnaw’s route into the cave
Beyond the mound of tumbled stones and sand, the floor levelled out beneath a scatter of dried leaves The setting sun’s light painted the back wall in patches of yellow, revealing an allyphs A small cairn of piled stones sat in the do’s tracks crossed the floor and vanished into an area of gloom near the back
Delulyph directly opposite the entrance ‘That Bloodsign is neither Rathyd nor Sunyd,’ he said
‘But the words beneath it are Teblor,’ Karsa asserted ‘The style is very…’ Delu aloud, ‘ " I led the fah the broken veins that bled beneath the sun …" Broken veins?’
‘Ice,’ Delu beneath the sun, aye " We were so few Our blood was cloudy and would grow cloudier still I saw the need to shatter what reitated and inclined to continue their indiscrihter ’ " Karsa scowled ‘T’lan Imass? I do not know those tords’
‘Nor I,’ Delu Your eye is quicker than mine’
‘ " And so I sundered husband from wife Child from parent Brother from sister I fashioned new families and then sent them away Each to a different place I proclaiiven us by Icariurief upon seeing what had become of us The Laws of Isolation would be our salvation, clearing the blood and strengthening our children To all who follow and to all who shall read these words, this is my justification -" ’