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Trull’s s to these statues, Onrack To answer you-I do not know if the hands that fashioned these were Tiste Edur As for Mother Dark, itus, she but simply separated as not separate before’

‘Are you then the shadows of Tiste Andu? Torn free by the oddess mother?’

‘But Onrack, we are all torn free’

‘Two of the Hounds are here, Trull Sengar Their souls are trapped in the stone And oneof note-these likenesses cast no shadows’

‘Nor do the Hounds themselves’

‘If they are but reflections, then there must be Hounds of Darkness, from which they were torn,’ Onrack persisted ‘Yet there is no knowledge of such…’ The T’lan Ihed ‘It seems you know more of the human First Empire than you first indicated What was that tyrant eate-’

‘Dessimbelackis,’ Onrack whispered ‘The founder of the hu of the Beast Ritual It was believed he had… veered’

‘D’ivers?’

‘Aye’

‘And beasts numbered?’

‘Seven’

Trull stared up at the statues, then gestured ‘We didn’t build these No, I am not certain, but in my heart I feel… no empathy They are ominous and brutal to my eyes, T’lan Imass The Hounds of Shadow are not worthy of worship They are indeed untethered, wild and deadly To truly command them, one must sit in the Throne of Shadow-as master of the realether the disparate frag Kurald Emurlahn whole once more’

‘And this is what your kin seek,’ Onrack rumbled ‘The possibility troubles me’

The Tiste Edur studied the T’lan Ied ‘I did not share your distress at the prospect-not at first And indeed, had it reside my brothers But another power acts behind the veil in all this-I know not who or what, but I would tear aside that veil’

‘Why?’

Trull seemed startled by the question, then he shivered ‘Because what it has made of my people is an abomination, Onrack’