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‘We shall be travelling south,’ Onrack said ‘Before long, we shall reach the tree line, and the snoill turn to rain’

‘That sounds even ar, shall be less than a handful of days and nights And in that tile’

‘Do you believe ill reach the First Throne before the renegades?’

Onrack shrugged ‘It is likely The path of Tellann will present to us no obstacles, whilst that of chaos shall slow our eneht’

‘Never straight, aye That notion‘A cause for unease, granted, Trull Sengar None the less, we are faced with a more dire concern, for e reach the First Throne we must then defend it’

Ibra Gholan led the way, Monok Oche until Onrack and the Tiste Edur passed by before falling in step

‘We are not trusted,’ Trull Sengar reed ‘None the less, we are needed’

‘The least satisfying of alliances’

‘Yet perhaps the surest, until such tiar’

The Tiste Edur grunted in acknowledgement

They fell silent then, as each stride took them further south

As with so many tracts within Tellann, the scars of Omtose Phellack remained both visible and palpable to Onrack’s senses Rivers of ice had gouged this landscape, tracing the history of advance and, finally, retreat, leaving behind fluvial spans of silts, rocks and boulders in screes, fans and slides, and broad valleys with basins worn down to save way to sodden peat and marshland, wherein stunted black spruce rose in knotted stands on islands formed by the rotted remains of ancestral trees Pools of black water surrounded these islands, layered with ases of decay

Insects swar the T’lan Ih they circled in thick, buzzing clouds none the less Before long, the round between theled with brush and dead pines The doround along which the four travelled with greater ease than before

It began to rain, a steady drizzle that blackened the basaltic bedrock and ar’s harsh breathing and sensed his companion’s weariness But no entreaties to rest caly used his spear as a staff as they trudged onward

Forest soon replaced the exposed bedrock, slowly shifting froround The trees then thinned, and suddenly, beyond a line of tangled deadfall, plains stretched before theone Onrack raised a hand ‘We shall halt here’