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Or it should have, if not for Hannan Mosag’s extraordinary ments of Kurald E’s skill with the spear far outweighed his capacity as a warlock

No-one but Hannan Mosag and Hanradi Khalag knew the details of that final surrendering Merude had been holding strong against the Hiroth and their contingents of Arapay, Sollanta, Den-Ratha and Beneda warriors, and the ritual constraints of the ere fast unravelling, in their place an alar brutality born of desperation The ancient laws had been on the verge of shattering

One night, Hannan Mosag had walked, soe, into the ruler’s own longhouse And by the first light of Menandore’s cruel awakening, Hanradi Khalag had surrendered his people

Trull did not knohat to er cast a shadow He had never seen the Merude chief

That man’s first son now sat before hi fro his face with shadows, his eyes flat and watchful, as if anticipating an assassination atte’s own hall

The oil la flickered as one, and everyone grew still, eyes fixing on Hannan Mosag

Though he did not raise his voice, its deep ti none with the necessity to strain to hear his words ‘Rhulad, unblooded warrior and son of Toht to ar This warrior had travelled to the Calach shore seeking jade He itness to a dire event, and has run without pause for three days and two nights’ Hannan Mosag’s eyes fixed on Trull ‘Rise to stand at ar, and relate your tale’

He walked the path the other warriorsto disguise the exhaustion in his legs that , he stepped between two K’risnan and positioned hi He looked out onto the array of upturned faces, and saw that what he would say was already known to er for vengeance Here and there, frowns of concern and dis these words to the council The tusked seals have co beds Beyond the shallows I saw the sharks that leap in nu And in their midst, nineteen Letherii ships-’

‘Nineteen!’

A half-hundred voices uttered that cry in unison An uncharacteristic breach of propriety, but understandable none the less Trull waited a moment, then resumed ‘Their holds were almost full, for they sat low in the water, and the waters around them were red with blood and offal Their harvest boats were alongside the great ships In the fifty heartbeats that I stood and watched, I itness to hundreds of seal carcasses rising on hooks to swing into waiting hands On the strand itself twenty boats waited in the shallows and seventythe seals-’

‘Did they see you?’ one warrior asked

It seenore the rules – for the ti at least

‘They did, and checked their slaughter… for a h I could not hear their words above the roar of the seals, and I saw the Warriors leapt upright Hannan Mosag snapped out a hand Sudden silence

‘Trull Sengar is not yet finished his tale’

Clearing his throat, Trull nodded ‘You see me before you noarriors, and those of you who knoill also know my preferred weapon – the spear When have you seen me without my iron-hafted slayer of foes? Alas, I have surrendered it… in the chest of the one who first laughed’

A roar answered his words

Hannan Mosag settled a hand on Trull’s shoulder, and the young warrior stepped aside The Warlock King scanned the faces before hiar did as every warrior of the Edur would do His deed has heartened me Yet here he now stands, weaponless’

Trull stiffened beneath the weight of that hand

‘And so, in ,’ Hannan Mosag went on, ‘I find I must push nified A thrown spear A dead Letherii A disarmed Edur And now, I see upon the faces ofspears, a thousand dead Letherii A thousand disarmed Edur’

No-one spoke No-one countered with the obvious retort: We have many spears