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He stared down at the ground between his feet His shoulder still ached fro done by Uruth Since that time, he had had no opportunity to speak with Feather Witch
To hisThey had, in truth, not pressed him very hard A handful of questions, and they’d seemed content with his aard, ineffectual answers Udinaas wondered if Uruth had been as un of Feather Witch The Tiste Edur rarely displayedof their ways It was, of course, the privilege of the conquerors to be that way, and the universal fate of the conquered to suffer that disregard
Yet identities persisted On a personal level Freedom was little more than a tattered net, draped over a host of ed little, except, perhaps, the co delusion of the ideal Mind bound to self, self to flesh, flesh to bone As the Errant wills, we are a latticework of cages, and whatever flutters within knows but one freedom, and that is death
The conquerors always assumed that what they conquered was identity But the truth was, identity could only be killed froesture was but a chimera Isolation had many children, and dissolution was but one of thean when identity was left behind
Fro, the Edur cadence of grief Hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh … A sound that always chilled Udinaas Like eain The voice of the trapped, the blocked A voice overwhel was less about loss than about being lost
Is that what comes when you live a hundred thousand years?
The s then eh on thick, swirling shadows A figure of copper coins The Edur’s singular use of old, it was the armour of the dead
At least that’s honest Letherii use money to purchase the opposite Well, not quite More like the illusion of the opposite Wealth as life’s arilant ar for all that, for the enemy knows you are defenceless
‘Hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh…’
This was Daughter Sheltatha Lore’s hour, when all things ht’s retreat, when the air lost clarity and revealed its ht and dark so perfectly disguised at other times When the throne was shown to be empty
Why not worship money? At least its rewards are obvious and immediateBut no, that was simplistic Letherii worship was more subtle, its ethics bound to those traits and habits that well served the acquisition of wealth Diligence, discipline, hard work, opti evils: sloth, despair, and the anonyh toone from the other and leave no room for doubt or od
Errant od, so we h none would utter it in such a bold fashion Feather Witch said that every act made was a prayer, and thus in the course of a day were served a host of gods Wine and nectar and rustleaf and the i thereof was a prayer to death, she said Love was a prayer to life Vengeance was a prayer to the de a business pact was, she said with a faint smile, a prayer to the whisperer of illusions Attainment for one was born of deprivation for another, after all A game played with two hands
‘Hunh, hunh, hunh, hunh…’
He shook himself His sodden tunic norapped him in damp chill
A shout from the direction of the sea The K’orthan raiders were returning Udinaas walked across the coar and his wife Uruth eround, until they passed Then he rose and hurried into the longhouse
The copper-sheathed corpse would be placed within the hollowed trunk of a Blackwood, the ends sealed with discs of cedar Six days froroves in the forest Until thatturns with that blunt, terrible utterance
Hepallet waited The longboats would file into the canal, one after the other in the grainy half-light They would not have failed They never did The crews of nineteen Letherii ships were now dead – no slaves taken, not this ti on both sides of the canal, the noble wives and fathers greeted their warriors in silence