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‘We are not so blind as to believe that,’ Seren Pedac said She struggled against kicking away thethe descent into hysteria ‘If you will not – or cannot – clear this trail, then we’ve little choice-’
The apparition’s head tilted ‘You would deliver countless small deaths? In the name of what? Convenience?’
‘I see no end to these creatures of yours, ghost’
‘Mine? They are not e of their squalid supremacy on this land A multitude of tyrants to rule over the ash and dust we left in our wake They see in rowled, ‘are we un fading, colours bleeding away ‘If it pleases you,’ came the faint, derisive reply ‘Of course, it may be that the spirit they see is yours, not one
Theout to the forest on either side of the trail, as if suddenly confused, blinded once reater force had claimed them They bled away into the mulch, the shadows and the rotted wood of fallen trees Oneto Buruk the Pale ‘What did you mean when you said the tiles didn’t lie? Barrow and Root, those are tiles in the Hold of the Azath, are they not? You witnessed a casting before you began this journey In Trate Do you deny it?’
He would not , Acquitor All of them ’
‘Who was he, then?’ Hull Beddict asked
‘I do not know’ Abruptly Buruk scowled and turned away ‘Does it s clamber free, that is all The Seventh Closure draws near – but I fear it will be nothing like what all of us have been taught The birth of empire, oh yes, but who shall rule it? The prophecy is perniciously vague The trail has cleared – let us proceed’
He claon
‘Are we to ed ‘Prophecies are like the tiles themselves, Hull See in them what you will’ The aftermath of her terror was sour in her throat, and her limbs felt loose and weak Suddenly weary, she unstrapped her helm and lifted it off The fine rain was like ice on her brow She closed her eyes
I can’t save him I can’t save any of us
Hull Beddict spoke to the Nerek
Blinking her eyes open, Seren shook herself She tied her helroaning wagons, the harsh breathing of the Nerek Motionless air and the od
Two days Then it is done
Thirty paces ahead, unseen by any of them, an owl sailed across the path, silent on its broad, dark wings There was blood on its talons, blood around its beak
Sudden bounties were unquestioned Extravagance unworthy of celebration The hunter knew only hunting, and was indifferent to the fear of the prey Indifferent, as well, to the white crow that sailed in its wake
A random twist of the wind drew the ree It had burned for a day and a night, and Trull Sengar e to find theacross the coretted the neorld he had found Revelations could not be undone And now he shared secrets and the truth was, he would rather have done without theed What did they kno vast and insidious this deceit? Howdrawn into his aainst the Warlock King?
No words on the subject had been exchanged a the brothers, not since that conversation in the pit, the stove-in dragon skull the only witness to whatjourney were under way There would be no slaves acco had sent wraiths ahead to the villages lying between here and the ice-fields, and so provisions would await the the need for burdensoon drawn by a half-dozen slaves had trundled across the bridge, in its bed newly forged weapons Iron-tipped spears stood upright in bound bundles Copper sheathing protected the shafts for fully half their length Cross-hilted swords were also visible, hand-and-a-half grips and boiled leather scabbards Billhooks for unseating riders, sheaves of long arroith leather fletching Throwing axes, as favoured by the Arapay Broad cutlasses in the Merude style