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‘Meaningless and long I’ot more sharp teeth than an enkar’al with a mouthful of rhizan Probably why I like you so ht‘I’m not interested in your offer, Iron Bars’

‘Try thinking on it There’s tiet out of Trate as soon as you can’

She looked at hiht, if our boat was in the harbour here But it isn’t It’s in Letheras We signed on as crew, through an agent’ He shrugged ‘As soon as we get out to sea…’

‘You’ll kill the captain and mates and turn pirate’

‘We won’t kill anybody if there’s a way round it, and we’re not pirates We just want to get hoet home’ He studied her for a ht, we’ll look you up in Letheras’

All right‘You’d be wasting your tied ‘Between here and then, Acquitor, a whole lot is going to change Get out of this city, lass As soon as you sober up, go Just go’

Then he was gone

They caught hi up his mouth – c’mon, let’s watch -

Just his o easy on the bastard Sew him up everywhere, see how he likes that -

Wish it was Hull Beddict, that’s what I wish -

They’ll do a lot worse on ’im, mark my words You just wait and see…

Her blue silks snapping in the wind, Nekal Bara stood atop the lighthouse tower and faced out to sea Nothing was going as planned Their pre-ees; the entire Tiste Edur people were on the move And they’re about to arrive on our very doorstep

The fleet that had appeared in Katter Sea, poised to interpose its forces to prevent the retreat of Twilight’s garrison at Fent Reach, had, upon the city’s surrender, simply moved on Preternaturally swift, the blood-red sails of five hundred raiders now approached Trate Bay And in the waters beneath those sleek hulls… a thingAncient, terrible, eager with hunger It knew this path It had been here before

Since that time, and at the Ceda’s command, she had delved deep in her search to discover the nature of the creature the Tiste Edur had bound to their service The harbour and the bay beyond had once been dry land, a round rivers Erosion had collapsed the shelf in places, creating roughly circular, deep wells Sometimes the water below continued to flow as part of the rivers But in so effect of the limestone was blocked by concretions over time, and the water was black and still

One such well had beco into its depths Gold, jade, silver, and living sacrifices Drowning voices had screamed in the chill water, cold flesh and bone had settled on the pale floor

And a spirit was fashioned Fed on blood and despair, beseeching propitiation, the unwilling surrender of mortal lives There were mysteries to this, she well knew Had the spirit existed before the worship began, and was siifts offered? Or was it conjured into existence by the very will of those ancient worshippers? Either way, the result was the saht the nature of hunger, of desire Made into an addict of blood and grief and terror

The worshippers vanished Died out or departed, or driven to such extre how deep the bed of bones at the botto in its vastness

The spirit was doomed, and should have eventually died Had not the seas risen to s the land, had not its world’s walls suddenly vanished, releasing it to all that lay beyond

Shorelines were places of worship the world over The earliest records surviving fro peoples encountered during the explorations The verge between sea and land marked the manifestation of the symbolic transition between the known and the unknown Between life and death, spirit and mind, between an unliether Lives were given to the seas, treasures were flung into their depths And, upon the waters theed into the deep tiain

For all that, the spirit had known… competition And, Nekal Bara suspected, had fared poorly Weakened, suffering, it had returned to its hole, there beneath the deluge Returned to die