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Ezgara Diskanar stepped up onto the dais and slowly turned round

The First Eunuch moved to stand before hi took the crown and fitted it onto his head

‘This day,’ Nifadas said, stepped back, ‘Lether is ruled by an eara Diskanar’

The guards released their salute

And that is it

Ezgara sat on the throne

Looking old and frail and lost

The ere shuttered tight Weeds snarled the path, vines had run wild up the walls to either side of the stepped entrance From the street behind them came the stench of smoke, and a distant roar from somewhere in the Creeper Quarter inland, beyond Settle Lake, indicated that yet another riot had begun

From the Fishers’ Gate, Seren Pedac and the Crimson Guardsns of looting, the occasional corpse, a soldier’s dead horse, and figures scurrying fros, packs of hungry feral dogs drawn in froee fa’s City of Lether seemed to have succuues beyond the horizon

She was stunned at hoiftly it had all cruust and contempt for the ways of her people, there had remained, somewhere buried deep, a belief in its innate resiliency But here, before her, was the evidence of sudden, thorough collapse Greed and savagery unleashed, fear and panic triggering brutality and ruthless indifference

They passed bodies of citizens who had been long in dying, simply left in the street while they bled out

Down one broad avenue, near the canal, a h, perhaps only half a day earlier There was evidence that soldiers had battled against it, and had been pushed back into a fighting withdrawal

Flanking buildings and estates had been trashed and looted The street was sticky with blood, and the tracks of dozens of wagons were evident, indicating that here, at least, the city’s garrison had returned to take away corpses

Iron Bars and his Guardsathered before her home, they remained on their horses, hands on weapons and watchful

Seren dismounted

After a moment, Iron Bars and Corlo did the sae said

‘As I said,’ Seren replied, ‘nothing inside is worth taking’

‘I don’t like this,’ the Avowed , Acquitor…’

‘It won’t,’ she said ‘These riots won’t last The closer the Edur ars will become’

‘That’s not what happened in Trate’

‘True, but this will be different’