Page 336 (1/2)

Fear was skilled with his sword One of the finest sielders a the Tiste Edur, a truth he simply accepted, with neither pride nor affected modesty And, he knew, had he stood face to face with that Champion in the throne rooht well have, on occasion, surprised the Letherii But Fear had no illusions about ould have been left standing when all was done

He wanted to weep For that Chaain and again For Trull, whom he had now abandoned – to a choice no warrior should be forced to ain Trull could see that, surely There was no way to hide the cowardice raging through Fear Not froave voice to all my doubts, my terrors, so that I could defy them – so that I could be seen to defy the… all of this He understood that now From the very first, the brutal unification of the tribes, the secret pact with the unknown god had already beenhad turned his back on Father Shadow, and why not, since Scabandari Bloodeye was gone Gone, never to return

Not even Hannan Mosag, then, but long ago That hen this path first began Long, long ago

There had been awas still simple He was certain of it Before the fated choices were made And to all that had occurred since, there was only one who could give answer, and that was Father Shadow himself

He walked the dusty streets, past corpses lying here and there like passed-out revellers fro the blood, the scattered weapons

He was… lost They had asked too much of him, far too much There in that throne rooht I had sent Trull to his death So many failures, and every one of them mine There must be other ways… other ways …

Motionless, now, looking down upon a body

May en

The hunger, he saas gone fro but peace there As he’d seen before, when he’d looked upon her sleeping Or singing with the other maidens When he’d carried the shich she then took into her hands To bury at the threshold of her hoht a certain darkness in her eyes, and was left wondering on the twisting of her s a man could not know, could never know Fearful mysteries, the ones that lured aterror

Her face held none of that now Only peace Sleeping, like the child within her, here on this street

Fear crouched, then knelt beside her He closed a hand on the horn grip of the fisher knife, then pulled it froil was carved near its base, one he recognized