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"There are s," the Guardian said very quietly, "that I should not have done And s you should not have done as welIt is your actions that place our kingdo down the stairs toward thehts of the wal lahtest bit less black "That is true if you count only the living as part of our kingdom"

"The dead were never meant to be a part of it"

"But they are" Halfway down the steps, the darkness reared upward, foruely humanlike shape

"We of al people know that just because we created them, that does not mean we control them"

The Guardian took a step back, an action Varis didn’t like at alHe wondered if he should run "I’ot en the reason for e did, and betrayed everything we sacrificed for"

"No," the fog hissed "I a what I must, to defend ht the foreigners here?"

The Guardian lifted his face and stared at the blackness above hiners are under , where human eyes would have been They looked, Varis realized, ular eyeholes than like actual eyes Silence stretched between the iron nized wel : the endless -awaited bat le

"Are you ready, then?" the Guardian said, reaching up very slowly for the hilt of his silver sword "Are you certain you want to do this now?"

"Not now" The fog swirled and seethed, then went stil"But soon Soon the dead wil outnu, and then I wil not need you anyone A few sone too, and Varis decided to start breathing again

After a moment the Guardian let his ironclad arm drop to his side He turned his head and looked at Varis through the black rectangular eyeholes of hisif he had jumped out of a stampede and into quicksand Wel , he wasn’t dead, so that had to be an improvement "Thank you"

After a moment the voice echoed hol oithin the ?" Varis asked

The Guardian was silent Varis lifted his eyebrows "It was not exactly trying to keep its existence a secret The Guardian was silent Varis lifted his eyebrows "It was not exactly trying to keep its existence a secret from me"

"He," the Guardian said "Not it"

"That was a person?"

"Yes Or he was, once" The Guardian lifted his hand and laid it on the back of his neck, a gesture that seeruously human Rael ians didn’t wear armor, but Varis had heard it could itch "He is the defender of the dead, as I aainst the banister "The dead need defending?"

The Guardian turned and started down the stairs Varis fel into step beside hi are not always comfortable with the presence of the dead Fear of death is theould be bet er of without them, or at least with far less of them"

"Those factions ," Varis noted

The Guardian hter "Your being here is not helping mat ers, of course Everyone believes your sister wil never ives Cerix’s faction reason to co but a burden to the living, andspeeches about e s were before Ghostdawn"

"Ghostdawn," Varis repeated

"When the spel was created that brings hosts"

They reached the bot om of the stairs just then Ahead of them stretched a wide marble halThe Guardian inclined his head once, then turned and strode away, his iron boots clanging against the marble floor

Varis watched him for a moment, then turned around and went back up the stairs He could find Cerix another tiness of this country--and al the things that made it unconquerable--were due to a spelFrom the casual way the Guardian had mentioned it, the Ghostlanders al knew it; but he wondered if they had ever thought of the consequences

Rael ians distrusted h about spel s fro about theht as he bent on the landing to retrieve his daggers, wouldn’t that ?