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Vaelin notched a second arrow and took a bead on the other cats, finding to his horror that Wise Bear now stood before the no resistance as they closed Vaelin drew back his bowstring, ai for the nearest cat’s flank

“Don’t!” Kiral laid a hand on his arm “Wait!”

Alturk barked a co in appalled amazement as Wise Bear extended a hand to one of the beastsand it shrank back, the snarl fading from its face, eyes suddenly freed of hate The sha an identical result, every one beco the

Wise Bear turned to Vaelin, his expression no less implacable than before “You coh the ed to clamber over much of the disrupted surface as their way became ever more narrow “How did you do that?” Vaelin asked, unsure whether he wanted, or would even understand the answer The more he learned of Wise Bear the roeak,” the sharim note of satisfaction in his voice “Hold slackens Cats are mine now”

“So there was no need for us to kill the others?”

Wise Bear paused as they ca in the ice ahead, little more than a narrow crack in the blue-white wall Beyond it Vaelin could see a patch of granite, the spike of the huge rock now loo like poorly polished h aze locked onto Vaelin’s, fierce and certain “Say nothing Do nothing Listen only”

The ice beyond the crack was flat, forreat rock Wise Bear led Vaelin to the right, a burgeoning stench of so at the sight of a large brownish black stain spreading out fro closer Vaelin saw the stain was littered with bones; seal vertebrae and ribs mostly but here and there the unmistakable shape of a human skull, picked clean of flesh The source of the stench became clear abeside a shallow grotto in the face of the rock Froular shape of it Vaelin deduced it as asome measure of shelter frorotto, clad in moulded furs and seated on what appeared to be a chair fashioned froh not as old as Wise Bear, his skin leathery and discoloured, red sores visible on his bald head and cadaverous cheeks, and his eyes were two dark patches of old scar tissue He sat so still Vaelin initially assuht their scent and a thin smile curved his cracked lips

“We’ll speak in ue, old friend,” he said to Wise Bear “It’s only polite, don’t you think?”

Vaelin knew hi smile Wise Bear raised a hand and he realised he had unconsciously taken hold of his sword and started forward, intent on this thing’s i has he been waiting?

He released his grip and stepped back as Wise Bear stood regarding the thing in silence

“Nothing to say?” the thing enquired, hairless brows raised above its scar eyes “No final curses or long-prepared speeches? I’ve heard ettable”

Wise Bear kept silent, shifting his gaze to the bones littering the surrounding ice, using his staff to prod at a skull lying aer than an apple, but clearly hu the sound of bone on bone “They died happy, you know Worshipping me, content to surrender their flesh in sustenance ofblackened and half-rotted teeth, his eyeless face turning to Vaelin “They were a re apart froe of e terh to survive in the harshest place on earth But they had no notion of a god, until I taught it to them, and how quickly they succumbed to the idea After all, what else would you call a man who comes back to life after a spear-hawk rips the eyes from his skull?”

The cracked lips lost their s to Wise Bear once more “It could all have been avoided, old friend If you had but opened your heart to reat mission for the ice people The southern lands would have fallen to us, and the great forest beyond Now your people are a wasted re ice heralded Iron Claw’s arrival as he cla to Wise Bear’s side, nostrils flaring at the scent of flesh The eyeless man stiffened at the sound of the bear’s approach but his voice remained free of fear “You cannot threaten me, little man Your beast holds no horrors for me Ask my brother, he killed me once before and yet here I a years for you to come Pity my cats proved unequal to the task, but I ao”

“So you wait,” Wise Bear said,out to claer”

The eyelessforth as he voiced a soundless screa spasmodically on his bone chair He tried to claw at Wise Bear’s ar like feathers over his sleeve as he convulsed

Finally the shaed, his face a mask of confusion and pain “What did you do?” he asked in a faint rasp, his hands flailing at his own chest and face, the nails leaving shallow scars on his flesh

“You wait,” Wise Bear said again, turning his back “Then you die Forever”