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What would it take for her to notice? If he pulled out his gooseneck and took aim? Would that do it? Or just wrestled his way out of his clothes? Gods below, the drooling’s not done it.

He should leave. But they’d have to drag him out of this tent. Come on, Krughava, you can do it. I know you can. Take a second look, woman, at the man you’re talking to. No, he wasn’t going anywhere.Advertisement

Ah, but this was a most agitated woman. Something about a weakening resolve, or was it a failure of confidence-a sudden threat from within the ranks of the Grey Helms themselves. Someone missing in the command structure, the necessary balance all awry. A young man of frightening ambitions-oh, swamp spirits be damned! He was too drunk to make sense of any of this!

Why am I sitting here?

What is she saying? Pay attention, Krughava! Never mind him-can’t you see this bulge? No one wants the goose to honk, come and strangle it, woman! I’ll solve your agitation. Yes, if only you women understood that. Your every answer, right here between my legs.

Half the world’s mired in ignorance!

Half the world…

Gooseneck.

Chapter Twenty-One

Listen then these are the charms

And will I see your pleasure stretched

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An even dozen they crowd the tomb

You can read the dead in twelve faces

And the winter months are long

The shields are hammered into splinters

Beating war’s time will never ring true

Fools stir in the crypt counting notches

And the snow settles burying all traces

Crows spill the sky knocked like ink

Babies crawl to the front line

Plump arms shouting proof ’gainst harm

The helms rock askew in pitching tumult

And the brightest blood is the freshest

Round the well charged and spatted

Cadavers cherish company’s lonely vigil

The tomb’s walls trumpet failures

Dressed as triumphs and glory’s trains

And the fallen are bundled lying under foot

Each year Spring dies still newborn

Listen then these are the charms

History is written for the crows

By children with red lips and eyes blinking

On the cocked ends of their tongues

And it seems summer will never end

Hail the season of war, Gallan

C ity of darkness, see how that darkness hides your ugly face .

They were on the bridge. She was leaning heavily on her husband’s shoulder, both relieved and irritated by his stolid strength. ‘But you don’t see, do you?’

‘Sand?’

She shook her head. ‘Doesn’t matter. The air is alive. Can you feel that? Withal, can you feel that much at least?’

‘Your goddess,’ he said. ‘Alive, aye, alive with tears.’

That was true. Mother Dark had returned with sorrow knotted into grief. Darkness made helpless fists, like a widow trying to hold on to all she had lost. Lost, yes, something has been lost. She is no longer turned away, but in mourning. Her eyes are averted, downcast. She is here, yet behind a veil. Mother, you make this a most bitter gift.

Her strength was slow in returning. Memories like wolves, snapping on all sides. Kharkanas. Sandalath clutched Withal’s right arm, feeling the thick muscles, the cables of his will. He was one of those men who were like a finely made sword, sheathed in a hard skin, hiding a core that could bend when it had to. She didn’t deserve him. That was brutally clear. Take me hostage, husband. That much I will understand. That much I know how to live with. Even though it too will break in the end-no, stop thinking that way. It’s a memory no one here deserves.

‘There are fires in the city.’

‘Yes. It is… occupied.’

‘Savages in the ruins?’

‘Of course not. These are the Shake. We’ve found them.’

‘So they made it, then.’

She nodded.

He drew her to a halt ten steps from the bridge’s end. ‘Sand. Tell me again why you wanted to find them. You wanted to warn them, isn’t that right? Against what?’

‘Too late for that. Gallan sent them out, and now his ghost pulls them back. He cursed them. He said they could leave, but then he made them remember enough-just enough-to force them to return.’

Withal sighed, his expression showing he was unconvinced. ‘People need to know where they came from, Sand. Especially if they’ve lived generations not knowing. They were a restless people, weren’t they? What do you think made them restless?’

‘Then we’re all restless, Withal, because at the very heart, none of us know where we came from. Or where we’re going.’ pqdm.com