Anomander Rake was an ascendant as unlike Caladan Brood as to make them seem the opposite ends of power’s vast spectrum. Rake was an atmosphere, a heart-thudding, terror-threaded presence no-one could ignore, much less escape. Violence, antiquity, sombre pathos, and darkest horror – the Son of Darkness was a gelid eddy in immortality’s current, and the Mhybe could feel, crawling beneath her very skin, every Rhivi spirit awakened in desperation. The sword, yet more than the sword. Dragnipur in the hands of cold justice, cold and unhuman.
