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This, K’rul, is why I stand at your side. The magic you offer – oh, they will seek to cage it, in laws and principles, in rules and squalid structure. But we both know that they will fail, for their minds are trapped in cages of their own making, and all that lies beyond will remain forever unknown, and unknowable, to them. And this they cannot abide.’ ‘They will fail,’ K’rul agreed, ‘because I am unknowable.’ ‘Yes. And your gesture, K’rul, was an act of love, yielding unending wonder. What you have done will infuriate the world.’ K’rul shrugged. ‘That will … suffice.’
As far as staring contests went, not even a Thel Akai could match a dragon’s baleful, unblinking regard. Instead, Kanyn would periodically meet those reptilian eyes and offer up a twisted expression, slowly shutting one eye while screwing up the other, perhaps, or dangling his tongue, or sending its glistening tip upward to touch his own nose.
K’rul grunted. ‘Builders. They confound me.’ ‘They answer to no one. They rarely speak at all. They are guided by forces too old for words. Too old, perhaps, for language itself. I see in them elemental nature, a knotting of implacable laws and principles beyond challenge. They are what all life struggles against, made manifest and so eternally unknowable.’
‘I have need of you two,’ said K’rul. ‘In fact, I have need of all the Eleint who have come into this realm.’ ‘What manner of need?’ Curdle demanded. ‘Guardianship.’ There was a long pause, and then Telorast hissed. ‘The Gates of Sorcery!’ ‘My Warrens, yes. In return, you can feed upon your chosen aspect.’ ‘Warrens,’ said Telorast. ‘Well named, Azathanai.’ ‘But you are not to resist those mortals who would draw upon my sorcery,’ added K’rul. ‘Then against whom do we guard?’ ‘Azathanai, for one. Your fellow Eleint, for another.’
‘Take note, K’rul, of my extraordinary self-control in that I am not at this moment strangling you.’ ‘My faith in you is, as ever, well founded.’
‘You would set me against an Azathanai?’ Haut offered her a wry smile. ‘Already I pity him.’
One does not rise in the morning, say, considering ending the day in black soil and bound by the roots of a tree, or, for that matter, being imprisoned for five centuries.’
The Dog-Runners shall not vanish from the world. When the tyrants come among you, the Strangers in Hiding, look to the dreaming of the Sleeping Goddess. Within, a secret hides.’
‘Wizardry, magery, sorcery, alchemy, thaumaturgy. Myriad arts, each one wondrous in what it can create, and wholly destructive in what it means.’
Hate finds an easy path with this sorcery. We have reason to fear this new world of ours.’
We are all on history’s churning tide, historian, and in the end – when every blazing torch has guttered out – we walk in shadow, we of the multitude, anonymous in our victimhood, and yet so very necessary.
Lord Anomander, you are the First Son of Darkness. The time has come to show it. I beg you, sir, make us all braver than we are.
‘I must defy our Mother, in the name of her sons and daughters. Silchas, I will draw my sword. I will take command.’
Faith’s only enemy exists in the mind that calls it home.
No number of corpses imaginable for this believer to stride over can quell the threat – the potency – of self-doubt. A true believer, indeed, need never draw a weapon, need never rise in argument, or howl in fury, or make fists, or roll in a mob to crush some helpless, innocent enemy. A true believer needs none of those things.
‘I’ve got people to kill,’ Wreneck said, backing towards the door. ‘And I’ve got to be a big brother, just like you were once, to me.’ ‘Be good to her?’ ‘I will, Wreneck.’ ‘Better than I was to you.’ Orfantal smiled. ‘Look at us now. We’re all grown up.’
It was pathetic, the raving accusations of an ego blind to its own lies.
You wish me to offer you the words you claim to need, the rules by which you are to live your lives? Very well, but I should warn you, every deity worthy of worship will offer you the same prescription. Here it is, then. Don’t hurt other people. In fact, don’t hurt anything capable of suffering. Don’t hurt the world you live in, either, or its myriad creatures. If gods and goddesses are to have any purpose at all, let us be the ones you must face for the crimes of your life. Let us be the answer to every unfeeling, callous, cruel act you committed, every hateful word you uttered, and every
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Prazek wiped at his face, wincing at his torn lip. ‘Salvage me some hope, I beg you.’ Dathenar reached across to settle a hand on his friend’s shoulder. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘there is this.’
Necessity’s bared teeth, transformed into smiles of joy in the centuries to come. That vast span of wilful forgetfulness we call history.
priestesses here will reconvene with you. Take a side chamber. Together, the three of you should be able to invent an appropriate retelling of this fated and fateful union. Concoct, if you will, a marriage to celebrate.’
When she held out her right hand, he raised his, bringing it up beneath hers. Their hands clasped briefly before parting once more. Facing the chamber, Mother Dark and Father Light stood for a moment, as if posing for posterity, before both sat down on their thrones.
‘Vatha Urusander,’ said Renarr, ‘there will be justice.’ She saw him nod again, in the instant before her knife sank deep beneath his left shoulder blade, stilling the beat of his heart. Unblinking, she stepped back, leaving the dagger in his back. He tilted forward, forehead striking the leaded window, before his legs gave out and he fell to the floor at her feet. Looking down, she saw the smile on his face. Peaceful, content, lifeless.
