flesh and bone to shield their leaders – the ones who had led them across a continent, to die now, almost within the shadow of Aren’s high walls. And on those walls was ranged an army, ten thousand fellow soldiers to witness this, the greatest crime ever committed by a Malazan High Fist. How Coltaine had managed to get this far was beyond Duiker’s ability to comprehend. He was seeing the end of a battle that must have run without cessation for days – a battle that had ensured the survival of the refugees – and this is why that dust cloud was so slow to approach.
