Then, if the players come and go, while the rules never change, does not that heap in fact command the game? Would you bow to this god of gol?? This insen-sate illusion of value?
Bow, then. Press forehead to the hard floor. But when it all goes wrong, show me no affronted disbelief.
Yes, Anomander Rake would take that burden, and carry it into a new world. But he would offer no absolution. He would deliver but one gift-an undeserved one-and that was time.
The most precious privilege of all. And what, pray tell, shall we do with it?
Off to his left, surmounting a much higher tower, a dragon fixed slitted eyes upon a decrepit camp beyond the veil of Night. No rain could blind it, no excuse could brave its unwavering regard. Silanah watched. And waited.
But the waiting was almost over.
Rush then, to this feast. Rush, ye hungry ones, to the meat of glee.
The wall had never been much to begin with. Dismantled in places, unfinished in others. It would never have withstood a siege for any length of time. Despite its execrable condition, the breach made by the Hounds of Shadow was obvious. An entire gate was gone, filled with the flame-licked wreckage of the blockhouses and a dozen nearby structures. Figures now clambered in its midst, hunting sur-vivors, fighting the flames.
Beyond it, vast sections of the city-where heaving clouds of smoke lifted sky-ward, lit bright by raging gas-fires-suddenly ebbed, as if Darujhistan’s very breath had been snatched away. Samar Dev staggered, fell to her knees. The pressure closing about her head felt moments from crushing the plates of her skull. She cried out even as Karsa crouched down beside her.
Ahead, Traveller had swung away from the destroyed gate, seeking instead an-other portal to the east, through which terrified refugees now spilled out into the ramshackle neighbourhood of shanties, where new fires had erupted from knocked-down shacks and in the wake of fleeing squatters. How Traveller intended to push his way through that mob-
‘Witch, you must concentrate.’
‘What?’
‘In your mind, raise a wall. On all sides. Make it strong, give it the power to withstand the one who has arrived,’
She pulled away from his hand. ‘Who? Who has arrived? By the spirits, I can’t stand-’
He slapped her, hard enough to knock her down.Stunned, she stared up at him.