Dust of Dreams/Chapter 21

Epigraph

Listen then these are the charms And will I see your pleasure stretched 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

Sandalath and Withal enter Kharkanas; its ambience is pervaded by the presence of Mother Dark, grieving over the death of her favourite son. Yedan Derryg has found a Hust sword, once broken and abandoned, now healed. He and Yan Tovis return to Kharkanas.

Errastas, Sechul Lath, and Kilmandaros go to see the Otataral Dragon.

As Olar Ethil and Torrent approach a K'Chain Che'Malle tower they are joined by the two undead Eleint, Curdle and Telorast. Forced to explain their nature they say they were bound for millennia in Kurald Emurlahn, a punishment for trying to win the Throne of Shadow. They found they could escape only by possessing their current tiny skeletal forms. Torrent says he will try to release them if they agree to protect him.

Shurq Elalle's ship is transporting Princess Felash towards Kolanse. Felash's handmaiden is an adept and can sense that dangers surround Queen Abrastal in the Wastelands. Their only hope of warning her is by summoning Mael, which will endanger the ship. They do so; Shurq sees an approaching squall.