Deadhouse Gates/Epilogue

Hood’s sprites are revealed
the disordered host
Whispering of deaths
in wing-flap chorus
Dour music has its own
beauty, for the song of ruin
is most fertile.

Wickan Dirge
Fisher

The Wickan Plains

Wickan widow by Dejan Delic

Out on the Wickan Plains of Quon Tali, a pregnant young widow steps out of a horsewife's yurt and stops after thirty paces. The horsewife has told her that the child she carries is an empty vessel and without a soul. She has been given a medicine that will return the cursed child back to the earth.

But as she places the flask to her lips, the horsewife stays her wrist and peers at the dark clouds gathering overhead. Seeing both fear and hope in the horsewife's face the widow demands to know what is happening. Suddenly the dark cloud descends upon her and she is enveloped by a seething mass of crows. As the horsewife gives wordless voice to the anguish of a thousand grieving souls, the widow comes to a sudden realization.

Deep within her, the child stirs.