Midnight Tides/Chapter 19

Epigraph

Invisible in all his portions This thick-skinned thing has borders Indivisible to every sentinel Patrolling the geography of Arbitrary definitions, and yet the Mountains have ground down The fires died, and so streams This motionless strand of sharp Black sand where I walk Cutting my path on the coarse Conclusions countless teeth Have grated—all lost now In this unlit dust—we are not And have never been The runners green and fresh Of life risen from the crushed Severing extinctions (that one past this one new) all hallowed and self-sure But the dead strand moves unseen, The river of black crawls on To some wistful resolution The place with no meaning Inconsequential in absence Of strings and shadows Charting from then to now And these stitched lines Finding this in that... Excerpt from The Black Sands of Time (in the collection Suicidal Poets of Darujhistan) edited by Haroak

Trate

Udinaas is on the docks, watching the sharks and gulls feeding. Feather Witch's beatings have continued, sea battles are raging between the two peoples. Udinaas attends a meeting where the Warlock King speaks of visions of the Tiste Edur conquering other realms. They make plans to flood these realms and conquer them. Mayen speaks up and accuses Udinaas of being possessed, and Udinaas then speaks on Mayen's abuse of Featherwitch. Rhulad Sengar forbids the beating, and then confides in Udinaas that Mayen has become a problem for him, but that she is pregnant with his child.

Southeast of Dresh

Seren Pedac cuts her hair, thinking she should have let Iron Bars brutalise and torture her rapists. She speaks to Iron Bars of the local horses and their origin from the distant Bluerose. The Bluerose people seem to have been sabotaging the cavalry with poor equipment and training. Discovering the bodies of a murdered family on a farm that raised horses, the group of Crimson Guard decide to track the killers. They speak briefly of the Crimson Guard's vow keeping them unnaturally alive. Seren goes into the woods and finds statues of Tarthenal gods, she thinks of these strange massive statues and her pain. Iron Bars finds her and says he killed Rhulad.

A Tarthenal named Old Hunch Arbat comes to appease the gods and keep them quiet.

The Warren of the Crippled God

Sandalath Drukorlat wakes up on the shore of the Crippled God, she speaks with Withal for a while and thinks that the Nacht around Withal are trying to say something.

Southeast of Dresh

Seren and Iron Bars' group catch up to the killers and dispatch them. But Seren tells Iron Bars that his compassion is not going to help him.

External links

• Critical Conversations 05: Midnight Tides Chapter 19 with Steven Erikson - A Critical Dragon - Steven Erikson discusses this chapter