The Crippled God/Chapter 17

The Crippled God
Dramatis Personae	Pagination
"He was a soldier"
Chapter 1	Chapter 2
Chapter 3	Chapter 4
All the takers of my days
Chapter 5	Chapter 6
Chapter 7
To charge the spear
Chapter 8	Chapter 9
Chapter 10
The fists of the world
Chapter 11	Chapter 12
Chapter 13
A hand upon the fates
Chapter 14	Chapter 15
Chapter 16
To one in chains
Chapter 17	Chapter 18
Chapter 19	Chapter 20
Your private shore
Chapter 21	Chapter 22
Chapter 23	Chapter 24
Epilogue I	Epilogue II

Epigraph

The faces all in rows will wait As I take each in my hands Remembering what it is To be who I am not. Will all these struggles Fade into white? Or melt like snow on stone In the heat of dawn? Do you feel my hands? These weathered wings Of dreams of flight --stripped-- Are gifts worn down. Still I hold fast and climb sure Through your eyes-- Who waits for me Away from the ravaged nests The scenes of violence Any searching will easily find The broken twigs The tufts of feather and hair The spilled now drying-- Did you spring alight Swift away unharmed? So many lies we leave be The sweet feeding to make us strong But the rows are unmoving And we journey without a step What I dare you to lose I surrendered long ago But what I beg you to find Must I then lose? In these rows there are tales For every line, every broken smile Draw close then And dry these tears For I have a story to tell The Unwitnessed Fisher kel Tath

The children of the Snake, travelling west, meet the Bonehunters travelling east, and join them. The Bonehunters share with them their little remaining water.

The Bonehunters are dying of thirst and are unlikely to last another day; yet they are inspired by the presence of the children to struggle on for longer.