****
Baffled, Taralack Veed faced Icarium. 'What do you sense? Of this place?'
The eyes that regarded him were flat. 'The Shadow demons left with our arrival. There was… someone… a man, but he too is gone. Some time past. He is the one I would have faced.'
'Skilled enough to unleash you, Icarium?'
'Skilled enough, perhaps, to kill me, Taralack Veed.'
'Impossible.'
'Nothing is impossible,' Icarium said.
They set off after the half-dozen Edur who had hastened ahead to join Sathbaro Rangar.
Fifteen paces down the path they came upon the first signs of past battle. Bloated bodies of dead aptorians and azalan demons. They would not have fallen easily, Taralack Veed knew. He had heard of egregious losses among the Edur and, especially, the Letherii. Those bodies had been recovered.
A short distance beyond rose the walls of an overgrown a courtyard.
The gate had been shattered. Icarium trailing a step behind, Taralack Veed followed the others into the compound, then the Jhag reached out and halted the Gral, 'No further.'
'What?'
There was an odd expression on Icarium's face. 'There is no need.'
****
Ahlrada Ahn, along with Saur and Kholb, accompanied the Arapay warlock into the shadowy, refuse-filled chamber of the throne room. The Seat of Shadow, the soul of Kurald Emurlahn, the throne that needed to be claimed, before the sundered realm could be returned to what it once was, a warren whole, seething with power.
Perhaps, with this, Rhulad could break theSathbaro Rangar cried out, a terrible sound, and he staggered.
Ahlrada Ahn's thoughts fell away. He stared.
The Throne of Shadow, there on a raised dais at the far end of the room…
It has been destroyed.
Smashed to pieces, the black wood splintered to reveal its blood-red heartwood. The demons yielded us… nothing. The Throne of Kurald Emurlahn is lost to us.
The warlock was on his knees, shrieking at the stained ceiling. Saur and Kholb stood, weapons out, yet seemingly frozen in place.
Ahlrada Ahn strode up to Sathbaro Rangar and grasped the warlock by the collar, then pulled him onto his feet. 'Enough of this,' he said.
'Gather yourself. We may be done here, but we are not done – you know this. The warriors will be thirsting for slaughter, now. You must return to the gate – there is another throne to be won, and those defending it will not flee as these ones have done here. Attend to yourself, Sathbaro Rangar!'
'Yes,' the warlock gasped, tugging free from Ahlrada Ahn's grip. 'Yes, you speak truth, warrior. Slaughter, yes, that is what is needed.
Come, let us depart – ah, in the name of Father Bloodeye, let us leave this place!'
****
'They return,' Taralack Veed said, as the Tiste Edur reappeared at the entrance to the temple. 'The warlock, he looks… aggrieved. What has happened?'
Icarium said nothing, but something glittered in his eyes.
'Jhag,' snarled Sathbaro Rangar as he limped past, 'gather yourself. A true battle awaits us.'
Confusion among the ranks of Edur, words exchanged, then an outcry, curses, bellows of fury. The anger spread out, a wildfire suddenly eager to devour all that would dare oppose it. Wheeling about, hastening towards the flickering gate.
They were not returning to the ships.
Taralack Veed had heard, from Twilight, that an Edur commander named Hanradi Khalag had been sending his warriors against another foe, through a gate – one that led, in a journey of days, to yet another private war. And it was these enemies who would now face the wrath of these Edur here. And that of Icarium.
So they shall see, after all. That is good.
At his side there came a sound from the Jhag that drew Taralack Veed around in surprise. Low laughter.
'You are amused?' he asked Icarium in a hoarse whisper.
'Of Shadow both,' the Jhag said enigmatically, 'the weaver deceives the worshipper. But I will say nothing. I am, after all, empty.'
'I do not understand.'
'No matter, Taralack Veed. No matter.'
****
The throne room was abandoned once more, dust settling, shadows slinking back to their predictable haunts. And, from the shattered throne itself, there grew a faint shimmering, a blurring of edges, then a wavering that would have alarmed any who witnessed it – but of such sentient creatures there were none.
The broken, crushed fragments of wood melted away.
And once more there on the dais stood the Throne of Shadow. And stepping free of it, a shadowy form more solid than any other.
Hunched, short, shrouded in folds of midnight gauze. From the indistinct smudge where a face belonged, only the eyes were visible, momentarily, a glinting flash.
