'Ideal,' Lady Envy said. 'We thank you, holy ones.'
The walk to the mouth of the side street was no more than fifty paces, yet in that time the city's silence was replaced by a growing murmur, a dry susurration approaching from Bastion's heart. Upon arriving, Baaljagg and Garath returned to flank Lady Envy. Senu and Thurule set the travois down against the wall of a corner building, then faced the square once more, hands on their weapons.
'The will of the Faith has embraced the citizens of Bastion,' the priest said. 'It arrives like a fever … a fever that only death can abate. Yet it must be remembered that the Embrasure was first felt here in Bastion itself, fourteen years ago. The Seer had returned from the Mountain, speaking the Words of Truth, and the power of those words rippled outward. ' The priest's voice broke with some kind of emotion wrought by his own words. He bowed his head, his entire body trembling.
Another priest continued for him. 'The Faith flowered here first. A caravan from Elingarth was encamped beyond the walls. The foreigners were rewarded in a single night. And the First Child of the Dead Seed was gifted to the mortal world nine months later. That child has now come of age, an event that has triggered a renewed burgeoning of the Faith — a second Embrasure has occurred, under the command of the First Child, Anaster. You shall see him now — his mother at his side — leading his newfound Tenescowri. A war awaits them far to the north — the faithless city of Capustan must be rewarded.'
'Holy ones,' Lady Envy said, raising her voice to be heard over the growing roar of chanting voices, 'please forgive my ignorance. A Child of the Dead Seed — what precisely is that?'
'The moment of reward among the male unbelievers, mistress, is often marked by an involuntary spilling of life-seed … and continues after life has fled. At this moment, with a corpse beneath her, a woman may ride and so take within her a dead man's seed. The children that are thus born are the holiest of the Seer's kin. Anaster is the first to reach his age.'
'That is,' Lady Envy said, 'extraordinary …'
Toc saw her face sickly pale for the first time in his memory.
'The Seer's gift, mistress. A Child of the Dead Seed bears the visible truth of death's kiss of life — proof of the Reward itself. We know that foreigners fear death. The Faithful do not.'
Toc cleared his throat, leaned close to the priest. 'Once these Tenescowri leave Bastion … is there anyone else still breathing in the city?'
'Embrasure is absolute, sir.'
'In other words, those who did not succumb to the fever have been … rewarded.'
'Indeed.'