Wither had wrapped shadow hands around Udinaas’s neck. Was choking the life from the ex-slave.
Kettle pulled herself free, then twisted round to pound tiny hands against the wraith.
All at once, a ferocious will burgeoned within Seren Pedac. The will to kill. Launched like a javelin towards Wither.
The wraith exploded in shreds-
– as Clip arrived, standing over Udinaas and reaching down one hand to grasp Kettle’s tunic between the girl’s shoulder blades.
Clip threw the child across the floor. She struck, skidded then rolled like a bundle of rags.
With focused punches of Mockra, Seren Pedac hammered at Clip, sending him staggering. Blood sprayed from his nose, mouth and ears. Then he whipped round, a hand lashing out.
Something pounded Seren Pedac high on her left shoulder. Sudden agony radiated out from the point of impact and all her concentration vanished beneath those overwhelming waves. She looked down and saw a dagger buried to the hilt-stared down at it in disbelief.
There had been no time to think. Trull Sengar was left with naught but recognition. One, then another, arriving in shocks that left him stunned.
From the gate emerged an apparition-and Trull Sengar had stood before this one before, long ago, during a night’s vigil over fallen kin. Ghost of darkness. The Betrayer. No longer weaponless, as he had been the first time. No longer half rotted, yet the coals of those terrifying eyes remained, fixed now upon him in bright familiarity.
And, in a low voice, almost a whisper, the Betrayer said, ‘Of course it is you. But this battle, it is not-’
At that moment, Trull Sengar saw his brother. Fear, the god of his childhood, the stranger of his last days among the Tiste Edur. Fear, meeting Trull’s wide eyes. Seeing the battle about to begin. Comprehending-and then there was a knife in his hand, and, as he surged forward to stab the Betrayer in the back, Trull saw in his brother’s face-in an instant-the full measure of Fear’s sudden self-awareness, the bitter irony, the truth of generations past returned once more, one last time. Silchas Ruin, an Edur knife seeking his back.
When Fear was tugged backward, when his throat opened wide, Trull Sengar felt his mind, his soul, obliterated, inundated by incandescent fury, and he was moving forward, the tip of his spear seeking the slayer of his brother-
And the Betrayer was in his way.
A slash opened up the Betrayer’s skin at the base of his throat, the tip skittering away across one clavicle; then a thrust, punching into the apparition’s left shoulder muscle.
And all at once the Betrayer’s swords wove a skein of singing iron, parrying the spear’s every lightning thrust and sweep. And suddenly Trull Sengar’s advance stalled, and then he was being driven back, as those swords, hammering the shaft of his spear, tore away bronze sheathing, began splintering the wood.
And Trull Sengar recognized, before him, his own death.
Onrack the Broken saw his friend’s attack fail, saw the fight turn, and saw that Trull Sengar was doomed to fall.
Yet he did not move. Could not.
He felt his own heart tearing itself to pieces, for the man behind him-the Imass, Ulshun Pral-was, Onrack knew at once, of his own blood. A revelation, the summation of a thousand mysterious sensations, instincts, the echoing of gestures-Ulshun Pral’s very stance, his manner of walking, and the talent of eyes and hand-he was, oh he was…
Trull Sengar’s spear exploded in the warrior’s hands. A sword lashed out-
The blow to her shoulder had driven Seren Pedac down to her knees, then pitched her sideways-and she saw, there before Silchas Ruin, Trull Sengar.
Clip, blood streaming down his face, had turned back to pursue Udinaas, who was, crawling, scrabbling towards Kettle.
And before her rose a choice.
Trull
Or Udinaas.
But, alas, Seren Pedac was never good with choices.
With her hands she sent the stone spear skittering towards Trull Sengar-even as his own weapon shattered into pieces. And, tearing the dagger from her shoulder, she renewed her Mockra assault on Clip-staggering the bastard once more.
As the sword swung to take Trull in the side of his head, he dropped down, then rolled to evade the second weapon that chopped down. He wasn’t fast enough. The edge slammed deep into his right hip, stuck fast in solid bone.
Trull took hold of the Betrayer’s forearm and pulled as he twisted-the pain as he sought to trap that embedded sword momentarily blinded him, filling his skull with white fire-and against the other sword he could do nothing-
But the Betrayer, pulled slightly off balance, took a step to the side to right himself-onto the shaft of the stone spear which promptly rolled beneath his weight.
And down he went.
Trull saw the spear, reached for it. Closed both hands about the shaft, then, still lying on his side, one of the singing swords pinned beneath him-the Betrayer’s arm stretched out as he sought to maintain his grip-Trull drove the butt end of the spear into his opponent’s midsection.
Punching all the air from his lungs.
He plunged backward, rolled, and the sword under Trull slapped down as the Betrayer’s hand involuntarily released it. And Trull pounded a hand down on the weapon, dislodging it from the bone of his hip. The white fire remained in his mind, even as he forced himself onto his knees, then upward. The leg beneath the wound refused to obey him and he snarled in sudden rage, willing himself into a standing position-then, leg dragging, he closed in on the Betrayer-
Seren Pedac-all her efforts at incinerating Clip’s brain failing-shrank back as the now grinning Tiste Andii, abandoning his hunt for Udinaas, turned about and advanced on her, drawing out knife and rapier. Crimson teeth, crimson streaks from his eyes like tears-
At that moment, impossibly, Trull Sengar hurt Silchas Ruin-drove the White Crow onto his back where his head snapped back to crunch against the floor, stunning him.
And Clip turned, saw, and raced in a low blur towards Trull.
Meeting a spear that lashed out. Clip parried it at the last moment, surprise on his features, and he skidded to a halt, and was suddenly fighting for his life.
Against a crippled Tiste Edur.
Who drove him back a step.
Then another.
Wounds blossomed on Clip. Left arm. Across the ribs on the right side. Laying open his right cheek.
In a sudden, appallingly fast-shifting attack, Trull Sengar reversed the spear and the stone shaft cracked hard into Clip’s right forearm, breaking it. Another crack, dislocating the right shoulder-and the knife spun away. Third time, this one on the upper left thigh, hard enough to splinter the femur. A final one, against Clip’s left temple-a spray of blood, the head rocking to one side, the body collapsing utterly beneath it. Rapier clunking from a senseless hand. And Trull then whirled back to Silchas Ruin-But his wounded leg failed him and he fell-Seren heard his curse like a sharp retort-
The white-skinned Tiste Andii advanced to where Onrack stood. The lone sword in his right hand howled as he readied it.
‘Step aside, Imass,’ he said. ‘The one behind you is mine.’
Onrack shook his head. He is mine. Mine!
It was clear that the Tiste Andii saw Onrack’s refusal in the face of the Imass warrior, for he suddenly snarled-a sound of raw impatience-and lashed out with his left hand.
Sorcery hammered-into Onrack. Lifting him from his feet, high into the air, then slamming him into a wall of stone.
As he dropped down hard onto the floor, a single thought drifted through his mind before unconsciousness took him: Not again.
