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“Were you always him? Every word spoken since, every deed, every kindness I can’t believe it was all you”
The thing shrugged “Believe what you wish They come close to death, we take them, from that moment they are ours We knohat they know,whispered, a faint but jarring note “You’re lying Hentes Mustor was not fully within your command, was he? That’s why you killed him before he could tell od And when you came for Aspect Elera you had three men under your yolk yet they attacked separately, no doubt your business with Aspect Corlin at the house of the Fourth Order taxed your abilities I don’t think you can fully control rip can be broken”
The thing inclined Barkus’s head “Battle Sight is a powerful gift indeed Soon you’ll be close to death and one of us will come to claiuide theh the difficult years ahead? What malice lurks in your breast I wonder? Your Master Sollis perhaps? Janus and his endless schemes? Or is it the Order? After all, they sent you here to drawso robbed you of the woman you love Tellyou hy have you sought s into the Urlish to killSister Henna to ht of the Aspect Massacre”
“What use have we for hirelings? And Henna’s mission was conceived in haste, so troublesoht of all nights, before we knehat power you could offer us She sends her regards, by the way So sorry she couldn’t be here”
He searched for so but found only silence This thing was not lying “If not you, then who?” His voice faded as it ca: Brother Harlick’s fear in the Fallen City Have you come to kill me? “The Seventh Order,” he murmured aloud
“Did you really think they were just a bunch of har in service to your absurd faith? They have their own plans, their own agents Do not delude yourself that they would hesitate to seek your death should you prove an obstacle”
“Then why have they not attacked me since?”
The thing shifted Barkus’s body in badly concealed unease “They are biding their ti for their chance”
Another lie, confirs on me but the wolf killed the, protection afforded by a power they feared? Questions As ever, there were always more questions
“Were you once a man?” he asked it “Did you have a na but to those who’ve felt the depthless chill of the void they seem the conceit of children”
“So you were alive once You had a body of your own”
“A body? Yes I had a body Torn by the wilderness and wasted by hunger, pursued by hate at every turn I had a body born of a raped ift could turn the wind The man who fathered me lied and said she had used the Dark to compel him to bed her Lied that he refused to stay with her when the spell faded Lied that she had used her gift to spoil the crops in revenge With stones and rotting filth they drove us into the forest where we lived like anier and the cold took her frouage and custoe And in tihtning,’” Vaelin quoted “‘And the village burned The people fled to the river but he swelled it with rain until the banks burst and carried theht down a blast of wind fro for in its complete lack of cruelty, a smile of fond remembrance “I can still see his face,up at me from the depths of the river I pissed on it”
“The Witch’s Bastard,” Vaelin whispered “The story must be three centuries old”
“Time is as much a delusion as your faith, brother To look into the void is to see the vastness and s at once, in an instant of terror and wonder”
“What is it? This void you talk of?”