It seemed wryly fitting that the moon was breaking into pieces in the night sky, but to find amusement in such a poignant symbol was proving a struggle. He did not possess Rallick’s hardness, the layers of scar tissue worn like armour. And, for all that she had given him, Cutter was not her perfect reflection. He could not si shy;lence the anguish he felt inside, the legacy of delivering murder, making the notion of justice as unpalatable as a prisoner’s gruel. And these were things she did not feel.
He rode on.
The Hounds knew him, he was sure of that, and if that meant anything on this night, then he had no reason to fear them.
The occasional refugee darted across his path. Like ousted rats, the desperate hunt for cover filled their minds, and the faces flashing past seemed empty of any shy;thing human. Survival was a fever, and it left eyes blank as those of a beached fish. Witnessing this, Cutter felt his heart breaking.
This is my city. Darujhistan. Of the Blue Fires. It does not deserve this.
No, he did not fear the Hounds of Shadow. But he now despised them. The devastation they were delivering was senseless, a pointless unleashing of destruc shy;tion. He did not think Cotillion had anything at all to do with that. This stank of Shadowthrone, the fickleness, the cruel indifference. He had freed his beasts to play. In blood and snapped bones. In flames and collapsed tenements. All this fear, all this misery. For nothing.
Awkward or not, the lance felt reassuring in his hand. Now, if only Shad shy;owthrone would show himself, why, he’d find a place to plant the damned thing.
There, within its tiny, perfect world, the moon shone pure, unsullied. There had been a time, she realized, when she too had been like that. Free of stains, not yet bowed to sordid compromise, feeling no need to shed this tattered skin, these glazed eyes.
Women and men were no different in the important things. They arrived with talents, with predispositions, with faces and bodies either attractive to others or not. And they all made do, in all the flavours of living, with whatever they possessed. And there were choices, for each and every one of them. For some, a few of those choices were easier than others, when the lure of being desirable was not a conceit, when it reached out an inviting hand and all at once it seemed to offer the simplest path. So little effort was involved, merely a smile and thighs that did not resist parting.
But there was no going back. These stains didn’t wash off. The moon shone pure and beautiful, but it remained for ever trapped.
She stared up into the sky, watched how fragments spun out from a fast-darkening core. The momentum seemed to have slowed, and indeed, she thought she could see pieces falling back, inward, whilst dust flattened out, as if trans shy;formed into a spear that pierced all that was left of the moon.
The dust dreams of the world it had once been.
But the dust, alas, does not command the wind.
Cutter knew now that he had — since her — taken into his arms two women as if they were capable of punishing him, each in turn. Only one had succeeded, and he rode towards her now, to stand before her and tell her that he had murdered her husband. Not because she had asked him to, because, in truth, she did not have that sort of hold over him, and never would. No, Gorlas Vidikas was dead for other reasons, the specifics of which were not relevant.
She was free, he would say. To do as she pleased. But whatever that would he, he would tell her, her future would not — could never — include him.
‘See, there he is, at her side. What gall! Kills her husband and now she hangs on his arm. Oh, made for each other, those two. And may Hood find them the deepest pit, and soon.’
He could face that down, if need be. But he would not subject her to such a fate. Not even for love could he do that.
He had returned to his city; only to lose it for ever.
This journey to Challice would be his last. By dawn he would be gone. Daru shy;jhistan would not miss him.
She looked down once more at the imprisoned moon cupped in her hands. And here, she realized, was her childhood in all its innocence. Frozen, timeless, and for ever beyond her reach. She need only let her gaze sink in, to find all that she had once been. Cursed with beauty, blessed with health and vigour, the glow of promise-
Dust of dreams, will you now command the wind?
Dust of dreams, is it not time to set you free?
It was easy, then, to climb up on to the low wall, to stare down at the garden flagstones far below. Easy, yes, to set it all free.
Together, they plummeted through the smoky air, and when they struck, the globe shattered, the tiny moon flung loose to sparkle briefly in the air. Before twinkling out.
Dreams will not linger, but their dust rides the winds for ever.
Kruppe is no stranger to sorrow. The round man need only look at his own waist-line to grasp the tragedies of past excesses, and understand that all the things that come to pass will indeed come to pass. Heart so heavy he must load it into a wheelbarrow (or nearly so), and with not a single sly wink to offer, he leaves the grim confines of the Phoenix Inn and commences the torrid trek to the stables, where he attends to his sweet-natured mule, deftly avoiding its snapping bites and lashing kicks.
The moon’s face has broken apart into a thousand glittering eyes. Nothing can hide and all is seen. All can see that there is nothing left to hide. Dread clash is imminent.
The vast pressure snuffs blazing fires as would a thumb and finger a candlewick, snuff! Here and there and elsewhere, too. But this blessing is borne with harsh, cruel burden. A god has died, a pact been sealed, and in a street where onlookers now gather at the very edges, a most honourable man sits hunched over his knees, head bowed low. The wind takes ethereal chains emerging from the sword in his hands, and tugs them, tears at them, shreds them into ghostly nothings that drift up only to vanish in the smoke enwreathing the city.
Will he rise again?
Can he answer this final challenge?
What sort of man is this? This white-maned Tiste Andii whose hands remain stained with a brother’s blood, a people’s vast loss?
Ah, but look closely. The core burns still, hot and pure, and it gathers unto it shy;self, bound by indomitable will. He will take the wounds of the heart, for Anoman shy;der Rake is the sort of man who sees no other choice, who accepts no other choice.
Still. For the moment, grant him a few more moments of peace.
The round man rides out into Darujhistan.
There are temptations, and to some they can prove, ah, overwhelming. If need be, the round man can prove a most blunt barrier.
Just ask the man with the hammer.
As a warrior walked alone — in his wake a Toblakai and a witch, on the flanks three, now four Hounds of Shadow — an ox and cart drew to a halt outside an estate. The two men leading it separated, one heading to the back of the cart to set a trembling hand upon a chest — terrified that he might find it still, silent — and a moment later a faint sob broke free, but it was one of relief. The other man hurried up to the postern gate and tugged on a braided cord.
He ducked upon hearing the heavy flap of feathered wings overhead, and glared upward, but saw nothing but a thick, impenetrable layer of smoke. He twitched as he waited, muttering under his breath.
The door creaked open.
‘Master Baruk! I am glad it’s you and not one of your damned servants — getting past them is impossible. Listen, we have a hurt man — bad hurt — who needs healing. We’ll pay-’