failed him on the spot.
In the Maze there was the sound of children’s voices, running frenzied through
the streets – 0 Mama, Papa! Here I am! One such wandered alone, among the
merchants’ fine houses, and rapped on a door. I’m home – o Mama, let me in!
A thief stirred in his sleep, rubbed his eyes and rubbed them twice. ‘Cudget,’
he said, knowing that he was dreaming, and yet he felt the cold drifting from
the old man. ‘Cudget?’ The old man swore at him just as he used to do, and Hanse
Shadowspawn sat up in bed, petrified as his old mentor gazed on him, sitting on
his foot.
Outside, the streets rustled with the gathering of the dead. One hammered at a
door with thin rattling result; Where’s my money? it wailed. One-Thumb, where’s
my money?
The booths at the Vulgar Unicorn grew crowded, buzzed with whispers, and the few
diehard patrons went fleeing out the door.
Brother, a ghost said to the fat man in an uptown bed, and to the woman beside
him – is he worth it, Thea?
Screams rose, long ones, echoing above the streets, a thin clamouring that the
wind took and carried through the air.
A Beysib woman felt the stirring of the snake that shared her bed, opened dark
strange eyes and stared in wonder at the pale night-gowned figure that stood
within the room: Usurper, it said. Get out of my bed. Get out of my house. You
have no right.
No one had ever told her that. She blinked, confused, hearing the screams, as if
the town were being sacked.
Across the river Moruth hurried along, hastening in the night for a newer, more