this was the civilization of the azathanai, desultory and forlorn. in its impoverishment it besieged the soul, and the most horrifying thing of all, to arathan's eyes, was that some of these houses were still occupied. he saw solid doors, latched shut, and the smudged ember-glows of candles leaking through shutters. he saw figures standing in shadows, beneath porches made of huge granite stones so perfectly cut that no mortar was needed, and he felt the unyielding pressure of strangers' eyes upon him and his companions as they rode slowly through the settlement.

his imagination recoiled from the poison of this place, from all the rejections - the casting away of pointless possessions, the indifference to weed-snarled yards and the broken barrows of burnt wood that had once been buildings. this was not his world and to breathe of it, to look upon it and take inside each and every detail, whispered of madness.

the day's lifeless light was failing. lord draconus led them through tumbled gaps in the walls, cutting through the centre of the settlement. the horses walked as if exhausted by grief, and upon the dusty neck of besra, the flies barely crawled.

when his father reined in opposite an oversized house of stone and timber, arathan felt his spirits flinch. it stood a short distance away, somehow more alone than all the others, and upon its granite facade the grey stone had been carved in endless, meaningless patterns of what seemed to be circles or rings. the sawn ends of the wood rafters, forming a row above the squat, wide door frame and marching on to the very ends of the front wall to either side, all bore similar shapes, like the imprints left behind by raindrops on mud. three low walls reached for the building but all seemed to have shattered or crumbled with the effort. the air around the house felt dead and cold.

'you might think,' said draconus, half turning to regard his bastard son, 'that your thoughts are your own.'

arathan blinked.

behind him, sergeant raskan whispered something like a prayer, and then cleared his throat. 'my lord, is this sorcery, then, to so plague our minds?'

'the world around you speaks your language,' draconus replied. 'it can do no else. all you see bears the paint of your words.' he paused, and then grunted, 'i wager none of you noted the flowers amidst the weeds, or the dance of the swifts above the old spring. or how the sky, for but a moment, was like the purest porcelain.'

unwilling to turn, to look upon feren who rode at rint's side, arathan stared at his father, fighting with the meaning of his words. 'we are invited,' he said.

'indeed, arathan. you begin to comprehend the curse of the azathanai.'

'the jheleck do not raid here any more.'

draconus shrugged. 'see you anything of value?'

a figure now stood in the doorway of the strange, carved house. not tall but thin, and, from what arathan could make out, barely clothed - and that clothing was little more than rags of the skins of small animals. all at once, to arathan, the scene seemed perfect - perfectly rendered, and nothing was accidental. nothing ever is.

rint spoke and his voice sounded clumsy and rough amidst a sudden, fragile elegance. 'do we make camp here, lord draconus? you mentioned a spring and we have great need of water.'

draconus nodded. 'the horses will find it for you, but we shall camp just beyond the village, on the hill at the crossroads up ahead.' he dismounted.

arathan did the same, trying not to shiver and struggling not to gasp: for all the perfection closing tight around him, it seemed the air surrounding the carved house could not feed his lungs.

studying him, draconus said, 'draw nearer to me, arathan, if you wish to remain.'

rint and feren had moved away. raskan was hastening to gather up the reins of the other horses, his movements strangely panicked to arathan's eyes.

stepping closer to his father, arathan found that he could once more fill his chest with sweet, blessed air. he returned his attention to the figure in the doorway. 'who is he and how can he live in... in this?'

'azathanai, of course,' draconus replied, and then sighed. 'i know, the name is meaningless. no, it is more than that: it is misleading.'

when it seemed that he would not explain, arathan asked, 'are they gods?'

'if they are,' his father said after a moment's thought, 'they are gods in waiting.'

'waiting for what?'

'worshippers. but this confuses things, i would wager. belief creates, arathan. so you have been taught. the god cannot exist until it is worshipped, until it is given shape, personality. it is made in the crucible of faith. so claim our finest tiste philosophers. but it is not that simple, i think. the god may indeed exist before the first worshipper ever arrives, but it does not call itself a god. it simply lives, of and for itself. far to the south, arathan, there are wild horses, and from birth until death they remain free. they have never tasted an iron bit, or felt the command of reins or knees or heels, and in that freedom, not once in their lives do they surrender their fear of us.'