prologue

the first days of the sundering of emurlahn

the edur invasion, the age of scabandari bloodeye

the time of the elder gods

from the twisting, smoke-filled clouds, blood rained down. the last of the sky keeps, flame-wreathed and pouring black smoke, had surrendered the sky. their ragged descent had torn furrows through the ground as they struck and broke apart with thunderous reverberations, scattering red-stained rocks among the heaps of corpses that covered the land from horizon to horizon.

the great hive cities had been reduced to ash-layered rubble, and the vast towering clouds above each of them that had shot skyward with their destruction - clouds filled with debris and shredded flesh and blood - now swirled in storms of dissipating heat, spreading to fill the sky.

amidst the annihilated armies the legions of the conquerors were reassembling on the centre plain, most of which was covered in exquisitely fitted flagstones - where the impact of the sky keeps had not carved deep gouges - although the reassertion of formations was hampered by the countless carcasses of the defeated. and by exhaustion. the legions belonged to two distinct armies, allies in this war, and it was clear that one had fared far better than the other.

the blood mist sheathed scabandari's vast, iron-hued wings as he swept down through the churning clouds, blinking nictitating membranes to clear his ice-blue draconean eyes. banking in his descent, the dragon tilted his head to survey his victorious children. the grey banners of the tiste edur legions wavered fitfully above the gathering warriors, and scabandari judged that at least eighteen thousand of his shadow-kin remained. for all that, there would be mourning in the tents of the first landing this night. the day had begun with over two hundred thousand tiste edur marching onto the plain. still... it was enough.

the edur had clashed with the east flank of the k'chain che'malle army, prefacing their charge with waves of devastating sorcery. the enemy's formations had been assembled to face a frontal assault, and they had proved fatally slow to turn to the threat on their flank. like a dagger, the edur legions had driven to the army's heart.

below, as he drew closer, scabandari could see, scattered here and there, the midnight banners of the tiste andii. a thousand warriors left, perhaps less. victory was a more dubious claim for these battered allies. they had engaged the k'ell hunters, the elite bloodkin armies of the three matrons. four hundred thousand tiste andii, against sixty thousand hunters. additional companies of both andii and edur had assailed the sky keeps, but these had known they were going to their own deaths, and their sacrifices had been pivotal in this day's victory, for the sky keeps had been prevented from coming to the aid of the armies on the plain below. by themselves, the assaults on the four sky keeps had yielded only marginal effect, despite the short-tails being few in number - their ferocity had proved devastating - but sufficient time had been purchased in tiste blood for scabandari and his soletaken draconean ally to close on the floating fortresses, unleashing upon them the warrens of starvald demelain, and kuralds emurlahn and galain. the dragon swept downward to where a jumbled mountain of k'chain che'malle carcasses marked the last stand of one of the matrons. kurald emurlahn had slaughtered the defenders, and wild shadows still flitted about like wraiths on the slopes. scabandari spread his wings, buffeting the steamy air, then settled atop the reptilian bodies.

a moment later he sembled into his tiste edur form. skin the shade of hammered iron, long grey hair unbound, a gaunt, aquiline face with hard, close-set eyes. a broad, downturned mouth that bore no lines of laughter. high, unlined brow, diagonally scarred livid white against the dusky skin. he wore a leather harness bearing his two-handed sword, a brace of long-knives at his hip, and hanging from his shoulders a scaled cape - the hide of a matron, fresh enough to still glisten with natural oils.

he stood, a tall figure sheathed in droplets of blood, watching the legions assemble. edur officers glanced his way, then began directing their troops.

scabandari faced northwest then, eyes narrowing on the billowing clouds. a moment later a vast bone-white dragon broke through - if anything, larger than scabandari himself when veered into draconean form. also sheathed in blood... and much of it his own, for silchas ruin had fought alongside his andii kin against the k'ell hunters.

scabandari watched his ally approach, stepping back only when the huge dragon settled onto the hilltop and then quickly sembled. a head or more taller than the tiste edur soletaken, yet terribly gaunt, muscles bound like rope beneath smooth, almost translucent skin. talons from some raptor gleamed in the warrior's thick, long white hair. the red of his eyes seemed feverish, so brightly did it glow. silchas ruin bore wounds: sword-slashes across his body. most of his upper armour had fallen away, revealing the blue-green of his veins and arteries tracking branching paths beneath the thin, hairless skin of his chest. his legs were slick with blood, as were his arms. the twin scabbards at his hips were empty - he had broken both weapons, despite the weavings of sorcery invested in them. his had been a desperate battle.