hannan mosag had proclaimed this the greatest flaw among the edur. old men and the dead were the first whisperers of the word vengeance . old men and the dead stood at the same wall, and while the dead faced it, old men held their backs to it. beyond that wall was oblivion. they spoke from the end times, and both knew a need to lead the young onto identical paths, if only to give meaning to all they had known and all they had done.

feuds were now forbidden. crimes of vengeance sentenced an entire bloodline to disgraced execution.

trull sengar had watched, from where he stood in the gloom beneath a tree - the body before him - had watched his brother rhulad walk out into the forest. in these, the dark hours, he had been furtive in his movement, stealing like a wraith from the village edge.

into the forest, onto the north trail.

that led to the cemetery that had been chosen for the beneda warrior's interment.

where a lone woman stood vigil against the night.

it may be an attempt... that will fail. or it is a repetition of meetings that have occurred before, many times. she is unknowable. as all women are unknowable. but he isn't. he was too late to the war and so his belt is bare. he would draw blood another way.

because rhulad must win. in everything, he must win. that is the cliff-edge of his life, the narrow strand he himself fashions, with every slight observed - whether it be real or imagined matters not - every silent moment that, to him, screams scorn upon the vast emptiness of his achievements.

rhulad. everything worth fighting for is gained without fighting. every struggle is a struggle against doubt. honour is not a thing to be chased, for it, as with all other forces of life, is in fact impelled, streaking straight for you. the moment of collision is where the truth of you is revealed.

an attempt. which she will refuse, with outrage in her eyes.

or their arms are now entwined, and in the darkness there is heat and sweat. and betrayal.

and he could not move, could not abandon his own vigil above this anonymous beneda warrior.

his brother fear had made a sword, as was the custom. he had stood before mayen with the blade resting on the backs of his hands. and she had stepped forward, witnessed by all, to take the weapon from him. carrying it back to her home.

betrothal.

a year from that day - less than five weeks from now - she would emerge from the doorway with that sword. then, using it to excavate a trench before the threshold, she would set it down in the earth and bury it. iron and soil, weapon and home. man and woman.

marriage.

before that day when fear presented the sword, rhulad had not once looked at mayen. was it the uninterest of youth? no, the edur were not like letherii. a year among the letherii was as a day among the edur. there were a handful of prettier women among the maidens of noble-born households. but he had set his eyes upon her thereafter.

and that made it what it was.

he could abandon this vigil. a beneda warrior was not a hiroth warrior, after all. a sea-gnawed corpse clothed in copper, not gold. he could set out on that trail, padding through the darkness.

to find what? certainty, the sharp teeth behind all that gnawed at his thoughts.

and the worth of that?

it is these dark hours -

trull sengar's eyes slowly widened. a figure had emerged from the forest edge opposite him. heart thudding, he stared.

it stepped forward. black blood in its mouth. skin a pallid, dulled reflection of moonlight, smeared in dirt, smudged by something like mould. twin, empty scabbards of polished wood at its hips. fragments of armour hanging from it. tall, yet stoop-shouldered, as if height had become its own imposition.

eyes like dying coals.

'ah,' it murmured, looking down on the heap of leaves, 'what have we here?' it spoke the language of night, close kin to that of the edur.

trembling, trull forced himself to step forward, shifting his spear into a two-handed grip, the iron blade hovering above the corpse. 'he is not for you,' he said, his throat suddenly parched and strangely tight.

the eyes glowed brighter for a moment as the white-skinned apparition glanced up at trull. 'tiste edur, do you know me?'

trull nodded. 'the ghost of darkness. the betrayer.'

a yellow and black grin.

trull flinched as it drew a step closer and then settled to a crouch on the other side of the leaves. 'begone from here, ghost,' the edur said.

'or you will do what?'

'sound the alarm.'

'how? your voice is but a whisper now. your throat is clenched. you struggle to breathe. is it betrayal that strangles you, edur? never mind. i have wandered far, and have no desire to wear this man's armour.' it straightened. 'move back, warrior, if you wish to draw breath.'