“And it seems the White Swarm is not
yet done with me,” the warlord said. “This was the only way they could keep me
alive. They say it requires a great deal of energy, because my body cannot
support itself.”
“You fell
in battle,” I said, remembering Kasora and its siege.
“The master
of the nightwind is also kept alive by his machines. He was injured, I suppose,
very long ago. More and more, we become each other’s counterpart.”
I had no
answer to that. “But I fell,” I said, remembering. “My mastodon was killed, you
were twice cut in half, and I watched Marcus fall as I did. Then one of the
Augers put a foot across my chest, and was going to impale me with his weapon.
The city was on fire.”
“You
remember nothing more?”
I shook my
head. “I think he did it. Impaled me, I mean. I remember great pain in my
chest, and then I could not breathe enough, and everything was dark and cold.
But I am not certain.”
He nodded
again. “You may remember soon.”
“Where is
Marcus?” I felt that he and I had travelled far together. “I would like to see
him, at least.”
Jerem Cozak
shook his head. “The khrall cleaved his skull in two. From that injury, there
is no return.” He frowned.
I thought
for a moment. “Then how will the Neverborn fight on? He was a center of their
consciousness. Were they also destroyed?”
He smiled,
then, easier and more fully than I remembered him doing. “They are all quite
well. Nearly all of them survived the battle and the fire. And they will soon
find another center.”
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