Toll the Hounds

Yet did I not stand with him on that strand! Am I not the last one left to share with my lord that memory!

The pressure slowly eased. And once again, he had survived the embrace. And the next time? There was no telling, but he did not believe he could last much longer. The pain clutching his chest, the thunder in his skull.

We have found a new supply of cadaver eels. That is what I will tell him. And he will smile and nod, and perhaps settle one hand on my shoulder. A gentle, cautious squeeze, light enough to ensure that nothing breaks. He will speak his gratitude.

For the eels.

It was a measure of his courage and fortitude that the man had never once denied that he had been a Seerdomin of the Pa

This much and little more was what Spi

As many kings or queens as there were players. A field of battle that expanded with each round and was never twice the same. Soldiers and mercenaries and mages, assassins, spies. Spi

Most held that the white mane was a recent affectation, like some mocking salute to Black Coral’s remote ruler. The tiles of the field themselves were all flavoured in aspects of Dark, Light and Shadow. The Grand City and Keep tiles were seen as corresponding to Black Coral, although Spi

But no matter. It was the game that counted.

The lone Tiste Andii in all of the Scour, Spi

The Seerdomin sat across the table from Spi

If the former, then Spi

Spi

‘Seerdomin,’ he now said, whilst the cornered player prevaricated, besieged by advice from friends crowded behind his chair, ‘you have a singular talent for Kef Tanar.’

The man simply smiled

In the previous round a cast of the knuckles had delivered a Mercenary’s Coin into the Seerdomin’s royal vaults. Spi

Breaths were held as the third king reached into the pouch to collect a field tile. He drew out his hand closed in a fist, then met Spi

Nerves and avarice. ‘Three coins, Tiste, and I’m your vassal.’

Spi

‘Then you will lose.’

‘I doubt Seerdomin will buy your allegiance either.’

‘Come to me now,’ Seerdomin said to the man, ‘and do so on your hands and knees.’

Garsten’s eyes flicked back and forth, gauging which viper was likely to carry the least painful bite. After a moment he snarled under his breath and revealed the tile.

‘Gate!’

‘Delighted to find you sitting on my right,’ Spi

‘ I retreat through!’

Cowardly, but predictable. This was the only path left to Garsten that allowed him to hold on to the coins in his vault. Spi

And then it was Spi

The assault struck down two-thirds of Seerdomin’s I

With the ground defences in sudden disarray on the collapse of command, Spi

Voices rose on all sides, as wagers were settled.

Spi

‘You are ever generous with my money,’ Seerdomin said in sour amusement.

‘The secret of generosity, friend.’

‘I appreciate the salve.’

‘1 know.’

As was customary, the other three players, having retreated, could not par-take of any gesture of celebration by the game’s victor. Accordingly, Spi

‘The problem with us night owls,’ said Seerdomin, hunching down over his flagon. When it seemed he would say no more he added, ‘Not once does a glance to yon smudged pane over there reveal the poppy-kiss of dawn.’

‘Dawn? Ah, to a