Chapter 18Vredech waited in the silent grey stillness. He asked himself the same questions the Whistler had asked. Why should he create such a place as this? And why a character such as the Whistler, a figure who sounded no familiar echo along the tunnels of memory? And where could he have conceived the pain that the man exuded, and the images of destruction that he conjured? Apart from the odd youthful folly, he himself had known little violence in his life, and he knew nothing of the reality of war other than from reports of the skirmishes that occurred from time to time between neighbouring states and even in these there had been nothing which could be regarded as a large-scale war. As for the massive horror such as the Whistler spoke of, he had met that only in debatable ancient histor
