The supreme moment is one in which absolutely nothing happens. That is how you recognize it.
—Orkanre the Eremite,
Shouting into Silence
Shouting into SilenceWhen he was twelve, Tsamais was suddenly visited by his father the King. That the King came at all was extraordinary enough, because boy was the second son of a later wife and unlikely to inherit anything. That he came in the night like a secret messenger or a thief was amazing beyond all comprehension, an occasion for terror, for King Zhamon was a fierce and silent man who had slain many enemies; and he came like a shadowy, miraculous apparition.
But Riverland is filled with apparitions and miracles in some seasons, the City of the Delta especially, and the shadows conceal the secret comings and goings of the gods, or of Death, w
