But the man didn’t hear him; he heard only the shrieks of his family, saw only their tormented faces which were spotted with his own blood.
Sentries and numerous onlookers had gathered about them now and Dravidian feared for a moment that the mob might overpower the guards and fall upon him. Through all the confusion and wailing he heard someone bark: “Stand aside! The Lucitor’s will must stand.”
And then they were in the boat and away, Dravidian shoving off before he had even tended to the man’s wound, while the horrified woman and her children looked on and the sentries began to herd the crowd back to the riverbank.
VI | The Children
The faces swirled about him in what he had begun to suspect was a dream: pale as his own, swollen, webbed with bulging veins—all of them betraying quive
