Toward the end of this new region, wherever it may lie (for only then would he remove the beacon, and he knew just how to do it, and return to his ferryman, having first set their pursuers on a false course). Toward the end of the River Dire ...
To the end, if need be, of Ursathrax itself.
Black Hole, White Fountain
I | War
Shekalane knew. She knew somehow what the smell was even before they rounded the bend and began floating past the village of Flax on their way to Parvus’ homestead. It was an acrid smell, an obscene smell, a smell at once coppery and metallic, but also earthy, oily, a smell that was unnatural and acidic and yet cloying, musky, sweet.
It was the smell of human flesh burning. She knew it even before the great bonfire of corpses came into view, for the smoke coated he
