## Chapter 4

The epigraph is a simple straightforward one to a new reader but is severely poignant for a re-reader.

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Kalyth from the Elan plains thinks back to the shaman rituals she has seen before. Thry use drugs to summon the 'Spotted Horse' to ride into different realms. Black threads which can be used to find prophecies, beyond is a world where all sorrow/grief was shed. All this Kalyth knows only second hand. She wonders how it would feel to ride through the ashes of her people.

She, along with her Che'Malle companions, have camped for the night. She uses the same drug disc used by her shamans and goes on a trip.

> ‘Never trust a leader who has nothing to lose.’

Sag'Churok reminisces about the way they had mistaken Redmask, who turned out to be as flawed as the Che'Malle. Gu'Rull who has been scanning the land from overhead has seen a large 'herd' of intruders. The Shi'gal suggests there are too many to kill and wants to avoid them. Gunth Mach can sense these sendings and tells Sag'Churok (whom she calls her first love) that she is very close to being more than just a drone. Sag'Churok is shocked that Gunthan Acyl is close to dying. The other K'ell hunters sense the threat response and are pleased at the possibility of battle.

Kalyth gets high. She can now see memories of everything around her. She wonders about her sense of self and how it creates distinction between itself and the rest of the world. Suddenly she is at a desert with Heboric and the Jade monolith. He is digging under the sands, elbow deep. He tells her that he is quenching his hands in the sand the way a tribe called Sanimon^([13]) does with its weapons.

Heboric tells her that all the tribes in the world share one thing: they will become extinct. He himself is readying to be used as a weapon to deliver a clean cut in the middle (of something; Heboric is speaking in riddles and we have no more idea what's going on than Kalyth does). The Destriant asks how she reached here, since she was riding her Spotted Horse. He says they all reach the place by getting high; drugs or dancing will do the trick. She tells him that the Che'malle old ways have failed and that the Matron is desperate enough to look to humans. She gets frustrated at his doomsday sayings and asks if he has anything worthwhile to share. He replies that a weapon must be tempered well, and that the finger points straight to 'them'. He tells her that it is flawed to think of gods and mortals as opposites. When he brings his hands up, we see that they are both rust red in colour - "Ready to grasp that most deadly weapon? I think not.’"^([14])

Kalyth's vision is fading but she can still hear Heboric, who is saying "‘It ever appears dead...Do not be deceived. She will be freed. She must. It is necessary.’"

Her next landscape hallucination is a place that seems to have skykeep wreckage and warring armies. There are twin suns in the sky and she feels herself burning when she suddenly wakes up. Sag'Churok has been watching over her and Gunth Mach has prepared breakfast.

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During the night, eighteen scouts from the White Face Barghast approach the Che'malle campfire. It's dark and the only light is the green glow from the Travellers in the sky. Of course, Gu'Rull can sense thermal signature and kills them all, even pursuing the last two who tried to run back to their herd.^([15]) The other K'ell hunters feel left out of this hunt. The scouts were accompanied by dogs which were beneath the notice of Gu'Rull.

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We get a look into the family of Hetan and Onos and their kids: twins Stavi and Storii and an unnamed toddler. The girls are spoilt by their father. Onos has summoned all the clan chiefs and they have started assembling. About a third have not sent anyone. Some clans have mutinied and signed up as mercenaries. One, the Gadra led by Stolmen, have found a pocket of Bhederin to herd and raise.

History time! Hetan's father Humbrall Taur had an accident during the sea crossing. Her husband Onos, despite being Imass, is now the warchief of the White Face and it's not without disagreements. They had come to the Letherii continent to fight Edur but found them already oppressed. Onos says the prophecy was wrong and they don't have to pursue the Edur. The shamans don't like it despite Cafal's (Hetan's surviving brother that we met in MoI) efforts at trying to unite them. After Toc's death, seeing Tool's grief, Kilava departed and Hetan misses her.

The Barghast feel purposeless and Onos gives them no cause to fight for. Hetan tells him they have too many bloodthirsty young warriors and Onos, speaking as a former T'lan, tells her that mistakes should not be ignored. Hetan reminds him that their 27 clans have come down to 19 now. Their own clan is called Senan.

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Torrent has elected to travel with the Gadra clan. In his dreams he is haunted by visions of Toc chasing him. The Barghast clan's women have been trying to bed him but he is terrified enough that he takes to riding away from camp as often as possible. The Awl children Toc saved have mostly assimilated with the Barghast people and Torrent considers himself the last of the Awl.

As he is riding away, six dogs approach him from the north. He sees there are wheeling birds in that direction and goes to look for himself. His inner thoughts show he's a very different man from the brash confident young Awl we knew from before.

> Torrent had cast away his faiths, his certainties, his precious beliefs.

He finds the corpses of the scouts cut down by Gu'Rull, guesses it's a single bestial foe, and heads back to camp.

Setoc, aka Stayandii, who was literally raised by wolves and was later adopted by the Barghast, notices the dogs returning to camp without the scouts. The Barghast consider her spirit touched and call her the holder of a thousand hearts (recall: Toc's Grey Swords had their hearts eaten out by wolves). Cafal has come to meet her and search her soul. She wishes the Barghast worshiped the wild and feels regret that their hunting dogs are chained and muzzled instead of being free and wild.

> God, my children, does not await us in the wilderness. God, my children, is the wilderness. ... But know this: peace is not always life. Sometimes, peace is death. In the face of this, how can one not be humble? The wild laws are the only laws.

She plans to tell this to Cafal and tell them that the Barghast are doomed to die.

Cafal remembers his meeting with Ganoes in Capustan in MoI. He was younger back then and had found Ganoes' indecisiveness infuriating. But now, he wishes he could meet him again and have a measured conversation. He sees that Onos Toolan's leadership which he gained following Humbrall's death is now trickling through his fingers. He too notices the returning dogs and wakes up Talamandas to question him about whats going on. Their relationship is strained now, as Talamandas has been repeating his conversations that they "need allies against what is coming". He notices that a small war party has set off northward. Setoc is watching them and he thinks of her as belonging to the Wolf God and Goddess, the Lord and Lady of the Beast Throne. Though they had come here in pursuit of the Grey Swords, to fight alongside them, they had only found a dead army.

He talks to Setoc who says this war party will die like those scouts, and that all the Barghast will die too etc. He is tired of hearing the same things over and over and calls her a poison. She tells him that the rhinazan, the winged lizards, whisper in her ear. She also talks about the green streaks in the sky, that they mostly pass by and sometimes fall. For some reason she brings up the accuracy of throwing javelins at a moving target. He tells her that Stolmen, the chief will want to talk to her and get clearer answers. She seems to serve the wolf gods like a priestess because she can answer on their behalf that they are very clear on the subject of war. And to them, the enemy is peace.

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Back to the Snake. The parasite laden boy Visto is dead and the children gather around in a sort of funeral ritual. Badalle finds words for him. Rutt tells her they shouldn't have liked Visto because it makes it harder to deal with his death. Badalle tells him they liked him, yes, but the Satra riders like him more. We meet Brayderal, a new girl from somewhere in the back who wants to join the inner circle/head of the snake. The tall, bony, fair-skinned girl reminds Badalle of the Quisiters/Quitters. As they head west, the horizon seems to glitter like glass. Seeing how weak Rutt is, she wonders if Brayderal is waiting to take up Held and lead the Snake when Rutt falls.

Saddic is a boy with a massive crush on Badalle. He wonders why Badalle said Visto remembered nothing of his past in the eulogy since it was false. He concludes that her words were for them, the survivors, reminding them to stop trying to remember. To him, Badalle is the brain of the snake. The one who makes sense of the world. The snake reaches a little watering hole and a lot of children die there.

By late afternoon, they are attacked by a swarm of meat eating locusts, the Shards.
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^([13]): The Sanimon live beyond the Sanimon Valley, the site of the battle between Coltaine's 7^(th), the Khundryl, and the tribes of the Whirlwind way back in Deadhouse Gates. The Tregyn, who live west of the Sanimon, were the ones who took in the Chain of Dogs and guided the refugees to within sight of the walls of Aren. If you think for a second this is the last echo of the Chain of Dogs in this book you have another thing coming (as if the mass of refugee children wasn't enough of a clue).

^([14]): Yes, I'm aware all this sounds like pointless ramblings, even on a reread this is a pretty dense conversation to follow. If you are putting a pin on the things you need to revisit after BotF, add one here

^([15]): It's at least passingly interesting that Gu'Rull thinks the Barghast are human. At least according to the GotM glossary they are not, and MoI 8 implies they have Imass and TTT blood. It appears they are close enough to interbreed, but they aren't human.