King Father Stone, under the earth,
swimming in blood to give himself birth.
King Father Stone, under the sky,
gobbled three sons, but won’t let them die.
—Anvastou children’s rhyme, recorded
in the notebooks of Sekenre the Illuminator.
Darkness and thunder.
King Hrosan raged in the night, against the rain and wild wind, against his traitorous sons and their armies arrayed before him. He could not allow the battle to end, not now, not like this. But, in the pouring rain as the darkness closed in, the shield-wall broke and the royal troops scattered, streaming from the field into the adjoining woods, pursued by yelling cavalrymen.
Now the s*******r had truly begun, and the night was filled with the frenzy of it, a second storm of death amid the surging elements.
He cursed his sons’
