Something struck the ground, the bedrock under her shuddering, throwing her upward. She came back down hard on one elbow. The bones of her arm shivered like the blade of a sword. The glare of the sun dimmed as Felisin fought for air. Her wide eyes caught a glimpse of something beyond the basin, lifting ponderously from the plain in a heaving cloud of dust. Two-toed, a fur-snarled hoof, too large for her to fully grasp, rising up, pulled skyward into a midnight gloom.

The tattoo had leapt from stone to the air itself, a woadstained web growing in crazed, jerking blots, snapping outward in all directions.

She could not breathe. Her lungs burned. She was dying, sucked airless into the void that was a god’s scream.

Sudden silence, out beyond the ringing echoes in her skull. Air flooded her, cold and bitter, yet sweeter than anything she had known. Coughing, spitting bile, Felisin pushed herself onto her hands and knees, shakily raised her head.

The hoof was gone. The tattoo hung like an after-image across the entire sky, slowly fading as she watched. Movement pulled her gaze down, to Baudin. He’d been on his knees, hands cupping the sides of his head. He now slowly straightened, tears of blood filling the lines of his face.

The ground under her feeling strangely fluid, Felisin tottered to her feet. She looked down, blinking dumbly at the mosaic of limestone. The swirling furred patterns of the tattoo still trembled, rippling outward from her moccasins as she struggled for balance. The cracks, the tattoos . . . they go down, and down, all the way down. As if I’m standing atop a bed of league-deep nails, each nail kept upright only by the others surrounding it. Have you come from the Abyss, Fener? It’s said your sacred warren borders Chaos itself. Fener? Are you among us now? She turned to meet Baudin’s eyes. They were dull with shock, though she could detect the first glimmers of fear burning through.

‘We wanted the god’s attention,’ she said. ‘Not the god himself.’ A trembling seized her. She wrapped her arms around herself, forcing more words forth. ‘And he didn’t want to come!’

His flinch was momentary, then he rolled his shoulders in something that might have been a shrug. ‘He’s gone now, ain’t he?’

‘Are you sure of that?’

He shook off the need to answer, looking instead at Heboric. After a moment’s study, he said, ‘He breathes steadier now. Nor so wrinkled and parched. Something’s happened to him.’

She sneered. ‘The reward for missing getting stomped on by a hair’s breadth.’

Baudin grunted, his attention suddenly elsewhere.

She followed his gaze. The pool of water was gone, drained away until only a carpet of capemoth corpses remained. Felisin barked a laugh. ‘Some salvation we’ve had here.’

Heboric slowly curled himself into a ball. ‘He’s here,’ he whispered.

‘We know,’ Baudin said.