I looked down over the parapet and saw 3 dead bodies lying amid the rubble of the wall. 2 of them were Dau Fighters, and the other one had to be Hensch. He was lying on his back inbetween the other 2, his face staring up at me, and although he didnt look exactly like Skender, the resemblance was too close to be a coincidence.

Hensch was dead.

I dont know how much of what Ide told Glorian was true – I was only guessing about most of it – and I dont suppose Ile ever know for sure what Pilgrim was really planning to do, but it doesnt matter now, and it didnt matter then. Whatever the 3 of them were aiming to do, the only thing I wanted to know about it was how it affected me and Chola Se. And the only reasons Ide been talking to Glorian about it were firstly to see if I could get anything out of him – which I hadnt – secondly to see if I could rile him into a mistake – which also hadnt worked – and thirdly because I was playing for time.

I didnt know if I was right about why they hadnt killed me yet, but they obviously needed me alive for some reason, and as long as I was alive they needed to keep Chola Se alive too, because without her they had no control over me. But they werent going to need us forever.

The dogs were getting close now though, and I was with them. I was with my mother, running through the night with her, seeing what she could see, feeling what she could feel – the burning town up ahead, the smell of charred flesh in the air---the closeness of the pack all around us---the big gray male, the 3 adult females, the 2 juveniles, the 2 young sisters---

I was with them all.

And all around us, everywhere we could see, hundreds of other dogs were running in resolute silence – large packs, small packs, families, lone dogs---

The Deathland dogs were coming, drawn together by the scent of human blood, just as they had been all those years ago when theyd attacked the wagon in the Black Mountains, only this time there werent just 30 or 40 of them---

This time theyd risen as one.

I could hear Pilgrim moving now – stepping away from the gunport, leaning the sniper rifle against the wall – and as I turned away from the parapet and looked down over the walkway into the lower section of the turret, I saw him standing there staring up at me – composed, cold-eyed, confident.

He drew one of his Colts and calmly aimed it at my head.

Youre right about one thing, Jeet, he said. I do like killing people.

It looked as if my time had come.

JEET!