“This is the point,” said Gremt. “Memnoch waits and watches and he might not make his move again for a hundred years. But don’t forget ever that he is there. And don’t forget Rhoshamandes. Best do away with Rhoshamandes.”

“No,” said Teskhamen as if he couldn’t stop himself.

“Well, why not?” asked Gremt. He looked at me again. “And don’t underestimate the rebels out there who want to topple you for the sheer sake of doing it. And don’t, don’t ever underestimate Amel!”

A low moan came from Magnus.

“How at times like this do I wish I were a musician, because music is the only fit vehicle for the emotions I feel. I died the night I made you, and what a fool I was to do it, to die in that fire of my own making, and not to have had the courage to embrace you, love you, travel the Devil’s Road with you, my ancient body the eager pupil to your lordly newborn strength! Ah, the things we do. What are we that we can make such great blunders without the slightest realization of what we are doing? What is man that he is so mindful of himself and knows so little of the consequences of what he does!”

He rose to his feet and drew near to me, and in a flash I again felt as surely as I saw it that he ceased to be the blond-haired male of perfect proportions and became the very image of the monster I had known.

It took all my resolve not to get up and move away from him. He came close to me, the vivid embodiment of the gaunt, wraithlike being he’d been on the night of my making, except for his clothes which were dark and ragged and shapeless, with leggings like bandages and his eyes fiercely black, black as his hair.

Scatter the ashes. Or else I might return, and in what shape that would be, I dare not contemplate. But mark my words, if you allow me to come back, more hideous than I am now…

I found myself standing some feet away from him. Not a sound from Amel. Just this creature with its back to the fire, his wavering figure surrounded by a halo of flickering light.

Gremt came up silently beside me.

“This is my fault, all of this,” he said. I felt his arm on mine.

“I did scatter the ashes,” I whispered. It sounded so stupid, so childlike. “I scattered them just as you told me to do,” I said to Magnus. “I scattered them.”

The figure’s face was in shadow against the blaze, but I could see the expression softening.