He wore no sword and was studying a yellow flower at the edge of a rockery. He was a handsome man, she thought… and lonely. She saw Scaler standing alone, his dark hair held in place by a black leather circlet on his brow. Renya mounted the circular stairwell, entering the garden just as the sun cleared the clouds. Scaler wandered the path, enjoying the fragrance of the blooms. Throughout the garden an ornate path wound its way among the flower-beds. In one corner laurel and elderflower grew alongside holly and elm, while elsewhere flowering cherry trees bloomed pink and white against the grey stone walls. Now there were trees, bushes and flowers of every kind. Some sixty years before, an ageing senator had built the garden, his servants carrying more than three tons of topsoil to the tower. Dark clouds bunched above the garden, blocking the sunlight Scaler pulled his blue cloak around his shoulders and left the wall to wander among the sheltered blooms. You want my blessing?’ ‘ Don’t read my mind, damn you!’ ‘I did Nothing could be worse that Ceska.’ ‘ Now you are speaking of the Nadir. ‘ Then know this: no matter how impossible this war, I shall fight to win. No last dashing charge, no futile last stand!’ ‘I understand that,’ said Abaddon. When the battle is lost I retreat and regroup when the war is over I lay down my sword.
You may have a desire to die, but I do not. They trust you.’ ‘I am not a lover of lost causes, priest. That is why men follow you, though they hate your blood. When responsibility is thrust upon you, can you run from it? No - you never have and you never will. I choose my own destiny.’ ‘Of course you do I did not say otherwise. “ Then what are we doing here? What is the point?’ ‘That is for you to say, for you are the real leader.’ ‘I am not a torchbearer, priest! I am a man. Could you have defeated the Joinings? You torment yourself thus.’ ‘ Could I have defeated the Joinings?’ ‘No, my son.’ ‘ Can I do it now?’ ‘No,’ said Abaddon sadly. You ask yourself if it would have been different, had you come. To be butchered by the Joinings of Ceska.
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