Dust of Dreams/Chapter 6

The beetle that walks slowly has nothing to fear

Saphii saying

The Bolkando have been surrounding Khundryl lands with forts, and Bolkando merchants have been overcharging and cheating the Khundryl. In response, war-parties of young Khundryl massacre merchants and burn the forts. Warleader Gall realises that this will precipitate war, and the large Bolkando army will march to attack them. He decides on a pre-emptive strike towards the Bolkando capital.

The Perish are being escorted by a suspiciously large force of Bolkando troops; the Mortal Sword, Krughava, suspects an ambush is being prepared in the mountain passes.

Yan Tovis finds herself in charge of ten thousand people, a mixture of her Shake subjects and ex-prisoners from the islands. Their homes will soon be inundated by the rising sea-level. They have little food and nowhere local can help. She decides to use her royal blood to open Gallan's Road to the Dark Shore, the lost home of the Shake.

The ghosts and the travellers have arrived at an enormous edifice in the shape of a dragon. They realise it was a city and wish to enter it, partly because they feel they are being followed, hunted. They find a buried door; when they enter they discover corpses of K'Chain Che'Malle, the city's builders.