| Chapter 16: The Weird of the Waynhim |
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Now I will speak," Hamako said. His words went softly into the night. "Have no fear of the Sunbane-warped who sought your life. Never again will they enter this place. That much at least of mind and fear they retain." His tone suggested that he held the area sacred to some private and inextinguishable sorrow.
Covenant settled himself to listen; and after a deep pause Hamako began. "A vast gulf," he breathed, a darker shape amid the dark crouchings of the night, "lies between creatures that are born and those that are made. Born creatures, such as we are, do not suffer torment at the simple fact of physical form. Perhaps you desire keener sight, greater might of arm, but the embodiment of eyes and limbs is not anguish to you. You are born by Law to be as you are. Only a madman loathes the nature of his birth. "It is far otherwise with the Waynhim. They were made--as the ur-viles were made--by deliberate act in the breeding dens of the Demondim. And the Demondim were themselves formed by lore rather than blood from the Viles who went before them. Thus the Waynhim are not creatures of law. They are entirely alien in the world. And they are unnaturally long of life. Some among this rhysh remember the Lords and the ancient glory of Revelstone. Some tell the tale of the five rhysh which fought before the gates of Revelstone in the great siege--and of the blue Lord who rode to their aid in folly and valor. |