—UNKNOWN DYSMORPHIC

Wichtig awoke with a great sucking intake of breath, leaving him dizzy. A thronging crowd gathered around him, too many to count. He sat in the street where moments ago . . . what? Memories of creaking ribs and the feeling of the cartilage in his throat being crushed sent shudders coursing through his body. He remembered seeing Bedeckt flee. There was no sign of Stehlen or Morgen. Surely they hadn't left him here.

A scarred man stepped forward, rolling muscled shoulders, to glare at Wichtig. He looked familiar, but Wichtig couldn't place him.

"Didn't take long," the scarred man growled. "Not so great, eh?"

Wichtig looked past the man, frowning as he spotted another familiar face. "As great as ever." He returned his gaze to the man before him. "You look familiar."

"Vollk Urzschluss."

"Name doesn't ring any bells."

Vollk grumbled in annoyance. "Until recently, I was the Greatest Swordsman in Unbrauchbar."

"I killed you." Wichtig scanned the crowd, recognizing more faces, few of which he could put names to. "I killed a lot of you, but surely not this many." He spotted an attractive girl of perhaps eighteen summers and waved her over. "There is no way I killed you," he said with more certainty than he felt.

"I am Geschwister Schlangen, sister to Ma.s.se."

"Ma.s.se?" Wichtig asked, blinking in confusion.

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"The man who killed you."

"No, it was—"

"Snakes," she interrupted. "Ma.s.se came to believe he had been possessed by snake spirits after he fell into a pit of vipers as a child. He was bitten many times. We thought it a miracle he survived, but he was different after. He became poisonous. I am . . . was . . . his older sister. We fought over ch.o.r.es and he—" The girl stopped and blinked away tears. "My baby brother . . ."

This isn't right. Wichtig took in the street and surrounding buildings. Off in the distance he saw people going about their pointless lives. This looks so . . . normal. Except the colors. Everything looked washed out, gray and faded like the vibrancy and life had been sucked from it.

"This is Neidrig. I recognize the smell. I can't be dead. Morgen said I would be the Greatest Swordsman in the World. I have a destiny."

Vollk laughed, a grunted snort. "You are definitely dead. For many, what we do in death mirrors what we did in life." He glared from under dark eyebrows. "No doubt it won't be long before you are chasing the t.i.tle of Greatest Swordsman in the Afterdeath."

Understanding dawned on Wichtig. After a lifetime of hearing the Warrior's Credo repeated by every half-wit and thug he'd ever met, here he was. "I killed you and now you are mine to command." He laughed. Maybe death wasn't so bad! "My own little army. This should be fun."

"Yes and no. Many of us are here to serve you, but many are gathering to serve the man who killed them." He gestured at the girl. "Her brother, Ma.s.se. The man who killed you." Vollk showed foul teeth in a sneer as he pointed at Wichtig. "You are gathered here with them. He too will soon pa.s.s into the Afterdeath."

"And Bedeckt thought the Afterdeath might be some final chance at redemption!" Wichtig laughed again, this time without humor. It would be no such thing. He knew how this would play out: most of the men he had killed had in turn killed others. They were served by their slain foes much as they served Wichtig and as he would soon be forced to serve Ma.s.se. The Afterdeath would be a world of marauding armies, bound by ancient laws to serve one man until the man who had slain that man died his own death at the hands of another. The only free people would be those who hadn't lived and died by the flash of the blade. But with the Afterdeath plagued by wandering gangs led by the worst killers of the living world, how free could anyone be?

He glanced up at Vollk. "Is everyone's Afterdeath like this?"

The warrior grunted, eyebrows furrowing. "How would I know?"

A good point, he had to admit. How does anyone know anything about the Afterdeath? He watched the people of Neidrig go about their business, ignoring the gathered warriors; apparently they weren't worthy of note. And no one smiled. Did anyone in the other Neidrig smile? He couldn't remember. But these faces looked uniformly wan and miserable. As with the colors, these people looked washed out and gray, devoid of life and vibrancy.

"No redemption here." He lifted a hand and Vollk pulled him to his feet. Wichtig scanned the ground. His swords were nowhere to be seen. "Dying without a blade in my hand." He chuckled with disgusted chagrin. No doubt Bedeckt—the cowardly goat sticker who abandoned him in his time of need—would find this immensely funny. "At least I have my boots." Wichtig noticed Vollk's fine sword. "So. You serve me, at least until this Ma.s.se arrives?"

"Little enough it will matter," muttered Vollk, "as you will serve him."

Why worry now about something happening later? "Excellent. Give me your blade."