The Memory. Gerrard Cowan

than a shadow: a black silhouette, standing at the creature’s side.

      ‘Who is that?’ Aranfal whispered. He looked around the room, and it seemed to him that the other Operators were cringing away from the shadow man.

      ‘Ruin,’ the Eyeless One said. ‘He has no host, as yet, though he has been searching …’

      ‘Ruin is an Operator,’ Aranfal said. He felt himself backing away from the shadow man.

      The creature nodded. ‘Yes. And something has happened to him. Two of these children of ours – the lady of Dust and the Bleak Jandell – built something, in our heart, a little while ago. It is a terrible thing. They placed Ruin within, but they did not know what they were doing. They have made him stronger than he ever was before. He is now greater even than us: than the Old Place. That