Toll the Hounds/Chapter 2

__NOTOC__
==Black Coral==
====Endest Silann====
Life has returned to Black Coral since Anomander Rake and the other Tiste Andii had made the renamed city their home in the wake of Moon's Spawn's destruction nearly a year ago. Although a perpetual shroud of Kurald Galain's darkness hangs over the city, the markets are busy with human activity. Many of them fail to realise that the unmoving Silanah perched atop Dragon Tower is not a decorative carving.
Endest Silann, an ancient Andii, walks through the city on his way back to the New Palace where he now serves as castellan. As the last Andii High Mage, he had been tasked by his lord and friend, Rake, with keeping Moon's Spawn and its people safe beneath the waters of Ortnal's Cut during the Pannion War. Endest Silann had succeeded--barely--but the experience had drained him of his former power. He continues to be beset by upsetting echoes of his ordeal and he senses the other Andii now avoid him. He thinks he should have died along with the skykeep. He decides he will tell Rake he has located a new supply of Cadaver eels. Perhaps his lord will put his hand upon his castellan's shoulder and speak his gratitude.
====Spinnock Durav====
Spinnock Durav is the lone Tiste Andii customer in the Scour Tavern where he plays a regular game of Kef Tanar with the man known as Seerdomin. He admires the man for refusing to hide his past as a servant of the Pannion Seer, the city's former mad tyrant. Seerdomin excels at the game, but Spinnock has nearly twenty thousand years of experience and victory is his. 
Afterwards, the two friends drink together. Spinnock is drawn to friendship with the man because Seerdomin is able to keep the weight of his own grief at bay--a quality very unlike the Andii. His resilience feeds something inside Spinnock, giving him a vicarious sense of life. Seerdomin reveals that he likes to spend the midnight hour staring out over Coral Bay from the ruins of the Old Palace. From there he sees Anomander Rake doing the same from the New Palace. Seerdomin is unnerved by Rake despite finding his rule benign. The two discuss Rake's reign and Spinnock admits he has not spoken to his solitary lord in centuries. By the time dawn breaks outside the city, they set the date for their next game and walk unsteadily on their own separate ways.
==Genabackis==
====Nimander Golit====
Nimander Golit feels like he awakens from sleep as Clip brings the group of Tiste Andii (which includes Aranatha, Desra, Kedeviss, Nenanda, and Skintick) back into the world from the darkness of Kurald Galain. It is impossible to know how long they have travelled and what distance they have covered since leaving Adjunct Tavore Paran and the Bonehunters at Second Maiden Fort. Skintick pulls Nimander aside and questions whether they should continue following Clip on his quest to bring them before Anomander Rake. He thinks the self-styled Mortal Sword has in mind a portentous confrontation with a cowering Rake. But Skintick also recognises that joining Rake means they will once again be part of a community of Tiste Andii--something they deserve. Nimander agrees, thinking to himself that he may have failed as the young group's leader, but he will accomplish this.
Aranatha joins them saying Nenanda and Desra are squabbling over Clip's attention. She says Clip has not brought them as close to Rake as he would have liked due to factors he called "layers of resistance." Still, Rake is somewhere near to the east. The trio travels a short distance to find themselves on the shore of a sea.
====Clip====
Clip considers the group of Tiste Andii who accompany him. Nimander is a disappointment--too sensitive by far. Kedeviss is too frail and Aranatha too child-like. Skintick's wry mockery and quick sarcasm remind him of himself, but the youth lacks Clip's hard vicious core. But Nenanda's boiling undercurrent of rage and Desra's ruthless ambition are something he can work with. As he begins spinning his chain of rings again, he thinks of how the artifact's fashioning left his kin at Andara fatally weakened when the Letherii came to slay them. He smiles as the spinning rings whine with the cacophony of their souls.
==Black Coral==
====Spinnock Durav====
Making his way to the New Palace, Spinnock feels uncomfortable under the gaze of Silanah. He remembers her blasting fire down upon their enemies during the Mott Campaign and the battle between Rake and Cowl that followed when a handful of their Crimson Guard allies were caught in the same attack. Within the nearly empty palace, he is bemused by two human servants he finds cleaning the alabaster stairs because they are bored. He will never understand this short-lived race.
He finds Rake in a chamber whose massive window overlooks the Nightwater. Rake welcomes him back from his long journey to Assail where Rake had sent him to learn the truth of its current state. Spinnock's task had been difficult. On his last day, he had lost count of the number he killed to reach the shore and depart. When Rake asks if events on that continent require his presence, Spinnock says no as Assail's madness seems quite contained. Now back in Black Coral, he feels like a rusty unused sword wielding only soldiers on a gameboard. Rake warns that a weapon too often used becomes blunt and declines Spinnock's suggestion to replace him.
Leaving the room, Spinnock encounters Endest Silann in the hallway. He feels sympathy for the broken man and can think of no words to counter the shame that the castellan undeservedly carries upon himself. Endest is pleased to tell Rake he has found a new source of cadaver eels.
====Seerdomin====
At one of the city's new street-side "restaurants", Bucch, Harak, and another human are drinking Bastion Kelyk while talking of their Tiste Andii overlords. Bucch argues that Rake's death would drive the damned darkness away and return things to normal. The Andii bleed like anyone else and the city is full of former Pannion Domin soldiers capable of doing the job. Talk soon turns to a secretive, unnamed group that intends to make it so. The group's next meeting is tonight, and the three finish up and begin the walk over. 
After they depart, Seerdomin--who has been observing them from another table--finishes his own kelyk, then loosens his sword in his scabbard and follows from a distance.
====Silanah====
Silanah keeps silent watch upon the active city. To the north, beyond the shroud of Kurald Galain, pilgrims make their way southwards carrying objects ranging from seashells to expensive jewelry. Their destination is the Great Barrow of the Redeemer within the protection of Black Coral's Night. Silanah hears their songs and prayers and is reminded of a Rhivi saying: 
A man who stirs awake the serpent is a man without fear. A man without fear has forgotten the rules of life. 
The dragon thinks mortals sometimes need reminding. 
02