The warband came down the ridge. They had ridden into a valley where a god had died and a world had almost ended, and they had come back for me. The thought made me smile in my heart.
Thurrim found me. I could hear his swearing, and I wondered why they would think anyone could still be alive in a place like this, but his swearing meant he had found my body.
Then there were hands. A great many hands. Somebody tried to lift my head and somebody else told them not to, and Ogg's voice came through the ringing on my one working side saying something about not moving me, and a smaller hand took the stump of my right arm and held on to it, and I think that was Tam.
Someone wanted to pull the stranger's arm out of my chest when I spoke.
"Don't," I whispered, once I had gathered enough strength to talk. "Don't bother."
