The darkness beneath Ilvara's feet rippled.
Then the first hand reached out of it.
It was black and blurred at the edges, like ink that hadn't finished drying. It gripped the surface of the shadow as though it were climbing out of a pit.
A second hand followed.
Then a head.
Then hundreds.
They rose out of the spreading darkness one after another, pulling themselves free and standing upright on the surface of the sea. Beasts with too many legs. Demons with horns and tails. Daemons whose shapes Simon could barely make out. And among them were figures that made his eyes narrow.
Humans.
They were all made of shadow. Their faces were blurred and featureless, as though someone had smeared them with a thumb. But their outlines remained, and where their eyes should have been, faint pale lights glowed in the dark.
Hundreds became thousands.
The shadow spread for kilometers across the sea, and still they kept rising. The rain fell through them without touching anything.
