Tod Galindo [cid:GMBYDSJG3J5LXD48XLGT]

   But it was only another pack animal fallen. It might be best to leave
   all of the beasts here and go on, though what the beasts would do if no
   one returned.... Gods, he was his troop, man and beast: Every loss hurt
   as if it had been carved out of his own flesh and bone, even after so
   many deaths. The Eagle's standard felt comforting in his hand. And it
   made a fine staff as they climbed up toward the crumbling arch.The
   Eagle he bore was a glory overhead. Now he could make out Draupadi's
   and Ganesha's faces. Under the radiance, they were worn, the eyes
   deeply circled. Ganesha's jowls drooped as if he were melting, and
   Draupadi's proud straightness seemed to waver....The light flickered
   ... a veiling of sand or cloud- after months it was odd to think of
   clouds that were not a desert tempest or the eternal snows of far-off
   mountains. What was that? An instant ago, he had known with an
   assurance greater than any he had ever enjoyed before, precisely what
   to do. The Eagle's staff warmed in his hand. Had he forgotten? It had
   not, the warning seemed to convey."Fare forward," Quintus found himself
   muttering. Arjuna's thought had become his....As Quintus watched, the
   man in the lead threw down the torch he carried. In the next moment, he
   had cast himself down at Ganesha's and Draupadi's feet. His shoulders
   heaved with the force of his sobs. Their song broke off, and the
   priests diminished into themselves: an aged man and a lovely woman
   trying to coax up from his humiliation a man who had already suffered
   much, who had feared and who still feared, but who had seen in them
   what might be an end to all fear.