"Seeing into t' future, now t'at'll make a man go mad," Teige told Hawk. "Fer tonight a'least, s' still only paint on a wall. Here, trade yeh," he added, offering the keg by its cord handle. Hawk took it mutely in exchange for the pipe, but it got lost somewhere between his fingers and Teige's, and dropped to the leaf-littered ground. With a muttering, Teige knelt to retrieve it--

--But just as he did, there was a strange noise and a passing sliver of light, and a motion that sliced across one ear and horn, rending the night where his back or shoulders or neck had been an instant ago--