The executioners comb...Skela, a land divided.
"A giant, flint black tower of a man stoops through the doorway into Jordain’s bed chamber. He rises up and nearly brushes the comb of hair he wears atop his head against the ceiling. He must be seven feet tall but that isn’t enough for him. His dreaded comb rests atop his bald head adding another foot or so to his total height. The headpiece is made of etched horse bone, bleached white. The comb is a dozen different colors of human hair, all greased to stand straight up in a rainbow array of blondes, browns, reds, and blacks."
"The executioners comb, the headpiece the emperor’s headsman and chief guard crafted for himself through his years of service to the empire is the first thing Jordain sees as the giant stoops into his chamber and he doesn’t fully take his eyes off of it even as the man stands and towers over him."
"Hands covered in scars rise up until one of them comes up to the giants equally scared face as he puts one finger over his lips. The symbol is universal yet all Jordain wants to do is scream. Scream what though? For help? The worst betrayal of all, worse than what the head Kall and his father’s brother just admitted to in the hall is this. Malesh, the headsman, his father’s most trusted man, standing before him now with orders to kill him. If Jordain was running for his life, Malesh would have been the first choice for someone to run to, not from."