‘And yet,’ cut in Ilm Absinos, ‘you failed in the end. Else you would not have attempted the Ritual of Tellann.’
‘That is true,’ she replied. ‘We ran out of places to hide.’
Ulag spoke. ‘First Sword, we would accompany you nonetheless. Like you, we wish to know the purpose of our return.’
‘If you join my quest,’ said Onos T’oolan, ‘then you bow to Olar Ethil’s desires.’
‘That perception may lead to carelessness on her part,’ Ulag replied.
Standing amidst the other T’lan Imass, Rystalle Ev watched, listened, and imagined a world taut with purpose. It had once been such a world, for her, for all of her kin. But that had vanished long ago. Perhaps the First Sword could bind them all to this quest of his. Perhaps answers could relieve the burden of despair. Reasons to stand, reasons to stand against.
But the dust beckoned with its promise of oblivion. The trail to the end of things had been hacked clear, pounded level. She yearned to walk it.
Beside her, Kalt Urmanal said, ‘See the sword he carries. See how its tip pins the earth. This Onos T’oolan, he is not one for poses. He never was. I remember when I last saw him. He had defeated his challenger. He had shown such skill that ten thousand Imass stood silent with awe. Yet, he stood as one defeated.’
‘Weary,’ Rystalle murmured.
‘Yes, but not from the fighting. He was weary, Rystalle Ev, of its necessity.’
She considered that, and then nodded.
Kalt then added, ‘This warrior I will follow.’
‘Yes.’
She sat on a pyramid of three stacked canvas bolts, huddled beneath her night-cloak. The shivering would not go away. She watched the glowing tip of her smoker dancing like a firefly close to her fingers. Atri-Ceda Aranict listened to the muted sounds of the Malazan encampment. Subdued, weary and shaken. She understood that well enough. Soldiers had fallen out from the column, staggering as if reeling from blows. Collapsing senseless, or falling to their knees spitting blood. Panic rippling through the ranks—was this an attack?
Not as such.
Those stricken soldiers had been, one and all, mages. And the enemy, blind and indifferent, had been power.
Her nausea was fading. Mind slowly awakening—wandering like a hungover reveller, desultorily sweeping aside the ashes—she thought back to her first meeting with High Mage Ben Adaephon Delat. She had been pathetic. It was bad enough fainting in a heap in front of Commander Brys Beddict; she had barely recovered from that before she was led into Quick Ben’s presence.
And now, weeks later, only fragments of the conversation that followed remained with her. He had been a distracted man, but when he had seen the enlivened earth cupped in Aranict’s hand, his dark eyes had sharpened, hardened as if transformed into onyx.
He had cursed, and she remembered that curse.
‘Hood’s frantic balls on the fire.’
She had since discovered that Hood was the god of death, and that if any god deserved its name being uttered in bitter curses, then he was the one. At the time, however, she had taken the High Mage’s expostulation somewhat more literally.
Fire, she’d thought. Yes, fire in the earth, heat cupped in my hand.
Her eyes had widened on the High Mage, astonished at his instant percipience, convinced in that moment of his profound genius. She had no place in his company. Her mind moved in a slow crawl at the best of times, especially in the early morning before she’d drawn alive the coal of her first smoker. Quickness of thought (and there, she’d assumed, must be the reason for his name) was in itself a thing of magic, a subtle sorcery, which she could only view with superstitious awe.
Such lofty opinion could persist only in the realm of mystery, however, and mystery rarely survived familiarity. The High Mage had formally requested that she be temporarily attached to his cadre. Since then, she’d heard plenty of curses from Ben Adaephon Delat, and had come to conclude that his quickness was less sorcerous than quixotic.
Oh, he was indeed brilliant. He was also in the habit of muttering to himself in a host of entirely distinct voices, and playing with dolls and lengths of string. And as for the company he kept . . .
She pulled fiercely on her smoker, watching a figure approach—walking like a drunk, his ill-fitting, cheap clothing caked in dust. Bottle’s strangely childlike face looked swollen, almost dissolute.
Here we go. Yet another incomprehensible conversation between them. And oh, he doesn’t like me being there for it, either. That makes two of us.
‘Is he breathing?’ the Malazan soldier asked as he halted in front of the tent.
She glanced at the drawn flap to her left. ‘He sent me out,’ she said.
‘He’ll want to see me.’
‘He wants to know how Fiddler fared.’
Bottle grimaced, looked away briefly, then back down to her, seeming to study her. ‘You’ve got sensitivity, Atri-Ceda. A draught of rum will soothe your nerves.’
‘I’ve already had one.’
He nodded, as if unsurprised. ‘Fiddler’s still losing what’s left of his supper. He’ll need a new tent.’
‘But he’s not even a mage.’
‘No, he isn’t.’
She fixed her eyes on him. ‘Are all you Malazans this cagey?’
He smiled. ‘And we’re getting worse, Atri-Ceda.’
‘Why is that?’
The smile dropped away, like it never really fitted in the first place. ‘It’s simple enough. The less we know, the less we say. Pretty soon, I expect, we’ll be an army of mutes.’
I can’t wait. Sighing, she flicked away the smoker, slowly rose.
The stars were returning to the sky in the northeast. At least that was something. But someone’s out there. Holding a weapon . . . gods, such a weapon! ‘Errant’s bouncing eye,’ she said, ‘he’s the High Mage. He can’t hide for ever.’
Bottle’s eyes were wide on her. ‘Never heard that curse before,’ he said.
‘I just made it up.’
‘Seems oddly irreverent coming from a Letherii. I’m slightly shocked, in fact.’
‘It’s all your bad habits, I suppose.’ She stepped to the tent-flap and rapped the hide with her knuckles. ‘We’re coming in.’
‘Fine!’ came the snapped reply.
The cramped interior was steamy, as scented candles flickered from the floor in a circle surrounding a crosslegged Quick Ben. The High Mage dripped with sweat. ‘Bastard’s reaching out to me,’ he said, voice grating. ‘Do I want a conversation? No, I do not. What’s to say? Anomander killed Hood, Dassem killed Anomander, Brood shattered Dragnipur, and now Draconus walks free. Burn trembles, the Gate of Starvald Demelain rages with fire, and cruel twisted warrens the like of which we’ve never before seen now lie in wait—when will they awaken? What will they deliver?
‘And there’s more. Do you realize that? There’s more—stop staring, just listen. Who brokered the whole damned mess? Bottle?’
‘Sorry, I was listening, not thinking. How should I know? No, wait—’
‘Aye. Shadowthrone and Cotillion. Does the Adjunct really believe she chooses her own path? Our path? She’s been driving us hard, ever since we landed—sure, it’s all a matter of logistics. It’s not like the Akryn traders are happily handing over everything they have, is it? It’s not like things won’t get worse the further east we march—the Wastelands are well named.’
‘Quick Ben—’
‘Of course I’m babbling! Listen! There are T’lan Imass out there!’ His wild gaze fixed with sudden intensity on Aranict. ‘The dust will dance! Who commands them? What do they want? Do you know what I want to do with that dirt? I want to throw it away. Who wants to know? Not me!’
‘The T’lan Imass,’ said Bottle, ‘knelt to the Emperor. He took the First Throne and never relinquished it.’
‘Exactly!’
‘We’re being set up. We need to speak with Tavore. Now.’
But the High Mage was shakin
g his head. ‘It’s no use. She’s made up her mind.’
‘About what?’ Bottle demanded, his voice rising.
‘She thinks she can cheat them. Did you know she was the pre-eminent scholar of the lives of Kellanved, Dancer and Dassem? You didn’t, did you? Before she was made Adjunct. Even before she inherited command of House Paran. A student of war—imperial war. The Conquests—not just tactics on the field, but the motivations of the Emperor and his mad cohorts. The lives of them all. Crust, Toc the Elder, Urko, Ameron, Admiral Nok, Surly, even Tayschrenn—why do you think she keeps Banaschar around? That drunk fool is her potential emissary should Tayschrenn finally decide to do something.’
But Bottle was clearly stuck at Quick Ben’s first revelation. ‘Cheat them? Cheat the Lords of Shadow? Cheat them of what?’
Quick Ben’s bared teeth glimmered like gold in the flickering candlelight. ‘I dare not say.’
‘You don’t trust us to keep our mouths shut?’
‘No. Why would I?’ He pointed a long finger at Bottle. ‘You’d be the first one running for the hills.’
‘If it’s that bad, why are you still here?’
‘Because Draconus changes everything, and I’m the only one who can stand against him.’
Bottle gaped, and then a thin word creaked out: ‘You?’
‘But don’t think for a moment that I’m doing it for Shadowthrone and Cotillion. And don’t think I’m even doing this for the Adjunct. All that time inside Dragnipur—it’s changed him. He was never so subtle before—imagine, a gentle invitation to converse—does he think we’re idiots? But wait’—and he waved his hands—‘it’d only be subtle if it wasn’t so obvious! Why didn’t we think of that?’
‘Because it makes no sense, you damned fool!’
But the High Mage did not react to Bottle’s outburst. ‘No, he really wants to talk! Now that’s subtle for you! Well, we can match that, can’t we? Talk? Not a chance! No, and let’s see what he makes of it, let’s just see!’
Aranict ran both hands through the thick hair on her scalp, and then rummaged in her belt-bag for a smoker. She crouched and snatched up one of Quick Ben’s candles. As she was lighting up she happened to glance across at the High Mage and saw him staring, his expression frozen.
Bottle grunted a laugh. ‘She ain’t so shy any more, is she? Good. Now we’ll find out the real Atri-Ceda. Just like Brys wanted.’
Behind a veil of swirling smoke, Aranict’s gaze narrowed on Quick Ben. She slowly returned the candle to its pool of melted wax on the hide floor. Brys? Is that what all this is about?
The High Mage shot Bottle a disdainful look. ‘It’s ignorance, not bravado.’
‘Bravado usually is ignorance,’ Bottle snapped back.
‘I’ll grant you that,’ Quick Ben conceded. ‘And you’re right,’ he added, sighing, ‘we could do with a little more of the unflappable around here.’
Aranict snorted. ‘Unflappable? You’re not describing me.’
‘Maybe not,’ the High Mage replied, ‘but you manage a convincing pose. That candle you took from the circle of protection—you opened a pathway to Draconus. He sensed it immediately. And yet—’
‘He didn’t use it,’ Bottle said.
‘He didn’t use it.’
‘Subtle.’
‘Ha ha, Bottle, but you’re more right than you know. The point is, she made us address that so fiercely burning question, didn’t she?’
‘Unknowingly.’
Quick Ben glanced up at her, curious, thoughtful.
Aranict shrugged. ‘I needed the flame.’
The reply seemed to please them both, in rather different ways. She decided to leave it at that. What point was there in explaining that she’d no idea what they’d been talking about. All those names Quick Ben mentioned—even Draconus—they meant nothing to her. Well, almost nothing. Draconus. He is the one who arrived in darkness, who made a gate that stole half the sky, who holds in his hand a weapon of darkness and cold, of blackest ice.
And Quick Ben means to stand in his path.
Errant’s mangled nuts, I only joined because I’m lusting after Brys Beddict. Me and a thousand other women.
Quick Ben said, ‘Atri-Ceda, your commander, Brys—’
She started guiltily. Had he read her thoughts?
‘He died once, didn’t he?’
‘What? Yes, so it is said. I mean, yes, he did.’
The High Mage nodded. ‘Best go see him, then—he may have need of you right now.’
‘Me? Why?’
‘Because Hood is gone,’ said Bottle.
‘What does that mean to Commander Beddict?’ she asked.
She saw Bottle meet Quick Ben’s eyes, and then the soldier nodded and said, ‘The dead never quite come back all the way, Aranict. Not while there was a god of death. It may be that Brys is now . . . awakened. To everything he once was. He will have things to say to his Atri-Ceda.’
‘We’ll see you again,’ Quick Ben added. ‘Or not.’
They dismiss me. Oh well. She turned and exited the tent. Paused in the sultry darkness of the camp. Drew deep on her smoker, and then set out for the distant Letherii encampment.
Brys wants me. What a lovely thought.
Smiles threw herself down by the fire. ‘Stupid patrols,’ she said. ‘There’s no one out there. Those Akryn traders—all creaking old or snot-nosed runts.’ She glanced at the others sitting round the hearth. ‘See that village we passed yesterday? Looked half empty.’
‘No warriors,’ said Cuttle. ‘All off fighting the White Faces. The Akryn can’t maintain control of this Kryn Free Trade right now, which also explains all those D’ras traders coming up from the south.’
Tarr grunted. ‘Heard from some outriders about a Barghast camp they came on—site of a big battle, and looks like the White Faces got bloodied. Might be they’re on the run just like the Akryn are saying.’
‘Hard to believe that,’ Cuttle countered. ‘I’ve fought Barghast and it’s no fun at all, and the White Faces are said to be the toughest of the lot.’
Smiles unstrapped her helm and pulled it off. ‘Where’s Koryk then?’ she asked.
‘Wandered off,’ Tarr answered, tossing another dung chip on to the fire. ‘Again,’ he added.
Smiles hissed. ‘That fever, it marked him. In the head.’
‘Just needs a good scrap,’ Cuttle ventured. ‘That’ll settle him right enough.’
‘Could be a long wait,’ Tarr said. ‘We’ve got weeks and weeks of travel ahead of us, through mostly empty territory. Aye, we’re covering ground awfully fast, but once we’re done with the territories of these plains tribes, it’ll be the Wastelands. No one can even agree how far across it is, or what’s on the other end.’ He shrugged. ‘An army’s deadliest enemy is boredom, and we’re under siege these days.’
‘Corabb not back yet?’ Smiles shook her head. ‘He had two heavies with him on the round. They might’ve got lost.’
‘Someone will find ’em,’ Cuttle said, climbing to his feet. ‘I’ll check in on the sergeant again.’
Smiles watched him step out of the firelight. She sighed. ‘Ain’t had me a knife fight in months. That stay in Letheras made us soft, and them barges was even worse.’ She stretched her boots closer to the fire. ‘I don’t mind the marching, now the blisters are gone. At least we’re squads again.’
‘We need us a new scam,’ Tarr said. ‘You see any scorpions?’
‘Sure, plenty,’ Smile replied, ‘but only two kinds. The little nasty ones and the big black ones. Besides, we try that again and people will get suspicious—even if we could find a good cheat.’ She mulled on the notion for a time, and then shook her head. ‘It’s no good, Tarr. The mood’s all wrong.’
He squinted across at her. ‘Sharp. You’re right. It’s like we’re past all that, and it’ll never come again. Amazing, that I should feel nostalgic about Seven Cities and that miserable, useless march. We were raw, aye, but what we were trying to do,
it made sense. That’s the difference. It made sense.’
Smiles snorted. ‘Hood’s breath, Tarr.’
‘What?’
‘Cuttle’s right. None of it made sense. Never did, never will. Look at us. We march around and cut up other people, and they do the same to us—if they can. Look at Lether—aye, it’s now got a decent King and people can breathe easy and go about their lives—but what’s in those lives? Scraping for the next bag of coins, the next meal. Scrubbing bowls, praying to the damned gods for the next catch and calm seas. It ain’t for nothing, Tarr, and that’s the truth. It ain’t for nothing.’
‘That fishing village you come from was a real hole, wasn’t it?’
‘Leave it.’
‘I didn’t bring it up, soldier. You did.’
‘It was no different from anywhere else, that’s my point. I bet you wasn’t sorry to get out from wherever you come from, either. If it was all you wanted, you wouldn’t be here, would you?’
‘Some people don’t go through their lives searching, Smiles. I’m not looking, because I’m not expecting to find anything. You want meaning? Make it up. You want truth? Invent it. Makes no difference, to anything. Sun comes up, sun goes down. We see one, maybe we don’t see the other, but the sun doesn’t care, does it?’
‘Right,’ she said, ‘so we’re in agreement.’
‘Not quite. I’m not saying it’s not worth it. I’m saying the opposite. You make worlds, worlds inside your head and worlds outside, but only the one inside counts for anything. It’s where you find peace, acceptance. Worth. You, you’re just talking about everything being useless. Starting with yourself. That’s a bad attitude, Smiles. Worse than Cuttle’s.’
‘Where are we marching to, then?’
‘Fate’s got a face, and we’re going to meet it eye to eye. The rest I don’t care about.’
‘So you’ll follow the Adjunct. Anywhere. Like a dog on a master’s heel.’
‘Why not? It’s all the same to me.’
‘I don’t get you.’
‘There’s nothing to get. I’m a soldier and so are you. What more do you want?’