The Complete Malazan Book of the Fallen (206 page)

‘I vaguely recall a fuss,’ Gruntle said, frowning.

‘You were in Quip’s, weren’t you? Blind for days on end.’

Gruntle winced. ‘Had my eye on Lethro, you know – went out on a contract and came back to find—’

‘She’d gone and married someone else,’ Buke finished, nodding.

‘Not just someone else.’ Gruntle scowled. ‘That bloated crook, Parsemo—’

‘An old master of yours, I seem to recall. Anyway. Who was the killer and why did the killings stop? Vorcan’s guild did not step forward to claim the Council’s coin. The murders stopped because the murderer had left the city.’ Buke nodded towards the massive carriage. ‘He’s the one. Korbal Broach. The man with the round face and fat lips.’

‘What makes you so certain, Buke?’ The air had gone cold. Gruntle poured himself a second cup.

The man shrugged, eyes on the fire. ‘I just know. Who can abide the murder of innocents?’

Hood’s breath, Buke, I see both edges to that question well enough – do you? You mean to kill him, or at least die trying.
‘Listen to me, friend. We may be out of the city’s jurisdiction, but if Darujhistan’s mages were in truth so thoroughly alarmed – and given that Vorcan’s guild might still have an interest – issues of jurisdiction are meaningless. We could send word back – assuming you’re right and you’ve proof of your certainty, Buke – and in the meantime you just keep your eye on the man. Nothing else. He’s a sorceror – mark my words. You won’t stand a chance. Leave the execution to the assassins and mages.’

Buke glanced up at the arrival of Harllo and Stonny Menackis. The two had come up quietly, each wrapped in blankets, with their clothing washed and bundled in their arms. Their troubled expressions told Gruntle they’d heard at the very least his last statement.

‘Thought you’d be halfway back to Darujhistan,’ Harllo said.

Buke studied the guard over the rim of the mug. ‘You are so clean I barely recognize you, friend.’

‘Ha ha.’

‘I have found myself a new contract, to answer you, Harllo.’

‘You idiot,’ Stonny snapped. ‘When are you going to get some sense back into your head, Buke? It’s been years and years since you last cracked a smile or let any light into your eyes. How many bear traps are you going to stick your head in, man?’

‘Until one snaps,’ Buke said, meeting Stonny’s dark, angry eyes. He rose, tossing to one side the dregs from the mug. ‘Thank you for the tea … and advice, friend Gruntle.’ With a nod to Harllo, then Stonny, he headed back to Bauchelain’s carriage.

Gruntle stared up at Stonny. ‘Impressive tact, my dear.’

She hissed. ‘The man’s a fool. He needs a woman’s hand on his sword-grip, if you ask me. Needs it bad.’

Harllo grunted. ‘You volunteering?’

Stonny Menackis shrugged. ‘It’s not his appearance that one balks at, it’s his attitude. The very opposite of you, ape.’

‘Sweet on my personality, are you?’ Harllo grinned over at Gruntle. ‘Hey, you could break my nose again – then we could straighten it and I’d be good as new. What say you, Stonny? Would the iron petals of your heart unfold for me?’

She sneered. ‘Everyone knows that two-handed sword of yours is nothing but a pathetic attempt at compensation, Harllo.’

‘He’s a nice turn at the poetic, though,’ Grande pointed out. ‘Iron petals – you couldn’t get more precise than that.’

‘There’s no such thing as iron petals,’ Stonny snorted. ‘You don’t get iron flowers. And hearts aren’t flowers, they’re big red, messy things in your chest. What’s poetic about not making sense? You’re as big an idiot as Buke and Harllo, Gruntle. I’m surrounded by thick-skulled witless fools.’

‘It’s your lot in life, alas,’ Gruntle said. ‘Here, have some tea – you could do with … the warmth.’

She accepted the mug, while Gruntle and Harllo avoided meeting each other’s eyes.

After a few moments, Stonny cleared her throat. ‘What was all that about leaving the execution to assassins, Gruntle? What kind of mess has Buke got himself into now?’

Oh, Mowri, she truly cares for the man.
He frowned into the fire and tossed in a few more lumps of dung before replying, ‘He has some … suspicions. We were, uh, speaking hypothetically—’

Togg’s tongue you were, ox-face. Out with it.’

‘Buke chose to speak with me, not you, Stonny,’ Gruntle growled, irritated. ‘If you’ve questions, ask them of him and leave me out of it.’

‘I will, damn you.’

‘I doubt you’ll get anywhere,’ Harllo threw in, somewhat unwisely, ‘even if you do bat your eyes and pout those rosy lips of yours—’

‘Those are the last things you’ll see when I push my knife through that tin tuber in your chest. Oh, and I’ll blow a kiss, too.’

Harllo’s bushy brows rose. ‘Tin tuber! Stonny, my dear – did I hear you right?’

‘Shut up, I’m not in the mood.’

‘You’re
never
in the mood, Stonny!’

She answered him with a contemptuous smile.

‘Don’t bother saying it, dear,’ Gruntle sighed.

*   *   *

The shack leaned drunkenly against the city of Pale’s inner wall, a confused collection of wooden planks, stretched hides and wicker, its yard a threshold of white dust, gourd husks, bits of broken crockery and wood shavings. Fragments of lacquered wooden cards hung from twine above the narrow door, slowly twisting in the humid heat.

Quick Ben paused, glanced up and down the littered alleyway, then stepped into the yard. A cackle sounded from within. The wizard rolled his eyes and, muttering under his breath, reached for the leather loop nailed to the door.

‘Don’t push!’ a voice shrieked behind it. ‘Pull, you snake of the desert!’

Shrugging, Quick Ben tugged the door towards him.

‘Only fools push!’ hissed the old woman from her cross-legged perch on a reed mat just within. ‘Scrapes my knee! Bruises and worse plague me when fools come to visit. Ah, I sniffed Raraku, didn’t I?’

The wizard peered into the shack’s interior. ‘Hood’s breath, there’s only room for you in there!’ Vague objects cluttered the walls, dangled from the low ceiling. Shadows swallowed every corner, and’ the air still held the chill of the night just past.

‘Just me!’ the woman cackled. Her face was little more than skin over bones, her pate hairless and blotched with moles. ‘Show what you have, many-headed snake, the breaking of curses is my gift!’ She withdrew from the tattered folds of her robes a wooden card, held it up in trembling hands. ‘Send your words into my warren and their shape shall be carved hereupon, burned true—’

‘No curses, woman,’ Quick Ben said, crouching down until his eyes were level with hers. ‘Only questions.’

The card slipped beneath her robes. Scowling, the witch said, ‘Answers cost plenty. Answers are worth more than the breaking of curses. Answers are not easily found—’

‘All right all right, how much?’

‘Colour the coin of your questions, twelve-souls.’

‘Gold.’

‘Then gold councils, one for each—’

‘Provided you give worthy answer.’

‘Agreed.’

‘Burn’s Sleep.’

‘What of it?’

‘Why?’

The old woman gaped toothlessly.

‘Why does the goddess sleep, witch? Does anyone know? Do you?’

‘You are a learned scoundrel—’

‘All I’ve read has been speculation. No-one knows. Scholars don’t have the answer, but this world’s oldest witch of Tennes just might. Tell me, why does Burn sleep?’

‘Some answers must be danced around. Give me another question, child of Raraku.’

Sighing, Quick Ben lowered his head, studied the ground for a moment, then said, ‘It’s said the earth shakes and molten rock pours out like blood when Burn stirs towards wakefulness.’

‘So it is said.’

‘And that destruction would be visited upon all life were she to awaken.’

‘So it is said.’

‘Well?’

‘Well nothing. The land shakes, mountains explode, hot rivers flow. These are natural things of a world whose soul is white hot. Bound to their own laws of cause and effect. The world is shaped like a beetle’s ball of dung, and it travels through a chilling void around the sun. The surface floats in pieces, on a sea of molten rock. Sometimes the pieces grind together. Sometimes they pull apart. Pulled and pushed by tides as the seas are pulled and pushed.’

‘And where is the goddess in such a scheme?’

‘She was the egg within the dung. Hatched long ago. Her mind rides the hidden rivers beneath our feet. She is the pain of existence. The queen of the hive and we her workers and soldiers. And every now and then … we
swarm.
’

‘Into the warrens?’

The old woman shrugged. ‘By whatever paths we find.’

‘Burn is sick.’

‘Aye.’

Quick Ben saw a sudden intensity light the witch’s dark eyes. He thought for a long moment, then said, ‘Why does Burn sleep?’

‘It’s not yet time for that. Ask another question.’

The wizard frowned, looked away. ‘Workers and soldiers … you make us sound like slaves.’

‘She demands nothing, what you do you do for yourselves. You work to earn sustenance. You fight to protect it or to gain more. You work to confound rivals. You fight from fear and hatred and spite and honour and loyalty and whatever other causes you might fashion. Yet, all that you do serves her … no matter what you do. Not simply benign, Adaephon Delat, but amoral. We can thrive, or we can destroy ourselves, it matters not to her – she will simply birth another brood and it begins again.’

‘You speak of the world as a physical thing, subject to natural laws. Is that all it is?’

‘No, in the end the minds and senses of all that is alive define what is real – real for us, that is.’

‘That’s a tautology.’

‘So it is.’

‘Is Burn the cause to our effect?’

‘Ah, you wind sideways like the desert snake you are in truth! Ask your question!’

‘Why does Burn sleep?’

‘She sleeps …
to dream.
’

Quick Ben said nothing for a long time. When he finally looked into the old woman’s eyes he saw confirmation of his greatest fears. ‘She is sick,’ he said.

The witch nodded. ‘Fevered.’

‘And her dreams…’

‘Delirium descends, lad. Dreams become nightmares.’

‘I need to think of a way to excise that infection, because I don’t think Burn’s fever will be enough. If anything, that heat that’s meant to cleanse is achieving the opposite effect.’

‘Think on it, then, dearest worker.’

‘I may need help.’

The witch held out a withered hand, palm up.

Quick Ben fished beneath his shirt and withdrew a waterworn pebble. He dropped it into her hand.

‘When the time comes, Adaephon Delat, call upon me.’

‘I shall. Thank you, mistress.’ He set a small leather bag filled with gold councils on the ground between them. The witch cackled. Quick Ben backed away.

‘Now shut that door – I prefer the cold!’

As the wizard strode down the alley, his thoughts wandered loose, darted and whipped on gusts – most of the currents false and without significance. One, however, snagged in his mind and stayed with him, at first meaningless, a curiosity and nothing more:
she prefers the cold. Strange. Most old people like heat and plenty of it …

*   *   *

Captain Paran saw Quick Ben leaning against the pitted wall beside the headquarters entrance, arms wrapped tightly about himself and looking ill-tempered. The four soldiers stationed as guards were all gathered ten paces away from the mage, showing obvious unease.

Paran led his horse forward by the reins, handed them to a stabler who appeared from the compound gateway, then strode towards Quick Ben.

‘You look miserable, mage – and that makes me nervous.’

The Seven Cities native scowled. ‘You don’t want to know, Captain. Trust me in this.’

‘If it concerns the Bridgeburners, I’d better hear it, Quick Ben.’

‘The Bridgeburners?’ He barked a humourless laugh. ‘This goes far beyond a handful of bellyaching soldiers, sir. At the moment, though, I haven’t worked out any possible solutions. When I do, I’ll lay it all out for you. In the meantime, you might want to requisition a fresh mount – we’re to join Dujek and Whiskeyjack at Brood’s camp. Immediately.’

‘The whole company? I just got them settled!’

‘No, sir. You, me, Mallet and Spindle. There’ve been some … unusual developments, I gather, but don’t ask me what because I don’t know.’

Paran grimaced.

‘I’ve sent for the other two already, sir.’

‘Very well. I’ll go find myself another horse, then.’ The captain swung about and headed towards the compound, trying to ignore the fiery pain in his stomach. Everything was taking too long – the army had been sitting here in Pale for months now, and the city didn’t want it. With the outlawing, none of the expected imperial support had arrived, and without that administrative infrastructure, there had been no relief from the tense, unpleasant role of occupiers.

The Malazan system of conquest followed a set of rules that was systematic and effective. The victorious army was never meant to remain in place beyond the peacekeeping transition and handover to a firmly entrenched and fully functioning civil government in the Malazan style. Civic control was not a burden the army had been trained for – it was best achieved through bureaucratic manipulation of the conquered city’s economy.
‘Hold those strings and the people will dance for you,’
had been the core belief of the Emperor, and he’d proved the truth of it again and again – nor did the Empress venture any alterations to the method. Acquiring that control involved both the imposition of legal authority and a thorough infiltration of whatever black market happened to be operating at the time.
‘Since you can never crush a black market the next best thing is to run it.’
And that task belonged to the Claw.

But there are no Claw agents, are there? No scroll scribblers, either. We don’t control the black market. We can’t even manage the above-board economy, much less run a civil administration. Yet we continue to proceed as if imperial support is imminent, when it most decidedly is not. I don’t understand this at all.