The Complete Malazan Book of the Fallen (837 page)

A fistful of tunic, a sudden lift, pulling the child into the air, then back down, hard, onto the flat of her back, her head cracking hard on the stone, even as he drove the flint knife into the centre of her chest.

Her small legs kicked, then went still.

Silchas Ruin slowly straightened. Stepped back.

Udinaas turned his head away, his vision filling with tears. Of course, the child had known, just as
he
had known. Kettle was, after all, the last desperate creation of an Azath.

And here, in this brutal place, she had been joined to a Finnest.

He heard Seren Pedac cry out. Looked once more, blinking to clear his eyes.

Silchas Ruin had backed away, towards one of the gates.

Where Kettle lay, the leather-wrapped handle of the flint knife jutting up from her chest, the air had begun to swirl, darkness condensing. And the small body was moving in fitful jerks, then a slow writhing of limbs as roots snaked out, sank tendrils into the very stone. Rock hissed, steamed.

Silchas Ruin looked on for a moment longer, then he swung about, collected his second sword, sheathed it, and walked into a gate, vanishing from sight.

His breathing less ragged, Udinaas twisted round, looked for Clip's body – but the bastard was gone. A blood trail leading to one of the gates.
It figures. But oh, I saw Trull Sengar – I saw him take you on, Clip. You, sneering at that paltry weapon, the lowly spear. I saw, Clip.

The dark cloud surrounding Kettle's body had burgeoned, grown. Stone foundations, black roots, the trickle of water spreading in a stain.

An Azath, to hold for ever the soul of Scabandari. Silchas Ruin, you have your vengeance. Your perfect exchange.

And, because he could not help himself, Udinaas lowered his head and began to weep.

 

Somehow, Trull Sengar forced himself back onto his feet. Although without Seren Pedac at his side, taking much of his weight – and without the spear on which he leaned – she knew that that would have been impossible.

‘Please,' he said to her, ‘my brother.'

She nodded, wincing as the wound in her shoulder pulsed fresh blood, and began helping him hobble across to where Fear Sengar's body was sprawled, almost at the foot of the now darkened gate.

‘What am I to do?' Trull asked, suddenly hesitating and looking to where stood the squat woman wearing the skin of a panther. She and the Imass who had carried the Finnest were both now crouched at the form of a third Imass, a warrior. The woman was cradling the dead or unconscious warrior's head. ‘Onrack…my friend…'

‘Kin first,' Seren Pedac said. Then she raised her voice and called out to the Imass. ‘Does the fallen one live?'

‘Yes,' the warrior replied. ‘My father lives.'

A sob broke from Trull Sengar and he sagged against her. Seren staggered beneath his weight for a moment, then straightened. ‘Come, my love.'

This caught Trull's attention as, perhaps, nothing else would. He searched her face, her eyes.

‘We must return to my house,' she said, even as dread clawed at her heart –
another, after all I have done to those who came before him. Errant forgive me. Another.
‘I carry a sword,' she added. ‘And would bury it before the threshold.'
And shall I then kneel there, dirt on my hands, and cover my eyes? Shall I cry out in grief for what is to come? For all that I will bring to you, Trull Sengar? My burdens—

‘I have dreamed you would say that, Seren Pedac.'

She closed her eyes for a long moment, and then nodded.

They resumed their journey, and when they reached Fear Sengar, she let Trull settle down onto the ground, and he set the spear down, then reached out to touch his brother's ashen, lifeless face.

From nearby, Udinaas – his face streaked in tears – spoke in a harsh, grating voice. ‘I greet you, Trull Sengar. And I must tell you…your brother, Fear…he died as a hero would.'

Trull lifted his head, stared across at the Letherii. ‘Udinaas. You are wrong. My brother sought…betrayal.'

‘No. He saw you, Trull, and he knew the mind of Silchas Ruin. Knew you could never stand against the White Crow. Do you understand me? He saw you.'

‘Is that helpful?' Seren Pedac snapped.

Udinaas bared bloodstained teeth. ‘With the only alternative
betrayal
, Acquitor, then yes. Trull, I am…sorry. And yet…Fear – I am proud of him. Proud to have known him.'

And she saw her beloved nod, then manage a sorrow-filled smile at the ex-slave. ‘Thank you, Udinaas. Your journey – all of you – your journey, it must have been long. Difficult.' He glanced to her, then back to Udinaas. ‘For remaining at my brother's side, I thank you both.'

Oh, Trull, may you never know the truth.

 

Onrack the Broken opened his eyes to an ancient dream, and its conjuration twisted like a knife in his soul.
Not oblivion, then. Such peace is denied me. Instead, my crimes return. To haunt.

And yet…Ulshun Pral—

An ancient dream, yes, and hovering just beyond, a far younger dream – one he had not even known to exist. The Ritual of Tellann had stolen from so many men of the Imass this reaching into the future, this creation of sons, daughters, this rooting of life into the soil that lived on.

Yes, that had indeed been a dream—

Kilava Onass suddenly frowned. ‘You stare, Onrack, with all the intelligence of a bhederin. Have you lost your wits?'

Dreams did not berate, did they?

‘Ah,' she then said, nodding, ‘now I see you of old – I see the panic that ever fills a man's eyes, when all he longed for is suddenly within reach. But know this, I too have longed, and I too now feel…panic. To love in absence is to float on ever still waters. No sudden currents. No treacherous tides. No possibility of drowning. You and I, Onrack, have floated so for a very long time.'

He stared up at her – yes, he was lying on hard stone. In the cavern of the gates.

Then Kilava smiled, revealing those deadly canines. ‘But I fared better, I think. For you gave me a gift, from that one night. You gave me Ulshun Pral. And when I found this…this illusion, I found for our son a home, a haven.'

‘This realm…dies,' Onrack said. ‘Are we all illusions now?'

Kilava shook her head, the luxuriant black hair shimmering. ‘Gothos gave to our son the Finnest. As for the rest, well, your son has explained it to me. The white-skinned Tiste Andii, Silchas Ruin, delivered the seed of an Azath, a seed in the guise of a child. To accept the Finnest, to use its power to grow. Onrack, soon these gates will be sealed, each and all drawn into the House, into a squat, clumsy tower. And this realm – with an Azath House here, this realm no longer wanders, no longer fades. It is rooted, and so it will remain.'

Behind her, Ulshun Pral said, ‘Gothos said Silchas Ruin would one day come for the Finnest. Gothos thought that was…funny. Jaghut,' he then said, ‘are strange.'

Kilava Onass added, ‘To win his freedom, Silchas Ruin bargained with an Azath, an Azath that was dying. And now he has done what was asked of him. And the Azath is reborn.'

‘Then…we need not have fought.'

Kilava scowled. ‘Never trust a Tiste Andii.' Her luminous eyes flickered away briefly. ‘It seems there were other…issues.'

But Onrack was not ready to think of those. He continued staring up at Kilava Onass. ‘You, then, that night in darkness.'

Her scowl deepened. ‘Were you always this thick? I cannot remember – by the spirits, my panic worsens. Of course it was me. You bound me to stone, with your eyes and hand. With, Onrack, your love. Yours was a forbidden desire and it wounded so many. But not me. I knew only that I must give answer. I must let my heart speak.' She laid a hand on his chest. ‘As yours now does. You are flesh and blood, Onrack. The Ritual has relinquished your soul. Tell me, what do you seek?'

He held his eyes on hers. ‘I have found it,' he said.

Every bone in his body ached as he forced himself to his feet. At once his gaze was drawn to where he had last seen Trull Sengar; and a growing dread was swept from his mind upon seeing his friend.

Trull Sengar, you are as hard to kill as I am.

A moment later, he saw the tears on his friend's face, and it seemed there would be grief this day, after all.

 

At the mouth of a fissure not far away, in a small clearing, Rud Elalle stood in the midst of carnage. Where one of his mother's sisters had died. Where three Imass had died.

And somewhere beyond, he knew in his heart, he would find the body of his mother.

He stood on blood-soaked ground, and wondered what it was that had just died within his own soul.

Some time later, much later, he would find the word to describe it.

Innocence.

 

Quick Ben still hobbled like an old man, amusing Hedge no end. ‘There you are,' he said as they made their way towards the cave and its tunnel leading to the Gates of Starvald Demelain, ‘exactly how you'll look twenty years from now. Creepy and gamey. Pushing wobbly teeth with a purple tongue and muttering rhymes under your breath—'

‘Keep talking, sapper, and you'll know all about loose teeth. In fact, I'm surprised a few weren't knocked right out when that bone hit you. Gods below, that is probably the funniest thing I have ever seen.'

Hedge reached and gingerly touched the huge lump on his forehead. ‘So, we did our task today. How do you think the others fared?'

‘We'll soon find out,' the wizard replied. ‘One thing, though.'

‘What?'

‘There is now an Azath House growing in this damned realm.'

‘Meaning?'

‘Oh, lots of things. First, this place is now real. And it will live on. These Imass will live on.'

Hedge grunted. ‘Rud Elalle will be pleased. Onrack, too, I imagine.'

‘Aye. And here's another thing, only I don't think it'll please anyone. In that Azath House there will be a tower, and in that tower, all the gates.'

‘So?'

Quick Ben sighed. ‘You damned idiot. The Gates of Starvald Demelain.'

‘And?'

‘Just this. Shadowthrone, and Cotillion. Who like using the Azath whenever it suits them. Now they've got a way in. Not just to this realm, either.'

‘Into Starvald Demelain? Gods below, Quick!
Is that why we just did all that? Is that what brought you here?
'

‘No need to scream, sapper. When it came to planting that House, we weren't even witnesses. Were we? But you know, it's what those two sneaky bastards know, or seem to know, that really worries me. See my point?'

‘Oh, Hood piss in your boots, Ben Adaephon Delat.'

‘Got all your gear there, Hedge? Good. Because once we get to the Gates, we're going through one of them.'

‘We are?'

‘We are.' And the wizard grinned across at the sapper. ‘Fid's never been the same without you.'

 

Silchas Ruin stood among ancient foundations – some Forkrul Assail remnant slumping its slow way down the mountainside – and lifted his face to the blue sky beyond the towering trees.

He had fulfilled his vow to the Azath.

And delivered unto the soul of Scabandari a reprieve Bloodeye did not deserve.

Vengeance, he well knew, was a poisoned triumph.

One task remained. A minor one, intended to serve little more than his own sense of redressing an egregious imbalance. He knew little of this Crippled God. But what little he knew, Silchas Ruin did not like.

Accordingly, he now spread his arms. And veered into his dragon form.

Surged skyward, branches torn away from the trees he shouldered aside. Into the crisp mountain air – far to the west, a pair of condors banked away in sudden terror. But the direction Silchas Ruin chose was not to the west.

South.

To a city called Letheras.

And this time, in truth, there was blood on his mind.

Beak's barrow began with a few bones tossed into the ash and charred, splintered skeleton that was all that remained of the young mage. Before long, other objects joined the heap. Buckles, clasps, fetishes, coins, broken weapons. By the time Fist Keneb was ready to give the command to march, the mound was nearly the height of a man. When Captain Faradan Sort asked Bottle for a blessing, the squad mage had shaken his head, explaining that the entire killing field that had been enclosed by Bottle's sorcery was now magically dead. Probably permanently. At this news the captain had turned away, although Keneb thought he heard her say:
‘Not a candle left to light, then.'

As the marines set out for the city of Letheras, they could hear the rumble of detonations from the south, where the Adjunct had landed with the rest of the Bonehunters and was now engaging the Letherii armies. That thunder, Keneb knew, did not belong to sorcery.

He should be leading his troops to that battle, to hammer the Letherii rearguard, and then link up with Tavore and the main force. But Keneb agreed with the captain and with Fiddler and Gesler. He and his damned marines had earned this, had earned the right to be the first to assail this empire's capital city.

‘Might be another army waiting on the walls,' Sergeant Thom Tissy had said, making his face twist in his singular expression of disapproval, like a man who'd just swallowed a nacht turd.

‘It's possible there is,' the Fist had conceded. And that particular conversation went no further.

Up onto the imperial road with its well-set cobbles and breadth sufficient to accommodate a column ten soldiers wide. Marching amidst discarded accoutrements and the rubbish left by the Letherii legions as the day drew to a close and the shadows lengthened.

Dusk was not far off and the last sleep had been some time past, yet his soldiers, Keneb saw, carried themselves – and their gear – as if fresh from a week's rest.

A few hundred paces along, the column ran into the first refugees.

Smudged, frightened faces. Sacks and baskets of meagre provisions, wide-eyed babies peering from bundles. Burdened mules and two-wheeled carts creaking and groaning beneath possessions. No command was given, yet the Letherii shuffled to the roadsides, pulling whatever gear they had with them, as the column continued on. Eyes downcast, children held tight. Saying nothing at all.

Faradan Sort moved alongside Keneb. ‘This is odd,' she said.

The Fist nodded. ‘They have the look of people fleeing something that's already happened. Find one, Captain, and get some answers.'

‘Aye, sir.'

Studying the refugees he passed, Keneb wondered what was behind the glances a few of them furtively cast on these marching soldiers, these white-haired foreigners in their gleaming armour.
Do they see saviours? Not a chance. Yet, where is the hostility? They are more frightened of what they've just left behind in Letheras than they are of us. What in Hood's name is happening there?

And where are the Tiste Edur?

 

The crowds got thicker, more reluctant to move aside. Fiddler adjusted the pack on his shoulder and settled a hand on the grip of his shortsword. The column's pace had slowed, and the sergeant could feel the growing impatience among his troops.

They could see the end – Hood's breath – it was behind that white wall to the northeast, now a league or less distant. The imperial road stretching down towards them from a main gate was, in the red glare of sunset, a seething serpent.
Pouring out by the thousands.

And why?

Riots, apparently. An economy in ruins, people facing starvation.

‘Never knew we could cause such trouble, eh Fid?'

‘Can't be us, Cuttle. Not just us, I mean. Haven't you noticed? There are no Tiste Edur in this crowd. Now, either they've retreated behind their estate walls, or to the palace keep or whatever it is where the Emperor lives, or they were the first to run.'

‘Like those behind us, then. Heading back to their homelands in the north.'

‘Maybe.'

‘So, if this damned empire is already finished, why are we bothering with the capital?'

Fiddler shrugged. ‘Bottle might have hidden one of his rats in the Adjunct's hair – why not ask him?'

‘Adjunct ain't got enough hair for that,' Cuttle muttered, though he did glance back at the squad mage. Bottle did not deign to reply. ‘See anybody on those walls, Fid? My eyes are bad in bad light.'

‘If there are, they're not holding torches,' Fiddler replied.

There had been so little time to think. About anything, beyond just staying alive. Ever since the damned coast. But now, as he walked on this road, Fiddler found his thoughts wandering dusty paths. They had set out on this invasion in the name of vengeance. And, maybe, to eradicate a tyrannical Emperor who viewed anyone not his subject as meat for the butcher's cleaver.
All very well, as far as it goes. Besides, that hardly makes this Emperor unique.

So why is this our battle? And where in Hood's name do we go from here?
He so wanted to believe the Adjunct knew what she was doing. And that, whatever came and however it ended, there would be some meaning to what they did.

‘We must be our own witness.' To what, dammit?

‘Soldiers on the wall,' Koryk called out. ‘Not many, but they see us clear enough.'

Fiddler sighed.
First to arrive, and maybe that's as far as we'll get. An army of eight hundred camped outside one gate. They must be pissing in their boots.
He drew another deep breath, then shook himself. ‘Fair enough. We finally got an appreciative audience.'

 

Smiles didn't much like the look of these refugees. The pathetic faces, the shuffling gaits, they reminded her too much of…
home
. Oh, there'd been nothing in the way of hopeless flight back then, so it wasn't that, exactly. Just the dumb animal look in these eyes. The uncomprehending children dragged along by one hand, or clinging to mother's ratty tunic.

The Bonehunters marched to Letheras – why weren't these fools screaming and wailing in terror?
They're like slaves, pushed into freedom like sheep into the wilds, and all they expect ahead is more slavery. That, or dying in the tangles of empty forests. They've been beaten down. All their lives.

That's what's so familiar. Isn't it?

She turned her head and spat onto the road.
Hood take all empires. Hood take all the prod and pull. If I get to you, dear Emperor of Lether – if I get to you first, I'm going to slice you into slivers. Slow, with lots of pain. For every one of these wretched citizens on this stinking road.

Now, the sooner all these fools get out of our way, the sooner I can torture their Emperor.

 

‘We head for the palace,' Koryk said to Tarr. ‘And let nothing get in our way.'

‘You're smoke-dreaming, Koryk,' the corporal replied. ‘We'd have to cut through a few thousand stubborn Letherii to do that. And maybe even more Edur. And if that's not enough, what about that wall there? Plan on jumping it? We haven't got enough munitions to—'

‘Rubbish—'

‘I mean, there's no way Keneb's going to allow the sappers to use up all their stuff, not when all we have to do is wait for the Adjunct, then do a siege all proper.'

Koryk snorted. ‘Proper like Y'Ghatan? Oh, I can't wait.'

‘There's no Leoman of the Flails in Letheras,' Tarr said, tugging at his chin strap. ‘Just some Edur on the throne. Probably drunk. Insane. Drooling and singing lullabies. So, why bother with the palace? Won't be anything of interest there. I say we loot some estates, Koryk.'

‘Malazan soldiers don't loot.'

‘But we're not any more, are we? I mean, soldiers of the Malazan Empire.'

Koryk sneered at his corporal. ‘So that means you just sink back down to some frothing barbarian, Tarr? Why am I not surprised? I never believed all those civilized airs you're always putting on.'

‘What airs?'

‘Well, all right, maybe it's just how everybody sees you. But now I'm seeing you different. A damned thug, Tarr, just waiting to get nasty on us.'

‘I was just thinking out loud,' Tarr said. ‘It's not like Fid's gonna let us do whatever we want, is it?'

‘
I'm
not gonna let you do whatever you want, Tarr.'

‘Just making conversation, Koryk. That's all it was.'

Koryk grunted.

‘You being insolent with your corporal, Koryk?'

‘I'm thinking of pushing all your armour – and your shield – right up your bung hole, Corporal. Is that insolent?'

‘Once I'm used to telling the difference, I'll let you know.'

 

‘Listen, Corabb,' Bottle said, ‘you can stop looking out for me now, all right?'

The round-shouldered warrior at his side shook his head. ‘Sergeant Fiddler says—'

‘Never mind that. We're in column. Hundreds of marines on all sides, right? And I'm almost rested up, ready to make trouble in case we get ambushed or whatever. I'm safe here, Corabb. Besides, you keep hitting me with that scabbard – my leg's all bruised.'

‘Better a bruise than a chopped-off head,' Corabb said.

‘Well, that's a fact.'

Corabb nodded, as if the issue was now closed.

Bottle rubbed at his face. The memory of Beak's sacrifice haunted him. He'd not known the mage very well. Just a face with a gawking expression or a wide smile, a pleasant enough man not much older than Bottle himself. For some – for the rarest few – the paths to power were smooth, uncluttered, and yet the danger was always there.
Too easy to draw too much, to let it just pour through you.

Until you're nothing but ashes.

Yet Beak had won their lives. The problem was, Bottle wondered if it had been worth it. That maybe the lives of eight hundred marines weren't worth the life of a natural High Mage. Whatever was coming, at the very end of this journey, was going to be trouble. The Adjunct had Sinn and that was it. Another natural talent –
but I think she's mad.

Adjunct, your High Mage is insane. Will that be a problem?

He snorted.

Corabb took that sound as an invitation to talk. ‘See the fear in these people, Bottle? The Bonehunters turn their hearts to ice. When we reach the gate, it will swing wide open for us. The Letherii soldiers will throw down their arms. The people shall deliver to us the Emperor's head on a copper plate, and roses will be flung into our path—'

‘For Hood's sake, Corabb, enough. You keep looking for glory in war. But there is no glory. And heroes, like Beak back there, they end up dead. Earning what? A barrow of rubbish, that's what.'

But Corabb was shaking his head. ‘When I die—'

‘It won't be in battle,' Bottle finished.

‘You wound me with your words.'

‘You've got the Lady in your shadow, Corabb. You'll keep scraping through. You'll break weapons or they'll fly from your hand. Your horse will flip end over end and land right side up, with you still in the saddle. In fact, I'd wager all my back pay that you'll be the last one of us standing at the very end.'

‘You believe there will be a fight in this city?'

‘Of course there will, you idiot. In fact, I'd be surprised if we even get inside the walls, until the Adjunct arrives. But then, aye, we're in for a messy street-by-street battle, and the only thing certain about that is a lot of us are going to get killed.'

Corabb spat on his hands, rubbed them together.

Bottle stared. The fool was actually smiling.

‘You need fear nothing,' Corabb assured him, ‘for I will guard you.'

‘Wonderful.'

 

Hellian scowled. Damned crowded road, was it always like this? Must be a busy city, and everybody going on about things like there wasn't a column of foreign invaders pushing through them. She was still feeling the heat of shame – she'd fallen asleep back on that killing field. Supposed to be ready to fight and if not fight, then die horribly in a conflagration of piss-reeking magic, and what does she do?

Fall asleep. And dream of white light, and fires that don't burn, and because everybody had known she was dreaming they'd all decided to pull out their hidden supplies of aeb root paste and bleach their hair, and then polish all their gear. Well. Ha ha. Damned near the most elaborate joke ever pulled on her. But she wasn't going to let on about any of it. Pretend, aye, that nothing looked any different, and when her soldiers went over to where that one marine had died – the only casualty in the entire battle and there must have been some kind of battle since the evil Letherii army had run away – well, she'd done the same. Left on the mound an empty flask and if that wasn't honouring the idiot then what was?

But it was getting dark, and all these moon faces peering at them from the roadsides was getting eerie. She'd seen one baby, in an old woman's scrawny arms, stick out its tongue at her, and it had taken all her self-control to keep from pulling her sword and lopping off the tyke's little round head or maybe just twisting its ears or even tickling it to death, and so it was a good thing that nobody else could listen in on her thoughts because then they'd know she'd been rattled bad by that joke and her falling asleep when she should have been sergeant.