The Malazan Empire, page 161
SILVERFOX
OUTRIDER HURLOCHEL
Nestled amidst the rocks and tumbled boulders of the hillside, Corporal Picker watched the old man make his laborious way up the trail. His shadow slipped over Blend’s position, yet the man who cast it knew nothing of the soldier’s proximity. Blend rose in silence behind him, dust sloughing down, and made a series of hand gestures intended for Picker.
The old man continued on unawares. When he was but a half-dozen paces away, Picker straightened, the grey cloak left by the morning’s dust-storm cascading away as she levelled her crossbow. ‘Far enough, traveller,’ she growled.
His surprise sent the old man stumbling back a step. A stone turned underfoot and he pitched to the ground, crying out yet managing to twist to avoid landing atop the leather pack strapped to his back. He skidded another pace down the trail, and found himself almost at Blend’s feet.
Picker smiled, stepped forward. ‘That’ll do,’ she said. ‘You don’t look dangerous, old fella, but just in case, there’s five other crossbows trained on you right now. So, how about you tell me what in Hood’s name you’re doing here?’
Sweat and dust stained the old man’s threadbare tunic. His sunburned forehead was broad over a narrow set of features, vanishing into an almost chinless jaw. His snaggled, crooked teeth jutted out in all directions, making his smile an argumentative parody. He pulled his thin, leather-wrapped legs under himself and slowly levered upright. ‘A thousand apologies,’ he gasped, glancing over a shoulder at Blend. He flinched at what he saw in her eyes, swung hastily back to face Picker. ‘I’d thought this trail untenanted – even by thieves. You see, my life’s savings are invested in what I carry – I could not afford a guard, nor even a mule—’
‘You’re a trader, then,’ Picker drawled. ‘Bound where?’
‘Pale. I am from Darujhistan—’
‘That’s obvious enough,’ Picker snapped. ‘Thing is, Pale is now in imperial hands … as are these hills.’
‘I did not know – about these hills, that is. Of course I am aware that Pale has entered the Malazan embrace—’
Picker grinned at Blend. ‘Hear that? An embrace. That’s a good one, old man. A motherly hug, right? What’s in the sack, then?’
‘I am an artisan,’ the old man said, ducking his head. ‘Uh, a carver of small trinkets. Bone, ivory, jade, serpentine—’
‘Anything invested – spells and the like?’ the corporal asked. ‘Anything blessed?’
‘Only by my talents, to answer your first query. I am no mage, and I work alone. I was fortunate, however, in acquiring a priest’s blessings on a set of three ivory torcs—’
‘What god?’
‘Treach, the Tiger of Summer.’
Picker sneered. ‘That’s not a god, you fool. Treach is a First Hero, a demigod, a Soletaken ascendant—’
‘A new temple has been sanctified in his name,’ the old man interrupted. ‘On the Street of the Hairless Ape, in the Gadrobi Quarter – I myself was hired to punch the leather binding for the Book of Prayers and Rituals.’
Picker rolled her eyes and lowered the crossbow. ‘All right, let’s see these torcs, then.’
With an eager nod, the old man unslung his pack and set it down before him. He released the lone strap.
‘Remember,’ Picker grunted, ‘if you pull out anything awry you’ll get a dozen quarrels airing your skull.’
‘This is a pack, not my breeches,’ the trader murmured. ‘Besides, I thought it was five.’
The corporal scowled.
‘Our audience,’ Blend said quietly, ‘has grown.’
‘That’s right,’ Picker added hastily. ‘Two whole squads, hiding, watching your every move.’
With exaggerated caution, the old man drew forth a small packet of twine-wrapped doeskin. ‘The ivory is said to be ancient,’ he said in a reverent tone. ‘From a furred, tusked monster that was once Treach’s favoured prey. The beast’s corpse was found in frozen mud in distant Elingarth—’
‘Never mind all that,’ Picker snapped. ‘Let’s see the damned things.’
The trader’s white, wiry eyebrows rose in alarm. ‘Damned! No! Not ever! You think I would sell cursed items?’
‘Be quiet, it was just a damned expression. Hurry up, we haven’t got all damned day.’
Blend made a sound, quickly silenced by a glare from her corporal.
The old man unwrapped the packet, revealing three upper-arm rings, each of one piece and undecorated, polished to a gleaming, pale lustre.
‘Where’s the blessing marks?’
‘None. They were each in turn wrapped within a cloth woven from Treach’s own moult-hair – for nine days and ten nights—’
Blend snorted.
‘Moult-hair?’ The corporal’s face twisted. ‘What a disgusting thought.’
‘Spindle wouldn’t think so,’ Blend murmured.
‘A set of three arm torcs,’ Picker mused. ‘Right arm, left arm … then where? And watch your mouth – we’re delicate flowers, Blend and me.’
‘All for one arm. They are solid, yet they interlock – such was the instruction of the blessing.’
‘Interlocking yet seamless – this I have to see.’
‘I cannot, alas, demonstrate this sorcery, for it will occur but once, when the purchaser has threaded them onto his – or her – weapon arm.’
‘Now that has swindle written all over it.’
‘Well, we got him right here,’ Blend said. ‘Cheats only work if you can make a clean getaway.’
‘Like in Pale’s crowded markets. Well indeed,’ Picker grinned down at the old man, ‘we’re not in a crowded market, are we? How much?’
The trader squirmed. ‘You have selected my most valued work – I’d intended an auction for these—’
‘How much, old man?’
‘Th-three hundred g-gold councils.’
‘Councils. That’s Darujhistan’s new coinage, isn’t it?’
‘Pale’s adopted the Malazan jakata as standard weight,’ Blend said. ‘What’s the exchange?’
‘Damned if I know,’ Picker muttered.
‘If you please,’ the trader ventured, ‘the exchange in Darujhistan is two and one-third jakatas to one council. Broker’s fees comprise at least one jakata. Thus, strictly speaking, one and a third.’
Blend shifted her weight, leaned forward for a closer look at the torcs. ‘Three hundred councils would keep a family comfortable for a couple of years at least…’
‘Such was my goal,’ the old man said. ‘Although, as I live alone and modestly, I anticipated four or more years, including materials for my craft. Anything less than three hundred councils and I would be ruined.’
‘My heart weeps,’ Picker said. She glanced over at Blend. ‘Who’ll miss it?’
The soldier shrugged.
‘Rustle up three columns, then.’
‘At once, Corporal.’ Blend stepped past the old man, moved silently up the trail, then out of sight.
‘I beg you,’ the trader whined. ‘Do not pay me in jakatas—’
‘Calm down,’ Picker said. ‘Oponn’s smiling on you today. Now, step away from the pack. I’m obliged to search it.’
Bowing, the old man backed up. ‘The rest is of lesser value, I admit. Indeed, somewhat rushed—’
‘I’m not looking to buy anything else,’ Picker said, rummaging with one hand through the pack. ‘This is official, now.’
‘Ah, I see. Are some trade items now forbidden in Pale?’
‘Counterfeit jakatas, for one. Local economy’s taking a beating, and Darujhistan councils aren’t much welcome, either. We’ve had quite a haul this past week.’
The trader’s eyes widened. ‘You will pay me in counterfeited coin?’
‘Tempting, but no. Like I said, Oponn’s winked your way.’ Finished with her search, Picker stepped back, and pulled out a small wax tablet from her belt-pouch. ‘I need to record your name, trader. It’s mostly smugglers using these trails, trying to avoid the post at the plains track through the Divide – you’re one of the few honest ones, it seems. Those clever smugglers end up paying for their cleverness tenfold on these here trails, when the truth is they’d have a better chance slipping through the chaos at the post.’
‘I am named Munug.’
Picker glanced up. ‘You poor bastard.’
Blend returned down the trail, three wrapped columns of coins cradled in her arms.
The trader shrugged sheepishly, his eyes on the wrapped coin stacks. ‘Those are councils!’
‘Aye,’ Picker muttered. ‘In hundred-columns – you’ll probably throw your back lugging them to Pale, not to mention back again. In fact, you needn’t bother making the trip at all, now, right?’ She fixed him with her eyes as she put the tablet back into the pouch.
‘You have a valid point,’ Munug conceded, rewrapping the torcs and passing the packet to Blend. ‘I shall journey to Pale none the less – to deal the rest of my work.’ Eyes shifting nervously, he bared his crooked teeth in a weak smile. ‘If Oponn’s luck holds, I might well double my take.’
Picker studied the man a moment longer, then shook her head. ‘Greed never pays, Munug. I’d lay a wager that in a month’s time you’ll come wending back down this trail with nothing but dust in your pockets. What say you? Ten councils.’
‘If I lose, you’d have me ten in debt to you.’
‘Ah well, I’d consider a trinket or three instead – you’ve skilled hands, old man, no question of that.’
‘Thank you, but I respectfully decline the wager.’
Picker shrugged. ‘Too bad. You’ve another bell of daylight. There’s a wayside camp up near the summit – if you’re determined enough you might reach it before sunset.’
‘I shall make the endeavour.’ He slung his arms through the pack’s straps, grunted upright, then, with a hesitant nod, moved past the corporal.
‘Hold on there,’ Picker commanded.
Munug’s knees seemed to weaken and the old man almost collapsed. ‘Y-yes?’ he managed.
Picker took the torcs from Blend. ‘I’ve got to put these on, first. Interlocking, you claimed. But seamless.’
‘Oh! Yes, of course. By all means, proceed.’
The corporal rolled back the sleeve of her dusty shirt, revealing, in the heavy wool’s underside, its burgundy dye.
Munug’s gasp was audible.
Picker smiled. ‘That’s right, we’re Bridgeburners. Amazing what dust disguises, hey?’ She worked the ivory rings up her scarred, muscled arm. Between her biceps and shoulder there was a soft click. Frowning, Picker studied the three torcs, then hissed in surprise. ‘I’ll be damned.’
Munug’s smile broadened for the briefest of moments, then he bowed slightly. ‘May I now resume my journey?’
‘Go on,’ she replied, barely paying him any further attention, her eyes studying the gleaming torcs on her arm.
Blend stared after the man for a full minute, a faint frown wrinkling her dusty brow.
* * *
Munug found the side-cut in the path a short while later. Glancing back down the trail to confirm for at least the tenth time that he was not followed, he quickly slipped between the two tilting stones that framed the hidden entrance.
The gloomy passage ended after a half-dozen paces, opening out onto a track winding through a high-walled fissure. Shadows swallowed the trader as he scurried down it. Sunset was less than a hundred heartbeats away, he judged – the delay with the Bridgeburners could prove fatal, if he failed to make the appointment.
‘After all,’ he whispered, ‘gods are not known for forgiving natures…’
The coins were heavy. His heart thumped hard in his chest. He wasn’t used to such strenuous efforts. He was an artisan, after all. Down on his luck of late, perhaps, weakened by the tumours between his legs, no doubt, but his talent and vision had if anything grown sharper for all the grief and pain he’d suffered. ‘I have chosen you for those very flaws, Munug. That, and your skills, of course. Oh yes, I have great need of your skills…’
A god’s blessing would surely take care of those tumours. And, if not, then three hundred councils would come close to paying for a Denul healer’s treatment back in Darujhistan. After all, it wasn’t wise to trust solely in a god’s payment for services. Munug’s tale to the Bridgeburners about an auction in Pale was true enough – it paid to fashion options, to map out fall-back plans – and while sculpting and carving were his lesser skills, he was not so modest as to deny the high quality of his work. Of course, they were as nothing compared to his painting. As nothing, nothing at all.
He hastened along the track, ignoring the preternatural mists that closed in around him. Ten paces later, as he passed through the warren’s gate, the clefts and crags of the East Tahlyn Hills disappeared entirely, the mists thinning to reveal a featureless, stony plain beneath a sickly sky. Further out on the plain sat a ragged hide tent, smoke hanging over it in a sea-blue haze. Munug hurried towards it.
Chest labouring, the artisan crouched down before the entrance and scratched on the flap covering it.
A ragged cough sounded from within, then a voice rasped, ‘Enter, mortal.’
Munug crawled in. Thick, acrid smoke assaulted his eyes, nostrils and throat, but after his first breath a cool numbness spread out from his lungs. Keeping his head lowered and eyes averted, Munug stopped just within the entrance, and waited.
‘You are late,’ the god said, wheezing with each breath.
‘Soldiers on the trail, master—’
‘Did they discover it?’
The artisan smiled down at the dirty rushes of the tent floor. ‘No. They searched my pack, as I knew they would, but not my person.’
The god coughed again, and Munug heard a scrape as the brazier was drawn across the floor. Seeds popped on its coals, and the smoke thickened. ‘Show me.’
The artisan reached into the folds of his threadbare tunic and drew forth a thick, book-sized package. He unwrapped it to reveal a stack of wooden cards. Head still lowered and working blind, Munug pushed the cards towards the god, splaying them out as he did so.
He heard the god’s breath catch, then a soft rustle. When it spoke again the voice was closer. ‘Flaws?’
‘Aye, master. One for each card, as you instructed.’
‘Ah, this pleases me. Mortal, your skill is unsurpassed. Truly, these are images of pain and imperfection. They are tortured, fraught with anguish. They assault the eye and bleed the heart. More, I see chronic loneliness in such faces as you have fashioned within the scenes.’ Dry amusement entered its tone. ‘You have painted your own soul, mortal.’
‘I have known little happiness, mast—’
The god hissed. ‘Nor should you expect it! Not in this life, not in the thousand others you are doomed to endure before you attain salvation – assuming you have suffered enough to have earned it!’
‘I beg that there be no release in my suffering, master,’ Munug mumbled.
‘Lies. You dream of comfort and contentment. You carry the gold that you believe will achieve it, and you mean to prostitute your talent to achieve yet more – do not deny this, mortal. I know your soul – I see its avidness and yearning here in these images. Fear not, such emotions amuse me, for they are the paths to despair.’
‘Yes, master.’
‘Now, Munug of Darujhistan, your payment…’
The old man screamed as fire blossomed within the tumours between his legs. Twisting with agony, he curled up tight on the filthy rushes.
The god laughed, the horrible sound breaking into lung-ravaging coughs that were long in passing.
The pain, Munug realized after a while, was fading.
‘You are healed, mortal. You are granted more years of your miserable life. Alas, as perfection is anathema to me, so it must be among my cherished children.’
‘M-master, I cannot feel my legs!’
‘They are dead, I am afraid. Such was the price of curing. It seems, artisan, that you will have a long, wearying crawl to wherever it is you seek to go. Bear in mind, child, that the value lies in the journey, not in the goal achieved.’ The god laughed again, triggering yet another fit of coughing.
Knowing he was dismissed, Munug pulled himself around, dragged the dead weight of his lower limbs through the tent entrance, then lay gasping. The pain he now felt came from his own soul. He pulled his pack up alongside him, rested his head on it. The columns of stacked coins were hard against his sweat-runnelled forehead. ‘My rewards,’ he whispered. ‘Blessed is the touch of the Fallen One. Lead me, dear master, down the paths of despair, for I deserve this world’s pain in unending bounty…’
From the tent behind him, the Crippled God’s laughter hacked the air. ‘Cherish this moment, dear Munug! By your hand, the new game is begun. By your hand, the world shall tremble!’
Munug closed his eyes. ‘My rewards…’
* * *
Blend continued staring up the trail long after the trader had disappeared from view. ‘He was not,’ she muttered, ‘as he seemed.’
‘None of them are,’ Picker agreed, tugging at the torcs on her arm. ‘These things are damned tight’
‘Your arm will probably rot and fall off, Corporal.’
She looked up with wide eyes. ‘You think they’re cursed?’
Blend shrugged. ‘If it was me I’d have Quick Ben take a good long peer at them, and sooner not later.’
‘Togg’s balls, if you’d a suspicion—’
‘Didn’t say I did, Corporal – it was you complaining they were tight. Can you get them off?’
She scowled. ‘No, damn you.’
‘Oh.’ Blend looked away.
Picker contemplated giving the woman a good, hard cuff, but it was a thought she entertained at least ten times a day since they’d paired up for this posting, and once again she resisted it. ‘Three hundred councils to buy my arm falling off. Wonderful.’
‘Think positive, Corporal. It’ll give you something to talk about with Dujek.’
‘I really do hate you, Blend.’
She offered Picker a bland smile. ‘So, did you drop a pebble in that old man’s pack, then?’
