The Malazan Empire, page 336
‘We too failed, once, long ago,’ ’Siballe said. ‘Such things cannot be undone. Thus, you may surrender to it, and so suffer beneath its eternal torment. Or you can choose to free yourself of the burden. Karsa Orlong, our answer to you is simple: to fail is to reveal a flaw. Face that revelation, do not turn your back on it, do not make empty vows to never repeat your mistakes. It is done. Celebrate it! That is our answer, and indeed is the answer shown us by the Crippled God.’
The tension drained from Karsa’s shoulders. He drew a deep breath, released it slowly. ‘Very well. To you, and to the Crippled God, I now give my answer.’
Rippled stone made no silent passage through the air. Instead, it roared, like pine needles exploding into flame. Up, over Karsa’s head, wheeling in a sliding circle that then swept down and across.
The edge taking ’Siballe between left shoulder and neck. Bones snapping as the massive blade ploughed through, diagonally, across the chest, severing the spine, down and through the ribcage, sweeping clear just above her right hip.
She had lifted her own sword to intercept at some point, and it had shattered, flinging shards and slivers into the air—Karsa had not even felt the impact.
He whipped the huge blade in a curving arc in his follow-through, lifting it to poise, suddenly motionless, over his head.
The ruined form that was ’Siballe collapsed in clattering pieces onto the stone floor. The T’lan Imass had been cut in half.
The remaining six had raised their own weapons, but none moved to attack.
Karsa snarled. ‘Come ahead, then.’
‘Will you now destroy the rest of us?’ Urugal asked.
‘Her army of foundlings will follow me,’ the Teblor growled, sneering down at ’Siballe. Then he glared up once more. ‘You will leave my people—leave the glade. You are done with us, T’lan Imass. I have delivered you here. I have freed you. If you ever appear before me again, I will destroy you. Walk the dreams of the tribal elders, and I will come hunting you. And I shall not relent. I, Karsa Orlong, of the Uryd, of the Teblor Thelomen Toblakai, so avow.’ He took a step closer, and the six T’lan Imass flinched. ‘You used us. You used me. And, for my reward, what did you just offer?’
‘We sought—’
‘You offered a new set of chains. Now, leave this place. You have all you desired. Get out.’
The six T’lan Imass walked towards the cave mouth. A momentary occluding of the sunlight spilling into the front cavern, then they were gone.
Karsa lowered his sword. He looked down at ’Siballe.
‘Unexpected,’ she said.
The warrior grunted. ‘I’d heard you T’lan Imass were hard to kill.’
‘Impossible, Karsa Orlong. We…persist. Will you leave me here?’
‘There is to be no oblivion for you?’
‘Once, long ago, a sea surrounded these hills. Such a sea would free me to the oblivion you speak of. You return me to a fate—and a punishment—that I have spent millennia seeking to escape. I suppose that is apt enough.’
‘What of your new master, this Crippled God?’
‘He has abandoned me. It would appear that there are acceptable levels of imperfection—and unacceptable levels of imperfection. I have lost my usefulness.’
‘Another god that understands nothing of what it is to be a god,’ Karsa rumbled, walking over to his pack.
‘What will you do now, Karsa Orlong?’
‘I go in search of a horse.’
‘Ah, a Jhag horse. Yes, they can be found to the southwest of here, on the odhan. Rare. You may be searching for a long time.’
The Teblor shrugged. He loosened the strings that closed the mouth of the pack and walked over to the shambles that was ’Siballe. He lifted the part of her containing the head and right shoulder and arm.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Do you need the rest?’
‘No. What—’
Karsa pushed her head, shoulder and arm into his pack, then drew the strings once more. He would need a harness and a scabbard for the sword, but that would have to wait. He shrugged into the pack’s straps, then straightened and leaned the sword over his right shoulder.
A final glance around.
The hearth still raged with a sorcerous fire, though it had begun flickering more rapidly now, as if using up the last of its unseen fuel. He thought about kicking gravel over it to douse it, then shrugged and turned to the cave mouth.
As he came to the entrance, two figures suddenly rose before him, blocking the light.
Karsa’s sword whipped across his path, the flat of the blade thundering against both figures, sending them flying off the ledge.
‘Get out of my way,’ the warrior growled, stepping out into the sunlight.
He spared neither intruder another glance as he set off along the trail, where it angled southwest.
Trull Sengar groaned, then opened his eyes. He lifted his head, wincing at the countless sharp pains pressing into his back. That flint sword had thrown him down a scree of stone chips…although it had been hapless Onrack who had taken the brunt of the blow. Even so, his chest ached, and he feared his ribs were bruised, if not cracked.
The T’lan Imass was awkwardly regaining its feet a dozen paces away.
Trull spat and said, ‘Had I known the door was barred, I would have knocked first. That was a damned Thelomen Toblakai.’
The Tiste Edur saw Onrack’s head snap round to stare back up at the cave.
‘What is it?’ Trull demanded. ‘He’s coming down to finish us?’
‘No,’ the T’lan Imass replied. ‘In that cave…the Warren of Tellann lingers…’
‘What of it?’
Onrack began climbing the rock slide toward the cavern’s mouth.
Hissing his frustration, Trull clambered upward and followed, slowly, pausing every few steps until he was able to find his breath once more.
When he entered the cave he gave a shout of alarm. Onrack was standing inside a fire, the rainbow-coloured flames engulfing him. And the T’lan Imass held, in its right hand, the shattered remains of another of its kind.
Trull stepped forward, then his feet skidded out from under him and he fell hard onto a bed of sharp flint chips. Pain thundered from his ribs, and it was some time before he could breathe once more. Cursing, he rolled onto his side—gingerly—then carefully climbed upright. The air was hot as a forge.
Then the cavern was suddenly dark—the strange fire had gone out.
A pair of hands closed on Trull’s shoulders.
‘The renegades have fled,’ said Onrack. ‘But they are close. Come.’
‘Right, lead on, friend.’
A moment before they emerged into the sunlight, sudden shock raced through Trull Sengar.
A pair of hands.
Karsa skirted the valley side, making his way along what passed for a trail. Countless rockslides had buried it every ten paces or so, forcing him to scramble across uncertain, shifting gravel, raising clouds of dust in his wake.
On second consideration, he realized that one of the two strangers who had blocked his exit from the cave had been a T’lan Imass. Not surprising, since the entire valley, with all its quarries, mines and tombs, was a site holy to them…assuming anything could be holy to creatures that were undead. And the other—not human at all. But familiar none the less. Ah, like the ones on the ship. The grey-skinned ones I killed.
Perhaps he should retrace his route. His sword had yet to drink real blood, after all. Barring his own, of course.
Ahead, the trail cut sharply upward, out of the valley. Thoughts of having to repeat this dust-fouled, treacherous route decided him. He would save the blooding of his sword for more worthy enemies. He made his way upward.
It was clear the six T’lan Imass had not taken this route. Fortunate for them. He had lost his patience with their endless words, especially when the deeds they had done shouted louder, loud enough to overwhelm their pathetic justifications. He reached the crest and pulled himself onto level ground. The vista stretching to the southwest was as untamed as any place Karsa had yet to see in Seven Cities. No signs of civilization were apparent—no evidence at all that this land had ever been broken. Tall prairie grasses waved in the hot wind, cloaking low, rolling hills that continued on to the horizon. Clumps of low, bushy trees filled the basins, flickering dusty green and grey as the wind shook their leaves.
The Jhag Odhan. He knew, suddenly, that this land would capture his heart with its primal siren call. Its scale…matched his own, in ways he could not define. Thelomen Toblakai have known this place, have walked it before me. A truth, though he was unable to explain how he knew it to be so.
He lifted his sword. ‘Bairoth Delum—so I name you. Witness. The Jhag Odhan. So unlike our mountain fastnesses. To this wind I give your name—see how it races out to brush the grasses, to roll against the hill and through the trees. I give this land your name, Bairoth Delum.’
That warm wind sang against the sword’s rippled blade with moaning cadence.
A flash of movement in the grasses, a thousand paces distant. Wolves, fur the colour of honey, long-limbed, taller than any he had ever before seen. Karsa smiled.
He set forth.
The grasses reached to just beneath his chest, the ground underfoot hard-packed between the knotted roots. Small creatures rustled continually from his path, and he startled the occasional deer—a small breed, reaching no higher than his knees, that hissed like an arrow between the stalks as it fled.
One proved not quite fast enough to avoid his scything blade, and Karsa would eat well this night. Thus, his sword’s virgin thirst was born of necessity, not the rage of battle. He wondered if the ghosts had known displeasure at such an ignoble beginning. They had surrendered their ability to communicate with him upon entering the stone, though Karsa’s imagination had no difficulty in finding Bairoth’s sarcastic commentary, should he seek it. Delum’s measured wisdom was more difficult, yet valued all the more for that.
The sun swept its even arc across the cloudless sky as he marched on. Towards dusk he saw bhederin herds to the west, and, two thousand paces ahead, a herd of striped antelope crested a hilltop to watch him for a time, before wheeling as one and vanishing from sight.
The western horizon was a fiery conflagration when he reached the place where they had stood.
Where a figure awaited him.
The grasses had been flattened in a modest circle. A three-legged brazier squatted in its centre, filled with orange-glowing pieces of bhederin dung that cast forth no smoke. Seated behind it was a Jaghut. Bent and gaunt to the point of emaciation, wearing ragged skins and hides, long grey hair hanging in strands over a blotched, wrinkled brow, eyes the colour of the surrounding grass.
The Jaghut glanced up as Karsa approached, offering the Teblor something between a grimace and a smile, his yellowed tusks gleaming. ‘You have made a mess of that deer skin, Toblakai. I will take it none the less, in exchange for this cookfire.’
‘Agreed,’ Karsa replied, dropping the carcass beside the brazier.
‘Aramala contacted me, and so I have come to meet you. You have done her a noble service, Toblakai.’
Karsa set down his pack and squatted before the brazier. ‘I hold no loyalty to the T’lan Imass.’
The Jaghut reached across and collected the deer. A small knife flashed in his hand and he began cutting just above the animal’s small hoofs. ‘An expression of their gratitude, after she fought alongside them against the Tyrants. As did I, although I was fortunate enough to escape with little more than a broken spine. Tomorrow, I will lead you to one far less fortunate than either Aramala or myself.’
Karsa grunted. ‘I seek a Jhag horse, not an introduction to your friends.’
The ancient Jaghut cackled. ‘Blunt words. Thelomen Toblakai indeed. I had forgotten, and so lost my appreciation. The one I will take you to shall call out to the wild horses—and they will come.’
‘A singular skill.’
‘Aye, and hers alone, for it was, by and large, by her hand and her will that the horses came into being.’
‘A breeder, then.’
‘Of sorts,’ the Jaghut nodded amicably. He began peeling the hide from the deer. ‘The few of my fallen kin still alive will greatly appreciate this skin, despite the damage wrought by your ghastly stone sword. The aras deer are fleet, and clever. They never use the same trail—ha, they do not even make trails! And so one cannot lie in wait. Nor are snares of any use. And when pursued, where do they go? Why, into the bhederin herds, under the very beasts themselves. Clever, I said. Very clever.’
‘I am Karsa Orlong, of the Uryd—’
‘Yes, yes, I know. From distant Genabackis. Little different from my fallen kin, the Jhag. Ignorant of your great and noble history—’
‘Less ignorant than I once was.’
‘Good. I am named Cynnigig, and now you are even less ignorant.’
Karsa shrugged. ‘The name means nothing to me.’
‘Of course not, it’s mine. Was I infamous? No, though once I aspired to be. Well, for a moment or two. But then I changed my mind. You, Karsa Orlong, you are destined for infamy. Perhaps indeed you have already achieved it, back in your homeland.’
‘I think not. No doubt I am believed dead, and nothing of what I did is known to my family or my tribe.’
Cynnigig cut off a haunch and threw it on the flames. A cloud of smoke rose from the hissing, spitting fire. ‘So you might think, but I would hazard otherwise. Word travels, no matter what the barriers. The day you return, you will see.’
‘I care not for fame,’ Karsa said. ‘I did once…’
‘And then?’
‘I changed my mind.’
Cynnigig laughed once again, louder this time. ‘I have brought wine, my young friend. In yonder chest, yes, there.’
Karsa straightened and walked over. The chest was massive, iron-bounded and thick-planked, robust enough to challenge even Karsa, should he choose to lift it. ‘This should have wheels and a train of oxen,’ the Teblor muttered as he crouched before it. ‘How did you bring it with you?’
‘I didn’t. It brought me.’
Games with words. Scowling, Karsa lifted the lid.
A single carafe of crystal stood in its centre, flanked by a pair of chipped clay beakers. The wine’s deep red colour gleamed through the transparent crystal, bathing the otherwise empty interior of the chest with a warm, sunset hue. Karsa stared down into it for a moment, then grunted. ‘Aye, I can see that it would fit you, provided you curled up. You and the wine and the brazier—’
‘The brazier! That would be a hot journey!’
The Teblor’s scowl deepened. ‘Unlit, of course.’
‘Ah, yes, of course. Cease your gawking, then, and pour us some wine. I’m about to turn the meat here.’
Karsa reached down, then snatched his hand back. ‘It’s cold in there!’
‘I prefer my wine chilled, even the red. I prefer everything chilled, in fact.’
Grimacing, the Teblor picked up the carafe and the two beakers. ‘Then someone must have carried you here.’
‘Only if you believe all that I tell you. And all that you see, Karsa Orlong. A T’lan Imass army marched by here, not so long ago. Did they find me? No. Why? I was hidden in my chest, of course. Did they find the chest? No, because it was a rock. Did they note the rock? Perhaps. But then, it was only a rock. Now, I know what you’re thinking, and you would be precisely correct. The sorcery I speak of is not Omtose Phellack. But why would I seek to employ Omtose Phellack, when that is the very scent the T’lan Imass hunted? Oh no. Is there some cosmic law that Jaghut can only use Omtose Phellack? I’ve read a hundred thousand night skies and have yet to see it written there—oh, plenty of other laws, but nothing approaching that one, neither in detail nor intent. Thus saving us the bloody recourse of finding a Forkrul Assail to adjudicate, and believe me, such adjudication is invariably bloody. Rarely indeed is anyone satisfied. Rarer still that anyone is left alive. Is there justice in such a thing, I ask you? Oh yes, perhaps the purest justice of all. On any given day, the aggrieved and the aggriever could stand in each other’s clothes. Never a question of right and wrong, in truth, simply one of deciding who is least wrong. Do you grasp—’
‘What I grasp,’ Karsa cut in, ‘is the smell of burning meat.’
‘Ah, yes. Rare are my moments of discourse—’
‘I had no idea.’
‘—which cannot be said for this meat. Of course you wouldn’t, since we have just met. But I assure you, I have little opportunity to talk—’
‘There in your chest.’
Cynnigig grinned. ‘Precisely. You have the gist of it. Precisely. Thelomen Toblakai indeed.’
Karsa handed the Jaghut a beaker filled with wine. ‘Alas, my hand has warmed it some.’
‘I’ll suffer the degradation, thank you. Here, help yourself to the deer. Charcoal is good for you, did you know that? Cleanses the digestive tract, confounds the worms, turns your excrement black. Black as a forest bear’s. Recommended if you are being pursued, for it will fool most, barring those who have made a study of excrement, of course.’
‘And do such people exist?’
‘I have no idea. I rarely get out. What preening empires have risen only to then fall beyond the Jhag Odhan? Pomposity choking on dust, these are cycles unending among short-lived creatures. I do not grieve for my own ignorance. Why should I? Not knowing what I have missed means I do not miss what I do not know. How could I? Do you see? Aramala was ever questing for such pointless knowledge, and look where it got her. Same for Phyrlis, whom you will meet tomorrow. She can never see beyond the leaves in front of her face, though she ceaselessly strives to do so, as if the vast panorama offers something other than time’s insectile crawl. Empires, thrones, tyrants and liberators, a hundred thousand tomes filled with versions of the same questions, asked over and over again. Will answers deliver their promised solace? I think not. Here, cook some more, Karsa Orlong, and drink more wine—you see the carafe never empties. Clever, isn’t it? Now, where was I?’
