The Malazan Empire, page 338
Or so Korbolo Dom had explained—she was not entirely sure of the sequence. But it seemed that the Napan sought an initial defensive stance, despite their superior numbers. He was eager to prove his heavy infantry and shock troops against the Malazan equivalent. Since Tavore was marching to meet them, it was expedient to extend the invitation to its bitter close on these ramps. The advantage was entirely with the Army of the Apocalypse.
Tavore was, once again, Duke Kenussen D’Avore in Ibilar Gorge.
Sha’ik drew her sheep-hide cloak about her, suddenly chilled despite the heat. She glanced over to where Mathok and the dozen bodyguards waited, discreetly distanced yet close enough to reach her side within two or three heartbeats. She had no idea why the taciturn warchief so feared that she might be assassinated, but there was no danger in humouring the warrior. With Toblakai gone and Leoman somewhere to the south, Mathok had assumed the role of protector of her person. Well enough, although she did not think it likely that Tavore would attempt to send killers—the Whirlwind Goddess could not be breached undetected. Even a Hand of the Claw could not pass unnoticed through her multi-layered barriers, no matter what warren they sought to employ.
Because the barrier itself defines a warren. The warren that lies like an unseen skin over the Holy Desert. This usurped fragment is a fragment no longer, but whole unto itself. And its power grows. Until one day, soon, it will demand its own place in the Deck of Dragons. As with the House of Chains. A new House, of the Whirlwind.
Fed by the spilled blood of a slain army.
And when she kneels before me…what then? Dear sister, broken and bowed, smeared in dust and far darker streaks, her legions a ruin behind her, feast for the capemoths and vultures—shall I then remove my warhelm? Reveal to her, at that moment, my face?
We have taken this war. Away from the rebels, away from the Empress and the Malazan Empire. Away, even, from the Whirlwind Goddess herself. We have supplanted, you and I, Tavore, Dryjhna and the Book of the Apocalypse—for our own, private apocalypse. The family’s own blood, and nothing more. And the world, then, Tavore—when I show myself to you and see the recognition in your eyes—the world, your world, will shift beneath you.
And at that moment, dear sister, you will understand. What has happened. What I have done. And why I have done it.
And then? She did not know. A simple execution was too easy, indeed, a cheat. Punishment belonged to the living, after all. The sentence was to survive, staggering beneath the chains of knowledge. A sentence not just of living, but of living with; that was the only answer to…everything.
She heard boots crunching on potsherds behind her and turned. No welcoming smile for this one—not this time. ‘L’oric. I am delighted you deigned to acknowledge my request—you seemed to have grown out of the habit of late.’ Oh, how he hides from me, the secrets now stalking him, see how he will not meet my gaze—I sense struggles within him. Things he would tell me. Yet he will say nothing. With all the goddess’s powers at my behest, and still I cannot trap this elusive man, cannot force from him his truths. This alone warns me—he is not as he seems. Not simply a mortal man…
‘I have been unwell, Chosen One. Even this short journey from the camp has left me exhausted.’
‘I grieve for your sacrifice, L’oric. And so I shall come to my point without further delay. Heboric has barred his place of residence—he has neither emerged nor will he permit visitors, and it has been weeks.’
There was nothing false in his wince. ‘Barred to us all, mistress.’
She cocked her head. ‘Yet, you were the last to speak with him. At length, the two of you in his tent.’
‘I was? That was the last time?’
Not the reaction she had anticipated. Very well, then whatever secret he possesses has nothing to do with Ghost Hands. ‘It was. Was he distressed during your conversation?’
‘Mistress, Heboric has long been distressed.’
‘Why?’
His eyes flicked momentarily to hers, wider than usual, then away again. ‘He…grieves for your sacrifice, Chosen One.’
She blinked. ‘L’oric, I had no idea my sarcasm could so wound you.’
‘Unlike you,’ he replied gravely, ‘I was not being facetious, mistress. Heboric grieves—’
‘For my sacrifices. Well, that is odd indeed, since he did not think much of me before my…rebirth. Which particular loss does he mark?’
‘I could not say—you will have to ask him that, I’m afraid.’
‘Your friendship had not progressed to the point of an exchange of confessions, then.’
He said nothing to that. Well, no, he couldn’t. For that would acknowledge he has something to confess.
She swung her gaze from him and turned once more to regard the potential field of battle. I can envision the armies arrayed, yes. But then what? How are they moved? What is possible and what is impossible? Goddess, you have no answer to such questions. They are beneath you. Your power is your will, and that alone. But, dear Goddess, sometimes will is not enough. ‘Korbolo Dom is pleased with this pending…arena.’
‘I am not surprised, mistress.’
She glanced back at him. ‘Why?’
He shrugged, and she watched him search for an alternative to what he had been about to say. ‘Korbolo Dom would have Tavore do precisely what he wants her to do. To array her forces here, or there, and nowhere else. To make this particular approach. To contest where he would have her contest. He expects the Malazan army to march up to be slaughtered, as if by will alone he can make Tavore foolish, or stupid.’ L’oric nodded towards the vast basin. ‘He wants her to fight there. Expects her to. But, why would she?’
She shivered beneath the cloak as her chill deepened. Yes, why would she? Korbolo’s certainty…is it naught but bluster? Does he too demand something to be simply because that is how he must have it? But then, were any of the others any different? Kamist Reloe and his tail-sniffing pups, Fayelle and Henaras? And Febryl and Bidithal? Leoman…who sat with that irritating half-smile, through all of Korbolo’s descriptions of the battle to come. As if he knew something…as if he alone is indeed different. But then, that half-smile…the fool is sunk in the pit of durhang, after all. I should expect nothing of him, especially not military genius. Besides, Korbolo Dom has something to prove…
‘There is danger,’ L’oric murmured, ‘in trusting to a commander who wars with the aim of slaughter.’
‘Rather than what?’
His brows rose fractionally. ‘Why, victory.’
‘Does not slaughter of the enemy achieve victory, L’oric?’
‘But therein lies the flaw in Korbolo’s thinking, Chosen One. As Leoman once pointed out, months ago, the flaw is one of sequence. Mistress, victory precedes slaughter. Not the other way round.’
She stared at him. ‘Why, then, have neither you nor Leoman voiced this criticism when we discussed Korbolo Dom’s tactics?’
‘Discussed?’ L’oric smiled. ‘There was no discussion, Chosen One. Korbolo Dom is not a man who welcomes discussions.’
‘Nor is Tavore,’ she snapped.
‘That is not relevant,’ L’oric replied.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Malazan military doctrine—something Coltaine well understood, but also something that High Fist Pormqual had clearly lost sight of. Tactics are consensual. Dassem Ultor’s original doctrine, when he was finally made First Sword of the Malazan Empire. “Strategy belongs to the commander, but tactics are the first field of battle, and it is fought in the command tent.” Dassem’s own words. Of course, such a system relied heavily upon capable officers. Incompetent officers—such as those that subseqently infiltrated the chain of—’
‘Nobleborn officers, you mean.’
‘Bluntly, yes. The purchasing of commissions—Dassem would never have permitted that, and from what I gather, nor does the Empress. Not any more, in any case. There was a cull—’
‘Yes, I know, L’oric. By your argument, then, Tavore’s personality has no relevance—’
‘Not entirely, mistress. It has, for tactics are the child of strategy. And the truth of Tavore’s nature will shape that strategy. Veteran soldiers speak of hot iron and cold iron. Coltaine was cold iron. Dujek Onearm is cold iron, too, although not always—he’s a rare one in being able to shift as necessity demands. But Tavore? Unknown.’
‘Explain this “cold iron”, L’oric.’
‘Mistress, this subject is not my expertise—’
‘You have certainly fooled me. Explain. Now.’
‘Very well, such as I understand it—’
‘Cease equivocating.’
He cleared his throat, then turned and called out, ‘Mathok. Would you join us, please.’
Sha’ik scowled at the presumption behind that invitation, but then inwardly relented. This is important, after all. I feel it. The heart of all that will follow. ‘Join us, Mathok,’ she said.
He dismounted and strode over.
L’oric addressed him. ‘I have been asked to explain “cold iron”, Warchief, and for this I need help.’
The desert warrior bared his teeth. ‘Cold iron. Coltaine. Dassem Ultor—if the legends speak true. Dujek Onearm. Admiral Nok. K’azz D’Avore of the Crimson Guard. Inish Garn, who once led the Gral. Cold iron, Chosen One. Hard. Sharp. It is held before you, and so you reach.’ He crossed his arms.
‘You reach,’ L’oric nodded. ‘Yes, that’s it. You reach. And are stuck fast.’
‘Cold iron,’ Mathok growled. ‘The warchief’s soul—it either rages with the fire of life, or is cold with death. Chosen One, Korbolo Dom is hot iron, as am I. As are you. We are as the sun’s fires, as the desert’s heat, as the breath of the Whirlwind Goddess herself.’
‘The Army of the Apocalypse is hot iron.’
‘Aye, Chosen One. And thus, we must pray that the forge of Tavore’s heart blazes with vengeance.’
‘That she too is hot iron? Why?’
‘For then, we shall not lose.’
Sha’ik’s knees suddenly weakened and she almost staggered. L’oric moved close to support her, alarm on his face.
‘Mistress?’
‘I am…I am all right. A moment…’ She fixed her gaze on Mathok once more, saw the brief gauging regard in his eyes that then quickly slipped once again behind his impassive mien. ‘Warchief, what if Tavore is cold iron?’
‘The deadliest clash of all, Chosen One. Which shall shatter first?’
L’oric said, ‘Military histories reveal, mistress, that cold iron defeats hot iron more often than not. By a count of three or four to one.’
‘Yet Coltaine! Did he not fall to Korbolo Dom?’
She noted L’oric’s eyes meet Mathok’s momentarily.
‘Well?’ she demanded.
‘Chosen One,’ Mathok rumbled, ‘Korbolo Dom and Coltaine fought nine major engagements—nine battles—on the Chain of Dogs. Of these, Korbolo was clear victor in one, and one only. At the Fall. Outside the walls of Aren. And for that he needed Kamist Reloe, and the power of Mael, as channelled through the jhistal priest, Mallick Rel.’
Her head was spinning, panic ripping through her, and she knew L’oric could feel her trembling.
‘Sha’ik,’ he whispered, close by her ear, ‘you know Tavore, don’t you? You know her, and she is cold iron, isn’t she?’
Mute, she nodded. She did not know how she knew, for neither Mathok nor L’oric seemed able to give a concrete definition, suggesting to her that the notion derived from a gut level, a place of primal instinct. And so, she knew.
L’oric had lifted his head. ‘Mathok.’
‘High Mage?’
‘Who, among us, is cold iron? Is there anyone?’
‘There are two, High Mage. And one of these is capable of both: Toblakai.’
‘And the other?’
‘Leoman of the Flails.’
Corabb Bhilan Thenu’alas lay beneath a sheath of sand. The sweat had soaked through his telaba beneath him, packing down his body’s moulded imprint, and had cooled, so that he now shivered unceasingly. The sixth son of a deposed chief among the Pardu, he had been a wanderer of the wastelands for most of his adult life. A wanderer, trader, and worse. When Leoman had found him, three Gral warriors had been dragging him behind their horses for most of a morning.
The purchase price had been pathetically small, since his skin had been flayed away by the burning sands, leaving only a bloodied mass of raw flesh. But Leoman had taken him to a healer, an old woman from some tribe he’d never heard of before, or since, and she in turn had taken him to a rockspring pool, where he’d lain immersed, raving with fever, for an unknown time, whilst she’d worked a ritual of mending and called upon the water’s ancient spirits. And so he had recovered.
Corabb had never learned the reason behind Leoman’s mercy, and, now that he knew him well—as well as any who’d sworn fealty to the man—he knew better than to ask. It was one with his contrary nature, his unknowable qualities that could be unveiled but once in an entire lifetime. But Corabb knew one thing: for Leoman of the Flails, he would give his life.
They had lain side by side, silent and motionless, through the course of the day, and now, late in the afternoon, they saw the first of the outriders appear in the distance, cautiously ranging out as they ventured onto the pan of cracked salts and clay.
Corabb finally stirred. ‘Wickans,’ he hissed.
‘And Seti,’ Leoman rumbled in reply.
‘Those grey-armoured ones look…different.’
The man beside him grunted, then swore. ‘Khundryl, from south of the Vathar River. I had hoped…Still, that arcane armour looks heavy. The Seven know what ancestral tombs they looted for those. The Khundryl came late to the horse, and it’s no wonder with that armour, is it?’
Corabb squinted at the vast dust cloud behind the outriders. ‘The vanguard rides close to the scouts.’
‘Aye. We’ll have to do something about that.’
Without another word the two warriors edged back from the crest, beyond the sight of the outriders, pausing briefly to reach back and brush sand over where their bodies had lain, then made their way back to the gully where they’d left their horses.
‘Tonight,’ Leoman said, collecting his mount’s reins and swinging up into the saddle.
Corabb did the same and then nodded. Sha’ik would know, of course, that she had been defied. For the Whirlwind Goddess had her eyes on all her children. But this was their land, wasn’t it? The invaders could not be left to walk it uncontested. No, the sands would drink their blood, giving voice on this night to the Shrouded Reaper’s dark promise.
L’oric stood near the trail that led to Toblakai’s glade. A casual look around, then the faintest of gestures from one hand marked a careful unveiling of sorcery—that vanished almost as soon as it arrived. Satisfied, he set off down the trail.
She might be distracted, but her goddess was not. Increasingly, he sensed questing attention directed towards him, sorcerous tendrils reaching out in an effort to find him, or track his movements. And it was becoming more difficult to elude such probes, particularly since they were coming from more than a single source.
Febryl was growing more nervous, as was Kamist Reloe. Whilst Bidithal’s paranoia needed no fuel—and nor should it. Sufficient, then, all these signs of increased restlessness, to convince L’oric that whatever plans existed were soon to seek resolution. One way or another.
He had not expected to discover Sha’ik so…unprepared. True, she had conveyed a none too subtle hint that she was preternaturally aware of all that went on in the camp, including an alarming ability to defeat his own disguising wards intended to mask his travels. Even so, there was knowledge that, had she possessed it—or even suspected—would have long since triggered a deadly response. Some places must remain closed to her. I had expected her to ask far more dangerous questions of me today. Where is Felisin? Then again, maybe she didn’t ask that because she already knew. A chilling thought, not just for evincing the breadth of her awareness, but for what it suggested about Sha’ik herself. That she knows what Bidithal did to Felisin…and she does not care.
Dusk ever seemed eager to arrive in the forest of stone trees. The tracks he left in the dusty path revealed, to his relief, that he was still alone in walking the trail these days.
Not that the goddess needed trails. But there was a strangeness to Toblakai’s glade, hinting at some kind of investment, as if the clearing had undergone a sanctification of some sort. And if that had indeed occurred, then it might exist as a blind spot in the eye of the Whirlwind Goddess.
But none of this explained why Sha’ik did not ask about Felisin. Ah, L’oric, you are the blind one. Sha’ik’s obsession is Tavore. With each day that leaves us, bringing the two armies ever closer, her obsession grows. As does her doubt and, perhaps, her fear. She is Malazan, after all—I was right in that. And within that waits another secret, this one buried deepest of all. She knows Tavore.
And that knowledge had guided her every action since the Rebirth. Her recalling the Army of the Apocalpyse when virtually within sight of the Holy City’s walls. Retreating into the heart of Raraku…gods, was all that a flight of terror?
A notion that did not bear thinking about.
The glade appeared before him, the ring of trees with their cold, unhuman eyes gazing down upon the small, bedraggled tent—and the young woman huddled before the stone-lined hearth a few paces from it.
She did not look up as he came near. ‘L’oric, I was wondering, how can one tell Bidithal’s cult of murderers from Korbolo Dom’s? It’s a crowded camp these days—I am glad I am hiding here, and in turn I find myself pitying you. Did you finally speak with her today?’
Sighing, he settled down opposite her, removing his shoulder pack and drawing food from it. ‘I did.’
