The Complete Malazan Book of the Fallen, page 410
‘Is that you?’ came Shurq’s voice from the darkness within.
‘Why yes,’ Bugg said, ‘it is.’
‘Liar. You’re not you, you’re Bugg. Where’s Tehol? I need to talk to Tehol.’
‘He is indisposed,’ Bugg said. Having pushed the door open to allow himself passage into the tomb, he collected the lantern and edged inside.
‘Where’s Harlest?’
‘In the sarcophagus.’
There was no lid to the huge stone coffin. Bugg walked over and peered in. ‘What are you doing, Harlest?’ He set the lantern down on the edge.
‘The previous occupant was tall. Very tall. Hello, Bugg. What am I doing? I am lying here.’
‘Yes, I see that. But why?’
‘There are no chairs.’
Bugg turned to Shurq Elalle. ‘Where are these diamonds?’
‘Here. Have you found what I was looking for?’
‘I have. A decent price, leaving you the majority of your wealth intact.’
‘Tehol can have what’s left in the box there. My earnings from the whorehouse I’ll keep.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want a percentage from this, Shurq? Tehol would be happy with fifty per cent. After all, the risk was yours.’
‘No. I’m a thief. I can always get more.’
Bugg glanced around. ‘Will this do for the next little while?’
‘I don’t see why not. It’s dry, at least. Quiet, most of the time. But I need Ublala Pung.’
Harlest’s voice came from the sarcophagus. ‘And I want sharp teeth and talons. Shurq said you could do that for me.’
‘Work’s already begun on that, Harlest.’
‘I want to be scary. It’s important that I be scary. I’ve been practising hissing and snarling.’
‘No need for concern there,’ Bugg replied. ‘You’ll be truly terrifying. In any case, I should be going—’
‘Not so fast,’ Shurq cut in. ‘Has there been any word on the robbery at Gerun Eberict’s estate?’
‘No. Not surprising, if you think about it. Gerun’s undead brother disappears, the same night as some half-giant beats up most of the guards. Barring that, what else is certain? Will anyone actually attempt to enter Gerun’s warded office?’
‘If I eat human flesh,’ Harlest said, ‘it will rot in my stomach, won’t it? That means I will stink. I like that. I like thinking about things like that. The smell of doom.’
‘The what? Shurq, probably they don’t know they’ve been robbed. And even if they did, they wouldn’t make a move until their master returns.’
‘I expect you’re right. Anyway, be sure to send me Ublala Pung. Tell him I miss him. Him and his—’
‘I will, Shurq. I promise. Anything else?’
‘I don’t know,’ she replied. ‘Let me think.’
Bugg waited.
‘Oh, yes,’ she said after a time, ‘what do you know about these tombs? There was a corpse here, once, in that sarcophagus.’
‘How can you be certain?’
Her lifeless eyes fixed on his. ‘We can tell.’
‘Oh. All right.’
‘So, what do you know?’
‘Not much. The language on the door belongs to an extinct people known as Forkrul Assail, who are collectively personified in our Fulcra by the personage we call the Errant. The tombs were built for another extinct people, called the Jaghut, whom we acknowledge in the Hold we call the Hold of Ice. The wards were intended to block the efforts of another people, the T’lan Imass, who were the avowed enemies of the Jaghut. The T’lan Imass pursued the Jaghut in a most relentless manner, including those Jaghut who elected to surrender their place in the world—said individuals choosing something closely resembling death. Their souls would travel to their Hold, leaving their flesh behind, the flesh being stored in tombs like this one. That wasn’t good enough for the T’lan Imass. Anyway, the Forkrul Assail considered themselves impartial arbiters in the conflict, and that was, most of the time, the extent of their involvement. Apart from that,’ Bugg said with a shrug, ‘I really can’t say.’
Harlest Eberict had slowly sat up during Bugg’s monologue and was now staring at the manservant. Shurq Elalle was motionless, as the dead often were. Then she said, ‘I have another question.’
‘Go ahead.’
‘Is this common knowledge among serving staff?’
‘Not that I am aware of, Shurq. I just pick up things here and there, over time.’
‘Things no scholar in Letheras picks up? Or are you just inventing as you go along?’
‘I try to avoid complete fabrication.’
‘And do you succeed?’
‘Not always.’
‘You’d better go now, Bugg.’
‘Yes, I’d better. I’ll have Ublala visit you tonight.’
‘Do you have to?’ Harlest asked. ‘I’m not the voyeuristic type—’
‘Liar,’ Shurq said. ‘Of course you are.’
‘Okay, so I’m lying. It’s a useful lie, and I want to keep it.’
‘That position is indefensible—’
‘That’s a rich statement, coming from you and given what you’ll be up to tonight—’
Bugg collected the lantern and slowly backed out as the argument continued. He pushed the door back in place, slapped the dust from his hands, then returned to the ladder.
Once back in the warehouse office, he replaced the flagstone, then, collecting his drawings, he made his way to the latest construction site. Bugg’s Construction’s most recent acquisition had once been a school, stately and reserved for children of only the wealthiest citizens of Letheras. Residences were provided, creating the typical and highly popular prison-style educational institution. Whatever host of traumas were taught within its confines came to an end when, during one particularly wet spring, the cellar walls collapsed in a sluice of mud and small human bones. The floor of the main assembly hall promptly slumped during the next gathering of students, burying children and instructors alike in a vast pit of black, rotting mud, in which fully a third drowned, and of these the bodies of more than half were never recovered. Shoddy construction was blamed, leading to a scandal.
Since that event, fifteen years past, the derelict building had remained empty, reputedly haunted by the ghosts of outraged proctors and bewildered hall monitors.
The purchase price had been suitably modest.
The upper levels directly above the main assembly hall were structurally compromised, and Bugg’s first task had been to oversee the installation of bracing, before the crews could re-excavate the pit down to the cellar floor. Once that floor was exposed—and the jumble of bones dispatched to the cemetery—shafts were extended straight down, through lenses of clay and sand, to a thick bed of gravel. Cement was poured in and a ring of vertical iron rods put in place, followed by alternating packed gravel and cement for half the depth of the shaft. Limestone pillars, their bases drilled to take the projecting rods, were then lowered. From there on upwards, normal construction practices followed. Columns, buttresses and false arches, all the usual techniques in which Bugg had little interest.
The old school was being transformed into a palatial mansion. Which they would then sell to some rich merchant or noble devoid of taste. Since there were plenty of those, the investment was a sure one.
Bugg spent a short time at the site, surrounded by foremen thrusting scrolls in his face describing countless alterations and specifications requiring approval. A bell passed before he finally managed to file his drawings and escape.
The street that became the road that led to the gravel quarry was a main thoroughfare wending parallel with the canal. It was also one of the oldest tracks in the city. Built along the path of a submerged beach ridge of pebbles and cobbles sealed in clay, the buildings lining it had resisted the sagging decay common to other sections of the city. Two hundred years old, many of them, in a style so far forgotten as to seem foreign.
Scale House was tall and narrow, squeezed between two massive stone edifices, one a temple archive and the other the monolithic heart of the Guild of Street Inspectors. A few generations past, a particularly skilled stone carver had dressed the limestone façade and formal, column-flanked entrance with lovingly rendered rats. In multitudes almost beyond counting. Cavorting rats, dancing rats, fornicating rats. Rats at war, at rest, rats feasting on corpses, swarming feast-laden tabletops amidst sleeping mongrels and drunk servants. Scaly tails formed intricate borders to the scenes, and in some strange way it seemed to Bugg as he climbed the steps that the rats were in motion, at the corner of his vision, moving, writhing, grinning.
He shook off his unease, paused a moment on the landing, then opened the door and strode inside.
‘How many, how bad, how long?’
The desk, solid grey Bluerose marble, almost blocked the entrance to the reception hall, spanning the width of the room barring a narrow space at the far right. The secretary seated behind it had yet to look up from his ledgers. He continued speaking after a moment. ‘Answer those questions, then tell us where and what you’re willing to pay and is this a one-off or are you interested in regular monthly visits? And be advised we’re not accepting contracts at the moment.’
‘No.’
The secretary set down his quill and looked up. Dark, small eyes glittered with suspicion from beneath a single wiry brow. Ink-stained fingers plucked at his nose, which had begun twitching as if the man was about to sneeze. ‘We’re not responsible.’
‘For what?’
‘For anything.’ More tugging at his nose. ‘And we’re not accepting any more petitions, so if you’re here to deliver one you might as well just turn round and leave.’
‘What sort of petition might I want to hand to you?’ Bugg asked.
‘Any sort. Belligerent tenement associations have to wait in line just like everyone else.’
‘I have no petition.’
‘Then we didn’t do it, we were never there, you heard wrong, it was someone else.’
‘I am here on behalf of my master, who wishes to meet with your guild to discuss a contract.’
‘We’re backed up. Not taking any more contracts—’
‘Price is not a consideration,’ Bugg cut in, then smiled, ‘within reasonable limits.’
‘Ah, but then it is a consideration. We may well have unreasonable limits in mind. We often have, you know.’
‘I do not believe my master is interested in rats.’
‘Then he’s insane…but interesting. The board will be in attendance tonight on another matter. Your master will be allotted a short period at the meeting’s end, which I will note in the agenda. Anything else?’
‘No. What time tonight?’
‘Ninth bell, no later. Come late and he will be barred outside the chamber door. Be sure he understands that.’
‘My master is always punctual.’
The secretary made a face. ‘Oh, he’s like that, is he? Poor you. Now, begone. I’m busy.’
Bugg abruptly leaned forward and stabbed two fingers into the secretary’s eyes. There was no resistance. The secretary tilted his head back and scowled.
‘Cute,’ Bugg smiled, stepping back. ‘My compliments to the guild sorceror.’
‘What gave me away?’ the secretary asked as Bugg opened the door.
The manservant glanced back. ‘You are far too rat-like, betraying your creator’s obsession. Even so, the illusion is superb.’
‘I haven’t been found out in decades. Who in the Errant’s name are you?’
‘For that answer,’ Bugg said as he turned away, ‘you’ll need a petition.’
‘Wait! Who’s your master?’
Bugg gave a final wave then shut the door. He descended the steps and swung right. A long walk to the quarries was before him, and, as Tehol had predicted, the day was hot, and growing hotter.
Summoned to join the Ceda in the Cedance, the chamber of the tiles, Brys descended the last few steps to the landing and made his way onto the raised walkway. Kuru Qan was circling the far platform in a distracted manner, muttering under his breath.
‘Ceda,’ Brys called as he approached. ‘You wished to see me?’
‘Unpleasant, Finadd, all very unpleasant. Defying comprehension. I need a clearer mind. In other words, not mine. Perhaps yours. Come here. Listen.’
Brys had never heard the Ceda speak with such fraught dismay. ‘What has happened?’
‘Every Hold, Finadd. Chaos. I have witnessed a transformation. Here, see for yourself. The tile of the Fulcra, the Dolmen. Do you see? A figure huddled at its base. Bound to the menhir with chains. All obscured by smoke, a smoke that numbs my mind. The Dolmen has been usurped.’
Brys stared down at the tile. The figure was ghostly, and his vision blurred the longer he stared at it. ‘By whom?’
‘A stranger. An outsider.’
‘A god?’
Kuru Qan massaged his lined brow with his fingers as he continued pacing. ‘Yes. No. We hold no value in the notion of gods. Upstarts who are as nothing compared to the Holds. Most of them aren’t even real, simply projections of a people’s desires, hopes. Fears. Of course,’ he added, ‘sometimes that’s all that’s needed.’
‘What do you mean?’
Kuru Qan shook his head. ‘And the Azath Hold, this troubles me greatly. The centre tile, the Heartstone, can you sense it? The Azath Heartstone, my friend, has died. The other tiles clustered together around it, at the end, drawing tight as blood gathers in a wounded body. The Tomb is breached. Portal stands unguarded. You must make a journey for me to the square tower, Finadd. And go armed.’
‘What am I to look for?’
‘Anything untoward. Broken ground. But be careful—the dwellers within those tombs are not dead.’
‘Very well.’ Brys scanned the nearest tiles. ‘Is there more?’
Kuru Qan halted, brows lifting. ‘More? Dragon Hold has awakened. Wyval. Blood-Drinker. Gate. Consort. Among the Fulcra, the Errant is now positioned in the centre of things. The Pack draws nearer, and Shapefinder has become a chimera. Ice Hold’s Huntress walks frozen paths. Child and Seed stir to life. The Empty Hold—you can well see—has become obscured. Every tile. A shadow stands behind the Empty Throne. And look, Saviour and Betrayer, they have coalesced. They are one and the same. How is this possible? Wanderer, Mistress, Watcher and Walker, all hidden, blurred by mysterious motion. I am frightened, Finadd.’
‘Ceda, have you heard from the delegation?’
‘The delegation? No. From the moment of their arrival in the Warlock King’s village, all contact with them has been lost. Blocked by Edur sorcery, of a sort we’ve not experienced before. There is much that is troubling. Much.’
‘I should leave now, Ceda, while there’s still daylight.’
‘Agreed. Then return here with what you have discovered.’
‘Very well.’
The track leading to the quarries climbed in zigzag fashion to a notch in the hillside. The stands of coppiced trees on the flanks were sheathed in white dust. Goats coughed in the shade.
Bugg paused to wipe sweaty grit from his forehead, then went on.
Two wagons filled with stonecutters had passed him a short while earlier, and from the frustrated foreman came the unwelcome news that the crew had refused to work the quarry any longer, at least until the situation was resolved.
A cavity had been inadvertently breached, within which a creature of some sort had been imprisoned for what must have been a long, long time. Three ’cutters had been dragged inside, their shrieks short-lived. The hired necromancer hadn’t fared any better.
Bugg reached the notch and stood looking down at the quarry pit with its geometric limestone sides cut deep into the surrounding land. The mouth of the cavity was barely visible near an area that had seen recent work.
He made his way down, coming to within twenty paces of the cave before he stopped.
The air was suddenly bitter cold. Frowning, Bugg stepped to one side and sat down on a block of limestone. He watched frost form on the ground to the left of the cave, reaching in a point towards the dark opening, the opposite end spreading ever wider in a swirl of fog. The sound of ice crunching underfoot, then a figure appeared from the widening end, as if striding out from nowhere. Tall, naked from the hips upward, grey-green skin. Long, streaked blonde hair hanging loose over the shoulders and down the back. Light grey eyes, the pupils vertical slits. Silver-capped tusks. Female, heavy-breasted. She was wearing a short skirt, her only clothing barring the leather-strapped moccasins, and a wide belt holding a half-dozen scabbards in which stabbing knives resided.
Her attention was on the cave. She anchored her hands on her hips and visibly sighed.
‘He’s not coming out,’ Bugg said.
She glanced over. ‘Of course he isn’t, now that I’m here.’
‘What kind of demon is he?’
‘Hungry and insane, but a coward.’
‘Did you put him there?’
She nodded. ‘Damned humans. Can’t leave things well enough alone.’
‘I doubt they knew, Jaghut.’
‘No excuse. They’re always digging. Digging here, digging there. They never stop.’
Bugg nodded, then asked, ‘So now what?’
She sighed again.
The frost at her feet burgeoned into angular ice, which then crawled into the cave mouth. The ice grew swiftly, filling the hole. The surrounding stone groaned, creaked, then split apart, revealing solid ice beneath it. Sandy earth and limestone chunks tumbled away.
Bugg’s gaze narrowed on the strange shape trapped in the centre of the steaming ice. ‘A Khalibaral? Errant take us, Huntress, I’m glad you decided to return.’
‘Now I need to find for him somewhere else. Any suggestions?’
Bugg considered for a time, then he smiled.
Brys made his approach between two of the ruined round towers, stepping carefully around tumbled blocks of stone half hidden in the wiry yellow grasses. The air was hot and still, the sunlight molten gold on the tower walls. Grasshoppers rose from his path in clattering panic and, at the faint sensation of crunching underfoot, Brys looked down to see that the ground was crawling with life. Insects, many of them unrecognizable to his eyes, oversized, awkward, in dull hues, scrambling to either side as he walked.
