The Malazan Empire, page 617
This, more than anything else, dismayed Bruthen Trana. Hannan Mosag’s insisting he leave immediately – for some place where the sun dies. West. But no, not west. The Warlock King misunderstood his own vision—
A sudden thought, slowing his steps as he made his way down into the subterranean corridors and chambers beneath the Old Palace. Who answered his prayers? Who showed him this path? He suggested it was not this Crippled God. Father Shadow? Has Scabandari Bloodeye returned to us?
No, he has not. Then…who?
A moment later, Bruthen Trana scowled, then cursed under his breath and resumed his journey. I am given hope and what do I do? Seek to kill it with my own hands. No, I understand the path – better than Hannan Mosag himself.
Where the sun dies is not to the west.
It is beneath the waves. In the depths.
Did not a demon of the seas retrieve his body? No, Hannan Mosag, you dare not name him. He is not even Tiste Edur. Yet he must be our salvation.
He reached the sloping tunnel that would take him to the slave’s supposedly secret abode. These Letherii were indeed pathetic.
We each carry a whisper of Emurlahn within us – each and every Tiste Edur. This is why no slave among the tribes could escape us.
Except for one, he corrected himself. Udinaas. But then, the K’risnan knew where he was – or so Bruthen Trana suspected. They knew, yet chose to do nothing.
It was no wonder Rhulad did not trust them.
Nor do I.
He could smell the stench of bitter magic as he drew nearer, and he heard her muttering in her chamber, and knew that something had changed. In the one named Feather Witch. In the power she possessed.
Well, he would give her no time to prepare.
Feather Witch looked up in fear and alarm as the Tiste Edur warrior strode in. Squealing, she backed away until brought short by a wall, then sank down and covered her face.
The stark intent in the warrior’s face was fierce.
He grasped her by the hair and yanked her to her feet, then higher, the pain forcing a shriek from her.
With his other hand he grasped the small leather pouch between her breasts. When he tore it loose, the thong cut like wire across the back of her neck and behind one ear. She could feel blood. She thought that her ear had very nearly been cut loose, that it hung by a strand of—
He flung her back down. Her head cracked against the stone of the wall. She slumped onto the floor, ragged sobbing erupting from her heaving chest.
And listened – beyond the close roar of blood in her skull – to his dwindling footsteps.
He had taken the severed finger.
He goes to find the soul of Brys Beddict.
Tehol staggered into the single room, collapsed down near the hearth. Sheathed in sweat, gasping to gain his breath.
Bugg, seated with his back to a wall and sipping tea, slowly raised his brows. ‘Afflicted with the delusion of competence, I see.’
‘That – that’s what you said – to Ublala? You cruel, heartless—’
‘The observation was made regarding all mortals, actually.’
‘He didn’t take it that way!’
Janath spoke from where she sat sipping from her own chipped clay cup. ‘All those alarms ringing through the city are because of you, Tehol Beddict?’
‘They will be on the lookout now,’ Bugg observed, ‘for a man wearing a blanket.’
‘Well,’ Tehol retorted, ‘there must be plenty of those, right?’
There was no immediate reply.
‘There must be,’ Tehol insisted, a little wildly even to his own ears. He hastened on in a more reasonable tone. ‘The ever growing divide between the rich and the poor and all that. Why, blankets are the new fashion among the destitute. I’m sure of it.’
Neither listener said anything, then both sipped from their cups.
Scowling, Tehol said, ‘What’s that you’re drinking?’
‘Hen tea,’ Bugg said.
‘Soup, you mean.’
‘No,’ said Janath. ‘Tea.’
‘Wait, where are all the chickens?’
‘On the roof,’ Bugg said.
‘Won’t they fall off?’
‘One or two might. We do regular rounds. So far, they have displayed uncharacteristic cleverness. Rather unique for this household.’
‘Oh right, kick the exhausted fugitive why don’t you? They probably caught poor old Ublala.’
‘Maybe. He did have a diversion in mind.’
Tehol’s eyes narrowed on his manservant. ‘Those wisps above your ears need trimming. Janath, find me a knife, will you?’
‘No.’
‘You would side with him, wouldn’t you?’
‘Bugg is actually a very capable man, Tehol. You don’t deserve him, you know.’
‘I assure you, Scholar, the undeservedness is mutual.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘You know, from the smell I think I could make a strong argument that hen tea is no different from watery chicken soup, or, at the very least, broth.’
‘You never could grasp semantics, Tehol Beddict.’
‘I couldn’t grasp much of anything, I seem to recall. Yet I will defend my diligence, my single-minded lust for seductive knowledge, the purity of true academic…uh, pursuit – why, I could go on and on—’
‘Ever your flaw, Tehol.’
‘—but I won’t, cursed as I am with an unappreciative audience. So tell me, Bugg, why was Ublala so eager to talk to this true blood Tarthenal?’
‘He wishes to discover, I imagine, if the warrior is a god.’
‘A what?’
‘A new god, I mean. Or an ascendant, to be more precise. I doubt there are worshippers involved. Yet.’
‘Well, Tarthenal only worship what terrifies them, right? This is just some warrior doomed to die by the Emperor’s sword. Hardly the subject to inspire poor Ublala Pung.’
To that Bugg simply shrugged.
Tehol wiped sweat from his brow. ‘Give me some of that hen tea, will you?’
‘With or without?’
‘With or without what?’
‘Feathers.’
‘That depends. Are they clean feathers?’
‘They are now,’ Bugg replied.
‘All right, then, since I can’t think of anything more absurd. With.’
Bugg reached for a clay cup. ‘I knew I could count on you, Master.’
She woke to a metallic clang out in the corridor.
Sitting up, Samar Dev stared into the darkness of her room.
She thought she could hear breathing, just outside her door, then, distinctly, a muted whimper.
She rose, wrapping the blanket about her, and padded to the doorway. Lifted the latch and swung the flimsy barrier aside.
‘Karsa?’
The huge figure spun to face her.
‘No,’ she then said. ‘Not Karsa. Who are you?’
‘Where is he?’
‘Who?’
‘The one like me. Which room?’
Samar Dev edged out into the corridor. She looked to the left and saw the motionless forms of the two palace guards normally stationed to either side of the corridor’s entranceway. Their helmed heads were conspicuously close together, and those iron pots were both severely dented. ‘You killed them?’
The huge man glanced over, then grunted. ‘They were looking the wrong way.’
‘You mean they didn’t see you.’
‘Maybe my hands.’
The nonsensical yet oddly satisfying exchange had been in whispers. Samar Dev gestured that he follow and set off up the corridor until she came to the door to Karsa Orlong’s room. ‘He’s in here.’
‘Knock,’ the giant ordered. ‘Then walk in ahead of me.’
‘Or else?’
‘Or else I knock your head…together.’
Sighing, she reached towards the door with one fist.
It opened and the point of a stone sword suddenly hovered in the hollow of her throat.
‘Who is that behind you, witch?’
‘You have a visitor,’ she replied. ‘From…outside.’
Karsa Orlong, naked above the waist, his escaped slave tattoos a crazed web reaching down to his shoulders and chest, withdrew the sword and stepped back.
The stranger pushed Samar Dev to one side and entered the small room.
Whereupon he sank down to his knees, head bowing. ‘Pure one,’ he said, the words like a prayer.
Samar Dev edged in and shut the door behind her, as Karsa Orlong tossed his sword on the cot, then reached down with one hand – and hammered the stranger in the side of the head.
Rocking the man. Blood started from his nostrils and he blinked stupidly up at Karsa.
Who said, ‘There is Toblakai blood in you. Toblakai kneel to no-one.’
Samar Dev crossed her arms and leaned back against the door. ‘First lesson when dealing with Karsa Orlong,’ she murmured. ‘Expect the unexpected.’
The huge man struggled back to his feet, wiping at the blood on his face. He was not as tall as Karsa, but almost as wide. ‘I am Ublala Pung, of the Tarthenal—’
‘Tarthenal.’
Samar Dev said, ‘A mixed-blood remnant of some local Toblakai population. Used to be more in the city – I certainly have not seen any others out in the markets and such. But they’ve virtually vanished, just like most of the other tribes the Letherii subjugated.’
Ublala half turned to glower at her. ‘Not vanished. Defeated. And now those who are left live on islands in the Draconean Sea.’
At the word ‘defeated’, Samar Dev saw Karsa scowl.
Ublala faced the Toblakai once more, then said, with strange awkwardness, ‘Lead us, War Leader.’
Sudden fire in Karsa’s eyes and he met Samar Dev’s gaze. ‘I told you once, witch, that I would lead an army of my kind. It has begun.’
‘They’re not Toblakai—’
‘If but one drop of Toblakai blood burns in their veins, witch, then they are Toblakai.’
‘Decimated by Letherii sorcery—’
A sneer. ‘Letherii sorcery? I care naught.’
Ublala Pung, however, was shaking his head. ‘Even with our greatest shamans, Pure One, we could not defeat it. Why, Arbanat himself—’
This time it was Samar Dev who interrupted. ‘Ublala, I have seen Karsa Orlong push his way through that sorcery.’
The mixed-blood stared at her, mouth agape. ‘Push?’ The word was mostly mouthed, the barest of whispers.
Despite herself, she nodded. ‘I wish I could tell you otherwise, you poor bastard. I wish I could tell you to run away and hide with your kin on those islands, because this one here makes empty promises. Alas, I cannot. He does not make empty promises. Not so far, anyway. Of course,’ she added with a shrug that belied the bitterness she felt, ‘this Edur Emperor will kill him.’
To that, Ublala Pung shook his head.
Denial? Dismay?
Karsa Orlong addressed Ublala: ‘You must leave when this is done, warrior. You must travel to your islands and gather our people, then bring them here. You are now my army. I am Karsa Orlong, Toblakai and Teblor. I am your war leader.’
‘The marks on your face,’ Ublala whispered.
‘What of them?’
‘As shattered as the Tarthenal. As the Toblakai – broken, driven apart. So the oldest legends say – scattered, by ice, by betrayal…’
An icy draught seemed to flow up around Samar Dev, like a cold wave engulfing a rock, and she shivered. Oh, I dislike the sound of that, since it echoes the truth of things. Too clearly.
‘Yet see my face behind it,’ Karsa said. ‘Two truths. What was and what will be. Do you deny this, Ublala of the Tarthenal?’
A mute shake of the head. Then the warrior shot another glance at Samar Dev, before saying, ‘War Leader, I have words. Of…of Rhulad Sengar, the Edur Emperor. Words…of his secret.’
‘Leave us, witch,’ Karsa said.
She started. ‘What? Not a chance—’
‘Leave us or I will instruct my warrior to knock your head together.’
‘Oh, so now it’s idiocy that inspires you?’
‘Samar Dev,’ Karsa said. ‘This warrior has defeated every barrier surrounding this compound. I am not interested in his words. Did you not hear the alarms? He fights as would a Toblakai.’
‘They tried Drowning me too, once,’ Ublala said.
Samar Dev snorted. ‘With him around, it truly is a struggle to remain solemn, never mind dignified. A cure for pomposity, Karsa Orlong – be sure to keep this one at your side.’
‘Go.’
She gestured with sudden contempt. ‘Oh, fine, on with you two, then. Later, Karsa, I will remind you of one thing.’
‘What?’
She opened the door behind her. ‘This oaf couldn’t even find your room.’
Out in the corridor, Samar Dev heard a stirring from one of the guards, then a groan and then, distinctly: ‘What are all those lights?’
Chapter Twelve
I looked to the west and saw a thousand suns setting.
Sidivar Trelus
The earthy smell of the dung-fires preceded the first sighting of the Awl army. Beneath the smudged light of a dull moon, the Atri-Preda and Brohl Handar rode with the scout troop to the base of a ridge, where they dismounted and, leaving one soldier with the horses, set out on foot up the slope.
The summit was almost devoid of grasses, knobs of angular bedrock pushing through where the ceaseless winds had eroded away the scant soil. Dropping down low, the half-dozen Letherii and one Tiste Edur edged up between the outcroppings, filling the spaces in the broken spine of basalt.
Beyond, perhaps a third of a league distant, burned the cookfires of the enemy. A sea of fallen, smouldering stars, spreading out to fill the basin of an entire valley, then up the far slope, defining its contours.
‘How many do you judge?’ Brohl Handar asked the Atri-Preda in a low voice.
Bivatt sighed. ‘Combatants? Maybe ten, eleven thousand. These armies are more like migrations, Overseer. Everyone tags along.’
‘Then where are the herds?’
‘Probably the other side of the far valley.’
‘So tomorrow, we ride to battle.’
‘Yes. And again, I advise that you and your bodyguard remain with the train—’
‘That will not be necessary,’ Brohl Handar cut in, repeating words he had uttered a dozen times in the past three days and nights. ‘There are Edur warriors with you, and they will be used, yes?’
‘If needed, Overseer. But the fight awaiting us looks to be no different from all the others we Letherii have had against these people of the plains. It looks as if Redmask was not able to sway the elders with any new schemes. It’s the old tactics – the ones that fail them time and again.’ She was silent for a moment, then she continued, ‘The valley behind us is called Bast Fulmar. It has some arcane significance for the Awl. That is where we will meet.’
He turned his head and studied her in the gloom. ‘You are content to let them choose the place of battle?’
She snorted. ‘Overseer, if these lands were filled with defiles, canyons, arroyos or impassable rivers – or forests – then indeed I would think carefully about engaging the enemy where they want us to. But not here. Visibility is not an issue – with our mages the Awl cannot hide in any case. There are no difficult avenues of retreat, no blinds. The fight tomorrow will be brutal in its simplicity. Awl ferocity against Letherii discipline.’
‘And with this Redmask leading them, they will be ferocious indeed.’
‘Yes. But it will fail in the end.’
‘You are confident, Atri-Preda.’
He caught her smile. ‘Relieved, Overseer. This night, I see only what I have seen a dozen times before. Do not imagine, however, that I am dismissing the enemy. It will be bloody.’ With that she gestured, and the group began withdrawing from the ridgeline.
As they made their way down to the waiting horses, Brohl Handar said, ‘I saw no pickets, Atri-Preda. Nor mounted outriders. Does that not seem odd to you?’
‘No. They know we are close. They wanted us to see that camp.’
‘To achieve what? Some pointless effort to overawe us?’
‘Something like that, yes.’
You invite me to feel contempt for these Awl. Why? So that you can justify not using the Tiste Edur? The K’risnan? You want this victory on the morrow to be Letherii. You do not want to find yourself beholden to the Edur – not for this grand theft of land and beast, this harvesting of slaves.
So, I suspect, the Factor instructed. Letur Anict is not one to share the spoils.
I, Atri-Preda, am not relieved.
‘Stone-tipped arrows – you are truly a fool. They will break against Letherii armour. I can expect nothing from you. At least I discover that now, instead of in the midst of battle.’
Toc Anaster settled back on his haunches and watched Torrent march out of the firelight. Off…somewhere. Somewhere important. Like the latrines. He resumed examining the fletching on the Imass arrows. Gift of an old friend. That clunking, creaking collection of droll bones. He could barely recall the last time he was among friends. Gruntle, perhaps. Another continent. A drunken evening – was that Saltoan wine? Gredfallan ale? He couldn’t recall.
Surrounding him, the murmur of thousands – their moving through the camp, their quiet conversations around the cookfires. Old men and old women, the lame, the young. A fire burning for each and every Awl.
And somewhere out on the plain, Redmask and his warriors – a night without fires, without conversations. Nothing, I imagine, but the soft honing of weapon edges. Iron and stone whispering in the night.
A simple deceit, its success dependent on Letherii expectations. Enemy scouts had spotted this camp, after all. As predicted. Countless fires in the darkness, appropriately close to Bast Fulmar, the site of the impending battle. All the way it was supposed to be.
