Orb Sceptre Throne (104 page)

Sall watched Yusek practising and mused,
I’m sorry to say this, Father, but I don’t think I know who made the choice – which, I suppose, is perhaps the way it ought to be
.

*

On a hill of black stone on the shore of the glimmering Vitr sea, Leoman sat with the hulking soot-black figure of Maker.

‘… and so after Lammala was Seuthess – or was it Cora? I’m not certain. In any case, Seuthess … now there was a beauty. And didn’t she know it. Full of herself, she was. We fought like cat and dog.’

And Maker nodded his boulder-like head, a hand on his chin. ‘So – these many women – this is how things work among you humans …’

‘No, no, no!’ Leoman waved his hands. ‘That’s what I’m tryin’ to make you understand. It’s very
unusual
. Why, I’m one in a thousand, I am. They just can’t stay away from me. Like a curse, it is. They just can’t help it.’

Maker turned his head and gestured. ‘Indeed. You speak the truth, Leoman …’

Leoman leaned back to see a familiar figure all in dark clothes walking up. Her long black hair blew lightly in the thin wind off the Vitr sea and she strode with her hands tucked into her belt behind her back, her head cocked slightly as if to say:
well, well … look who’s here
.

‘By the Seven Holies …’ He climbed to his feet, dusted off his grimed robes. He set a hand on Maker’s shoulder and gave him a wink and a grin. ‘You see? It’s all in the moustache, friend. All in the moustache.’ He went to meet Kiska.

*

In his dream the short rotund man was drawn where he’d hoped he’d never need be drawn again. Out of the shaken, but recovering city. Out past the shacks leaning as they did against its too-short walls, to the road that curved southwards leading to endless plain upon endless beckoning plain. And here to be waylaid into the stuttering light of a small fire in the dark next to a river where a single figure awaited.

And this figure! Dire and dark. Hooded and hunched. Oh dear!

Kruppe sat to pull on his thin rat-tail beard. ‘Kruppe admits to some trepidation. He believed himself free of mysterious lurkers at fires. To what does he owe this visitation?’

The figure waved a hand – and a youthful fit-looking hand at that. ‘Merely a social call, friend Kruppe. If I may call you that. No need for alarm.’

‘Kruppe is reassured, he assures you. It is not in the least alarming that his social calls should now take the form of hooded figures in his dreams. He is positively cheered.’

‘You should be. I am here to thank you – and to introduce myself.’ The figure pulled back the hood to reveal a tanned sharp-featured face, a long blade of a nose, and hanging silvered dark hair.

Kruppe’s brows rose. ‘Fearsome High Mage Tayschrenn! I am … surprised. Are my dreams privy to everyone?’

Tayschrenn shook his head. ‘You need no longer play the innocent with me.’

‘Nay! Kruppe must be Kruppe! But what of … the other … may Kruppe ask?’

‘Still with me. I have much to learn yet. These things can take centuries.’

‘Ah … Why, of course! Kruppe is no stranger to such things!’

The man warmed his hands at the fire. Yet a man no longer. Near force of nature now! ‘And that name,’ he began after a time. ‘Old names must pass away.’

‘Absolutely – was about to suggest that selfsame thing. How then, pray, shall you be called upon?’

The figure studied the fire, thinking. In his dark eyes the twinned flames danced just as brightly. Reaching a decision he crooked an amused smile and shifted those eyes to Kruppe. ‘You may call me T’renn.’

Ian Cameron Esslemont has worked as an archaeologist and has taught and travelled in South East Asia and Japan. He now lives in Fairbanks, Alaska with his wife and children. His previous novels,
Night of Knives, Return of the Crimson Guard
and
Stonewielder
, are each set in the fantasy world he co-created with Steven Erikson.

Also by Ian C. Esslemont

NIGHT OF KNIVES

RETURN OF THE CRIMSON GUARD

STONEWIELDER

For more information on Ian C. Esslemont and his books, see his website at
www.malazanempire.com

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First published in Great Britain
in 2012 by Bantam Press
an imprint of Transworld Publishers

Copyright © Ian Cameron Esslemont 2012

Ian Cameron Esslemont has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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