The Complete Malazan Book of the Fallen (1156 page)

Her eyes widened. ‘Lord, that is not your fate.'

He wheeled to her. ‘Really? Why not? Please,
advise
me.'

She cocked her head a second time, studied the tall warrior with the bitter, helpless eyes. ‘For so long you Tiste Andii prayed for Mother Dark's loving regard. For so long you yearned to be reborn to purpose, to life itself. He gave it all back to you. All of it. He did what he knew had to be done, for your sake. You, Nimander, and all the rest. And now you sit here, in his chair, in his city, among his children. And her holy breath, it embraces you all. Shall I give you what I possess of wisdom? Very well. Lord, even Mother Dark cannot hold her breath for ever.'

‘She does not—'

‘When a child is born it must cry.'

‘You—'

‘With its voice, it enters the world, and it
must
enter the world. Now,' she crossed her arms, ‘will you continue hiding here in this city? I am the Mistress of Thieves, Lord. I know every path. I have walked them all. And I have seen what there is to be seen. If you and your people hide here, Lord, you will all die. And so will Mother Dark. Be her breath. Be
cast out.
'

‘But we are
in this world
, Apsal'ara!'

‘One world is not enough.'

‘Then what must we do?'

‘What your father wanted.'

‘And what is that?'

She smiled. ‘Shall we find out?'

 

‘You have some nerve, Dragon Master.'

A child shrieked from somewhere down the walkway.

Without turning, Ganoes Paran sighed and said, ‘You're frightening the young ones again.'

‘Not nearly enough.' The iron-shod heel of a cane cracked hard on the stone. ‘Isn't that always the way, hee hee!'

‘I don't think I appreciate the new title you're giving me, Shadowthrone.'

A vague dark smear, the god moved up alongside Paran. The cane's gleaming head swung its silver snarl out over the valley. ‘Master of the Deck of Dragons. Too much of a mouthful. It's your…abuses. I so dislike unpredictable people.' He giggled again. ‘People. Ascendants. Gods. Thick-skulled dogs. Children.'

‘Where is Cotillion, Shadowthrone?'

‘You should be tired of that question by now.'

‘I am tired of waiting for an answer.'

‘
Then stop asking it!
' The god's manic shriek echoed through the fortress, rattled wild along corridors and through hallways before echoing back to where they stood atop the wall.

‘That has certainly caught their attention,' Paran observed, nodding to a distant barrow where two tall, almost skeletal figures now stood.

Shadowthrone sniffed. ‘They see nothing.' He hissed a laugh. ‘Blinded by justice.'

Ganoes Paran scratched at his beard. ‘What do you want?'

‘Whence comes your faith?'

‘Excuse me?'

The cane rapped and skittered on the stone. ‘You sit with the Host in Aren, defying every imperial summons. And then you assault the Warrens with
this
.' He suddenly cackled. ‘You should have seen the Emperor's face! And the names he called you, my, even the court scribers cringed!' He paused. ‘Where was I? Yes, I was berating you, Dragon Master. Are you a genius? I doubt it. Leaving me no choice but to conclude that you're an idiot.'

‘Is that all?'

‘Is she out there?'

‘You don't know?'

‘Do you?'

Paran slowly nodded. ‘Now I understand. It's all about faith. A notion unfamiliar to you, I take it.'

‘This siege is meaningless!'

‘Is it?'

Shadowthrone hissed, one ethereal hand reaching out, as if to claw at Paran's face. Instead, it hovered, twisted and then shrank into something vaguely fist-shaped. ‘You don't understand anything!'

‘I understand this,' Paran replied. ‘Dragons are creatures of chaos. There can be no Dragon Master, making the title meaningless.'

‘Exactly.' Shadowthrone reached out to gather up a tangled snarl of spider's web from beneath the wall's casing. He held it up, apparently studying the cocooned remnant of a desiccated insect.

Miserable turd.
‘Here is what I know, Shadowthrone. The end begins here. Do you deny it? No, you can't, else you wouldn't be haunting me—'

‘Not even you can breach the power surrounding this keep,' the god said. ‘You have blinded yourself. Open your gate again, Ganoes Paran, find somewhere else to lodge your army. This is pointless.' He flung the web away and gestured with the head of his cane. ‘You cannot defeat those two, we both know that.'

‘But they don't, do they?'

‘They will test you. Sooner or later.'

‘I'm still waiting.'

‘Perhaps even today.'

‘Will you wager on that, Shadowthrone?'

The god snorted. ‘You have nothing I want.'

‘Liar.'

‘Then I have nothing you want.'

‘Actually, as it happens…'

‘Do you see me holding a leash? He's not here. He's off doing other things. We're allies, do you understand? An alliance. Not a damned marriage!'

Paran grinned. ‘Oddly enough, I wasn't even thinking of Cotillion.'

‘A pointless wager in any case. If you lose you die. Or abandon your army to die, which I can't see you doing. Besides, you're nowhere near as devious as I am. You want this wager? Truly? Even when I lose, I win. Even when I lose…
I win!
'

Paran nodded. ‘And that has ever been your game, Shadowthrone. You see, I know you better than you think. Yes, I would wager with you. They shall not try me this day. We shall repulse their assault…again. And more Shriven and Watered will die. We shall remain the itch they cannot scratch.'

‘All because you have faith? Fool!'

‘Those are the conditions of this wager. Agreed?'

The god's form seemed to shift about, almost vanishing entirely at one moment before reappearing, and the cane head struck chips from the merlon's worn edge. ‘Agreed!'

‘If you win and I survive,' resumed Paran, ‘you get what you want from me, whatever that is, and assuming it's in my power to grant. If I win, I get what I want from you.'

‘If it's in my power—'

‘It is.'

Shadowthrone muttered something under his breath, and then hissed. ‘Very well, tell me what you want.'

And so Paran told him.

The god cackled. ‘And you think that's in my power? You think Cotillion has no say in the matter?'

‘If he does, best you go and ask him, then. Unless,' Paran added, ‘it turns out that, as I suspect, you have no idea where your ally has got to. In which case, Lord of Shadows, you will do as I ask, and answer to him later.'

‘I answer to no one!' Another shriek, the echoes racing.

Paran smiled. ‘Why, Shadowthrone, I know precisely how you feel. Now, what is it you seek from me?'

‘I seek the source of your faith.' The cane waggled. ‘That she's out there. That she seeks what you seek. That, upon the Plain of Blood and Chains, you will find her, and stand facing her – as if you two had planned this all along, when I damned well know you haven't! You don't even like each other!'

‘Shadowthrone, I cannot sell you faith.'

‘So lie, damn you, just do it convincingly!'

He could hear silk wings flapping, the sound a shredding of the wind itself.
A boy with a kite. Dragon Master. Ruler over all that cannot be ruled. Ride the howling chaos and call it mastery – who are you fooling? Lad, let go now. It's too much.
But he would not, he didn't know how.

The man with the greying beard watches, and can say nothing.

Distress.

He glanced to his left, but the shadow was gone.

A crash from the courtyard below drew him round. The throne, a mass of flames, had broken through the mound beneath it. And the smoke leapt skyward, like a beast unchained.

FROM HERE ONWARDS, HE COULD NOT TRUST THE SKY. THE ALTERNATIVE,
he observed as he examined the desiccated, rotted state of his limbs, invited despondency. Tulas Shorn looked round, noting with faint dismay the truncated lines of sight, an affliction cursing all who must walk the land's battered surface. Scars he had looked down upon from a great height only a short time earlier now posed daunting obstacles, a host of furrowed trenches carving deep, jagged gouges across his intended path.

She is wounded but does not bleed. Not yet, at any rate. No, I see now. This flesh is dead. Yet I am drawn to this place. Why?
He walked, haltingly, up to the edge of the closest crevasse. Peered down. Darkness, a breath cool and slightly sour with decay. And…something else.

Tulas Shorn paused for a moment, and then stepped out into space, and plunged downward.

Threadbare clothing tore loose, whipped wild as his body struck rough walls, skidded and rebounded in a knock of withered limbs, tumbling amidst hissing grit and sand, the feathery brush and then snag of grass roots, and now stones spilling to follow him down.

Bones snapped when he struck the boulder-studded floor of the fissure. More sand poured down on all sides with the sound of serpents.

He did not move for a time. The dust, billowing in the gloom, slowly settled. Eventually, he sat up. One leg had broken just above the knee. The lower part of the limb remained attached by little more than a few stretches of skin and sinew. He set the break and waited while the two ragged ends slowly fused. The four ribs that now thrust broken tips out from the right side of his chest were not particularly debilitating, so he left them, conserving his power.

A short while later he managed to stand, his shoulders scraping walls. He could make out the usual assortment of splintered bones littering the uneven floor, but these were only of mild interest, the fragments of bestial souls clinging to them writhing like ghostly worms, disturbed by the new currents in the air.

He began walking, following the odd scent he had detected from above. It was stronger down here, of course, and with each awkward step along the winding channel there arose within him a certain anticipation, bordering on excitement. Close, now.

The skull was set on a spear shaft of corroded bronze, rising to chest height and blocking the path. In a heap at the shaft's base was the rest of the skeleton, every bone systematically shattered.

Tulas Shorn halted two paces from the skull. ‘Tartheno?'

The voice rumbling through his head spoke, however, in the language of the Imass.
‘Bentract. Skan Ahl greets you, Revenant.'

‘Your bones are too large for a T'lan Imass.'

‘Yes, but no salvation came of that.'

‘Who did this to you, Skan Ahl?'

‘Her body lies a few paces behind me, Revenant.'

‘If you so wounded her in your battle that she died, how was it that she could destroy your body with such vigour?'

‘I did not say she was dead.'

Tulas Shorn hesitated, and then snorted. ‘No, nothing lives here. Either she is dead or she is gone.'

‘I can hardly argue with you, Revenant. Now then, do this one thing: look behind you.'

Bemused, he did so. Sunlight fighting its way down through dust. ‘I see nothing.'

‘That is your privilege.'

‘I do not understand.'

‘I saw her step past me. I heard her slide to the ground. I heard her cry out in pain, and then weep, and when the weeping was done, all that remained was her breathing, until that too slowed. But… I can still hear it. The lift and fall of her chest, with each rise of the moon – when its faint light reaches down – how many times? Many. I have lost count. Why does she remain? What does she want? She will not answer. She never answers.'

Saying nothing, Tulas Shorn edged past the stake and its dusty skull. Five strides further on, he halted, stared down.

‘Does she sleep, Revenant?'

Tulas slowly crouched. He reached down and touched the delicate rib cage lying in a shallow depression at his feet. A newborn's fossilized bones, glued to the ground by calcified limestone.
Born to the tide of the moon, were you, little one? Did you draw even a single breath? I think not.
‘T'lan Imass, was this the end of your chase?'

‘She was formidable.'

‘A Jaghut. A woman.'

‘I was the last on her trail. I failed.'

‘And is it that failure that torments you, Skan Ahl? Or that she now haunts you, here behind you, for ever hidden from your sight?'

‘Awaken her! Or better still, slay her, Revenant. Destroy her. For all we know, she is the very last Jaghut. Kill her and the war will be over, and I will know peace.'

‘There is little peace in death, T'lan Imass.'
Ah, child, the wind at night moans through you, does it? Night's very own breath, to haunt him for all eternity.

‘Revenant, turn my skull. I would see her again.'

Tulas Shorn straightened. ‘I will not step between you in this war.'

‘But it is a war you can end!'

‘I cannot. Nor, it is clear, can you. Skan Ahl, I must leave you now.' He looked down at the tiny bones. ‘Both of you.'

‘Since my failure, Revenant, I have entertained not a single visitor. You are the first to find me. Are you of such cruelty as to condemn me to an eternity in this state? She defeated me. I accept this. But I beg of you, grant me the dignity of facing my slayer.'

‘You pose a dilemma,' Tulas Shorn said after a moment's consideration. ‘What you imagine to be mercy may not prove any such thing, should I acquiesce. And then there is this: I am not particularly inclined to mercy, Skan Ahl. Not with respect to you. Do you begin to comprehend my difficulty? I could indeed reach out and swing your skull round, and you may curse me for all time. Or I could elect to do nothing, to leave everything as I have found it – as if I was never here – and so earn your darkest resentment. In either case, you will see me as cruel. Now, this does not offend me overmuch. As I said, I am not stirred to kindness. The matter I face is: how cruel do I wish to be?'

‘Think on that privilege I spoke of earlier, Revenant. Your simple gift of being able to turn yourself round, to see what hides behind you. We both understand that what is seen may not be welcome.'

Tulas Shorn grunted. ‘T'lan Imass, I know all about looking over my shoulder.' He walked back to the skull. ‘Shall I be the brush of wind, then? A single turn, a new world to unfold.'

‘Will she awaken?'

‘I think not,' he replied, reaching out and settling one withered fingertip against the huge skull. ‘But you can try.' A slow increase in pressure, and with a grating squeal the skull swung round.

The T'lan Imass began howling in Tulas Shorn's wake as he walked back up the channel.

Gifts are never what they seem. And the punishing hand? It, too, is not what it seems. Yes, these two thoughts are worthy of long echoes, stretching into this wretched future.

As if anyone will listen.

 

Vengeance, held tight like an iron-shod spear in her hand, and how it burned. Ralata could feel its searing heat, and the pain was now a gift, something she could feed upon, like a hunter crouched over a fresh kill. She'd lost her horse. She'd lost her people. Everything had been taken away from her, everything except this final gift.

The broken moon was a blurred smear almost lost in the green glow of the Strangers in the Sky. The Skincut Barghast stood facing east, her back to the smouldering coals from the hearth, and looked out upon a plain that seemed to seethe in the jade and silver light.

Behind her the black-haired warrior named Draconus spoke in low tones with the Teblor giant. They talked often in some foreign tongue – Letherii, she supposed, not that she'd ever cared to learn it. Even the simpler trader's language made her head ache, but on occasion she caught some Letherii word that had made its way into the pidgin cant, so she knew they were speaking of the journey ahead.

East. It was, for the moment, convenient for her to travel in their company, despite having to constantly fend off the Teblor's clumsy advances. Draconus was able to find game where none seemed to exist. He could call water up from cracked bedrock. More than just a warrior. A shaman. And in a scabbard of midnight wood strapped to his back there was a sword of magic.

She wanted it. She meant to have it. A weapon suited to the vengeance she desired. With such a sword, she could kill the winged slayer of her sisters.

In her mind she worked through scenarios. A knife across the man's throat when he slept, and then a stab through an eye for the Teblor. Simple, quick, and she would have what she wanted. If not for the emptiness of this land. If not for the thirst and starvation that would follow – no, for the time being Draconus must live. For Ublala, however, if she could arrange a terrible accident, then she would not have him to worry about on the night she went for the sword. The dilemma of finding for the oaf a fatal demise here on this featureless plain still defeated her. But she had time.

‘Come back to the fire, beloved,' the Teblor called, ‘and drink some tea. It has real leaves in it and stuff that smells nice.'

Ralata massaged her temples for a moment, and then turned about. ‘I am not your beloved. I belong to no one. I never will.'

At seeing the half-smile on the face of Draconus as he tossed another dung chip on to the fire, Ralata scowled. ‘It is rude,' she pronounced as she walked over, squatted down and took the cup Ublala proffered, ‘to talk in a language I don't understand. You could be plotting my rape and murder for all I know.'

The warrior's brows arched. ‘Now, why would we want to do that, Barghast? Besides,' he added, ‘Ublala is courting you.'

‘He might as well give up now. I don't want him.'

Draconus shrugged. ‘I have explained to him that most of what we call courting boils down to just being there. Every time you turn, you see him, until his company feels perfectly natural to you. “Courting is the art of growing like mould on the one you want.”' He paused, scratched at the stubble on his jaw. ‘I can't lay claim to that observation, but I don't recall who said it first.'

Ralata spat into the fire to announce her disgust. ‘We're not all like Hetan, you know. She used to say she gauged the attractiveness of a man by imagining how he looked when she was staring up at his red face and bulging eyes.' She spat again. ‘I am a Skincut, a slayer, a collector of scalps. When I look upon a man, I imagine what he'll look like with the skin of his face sliced away.'

‘She's not very nice, is she?' Ublala asked Draconus.

‘Trying hard, you mean,' Draconus replied.

‘Makes me want to sex her even more than before.'

‘That's how these things work.'

‘It's torture. I don't like it. No, I do. No, I don't. I do. Oh, I'm going to polish my hammer.'

Ralata stared at Ublala as he surged to his feet and thumped off.

Low and in the language of the White Faces, Draconus murmured, ‘He means that literally, by the way.'

She shot him a look, and snorted. ‘I knew that. He has no wits for anything else.' She hesitated, and then said, ‘His armour looks expensive.'

‘It cost dearly, aye, Ralata. He wears it well, better than one might have hoped.' He nodded, mostly to himself, she suspected, and said, ‘He will stand well, I think, when the time comes.'

She remembered this warrior killing Sekara the Vile, snapping the old woman's neck. The ease of the gesture, the way he seemed to embrace her to keep her from falling, as if her lifeless body still clung to something like dignity. He was not a man easily understood. ‘What are you two seeking? You walk into the east. Why?'

‘There are unfortunate things in the world, Ralata.'

She frowned. ‘I don't know what that means.'

He sighed, studied the fire. ‘Have you ever stepped on something unintentionally? Out through a doorway, a sudden crunching underfoot. What was it? An insect? A snail? A lizard?' He lifted his head and fixed her with his dark eyes, the embers gleaming in lurid reflection. ‘Not worth a second thought, was it? Such are the vagaries of life. An ant dreaming of war, a wasp devouring a spider, a lizard stalking the wasp. All these dramas, and
crunch
– all over with. What to make of it? Nothing, I suppose. If you've a heart, you apportion out some small measure of guilt and remorse, and then continue on your way.'

She shook her head, baffled. ‘You stepped on something?'

‘In a manner of speaking.' He nudged the embers and watched as sparks spun upward. ‘No matter. A few ants survived. No end to the little bastards, in fact. I could crush a thousand nests under heel and it'd not make a whit of difference. That's the best way of thinking about it, in fact.' He met her eyes again. ‘Does that make me cold? What did I leave behind in those chains, I wonder, still shackled there, a host of forlorn virtues…whatever. I am having odd dreams of late.'

‘I dream only of vengeance.'

‘The more you dream of one particular and pleasing thing, Ralata, the quicker it palls. The edges get worn down, the lustre fades. To leave such obsessions behind, dream of them often.'