The Complete Malazan Book of the Fallen (1237 page)

‘The K'Chain Che'Malle nests began to fall one by one, until the last surviving Matron, in her desperation, opened a portal to the heart of chaos and set her back against it, hiding its presence from the advancing Assail. And when at last she stood facing them, when the tortured god's power rushed to annihilate her and all her kind, she surrendered her life, and the gate, which she had sealed with her own body, her own life force, opened. To devour the Assail god's soul.

‘He was too wounded to resist. What remained of him, in this realm, was shattered, mindless and lost.' Her eyes glittered. ‘You have seen the Glass Desert. That is where all that remains of that god now lives. If one could call it a life.'

‘What happened to the Assail, Kalyth?'

The woman shrugged. ‘Their power spent, they were broken. Though they blamed the Matron for the loss of their god, it was by their judgement that he was wielded as would one wield a weapon, a thing to be used, a thing not worthy of anything else. In any case, they had not the strength to exterminate the K'Chain Che'Malle. But the truth was the war had destroyed both races, and when other races appeared through the cracks of chaos – which could now reach this and every realm – neither could stop the invasions. More wars, defeats, betrayals, until the age itself crumbled and was no more.'

‘This has the sound of legend, Kalyth,' Faint said.

‘The memory of every Matron is passed down in the blood, the oils – the secretions. Nothing is lost. Gunth Mach has offered me some of their flavours. Much of it I cannot be certain of – there was a time, between the stars… I don't know. And it may be that I did not fully understand the tale I have just told. It may be that many truths were lost to me – our senses are so limited, compared to those of the K'Chain Che'Malle.'

‘You have given reason for why the K'Chain Che'Malle seek to fight the Forkrul Assail. Because their war never ended.'

‘We are each the last of our kind.'

‘Is there not room enough for both of you?'

‘The K'Chain might wish it so, but the Assail do not. Their memory is just as long, you see. And they do see their cause as being just.'

Behind them, Precious spoke in a dark, gleeful tone. ‘You're using them! The Malazans and all their pathetic arrogance! You K'Chain Che'Malle –
you're using them!
'

The Destriant turned. ‘Does it seem that way, sorceress? I taste in you the pleasure of that thought.'

‘Why not? It's all they deserve.'

‘If it is all that
they
deserve, then it is all that
we
deserve.'

‘Just use them, Destriant. Use them up!'

For some reason, Faint was no longer interested in entering the tent. She nodded towards it. ‘What's going on in there, Destriant?'

‘Krughava, once Mortal Sword of the Perish Grey Helms, speaks to Prince Brys Beddict. She warns him of betrayal. The Perish vowed to serve the Adjunct Tavore. Instead, they will draw swords against us. They will fight under the banner of the Forkrul Assail.'

‘Gods below – why would they do that?'

But Precious was laughing.

Kalyth sighed. ‘The truth is this: the standard of justice can be raised by many, and each may lay rightful claim to it. How are these claims weighed? Gesler would answer quickly enough. They are weighed on the field of battle. But… I am not so sure. The Perish claim to worship ancient war gods, and these—'

‘Which war gods?' Faint demanded.

‘They are called Fanderay and Togg, the Wolves of Winter.'

Faint turned, stared up at Precious, and then back at Kalyth. ‘And Krughava was the Mortal Sword. Who now commands?'

‘The Shield Anvil, Tanakalian.'

‘And the Destriant? There should be a Destriant among them, right?'

‘He died on the voyage, I am told. The position is still vacant.'

‘No it isn't.'

‘Leave it, Faint,' said Precious. ‘You don't know. You can't be certain—'

‘Don't be an idiot. You saw her eyes – those were a wolf's eyes. And all her talk about the ghosts, and the old crimes, and all the rest.'

Kalyth spoke. ‘I do not understand. Of whom do you speak?'

Shit.
Faint turned back to the tent. ‘Seems I need to go in there after all.'

 

‘The forgiving embrace must be earned,' Shield Anvil Tanakalian said. ‘Am I of such little worth that the cowards and fools among you can
demand
my blessing?' He scanned the faces before him, saw their exhaustion, and was disgusted. ‘You come to me again and again. You ask, is this not the time to elect a new Mortal Sword? A new Destriant? Perhaps it is. Perhaps I am but waiting…for one of you to rise above the others, to show us all your worthiness. Alas, I am still waiting.'

The eyes regarding him from beneath the rims of the helms were bleak, beaten down. The camp behind these officers had lost its orderliness. Discipline had given way to bestial indifference, the torrid pace of the march their only excuse. They had crossed the border into Central Kolanse two days past, trudged down a road already overgrown, through towns little more than burned stains. This was a land returning to the wild, yet it stank of death.

‘It must be,' said Tanakalian, ‘that for now one man shall suffer the burden of all three titles. I did not ask for this. I do not welcome it. Ambition is a poison – we all saw what it did to Krughava. Must we now invite a return to that madness? I am not—'

He stopped then, as a sudden breath of ice flowed past him. He saw the officers facing him recoil, saw a stirring ripple through the ranks assembled behind them. Mists lifted from the ground, curled and roiled on all sides.

What is this? Who has come among us?
He started – something caught in the corner of his eye. A flash of movement. Then another. Low, the whisper of fur, a lurid glint from burning eyes. Sudden shouts from the Perish, the ranks losing formation, weapons hissing from scabbards.

Tanakalian could feel the buffeting tide sweeping past him. Invisible forms slid past his legs, pushed him off balance. He spun round, glared into the darkness. ‘Show yourselves!'

A figure, coming up from beyond the road's berm. A girl, wearing rags. But he could see the flowing shapes now, the ethereal forms surrounding her.
Wolves. She comes in a sea of wolves.
But they were not real. Not living. Not breathing. These beasts were long dead. They bore wounds. Stains in the fur, gashes in the hide. The glow from their eyes was otherworldly, like holes burned through a wall – and what lay beyond was rage.
Incandescent rage.

She drew nearer, and her eyes were the same. Torn through by fury. One blazed yellow, the other was quicksilver.

Horror filled Tanakalian at the moment of recognition.
The Wolves of Winter – they are within her. They are there, inside her – those eyes! They stare out at me from the Beast Throne. Fanderay. Togg. Our gods are among us.

All strength left his limbs when those terrible eyes fixed on him and sank into his skull like fangs, forcing him to his knees.

All at once she stood before him. Those fangs dug deeper, tearing into his brain, ripping loose every secret, every hidden hunger. Raping him with cold remorselessness. As if he was carrion. Something washed back, thick as blood, and it was filled with contempt. An instant later and he was dismissed, made irrelevant. Her gaze lifted past him, to the Grey Helms – and he knew that they too knelt, abject, helpless, their courage drained away, their souls made cold with fear.

When she spoke in their minds, the voice was a multitude of howls, a sound more terrible than anything they had ever heard.

‘I am the voice of the Wolves of Winter. Listen well to these words. We will
not
be judged.'
She looked down at Tanakalian.
‘You would wield my swords, mortal? Are you the one to lay waste to a thousand realms in my name? I think not. Pettiness consumes your thoughts. Vanity commands your every vision.

‘Look well upon this child. She is Setoc. Destriant. She is our voice. She is our will.'

The girl raised her eyes once more, addressed the entire army.
‘Your kin kneel before the Forkrul Assail in the palace of Kolanse. The Assail would force the Perish Grey Helms to serve them, and they eagerly await your arrival, and the moment when you, too, must kneel in obeisance.

‘This…offends us.

‘When Sister Reverence summons Destriant Setoc, when she seeks to wrest this army from us, she shall know the wrath of the Wolves.'

One of the officers suddenly found the courage to call out, ‘Blessed Wolves – do you wish us to destroy the Forkrul Assail? Did the Mortal Sword speak true?'

‘Around us, mortal, there are only enemies. But
we
are among you now, and in the moment of battle the ghosts shall rise, in numbers beyond counting, and before us every army shall fall. Before us, every city shall burn. Before us, there shall be slaughter to redress the balance.

‘Think on your faith, my children. Think well on the imbalance of which I speak. The millennia of slaughter at your human hand. We shall give answer. In every realm, we shall give answer!'

Before the power of his gods, Tanakalian bowed his head. To hide his eyes. He was seething, his time of glory ripped away from him, his dreams of power stolen, his ascension left in ruins by this…this
girl
.

She had walked past him now, into the midst of his soldiers. But no, they were no longer his, were they? ‘It will not end this way,' he whispered. ‘
It will not end this way!
'

 

She staggered away, blood pouring from her wounds.

Gruntle sought to rise, to lift his huge form one more time, but will was not enough. The pain was fading, a dullness seeping in, and in his bloodied nostrils all he could smell was burned fur, scorched flesh. The time surrounding him now, slowly closing in, seemed a force vast beyond countenance. It felt thick, unyielding, and yet he could see its expanse, the way it stretched behind him – but not ahead. No, there, almost within reach, it vanished into dark mists.

If he could, he would have laughed. The irony of life's end was found in all the truths suddenly discovered, when it was too late to do a damned thing about them. It was said that in the moments before death, there arrived an acceptance, a willingness to see it come to an end, and an indifference to the anguish and grief of the living.
If I have let go, why can't you? It's these truths, you see, and my helplessness in answering them. I would laugh, but in laughter there is pain. I would bless, but in blessing there is loss. This is not how anyone wants it. But then, it never is.

Don't you see that, Stonny? In all your fraught moments – and isn't every moment fraught? – in all of them, you miss the chance of peace. The calm of all these truths, the ones us dying discover, and even then we can say nothing. Offer nothing.

This time. It's all past. No. It's
my
past. And with it, I can do nothing.

They had fought with terrible savagery. For how long he could not guess. Two indomitable beasts spilling out their hot, steaming blood, lashing out in rage, staggering in pain. Claws tearing, slashing deep. Fangs punching through hide and thick muscle. The stone floor of the chamber had grown slick, the air hot and fetid.

And overhead, looming above the ruined carcass of the Azath house, the huge wound fulminated, the edges burning, sizzling as if weeping acid.

Gruntle did not even see the moment the first of the dragons came through. He and Kilava were locked together, claws raking each other's flanks down to the bone, when something like a hurricane wind slammed them down on to the unyielding ground. Pulverized rock billowed out, filling the chamber even as enormous cracks opened on the rough walls.

Stunned by the thunderous concussion, Gruntle pulled away from Kilava. Yet the rage would not leave him, and he felt his god howling somewhere deep inside his chest – a creature held back for too long by Kilava's denial – and now it clawed its way free. She could no longer resist him, could no longer find the strength to defy what was coming.

I warned you.

The dragon filled the chamber, impossibly huge, wings hammering at the walls. Gruntle understood, then, that the creature was trapped – by the ancient, heavy stone of the cavern walls. It needed to unleash its sorcery – to shatter these confines, to open the way for the hundreds of other dragons crowding the gate.

He must strike now.

The roar that tore out from his throat was Trake's own, a god's call to war. The power within him becoming a thing of agony, Gruntle's limbs coiled, lowering him into a crouch, and then he leapt.

The dragon's neck arched, the head snapped down, jaws opening wide.

He slammed into the creature's neck. Claws sinking deep, his fangs burying themselves in the dragon's throat. Scales broke as Gruntle's jaws tightened, closing on the windpipe.

The dragon reared in shock, and with the convulsive motion blood poured into Gruntle's mouth. As he clung to the creature's writhing neck, his weight began to pull the dragon down. Wings cracked on the stone floor. Talons gouged wounds in the rock and then scraped frantically. The impact when the dragon struck the ground almost tore Gruntle loose, but he managed to hold on, the muscles of his shoulders, neck and jaws bunching until they creaked. He could hear the desperate wheezing of breath, and tightened his death grip.

The dragon reared a second time, lifting Gruntle into the air.

And then Kilava struck him with all the force of a battering ram. The dragon's throat was ripped wide open in a torrent of gore, but Gruntle was falling, Kilava's own fangs scoring deep across his shoulder blades.