The Complete Malazan Book of the Fallen (217 page)

Paran stepped back – and stood on the flagstones once again. With an effort he pulled his eyes from the carved Hold of Beasts –
but why were there two thrones and not just one?
– as he now knew the card was called. Another etched stone, a dozen paces to his left, caught his attention. A throbbing, crimson glow suffused the air directly above it.

He walked to it, looked down.

The image of a sleeping woman, as seen from above, dominated the flagstone. Her flesh seemed to spin and swirl. Paran slowly lowered himself into a crouch, his eyes narrowing. Her skin was depthless, revealing ever more detail as the captain’s vision was drawn ever closer.
Skin, not skin. Forests, sweeps of bedrock, the seething floor of the oceans, fissures in the flesh of the world – she is Burn! She is the Sleeping Goddess.

Then he saw the flaw, the marring a dark, suppurating welt. Waves of nausea swept through Paran, yet he would not look away. There, at the wound’s heart, a humped, kneeling, broken figure. Chained. Chained to Burn’s own flesh. From the figure, down the length of the chains, poison flowed into the Sleeping Goddess.

She sensed the sickness coming, sinking claws into her. Sensed … and chose to sleep. Less than two thousand years ago, she chose to sleep. She sought to escape the prison of her own flesh, in order to do battle with the one who was killing that flesh. She – oh gods above and below! She made of herself a weapon! Her entire spirit, all its power, into a single forging … a hammer, a hammer capable of breaking … breaking anything. And Burn then found a man to wield it …

Caladan Brood.

But breaking the chains meant freeing the Crippled God. And an unchained Crippled God meant an unleashing of vengeance – enough to sweep all life from the surface of this world. And yet Burn, the Sleeping Goddess, was indifferent to that. She would simply begin again.

Now he saw it, saw the truth –
he refuses! The bastard refuses! To defy the Crippled God’s unleashing of a deadly will, that would see us all destroyed, Caladan Brood refuses her!

Gasping, Paran pulled himself away, pushed himself upright, staggering back – and was at Raest’s side once again.

The Jaghut’s tusks glimmered. ‘Have you found knowledge a gift, or a curse?’

Too prescient a question
 … ‘Both, Raest.’

‘And which do you choose to embrace?’

‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘You are weeping, mortal. In joy or sorrow?’

Paran grimaced, wiped at his face. ‘I want to leave, Raest,’ he said gruffly. ‘I want to return—’

*   *   *

His eyes blinked open, and he found himself on his knees, facing, with an interval of but a half-dozen paces, a bemused Son of Darkness. Paran sensed that but moments had passed since his sudden arrival, yet something of the tension he had first picked up had eased in the interval.

A hand rested on his shoulder and he looked up to find Silverfox standing beside him, the Mhybe hovering uncertainly a step behind. The Daru, Kruppe, stood nearby, carefully adjusting his silk clothing and humming softly, while Quick Ben took a step closer to the captain – though the wizard’s eyes held on the Knight of Darkness.

The captain closed his eyes. His mind was spinning. He felt uprooted by all that he had discovered –
starting with myself. Master of the Deck. Latest recruit to a war I know nothing about. And now … this.
‘What,’ Paran growled, ‘in Hood’s name is going on here?’

‘I drew on power,’ Silverfox replied, her eyes slightly wild.

Paran drew a deep breath.
Power, oh yes, I am coming to know that feeling. Jen’isand Rul. We each have begun our own journey, yet you and I, Silverfox, are destined to arrive at the same place. The Second Gathering. Who, I wonder, will ascend to those two ancient, long-forgotten thrones? Where, dear child, will you lead the T’lan Imass?

Anomander Rake spoke. ‘I had not anticipated such a … taut reunion, Caladan—’

Paran’s head snapped around, found the warlord. And the hammer held so lightly in his massive arms.
I know you now, Warlord. Not that I’ll reveal your dark secret – what would be the point in that? The choice is yours and yours alone. Kill us all, or the goddess you serve. Brood, I do not envy the curse of your privilege to choose. Oh, I do not, you poor bastard. Still, what is the price of a broken vow?

The Son of Darkness continued. ‘My apologies to one and all. As this man,’ Rake gestured towards Quick Ben, ‘has wisely noted, to act now – knowing so little of the nature of the powers revealed here – would indeed be precipitous.’

‘It may already be too late,’ Kallor said, his flat, ancient eyes fixed on Silverfox. ‘The child’s sorcery was Tellann, and it has been a long time since it has been so thoroughly awakened. We are now all of us in peril. A combined effort, begun immediately, might succeed in cutting down this creature – we may never again possess such an opportunity.’

‘And should we fail, Kallor?’ Anomander Rake asked. ‘What enemy will we have made for ourselves? At the moment this child has acted to defend herself, nothing more. Not an inimical stance, is it? You risk too much in a single cast, High King.’

‘Finally,’ boomed Caladan Brood, returning the dreaded, all-breaking hammer to its harness, ‘the notion of
strategy
arrives.’ The anger remained in his voice, as if he was furious at having to state what to him had been obvious all along. ‘Neutrality remains the soundest course open to us, until the nature of Silverfox’s power reveals itself. We’ve enough enemies on our plate as it is. Now, enough of the drama, if you please. Welcome back, Rake. No doubt you’ve information to impart regarding the status of Moon’s Spawn, among other details of note.’ He faced Paran with sudden exasperation. ‘Captain, can you not do something about that damned floating table!’

Flinching at the attention, Paran stared up at it. ‘Well,’ he managed, ‘nothing immediately comes to mind, Warlord. Uh, I’m no mage—’

Brood grunted, swung away. ‘Never mind, then. We’ll consider it a crass ornament.’

Quick Ben cleared his throat. ‘I might be able to manage something, Warlord, in time…’

Caladan glanced at Dujek, who grinned and nodded his permission to Quick Ben.

‘Not simply a soldier, I see,’ Anomander Rake said.

The Seven Cities mage shrugged. ‘I appreciate challenges, Lord. No guarantee that I’ll have any success, mind you – no, do not quest towards me, Son of Darkness. I value my privacy.’

‘As you wish,’ Rake said, turning away.

‘Is anyone else hungry?’

All eyes turned to Kruppe.

*   *   *

With everyone’s attention elsewhere, the Mhybe edged away from the clearing, between two rows of peaked Tiste Andii tents, then she spun and tried to run. Bone and muscle protested, even as her veins burned with panic and terror.

She hobbled on, half blinded by tears, her breath harsh, rattling gasps broken by soft whimpers.
Oh … dear spirits … look upon me. Show me mercy, I beg you. Look at me stumble and totter – look! Pity me, spirits below! I demand it! Take my soul, you cruel ancestors, I beg you!

The copper on her wrists and ankles – minor tribal wards against the aches in her bones – felt cold as ice against her withered skin, cold as a rapist’s touch, disdainful of her frailty, contemptuous of her labouring heart.

The Rhivi spirits refused her, mocking, laughing.

The old woman cried out, staggered, fell hard to her knees. The jolt of the impact drove the air from her lungs. Twisting, she sagged to the ground, bedraggled, alone in an alley of dirt.

‘“Flesh”,’ a voice murmured above her, ‘“which is the life within.” These, cherished friend, are the words of birth, given in so many forms, in countless languages. They are joy and pain, loss and sacrifice, they give voice to the binds of motherhood … and more, they are the binds of life itself.’

Grey hair dangling, the Mhybe raised her head.

Crone sat atop a tent’s ridgepole, wings hunched, eyes glittering wet. ‘I am not immune to grief, you see, my dear – tell no-one you have seen me so weakened by love. How can I comfort you?’

The Mhybe shook her head, croaked, ‘You cannot.’

‘She is you more than the others – more than the woman Tattersail, and Nightchill, more than the T’lan Imass—’

‘Do you see me, Crone? Do you truly see me?’ The Mhybe pushed herself to her hands and knees, then sat back and glared up at the Great Raven. ‘I am naught but bones and leather skin, I am naught but endless aches. Dried brittle – spirits below, each moment of this life, this terrible existence, and I edge closer to … to…’ her head drooped, ‘to hatred,’ she finished in a ragged whisper. A sob racked her.

‘And so you would die now,’ Crone said. ‘Yes, I understand. A mother must not be led to hate the child she has birthed … yet you demand too much of yourself.’

‘
She has stolen my life!
’ the Mhybe screamed, gnarled hands closing to fists from which the blood within them fled. The Rhivi woman stared at those fists, eyes wide as if they were seeing a stranger’s hands, skeletal and dead, there at the end of her thin arms. ‘Oh, Crone,’ she cried softly. ‘She has stolen my life…’

The Great Raven spread her wings, tilted forward on the pole, then dropped in a smooth curve to thud on the ground before the Mhybe. ‘You must speak with her.’

‘I cannot!’

‘She must be made to understand—’

‘She knows, Crone, she knows. What would you have me do – ask my daughter to stop growing? This river flows unceasing, unceasing…’

‘Rivers can be dammed. Rivers can be … diverted.’

‘Not this one, Crone.’

‘I do not accept your words, my love. And I shall find a way. This I swear.’

‘There is no solution – do not waste your time, my friend. My youth is gone, and it cannot be returned, not by alchemy and not by sorcery – Tellann is an unassailable warren, Crone. What it demands cannot be undone. And should you somehow succeed in stopping this flow, what then? You would have me an old woman for decades to come? Year after year, trapped within this cage? There is no mercy in that – no, it would be a curse unending. No, leave me be, please…’

Footsteps approached from behind. A moment later Korlat lowered herself to the Mhybe’s side, laid a protective arm around her and held her close. ‘Come,’ the Tiste Andii murmured. ‘Come with me.’

The Mhybe let Korlat help her to her feet. She felt ashamed at her own weakness, but all her defences had crumbled, her pride was in tatters, and she felt in her soul nothing but helplessness.
I was a young woman once. What point in raging at the loss? My seasons have tumbled, it is done. And the life within fades, whilst the life beyond flowers. This is a battle no mortal can win, but where, dear spirits, is the gift of death? Why do you forbid me an end?

She straightened slightly in Korlat’s arms.
Very well, then. Since you have already so cursed my soul, the taking of my own life can cause me no greater pain. Very well, dear spirits, I shall give you my answer. I shall defy your plans.
‘Take me to my tent,’ she said.

‘No,’ Korlat said.

The Mhybe twisted round, glared up at the Tiste Andii. ‘I said—’

‘I heard you, Mhybe, indeed, more than you intended me to hear. The answer is no. I shall remain at your side, and I am not alone in my faith—’

The Rhivi woman snorted. ‘Faith? You are Tiste Andii! Do you take me for a fool with your claims to faith?’

Korlat’s expression tightened and she looked away. ‘Perhaps you are right.’

Oh, Korlat, I am sorry for that – I would take it back, I swear—

‘None the less,’ the Tiste Andii continued, ‘I shall not abandon you to despair.’

‘I am familiar with being a prisoner,’ the Mhybe said, angry once again. ‘But I warn you, Korlat – I warn you all, hatred is finding fertile soil within me. And in your compassion, in your every good intention, you nurture it. I beg you, let me end this.’

‘No, and you underestimate our resilience, Mhybe. You’ll not succeed in turning us away.’

‘Then you shall indeed drag me into hatred, and the price will be all I hold dear within me, all that you might have once valued.’

‘You would make our efforts worthless?’

‘Not by choice, Korlat – and this is what I am telling you – I have lost all choice. To my daughter. And now, to you. You will create of me a thing of spite, and I beg you again – if you care for me at all – to let me cease this terrible journey.’

‘I’ll not give you permission to kill yourself, Mhybe. If it must be hate that fuels you, so be it. You are under the care – the guardianship – of the Tiste Andii, now.’

The Rhivi woman sagged, defeated. She struggled to fashion words for the feelings within her, and what came to her left her cold.

Self-pity. To this I have fallen …

All right, Korlat, you’ve won for now.

*   *   *

‘Burn is dying.’

Caladan Brood and Anomander Rake stood alone in the tent, the remnants of tension still swirling around them. From the sounds in the clearing outside, the mage Quick Ben seemed to have succeeded in pulling the massive wooden card back to the ground, and a discussion was under way as to what to do with it.

The Son of Darkness removed his gauntlets, letting them drop to the tabletop before facing the warlord. ‘Barring the one thing you must not do, can you do nothing else?’

Brood shook his head. ‘Old choices, friend – only the one possibility remains, as it always has. I am Tennes – the goddess’s own warren – and what assails her assails me as well. Aye, I could shatter the one who has so infected her—’

‘The Crippled God,’ Rake murmured, going perfectly still. ‘He has spent an eternity nurturing his spite – he will be without mercy, Brood. This is an old tale. We agreed – you, I, the Queen of Dreams, Hood – we all agreed…’

The warlord’s broad face seemed on the verge of crumpling. Then he shook himself as would a bear, turned away. ‘Almost twelve hundred years, this burden—’

‘And if she dies?’

He shook his head. ‘I do not know. Her warren dies, surely, that at the least, even as it becomes the Crippled God’s pathway into every other warren … then they
all
die.’