'Alchemist Baruk?' he asked.
The man nodded.
The boy sighed, then grinned. 'You're alive. Good. Rallick sent me to warn you.'
Baruk sat up. 'The witch,' he said hoarsely. He pointed. 'Tend to her, please.'
He felt his strength returning as he watched the boy crouch beside Derudan.
'She's breathing,' Crokus announced. 'There's some kind of knife in her, looks like it's covered in sap.' He reached down to touch it.
'No!' Baruk shouted.
Crokus jumped back in alarm.
'Poison,' the alchemist said, climbing to his feet. 'Help me to her, quickly.' A moment later he knelt beside Derudan. A quick glance at the sap-like substance coating the blade confirmed his suspicion. 'White paralt,' he said.
'That's a spider, isn't it?'
Baruk laid a hand on Derudan. 'Your knowledge surprises me, boy,' he said. 'Fortunately, she's in the home of the one man who possesses its antidote.' He muttered something and a phial appeared in his hand.
'Rallick said there was no antidote to white paralt.'
'It's not something I'm likely to announce.' Baruk unstoppered the phial and poured the contents down the witch's throat, triggering a coughing fit. As Derudan's breathing became even, Baruk leaned back and eyed Crokus. 'You seem well acquainted with Rallick. What's your name?'
'Crokus. Mammot was my uncle, sir. I saw him die.'
Derudan's eyelids flickered, then opened. She smiled lazily. 'What I see pleases me,' she said weakly. 'Yes?'
Baruk returned the smile. 'Yes, my friend. But I make no claim for defeating Vorcan. That falls to Crokus, nephew of Mammot.'
Derudan's gaze swung to the youth. 'Ah, the one I came near to treading on earlier this evening.' The amusement left her expression. 'I am sorry for Mammot, child.'
'So am I,' he replied.
Baruk rose and turned. He hissed a vehement curse. Vorcan's body was gone. 'She's fled.' He hurried over to the Tiste Andii woman, he bent down and examined her. She was dead. 'I will soon know your name,' he whispered, 'and I will remember it.'
'I have to go!' Crokus announced.
Baruk wondered at the sudden panic in the boy's face.
'I mean,' Crokus continued, 'if everything's over here, that is.'
'I believe it is,' the alchemist answered. 'I thank you, Crokus, for your skill at throwing bricks.'
The boy went to the door. He paused, then tossed a coin into the air. He caught it, and grinned tightly. 'Just lucky, I suppose.' Then he was gone.
Captain Paran crouched beside Coil's bed. 'Still asleep,' he said, rising and facing Whiskeyjack. 'Go ahead.'
Kalam and the two saboteurs had arrived minutes earlier. So far, the sergeant mused, no losses, though the captain's armour had taken a beating and the look in his face when he'd entered the room with Lorn's body in his arms warned Whiskeyjack away from probing Paran's state of mind too deeply. The Adjunct's body now occupied a second bed, motionless and pale, a strange ironic smile curving her bloodless lips.
The sergeant studied everyone in the small room, the faces he knew so well all watching him, waiting. His gaze held on Sorry, or Apsalar as she now called herself. Whatever Mallet had done to her, she was a changed woman from the one he'd known. Less, and somehow more as well. Even Mallet was unsure of what he'd done. Certain memories, skills had been freed, and with them a brutal knowledge. The pain was there in the woman's eyes, a pain layered in years of horror – yet it seemed that she had it under control, that she'd found a way, a strength, to live with what she'd been. Her only words upon meeting him had been: 'I wish to return home, Sergeant.'
He had no objection, though he wondered how she planned to cross two continents and the ocean between them. Whiskeyjack reached for the wrapped forearm bones lying on the table. 'Yes, sir,' he said, in answer to Paran's command.
The hot sweaty air in the room thickened with tension. Whiskeyjack hesitated. There'd been a battle in Darujhistan's streets, and Quick Ben had confirmed the Galayn lord's death. In fact, the black wizard seemed still in shock. The sergeant sighed under his breath and massaged his newly healed leg, then drove the forearm's blade into the tabletop.
Contact was immediate. High Fist Dujek's gravelly voice filled the room. 'About time, Whiskeyjack! Don't bother telling me about the Galayn lord – Tayschrenn's in a coma or something. Everyone in Headquarters heard his scream. So Anomander Rake took out the beast. What else?'
Whiskeyjack glanced at Paran, who nodded deferentially. 'Adjunct Lorn's gambit failed,' the sergeant said. 'She's dead. We have her body with us. The intersections remain mined – we're not detonating them, High Fist, since they're likely to open the gas caverns beneath the city and turn us all into ash. So.' He drew a deep breath, feeling a twinge from his leg – Mallet had done what he could, and that'd been a lot, but some damage remained, and it made him feel fragile. 'So,' he repeated softly, 'we're pulling out, High Fist.'
Dujek was silent, then he grunted. 'Problems, Whiskeyjack. One, we're about to lose Pale. As I suspected, Caladan Brood left the Crimson Guard to handle things up north, and marched down here with his Tiste Andii. He's also got Rhivi with him, and Jorrick's Barghast, who've just finished chewing up Gold Moranth. Two, it gets worse.' The High Fist swallowed audibly. 'Seven Cities is maybe a week away from open rebellion. The Empress knows it. Some Claw from Genabaris arrived half an hour ago, looking for Tayschrenn. My people got to him first. Whiskeyjack, he was carrying a handwritten message from the Empress to Tayschrenn. I've just been outlawed by the Empire. It's official, and Tayschrenn was to have effected my arrest and execution. We're on our own, friend.'
The room was silent. Whiskeyjack closed his eyes briefly. 'Understood, High Fist. So, when do you march?'
'Seems the Black Moranth are with us – don't ask why. Anyway, I have a parley at dawn tomorrow with Caladan Brood and Kallor. That will decide matters, I suspect. Either he lets us walk, or he kills us taking Pale. Everything's riding on what he knows about the Pannion Seer.'
Whiskeyjack said, 'We're rendezvousing with some Black Moranth in a couple of days, High Fist. Makes me wonder how much they'd guessed when that arrangement was made. Anyway, they'll take us to you, wherever you are.'
'No,' Dujek replied. 'We may be under siege here. The Black will drop you off on the Catlin Plain. Their orders are clear on this, but you're welcome to try overruling them.'
The sergeant grimaced. Not likely. 'Catlin Plain it is. Just means it'll take us longer to get to you, sir.'
The glow surrounding the bones flickered briefly and they heard an echoing thump. Fiddler chuckled. Dujek had just pounded a fist on the table at his end of the conversation.
Whiskeyjack shot the saboteur a ferocious look.
'Captain Paran?' Dujek bellowed.
'Here, High Fist,' Paran replied, stepping forward.
'What I'm about to say is to Whiskeyjack, but I want you to hear it, Captain.'
'I'm listening.'
'Sergeant, if you want to be in my army, you'd better get used to the new order. First, I'm placing the Bridgeburners under Captain Paran's command. Second, you're not a sergeant any more, Whiskeyjack. You are my second-in-command, and that means responsibilities. I don't want you anywhere near Pale. And you know I'm right, dammit. Captain Paran?'
'Yes?'
'Whiskeyjack's squad has earned the right to walk. Understood? If any of them elect to rejoin the Bridgeburners, fine. But I don't want any recriminations if they decide otherwise. I trust that's clear.'
'Yes, High Fist.'
'And with Whiskeyjack between commissions,' Dujek continued inexorably, 'he's just coming along for the ride, if you follow me, Captain.'
Paran grinned. 'I do.'
'Now, the Black Moranth will know the story by the time they pick you up, so go with them.'
'Yes, High Fist.'
Dujek growled, 'Questions, Whiskeyjack?'
'No,' the grizzled veteran answered glumly.
'All
right. Hopefully, we'll talk later.'
The bones' glow died.
Captain Paran rounded on the soldiers. He studied each face. They were to have been my command. I could not have done better anywhere. 'Very well,' he said gruffly. 'Who is ready to be outlawed and counted among Dujek's rebels?'
Trotts was the first to rise, his teeth bared. He was followed by Quick Ben, Hedge and Mallet.
There was a shocked silence, then Kalam nodded at Fiddler and cleared his throat. 'We're with you, only we're not going with you. Me and Fiddler, that is.'
'Can you explain that?' Paran asked quietly.
Apsalar spoke up, surprising everyone. 'They'll find that hard to do, Captain. And, I admit, I'm not sure what they're up to, but they're coming with me. Back to the Empire. Home.'
With an uneasy shrug, Fiddler rose and faced Whiskeyjack. 'We feel we owe it to her, sir,' he said. He looked to the captain. 'And we're settled on it, sir. But we're coming back, if we can.'
Bemused, Whiskeyjack pushed himself painfully to his feet. As he turned to face Paran, he froze. Behind the captain, Coll sat upright on the bed. 'Urn,' Whiskeyjack said, gesturing.
Tension burgeoned in the room once again as everyone swung to Coll. Paran stepped forward in genuine relief.
'Coll! I'm—' He stopped abruptly, then said tonelessly, 'You've been awake for some time, I see.'
Coil's eyes flicked to the bones stuck in the tabletop, then returned to Paran. 'Heard it all,' he said. 'So tell me, Paran, do you soldiers need any help getting out of Darujhistan?'
Rallick stood in the darkness beneath the trees at the edge of the glade. It seemed that his magic-deadening powers had proved insufficient after all. He'd been driven from his seat by what had felt like a giant hand – a god's hand, sure and powerful and unyielding. He'd watched in astonishment as a maze of roots clambered swiftly across the clearing, headed towards the terrace. He'd heard a shriek, then the roots returned, wrapped around a man-shaped ... apparition, which the roots pulled unceremoniously into the earth.
Rallick had been filled suddenly with near-euphoria. He knew with unaccountable certainty, that what grew here was right, and just.
It was new, young. Even now, as he continued watching it, he saw trembles of shaping ripple beneath its angular, geometric surfaces. What had been no more than a tree stump less than an hour ago was now a house. A massive door lay half buried in shadows beneath an arching branch. Vines barred shuttered windows. A balcony hung above and to the left of the door, festooned with leaves and creepers. It led into a kind of tower, turreted above the second storey and shingled to a gnarled peak. Another tower marked the house's front right flank, this one stockier and windowless, its roof flat with jagged merlons lining the edge. He suspected that this roof was a platform, with access through a trap-door of some kind.
The glade around the structure had changed, too, becoming mounded here and there as if the house's yard was a burial ground. Young, scraggly trees ringed each oblong mound, each growing as if an invisible wind twisted them away from the humped, grassy earth. The roots had dragged the apparition into one such mound.
It felt right, and just. These two words echoed in the assassin's head, with an appeal that wrapped calm around his heart. He almost imagined he felt an affinity with this child-house – as if it knew of him and accepted him.
He knew the house to be empty. Another sourceless certainty.
Rallick continued watching, as the lines of the house grew firm, sharply defined. A musty smell pervaded the area, as of freshly turned earth. The assassin felt at peace.
A moment later he heard thrashing behind him, and whirled to see Vorcan stagger through the undergrowth. Her face was covered in blood from a gash to her brow, and she nearly collapsed into Rallick's arms.
'Tiste Andii,' she gasped. 'After me. Hunting. They seek to avenge a murder!'
Rallick looked past her, and his eyes, long accustomed to the surrounding darkness, detected silent movement among the trees, closing in. He hesitated, gripping the now unconscious woman in his arms. Then he bent down, threw Vorcan over one shoulder, turned and ran towards the house.
He knew that the door would open for him, and it did. Beyond was a dark antechamber and an archway leading into a hallway running from side to side. A gust of warm, sweet air flowed over Rallick, and he entered without pause.
Korlat, blood-kin to Serrat, slowed as she approached the strange house. The door had closed behind their quarry. She came to the edge of the clearing, then squatted on her haunches. Her fellow hunters gathered slowly around her.
Horult hissed angrily, then said, 'Have you summoned our lord, Korlat?'
The woman shook her head. 'I know of such creations from old,' she said. 'The Deadhouse of Malaz City, the Odhanhouse of Seven Cities... Azath edieimarn, Pillars of Innocence – this door will not open to us.'
'Yet it opened to them,' Horult said.
'There is precedence. The Azath choose their own. It was so with the Deadhouse. Two men were chosen: one who would be Emperor, the other who would accompany him. Kellanved and Dancer.'
'I sense its power,' Orfantal whispered. 'Our lord could destroy it, now, while it's still young.'
'Yes,' agreed Korlat. 'He could.' She was silent a moment, then she rose. 'I am blood-kin to the fallen,' she said.
'You are blood-kin,' the others intoned.
'The quest for vengeance is ended,' Korlat said, the lines around her almond-shaped eyes tightening. 'Our lord will not be summoned. Leave him to his recovery. The Azath will not be touched, for it is new, a child.' Her eyes, soft brown, slowly regarded those of her companions. 'The Queen of Darkness spoke thus of Light when it was first born: "It is new, and what is new is innocent, and what is innocent is precious. Observe this child of wonder, and know respect."'
Orfantal scowled. 'Thus did Light survive, and so was Darkness destroyed, the purity vanquished – and now you would have us flawed as our Queen was flawed. Light became corrupted and destroyed our world, Korlat, or have you forgotten?'
Korlat's smile was a sad one. 'Cherish such flaws, dear sister, for our Queen's was hope, and so is mine. Now we must leave.'
Kruppe's expression was benign as he watched Crokus approach, clearly exhausted by this night of endless running. He nudged Murillio and fluttered his fingers in the young thief's direction. 'The lad returns with undue haste, yet I fear such sad tidings as Kruppe must bring.'
'He's had a rough night all around,' Murillio commented. He leaned against the gate's support wall outside the Simtal Estate. The streets remained empty, the citizens shocked numb with the night's horrors.
Kruppe gestured at Moon's Spawn, now a league to the west, well beyond the city's walls. 'A remarkable contraption, that. However, Kruppe is pleased that it has chosen to depart. Imagine, even the stars blotted out, leaving naught but dread in this world.'
'I need a drink,' Murillio muttered.
'Excellent idea,' Kruppe said. 'Shall we await the lad, however?'
The wait was not long. Crokus recognized them and slowed his frantic run. 'Apsalar's been kidnapped by the Empire!' he shouted. 'I need help!' He wobbled to a halt before Murillio. 'And Rallick's still in the garden—'
'Tut, tut,' Kruppe said. 'Easy, lad. Apsalar's location is known to Kruppe. As for Rallick, well...' He faced the street and waved his arms expansively. 'Breathe the night air, Crokus! A new year has begun! Come, let us walk, the three of us, masters of Darujhistan!' He linked arms with his comrades and pulled them forward.
Murillio sighed. 'Rallick's missing,' he explained. 'There's some kind of extraordinary house in Coil's garden now.'
'Ah, so much unveiled in that single statement!' Kruppe leaned against Crokus. 'While, no doubt, the lad's secret, overriding concern at the moment regards the fate of a fair young maiden, whose life was saved at the last moment by a nobleson named Gorlas, of all things. Saved, Kruppe says, from a ton of masonry shrugged off a wall. 'Twas heroic, indeed. The lass near-swooned with s
atisfaction.'
'What are you talking about?' Crokus demanded. 'Who was saved?'
Murillio snorted. 'I think, dear Kruppe, Master of Darujhistan, you've got the wrong fair maiden in mind.'
'She's not fair, anyway,' Crokus asserted.
Kruppe's chest swelled slightly. 'You need but ask the gods, lad, and they'll tell that life itself isn't fair. Now, are you interested in how Lady Simtal's estate has just this night become Coil's estate? Or is your mind so thoroughly enamoured of this new love of yours that even the fates of your dearest friends – Kruppe included – yield such lack of interest?'
Crokus bridled. 'Of course I'm interested!'
'Then the story begins, as always, with Kruppe ...'
Murillio groaned. 'Thus spake the Eel.'
EPILOGUE
I have seen a rumour born
swathed in snug mystery
left lying under the sun
in the hills of the Gadrobi
where the sheep have scattered
on wolf-laden winds
and the shepherds have fled
a whispering of sands
and it blinked in the glare
a heart hardened into stone
whilst the shadow of the Gates of Nowhere
crept 'cross the drifting dust of home
I have seen this rumour born
a hundred thousand hunters of the heart
in a city bathed in blue light...
Rumour Born (I. i-iv)
Fisher (b.?)
The sun lit the morning mists into a shield of white over the lake. Down on the beach a fisher-boat rocked in the freshening waves. Unmoored, it was moments before pulling free of the pebbles.
Mallet helped Whiskeyjack to a dome of rock above the beach, where they sat. The healer's gaze hesitated on the figure of Quick Ben, standing with shoulders hunched and staring across the lake. He followed the wizard's gaze. Moon's Spawn hung low on the horizon, a gold cast to its ravaged basalt. Mallet grunted. 'It's heading south. I wonder what that means?'
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