House of Chains

by Steven Erikson

  ‘He’s on some secret mission,’ Ebron muttered. ‘For the Empress, is my guess. He’s probably back in the Claw—that’s where he started, after all, isn’t it?’

  Cord looked thoughtful, then he shrugged and turned away. ‘This is making my head ache. Let’s get below.’

  Kalam watched the sergeant push between the clump of soldiers crowding the corridor. Something tells me I’m not going to enjoy this much.

  Sinn danced a step.

  A blurred sword of dark iron rose along the horizon, a massive, bruised blade that flickered as it swelled ever larger. The wind had fallen off, and it seemed that the island in the path of the sword’s tip grew no closer. Cutter moved up to the lone mast and began storm-rigging the luffing sail. ‘I’m going to man the sweeps for a while,’ he said. ‘Will you take the tiller?’

  With a shrug Apsalar moved to the stern.

  The storm still lay behind the island of Drift Avalii, over which hung a seemingly permanent, immovable bank of heavy clouds. Apart from a steeply rising shoreline, there seemed to be no high ground; the forest of cedars, firs and redwoods looked impenetrable, their boles ever cloaked in gloom.

  Cutter stared at the island for a moment longer, then gauged the pace of the approaching storm. He settled onto the bench behind the mast and collected the sweeps. ‘We might make it,’ he said, as he dropped the oar blades into the murky water and pulled.

  ‘The island will shatter it,’ Apsalar replied.

  He narrowed his eyes on her. It was the first time in days that she had ventured a statement without considerable prodding on his part. ‘Well, I may have crossed a damned ocean, but I still understand nothing of the sea. Why should an island without a single mountain break that storm?’

  ‘A normal island wouldn’t,’ she answered.

  ‘Ah, I see.’ He fell silent. Her knowledge came from Cotillion’s memories, appearing to add yet another layer to Apsalar’s miseries. The god was with them once more, a haunting presence between them. Cutter had told her of the spectral visitation, of Cotillion’s words. Her distress—and barely constrained fury—seemed to originate from the god’s recruitment of Cutter himself.

  His choosing of his new name had displeased her from the very first, and that he had now become, in effect, a minion of the patron god of assassins appeared to wound her deeply. He had been naive, it now seemed in retrospect, to have believed that such a development would bring them closer.

  Apsalar was not happy with her own path—a realization that had rocked the Daru. She drew no pleasure or satisfaction from her own cold, brutal efficiency as a killer. Cutter had once imagined that competency was a reward in itself, that skill bred its own justification, creating its own hunger and from that hunger a certain pleasure. A person was drawn to his or her own proficiency—back in Darujhistan, after all, his thieving habits had not been the product of necessity. He’d suffered no starvation on the city’s streets, no depredation by its crueller realities. He had stolen purely for pleasure, and because he had been good at it. A future as a master thief had seemed a worthy goal, notoriety indistinguishable from respect.

  But now, Apsalar was trying to tell him that competence was not justification. That necessity demanded its own path and there was no virtue to be found at its heart.

  He’d found himself at subtle war with her, the weapons those of silence and veiled expressions.

  He grunted at the sweeps. The seas were growing choppy. ‘Well, I hope you’re right,’ he said. ‘We could do with the shelter . . . though from what the Rope said, there will be trouble among the denizens of Drift Avalii.’

  ‘Tiste Andü,’ Apsalar said. ‘Anomander Rake’s own. He settled them there, to guard the Throne.’

  ‘Do you recall Dancer—or Cotillion—speaking with them?’

  Her dark eyes flicked to his for a moment, then she looked away. ‘It was a short conversation. These Tiste Andü have known isolation for far too long. Their master left them there, and has never returned.’

  ‘Never?’

  ‘There are . . . complications. The shore ahead offers no welcome—see for yourself.’

  He drew the oars back in and twisted round on the seat.

  The shoreline was a dull grey sandstone, wave-worn into undulating layers and shelves. ‘Well, we can draw up easily enough, but I see what you mean. No place to pull the runner up, and tethering it risks battering by the waves. Any suggestions?’

  The storm—or the island—was drawing breath, tugging the sail. They were quickly closing on the rocky coast.

  The sky’s rumbles were nearer now, and Cutter could see the wavering treetops evincing the arrival of a high and fierce wind, stretching the clouds above the island into long, twisting tendrils.

  ‘I have no suggestions,’ Apsalar finally replied. ‘There is another concern—currents.’

  And he could see now. The island did indeed drift, unmoored to the sea bottom. Spinning vortices roiled around the sandstone. Water was pulled under, flung back out, seething all along the shoreline. ‘Beru fend us,’ Cutter muttered, ‘this won’t be easy.’ He scrambled to the bow.

  Apsalar swung the runner onto a course parallel to the shore. ‘Look for a shelf low to the water,’ she called. ‘We might be able to drag the boat onto it.’

  Cutter said nothing to that. It would take four or more strong men to manage such a task . . . but at least we’d get onto shore in one piece. The currents tugged at the hull, throwing the craft side to side. A glance back showed Apsalar struggling to steady the tiller.

  The dull grey sandstone revealed, in its countless shelves and modulations, a history of constantly shifting sea levels. Cutter had no idea how an island could float. If sorcery was responsible, then its power was vast, and yet, it seemed, far from perfect.

  ‘There!’ he shouted suddenly, pointing ahead where the coast’s undulations dropped to a flat stretch barely a hand’s width above the roiling water.

  ‘Get ready,’ Apsalar instructed, half rising from her seat.

  Clambering up alongside the prow, a coil of rope in his left hand, Cutter prepared to leap onto the shelf. As they drew closer, he could see that the stone ledge was thin, deeply undercut.

  They swiftly closed. Cutter jumped.

  He landed square-footed, knees flexing into a crouch.

  There was a sharp crack, then the stone was falling away beneath his moccasined feet. Cold water swept around his ankles. Unbalanced, the Daru pitched backward with a yelp. Behind him, the boat rushed inward on the wave that tumbled into the sinking shelf’s wake. Cutter plunged into deep water, even as the encrusted hull rolled over him.

  The currents yanked him downward into icy darkness. His left heel thumped against the island’s rock, the impact softened by a thick skin of seaweed.

  Down, a terrifyingly fast plummet into the deep.

  Then the rock wall was gone, and he was pulled by the currents under the island.

  A roar filled his head, the sound of rushing water. His last lungful of air was dwindling to nothing in his chest. Something hard hammered into his side—a piece of the runner’s hull, wreckage being dragged by the currents—their boat had overturned. Either Apsalar was somewhere in the swirling water with him, or she had managed to leap onto solid sandstone. He hoped it was the latter, that they would not both drown—for drowning was all that was left to him.

  Sorry, Cotillion. I hope you did not expect too much of me—

  He struck stone once more, was rolled along it, then the current tugged him upward and suddenly spat him loose.

  He flailed with his limbs, clawing the motionless water, his pulse pounding in his head. Disorientated, panic ripping through him like wildfire, he reached out one last time.

  His right hand plunged into cold air.

  A moment later his head broke the surface.

  Icy, bitter air poured into his lungs, as sweet as honey. There was no light, and the sounds of his gasping returned no echoes, seeming to vanish in some unkno
wn immensity.

  Cutter called out to Apsalar, but there was no reply.

  He was swiftly growing numb. Choosing a random direction, he set out.

  And quickly struck a stone wall, thick with wet, slimy growth. He reached up, found only sheerness. He swam along it, his limbs weakening, a deadly lassitude stealing into him. He struggled on, feeling his will seep away.

  Then his outstretched hand slapped down onto the flat surface of a ledge. Cutter threw both arms onto the stone. His legs, numbed by the cold, pulled at him. Moaning, he sought to drag himself out of the water, but his strength was failing. Fingers gouging tracks through the slime, he slowly sank backward.

  A pair of hands closed, one on each shoulder, to gather the sodden fabric in a grip hard as iron. He felt himself lifted clear from the water, then dropped onto the ledge.

  Weeping, Cutter lay unmoving. Shivers racked him.

  Eventually, a faint crackling sound reached through, seeming to come from all sides. The air grew warmer, a dull glow slowly rising.

  The Daru rolled onto his side. He had expected to see Apsalar.

  Instead, standing above him was an old man, extraordinarily tall, his white hair long and dishevelled, white-bearded though his skin was black as ebony, with eyes a deep, glittering amber—the sole source, Cutter realized with a shock—of the light.

  All around them, the seaweed was drying, shrivelling, as waves of heat radiated from the stranger.

  The ledge was only a few paces wide, a single lip of slick stone flanked by vertical walls stretching out to the sides.

  Sensation was returning to Cutter’s legs, his clothes steaming now in the heat. He struggled into a sitting position. ‘Thank you, sir,’ he said in Malazan.

  ‘Your craft has littered the pool,’ the man replied. ‘I suppose you will want some of the wreckage recovered.’

  Cutter twisted to stare out on the water, but could see nothing. ‘I had a companion—’

  ‘You arrived alone. It is probable that your companion drowned. Only one current delivers victims here. The rest lead only to death. On the isle itself, there is but one landing, and you did not find it. Few corpses of late, of course, given our distance from occupied lands. And the end of trade.’

  His words were halting, as if rarely used, and he stood awkwardly.

  She drowned? More likely she made it onto shore. Not for Apsalar the ignoble end that almost took me. Then again . . . She was not yet immortal, as subject to the world’s cruel indifference as anyone. He pushed the thought away for the moment.

  ‘Are you recovered?’

  Cutter glanced up. ‘How did you find me?’

  A shrug. ‘It is my task. Now, if you can walk, it is time to leave.’

  The Daru pushed himself to his feet. His clothing was almost dry. ‘You possess unusual gifts,’ he observed. ‘I am named . . . Cutter.’

  ‘You may call me Darist. We must not delay. The very presence of life in this place risks his awakening.’

  The ancient Tiste Andü turned to face the stone wall. At a gesture, a doorway appeared, beyond which were stone stairs leading upward. ‘That which survived the wrecking of your craft awaits you above, Cutter. Come.’

  The Daru set off after the man. ‘Awakening? Who might awaken?’

  Darist did not reply.

  The steps were worn and slick, the ascent steep and seemingly interminable. The cold water had stolen Cutter’s strength, and his pace grew ever slower. Again and again Darist paused to await him, saying nothing, his expression closed.

  They eventually emerged onto a level hallway down which ran, along the walls, pillars of rough-skinned cedars. The air was musty and damp beneath the sharp scent of the wood. There was no-one else in sight. ‘Darist,’ Cutter asked as they walked down the aisle, ‘are we still beneath ground level?’

  ‘We are, but we shall proceed no higher for the time being. The island is assailed.’

  ‘What? By whom? What of the Throne?’

  Darist halted and swung round, the glow in his eyes somehow deepening. ‘A question carelessly unasked. What has brought you, human, to Drift Avalii?’

  Cutter hesitated. There was no love lost between the present rulers of Shadow and the Tiste Andü. Nor had Cotillion even remotely suggested actual contact be made with the Children of Darkness. They had been placed here, after all, to ensure that the true Throne of Shadow remain unoccupied. ‘I was sent by a mage—a scholar, whose studies had led him to believe the island—and all it contained—was in danger. He seeks to discover the nature of that threat.’

  Darist was silent for a moment, his lined face devoid of expression. Then he said, ‘What is this scholar’s name?’

  ‘Uh, Baruk. Do you know him? He lives in Darujhistan—’

  ‘What lies in the world beyond the island is of no concern to me,’ the Tiste Andü replied.

  And that, old man, is why you’re in this mess. Cotillion was right. ‘The Tiste Edur have returned, haven’t they? To reclaim the Throne of Shadow. But it was Anomander Rake who left you here, entrusted with—’

  ‘He lives still, does he? If Mother Dark’s favoured son is displeased with how we have managed this task, then he must come and tell us so himself. It was not some human mage who sent you here, was it? Do you kneel before the Wielder of Dragnipur? Does he renew his claims to the blood of the Tiste Andü, then? Has he renounced his Draconian blood?’

  ‘I wouldn’t know—’

  ‘Does he now appear as an old man—older by far than me? Ah, I see by your face the truth of it. He has not. Well, you may go back to him and tell him—’

  ‘Wait! I do not serve Rake! Aye, I saw him in person, and not very long ago, and he looked young enough at the time. But I did not kneel to him—Hood knows, he was too busy at the time in any case! Too busy fighting a demon to converse with me! We but crossed paths. I don’t know what you’re talking about, Darist. Sorry. And I am most certainly not in any position to find him and tell him whatever it is you want me to say to him.’

  The Tiste Andü studied Cutter for a moment longer, then he swung about and resumed the journey.

  The Daru followed, his thoughts wild with confusion. It was one thing to accept the charge of a god, but the further he travelled on this dread path, the more insignificant he himself felt. Arguments between Anomander Rake and these Tiste Andü of Drift Avalii . . . well, that was no proper business of his. The plan had been to sneak onto this island and remain unseen. To determine if indeed the Edur had found this place, though what Cotillion would do with such knowledge was anyone’s guess.

  But that’s something I should think about, I suppose. Damn it, Cutter—Crokus would’ve had questions! Mowri knows, he would’ve hesitated a lot longer before accepting Cotillion’s bargain. If he accepted at all! This new persona was imposing a certain sense of stricture—he’d thought it would bring him more freedom. But now it was beginning to appear that the truly free one had been Crokus.

  Not that freedom ensured happiness. Indeed, to be free was to live in absence. Of responsibilities, of loyalties, of the pressures that expectation imposed. Ah, misery has tainted my views. Misery, and the threat of true grieving, which draws nearer—but no, she must be alive. Somewhere up above. On an island assailed . . . ‘Darist, please, wait a moment.’

  The tall figure stopped. ‘I see no reason to answer your questions.’

  ‘I am concerned . . . for my companion. If she’s alive, she’s somewhere above us, on the surface. You said you were under attack. I fear for her—’

  ‘We sense the presence of strangers, Cutter. Above us, there are Tiste Edur. But no-one else. She is drowned, this companion of yours. There is no point in holding out hope.’

  The Daru sat down suddenly. He felt sick, his heart stuttering with anguish. And despair.

  ‘Death is not an unkind fate,’ Darist said above him. ‘If she was a friend, you will miss her company, and that is the true source of your grief—your sorrow is for yourself. My words ma
y displease you, but I speak from experience. I have felt the deaths of many of my kin, and I mourn the spaces in my life where they once stood. But such losses serve only to ease my own impending demise.’

  Cutter stared up at the Tiste Andü. ‘Darist, forgive me. You may be old, but you are also a damned fool. And I begin to understand why Rake left you here then forgot about you. Now, kindly shut up.’ He pushed himself upright, feeling hollowed out inside, but determined not to surrender to the despair that threatened to overwhelm him. Because surrendering is what this Tiste Andü has done.

  ‘Your anger leaves me undamaged,’ Darist said. He turned and gestured to the double doors directly ahead. ‘Through here you will find a place to rest. Your salvage awaits there, as well.’

  ‘Will you tell me nothing of the battle above?’

  ‘What is there to tell you, Cutter? We have lost.’

  ‘Lost! Who is left among you?’

  ‘Here in the Hold, where stands the Throne, there is only me. Now, best rest. We shall have company soon enough.’

  The howls of rage reverberated through Onrack’s bones, though he knew his companion could hear nothing. These were cries of the spirits—two spirits, trapped within two of the towering, bestial statues rearing up on the plain before them.

  The cloud cover overhead had broken apart, was fast vanishing in thinning threads. Three moons rode the heavens, and there were two suns. The light flowed with shifting hues as the moons swung on their invisible tethers. A strange, unsettling world, Onrack reflected.

  The storm was spent. They had waited in the lee of a small hill while it thrashed around the gargantuan statues, the wind howling past from its wild race through the rubble-littered streets of the ruined city lying beyond. And now the air steamed.

  ‘What do you see, T’lan Imass?’ Trull asked from where he sat hunched, his back to the edifices.

  Shrugging, the T’lan Imass turned away from his lengthy study of the statues. ‘There are mysteries here . . . of which I suspect you know more than I.’

  The Tiste Edur glanced up with a wry expression. ‘That seems unlikely. What do you know of the Hounds of Shadow?’