Atri-Preda Yan Tovis, called Twilight by those soldiers under her command who possessed in their ancestry the blood of the long-vanished indigenous fishers of Fent Reach—for that was what her name meant—stood on the massive wall skirting the North Coast Tower, and looked out upon the waters of Nepah Sea. Behind her, a broad, raised road exited from the base of the watchtower and cut a straight path south through two leagues of old forest, then a third of a league of farmland, to end at the crossroads directly before the Inland Gate of the fortified city of Fent Reach.
That was a road she was about to take. In haste.
Beside her, the local Finadd, a willow-thin, haunted man whose skin seemed almost bloodless, cleared his throat for the third time in the last dozen heartbeats.
‘All right, Finadd,’ Twilight said.
The man sighed, a sound of unabashed relief. ‘I will assemble the squads, Atri-Preda.’
‘In a moment. You’ve still a choice to make.’
‘Atri-Preda?’
‘By your estimate, how many Edur ships are we looking at?’
The Finadd squinted northward. ‘Eight, nine hundred of their raiders, I would judge. Merude, Den-Ratha, Beneda. Those oversized transports—I’ve not seen those before. Five hundred?’
‘Those transports are modelled on our own,’ Twilight said. ‘And ours hold five hundred soldiers each, one full supply ship in every five. Assuming the same ratio here. Four hundred transports packed with Edur warriors. That’s two hundred thousand. Those raiders carry eighty to a hundred. Assume a hundred. Thus, ninety thousand. The force about to land on the strand below is, therefore, almost three hundred thousand.’
‘Yes, Atri-Preda.’
‘Five thousand Edur landed outside First Maiden Fort this morning. The skeleton garrison saddled every horse they had left and are riding hard for Fent Reach. Where I have my garrison.’
‘We can conclude,’ the Finadd said, ‘that this represents the main force of the Edur fleet, the main force, indeed, of the entire people and their suicidal invasion.’
She glanced at him. ‘No, we cannot conclude any such thing. We have never known the population of Edur lands.’
‘Atri-Preda, we can hold Fent Reach for weeks. In that time, a relieving army will have arrived and we can crush the grey-skinned bastards.’
‘My mage cadre in the city,’ she said after a moment, ‘amounts to three dubious sorcerors, one of them never sober and the other two seemingly intent on killing each other over some past slight. Finadd, do you see the darkness of the sea beneath those ships? The residents of Trate know well that dark water, and what it holds.’
‘What are you saying, Atri-Preda?’
‘By all means ride back with us with your soldiers, Finadd. Or stay and arrange your official surrender with the first elements to land.’
The man’s mouth slowly opened.
Twilight turned away and walked to the stairs leading down to the courtyard. ‘I am surrendering Fent Reach, Finadd.’
‘But Atri-Preda! We could withdraw back to Trate! All of us!’
She stopped three steps down. ‘A third fleet has appeared, Finadd. In Katter Sea. We have already been cut off.’
‘Errant take us!’
Twilight resumed her descent. Under her breath, she muttered, ‘If only he could…’
All the questions were over. The invasion had begun.
My city is about to be conquered. Again.
Chapter Sixteen
The old drainage trench had once been a stream, long before the huts were knocked down and the overlords began building their houses of stone. Rubble and foul silts formed the banks, crawling with vermin. But there in my chest some dark fire flamed in quiet rage as I walked the track seeking the lost voice, the voice of that freed watery flow, the pebbles beneath the streaming tongue. Oh I knew so well those smooth stones, the child’s treasure of comforting form and the way, when dried, a single drop of tear or rain could make the colour blossom once more the found recollection of its home—this child’s treasure and the child was me and the treasure was mine, and mine own child this very morning I discovered, kneeling smeared on the rotting bank playing with shards of broken pots that knew only shades of grey no matter how deep and how streaming these tears.
BEFORE TRATE
NAMELESS FENT
Dreams could pass between the blinks of a man’s eyes, answered by wild casting about, disorientation, and an unstoppered flood of discordant emotions. Udinaas found he had slid down, was perched precariously on the ledge, his limbs stiff and aching. The sun had fallen lower, but not by much. Behind him, rising from a crumpled heap, was Feather Witch, the two halves of a broken tile falling from one hand to clatter on the stone a moment before sliding off into the brush and rocks below. Her hair disguised her face, hid the emotions writ there.
Udinaas wanted to scream, let loose his grief, and the sourceless anger beneath it. But what was new in being used? What was new in having nothing to reach for, nothing to strive towards? He pulled himself up from the edge of crumbling stone, and looked about.
The army was on the move. Something had changed. He saw haste below. ‘We must return,’ he said.
‘To what?’ Harsh, bitter.
‘To what we were before.’
‘Slaves, Udinaas.’
‘Yes.’
‘I’ve tasted it now. I’ve tasted it!’
He glanced over at her, watched as she sat straighter, dragging the hair from her eyes, and fixed him with a fierce glare. ‘You cannot live like this.’
‘I can’t?’
She looked away. Not wanting to see, he guessed. Not wanting to understand.
‘We’re marching to Trate, Feather Witch.’
‘To conquer. To…enslave.’
‘Details,’ he muttered, climbing cautiously to his feet. He offered her a hand. ‘Mayen wants you.’
‘She beats me, now.’
‘I know. You’ve failed to hide the bruises.’
‘She tears my clothes off. Uses me. In ways that hurt. I hurt all the time.’
‘Well,’ Udinaas said, ‘he doesn’t do that to her. Not that there’s much…tenderness. He’s too young for that, I suppose. Nor has she the power to take charge. Teach him. She’s…frustrated.’
‘Enough of your understanding this, understanding that. Enough, Indebted! I don’t care about her point of view, I’m not interested in stepping into her shadow, in trying to see the world how she sees it. None of that matters, when she twists, when she bites, when she pushes…just stop talking, Udinaas. Stop. No more.’
‘Take my hand, Feather Witch. It’s time.’
‘I’d rather bite it off.’
I know. He said nothing.
‘So he doesn’t hurt her, does he?’
‘Not physically,’ he replied.
‘Yes. What he does to her…’ she looked up, searching his eyes, ‘I do to you.’
‘And you’d rather bite.’
She made no reply. Something flickered in her gaze, then she turned away even as she took his hand.
He drew her onto her feet.
She would not look at him. ‘I’ll go down first. Wait a bit.’
‘All right.’
An army kicked awake, swarming the forest floor. To the north, the ashes of home. To the south, Trate. There would be…vengeance.
Details.
A flicker of movement downslope, then…nothing.
Trull Sengar continued scanning for a moment longer, then he settled back down behind the tree-fall. ‘We have been discovered,’ he said.
Ahlrada Ahn grunted. ‘Now what?’
Trull looked to the left and the right. He could barely make out the nearest warriors, motionless and under cover. ‘That depends,’ he muttered. ‘If they now come in force.’
They waited, as the afternoon waned.
Somewhere in the forest below was a Letherii brigade, and within it a mage cadre that had detected the presence of Tiste Edur posi
tioned to defend the bridge. Among the officers, surprise, perhaps consternation. The mages would be at work attempting to discern precise numbers, but that would prove difficult. Something in Edur blood defied them, remained elusive to their sorcerous efforts. A decision would have to be made, and much depended on the personality of the commander. Proceed in a cautious and measured way until direct contact was established, whereupon a succession of probes would determine the strength of the enemy. There were risks, however, to that. Drawing close enough to gauge the sharpness of the enemy’s fangs invited a bite that might not let go, leading to a pitched engagement where all the advantage lay with the Tiste Edur. Uphill battles were always costly. And often withdrawal proved bloody and difficult. Worse, there was a good chance of an all-out rout, which would lead to slaughter.
Or the commander could order the mage cadre to unleash a sorcerous attack and so lay waste the forest reaches above them. Such an attack, of course, served to expose the mages’ position to those Edur warlocks who might be present. And to the wraiths and demons attending them. If the attack was blunted, the cadre was in trouble.
Finally, the commander could choose to pull back. Yield the bridge, and return to the solid defences of High Fort, inviting a more traditional battle—the kind the Letherii had fought for centuries, against enemy forces of all sorts, and almost invariably with great success.
Was the commander overconfident and precipitous? If so, then Trull Sengar and his fifty warriors would either be slaughtered or forced back to the other side of the bridge, either result proving tactically disastrous for Hanradi Khalag and his advancing warriors. A contested crossing of the bridge would force Fear and Hanradi into unveiling the full extent of the sorcerous power accompanying the army—power intended to shatter the defenders of High Fort. Conversely, a cautious or timid commander would elect to retreat, and that would ensure an Edur success.
Trull edged his way back up to peer over the tree-fall. No movement below. The air seemed preternaturally still.
‘If they don’t close soon,’ Ahlrada said in a low voice, ‘they will have lost the advantage.’
Trull nodded. Sufficient concerns to occupy his mind, to steal his fullest attention. He did not have the luxury of thinking of other things. This, he decided, was preferable. A relief. And I can stay here, in this tense cast of my mind’s thoughts, from now on. It will take me through this war. It has to. Please, take me through this war.
The shadows were long on the slope below, cutting crossways, the shafts of dusty sunlight ebbing into golden mist through which insects flitted.
A whisper of sound—behind them, then on all sides.
Wraiths, streaming down, slipping past into the spreading gloom below.
‘They’ve arrived,’ Ahlrada said.
Trull slid back down and rolled onto his back. Padding between brush and trees upslope, silver-backed wolves. A half-dozen, then a score, lambent eyes flashing from lowered heads.
One beast approached Trull. It suddenly blurred, the air filling with a pungent, spicy scent, and a moment later Trull found himself looking into the amber eyes of B’nagga.
The Jheck grinned. ‘A thousand paces below, Trull Sengar. They are in full retreat.’
‘You made good time,’ Ahlrada said.
The grin widened. ‘The warriors are but two thousand paces from the bridge. My brothers found a body, hidden in the brush. Your work?’
‘An advance scout,’ Trull said.
‘The mages had tied a thread to him. They knew you were coming. No doubt that slowed them even more.’
‘So,’ Ahlrada said, ‘are we to contest their retreat?’
‘It was a thought. But no, the wraiths will do naught but hound them. Keep them on edge and moving at double-march. By the time they reach High Fort they will be footsore and bleary-eyed. We won’t be giving them much time to rest.’ He settled into a crouch. ‘I have news. First Maiden Fort has fallen. No battle—the garrison had already fled back to Fent Reach.’
‘As anticipated,’ Trull said.
‘Yes. If the Letherii choose to make a stand at Fent Reach, it will be a short siege. Even now, our ships have made landing and the warriors march on the city.’
‘No contact with any Letherii fleets?’ Trull was surprised. Those transports were vulnerable.
‘None. The emperor’s forces are poised above Trate, undetected as yet. Within the next few days, my friends, there will be four major battles. And, sword willing, the northern frontier shall fall.’
At the very least, we’ll have their fullest attention.
Blind drunk. A description Seren Pedac sought to explore, with all the fumbling murky intent of a mind poisoned into stupidity. But, somehow, she was failing. Instead of blind, she was painfully aware of the figures on all sides of her small table, the seething press and the loose rubble sound of countless voices. Stupidity had yet to arrive and possibly never would, as stolid sobriety held on, dogged and immovable and indifferent to the seemingly endless cups of wine she drank down.
Fevered excitement, scores of voices uttering their I-told-you-so variations to herds of nodding heads. Proclamations and predictions, the gleaming words of greed eager to be unleashed on the booty of battlefields crowded with dead Edur. Give ’em First Maiden Fort, aye. Why not? Pull the bastards in and in. You saw what the cadre did that night? They’ll do it again, this time against the ash-faced bastards themselves. I’ve got a perch halfway up the lighthouse, paid a fortune for it, I’ll see it all.
It’ll all be over at Fent Reach. They’ll get their noses bloodied and that’s when the cadre will hit the fleet in Katter Sea. I got an interest in a stretch on Bight Coast, salvage rights. Heading up there as soon as it’s over.
They let themselves get surrounded, I tell you. Twilight’s just waiting for the siege to settle in. What’s that? You saying she surrendered? Errant take us, man, what kind of lies you throwing about in here? You a damned traitor, you a damned Hull Beddict? Shut that mouth of yours or I’ll do it for you—
I’ll help, Cribal, that’s a promise. Sewing lips tight is easy as mending sails an’ I been doing that for years—
Where’d he go?
Ah, never mind him, Cribal—
Traitors need to be taught a lesson, Feluda. Come on, I see ’im making for the door—
Sittin’ alone don’t do no woman no good, sweetheart. Let a decent man take you away from all this…
Seren Pedac frowned, looked up at the figure looming over her table. Her mind replied, All right, even as she scowled and turned away.
‘Nothing worth its spit is being said here, lass. You want to drink. Fine, jus’ sit and drink. All I was offerin’ was a quieter place to do it, is all.’
‘Go away.’
Instead, the man sat down. ‘Been watchin’ you all evening. Jus’ another Letherii? Asked myself that once and once only. No, I think, not this one. So I ask, and someone says, “That’s the Acquitor, Seren Pedac. Was up at the treaty that went sour. Was under contract with Buruk the Pale, the one that hung himself and damned if it wasn’t her that found him all fish-eyed and fouled.” And I think, that ain’t an easy thing. No wonder she’s sittin’ there tryin’ t’get drunk an’ it’s not working.’
She fixed her gaze on him, seeing him clearly for the first time. Seamed face, clean-shaven, hair shoulder-length and the hue of polished iron. His voice sounded again in her head, confirming what she saw. ‘You’re no Letherii.’
A broad smile, even, white teeth. ‘You got that right, and, no offence, but glad of it.’
‘You’re not Faraed. Nerek. Tarthenal. Not Fent, either, not even Meckros—’
‘What I am you never heard of, believe me, lass. A long way from home.’
‘What do you want?’
‘Was making an offer, but it needed to be done in quiet. Private—’
‘I’m sure—’
‘Not like that, though I’d consider my fortunes on the upswing if it was to happen the way yo
u think I meant. No.’ He leaned forward, gesturing her closer as well.
Her smile ironic, she tilted over the table until their noses were almost touching. ‘I can’t wait.’
He withdrew a fraction. ‘Lass, you’re a breathin’ vineyard. All right, then, listen. We got ourselves a boat—’
‘We?’
‘A boat, and we’re leaving this pock-on-Hood’s-ass of a kingdom.’
‘Where to? Korshenn? Pilott, Truce? Kolanse?’
‘What would be the point of that? The first three you named are all paying tribute to Lether, and Kolanse is a mess from all we hear. Acquitor, the world’s a lot bigger than you might think—’
‘Is it? Actually, it’s smaller than I think.’
‘Same rubbish, different hole, eh? Maybe you’re right. But maybe not.’
‘Who are you?’
‘Just someone a long way from home, like I said. We clawed our way out of Assail, only to find ourselves here, and just by arriving in our damned sieve of a boat, we owed money. Just by steppin’ onto the dock, we owed more. It’s been seven months, and we’re so far in debt Prince K’azz himself couldn’t clear our way back out. Livin’ off scraps and doin’ ugly work and it’s rotting us all—’
‘You were a soldier.’
‘Still am, lass.’
‘So join a brigade—’
He rubbed at his face, closed his eyes for a moment, then seemed to reach a decision. He fixed her with his cool, blue eyes. ‘It’s shouting to the Abyss, lass, and not one Letherii’s listening. You people are in trouble. Serious trouble. Fent Reach surrendered. Now, Twilight’s a smart, able commander, so what made her do that? Think, Acquitor.’
‘She saw it was hopeless. She saw she couldn’t hold the city, and there was no way to retreat.’
He nodded. ‘You weren’t here when the harvest ships returned. You didn’t see what delivered ’em. We did. Lass, if dhenrabi worship a god then that was it, right there in the harbour.’
‘Who are dhenrabi?’
He shook his head. ‘We got room for people worth their salt. And you won’t be the only woman, so it’s not like that.’
The Complete Malazan Book of the Fallen Page 424