That legion of heavy infantry had savaged them. Without Kalam and Quick Ben’s deadly antics, the High Watered who had commanded the Kolansii had proved a stubborn foe, refusing to yield to the inevitable – they had been forced to kill every last one of them before finally cutting down the commander.
And now his army was bleeding, dragging itself up the slope like a wounded dog.
They reached the rise and reined in.
Before them, the Bonehunters formed a crumbling core under sustained attack from three sides, and in moments the fourth side would be engulfed as well. Ganoes could barely comprehend the magnitude of the slaughter he was seeing – corpses made low hills around the combatants, as orderly as the berms of an earthworks fortification.
Shock and horror tightened like a fist round his heart.
His sister’s army had been reduced to less than half a thousand, and they were falling fast.
‘High Fist—’
Rythe Bude’s mouth snapped shut when he spun to her and she saw his face. Paran swung his mount round as the first line of soldiers reached the summit. ‘To the edge! To this damned edge! Close up, damn you! Those are fellow Malazans dying down there! Look on them! All of you, look on them!’
His horse staggered beneath him, but he righted it with a savage sawing of the reins, then reached up and dropped the full visor over his face. Drew out his sword and rose in his stirrups as still more soldiers crowded the ridge.
‘Draw breath, you bastards! And CHARGE!’
As he and Fist Rythe Bude drove their mounts down the slope, Ganoes Paran angled close to her. ‘Into that flank – leave the south alone!’
‘Yes sir!’
‘Look for any mixed-bloods.’
The look she shot him was venomous. ‘Oh really, sir?’
Behind them the ground shook as the Host thundered down the slope.
‘High Fist! If we take down their commanders! Mercy?’
He glared ahead, drawing his mount away from the woman, angling towards the unoccupied flats between the fighters and the non-combatants. ‘Today, Fist, I don’t know the word!’
But he knew he would change his mind. Cursed with softness. I got it all. Left nothing for Tavore, my sister of ice-cold iron. We should have shared it out. Like coins. Gods, so many things we should have done. Is it now too late? Does she live?
Sister, do you live?
High Watered Melest, still shaken by the deaths of the Pures, turned at the cries of shock and dismay from the Kolansii on the right flank, and his eyes widened upon seeing another foreign army pouring down from the hills. Even as he watched, they slammed into the heavy infantry – and these attackers were as heavily armoured, and with the weight of the downhill charge behind them they shattered the wing with the force of an avalanche.
Howling in rage, he pushed back through the ranks – he needed one of the Pures’ horses, to attain a higher vantage point. They still held the centre and fully commanded the south side of the field. Victory was still possible.
And he would win it.
In his mind, drawing as much strength as he could from Akhrast Korvalain, he exhorted his soldiers into a battle frenzy.
‘Kill them! All these who have so defied us on this day – destroy them!’
His horse lagging beneath him, beginning to weave, Paran cursed and slowed the beast. He fumbled in the saddlebag on his left, drew out a lacquered card. Glared at the lone rider painted on it. ‘Mathok! I know you can hear me! I’m about to open the gate for you. But listen! Come at the charge, do you understand? You wanted a damned Hood-balled blood-pissing fight, and now I’m giving it to you!’
Paran kicked his horse forward again, pushing the poor beast into a gallop. He fixed his eyes on the place where he would tear open the gate, and then rose in his stirrups. ‘There,’ he said to the card, and then threw it.
The card sailed out, level as a quarrel from a crossbow, so fast it blurred as it cut through the air.
Beneath Paran, his horse stumbled. Then collapsed.
He threw himself clear, struck hard, rolled and was still.
Ruthan Gudd fought to defy the envelopment, but even with this unknown brute of a soldier fighting at his side he could not prevent the hundreds of Kolansii from swinging round, well beyond the reach of their swords.
Behind him he felt a sudden surge rip through the regulars, pushing everyone forward a step. Twisting round, Ruthan strained to see the cause – but dust filled the air, and all he could see was the reeling mass of Malazans, now breaking apart, spilling out, as if in a berserk fever they now sought to charge – but before these soldiers there were no Kolansii.
They are broken. They are finally—
Thunder spun him round, and he stared, disbelieving, as thousands of warriors rode out from an enormous gate – but no, this ragged tear in the fabric of the world did not deserve so lofty a title. It was huge, opened to a howling wind – and it was barely thirty paces from the first ranks of the enemy.
The riders bore lances, their mounts heavily armoured across chest and neck. They struck the disordered mass of heavy infantry – there had been no time to wheel, no time to draw shields round – and the concussion of that impact shuddered through the Kolansii. The wing split, broke apart – and suddenly all cohesion was lost, and the horsewarriors were delivering slaughter on all sides.
The regular infantryman beside him stumbled then, leaned hard against Ruthan Gudd’s hip. Startled, he stared down, saw the man pressing his forehead against his ice-sheathed side.
Eyes closed, the gasping Kanese breathed, ‘Gods below, that feels good.’
Lostara Yil saw Adjunct Tavore stumbling away from the ranks. The pressure was gone – the enemy had other foes to deal with, and those foes were driving them back, away from the Bonehunters. She stared after Tavore.
The Adjunct was barely recognizable. Covered in blood and gore, her helm torn off, her hair stained red, she staggered into the clear. Ten jerking, almost manic steps, her sword still in her hand but held out to one side, as if the arm had forgotten how to relax.
Lostara pulled free of the ranks, moved after her – but a hand grasped her, dragged her back, and Henar’s voice was close by her ear. ‘No, love. Leave her. Just…leave her.’
Her steps ran out, lost all momentum, and then she was standing, alone, her back to her army. The sounds of battle seemed to be falling away, as if thick, heavy curtains were being drawn across every side of the world, shutting away every scene, every swirl of motion and dust.
She was alone.
The sword, still held out so awkwardly, and her head slowly tilting back, to lift her face to the sky.
Eyes were upon her now, but she saw them not.
Tavore’s mouth opened, and the cry of anguish that tore from it held nothing human.
It rang across the field of battle. It pushed past the witnessing Bonehunters, reached out and caressed countless corpses. It fought with the dust, rising up to vanish in the lurid green hue of the sky’s fading light.
When her voice gave out, all could see that cry continuing in the stretched contortion of her face. Silent now, she gave nothing to the sky, and in that nothing, there was everything.
Half stunned by the fall from the horse, Paran staggered towards her. That sound had not come from his sister. Too terrible, too ravaged, too brutal, and yet it dragged him towards her, as if he was caught in a rushing current.
Off to his left, a few hundred Bonehunters still alive, motionless, unable even to sag or settle to the ground. They looked upon his sister and he could make no sense of their meaning, of what they still wanted from her.
Is this not enough? This one weakness, breaking loose so raw, so horrifyingly, from her?
Is it never enough?
I don’t – I don’t understand what you want from her! What more are you waiting for?
Through the bars of his helm’s iron grille, she was directly ahead, a prisoner still.
Someone was rushing
towards her. Another enemy. She could not even open her eyes, could not turn to meet him. One more death seemed too much, but she knew what waited within her. This need. This need…to finish.
Do not attack me. Please. Someone stop him. Please.
I will kill him.
She heard him arrive and she dropped down into a crouch, spinning round, eyes opening – a heavy helm, an armoured body lunging for her.
Her blade was a blur.
He caught her wrist, was rocked back by the force of the swing.
Pulled her close as she struggled.
Fumbled at his helm’s strap.
‘Tavore! Stop! It’s me – it’s Ganoes!’
The helm came away, left his hand to thump on the ground – she stared up at him, disbelieving, and then, in her face, everything shattered.
‘I lost her! Oh, Ganoes, I lost her!’
As she collapsed into his arms, frail as a child, Ganoes held her tight. One hand against the back of her sweat-matted head, her bloodied face now pressed into his shoulder as she broke down, he found himself sinking to his knees, taking her within him.
And when he looked up, over at those Bonehunters, he saw that whatever they had been waiting for they had now found.
Like him, like her, they were settling down, to their knees. They were…surrendering.
To whatever was left inside them.
Muffled against his shoulder, through her sobs, she was saying his name. Over and over again.
On a distant part of the field, as High Watered Melest swung his Jhag horse round, seeking to flee, Mathok’s lance took him in the side of the head.
And the final battle of the Bonehunter Regular Infantry was done.
‘Corporal! Get over to those fat women!’
‘Dead, Sergeant!’
‘Then the other one, damn you!’
‘Both corporals are dead – I told you!’
Cursing, Hellian sidestepped a lunging attacker, drove her knee into the man’s jaw. The head snapped upward and the body beneath it sagged. She stabbed him in the neck and then turned to glare at her squad’s last soldier. ‘Well what good are you, damn it? What’s your name?’
‘You stupid brain-dead cow – I’m Maybe! I been with you from the start!’
‘And you’re still here – just my luck. I’ll hold this track – go find someone to spell those two whales. Most of those Bridgeburners are dead.’
Swearing, Maybe moved off.
Hellian took a moment to dry the sweat and blood from her palm, and then picked up her sword again. Where was Urb? If that fool was dead she’d kill him. No, that’s not right. No matter.
Below, she saw more helmed heads lurching into view on the narrow, winding incline.
Come on, then. One of you’s gotta have a flask. Something, for Hood’s sake. See what happens when I’m sober?
Corabb heard Maybe shouting behind him and turned – saw weapons flashing, Kolansii soldiers pouring up on to the summit. Marines were going down all round Maybe – Mulvan Dreader, Ruffle, Honey – ‘Breach!’ he screamed. ‘Breach!’
And then he was running.
Maybe stumbled, stabbed through one calf, buckling to blows against his shield. Corabb saw Ruffle push herself on to her hands and knees – but then an axe descended, bursting her skull. She flopped back down, limp as a rag doll.
Now he could see the breach. The two Bridgeburner sergeants had both gone down at the top of the trail they had been defending.
Corabb leapt over the chained god.
Kolansii faces turned towards him – and then he was among them, his sword singing. The shield was torn from his left arm by an axe blade. A point bit deep into his side. Howling, he slashed open a shoulder, cutting through chain, the links scattering, and then drove another man to his knees on the backswing.
A heavy grunt from someone on his right – Shortnose had arrived, shield-bashing two foes, sending both to the ground. He’d collected up a Kolansii axe and now used it to dispatch the stunned soldiers.
More of the enemy rushed them.
The Crippled God was able to turn his head, was witness to the savage, desperate defence from these two Malazans. He watched the enemy driven back in one instant, then pushing closer in the next. The sweat of one of his protectors had splashed his face when the man had sailed over him, and those droplets now ran down in trickles, leaving tracks that felt cool as tears.
It seemed that there would be no reinforcements to this modest engagement – the enemy was upon them on all sides. They had finally come within sight of his chained body – and now the Forkrul Assail understood the purpose behind all this. The Crippled God could feel the Assail’s hunger.
I am almost all here, within this bag of skin. And I remain in chains.
He can wound me. He can feed on my power for all time – and none could challenge him. He will unleash my poison upon the world.
The Malazan with the cut-off nose-tip staggered, pierced through by a sword, and then another. Only to then straighten, his axe lashing out. Bodies reeled, toppled in welters of gore. He stumbled forward, and the Crippled God saw his face in profile – and saw the man’s smile as he fell face first on to the ground.
Leaving but one defender, harried now by three Kolansii, with a fourth and fifth soldier appearing from behind them.
His lone stalwart marine cut one down with his singing blade. And then another – crippled by a thigh chopped down to the bone.
The axe that caught the marine was swung from the shield side – but the Malazan held no shield, could not block the swing. It cut clean through his left shoulder, severing the arm. Blood spraying, the man stepped back, his torso held pitched to one side, unbalanced. A second swing slashed through half his neck.
Somehow, the marine found the strength to drive the point of his sword into his killer’s throat, the tip bursting out below the back of the skull. The thrust toppled him forward, into the dying man’s arms. They fell as one.
Even as the remaining two Kolansii moved towards the Crippled God, weapons lifting, quarrels flashed in the air, knocked both men down.
The god heard the scuff and thump of boots, and then someone landed and slid up against him, and he turned his head to the kneeling saviour, looked up into Captain Fiddler’s eyes.
‘They reach you, Lord?’
The Crippled God shook his head. ‘Captain, your soldiers…’
As if the word alone wounded him, Fiddler looked away, and then scrambled back on to his feet, cranking back the claw on the crossbow, his eyes fixing on the breach. Those eyes then went wide. ‘Hedge!’ he screamed.
Hedge fell against the hacked bodies of Sweetlard and Rumjugs. The trail just below where the two women had fought was jammed with corpses – but beyond them he could see more Kolansii soldiers, dragging the way clear. They’d be through in moments.
Too many. Fuck.
How long had they been fighting? He had no idea. How many waves of attacks? It seemed like hundreds, but that wasn’t possible – they still had daylight above them. Dying daylight, aye, but still…
Eyes on the mass of enemy below, an enemy heaving ever closer, he drew round the satchel he had collected from the mound of gear close to the feet of the Crippled God. Drew out the cusser. Always keep one. Always.
Sapper’s vow. If you’re going down, take the bastards with ya.
He lifted it high.
Behind him he heard Fiddler shriek his name.
Aw, shit. Sorry, Fid.
Hedge plunged down the trail, rushing the mob of Kolansii.
And then heard someone behind him, and whirled. ‘Fiddler, damn you! No! Go back!’
Instead, his friend tackled him. Both went down, the cusser flying from Hedge’s hand.
Neither man ducked for cover, instead turning to watch the munition take its leisurely, curving path down to the press of soldiers – and all those bobbing iron helms.
It struck one of those helms clean as a coconut falling from a tree.
<
br /> Burst open to spill insensate carmine powder.
The two sappers stared at each other, faces barely a hand’s width apart, and in unison they cried, ‘Dud!’
And then a Malazan slammed down beside them in a clatter of armour – a man if anything shorter than Reliko, yet pale and thin, his ears protruding from the sides of his narrow head. He faced them and offered up a yellow, snaggle-toothed smile. ‘Got your backs, sirs. Get on wi’yee now!’
Fiddler stared at the man. ‘Who in Hood’s name are you?’
The soldier gave him a hurt look. ‘I’m Nefarias Bredd, sir! Who else would I be? Now, get back up there – I’ll cover yee, aye?’
Fiddler turned and dragged Hedge back on to his feet, pulling him up the trail. As they scrabbled to the edge, hands reached down and dragged them up. The faces of the marines now surrounding them – Tarr, Bottle, Smiles and Koryk – were the palest he had ever seen. Deadsmell arrived and fell to his knees beside the prone bodies of Rumjugs and Sweetlad, looked up and muttered something to Tarr.
Nodding, Sergeant Tarr pushed Hedge and Fiddler from the edge. ‘We got this breach taken care of, sirs.’
Fiddler grasped Hedge’s arm, yanked him as he dragged him away.
‘Fid—’
‘Shut the fuck up!’ He rounded on Hedge. ‘You thought to just do it all over again?’
‘It looked like we was finished!’
‘We ain’t never finished, damn you! We drove ’em back again – you hearing me? They’re pulling back – we drove them back again!’
Hedge’s legs suddenly felt watery beneath him. He abruptly sat down. Gloom was settling round them. He listened to gasping breaths, cursing, ragged coughs. Looking about, he saw that the others within sight were also down on the ground, too tired for anything more. Heads fell back, eyes closed. His sigh was a rasp. ‘Gods, how many soldiers you got left, Fid?’
The man was now lying beside him, back propped against a tilted stone. ‘Maybe twenty. You?’
The Complete Malazan Book of the Fallen Page 1054