Methodically, the old man advanced. He swept the torch before him, down into crevasses between boulders and low over the rising water. He turned back to the children and called, ‘Here?’
‘Farther out,’ the girl answered in a near gasp.
The old man drew a knife from his belt. Its blade was thin, honed down to a sickle moon. He exchanged torch and knife from hand to hand, then edged farther into the tide. Standing waist-deep in the frigid water he decided that he had gone out quite far enough. He would step up onto the last remaining tall rocks standing like a bastion before the waves, then return to tell his grandchildren that the ghost had fled back to its salty rest.
Sister and brother watched their grandfather pull himself awkwardly up the very tall rocks amid the spray of the gathering tide, then disappear down into their recesses. They waited, silent, neither daring to speak. It seemed to the girl that her grandfather had been gone a very long time when her brother cleared his throat and whispered haltingly, ‘Do you think it got him?’
‘Shush! Of course not,’ the girl soothed. But she wondered, had it? And if it had, what would they do? Where could they go? The town? Pyre was a day’s walk away. And besides, what help would come from there?
The girl was brought back to herself by her brother’s hissed intake of breath, his chill damp hand tightening on her own. She looked up to see the ghost lowering itself down from the boulders. But it was not a haunt because it carried a torch and no ghost would carry one of those, no matter how potent a shade it might be. Watching her grandfather gingerly feel his way from rock to rock, a new, disturbing thought occurred to her: even though their grandfather was safely returned, how could she ever be sure the ghost hadn’t got him? For haunts, she had heard from many, were notoriously slippery things, and who could say what had happened out there in the darkness, hidden among the rocks and foam and sea?
When her grandfather stepped up out of the surf, smiling, he teased her brother. The spirit, he said, was long gone back to his home in the sea. The girl knew he was lying. The ghost had got him. She saw it in his eyes – something new that had not been there when he left them. Her brother was too young to see. It was there and did not go away even as he told them that sea-spirits might visit the shore from time to time, but that they all must return to the deeps, just as this one had. She nodded but was not fooled. She would keep a close eye on him.
Walking home the old man took no notice of his grandson’s tight grasp of his hand, or of his granddaughter’s thoughtful face as she trailed behind with the lantern. He saw instead the churning amber eyes of the man from the sea with hair like weeds – the Stormrider. The Rider had spoken to him and to his amazement he had understood. It had spoken a halting Korelan, the language of the isles south of the Cut where the Riders and Korel inhabitants continually warred over the Stormwall – the human-raised barricade that stands between land and sea. His own grandfather had claimed the family had come out of Korel ages ago, and had taught him bits and pieces of the tongue when he’d been a lad, enough to understand the Rider’s own crude mouthing of it. It made sense to him that the Riders should simply assume that Korelan was the human tongue.
Lying half-dead in the foam the Rider had asked a question – a single simple question that triggered an avalanche of inquiry in the old man’s thoughts.
‘Why are you killing us?’ the Rider asked, and he had stared, thinking the alien must not understand what he was asking. Us killing them? They were the demons that cracked ships open and sent men to their doom. But three more times the Rider asked before he’d managed to steel himself sufficiently to reach down close enough to draw his blade across its throat. He would never forget his surprise as the Rider’s blood gushed warm and red over his hand.
GLOSSARY
Titles and Groups
First Sword of the Empire: Malazan and T’lan Imass, a title denoting an Imperial Champion
The Sword: self-named bodyguard to Dassem Ultor, First Sword of the Empire
Fist: a military governor of the Malazan Empire
High Fist: a commader of armies within the Malazan Empire
T’lan Imass: ancient, undead army commanded by the Emperor
The Bridgeburners: a legendary elite division of the Malazan 2nd Army
The Crimson Guard: a famous mercenary company opposed to the Malazan Empire
The Claw: the covert organization of the Malazan Empire
The Talon: rumoured Imperial covert organization predating the Claw.
Shadow Cult: worshippers of the Shadow Realm
Peoples and Places
Stormriders, ‘Riders’: nonhuman inhabitants of Seas of Storms
Sea of Storms: an ocean strait between Malaz Island and the Korel subcontinent, inhabited by the Stormriders
Y’Ghatan: an ancient city of the Seven City region
Korel: one name for an archipelago and subcontinent south of Quon Tali. Also known as ‘Fist’.
Mock’s Hold: an old fort overlooking Malaz city
Shadow Hounds: guardians of the Shadow Realm
Sorcery
The Warrens: (Other realms/worlds from which mages draw their power)
Denul: The Path of Healing
D’riss: The Path of the Earth
Hood’s Path: The Path of Death
Meanas: The Path of Shadow and illusion
Ruse: The Path of the Sea
Rashan: The Path of Darkness
Sere: The Path of the Sky
Shadow: The Path of Shadow
Thyr: The Path of Light
Telas: The Path of Fire
The Elder Warrens
Kurald Galain: The Elder Warren of Darkness
Kurald Emurlahn: The Elder Warren of Shadow
Omtose Phellack: The Elder Jaghut Warren of Ice
IAN CAMERON ESSLEMONT grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He has studied archaeology and creative writing, has traveled extensively in Southeast Asia, and lived in Thailand and Japan for several years. He now lives in Alaska with his wife and children and is currently working on another novel set in the world of Malaz, a world he cocreated with his friend Steven Erikson.
Night of KnivesCover
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Dramatis Personae
Prologue
A Path Within Shadow
Chapter One Portents and Arrivals
Chapter Two Assignations
Chapter Three Hounds of Shadow
Chapter Four Old Enemies, Old Friends
Chapter Five Feints and Fates
Chapter Six Resolutions
Epilogue
Glossary
Night of Knives Page 28