The Malazan Empire

by Steven Erikson

  Their lunches arrived.

  Gerun Eberict focused his attention on the grilled fillet on the silver plate in front of him, after ordering a third Tusked Milk.

  It occurred to Brys that he had never seen a woman drink that particular concoction.

  ‘I don’t speak to Tehol,’ he said after a time, his gaze on his own serving as he slowly picked the white flesh apart, revealing the row of vertebrae and the dorsal spines.

  ‘You despise what he did?’

  Brys frowned, then shook his head. ‘No. What he did after.’

  ‘Which was?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘The water had to clear, lad. So he could look around once more and see what remained.’

  ‘You’re suggesting diabolical genius, Gerun.’

  ‘I am. Tehol possesses what Hull does not. Knowledge is not enough. It never is. It’s the capacity to do something with that knowledge. To do it perfectly. Absolute timing. With devastating consequences. That’s what Tehol has. Hull, Errant protect him, does not.’

  Brys looked up and met the Finadd’s pale eyes. ‘Are you suggesting that Hull is Tehol’s greatest admirer?’

  ‘Hull’s very own inspiration. And that is why he is with Buruk the Pale.’

  ‘Do you intend to stand in his way at the Great Meeting?’

  ‘It might well be too late by that time, Brys. Assuming that is my intention.’

  ‘It isn’t?’

  ‘I haven’t decided.’

  ‘You want war?’

  Gerun’s gaze remained level. ‘That particular tide stirs the deepest silts. Blinding everyone. A man with a goal can get a lot done in that cloud. And, eventually, it settles.’

  ‘And lo,’ Brys said, unable to hide his bitterness, ‘the world has changed.’

  ‘Possibly.’

  ‘War as the means—’

  ‘To a peaceful end—’

  ‘That you will find pleasing to your eye.’

  Gerun pushed his plate away and sat back once more. ‘What is life without ambition, Brys?’

  Brys rose, his meal pried apart into a chaotic mass on the plate before him. ‘Tehol would be better at answering that than am I, Finadd.’

  Gerun smiled up at him. ‘Inform Nifadas and Kuru Qan that I am not unaware of the complexities wrought through the impending Great Meeting. Nor am I blind to the need to usher me out of the city for a time. I have, of course, compensated for my own absence, in anticipation of my triumphant return.’

  ‘I will convey your words, Finadd.’

  ‘I regret your loss of appetite, Brys. The fish was excellent. Next time, we will speak of inconsequential things. I both respect and admire you, Champion.’

  ‘Ah, so I am not on your list.’

  ‘Not yet. A joke, Brys,’ he added upon seeing the Champion’s expression. ‘Besides, you’d cut me to pieces. How can I not admire that? I see it this way—the history of this decade, for our dear Letheras, can be most succinctly understood by a faithful recounting of the three Beddict brothers. And, as is clear, the tale’s not yet done.’

  So it would seem. ‘I thank you, Finadd, for the company and the invitation.’

  Gerun leaned forward and picked up the Champion’s plate. ‘Take the back exit, if you please,’ he said, offering Brys the plate. ‘There’s a starveling lad living in the alley. Mind, he’s to return the silver—make sure he understands that. Tell him you were my guest.’

  ‘Very well, Finadd.’

  ‘Try these on.’

  Tehol stared at the woollen trousers, then reached for them. ‘Tell me, Bugg, is there any point in you continuing?’

  ‘Do you mean these leggings, or with my sorry existence?’

  ‘Have you hired your crew?’ He stripped off his skirt and began donning the trousers.

  ‘Twenty of the most miserable malcontents I could find.’

  ‘Grievances?’

  ‘Every one of them, and I’m pretty certain they are all legitimate. Granted, a few probably deserved their banishment from the trade.’

  ‘Most de-certifications are political, Bugg. Just be sure none of them are incompetent. All we need is for them to keep a secret, and for that, spite against the guilds is the best motivation.’

  ‘I’m not entirely convinced. Besides, we’ve had some warnings from the guilds.’

  ‘In person?’

  ‘Delivered missives. So far. Your left knee will stay warm.’

  ‘Warm? It’s hot out there, Bugg, despite what your old rheumy bones tell you.’

  ‘Well, they’re trousers for every season.’

  ‘Really? Assure the guilds we’re not out to underbid. In fact, the very opposite. Nor do we pay our crew higher rates. No benefits, either—’

  ‘Barring a stake in the enterprise.’

  ‘Say nothing of that, Bugg. Look at the hairs on my right thigh. They’re standing on end.’

  ‘It’s the contrast they don’t like.’

  ‘The guilds?’

  ‘No, your hairs. The guilds just want to know where by the Errant I came from. And how dare I register a company.’

  ‘Don’t worry about that, Bugg. Once they find out what you’re claiming to be able to do, they’ll be sure you’ll fail and so ignore you thereafter. Until you succeed, that is.’

  ‘I’m having second thoughts.’

  ‘About what?’

  ‘Put the skirt back on.’

  ‘I’m inclined to agree with you. Find some more wool. Preferably the same colour, although that is not essential, I suppose. In any case, we have a meeting with the three darlings this evening.’

  ‘Risky.’

  ‘We must be circumspect.’

  ‘That goes both ways. I stole that wool.’

  Tehol wrapped the sheet once more about his waist. ‘I’ll be back down later to collect you. Clean up around here, will you?’

  ‘If I’ve the time.’

  Tehol climbed the ladder to the roof.

  The sun’s light was deepening, as it edged towards the horizon, bathing the surrounding buildings in a warm glow. Two artists had set up easels on the Third Tier, competing to immortalize Tehol and his bed. He gave them a wave that seemed to trigger a loud argument, then settled down on the sun-warmed mattress. Stared up at the darkening sky.

  He had seen his brother Brys at the Drownings. On the other side of the canal, in conversation with Gerun Eberict. Rumour had it that Gerun was accompanying the delegation to the Tiste Edur. Hardly surprising. The King needed that wild man out of the city.

  The problem with gold was the way it crawled. Where nothing else could. It seeped out from secrets, flowered in what should have been lifeless cracks. It strutted when it should have remained hidden, beneath notice. Brazen as any weed between the cobbles, and, if one was so inclined, one could track those roots all the way down. Sudden spending, from kin of dead hirelings, followed quickly—but not quickly enough—by sudden, inexplicable demises. A strange severing that left the king’s inquisitors with no-one to question, no-one to torture to find the source of the conspiracy. Assassination attempts were no small thing, after all, especially when the king himself was the target. Extraordinary, almost unbelievable success—to have reached Diskanar’s own bedchamber, to stand poised above the man, mere heartbeats from delivering death. That particular sorceror had never before shown such skill in the relevant arts. To conjure sand to fill the chests of two men was highest sorcery.

  Natural curiosity and possible advantage, these had been Tehol’s motives, and he’d been much quicker than the royal inquisitors. A fortune, he had discovered, had been spent on the conspiracy, a life’s savings.

  Clearly, only Gerun Eberict had known the full extent of the scheme. His hirelings would not have anticipated their employer’s attacking them. Killing them. They’d fought back, and one had come close to succeeding. And the Finadd carried the scars still, lips and crooked teeth, to show the nearness of the thing.

  Immunity from convict
ion. So that Gerun Eberict could set out and do what he wanted to do. Judge and executioner, for crimes real and imagined, for offences both major and minor.

  In a way, Tehol admired the man. For his determination, if not his methods. And for devising and gambling all on a scheme that took one’s breath away with its bold…extremity.

  No doubt Brys had official business with the man. As King’s Champion.

  Even so, worrying. It wouldn’t do to have his young brother so close to Gerun Eberict.

  For if Tehol possessed a true enemy, a foe to match his own cleverness who—it would appear—surpassed Tehol himself in viciousness—it was Finadd Gerun Eberict, possessor of the King’s Leave.

  And he’d been sniffing around, twisting arms. Safer, then, to assume Gerun knew that Tehol was not as destitute as most would believe. Nor entirely…inactive.

  Thus, a new fold to consider in this rumpled, tangled tapestry.

  Gerun was immune. But not without enemies. Granted, deadly with a sword, and known to have a dozen sworn, blood-bound bodyguards to protect him when he slept. His estate was rumoured to be impregnable, and possessed of its own armoury, apothecary with resident alchemist well versed in poisons and their antidotes, voluminous storehouses, and independent source of water. All in all, Gerun had planned for virtually every contingency.

  Barring the singular focus of the mind of one Tehol Beddict.

  Sometimes the only solution was also the simplest, most obvious. See a weed between the cobbles…pull it out.

  ‘Bugg!’

  A faint voice from below. ‘What?’

  ‘Who was holding Gerun’s tiles on that bet this afternoon?’

  His servant’s grizzled head appeared in the hatch. ‘You already know, since you own the bastard. Turble. Assuming he’s not dead of a heart attack…or suicide.’

  ‘Turble? Not a chance. My guess is, the man’s packing. A sudden trip to the Outer Isles.’

  ‘He’ll never make it to the city gates.’

  ‘Meaning Gerun is on the poor bastard.’

  ‘Wouldn’t you be? With that payoff?’

  Tehol frowned. ‘Suicide, I’m now thinking, might well be Turble’s conclusion to his sorry state of affairs. Unexpected, true, and all the more shocking for it. He’s got no kin, as I recall. So the debt dies with him.’

  ‘And Gerun is out eight hundred docks.’

  ‘He might wince at that, but not so much as you’d notice. The man’s worth a peak, maybe more.’

  ‘You don’t know?’

  ‘All right, so I was generalizing. Of course I know, down to the last dock. Nay, the last stripling. In any case, I was saying, or, rather, suggesting, that the loss of eight hundred docks is not what would make Gerun sting. It’s the escape. The one trail even Gerun can’t doggedly follow—not willingly, anyway. Thus, Turble has to commit suicide.’

  ‘I doubt he’ll agree to it.’

  ‘No, probably not. But set it in motion, Bugg. Down to the Eddies. Find us a suitable corpse. Fresh, and not yet drained. Get a bottle or two of Turble’s blood from him in exchange—’

  ‘What’ll it be? Fire? Who commits suicide using fire?’

  ‘The fire will be an unfortunate consequence of an unattended oil lamp. Unattended because of the suicide. Burnt beyond recognition, alas, but the scrives will swear by the blood’s owner. That’s how they work, isn’t it?’

  ‘A man’s veins never lie.’

  ‘Right. Only, they can.’

  ‘Right, if you’re insane enough to drain a corpse and pump new blood into it.’

  ‘A ghastly exercise, Bugg. Glad you’re up to it.’

  The wizened face at the hatch was scowling. ‘And Turble?’

  ‘We smuggle him out the usual way. He’s always wanted to take up fishing. Put someone in the tunnel, in case he bolts sooner than we expect. Gerun’s watchers will be our finest witnesses. Oh, and won’t the Finadd spit.’

  ‘Is this wise?’ Bugg asked.

  ‘No choice. He’s the only man who can stop me. So I’m getting him first.’

  ‘If he catches a whiff that it’s you—’

  ‘Then I’m a dead man.’

  ‘And I’m out of work.’

  ‘Nonsense. The lasses will carry on. Besides, you are my beneficiary—unofficially, of course.’

  ‘Should you have told me that?’

  ‘Why not? I’m lying.’

  Bugg’s head sank back down.

  Tehol settled back onto the bed. Now, I need to find me a thief. A good one.

  Ah! I know the very one. Poor lass…

  ‘Bugg!’

  Shurq Elalle’s fate had taken a turn for the worse. Nothing to do with her profession, for her skills in the art of thievery were legendary among the lawless class. An argument with her landlord, sadly escalating to attempted murder on his part, to which she of course—in all legality—responded by flinging him out the window. The hapless man’s fall had, unfortunately, been broken by a waddling merchant on the street below. The landlord’s neck broke. So did the merchant’s.

  Careless self-defence leading to the death of an innocent had been the charge. Four hundred docks, halved. Normally, Shurq could have paid the fine and that would have been that. Alas, her argument with the landlord had been over a certain hoard of gold that had inexplicably vanished from Shurq’s cache. Without a dock to her name, she had been marched down to the canal.

  Even then, she was a fit woman. Two hundred docks were probably manageable—had not the retrieval rope snagged on the spines of a forty-stone lupe fish that had surfaced for a look at the swimmer, only to dive back down to the bottom, taking Shurq with it.

  Lupe fish, while rare in the canal, ate only men. Never women. No-one knew why this was the case.

  Shurq Ellale drowned.

  But, as it turned out, there was dead and then there was dead. Unbeknownst to her, Shurq had been cursed by one of her past victims. A curse fully paid for and sanctified by the Empty Temple. So, though her lungs filled with foul water, though her heart stopped, as did all other discernible functions of the body and mind, there she stood when finally retrieved from the canal, sheathed in mud, eyes dull and the whites browned by burst vessels and lifeless blood, all in all most miserable and sadly bemused.

  Even the lawless and the homeless shunned her thereafter. All the living, in fact. Walking past as if she was in truth a ghost, a dead memory.

  Her flesh did not decay, although its pallor was noticeably unhealthy. Nor were her reactions and deft abilities in any way diminished. She could speak. See. Hear. Think. None of which improved her mood, much.

  Bugg found her where Tehol had said she’d be found. In an alley behind a bordello. Listening, as she did every night, to the moans of pleasure—real and improvised—issuing from the windows above.

  ‘Shurq Elalle.’

  Listless, murky eyes fixed on him. ‘I give no pleasure,’ she said.

  ‘Alas, neither do I, these days. I am here to deliver to you an indefinite contract from my master.’

  ‘And who would that be?’

  ‘Not yet, I’m afraid. Thieving work, Shurq.’

  ‘What need have I for riches?’

  ‘Well, that would depend on their substance, I’d imagine.’

  She stepped out from the shadowed alcove where she’d been standing. ‘And what does your master imagine I desire?’

  ‘Negotiable.’

  ‘Does he know I’m dead?’

  ‘Of course. And sends his regrets.’

  ‘Does he?’

  ‘No, I made that up.’

  ‘No-one hires me any more.’

  ‘That is why he knew you would be available.’

  ‘No-one likes my company.’

  ‘Well, a bath wouldn’t hurt, but he’s prepared to make allowances.’

  ‘I will speak to him.’

  ‘Very good. He has anticipated your wishes. Midnight.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘A rooftop. With
a bed.’

  ‘Him?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘In his bed?’

  ‘Um, I’m not sure if that was in his mind—’

  ‘Glad to hear it. I may be dead, but I’m not easy. I’ll be there. Midnight, until a quarter past. No more. If he can convince me in that time, all and well. If not, too bad.’

  ‘A quarter should be more than enough, Shurq.’

  ‘You are foolish to be so confident of that.’

  Bugg smiled. ‘Am I?’

  ‘Where’s Bugg?’

  ‘He’ll be meeting us here.’ Tehol walked over to the couch and settled down on it, drawing his legs up until he was in a reclining position. He eyed the three women. ‘Now, what is so important that I must risk discovery via this reckless meeting?’

  Shand ran a calloused palm over her shaved head. ‘We want to know what you’ve been up to, Tehol.’

  ‘That’s right,’ Rissarh said.

  Hejun’s arms were crossed, and there was a scowl on her face as she added, ‘We don’t need a bodyguard.’

  ‘Oh, forgot about him. Where is he?’

  ‘Said he had some belongings to collect,’ Shand said. ‘He should be here any time now. No, the others haven’t met him yet.’

  ‘Ah, so they are sceptical of your enthusiasm.’

  ‘She’s been known to exaggerate,’ Rissarh said.

  ‘Besides,’ Hejun snapped, ‘what’s all that got to do with being a bodyguard? I don’t care how big his—’

  The warehouse door creaked, and everyone looked over.

  Ublala Pung’s round face peered timidly inside, from just under the overhang.

  ‘Dear sir!’ Tehol called out. ‘Please, come in!’

  The half-blood hesitated. His pale eyes flitted among Shand, Rissarh and Hejun. ‘There’s…three of them,’ he said.

  ‘Three of what?’

  ‘Women.’

  ‘Yes, indeed,’ said Tehol. ‘And…?’

  Ublala frowned, lips drawing together into something much resembling a pout.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Tehol invited with a wave of a hand, ‘I promise to protect you from them.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Absolutely. Come in, Ublala Pung, and be welcome.’