The Malazan Empire

by Steven Erikson

  He wondered what had happened to that miserable Malazan captain, chosen and cursed (and was there any real difference between the two?), and he wondered, too, why he now longed to speak with Ganoes Paran, to exchange a new set of words, these ones more honest, more measured, more knowing. Yes, the young were quick with judgement, quick to chastise their torpid elders. The young understood nothing about the value of sober contemplation.

  Ganoes Paran had been indecisive, in Cafal’s eyes back then. Pitifully, frustratingly so. But to the Cafal of this day, here on this foreign plain under foreign skies, that Malazan of years ago had been rightly cautious, measured by a wisdom to which young Cafal had been woefully blind. And this is how we gauge a life, this is how we build the bridge from what we were to what we are. Ganoes Paran, do you ever look down? Do you ever stand frozen in place by that depthless chasm below?

  Do you ever dream of jumping?

  Onos Toolan had been given all the power Cafal’s own father had once commanded, and there was nothing undeserved in that. And now, slowly, inexorably, it was trickling away through the fingers of that ancient warrior. Cafal could do nothing to stop it—he was as helpless as Tool himself. Once again, blind chance had conspired against the Barghast.

  When word reached him that wardogs had returned to the camp—beasts bereft of escort and therefore mutely announcing that something ill had befallen a scouting troop—and that a war-party was forming to set out on the back-trail, Cafal drew on his bhederin-hide cloak, grunting beneath its weight, and kicked at the ragged, tufted doll crumpled on the tent floor near the foot of his cot. ‘Wake up.’

  The sticksnare spat and snarled as it scrambled upright. ‘Very funny. Respect your elders, O Great Warlock.’

  The irony oozing like pine sap from the title made Cafal wince, and then he cursed himself when Talamandas snorted in amusement upon seeing the effect of his mockery. He paused at the entrance. ‘We should have burned you on a pyre long ago, sticksnare.’

  ‘Too many value me to let you do that. I travel the warrens. I deliver messages and treat with foreign gods. We speak of matters of vast importance. War, betrayals, alliances, betrayals—’

  ‘You’re repeating yourself.’

  ‘—and war.’

  ‘And are the Barghast gods pleased with your efforts, Talamandas? Or do they snarl with fury as you flit this way and that at the behest of human gods?’

  ‘They cannot live in isolation! We cannot! They are stubborn! They lack all sophistication! They embarrass me!’

  Sighing, Cafal stepped outside.

  The sticksnare scrambled after him, skittish as a stoat. ‘If we fight alone, we will all die. We need allies!’

  Cafal paused and looked down, wondering if Talamandas was, perhaps, insane. How many times could they repeat this same conversation? ‘Allies against whom?’ he asked, as he had done countless times before.

  ‘Against what comes!’

  And there, the same meaningless answer, the kind of answer neither Cafal nor Tool could use. Hissing under his breath, the Great Warlock set off once more, ignoring Talamandas who scrambled in his wake.

  The war-party had left the camp. At a trot, the warriors were already reaching the north ridge. Once over the crest, they would vanish from sight.

  Cafal saw the wolf-child, Setoc, standing at the camp’s edge, evidently watching the warriors, and something in her stance suggested she longed to lope after them, teeth bared and hackles raised, eager to join in the hunt.

  He set out in that direction.

  There was no doubt that she was Letherii, but that legacy existed only on the surface—her skin, her features, the traits of whatever parents had given her birth and then lost her. But that nascent impression of civilization had since faded, eroded away. She had been given back to the wild, a virgin sacrifice whose soul had been devoured whole. She belonged to the wolves, and, perhaps, to the Wolf God and Goddess, the Lord and Lady of the Beast Throne.

  The Barghast had come to find the Grey Swords, to fight at their side—believing that Toc Anaster and his army knew the enemy awaiting them. The Barghast gods had been eager to serve Togg and Fanderay, to run with the bold pack in search of blood and glory. They had been, Cafal now understood, worse than children.

  The Grey Swords were little more than rotting meat when the first scouts found them.

  So much for glory.

  Was Setoc the inheritor of the blessing once bestowed upon the Grey Swords? Was she now the child of Togg and Fanderay?

  Even Talamandas did not know.

  ‘Not her!’ the sticksnare now snarled behind him. ‘Cast her out, Cafal! Banish her to the wastes where she belongs!’

  But he continued on. When he was a dozen paces away, she briefly glanced back at him before returning her attention upon the empty lands to the north. Moments later, he reached her side.

  ‘They are going to die,’ she said.

  ‘What? Who?’

  ‘The warriors who just left. They will die as did the scout troop. You have found the enemy, Great Warlock . . . but it is the wrong enemy. Again.’

  Cafal swung round. He saw Talamandas squatting in the grasses five paces back. ‘Chase them down,’ he told the sticksnare. ‘Bring them back.’

  ‘Believe nothing she says!’

  ‘This is not a request, Talamandas.’

  With a mocking cackle the sticksnare darted past, bounding like a bee-stung hare on to the trail of the war-party.

  ‘There is no use in doing that,’ Setoc said. ‘This entire clan is doomed.’

  ‘Such pronouncements weary me,’ Cafal replied. ‘You are like a poison thorn in this clan’s heart, stealing its strength, its pride.’

  ‘Is that why you’ve come?’ she asked. ‘To . . . pluck out this thorn?’

  ‘If I must.’

  ‘Then why are you waiting?’

  ‘I would know the source of your pronouncements, Setoc. Are you plagued with visions? Do spirits visit your dreams? What have you seen? What do you know?’

  ‘The rhinazan whisper in my ear,’ she said.

  Was she taunting him? ‘Winged lizards do not whisper anything, Setoc.’

  ‘No?’

  ‘No. Is nonsense all you can give me? Am I to be nothing but the object of your contempt?’

  ‘The Awl warrior, the one so aptly named Torrent, has found the war-party. He adds to your doll’s exhortations. But . . . the warleader is young. Fearless. Why do the fools choose one such as that?’

  ‘When older warriors see a pack of wardogs drag themselves into the camp,’ said Cafal, ‘they hold a meeting to discuss matters. The young ones clutch their weapons and leap to their feet, eyes blazing.’

  ‘It is a wonder,’ she observed, ‘that any warrior ever manages to get old.’

  Yes. It is.

  ‘The Awl has convinced them.’

  ‘Not Talamandas?’

  ‘No. They say dead warlocks never have anything good to say. They say your sticksnare kneels at the foot of the Death Reaper. They call it a Malazan puppet.’

  By the spirits, I cannot argue against any of that!

  ‘You sense all that takes place on these plains, Setoc. What do you know of the enemy that killed the scouts?’

  ‘Only what the rhinazan whisper, Great Warlock.’

  Winged lizards again . . . spirits below! ‘In our homeland, on the high desert mesas, there are smaller versions that are called rhizan.’

  ‘Smaller, yes.’

  He frowned. ‘Meaning?’

  She shrugged. ‘Just that. Smaller.’

  He wanted to shake her, rattle loose her secrets. ‘Who killed our scouts?’

  She bared her teeth but did not face him. ‘I have already told you, Great Warlock. Tell me, have you seen the green spears in the sky at night?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘What are they?’

  ‘I don’t know. Things have been known to fall from the sky, whilst others simply pass by like wagons set ab
laze, crossing the firmament night after night for weeks or months . . . and then vanishing as mysteriously as they arrived.’

  ‘Uncaring of the world below.’

  ‘Yes. The firmament is speckled with countless worlds no different from ours. To the stars and to the great burning wagons, we are as motes of dust.’

  She turned to study him as he spoke these words. ‘That is . . . interesting. This is what the Barghast believe?’

  ‘What do the wolves believe, Setoc?’

  ‘Tell me,’ she said, ‘when a hunter throws a javelin at a fleeing antelope, does the hunter aim at the beast?’

  ‘Yes and no. To strike true, the hunter must throw into the space in front of the antelope—into the path it will take.’ He studied her. ‘Are you saying that these spears of green fire are the javelins of a hunter, and that we are the antelope?’

  ‘And if the antelope darts this way, dodges that?’

  ‘A good hunter will not miss.’

  The war-party had reappeared on the ridge, and accompanying it was the Awl warrior on his horse, along with two more dogs.

  Cafal said, ‘I will find Stolmen, now. He will want to speak with you, Setoc.’ He hesitated, and then added, ‘Perhaps the Gadra warchief can glean clearer answers from you, for in that I have surely failed.’

  ‘The wolves are clear enough,’ she replied, ‘when speaking of war. All else confuses them.’

  ‘So you indeed serve the Lady and Lord of the Beast Throne. As would a priestess.’

  She shrugged.

  ‘Who,’ Cafal asked again, ‘is the enemy?’

  Setoc looked at him. ‘The enemy, Great Warlock, is peace.’ And she smiled.

  The ribbers had dragged Visto’s body a dozen or so paces out into the flat, until something warned them against eating the wrinkled, leathery flesh of the dead boy. With the dawn, Badalle and a few others walked out to stand round the shrunken, stomach-burst thing that had once been Visto.

  The others waited for Badalle to find her words.

  Rutt was late in arriving as he had to check on Held and make adjustments to the baby’s wrap. By the time he joined them, Badalle was ready. ‘Hear me, then,’ she said, ‘at Visto’s deading.’

  She blew flies from her lips and then scanned the faces arrayed round her. There was an expression she wanted to find, but couldn’t. Even remembering what it looked like was hard, no, impossible. She’d lost it, truth be told. But wanted it, and she knew she would recognize it as soon as she saw it again. An expression . . . some kind of expression . . . what was it? After a moment, she spoke,

  ‘We all come from some place

  And Visto was no different

  He come

  From some

  Place

  And it was different and

  It was the same no different

  If you know what I mean

  And you do

  You have to

  All you standing here

  The point is that Visto

  He couldn’t remember

  Anything about that place

  Except that he come from it

  And that’s like lots of you

  So let’s say now

  He’s gone back there

  To that place

  Where he come from

  And everything he sees

  He remembers

  And everything he remembers

  Is new’

  They always waited, never knowing if she was finished until it became obvious that she was, and in that time Badalle looked down at Visto. The eggs of the Satra Riders clung like crumbs to Visto’s lips, as if he had been gobbling down cake. The adult riders had chewed out through his stomach and no one knew where they went, maybe into the ground—they did all that at night.

  Maybe some of the ribbers had been careless, with their eager jaws and all, which was good since then there’d be fewer of them strong enough to launch attacks on the ribby snake. It wasn’t as bad having them totter along in the distance, keeping pace, getting weaker just as the children did, until they lay down and weren’t trouble any more. You could live with that, no different from the crows and vultures overhead. Animals showed, didn’t they, how to believe in patience.

  She lifted her head and as if that was a signal the others turned away and walked slowly back to the trail where the ones who could were standing, getting ready for the day’s march.

  Rutt said, ‘I liked Visto.’

  ‘We all liked Visto.’

  ‘We shouldn’t have.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Because that makes it harder.’

  ‘The Satra Riders liked Visto too, even more than we did.’

  Rutt shifted Held from the crook of his right arm into the crook of his left arm. ‘I’m mad at Visto now.’

  Brayderal, who had showed up to walk at the snake’s head only two days ago—maybe coming from back down the snake’s body, maybe coming from somewhere else—walked out to stand close to them, as if she wanted to be part of something. Something made up of Rutt and Held and Badalle. But whatever that something was, it had no room for Brayderal. Visto’s deading didn’t leave a hole. The space just closed up.

  Besides, something about the tall, bony girl made Badalle uneasy. Her face was too white beneath all this sun. She reminded Badalle of the bone-skins—what were they called again? Quisiters? Quitters? Could be, yes, the Quitters, the bone-skins who stood taller than anyone else and from that height they saw everything and commanded everyone and when they said Starve and die, why, that’s just what everyone did.

  If they knew about the Chal Managal, they would be angry. They might even chase after it and find the head, find Rutt and Badalle, and then do that quitting thing with the hands, the thing that broke the necks of people like Rutt and Badalle.

  ‘We would be . . . quitted unto deading.’

  ‘Badalle?’

  She looked at Rutt, blew flies from her lips, and then—ignoring Brayderal as if she wasn’t there—set off to rejoin the ribby snake.

  The track stretched westward, straight like an insult to nature, and at the distant end of the stony, lifeless ground, the horizon glittered as if crusted with crushed glass. She heard Rutt’s scrabbling steps coming up behind her, and then veering slightly as he made for the front of the column. She might be his second but Badalle wouldn’t walk with him. Rutt had Held. That was enough for Rutt.

  Badalle had her words, and that was almost too much.

  She saw Brayderal follow Rutt. They were almost the same height, but Rutt looked the weaker, closer to deading than Brayderal, and seeing that, Badalle felt a flash of anger. It should have been the other way round. They needed Rutt. They didn’t need Brayderal.

  Unless she was planning on stepping into Rutt’s place when Rutt finally broke, planning on being the snake’s new head, its slithery tongue, its scaly jaws. Yes, that might be what Badalle was seeing. And Brayderal would take up Held all wrapped tight and safe from the sun, and they’d all set out on another day, with her instead of Rutt leading them.

  That made a kind of sense. No different than with the ribber packs—when the leader got sick or lame or just wasn’t strong enough any more, why, that other ribber that showed up and started trotting alongside it, it was there just for this moment. To take over. To keep things going.

  No different from what sons did to fathers and daughters did to mothers, and princes to kings and princesses to queens.

  Brayderal walked almost at Rutt’s side, up there at the head. Maybe she talked with Rutt, maybe she didn’t. Some things didn’t need talking about, and besides, Rutt wasn’t one to say much anyway.

  ‘I don’t like Brayderal.’

  If anyone nearby heard her, they gave no sign.

  Badalle blew to scatter the flies. They needed to find water. Even half a day without it and the snake would get too ribby, especially in this heat.

  On this morning, she did as she always did. Eating her fill of words, drinking deep th
e spaces in between, and mad—so mad—that none of it gave her any strength.

  Saddic had been Rutt’s second follower, the first being Held. He now walked among the four or so moving in a loose clump a few paces behind Rutt and the new girl. Badalle was a little way back, in the next clump. Saddic worshipped her, but he would not draw close to her, not yet, because there would be no point. He had few words of his own—he’d lost most of them early on in this journey. So long as he was in hearing range of Badalle, he was content.

  She fed him. With her sayings and her seeings. She kept Saddic alive.

  He thought about what she had said for Visto’s deading. About how some of it wasn’t true, the bit about Visto not remembering anything about where he’d come from. He’d remembered too much, in fact. So, Badalle had knowingly told an untruth about Visto. At his deading. Why had she done that?

  Because Visto was gone. Her words weren’t for him because he was gone. They were for us. She was telling us to give up remembering. Give it up so when we find it again it all feels new. Not the remembering itself but the things we remembered. The cities and villages and the families and the laughing. The water and the food and full stomachs. Is that what she was telling us?

  Well, he had his meal for the day, didn’t he? She was generous that way.

  The feet at the ends of his legs were like wads of leather. They didn’t feel much and that was a relief since the stones on the track were sharp and so many others had bleeding feet making it hard to walk. The ground was even worse to either side of the trail.

  Badalle was smart. She was the brain behind the jaws, the tongue. She took what the snake’s eyes saw. She made sense of what the tongue tasted. She gave names to the things of this new world. The moths that pretended to be leaves and the trees that invited the moths to be leaves so that five trees shared one set of leaves between them, and when the trees got hungry off went the leaves, looking for food. No other tree could do that, and so no other tree lived on the Elan.