Return of the Crimson Guard: A Novel of the Malazan Empire

by Ian C. Esslemont

  Skinner had gone still, as had the others of the Imperial delegation. The Moranth remained a mystery to her of course, but the older man, the High Fist, showed flinching reservation in the face of such a blunt statement, yet he did not dispute the terms. The younger commander, Ullen, made no effort to disguise his dislike of the Sword but his face held no reservations, only a measure of… regret. Reconciled to battle and his probable death this one was, perhaps all are, if for foolish or supportable reasons. A shame. They cannot win.

  Nodding ponderously, as if in reluctant acquiescence, the Crimson Guard commander, raised a gauntleted hand in dismissal. ‘Very well. The Gods, it seems, are determined that blood shall be shed on this day. We must not disappoint them.’ And he bowed.

  The Sword yanked his mount around. V'thell, the Gold commander, bowed as well, saying, ‘A privilege to meet with you upon the field.’ The older High Fist merely inclined his head, his mouth sour and tight. The young commander Ullen's reaction was the only one which gave Shimmer pause; he studied them for a time, an expression in his eyes that one might hold when seeing for the last time something rare or precious. She watched him go, wondering just what he had intended by such a regard. Was he saying goodbye to his own life? Or was there more here than she was aware of? These unknowns troubled her.

  Skinner mounted. ‘We will deploy across the south. We must keep the Kanese force bottled up.’

  ‘Agreed,’ Shimmer said.

  He turned to her, gathering his reins. ‘And I am in no rush. I hope to extend this into the night.’

  ‘I understand.’ Yes. The night. The men exposed, pinned down in the open field. The dread of Ryllandaras's return may alone win the battle for them. ‘Cowl, the Veils and the mages?’

  ‘Will all be unleashed. I mean to inflict the lesson here, Shimmer, that none should oppose us.’

  * * *

  ‘What d'you think they're saying, Sarge?’ Kibb asked, his gaze shaded to the south.

  They're steppin on each other's bloated ideas of their own self-importance and now we're all gonna die because of it! That's what they're talkin’ about!

  ‘Nothin’ important, Kibb. Just a formality.’ A formality before we all get buried by the Guard. Still, Nait had a hard time putting aside what he witnessed last night. Those two old veterans actually blocking Ryllandaras! How'd they do that? How could anyone? It was like the old stories of the clash of champions from before Dassem's fall. Like he'd heard some of the Talians saying they saw at Heng. Then the beast moving so fast – they only brushed it with their munitions – and it was gone like a ferret down a hole. How could anything that big move that quick? Because he's a damned Ascendant, that's why, Nait my boy. And those two stopped him cold for a time, think about that! It occurred to him that the survival potential of his own skin – and that of his squad – might go way up the closer he managed to get to those two. Something to keep in mind out there on the field. In the meantime, though, he had to select a corporal. He'd rather not – no need to give someone the actual authority to sniff at all your commands and dispute all your plans … but he had to select someone to take over when Hood finally managed to pin him down long enough to squash him. Not that he'd care after that anyway! He'd be holding tight with both hands to Hood's Gate then.

  Other than Kibb on watch his squad was all splayed out, snoring. Let ‘em sleep a little longer – they'd earned it. None of the new recruits, that was plain. Not Martin or Tranter. Calling them saboteurs was like calling a shovel a jeweller's pick. No, have to be one of the regulars. May, he supposed. She was smart. Too smart, truth be told. He didn't like the way she watched him. Saw right through him, she did. So how was he gonna shut her up? Make her part of the hierarchy, that's how! Shame she was no Hands with her hair all hacked short, the old scars on her nose and chin, all bones and angles she was. Yes, he didn't think he'd be like to meet another like Hands; she'd been the one for him. What a Hood-damned fool he'd been! This May, though: a hard life, he supposed, before she'd joined. Beat on all her life growin’ up by her da probably. He'd seen it before.

  He stood, groaning and stretching, and kicked May's sandalled foot. The slight woman sprang up into a fighter's crouch, a belt-knife in her hand. More than just beat on by her da, most likely. He waved for her to follow him. She picked up her padded gambeson and weapons to follow.

  ‘Finally worked up the guts to run off?’ she said as they crossed the encampment.

  ‘Kept us all alive so far,’ he answered from the side of his mouth.

  ‘Well, I haven't decided whether we'd all be better off with or without you, frankly.’

  ‘Well, you're corporal, so you are officially now part of the problem.’

  ‘Thank you so much.’

  They came to a crowd of officers and noncoms – a general briefing for Braven Tooth's command, now 7th Battalion. Nait pushed his way into the circle. He searched for familiar faces – saw Least and Lim Tal, and Heuk with two very nervous-looking old gaffers he presumed to be the sum total of the company's mage cadre. Poor bastards — soon to be smeared by the Guard Avowed.

  Braven Tooth, his hair a black and curly tangle standing in all directions, was talking: ‘So, a new kind a battle so a new strategy. Truth is, it's an old strategy – one we used to use when confronting mage-heavy enemies. Been a while since we faced such so it must seem new to everyone here.’ He cracked his hairy knuckles, scanned their faces. ‘Main order of battle is this: no concentrations of forces! Any big mass is an invitation to the mages. Stay broke up in small units, companies and squads ideally. Circle yourselves, watch all directions. Keep any eye on the flow of the field – move towards any strong resistance to blunt it – but don't bunch up! Wait your turn!’

  ‘What's to stop them from overwhelming, encircling?’ one officer asked.

  ‘Because we'll be moving within the screen of our own skirmishers try in’ to do the exact same thing to them, only we'll succeed! That's why, right? OK. Now, the Guard veterans will be doing the same – moving in small units, their “Blades”. The new recruits they'll probably have form line and flanking phalanx. OK?’

  ‘What about the Kanese in the south? They helpin'?’ asked another officer Nait didn't know. In fact Nait knew none of them, only his own, Tinsmith, who was keepin’ quiet and not asking any damn-fool questions that Braven Tooth would be getting to answering anyway, in good time.

  ‘Right, the Kanese,’ said Braven Tooth with a look that said the same thing Nait was thinking. ‘If we can be said to have an objective – that's it. We want that bridge! There's twenty thousand Kanese infantry on the other side just wettin’ themselves to prove how loyal they are to the Empress. We want to let them through and the Guard wants to stop us. Simple as that. All right? OK.’ The commander adjusted the soft leather shirt that served as an armour under-layer, crossed his arms tucking his hands up under his armpits. ‘Dismissed! Except for you saboteur sergeants. Want a word with you.’

  Nait waited for the crowd to thin. Lieutenants and captains passing gave him a nod of approval – some a shake of their heads – in acknowledgement of last night's action. Apparently, word going around was that he'd snuck out with his men to try to ambush Ryllandaras. Come on! How could anyone be so stupid?

  Not that he was gonna disabuse them.

  Least passed, cuffed his shoulder in a gesture of consolation; Nait was surprised and touched – he didn't think his past behaviour warranted anything like that. It must have been damned ugly in that phalanx.

  Braven Tooth cast a gimlet eye over the slouching, grimed, disreputable assortment left behind. Nait knew none of them. One greasy fellow was slumped under a dirt-smeared wool cloak; a fat Dal Hon wore a rusted iron pot helmet and a shirt of rent mail that was nothing more than a ragged patchwork of wire, leather ties and cloth knots. The last was a swarthy, skinny woman who had the look of a constipated stork.

  ‘Introductions, I suppose,’ Braven Tooth rumbled. He waved to the fellow in the cloak, ‘Gant,’ the
Dal Hon, ‘Bowl,’ the woman, ‘Urfa. This here's Sergeant Jumpy.’

  ‘So you're the guy,’ Urfa said, studying him like he was something she'd found growing inside a damp felt boot.

  ‘The guy who what?’

  ‘Stupid enough to go after Ryllandaras.’

  ‘I ain't that stupid.’

  She nodded, squinting cross-eyed. ‘Good. I hoped you weren't.’

  ‘Naw,’ Gant opined, leaning back. ‘You was just out hunting dropped munitions, weren't cha? An’ Ryllandaras jumped ya …’ and he winked.

  ‘Yeah. Something like that.’

  Bowl's bulging eyes narrowed to slits. ‘How many did you find … ?’

  ‘All right,’ Braven Tooth cut in. ‘You'll all get your fair share. But I have to warn you – the Gold keep most of it. They know it best. Now, as to you sorry-assed excuses. We're short on mages – that's no secret – so you're going hunting. That's your assignment and the assignment of the saboteur squads in all the other companies. You keep your heads down and wait for an Avowed to show him- or herself then you let them have it. You got it?’

  Nods all around. A chorus of slovenly ‘Ayes’.

  Braven Tooth scowled his disappointment from under his matted tangled brows. ‘All right. Dismissed – all except you, Jumpy. A word.’

  The other saboteur sergeants sauntered off, Gant offering a mocking laugh to Nait. Braven Tooth waved him close. ‘Met someone out there, did you?’ he said, his voice low. So close was the man Nait flinched back – he stank of rancid animal fat, old sweat and stale beer. Gods! Has he never washed?

  ‘Yeah. Met the master sergeant, Temp.’

  ‘No, you didn't, right?’

  ‘That's what no one out there told me.’

  ‘Good … Now, what was he doin’?’

  ‘He met up with some old Seti veteran he knew from before.’

  Braven Tooth's bhederin-like brows climbed his blunt forehead to his greasy tangled mane. ‘This Seti,’ he rumbled, his voice oddly faint, ‘what did he call him?’

  ‘Called him his “sword-brother”.’

  The commander stepped backwards as if reeling. ‘Hood's bony prang!’ he breathed, awed. ‘Two! Two of Dassem's old bodyguard here with us now! The Avowed have no idea what they're facin’.’

  ‘What's that?’ Nait asked.

  The man's faced clouded over. ‘Nothin’. You saw nothin’– heard nothin’. Clear?’

  Nait shrugged his indifference. ‘Fine. Anything else?’

  ‘Yeah. You've got munitions. They're all supposed to be handed in for distribution. Return ‘em.’

  ‘I'll return half.’

  ‘Half!’

  ‘Deal?’

  Nait swore he could hear his commander's teeth splintering and grinding. ‘Deal,’ Braven Tooth spat. ‘Now get outta my sight before I throw you in the brig.’

  Nait saluted and sauntered away. Out on the compound grounds May edged up and said aside: ‘I'm comin’ around to thinking maybe you're not so bad for the unit after all.’

  ‘All this lovin's making me just dippy,’ Nait grumbled. ‘Now let's take a look to the south.’

  They climbed the south palisade wall. Far out of sight beyond the gently rolling hills the Guard were deploying. Within the compound horns blared to sound formation. Laseen's combined forces, the remaining Talian, Moranth and Falaran soldiery all now serving beneath the Imperial sceptre, were gathering to march south.

  ‘All open ground,’ Nait said, thinking aloud. He stroked a thumb across his lips. ‘Lousy for us.’

  ‘At least they got no cavalry to speak of,’ said May.

  ‘Who does? Horses are as rare as gold these days.’

  ‘So won't be much manoeuvring, then, maybe.’

  ‘No. Toe-to-toe. It'll be ugly. Nothin's gonna be held back today. Say – remember that siege equipment in the train? Take a few of the lads and get a hold of one of those stone arbalests. Biggest you can find. Break it down if you have to. I want to be able to reach anywhere on that field.’

  May's thin lips crept upwards at the images that came to mind. She tilted her head in agreement. ‘Aye, Sarge.’

  * * *

  Silk had settled Storo in a better-class inn. That dawn Hurl paced the hall outside the door. She was leaving, nominally commanding a Hengan detachment of volunteers to join the Empress's forces to the east. It seemed probable to her that she'd never return so now was her only chance to say goodbye. Still, she could not bring herself to enter. It had been days and all this time she hadn't yet come to see the man. Now maybe it was just too late …

  ‘C'mon in, Hurl,’ he called through the door. She froze, cursed the noisy floorboards. She opened the door. He lay on the bed. An open window let in the early morning light and air. She stood in the entrance. He waved her in. ‘C'mon, I don't smell so bad now.’

  She didn't want to and didn't mean to but she flushed, embarrassed. She came and sat at the end of his bed. The man's face was torn, a great ragged zig-zag that had taken an eye, cheek and edge of his mouth – he now spoke with a slur. That side's arm was gone as well, amputated. An abdominal wound was covered by the sheets. ‘I hear you're headin’ out. Wish you wouldn't. The Seti will probably attack – it's their last chance.’

  ‘Rell's staying, and Silk and Liss. And the city's full behind us now. You have full cohorts and Captain Gurjan. More than enough men and women for the walls.’

  ‘Still don't like it.’

  ‘I'll be fine. Got a good sergeant in Banath.’

  ‘You won't be safe. You're safe here in the city. And you're takin’ those three. I don't trust them.’

  ‘Can't say I like them myself but they fought for the city and Silk agrees Laseen's short on mages – these three could make a real difference.’

  He took a laboured breath – was this tiring him? He was weaker than she thought. ‘Still don't trust ‘em. Why go? Why're they all so eager to go?’

  ‘I don't know. But they are. So we're going. Now take care – heal up.’ She stood.

  He struggled to straighten himself higher. She came and gently eased him back. ‘What… V

  ‘Come back. Y'hear? Come back. I don't want … this fight to take you.’

  ‘All right. I'll keep my head down. Now, we'll see you later.’

  His hand on the sheet rose to her, opened, fell away. ‘Yeah. Be careful out there. Real careful.’

  ‘I will.’ She backed away, closed the door. Pressing her back to it, she considered the very real possibility that they were both of them damned cowards.

  Outside, her escort of twenty waited; she was, after all, second in command of the city. They rode to the Gate of the Dawn where six hundred cavalry were assembling in a double column. The call had gone out some time ago and, with Rell's very vocal support, six hundred viable mounts had been selected from the city's remaining horses. Many were on their last legs, hardly better than swaybacked nags. But they would do for a day's ride on a good road. At the gate, a sliver of dawn's light still slanting through, Hurl pulled up short. There waited the three brothers, but also Rell and Liss, both mounted. Near them stood Silk, his arms crossed over his still unmended tattered shirt, and Sunny, his glower even more sour than usual.

  ‘What's this?’ Hurl asked of Rell.

  ‘We're coming,’ said Liss.

  ‘I asked them not to,’ Silk cut in.

  ‘You shouldn't. The city—’

  ‘He won't come here this night,’ Rell said from behind his visor, his voice still harsh and distorted from his scarring. ‘We know where he's going to be.’

  Hurl nodded. True, from all she'd heard there was no way the monster could resist all the blood about to be spilled. Obviously Rell and Liss wanted to be there when he came. So be it. At this point, with so few, she wouldn't turn anyone away. She raised her shoulders to Silk who hugged himself tighter, frowning his helpless disapproval.

  Sunny came to her side. ‘I ought to be the one goin‘,’ he growled.

 
One of us has to stay and I seem to be the field commander.’

  ‘You weren't such a week ago.’

  ‘No, but somehow suddenly I am. Keep any eye on the north wall.’

  His sneer told her not to tell him his job. She signed to Sergeant Banath who raised himself in his stirrups, waving. The banner-men dipped their colours forward and the column slowly made its way out of the east-facing Gate of the Dawn. Hurl raised a hand in farewell. The mage bowed, arms tight about himself, a strained smile of encouragement at his lips. Sunny raised a fist.