And this was why, Leoman had explained, a city would always build upon the bones of its forebears, for this lifted its walls yet higher, and made of the place a more formidable protection. It was the marauding tribes, he had said, laughing, that forced the birth of cities, of the very cities capable of defying them and, ultimately, conquering them. Thus did civilization arise from savagery.
All very well, Corabb mused as they walked towards this city’s heart, and possibly even true, but already he longed for the open lands of the Odhans, the desert’s sweet whispering wind, the sultry heat that could bake a man’s brain inside his helmet until he dreamed raving that he was being pursued by herds of fat aunts and leathery grandmothers who liked to pinch cheeks.
Corabb shook his head to dispel the recollection and all its attendant terrors. He walked at Leoman’s left, cutlass drawn and a scowl of belligerence ready for any suspicious-looking citizen. Third Dunsparrow was to Leoman’s right, the two brushing arms every now and then and exchanging soft words, probably grim with romance, that Corabb was pleased he could not overhear. That, or they were talking about ways of doing away with him.
‘Oponn pull me, push her,’ he said under his breath.
Leoman’s head turned. ‘You said something, Corabb?’
‘I was cursing this damned rat path, Avenger.’
‘We’re almost there,’ Leoman said, uncharacteristically considerate, which only deepened Corabb’s foul mood. ‘Dunsparrow and I were discussing what to do with the priesthood.’
‘Were you now? That’s nice. What do you mean, what to do with them?’
‘They are resisting the notion of leaving.’
‘I am not surprised.’
‘Nor am I, but leave they shall.’
‘It’s all the wealth,’ Corabb said. ‘And their reliquaries and icons and wine cellars – they fear they will be set upon on the road, raped and robbed and their hair all unbunned.’
Both Leoman and Dunsparrow peered over at him with odd expressions.
‘Corabb,’ Leoman said, ‘I think it best you remove that new great helm of yours.’
‘Yes,’ Dunsparrow added. ‘There are streams of sweat pouring down your face.’
‘I am fine,’ Corabb said in growl. ‘This was the Champion’s helm. But Leoman would not take it. He should have. In truth, I am only carrying it for him. At the appropriate time, he will discover the need to tear it from my head and don it himself, and the world shall right itself once more, may all the yellow and blue gods be praised.’
‘Corabb—’
‘I am fine, although we had better do something about all those old women following us. I will spit myself on my own sword before I let them get me. Ooh what a nice little boy! Enough of that, I say.’
‘Give me that helm,’ Leoman said.
‘It’s about time you recognized your destiny, Adjunct Slayer.’
Corabb’s head was pounding by the time they reached the Temple of Scalissara. Leoman had elected not to wear the great helm, even with its sodden quilted under-padding removed – without which it would have been too loose in any case. At least the old women were gone; in fact, the route they had taken was almost deserted, although they could hear the chaotic sounds of crowds in the main thoroughfares, being driven from the city, out onto the west road that led to Lothal on the coast. Panic rode the sweltering currents, yet it was clear that most of the four thousand soldiers now under Leoman’s command were out in the streets, maintaining order.
Seven lesser temples, each dedicated to one of the Seven Holies, encircled the octagonal edifice now sanctified in the name of the Queen of Dreams. The formal approach was spiral, wending through these smaller domed structures. The flanking compound walls had been twice defaced, first with rededication to Malazan gods soon after the conquest; then again with the rebellion, when the temples and their new foreign priesthoods had been assailed, the sanctuaries sundered and hundreds slaughtered. Friezes and metopes, caryatids and panels were all ruined now, entire pantheons defiled and made incomprehensible.
All, that is, but the temple of the Queen of Dreams, its impressive fortifications making it virtually impregnable. There were in any case mysteries surrounding the Queen, Corabb knew, and it was generally believed that her cult had not originated in the Malazan Empire. The Goddess of Divinations cast a thousand reflections upon a thousand peoples, and no one civilization could claim her as exclusively its own. So, having battered futilely at the temple’s walls for six days, the rebels had concluded that the Queen was not their enemy after all, and had thereafter left her in peace. Desire and necessity, Leoman had said, laughing, upon hearing the tale.
Nonetheless, as far as Corabb was concerned, the goddess was… foreign.
‘What business do we have,’ Corabb asked, ‘visiting this temple?’
Leoman replied with a question of his own: ‘Do you recall, old friend, your vow to follow me no matter what seeming madness I undertake?’
‘I do, Warleader.’
‘Well, Corabb Bhilan Thenu’alas, you shall find yourself sorely tested in that promise. For I intend to speak with the Queen of Dreams.’
‘The High Priestess—’
‘No, Corabb,’ said Leoman, ‘with the goddess herself.’
‘It is a difficult thing, killing dragons.’
Blood the colour of false dawn continued to spread across the buckled pavestones. Mappo and Icarium remained beyond its reach, for it would not do to make contact with that dark promise. The Jhag was seated on a stone block that might have once been an altar but had been pushed up against the wall to the left of the entrance. The warrior’s head was in his hands, and he had said nothing for some time.
Mappo alternated his attention between his friend and the enormous draconean corpse rearing over them. Both scenes left him distraught. There was much worthy of grieving in this cavern, in the terrible ritual murder that had taken place here, and in the fraught torrent of memories unleashed within Icarium upon its discovery.
‘This leaves naught but Osserc,’ Mappo said. ‘And should he fall, the warren of Serc shall possess no ruler. I believe, Icarium, that I am beginning to see a pattern.’
‘Desecration,’ the Jhag said in a whisper, not looking up.
‘The pantheon is being made vulnerable. Fener, drawn into this world, and now Osserc – the very source of his power under assault. How many other gods and goddesses are under siege, I wonder? We have been away from things too long, my friend.’
‘Away, Mappo? There is no away.’
The Trell studied the dead dragon once more. ‘Perhaps you are right. Who could have managed such a thing? Within the dragon is the heart of the warren itself, its well-fount of power. Yet… someone defeated Sorrit, drove her down into the earth, into this cavern within a sky keep, and spiked her to Blackwood – how long ago, do you think? Would we not have felt her death?’ With no answers forthcoming from Icarium, Mappo edged closer to the blood pool and peered upward, focusing on that massive iron, rust-streaked spike. ‘No,’ he murmured after a moment, ‘that is not rust. Otataral. She was bound by otataral. Yet, she was Elder – she should have been able to defeat that eager entropy. I do not understand this…’
‘Old and new,’ Icarium said, his tone twisting the words into a curse. He rose suddenly, his expression ravaged and eyes hard. ‘Speak to me, Mappo. Tell me what you know of spilled blood.’
He turned away. ‘Icarium—’
‘Mappo, tell me.’
Gaze settling on the aquamarine pool, the Trell was silent as emotions warred within him. Then he sighed. ‘Who first dipped their hands into this fell stream? Who drank deep and so was transformed, and what effect did that otataral spike have upon that transformation? Icarium, this blood is fouled—’
‘Mappo.’
‘Very well. All blood spilled, my friend, possesses power. Beasts, humans, the smallest bird, blood is the life-force, the soul’s own stream. Within it is locked the time of living, from beginni
ng to end. It is the most sacred force in existence. Murderers with their victims’ blood staining their hands feed from that force, whether they choose to or not. Many are sickened, others find a new hunger within themselves, and so become slaves to the violence of slaying. The risk is this: blood and its power become tainted by such things as fear and pain. The stream, sensing its own demise, grows stressed, and the shock is as a poison.’
‘What of fate?’ Icarium asked in a heavy voice.
Mappo flinched, his eyes still on the pool. ‘Yes,’ he whispered, ‘you cut to the matter’s very heart. What does anyone take upon themselves when such blood is absorbed, drawn into their own soul? Must violent death be in turn delivered upon them? Is there some overarching law, seeking ever to redress the imbalance? If blood feeds us, what in turn feeds it, and is it bound by immutable rules or is it as capricious as we are? Are we creatures on this earth the only ones free to abuse our possessions?’
‘The K’Chain Che’Malle did not kill Sorrit,’ Icarium said. ‘They knew nothing of it.’
‘Yet this creature here was frozen, so it must have been encompassed in the Jaghut’s ritual of Omtose Phellack – how could the K’Chain Che’Malle not have known of this? They must have, even if they themselves did not slay Sorrit.’
‘No, they are innocent, Mappo. I am certain of it.’
‘Then… how?’
‘The crucifix, it is Blackwood. From the realm of the Tiste Edur. From the Shadow Realm, Mappo. In that realm, as you know, things can be in two places at once, or begin in one yet find itself eventually manifesting in another. Shadow wanders, and respects no borders.’
‘Ah, then… this… was trapped here, drawn from Shadow—’
‘Snared by the Jaghut’s ice magic – yet the spilled blood, and perhaps the otataral, proved too fierce for Omtose Phellack, thus shattering the Jaghut’s enchantment.’
‘Sorrit was murdered in the Shadow Realm. Yes. Now the pattern, Icarium, grows that much clearer.’
Icarium fixed bright, fevered eyes upon the Trell. ‘Is it? You would blame the Tiste Edur?’
‘Who else holds such command of Shadow? Not the Malazan pretender who now sits on the throne!’
The Jhag warrior said nothing. He walked along the pool’s edge, head down as if seeking signs from the battered floor. ‘I know this Jaghut. I recognize her work. The carelessness in the unleashing of Omtose Phellack. She was… distraught. Impatient, angry, weary of the endless paths the K’Chain Che’Malle employed in their efforts to invade, to establish colonies on every continent. She cared nothing for the civil war afflicting the K’Chain Che’Malle. These Short-Tails were fleeing their kin, seeking a refuge. I doubt she bothered asking questions.’
‘Do you think,’ Mappo asked, ‘that she knows of what has happened here?’
‘No, else she would have returned. It may be that she is dead. So many are…’
Oh, Icarium, would that such knowledge remained lost to you.
The Jhag halted and half-turned. ‘I am cursed. This is the secret you ever keep from me, isn’t it? There are… recollections. Fragments.’ He lifted a hand as if to brush his brow, then let it fall. ‘I sense… terrible things…’
‘Yes. But they do not belong to you, Icarium. Not to the friend standing before me now.’
Icarium’s deepening frown tore at Mappo’s heart, but he would not look away, would not abandon his friend at this tortured moment.
‘You,’ Icarium said, ‘are my protector, but that protection is not as it seems. You are at my side, Mappo, to protect the world. From me.’
‘It is not that simple.’
‘Isn’t it?’
‘No. I am here to protect the friend I look upon now, from the… the other Icarium…’
‘This must end, Mappo.’
‘No.’
Icarium faced the dragon once more. ‘Ice,’ he said in murmur. ‘Omtose Phellack.’ He turned to Mappo. ‘We shall leave here now. We travel to the Jhag Odhan. I must seek out kin of my blood. Jaghut.’
To ask for imprisonment. Eternal ice, sealing you from all life. But they will not trust that. No, they will seek to kill you. Let Hood deal with you. And this time, they will be right. For their hearts do not fear judgement, and their blood… their blood is as cold as ice.
Sixteen barrows had been raised half a league south of Y’Ghatan, each one a hundred paces long, thirty wide, and three man-heights high. Rough-cut limestone blocks and internal columns to hold up the curved roofs, sixteen eternally dark abodes, home to Malazan bones. Newly cut, stone-lined trenches reached out to them from the distant city, carrying Y’Ghatan’s sewage in turgid flows swarming with flies. Sentiments, Fist Keneb reflected sourly, could not be made any clearer.
Ignoring the stench as best he could, Keneb guided his horse towards the central barrow, which had once been surmounted by a stone monument honouring the empire’s fallen. The statue had been toppled, leaving only the broad pedestal. Standing on it now were two men and two dogs, all facing Y’Ghatan’s uneven, whitewashed walls.
The Barrow of Dassem Ultor and his First Sword, which held neither Dassem nor any of his guard who had fallen outside the city all those years ago. Most soldiers knew the truth of that. The deadly, legendary fighters of the First Sword had been buried in unmarked graves, to keep them from desecration, and Dassem’s own grave was believed to be somewhere outside Unta, on Quon Tali.
Probably empty.
The cattle-dog, Bent, swung its huge head to watch Keneb push his horse up the steep slope. Red-rimmed eyes, set wide in a nest of scars, a regard that chilled the Malazan, reminding him yet again that he but imagined his own familiarity with that beast. It should have died with Coltaine. The animal looked as though pieced together from disparate, unidentifiable parts, only roughly approximating a dog’s shape. Humped, uneven shoulder muscles, a neck as thick round as a grown man’s thigh, misshapen, muscle-knitted haunches, a chest deep as a desert lion’s. Beneath the empty eyes the creature was all jaw, overwide, the snout misaligned, the three remaining canines visible even when Bent’s fierce mouth was closed, for most of the skin covering them had been torn away at the Fall, and nothing had replaced it. One shorn ear, the other healed flat and out to the side.
The stub that was all that was left of Bent’s tail did not wag as Keneb dismounted. Had it done so, Keneb allowed the possibility that he would have been shocked to death.
The mangy, rat-like Hengese dog, Roach, trotted up to sniff at Keneb’s left boot, whereupon it squatted ladylike and urinated against the leather. Cursing, the Malazan stepped away, cocking one foot for a savage kick, then halting the motion at a deep growl from Bent.
Warleader Gall rumbled a laugh. ‘Roach but claims this heap of stones, Fist. Hood knows, there’s no-one below to get offended.’
‘Too bad one cannot say the same for the other barrows,’ Keneb said, drawing off his riding gloves.
‘Ah, but that insult belongs at the feet of the citizens of Y’Ghatan.’
‘Roach should have displayed more patience, then, Warleader.’
‘Hood take us, man, she’s a damned dog. Besides, you think she’ll run out of piss any time soon?’
If I had my way, she’d run out of a lot more besides. ‘Not likely, I’ll grant you. That rat has more malign fluids in it than a rabid bhederin bull.’
‘Poor diet.’
Keneb addressed the other man: ‘Fist Temul, the Adjunct wishes to know if your Wickan scouts have ridden round the city.’
The young warrior was a child no longer. He had grown two hands’ widths since Aren. Lean, hawk-faced, with far too many losses pooled in his black eyes. The Crow clan warriors who had so resented his command at Aren were silent these days. Gaze fixed on Y’Ghatan, he gave no indication of having heard Keneb’s words.
More and more like Coltaine with every passing day, Gall says. Keneb knew enough to wait.
Gall cleared his throat. ‘The west road shows signs of an exodus, no more t
han a day or two before we arrived. A half-dozen old Crow horse-warriors demanded that they pursue and ravage the fleeing refugees.’
‘And where are they now?’ Keneb asked.
‘Guarding the baggage train, hah!’
Temul spoke. ‘Inform the Adjunct that all gates are sealed. A trench has been dug at the base of the tel, cutting through the ramped roads on all sides, to a depth of nearly a man’s height. Yet, this trench is but two paces wide – clearly the enemy ran out of time.’
Out of time. Keneb wondered at that. With pressed workers, Leoman could have had a far broader barrier excavated within the span of a single day. ‘Very well. Did your scouts report any large weapons mounted on the walls or on the roofs of the corner towers?’
‘Malazan-built ballistae, an even dozen,’ Temul replied, ‘ranged about at equal intervals. No sign of concentrations.’
‘Well,’ Keneb said with a grunt, ‘foolish to suppose that Leoman would give away his perceived weak-points. And those walls were manned?’
‘Yes, crowds, all shouting taunts to my warriors.’
‘And showing their naked backsides,’ Gall added, turning to spit.
Roach trotted over to sniff at the gleaming phlegm, then licked it up.
Nauseous, Keneb looked away, loosening the chin-strap of his helm. ‘Fist Temul, have you made judgement as to our surest approach?’
Temul glanced over, expressionless. ‘I have.’
‘And?’
‘And what, Fist? The Adjunct cares nothing for our opinions.’
‘Perhaps not, but I would like to hear your thoughts in any case.’
‘Ignore the gates. Use Moranth munitions and punch right through a wall midway between tower and gate. Any side will do. Two sides would be even better.’
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