‘No, your protection I shall need, I’m sure,’ Paran said. ‘And yes, that is why I contracted with your guild in Darujhistan.’ He sipped at the wine, and found his head swimming. ‘Although,’ he added, eyeing the golden liquid, ‘if I drink any more of this, I might have trouble staying in the saddle.’
‘You must strap yourself tightly, Ganoes Paran. In the stirrups, and to the saddle. Trust me in this, such a journey is best managed drunk – or filled with the fumes of durhang. Or both. Now, I must begin preparations – although I have never before visited this warren, I am beginning to suspect we will be sorely tested on this dread bridge.’
‘If you are amenable,’ Ganath said, ‘I would ride with you within.’
‘Delightful, and I suggest you ready yourself to access your warren, Jaghut, should the need arise.’
Paran watched as the two climbed back into the carriage, then he turned to regard Hedge.
The sapper finished the wine in his goblet and set it back down on the tray, which was being held still by the servant – an old man with red-rimmed eyes and grey hair that looked singed at its ends. ‘How many of these journeys have you made?’ Hedge asked him.
‘More’n I can count, sir.’
‘I take it Karpolan Demesand is a High Mage.’
‘That he be, sir. An’ for that, us shareholders bless ’im every day.’
‘No doubt,’ Hedge said, then turned to Paran. ‘If you ain’t gonna drink that, Captain, put it down. You and me need to talk.’
Paran risked another mouthful then replaced the goblet, following as, with a gesture, Hedge set off towards the foot of the bridge.
‘Something on your ghostly mind, sapper?’
‘Plenty, Captain, but first things first. You know, when I tossed that cusser back in Coral, I figured that was it. Hood knows, I didn’t have a choice, so I’d do the same thing if I had to do it over again. Anyway –’ he paused, then said, ‘for a time there was, well, just darkness. The occasional flicker of something like light, something like awareness.’ He shook his head. ‘It was like, well,’ he met Paran’s eyes, ‘like I had nowhere to go. My soul, I mean. Nowhere at all. And trust me on this, that ain’t a good feeling.’
‘But then you did,’ Paran said. ‘Have somewhere to go, I mean.’
Hedge nodded, eyes once more on the mists engulfing the way ahead. ‘Heard voices, at first. Then… old friends, coming outa the dark. Faces I knew, and sure, like I said, friends. But some who weren’t. You got to understand, Captain, before your time, a lot of Bridgeburners were plain bastards. When a soldier goes through what we went through, in Raraku, at Black Dog, you come out one of two kinds of people. Either you’re damned humbled, or you start believing the Empress worships what slides outa your ass, and not just the Empress, but everyone else besides. Now, I never had time for those bastards when I was alive – now I’m looking at spending an eternity with ’em.’
Paran was silent for a moment, thoughtful, then he said, ‘Go on.’
‘Us Bridgeburners, we got work ahead of us, and some of us don’t like it. I mean, we’re dead, right? And sure, it’s good helping friends who are still alive, and maybe helping all of humanity if it comes to that and I’m sorry to say, it will come to that. Still,you end up with questions, questions that can’t be answered.’
‘Such as?’
The sapper’s expression twisted. ‘Damn, sounds awful, but… what’s in it for us? We find ourselves in an army of the dead in a damned sea where there used to be desert. We’re all done with our wars, the fighting’s over, and now it looks like we’re having to march – and it’s a long march, longer than you’d think possible. But it’s our road, now, isn’t it?’
‘And where does it lead, Hedge?’
He shook his head again. ‘What’s it mean to die? What’s it mean to ascend? It’s not like we’re gonna gather ten thousand worshippers among the living, is it? I mean, the only thing us dead soldiers got in common is that none of us was good enough or lucky enough to survive the fight. We’re a host of failures.’ He barked a laugh. ‘I better remember that one for the bastards. Just to get under their skins.’
Paran glanced back at the carriage. Still no activity there, although the servant had disappeared back inside. He sighed. ‘Ascendants, Hedge. Not an easy role to explain – in fact, I’ve yet to find a worthwhile explanation for what ascendancy is – among all the scholarly tracts I’ve pored through in Darujhistan’s libraries and archives. So, I’ve had to come up with my own theory.’
‘Let’s hear it, Captain.’
‘All right, we’ll start with this. Ascendants who find worshippers become gods, and that binding goes both ways. Ascendants without worshippers are, in a sense, unchained. Unaligned, in the language of the Deck of Dragons. Now, gods who once had worshippers but don’t have them any more are still ascendant, but effectively emasculated, and they remain so unless the worship is somehow renewed. For the Elder Gods, that means the spilling of blood on hallowed or once-hallowed ground. For the more primitive spirits and the like, it could be as simple as the recollection or rediscovery of their name, or some other form of awakening. Mind you, none of that matters if the ascendant in question has been well and truly annihilated.
‘So, to backtrack slightly, ascendants, whether gods or not, seem to possess some form of power. Maybe sorcery, maybe personality, maybe something else. And what that seems to mean is, they possess an unusual degree of efficacy—’
‘Of what?’
‘They’re trouble if you mess with them, is what I’m saying. A mortal man punches someone and maybe breaks the victim’s nose. An ascendant punches someone and they go through a wall. Now, I don’t mean that literally – although that’s sometimes the case. Not necessarily physical strength, but strength of will. When an ascendant acts, ripples run through… everything. And that’s what makes them so dangerous. For example, before Fener’s expulsion, Treach was a First Hero, an old name for an ascendant, and that’s all he was. Spent most of his time either battling other First Heroes, or, towards the end, wandering around in his Soletaken form. If nothing untoward had happened, to Treach in that form, his ascendancy would have eventually vanished, lost in the primitive bestial mind of an oversized tiger. But something untoward did happen – actually, two things. Fener’s expulsion, and Treach’s unusual death. And with those two events, everything changed.’
‘All right,’ Hedge said, ‘that’s all just fine. When are you getting to your theory, Captain?’
‘Every mountain has a peak, Hedge, and throughout history there have been mountains and mountains – more than we could imagine, I suspect – mountains of humanity, of Jaghut, of T’lan Imass, of Eres’al, Barghast, Trell, and so on. Not just mountains, but whole ranges. I believe ascendancy is a natural phenomenon, an inevitable law of probability. Take a mass of people, anywhere, any kind, and eventually enough pressure will build and a mountain will rise, and it will have a peak. Which is why so many ascendants become gods – after the passing of generations, the great hero’s name becomes sacred, representative of some long-lost golden age, and so it goes.’
‘So if I understand you, Captain – and I admit, it’s not easy and it’s never been easy – there’s too much pressure these days and because of that there’s too many ascendants, and things are getting hairy.’
Paran shrugged. ‘It might feel that way. It probably always does. But these things shake themselves out, eventually. Mountains collide, peaks fall, are forgotten, crumble to dust.’
‘Captain, are you planning to make a new card in the peck of Dragons?’
Paran studied the ghost for a long time, then he said, ‘In many of the Houses, the role of Soldier already exists—’
‘But not unaligned soldiers, Captain. Not… us.’
‘You say you have a long road ahead, sapper. How do you know that? Who is guiding you?’
‘I got no answer to that one, Captain. That’s why we figured – our payment for this bargain
– that you constructing a card for us would, well, be like shaking a handful of wheat flour over an invisible web.’
‘Part of the bargain? You might have mentioned that at the start, Hedge.’
‘No, better when it’s too late.’
‘For you, yes. All right, I’ll think on it. I admit, you’ve made me curious, especially since I don’t think you and your ghostly army are being directly manipulated. I suspect that what calls to you is something far more ephemeral, more primal. A force of nature, as if some long lost law was being reasserted, and you’re the ones who will deliver it. Eventually.’
‘An interesting thought, Captain. I always knew you had brains, now I’m finally getting a hint of what they’re good for.’
‘Now let me ask you a question, Hedge.’
‘If you must.’
‘That long road ahead of you. Your march – it’s to war, isn’t it? Against whom?’
‘More like what—’
Commotion behind them, the shareholders rushing back to the carriage, the snap of leather arid the clunk of buckles as the dozen or so men and women began strapping themselves in place. The horses, suddenly agitated, tossed their heads and stamped, nostrils flaring. The driver had the traces in his hands once more.
‘You two!’ he said in a growl. ‘It’s time.’
‘Think I’ll sit beside the driver,’ Hedge said. ‘Captain, like the High Mage said, be sure you ride close. I knew how to get us here, but I ain’t got a clue what’s coming.’
Nodding, Paran headed towards his horse, whilst Hedge clambered up the side of the carriage. The two Pardu women returned from their stations on the bridge and climbed up to take flanking positions on the roof, both checking their heavy crossbows and supply of broad-headed quarrels.
Paran swung himself into the saddle.
A shutter in the side door was opened and the captain could make out Karpolan’s round, shiny face. ‘We travel perilously fast, Ganoes Paran. If some transformation occurs on the horse you ride, consider abandoning it.’
‘And if some transformation besets me?’
‘Well, we shall do our best not to abandon you.’
‘That’s reassuring, Karpolan Demesand.’
A brief smile, then the shutter snapped shut once more.
Another weird cry from the driver and a snap of the traces. The horses lunged forward, carriage slewing straight behind them. Rolling forward. Onto the stone bridge.
Paran rode up alongside it, opposite one of the shareholders. The man threw him a wild, half-mad grin, gloved hands gripping a massive Malazan-made crossbow.
Climbing the slope, then into the mists.
That closed like soft walls round them.
A dozen heartbeats, then chaos. Ochre-skinned creatures swarmed in from both sides, as if they had been clinging beneath the bridge. Long arms, clawed at the ends, short, ape-like legs, small heads that seemed filled with fangs. They flung themselves at the carriage, seeking to drag off the shareholders.
Screams, the thud of quarrels striking bodies, hissing pain from the creatures. Paran’s horse reared, forelegs kicking at a beast scrambling beneath it. Sword out, Paran slashed the blade into the back of the creature clinging and biting fierce chunks of meat from the nearest shareholder’s left thigh. He saw the flesh and muscle part, revealing ribs. Then blood sluiced out. Squealing, the beast fell away.
More had reached the carriage, and Paran saw one shareholder torn from her perch, swearing as she was dragged down onto the stones, then vanishing beneath seething, smooth-skinned bodies.
The captain swung his horse round and closed on the writhing mass.
No skill involved – it was simply lean down and hack and slash, until the last bleeding body fell away.
The woman lying on the bloody stones looked as though she had been chewed by a shark, then spat out. Yet she lived. Paran sheathed his sword, dismounted and threw the dazed, bleeding woman over a shoulder.
Heavier than she’d looked. He managed to settle her down over the back of his horse, then vaulted once more into the saddle.
The carriage already vanishing into the mists, ochre bodies tumbling from it. The back wheels both rose and thumped as they rolled over flopping corpses.
And between Paran and the carriage, half a hundred or more of the creatures, now wheeling towards him, claws raised and clicking. He drew out his sword again, and drove his heels into the horse’s flanks. The animal voiced an indignant grunt, then charged forward. Legs and chest battering bodies aside, Paran slashing right and left, seeing limbs lopped off, skulls opened wide. Hands closed on the shareholder and sought to pull her off. Twisting round, Paran cut at them until they fell away.
A beast landed in his lap.
Hot breath, smelling distinctly of overripe peaches. Hinged fangs spreading wide – the damned thing was moments from biting off Paran’s face.
He head-butted it, the rim of his helm smashing nose and teeth, blood gushing into Paran’s eyes, nose and mouth.
The creature reeled back.
Paran swung his weapon from above, hammering the sword’s pommel into the top of the creature’s skull. Punching through with twin sprays of blood from its tiny ears. Tugging his weapon free, he shoved the dead beast to the side.
His horse was still pushing forward, squealing as talons and fangs slashed its neck and chest. Paran leant over his mount’s neck, flailing with his sword in its defence.
Then they were through, the horse lunging into a canter, then a gallop. All at once, the carriage’s battered, swaying and pitching back reared up before them. Free of attackers. Paran dragged on his reins until the horse slowed, and came up alongside. He gestured at the nearest shareholder. ‘She’s still alive – take her—’
‘Is she now?’ the man replied, then turned his head and spat out a gleaming red stream.
Paran now saw that blood was spurting from the ragged holes in the man’s left leg, and those spurts were slowing down. ‘You need a healer and fast—’
‘Too late,’ the man replied, leaning out to drag the unconscious woman from the back of Paran’s horse. More hands reached down from above and took her weight, then pulled her upwards. The dying shareholder sagged back against the carriage, then gave Paran a red-stained smile. ‘The spike,’ he said. ‘Doubles my worth – hope the damned wife’s grateful.’ As he spoke he fumbled with the harness buckle, then finally pulled it loose. With a final nod at Paran, he let go, and fell.
A tumble and a roll, then… nothing.
Paran looked back, stared at the motionless body on the bridge. Beasts were swarming towards it. Gods, these people have all lost their minds.
‘Stebar’s earned the spike!’ someone said from the carriage roof. ‘Who’s got one of his chips?’
Another voice said, ‘Here, down the slot – how bad is Thyrss?’
‘She’ll make it, poor girl, ain’t gonna be pretty no more.’
‘Knowing her, she’d have been happier with the spike—’
‘Not a chance, got no kin, Ephras. What’s the point of a spike with no kin?’
‘Funny man, Yorad, and I bet you don’t even know it.’
‘What did I say now?’
The carriage’s wild careening had slowed as more and more detritus appeared on the bridge’s road. Pieces of corroding armour, broken weapons, bundles of nondescript clothing.
Looking down, Paran saw a slab of wood that looked to have once been a Troughs game-board, now splintered and gnawed down one side as if some creature had tried to eat it. So, here in this deathly underworld, there are things that still need food. Meaning, they’re alive. Meaning, I suppose, they don’t belong. Intruders, like us. He wondered at all those other visitors to this realm, those who’d fallen to the horde of ochre-hued beast-men. How had they come to be here? An accident, or, like Paran, seeking to cross this damned bridge for a reason?
‘Hedge!’
The ghost, perched beside the driver, leaned forward. ‘Captain?’
‘This realm – how did you know of it?’
‘Well, you came to us, didn’t you? Figured you was the one who knew about it.’
‘That makes no sense. You led, I followed, remember?’
‘You wanted to go where the ancient things went, so here we are.’
‘But where is here?’
Shrugging, the sapper leaned back.
It was the one bad thing about following gut-feelings, Paran reflected. Where they came from and what fed them was anybody’s guess.
After perhaps a third of a league, the slope still perceptibly climbing, the road’s surface cleared, and although the mists remained thick, they seemed to have lightened around them, as if some hidden sun of white fire had lifted clear of the horizon. Assuming there was such a horizon.
Not every warren played by the same rules, Paran knew.
The driver cursed suddenly and sawed back on the traces, one foot pushing the brake lever. Paran reined in alongside as the train lurched to a halt.
Wreckage ahead, a single, large heap surrounded by scattered pieces.
A carriage.
Everyone was silent for a moment, then Karpolan Demesand’s voice emerged from a speak-tube near the roof. ‘Nisstar, Artara, if you will, examine yon barricade.’
Paran dismounted, his sword still out, and joined the two Pardu women as they crept cautiously towards the destroyed carriage.
‘That’s Trygalle Trade Guild,’ Paran said in low tones, ‘isn’t it?’
‘Shhh.’
They reached the scene. Paran held back as the shareholders, exchanging gestures, each went to one side, crossbows held at the ready. In moments, they moved out of his line of sight.
The carriage was lying on its side, the roof facing Paran. One back wheel was missing. The copper sheets of the roof looked battered, peeled away in places, cut and gouged in others. On two of the visible iron attachment loops, strips of leather remained.
One of the Pardu women appeared on top, perching on the frame of the side door, then crouching to look straight down, inside the carriage. A moment later, she disappeared inside. The other shareholder came from around the wreck. Paran studied her. Her nose had been shattered, not long ago, he judged, as the remnant of bruises marred the area beneath her eyes with faint crescents. The eyes above those bruises were now filled with fear.
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