I’ve gone insane.
To one side a headland of rock extended out into the sea of light. Thankfully, it held a green-grey hue in contrast to the stark black and white all around. A figure was approaching from that headland, arms out, smiling beneath his moustache: Leoman.
She set her hands on her hips. ‘Where in Hood’s Realm are we?’
He gave a maddeningly unconcerned shrug. ‘Not there, I assure you.’
‘Then where?’
He raised his arms, turning full circle. ‘Welcome to what I call … the Shores of Creation.’
Something told her that the man might be right. ‘And what are we going to do here? How do we get out?’
Leoman raised a finger. ‘Ah! I was going to ask a fellow … but I’m having a hard time getting his attention.’ He gestured up high into the sky.
Kiska stared, squinting. ‘Who?’ Then movement – something enormous ponderously shifting above. A giant. And not some Toblakai or Thelomen. A titanic being the size of a mountain straddling the shore. Kiska knew that if she were next to his foot she wouldn’t even be able to see over his toe. And he, or it, was doing something: moving or carrying a huge boulder the size of a fortress …
Kiska found herself sitting once more on the sands.
Leoman was sitting next to her. He nodded. ‘Yes. I did that too.’
She sank her head into her hands. Gods! She was lost! Utterly lost! Her quest to save Tayschrenn a failure! Hadn’t the Queen of Dreams foreseen this? Why did she send her? She was … gods … she was castaway!
To her horror she felt tears burning up within her eyes and she swiped at them, furious. Beside her Leoman sighed with pleasure and lay back. He folded his arms behind his head.
She glared at him, snapping, ‘What are you so pleased about?’
He took a deep calming breath. ‘Kiska, I’ve made a lot of enemies over the course of my life …’
‘I’m sure of that,’ she muttered.
‘ … and I feared I’d never be free of them all. Yet,’ and he gestured around, ‘here I am! Finally able to sleep utterly at ease. Completely free of fear! What a blessing!’ And he closed his eyes.
Kiska stared, unbelieving. Now she knew it was worse. It wasn’t that she was castaway. It was that she wasn’t alone. She was with him. This useless, lazy, unmotivated lump.
She pushed herself up. ‘Well I’m not content to do nothing here. I’m going to find a way out.’
He made a noncommittal noise, his eyes closed.
Kiska stalked off. Useless shit! Why should she have to do all the work?
Behind her, lying on the sand, a smile crept up Leoman’s lips.
The Shadow priest, Warran, stood alone on a modest slope watching the Liosan army, battered but victorious, come staggering back to their camp. He saw their leader, the ferocious Tiste Liosan woman, another daughter of the Ascendant Osserc, come limping back, supporting her brother L’oric, his nose, mouth and shirt-front dark with blood.
There. Well. That’s one thing settled, at least!
He held his hand out and a short walking stick appeared. He leaned upon it. His expression was one of satisfied contemplation.
‘Aren’t you done here yet?’ someone asked next to him.
He looked to the empty sky, then glanced to one side. It was a slim man in a loose dark shirt and trousers, with a rope draped round his neck which he held in both hands. ‘It just so happens that yes, I am.’
‘Thank the Ancients – you’ve wasted enough attention here.’
‘The creeping loss of Emurlahn is not to be ignored.’ He raised a finger. ‘No one steals from me. Not even a fish.’
The other furrowed his thin brows, opened his mouth to make a comment, reconsidered. ‘Well, this was never a threat.’
‘You are too sure of yourself.’
‘My confidence has gotten us where we are.’
‘As has my wariness and paranoia!’
Each glared at the other until Warran’s slit gaze slid aside and he murmured, ‘At least I think so …’
The other began fading away. ‘We’re too busy for this …’
Warran let out a tired breath, began thinning into transparency as if wafting away into shreds of shadow. ‘But I was enjoying the unravelling of the Whorl, the desolate landscape, the useless flailing of the Liosan …’
In moments both were gone.
Kyle sat on piled cargo amidships of his contracted Katakan trader. The Isle of East Watch passed as a dark jagged hump to the south. The sun warmed him; a welcome relief from the months of bitter, unnaturally intense winter. Shading his gaze, he looked back to Kevil Horn, the southern tip of Fist.
If he ever returned it would be too soon. He was sick of all these lands and their useless, internecine warfare. Waste, that’s what it was … all a sad waste. He’d return home – if he could find it. He wasn’t exactly sure where it lay. East of Genabackis, he believed. It had been years now and what did he have to show for all his trouble? A weapon that brought him more attention that he wanted, new scars, and painful memories.
Maybe he’d look up his old friends from the Guard: Stalker and his cousins, Badlands and Coots. See what they were up to. Anything but remain here, in these lands.
They’d taken his friend. Sleep well, Greymane! You were right not to tell me, or to bring me along. I’d have stayed with you … but then, I can think of worse deaths than falling at the side of a friend. Something, it seems to me, these Korelri understand.
He reached to his neck to pull out a frayed leather strap and a small amber stone that he rubbed between thumb and forefinger. The words of that last Fistian priest returned to him: Who protects you? It is of the earth!
Could it be true? Another old fallen friend still with him? The amber stone had come from Ereko, a giant like these Toblakai and Tarthinoe – in fact he’d claimed to be of the race that was their ancestors. And he’d claimed the very earth as his mother. Perhaps he was with him in more than memory …
He released the stone to gently feel at his ravaged scalp. He had no way of knowing, but he would like to think so. In any case he was free of them all now: free of these Korelri, the Guard, and especially he was free of these damned Malazans. He’d go home where there were only the plains, the animals, and the hunt. It would be good to return to that honest, uncomplicated life.
He’d had a bellyful of war and death and great powers grinding people underfoot as they groped for advantage – it sickened him. He had nothing but contempt for it and he felt almost weightless now that he was out of their clutches.
Yes, he’d look up his friends, Stalker and his cousins. They’d come from the lands north of his birth plains. A land of mountains and forests. A land the elders of his clan named … Assail.
The crew of a fishing boat daring the rich waters south of Malaz Island was astonished when something heavy yanked on one man’s line. A crewman at the side swore he saw something bright flash beneath the boat, but when nothing more occurred they turned to the line. They were fearful, yet it was no longer the season of the Stormriders and so they warily pulled, to see a man’s body entwined in the gut. They heaved him into the boat and were even more astonished when he suddenly took a great shuddering breath and clutched at them.
‘Take me to Unta,’ he gasped.
Talia was sweeping the courtyard of the litter from the spring windstorms. Little Halgin pelted back and forth across the court defeating hordes with his stick sword under the careful eyes of their nanny. Talia was worried; they were expecting a number of foals and she wondered if they had room. And the harvest from last year – not what they’d hoped for. It would be a challenge to make do. She continued sweeping for a time, considering options: selling a few of the horses perhaps, though that was something she would never have imagined less than a year ago.
There were a lot of things I wouldn’t have imagined less than a year ago.
Then the silence struck her. She looked up. Little Halgin was standin
g still, peering down the road where some old man was coming, limping carefully along with the help of a tall walking stick.
Inside, the twins started crying, screeching for their feed.
But she stared as well, watching. Something. There was something familiar in the shoulders, the head …
Halgin threw aside his stick to run up the road. Talia took one step to follow but stopped. Halgin was yelling something – a word she couldn’t hear for the roaring in her ears. Then the nanny was there holding her up and the twins were crying. Talia straightened, forced herself to steady her breathing. She urged the nanny inside to calm the twins.
Down the road the man had thrown aside his stick and Halgin had jumped up into his arms and he carried him now, walking more strongly. Talia almost tried to rearrange her hair but wiped instead at her face. Then he was there before her and she thought she would burst. Oh gods … my prayers. You answered my prayers!
‘Look, Mama,’ Halgin said, grinning happily.
She nodded seriously. ‘Yes, Halgin. I see.’ She cupped his face – so lined and thin! Gods, you have tormented him. His beard so much greyer! She clasped his hands in hers. ‘Rillish Jal Keth. You are home.’
‘Yes, Talia,’ he said, his voice thick with emotion. ‘I’m finally home.’
GLOSSARY
Adjunct: in the Malazan Imperial hierarchy, an officer selected to stand in for, and represent, any High Fist or sufficiently ranked commander
Agayla: a witch of Malaz Isle
Ascendant: a title ascribed to any sufficiently powerful individual. It can only be given, never claimed
The Chosen: another name for the Stormguard, used mostly within the Korel region
The Crimson Guard: a mercenary company that has famously sworn a vow of eternal opposition against the Malazan Empire.
The Fallen One: another name for the entity variously known as the Shattered God and the Crippled God
Fist: another name for the island east of the Korel archipelago. Also sometimes applied to the entire region.
Imperial Fist: Malazan Imperial title denoting a commander, military or administrative.
Jayashul: ‘She who Brings the Dawn’. Daughter of the Ascendant Osserc
Janzerian Cuirass: a type of branded armour.
L’oric: a mage, and son of the Ascendant Osserc
Our Lady the Blessed Saviour: a goddess worshipped in Korel and regions as its one and only true defender and care-giver. Also known as Our Lady, or the Lady
The Priestess / Sorrow: a Letherii convert to the cult of Dessembrae
The Star of Unta: Admiral Nok’s flagship
The Stormguard: a religious military order worshipping the goddess known as Our Lady the Blessed Saviour, and dedicated to the defence of Korel and all lands of its subcontinent
The Stormriders: a sea-borne race apparently hostile to terrestrial life, currently contained within a body of water known variously as the Ocean of Storms, or Storm Strait. Also known as Riders
The Stormwall: a discontinuous series of battlements raised along the Korel north coast to defend against the sea-borne Stormriders determined to sweep across the land
Tiste Liosan: ‘The Children of Light’, people of the Warren of Light, a realm known to some as Kurald Liosan, or Kurald Thryllan
The Queen of Dreams: an Ascendant, also known as the Enchantress
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
STONEWIELDER
First published in Great Britain in a limited edition by PS Publishing LLP and by Bantam Press, a division of Transworld Publishers
Copyright © 2010 by Ian Cameron Esslemont
All rights reserved.
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
eISBN 9781429940382
First eBook Edition : June 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Esslemont, Ian C. (Ian Cameron)
Stonewielder : a novel of the Malazan empire / Ian C. Esslemont.—1st Tor ed. p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 978-0-7653-2984-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-7653-2985-1 (trade paperback)
I. Title.
PS3605.S684S76 2011
813’.6—dc22
2011007400
First Tor Edition: May 2011
ORB SCEPTRE THRONE
A NOVEL OF THE MALAZAN EMPIRE
Ian C. Esslemont
A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK
NEW YORK
For Steve, once again
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As always, my love and gratitude to Gerri and the boys for their support of my writing, which takes me from them more than I would ever wish.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
In Darujhistan
Coll A Council member
Rallick Nom A retired assassin
Krute An assassin
Scholar Ebbin An independent antiquarian/historian
Humble Measure A native of Cat and rumoured power behind local underworld
Torvald Nom A native of Darujhistan
Tiserra Torvald’s wife, and a potter
Jeshin Lim A Council member
Redda Orr A Council member
Barathol Mekhar A smith
Scillara Barathol’s wife
Vorcan Radok/ Lady Varada Head of House Nom and onetime Mistress of Daruhistan’s assassins
Lady Envy A visiting noble lady and mage
Leff A guard
Scorch A guard
Picker A retired Bridgeburner and partner in K’rul’s Bar
Blend A retired Bridgeburner and partner in K’rul’s Bar
Spindle A retired Bridgeburner
Duiker Once the Malazan Empire’s Imperial Historian
Fisher A bard, a regular at K’rul’s Bar
Madrun Colourful guard of Nom Manor
Lazan Door Colourful guard of Nom Manor
Thurule Lady Envy’s guard
Studlock/ Studious Lock A castellan
Of the T’orrud Cabal
Baruk An alchemist
Taya A dancing girl and assassin
Hister A dead necromancer
Aman An erstwhile shopkeeper
Derudan A witch
The Phoenix Inn Regulars
Meese Proprietor
Sulty Server
Scurve Barkeeper
Jess A new server
Chud Cook
Kruppe A thief
At the Spawns
Malakai A thief
Antsy A Malazan veteran
Jallin ‘Jumper’ A treasure-hunter
Orchid A young woman
Corien Lim Son of a noble Darujhistan family
Of the Seguleh
Jan Second
Gall Third
Palla Sixth
Lo Eighth
Oru Eleventh
Iralt Fifteenth
Shun Eighteenth
Ira Twentieth
Beru Of the Thirtieth
Horul Of the Hundredth
Sall Of the Three Hundredth
Sengen A priest
At the Shores of Creation
Leoman/Jheval An agent of the Queen of Dreams
Kiska An ex-Claw
Then-aj-Ehliel An inhabitant
Maker Inhabitant
Korus A powerful demon
Then-aj-Ehliel/ Thenaj An inhabitant
Of the Malazans
Aragan Ambassador to Darujhistan, commander of Malazan forces in
Captain Dreshen Harad ’Ul Aide to Aragan
Fist K’ess Commander of Central Malazan provinces
Captain Fal-ej Second in command to Fist K’ess
Fist Steppen Commander of Southern Malazan forces
Sergeant Hektar Sergeant of the 23rd squad, 3rd Company, 7th Legion, Second Army
Corporal Little Squad healer
Bone Saboteur
Bendan New recruit, Darujhistan native
Tarat Scout, Rhivi recruit
Further Players
Torn Moranth attaché to the Malazans
Galene A Moranth Silver priestess, member of their governing body
Yusek An adventurer
Caladan Brood Warlord of the north, an Ascendant
Jiwan A new member of the Rhivi ruling council
Tserig Also known as ‘The Toothless’, an old member of the Rhivi ruling council
Cull Heel A mercenary most recently of the Confederated Free Cities
Morn A ghostly visitor to the Spawn
Darujhistan SCALE
SOUTH GENABACKIS and environs
PROLOGUE
Did we not look out together upon the dark waters of the lake
And behold there the constellations
Of both hemispheres at once?
Love Songs of the Cinnamon Wastes
THAT DAY OF DISCOVERY BEGAN AS ANY OTHER. HE AROSE BEFORE the dawn and saw to his toilet aware that the toothless hag he kept as camp cook was already up boiling water for the morning tea and mealy porridge. He checked in on the tent of the two guards that he’d hired simply because he thought he ought to have someone around to watch the camp. Both men were asleep; that didn’t strike him as proper guard procedure, but it was the Twins’ own luck he’d found anyone willing to work at all for the poor wages he could offer.
The Malazan Empire Series: (Night of Knives, Return of the Crimson Guard, Stonewielder, Orb Sceptre Throne, Blood and Bone, Assail) (Novels of the Malazan Empire) Page 191