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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 334

by Ian C. Esslemont


  ‘That is not so strange. I rather like it.’

  * * *

  On the western slope of the Gangrek Mounts a woman descended a slim trail. It was no more than a rocky animal track occasionally used by locals to climb the mount for game or to collect firewood or plants. Her shirt was tattered, stained and worn to mere threads, while her skirt hung merely to her knees. Her hair was an unkempt cloud about her heart-shaped features. Yet she walked the trail with the assurance and ease of an experienced jungle tracker.

  Halfway down she stopped to peer back up the path. After a time another figure came descending behind. He came slowly as he used a sturdy stick as a crutch. One arm hung tied to his side, he dragged one foot, and a cloth was wrapped around his head covering one eye. His hair hung long and loose but did not completely hide the odd shape of the left side of his head. He wore the torn and hard-travelled robes of a Thaumaturg.

  The young woman took his arm to help him down the more difficult sections of the steep track. He offered her a strange one-sided smile that made her blush and turn her face away. As the trail levelled she kept his arm to walk along beside him.

  Together, they retraced their steps back into Thaumaturg territory. They were returning because someone had to rebuild, and if they did not others would. She had a reborn faith to guide and shape anew and he would do all he could to clear its way into the world.

  * * *

  Far off on the eastern coast of Jacuruku, a gentle surf kissed a stretch of desert strand. A dense jungle verge crowded the shore. The empty sands descended steeply to the sapphire waves. Above, clear blue sky echoed the pale blue of the shallow waters. White seabirds hovered and gave their harsh calls in the weak wind. Crabs searched among the foam and cast-up seaweed.

  A man came staggering out of the jungle to stand weaving drunkenly and blinking in the bright sunlight. A shirt hung from him in tatters, as did his trousers. Sores, bites and scratches dotted his limbs. His beard and hair were ragged and filthy. Another emerged, no different from the first. He, too, stopped as if dumbfounded, or completely uncertain of what to do next.

  A giant emerged next. It carried a man in its stone arms that it gently set down to stand in the sands. This man tapped a blackwood rod chased in silver to his shoulder while he stood staring out to sea.

  More men, a bare few handfuls, came staggering out to fall or sit in the sands and stare wordlessly at the bright leagues of empty sea. A scrawny old man wearing only a loincloth came limping from the jungle. He carried a bag over one shoulder and he walked down to the man holding the blackwood rod.

  After studying the sea for a time, Principal Scribe Thorn turned to his commander, Master Golan, and said, ‘Congratulations, Golan the Great.’

  Master Golan blinked as if coming out of a dream and peered down at his scribe. ‘I’m sorry,’ he croaked. ‘Congratulations?’

  ‘The Army of Righteous Chastisement has emerged triumphant, m’lord. It has crushed the jungle into abasement. Dealt it a final decisive blow! Your march has proved victorious.’

  ‘You will write that down, won’t you?’

  ‘Of course!’

  The old man, all skin and bones, his hair standing as a thinning white rim about his skull, bent his head down to search within the loose bag. He searched, then searched again, becoming more and more agitated. Finally, he pulled the bag from his side and overturned it, waving and flapping it. A single sheet flew free to flutter out over the waves and disappear into the distance.

  Golan watched it fly off. ‘Nothing important, I trust,’ he offered, rather drily. He peered curiously at the empty bag. ‘Misplaced your records? What has become of them?’

  ‘Food has been rather scarce of late,’ Principal Scribe Thorn confessed, looking guilty.

  Golan studied the man, frowning. ‘My glorious campaign has disappeared down your gullet, been digested, and shat out your other end?’

  ‘I have merely done the job of the historians for them, m’lord.’

  Golan tilted his head, thinking about it, then nodded, conceding the point. ‘True enough, Principal Scribe. True enough. You have merely saved everyone a great deal of time.’

  ‘I do try to serve in my own small way.’ He suddenly raised a finger as if in inspiration. He yanked the nub of a quill from behind one blackened ear, licked the end, and poised it over the leather bag. ‘Your orders?’

  Golan looked to the surf, the blue sea rolling onward to the horizon. He rubbed his fingers across his brow – they came away slick with grime and sweat. He sighed heavily. ‘Second,’ he called in a raised voice.

  Shortly after this, Second in Command Waris emerged from the jungle verge. He wore a long stained shirt that was at one time the underpadding of leather armour. A weapon belt hung over one shoulder and he bore a scrap of cloth tied about his head. He came to Golan and saluted.

  ‘Second Waris,’ Golan began. Then he paused. He eyed the cloth on the man’s head. ‘Not regulation, I should think, Second.’

  ‘Keeps the sun off, sir,’ the man replied, his voice flat.

  Still a man of few words. Somehow reassuring, that. Golan cleared his throat. ‘We will camp here. Perhaps there are foodstuffs that the troops may collect. On the morrow we head north around the coast. Eventually we will reach our borders.’

  Waris bowed and headed off to convey the orders.

  Golan started pacing the shore, slowly, meditatively. He held the blackwood Rod of Execution behind his back in both hands, tapping it with his thumbs.

  Principal Scribe Thorn followed behind. He licked the quill and began scratching on the bag. He mouthed as he walked: ‘Having utterly crushed the jungle leagues of Jacuruku, Golan the Great vanquishes the Eastern Ocean then casts his victor’s eyes onward to new conquests! He orders the beginning of a grand new campaign against the Northern Wastes. The glorious Army of Righteous Chastisement springs to its feet to follow its inspiring leader onward to new triumphs no doubt as rewarding and glorious as those they have known…’

  Master Golan suddenly halted. He raised his face to the clear sky while exhaling mightily through clenched teeth. He raised the Rod of Execution, then regarded the surf restlessly surging up the steep strand. For a moment it appeared as if he were considering throwing the baton into the sea. He lowered it, however, and turned to study the bedraggled survivors of his army as they slumped down together to sit listless and exhausted, staring out at the vast unbroken horizon before them.

  His gaze fell to Principal Scribe Thorn who watched him expectantly, quill poised. He wiped the back of his hand across his eyes, blinking, then quickly turned his face out to sea. After a time he murmured, as if more to himself: ‘You are right, Thorn. Posterity will wonder at your perspicacity. You have assured my due place in history.’

  The scribe swallowed, his bulging Adam’s apple bobbing. ‘It is my duty, Master Golan.’

  GLOSSARY

  Elder Races

  Tiste Andii: Children of Darkness

  Tiste Edur: Children of Shadow

  Tiste Liosan: Children of Light

  Imass: an ancient race of which only the undead army, the T’lan Imass, remain

  Trell: an ancient race of nomadic pastoralists

  Jaghut: an ancient race of recluses

  Thelomen / Toblakai: an ancient race, pre-agriculturalists

  The Warrens

  Kurald Galain: The Elder Warren of Darkness, Elder Night

  Kurald Emurlahn: The Elder Warren of Shadow, Elder Shadow

  Kurald Thyrllan: The Elder Warren of Light: Elder Light, also known as Liosan

  Omtose Phellack: The Elder Jaghut Warren of Ice

  Tellann: The Elder Imass Warren of Fire

  Starvald Demelain: The Eleint Warren

  Thyr: The Path of Light

  Denul: The Path of Healing

  Hood’s Path: The Path of Death

  Serc: The Path of the Sky

  Meanas: The Path of Shadow and Illusion

  D’riss: The Path
of the Earth

  Ruse: The Path of the Sea

  Rashan: The Path of Darkness

  Mockra: The Path of the Mind

  Telas: The Path of Fire

  Terms and Places

  The Adwami: the nomadic tribes of southern Jacuruku

  Agon: an order of priests for whom good and evil are illusions

  Ammanas: also known as Shadowthrone, ruler of the Shadow Realm

  Anditi Pura: capital city of the Thaumaturgs

  Chanar Keep: a ruined keep in the Gangrek Mounts on the border of Himatan

  The Dolmens of Tien: site of an ancient ‘Chaining’ of the Crippled God

  High King / God-King: ancient title of legendary ruler of most of Jacuruku, Kallor

  Himatan: an enchanted jungle said to be ruled by Ardata

  Isana Pura: southern capital of the Thaumaturgs

  Isturé: a term for the Avowed that extends to the Disavowed as well

  Jakal Viharn: rumoured great city in the jungle, ‘city of gold’, paved in jewels

  Khun-Sen: an old general, once ruler of Chanar Keep

  The Meckros: name for floating cities and the people who occupy them

  The Nak-ta: the restless dead of Jacuruku

  Phalam: a unit within the Thaumaturg army, roughly equivalent to a squad

  The Shaduwam: shaman-like priests of southern Jacuruku

  Thaumaturgs / Theurgists: ruling mages of a nation in Jacuruku

  The Yakshaka: their statue-like stone soldiers, manufactured by alchemy and magery

  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.

  BLOOD AND BONE

  Copyright © 2012 by Ian Cameron Esslemont

  All rights reserved.

  Originally published in Great Britain by Bantam Press, an imprint of Transworld Publishers

  Map credit: Neil Gower

  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.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Esslemont, Ian C. (Ian Cameron)

  Blood and bone : a novel of the Malazan Empire / Ian C. Esslemont. — 1st U.S. Ed.

  p. cm.

  “A Tom Doherty Associates book.”

  ISBN 978-0-7653-2997-4 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-0-7653-3001-7 (trade pbk.)

  ISBN 978-1-4299-4363-5 (e-book)

  1. Fantasy fiction. I. Title.

  PS3605.S684B57 2013

  813'.6—dc23

  2012049552

  First U.S. Edition: May 2013

  eISBN 9781429943635

  First eBook edition: April 2013

  ASSAIL

  A NOVEL OF THE MALAZAN EMPIRE

  Ian C. Esslemont

  A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK

  NEW YORK

  This one is for the old gaming gang at the University of Manitoba: Doug and Doug, Jeff, Oliver, Grant, Ron, Martin, Henry, Craig, Laurence, Neil, Shurjeel and Arne.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I wish to offer my gratitude to my advance readers for their observations and comments, Sharon Sasaki and A. P. Canavan. You helped more than you think.

  I give my love to my wife, Gerri Brightwell, without whose support and understanding this novel, and those preceding it, would never have been possible.

  And to you Malaz readers. It has been a privilege to unveil these stories. I hope you have enjoyed them as much as I.

  DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  The Lady’s Luck

  Kyle

  Given name, Kylarral-ten, of Bael lands, south of Assail

  Tulan Orbed

  Master of the Lady’s Luck

  Reuth

  Ship’s navigator, and Tulan’s nephew

  Storval

  First Mate

  Gren

  Steersman

  In the North

  Orman

  Son of Orman Bregin

  Old Bear

  A legendary man of the mountains

  Keth and Kasson

  The Reddin brothers

  Gerrun

  Also known as Shortshanks

  King Ronal

  Also known as ‘King Ronal the Bastard’

  Lotji Bain

  Nephew of Jorgan Bain

  Of the Iceblood Holdings

  The Sayers

  Buri

  Legendary elder of the clan

  Jaochim

  Master of the clan

  Yrain

  Mistress of the clan

  Vala

  Sister to Yrain

  Jass

  Son of Vala

  Bernal Heavyhand

  A clan retainer, or hearthguard

  The Heels

  Cull Heel

  Also known as Cull the Kind

  Yullveig

  Wife of Cull, also known as Yullveig the Fierce

  Erta

  Daughter of Cull and Yullveig

  Baran

  Son of Cull and Yullveig

  The Overland Raiders

  Marshal Teal

  A Letherii aristocrat

  Enguf the Broad

  A Genabackan pirate

  Malle of Gris

  A Malazan aristocrat

  Holden of Cawn

  A mage of Serc

  Alca of Cat

  A mage of Telas

  The Sea Raiders

  The Sea Strike

  Burl Tardin

  Captain

  Whellen

  First Mate

  Gaff

  Second Mate

  The Silver Dawn

  Jute Hernan

  Captain

  Ieleen

  Navigator, wife of Jute

  Lurjen

  Steersman

  Buen

  First Mate

  Letita

  Master of weapons

  Dulat

  A sailor

  The Resolute

  Tyvar Gendarian

  Commander of the Blue Shields and Mortal Sword of Togg

  Haagen Vantall

  Steward of the Blue Shields

  The Ragstopper

  Cartheron Crust

  Captain

  Orothos

  First Mate

  The Supplicant

  Timmel Orosenn

  Also known as the Primogenitrix, ruler of the island of Umryg

  Velmar

  Priest and servant to Lady Orosenn

  The T’lan Imass

  The Kerluhm

  Ut’el Anag

  Bonecaster

  Lanas Tog

  The Ifayle

  Tolb Bell’al

  Bonecaster

  The Kron

  Pran Chole

  Bonecaster

  The Crimson Guard

  K’azz D’Avore

  Commander

  Shimmer

  Second-in-command

  Blues

  New captain of the Second Company

  Tarkhan

  Captain of the Third Company

  Bars

  Also known as ‘Iron Bars’, formerly of the Fourth Company

  Cowl

  High Mage and Master Assassin

  Gwynn

  A mage

  Petal

  A mage

  Black the Elder

  Black the Lesser

  Sept

  Cole

  Amatt

  Lean

  Keel

  Turgal

  The Crimson Guard Fourth Company

  Cal-Brinn

  Captain and mage

  Jup Alat

  Lieutenant

  Laurel

  Leena

  Of Mael’s Greetings

  Ghelath Keer

  Master
<
br />   Havvin

  Ship’s pilot

  Levin

  Apprentice pilot

  Others

  Silverfox

  The ‘Summoner’ created to end the T’lan Imass war

  Luthal Canar

  Representative of the Canar trading house, of Lether

  Lyan

  A female warrior from north Genabackis, a Shieldmaiden

  Dorrin

  King in exile of Anklos, Lyan’s ward

 

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