The Bonehunters

by Steven Erikson

  Well, there could be worse things in this life. He thought back on those soldiers he'd seen with the fiercest burns — gods how they had screamed their pain.

  Keneb stared at the city. And hated it with all his soul.

  The dog Bent arrived to lie down beside him. A moment later Grub appeared. 'Father, do you know what will come of this? Do you?'

  'Come of what, Grub?'

  The boy pointed at Y'Ghatan with one bare, soot-stained arm. 'She wants us to leave. As soon as we can.' He then pointed towards the morning sun. 'It's the plague, you see, in the east. So. We're marching west. To find the ships. But I already know the answer. To find what's inside us, you got to take everything else away, you see?'

  'No, Grub. I don't see.'

  The Hengese lapdog, Roach, scrambled into view, sniff­ing the ground. Then it began digging, as if in a frenzy. Dust engulfed it.

  'Something's buried,' Grub said, watching Roach.

  'I imagine there is.'

  'But she won't see that.' The boy looked up at Keneb. 'Neither will you.'

  Grub ran off, Bent loping at his side. The lapdog kept digging, making snuffling, snorting sounds.

  Keneb frowned, trying to recall what Grub had said earlier — was it the night of the breach? Before the fated order went out? Had there been a warning hidden in the lad's words? He couldn't remember — the world before the fire seemed to have burned away to nothing in his mind. It had been a struggle to conjure up the names of his wife, his children, their faces. I don't understand. What has happened to me

  ****

  In the command tent, the Adjunct stood facing Nil and Nether. Fist Blistig watched from near the back wall, so exhausted he could barely stand. Tavore had placed him in charge of the healing — setting up the hospitals, organizing the Denul healers, the witches and the warlocks. Two days and one or maybe one and a half nights — he was not sure he could count the short chaotic time before the sun rose on the night of the breach. Without his officers that first night, he would have been relieved of command before dawn. His soul had been drowning in the pit of the Abyss.

  Blistig was not yet certain he had climbed back out.

  Nil was speaking, his voice a monotone, dulled by too long in the sorcery he had grown to hate. '... nothing but death and heat. Those who made it out — their agony deafens me — they are driving the spirits insane. They flee, snapping their bindings. They curse us, for this vast wound upon the land, for the crimes we have committed—'

  'Not our crimes,' the Adjunct cut in, turning away, her gaze finding Blistig. 'How many did we lose today, Fist?'

  'Thirty-one, Adjunct, but the witches say that few will follow, now. The worst are dead, the rest will live.'

  'Begin preparations for the march — have we enough wagons?'

  'Provided soldiers pack their own food for a while,' Blistig said. 'Speaking of which, some stores were lost —we'll end up chewing leather unless we can arrange a resupply.'

  'How long?'

  'A week, if we immediately begin rationing. Adjunct, where are we going?'

  Her eyes grew veiled for a moment, then she looked away. 'The plague is proving... virulent. It is the Mistress's own, I gather, the kiss of the goddess herself. And there is a shortage of healers...'

  'Lothal?'

  Nil shook his head. 'The city has already been struck, Fist.'

  'Sotka,' said the Adjunct. 'Pearl has informed me that Admiral Nok's fleet and the transports have been unable to dock in any city east of Ashok on the Maadil Peninsula, so he has been forced around it, and expects to reach Sotka in nine days, assuming he can draw in for water and food in Taxila or Rang.'

  'Nine days?' asked Blistig. 'If the plague's in Lothal already…'

  'Our enemy now is time,' the Adjunct said. 'Fist, you have orders to break camp. Do it as quickly as possible. The Rebellion is over. Our task now is to survive.' She studied Blistig for a moment. 'I want us on the road tonight.'

  'Tonight? Aye, Adjunct. I had best be on my way, then.' He saluted, then headed out. Outside, he halted, moment­arily blinking, then, recalling his orders, he set off.

  After Blistig's footsteps had trailed away, the Adjunct turned to Nether. 'The Mistress of Plague, Nether. Why now? Why here?'

  The Wickan witch snorted. 'You ask me to fathom the mind of a goddess, Adjunct? It is hopeless. She may have no reason. Plague is her aspect, after all. It is what she does.' She shook her head, said nothing more.

  'Adjunct,' Nil ventured, 'you have your victory. The Empress will be satisfied — she has to be. We need to rest—'

  'Pearl informs me that Leoman of the Flails is not dead.'

  Neither Wickan replied, and the Adjunct faced them once more. 'You both knew that, didn't you?'

  'He was taken... away,' Nil said. 'By a goddess.'

  'Which goddess? Poliel?'

  'No. The Queen of Dreams.'

  'The Goddess of Divination? What possible use could she have for Leoman of the Flails?'

  Nil shrugged.

  Outside the tent a rider reined in and a moment later Temul, dust-sheathed and dripping blood from three parallel slashes tracking the side of his face, strode in, dragging a dishevelled child with him. 'Found her, Adjunct,' he said.

  'Where?'

  'Trying to get back into the ruins. She has lost her mind.'

  The Adjunct studied the child, Sinn, then said, 'She had best find it again. I have need of High Mages. Sinn, look at me. Look at me.'

  She gave no indication of even hearing Tavore, her head still hanging down, ropes of burnt hair hiding her face.

  Sighing, the Adjunct said, 'Take her and get her cleaned up. And keep her under guard at all times — we will try this again later.'

  After they had left, Nil asked, 'Adjunct, do you intend to pursue Leoman? How? There is no trail to follow — the Queen of Dreams could have spirited him to another continent by now.'

  'No, we shall not pursue, but understand this, Wickan, while he yet lives there will be no victory in the eyes of the Empress. Y'Ghatan will remain as it always has been, a curse upon the empire.'

  'It will not rise again,' Nil said.

  Tavore studied him. 'The young know nothing of history. I am going for a walk. Both of you, get some rest.'

  She left.

  Nil met his sister's eyes, then smiled. 'Young? How easily she forgets.'

  'They all forget, brother.'

  'Where do you think Leoman has gone?'

  'Where else? Into the Golden Age, Nil. The glory that was the Great Rebellion. He strides the mists of myth, now. They will say he breathed fire. They will say you could see the Apocalypse in his eyes. They will say he sailed from Y'Ghatan on a river of Malazan blood.'

  'The locals believe Coltaine ascended, Nether. The new Patron of Crows—'

  'Fools. Wickans do not ascend. We just... reiterate.'

  ****

  Lieutenant Pores was awake, and he lifted his good hand to acknowledge his captain as Kindly halted at the foot of the camp cot.

  'They say your hand melted together, Lieutenant.'

  'Yes, sir. My left hand, as you see.'

  'They say they have done all they could, taken away the pain, and maybe one day they will manage to cut each finger free once again. Find a High Denul healer and make your hand look and work like new again.'

  'Yes, sir. And until then, since it's my shield hand, I should be able to—'

  'Then why in Hood's name are you taking up this cot, Lieutenant?'

  'Ah, well, I just need to find some clothes, then, sir, and I'll be right with you.'

  Kindly looked down the row of cots. 'Half this hospital is filled with bleating lambs — you up to being a wolf, Lieutenant? We march tonight. There's not enough wagons and, even more outrageous, not enough palanquins and no howdahs to speak of- what is this army coming to, I wonder?'

  'Shameful, sir. How does Fist Tene Baralta fare, sir?'

  'Lost that arm, but you don't hear him whining and fuss­ing
and moaning.'

  'No?'

  'Of course not, he's still unconscious. Get on your feet, soldier. Wear that blanket.'

  'I lost my arm torc, sir—'

  'You got the burn mark where it was, though, haven't you? They see that and they'll know you for an officer. That and your ferocious comportment.'

  'Yes, sir.'

  'Good, now enough of wasting my time. We've work to do, Lieutenant.'

  'Yes, sir.'

  'Lieutenant, if you remain lying there another heartbeat, I will fold that cot up with you in it, do you understand me?'

  'Yes, sir!'

  ****

  She sat unmoving, limbs limp as a doll's, while an old Wickan woman washed her down and another cut away most of her hair, and did not look up as Captain Faradan Sort entered the tent.

  'That will do,' she said, gesturing for the two Wickans to leave. 'Get out.'

  Voicing, in tandem, strings of what the captain took to be curses, the two women left.

  Faradan Sort looked down on the girl. 'Long hair just gets in the way, Sinn. You're better off without it. I don't miss mine at all. You're not talking, but I think I know what is going on. So listen. Don't say anything. Just listen to me...'

  ****

  The dull grey, drifting ash devoured the last light of the sun, while dust-clouds from the road drifted down into the cut banks to either side. Remnant breaths of the dead city still rolled over the Fourteenth Army — all that remained of the firestorm, yet reminder enough for the mass of soldiers awaiting the horn blasts that would announce the march.

  Fist Keneb lifted himself into the saddle, gathered the reins. All round him he could hear coughing, from human and beast alike, a terrible sound. Wagons, burdened with the cloth-swathed wounded, were lined up on the road like funeral carts, smoke-stained, flame-blackened and reeking of pyres. Among them, he knew, could be found Fist Tene Baralta, parts of his body burned away and his face horribly scarred — a Denul healer had managed to save his eyes, but the man's beard had caught fire, and most of his lips and nose were gone. The concern now was for his sanity, although he remained, mercifully, unconscious. And there were others, so many others...

  He watched Temul and two riders cantering towards him. The Wickan leader reined in, shaking his head. 'Nowhere to be found, Fist. It's no surprise — but know this: we've had other desertions, and we've tracked them all down. The Adjunct has issued the command to kill the next ones on sight.'

  Keneb nodded, looked away.

  'From now on,' Temul continued, 'my Wickans will not accept counter-orders from Malazan officers.'

  The Fist's head turned back and he stared at Temul. 'Fist, your Wickans are Malazans.'

  The young warrior grimaced, then wheeled his horse. 'They're your problem now, Fist. Send out searchers if you like, but the Fourteenth won't wait for them.'

  Even as he and his aides rode away, the horns sounded, and the army lurched into motion.

  Keneb rose in his saddle and looked around. The sun was down, now. Too dark to see much of anything. And some­where out there were Captain Faradan Sort and Sinn. Two deserters. That damned captain. I thought she was... well, I didn't think she'd do something like this.

  Y'Ghatan had broken people, broken them utterly — he did not think many would recover. Ever.

  The Fourteenth Army began its march, down the western road, towards the Sotka Fork, in its wake dust and ash, and a destroyed city.

  ****

  Her head was serpentine, the slitted, vertical eyes lurid green, and Balm watched her tongue slide in and out with fixed, morbid fascination. The wavy, ropy black tendrils of her hair writhed, and upon the end of each was a tiny human head, mouth open in piteous screams.

  Witch Eater, Thesorma Raadil, all bedecked in zebra skins, her four arms lifting this way and that, threatening with the four sacred weapons of the Dal Hon tribes. Bola, kout, hook-scythe and rock — he could never understand that: where were the more obvious ones? Knife? Spear? Bow? Who thought up these goddesses anyway? What mad, twisted, darkly amused mind conjured such monstrosities? Whoever it was — is — I hate him. Or her. Probably her. It's always her 'She's a witch, isn't she? No, Witch Eater. Likely a man, then, and one not mad or stupid after all. Someone has to eat all those witches.

  Yet she was advancing on him. Balm. A mediocre war­lock — no, a lapsed warlock — just a soldier, now, in fact. A sergeant, but where in Hood's name was his squad? The army? What was he doing on the savannah of his home­land? I ran from there, oh yes I did. Herd cattle? Hunt monstrous, vicious beasts and call it a fun pastime? Not for me. Oh no, not Balm. I've drunk enough bull blood to sprout horns, enough cow milk to grow udders — 'so you, Witch Eater, get away from me!'

  She laughed, the sound a predictable hiss, and said, 'I'm hungry for wayward warlocks—'

  'No! You eat witches! Not warlocks!'

  'Who said anything about eating?'

  Balm tried to get away, scrabbling, clawing, but there were rocks, rough walls, projections that snagged him. He was trapped. 'I'm trapped!'

  'Get away from him, you rutting snake!'

  A voice of thunder. Well, minute thunder. Balm lifted his head, looked round. A huge beetle stood within arm's reach — reared up on its hind legs, its wedge-shaped head would have been level with Balm's knees, could he stand. So, huge in a relative sense. Imparala Ar, the Dung God —'Imparala! Save me!'

  'Fear not, mortal,' the beetle said, antennae and limbs waving about. 'She'll not have you! No, I have need of you!'

  'You do? For what?'

  'To dig, my mortal friend. Through the vast dung of the world! Only your kind, human, with your clear vision, your endless appetite! You, conveyor of waste and maker of rubbish! Follow me, and we shall eat our way into the very Abyss itself!'

  'Gods, you stink!'

  'Never mind that, my friend — before too long you too—'

  'Leave him alone, the both of you!' A third voice, shrill, descending from above and closing fast. 'It's the dead and dying who cry out the truth of things!'

  Balm looked up. Brithan Troop, the eleven-headed vulture goddess. 'Oh, leave me alone! All of you!'

  From every side, now, a growing clamour of voices. Gods and goddesses, the whole Dal Honese menagerie of disgust­ing deities.

  Oh, why do we have so many of them?

  ****

  It was her sister, not her. She remembered, as clearly as if it had been yesterday, the night of lies that lumbered into the Itko Kanese village when the seas had been silent, empty, for too long. When hunger, no, starvation, had arrived, and all the civil, modern beliefs — the stately, just gods — were cast off once again. In the name of Awakening, the old grisly rites had returned.

  The fish had gone away. The seas were lifeless. Blood was needed, to stir the Awakening, to save them all.

  They'd taken her sister. Smiles was certain of it. Yet, here were the rough, salt-gnawed hands of the elders, carrying her drugged, insensate body down onto the wet sands — the tide drawn far back and waiting patiently for this warm gift – whilst she floated above herself, looking on in horror.

  All wrong. Not the way it had happened. They'd taken her twin sister — so much power in the Mirror Birth, after all, and so rare in the small village where she'd been born.

  Her sister. That was why she'd fled them all. Cursing every name, every face glimpsed that night. Running and running, all the way to the great city to the north — and, had she known what awaited her there...

  No, I'd do it again. I would. Those bastards. 'For the lives of everyone else, child, give up your own. This is the cycle, this is life and death, and that eternal path lies in the blood. Give up your own life, for the lives of all of us.'

  Odd how those priests never volunteered themselves for that glorious gift. How they never insisted that they be the ones tied and weighted down to await the tide's wash, and the crabs, the ever hungry crabs.

  And, if it was so damned blissful, why pour durhang oil d
own her throat, until her eyes were like black pearls and she couldn't even walk, much less think? Still less com­prehend what was happening, what they were planning to do to her?

  Drifting above the body of herself, Smiles sensed the old spirits drawing close, eager and gleeful. And, somewhere in the depths beyond the bay, waited the Eldest God. Mael himself, that feeder on misery, the cruel taker of life and hope.

  Rage rising within her, Smiles could feel her body strain­ing at the numbing turgid chains — she would not lie unmoving, she would not smile up when her mother kissed her one last time. She would not blink dreamily when the warm water stole over her, into her.

  Hear me! All you cursed spirits, hear me! I defy you!

  Oh yes, flinch back! You know well enough to fear, because I swear this — I will take you all down with me. I will take you all into the Abyss, into the hands of the demons of chaos. It's the cycle, you see. Order and chaos, a far older cycle than life and death, wouldn't you agree?

  So, come closer, all of you.

  In the end, it was as she had known. They'd taken her sister, and she, well, let's not be coy now, you delivered the last kiss, dear girl. And no durhang oil to soothe away the excuse, either.

  Running away never feels as fast, never as far, as it should.

  ****

  You could believe in whores. He had been born to a whore, a Seti girl of fourteen who'd been flung away by her parents — of course, she hadn't been a whore then, but to keep her new son fed and clothed, well, it was the clearest course before her.

  And he had learned the ways of worship among whores, all those women knitted close to his mother, sharing fears and everything else that came with the profession. Their touch had been kindly and sincere, the language they knew best.

  A half-blood could call on no gods. A half-blood walked the gutter between two worlds, despised by both.

  Yet he had not been alone, and in many ways it was the half-bloods who held closest to the traditional ways of the Seti. The full-blood tribes had gone off to wars — all the young lance warriors and the women archers — beneath the standard of the Malazan Empire. When they had returned, they were Seti no longer. They were Malazan.