The Complete Malazan Book of the Fallen (402 page)

Lostara stared down at the threshold. Somewhat obscured, but discernible none the less.
Dragons
. ‘I can make out at least three sets,' she said after a moment.

‘More like six, maybe more. Those two sets'—he pointed—‘were the last to leave. Big bastards. Well, that answers the question of who, or what, was capable of subduing the Otataral Dragon. Other dragons, of course. Even so, it could not have been easy.'

‘Thyr, you said. Can we use it?'

‘Oh, I imagine so.'

‘Well, what are we waiting for?'

He shrugged. ‘Follow me, then.'

Staying close, she fell in step behind him.

They strode through the gate.

And stumbled into a realm of gold fire.

Wild storms on all horizons, a raging, blinding sky.

They stood on a scorched patch of glittering crystals, the past passage of immense heat having burnished the sharp-edged stones with myriad colours. Other such patches were visible here and there.

Immediately before them rose a pillar, shaped like an elongated pyramid, withered and baked, with only the surface facing them dressed smooth. Words in an unknown language had been carved on it.

The air was searing in Lostara's lungs, and she was sodden with sweat.

But it was, for the moment, survivable.

Pearl walked up to the pillar.

‘We have to get out of here!' Lostara shouted.

The firestorms were deafening, but she was certain he heard her, and chose to ignore it.

Lostara rarely tolerated being ignored. She strode after him. ‘Listen to me!'

‘Names!' He spun to her. ‘The names! The ones who imprisoned the Otataral Dragon! They're all here!'

A growing roar caught her attention, and she turned to face right—to see a wall of flame rolling towards them.

‘Pearl!'

He looked, visibly blanched. Stepped back—and his foot skidded out from beneath him, dropping him hard onto his backside. Blankly, he reached down under him, and when he brought his gloved hand back up, it was slick with blood.

‘Did you—'

‘No!' He clambered upright—and now they both saw the blood-trail, cutting crossways over the patch, vanishing into the flames on the other side.

‘Something's in trouble!' Pearl said.

‘So are we if we don't get moving!'

The firestorm now filled half the sky—the heat—

He grasped her arm and they plunged around the pillar—

—into a glittering cavern. Where blood had sprayed, gouted out to paint walls and ceiling, and where the shattered pieces of a desiccated warrior lay almost at their feet.

A T'lan Imass.

Lostara stared down at it. Rotted wolf fur the colour of the desert, a broken bone-hafted double-bladed axe of reddish-brown flint almost entirely obscured beneath a pool of blood. Whatever it had attacked had struck back. The warrior's chest was crushed flat. Both arms had been torn off at the shoulders. And the T'lan Imass had been decapitated. A moment's search found the head, lying off to one side.

‘Pearl—let's get out of here.'

He nodded. Then hesitated.

‘Now what?'

‘Your favourite question,' he muttered. Then he scrambled over to collect the severed head. Faced her once more. ‘All right. Let's go.'

The strange cave blurred, then vanished.

And they were standing on a sun-bleached rock shelf, overlooking a stony basin that had once known a stream.

Pearl grinned over at her. ‘Home.' He held up the ghastly head before him and spoke to it. ‘I know you can hear me, T'lan Imass. I'll find for you the crotch of a tree for your final resting place, provided I get some answers.'

The warrior's reply was strangely echoing, the voice thick and halting. ‘What is it you wish to know?'

Pearl smiled. ‘That's better. First off, your name.'

‘Olar Shayn, of the Logros T'lan Imass. Of Ibra Gholan's clan. Born in the Year of the Two-Headed Snake—'

‘Olar Shayn. What in Hood's name were you doing in that warren? Who were you trying to kill?'

‘We did not try; we succeeded. The wounds delivered were mortal. It will die, and my kin pursue to witness.'

‘It? What, precisely?'

‘A false god. I know no more than that. I was commanded to kill it. Now, find for me a worthy place of rest, mortal.'

‘I will. As soon as I find a tree.'

Lostara wiped sweat from her brow, then went over to sit on a boulder. ‘It doesn't need a tree, Pearl,' she said, sighing. ‘This ledge should do.'

The Claw swung the severed head so that it faced the basin and the vista beyond. ‘Is this pleasing enough, Olar Shayn?'

‘It is. Tell me your name, and you shall know my eternal gratitude.'

‘Eternal? I suppose that's not an exaggeration either, is it? Well, I am Pearl, and my redoubtable companion is Lostara Yil. Now, let's find a secure place for you, shall we?'

‘Your kindness is unexpected, Pearl.'

‘Always is and always will be,' he replied, scanning the ledge.

Lostara stared at her companion, surprised at how thoroughly her sentiments matched those of the T'lan Imass. ‘Pearl, do you know precisely where we are?'

He shrugged. ‘First things first, lass. I'd appreciate it if you allowed me to savour my merciful moment. Ah! Here's the spot, Olar Shayn!'

Lostara closed her eyes. From ashes and dust…to sand. At least it was home. Now, all that remained was finding the trail of a Malazan lass who vanished months ago. ‘Nothing to it,' she whispered.

‘Did you say something, lass?'

She opened her eyes and studied him where he crouched anchoring stones around the undead warrior's severed head. ‘You don't know where we are, do you?'

He smiled. ‘Is this a time, do you think, for some creative conjecture?'

Thoughts of murder flashed through her, not for the first time.

Fifteen hundred desert warriors had assembled at the southern edge of the ruined city, their white horses ghostly through the clouds of amber dust, the glint of chain vests and scaled hauberks flashing dully every now and then from beneath golden telabas. Five hundred spare mounts accompanied the raiders.

Korbolo Dom stood near Sha'ik and Ghost Hands atop a weathered platform that had once been the foundation of a temple or public building of some sort, allowing them a clear view of the assembling warriors.

The Napan renegade watched, expressionless, as Leoman of the Flails rode up for a last word with the Chosen One. He himself would not bother with any false blessings, for he would much prefer that Leoman never return. And if he must, then not in triumph in any case. And though his scarred face revealed nothing, he well knew that Leoman entertained no delusions about Korbolo's feelings for him.

They were allies only in so far as they both served Sha'ik. And even that was far less certain than it might have outwardly seemed. Nor did the Malazan believe that the Chosen One was deluded as to the spite and enmity that existed between her generals. Her ignorance existed solely in the plans that were slowly, incrementally settling into place to achieve her own demise. Of that Korbolo was certain.

Else she would have acted long before now.

Leoman reined in before the platform. ‘Chosen One! We set out now, and
when we return we shall bring you word of the Malazan army. Their disposition. Their rate of march—'

‘But not,' Sha'ik cut in sternly, ‘their mettle. No engagements, Leoman. The first blooding of her army will be here. By my hand.'

Mouth pressing into a thin line, Leoman nodded, then he said, ‘Tribes will have conducted raids on them, Chosen One. Likely beginning a league beyond the walls of Aren. They will have already been blooded—'

‘I cannot see such minor exchanges as making a difference either way,' Sha'ik replied. ‘Those tribes are sending their warriors here—they arrive daily. Your forces would be the largest she would have to face—and I will not have that. Do not argue this point again, Leoman, else I forbid you to leave Raraku!'

‘As you say, Chosen One,' Leoman grated. His startling blue eyes fixed on Ghost Hands. ‘If you require anything, old man, seek out Mathok.'

Korbolo's brows rose.

‘An odd thing to say,' Sha'ik commented. ‘Ghost Hands is under
my
protection, after all.'

‘Minor requirements only, of course,' Leoman said, ‘such as might prove distracting, Chosen One. You have an army to ready, after all—'

‘A task,' Korbolo cut in, ‘which the Chosen One has entrusted in me, Leoman.'

The desert warrior simply smiled. Then he collected his reins. ‘May the Whirlwind guard you, Chosen One.'

‘And you, Leoman.'

The man rode back to his waiting horse warriors.

May your bones grow white and light as feathers, Leoman of the Flails
. Korbolo swung to Sha'ik. ‘He will disobey you, Chosen One.'

‘Of course he will.'

The Napan blinked, then his gaze narrowed. ‘Then it would be madness to yield the wall of sand to him.'

She faced him, her eyes questioning. ‘Do you fear the Adjunct's army, then? Have you not said to me again and again how superior you have made our forces? In discipline, in ferocity? This is not Onearm's Host you will be facing. It is a shaky mass of recruits, and even should they have known hardening in a minor engagment or two, what chance have they against your Dogslayers? As for the Adjunct…leave her to me. Thus, what Leoman does with his fifteen hundred desert wolves is, in truth, without relevance. Or are you now revising all your opinions, Korbolo Dom?'

‘Of course not, Chosen One. But a wolf like Leoman should remain leashed.'

‘Leashed? The word you'd rather have used is
killed
. Not a wolf, but a mad dog. Well, he shall not be killed, and if indeed he is a mad dog then where better to send him than against the Adjunct?'

‘You are wiser in these ways than I, Chosen One.'

Ghost Hands snorted at that, and even Sha'ik smiled. The blood was suddenly hot in Korbolo's face.

‘Febryl awaits you in your tent,' Sha'ik said. ‘He grows impatient with your lateness, Korbolo Dom. You need not remain here any longer.'

From heat to ice. The Malazan did not trust himself to speak, and at the Chosen One's dismissive wave he almost flinched. After a moment, he managed to find his voice, ‘I had best find out what he wants, then,' he said.

‘No doubt he views it as important,' Sha'ik murmured. ‘It is a flaw among ageing men, I think, that brittle self-importance. I advise you to calm him, Korbolo Dom, and so slow his pounding heart.'

‘Sound advice, Chosen One.' With a final salute, Korbolo strode to the platform's steps.

 

Heboric sighed as the Napan's bootsteps faded behind them. ‘The poor bastard's been left reeling. Would you panic them into acting, then? With Leoman now gone? And Toblakai as well? Who is there left to trust, lass?'

‘Trust?' Do you imagine I trust anyone but myself, Heboric? Oh, perhaps Sha'ik Elder knew trust…in Leoman and Toblakai. But when they look upon me, they see an impostor—I can see that well enough, so do not attempt to argue otherwise.'

‘And what about me?' Heboric asked.

‘Ah, Ghost Hands, now we come to it, don't we? Very well, I shall speak plain. Do not leave. Do not leave me, Heboric. Not now. That which haunts you can await the conclusion of the battle to come. When that is done, I shall extend the power of the Whirlwind—back to the very edge of the Otataral Isle. Within that warren, your journey will be virtually effortless. Otherwise, wilful as you are, I fear you will not survive the long, long walk.'

He looked at her, though the effort earned him little more than a blur where she stood, enfolded in her white telaba. ‘Is there anything you do not know about, lass?'

‘Alas, far too much, I suspect. L'oric, for example. A true mystery, there. He seems able to fend off even the Whirlwind's Elder magic, evading my every effort to discern his soul. And yet he has revealed much to you, I think.'

‘In confidence, Chosen One. I am sorry. All I can offer you is this: L'oric is not your enemy.'

‘Well, that means more to me than you perhaps realize. Not my enemy. Does that make him my ally, then?'

Heboric said nothing.

After a moment, Sha'ik sighed. ‘Very well. He remains a mystery, then, in the most important of details. What can you tell me of Bidithal's explorations of his old warren? Rashan.'

He cocked his head. ‘Well, the answer to that, Chosen One, depends in part on your own knowledge. Of the goddess's warren—your Elder warren fragment that is the Whirlwind.'

‘Kurald Emurlahn.'

He nodded. ‘Indeed. And what do you know of the events that saw it torn apart?'

‘Little, except that its true rulers had ceased to exist, thus leaving it vulnerable. The relevant fact is this, however: the Whirlwind is the largest fragment in this realm. And its power is growing. Bidithal would see himself as its first—and
its penultimate—High Priest. What he does not understand is that there is no such role to be taken. I am the High Priestess. I am the Chosen One. I am the single mortal manifestation of the Whirlwind Goddess. Bidithal would enfold Rashan into the Whirlwind, or, conversely, use the Whirlwind to cleanse the Shadow Realm of its false rulers.' She paused, and Heboric sensed her shrug. ‘Those false rulers once commanded the Malazan Empire. Thus. We are all here, preparing for a singular confrontation. Yet what each of us seeks from that battle is at odds. The challenge, then, is to cajole all those disparate motives into one, mutually triumphant effect.'

‘That,' Heboric breathed, ‘is quite a challenge, lass.'

‘And so I need you, Ghost Hands. I need the secret you possess—'

‘Of L'oric I can say nothing—'

‘Not
that
secret, old man. No, the secret I seek lies in your
hands
.'

He started. ‘My hands?'

‘That giant of jade you touched—it is defeating the otataral. Destroying it. I need to discover how. I need an answer to otataral, Heboric.'

‘But Kurald Emurlahn is Elder, Sha'ik—the Adjunct's sword—'

‘Will annihilate the advantage I possess in my High Mages. Think! She knows she can't negate the Whirlwind with her sword…so she will not even try! No, instead she will challenge my High Mages. Remove them from the field. She will seek to isolate me—'

‘But if she cannot defeat the Whirlwind, what does that matter?'

‘Because the Whirlwind, in turn, cannot defeat her!'

Heboric was silent. He had not heard this before, but after a moment's thought, it began to make sense. Kurald Emurlahn might be Elder, but it was also in pieces. Weakened, riven through with Rashan—a warren that was indeed vulnerable to the effects of otataral. The power of the Adjunct's sword and that of Sha'ik's Whirlwind Goddess would effectively cancel each other out.

Leaving the outcome in the hands of the armies themselves. And there, the otataral would cut through the sorcery of the High Mages.
In turn leaving it all to Korbolo Dom. And Korbolo knows it, and he has his own ambitions. Gods, lass, what a mess
. ‘Alas, Chosen One,' he muttered, ‘I cannot help you, for I do not know why the otataral in me is failing. I have, however, a warning. The power of the jade giant is not one to be manipulated. Not by me, nor by you. If the Whirlwind Goddess seeks to usurp it, she will do more than suffer in the attempt—she will likely get obliterated.'

‘Then we must win knowledge without yielding an opportunity.'

‘And how in Hood's name do you propose achieving that?'

‘I would you give me the answer to that, Heboric.'

Me?
‘Then we are lost. I have no control over that alien power. I have no understanding of it at all!'

‘Perhaps not yet,' she replied, with a chilling confidence in her voice. ‘But you grow ever closer, Heboric. Every time you partake of hen'bara tea.'

The tea? That which you gave me so that I might escape my nightmares? Calling upon Sha'ik Elder's knowledge of the desert, you said. A gift of compassion, I
thought. A gift
…He felt something crumbling inside him.
A fortress in the desert of my heart, I should have known it would be a fortress of sand
.

He swung away, made insensate by layer upon layer of blindness. Numbed to the outside world, to whatever Sha'ik was now saying, to the brutal heat of the sun overhead.

Stay?

He felt no longer able to leave.

Chains. She has made for me a house of chains…

 

Felisin Younger came to the edge of the pit and looked down. The sun had left the floor, leaving naught but darkness below. There was no glimmer of hearthlight, confirming that no-one had come to take up residence in Leoman's abode.

A scraping sound nearby made her turn. Toblakai's once-slavemaster had crawled into view around a wall foundation. His sun-blistered skin was caked in dust and excrement, the stumps at the ends of his arms and legs weeping a yellow, opaque liquid. The first signs of leprosy marred his joints at elbow and knee. Red-rimmed eyes fixed on Felisin and the man offered a blackened smile. ‘Ah, child. See me your humble servant. Mathok's warrior—'

‘What do you know of that?' she demanded.

The smile broadened. ‘I bring word. See me your humble servant. Everyone's humble servant. I have lost my name, did you know that? I knew it once, but it has fled me. My mind. But I do what I am told. I bring word. Mathok's warrior. He cannot meet you here. He would not be seen. You understand? There, across the plaza, in the sunken ruin. He awaits.'

Well, she considered, the secrecy made sense. Their escape from the camp demanded it, although Heboric Ghost Hands was by far the one most likely to be under surveillance. And he had gone into his tent days ago and refused all visitors. Even so, she appreciated Mathok's caution.

Though she had not known that Toblakai's slavemaster was a part of their conspiracy. ‘The sunken temple?'

‘Yes, there. See me your humble servant. Go. He awaits.'

She set out across the flagstoned plaza. Hundreds of the camp's destitute had settled here, beneath palm-frond shelters, making no efforts at organization—the expanse reeked of piss and faeces, streams of the foul mess flowing across the stones. Hacking coughs, mumbled entreaties and blessings followed her as she made her way towards the ruin.

The temple's foundation walls were hip high; within, a steep set of stone stairs led down to the subterranean floor. The sun's angle had dipped sufficiently to render the area below in darkness.

Felisin halted at the top of the stairs and peered down, seeking to penetrate the gloom. ‘Are you there?' she called.

A faint sound from the far end. The hint of movement.

She descended.

The sandy floor was still warm. Groping, she edged forward.

Less than ten paces from the back wall and she could finally make him out. He was seated with his back to the stone. The gleam of a helm, scale armour on his chest.

‘We should wait for night,' Felisin said, approaching. ‘Then make our way to Ghost Hands's tent. The time has come—he can hide no longer. What is your name?'

There was no reply.

Something black and smothering rose up to clamp over her mouth, and she was lifted from the ground. The blackness flowed like serpents around her, pinning her arms and binding her thrashing legs. A moment later she hung motionless, suspended slightly above the sandy floor.

A gnarled fingertip brushed her cheek and her eyes widened as a voice whispered in her ear. ‘Sweetest child. Mathok's fierce warrior felt Rashan's caress a short while ago, alas. Now, there is only me. Only humble Bidithal, here to welcome you. Here to drink all pleasure from your precious body, leaving naught but bitterness, naught but dead places within. It is necessary, you understand.' His wrinkled hands were stroking, plucking, pinching, pawing her. ‘I take no unsavoury pleasure in what I must do. The children of the Whirlwind must be riven barren, child, to make of them perfect reflections of the goddess herself—oh, you did not know that, did you? The goddess cannot create. Only destroy. The source of her fury, no doubt. So it must be with her children. My duty. My task. There is naught for you to do now but surrender.'