The Malazan Empire Read online

  “Don’t quibble with words,” Dujek muttered. “Damn it, Fiddler, is that your sword lying over there? In a puddle?”

  Breath hissed between Fiddler’s teeth and he hurried over to the weapon.

  “The man’s a hopeless legend,” Dujek said. “Shedenul bless his hide.” He paused, seeming to reorder his thoughts. “OK, perish the thought, then. You didn’t kill Paran. So where is he?”

  “We’re looking,” Whiskeyjack said tonelessly.

  The High Fist sighed. “All right. Understood. You want to know who else might be wanting Paran dead, and that means explaining who sent him. Well, he’s Adjunct Lorn’s man, has been for some time. He’s not Claw, though. He’s a bloody noble’s son from Unta.”

  Fiddler had donned his weapon and now stood twenty paces away at the roof’s edge, hands on his hips. A good man. They’re all good, dammit. Whiskeyjack blinked the rain from his eyes. “From the capital? Could be someone in those circles. Nobody likes the old noble families, not even the nobles themselves.”

  “It’s possible,” Dujek conceded, without much conviction. “In any case, he’s to command your squad, and not for just this mission. The assignment’s permanent.”

  Whiskeyjack asked, “Is the Darujhistan infiltration his own idea?”

  The High Fist replied, “No, but whose it is is anybody’s guess. Maybe the Adjunct, maybe the Empress herself. So what all that means is we’re sending you in anyway.” He scowled briefly. “I’m to relay the final details to you.” He faced the sergeant. “Assuming Paran is gone for good.”

  “May I speak freely, High Fist?”

  Dujek barked a laugh. “You think I don’t know it, Whiskeyjack? The plan stinks. A tactical nightmare—”

  “I don’t agree.”

  “What?”

  “I think it will do just as it was intended to do,” the sergeant said dully, his gaze at first on the lightening eastern horizon, then on the soldier standing at the roof’s edge. Because it is intended to get us all killed.

  The High Fist studied the sergeant’s face, then he said, “Come with me.” He led Whiskeyjack over to where Fiddler stood. The sapper gave them a nod. A moment later all three stood looking down on the city. Pale’s ill-lit streets wound between the rough blocks of buildings that seemed unwilling to yield the night; behind curtains of rain their squatting silhouettes appeared to shiver before the coming dawn.

  After a while, Dujek said quietly, “Damned lonely out here, isn’t it?”

  Fiddler grunted. “That it is, sir.”

  Whiskeyjack closed his eyes. Whatever was happening thousands of leagues away was being played out here. Such was Empire, and it always would be, no matter the place or the people. They were all instruments blind to the hands shaping them. The sergeant had faced that truth long ago. It had galled him then and it galled him now. The only relief, these days, seemed to come with exhaustion.

  “There’s pressure,” the High Fist continued slowly, “to disband the Bridgeburners. I’ve already received the order to merge the Second with the Fifth and Sixth. We’ll stand as the Fifth, near full complement. The tides are bringing new waters to our shore, gentlemen, and they smell bitter.” He hesitated, then said, “If you and your squad come out of Darujhistan alive, Sergeant, you have my permission just to walk.”

  Whiskeyjack’s head snapped around and Fiddler stiffened.

  Dujek nodded. “You heard me. And as for the rest of the Bridgeburners, well, rest easy that I’ll take care of them.” The High Fist glanced eastward, baring his teeth in a humorless grin. “They’re pushing me. But there’s no way in hell they’re going to leave me with no room to manoeuvre. I’ve got ten thousand soldiers I owe a lot to—”

  “Excuse me, sir,” Fiddler cut in, “there’s ten thousand soldiers saying they’re the ones owing. You say the word and—”

  “Quiet,” Dujek warned.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Whiskeyjack remained silent, his thoughts a whirling maelstrom. Desertion. That word rang in his head like a dirge. And Fiddler’s assertion was, he felt, a true one. If High Fist Dujek decided it was time to make a move, the last place Whiskeyjack wanted to be was on the run hundreds of leagues away from the center of things. He was too close to Dujek, and though they strove to hide it, the history between them ever churned beneath the surface. There’d been a time when Dujek had called him “sir,” and though Whiskeyjack held no grudges he knew that Dujek still had trouble accepting the change of fortunes. If the time came, Whiskeyjack intended to be at Onearm’s side.

  “High Fist,” he said at last, aware that both men had been waiting for him to speak, “there’s still a few Bridgeburners left. Fewer hands on the sword. But the sword’s still sharp. It’s not our style to make life easy for those who oppose us—whoever they happen to be. To just quietly walk away . . .” The sergeant sighed. “Well, that’d suit them, wouldn’t it? While there’s a hand on the sword, a single hand, the Bridgeburners won’t back down. It settles on honor, I guess.”

  “I hear you,” Dujek said. Then he grunted. “Well, here they come.”

  Whiskeyjack looked up, followed the High Fist’s gaze into the eastern sky.

  Quick Ben cocked his head, then hissed through his teeth. “The Hounds have caught his trail,” he said.

  Kalam cursed vehemently, surging to his feet.

  Sitting on the bed, Tattersail frowned bleary-eyed at the bearish man as he paced, his footsteps on the floorboards barely raising a creak. Big as he was, Kalam seemed to glide, giving the scene an almost surreal feel, with the wizard cross-legged and hovering a few inches off the wooden floor in the room’s center.

  Tattersail realized she was exhausted. Too much was happening, and it was happening all at once. She shook herself mentally and returned her attention to Quick Ben.

  The wizard was linked to Hairlock, and the marionette had been on someone’s—something’s— trail, which led down into the Warren of Shadow. Hairlock had reached the very gates of the Shadow Realm, and then he had gone beyond.

  For a time Quick Ben had lost contact with the puppet, and those long minutes of silence had left everyone’s nerves in tatters. When Hairlock’s presence returned to the wizard he no longer moved alone.

  “He’s coming out,” Quick Ben announced. “Shifting Warrens. With Oponn’s luck he’ll lose the Hounds.”

  Tattersail winced at the wizard’s casual use of the Fool’s name. With so many currents swirling so close beneath the surface it might well call unwelcome attention to them.

  Weariness hung heavy in the room like bitter incense, redolent with sweat and tension. After his last words Quick Ben had bowed his head. Tattersail knew his mind now traveled the Warrens, clinging to Hairlock’s shoulder with an unbreakable grip.

  Kalam’s pacing brought him before the sorceress. He stopped and faced her. “What about Tayschrenn?” he asked gruffly, his hands twitching.

  “He knows something has happened. He’s hunting, but the quarry eludes him.” She smiled up at the assassin. “I feel him moving cautiously. Very cautiously. For all he knows, the quarry might be a rabbit, or a wolf.”

  Kalam’s expression remained grim. “Or a Hound,” he muttered, then resumed his pacing.

  Tattersail stared at him. Was this what Hairlock was doing? Drawing a Hound after him? Were they all leading Tayschrenn into a deadly ambush? “I trust not,” she said, her eyes hardening on the assassin. “That would be foolish.”

  Kalam ignored her, pointedly avoiding her gaze.

  Tattersail rose. “Not foolish. Insane. Do you realize what could be unleashed here? Some believe the Hounds are more ancient than the Shadow Realm itself. But it’s not just them—power draws power. If one Ascendant parts the fabric here and now, others will come, smelling blood. Come the dawn every mortal in this city could be dead.”

  “Easy, lady,” Kalam said. “Nobody wants a Hound loosed in the city. I spoke from fear.” He still would not look at her.

  The assassin’s
admission startled Tattersail. It was shame that kept his eyes from her. Fear was an admission of weakness. “For Hood’s Sake,” she sighed, “I’ve been sitting on a pillow for the past two hours.”

  That caught him. He stopped, faced her, then laughed.

  It was a deep, smooth laugh, and it pleased her immensely.

  The bedroom door opened and Mallet entered the room, his round face shiny and flushed. The healer glanced briefly at Quick Ben, then walked to Tattersail, where he crouched down in front of her. “By all rights,” he said quietly, “Captain Paran should be in an Officer’s Hole with five feet of mud on his pretty face.” He nodded to Kalam, who had joined them. “The first wound was fatal, up under his heart. A professional thrust,” he added, with a meaningful look at the assassin. “The second would have done him more slowly, but no less certain.”

  Kalam grimaced. “So he should be dead. He isn’t. Which means?”

  “Intervention,” Tattersail answered, a queasy feeling settling in her stomach. Her heavy-lidded gaze fixed on Mallet. “Your Denul skills proved sufficient?”

  The healer quirked a smile. “It was easy. I had help.” He explained, “The wounds were already closing, the damage already mended. I quickened it some, but that’s all. There’s been a deep trauma, both body and mind. By all rights it should be weeks before he recovers physically. And that alone could be a problem.”

  “What do you mean?” Tattersail asked.

  Kalam strode to the table, retrieved a jug of wine and three clay cups. He rejoined them and began pouring as Mallet said, “Healing should never be separated between the flesh and the sense of the flesh. It’s hard to explain. The Denul Warrens involve every aspect of healing, since damage, when it occurs, does so on all levels. Shock is the scar that bridges the gap between the body and the mind.”

  “All and well,” Kalam growled, handing the healer a cup. “What about Paran?”

  Mallet took a long draft and wiped at his mouth. “Whatever force interceded cared for nothing but healing the flesh. He may well be on his feet in a day or two, but the shock needs time to heal.”

  “You couldn’t do it?” Tattersail asked.

  He shook his head. “All such things are intertwined. Whatever interceded severed those connections. How many shocks, traumatic events, has Paran received in his lifetime? Which scar am I to trace? I may well do more damage in my ignorance.”

  Tattersail thought about the young man they had dragged into her room an hour earlier. After his scream in the alley, announcing to Picker that he still lived, he had fallen into unconsciousness. All that she knew of Paran was that he was a noble’s son; that he’d come from Unta, and that he was the squad’s new officer on their mission in Darujhistan.

  “In any case,” Mallet said, draining his cup, “Hedge is keeping an eye on him. He may come to any minute, but there’s no telling what state his mind will be in.” The healer grinned at Kalam. “Hedge has taken a liking to the brat.” His grin broadened as the assassin cursed.

  Tattersail raised an eyebrow.

  Seeing her expression, Mallet explained, “Hedge also adopts stray dogs—and other, uh, needy creatures.” He glanced at Kalam, who had resumed pacing. “And he can get stubborn about it, too.”

  The corporal growled wordlessly.

  Tattersail smiled. The smile faded as her thoughts returned to Captain Paran. “He’s going to be used,” she pronounced, flatly. “Like a sword.”

  Mallet sobered with her words. “There’s nothing of mercy in the healing, only calculation.”

  Quick Ben’s voice startled them all. “The attempt on his life came from Shadow.”

  There was silence in the room.

  Tattersail sighed. Before, it had been just a suspicion. She saw Mallet and Kalam exchange glances, and guessed at what passed between them. Wherever Sorry was, when she returned to the fold there would be some hard questions. And Tattersail now knew—with certainty—that the girl belonged to Shadow.

  “And that means,” Quick Ben resumed blithely, “that whoever interceded on Paran’s behalf is now in direct opposition with the Realm of Shadow.” His head turned, dark eyes fixing on the sorceress. “We’ll need to know what Paran knows, whenever he comes around. Only—”

  “We won’t be here,” Kalam finished.

  “As if Hairlock wasn’t enough,” Tattersail muttered, “now you want me nursing this captain of yours.”

  Quick Ben rose, brushing the dust from his leather leggings. “Hairlock will be gone for some time. Those Hounds are stubborn. It may be a while before he can shake them. Or, if the worst comes to the worst,” the wizard grinned darkly, “he’ll turn on them and give the Shadow Lord something to think about.”

  Kalam said to Mallet, “Gather up Hedge. We’ve got to move.”

  Quick Ben’s last comment left Tattersail cold. She grimaced at the ashen taste in her mouth, and watched in silence as the squad prepared to leave. They had a mission ahead of them, one that would take them right into the heart of Darujhistan. That city was the next on the Empire’s list, the last Free City, the continent’s lone gem worthy enough to covet. The squad would infiltrate, prepare the way. They’d be entirely on their own. In a strange way, Tattersail almost envied the isolation they were about to enter. Almost, but not quite. She feared they would all die.

  The Mason’s Barrow returned to her thoughts as if raised by her own fears. It was, she realized, big enough to hold them all.

  With dawn a blade-thin crimson streak at their backs, the Black Moranth, crouching on the high saddles of their Quorl mounts, glittered like diamonds slick with blood. Whiskeyjack, Fiddler, and the High Fist watched the dozen fliers approach. Overhead the rain had lessened, and around the nearby rooftops smudges of gray mist sank down to scuff stone and tile.

  “Where’s your squad, Sergeant?” Dujek asked.

  Whiskeyjack nodded at Fiddler, who turned and headed back to the trap-door. “They’ll be here,” the sergeant answered.

  The sparkling, skin-thin wings of the Quorl, four to each creature, seemed to flip for the briefest of moments, and as one the twelve Moranth descended toward the turret’s rooftop. The sharp whirring sound of the wings was punctuated by the clicked commands of the Moranth riders as they called out to each other. They swept over the heads of the two men with a bare five feet to spare, and without ceremony landed behind them.

  Fiddler had disappeared into the room below. Dujek, his hand on his hip, glared at the Moranth for a moment before grumbling something inaudible and making his way to the trap-door.

  Whiskeyjack walked up to the nearest Moranth. A black chitin visor covered the soldier’s face, and it turned toward the sergeant in silent regard. “There was one among you,” Whiskeyjack said, “one-handed. He was five times marked for valor. Does he still live?”

  The Black Moranth did not reply.

  The sergeant shrugged and turned his attention to the Quorls. Though he had ridden their backs before, they continued to fascinate him. The winged creatures balanced on four thin legs emerging from beneath the saddles. They waited on the rooftop with wings splayed out and quivering fast enough to create a haze of water droplets suspended around them. Their long, oddly segmented tails jutted straight out behind them, multihued and twenty feet in length. Whiskeyjack’s nostrils twitched as the now familiar acrid scent reached him. The nearest Quorl’s enormous, wedge-shaped head was dominated by faceted eyes and articulating mandibles. Two additional limbs—arms, he supposed—were tucked underneath. As he stared the Quorl’s head swiveled until its left eye faced him squarely.

  The sergeant continued staring, wondering what the Quorl was seeing, wondering what it was thinking—if it thought at all. Curious, he gave the Quorl a nod.

  The head cocked, then turned away. Whiskeyjack’s eyes widened to see the tip of the Quorl’s tail curl up briefly. It was the first time he had seen such a motion.

  The alliance between the Moranth and the Empire had changed the face of Imperial wa
r. The Malazan tactics here on Genabackis had twisted into a new shape, one increasingly dependent on transport by air of both soldiers and supplies. Such dependency was dangerous, as far as Whiskeyjack was concerned. We know so little about these Moranth—no one has ever seen their cities in the forest. I can’t even tell their sex. Most scholars held that they were true humans, but there was no way to tell—the Moranth collected their own dead from the battlefields. There would be trouble in the Empire if the Moranth ever exercised a thirst for power. From what he had heard, however, the various color factions among them marked an ever-changing hierarchy, and the rivalry and competition remained at a fanatical pitch.

  High Fist Dujek marched back to Whiskeyjack’s side, his hard expression softened slightly with relief. From the trap-door, voices rose in argument. “They’ve arrived,” Dujek said. “Giving your new recruit an earful about something—and don’t tell me what because I don’t want to know.”

  Whiskeyjack’s momentary relief was shattered by what he only now realized was the secret hope that Sorry had deserted. So his men had found her after all, or she had found them. Either way, his veterans did not sound happy to see her. He couldn’t blame them. Had she tried to kill Paran? That seemed to be the suspicion of Quick Ben and Kalam.

  Kalam was doing most of the bellowing, putting more into his role as corporal than was warranted, and Dujek’s searching glance at Whiskeyjack was enough to push him toward the trap-door. He came to the edge and glared down into the room below. Everyone was there, standing in a menacing circle around Sorry, who leaned against the ladder as if bored by the whole proceedings.

  “Quiet!” Whiskeyjack roared down. “Check your supplies and get up here, now!” He watched them scamper, then gave a satisfied nod and returned to where the High Fist waited.

  Dujek was rubbing the stump of his left arm, frowning distractedly. “Damn this weather,” he muttered.

  “Mallet could ease that,” Whiskeyjack said.

  “Not necessary,” Dujek replied. “I’m just getting old.” He scratched his jaw. “All of your heavy supplies have been delivered to the drop point. Ready to fly, Sergeant?”