‘People, yes. Mortals.’
Quick Ben nodded, eyes narrowing. ‘We have been the weapons of the gods.’
‘Tell me, High Mage, how does it feel?’
Her questions struck from unanticipated directions, Lostara could see, and it was clear that Quick Ben was mentally reeling. This was a sharp talent, a surprising one, and it told Lostara that Adjunct Tavore possessed traits that made her a formidable tactician-but why had none of them seen this before?
‘Adjunct,’ the wizard ventured, ‘the gods have inevitably regretted using me.’
The answer evidently satisfied her. ‘Go on, High Mage.’
‘They will chain him again. This time it will be absolute, and once chained, they will suck everything out of him-like bloodflies-’
‘Are the gods united on this?’
‘Of course not-excuse me, Adjunct. Rather, the gods are never united, even when in agreement. Betrayals are virtually guaranteed-which is why I cannot fathom Shadowthrone’s thinking. He’s not that stupid-he can’t be that stupid-’
‘He has outwitted you,’ Tavore said. ‘You “cannot fathom” his innermost intentions. High Mage, the first god you have mentioned here is one that most of us wouldn’t expect to be at the forefront of all of this. Hood, yes. Togg, Fanderay-even Fener. Or Oponn. And what of the Elder Gods? Mael, K’rul, Kilmandaros. No. Instead, you speak of Shadowthrone, the upstart-’
‘The once Emperor of the Malazan Empire,’ cut in Keneb.
Quick Ben scowled. ‘Aye, even back then-and it’s not easy to admit this-he was a wily bastard. The times I thought I’d worked round him, beat him clean, it turned out he had been playing me all along. He was the ruler of shadows long before he even ascended to that title. Dancer gave him the civilized face, that mask of honest morality-just as Cotillion does now. But don’t be fooled, those two are ruthless-none of us mortals are worth a damned thing, except as a means to an end-’
‘And what, High Mage, would that end be?’
Quick Ben threw up his hands and leaned back. ‘I have little more than rude guesses, Adjunct.’
But Lostara saw something shining in the wizard’s eyes, as if he had been stirred into wakefulness from a long, long sleep. She wondered if this was how he had been with Whiskeyjack, with Dujek Onearm. No wonder they saw him as their shaved knuckle in the hole.
‘I would hear those guesses,’ the Adjunct said.
‘The pantheon comes crashing down-and what emerges from the dust and ashes is almost unrecognizable. The same for sorcery-the warrens-the realm of K’rul. All fundamentally changed.’
‘Yet, one assumes, at the pinnacle… Shadowthrone and Cotillion.’
‘A safe assumption,’ Quick Ben admitted, ‘which is why I don’t trust it.’
Tavore looked startled. ‘Altruism from those two?’
‘I don’t even believe in altruism, Adjunct.’
‘Thus,’ she observed, ‘your confusion.’
The wizard’s ascetic face was pinched, as if he was tasting something unbearably foul. ‘Who’s to say that the changes create something better, something more equitable? Who’s to say that what emerges isn’t even worse than what we have right now? Yes, it might seem a good move-driving that mob of miserable gods off some cliff, or some other place that puts them out of reach, that puts us out of their reach.’ He was musing now, as if unaware of his audience. ‘But consider that eventuality. Without the gods, we’re on our own. And with us on our own-Abyss fend! — what mischief we might do! What grotesque invention to plague the world!’
‘But… not entirely on our own.’
‘The fun would pall,’ Quick Ben said, as if irritated with the objection. ‘Shadowthrone has to realize that. Who would he have left to play with? And with K’rul a corpse, sorcery will rot, grow septic-it will kill whoever dares use it.’
‘Perhaps,’ said Tavore with a certain remorselessness, ‘it is not Shadowthrone’s intent to reshape anything. Rather, to end it once and for all. To wipe the world clean.’
‘I doubt that. Kallor tried it and the lesson wasn’t lost on anyone-how could it be? Gods know, Kellanved then went and claimed that destroyed warren for the empire, so he couldn’t be blind…’ His words fell away, but Lostara saw how his thoughts suddenly raced down a new, treacherous track, destination unknown.
Yes, they claimed Kallor’s legacy. But… what does that signify?
No one spoke for a time. Blistig stood rooted-he had not moved from the moment the Adjunct began speaking, and what should have been a confused expression was nowhere to be seen on his rough features. Instead, he was closed up with a kind of obstinate belligerence, as if everything he had heard thus far wasn’t relevant, could not rattle the cage-for even as the cage imprisoned him within it, so it kept everything else at a safe distance.
Sinn sat perched on the oversized chair, glowering at the tabletop, pretending not to listen to anything being said here, but she was paler than usual.
Keneb leaned forward on his elbows, his hands against the sides of his face: the pose of a man wishing to be elsewhere.
‘It comes down to gates,’ Quick Ben muttered. ‘I don’t know how, or even why, but my gut tells me it comes down to gates. Kurald Emurlahn, Kurald Galain, Starvald Demelain-the old ones-and the Azath. No one has plumbed the secrets of the Houses as they have, not even Gothos. Windows on to the past, into the future, paths leading to places no mortal has ever visited. They have crawled up and down the skeleton of existence, eager as bone-grubs-’
‘Too many assumptions,’ Tavore said. ‘Rein yourself in, High Mage. Tell me, have you seen the face of our enemy to the east?’
The look he shot her was bleak, wretched. ‘Justice is a sweet notion. Too bad its practice ends up awash in innocent blood. Honest judgement is cruel, Adjunct, so very cruel. And what makes it a disaster is the way it spreads outward, swallowing everything in its path. Allow me to quote Imperial Historian Duiker: “The object of justice is to drain the world of colour.” ’
‘Some would see it that way-’
Quick Ben snorted. ‘Some? Those cold-eyed arbiters can’t see it any other way!’
‘Nature insists on a balance-’
‘Nature is blind.’
‘Thus favouring the notion that justice too is blind.’
‘Blinkered, not blind. The whole notion is founded on a deceit: that truths are reducible-’
‘Wait!’ barked Keneb. ‘Wait-wait! You’re leaving me behind, both of you! Adjunct, are you saying that justice is our enemy? Making us what, the champions of injustice? How can justice be an enemy-how can you expect to wage war against it? How can a simple soldier cut down an idea?’ His chair rocked back as he suddenly rose. ‘Have you lost your minds? I don’t understand-’
‘Sit down, Fist!’
Shocked by the order, he sank back, looking defeated, bewildered.
Hood knew, Lostara Yil sympathized.
‘Kolanse,’ said Tavore. ‘According to Letherii writings, an isolated confederation of kingdoms. Nothing special, nothing particularly unique, barring a penchant for monotheism. For the past decade, suffering a terrible drought, sufficient to cripple the civilization.’ She paused. ‘High Mage?’
Quick Ben rubbed vigorously at his face, and then said, ‘The Crippled God came down in pieces. Everyone knows that. Most of him, it’s said, fell on Korel, which is what gave that continent its other name: Fist. Other bits fell… elsewhere. Despite the damage done to Korel, that was not where the true heart of the god landed. No, it spun away from the rest of him. It found its very own continent…’
‘Kolanse,’ said Keneb. ‘It landed in Kolanse.’
Tavore said, ‘I mentioned that penchant for monotheism-it is hardly surprising, given what must have been a most traumatic visitation by a god-the visitor who never went away.’
‘So,’ said Keneb through clenched teeth, ‘we are marching to where the gods are converging. Gods that intend to chain the Crippled God one final time. But we refuse to be anyone’s weapon. If that is so, then what in Hood’s name will we be doing there?’