Gesler was climbing upright, wobbly, shaking his head. ‘Come on,’ he mumbled, ‘let’s get after him, and hope Throatslitter and Smiles can slow him down some.’
Tarr and Corabb showed up and surveyed the scene. ‘Corabb,’ said Tarr, ‘stay with Koryk and try bringing him round.’ And then he joined Bottle, Gesler, Stormy and Balm as they set out after their target.
Balm glared across at Bottle. ‘I coulda had him!’
‘We need the fool alive, you idiot,’ snapped Bottle.
The sergeant gaped. ‘We do?’
‘Look at that,’ hissed Throatslitter. ‘Here he comes!’
‘Limping bad, too,’ observed Smiles, sheathing her dagger once more. ‘We come up both sides and go for his ankles.’
‘Good idea.’
Throatslitter went left, Smiles went right, and they crouched at either end of the landing on this side of the bridge. They listened to the step-scruff of the limping fugitive as he reached the span, drawing ever closer. From the edge of the market street on the opposite side, shouts rang through the air. The scuffling run on the bridge picked up pace.
At the proper moment, as the target reached the end and stepped out on to the street’s cobbles, the two Malazan marines leapt out from their hiding places, converging, each wrapping arms round one of the man’s legs.
The three went down in a heap.
Moments later, amidst a flurry of snarled curses, gouging thumbs and frantic kicking, the rest of the hunters arrived, and finally succeeded in pinning down their quarry.
Bottle edged closer to gaze down at their victim’s bruised, flushed visage. ‘Really, Sergeant, you had to know it was hopeless.’
Fiddler glared.
‘Look what you did to my nose!’ Stormy said, gripping one of Fiddler’s arms and apparently contemplating breaking it in two.
‘You used a smoker in the tavern, didn’t you?’ Bottle asked. ‘What a waste.’
‘You’ll all pay for this,’ said Fiddler. ‘You have no idea-’
‘He’s probably right,’ said Gesler. ‘So, Fid, we gonna have to hold you down here for ever, or will you come peacefully now? What the Adjunct wants, the Adjunct gets.’
‘Easy for you,’ hissed Fiddler. ‘Just look at Bottle there. Does he look happy?’
Bottle scowled. ‘No, I’m not happy, but orders are orders, Sergeant. You can’t just run away.’
‘Wish I’d brought a sharper or two,’ Fiddler said, ‘that would’ve settled it just fine. All right now, you can all let me up-I think my knee’s busted anyway. Gesler, you got a granite jaw, did you know that?’
‘And it cuts me a fine profile besides,’ said Gesler.
‘We was hunting Fiddler?’ Balm suddenly asked. ‘Gods below, he mutiny or something?’
Throatslitter patted his sergeant on the shoulder. ‘It’s all right now, Sergeant. Adjunct wants Fiddler to do a reading, that’s all.’
Bottle winced. That’s all. Sure, nothing to it. I can’t wait.
They dragged Fiddler to his feet, and wisely held on to the man as they marched him back to the barracks.
Grey and ghostly, the oblong shape hung beneath the lintel over the dead Azath’s doorway. It looked lifeless, but of course it wasn’t.
‘We could throw stones,’ said Sinn. ‘They sleep at night, don’t they?’
‘Mostly,’ replied Grub.
‘Maybe if we’re quiet.’
‘Maybe.’
Sinn fidgeted. ‘Stones?’
‘Hit it and they’ll wake up, and then out they’ll come, in a black swarm.’
‘I’ve always hated wasps. For as long as I can remember-I must’ve been bad stung once, do you think?’
‘Who hasn’t?’ Grub said, shrugging.
‘I could just set it on fire.’
‘No sorcery, Sinn, not here.’
‘I thought you said the house was dead.’
‘It is… I think. But maybe the yard isn’t.’
She glanced round. ‘People been digging here.’
‘You ever gonna talk to anybody but me?’ Grub asked.
‘No.’ The single word was absolute, immutable, and it did not invite any further discussion on that issue.
He eyed her. ‘You know what’s happening tonight, don’t you?’
‘I don’t care. I’m not going anywhere near that.’
‘Doesn’t matter.’
‘Maybe, if we hide inside the house, it won’t reach us.’
‘Maybe,’ Grub allowed. ‘But I doubt the Deck works like that.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Well, I don’t. Only, Uncle Keneb told me Fiddler talked about me last time, and I was jumping into the sea around then-I wasn’t in the cabin. But he just knew, he knew exactly what I was doing.’
‘What were you doing?’
‘I went to find the Nachts.’
‘But how did you know they were there? You don’t make sense, Grub. And anyway, what use are they? They just follow Withal around.’
‘When they’re not hunting little lizards,’ Grub said, smiling.
But Sinn was not in the mood for easy distraction. ‘I look at you and I think… Mockra.’
To that, Grub made no reply. Instead, he crept forward on the path’s uneven pavestones, eyes fixed on the wasp nest.
Sinn followed. ‘You’re what’s coming, aren’t you?’
He snorted. ‘And you aren’t?’
They reached the threshold, halted. ‘Do you think it’s locked?’
‘Shh.’
Grub crouched down and edged forward beneath the huge nest. Once past it, he slowly straightened and reached for the door’s latch. It came off in his hand, raising a puff of sawdust. Grub glanced back at Sinn, but said nothing. Facing the door again, he gave it a light push.
It crumpled like wafer where his fingers had prodded. More sawdust sifted down.
Grub raised both hands and pushed against the door.
The barrier disintegrated in clouds and frail splinters. Metal clunked on the floor just beyond, and a moment later the clouds were swept inward as if on an indrawn breath.
Grub stepped over the heap of rotted wood and vanished in the gloom beyond.
After a moment, Sinn followed, ducking low and moving quickly.
From the gloom beneath a nearly dead tree in the grounds of the Azath, Lieutenant Pores grunted. He supposed he should have called them back, but to do so would have revealed his presence, and though he could never be sure when it came to Captain Kindly’s orders-designed and delivered as they were with deliberate vagueness, like flimsy fronds over a spike-filled pit-he suspected that he was supposed to maintain some sort of subterfuge when following the two runts around.
Besides, he’d made some discoveries. Sinn wasn’t mute at all. Just a stubborn little cow. What a shock. And she had a crush on Grub, how sweet-sweet as tree sap, twigs and trapped insects included-why, it could make a grown man melt, and then run down a drain into that depthless sea of sentimentality where children played, and, occasionally, got away with murder.
Well, the difference was Pores had a very good memory. He recalled in great detail his own childhood, and could he have reached back, into his own past, he’d give that snot-faced jerk a solid clout to the head. And then look down at that stunned, hurt expression, and say something like ‘Get used to it, little Pores. One day you’ll meet a man named Kindly…’
Anyway, the mice had scurried into the Azath House. Maybe something would take care of them in there, bringing to a satisfying conclusion this stupid assignment. A giant, ten-thousand-year-old foot, stomping down, once, twice. Splat, splot, like stinkberries, Grub a smear, Sinn a stain.
Gods no, I’d get blamed! Growling under his breath, he set out after them.
In retrospect, he supposed he should have remembered that damned wasp nest. At the very least, it should have caught his attention as he leapt for the doorway. Instead, it caught his forehead.
Sudden flurry of enraged buzzing, as the nest rocked out and then back, butting his head a second time.
Recognition, comprehension, and then, appropriately enough, blind panic.