‘Probably. And neither Kellanved nor Dancer was in any position to mount a successful resistance to such a protracted assault. They’d yet to consolidate their claim on the Shadow Realm.’
‘Right, so they orchestrated their own deaths, and kept their identity as the new rulers of Shadow a secret for as long as they could, whilst laying out the groundwork for a resumption of their grand schemes. Well, that’s all very cosy, if more than a little diabolical. But does it help us answer the question of what they’re up to right now? If anything, I’m more confused than ever.’
‘Why should you be? Cotillion recruited you to see to the true Throne of Shadow on Drift Avalii, the outcome of which could not have proved more advantageous to him and Shadowthrone. Darist dead, the sword Vengeance removed and in the hands of a darkly fated wanderer. The Edur expedition wiped out, the secret thus resurrected and likely to remain unviolated for some time to come. True, it ended up demanding Cotillion’s direct, most personal intervention, which he would have liked to have avoided, no doubt.’
‘Well, I doubt he would have bothered had not the Hound balked.’
‘What?’
‘I called upon Blind-you were already down. And one of the Edur mages made the Hound cower with a single word.’
‘Ah. Then Cotillion has learned yet another vital fact-he cannot rely upon the Hounds when dealing with the Tiste Edur, for the Hounds remember their original masters.’
‘I suppose so. No wonder he was disgusted with Blind.’
They would have continued, Cutter taking full advantage of Apsalar’s lapse in taciturnity, had not the sky suddenly darkened, shadows rising on all sides, closing and swallowing them-
A thunderous crash-
The huge tortoise was the only object to break the flat plain, lumbering with the infinite patience of the truly mindless across the ancient seabed. Twin shadows grew to flank it.
‘Too bad there’s not two of them,’ Trull Sengar said, ‘then we could ride in style.’
‘I would think,’ Onrack replied, as they slowed their pace to match that of the tortoise, ‘that it feels the same.’
‘Hence this grand journey… indeed, a noble quest, in which I find a certain sympathy.’
‘You miss your kin, then, do you, Trull Sengar?’
‘Too general a statement.’
‘Ah, the needs of procreation.’
‘Hardly. My needs have nothing to do with engendering whelps with my hairline, nor, gods forbid, my ears.’ He reached down and tapped the tortoise’s dusty shell. ‘Like this fellow here, there’s no time to think of eggs it won’t even lay. Singular intent, disconnected from time-from those messy consequences that inevitably follow, if only to afflict whatever lass tortoise our dogged friend here happens to pounce upon.’
‘They are not wont to pounce, Trull Sengar. Indeed, the act is a far more clumsy endeavour-’
‘Aren’t they all?’
‘My own memories-’
‘Enough of that, Onrack. Do you think I want to hear of your supple prowess? I will have you know that I have yet to lie with a woman. Thus, I am left with naught but my sparsely seeded imagination. Inflict no luscious details upon me, I beg you.’
The T’lan Imass slowly turned its head. ‘It is your people’s custom to withhold such activities until marriage?’
‘It is. It wasn’t among the Imass?’
‘Well, yes, it was. But the custom was flouted at every opportunity. In any case, as I explained earlier, I had a mate.’
‘Whom you gave up because you fell in love with another woman.’
‘Gave up, Trull Sengar? No. Whom I lost. Nor was that loss solitary. They never are. From all you have said, I assume then that you are rather young.’
The Tiste Edur shrugged. ‘I suppose I am, especially in my present company.’
‘Then let us leave this creature’s side, so as to spare you the reminder.’
Trull Sengar shot the T’lan Imass a look, then grinned. ‘Good idea.’
They increased their pace, and within a few strides had left the tortoise behind. Glancing back, Trull Sengar gave a shout.
Onrack halted and swung round.
The tortoise was turning back, stumpy legs taking it in a wide circle.
‘What is it doing?’
‘It has finally seen us,’ Onrack replied, ‘and so it runs away.’
‘Ah, no fun and games tonight, then. Poor beast.’
‘In time it will judge it safe to resume its journey, Trull Sengar. We have presented but a momentary obstacle.’
‘A humbling reminder, then.’
‘As you wish.’
The day was cloudless, heat rising from the old seabed in shimmering waves. The odhan’s grassy steppes resumed a few thousand paces ahead. The salt-crusted ground resisted signs of passages, though Onrack could detect the subtle indications left behind by the six renegade T’lan Imass, a scrape here, a scuff there. One of the six dragged a leg as it walked, whilst another placed more weight on one side than the other. They were all no doubt severely damaged. The Ritual, despite the cessation of the Vow itself, had left residual powers, but there was something else as well, a vague hint of chaos, of unknown warrens-or perhaps familiar ones twisted beyond recognition. There was, Onrack suspected, a bonecaster among those six.
Olar Ethil, Kilava Onas, Monok Ochem, Hentos Urn, Tern Benasto, Ulpan Nodost, Tenag Ilbaie, Ay Estos, Absin Tholai… the bonecasters of the Logros T’lan Imass. Who among them are lost? Kilava, of course, but that is as it has always been. Hentos Ilm and Monok Ochem have both in their turn partaken of the hunt. Olar Ethil seeks the other armies of the T’lan Imass-for the summons was heard by all.
Benasto and Ulpan remain with Logros. Ay Estos was lost here on the Jhag Odhan in the last war. I know naught of the fate of Absin Tholai. Leaving Tenag Ilbaie, whom Logros sent to the Kron, to aid in the Laederon Wars. Thus. Absin Tholai, Tenag Ilbaie or Ay Estos.
Of course, there was no reason to assume that the renegades were from the Logros, although their presence here on this continent suggested so, since the caves and the weapons caches were not the only ones to exist; similar secret places could be found on every other continent. Yet these renegades had come to Seven Cities, to the very birthplace of the First Empire, in order to recover their weapons. And it was Logros who was tasked with the holding of the homeland.
‘Trull Sengar?’
‘Yes?’
‘What do you know of the cult of the Nameless Ones?’
‘Only that they’re very successful.’
The T’lan Imass cocked its head. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, their existence has remained hidden from me. I’ve never heard of them.’
Ah. ‘Logros commanded that the First Throne be removed from this land, because the Nameless Ones were drawing ever closer to discovering its location. They had come to realize that its power could be claimed, that the T’lan Imass could be made to bow in service to the first mortal to seat him or herself upon it.’
‘And Logros didn’t want one of these Nameless Ones to be that mortal. Why? What terrible purpose drives them? And before you answer, Onrack, I should tell you that as far as I am concerned, “terrible purpose” has rather dire measure, given both your kind and my own.’
‘I understand, Trull Sengar, and it is a valid point you make. The Nameless Ones serve the Houses of the Azath. Logros believed that, had a priest of that cult taken the First Throne, the first and only command given to the T’lan Imass would be to voluntarily accept eternal imprisonment. We would have been removed from this world.’