Memories of Ice

Mulch staggered into view, swung to the captain. The man's face was white, his eyes wide. He stumbled over.

No, tell me nothing. Go away, damn you. 'Let's hear it, Healer.'

'It's — it's all right, Captain. Trotts will make it-'

'And Mallet?'

'Superficial wounds — I'll take care of those, sir. He lives — don't ask me how-'

'Leave me, Mulch.'

'Sir?'

'Go. Back to Mallet. Get out of my sight.'

Paran swung his back to the man, listened to him scurrying away. The captain shut his eyes, waiting for the agony of his gut to resume, to rise once again like a fist of fire. But all was quiescent within him. He wiped at his eyes, drew a deep breath. No-one dies. We 're all getting out of here. Better tell Humbrall Taur. Trotts has won his claim. and damn the rest of you to Hood!

Fifteen paces away, Mulch and Aimless crouched, watching their captain's back straighten, watching as Paran adjusted his sword belt, watching as he strode towards Humbrall Taur's command tent.

'He's a hard bastard,' the healer muttered.

'Cold as a Jaghut winter,' Aimless said, face twisting. 'Mallet looked a dead man there for a time.'

'For a time, he damn near was.'

The two men were silent for a while, then Mulch leaned to one side and spat. 'Captain might make it after all,' he said.

'Aye,' Aimless said. 'He might.'

'Hey!' one of the soldiers nearby shouted. 'Look at that ridge! Ain't that Detoran? And there's Spindle — they're carrying somebody between 'em!'

'Probably Quick Ben,' Mulch said, straightening. 'Played too long in his warrens. Idiot.'

'Mages,' Aimless sneered. 'Who needs the lazy bastards anyway?'

'Mages, huh? And what about healers, Corporal?'

The man's long face suddenly lengthened even more as his jaw dropped. 'Uh, healers are good, Mulch. Damned good. I meant wizards and sorcerers and the like-'

'Stow it before you say something real stupid, Aimless. Well, we're all here, now. Wonder what these White Faces will do to us?'

Trotts won!'

'So?'

The corporal's jaw dropped a second time.

Woodsmoke filled Humbrall Taur's hide tent. The huge warchief stood alone, his back to the round hearth, silhouetted by the fire's light. 'What have you to tell me?' he rumbled as Paran let the hide flap drop behind him.

'Trotts lives. He asserts his claim to leadership.'

'Yet he has no tribe-'

'He has a tribe, Warchief. Thirty-eight Bridgeburners. He showed you that, in the style he chose for the duel.'

'I know what he showed us-'

'Yet who understood?'

'I did, and that is all that matters.'

There was silence. Paran studied the tent and its meagre scatter of contents, seeking clues as to the nature of the warrior who stood before him. The floor was covered in bhederin hides. A half-dozen spears lay to one side, one of them splintered. A lone wooden chest carved from a single tree trunk, big enough to hold a three-deep stack of stretched-out corpses, dominated the far wall. The lid was thrown back, revealing on its underside a huge, massively complex locking mechanism. An unruly tumble of blankets ran parallel to the chest where Taur evidently slept. Coins, stitched into the hide walls, glittered dully on all sides, and on the conical ceiling more coins hung like tassels — these ones blackened by years of smoke.

'You have lost your command, Captain.'

Paran blinked, met the warchief's dark eyes. 'That is a relief,' he said.

'Never admit your unwillingness to rule, Malazan. What you fear in yourself will cloud your judgement of all that your successor does. Your fear will blind you to his wisdom and stupidity both. Trotts has never been a commander — I saw that in his eyes when he first stepped forward from your ranks. You must watch him, now. With clear vision.' The man turned and walked to the chest. 'I have mead. Drink with me.'

Gods, my stomach … 'Thank you, Warchief.'

Humbrall Taur withdrew from the chest a clay jug and two wooden mugs. He unstoppered the jug, sniffed tentatively, then nodded and poured. 'We shall wait another day,' he said. 'Then I shall address the clans. Trotts will have leave to speak, he has earned his place among the chiefs. But I tell you this now, Captain.' He handed Paran a mug. 'We shall not march on Capustan. We owe those people nothing. Each year we lose more of our youths to that city, to their way of life. Their traders come among us with nothing of value, bold with claims and offers, and would strip my people naked if they could.'

Paran took a sip of the heady mead, felt it burn down his throat. 'Capustan is not your true enemy, Warchief-'

'The Pannion Domin will wage war on us. I know this, Malazan. They will take Capustan and use it to marshal their armies on our very borders. Then they will march.'

'If you understand all that, then why-'

'Twenty-seven tribes, Captain Paran.' Humbrall Taur drained his mug, then wiped his mouth. 'Of those, only eight chiefs will stand with me. Not enough. I need them all. Tell me, your new chief. Can he sway minds with his words?'

Paran grimaced. 'I don't know. He rarely uses them. Then again, up until now, he's had little need. We shall see tomorrow, I suppose.'

'Your Bridgeburners are still in danger.'

The captain stiffened, studied the thick honey wine in his mug. 'Why?' he asked after a moment.

'The Barahn, the Gilk, the Ahkrata — these clans are united against you. Even now, they spread tales of duplicity. Your healers are necromancers — they are conducting a ritual of resurrection to bring Trotts back to life. The White Faces have no love of Malazans. You are allied with the Moranth. You conquered the north — how soon will you turn your hungry gaze on us? You are the plains bear at our side, urging us to lock talons with the southern tiger. A hunter always knows the mind of a tiger, but never the mind of a plains bear.'

'So it seems our fate still hangs in the balance,' Paran said.

'Come the morrow,' Humbrall Taur said.

The captain drained his mug and set it down on the edge of the chest. Spot-fires were growing in his stomach. Behind the cloying mead numbing his tongue, he could taste blood. 'I must attend to my soldiers,' he said.

'Give them this night, Captain.'

Paran nodded, then made his way out of the tent.

Ten paces away, Picker and Blend stood waiting for him. The captain scowled as the two women hurried over. 'More good news, I take it,' he growled under his breath.

'Captain.'

'What is it, Corporal?'

Picker blinked. 'Well, uh, we've made it. I thought I should report-'

'Where's Antsy?'

'He ain't feeling too good, sir.'

'Something he ate?'

Blend grinned. 'That's a good one. Something he ate.'

'Captain,' Picker interjected hastily, shooting Blend a warning glare. 'We lost Quick Ben for a while, then got him back, only he ain't woken up. Spindle figures it's some kind of shock. He was pulled into a Barghast warren-'

Paran started. 'He was what? Take me to him. Blend, get Mallet and join us, double-time! Well, Picker? Why are you just standing there? Lead on.'

'Yes, sir.'

The Seventh squad had dropped their gear in the Bridgeburner encampment. Detoran and Hedge were unfolding tents, watched morosely by a pale, shivering Antsy. Spindle sat beside Quick Ben, fingers combing absently through his tattered hairshirt as he frowned down at the unconscious wizard. The Black Moranth, Twist, stood nearby. Soldiers from other squads sat in their respective groups, watchful of the newcomers and coming no closer.