‘This issue with Draconnus remained before them, after all, and now Spite as well. Did not the Children of Tiam demand punishment? There was blood on the faces of too many Eleint, and so Anomander and so Osserick had taken on themselves this fated hunt.
‘Could the Eleint have known all that would come of this, they would have withdrawn their storm-breath, from both Anomander and Osserick. But these fates were not to be known then, and this is why the Thousand Gods wept. .
Rubbing his eyes, High Alchemist Baruk leaned back. The original version of this, he suspected, was not the mannered shambles he had just read through. Those quaint but overused phrases belonged to an interim age when the style among historians sought to resurrect some oral legacy in an effort to reinforce the veracity of eyewitnesses to the events described. The result had given him a headache.
He had never heard of the Thousand Gods, and this pantheon could not be found in any other compendium but Dillat’s Dark and Light. Baruk suspected Dillat had simply made them up, which prompted the question: how much else did she invent?
Leaning forward once more, he adjusted the lantern’s wick, then leafed through the brittle sheets until another section caught his interest.
‘In this day there was war among the dragons. The First Born had all but one bowed necks to K’rul’s bargain. Their children, bereft of all that they would have inherited, burst skyward from the towers in great flurry yet even these were not united beyond rejecting the First Born. Factions arose and red rain descended upon all the Realms. Jaws fastened upon necks. Talons opened bellies. The breath of chaos melted flesh from bones.
‘Anomander, Osserick and others had already tasted the blood of Tiam, and now there came more with raging thirst and many a demonic abomination was spawned of this crimson nectar. So long as the Gates of Starvald Demelain remained open, unguarded and held by none, the war would not end, and so the red rain descended upon all the Realms.
‘Kurald Liosan was the first Realm to seal the portal between itself and Starvald Demelain, and the tale that follows recounts the slaughter committed by Osserick in cleansing his world of all the pretenders and rivals, the Soletaken and feral purebloods, even unto driving the very first D’ivers from his land.
‘This begins at the time when Osserick fought Anomander for the sixteenth time and both had blood on their faces before Kilmandaros, she who speaks with her fists, took upon herself the task of driving them apart. .’
Baruk looked up, then twisted in his chair to regard his guest, who was busy preening herself on his map-table. ‘Crone, the inconsistencies in this text are infuriating.’
The Great Raven cocked her head, beak gaping for a moment in laughter, then said, ‘So what? Show me a written history that makes sense, and I will show you true fiction. If that is all you want, then look elsewhere! My master concluded that Dillat’s nonsense would make a fine gift for your collection. If you are truly displeased, there are plenty of other idiocies in his library, those that he bothered to extract from Moon’s Spawn, that is. He left whole rooms crammed with the rubbish, you know.’
Baruk blinked slowly, struggling to keep his horror from his voice as he said, ‘No, I did not know that.’
Undeceived, Crone cackled. Then she said, ‘My master was most amused at the notion of falling to his knees and crying out to the Hundred Gods-’
‘Thousand. The Thousand Gods.’
‘Whatever.’ A duck of the head and the wings half spread. ‘Or even making a vow to battle Osserc. Their alliance fell apart because of a growing mutual dis shy;like. The disaster with Draconus probably delivered the death-blow. Imagine, falling for a woman’s wiles — and a daughter of Draconus at that! Was Osserc not even remotely suspicious of her motives? Hah! The males among every species in existence are so. . predictable!’
Baruk smiled. ‘If I recall Fisher’s Anomandaris, Lady Envy managed pretty much the same with your master, Crone.’
‘Nothing he was unaware of at the time,’ the Great Raven said with a strange clucking sound to punctuate the statement. ‘My master has always understood the necessity of certain sacrifices.’ She fluffed up her onyx feathers. ‘Consider the outcome, after all!’
Baruk grimaced.
‘I’m hungry!’ Crone announced.
‘I didn’t finish my supper,’ Baruk said. ‘On that plate-’
‘I know, I know! What do you think made me hungry in the first place? Sit in wonder at my patience, High Alchemist! Even as you read on interminably!’
‘Eat now and quickly, old friend,’ Baruk said, ‘lest you die of malnutrition.’
‘You were never such a careless host before,’ the Great Raven observed, hop shy;ping over to the plate and spearing a sliver of meat. ‘You are troubled, High Al shy;chemist.’
‘By many things, yes. The Rhivi claim that the White Face Barghast have disappeared. Utterly.’
‘Indeed,’ Crone replied. ‘Almost immediately after the fall of Coral and the Tiste Andii investiture.’
‘Crone, you are a Great Raven. Your children ride the winds and see all.’
‘Perhaps.’
‘Why then will you not tell me where they went?’
‘Well, the Grey Swords as you know marched south, down to Elingarth,’ Crone said, circling the plate in short hops. ‘And there they purchased ships.’ A pause and cock of the head. ‘Could they see the wake before them? Did they know to follow? Or is there perhaps a great hole in the world’s ocean, drawing every ship into its deadly maw?’
‘The White Face took to the seas? Extraordinary. And the Grey Swords followed them.’
‘None of this is relevant, High Alchemist.’
‘Relevant to what?’
‘Your unease, of course. You fling queries at your poor bedraggled guest in order to distract yourself.’
It had been months since Crone’s previous visit, and Baruk had come to believe, with some regret, that his cordial relations with the Son of Darkness were drawing to a close, not out of any dispute, simply the chronic ennui of the Tiste Andii. It was said the permanent gloom that was Black Coral well suited the city’s denizens, both Andii and human.
‘Crone, please extend to your master my sincerest thanks for this gift. It was most unexpected and generous. But I would ask him, if it is not too forward of me, if he is reconsidering the Council’s official request to open diplomatic relations between our two cities. Delegates but await your master’s invitation, and a suitable site has been set aside for the construction of an embassy — not far from here, in fact.’
‘The estate crushed by a Soletaken demon’s inglorious descent,’ Crone said, pausing to laugh before spearing another chunk of food, ‘Aagh, this is vegetable! Disgusting!’
‘Indeed, Crone, the very same estate. As I said, not far from here.’
‘Master is considering said request, and will continue considering it, I suspect.’
‘For how much longer?’
‘I have no idea.’
‘Does he have concerns?’
The Great Raven, leaning over the plate, tilted her head and regarded Baruk for a long moment.
Baruk felt vaguely sickened and he looked away. ‘So, I have reason to be. . troubled.’
‘Master asks: when will it begin?’
The High Alchemist eyed the stack of loosely bound parchment that was Anomander’s gift, and nodded. But he did not answer.
‘Master asks: do you wish for assistance?’
Baruk winced.
‘Master asks,’ Crone went on, relentless, ‘would said assistance better serve you if it was covert, rather than official?’
Gods below.