House of Chains

Both Wickans nodded, and Nether added, ‘Grub spoke with him.’

The Adjunct shot Keneb a querying look.

‘He can be damned hard to find,’ the captain muttered, shrugging. ‘As for talking with ghosts… well, the lad is, uh, strange enough for that.’

The Adjunct’s sigh was heavy.

Keneb’s gaze caught movement and he swung his head round, to see Tene Baralta riding back in the company of two soldiers wearing little more than rags. Both were unshaven, their hair long and matted. Their horses bore no saddles.

The Fist reined in with his charges. His face was dark with anger. ‘Adjunct. That Claw has stolen Sha’ik’s body!’

Keneb saw the woman approaching on foot, still twenty paces distant. She looked… smug.

Tavore ignored Tene Baralta’s statement and was eyeing the two newcomers. ‘And you are?’ she asked.

The elder of the two saluted. ‘Captain Kindly, Adjunct, of the Ashok Regiment. We were prisoners in the Dogslayer camp. Lieutenant Pores and myself, that is.’

Keneb started, then leaned forward on his saddle. Yes, he realized, through all that filth… ‘Captain,’ he said in rough greeting.

Kindly squinted, then grimaced. ‘Keneb.’

Tavore cleared her throat, then asked, ‘Are you two all that’s left of your regiment, Captain?’

‘No, Adjunct. At least, we don’t think so-’

‘Tell me later. Go get cleaned up.’

‘Aye, Adjunct.’

‘One more question first,’ she said. ‘The Dogslayer camp…’

Kindly made an involuntary warding gesture. ‘It was not a pleasant night, Adjunct.’

‘You bear shackle scars.’

Kindly nodded. ‘Just before dawn, a couple of Bridgeburners showed up and burned out the locks.’

‘What?’

The captain waved for his lieutenant to follow, said over one shoulder, ‘Don’t worry, they were already dead.’

The two rode into the camp.

Tavore seemed to shake herself, then faced Keneb. ‘You two know each other? Will that prove problematic, Captain?’

‘No.’

‘Good. Then he won’t resent your promotion to Fist. Now ride to your new legion. We will follow the fleeing tribes. If we have to cross this entire continent, I will see them cornered, and then I will destroy them. This rebellion will be ashes on the wind when we are done. Go, Fist Keneb.’

‘Aye, Adjunct.’ And he gathered his reins.

‘Weapons out!’ Temul suddenly shouted.

And all spun to see a rider cantering down from the hill where Sha’ik had first appeared.

Keneb’s eyes thi

A small squad from Blistig’s legion had been detailed as guard to the Adjunct, and they now moved forward. Leading them was one of Blistig’s officers-none other, Keneb realized, than Squint. The slayer of Coltaine, who was now standing stock still, studying the approaching horse warrior.

‘That,’ he growled, ‘is a Thelomen Toblakai! Riding a damned Jhag horse!’

Crossbows were levelled.

‘What’s that horse dragging?’ asked the woman who had just arrived on foot-whom Keneb now recognized, belatedly, as one of Tene Baralta’s officers.

Nether suddenly hissed, and she and her brother flinched back as one.

Heads. From some demonic beasts-

Weapons were readied.

The Adjunct lifted a hand. ‘Wait. He’s not drawn his weapon-’

‘It’s a stone sword,’ Squint rasped. ‘T’lan Imass.’

‘Only bigger,’ one of the soldiers spat.

No-one spoke as the huge, blood-spattered figure rode closer.

To halt ten paces away.

Tene Baralta leaned forward and spat onto the ground. ‘I know you,’ he rumbled. ‘Bodyguard to Sha’ik-’

‘Be quiet,’ the Toblakai cut in. ‘I have words for the Adjunct.’

‘Speak, then,’ Tavore said.

The giant bared his teeth. ‘Once, long ago, I claimed the Malazans as my enemies. I was young. I took pleasure in voicing vows. The more enemies the better. So it was, once. But no longer. Malazan, you are no longer my enemy. Thus, I will not kill you.’

‘We are relieved,’ Tavore said drily.

He studied her for a long moment.

During which Keneb’s heart began to pound hard and fast in his chest.

Then the Toblakai smiled. ‘You should be.’

With that he wheeled his Jhag horse round and rode a westerly path down the length of the basin. The huge hound heads bounced and thumped in their wake.

Keneb’s sigh was shaky.

‘Excuse my speaking,’ Squint rasped, ‘but something tells me the bastard was right.’

Tavore turned and studied the old veteran. ‘An observation,’ she said, ‘I’ll not argue, soldier.’

Once more, Keneb collected his reins.

Surmounting the ridge, Lieutenant Ranal sawed hard on the reins, and the horse reared against the skyline.

‘Gods take me, somebody shoot him.’

Fiddler did not bother to turn round to find out who had spoken. He was too busy fighting his own horse to care much either way. It had Wickan blood, and it wanted his. The mutual hatred was coming along just fine.

‘What is that bastard up to?’ Cuttle demanded as he rode alongside the sergeant. ‘We’re leaving even Gesler’s squad behind-and Hood knows where Borduke’s gone to.’

The squad joined their lieutenant atop the ancient raised road. To the north stretched the vast dunes of Raraku, shimmering in the heat.

Ranal wheeled his mount to face his soldiers. Then pointed west. ‘See them? Have any of you eyes worth a damn?’

Fiddler leaned to one side and spat grit. Then squinted to where Ranal was pointing. A score of riders. Desert warriors, likely a rearguard. They were at a loping canter. ‘Lieutenant,’ he said, ‘there’s a spider lives in these sands. Moves along under the surface, but drags a strange snake-like tail that every hungry predator can’t help but see. Squirming away along the surface. It’s a big spider. Hawk comes down to snatch up that snake, and ends up dissolving in a stream down that spider’s throat-’

‘Enough with the damned horse-dung, Sergeant,’ snapped Ranal. ‘They’re there because they were late getting out of the oasis. Likely too busy looting the palace to notice that Sha’ik had been skewered, the Dogslayers were dead and everyone else was bugging out as fast as their scrawny horses could take ’em.’ He glared at Fiddler. ‘I want their heads, you grey-whiskered fossil.’

‘We’ll catch them sooner or later, sir,’ Fiddler said. ‘Better with the whole company-’

‘Then get off that saddle and sit your backside down here on this road, Sergeant! Leave the fighting to the rest of us! The rest of you, follow me!’

Ranal kicked his lathered horse into a gallop.

With a weary gesture, Fiddler waved the marines on, then followed on his own bucking mare.

‘Got a pinched nerve,’ Koryk called out as he cantered past.

‘Who, my horse or the lieutenant?’

The Seti gri

Fiddler reached back and readjusted the heavy pack and the assembled lobber crossbow. ‘I’ll pinch her damned nerve,’ he muttered. ‘Just you wait.’

It was past midday. Almost seven bells since the Adjunct cut down Sha’ik. Fiddler found himself glancing again and again to the north-to Raraku, where the song still rushed out to embrace him, only to fall away, then roll forward once more. The far horizon beyond that vast basin of sand, he now saw, now held up a bank of white clouds.

Now that don’t look right…

Sand-filled wind gusted suddenly into his face.

‘They’ve left the road!’ Ranal shouted.

Fiddler squinted westward. The riders had indeed plunged down the south bank, were cutting out diagonally-straight for a fast-approaching sandstorm. Gods, not another sandstorm… This one, he knew, was natural. The kind that plagued this desert, springing up like a capricious demon to rage a wild, cavorting path for a bell or two, before vanishing as swiftly as it had first appeared.