Hood felt his own unease, yet onward he strode.
The power of that sword was breathtaking, even for a god. Breathtaking.
Terrifying.
They drew closer, in measured steps, and closer still.
The Hounds had fallen silent. In the wake of crushed fires, smoke billowed low, barely lit by fitful blue gaslight. Piercing in and out of the black clouds, Great Ravens circled, advanced, and retreated; and moments before the two figures reached each other, the huge birds began landing on roof edges facing down into the street, in rows and clusters, scores and then hundreds.
They were here.
To witness.
To know. To believe.
And, perchance, to feed.
Only three strides between them now. Hood slowed his steps. ‘Son of Darkness,’ he said, ‘I have reconsidered—’
And the sword lashed out, a clean arc that took the Lord of Death in the neck, slicing clean through.
As Hood’s head pitched round inside its severed cloth sack, the body beneath it staggered back, dislodging what it had lost.
A heavy, solid crunch as the god’s head struck the cobbles, rolling on to one cheek, the eyes staring and lifeless.
Black blood welled up from the stump of neck. One more step back, before the legs buckled and the Lord of Death fell to his knees and then sat back.
Opposite the dead god, Anomander Rake, face stretching in agony, fought to remain standing.
Whatever weight descended upon him at this moment was invisible to the mortal eye, unseen even by the thousand Great Ravens perched and leaning far forward on all sides, but its horrendous toll was undeniable.
The Son of Darkness, Dragnipur in one hand, bowed and bent like an old man. The sword’s point grated and then caught in the join between four cobbles. And Anomander Rake began to lean on it, every muscle straining as his legs slowly gave way – no, he could not stand beneath this weight.
And so he sank down, the sword before him, both hands on the cross-hilt’s wings, head bowed against Dragnipur, and these details alone were all that distinguished him from the god opposite.
They sat, on knees and haunches, as if mirrored images. One leaning on a sword, forehead pressed to the gleaming, smoke-wreathed blade. The other decapitated, hands resting palm up on the thighs.
One was dead.
The other, at this moment, profoundly . . . vulnerable.
Things noticed.
Things were coming, and coming fast.
And this night, why, it is but half done.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
He slid down the last of the trail and he asked of me,
‘Do you see what you expected?’
And this was a question breaking loose, rolling free.
Out from under stones and scattered
Into thoughts of what the cruel fates would now decree.
He settled back in the dust and made his face into pain,
‘Did you see only what you believed?’
And I looked down to where blood had left its stain
The charge of what’s given, what’s received
Announcing the closing dirge on this long campaign.
‘No,’ I said, ‘you are not what I expected to see.’
Young as hope and true as love was my enemy,
‘The shields were burnished bright as a sun-splashed sea,
And drowning courage hath brought me to this calamity.
Expectation has so proved the death of me.’
He spoke to say, ‘You cannot war against the man
you were,
And I cannot slay the man I shall one day become,
Our enemy is expectation flung backward and fore,
The memories you choose and the tracks I would run.
Slayer of dreams, sower of regrets, all that we are.’
Soldier at the End of his Days
(fragment)
Des’Ban of Nemil
They did not stop for the night. With the city’s fitful glow to the north, throbbing crimson, Traveller marched as would a man possessed. At times, as she and Karsa rode on ahead to the next rise to fix their gazes upon that distant conflagration, Samar Dev feared that he might, upon reaching them, simply lash out with his sword. Cut them both down. So that he could take Havok for himself, and ride hard for Darujhistan.
Something terrible was happening in that city. Her nerves were on fire. Her skull seemed to creak with some kind of pervasive pressure, building with each onward step. She felt febrile, sick to her stomach, her mouth dry as dust, and she held on to Karsa Orlong’s muscled girth as if he was a mast on a storm-wracked ship. He had said nothing for some time now, and she did not have the courage to break that grim silence.
Less than a league away, the city flashed and rumbled.
When Traveller reached them, however, it was as if they did not exist. He was muttering under his breath. Vague arguments, hissed denials, breathless lists of bizarre, disconnected phrases, each one worked out as if it was a justification for something he had done, or something he was about to do. At times those painful phrases sounded like justifications for both. Future blended with the past, a swirling vortex with a tortured soul at its very heart. She could not bear to listen.
Obsession was a madness, a fever. When it clawed its way to the surface, it was terrible to behold. It was impossible not to see the damage it did, the narrowness of the treacherous path one was forced to walk, as if between walls of thorns, jutting knife blades. One misstep and blood was drawn, and before long the poor creature was a mass of wounds, streaked and dripping, blind to everything but what waited somewhere ahead.
And what if he found what he sought? What if he won through in his final battle – whatever that might be? What then for Traveller?
It will kill him.
His reason for living . . . gone.
Gods below, I will not bear witness to such a scene. I dare not.
For I have my own obsessions . . .
Traveller marched on in dark argument. She and Karsa rode Havok, but even this frightening beast was starting, shying as if something was bodily pushing against it. Head tossed, hoofs stamped the packed ground.
Finally, after the horse almost reared, Karsa uttered a low snarl and reined in. ‘Down, witch,’ he said – as Traveller once more stalked past – ‘we will walk from here.’
‘But Havok—’
‘Can fend for himself. When I need him, we shall find each other once more.’
They dismounted. Samar stretched her back. ‘I’m exhausted. My head feels like a wet pot in a kiln – about to explode. Karsa—’
‘Stay here if you will,’ he said, eyes on Traveller’s back. ‘I will go on.’
‘Why? Wherever he’s going, it’s his battle, not yours. You cannot help him. You must not help him, Karsa – you see that, don’t you?’
He grimaced. ‘I can guard his back—’
‘Why? We have journeyed together out of convenience. And that’s done, now. Can’t you feel it? It’s done. Take one wrong step – cross his path – and he will drag out that sword.’ She brought her hands up and pressed hard against her eyelids. Flashes of fire ignited her inner world. No different from what she was seeing in the city before them. She dropped her hands and blinked blearily at the Toblakai. ‘Karsa, in the name of mercy, let’s turn away. Leave him to . . . whatever’s in Darujhistan.’
‘Witch, we have been following a trail.’
‘Sorry, what?’
‘A trail.’ He glanced down at her. ‘The Hounds.’
She looked again at the city, even as a fireball ripped upward and moments later thunder rolled through the ground at their feet. The Hounds. They’re tearing that city apart. ‘We can’t go there! We can’t walk into that!’
In answer Karsa bared his teeth. ‘I do not trust those beasts – are they there to protect Traveller? Or hunt him down in some deadly game in the streets?’ He shook his head. ‘I’ll not clip his heels, witch. We’l
l keep a respectable distance, but I will guard his back.’
She wanted to scream. You stupid, stubborn, obstinate, thick-skulled bastard! ‘So who guards our backs?’
Sudden blackness welled up inside her mind and she must have reeled, for a moment later Karsa was holding her up, genuine concern in his face. ‘What ails you, Samar?’
‘You idiot, can’t you feel it?’
‘No,’ he replied.
She thought he lied then, but had no energy to challenge him. That blackness had seemed vast, depthless, a maw eager to devour her, swallow her down. And, most horrifying of all, something about it was seductive. Slick with sweat, her legs shaky beneath her, she held on to Karsa’s arm.
‘Stay here,’ he said quietly.
‘No, it makes no difference.’
He straightened suddenly, and she saw that he was facing the way they had come. ‘What – what is it?’
‘That damned bear – it’s back.’
She twisted round. Yes, there, perhaps a hundred paces away, a huge dark shape. Coming no closer.
‘What’s it want with me?’ she asked in a whisper.
‘If you stay, you may find out, witch.’
‘No, I said. We’ll follow Traveller. It’s decided.’
Karsa was silent for a moment, and then he grunted. ‘I am thinking . . .’
‘What?’
‘You wanted to know, earlier, who would be guarding our backs.’
She frowned, and then loosed a small gasp and squinted once more at that monstrous beast. It was just . . . hovering, huge head slowly wagging from side to side, pausing occasionally to lift its snout in their direction. ‘I wouldn’t trust that, Karsa, I wouldn’t trust that at all.’
He shrugged.
But still she resisted, glaring now into the vault of night overhead. ‘Where’s the damned moon, Karsa? Where in the Abyss is the damned moon?’
Kallor was certain now. Forces had converged in Darujhistan. Clashing with deadly consequence, and blood had been spilled.
He lived for such things. Sudden opportunities, unexpected powers stumbling, falling within reach. Anticipation awakened within him.
Life thrust forth choices, and the measure of a man or woman’s worth could be found in whether they possessed the courage, the brazen decisiveness, to grasp hold and not let go. Kallor never failed such moments. Let the curse flail him, strike him down; let defeat batter him again and again. He would just get back up, shake the dust off, and begin once more.
He knew the world was damned. He knew that the curse haunting him was no different from history’s own progression, the endless succession of failures, the puerile triumphs that had a way of falling over as soon as one stopped looking. Or caring. He knew that life itself corrected gross imbalances by simply folding everything over and starting anew.
Too often scholars and historians saw the principle of convergence with narrow, truncated focus. In terms of ascendants and gods and great powers. But Kallor understood that the events they described and pored over after the fact were but concentrated expressions of something far vaster. Entire ages converged, in chaos and tumult, in the anarchy of Nature itself. And more often than not, very few comprehended the disaster erupting all around them. No, they simply went on day after day with their pathetic tasks, eyes to the ground, pretending that everything was just fine.
Nature wasn’t interested in clutching their collars and giving them a rattling shake, forcing their eyes open. No, Nature just wiped them off the board.
And, truth be told, that was pretty much what they deserved. Not a stitch more. There were those, of course, who would view such an attitude aghast, and then accuse Kallor of being a monster, devoid of compassion, a vision stained indelibly dark and all that rubbish. But they would be wrong. Compassion is not a replacement for stupidity. Tearful concern cannot stand in the stead of cold recognition. Sympathy does not cancel out the hard facts of brutal, unwavering observation. It was too easy, too cheap, to fret and wring one’s hands, moaning with heartfelt empathy – it was damned self-indulgent, in fact, providing the perfect excuse for doing precisely nothing while assuming a pious pose.
Enough of that.
Kallor had no time for such games. A nose in the air just made it easier to cut the throat beneath it. And when it came to that choice, why, he never hesitated. As sure as any force of Nature, was Kallor.
He walked, shins tearing and uprooting tangled grasses. Above him, a strange, moonless night with the western horizon – where the sun had gone down long ago – convulsing with carmine flashes.
Reaching a raised road of packed gravel, he set out, hastening his pace towards the waiting city. The track dipped and then began a long, stretched-out climb. Upon reaching the summit, he paused.
A hundred paces ahead someone had set four torches on high poles where four paths met, creating a square with the flaring firelight centred on the crossroads. There were no buildings in sight, nothing to give reason for such a construction. Frowning, he resumed walking.
As he drew closer, he saw someone sitting on a marker stone, just beneath one of the torches. Hooded, motionless, forearms resting on thighs, gauntleted hands draped down over the knees.
Kallor felt a moment of unease. He scraped through gravel with one boot and saw the hood slowly lift, the figure straightening and then rising to its feet.
Shit.
The stranger reached up and tugged back the hood, then walked to position himself in the centre of the crossroads.
In the wake of recognition, dismay flooded through Kallor. ‘No, Spinnock Durav, not this.’
The Tiste Andii unsheathed his sword. ‘High King, I cannot let you pass.’
‘Let him fight his own battles!’
‘This need not be a battle,’ Spinnock replied. ‘I am camped just off this road. We can go there now, sit at a fire and drink mulled wine. And, come the morning, you can turn round, go back the other way. Darujhistan, High King, is not for you.’
‘You damned fool. You know you cannot best me.’ He glared at the warrior, struggling. A part of him wanted to . . . gods . . . a part of him wanted to weep. ‘How many of his loyal, brave followers will he see die? And for what? Listen to me, Spinnock. I have no real enmity against you. Nor Rake.’ He waved one chain-clad hand in the air behind him. ‘Not even those who pursue me. Heed me, please. I have always respected you, Spinnock – by the Abyss, I railed at how Rake used you—’ ‘You do not understand,’ the Tiste Andii said. ‘You never did, Kallor.’
‘You’re wrong. I have nothing against any of you!’
‘Korlat—’
‘Did you think it was my intention to murder Whiskeyjack? Do you think I just cut down honourable men and loyal soldiers out of spite? You weren’t even there! It was Silverfox who needed to die, and that is a failure we shall all one day come to rue. Mark my words. Ah, gods, Spinnock. They got in my way, damn you! Just as you’re doing now!’
Spinnock sighed. ‘It seems there will be no mulled wine this night.’
‘Don’t.’
‘I am here, High King, to stand in your way.’
‘You will die. I cannot stay my hand – everything will be beyond control by then. Spinnock Durav, please! This does not need to happen.’
The Tiste Andii’s faint smile nearly broke Kallor’s heart. No, he understands. All too well. This will be his last battle, in Rake’s name, in anyone’s name.
Kallor drew out his sword. ‘Does it occur, to any of you, what these things do to me? No, of course not. The High King is cursed to fail, but never to fall. The High King is but . . . what? Oh, the physical manifestation of ambition. Walking proof of its inevitable price. Fine.’ He readied his two-handed weapon. ‘Fuck you, too.’
With a roar that ripped like fire from his throat, Kallor charged forward, and swung his sword.
Iron rang on iron.
Four torches lit the crossroads. Four torches painted two warriors locked in battle. Would these be the only witne
sses? Blind and miserably indifferent with their gift of light?
For now, the answer must be yes.
The black water looked cold. Depthless, the blood of darkness. It breathed power in chill mists that clambered ashore to swallow jagged, broken rocks, fallen trees. Night itself seemed to be raining down into this sea.
Glittering rings spun and clicked, and Clip slowly turned to face Nimander and the others. ‘I can use this,’ he said. ‘The power rising from this water, it is filled with currents of pure Kurald Galain. I can use this.’
‘A Gate?’
‘Well, at least one of you is thinking. A Gate, yes, Nimander.
A Gate. To take us to Black Coral.’
‘How close?’ Skintick asked.
Clip shrugged. ‘Close enough. We will see. At the very least, within sight of the city walls.’
‘So get on with it,’ said Nenanda, his words very nearly a snarl.
Smiling, Clip faced the Cut once more. ‘Do not speak, any of you. I must work hard at this.’
Nimander rubbed at his face. He felt numb, haunted by exhaustion. He moved off to sit on a boulder. Just up from the steep shoreline, thick moss blunted everything, the stumps of rotted trees, the upended roots, the tumbled black stones. The night air clung to him, cold and damp, reaching in to his bones, closing tight about his heart. He listened to the soft lap of the water, the suck and gurgle among the rocks. The smell was rich with decay, the mists sweet with brine.
He could feel the cold of the boulder seeping through, and his hands ached.
Clip spun his chain, whirled the two rings, one gold, one silver, and round and round they went. Apart from that he stood motionless, his back to them all.
Skintick settled down beside Nimander. Their eyes met and Skintick shrugged a silent question, to which Nimander replied with a faint shake of his head.
He’d thought he’d have a few more days. To decide things. The when. The how. The options if they should fail. Tactics. Fall-back plans. So much to think about, but he could speak to no one, could not even hint of what he thought must be done. Clip had stayed too close to them on this descent, as if suspicious, as if deliberately forcing Nimander to say nothing.
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