The Malazan pitched against a wall, and, in a series of racking heaves, lost the supper the Seerdomin had so kindly provided.
Distant crashing shook the floor beneath his feet. Garath continuing his relentless hunt. Oh, you poor bastards, you invited the wrong guests into your temple…
'Oh, there you are!'
Still sickened, he twisted round to see Lady Envy, dressed in her spotless white nightclothes, her raven hair tied up and pinned, standing at the doorway. 'That armour proved fatally heavy, alas,' she said regretfully, her eyes on the corpses in the pools, then brightened. 'Oh well! Come along, you two! Senu and Thurule should be finished with the Seerdomin warriors.'
'There's more than one?' Toc asked, bewildered.
'There were about twenty in all. Kahlt was their captain as well as being this temple's high priest. Warrior-priests—what an unfortunate combination. Back to your room, now, my dear. You must gather up your belongings. We're rendezvousing in the compound.'
She set off.
Stumbling in her wake, with Baaljagg trailing, Toc drew a deep, shuddering breath. 'Has Tool shown up for this?' he asked.
'I've not seen him. He wasn't required in any case. We had matters in hand.'
'With me snoring like a fool!'
'Baaljagg watched out on your behalf, my love. You were weary, were you not? Ah, here we are. Gather your accoutrements. Garath intends to destroy this temple—'
'Yes,' Toc snapped. 'About Garath—'
'You don't wake up well at all, do you, young man? Surely we can discuss all this later?'
'Fine,' he growled, entering his room. 'We will indeed.'
The inner chambers of the temple thundering into dust, Toc stood in the compound, watching the two Seguleh dismounting the corpses of the villagers and replacing them with the freshly butchered bodies of the Seerdomin warriors. Kahlt, bearing a single thrust wound through the heart, was among them.
'He fought with fierce determination,' Lady Envy murmured at Toc's side. 'His axe was everywhere, yet it seemed that Thurule barely moved. Unseen parries. Then he languidly reached out, and stabbed the Seerdomin captain straight through the heart. A wondrous display, Toc the Younger.'
'No doubt,' he muttered. 'So tell me, does the Seer know about us, now?'
'Oh yes, and the destruction of this temple will pain him greatly.'
'He'll send a Hood-damned army down on us.'
'Assuming he can spare one from his northern endeavours, that seems likely. Certainly he will feel the need to respond in some manner, if only to slow our progress.'
'I might as well turn back here and now,' Toc said.
She raised an eyebrow. 'You lack confidence?'
'Lady, I'm no Seguleh. I'm not an ay on the edge of ascendancy. I'm not a T'lan Imass. I'm not a dog that can stare eye-to-level-eye with a Hound of Shadow! And I'm not a witch who can boil men alive with a snap of her fingers!'
'A witch! Now I am offended!' She advanced on him, arms crossed, eyes flaring. 'A witch! And have you ever seen me snap my fingers? By the Abyss, what an inelegant notion!'
He took an involuntary step back. 'A figure of speech—'
'Oh, be quiet!' She took his face in her hands, pulled him inexorably closer. Her full lips parted slightly.
Toc tried to pull away, but his muscles seemed to be dissolving around his bones.
She stopped suddenly, frowned. 'No, perhaps not. I prefer you… free.' The frown shifted to a scowl. 'Most of the time, in any case, though you have tried my patience this morning.'
She released him, studied his face for a moment longer, then smiled and turned away. 'I need to get changed, I think. Senu! When you're done, find me my wardrobe!'
Toc slowly shook himself. He was trembling, chilled in the wake of a sure, instinctive knowledge of what that kiss would have done. And poets write of the chains of love. Hah! What they write figuratively she embodies literally. If desire could have a goddess…
A swirl of dust, and Tool rose from the ground beside him. The T'lan Imass turned his head, stared over at Mok's recumbent form near the outer gate, then said. 'K'ell Hunters are converging on us.' It seemed the T'lan Imass was about to say something more, then simply vanished once again.
'See?' Lady Envy called out to the Malazan. 'Now aren't you glad that I insisted you get some sleep?'
They came to a crossroads marked by two menhirs, leaning and half buried on a low rise between the two cobbled roads. Arcane hieroglyphs had been carved into their faces, the pictographs weathered and faint.
Lady Envy stood before them, chin propped on one hand as she studied the glyphs. 'How curious. The root of this language is Imari. Genostelian, I suspect.'
Toc rubbed sweaty dust from his brow. 'What do they say? Let me guess. "All who come here shall be torn in two, flayed alive, beheaded and badly beaten."'
She glanced back at him, a brow raised. 'The one to the right indicates the road to Kel Tor. The one to the left, Bastion. None the less remarkable, for all the mundanity of the messages. Clearly, the Pannion Domin was once a Genostel colony—the Genostelians were distant seafarers, my dear. Alas, their glory waned centuries ago. A measure of their height is evinced by what we see before us, for the Genostel archipelago is halfway across the world from here.'
Grunting, Toc squinted up the heaved road that led to Bastion. 'Well, maybe their cities survived, but by all accounts the Pannions were once hill peoples. Herders. Barbaric. Rivals of the Daru and Gadrobi tribes. Your colony was conquered, Lady Envy.'
'It's always the way, isn't it? A civilization flowers, then a horde of grunting savages with close-set eyes show up and step on it. Malazan Empire take note.'
'"Never ignore the barbarians,"' Toc muttered. 'Emperor Kellanved's words.'
'Surprisingly wise. What happened to him?'
'He was murdered by a woman with close-set eyes… but she was from civilized stock. Napan… if you can call Napans civilized. From the heart of the empire, in any case.'
'Baaljagg looks restless, my dear. We should resume our journey, what with all these undead two-legged lizards on their way.'
'Tool said the nearest ones were still days distant. How far is it to Bastion?'
'We should arrive by dusk tomorrow night, assuming the distance indicated on these milestones remains accurate.'
They set off down the road, the Seguleh trailing with the travois. The cobbles underfoot, though worn deep in places, were now mostly clothed in grasses. There had been few if any travellers this season, and Toc saw no-one on the road as the day wound on. Old carcasses of cattle and sheep in the pastures to either side showed evidence of predation by wolves. No shepherds to tend the flocks, and among all domesticated livestock only goats and horses could survive a return to the wild.
As they paused for a mid-afternoon rest on the outskirts of yet another abandoned hamlet—this one without a temple—Toc checked his weapons one more time, then hissed in frustration and glared at Lady Envy who was sitting across from him. 'This doesn't make sense. The Domin's expanding. Voraciously. Armies need food. So do cities. If the countryside's home to nothing but ghosts, who in Hood's name is supplying them?'
Lady Envy shrugged. 'I am not the one to ask, my love. Questions of materiel and economics leave me deathly bored. Perhaps the answers to your irrelevant concerns will be found in Bastion.'
'Irrelevant?'
'Well, yes. The Domin is expanding. It has armies, and cities. These are facts. Details are for academics, Toc the Younger. Shouldn't you be concerning yourself with more salient matters, such as your survival?'
He stared at her, then slowly blinked. 'Lady Envy, I am already as good as dead. So why think about it?'
'Absurd! I value you too highly to see you simply cut down. You must learn to trust me, darling.'
He looked away. 'Details, Lady, reveal hidden truths. Know your enemy—that's a basic tenet. What you know you can use.' He hesitated, then continued. 'Details can lead one to trust, as well, when it come
s to the motives and interests of those who would be allies.'
'Ah, I see. And what is it you wish to know?'
He met her eyes. 'What are you doing here?'
'Why, Toc the Younger, have you forgotten? Your T'lan Imass companion has said that the secrets of the Morn Rent can only be found within the Domin.'
'A convenience, Lady,' he growled. 'You're busy manipulating. All of us. Me, the Seguleh, even Tool himself.' He gestured. 'Garath, your pup. He could be a Hound of Shadow—'
'He could be indeed,' she smiled. 'I believe, however, that he is reluctant.'
'What does that mean?'
'You are very easily exasperated, my dear. If you're a leaf trembling on a wide, deep river, relax and ride the current. It's always worked for me, I assure you. As for manipulation, do you truly believe I have the power to pull and prod a T'lan Imass? The Seguleh are, uhm, unique—we travel in step, after all, thus the notion of coercion does not arise.'
'Not yet, maybe. But it will, Lady.'
She shrugged. 'Finally, I have no control over Garath, or Baaljagg. Of that I assure you.'
He bared his teeth. 'Leaving just me.'
She reached out, rested a slim hand lightly on his arm. 'In that, darling, I am simply a woman.'
He shook her hand off. 'There's sorcery in your charms, Lady Envy. Don't try and tell me otherwise.'
'Sorcery? Well, yes, you could call it that, I suppose. Mystery as well, yes? Wonder, and excitement. Hope and possibilities. Desire, darling, is a most alluring magic. And, my love, it is one to which I am not immune…'
She leaned closer, her eyes half closed. 'I will not force my kiss upon you, Toc the Younger. Don't you see? The choice must be yours, else you shall indeed be enslaved. What do you say?'
'Time to get going,' he said, rising. 'Obviously, I won't be hearing any honest answers from you.'
'I have just given them!' she retorted, also standing.
'Enough,' he said, collecting his gear. 'I've stopped playing, Lady Envy. Take the game elsewhere.'
'Oh, how I dislike you when you're like this!'
'Sulk away,' he muttered, setting off down the road.
'I shall lose my temper, young man! Do you hear me?' He stopped, glanced back. 'We've got a few leagues' worth of daylight left.'
'Oh!' She stamped her foot. 'You're just like Rake!' Toc's lone eye slowly widened, then he grinned. 'Take a few deep breaths, lass.'
'He always said that, too! Oh, this is infuriating! It's all happening again! What is wrong with all of you?'
He laughed, not harshly, but with genuine warmth. 'Come along, Envy. I'll bore you with a detailed recounting of my youth—it'll pass the time. I was born on a ship, you know, and it was more than a few days before Toc the Elder stepped forward to acknowledge his fatherhood—my mother was Captain Cartheron Crust's sister, you see, and Crust had a temper…'
The lands lying just beyond Bastion's walls were devastated. Farmsteads were blackened, smouldering heaps; to either side of the road the ground itself had been torn into, ripped open like wounds in flesh. Within sight of the small city's squat walls, the remnants of massive bonfires dotted the landscape like round barrows dusted with white ash. No-one walked the wasteland.
Smoke hung over Bastion's block-like, tiered buildings. Above the grey wreaths rode the white flags of seagulls, their faint cries the only sound to reach Toc and Lady Envy as the group approached the city's inland gates. The stench of fire masked the smell of the lake on the other side of the city, the air's breath hot and gritty.
The gates were ajar. As they neared, Toc caught a glimpse of movement beyond the archway, as of a figure swiftly passing, dark and silent. His nerves danced. 'What has happened here?' he wondered aloud.
'Very unpleasant,' Lady Envy agreed.
They strode beneath the shadow of the arch, and the air was suddenly sickly sweet with the smell of burning flesh. Toc hissed through his teeth.
Baaljagg and Garath—both returned to modest proportions—trotted forward, heads slung low.
'I believe the question of sustenance has a grim answer indeed,' Lady Envy said.
Toc nodded. 'They're eating their own dead. I don't think it's a good idea to enter this city.'
She turned to him. 'Are you not curious?'
'Curious, aye, but not suicidal.'
'Fear not. Let us take a closer look.'
'Envy…'
Her eyes hardened. 'If the inhabitants are foolish enough to threaten us, they shall know my wrath. And Garath's as well. If you think this is ruination now, your judgement will receive a lesson in perspective, my dear. Come.'
'Yes, ma'am.'
'Familiarity breeds facetiousness, I see. How regrettable.'
The two Seguleh and their unconscious master trailing three paces behind them, Toc and Lady Envy strode into the square.
Split human long bones were piled against the inner walls, some calcined by heat, others red and raw. The buildings facing onto the square were blackened, doorways and windows gaping. The bones of various animals—dogs, mules, horses and oxen—lay about, gnawed and split.
Three men who were obviously priests awaited them in the centre of the square, clean-shaven, gaunt and pale in their colourless robes. One took a step forward as Toc and Envy approached.
'Strangers, welcome. An acolyte saw you on the road, and we three have hastened to greet you. You have chosen an auspicious day to visit glorious Bastion; alas, this day also places your lives in great peril. We shall endeavour to guide you, and thus improve the likelihood of your surviving the Embrasure's violent… afterbirth. If you will follow us…' He gestured towards a side street. 'At the mouth of Iltara Avenue, we shall have removed ourselves from the exodus's path, yet remain able to witness the miracle.'
'Ideal,' Lady Envy said. 'We thank you, holy ones.' The walk to the mouth of the side street was no more than fifty paces, yet in that time the city's silence was replaced by a growing murmur, a dry susurration approaching from Bastion's heart. Upon arriving, Baaljagg and Garath returned to flank Lady Envy. Senu and Thurule set the travois down against the wall of a corner building, then faced the square once more, hands on their weapons.
'The will of the Faith has embraced the citizens of Bastion,' the priest said. 'It arrives like a fever… a fever that only death can abate. Yet it must be remembered that the Embrasure was first felt here in Bastion itself, fourteen years ago. The Seer had returned from the Mountain, speaking the Words of Truth, and the power of those words rippled outward…' The priest's voice broke with some kind of emotion wrought by his own words. He bowed his head, his entire body trembling.
Another priest continued for him. 'The Faith flowered here first. A caravan from Elingarth was encamped beyond the walls. The foreigners were rewarded in a single night. And the First Child of the Dead Seed was gifted to the mortal world nine months later. That child has now come of age, an event that has triggered a renewed burgeoning of the Faith—a second Embrasure has occurred, under the command of the First Child, Anaster. You shall see him now—his mother at his side—leading his newfound Tenescowri. A war awaits them far to the north—the faithless city of Capustan must be rewarded.'
'Holy ones,' Lady Envy said, raising her voice to be heard over the growing roar of chanting voices, 'please forgive my ignorance. A Child of the Dead Seed—what precisely is that?'
'The moment of reward among the male unbelievers, mistress, is often marked by an involuntary spilling of lifeseed… and continues after life has fled. At this moment, with a corpse beneath her, a woman may ride and so take within her a dead man's seed. The children that are thus born are the holiest of the Seer's kin. Anaster is the first to reach his age.'
'That is,' Lady Envy said, 'extraordinary…'
Toc saw her face sickly pale for the first time in his memory.
'The Seer's gift, mistress. A Child of the Dead Seed bears the visible truth of death's kiss of life—proof of the Reward itself. We know that foreigners fear dea
th. The Faithful do not.'
Toc cleared his throat, leaned close to the priest. 'Once these Tenescowri leave Bastion… is there anyone else still breathing in the city?'
'Embrasure is absolute, sir.'
'In other words, those who did not succumb to the fever have been… rewarded.'
'Indeed.'
'And then eaten.'
'The Tenescowri have needs.'
Conversation ended then as the leading edge of a mass of humanity poured from the main avenue and began spreading to fill the square. A young man was in the lead, the only person mounted, his horse an aged roan draught animal with a bowed spine and botfly sores on its neck. As the youth rode forward, his head whipped suddenly to where Toc and the others stood. He stabbed a long, thin arm in their direction and shrieked.
The cry was wordless, yet it was understood by his followers. Hundreds of faces swung to look upon the strangers, then surged towards them.
'Oh,' Lady Envy said.
The second priest flinched back. 'Alas, our protection is insufficient. Prepare for your reward, strangers!' And with that, the three acolytes fled.
Lady Envy raised her hands, and was suddenly flanked by two huge beasts. Both flowed in a blur to greet the mob. Suddenly, blood and bodies spilled onto the flagstones.
The Seguleh pushed past Toc. Senu stopped at Envy's side. 'Awaken our brother!' he shouted.
'Agreed,' she said. 'No doubt Tool is about to appear as well, but I suspect they will find themselves too busy to contest each other.'
Leather straps snapped as Mok seemed to fling himself upright, weapons already in his hands.
And here I am, all but forgotten. Toc reached a decision. 'Have fun, all of you,' he said, backing up the side street.
As the ay and the hound chewed through the screaming mass, Lady Envy spun, eyes wide. 'What? Where are you going?'
'I've embraced the Faith,' he called out. 'This mob's heading straight for the Malazan Army—though it doesn't know it yet! And I'm going with it!'