She almost slammed into the priest who was standing stock still, poised as if listening to the night. Skinner stood nearby. ‘What is it?’ she asked him, her voice low. The big man’s shrug of contempt seemed to call a curse down on all this damned mummery.
‘Something new,’ the priest answered. He pointed to the darkness. ‘Another mage. Follower of that pathetic usurper, Shadowthrone.’
‘Can you still track it?’ Skinner demanded, unimpressed.
The man jerked, insulted. ‘Of course! Yes. It calls to me. Offspring of my master.’
Skinner waved him onward. ‘Well …’
‘Fine!’ He adjusted the rags that passed as his long shirting, hanging down past his loin wrap, then ran on. Skinner chuffed his scorn and followed. Mara fell in behind. They went slower now, tracing a winding route. The dense woods and stands of bamboo appeared far more dark this night than Mara remembered.
Meanas, closing in upon us
. To either side routes beckoned, appearing to be the way Skinner had taken, but she ignored them, keeping her eye upon the trail the priest had broken; somehow his passage erased or overlay the puzzling twisting of ways and paths that wove all about her. Tatters of shadows even seemed to hang here and there like torn spiderweb.
Then she burst in upon a standoff, almost tumbling forward. The
priest
struggled in the grip of a soldier while another faced Skinner. Two others, the mages, stood at the litter.
‘Back off or he’s dead,’ the Malazan holding the priest warned.
Skinner gave an off-hand wave. ‘A good plan, soldier. But there’s a flaw. You see – I don’t give a damn.’ And he attacked, clashing swords with the soldier who faced him.
‘Gotta do it, Murk …’ one of the mages warned the other.
The second winced. ‘Oh man, I really don’t want to …’
Do what?
Mara summoned energies for a strike. Then the two mages and the litter between them disappeared as if smothered by darkness.
Hood take it!
The soldier holding the priest threw him into Skinner then the two Malazans fled in opposite directions.
Skinner snatched the priest by his throat. ‘
Where did they go?
’
‘I do not know!’ he wailed. ‘It is gone! My torment will be unending!’
‘Oh, shut up.’ He turned his helmed head to Mara.
She studied the dissipating lines of manipulation: a distraction? Were they in truth still there? Merely disguised? Yet she detected a betraying blurring and melting away. ‘Shadow,’ she judged.
‘
Him!
’ the priest snarled. ‘Upstart. Poseur. He is nothing!’
Skinner shook the priest again, making his teeth clack. ‘Can you follow?’
The priest batted at Skinner’s armoured forearm. ‘Yes, I shall! My master’s reach knows no boundaries. Ready yourselves.’
Mara clenched her gut and throat in queasy anticipation.
The surroundings blurred darkly, as if enmeshed in thickening shifting murk. Then the nauseating inner twist seemed to yank her inside out and she fell to her knees and one hand, gagging. This could not be good for her, she decided.
‘
Sacred Queen!
’ someone yelped.
‘Do not move,’ Skinner barked.
Blinking to clear her vision, Mara peered up. They’d found them. Two mages sitting with the litter. She glanced around: they were still within woods, but this one was very different. Far more dark and crowded, the trees and brush all black, bare and brittle, seemingly dead. The sky churned above them like a cauldron of lead. Shadow. How it unnerved her. People shouldn’t be here.
This is not our realm
.
The priest was pawing at the wrapped package, chuckling and whispering to it. One of the mages slapped him away and he hissed at the man.
‘You led us on a good chase, Malazan,’ Skinner said. ‘But it’s done now. Stand aside.’
The taller, slimmer mage in the tattered shirt and vest sent something through his Warren.
He’s the one!
Mara sent a thrust of power against him, slapping him backwards to smack his skull against a tree trunk. Broken branches rained down. The man wrapped his arms around his head and curled into a ball. He groaned his pain.
‘What was that?’ Skinner demanded.
‘He sent something. A summoning.’
‘Take it!’ Skinner ordered. ‘We must go.’
‘Yes, yes.’ The priest tore at the strapping securing the pack to the litter.
Snarling under his breath, Skinner started forward, impatient. ‘Just—’ He stopped, as the priest had frozen, staring off into the woods. Something was approaching, pushing its way stiffly through the dense brush. Mara experienced a momentary thrill of terror when, for an instant, she thought it an Imass.
But it was not – though the resemblance was strong. It was a desiccated corpse in ancient tattered armour of leather and mail, a tall sword at its back. Patches of hair still clung to cured tea-brown scraps of flesh over a round skull. Empty dark sockets regarded them. The dried lips had pulled back from yellowed teeth. The animated corpse pointed a finger – all sinew and knobby joints – to the litter.
‘Who brought this here?’ it asked. Its voice was a breathless stirring of dead things.
The other Malazan mage’s eyes had grown huge at the appearance of this ghoul and he spluttered, ‘Er, we did, sir. But we didn’t mean no insult. We was just fleeing this one!’ He pointed to Skinner, who merely crossed his arms in a slither of armoured scales.
‘I know of you, skulker of borders,’ the priest sneered from where he crouched hugging the pack. ‘I know your strictures. You cannot interfere!’
Mara started, shocked.
Skulker of borders
?
Edgewalker
? She raised her Warren to its greatest intensity. All mages are warned of this one – the most potent haunt of Shadow.
‘True,’ it breathed, its voice so soft. ‘However, you are within Emurlahn.’
‘Then we shall go,’ Skinner announced, and he reached for the pack.
In a leathery creaking of dried muscle and ligament, the legendary creature edged its head to one side, as if it were listening to some voice none other could hear. ‘I cannot foresee the outcome,’ it said, in warning.
Skinner paused. ‘What was that?’
‘Is this your wish?’ the haunt asked, facing away once more, as if addressing nothing.
Ignoring the creature, Skinner closed a gauntleted fist on the pack and pointed furiously to the priest. Howling his terror, the servant of the Chained God gestured and threw himself aside. The wrenching inner yanking snatched Mara, pulling her backwards, and she almost fainted from the clawing sense of violation. Her vision blackened and stars dazzled her eyes. She fell upon dirt, groaning, her stomach heaving. Still groggy, she pushed herself upright.
Skinner was there, the bag in his hand. But it hung limp, in tatters. He raised the torn canvas and leather strapping to his visor, studied it, then threw it down with a curse. The priest lay kicking and pounding the ground. It was as if he’d been taken by some sort of fit: shrieking curses, babbling in strange languages, even chewing and biting at the dirt in the extremity of his rage.
‘They cannot remain in Shadow,’ Skinner said. ‘They will return.’
This seemed to work upon the priest and he calmed, his convulsions easing. He pushed himself to his knees yet still appeared stricken, weaving, his eyes sleepy, not focusing upon anything at all. ‘Yes,’ he whispered. ‘We must await them. Our master requires as many disparate parts as possible. He is much assailed. All his children he must gather to himself. Greater power is needed …’
Curious, Mara asked, ‘For what?’
Slowly the priest raised his head. His eyes lost their emptiness to focus upon her, and flooded with hate almost insane in its intensity. ‘Why, to win free of course, you useless fool!’
*
It was a blessing and a curse that Murk had been off squatting in the woods when the attack came. A blessing because he was out of sight in a stand of brittle grasses, but a curse in that he wasn’t done.
Shouts of astonishment and surprise sounded from the camp, followed by an explosion of power that knocked him over even though he was squatting down, his feet wide splayed. Uprooted plants and broken branches slapped across him, followed by a haze of suspended dust and dirt. ‘
What the fuck?
’ he exclaimed before clamping his mouth shut and cursing himself for a fool. He allowed one wipe to his bare arse with a handful of leaves then pulled up his trousers and fumbled at the lacing.
He pushed his way out of the dense stand. All was quiet now, the camp deserted but for new figures whom he merely glimpsed before
ducking
back into cover. He pushed through to the other side of the stand and ran, raising Meanas to cloak him as he went. A drifting haze of Mockra-laid mental confusion, distraction and a profusion of false trails lay revealed before him. It would have completely defeated him had not he and Sour worked together so long that they automatically allowed paths for each other through their defences and traps. He raced on, sensing their direction already.
They had gone to ground in a clearing at the centre of a ring of thick trunks that the locals called raintrees. He dropped his disguise of shadows, making Ostler and Dee jump – even though Sour had no doubt warned them he was on his way.
‘They’re comin’,’ Sour announced.
‘All right.’ He waved to Ostler and Dee. ‘You two, take off. We’ll cover you.’
The two sheathed their swords, picked up the litter, and ran.
He and Sour started after, more slowly, interweaving a mesh of Meanas and Mockra with hidden snares of Thyr from Sour.
‘I think they’re good,’ Sour panted. ‘What a punch that gal has! My ears are still ringing.’
‘Focus on the job,’ Murk growled.
‘Right. Still, great legs on her.’
Together they spread such a maze of confusion, distortion and misdirection that Murk was certain no one could possibly win through. Yet whenever he cast his awareness to their rear he found them, and closing.
‘Can’t shake ’em,’ Sour gasped, near exhaustion. ‘How’re they doin’ it?’ He sounded close to weeping his fear and frustration.
‘Must have a tag on us somehow. Somethin’ …’ Murk hit a fist to his forehead. ‘The damned shard! They’re tracking it. Must stand out like Burn’s own tits. Gotta change the plan.’
Sour halted, hands on a broad leaf cut by deep serrations as long as a murderer’s blade. ‘How’s that?’ he asked.
Murk gestured ahead. ‘Tell Dee to turn the game.’
‘On it. Just like that time in Mott.’
Murk snapped his fingers to urge his partner on. ‘I told you never to mention that Hood-damned place!’
Sour hurried away, muttering, ‘Okay, okay. Just ’cause the apes caught ya! Sheesh.’
Dee and Ostler took charge of the ambush. They impatiently waved Murk and Sour to the litter. Moments later a skinny gangly fellow came crashing through the brush to run right into Dee, who wrapped a forearm round his neck. The fellow squawked but
quietened
down when Dee pressed the blade of his heavy parrying gauche to his bulbous Adam’s apple.
Two more figures emerged and the first punched Murk’s breath away because he recognized him from stories he’d heard. Skinner. Fucking Crimson Guard renegade. What was he doing here? He’d heard they’d left Jacuruku.
This could be it for us. We’re outclassed
.
So struck was he that he missed something and now Skinner charged Ostler.
‘Gotta do it, Murk,’ Sour whimpered, revealing that he also knew whom they faced.
He said some stupid last words and took them into Shadow.
They emerged still within the confines of the forest of the Azathanai. The image of Celeste shimmered here as if awaiting them. ‘Hello,’ she greeted them, smiling, pleased to see them. ‘Who are those others?’
‘They’ve come to take you away. Bring you to your … ah, parent.’
The girl-shade giggled. ‘Parent! How quaint. I’m sorry, Murk, but that comes nowhere near our relationship.’
Distracted, he murmured, ‘Well. Have to start somewhere.’
Can’t stay here – gonna be entombed for ever by these damned trees
. ‘We have to move,’ he told Sour who answered with a
you’re damned right
nod.
A patch of the woods nearby roiled and blurred as if melting. Murk stared, stunned.
I don’t fucking believe it!
The Crippled God priest appeared and lunged for the litter. He and Sour eyed the rearing dark figure of Skinner who emerged looking like the ghost of Hood himself. The Crimson Guard Dal Hon gal followed but the transition was hard on her: she fell to her knees, gagging. Still, her D’riss Warren sizzled about her as an aurora of blue flames.
‘
Sacred Queen
,’ Sour squawked, a hand going to his mouth.
Murk shifted to kick the damned priest away.
‘Do not move,’ Skinner warned.
The priest was untying the straps. Murk couldn’t help trying to smack him aside. He saw the surrounding branches and roots stirring, but slowly. Far too slowly. To one side, the flickering image of Celeste watched the newcomers as if they were rare exotic animals while none of them even spared her a glance – not even the priest.
They can’t see her either. Only I can. Her choice, I suppose. And this filthy priest is about to get his hands on her! Have to do something
.