The Bonehunters
Page 99

'The K'Chain Che'Malle did not kill Sorrit,' Icarium said. 'They knew nothing of it.'
'Yet this creature here was frozen, so it must have been encompassed in the Jaghut's ritual of Omtose Phellack – how could the K'Chain Che'
Malle not have known of this? They must have, even if they themselves did not slay Sorrit.'
'No, they are innocent, Mappo. I am certain of it.'
'Then… how?'
'The crucifix, it is Blackwood. From the realm of the Tiste Edur. From the Shadow Realm, Mappo. In that realm, as you know, things can be in two places at once, or begin in one yet find itself eventually manifesting in another. Shadow wanders, and respects no borders.'
'Ah, then… this… was trapped here, drawn from Shadow-'
'Snared by the Jaghut's ice magic – yet the spilled blood, and perhaps the otataral, proved too fierce for Omtose Phellack, thus shattering the Jaghut's enchantment.'
'Sorrit was murdered in the Shadow Realm. Yes. Now the pattern, Icarium, grows that much clearer.'
Icarium fixed bright, fevered eyes upon the Trell. 'Is it? You would blame the Tiste Edur?'
'Who else holds such command of Shadow? Not the Malazan pretender who now sits on the throne!'
The Jhag warrior said nothing. He walked along the pool's edge, head down as if seeking signs from the battered floor. 'I know this Jaghut.
I recognize her work. The carelessness in the unleashing of Omtose Phellack. She was… distraught. Impatient, angry, weary of the endless paths the K'Chain Che'Malle employed in their efforts to invade, to establish colonies on every continent. She cared nothing for the civil war afflicting the K'Chain Che'Malle. These Short-Tails were fleeing their kin, seeking a refuge. I doubt she bothered asking questions.'
'Do you think,' Mappo asked, 'that she knows of what has happened here?'
'No, else she would have returned. It may be that she is dead. So many are…'
Oh, Icarium, would that such knowledge remained lost to you.
The Jhag halted and half-turned. 'I am cursed. This is the secret you ever keep from me, isn't it? There are… recollections. Fragments.'
He lifted a hand as if to brush his brow, then let it fall. 'I sense… terrible things…'
'Yes. But they do not belong to you, Icarium. Not to the friend standing before me now.'
Icarium's deepening frown tore at Mappo's heart, but he would not look away, would not abandon his friend at this tortured moment.
'You,' Icarium said, 'are my protector, but that protection is not as it seems. You are at my side, Mappo, to protect the world. From me.'
'It is not that simple.'
'Isn't it?'
'No. I am here to protect the friend I look upon now, from the… the other Icarium…'
'This must end, Mappo.'
'No.'
Icarium faced the dragon once more. 'Ice,' he said in murmur. 'Omtose Phellack.' He turned to Mappo. 'We shall leave here now. We travel to the Jhag Odhan. I must seek out kin of my blood. Jaghut.'
To ask for imprisonment. Eternal ice, sealing you from all life. But they will not trust that. No, they will seek to kill you. Let Hood deal with you. And this time, they will be right. For their hearts do not fear judgement, and their blood… their blood is as cold as ice.
****
Sixteen barrows had been raised half a league south of Y'Ghatan, each one a hundred paces long, thirty wide, and three man-heights high.
Rough-cut limestone blocks and internal columns to hold up the curved roofs, sixteen eternally dark abodes, home to Malazan bones. Newly cut, stone-lined trenches reached out to them from the distant city, carrying Y'Ghatan's sewage in turgid flows swarming with flies.
Sentiments, Fist Keneb reflected sourly, could not be made any clearer.
Ignoring the stench as best he could, Keneb guided his horse towards the central barrow, which had once been surmounted by a stone monument honouring the empire's fallen. The statue had been toppled, leaving only the broad pedestal. Standing on it now were two men and two dogs, all facing Y'Ghatan's uneven, whitewashed walls.
The Barrow of Dassem Ultor and his First Sword, which held neither Dassem nor any of his guard who had fallen outside the city all those years ago. Most soldiers knew the truth of that. The deadly, legendary fighters of the First Sword had been buried in unmarked graves, to keep them from desecration, and Dassem's own grave was believed to be somewhere outside Unta, on Quon Tali.
Probably empty.