‘Red?’ came Malakai’s voice, whispering.
A nasty suspicion born of years of warfare among the deceptions of magery made Antsy ask, ‘Red who?’
‘Red … whose name that isn’t.’
Antsy grunted his assent, backed away from the portal.
Orchid gasped as Malakai came shuffling noisily into the room.
Antsy and Corien demanded together: ‘What? What is it?’
‘Company,’ Malakai said, the familiar acid humour in his voice. ‘Your friend Panar. And Red, I like that counter-sign. Speaks of a sneaky turn of mind. I like it. We’ll adopt it.’
‘Fine,’ Antsy answered, impatient. ‘But what’s the idea dragging this guy off? Now they’ll come after us.’
‘No, they won’t. They’re too busy fighting over who’s in charge now. Isn’t that so, Panar?’
A pause, cloth tearing, then Panar’s voice, rather blurry and slurred: ‘They’ll ransom me.’
‘No, they won’t. You’re dead and buried to them.’
‘They’ll ransom me with information. Just go back and ask.’
Malakai laughed quietly at that. ‘You’ll give us all the information we need.’
‘I won’t talk.’
‘Then,’ Malakai whispered, ‘I’ll have to do … this.’
From behind a hand or a balled cloth erupted a gurgled muted scream of agony. Feet kicked against the stone floor.
Orchid gagged. ‘Gods, no! Stop him! Stop him, Red!’
Then silence and heavy breathing. Antsy imagined Orchid covering her eyes. Malakai’s voice came low and cold — as when they’d met and he’d warned her he might leave her to die: ‘If you don’t like it, Orchid, then I suggest you step outside.’
‘Red?’ she hissed. ‘Do something! You aren’t going to let him torture this poor man, are you?’
Antsy fumbled for words. ‘I’m sorry … I’ve questioned men myself. Has to be done.’
‘Oh, you’ve questioned men, have you? Her voice dripped scorn from the darkness. ‘Barbarian!’
She had his sympathy. He’d lived his entire adult life in the military and he’d long ago been hardened to brutality. But men — and women — like Malakai left him squeamish.
‘What do you say now, Panar?’ Malakai asked. ‘Tell us what we want. After all, what does it matter? We’re all dead anyway, yes?’
Silence in the room’s darkness. Then a groan, someone shifting. ‘Fine. Yes. What do you want?’
‘Let’s start at the beginning,’ Malakai said conversationally. ‘Who are you?’
‘Panar Legothen, of March.’
Antsy grunted at that: March was one of the so-called Confederation of Free Cities.
‘How did you get out here?’
A laugh full of self-mockery. ‘You won’t believe me, but I was one of the first. I came out in my own boat.’
‘And?’
Silence, followed by a long wistful sigh. ‘What a sight it was then. A glittering mess. Everywhere you looked, pearls, moonstones, tiger-eye, sapphires, gold and silver. Silver everything! You could scoop it up by the armload.’
Antsy stopped himself from barking at the man to go on. Where was it all? What happened? He wanted to take the fellow by the shirt and shake him, but Malakai was obviously just letting him talk himself out.
‘There were others, of course. Sometimes I fought — most times I just ran. Where could I keep it all, though? We all had too much to carry, so we started to strike bargains, band together. Stake out territories. This here, this town — Pearl Town, we call it — is just a little place. The bottom of things. Where I’ve ended up.’
‘What happened?’ Orchid prompted gently.
Another groan from the dark. ‘Me and a few partners, we’d cleaned out our stake. When we saw more dangerous fortune-hunters arriving we knew things would be goin’ downhill fast. So we made for the Gap. But we’d waited just a touch too long. Got greedy. I caught that particular fever when I arrived. I think if I’d just picked up the first thing I found … a beautiful statuette in silver, such a sweet piece … if I’d just climbed back down to my boat and left right then and there I’d be a rich and happy man right now.’
‘But?’ Orchid prompted again after a long silence.
Stirring, the man roused himself. ‘Well … first we met the Malazans. They controlled about a third of the isle then. We bribed our way past them. Then a band of other looters jumped us. I guess they waited there for fools like us to go to all the effort to bring the riches to them. I got away with a bare fraction and reached the Gap.’
‘What is it?’ Malakai demanded.
‘It’s just what it says — an exit. A big series of terraces open to the outside. I guess the Andii used them to view the night sky or some such thing. The water comes right up to them now. They pull their boats up there, take their cut then take you out. Least, that’s what everyone said happens …’
‘But … that’s not what happened,’ Corien said.
‘No. That’s not what happened.’ The man’s voice thickened, almost choking. ‘I handed over all my best pieces, the cream of the riches — and do you know what they said?’
‘It wasn’t enough,’ Malakai said.
‘That’s right. It wasn’t enough. I threw them everything I had, even my weapons. They still claimed I was short of the payment for passage.’ The man sounded as if he was on the verge of tears. ‘You’ve all probably figured it out, haven’t you? But only then did I realize what was going on. Up until that moment I truly believed they would take their cut and let me go. God of the Oceans, what a fool I was.’
‘They just sent you back to collect more,’ Malakai said.
‘Yes. This is their gold mine and they need the labour. They said they’d keep what I’d brought as a down payment on my exit fee. Ha! That’s a joke. I had nothing left, just the shirt I’m wearing. I simply wandered off and ended up here.’
That mailed fist of rage brought stars to Antsy’s vision once more. Trapped! Fucking knew it! A joke? Oh yes, because all Oponn’s jests are bad news!
Orchid was saying, ‘How do you survive down here?’
‘Oh, we scrape together enough to buy food and water from the Confederation crews. At astounding prices, of course. Water is truly worth its weight in gold.’
‘We want up,’ Malakai cut in. ‘Which way do we go?’
‘There are stairs … it’s the only way. It’s-’
A second scream exploded in the night, making Antsy flinch and raising an answering cry from Orchid. It wailed, rising in terror and agony until it cracked as if the throat carrying it had been torn out.
In the long silence following that terrifying sound Malakai asked mildly, ‘And what was that?’
‘Ah. That. The Spawn is an ancient place, you know. Full of inhuman spirits and sorcery. Some claim it’s a curse on all of us. Humans aren’t welcome here. Myself, I believe it to be an escaped demon. Every few days it comes to feed. I was rather hoping it would show up here.’
‘That’s enough,’ Malakai said. ‘Let’s get going.’
‘And … what of me?’
‘You we leave behind. Congratulations. Maybe you’ll be the last off this rock.’
‘But — as I told you — there’s nothing left.’ The man sounded genuinely puzzled. ‘What could you possibly be looking for?’
A long awkward silence followed that seemingly simple question. Antsy wasn’t looking for anything beyond someone to pay him handsomely for his skills. And to look into rumours he’d heard about this place. Corien wanted riches and the influence they could bring. Malakai similarly so, he imagined. He had no idea what Orchid wanted.
Malakai spoke into the silence: ‘Myself, I’m searching for the gardens of the moon.’
Antsy blinked in the night. There was no such thing; it was just poetic — wasn’t it? But Orchid’s gasp of recognition told him she knew something of it. As for Panar, he started laughing. He laughed on and on and would not stop. It seemed the man was laughing not so much at Malakai’s gallows jest as at them, and himself, and at the entire absurd fate they’d all so deftly manoeuvred themselves into through greed, and ambition, and short-sightedness — all the classic character flaws that lead men and women to their self-inflicted dooms.