At Kiska’s whispered yes the man shuddered as if struck. His eyes squeezed shut and his hands fisted rigid, then fell to his sides. He exhaled through clenched teeth, made a sweeping gesture with one hand as if cutting the air between them. ‘Well, you can keep that past. I want nothing to do with it.’ He motioned to the demon. ‘Come, Korus. We have work to do.’
Kiska could not read the demon’s alien face but the massive tangle of fangs at its mouth seemed to curve in a grin of triumph.
‘But Tayschrenn!’
The man paused. He turned back, his expression unchanged. ‘If that was my name it is no longer. You can keep it as well … and take it with you when you go.’
She could not think of anything more to say. The ex-High Mage walked away, trailed by the demon Korus. She turned to Leoman; the man gave a long slow shrug. ‘Kiska, I’m sorry …’
Snarling, she turned and stalked off along the shore. I’ve not come all this way …
The gentle metal jingling of Leoman’s armour announced his following. ‘Kiska, listen … You’ve done everything that could be expected. If he does not want to come then that is his choice …’
Kiska kept walking. I’ll convince him. He’s needed.
‘You may not believe me but I’ve been through something rather similar before.’
Did he really say that? She spun on her heel. ‘Yes — you’re right. I do not believe you’ve followed a quarry to the edge of creation only to have him walk away!’
Leoman gripped his belt in both hands, rocked ever so slightly under her glare. ‘I was bodyguard to Sha’ik. You know that.’
Her rage abated and she hesitated, interested despite her doubts. ‘Yes?’
His narrowed gaze was on the middle distance, perhaps unwilling to meet her eyes. ‘I was with the uprising from the start. Rose through the ranks to become her bodyguard. She dragged my partner and me out to the deep desert, claimed she was going to be reborn. She had her blasted Holy Book with her. She’d consulted it, the divinatory deck, the astrological signs, everything. All to be at the right place at the right time to be reborn …’
‘And?’ Kiska prompted.
‘The Malazans put a crossbow bolt through her head at that very moment.’
Queen preserve me! She turned away, furious. ‘There is a point to this?’
Stung, his voice hardened. ‘The point is that what happened was not what I thought was supposed to happen — that’s the point!’
She stopped, glancing back. ‘But she was reborn …’
‘A — girl — showed up just then to take on the mantle. She became the new Sha’ik.’
‘Ah-ha! So eventually you did succeed! Your determination paid off.’
‘No. Actually, that’s not my point at all. I was thinking more that we should strike inland, see what turns up.’
‘Well, I’m staying. His memory might return.’ She waved him away and walked on after Tayschrenn, yelling over her shoulder: ‘Did you think of that!’
Leoman stood kicking at the black sand. He sucked a breath in through his teeth. ‘Yes,’ he said, all alone. ‘I thought of that.’
After they left the temple quarters Malakai scouted ahead as usual. Antsy was content to let him range about as before. Frankly, part of him hoped he’d never return. Orchid was subdued. The lass had been handed a lot to think about. Corien was still weak and so he carried the dimmed lantern and the crossbow while Antsy led.
The way up was an ornate hall, or tunnel, broad and gently rising. More like a covered boulevard, with openings off it, perhaps shops or private dwellings. These chambers gaped empty, stripped of furnishings but for a litter of broken pots, trampled torn cloth, and shattered glass. The avenue opened to what appeared to be a broad square, and beyond this, just hinted at by the weak lantern light, marched street after street of another underground city.
Shit. Now what? He turned to Orchid. ‘Which way?’
She was eyeing the buildings, her lower lip clenched in her teeth. Clearly, this was not what she’d been expecting.
‘Well?’
‘I don’t know. We should explore … I guess.’
‘Where is Malakai, I wonder?’ Corien murmured, keeping his voice down.
‘Exploring, I guess,’ Antsy said, rather more acidly than he’d intended. ‘C’mon. This way.’
He led them up a narrow alleyway where the tilt, or cant, of the entire structure was uncomfortably evident. Antsy had to push off occasionally from the right-leaning wall.
‘We should make for one edge of the town,’ Orchid finally announced, perhaps having regained her bearings.
‘Why?’ Antsy asked, and stopped for her answer. Both spoke in subdued tones, almost whispering; the quiet emptiness and gaping doorways seemed to demand a reverent, or at least sombre, response. Gone, the silent stone streets and alleys seemed to sigh. They are gone from us.
‘Because we’re under a kind of cave roof here, that’s why.’
Antsy couldn’t help glancing up into what was, for him, an impenetrable gloom. He grunted his understanding. ‘All right. This way.’ He headed in what he believed to be the right direction.
A short time later he felt it before he heard it: a massive shuddering that threw them all from side to side. They reached out to steady themselves on the walls. Stones fell all around them, shattering. Orchid let out a panicked cry. Wreckage within the buildings about them shifted and crashed anew. It felt like every earthquake Antsy had experienced — only in this case a Spawnquake.
Then, slowly, ponderously, the entire structure around them rolled slightly, forwards and backwards, like a titanic ship. They tottered and fought to keep their balance just as one would on any vessel. In the slow, almost gentle rocking Antsy thought he sensed a new equilibrium in the massive artefact’s balance. Thankfully a poise slightly closer to upright than before.
‘What is it?’ Orchid whispered, fierce.
‘I do believe we just lost a chunk of our island.’
‘Are we sinking?’ Corien asked, dread tightening his voice.
Antsy scratched the bristles of his untrimmed beard. ‘It’s possible … of course, we might just rise some, too.’
‘Rise?’ Orchid scoffed. ‘How could that be possible?’
Antsy took a breath to explain but both had moved on, obviously uninterested in anything too technical. He cleared his throat, muttering, ‘Well — it’s just a theory.’
They came to where walls of stone bordered the town. Some sections of the rock had been left naked, others smoothed. Some bore mosaics depicting scenes of a great river of brightness running through darkness, others of an immense city of towers. Antsy wondered if such a city were somewhere within this gigantic mountain of stone. Tracing round the edge of the town they came to a set of three broad staircases leading upwards. A strong breeze blew into their faces down out of the shafts.
‘Definitely rising,’ Antsy said. Corien and Orchid just eyed one another, uncertain. Corien, Antsy saw, was walking more and more stiffly, grimacing with the effort, while Orchid looked bedraggled and exhausted. ‘We’ll rest here.’
Orchid was so worn out she merely gestured her acceptance and slumped down against a wall. Corien eased himself down with a hiss of pain. Antsy crouched to sort through their provisions. ‘How’re you holding up?’ he asked Corien, if only to hold back the darkness and the unsettling, watchful silence.
‘Bed rest would have been better,’ he answered with a grin. ‘But I’m much improved. Thank you, Orchid.’
A non-committal murmur sounded from where she lay on her bedroll of cloaks and blankets. Antsy gnawed on some sort of dried meat, passed a waterskin to Corien. ‘I don’t know about you, lad, but my goals have experienced a major revision.’
The aristocratic youth’s answering grin was bright in the gloom. ‘Getting off alive would be a good start.’