Blood bloomed from the puncture wounds, but only for a moment. The leg was growing numb, but he would have use of it for a while yet.
Still holding the cursed sword by its blade, he pushed himself forward, limped onto the sward. And saw, a short distance to his right, a small hut from which smoke gusted out.
The Toblakai warrior headed over.
Coming opposite it, he dropped the iron sword, took another step closer, bent down and pushed one hand under the edge of the hut. With an upward heave, he lifted the entire structure clear, sent it toppling onto its back like an upended turtle.
Smoke billowed, caught the breeze, and was swept away.
Before him, seated cross-legged, was an ancient, bent and broken creature.
A man. A god.
Who looked up with narrowed eyes filled with pain.
Then those eyes shifted, to behind Karsa, and the warrior turned.
The spirit of the Emperor had arrived, he saw. Young-younger than Karsa had imagined Rhulad Sengar to be-and, with his clear, unmarred flesh, a man not unhandsome. Lying on the ground as if in gentle sleep.
Then his eyes snapped open and he shrieked.
A short-lived try.
Rhulad pushed himself onto his side, up onto his hands and knees-and saw, lying close by, his sword.
‘Take it!’ the Crippled God cried. ‘My dear young champion, Rhulad Sengar of the Tiste Edur. Take up your sword!’
‘Do not,’ Karsa said. ‘Your spirit is here-it is all you have, all you are. When I kill it, oblivion will take you.’
‘Look at his leg! He is almost as crippled as I am! Take the sword, Rhulad, and cut him down!’
But Rhulad still hesitated, there on his hands and knees, his breaths coming in rapid gasps.
The Crippled God wheezed, coughed, then said in a low, crooning voice, ‘You can return, Rhulad. To your world. You can make it right. This time, you can make everything right. Listen to me, Rhulad. Trull is alive! Your brother, he is alive, and he walks to the Eternal Domicile! He walks to find you! Kill this Toblakai and you can return to him, you can say all that needs to be said!
‘Rhulad Sengar, you can ask his forgiveness.’
At that the Tiste Edur’s head lifted. Eyes suddenly alight, making him look… so young.
And Karsa Orlong felt, in his heart, a moment of regret.
Rhulad Sengar reached for the sword.
And the flint sword swung down, decapitating him.
The head rolled, settled atop the sword. The body pitched sideways, legs kicking spasmodically, then growing still as blood poured from the open neck. In a moment, that blood slowed.
Behind Karsa, the Crippled God hacked laughter, then said, ‘I have waited a long time for you, Karsa Orlong. I have worked so hard… to bring you to this sword. For it is yours, Toblakai. No other can wield it as you can. No other can withstand its curse, can remain sane, can remain its master. This weapon, my Chosen One, is for you.’
Karsa Orlong faced the Crippled God. ‘No-one chooses me. I do not give anyone that right. I am Karsa Orlong of the Teblor. All choices belong to me.’
‘Then choose, my friend. Fling away that pathetic thing of stone you carry. Choose the weapon made for you above all others.’
Karsa bared his teeth.
The Crippled God’s eyes widened briefly, then he leaned forward, over his brazier of smouldering coals. ‘With the sword, Karsa Orlong, you will be immortal.’ He waved a gnarled hand and a gate blistered open a few paces away. ‘There. Go back to your homeland, Karsa. Proclaim your-self Emperor of the Teblor. Guide your people for ever more. Oh, they are sorely beset. Only you can save them, Karsa Orlong. And with the sword, none can stand before you. You will save them, you will lead them to domination-a campaign of slaughtered “children” such as the world has never seen before. Give answer, Toblakai! Give answer to all the wrongs you and your people have suffered! Let the children witness!’
Karsa Orlong stared down at the Crippled God.
And his sneer broadened, a moment, before he turned away.
‘Do not leave it here! It is for you! Karsa Orlong, it is for you!’
Someone was coming up from the sand. A wide, heavily muscled man, and three black-skinned bhokorala.
Karsa limped to meet them.
Withal felt his heart pounding in his chest. He’d not expected… well, he’d not known what to expect, only what was expected of him.
‘You are not welcome,’ said the giant with the tattooed face and the wounded leg.
‘I’m not surprised. But here I am anyway.’ Withal’s eyes flicked to the sword lying in the grass. The Tiste Edur’s head was resting on it like a gift. The weaponsmith frowned. ‘Poor lad, he never understood-’
‘I do,’ growled the giant.
Withal looked up at the warrior. Then over to where crouched the Crippled God, before returning once more to his regard of the giant. ‘You said no?’
‘As much.’
‘Good.’
‘Will you take it now?’
‘I will-to break it on the forge where it was made.’ And he pointed to the ramshackle smithy in the distance.
The Crippled God hissed, ‘You said it could never be broken, Withal!’
The weaponsmith shrugged. ‘We’re always saying things like that. Pays the bills.’
A horrid cry was loosed from the Crippled God, ending in strangled hacking coughs.
The giant was studying Withal in return, and he now asked, ‘You made this cursed weapon?’
‘I did.’
The back-handed slap caught Withal by surprise, sent him flying backward. Thumping hard onto his back, staring up at the spinning blue sky-that suddenly filled with the warrior, looking down.
‘Don’t do it again.’
And after saying that, the giant moved off.
Blinking in the white sunlight, Withal managed to turn onto his side, and saw the giant walk into a portal of fire, then vanish as the Crippled God screamed again. The portal suddenly disappeared with a snarl.
One of the nachts brought its horrid little face close over Withal, like a cat about to steal his breath. It cooed.
‘Yes, yes,’ Withal said, pushing it away, ‘get the sword. Yes. Break the damned thing.’
The world spun round him and he thought he would be sick. ‘Sandalath, love, did you empty the bucket? Sure it was piss but it smelled mostly of beer, didn’t it? I coulda drunk it all over again, you see.’
He clambered upward, swayed back and forth briefly, then reached down and, after a few tries, collected the sword.
Off to the smithy. Not many ways of breaking a cursed sword. A weapon even nastier would do it, but in this case there wasn’t one. So, back to the old smith’s secret. To break an aspected weapon, bring it home, to the forge where it was born.
Well, he would do just that, and do it now.
Seeing the three nachts peering up at him, he scowled. ‘Go bail out the damned boat-I’m not in the mood to drown fifty sweeps from shore.’
The creatures tumbled over each in their haste to rush back to the beach.
Withal walked to the old smithy, to do what needed doing.
Behind him, the Crippled God bawled to the sky.
A terrible, terrible sound, a god’s cry. One he never wanted to hear ever again.
At the forge, Withal found an old hammer, and prepared to undo all that he had done. Although, he realized as he set the sword down on the rust-skinned anvil and studied the blood-splashed blade, that was, in all truth, impossible.
After a moment, the weaponsmith raised the hammer.
Then brought it down.
EPILOGUE
She walked through the shrouds of dusk
And came to repast
At the Gates of Madness.