Bam!
*slams down book*
Memories of Ice. What a whopper. 1200 pages of epic fantasy, here we go. Part three of our Malazan deep dive.
We open 298'665 years BEFORE Burn's Sleep. Way before humans infest the globe. Two Imass are talking, Cannig Tol and the bonecaster Pran Chole, at this point still mortal. They discuss the foolishness of their ways, hunting various species to extinction in order to feed their ever growing population, in turn removing the food for other creatures, driving them to extinction too as the food chain collapses. The parallel between destruction of prey and predator and the war against the Jaghut is floated. Indeed, these two are on the trail of a Jaghut that they expect to catch tomorrow. Pran Chole laments that Cannig Tol's tribe has barely twelve members remaining. He also thinks he can sense another bonecaster nearby.
The Jaghut is female, a mother with two tots of around 4 or 5 years old and apparently the last of her kind. She runs afoul of the second bonecaster, Kilava. As they bandy words it becomes clear that Kilava is offering mercy, not for the mother, but for the bairns. The mother agrees and Kilava gathers up the children and makes her escape. The bonecaster takes them to a rent in the air near an old Jaghut tower with a ruined city beyond, believing it to be a portal into Omtose Phellack. She tosses the children through, ostensibly to their salvation.
Pran Chole and Cannig Tol catch up to the mother. Suspicious as to the absence of the children they approach to speak with her. She admits the children are safe, taken to the gate of Omtose Phellack by Kilava. The Imass kill her, thus ending the 33rd Jaghut War. Pran Chole insists he must go quickly, to Morn. Cannig Tol pales at that and tells him to be swift for they are not cruel. Pran Chole opens the Tellan warren and steps through.
He emerges near the tower and confronts Kilava. He warns her that the rent in the sky is the wound that destroyed this city and it is not Omtose Phellack. Indeed, though the tower is Jaghut, the ruined city beyond is not. They realise that if it was a wound, then it was sealed with a soul...
Sidestep: Remember how we saw this happen in the broken fragment of Kurald Emurlahn in the previous book. One of the Imass went to seal the wound but sneakily used a Tiste Edur soul instead.
Well, this wound was sealed the same way. Pran Chole explains that when Kilava tossed the children through there would have been an exchange, releasing the soul and trapping the children in an eternity of agony. Pran Chole wonders whether Kilava's compassion would extend so far that she would now free the children their eternal torture by taking their place but it seems not. She asks what has been freed but Pran Chole doesn't know and says they'll find out soon enough in time, which they will soon have plenty of, due to the ritual of Tellan. Kilava calls it madness and states she intends to refuse to attend. Pran Chole tells her he has seen his own dessicated face, two hundred thousand years hence and knows the ritual will be successful. Kilava says her brother will be pleased at least, for her brother is...
Onos T'oolan.
Pran Chole is disgusted as he realises this makes Kilava the Defier, who slew her kin.
Kilava asks who built the city if not the Jaghut and Pran Chole tells her it is K'Chain Che'Malle. Neither know anything about them beyond the name but Pran Chole suggests they may learn.
We bounce forward a hundred millennia or so to 119'736 years before Burn's Sleep, which is three years after the fall of the Crippled God.
Oh shit, here we go.
As the opening line states "The Fall had shattered a continent."
Yeah, this has really made a mess. Long story short, the god was summoned by spellcasters working in unison. They tore a rift through to chaos and pulled him through, hoping he would defeat Kallor. Yes, that Kallor who we saw briefly in book one cosying up with Caladan Brood.
Unfortunately, the God splatting into the earth kinda fucked the planet, now wracked by firestorms that have burned up the forests and left it a wasteland. It also kinda fucked the god, who has himself been shattered by the impact.
We see K'rul wandering and finding the lumps of meat that are the god's body and he muses that even if he pulls his body together, his mind might be shattered too. K'rul is one of three Elder Gods here and they are converging in order to go deal with Kallor themselves. K'rul can also sense a fourth presence, some form of savage ancient beast.
He meets the other two, Draconus and a female they both call Sister. They confront Kallor and rather than kill him outright, they curse him. K'rul curses him with eternal mortal life, never to die of old age but with all the ravages of age one would normally accrue. Draconus curses him never to ascend. The sister curses him to fall every time he rises, that all he achieves shall turn to dust in his hands and that everything he has wilfully done so far will be revisited back upon him.
In rage, Kallor curses them back.
He curses K'rul to fade from memory.
He curses Draconus that what he creates shall turn on him.
He curses the Sister of Cold Nights that unhuman hands will tear her apart on the field of battle and yet she shall know no respite.
Oddly specific that one, huh? We already know K'rul's curse becomes true and in a moment you might be able to piece together what happens to Draconus.
Looking out on the shattered Earth, K'rul intends to create a new warren and sweep the shattered terrain into it so that the earth can heal from the wound. The others know that this is a monumental feat that will nearly kill K'rul but he insists. Draconus mentions that since the time of All Darkness he has been forging a sword. It has taken a long time and has a sense of finality about it. K'rul suggests he reshape it slightly, the implication being it will house the warren.
Sound familiar?
What if I told you we've already seen the sister too. It's easy to miss how that name could change over the years.
Off in the distance, this is all observed by the beast who has white fur and a missing eye where it too was damaged by the fall of the crippled god. It has also lost its mate. As it watches these young gods leave via their warrens, it too decides to leave and look for its mate. It opens a warren to Chaos and steps through.
Damn. And that was just the prologue.
It' the 1164th Year of Burn's Sleep.
That's ten years since Laseen took the throne.
We're gonna start with a new group of characters because why not. Gruntle is guarding a caravan with his associates, Harllo and Stonny Menackis, who gets two names for some reason. They are working for a mysterious man called Keruli.
Gruntle is approached by a manservant named Emancipor Reese. He wants Gruntle to meet his masters and Keruli seems keen for Gruntle to go (seemingly aware of the situation from inside his wagon). Reese takes him to meet Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, a pair of shady, black wearing dudes that we will later learn are necromancers. There's a bunch of novellas about these two guys which is a shame because I was never particularly interested in them. Anyway, they intend to visit Raest's now empty barrow and wanted Gruntle to go with them, ostensibly because Keruli would wish it. Gruntle refuses and returns to the wagons. Basically our takeaway is that the two necromancers don't know the full story about the events in Darujhistan from Book One and are now investigating.
Meanwhile, in the warren of Chaos... A familiar massive one eyed white wolf has found a one eyed man. How portentous.
Toc the Younger awakes. He remembers being attacked by Hairlock. He's not sure where he is, seemingly a landscape of broken volcanic glass. The string on his bow has dried out and stretched which suggests he's been out of it for weeks and yet he isn't overly hungry or thirsty, which makes that seem unlikely. He wanders around a bit and bumps into Onos T'oolan. Tool tells Toc that they are in Morn, 200 leagues south of Darujhistan and that two months have passed. He also tells Toc that the tower nearby has become occupied by a woman who is now approaching. The young, slim, attractive woman, with two dogs at her side, is introduced by Tool as Lady Envy. The Imass is full of exposition as he reveals she is one of Draconus' daughters, making her much older than her appearance might suggest. He also explicitly states that Draconus forged Dragnipur and then Anomander Rake killed him with it, which as we know, means Draconus is within the sword, pulling the wagon along with everyone else Rake has killed over the hundreds of millennia he's been alive. We also learn that Draconus has two daughters that he named Spite and Envy. Nice.
Envy invites the pair into her tower for refreshments and inside we find she has three servants, members of a warrior race called the Seguleh. They wear masks on their faces and we'll find out more about their culture later. For now, what's important is that Envy seems to be magically forcing them to do her bidding. Separately to that, the three warriors seem intend on challenging Onos T'oolan and despite Envy ordering them to stand down,t he tension increases until one of the Seguleh, Senu, attacks him. Tool delivers one blow with the flat of his blade and knocks the Seguleh unconscious. Tool makes it clear he knows that Envy is here studying the rent, which surprises her. Envy seems to think a K'Chain Che'Malle escaped from the rift. The tombs nearby have also been empty for decades, to which Tool asks "Only decades?". Given what we saw going on with this rift all those years ago, this is intriguing. Did the two Jaghut children replace the K'Chain Che'Malle matron as the rift seal?
Time for some more Bridgeburners. Picker and Blend who seem to be shaking down a merchant at a checkpoint between Darujhistan and Pale, supposedly seeking out smugglers. The merchant sells them a torc, an arm ring supposedly blessed by Treach, the Tiger of Summer. Picker is derisive, pointing out that Treach isn't a god, just a soletaken ascendant, but ultimately ends up purchasing the torc and putting it on. It clicks into place on her arm.
The merchant takes his leave and we find out he wanted the money to have his tumours healed which are implied to be testicular. He finds a gate to a warren and enters, meeting up with a mysterious god with a bad cough. The merchant hands the god a package containing cards, presumably a deck of dragons, but the pictures have been made flawed on purpose. The god congratulates the merchant on his skill. In return, the god heals his tumours, painfully, in such a way that leaves the merchant without the use of his legs. The merchant accepts his gift, seemingly still worshipping this "fallen one" as he calls him. It seems we have finally met the Crippled God. I always picture him as like Mumm-Ra the Everliving.
Back with Picker and Blend we find out that Quick Ben had them insert a pebble into the merchants pack so he could track him.
Quick Ben arrives and is horrified to see the magic coming from Picker's new torc. Picker thought the blessing would be fine for a soldier, Treach being the Lord of Battle but Quick Ben says Treach has been insane for about five thousand years as he hasn't gone back to his human form since. Either way, the torc is on Picker's arm now and she's stuck with it.
Quick Ben follows the tracking pebble by astrally projecting his soul, slipping into the warren and meeting the Crippled God. Quick Ben accesses his warrens, or at least seven of them, the most he can safely handle at once. The two converse and Quick realises that the Crippled God has infected Burn herself. The Crippled God confirms that in this realm, he is a cancer and that Burn cannot awaken while he is here. But the other gods chained him here. Quick Ben hits him with everything he has, grabs his tracking pebble back and tries to cheese it. The Crippled God tries to pull Quick back to him with sorcery but the earth opens and swallows the wizard. He finds himself deep within the earth and looks up to see ribs above him. He realises he is within Burn , who he calls a living warren. More, there are giants inside her, seemingly holding the ceiling up. One of them is melting as they speak and tells Quick Ben that they are dying and so is Burn. She has only tens of years left and requires help. Unsure how to help, Quick promises he'll try, then opens another warren and steps through, returning to his body. He tells Picker and Blend they're all in danger, not the Bridgeburners, not the Malazans, ALL of them.
We get a quick scene showing Whiskeyjack, Paran and some of our other Bridgeburners who are preparing for a parley with Caladan Brood. Our main takeaway is that Whiskeyjack is still injured as is Paran.
I'm gonna condense a lot of this down so here's what happens. The parley is between three leaders. Caladan Brood, Dujek Onearm and the seemingly ten year old Silverfox. Some other key figures are present, Whiskeyjack, Crone, Kallor, the Tiste Andii Korlat. We learn that Silverfox is growing rapidly as her biological mother is ageing relatively, essentially a parasitic sucking of energy and that she was only born six months ago. What's more, she is two souls in one body, mostly Tattersail but with a lot of Nightchill's knowledge. Kallor recognises her for that and is openly hostile. What's more, because she was born twice, once in the real world and once in the Tellan warren with K'rul and Pran Chole, she is also a bonecaster and essentially a mortal T'lan Imass.
The group discuss the upcoming campaign against the Pannion Seer. Brood has a unit called the Mott Irregulars that the Bridgeburners have faced previously.
We also learn some secrets. Dujek has a standard-bearer with him and Silverfox suspects he is not who he seems. Silverfox and Korlat know that Crone and her great ravens were born from the rotting flesh of the Crippled God after he smashed into the earth. We learn that Silverfox in theory commands all the T'lan Imass and they are supposed to be arriving for the second gathering, the first gathering being back when they turned themselves undead. We learn that the warren K'rul made by sweeping up Kallor's ruined empire is actually the Imperial Warren.
We also learn that the Pannion Seer has an army of peasants called the Tenescowri that he doesn't feed or equip making them angry, violent and possibly cannibalistic.
With Gruntle's group we see another guard called Buke that the two necromancers have hired. He apparently is somewhat suicidal, taking on dangerous assignments since his family died in Darujhistan. Gruntle chats with Buke and it seems Buke thinks Korbal Broach might be the murderer who killed his family. We don't know if there's any truth to this at the moment, it could just be co-incidence, but what we do know is Buke is probably seeking revenge. We also find out that Stonny Menackis feels sorry for him, which Gruntle thinks is because she's interested in him romantically.
Quick Ben meets up with a witch in Pale. He's trying to find out why exactly Burn is sleeping but the witch can only give him cryptic answers. Despite this, Quick wants to be allies and gives her a pebble. She agrees she'll be available to assist when the time comes. There's a real weird part here where the witch says she prefers the cold which gnaws at Quick when he leaves because old folk usually prefer to seek warmth. It doesn't seem that unusual to be honest but I guess its intended for us, the reader, to have some suspicions. For now, just remember it.
Back with the Bridgeburners, we meet Spindle, a mage who wears a disgusting shirt made of his dead mother's hair. Paran learns about Felisin being sent to the mines and realises Tavore was saving her from death while showing her best face to the Empress. He also surmises that, like himself, Tavore will take her position seriously and though she may attempt to rescue Felisin, she will not want to jeopardise her role as Adjunct.
Paran also learns that the young girl Silverfox is Tattersail which leaves him conflicted to say the least. Whiskeyjack also tells him that Quick Ben thinks Paran is ascending after his jaunt through Dragnipur, being the only person to ever escape it.
I'm gonna gloss over the table thing for now so if you have read the book, I'm just not getting into it. What's important here is that the Malazans learn that there might be a new unaligned card in the Deck of Dragons, a Deck Master of sorts... yeah, this is getting some major Yugioh vibes.
Silverfox and Paran discuss the Deck. Silverfox, or more specifically, Tattersail, believes that each card is a gate into a warren and that there may have been more cards and other decks, possibly that there are still other decks. More, she has theories about the suits. House Light, House Dark, etc. She draws a parallel with the finnest of Raest. Finnest means "hold of ice" and supposedly, historically, holds were synonymous with houses and warrens. So the Finnest means hold or house or warren of ice. She also says that Tremorlor is Trellish for House of Life. In Malaz City there is the Deadhouse, aka the House of Death. What's more, though Kellanved and Dancer entered the Deadhouse, they didn't become gods of Death because Hood already holds the position. She believes each Azath has entries to each realm and thus they found Shadow empty and settled in. Paran is surprised to learn the Emperor is Shadowthrone because I guess no one filled him in yet. She says the house of shadow used to be a hold because it doesn't share the same hierarchical structure as the other houses. This whole house/hold thing is gonna be annoying as shit for a while, sorry. Anyway, the pair of them speculate that Kurald Galain (The warren of Darkness) might have its entrance hidden in Dragnipur, with the souls inside essentially sealing it shut. Ultimately, Silverfox thinks the new Unaligned card in the deck is Paran.
Ok, back over to Envy and co. We learn a bit about the Seguleh. They are a warrior nation who maintain a strict hierarchy of skill. The less decorated their mask is, the more skilled they are. Of the three Seguleh there, one has only two lines on his mask, marking him as third in the overall hierarchy. His name is Mok, the other two are Thurule and Senu, the one Tool already defeated. We learn that Tool attempted to finish that fight quickly because otherwise it would have gone on forever. Tool explains that while it seemed like one blow was struck what actually happened was that as Senu began to draw his swords, Tool struck out three times. Senu blocked two of the blows with the partially drawn weapons and the third knocked him out before he could fully commit. Regardless, Tool defeated him and now stands above him which means Senu will converse with Tool as he is his superior. We also learn they have not attacked Toc because he is uneasy around them rather than confident which marks him as inferior and not worth the challenge. We learn from Envy that Rake once visited the Seguleh island and unaware of their customs and arrogant as he is, ended up fighting constantly while he was there, eventually retreating after two hours without realising he holds the rank of seventh and while that was centuries ago, the Seguleh still honour him that rank, referring to him as Blacksword. We also learn that the Seguleh were on their way to war with the Pannion Domin. It seems the Tenescowri came to their island and tried to convert them but as they were unarmed, the Seguleh ignored them. The Tenescowri promised the Pannion army would come to the Seguleh, which naturally, they welcomed, but as the army has not arrived, they have now taken the initiative although obviously these three have become ensnared by Envy.
While this conversation is happening Thurule attacks Tool and the pair drift off into the darkness as they fight. Tool finally returns with an unconscious Thurule. Tool has taken a fair bit of damage. As Mok starts to rise behind him, Tool mentions it was a more difficult fight than anticipated because he used the flat of his blade only. Mok sits back down. Despite the non-lethal blows, Tool had had to do a number on Thurule to take him down. Envy heals him and Mok protests that he must not be magically healed but Envy freaks out and hits him with some sorcery to force obedience back onto him.
Back with the Malazans, the consensus among the bridgeburners is that Paran is resisting ascendancy which is what is making him sick. Quick Ben is worried a little about Nightchill after he realises that there have been multiple Nightchill's throughout history and that they may all be the same one. No shit, Sherlock. We also learn that Caladan Brood's hammer might be blessed by Burn and that its believed the hammer is the one thing that can wake her.
A group of delegates from Darujhistan arrive to meet with Brood and who should emerge from the carriage but Kruppe. Silverfox's mother, Mhybe, greets him, saying she was in his dreams. Kruppe doesn't remember at first until she points out she was younger and pregnant and K'rul and Pran Chole where there. Kruppe realises who she is instantly and moreso, seems to realise why she has aged so. We also see the rest of the delegates who just so happen to be Coll, Murillio and Estraysian D'Arle. It seems Darujhistan is going to be funding this campaign against the Pannion Seer's forces, providing supplies but Caladan's plans have rendered the logistics somewhat tricky. Ultimately Kruppe suggests the use of the Trygalle Trade Guild after the success of providing aid to Coltaine.
Crone learns about the new card in the deck and Spindle has done multiple deck readings that keep throwing out Obelisk as the first card, convincing him it is now active. He also notices that the Assassin of House Shadow looks like Kalam.
As people mill about the camp, Spindle sees Paran and realises he's the new unaligned card.
The Bridgeburners are heading out to recruit allies. Specifically, their Barghast member, Trotts, is going to speak with the White Face Barghast clan to recruit their assistance.
Anomander Rake arrives in dragon form, sembling back into a Tiste Andii as he lands 'cos he's so cool. Kallor toadies up to him, trying to persuade him to kill Silverfox with Dragnipur, relying on Rake's famous impartiality to see Silverfox for the threat she might become. Other characters arrive to take a stance by Silverfox and Caladan warns Rake that if he draws Dragnipur, Brood will draw his hammer. It's clear that Rake doesn't like Kallor but he is suspicious of Silverfox. He tries to sense her with sorcery but Silverfox magically swats his attempt aside. Rake is impressed at the strength and temerity but also wonders what she is so eager to hide. He reaches for Dragnipur, Brood grabs his hammer, even Whiskeyjack draws his blade. Before it can all kick off, Kruppe appears in the air, dangling from a table which has the unaligned card of Ganoes Paran painted on the underside. It's not super important why its a table, I glossed over it to save time, point is, everyone sees it and the tension is broken.
Paran is off preparing to leave with the Bridgeburners when he is suddenly teleported to the standoff where he too now sees the card and can confirm it's him. As Paran doubles up in pain, sorcery leaking from the card to him, Quick Ben teleports in and defuses the situation, suggesting to everyone that given the importance of all this, now might not be the time for fighting. Rake relinquishes his grip on Dragnipur.
Paran on the other hand finds himself teleported to another location. Or rather falling until he lands, hitting the floor hard enough for his armour to make noise but not causing him any direct pain. He finds himself in an Azath and as he discovers the unconscious forms of Rallick Nom and Vorcan, surmises that this is the Finnest house in Darujhistan. He then meets the Finnest's new guardian, Raest or rather what's left of him, shredded and torn to bits as he was. He has Paran follow him as he explains that the Azath chose him as its guardian (ironic I guess, since it grew from his Finnest) and that the other two are held in an unconscious state as potential servants. He also affirms that Paran is the Deck Master. Paran isn't keen, attempting to refuse this destiny as he states he has enough wars to deal with as it is. Raest replies:
"They are all one."
It's easy to overlook this line, delivered as it is, so swiftly, the scene moving onto more dramatic moments, but I found this quite interesting. There's the obvious implication about the interlocking nature of all the events, which is true and raises some interesting questions about predestination or who is really the driving force behind the entire thing but my other takeaway is how easily Raest has grasped this concept. Either the Jaghut has instantly chilled out and accepted the knowledge given him by the Azath or the Azath is speaking through him. Given that Raest makes a comment about his Jaghut nature moments earlier, I feel like its the former, which suggests that whatever Raest saw or was informed of, the realisation really struck home.
Anyway, Paran is escorted into and left in a room with flagstones that have cards inscribed on them. Not just the Deck of Dragons but lost houses and countless forgotten unaligned. Touching one, he enters and finds himself standing in front of twin thrones, their bone and hide nature suggesting an ancient and primal place. Paran finds knowledge entering him. This is the Hold of the Beasts, which used to belong to the T'lan Imass before their undead ritual created them a new warren. He realises that the T'lan Imass have outlived their gods and he wonders why there are two thrones. It's not explicitly stated, but the thrones belong to Togg and his mate Fanderay. Although the name has yet to be put to him, we have seen Togg, the one eyed white wolf who wanders the warren of chaos and rescued Toc the Younger, possibly taking him as a champion. He goes back to Azath and looks at another card, seeing Burn. He sees the Crippled God, chained to her flesh and along the chains, poison flowing from him to her. What's more he realises she forged the hammer to shatter the chains and found Caladan Brood to wield it. And he has refused. Torn between two terrible options, literally a dilemma. To break the chains of the Crippled God would be to release him from Burn ensuring her survival, but at the cost of him clearing the world of life. Or leave him down there, kill Burn so that the world can live, at least, for a time.
He finds himself back with the others, where it seems mere moments have passed. The others do not seem to have noticed his absence. Rake basically tells Kallor that if they try and kill Silverfox now and fail, they will only have added to their list of enemies. For now, the alliance shall proceed. The meeting comes to an end and the groups disperse.
Rake and Brood meet in private where they discuss what we just learned from Paran, Brood's refusal to commit to freeing the Crippled God and killing everyone in the world. We learn that Brood's warren is Tennes, which is the same as the witch Quick Ben met with, so now we know that's Burn's warren. The way Rake phrases it suggests that he, Brood, The Queen of Dreams and Hood all agreed on something 1200 years ago. It's not clear yet if this is the chaining or an agreeance not to break the chains. Although we don't know it yet, it helps understand this timeframe once you know that the Crippled God wasn't chained all in one go. Rather bits of him have been chained across history. Rake is referring to the most recent chaining. Super confusing without this context. It's not super clear that Hood was present as people often use his name in speech as a curse or exclamation, but the hyphen here makes it obvious on a reread that Rake is saying Hood was present. So we now know that both Rake and Brood have met Hood, in person.
I can't wait til we meet Hood. He's very cool.
Anyway, the pair point out the Hobson's choice of the whole deal. The Crippled God wins either way. If Brood shatters the chains, the god is free, he poisons every warren, sorcery dies and with it, everyone on the planet. Or they wait, people live and Burn eventually dies... to the same end. They also worry that the Pannion Domin is using the warren of chaos, which is close to the Crippled God as his poison is that of chaos. Rake seems to think the Crippled God is the power behind the Pannion Domin.
Back with the Bridgeburners, Kallor is still being a douchecanoe so Quick Ben drops him into a magical hole and then scarpers before he can climb out.
Later, Quick Ben meets with Whiskeyjack where the ex-sergeant points out that Quick Ben seems awfully eager to escape Silverfox's presence. Quick points out she's aged five years in the last day or so. Whiskeyjack is suspicious that Quick Ben has yet more layers of plans going on, pointing out that he knows the mage visited every temple and seer in Pale, spent a small fortune on deck readings and has even sacrificed a goat at dawn atop a barrow. Quick admits the goat thing reeks of desperation. He claims he tried to contact the spirits in the barrow but someone had taken them. That has roused his curiosity. We close out this chapter as Onearm's host, ten thousand strong, joins Brood's forces to begin the march.
Back with Gruntle and co. They arrive in Saltoan where their master, Keruli, has a meeting with the city's criminal underbelly. It becomes clear that Keruli is a priest of sorts though Gruntle isn't sure which God he serves. Keruli points out to the Saltoans that the Pannion Domin come offering promises but the end result is that everyone ends up in the Tenescowri. He wants these criminals to pre-emptively turn public opinion against the Pannion. We also learn that among the Tenescowri are the Children of the Dead Seed. Simply put, the women of the Tenescowri rape the freshly killed male soldiers and get pregnant.
After this weird diversion, the wagon gets back on track, coming across some dead bandits that Gruntle thinks Bauchelain and Korbal Broach have killed. Even further on, they meet up with a trio of White Face Barghast. These are basically humans with white face paint resembling skulls, rather than the blue woad worn by other Barghast such as Trotts. These three are Hetan and her brothers, Cafal and Netok. We quickly learn that Hetan is incredibly horny and ends up having sex with Gruntle and Harllo on successive nights. This may be one of the most awful moments of foreshadowing ever and I don't mean awful as in poor quality.
The barghast travel with the wagon and the group come across Bauchelain's coach which seems to have been attacked. Long story short, the two necromancers pulled over to converse with some dead barghast spirits and were attacked by mysterious undead creatures with swords for arms. Weird. Anyway, Bauchelain and co warn Gruntle and co that the attackers are returning. While the necromancers seem calm, Buke tells Gruntle that the two are spooked, having used everything they had pretty much to drive the attackers off. The attackers are undead servants of the Pannion Domin and they killed the demons unleashed by the necromancers. There are three of these enemies and they're coming back. The whole menagerie prepares to defend against the attack, even Keruli who admits his god is Elder, but specifies no further. The creatures eventually attack. They are undead lizards with swords for hands. Basically, imagine a velociraptor twice the height of a man, with blades for arms, but also wearing a helm and armour. These are K'Chain Che'Malle, presumably resurrected by the Pannion Domin and they are deadly. As the mages unleash sorcery, one of the creatures clever girls them, attacking from behind. Gruntle is attacked. He blocks the blade swing with his own blade but the force breaks his left wrist. The follow up kick crushing his ribs and the talons slash him open. He lands in a heap and we close out the first part of the book with Gruntle's life force ebbing as he lays dying amidst the chaos.
Charon Deep Dives Malazan Book of the Fallen (Part Three)
Charon Deep Dives Malazan Book of the Fallen (Part Three)
"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else." - Charles Dickens.
“Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.” - Marcus Aurelius
“Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.” - Marcus Aurelius
Re: Charon Deep Dives Malazan Book of the Fallen (Part Three)
Ok, over to Capustan to get some background info on who we're dealing with over there. We're gonna meat three characters here in the church of Fener, referred to by their titles, Destriant, Shield Anvil and Mortal Sword. Fener's church is a martial one, him being the god of war.
We'll learn that the Destriant is called Karnadas and the mortal Sword is Brukhalian and the Shield Anvil is Itkovian. Capustan has a ruling body called the Masked Council who rule in the city alongside Prince Jelarkan. The Masked Council is made up of priests from the various churches. The member from Fener's church is known as Rath'Fener and we learn that Treach's representative is called Rath'Treach, so pretty straightforward naming system then. We also learn there's animosity against Treach's representative because as we learned earlier, he's not really a god. So, this martial branch of Fener's church is also a mercenary company known as the Grey Swords. Karnadas, the Destriant, has found something weird and it appears to be some sort of magical message. He meets up with the Mortal Sword and together they activate the orb, finding themselves in a skype call with none other than Quick Ben. Is skype still a thing? Should I say zoom? What do the kids use these days? Anyway, Quick Ben claims the orb was meant to find someone and make them think the message was coming from their own group as a form of camouflage. He explains the situation. The Pannion are coming and the Malazans want to help, but Capustan has to hold out until they get there. The Pannion army the Grey Swords are expecting is 60'000 strong. They Grey Swords claim their own numbers are over 7'000, thanks to them bypassing the city's restrictions on them signing up men by signing up women. They agree to take Quick's news to Prince Jelarkan and reconvene in two hours. In the meantime, there have been reports of demons outside the city and the grey swords are going to investigate.
Over on Quick Ben's side of things, it turns out Whiskeyjack was there the whole time, observing. He seems happy enough with their new allies' martial prowess but quizzes Quick Ben about their fancy titles. Quick reveals that they are old titles, unused for over a thousand years and are now just ceremonial. He says that long before the Deck of Dragons began to get Knights for each house, Fener's cult had them in the form of those titles.
So meanwhile, the Shield Anvil takes a company of thirty or so Grey Swords out to track down the demons and to cut a long story short, it's the undead K'Chain Che'Malle. The shit hits the fan real quick and the company is only saved by the intervention of a group of T'lan Imass who manage to kill them at the cost of losing 60 of their number. Only ten of the Grey Swords survived, which impresses the T'lan Imass, all things considered. With the K'Chain Che'Malle finally defeated, one of the T'lan Imass introduces himself as Pran Chole and tells Itkovian they were passing by on their way to the gathering when they sensed the undead. Pran Chole is surprised to find the K'Chain Che'Malle here. He agrees to help check for others and take them down. There's a pretty iconic line here as the Shield Anvil comforts one of the traumatised soldiers, saying:
"Soldiers are issued armour for their flesh and bones, but they must fashion their own for their souls."
But it's about to be overshadowed by one of my favourite moments in this book.
Pran Chole approaches again to explain to Itkovian that these were K'Chain Che'Malle, specifically their elites, Kell hunters, bred for battle by their Matriarch. However, with them being undead, the Imass think someone else is controlling them instead. He mentions that the bodies were probably dug up from Morn and asks that name has survived all these years. Itkovian confirms that the name has survived though no one has been there in a long time. He tells Pran Chole that the person controlling them is probably the Pannion Seer. Ten thousand T'lan Imass heads turn to face him in silent unison.
Pran Chole casually enquires if the name Pannion has any significant meaning to his people. When Itkovian says it does not, Pran Chole tells him that it does among the T'lan Imass. For it is a Jaghut word. A Jaghut name, in fact.
Ho boy. I did a big exhale after reading that. What a reveal. So we have a Jaghut, controlling undead Che'Malle and wielding the magic of the Crippled God. What do you think? Is he one of the two children from the rent at Morn? That's where my head went initially.
We're back with Toc to get some more specifics on what happened to him in the chaos warren, or rather, the results. Envy has buggered off, ostensibly to get some supplies. She took one wolf with her and left the other one. Tool tells Toc that this wolf is an ay, a kind of wolf precursor from the T'lan age that is supposed to be extinct. Toc's empty eye socket itches and he finds himself having visions of life from the wolf's point of view where he sees that she was saved by an Elder God (who is largely considered to be K'rul) and given immortality as the last of her kind.
We also find out how Toc lost his eye. He was struck by a chunk of stone from Moon's Spawn. Tool comments that stone is represented by the Obelisk.
Suddenly Toc finds himself in another vision. He finds himself witnessing the final moments of Treach who has been ripped to shreds by the undead K'Chain Che'Malle. We get a bit of history about the early soletaken here. Treach apparently travelled with Ryllandaras, Messremb and a few others. There's some suggestion that the madness they suffered was mastered by Ryllandaras, allowing him to become D'ivers. He mentions that they tore a warren to pieces. Could this be what happened to Kurald Emurlahn? It seems the T'lan Imass fought them, tried to kill them for their madness and Treach understands the necessity of it now, with so much hindsight. What's more, Treach finds it surprising that after so long thinking only as the tiger that he is, why are his human memories returning? The K'Chain Che'Malle approach and satisfy themselves that his wounds are lethal and then simply head off.
A black panther arrives and attacks the K'Chain Che'Malle, killing ta least one. We don't know if the others die or are driven off as the battle moves out of Treach's sight but eventually, the woman returns. Yeah, woman. This was a soletaken and it's not immediately obvious right now but to save time I'll make it clear that this is Kilava, Tool's sister and unlike the other Imass, she isn't undead. We don't yet know how she's managed to remain alive for 300'000 years but there ya go. The two converse, Kilava claiming the other K'Chain Che'Malle are destroyed. Just consider that for a moment. Four undead Kell Hunters, which we know just killed Treach, one of the oldest ascendants. We also know that Pran Chole's army of Imass lost 60 of their number taking down a similar group and there were thousands of them. And Kilava just killed four, single handed. It's not given anywhere near this much fanfare in the book, but taking just a moment to think about what we've seen so far makes you realise just how powerful Kilava could actually be. We find that the pair have cross paths before, though long ago, when the Imass hunted the First Heroes. Kilava claims others took part in repairing the shattered warren. Treach laments that it's been so long he cannot even return to his human form as he dies. Kilava asks him who unchained his memories but Treach does not know. As Kilava talks about the events taking place, Treach dies.
Toc is back in his body. Tool enquires what he saw and Toc tells him Treach just died. Before he can mention the panther... she arrives, sembling into her Imass form. She seems surprised to find the living ay, who instantly warms to her. She also notes Toc and says she saw him peering out from one of Treach's eyes. Relations are frosty between Kilava and Tool, though not entirely hostile. They discuss the second gathering which naturally Kilava will not attend. After trading words with Tool, she leaves and it's clear the undead Imass is saddened.
In the town of Callows, Envy is looking for something. The inhabitants have all been slain, some 30'000 of them, around ten days ago she estimates. She finds one house and uses her magic to disintegrate the floorboards then casts featherfall and jumps into the hole beyond, eventually landing in an ancient temple. There she converses, with K'rul, the deaths in the city having reawakened this old altar of his. She asks K'rul if this slaughter was the work of the K'Chain Che'Malle but he tells her that the Crippled God is more subtle than this, a master of sleight of hand and that the people of Callows were killed by unhuman killers who came from the sea. Envy asks their name but K'rul deflects.
Do you have any ideas? :)
Envy admits she cannot remember much of 200'00 years ago. She knows she and K'rul were not enemies but doubts they were friends either, casual acquaintances at best. She wonders why K'rul has summoned her and why he had her dominate three Seguleh for him, which she points out is ridiculously difficult as they are so strong willed. K'rul reveals that he thought the Seguleh would send three or four hundred of their lower ranked warriors rather than three highly skilled ones. He also mentions that the Second is missing (Mok is the Third remember), making it even more unlikely. K'rul also tells her that she basically owes him one because she didn't attend the last chaining. They managed it without her but he says the cost would have been less had she attended. He says he will not tolerate her refusing him a second time and when Envy gets riled up K'rul forces visions upon her. Quite what they represent is up for debate this is my interpretation.
I think it shows the big bang and the birth of the first living entities, K'rul among them. We see K'rul impose order on the primeval chaos by opening his veins. The chambers of his heart become Kurald Galain and Starvald Demelain. The first warrens of darkness and dragons. As the blood flows through arteries and veins they form the other, lesser warrens.
As the realisation of what she is seeing hits her, K'rul points out that as a sorceress, Envy feeds on the blood of his eternal soul and thus, she owes him.
Shocked, she asks who else knows the truth, that the warrens are formed of Krul's blood. That when they walk the warrens, they walk through his very flesh. K'rul names Rake, Draconus, Osric, "a handful of others" and now her. K'rul tells her it was never his intent to control magic, that everyone is free to use the gifts he has offered in whatever way they see fit but that he fears the effect of the Crippled God.
They go off on a tangent, briefly, as K'rul mentions they have lost allies in the fight against him. Dassem Ultor, for one, who's daughter died during the chaining. Envy wonders if her absence at the chaining inadvertently caused her death. K'rul suggests there is no way to know for certain. Dassem had grown nearly as powerful as Hood and it's possible the same outcome would have come regardless, especially considering the many knock on effects of Dassem's fall.
Returning to the main point, K'rul tells Envy that he has revealed this to her so that she understands the true scope of the threat they face. She must take her Seguleh into the Pannion Domin to take out the Seer. He warns her though, that as they get closer to the Pannion's territory, she must not use her warren to fast travel because within the Pannion Domin, K'rul's blood is poisoned and while Envy might survive it, Toc would not.
Well holy shit. That was one major revelation. Kinda crazy just how deeply intertwined K'rul is in all of this.
Back with Pran Chole and the remaining Grey Swords. They come across the aftermath of the fight among Gruntle's group. They find the dead bodies of the five Kell hunters and a hundreds of undead wolves, specifically undead ay, that appear to have killed them. Pran Chole mentions it has been three thousand years since he last saw these wolves. These are the T'lan Ay, the wolves that the Imass thought they might be saving with their ritual, but have instead cursed. Anyway, the two necromancers survived along with most of the others who are injured but otherwise ok. Harllo is dead and Gruntle is in a sorry state. Some of the survivors are unconscious and Pran Chole mentions that they appear to be dreaming, somehow protected by what he calls a "familiar flavour". Kruppe, methinks? The group heads back to Capustan with the survivors.
In Capustan, the Prince, the Mortal Sword and the Destriant are discussing the upcoming assistance from the Malazans when an outrider arrives, one of the Grey Swords who was sent back after the first skirmish with the K'Chain Che'Malle. She fills the Destriant in on what happened and reveals she has Imass with her. These three specifically are all soletaken bonecasters. The Imass basically agree to help out at least until Silverfox arrives at which point, she is considered their leader. They still don't know who she is or anything about her, simply referring to the one who has initiated the second gathering. As they chat, the Destriant confirms that the Pannion Seer is human, not Jaghut, which makes the T'lan suspicious that someone else may be pulling his strings.
Later, as the Mortal Sword stands in his rooms, a portal opens, revealing a Jaghut. He claims to be Gethol, Herald of Hood and has come offering an alliance of sorts. He warns the Mortal Sword that Fener is out of the game, as it were, and Hood is offering the Grey Swords an option. He will allow them to escape Capustan through his warren if they agree to assist him in the upcoming conflict, which he describes thusly. The Pannion is a single element in a much vaster war in which all the gods shall partake. The Mortal Sword sticks to his guns, bound by honour and a contract to defend Capustan, not to mention loyalty to Fener. When Gethol gets a bit arsey about it, the Mortal Sword attacks him, slashing him across the face with his sword. Gethol draws his own blades, ready to attack in turn but is stopped as the three Bonecasters emerge behind Brukhalian. They voice their challenge, telling Gethol to see if Hood dares challenge them. Before he can respond, he is pulled back into the warren as it closes.
Gruntle awakes and Stonny tells him that Harllo is dead along with Netok, one of the Barghast.
Gethol is spat out of Hood's warren into another place. It seems he has been fired as Hood's Herald.
He opens a portal to Omtose Phellack and goes in, though he senses its weakened state, dying he says. As he walks, a rent opens, the sweet smell of decay signifying this as the Crippled God.
Gethol goes in and meets with him. Gethol realises The Crippled God has poisoned Burn and asks him what he wants. The CG shows him the dodgy cards he had made and says he is entering the game as the House of Chains and he is looking for a Herald. Gethol is not convinced, pointing out he was present at the chaining. The CG mentions that he admires Gethol's ambition and casually comments about his brother, Gothos. Gethol says the deck will resist his efforts to join but The CG says he knows the maker of the deck is dust. He says everyone within the House of Chains will be flawed and offers the position of Herald once more. Gethol accepts.
Whiskeyjack meets up with Rake in his tent and shares a story. The story of Quick Ben which he says began when Adaephon Delat was a middling wizard in the employ of one of the seven Holy Protectors during a rebellion in Aren. The protector's cadre of twelve mages, Delat included fled into Raraku as the Malazans crushed the Protector's forces. The Malazans had recently recruited local man, Kalam Mekhar into the Claw and they employ him as a guide, setting off into the desert in pursuit. That afternoon they find the body of the first mage. Whiskeyjack notes that she looks like she died a hundred years ago. This pattern continues as they pursue, finding each mage in turn, dead and seemingly aged. The pursuit is long and arduous, with the Malazans having to butcher and eat their horses. Eventually only one mage remains. Delat. Eleven corpses in his wake. By the time they catch up to him, the mage is sat, cross-legged on a boulder, awaiting them. Delat and Kalam seem impressed with the Malazan's dogged determination, crossing the entire desert in pursuit of one lowly mage. Delat asks why they didn't just give up. Whiskeyjack points out he figured out what Delat was up to. He knows Delat persuaded those mages who were weaker than him to give up their souls rather than die needlessly, keeping their power alive within him. What's more, he noticed that Delat and Kalam were communicating, with subtle signs. He wanted to see where it went. Delat points out that everyone present has had their bridges burned and that he and Kalam will join the Malazans, loyal to Whiskeyjack, if he keeps Delat's secret.
And now we know how Quick Ben became so powerful and how the Bridgeburners got their name.
When Whiskeyjack departs, Rake prepares to leave to meet with Silannah. He gives Korlat instructions to protect Silverfox, and watch Kallor, unleashing the full force of the Tiste Andii upon him if he tries anything. Korlat seems surprised and verifies he truly means the full force. When Rake confirms she says she will make preparations to start joining warrens immediately, reminding Rake that at the chaining there were 40 of them joined, sufficient to destroy the Crippled God's nascent realm, right now there are 1100, enough to potentially devastate the continent if it comes down to it. Rake suggests it unlikely it will come to it, Kallor unlikely to act, but insists upon the precaution anyway, referring to it as collectively releasing Kurald Galain.
Geez. Is this something you can do with any Elder Warren? Seems we have much more to learn. Given what we know about Kurald Galain now it stands to reason it would be one of the more powerful warrens.
Quick Ben is travelling by warren but notes that the Crippled God's influence is corrupting his path and making it difficult. He shifts warrens until he arrives in Hood's warren, which seems to be better resisting the poison. As he travels through, he comes across a trapped spirit who he converses with. This spirit, Talamandas, is one of the very first Barghast and he agrees to tell Quick a tale if he frees him. He mentions the unusual shape of the Barghast skulls. Quick confirms he has seen one before. The spirit asks if he has seen an undead Barghast and Quick realises he has not but has seen similar. As he considers the skull shapes he realises what the spirit is saying. The Barghast used to be T'lan Imass. The spirit confirms, the Barghast were late to arrive to the ritual. With the Jaghut ice covering the land, they fled across the seas, arriving and settling here. The funeral rituals they set up have trapped their spirits as they died, preventing them from ever ascending or becoming gods, essentially leaving the Barghast stagnated as a race. Quick Ben sees the truth of this and releases the spirit.
Back with Envy's group. As Toc and Envy converse, Envy reveals that she asked Tool if there were any Jaghut remaining and he claims he doesn't know. From this, they piece together that this second gathering of the Imass might be because all the Jaghut are extinct and so they will end their undead life, presumably going extinct themselves. She also reveals herself as kind of an oblivionist. She believes on Hood of course, but she thinks he does nothing with the souls he collects, simply leaving them wandering his realm. She admits she has no evidence to support this, but if true, it bodes ill for the Imass.
A K'Chain Che'Malle approaches and the Seguleh ready for its approach. They instafuck it. The two lessers chopping its sword arms off while Mok decapitates it. Tool is impressed with Mok's skill and speed and explains to Toc that he now needs to challenge him, immediately. Toc tries to talk him down, pointing out that Mok was only able to so swiftly decapitate it due to his brothers disarming it but Tool is not willing to relent. Envy decides there isn't time for this and uses her magic to render Mok unconscious.
They carry on, dragging Mok behind them, arriving at a Hamlet occupied by priests of the Pannion Seer. The villagers have all been executed and impaled outside the walls. Envy converses with the head priest who invites them in. He spouts Pannionist doctrine, which includes such things as that the villagers were not executed but freed to their eternal reward and such bullshit. Under pretence of civility they eat as Envy picks at the Seerdomin's logic. When he leaves, she tells Toc that they're going to stay the night but that the priests are probably going to kill them. She seems unconcerned. That night, As Toc lies in bed worrying, he suddenly wakes up and wonders if he was put to sleep by magic. The sound that awoke him was screams. He emerges from his room to find Envy's two dogs, the ay, Baaljagg and the hound Garath, have basically slaughtered all the priests. Garath has also grown in size and Toc notes he is comparable to a Hound of Shadow. Lots of fan speculation about this but nothing concrete. Envy has the Seguleh take down the villager corpses and impale the Pannion corpses instead and then they carry on to Bastion.
On the way, Toc tells Envy that his father, Toc the Elder, took more than a few days to claim him due to the fact that his mother was Cartheron Crust's sister.
They arrive in Bastion which has also been done over by the Pannion forces. It looks like they've burned the farmland. They can also smell burning flesh and Envy suggests that, in her own words, "the question of sustenance has a grim answer" or as Toc puts it "They're eating their own dead". They come across a couple of priests and learn about the children of the dead seed. They also give some info about how all this started, that 14 years ago, The Seer returned from the Mountain and spoke the Words of Truth. The First Child (of the dead seed) was born here, his name is Anaster. He now leads the Tenescowri. Basically, anyone who didn't join the Pannion forces just now were "rewarded" and then eaten. The group then stumbles across a bigger chunk of the Pannion Forces. We don't yet know if the person leading them is Anaster or not but he points out Envy's group and the Tenescowri attack. Envy awakes Mok, who literally wakes into a fighting stance in half a second and it all kicks off. Toc sees his chance and legs it, calling his plan to Envy. He's gonna pretend to be a convert and follow the Pannion forces until it brings him back to the Malazan forces. He asks her to carve her way through but not kill them all.
Honestly, I think he was better of staying with Envy. She might be a little unhinged but surely the Pannion is worse.
Back in Capustan, Gruntle is drunk and largely covered in vomit in the wake of Harllo's death. Buke talks some sense into him. He mentions that the necromancers moved in to an empty estate and have begun their usual shenanigans. We also get a glimpse of the scale of the fighting to come, with estimates of the enemy forces, around 80 thousand trained soldiers and 100 thousand Tenescowri. What's more it's an estimated six weeks til the Malazans get here and the Imass have said they'll happily face the 80 K'Chain Che'Malle converging on the city but won't fight the mortals. The Shield Anvil is hoping the Pannion won't realise that straight away, buying them some time, but thinks it unlikely they can hold out for anywhere near six weeks.
The three Fener priests have taken Hetan and her remaining brother to meet with the Mask Council. It seems the Barghast have petitioned the Council many times over the years, claiming that the city was founded on an old Barghast holy site where their first ancestors were buried and they used to make pilgrimages to. Ultimately it is realised that Hetan's father Humbrall Taur is hoping to instead retrieve the bodies so they can make a new holy site, using this act to unite the Barghast clans to stand against the Pannion forces when they come for them next. It turns out the Council know where the bodies are as they were relocated during the city's founding and now sit in a chamber under the floor of the council room. The floor is removed and the remains are found. The point is made that at the time of the city's founding,it was not realised that these were Barghast remains as they seem closer in size and features to the Thelomen Toblakai. It seems the Toblakai, the Trell and the Barghast had a common ancestor. What's more, there is evidence they fought against the Tiste Edur.
At the same time, the Destriant and Rath'Fener discuss Trake's death. They seem concerned that he could challenge Fener's position as god of war.
Gruntle meets with Keruli to thank him for saving them after Stonny reveals it was Keruli that put them in the dream state. Ah, so not Kruppe after all. Interesting. Keruli gives him a magic item to give to Buke, presumably for him to use in his ongoing quest to take down Korbal Broach.
Keruli is so annoying. We just find out nothing about him and he has no personality at all. It's even more annoying when we find out more later. You might be able to figure it out already if you try, who knows.
Throughout this chapter, Hetan makes it clear she intends to bed the Shield Anvil, despite his vow of celibacy. There's also brief mention that the Tiste Edur might have chopped off people's heads but kept them alive as servants. This obviously references the Silanda and probably explains the sword that was considered too big to be Barghast back in Book One. This means the Silanda may have crew that are both Tiste Edur and Barghast ancestors. This means either the Tiste Edur enslaved their own on the Silanda or someone turned their sorcery against them.
We now get a full chapter of the Malazans meeting with Humbrall Taur and the many Barghast clans. Long story short, Trotts has a duel with Humbrall's son and kills him so Humbrall agrees to ally with the Malazans, however, he reveals to Paran that he only has the support of a handful of the clans and is awaiting Hetan's return to solidify the alliance. Due to some other events we also learn that Quick Ben makes it out of Hood's warren but notes it's so heavily poisoned that if he'd travelled a lesser warren he'd be dead. We also know that Mallet is having trouble healing people because Denul is so poisoned that when he tries to use it to heal, it injures him. Basically, the CG is really fucking with the warrens.
Turns out that Toc has infiltrated the Tenescowri a little too well. It's been three weeks and he's starving because, obviously, they're all cannibalistic. He's also faking being mute. Anaster seems super impressed with his zeal and basically promotes him to lieutenant. The Tenescowri have had multiple engagements with Envy and her group. Unsurprisingly for the daughter of an Elder God, Envy has handily despatched everything they've thrown her way, killing thousands.
They eventually arrive in Outlook where Toc is summoned to meet the Pannion Seer himself. The Seer is not super convinced Toc is legit. He heals him up from his starvation so he can grill him for info about Envy. Toc notes that the Pannion Seer looks like an old man, but Toc can see a second presence speaking through him, something that apparently no one else has seen. The Seer suggests this is because of Toc's wolf eye, that he can see. Anyway, Toc denies knowing Envy's group and pretends to be as legit a convert as he can, but then he has one of his wolf visions, seeing Envy and her group from Baaljagg's pov. They are besieged by an icy storm and Tool and Envy are discussing how unlikely it is that this is Jaghut magic, from an enemy that commands undead K'Chain Che'Malle, a seemingly unthinkable alliance. When Toc's vision returns to the room, he notices that the person behind the Seer is indeed a Jaghut and also notices magical tendrils attaching him to the floor, an indication of his power coming from the Crippled God, though Toc doesn't make that connection yet. The Seer noticed him having his vision and accuses him of being a traitor come to assassinate him. The outburst sounds like that of a petulant child to Toc. He punishes Toc by throwing him in another room where a K'Chain Che'Malle gets him in a bear hug, continuously breaking his ribs even as the healing magic from earlier continually heals him. The Seer refers to the attacker as female and tells Toc she's insane. There's some indication that the Seer already suffered this exact embrace. He tells Toc he'll keep him alive, in this state of agony, for as long as it amuses him.
The Trygalle Trade Guild arrives with supplies for the Malazans. It seems this might be the last time they can make it through the warrens because they're real fucked. The wagons come out, riding a sea of blood and fire. That's not hyperbole. A torrent of blood flows out of the portal they come through, a shin deep river that Silverfox comments is "his". When pressed she says, "An Elder God's, a friend's". Well, obviously K'rul then. Silverfox thinks he has been wounded, perhaps fatally and now his blood is filling the warrens.
Later on we see Kallor, alone in his tent. He's using a magical candle to keep his body young to try and minimize the effects of his unnaturally long life. Gethol arrives via warren and chats with him, revealing that the servants of the Crippled God are immune to the poison and can travel the warrens freely. He offers Kallor the title of King of the House of Chains. Kallor is initially cynical but Gethol talks him round and eventually Kallor agrees on the proviso that the Crippled God creates an opening, a moment of weakness in Silverfox that will allow Kallor to take her down. Gethol agrees to carry his terms to the CG.
Whiskeyjack and Korlat agree to a tryst. Not much else to say about that. Kinda comes out of nowhere but the point Korlat makes is that Tiste Andii rarely date each other, not seeing the point in an endless relationship.
Finally we close out this part with Kruppe speaking to the Mhybe in her dreams. Although she was pretty chill about the whole Silverfox thing before, she has grown increasingly more resentful of her the more she has aged and now hates the fact that she'll be dying of old age in her early twenties. The thought that flits through my mind as this happens is this.
What if it isn't Kruppe. What if this is the CG, creating the opening Kallor wants? :O
Who knows? Not us, not yet. But we're at the halfway point of this book and boy are things getting spicy. The forming of the House of Chains is happening and it looks like K'rul is in trouble. Will the Malazan relief forces reach Capustan before it falls? I guess we'll find out next time.
We'll learn that the Destriant is called Karnadas and the mortal Sword is Brukhalian and the Shield Anvil is Itkovian. Capustan has a ruling body called the Masked Council who rule in the city alongside Prince Jelarkan. The Masked Council is made up of priests from the various churches. The member from Fener's church is known as Rath'Fener and we learn that Treach's representative is called Rath'Treach, so pretty straightforward naming system then. We also learn there's animosity against Treach's representative because as we learned earlier, he's not really a god. So, this martial branch of Fener's church is also a mercenary company known as the Grey Swords. Karnadas, the Destriant, has found something weird and it appears to be some sort of magical message. He meets up with the Mortal Sword and together they activate the orb, finding themselves in a skype call with none other than Quick Ben. Is skype still a thing? Should I say zoom? What do the kids use these days? Anyway, Quick Ben claims the orb was meant to find someone and make them think the message was coming from their own group as a form of camouflage. He explains the situation. The Pannion are coming and the Malazans want to help, but Capustan has to hold out until they get there. The Pannion army the Grey Swords are expecting is 60'000 strong. They Grey Swords claim their own numbers are over 7'000, thanks to them bypassing the city's restrictions on them signing up men by signing up women. They agree to take Quick's news to Prince Jelarkan and reconvene in two hours. In the meantime, there have been reports of demons outside the city and the grey swords are going to investigate.
Over on Quick Ben's side of things, it turns out Whiskeyjack was there the whole time, observing. He seems happy enough with their new allies' martial prowess but quizzes Quick Ben about their fancy titles. Quick reveals that they are old titles, unused for over a thousand years and are now just ceremonial. He says that long before the Deck of Dragons began to get Knights for each house, Fener's cult had them in the form of those titles.
So meanwhile, the Shield Anvil takes a company of thirty or so Grey Swords out to track down the demons and to cut a long story short, it's the undead K'Chain Che'Malle. The shit hits the fan real quick and the company is only saved by the intervention of a group of T'lan Imass who manage to kill them at the cost of losing 60 of their number. Only ten of the Grey Swords survived, which impresses the T'lan Imass, all things considered. With the K'Chain Che'Malle finally defeated, one of the T'lan Imass introduces himself as Pran Chole and tells Itkovian they were passing by on their way to the gathering when they sensed the undead. Pran Chole is surprised to find the K'Chain Che'Malle here. He agrees to help check for others and take them down. There's a pretty iconic line here as the Shield Anvil comforts one of the traumatised soldiers, saying:
"Soldiers are issued armour for their flesh and bones, but they must fashion their own for their souls."
But it's about to be overshadowed by one of my favourite moments in this book.
Pran Chole approaches again to explain to Itkovian that these were K'Chain Che'Malle, specifically their elites, Kell hunters, bred for battle by their Matriarch. However, with them being undead, the Imass think someone else is controlling them instead. He mentions that the bodies were probably dug up from Morn and asks that name has survived all these years. Itkovian confirms that the name has survived though no one has been there in a long time. He tells Pran Chole that the person controlling them is probably the Pannion Seer. Ten thousand T'lan Imass heads turn to face him in silent unison.
Pran Chole casually enquires if the name Pannion has any significant meaning to his people. When Itkovian says it does not, Pran Chole tells him that it does among the T'lan Imass. For it is a Jaghut word. A Jaghut name, in fact.
Ho boy. I did a big exhale after reading that. What a reveal. So we have a Jaghut, controlling undead Che'Malle and wielding the magic of the Crippled God. What do you think? Is he one of the two children from the rent at Morn? That's where my head went initially.
We're back with Toc to get some more specifics on what happened to him in the chaos warren, or rather, the results. Envy has buggered off, ostensibly to get some supplies. She took one wolf with her and left the other one. Tool tells Toc that this wolf is an ay, a kind of wolf precursor from the T'lan age that is supposed to be extinct. Toc's empty eye socket itches and he finds himself having visions of life from the wolf's point of view where he sees that she was saved by an Elder God (who is largely considered to be K'rul) and given immortality as the last of her kind.
We also find out how Toc lost his eye. He was struck by a chunk of stone from Moon's Spawn. Tool comments that stone is represented by the Obelisk.
Suddenly Toc finds himself in another vision. He finds himself witnessing the final moments of Treach who has been ripped to shreds by the undead K'Chain Che'Malle. We get a bit of history about the early soletaken here. Treach apparently travelled with Ryllandaras, Messremb and a few others. There's some suggestion that the madness they suffered was mastered by Ryllandaras, allowing him to become D'ivers. He mentions that they tore a warren to pieces. Could this be what happened to Kurald Emurlahn? It seems the T'lan Imass fought them, tried to kill them for their madness and Treach understands the necessity of it now, with so much hindsight. What's more, Treach finds it surprising that after so long thinking only as the tiger that he is, why are his human memories returning? The K'Chain Che'Malle approach and satisfy themselves that his wounds are lethal and then simply head off.
A black panther arrives and attacks the K'Chain Che'Malle, killing ta least one. We don't know if the others die or are driven off as the battle moves out of Treach's sight but eventually, the woman returns. Yeah, woman. This was a soletaken and it's not immediately obvious right now but to save time I'll make it clear that this is Kilava, Tool's sister and unlike the other Imass, she isn't undead. We don't yet know how she's managed to remain alive for 300'000 years but there ya go. The two converse, Kilava claiming the other K'Chain Che'Malle are destroyed. Just consider that for a moment. Four undead Kell Hunters, which we know just killed Treach, one of the oldest ascendants. We also know that Pran Chole's army of Imass lost 60 of their number taking down a similar group and there were thousands of them. And Kilava just killed four, single handed. It's not given anywhere near this much fanfare in the book, but taking just a moment to think about what we've seen so far makes you realise just how powerful Kilava could actually be. We find that the pair have cross paths before, though long ago, when the Imass hunted the First Heroes. Kilava claims others took part in repairing the shattered warren. Treach laments that it's been so long he cannot even return to his human form as he dies. Kilava asks him who unchained his memories but Treach does not know. As Kilava talks about the events taking place, Treach dies.
Toc is back in his body. Tool enquires what he saw and Toc tells him Treach just died. Before he can mention the panther... she arrives, sembling into her Imass form. She seems surprised to find the living ay, who instantly warms to her. She also notes Toc and says she saw him peering out from one of Treach's eyes. Relations are frosty between Kilava and Tool, though not entirely hostile. They discuss the second gathering which naturally Kilava will not attend. After trading words with Tool, she leaves and it's clear the undead Imass is saddened.
In the town of Callows, Envy is looking for something. The inhabitants have all been slain, some 30'000 of them, around ten days ago she estimates. She finds one house and uses her magic to disintegrate the floorboards then casts featherfall and jumps into the hole beyond, eventually landing in an ancient temple. There she converses, with K'rul, the deaths in the city having reawakened this old altar of his. She asks K'rul if this slaughter was the work of the K'Chain Che'Malle but he tells her that the Crippled God is more subtle than this, a master of sleight of hand and that the people of Callows were killed by unhuman killers who came from the sea. Envy asks their name but K'rul deflects.
Do you have any ideas? :)
Envy admits she cannot remember much of 200'00 years ago. She knows she and K'rul were not enemies but doubts they were friends either, casual acquaintances at best. She wonders why K'rul has summoned her and why he had her dominate three Seguleh for him, which she points out is ridiculously difficult as they are so strong willed. K'rul reveals that he thought the Seguleh would send three or four hundred of their lower ranked warriors rather than three highly skilled ones. He also mentions that the Second is missing (Mok is the Third remember), making it even more unlikely. K'rul also tells her that she basically owes him one because she didn't attend the last chaining. They managed it without her but he says the cost would have been less had she attended. He says he will not tolerate her refusing him a second time and when Envy gets riled up K'rul forces visions upon her. Quite what they represent is up for debate this is my interpretation.
I think it shows the big bang and the birth of the first living entities, K'rul among them. We see K'rul impose order on the primeval chaos by opening his veins. The chambers of his heart become Kurald Galain and Starvald Demelain. The first warrens of darkness and dragons. As the blood flows through arteries and veins they form the other, lesser warrens.
As the realisation of what she is seeing hits her, K'rul points out that as a sorceress, Envy feeds on the blood of his eternal soul and thus, she owes him.
Shocked, she asks who else knows the truth, that the warrens are formed of Krul's blood. That when they walk the warrens, they walk through his very flesh. K'rul names Rake, Draconus, Osric, "a handful of others" and now her. K'rul tells her it was never his intent to control magic, that everyone is free to use the gifts he has offered in whatever way they see fit but that he fears the effect of the Crippled God.
They go off on a tangent, briefly, as K'rul mentions they have lost allies in the fight against him. Dassem Ultor, for one, who's daughter died during the chaining. Envy wonders if her absence at the chaining inadvertently caused her death. K'rul suggests there is no way to know for certain. Dassem had grown nearly as powerful as Hood and it's possible the same outcome would have come regardless, especially considering the many knock on effects of Dassem's fall.
Returning to the main point, K'rul tells Envy that he has revealed this to her so that she understands the true scope of the threat they face. She must take her Seguleh into the Pannion Domin to take out the Seer. He warns her though, that as they get closer to the Pannion's territory, she must not use her warren to fast travel because within the Pannion Domin, K'rul's blood is poisoned and while Envy might survive it, Toc would not.
Well holy shit. That was one major revelation. Kinda crazy just how deeply intertwined K'rul is in all of this.
Back with Pran Chole and the remaining Grey Swords. They come across the aftermath of the fight among Gruntle's group. They find the dead bodies of the five Kell hunters and a hundreds of undead wolves, specifically undead ay, that appear to have killed them. Pran Chole mentions it has been three thousand years since he last saw these wolves. These are the T'lan Ay, the wolves that the Imass thought they might be saving with their ritual, but have instead cursed. Anyway, the two necromancers survived along with most of the others who are injured but otherwise ok. Harllo is dead and Gruntle is in a sorry state. Some of the survivors are unconscious and Pran Chole mentions that they appear to be dreaming, somehow protected by what he calls a "familiar flavour". Kruppe, methinks? The group heads back to Capustan with the survivors.
In Capustan, the Prince, the Mortal Sword and the Destriant are discussing the upcoming assistance from the Malazans when an outrider arrives, one of the Grey Swords who was sent back after the first skirmish with the K'Chain Che'Malle. She fills the Destriant in on what happened and reveals she has Imass with her. These three specifically are all soletaken bonecasters. The Imass basically agree to help out at least until Silverfox arrives at which point, she is considered their leader. They still don't know who she is or anything about her, simply referring to the one who has initiated the second gathering. As they chat, the Destriant confirms that the Pannion Seer is human, not Jaghut, which makes the T'lan suspicious that someone else may be pulling his strings.
Later, as the Mortal Sword stands in his rooms, a portal opens, revealing a Jaghut. He claims to be Gethol, Herald of Hood and has come offering an alliance of sorts. He warns the Mortal Sword that Fener is out of the game, as it were, and Hood is offering the Grey Swords an option. He will allow them to escape Capustan through his warren if they agree to assist him in the upcoming conflict, which he describes thusly. The Pannion is a single element in a much vaster war in which all the gods shall partake. The Mortal Sword sticks to his guns, bound by honour and a contract to defend Capustan, not to mention loyalty to Fener. When Gethol gets a bit arsey about it, the Mortal Sword attacks him, slashing him across the face with his sword. Gethol draws his own blades, ready to attack in turn but is stopped as the three Bonecasters emerge behind Brukhalian. They voice their challenge, telling Gethol to see if Hood dares challenge them. Before he can respond, he is pulled back into the warren as it closes.
Gruntle awakes and Stonny tells him that Harllo is dead along with Netok, one of the Barghast.
Gethol is spat out of Hood's warren into another place. It seems he has been fired as Hood's Herald.
He opens a portal to Omtose Phellack and goes in, though he senses its weakened state, dying he says. As he walks, a rent opens, the sweet smell of decay signifying this as the Crippled God.
Gethol goes in and meets with him. Gethol realises The Crippled God has poisoned Burn and asks him what he wants. The CG shows him the dodgy cards he had made and says he is entering the game as the House of Chains and he is looking for a Herald. Gethol is not convinced, pointing out he was present at the chaining. The CG mentions that he admires Gethol's ambition and casually comments about his brother, Gothos. Gethol says the deck will resist his efforts to join but The CG says he knows the maker of the deck is dust. He says everyone within the House of Chains will be flawed and offers the position of Herald once more. Gethol accepts.
Whiskeyjack meets up with Rake in his tent and shares a story. The story of Quick Ben which he says began when Adaephon Delat was a middling wizard in the employ of one of the seven Holy Protectors during a rebellion in Aren. The protector's cadre of twelve mages, Delat included fled into Raraku as the Malazans crushed the Protector's forces. The Malazans had recently recruited local man, Kalam Mekhar into the Claw and they employ him as a guide, setting off into the desert in pursuit. That afternoon they find the body of the first mage. Whiskeyjack notes that she looks like she died a hundred years ago. This pattern continues as they pursue, finding each mage in turn, dead and seemingly aged. The pursuit is long and arduous, with the Malazans having to butcher and eat their horses. Eventually only one mage remains. Delat. Eleven corpses in his wake. By the time they catch up to him, the mage is sat, cross-legged on a boulder, awaiting them. Delat and Kalam seem impressed with the Malazan's dogged determination, crossing the entire desert in pursuit of one lowly mage. Delat asks why they didn't just give up. Whiskeyjack points out he figured out what Delat was up to. He knows Delat persuaded those mages who were weaker than him to give up their souls rather than die needlessly, keeping their power alive within him. What's more, he noticed that Delat and Kalam were communicating, with subtle signs. He wanted to see where it went. Delat points out that everyone present has had their bridges burned and that he and Kalam will join the Malazans, loyal to Whiskeyjack, if he keeps Delat's secret.
And now we know how Quick Ben became so powerful and how the Bridgeburners got their name.
When Whiskeyjack departs, Rake prepares to leave to meet with Silannah. He gives Korlat instructions to protect Silverfox, and watch Kallor, unleashing the full force of the Tiste Andii upon him if he tries anything. Korlat seems surprised and verifies he truly means the full force. When Rake confirms she says she will make preparations to start joining warrens immediately, reminding Rake that at the chaining there were 40 of them joined, sufficient to destroy the Crippled God's nascent realm, right now there are 1100, enough to potentially devastate the continent if it comes down to it. Rake suggests it unlikely it will come to it, Kallor unlikely to act, but insists upon the precaution anyway, referring to it as collectively releasing Kurald Galain.
Geez. Is this something you can do with any Elder Warren? Seems we have much more to learn. Given what we know about Kurald Galain now it stands to reason it would be one of the more powerful warrens.
Quick Ben is travelling by warren but notes that the Crippled God's influence is corrupting his path and making it difficult. He shifts warrens until he arrives in Hood's warren, which seems to be better resisting the poison. As he travels through, he comes across a trapped spirit who he converses with. This spirit, Talamandas, is one of the very first Barghast and he agrees to tell Quick a tale if he frees him. He mentions the unusual shape of the Barghast skulls. Quick confirms he has seen one before. The spirit asks if he has seen an undead Barghast and Quick realises he has not but has seen similar. As he considers the skull shapes he realises what the spirit is saying. The Barghast used to be T'lan Imass. The spirit confirms, the Barghast were late to arrive to the ritual. With the Jaghut ice covering the land, they fled across the seas, arriving and settling here. The funeral rituals they set up have trapped their spirits as they died, preventing them from ever ascending or becoming gods, essentially leaving the Barghast stagnated as a race. Quick Ben sees the truth of this and releases the spirit.
Back with Envy's group. As Toc and Envy converse, Envy reveals that she asked Tool if there were any Jaghut remaining and he claims he doesn't know. From this, they piece together that this second gathering of the Imass might be because all the Jaghut are extinct and so they will end their undead life, presumably going extinct themselves. She also reveals herself as kind of an oblivionist. She believes on Hood of course, but she thinks he does nothing with the souls he collects, simply leaving them wandering his realm. She admits she has no evidence to support this, but if true, it bodes ill for the Imass.
A K'Chain Che'Malle approaches and the Seguleh ready for its approach. They instafuck it. The two lessers chopping its sword arms off while Mok decapitates it. Tool is impressed with Mok's skill and speed and explains to Toc that he now needs to challenge him, immediately. Toc tries to talk him down, pointing out that Mok was only able to so swiftly decapitate it due to his brothers disarming it but Tool is not willing to relent. Envy decides there isn't time for this and uses her magic to render Mok unconscious.
They carry on, dragging Mok behind them, arriving at a Hamlet occupied by priests of the Pannion Seer. The villagers have all been executed and impaled outside the walls. Envy converses with the head priest who invites them in. He spouts Pannionist doctrine, which includes such things as that the villagers were not executed but freed to their eternal reward and such bullshit. Under pretence of civility they eat as Envy picks at the Seerdomin's logic. When he leaves, she tells Toc that they're going to stay the night but that the priests are probably going to kill them. She seems unconcerned. That night, As Toc lies in bed worrying, he suddenly wakes up and wonders if he was put to sleep by magic. The sound that awoke him was screams. He emerges from his room to find Envy's two dogs, the ay, Baaljagg and the hound Garath, have basically slaughtered all the priests. Garath has also grown in size and Toc notes he is comparable to a Hound of Shadow. Lots of fan speculation about this but nothing concrete. Envy has the Seguleh take down the villager corpses and impale the Pannion corpses instead and then they carry on to Bastion.
On the way, Toc tells Envy that his father, Toc the Elder, took more than a few days to claim him due to the fact that his mother was Cartheron Crust's sister.
They arrive in Bastion which has also been done over by the Pannion forces. It looks like they've burned the farmland. They can also smell burning flesh and Envy suggests that, in her own words, "the question of sustenance has a grim answer" or as Toc puts it "They're eating their own dead". They come across a couple of priests and learn about the children of the dead seed. They also give some info about how all this started, that 14 years ago, The Seer returned from the Mountain and spoke the Words of Truth. The First Child (of the dead seed) was born here, his name is Anaster. He now leads the Tenescowri. Basically, anyone who didn't join the Pannion forces just now were "rewarded" and then eaten. The group then stumbles across a bigger chunk of the Pannion Forces. We don't yet know if the person leading them is Anaster or not but he points out Envy's group and the Tenescowri attack. Envy awakes Mok, who literally wakes into a fighting stance in half a second and it all kicks off. Toc sees his chance and legs it, calling his plan to Envy. He's gonna pretend to be a convert and follow the Pannion forces until it brings him back to the Malazan forces. He asks her to carve her way through but not kill them all.
Honestly, I think he was better of staying with Envy. She might be a little unhinged but surely the Pannion is worse.
Back in Capustan, Gruntle is drunk and largely covered in vomit in the wake of Harllo's death. Buke talks some sense into him. He mentions that the necromancers moved in to an empty estate and have begun their usual shenanigans. We also get a glimpse of the scale of the fighting to come, with estimates of the enemy forces, around 80 thousand trained soldiers and 100 thousand Tenescowri. What's more it's an estimated six weeks til the Malazans get here and the Imass have said they'll happily face the 80 K'Chain Che'Malle converging on the city but won't fight the mortals. The Shield Anvil is hoping the Pannion won't realise that straight away, buying them some time, but thinks it unlikely they can hold out for anywhere near six weeks.
The three Fener priests have taken Hetan and her remaining brother to meet with the Mask Council. It seems the Barghast have petitioned the Council many times over the years, claiming that the city was founded on an old Barghast holy site where their first ancestors were buried and they used to make pilgrimages to. Ultimately it is realised that Hetan's father Humbrall Taur is hoping to instead retrieve the bodies so they can make a new holy site, using this act to unite the Barghast clans to stand against the Pannion forces when they come for them next. It turns out the Council know where the bodies are as they were relocated during the city's founding and now sit in a chamber under the floor of the council room. The floor is removed and the remains are found. The point is made that at the time of the city's founding,it was not realised that these were Barghast remains as they seem closer in size and features to the Thelomen Toblakai. It seems the Toblakai, the Trell and the Barghast had a common ancestor. What's more, there is evidence they fought against the Tiste Edur.
At the same time, the Destriant and Rath'Fener discuss Trake's death. They seem concerned that he could challenge Fener's position as god of war.
Gruntle meets with Keruli to thank him for saving them after Stonny reveals it was Keruli that put them in the dream state. Ah, so not Kruppe after all. Interesting. Keruli gives him a magic item to give to Buke, presumably for him to use in his ongoing quest to take down Korbal Broach.
Keruli is so annoying. We just find out nothing about him and he has no personality at all. It's even more annoying when we find out more later. You might be able to figure it out already if you try, who knows.
Throughout this chapter, Hetan makes it clear she intends to bed the Shield Anvil, despite his vow of celibacy. There's also brief mention that the Tiste Edur might have chopped off people's heads but kept them alive as servants. This obviously references the Silanda and probably explains the sword that was considered too big to be Barghast back in Book One. This means the Silanda may have crew that are both Tiste Edur and Barghast ancestors. This means either the Tiste Edur enslaved their own on the Silanda or someone turned their sorcery against them.
We now get a full chapter of the Malazans meeting with Humbrall Taur and the many Barghast clans. Long story short, Trotts has a duel with Humbrall's son and kills him so Humbrall agrees to ally with the Malazans, however, he reveals to Paran that he only has the support of a handful of the clans and is awaiting Hetan's return to solidify the alliance. Due to some other events we also learn that Quick Ben makes it out of Hood's warren but notes it's so heavily poisoned that if he'd travelled a lesser warren he'd be dead. We also know that Mallet is having trouble healing people because Denul is so poisoned that when he tries to use it to heal, it injures him. Basically, the CG is really fucking with the warrens.
Turns out that Toc has infiltrated the Tenescowri a little too well. It's been three weeks and he's starving because, obviously, they're all cannibalistic. He's also faking being mute. Anaster seems super impressed with his zeal and basically promotes him to lieutenant. The Tenescowri have had multiple engagements with Envy and her group. Unsurprisingly for the daughter of an Elder God, Envy has handily despatched everything they've thrown her way, killing thousands.
They eventually arrive in Outlook where Toc is summoned to meet the Pannion Seer himself. The Seer is not super convinced Toc is legit. He heals him up from his starvation so he can grill him for info about Envy. Toc notes that the Pannion Seer looks like an old man, but Toc can see a second presence speaking through him, something that apparently no one else has seen. The Seer suggests this is because of Toc's wolf eye, that he can see. Anyway, Toc denies knowing Envy's group and pretends to be as legit a convert as he can, but then he has one of his wolf visions, seeing Envy and her group from Baaljagg's pov. They are besieged by an icy storm and Tool and Envy are discussing how unlikely it is that this is Jaghut magic, from an enemy that commands undead K'Chain Che'Malle, a seemingly unthinkable alliance. When Toc's vision returns to the room, he notices that the person behind the Seer is indeed a Jaghut and also notices magical tendrils attaching him to the floor, an indication of his power coming from the Crippled God, though Toc doesn't make that connection yet. The Seer noticed him having his vision and accuses him of being a traitor come to assassinate him. The outburst sounds like that of a petulant child to Toc. He punishes Toc by throwing him in another room where a K'Chain Che'Malle gets him in a bear hug, continuously breaking his ribs even as the healing magic from earlier continually heals him. The Seer refers to the attacker as female and tells Toc she's insane. There's some indication that the Seer already suffered this exact embrace. He tells Toc he'll keep him alive, in this state of agony, for as long as it amuses him.
The Trygalle Trade Guild arrives with supplies for the Malazans. It seems this might be the last time they can make it through the warrens because they're real fucked. The wagons come out, riding a sea of blood and fire. That's not hyperbole. A torrent of blood flows out of the portal they come through, a shin deep river that Silverfox comments is "his". When pressed she says, "An Elder God's, a friend's". Well, obviously K'rul then. Silverfox thinks he has been wounded, perhaps fatally and now his blood is filling the warrens.
Later on we see Kallor, alone in his tent. He's using a magical candle to keep his body young to try and minimize the effects of his unnaturally long life. Gethol arrives via warren and chats with him, revealing that the servants of the Crippled God are immune to the poison and can travel the warrens freely. He offers Kallor the title of King of the House of Chains. Kallor is initially cynical but Gethol talks him round and eventually Kallor agrees on the proviso that the Crippled God creates an opening, a moment of weakness in Silverfox that will allow Kallor to take her down. Gethol agrees to carry his terms to the CG.
Whiskeyjack and Korlat agree to a tryst. Not much else to say about that. Kinda comes out of nowhere but the point Korlat makes is that Tiste Andii rarely date each other, not seeing the point in an endless relationship.
Finally we close out this part with Kruppe speaking to the Mhybe in her dreams. Although she was pretty chill about the whole Silverfox thing before, she has grown increasingly more resentful of her the more she has aged and now hates the fact that she'll be dying of old age in her early twenties. The thought that flits through my mind as this happens is this.
What if it isn't Kruppe. What if this is the CG, creating the opening Kallor wants? :O
Who knows? Not us, not yet. But we're at the halfway point of this book and boy are things getting spicy. The forming of the House of Chains is happening and it looks like K'rul is in trouble. Will the Malazan relief forces reach Capustan before it falls? I guess we'll find out next time.
"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else." - Charles Dickens.
“Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.” - Marcus Aurelius
“Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.” - Marcus Aurelius
Re: Charon Deep Dives Malazan Book of the Fallen (Part Three)
There's a lot of sort of general buildup here to bring the tension up as the Pannion army amasses outside Capustan and the Grey Swords prepare for the defence which is being overseen by Itkovian, the Shield Anvil. There's a scene where Prince Jelarkan finally discovers the full state of play, realising that the Malazan forces have offered aid and are on the march but will not arrive until after the city has fallen. He suggests the citizens flee but it is pointed out that they would still be soundly slaughtered so they might as well hold their ground on principle. As Itkovian puts it, there is nothing to be gained by trading a defensible position for an indefensible one.
So the fighting breaks out, with fairly futile attempts to breach the city to begin with, the Tenescowri being easily turned aside by the city's defenders though with obvious concerns that the actual Pannion Troops will soon follow. The Pannion army have siege engines and are lobbing flaming balls into the city so there are numerous fires. Gruntle finds out that Stonny has been fighting and heads out into the fray to find her. He stumbles across a breach and joins in the fighting to push back the Pannion troops, afterwards finding Stonny in a bit of a state. Her sword is snapped and she's drenched in blood and entrails. He gently converses with her as he teases out the truth of what happened, realising that Stonny was raped in her quarters by a Pannion infiltrator who she eventually managed to get the best of, going a little overboard in her revenge.
The T'lan Imass have done their job and killed the K'Chain Che'Malle.
Keruli heads to the Mask Council where he requests to address the Council. The various priests are a little confused as to who he is and what he wants. Keruli claims the council is under represented and he insists he take his place... as Rath'K'rul. He also announces that there is a traitor among the council.
We see some overview of the city's defence. It pretty much involves a swings and roundabouts approach of yielding certain ground to the Pannion forces only to take it back again before they can capitalise on it. A suicide force is arranged to sally out from the city and destroy the siege engines to remove the fireballs from the mix.
Gruntle finds a dead kid that's been half-eaten by Tenescowri and uses it to rally some of the citizens into forming a militia. They go off and do some pretty major ass kicking. Itkovian hears tales of Gruntle, fighting with his twin swords like they're the tusks of Fener. He arranges for the citizens to fall back to a series of defensive tunnels beneath the city where supplies have been stored, though the Mask Council have yet to issue permission for their construction. He dispatches a messenger to tell Gruntle he's official and can choose a section of city to defend and be given supplies but he also uses it as cover to view Gruntle covertly from afar. He realises Gruntle isn't a boar-like warrior after all and that he actually moves more like a tiger. He realises it is Treach that Gruntle channels, Treach who is ascending even as Fener falls.
Buke discovers that Korbal Broach and Bauchelain are soletaken and as they turn into rooks, he uses the magic of Keruli's potion to gain his own soletaken form, that of a sparrowhawk. He covertly follows them as they unleash an airborne sorcerous assault on Anaster only to be soundly rebuffed. They return, somewhat battered but largely nonplussed.
Over with Whiskeyjack and co, they come across the aftermath of a fight between the undead K'Chain Che'Malle and the T'lan Ay. Silverfox is pleased and the Ay appear. She gets them to hide again before Kallor can show his face so he won't know she has them as a secret weapon. Kallor does appear, obviously and wants to show off his ancient knowledge of the K'Chain Che'Malle, pieced together by the historians in his time. Time for a lore dump.
So, they're reptiles, we got that much. Matriarchal and matrinlineal, they can be bred to specific roles like warrior. The Matrons carry the sorcerous power of their whole family, apparently sufficient to prevent the Elder Gods ever coming to this planet and it was only their self destruction that opened that avenue. So atone point they tried to revive an extinct breed, which Kallor's historians dubbed "short-tails" due to their truncated tails. Apparently they weren't super amenable and a civil war broke out among the K'Chain Che'Malle. Mega sorcery got unleashed and the rent at Morn was opened, which was an attempt to open a portal to the realm of chaos.
The discussion turns back to these undead ones and who might be controlling them. They wouldn't obey the Pannion Seer, only a Matron. Kallor wonders who destroyed these undead ones and when Silverfox doesn't volunteer any info he assumes it's the T'lan Imass and demands answers, knowing full well that the Imass would only consider the Jaghut their enemy. Silverfox explains what we already know, that the Imass suffered under Jaghut oppression and fought back with the intent of genocide. Apparently this was also the situation between the Jaghut and the K'Chain Che'Malle, with the reptiles doing the oppressing, thus in a way, the K'Chain Che'Malle are also the enemy of the T'lan Imass. The idea is floated that the Matron wouldn't poison the warrens, relying on their power for her own sorcery and thus there is still another enemy behind it all. Obviously it's the Crippled God. Whiskeyjack asks Silverfox if the Crippled God is behind the Matron then will the T'lan Imass consider him their enemy but she makes it clear that they cannot defeat him. This shakes Whiskeyjack's confidence. An enemy the T'lan Imass fear is almost beyond comprehension. Kruppe steps in to give everyone a rousing speech but Caladan Brood calls him out, saying Kruppe wouldn't be able to stand against the Crippled God, being nothing but a normal mortal. Kruppe gets uncharacteristically pissed off and tensions quickly build between him and Brood as Kruppe insults him and stands defiantly in his face. Angered to action, Caladan Brood grabs his hammer and slams it into the ground. The shockwave knocks everyone flat and blows them away, buried in rubble as a mountain springs from the earth. When everyone picks themselves back up, bruised and battered, they see an immense fissure in the ground, neatly parting around Kruppe who stands, untouched, on a small island of rock. Before anything further can happen, Korlat yells out. As people turn to see what distressed her, they see the fissure filling with blood. Foul, rotten blood. The poisoned blood of the Goddess Burn.
Holy shit.
Gaw, just take a moment to drink that in. Imagine this in your DnD campaign. XD It's like a triple whammy. We see what Brood's hammer is capable of, we finally get proof that Kruppe is not only super powerful but capable of basically ignoring Caladan Brood and we get the visual of just how fucked the world is now that the Crippled God is basically killing the life force of the planet.
Anyway, Whiskeyjack and Korlat discuss the situation in private. Whiskeyjack is of the opinion that Kruppe manipulated this whole demonstration to show everyone what they're facing, as the Malazans were still unaware they'd be going to to toe with a god, as well as give them confidence through his own stand and to force Caladan's hand to remind Kallor of what he's capable of in order to keep him in line. He also suspects that Kruppe manipulated all the events in Darujhistan, which we already know is true.
Crone turns up to bring news to Brood. She tells him the Pannion is fighting a second war to the south against an unknown opponent and they've used Omtose Phellack against this assailant. It's not specified, but this is presumably Envy. Either way, the fact that the Pannion Seer has tipped his hand re the Jaghut warren, it seems that Envy might well be holding her own. She also tells Brood that Capustan isn't going to be able to hold out, even though the defence is going well for now.
Or it was going well. The Tenescowri have pushed into the city by sheer numbers and are running rampant in the streets. There's some very bloody scenes as Itkovian, the Shield Anvil, desperately defends against the mass before being almost completely overrun. He gets attacked pretty badly as the mob hits, hamstrung and an axe through the collarbone and a pike through the back. He is saved by Brukhalian, the Mortal Sword who manages to spirit him away to the makeshift infirmary where the Destriant heals him. Brukhalian sees that the Destriant isn't looking well. Drawing on the poisoned Denul warren to heal has been poisoning him too. It's already gone too far and Brukhalian suspects the Destriant will be dead before dawn.
A messenger arrives, coming direct from Rath'Fener. They Grey Swords are being summoned to defend the Thrall, which is the Mask Council building. Brukhalian is immediately suspicious. The Thrall is protected by magic so no one should have been able to get out to pass this message on. What's more, this messenger reveals that she was not accosted on her way to deliver this message. He realises what is happening. The betrayal has come. Or, more specifically, as he makes clear to the Grey Swords as they set off, once they die, they will have been betrayed, at which point the Shield Anvil can avenge them. Until then, there is no crime to answer for. They march into the centre of town and are surrounded by about five thousand Pannions, fifteen hundred of which are archers.
Somehow, Itkovian awakens to see a vision of Brukhalian's last stand as they are brutally cut apart by the Pannion soldiers. Brukhalian fights on even as he is cut apart and when he finally succumbs, the Pannions back off as a spectral figure of Hood himself appears, just for a moment, to collect Brukhalian's soul personally. Itkovian knows the betrayal.
He check on Karnadas, the Destriant, to find that he has already succumbed to the poison and passed, leaving Itkovian only partially healed. The skin has healed over the axe wound but it's still a mess inside and he has to get a strap to hold his arm in place so he can hold a shield in place. He gathers the few remaining Grey Swords. One hundred and thirty seven of them are all that remain. They head for the Prince's palace, as most of the enemy soldiers are amassed near the Thrall. They bust in and find Anaster and some of his Tenescowri snacking on the cooked remains of Prince Jelarkan. Anaster is confident and cocky to begin with, revealing he knows the citizens are hiding in the tunnels and that he'll find them over time. Itkovian doesn't rise to the bait, instead he confronts Anaster calmly, telling him that he sees great despair within him and he is ready to receive it. Anaster is confused at that and Itkovian clarifies. His role, as Shield Anvil is to hold all the grief in the world, that is too much for Fener to bear, a human proxy as it were. This spooks Anaster and Itkovian realises why. Anaster has nothing but despair in him and if Itkovian were to take it, there would be nothing remaining. Anaster commands his Tenescowri to attack and flees as the Grey Swords cut them down. It doesn't take long and soon Itkovian and his men hold the palace.
Back with Toc who's not having a great time with the K'Chain Che'Malle matron. The magic is still healing him as she breaks his ribs and other bones over and over but he can feel that they're growing back wrong, disfiguring him. The Pannion Seer comes by from time to time to taunt him then Toc begins have vision of Envy's group fighting towards their position, trying to breach the citadel they're holed up in. Before they can make the rescue, the Seer flees with Toc and the matron, into Omtose Phellack.
Meanwhile, Paran's group arrive at Capustan, the Barghast slowly following behind. The Malazan sappers are eager to get to work and they smuggle cussers among the sleeping Tenescowri and blow them to kingdom come. By the time they breach Capustan it looks like most of the fighting is over, the streets are ankle deep in bodies and only the massive glowing shield around the Thrall stands out so they begin heading there. On the way, they come across Gruntle's small band. The mercenary has started to manifest stripes on his skin and is aware he's now Treach's favoured. Picker approaches him, her arm itching where the torc sits. Gruntle approaches her and removes the torc from her arm. Picker is overwhelmed to finally be rid of the magic item which had been causing increased pain as it was locked on her arm. Gruntle tells Picker that Treach is dead, but has ascended to walk among the gods. He puts the torc on. Gruntle laments that Stonny is done in. She lies in a tent beyond, stuck through, with blood filling her lungs. Mallet steps in to heal her, despite the Denul poison. He's still assisted by the Barghast spirits who seem keen to intervene in this convergence.
The White Face Barghast tribes arrive and start murdering the remaining Pannion who are routed. Paran and Gruntle converse about his new role, which is the Mortal Sword of Trake. Paran mentions that Fener is in danger, dragged to the mortal realm which is what caused the gap that allowed Treach to ascend to take his place. Silverfox has been trying to get his attention too and Paran has been blocking her out but now he opens his mind to her only to find that rather than Tattersail, it's Nightchill pushing through to speak to him. They discuss his time in Dragnipur and Nightchill makes it clear that Draconus is in there and Paran needs to free him and to do that, Dragnipur needs to be shattered, releasing everyone inside. Paran doesn't want to free everyone Rake has killed and Nightchill tells him that only Draconus will know if there's a way to prevent it. She tells him he can think on it, there's plenty of time.
Itkovian and the 112 remaining Grey Swords converge on the Thrall where they meet the Barghast, Gruntle and Paran. Keruli emerges from the Thrall and hands over Rath'Fener. Itkovian delivers his punishment to the traitor, chopping off his hands in true Fener fashion, however, with Fener not at his post everyone is fully aware the boar god won't receive his hands. Instead of the usual Fener tattoos, such as those all over Heboric, Rath'Fener finds himself tattooed with otherwordly designs, dark alien script that burns his skin and boils his blood. We never find out just who claimed his hands. It's a moot point though because Itkovian then offers him salvation, as the Shield Anvil, embracing him and taking his pain. unfortunately he also draws in the suffering of whatever alien god claimed Rath'Fener's hands. The god fights against him and manages to break free and escape. Normally Fener would supposedly support the Shield Anvil against such assaults but with him not there, Itkovian pleads with the other gods for support but receives none. Itkovian almost dies but is saved by a shake from Paran that brings him back to reality, though he notes it wasn't much of a mercy. Rath'Fener however has been disintegrated.
Meanwhile, Quick Ben finally awakes from his fever. He chats with Talamandas again who explains that the Barghast spirits have a way to allow Quick Ben to use his warrens. Talamandas' spirit is residing in a stick figure, much like Hairlock at the start of the story. As he is functionally immune to the poison due to his lack of mortal body he agrees to act as a sort of shield for Quick Ben, absorbing the poison so that Ben can face the Pannion Seer. He also reveals the spirits agreed to this because they have seen that Quick Ben is indeed clever enough to potentially outsmart the Crippled God. As Talamandas puts it:
"Your grasp of causality surpasses my intellect."
I told you he's a sneaky one.
A mere two leagues west, Onearm's host has finally arrived and is mopping up the remaining Pannion army. Korlat appears by warren and tells Whiskeyjack to follow her. For the first time, Whiskeyjack enters Kurald Galain and is shocked by the darkness of it. Unable to see a thing, Korlat has to lead him by the hand. They emerge into Dujek's tent to find Quick Ben, in hologram form, waiting for Whiskeyjack. Ben tells him he is now safe to use his warrens again. Quick Ben fills Whiskeyjack in on the situation in the city. When he disappears, Whiskeyjack and Korlat discuss the situation in Capustan, debating what to do with the Tenescowri, whether to kill them, capture them, ignore them, free them, etc. Whiskeyjack's stance is that the goal is to take down the Seer. they'll happily kill the armies in their way but he has no interest in chasing down stragglers or liberating the peasants. Korlat reveals that Brood's goal is to liberate the oppressed people from the Seer's rule. Whiskeyjack tells her that trying to give the people their lives back is too complicated, it would require the them to administrate and to do that they would need to occupy. Korlat suggests that is the way the Malazans usually do things in the Empire. When Whiskeyjack reminds her that they are not part of the Empire any more, she questions it. He reaffirms that they are outlawed... and too late realises she already knows the truth and was testing him. She heads off, as Dujek arrives. Whiskeyjack tells Dujek that Brood knows. They debate whether to show Brood their full hand but before they can commit to a decision, a messenger arrives. Brood has called for a counsel session.
Rake arrives first, through Kurald Galain which is finally beginning to show signs of the Crippled God's poison. Given what we know about Kurald Galain and Starvald Demelain relative to K'rul's physiology... that's not a good sign! Brood and Kallor inform him about Whiskeyjack and Dujek's loyalties but Rake already figured it out and is not surprised. In fact, he's quite receptive to the idea. His approach is one of pragmatism. Even once the Pannion is dealt with, someone needs to be in charge, why not the Malazan Empire? They're more organised and agreeable than most, they have decent enough laws. The end result will be peace and to him, that is victory enough. What's more he vindicates Whiskeyjack and Dujek by pointing out that soldiers are obliged to follow their orders, even if those orders are to lie and say they've been outlawed to their allies and their men, which they would have to in order for the ruse to be successful. What's more, as he points out to Brood, the pair have warred against the Malazan Empire for no real reason other than shits and giggles. They didn't fight for money or land. From Laseen's point of view, Rake and Brood are her enemies and she doesn't even know why, no wonder she had to resort to subterfuge.
Rake's calm and reasoned argument wins Brood over and even Kallor reluctantly backs down as the conversation moves on to tactics. The two Malazans arrive, expecting a dressing down only to find the tactical discussion underway. They have the info from crone now about Envy's group, though they don't yet know it's her, or if Rake does, he isn't telling. They also know the Seer escaped through Omtose Phellack. In a stroke of luck he has fled to the place that was already the next target of their assault, Coral. They may be able to end this swifter than anticipated.
The meeting comes to a close and Rake pulls Whiskeyjack off to speak in private where the Tiste Andii makes it clear he knows Paran is the master of the deck and that it will be up to Ganoes to decide if the House of Chains is legitimized or not. He also warns Whiskeyjack that Fener is lost on the mortal plane, disastrous as he was vital in the last chaining. He even knows the circumstances and fills Whiskeyjack in on what happened to Heboric. It's a complicated series of events but Heboric's hands being severed was meant to be a ritual of justice but because it was carried out under false pretences as a punishment from Laseen, the hands arrived in Fener's realm and were essentially poisonous to him. Fener sealed the power away with the tattoos on Heboric who would eventually die of old age, be reunited with his hands and become some sort of vengeful spirit on Fener's behalf however, that didn't happen because of the obelisk which came from the warren of chaos which obliterated the seal when he touched it and Fener pushed his hands back through.
What's more, Rake isn't done loredumping. He tells Whiskeyjack he knows Laseen failed to assassinate Kellanved and Dancer and that they ascended to become Shadowthrone and Cotillion, who found the House of Shadow empty and settled in. He also knows that Treach ascended which is news to Whiskeyjack. The Malazan agrees then, Paran must deny the House of Chains.
Quick Ben is practising with his warrens now that he has access again, using Rashan to sneak through Capustan with Talamandas. He comes across Bauchelain's house and sneaks in, dispatching a demon guard and using his D'riss warren to enter the walls and move through them. We learn about a new warren, Aral Gamelon which is apparently where most of the demons come from. He listens in on the necromancers through the walls but it's clear Bauchelain is expecting him, aware that the demon was overcome and expressing an air of civility. Quick Ben can't help himself, he emerges to chat and Bauchelain sends Emancipor to fetch the good wine. The two discuss the finer points of necromancy and demon summoning and engage in a little gentlemanly verbal sparring before Bauchelain tells Quick Ben he finds him amiable, but that Korbal Broach wants to kill him. Quick reveals that he knows Broach is the crow perched on the mantlepiece and as Korbal sembles into his human form, Quick blasts him with six of his warrens, blowing him clear through the wall into the next room. Bauchelain is unfazed and offers his apologies for the gauche behaviour. He's impressed at Quick's mastery of six warrens and moreso his ability to use them simultaneously but reveals that using such power is likely quite exhausting and Quick likely has no juice left in the tank as it were. He chastises Quick Ben for not holding something back and attacking with only half the magic available at his disposal. As he goes to rise, Quick simply states, "I did" and hits him with a blast from the other six warrens.
It's a pretty cool moment and reminds me a lot of the duel in the Princess Bride where both combatants reveal they aren't left handed. Anyway, Quick makes his escape, much to the chagrin of Emancipor Reese who laments that no one ever kills the two necromancers and thus his servitude must continue.
Back out in Capustan again, Quick tells Talamandas that he needs to know how much power he can draw from the spirit in an emergency and now is the best time to test. Reluctantly Talamandas agrees, but Quick Ben has an ulterior motive. He has his suspicions that the Barghast spirits alone aren't enough to ward off the Crippled God's poison and he confirms it once he begins drawing power from Talamandas, realising that the stick figure has been blessed by Hood. There's been an empty card in the deck of dragons for some time, Magi of House Death and Quick thinks Talamandas may have unwittingly stepped into that role. Quick pulls on Talamandas' power, opening a conduit directly to Hood so the two can converse. Hood is, understandably, somewhat pissed off. His voice is super powerful in Quick Ben's head, as to be expected for a god of his stature. Hood tells Quick Ben in no uncertain terms that the House of Chains must be denied. Its already finding willing participants and even Poliel, the goddess of pestilence has sought the role of Consort. The Herald has been recruited (We know this was Gethol from earlier). An ancient warrior is attempting to become the Reaver. There's some debate over who the Reaver is but given the mention of ancient, it's probably Kallor. He also mentions that the house has a Mortal Sword but there's a good chance we haven;t met him yet, assuming he's the guy most popular in fan theory. He also mentions Mowri (who I think we've heard mention of before? Goddess of beggars and slaves) who has embraced "the Three" who are the Cripple, Leper and Fool. We don't know those yet but we've met at least one. No, it's not Heboric. Hood also mentions that those three are the equivalent of Spinner, Mason and Soldier in the other houses. Quick Ben pokes at Hood and realises that the god of Death has not only bargained with the Barghast but also that he has struck a deal with Treach, presumably allowing him to avoid oblivion in Gruntle sends him an assload of souls. Quick suggests a wary alliance given the circumstances and lets Hood go.
Christ. I told you Quick Ben has balls of steel. Of all the gods to butt heads with, Hood himself! It's our first real meeting with the god of death and even then its voice only but we get the feeling that perhaps Hood is as deeply entrenched in this whole situation as Quick Ben is. That 4d chess I mentioned before.
Paran is sat thinking about all this shit, the rise of Treach, the House of Chains, his role as Master of the Deck, even Felisin and Tavore. Gruntle arrives, seeking a bit of solace after satisfying Hetan's desires. Paran mentions his difficult decision. The decision to refuse the House of Chains seems so obvious and yet a small voice inside him tells Paran to allow it and he's unsure of why his gut feeling is the exact opposite of common sense. Gruntle points out that though he knows nothing about the Deck of Dragons, from his perspective, the Crippled God is currently outside of the game, doing whatever he wants. Legitimizing the House of Chains would bind him by the same rules all the other gods are bound by, levelling the playing field. Paran is won over by this argument and is now seriously considering sanctioning the House.
Quick Ben arrives and tells Paran that Brood has called a meeting and wants all the commanders there including Gruntle and Humbrall Taur. Before Quick can mention the House of Chains, Paran tells him he knows he's gonna mention it and that he hasn't made his mind up. Quick shrugs and tells him to trust his gut. Paran points out what his guy said and Gruntle backed up is going to make a lot of gods very angry. Quick accepts this but mentally mumbles to Hood that the House of Chains is coming, there's nothing he can do it about it and so he might as well prepare for it.
Back with Itkovian for a somewhat confusing section. Three hundred and nineteen Grey Swords survived in total, some hidden in the tunnels guarding the refugees and mostly women at that. With Fener gone and no Destriant or Mortal Sword, he's trying to find a new patron for the mercenary company because in order to recruit and fill their numbers they'll need a god that isn't absent. He meets with the Barghast elders to discuss the two wolf gods, Togg and Fanderay (who the Barghast call Togctha and Farand). Itkovian suggests one of the women for the role of Mortal Sword but the elders tell him that Togg already has one. If you were paying attention, that would be Toc the Younger. Yes, Togg is the one-eyed ancient wolf, wandering the warren of chaos looking for his mate. The elder says the woman should be Destriant instead and also picks a new Shield Anvil. Itkovian of course, already knew he would be leaving the Grey Swords as he is still sworn to Fener. The Grey Swords now serve the Wolf Gods.
Silverfox finally has a conversation with the T'lan Imass, where she confronts Pran Chole. One of the Imass raises a strange point, that Silverfox was not born of the Tellann Warren but rather a twisted version of it belonging to Onos T'oolan, warped by his isolation. Doesn't make a lot of sense right now so maybe we'll learn more about this later. Olar Ethil speaks up too and we learn she is a Soletaken Eleint. The nomenclature around the Eleint may get confusing so I'll clarify this for now. A Soletaken Eleint is a shapeshifter who can take dragon form. So, for example, Anomander Rake is also a Soletaken Eleint. The actual Eleint are the real dragons and we'll learn more about those much later. She fills Silverfox in on the locations of the various Imass tribes. Basically, the Kron are the ones we've seen the most of. The Logros are the ones who were chasing traitorous kin which we saw when the Malazans took control of the Silanda. OF the four remaining clans we learn that the Bentract are trapped in the warren of Chaos and the other three are considered extinct. Apparently it was Kellanved who sent Olar Ethil to seek out the other clans and the Logros obeyed because although Kellanved doesn't occupy the "First Throne" any more he never yielded it because he didn't die and so he still in some way commands the Imass. We also learn that the renegades might have used to warren of chaos to escape, a subtle hint that they serve the Crippled God, perhaps? There's a bit of back and forth and we learn that the Imass are yearning for Oblivion. They no longer consider the Jaghut a threat as there are barely any left, one or two that they know of and even if they were to rise up, the world has enough ascendant now that there are people who could stop them, as seen with Raest in book one. Silverfox apparently has the power to grant that oblivion but refuses.
The Malazans face the last of the Tenescowri in this area. Anomander comes down in dragon form, breathing liquid darkness, raw Kurald Galain, down upon them. He easily dispatches Anaster and stuns his Women of the Dead Seed who are mages. He gets somewhat poisoned by his contact with Anaster and takes Andii form to finish off the mages who he begins decapitating with Dragnipur. In horror, Whiskeyjack tries to intervene, knowing the fate that they would suffer. Rake refuses any other method and so Whiskeyjack kills the women with his own sword. It turns out both men were trying to save the other's consciences.
They approach Anaster, who lost an eye in the scuffle with dragon Rake. He seems eager to die and Rake wheedles it out of him that he fears Itkovian coming to take his soul. Rake decides to keep him alive for now while he considers his punishment.
Korlat and Whiskeyjack have a little chat and she mentions Laseen was scared of him which was why she demoted him in the first place and Whiskeyjack realises that the situation in Darujhistan wasn't manufactured to kill the Bridgeburners, just him.
Toc arrives in Coral, still in bad shape, his lungs now permanently semi-filled with fluid. He has a few moments to see the scenery but knows he will be returned to the insane K'Chain Che'Malle matron before long. In his thoughts he thinks about Envy and her group. I don't remember when it got explicitly revealed but he also seems to think Baaljagg is in fact, Fanderay, Togg's absent mate.
In Capustan, everyone converges on the same spot for Caladan Brood's next parley. Keruli takes centre stage as he points out the turbulent state of the pantheon. He calls out Brood and his inability to decide whether to kill Burn. He also points out the Grey Swords having to switch allegiance from Fener to Togg and Fanderay. Kallor responds, pointing out that Keruli hasn't mentioned his god to which Keruli smiles as he points out how withered Kallor has become over the years. Kallor recognises him then, pointing out that Keruli is no more than K'rul himself, or as Keruli corrects him, an avatar of K'rul. Brood apparently already figured this out so isn't as impressed as Kallor. It seems Keruli wasn't holding back during that first encounter with the K'Chain Che'Malle, he simply doesn't have his full power in this body. This then is the alliance that will push towards the heart of the Pannion Domin to take on the Seer. Brood reveals that his inaction against Burn isn't born of indecision but in hope of finding a third solution that doesn't involve killing the goddess or letting the Crippled God kill her.
There's a confrontation as Silverfox arrives. The Grey Swords ask her to relinquish the T'lan Ay to them, on request of Togg and Fanderay but she refuses. Kruppe recites the tale of Togg and Fanderay, long story short, they were split up when the Crippled God fell to earth.
Later the Trygalle Trade Guild approach Silverfox to ask for permission to travel through Tellann. She reveals that it is still uninfected and gives them her blessing.
Envy and her group are battered and bruised but still presumably in pursuit of Toc (through Omtose Phellack?). They've reached a shore and are unsure how to cross the water. Mok deigns to speak with Envy. It seems Garath is ill and Mok thinks the plague Envy sent against the Pannion is at fault. Envy points out it was amusing that as Poliel has allied with the Crippled God, Envy was able to access her warren and turn her power against the Pannion forces. She heals Garath who is a bit pissed off but Mok manages to placate him. A piece of land floats past on the water, like a chunk of land with a settlement on. Mok claims that a clan called the Meckros use such floating settlements to travel the seas near where the Seguleh live on their island, though this one is clearly uninhabited. As it floats closer they make their way over to it and board. They find an Imass aboard and for a moment Envy mistakes him for Tool before realising that this is a different Imass. He claims he is Lanas Tog, the last of the Kerluhm tribe which along with the Ifayle tribe are functionally extinct. He says 29'814 Kerluhm and 22'200 Ifayle have been killed warring on another continent. Envy suggest the enemy must be quite the Jaghut but Lanas Tog tells her the enemy is not Jaghut... but human...
Dun dun DUNNN!!!
So the fighting breaks out, with fairly futile attempts to breach the city to begin with, the Tenescowri being easily turned aside by the city's defenders though with obvious concerns that the actual Pannion Troops will soon follow. The Pannion army have siege engines and are lobbing flaming balls into the city so there are numerous fires. Gruntle finds out that Stonny has been fighting and heads out into the fray to find her. He stumbles across a breach and joins in the fighting to push back the Pannion troops, afterwards finding Stonny in a bit of a state. Her sword is snapped and she's drenched in blood and entrails. He gently converses with her as he teases out the truth of what happened, realising that Stonny was raped in her quarters by a Pannion infiltrator who she eventually managed to get the best of, going a little overboard in her revenge.
The T'lan Imass have done their job and killed the K'Chain Che'Malle.
Keruli heads to the Mask Council where he requests to address the Council. The various priests are a little confused as to who he is and what he wants. Keruli claims the council is under represented and he insists he take his place... as Rath'K'rul. He also announces that there is a traitor among the council.
We see some overview of the city's defence. It pretty much involves a swings and roundabouts approach of yielding certain ground to the Pannion forces only to take it back again before they can capitalise on it. A suicide force is arranged to sally out from the city and destroy the siege engines to remove the fireballs from the mix.
Gruntle finds a dead kid that's been half-eaten by Tenescowri and uses it to rally some of the citizens into forming a militia. They go off and do some pretty major ass kicking. Itkovian hears tales of Gruntle, fighting with his twin swords like they're the tusks of Fener. He arranges for the citizens to fall back to a series of defensive tunnels beneath the city where supplies have been stored, though the Mask Council have yet to issue permission for their construction. He dispatches a messenger to tell Gruntle he's official and can choose a section of city to defend and be given supplies but he also uses it as cover to view Gruntle covertly from afar. He realises Gruntle isn't a boar-like warrior after all and that he actually moves more like a tiger. He realises it is Treach that Gruntle channels, Treach who is ascending even as Fener falls.
Buke discovers that Korbal Broach and Bauchelain are soletaken and as they turn into rooks, he uses the magic of Keruli's potion to gain his own soletaken form, that of a sparrowhawk. He covertly follows them as they unleash an airborne sorcerous assault on Anaster only to be soundly rebuffed. They return, somewhat battered but largely nonplussed.
Over with Whiskeyjack and co, they come across the aftermath of a fight between the undead K'Chain Che'Malle and the T'lan Ay. Silverfox is pleased and the Ay appear. She gets them to hide again before Kallor can show his face so he won't know she has them as a secret weapon. Kallor does appear, obviously and wants to show off his ancient knowledge of the K'Chain Che'Malle, pieced together by the historians in his time. Time for a lore dump.
So, they're reptiles, we got that much. Matriarchal and matrinlineal, they can be bred to specific roles like warrior. The Matrons carry the sorcerous power of their whole family, apparently sufficient to prevent the Elder Gods ever coming to this planet and it was only their self destruction that opened that avenue. So atone point they tried to revive an extinct breed, which Kallor's historians dubbed "short-tails" due to their truncated tails. Apparently they weren't super amenable and a civil war broke out among the K'Chain Che'Malle. Mega sorcery got unleashed and the rent at Morn was opened, which was an attempt to open a portal to the realm of chaos.
The discussion turns back to these undead ones and who might be controlling them. They wouldn't obey the Pannion Seer, only a Matron. Kallor wonders who destroyed these undead ones and when Silverfox doesn't volunteer any info he assumes it's the T'lan Imass and demands answers, knowing full well that the Imass would only consider the Jaghut their enemy. Silverfox explains what we already know, that the Imass suffered under Jaghut oppression and fought back with the intent of genocide. Apparently this was also the situation between the Jaghut and the K'Chain Che'Malle, with the reptiles doing the oppressing, thus in a way, the K'Chain Che'Malle are also the enemy of the T'lan Imass. The idea is floated that the Matron wouldn't poison the warrens, relying on their power for her own sorcery and thus there is still another enemy behind it all. Obviously it's the Crippled God. Whiskeyjack asks Silverfox if the Crippled God is behind the Matron then will the T'lan Imass consider him their enemy but she makes it clear that they cannot defeat him. This shakes Whiskeyjack's confidence. An enemy the T'lan Imass fear is almost beyond comprehension. Kruppe steps in to give everyone a rousing speech but Caladan Brood calls him out, saying Kruppe wouldn't be able to stand against the Crippled God, being nothing but a normal mortal. Kruppe gets uncharacteristically pissed off and tensions quickly build between him and Brood as Kruppe insults him and stands defiantly in his face. Angered to action, Caladan Brood grabs his hammer and slams it into the ground. The shockwave knocks everyone flat and blows them away, buried in rubble as a mountain springs from the earth. When everyone picks themselves back up, bruised and battered, they see an immense fissure in the ground, neatly parting around Kruppe who stands, untouched, on a small island of rock. Before anything further can happen, Korlat yells out. As people turn to see what distressed her, they see the fissure filling with blood. Foul, rotten blood. The poisoned blood of the Goddess Burn.
Holy shit.
Gaw, just take a moment to drink that in. Imagine this in your DnD campaign. XD It's like a triple whammy. We see what Brood's hammer is capable of, we finally get proof that Kruppe is not only super powerful but capable of basically ignoring Caladan Brood and we get the visual of just how fucked the world is now that the Crippled God is basically killing the life force of the planet.
Anyway, Whiskeyjack and Korlat discuss the situation in private. Whiskeyjack is of the opinion that Kruppe manipulated this whole demonstration to show everyone what they're facing, as the Malazans were still unaware they'd be going to to toe with a god, as well as give them confidence through his own stand and to force Caladan's hand to remind Kallor of what he's capable of in order to keep him in line. He also suspects that Kruppe manipulated all the events in Darujhistan, which we already know is true.
Crone turns up to bring news to Brood. She tells him the Pannion is fighting a second war to the south against an unknown opponent and they've used Omtose Phellack against this assailant. It's not specified, but this is presumably Envy. Either way, the fact that the Pannion Seer has tipped his hand re the Jaghut warren, it seems that Envy might well be holding her own. She also tells Brood that Capustan isn't going to be able to hold out, even though the defence is going well for now.
Or it was going well. The Tenescowri have pushed into the city by sheer numbers and are running rampant in the streets. There's some very bloody scenes as Itkovian, the Shield Anvil, desperately defends against the mass before being almost completely overrun. He gets attacked pretty badly as the mob hits, hamstrung and an axe through the collarbone and a pike through the back. He is saved by Brukhalian, the Mortal Sword who manages to spirit him away to the makeshift infirmary where the Destriant heals him. Brukhalian sees that the Destriant isn't looking well. Drawing on the poisoned Denul warren to heal has been poisoning him too. It's already gone too far and Brukhalian suspects the Destriant will be dead before dawn.
A messenger arrives, coming direct from Rath'Fener. They Grey Swords are being summoned to defend the Thrall, which is the Mask Council building. Brukhalian is immediately suspicious. The Thrall is protected by magic so no one should have been able to get out to pass this message on. What's more, this messenger reveals that she was not accosted on her way to deliver this message. He realises what is happening. The betrayal has come. Or, more specifically, as he makes clear to the Grey Swords as they set off, once they die, they will have been betrayed, at which point the Shield Anvil can avenge them. Until then, there is no crime to answer for. They march into the centre of town and are surrounded by about five thousand Pannions, fifteen hundred of which are archers.
Somehow, Itkovian awakens to see a vision of Brukhalian's last stand as they are brutally cut apart by the Pannion soldiers. Brukhalian fights on even as he is cut apart and when he finally succumbs, the Pannions back off as a spectral figure of Hood himself appears, just for a moment, to collect Brukhalian's soul personally. Itkovian knows the betrayal.
He check on Karnadas, the Destriant, to find that he has already succumbed to the poison and passed, leaving Itkovian only partially healed. The skin has healed over the axe wound but it's still a mess inside and he has to get a strap to hold his arm in place so he can hold a shield in place. He gathers the few remaining Grey Swords. One hundred and thirty seven of them are all that remain. They head for the Prince's palace, as most of the enemy soldiers are amassed near the Thrall. They bust in and find Anaster and some of his Tenescowri snacking on the cooked remains of Prince Jelarkan. Anaster is confident and cocky to begin with, revealing he knows the citizens are hiding in the tunnels and that he'll find them over time. Itkovian doesn't rise to the bait, instead he confronts Anaster calmly, telling him that he sees great despair within him and he is ready to receive it. Anaster is confused at that and Itkovian clarifies. His role, as Shield Anvil is to hold all the grief in the world, that is too much for Fener to bear, a human proxy as it were. This spooks Anaster and Itkovian realises why. Anaster has nothing but despair in him and if Itkovian were to take it, there would be nothing remaining. Anaster commands his Tenescowri to attack and flees as the Grey Swords cut them down. It doesn't take long and soon Itkovian and his men hold the palace.
Back with Toc who's not having a great time with the K'Chain Che'Malle matron. The magic is still healing him as she breaks his ribs and other bones over and over but he can feel that they're growing back wrong, disfiguring him. The Pannion Seer comes by from time to time to taunt him then Toc begins have vision of Envy's group fighting towards their position, trying to breach the citadel they're holed up in. Before they can make the rescue, the Seer flees with Toc and the matron, into Omtose Phellack.
Meanwhile, Paran's group arrive at Capustan, the Barghast slowly following behind. The Malazan sappers are eager to get to work and they smuggle cussers among the sleeping Tenescowri and blow them to kingdom come. By the time they breach Capustan it looks like most of the fighting is over, the streets are ankle deep in bodies and only the massive glowing shield around the Thrall stands out so they begin heading there. On the way, they come across Gruntle's small band. The mercenary has started to manifest stripes on his skin and is aware he's now Treach's favoured. Picker approaches him, her arm itching where the torc sits. Gruntle approaches her and removes the torc from her arm. Picker is overwhelmed to finally be rid of the magic item which had been causing increased pain as it was locked on her arm. Gruntle tells Picker that Treach is dead, but has ascended to walk among the gods. He puts the torc on. Gruntle laments that Stonny is done in. She lies in a tent beyond, stuck through, with blood filling her lungs. Mallet steps in to heal her, despite the Denul poison. He's still assisted by the Barghast spirits who seem keen to intervene in this convergence.
The White Face Barghast tribes arrive and start murdering the remaining Pannion who are routed. Paran and Gruntle converse about his new role, which is the Mortal Sword of Trake. Paran mentions that Fener is in danger, dragged to the mortal realm which is what caused the gap that allowed Treach to ascend to take his place. Silverfox has been trying to get his attention too and Paran has been blocking her out but now he opens his mind to her only to find that rather than Tattersail, it's Nightchill pushing through to speak to him. They discuss his time in Dragnipur and Nightchill makes it clear that Draconus is in there and Paran needs to free him and to do that, Dragnipur needs to be shattered, releasing everyone inside. Paran doesn't want to free everyone Rake has killed and Nightchill tells him that only Draconus will know if there's a way to prevent it. She tells him he can think on it, there's plenty of time.
Itkovian and the 112 remaining Grey Swords converge on the Thrall where they meet the Barghast, Gruntle and Paran. Keruli emerges from the Thrall and hands over Rath'Fener. Itkovian delivers his punishment to the traitor, chopping off his hands in true Fener fashion, however, with Fener not at his post everyone is fully aware the boar god won't receive his hands. Instead of the usual Fener tattoos, such as those all over Heboric, Rath'Fener finds himself tattooed with otherwordly designs, dark alien script that burns his skin and boils his blood. We never find out just who claimed his hands. It's a moot point though because Itkovian then offers him salvation, as the Shield Anvil, embracing him and taking his pain. unfortunately he also draws in the suffering of whatever alien god claimed Rath'Fener's hands. The god fights against him and manages to break free and escape. Normally Fener would supposedly support the Shield Anvil against such assaults but with him not there, Itkovian pleads with the other gods for support but receives none. Itkovian almost dies but is saved by a shake from Paran that brings him back to reality, though he notes it wasn't much of a mercy. Rath'Fener however has been disintegrated.
Meanwhile, Quick Ben finally awakes from his fever. He chats with Talamandas again who explains that the Barghast spirits have a way to allow Quick Ben to use his warrens. Talamandas' spirit is residing in a stick figure, much like Hairlock at the start of the story. As he is functionally immune to the poison due to his lack of mortal body he agrees to act as a sort of shield for Quick Ben, absorbing the poison so that Ben can face the Pannion Seer. He also reveals the spirits agreed to this because they have seen that Quick Ben is indeed clever enough to potentially outsmart the Crippled God. As Talamandas puts it:
"Your grasp of causality surpasses my intellect."
I told you he's a sneaky one.
A mere two leagues west, Onearm's host has finally arrived and is mopping up the remaining Pannion army. Korlat appears by warren and tells Whiskeyjack to follow her. For the first time, Whiskeyjack enters Kurald Galain and is shocked by the darkness of it. Unable to see a thing, Korlat has to lead him by the hand. They emerge into Dujek's tent to find Quick Ben, in hologram form, waiting for Whiskeyjack. Ben tells him he is now safe to use his warrens again. Quick Ben fills Whiskeyjack in on the situation in the city. When he disappears, Whiskeyjack and Korlat discuss the situation in Capustan, debating what to do with the Tenescowri, whether to kill them, capture them, ignore them, free them, etc. Whiskeyjack's stance is that the goal is to take down the Seer. they'll happily kill the armies in their way but he has no interest in chasing down stragglers or liberating the peasants. Korlat reveals that Brood's goal is to liberate the oppressed people from the Seer's rule. Whiskeyjack tells her that trying to give the people their lives back is too complicated, it would require the them to administrate and to do that they would need to occupy. Korlat suggests that is the way the Malazans usually do things in the Empire. When Whiskeyjack reminds her that they are not part of the Empire any more, she questions it. He reaffirms that they are outlawed... and too late realises she already knows the truth and was testing him. She heads off, as Dujek arrives. Whiskeyjack tells Dujek that Brood knows. They debate whether to show Brood their full hand but before they can commit to a decision, a messenger arrives. Brood has called for a counsel session.
Rake arrives first, through Kurald Galain which is finally beginning to show signs of the Crippled God's poison. Given what we know about Kurald Galain and Starvald Demelain relative to K'rul's physiology... that's not a good sign! Brood and Kallor inform him about Whiskeyjack and Dujek's loyalties but Rake already figured it out and is not surprised. In fact, he's quite receptive to the idea. His approach is one of pragmatism. Even once the Pannion is dealt with, someone needs to be in charge, why not the Malazan Empire? They're more organised and agreeable than most, they have decent enough laws. The end result will be peace and to him, that is victory enough. What's more he vindicates Whiskeyjack and Dujek by pointing out that soldiers are obliged to follow their orders, even if those orders are to lie and say they've been outlawed to their allies and their men, which they would have to in order for the ruse to be successful. What's more, as he points out to Brood, the pair have warred against the Malazan Empire for no real reason other than shits and giggles. They didn't fight for money or land. From Laseen's point of view, Rake and Brood are her enemies and she doesn't even know why, no wonder she had to resort to subterfuge.
Rake's calm and reasoned argument wins Brood over and even Kallor reluctantly backs down as the conversation moves on to tactics. The two Malazans arrive, expecting a dressing down only to find the tactical discussion underway. They have the info from crone now about Envy's group, though they don't yet know it's her, or if Rake does, he isn't telling. They also know the Seer escaped through Omtose Phellack. In a stroke of luck he has fled to the place that was already the next target of their assault, Coral. They may be able to end this swifter than anticipated.
The meeting comes to a close and Rake pulls Whiskeyjack off to speak in private where the Tiste Andii makes it clear he knows Paran is the master of the deck and that it will be up to Ganoes to decide if the House of Chains is legitimized or not. He also warns Whiskeyjack that Fener is lost on the mortal plane, disastrous as he was vital in the last chaining. He even knows the circumstances and fills Whiskeyjack in on what happened to Heboric. It's a complicated series of events but Heboric's hands being severed was meant to be a ritual of justice but because it was carried out under false pretences as a punishment from Laseen, the hands arrived in Fener's realm and were essentially poisonous to him. Fener sealed the power away with the tattoos on Heboric who would eventually die of old age, be reunited with his hands and become some sort of vengeful spirit on Fener's behalf however, that didn't happen because of the obelisk which came from the warren of chaos which obliterated the seal when he touched it and Fener pushed his hands back through.
What's more, Rake isn't done loredumping. He tells Whiskeyjack he knows Laseen failed to assassinate Kellanved and Dancer and that they ascended to become Shadowthrone and Cotillion, who found the House of Shadow empty and settled in. He also knows that Treach ascended which is news to Whiskeyjack. The Malazan agrees then, Paran must deny the House of Chains.
Quick Ben is practising with his warrens now that he has access again, using Rashan to sneak through Capustan with Talamandas. He comes across Bauchelain's house and sneaks in, dispatching a demon guard and using his D'riss warren to enter the walls and move through them. We learn about a new warren, Aral Gamelon which is apparently where most of the demons come from. He listens in on the necromancers through the walls but it's clear Bauchelain is expecting him, aware that the demon was overcome and expressing an air of civility. Quick Ben can't help himself, he emerges to chat and Bauchelain sends Emancipor to fetch the good wine. The two discuss the finer points of necromancy and demon summoning and engage in a little gentlemanly verbal sparring before Bauchelain tells Quick Ben he finds him amiable, but that Korbal Broach wants to kill him. Quick reveals that he knows Broach is the crow perched on the mantlepiece and as Korbal sembles into his human form, Quick blasts him with six of his warrens, blowing him clear through the wall into the next room. Bauchelain is unfazed and offers his apologies for the gauche behaviour. He's impressed at Quick's mastery of six warrens and moreso his ability to use them simultaneously but reveals that using such power is likely quite exhausting and Quick likely has no juice left in the tank as it were. He chastises Quick Ben for not holding something back and attacking with only half the magic available at his disposal. As he goes to rise, Quick simply states, "I did" and hits him with a blast from the other six warrens.
It's a pretty cool moment and reminds me a lot of the duel in the Princess Bride where both combatants reveal they aren't left handed. Anyway, Quick makes his escape, much to the chagrin of Emancipor Reese who laments that no one ever kills the two necromancers and thus his servitude must continue.
Back out in Capustan again, Quick tells Talamandas that he needs to know how much power he can draw from the spirit in an emergency and now is the best time to test. Reluctantly Talamandas agrees, but Quick Ben has an ulterior motive. He has his suspicions that the Barghast spirits alone aren't enough to ward off the Crippled God's poison and he confirms it once he begins drawing power from Talamandas, realising that the stick figure has been blessed by Hood. There's been an empty card in the deck of dragons for some time, Magi of House Death and Quick thinks Talamandas may have unwittingly stepped into that role. Quick pulls on Talamandas' power, opening a conduit directly to Hood so the two can converse. Hood is, understandably, somewhat pissed off. His voice is super powerful in Quick Ben's head, as to be expected for a god of his stature. Hood tells Quick Ben in no uncertain terms that the House of Chains must be denied. Its already finding willing participants and even Poliel, the goddess of pestilence has sought the role of Consort. The Herald has been recruited (We know this was Gethol from earlier). An ancient warrior is attempting to become the Reaver. There's some debate over who the Reaver is but given the mention of ancient, it's probably Kallor. He also mentions that the house has a Mortal Sword but there's a good chance we haven;t met him yet, assuming he's the guy most popular in fan theory. He also mentions Mowri (who I think we've heard mention of before? Goddess of beggars and slaves) who has embraced "the Three" who are the Cripple, Leper and Fool. We don't know those yet but we've met at least one. No, it's not Heboric. Hood also mentions that those three are the equivalent of Spinner, Mason and Soldier in the other houses. Quick Ben pokes at Hood and realises that the god of Death has not only bargained with the Barghast but also that he has struck a deal with Treach, presumably allowing him to avoid oblivion in Gruntle sends him an assload of souls. Quick suggests a wary alliance given the circumstances and lets Hood go.
Christ. I told you Quick Ben has balls of steel. Of all the gods to butt heads with, Hood himself! It's our first real meeting with the god of death and even then its voice only but we get the feeling that perhaps Hood is as deeply entrenched in this whole situation as Quick Ben is. That 4d chess I mentioned before.
Paran is sat thinking about all this shit, the rise of Treach, the House of Chains, his role as Master of the Deck, even Felisin and Tavore. Gruntle arrives, seeking a bit of solace after satisfying Hetan's desires. Paran mentions his difficult decision. The decision to refuse the House of Chains seems so obvious and yet a small voice inside him tells Paran to allow it and he's unsure of why his gut feeling is the exact opposite of common sense. Gruntle points out that though he knows nothing about the Deck of Dragons, from his perspective, the Crippled God is currently outside of the game, doing whatever he wants. Legitimizing the House of Chains would bind him by the same rules all the other gods are bound by, levelling the playing field. Paran is won over by this argument and is now seriously considering sanctioning the House.
Quick Ben arrives and tells Paran that Brood has called a meeting and wants all the commanders there including Gruntle and Humbrall Taur. Before Quick can mention the House of Chains, Paran tells him he knows he's gonna mention it and that he hasn't made his mind up. Quick shrugs and tells him to trust his gut. Paran points out what his guy said and Gruntle backed up is going to make a lot of gods very angry. Quick accepts this but mentally mumbles to Hood that the House of Chains is coming, there's nothing he can do it about it and so he might as well prepare for it.
Back with Itkovian for a somewhat confusing section. Three hundred and nineteen Grey Swords survived in total, some hidden in the tunnels guarding the refugees and mostly women at that. With Fener gone and no Destriant or Mortal Sword, he's trying to find a new patron for the mercenary company because in order to recruit and fill their numbers they'll need a god that isn't absent. He meets with the Barghast elders to discuss the two wolf gods, Togg and Fanderay (who the Barghast call Togctha and Farand). Itkovian suggests one of the women for the role of Mortal Sword but the elders tell him that Togg already has one. If you were paying attention, that would be Toc the Younger. Yes, Togg is the one-eyed ancient wolf, wandering the warren of chaos looking for his mate. The elder says the woman should be Destriant instead and also picks a new Shield Anvil. Itkovian of course, already knew he would be leaving the Grey Swords as he is still sworn to Fener. The Grey Swords now serve the Wolf Gods.
Silverfox finally has a conversation with the T'lan Imass, where she confronts Pran Chole. One of the Imass raises a strange point, that Silverfox was not born of the Tellann Warren but rather a twisted version of it belonging to Onos T'oolan, warped by his isolation. Doesn't make a lot of sense right now so maybe we'll learn more about this later. Olar Ethil speaks up too and we learn she is a Soletaken Eleint. The nomenclature around the Eleint may get confusing so I'll clarify this for now. A Soletaken Eleint is a shapeshifter who can take dragon form. So, for example, Anomander Rake is also a Soletaken Eleint. The actual Eleint are the real dragons and we'll learn more about those much later. She fills Silverfox in on the locations of the various Imass tribes. Basically, the Kron are the ones we've seen the most of. The Logros are the ones who were chasing traitorous kin which we saw when the Malazans took control of the Silanda. OF the four remaining clans we learn that the Bentract are trapped in the warren of Chaos and the other three are considered extinct. Apparently it was Kellanved who sent Olar Ethil to seek out the other clans and the Logros obeyed because although Kellanved doesn't occupy the "First Throne" any more he never yielded it because he didn't die and so he still in some way commands the Imass. We also learn that the renegades might have used to warren of chaos to escape, a subtle hint that they serve the Crippled God, perhaps? There's a bit of back and forth and we learn that the Imass are yearning for Oblivion. They no longer consider the Jaghut a threat as there are barely any left, one or two that they know of and even if they were to rise up, the world has enough ascendant now that there are people who could stop them, as seen with Raest in book one. Silverfox apparently has the power to grant that oblivion but refuses.
The Malazans face the last of the Tenescowri in this area. Anomander comes down in dragon form, breathing liquid darkness, raw Kurald Galain, down upon them. He easily dispatches Anaster and stuns his Women of the Dead Seed who are mages. He gets somewhat poisoned by his contact with Anaster and takes Andii form to finish off the mages who he begins decapitating with Dragnipur. In horror, Whiskeyjack tries to intervene, knowing the fate that they would suffer. Rake refuses any other method and so Whiskeyjack kills the women with his own sword. It turns out both men were trying to save the other's consciences.
They approach Anaster, who lost an eye in the scuffle with dragon Rake. He seems eager to die and Rake wheedles it out of him that he fears Itkovian coming to take his soul. Rake decides to keep him alive for now while he considers his punishment.
Korlat and Whiskeyjack have a little chat and she mentions Laseen was scared of him which was why she demoted him in the first place and Whiskeyjack realises that the situation in Darujhistan wasn't manufactured to kill the Bridgeburners, just him.
Toc arrives in Coral, still in bad shape, his lungs now permanently semi-filled with fluid. He has a few moments to see the scenery but knows he will be returned to the insane K'Chain Che'Malle matron before long. In his thoughts he thinks about Envy and her group. I don't remember when it got explicitly revealed but he also seems to think Baaljagg is in fact, Fanderay, Togg's absent mate.
In Capustan, everyone converges on the same spot for Caladan Brood's next parley. Keruli takes centre stage as he points out the turbulent state of the pantheon. He calls out Brood and his inability to decide whether to kill Burn. He also points out the Grey Swords having to switch allegiance from Fener to Togg and Fanderay. Kallor responds, pointing out that Keruli hasn't mentioned his god to which Keruli smiles as he points out how withered Kallor has become over the years. Kallor recognises him then, pointing out that Keruli is no more than K'rul himself, or as Keruli corrects him, an avatar of K'rul. Brood apparently already figured this out so isn't as impressed as Kallor. It seems Keruli wasn't holding back during that first encounter with the K'Chain Che'Malle, he simply doesn't have his full power in this body. This then is the alliance that will push towards the heart of the Pannion Domin to take on the Seer. Brood reveals that his inaction against Burn isn't born of indecision but in hope of finding a third solution that doesn't involve killing the goddess or letting the Crippled God kill her.
There's a confrontation as Silverfox arrives. The Grey Swords ask her to relinquish the T'lan Ay to them, on request of Togg and Fanderay but she refuses. Kruppe recites the tale of Togg and Fanderay, long story short, they were split up when the Crippled God fell to earth.
Later the Trygalle Trade Guild approach Silverfox to ask for permission to travel through Tellann. She reveals that it is still uninfected and gives them her blessing.
Envy and her group are battered and bruised but still presumably in pursuit of Toc (through Omtose Phellack?). They've reached a shore and are unsure how to cross the water. Mok deigns to speak with Envy. It seems Garath is ill and Mok thinks the plague Envy sent against the Pannion is at fault. Envy points out it was amusing that as Poliel has allied with the Crippled God, Envy was able to access her warren and turn her power against the Pannion forces. She heals Garath who is a bit pissed off but Mok manages to placate him. A piece of land floats past on the water, like a chunk of land with a settlement on. Mok claims that a clan called the Meckros use such floating settlements to travel the seas near where the Seguleh live on their island, though this one is clearly uninhabited. As it floats closer they make their way over to it and board. They find an Imass aboard and for a moment Envy mistakes him for Tool before realising that this is a different Imass. He claims he is Lanas Tog, the last of the Kerluhm tribe which along with the Ifayle tribe are functionally extinct. He says 29'814 Kerluhm and 22'200 Ifayle have been killed warring on another continent. Envy suggest the enemy must be quite the Jaghut but Lanas Tog tells her the enemy is not Jaghut... but human...
Dun dun DUNNN!!!
"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else." - Charles Dickens.
“Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.” - Marcus Aurelius
“Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.” - Marcus Aurelius
Re: Charon Deep Dives Malazan Book of the Fallen (Part Three)
I'm skipping over a whole bunch of stuff this section which is mainly the allied forces repositioning to march on the four remaining cities held by the Pannion. It seems Brood's forces are going to Coral while the Malazans are taking Setta, Lest and Maurik of which Setta will be first. Whiskeyjack and Dujek have a private chinwag and we get a bit of exposition of what's been going on behind the scenes with regards to the Malazan empire since Laseen took over. Let's run through what we learn.
The Malazans have a long term plan that they've been keeping secret from Brood, Rake and the other allies.
Laseen inverted the command structure when she took over, intentionally demoting high ranking soldiers like Whiskeyjack (who started our story as a sergeant in Pale). This was so that the "right people would be at ground level when Shadowthrone and Cotillion make their move".
Quick Ben has probably figured this out which is why he sent Kalam to assassinate the Empress, actually a ruse to ensure that Kalam would be convinced that Laseen was worth following.
The Malazans knew the Crippled God was preparing his moves and knew the other gods would mess up any response, though didn't know the CG would be behind the Pannion Domin.
Laseen likely anticipated the CG's presence outside Darujhistan which is why Quick Ben was near enough to locate him and confirm the beginning of the House of Chains. Apparently, Laseen's knack for tactical placement what a skill she taught Emperor Kellanved and not the other way round.
Tayschrenn was grooming Tattersail to become the Mistress of the Deck and when she was killed it passed to Paran by virtue of their blooming romantic connection. Dujek claims it was Oponn's luck that passed it to another Malazan and not anyone outside the Empire. Given what we know about Paran at that point... he actually was under Oponn's influence! :O Roll that around your noggin for a moment.
Given that, they consider Bellurdan's killing of Tattersail to be one of the worst foul-ups in Imperial history.
The main reason Laseen wishes to oppose the Crippled God is to prevent Brood using Burn's Hammer.
Dujek thinks the near wiping out of the Bridgeburners at Pale was an accident. Tayschrenn ordered them into the tunnels thinking it was the safest place, not knowing they would collapse and kill a large number of them. Whiskeyjack disagrees, thinking that it was an attempt to take out a large chunk of Bridgeburners and among them, himself, though he keeps the latter thought to himself.
The battle at Pale didn't go to plan. Tayschrenn was actually confident he could take down Moon's Spawn.
Tayschrenn didn't know who Nightchill really was but was sus of her and thought she was trying to get her hands on Dragnipur. On orders of Laseen, he purposely killed Nightchill but only after she killed A'Karonys, another Malazan high mage who was the one who reported his suspicions about her to Tayschrenn. What a complicated web.
Back in Aren, when the T'lan Imass slaughtered the citizens shortly after Laseen took over, it wasn't Laseen that gave the order. Which means it had to be Kellanved, trying to loosen Laseen's grip on the Empire and this was the first hint that perhaps Kellanved wasn't as dead as Laseen thought he was.
Whiskeyjack also thinks Kellanved was insane.
Well, this is a lot. I told you not to discount Laseen entirely and what we've seen of Shadowthrone's bumbling now gives us an interesting question. Is Shadowthrone sane? I haven't mentioned it so far but he does have a habit of giggling. Maybe we'll find out some more later.
Paran comes across Quick Ben who has just finished arranging something with the Trygalle Trade Guild, specifically the sending of supplies to Fiddler. Well well. There's our timeline synchronization. XD We've seen the other end of that already. Paran leaves Quick Ben and is approached by the new Destriant of the Grey Swords. They're requesting access to Anaster. Paran gets the run down. They want to expose him to their new Shield Anvil. He decides to OK it and tells the Destriant she has his blessing. She almost topples with the magical weight behind that and Paran remembers he has to be a little more careful with his vocabulary now he's Master of the Deck. He hopes there won't be too many repercussions of that particular blessing.
We see Toc's dire situation again. He's pretty mangled by this point, his body having been crushed and repaired over and over to the point where he can't even stand and is simply in an immobile heap on the floor. The Pannion Seer's advisors are telling him that if he gives Toc back to the Matron he'll probably die which would displease him long term but the Seer is almost childlike in his insistence on continuing Toc's torture, coming across as petulant and less than sane himself. Despite his insistence, as the aide takes Toc away, he shows compassion, placing Toc not in the Matron's embrace but at the far end of the cell, beyond the reach of her chains. Anyway, while the Seer was taunting Toc he revealed a bit of lore. The short-tails, aka the K'Chain Nah'rhuk used a marriage of sorcery and mechanics to create floating islands that they used to stage the war against the K'Chain Che'Malle. They were all destroyed over time except for one, lost in the Jaghut ice for millennia until it was recovered by Anomander Rake and became Moon's Spawn. He also insists that he wants Burn's Hammer and that he wants Itkovian, alive, to give to the Matron.
Envy has a chat with Lanas Tog where it is revealed that Envy knows Fanderay dwells within Baaljagg. What's more, she knows how she got there. As Envy says: "A misguided sibling who'd thought he was being kind." placed her there after finding her damaged by the fall of the Crippled God. We've yet to discover this male sibling so that will remain a mystery for later.
The Malazans arrive at Setta and find it abandoned. No surprises there. They set off for Maurik. Hetan collars Kruppe because she has suspicions about the Malazans. She seems to think they're diverting their forces and concealing their true numbers magically.
On the way to Maurik, the Bridgeburners come across a dead body which they initially mistake fora Tiste Andii. Eventually Quick Ben and one of the Moranth identify the body as Tiste Edur and discuss the manner of his death, seemingly imploded via extreme pressure. Quick Ben thinks he was assaulted wit the warren of Ruse, the warren of the sea and speculates that the victim was pushed through a portal, into the depths of the ocean, where he died due to the pressure, his body floating up and being washed ashore. They discuss the finer aspects of this, including the status of the Tiste Edur warren, Kurald Emurlahn. We are reminded that Maenas is but a gateway to Kurald Emurlahn, a shadow of a shadow. Paran wonders if Shadowthrone realises that the throne of shadow is really just the gatehouse. Quick Ben wonders if the Tiste Edur are returning, ready to reclaim the shadow realm.
Paran makes his excuses and steps aside, using his power as master of the deck to send his consciousness to the Azath house where he examines the deck of holds and enters, finding himself stood before the vacant throne of shadow. The throne talks to him, telling him the Edur represent a threat to the Andii and tell him to warn rake that the Edur intend to kill Mother Dark. He tries to locate Rake but ends up inside Dragnipur again. While he's here he decides to approach Draconus who tells him that he needs to tell Rake to stop being merciful and start killing people with Dragnipur, especially powerful people, because they need to help pulling the wagon. The first people, killed long ago have weakened enough that they now rest on top of the wagon, making it heavier and more difficult to pull for the remaining people. Paran wants to know why hauling the wagon is so important and asks where they're going. Draconus tells him there' not going towards something, but away, from what is pursuing them. Long story short, it's chaos. In simple terms, darkness represents order and is locked in a cycle with chaos. Dragnipur was intended to break that cycle by giving darkness the edge but it's had the opposite effect. More bodies are needed to pull the wagon until it is time to shatter Dragnipur and address the balance. The Azath houses and the deck of dragons also exist to impose order upon chaos and maintain that balance. Paran tries again to send himself to Rake but finds himself back with the Bridgeburners. He's starting to get worried that something might have happened to Rake.
I'll skip some of the bumbling around and get to the point where Brood's forces and half the Malazans meet up, the half led by Whiskeyjack. Dujek already went ahead with a six thousand of them hoping to catch the Pannion unawares as they prep their defences rather than letting the prep in peace. Brood ain't happy about it and he's even less happy when Whiskeyjack wants to quick march to Dujek's aid. Kallor suggests it is far wiser to maintain pace and arrive fresh for battle rather than weak and tired. There's a lot of back and forth and eventually Whiskeyjack, some of the Barghast and the Tiste Andii go on ahead.
A few days(?) later, Kallor goes to Brood, hat in hand, to suggest that perhaps they were too quick to hold back. In hindsight, he has seen the tactical value of arriving faster and Brood agrees but says there's little that can be done about it now due to the storm that has rolled in, slowing their pace to a crawl. In the mean time Kallor suggests he ride on ahead to meet up with the Malazans, pointing out that for all his acerbity he has lived longer than anyone alive and has always been a successful military tactician, not to mention undefeated in combat in a hundred thousand years. Brood suggests Kallor picks his fights well and avoids crossing blades with ascendants like Rake and Brood to which Kallor points out there won't be any among the Pannion Forces. Brood eventually agrees and gives him leave to go catch up to the Malazans, unbeknown to him, as Kallor leaves the tent, he wears a grin.
We get a brief glimpse of Envy and her crew and it seems they are also converging on Coral with the rest of the forces.
With Dujek's group we see Quick Ben and Spindle planning on how to ambush some of the Pannion forces led by an enemy mage. They use the terrain and explosives to ambush them and one of the Malazan mages, Shank, who uses Ruse, casts a spell to fill the enemy sorcerer's lungs with water.
So, Dujek's forces make a push into the city of Coral, presumably to try and hold some ground ready for when the backup arrives? It's a pretty shit plan if you ask me, but what do I know? Anyway, it gets hairy pretty fast, especially when the Pannion release the K'Chain Che'Malle. Magic is flying, folks are fighting, there's the obvious explosions from the Malazan sappers. Quick Ben and Paran try to gank one of the Pannion's magical condors and Paran gets an ear and half his face ripped off. He gets sewn up afterwards but refuses full magical healing.
By dawn, Whiskeyjack's forces are drawing close and Kallor has caught them up, eating humble pie and offering his services. Unknown to the, it's about to hit the fan. Remember, this is a grimdark setting.
Dujek's forces are fighting in the streets. Quick Ben surprises Paran by using Kurald Galain. Tick that off his list of warrens. The K'Chain Che'Malle are doing a number on the Malazan forces and then... Tool arrives. Naturally he begins shredding K'Chain Che'Malle left, right and centre.
Whiskeyjack's forces draw closer, dismayed to see eight hundred K'Chain Che'Malle standing between them and Dujek's army. There's a moment of jubilation as Silverfox arrives in the distance, her T'lan Imass wading forth into the K'Chain Che'Malle hoard but while everyone is distracted looking at her... Kallor makes his move.
He hacks down Korlat with a blow to the head from his sword and leaves her on the floor dying as he charges Silverfox only for Whiskeyjack to step in to defend her. Whiskeyjack manages to parry the warlord's blows and almost has him reeling when his bad leg gives way. In that moment of unbalance, Kallor strikes him a killing blow, cleaving him in twain. Golden sorcery assaults Kallor who pleads for the Crippled God to save him. A portal to the chaos warren opens and sucks him through. Silverfox sends for a healer for the dying Korlat and we learn that the powerful golden sorcery that Kallor faced came from none other than Tayschrenn who has been with the armies in disguise the entire time. It turns out Tayschrenn's warren is high Telas, the warren of fire and as the name suggests, an offshoot of Tellann, the Imass warren. Gruntle and his boys arrive as well as the Grey Swords and join the fighting.
As things are looking bad for Picker, Blend and some other Malazans, Hedge suicides with some munitions to blow up a bunch of K'Chain Che'Malle. Envy turns up, looking for Tool and heals the remainder of their unit, joining the fray.
Outside the city, Brood pleads with Korlat to summon Rake but she cannot and thinks him dead. Korlat and Orfantal take their dragon forms and take to the skies. I'm skipping over chunks of stuff here but the main takeaway is that this is a brutal, bloody conflict and the Pannion forces are still winning.
Where Toc is being held, the Pannion Seer is sucking magic from the insane K'Chain Che'Malle matron into a Finnest. Toc can't speak now his body is so mangled, but notes it looks like the Seer's human body is dying. The Seer finishes up and leaves and when he's gone, Tool arrives to rescue Toc.
Things start to jump back and forth but the gist of the events are as follows:
Envy's group find tracks in the blood belonging to Tool, a woman in moccasins and a man's. The man's are Mok's, the Seguleh. Tool is making his way out with Toc but comes across Mok. He puts Toc down and agrees to the duel provided that Mok agrees to get Toc to safety once it is over. Mok agrees and the two begin fighting.
Brood raises Burn's hammer, preparing to do the thing.
Toc manages to drag his mangled body over to some nearby debris, where a joist with a pointed end sticks out. He manages to drag himself up and impale himself on it which releases the spirit of Togg that was trapped inside him all along. Being a wolf, Togg bursts forth with a howl, the howl of a god.
Brood hears the howl and holds his hammer blow. The pressure of Togg's presence affects Paran as he and Quick Ben see the Seer, now in Jaghut form holding his Finnest with the insane Matron at his side and armoured K'Chain Che'Malle flanking them. They also see two Seguleh, closing in to engage the Kell hunters. And then, rising from the ocean where it had been hidden for some time, rises Moon's Spawn, water tumbling from it to reveal a lone figure. Dramatic bastard. A wave of raw Kurald Galain begins to envelop the city and Quick Ben realises the Tiste Andii haven't just opened their warren, they are working together as a whole to unveil it. Whatever the fuck that means.
Envy's group meet up with more Bridgeburners but Trotts, the barghast, succumbs to his many wounds and dies.
Mok and Tool's fight is broken up as Kilava arrives in panther form and attacks Mok before admonishing Tool for allowing Mok to disarm him given that Tool is the first among the T'lan Imass in terms of skill. Tool makes the point that their time has come. Mok is third among the Seguleh meaning there are already two more skilled. It feels like the point he's making is that there'll be more, with time. The world is leaving the T'lan Imass behind.
Moon's Spawn, suffering from its time submerged, crashes into Coral. The other two Seguleh have minced most of the Seer's Kell hunters. Kilava turns up, in panther form, ready to kill the Seer. Quick Ben tries to stop her. Moon's Spawn squishes the Matron and smears her across the keep's ramparts. The keep starts to collapse. Quick Ben fires off a spell at Kilava and in the confusion opens a warren and drags the Seer and Paran through. Just before it shuts, Kilava manages to make it in as well.
Korlat tells Brood that the unveiling of Kurald Galain is a permanent manifestation and now Coral lies partially within the warren of Darkness.
I've ignored the Mhybe subplot for most of this but will wrap it up now quickly as it's relevant to Toc.
So Togg and Fanderay arrive back in their realm to occupy the beast thrones which we saw Paran find empty before. Just as Toc carried Togg's spirit, so now does Togg carry Toc's. Silverfox's mother's, Mhybe's, soul is here too though she's technically not dead. Complicated but basically she's in a kind of permanent stasis for now as Hood has agreed not to take her soul. It is believed that Silverfox made this deal with Hood and in exchange promised to release the T'lan Imass from their immortality, thus ensuring Hood would finally get their souls and despite her failure to deliver immediately, is going to honour his end. As Kruppe says, the god of death is nothing if not patient.
Meanwhile, Itkovian has approached the T'lan Imass and attempted to take their sadness. He was successful, but the combined suffering of the ancient immortal undead race is too much for him and he dies.
Tool and Lanas Tog approach Silverfox. Onos T'oolan tells her to release the T'lan Ay from the ritual so their souls can go to Togg and Fanderay's realm with her mother. She does so. Tool then drops his sword, signifying his relinquishing of the title of First Sword of the T'lan Imass.
Quick Ben and co tumble into the warren with the wizard managing to snatch the Jaghut's Finnest away. Kilava arrives in a fine old mood and attacks Paran, he fights back and something he does seems to shock Quick Ben. It's not explicit but we suspect he has taken on a soletaken form of a hound of shadow. He manages to hold Kilava at bay while Quick Ben appeals to her to look where they are. They are at Morn. Quick Ben outlines his plan.
This far from the Crippled God's influence, the Seer's sanity is returning. Quick explains how when the Matron escaped and took the Seer, his sister remained trapped in the rent. He thinks the sister's soul can be replaced with the Finnest, which holds the essence of the K'Chain Che'Malle matron. The Seer is reluctant to free his sister solely to be killed by the Imass for being Jaghut. Quick Ben says he might have a way around that. He says the Imass track the Jaghut by detecting when Omtose Phellack is opened but he knows of a place where they will not be able to detect its use. The Seer is still resilient but Quick points out that he was used by the Crippled God who is trapped in the warren of Chaos and needed the Seer to perform his will. Kilava is still against the idea on principle that the Jaghut may yet turn to evil to which Quick responds that they will not be alone.
Under a tentative truce, he takes the group to the place...
...Inside Burn. Where the diamond giants still hold her ribs aloft. The crone is here that Quick met at the very start of this book, the one that liked the cold? Quick thought it was odd at the time and has now figured out what the crone was trying to say to him. The Jaghut can live here, unveiling Omtose Phellack deep within Burn, safe from the Imass, and the ice of the Jaghut warren will slow the infection from the warren of Chaos, buying everyone some much needed time. Quick Ben swears Kilava to secrecy, who, seeing the necessity of what has occurred, agrees.
Toc the Younger finds himself resurrected in a new body with the Grey Swords, which, as they are in service to Togg and Fanderay, are now in service to him as the Mortal Sword of Togg and Fanderay. His new body is younger than he was before, but he still has an eye missing, of course. It isn't specified until later but this if, of course, the empty body of Anaster, whose soul was consumed by Itkovian.
Silverfox offers to free Pran Chole and the Imass from the ritual of Tellann but Pran Chole refuses as the Imass intend to travel to the southern continent to save their kin who are still under assault from the mysterious unknown enemy. Silverfox commits to joining them.
Envy emerges from the rubble, unscathed, her dress still immaculate white, and furious at Rake for crashing Moon's Spawn on top of her. She begins a tirade but is cut short as Rake appears. He asks her why she's there and she tells him she travelled half a continent to bring him news of import, specifically that Draconus plots to escape Dragnipur. Rake says he's surprised he waited this long. Envy is mad cos it took the pair of them considerable effort to slay him in the first place though Rake suggests she contributed little while he did the hard work. Anyway, he tells her he can't do anything about it until Draconus escapes. Envy tries to warn him about Paran but Rake already knows he's been in the sword and that he released the two hounds of shadow into Kurald Galain. Envy has a paddy and storms off. Anomander Rake calls Picker over to walk and talk and tells her he's basically looking for an excuse to leave before Envy thinks to wake Mok up as he doesn't fancy the fight. The pair head off to where the Malazan forces are preparing to honour Whiskeyjack.
Dujek is there. He notices Whiskeyjack's broken leg and asks Korlat if it gave way before or after Kallor struck the killing blow. Korlat lies and tells him it gave way after. Dujek seems convinced Whiskeyjack wouldn't have lost the fight without the leg giving way. Korlat reaffirms that Kallor's lengthy lifespan left him a considerable warrior and gave him the advantage over Whiskeyjack and Dujek relents. Rake questions what Korlat intends and she says that she and Orfantal will hunt down Kallor and kill him. Rake gives her his blessing but tells her to leave Kallor alive as he has earned Dragnipur. She agrees. Rake announces that Moon's Spawn is fucked and won't fly again so he intends to leave it at Coral and would honour the Malazans by offering it as a burial place for their dead.
Korbal Broach and Bauchelain have arrived at what is now called Black Coral and suggest to Gruntle they wish to settle here for a while.
The Trygalle Trade Guild turn up again and discuss something unknown with Quick Ben.
Dujek summons the few remaining Bridgeburners and tells them they are free to go live in Darujhistan if they wish, with their back pay, and he will ensure their names are included on the list of casualties, including Paran, who accepts. Dujek tells them they'll have another man there who needs some care. He also says Quick Ben has lost his chance to hide and has been officially promoted to High Mage.
A man approaches Toc and enquires about his health. Toc doesn't recognise him and assumes him to be a friend of Anaster's, noting that the man has an insane amount of battle scars. As he walks off, Toc senses something familiar about his walk.
The mysterious man reaches the woods where he finds his sister, Kilava, awaiting him. Yes, this is the now mortal Onos T'oolan.
Lady Envy wakes up Mok. She mentions that her business with Anomander, the Seventh, has concluded. Mok naturally is eager to go fight him but Envy refuses and tells the Seguleh that she has committed to returning them home.
Some time later, the travelling Barghast come across Onos T'oolan and Kilava. Hetan flirts with him, telling him she senses it's been a long time since he was with a woman. He happily concurs.
And finally, in the epilogue, we see the remaining Bridgeburners running a tavern in Darujhistan. The man in question is present and it turns out it's Duiker, who has had his soul restored by the High Alchemist Baruk. Ah that explains what Quick Ben was discussing with the Trade Guild. They brought the necklace from the previous book which was supposed to contain Coltaine's soul but instead contains Duiker's. The story ends as Duiker begins his, telling the Bridgeburners of the events of the Chain of Dogs.
Oh boy. That was a whopper and we've seven more books to go yet. The mysterious human enemy mentioned by Lanas Tog, that the Imass have gone to fight, won't actually appear in this series. That's a whole separate kettle of fish covered in the sixth book in the series by the other author. Still, the Crippled God might have had his nose bloodied here but it's a minor victory. For all they've achieved, it seems the denizens of this world have done little but buy time. The Malazan forces have been decimated and the infection of Burn has only been slowed. I think the revelations about Burn were one of my favourite aspects of this book and a concept I'd love to see replicated in a DnD world. When Brood shatters the earth and releases the torrent of fouled blood it's such an epic moment that would be hard to realise without this buildup. We've also seen those first traces of Hood's involvement which is an arc I'm looking forward to. It also annoyed me on first read that Keruli was an avatar of K'rul as I kind of already imagined Kruppe in that role.
Well, that's it for now. Next book will be House of Chains where we will meet Karsa Orlong.
The Malazans have a long term plan that they've been keeping secret from Brood, Rake and the other allies.
Laseen inverted the command structure when she took over, intentionally demoting high ranking soldiers like Whiskeyjack (who started our story as a sergeant in Pale). This was so that the "right people would be at ground level when Shadowthrone and Cotillion make their move".
Quick Ben has probably figured this out which is why he sent Kalam to assassinate the Empress, actually a ruse to ensure that Kalam would be convinced that Laseen was worth following.
The Malazans knew the Crippled God was preparing his moves and knew the other gods would mess up any response, though didn't know the CG would be behind the Pannion Domin.
Laseen likely anticipated the CG's presence outside Darujhistan which is why Quick Ben was near enough to locate him and confirm the beginning of the House of Chains. Apparently, Laseen's knack for tactical placement what a skill she taught Emperor Kellanved and not the other way round.
Tayschrenn was grooming Tattersail to become the Mistress of the Deck and when she was killed it passed to Paran by virtue of their blooming romantic connection. Dujek claims it was Oponn's luck that passed it to another Malazan and not anyone outside the Empire. Given what we know about Paran at that point... he actually was under Oponn's influence! :O Roll that around your noggin for a moment.
Given that, they consider Bellurdan's killing of Tattersail to be one of the worst foul-ups in Imperial history.
The main reason Laseen wishes to oppose the Crippled God is to prevent Brood using Burn's Hammer.
Dujek thinks the near wiping out of the Bridgeburners at Pale was an accident. Tayschrenn ordered them into the tunnels thinking it was the safest place, not knowing they would collapse and kill a large number of them. Whiskeyjack disagrees, thinking that it was an attempt to take out a large chunk of Bridgeburners and among them, himself, though he keeps the latter thought to himself.
The battle at Pale didn't go to plan. Tayschrenn was actually confident he could take down Moon's Spawn.
Tayschrenn didn't know who Nightchill really was but was sus of her and thought she was trying to get her hands on Dragnipur. On orders of Laseen, he purposely killed Nightchill but only after she killed A'Karonys, another Malazan high mage who was the one who reported his suspicions about her to Tayschrenn. What a complicated web.
Back in Aren, when the T'lan Imass slaughtered the citizens shortly after Laseen took over, it wasn't Laseen that gave the order. Which means it had to be Kellanved, trying to loosen Laseen's grip on the Empire and this was the first hint that perhaps Kellanved wasn't as dead as Laseen thought he was.
Whiskeyjack also thinks Kellanved was insane.
Well, this is a lot. I told you not to discount Laseen entirely and what we've seen of Shadowthrone's bumbling now gives us an interesting question. Is Shadowthrone sane? I haven't mentioned it so far but he does have a habit of giggling. Maybe we'll find out some more later.
Paran comes across Quick Ben who has just finished arranging something with the Trygalle Trade Guild, specifically the sending of supplies to Fiddler. Well well. There's our timeline synchronization. XD We've seen the other end of that already. Paran leaves Quick Ben and is approached by the new Destriant of the Grey Swords. They're requesting access to Anaster. Paran gets the run down. They want to expose him to their new Shield Anvil. He decides to OK it and tells the Destriant she has his blessing. She almost topples with the magical weight behind that and Paran remembers he has to be a little more careful with his vocabulary now he's Master of the Deck. He hopes there won't be too many repercussions of that particular blessing.
We see Toc's dire situation again. He's pretty mangled by this point, his body having been crushed and repaired over and over to the point where he can't even stand and is simply in an immobile heap on the floor. The Pannion Seer's advisors are telling him that if he gives Toc back to the Matron he'll probably die which would displease him long term but the Seer is almost childlike in his insistence on continuing Toc's torture, coming across as petulant and less than sane himself. Despite his insistence, as the aide takes Toc away, he shows compassion, placing Toc not in the Matron's embrace but at the far end of the cell, beyond the reach of her chains. Anyway, while the Seer was taunting Toc he revealed a bit of lore. The short-tails, aka the K'Chain Nah'rhuk used a marriage of sorcery and mechanics to create floating islands that they used to stage the war against the K'Chain Che'Malle. They were all destroyed over time except for one, lost in the Jaghut ice for millennia until it was recovered by Anomander Rake and became Moon's Spawn. He also insists that he wants Burn's Hammer and that he wants Itkovian, alive, to give to the Matron.
Envy has a chat with Lanas Tog where it is revealed that Envy knows Fanderay dwells within Baaljagg. What's more, she knows how she got there. As Envy says: "A misguided sibling who'd thought he was being kind." placed her there after finding her damaged by the fall of the Crippled God. We've yet to discover this male sibling so that will remain a mystery for later.
The Malazans arrive at Setta and find it abandoned. No surprises there. They set off for Maurik. Hetan collars Kruppe because she has suspicions about the Malazans. She seems to think they're diverting their forces and concealing their true numbers magically.
On the way to Maurik, the Bridgeburners come across a dead body which they initially mistake fora Tiste Andii. Eventually Quick Ben and one of the Moranth identify the body as Tiste Edur and discuss the manner of his death, seemingly imploded via extreme pressure. Quick Ben thinks he was assaulted wit the warren of Ruse, the warren of the sea and speculates that the victim was pushed through a portal, into the depths of the ocean, where he died due to the pressure, his body floating up and being washed ashore. They discuss the finer aspects of this, including the status of the Tiste Edur warren, Kurald Emurlahn. We are reminded that Maenas is but a gateway to Kurald Emurlahn, a shadow of a shadow. Paran wonders if Shadowthrone realises that the throne of shadow is really just the gatehouse. Quick Ben wonders if the Tiste Edur are returning, ready to reclaim the shadow realm.
Paran makes his excuses and steps aside, using his power as master of the deck to send his consciousness to the Azath house where he examines the deck of holds and enters, finding himself stood before the vacant throne of shadow. The throne talks to him, telling him the Edur represent a threat to the Andii and tell him to warn rake that the Edur intend to kill Mother Dark. He tries to locate Rake but ends up inside Dragnipur again. While he's here he decides to approach Draconus who tells him that he needs to tell Rake to stop being merciful and start killing people with Dragnipur, especially powerful people, because they need to help pulling the wagon. The first people, killed long ago have weakened enough that they now rest on top of the wagon, making it heavier and more difficult to pull for the remaining people. Paran wants to know why hauling the wagon is so important and asks where they're going. Draconus tells him there' not going towards something, but away, from what is pursuing them. Long story short, it's chaos. In simple terms, darkness represents order and is locked in a cycle with chaos. Dragnipur was intended to break that cycle by giving darkness the edge but it's had the opposite effect. More bodies are needed to pull the wagon until it is time to shatter Dragnipur and address the balance. The Azath houses and the deck of dragons also exist to impose order upon chaos and maintain that balance. Paran tries again to send himself to Rake but finds himself back with the Bridgeburners. He's starting to get worried that something might have happened to Rake.
I'll skip some of the bumbling around and get to the point where Brood's forces and half the Malazans meet up, the half led by Whiskeyjack. Dujek already went ahead with a six thousand of them hoping to catch the Pannion unawares as they prep their defences rather than letting the prep in peace. Brood ain't happy about it and he's even less happy when Whiskeyjack wants to quick march to Dujek's aid. Kallor suggests it is far wiser to maintain pace and arrive fresh for battle rather than weak and tired. There's a lot of back and forth and eventually Whiskeyjack, some of the Barghast and the Tiste Andii go on ahead.
A few days(?) later, Kallor goes to Brood, hat in hand, to suggest that perhaps they were too quick to hold back. In hindsight, he has seen the tactical value of arriving faster and Brood agrees but says there's little that can be done about it now due to the storm that has rolled in, slowing their pace to a crawl. In the mean time Kallor suggests he ride on ahead to meet up with the Malazans, pointing out that for all his acerbity he has lived longer than anyone alive and has always been a successful military tactician, not to mention undefeated in combat in a hundred thousand years. Brood suggests Kallor picks his fights well and avoids crossing blades with ascendants like Rake and Brood to which Kallor points out there won't be any among the Pannion Forces. Brood eventually agrees and gives him leave to go catch up to the Malazans, unbeknown to him, as Kallor leaves the tent, he wears a grin.
We get a brief glimpse of Envy and her crew and it seems they are also converging on Coral with the rest of the forces.
With Dujek's group we see Quick Ben and Spindle planning on how to ambush some of the Pannion forces led by an enemy mage. They use the terrain and explosives to ambush them and one of the Malazan mages, Shank, who uses Ruse, casts a spell to fill the enemy sorcerer's lungs with water.
So, Dujek's forces make a push into the city of Coral, presumably to try and hold some ground ready for when the backup arrives? It's a pretty shit plan if you ask me, but what do I know? Anyway, it gets hairy pretty fast, especially when the Pannion release the K'Chain Che'Malle. Magic is flying, folks are fighting, there's the obvious explosions from the Malazan sappers. Quick Ben and Paran try to gank one of the Pannion's magical condors and Paran gets an ear and half his face ripped off. He gets sewn up afterwards but refuses full magical healing.
By dawn, Whiskeyjack's forces are drawing close and Kallor has caught them up, eating humble pie and offering his services. Unknown to the, it's about to hit the fan. Remember, this is a grimdark setting.
Dujek's forces are fighting in the streets. Quick Ben surprises Paran by using Kurald Galain. Tick that off his list of warrens. The K'Chain Che'Malle are doing a number on the Malazan forces and then... Tool arrives. Naturally he begins shredding K'Chain Che'Malle left, right and centre.
Whiskeyjack's forces draw closer, dismayed to see eight hundred K'Chain Che'Malle standing between them and Dujek's army. There's a moment of jubilation as Silverfox arrives in the distance, her T'lan Imass wading forth into the K'Chain Che'Malle hoard but while everyone is distracted looking at her... Kallor makes his move.
He hacks down Korlat with a blow to the head from his sword and leaves her on the floor dying as he charges Silverfox only for Whiskeyjack to step in to defend her. Whiskeyjack manages to parry the warlord's blows and almost has him reeling when his bad leg gives way. In that moment of unbalance, Kallor strikes him a killing blow, cleaving him in twain. Golden sorcery assaults Kallor who pleads for the Crippled God to save him. A portal to the chaos warren opens and sucks him through. Silverfox sends for a healer for the dying Korlat and we learn that the powerful golden sorcery that Kallor faced came from none other than Tayschrenn who has been with the armies in disguise the entire time. It turns out Tayschrenn's warren is high Telas, the warren of fire and as the name suggests, an offshoot of Tellann, the Imass warren. Gruntle and his boys arrive as well as the Grey Swords and join the fighting.
As things are looking bad for Picker, Blend and some other Malazans, Hedge suicides with some munitions to blow up a bunch of K'Chain Che'Malle. Envy turns up, looking for Tool and heals the remainder of their unit, joining the fray.
Outside the city, Brood pleads with Korlat to summon Rake but she cannot and thinks him dead. Korlat and Orfantal take their dragon forms and take to the skies. I'm skipping over chunks of stuff here but the main takeaway is that this is a brutal, bloody conflict and the Pannion forces are still winning.
Where Toc is being held, the Pannion Seer is sucking magic from the insane K'Chain Che'Malle matron into a Finnest. Toc can't speak now his body is so mangled, but notes it looks like the Seer's human body is dying. The Seer finishes up and leaves and when he's gone, Tool arrives to rescue Toc.
Things start to jump back and forth but the gist of the events are as follows:
Envy's group find tracks in the blood belonging to Tool, a woman in moccasins and a man's. The man's are Mok's, the Seguleh. Tool is making his way out with Toc but comes across Mok. He puts Toc down and agrees to the duel provided that Mok agrees to get Toc to safety once it is over. Mok agrees and the two begin fighting.
Brood raises Burn's hammer, preparing to do the thing.
Toc manages to drag his mangled body over to some nearby debris, where a joist with a pointed end sticks out. He manages to drag himself up and impale himself on it which releases the spirit of Togg that was trapped inside him all along. Being a wolf, Togg bursts forth with a howl, the howl of a god.
Brood hears the howl and holds his hammer blow. The pressure of Togg's presence affects Paran as he and Quick Ben see the Seer, now in Jaghut form holding his Finnest with the insane Matron at his side and armoured K'Chain Che'Malle flanking them. They also see two Seguleh, closing in to engage the Kell hunters. And then, rising from the ocean where it had been hidden for some time, rises Moon's Spawn, water tumbling from it to reveal a lone figure. Dramatic bastard. A wave of raw Kurald Galain begins to envelop the city and Quick Ben realises the Tiste Andii haven't just opened their warren, they are working together as a whole to unveil it. Whatever the fuck that means.
Envy's group meet up with more Bridgeburners but Trotts, the barghast, succumbs to his many wounds and dies.
Mok and Tool's fight is broken up as Kilava arrives in panther form and attacks Mok before admonishing Tool for allowing Mok to disarm him given that Tool is the first among the T'lan Imass in terms of skill. Tool makes the point that their time has come. Mok is third among the Seguleh meaning there are already two more skilled. It feels like the point he's making is that there'll be more, with time. The world is leaving the T'lan Imass behind.
Moon's Spawn, suffering from its time submerged, crashes into Coral. The other two Seguleh have minced most of the Seer's Kell hunters. Kilava turns up, in panther form, ready to kill the Seer. Quick Ben tries to stop her. Moon's Spawn squishes the Matron and smears her across the keep's ramparts. The keep starts to collapse. Quick Ben fires off a spell at Kilava and in the confusion opens a warren and drags the Seer and Paran through. Just before it shuts, Kilava manages to make it in as well.
Korlat tells Brood that the unveiling of Kurald Galain is a permanent manifestation and now Coral lies partially within the warren of Darkness.
I've ignored the Mhybe subplot for most of this but will wrap it up now quickly as it's relevant to Toc.
So Togg and Fanderay arrive back in their realm to occupy the beast thrones which we saw Paran find empty before. Just as Toc carried Togg's spirit, so now does Togg carry Toc's. Silverfox's mother's, Mhybe's, soul is here too though she's technically not dead. Complicated but basically she's in a kind of permanent stasis for now as Hood has agreed not to take her soul. It is believed that Silverfox made this deal with Hood and in exchange promised to release the T'lan Imass from their immortality, thus ensuring Hood would finally get their souls and despite her failure to deliver immediately, is going to honour his end. As Kruppe says, the god of death is nothing if not patient.
Meanwhile, Itkovian has approached the T'lan Imass and attempted to take their sadness. He was successful, but the combined suffering of the ancient immortal undead race is too much for him and he dies.
Tool and Lanas Tog approach Silverfox. Onos T'oolan tells her to release the T'lan Ay from the ritual so their souls can go to Togg and Fanderay's realm with her mother. She does so. Tool then drops his sword, signifying his relinquishing of the title of First Sword of the T'lan Imass.
Quick Ben and co tumble into the warren with the wizard managing to snatch the Jaghut's Finnest away. Kilava arrives in a fine old mood and attacks Paran, he fights back and something he does seems to shock Quick Ben. It's not explicit but we suspect he has taken on a soletaken form of a hound of shadow. He manages to hold Kilava at bay while Quick Ben appeals to her to look where they are. They are at Morn. Quick Ben outlines his plan.
This far from the Crippled God's influence, the Seer's sanity is returning. Quick explains how when the Matron escaped and took the Seer, his sister remained trapped in the rent. He thinks the sister's soul can be replaced with the Finnest, which holds the essence of the K'Chain Che'Malle matron. The Seer is reluctant to free his sister solely to be killed by the Imass for being Jaghut. Quick Ben says he might have a way around that. He says the Imass track the Jaghut by detecting when Omtose Phellack is opened but he knows of a place where they will not be able to detect its use. The Seer is still resilient but Quick points out that he was used by the Crippled God who is trapped in the warren of Chaos and needed the Seer to perform his will. Kilava is still against the idea on principle that the Jaghut may yet turn to evil to which Quick responds that they will not be alone.
Under a tentative truce, he takes the group to the place...
...Inside Burn. Where the diamond giants still hold her ribs aloft. The crone is here that Quick met at the very start of this book, the one that liked the cold? Quick thought it was odd at the time and has now figured out what the crone was trying to say to him. The Jaghut can live here, unveiling Omtose Phellack deep within Burn, safe from the Imass, and the ice of the Jaghut warren will slow the infection from the warren of Chaos, buying everyone some much needed time. Quick Ben swears Kilava to secrecy, who, seeing the necessity of what has occurred, agrees.
Toc the Younger finds himself resurrected in a new body with the Grey Swords, which, as they are in service to Togg and Fanderay, are now in service to him as the Mortal Sword of Togg and Fanderay. His new body is younger than he was before, but he still has an eye missing, of course. It isn't specified until later but this if, of course, the empty body of Anaster, whose soul was consumed by Itkovian.
Silverfox offers to free Pran Chole and the Imass from the ritual of Tellann but Pran Chole refuses as the Imass intend to travel to the southern continent to save their kin who are still under assault from the mysterious unknown enemy. Silverfox commits to joining them.
Envy emerges from the rubble, unscathed, her dress still immaculate white, and furious at Rake for crashing Moon's Spawn on top of her. She begins a tirade but is cut short as Rake appears. He asks her why she's there and she tells him she travelled half a continent to bring him news of import, specifically that Draconus plots to escape Dragnipur. Rake says he's surprised he waited this long. Envy is mad cos it took the pair of them considerable effort to slay him in the first place though Rake suggests she contributed little while he did the hard work. Anyway, he tells her he can't do anything about it until Draconus escapes. Envy tries to warn him about Paran but Rake already knows he's been in the sword and that he released the two hounds of shadow into Kurald Galain. Envy has a paddy and storms off. Anomander Rake calls Picker over to walk and talk and tells her he's basically looking for an excuse to leave before Envy thinks to wake Mok up as he doesn't fancy the fight. The pair head off to where the Malazan forces are preparing to honour Whiskeyjack.
Dujek is there. He notices Whiskeyjack's broken leg and asks Korlat if it gave way before or after Kallor struck the killing blow. Korlat lies and tells him it gave way after. Dujek seems convinced Whiskeyjack wouldn't have lost the fight without the leg giving way. Korlat reaffirms that Kallor's lengthy lifespan left him a considerable warrior and gave him the advantage over Whiskeyjack and Dujek relents. Rake questions what Korlat intends and she says that she and Orfantal will hunt down Kallor and kill him. Rake gives her his blessing but tells her to leave Kallor alive as he has earned Dragnipur. She agrees. Rake announces that Moon's Spawn is fucked and won't fly again so he intends to leave it at Coral and would honour the Malazans by offering it as a burial place for their dead.
Korbal Broach and Bauchelain have arrived at what is now called Black Coral and suggest to Gruntle they wish to settle here for a while.
The Trygalle Trade Guild turn up again and discuss something unknown with Quick Ben.
Dujek summons the few remaining Bridgeburners and tells them they are free to go live in Darujhistan if they wish, with their back pay, and he will ensure their names are included on the list of casualties, including Paran, who accepts. Dujek tells them they'll have another man there who needs some care. He also says Quick Ben has lost his chance to hide and has been officially promoted to High Mage.
A man approaches Toc and enquires about his health. Toc doesn't recognise him and assumes him to be a friend of Anaster's, noting that the man has an insane amount of battle scars. As he walks off, Toc senses something familiar about his walk.
The mysterious man reaches the woods where he finds his sister, Kilava, awaiting him. Yes, this is the now mortal Onos T'oolan.
Lady Envy wakes up Mok. She mentions that her business with Anomander, the Seventh, has concluded. Mok naturally is eager to go fight him but Envy refuses and tells the Seguleh that she has committed to returning them home.
Some time later, the travelling Barghast come across Onos T'oolan and Kilava. Hetan flirts with him, telling him she senses it's been a long time since he was with a woman. He happily concurs.
And finally, in the epilogue, we see the remaining Bridgeburners running a tavern in Darujhistan. The man in question is present and it turns out it's Duiker, who has had his soul restored by the High Alchemist Baruk. Ah that explains what Quick Ben was discussing with the Trade Guild. They brought the necklace from the previous book which was supposed to contain Coltaine's soul but instead contains Duiker's. The story ends as Duiker begins his, telling the Bridgeburners of the events of the Chain of Dogs.
Oh boy. That was a whopper and we've seven more books to go yet. The mysterious human enemy mentioned by Lanas Tog, that the Imass have gone to fight, won't actually appear in this series. That's a whole separate kettle of fish covered in the sixth book in the series by the other author. Still, the Crippled God might have had his nose bloodied here but it's a minor victory. For all they've achieved, it seems the denizens of this world have done little but buy time. The Malazan forces have been decimated and the infection of Burn has only been slowed. I think the revelations about Burn were one of my favourite aspects of this book and a concept I'd love to see replicated in a DnD world. When Brood shatters the earth and releases the torrent of fouled blood it's such an epic moment that would be hard to realise without this buildup. We've also seen those first traces of Hood's involvement which is an arc I'm looking forward to. It also annoyed me on first read that Keruli was an avatar of K'rul as I kind of already imagined Kruppe in that role.
Well, that's it for now. Next book will be House of Chains where we will meet Karsa Orlong.
"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else." - Charles Dickens.
“Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.” - Marcus Aurelius
“Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.” - Marcus Aurelius
