The Bonehunters

To save many more lives, this one must be surrendered. Sacrificed.



Even the words used disguise the brutality. Why are torture chambers in the crypts? To mask the screams? True enough, but there's more.



This,' he said, waving one gnarled hand, 'is the nether realm of humanity, the rotted heart of unpleasantness.'



'I am seeking answers from something already dead. It is not the same-'



'Details. We are questioners, you and I. We slice back the armour to uncover the hidden truth. Besides, I'm retired. They want me to train another, you know, now that the Malazan laws have been struck down and torture's popular once more. But, the fools they send me! Ah, what is the point? Now, Falah'd Krithasanan, now he was something – you were likely just a child, then, or younger even. My, how he liked torturing people. Not for truths – he well understood that facile rubbish for what it was – facile rubbish. No, the greater questions interested him. How far along can a soul be dragged, trapped still within its broken body, how far? How far until it can no longer crawl back? This was my challenge, and oh how he appreciated my artistry!'



Samar Dev looked down to see that the rest of the mechanisms had all ceased to function. She placed the one she had retrieved in a small leather pouch, then repacked her kit, making sure to include the eye lenses. She'd get them to burn the rest of the body – well away from the city, and upwind.



'Will you not dine with me?'



'Alas, I cannot. I have work to do.'



'If only they'd bring your guest down here. Toblakai. Oh, he would be fun, wouldn't he?'



She paused. 'I doubt I could talk him into it, Avower.'



'The Falah'd has been considering it, you know.'



'No, I didn't know. I think it would be a mistake.'



'Well, those things are not for us to question, are they?'



'Something tells me Toblakai would be delighted to meet you, Avower.



Although it would be a short acquaintance.'



'Not if I have my way, Samar Dev!'



'Around Karsa Orlong, I suspect, only Karsa Orlong has his way.'



****

She returned to find the Teblor warrior poring over her collection of maps, which he'd laid out on the floor in the hallway. He had brought in a dozen votive candles, now lit and set out around him. He held one close as he perused the precious parchments. Without looking up, he said, 'This one here, witch. The lands and coast west and north… I was led to believe the Jhag Odhan was unbroken, that the plains ran all the way to the far-lands of Nemil and the Trell, yet here, this shows something different.'



'If you burn holes in my maps,' Samar Dev said, 'I will curse you and your bloodline for all eternity.'



'The Odhan sweeps westward, it seems, but only in the south. There are places of ice marked here. This continent looks too vast. There has been a mistake.'



'Possibly,' she conceded. 'Since that is the one direction I have not travelled, I can make no claim as to the map's accuracy. Mind you, that one was etched by Othun Dela Farat, a century ago. He was reputed to be reliable.'



'What of this region of lakes?' he asked, pointing to the northerly bulge along the coast, west of Yath Alban.



She set her equipment down, then, sighing, she crouched at his side. '



Difficult to cross. The bedrock is exposed there, badly folded, pocked with lakes and only a few, mostly impassable rivers. The forest is spruce, fir and pine, with low-lying thickets in the basins.'



'How do you know all that if you have never been there?'



She pointed. 'I am reading Dela's notes, there, along the border. He also says he found signs suggesting there were people living there, but no contact was ever made. Beyond lies the island kingdom of Sepik, now a remote subject of the Malazan Empire, although I would be surprised if the Malazans ever visited. The king was clever enough to send delegates proposing conditions of surrender, and the Emperor simply accepted.'



'The mapmaker hasn't written that much.'



'No, some of that information was mine. I have heard, now and then, certain odd stories about Sepik. There are, it seems, two distinct populations, one the subject of the other.' She shrugged at his blank look. 'Such things interest me.' Then frowned, as it became obvious that the distant expression on the giant's tattooed visage was born of something other than indifference. 'Is something wrong?'



Karsa Orlong bared his teeth. 'Tell me more of this Sepik.'



'I am afraid I have exhausted my knowledge.'



Scowling at her answer, he hunched down over the map once more. 'I shall need supplies. Tell me, is the weather the same as here?'