A Malazan Book of the Fallen Collection 2

towards them.
    And was shocked to see them both leap from the walkway.
    'Bloodless cowards! I witness! Your youths witness! These damned dogs witness!'
    He saw them reappear, weapons gone, scrambling and stumbling across the bog.
    Delum and Bairoth arrived, dismounting to add their swords to the maniacal frenzy of the surviving dogs as they tore unceasing at fallen Rathyd.
    Karsa drew Havok to one side, eyes still on the fleeing warriors, who had been joined now by the four youths. 'I witness! Urugal witnesses!'
    Gnaw, black and grey hide barely visible beneath splashes of gore, panted up to stand beside Havok, his muscles twitching but no wounds showing. Karsa glanced back and saw that four more dogs remained, whilst a fifth had lost a foreleg and limped a red circle off to one side.
    'Delum, bind that one's leg – we will sear it anon.'
    'What use a three-legged hunting dog, Warleader?' Bairoth asked, breathing heavy.
    'Even a three-legged dog has ears and a nose, Bairoth Gild. One day, she will lie grey-nosed and fat before my hearth, this I swear. Now, is either of you wounded?'
    'Scratches.' Bairoth shrugged, turning away.
    'I have lost a finger,' Delum said as he drew out a leather strap and approached the wounded dog, 'but not an important one.'
    Karsa looked once more at the retreating Rathyd. They had almost reached a stand of black spruce. The warleader sent them a final sneer, then laid a hand on Havok's brow. 'My father spoke true, Havok. I have never ridden such a horse as you.'
    An ear had cocked at his words. Karsa leaned forward and set his lips to the beast's brow. 'We become, you and I,' he whispered, 'legend. Legend, Havok.' Straightening, he studied the sprawl of corpses on the walkway, and smiled. 'It is time for trophies, my brothers. Bairoth, did your bear skull survive?'
    'I believe so, Warleader.'
    'Your deed was our victory, Bairoth Gild.'
    The heavy man turned, studied Karsa through slitted eyes. 'You ever surprise me, Karsa Orlong.'
    'As your strength does me, Bairoth Gild.'
    The man hesitated, then nodded. 'I am content to follow you, Warleader.'
    You ever were, Bairoth Gild, and that is the difference between us.

CHAPTER TWO
    There are hints, if one scans the ground with a clear and sharp eye, that this ancient Jaghut war, which for the Kron T'lan Imass was either their seventeenth or eighteenth, went terribly awry. The Adept who accompanied our expedition evinced no doubt whatsoever that a Jaghut remained alive within the Laederon glacier. Terribly wounded, yet possessing formidable sorcery still. Well beyond the ice river's reach (a reach which has been diminishing over time), there are shattered remains of T'lan Imass, the bones strangely malformed, and on them the flavour of fierce and deadly Omtose Phellack lingering to this day.
    Of the ensorcelled stone weapons of the Kron, only those that were broken in the conflict remained, leading one to assume that either looters have been this way, or the T'lan Imass survivors (assuming there were any) took them with them . . .
    The Nathii Expedition of 1012
Kenemass Trybanos, Chronicler
     
     
    'I believe,' Delum said as they led their horses down from the walkway, 'that the last group of the hunt has turned back.'
    'The plague of cowardice ever spreads,' Karsa growled.
    'They surmised at the very first,' Bairoth rumbled, 'that we were crossing their lands. That our first attack was not simply a raid. So, they will await our return,
and will likely call upon the warriors of other villages.'
    'That does not concern me, Bairoth Gild.'
    'I know that, Karsa Orlong, for what part of this journey have you not already anticipated? Even so, two more Rathyd valleys lie before us. I would know. There will be villages – do we ride around them or do we collect still more trophies?'
    'We shall be burdened with too many trophies when we reach the lands of the lowlanders at Silver Lake,' Delum commented.
    Karsa laughed, then considered. 'Bairoth Gild, we shall slip through these valleys like snakes in the night, until the very last village. I would still draw hunters after us, into the lands of the Sunyd.'
    Delum had found a trail leading up the valley side.
    Karsa checked on the dog limping in their wake. Gnaw walked alongside it, and it occurred to Karsa that the three-legged beast might well be its mate. He was pleased with his decision to not slay the wounded creature.
    There was a chill in the air that confirmed their gradual climb to higher