A Malazan Book of the Fallen Collection 2

We might need that water, after all. You won't, because you will be dead.'
    'Teblor logic,' Torvald chuckled, 'is truly wonderful.'
    'Very well, I will follow,' Silgar said.
    The Daru set off at a slow but steady pace, kicking beneath the surface as he pulled the oar shaft along. Damisk kept one hand on the length of wood, managing a strange motion with his legs that resembled that of a frog.
    Gripping Borrug's wrists in one hand, Karsa moved into their wake. The unconscious lowlander's head rested on his right shoulder, his knees bumping against the Teblor's thighs.
    Off to one side, feet thrashing, Silgar propelled the water
cask along. Karsa could see that the cask was far less filled than the slavemaster had claimed – it could have easily borne them all.
    The Teblor himself felt no need. He was not particularly tired, and it seemed that he possessed a natural buoyancy superior to that of the lowlanders. With each indrawn breath, his shoulders, upper arms and the upper half of his chest rose above the water. And apart from Borrug's knees constantly fouling Karsa's kicking, the lowlander's presence was negligible ...
    There was, he realized, something odd about those knees. He paused, reached down.
    Both legs were severed clean just beneath the kneecaps, the water warm in their immediate wakes.
    Torvald had glanced back. 'What's wrong?' he asked.
    'Do you think there are catfish in these waters?'
    'I doubt it,' the Daru replied. 'That was fresh water, after all.'
    'Good,' Karsa grunted, resuming his swim.
    There was no recurrence of the light Torvald had seen. They continued on in the unrelieved darkness, through perfectly calm water.
    'This is foolish,' Silgar pronounced after a time. 'We exhaust ourselves for no purpose—'
    Torvald called, 'Karsa, why did you ask about the catfish?'
    Something huge and rough-skinned rose up to land on Karsa's back, its massive weight driving him under. Borrug's wrists were torn from his grip, the arms whipping back and vanishing. Pushed more than a warrior's height beneath the surface, Karsa twisted round. One of his kicking feet collided with a solid, unyielding body. He used the contact to propel himself away and back towards the surface.
    Even as he reached it – bloodsword in his hands – he saw, less than a body length distant, an enormous grey fish, its jagged-toothed mouth closing about the little that remained visible of Borrug. Lacerated head, shoulders and
flopping arms. The fish's wide head thrashed wildly back and forth, its strange saucer-like eyes flashing as if lit from within.
    There was screaming behind Karsa and he turned. Both Damisk and Silgar were kicking wildly in an effort to escape. Torvald was on his back, the oar held tight in his hands, his legs kicking beneath the surface – he alone was making no noise, though his face was twisted with fear.
    Karsa faced the fish once more. It seemed to be having trouble swallowing Borrug – one of the man's arms was lodged crossways. The fish itself was positioned close to vertical in the water, ripping its head back and forth.
    Growling, Karsa swam towards it.
    Borrug's arm came free even as the Teblor arrived, the corpse disappearing within the maw. Taking a deep breath and kicking hard, Karsa half rose out of the water, his bloodsword a curving spray as it chopped down into the fish's snout.
    Warm blood spattered Karsa's forearms.
    The fish seemed to fling its entire body backward.
    Karsa lunged closer, closing his legs around the creature's body just beneath the flanking flippers. The fish twisted away at the contact, but could not drag itself free of Karsa's tightening grip.
    The Teblor reversed his sword and plunged it deep into the beast's belly, ripped it downward.
    The water was suddenly hot with blood and bile. The fish's body became a dead weight, dragging Karsa downward. He sheathed his sword; then, as he and the fish sank beneath the surface, he reached down into the gaping wound. One hand closed on the thigh of Borrug – a shredded mass of flesh – and the fingers dug in to close around bone.
    Karsa pulled the lowlander through a cloud of milky, eye-stinging fluid, then, drawing the body with him, returned to the surface.
    Torvald was shouting now. Turning, Karsa saw the Daru,
standing in waist-deep water, both arms waving. Near him, Silgar and Damisk were wading their way onto some kind of shore.
    Dragging Borrug with him, Karsa made his way forward. A half-dozen strokes and his feet