A Malazan Book of the Fallen Collection 2

that was easy. But my big mouth—'
    'Sends potential friends fleeing. Yes, I understand. Clearly.'
    'Ah, now I see. You want to throw me on the first ship just to get away from me.'
    'There is that,' Karsa replied.
    'In keeping with the pathetic state of my life, it makes sense all right.'
    After a moment, as they rounded a bend and came within sight of the tower, Karsa scowled and said, 'Making light of words is still difficult—'
    'All that talk of friendship made for a momentary discomfort. You did well to slide away from it.'
    'No, for what I would say is this. On the ship, when I hung in chains from the mast, you were my only hold on this world. Without you and your endless words, Torvald Nom, the madness I had feigned would have become a madness in truth. I was a Teblor warleader. I was needed, but I myself did not need. I had followers, but not allies, and only now do I understand the difference. And it is vast. And from this, I have come to understand what it is to possess regrets. Bairoth Gild. Delum Thord. Even the Rathyd, whom I have greatly weakened. When I return on my old path, back into the lands of the Teblor, there are wounds that I shall need to mend. And so, when you say it is time to return to your family, Torvald Nom, I understand and my heart is gladdened.'
    Keeper was sitting on a three-legged stool outside the tower's doorway. A large sack with shoulder-straps rested at his feet, along with two stoppered gourds glittering with
condensation. He had in his unbandaged hand a small bag, which he tossed towards Torvald as the two men arrived.
    The bag jingled as the Daru caught it. Brows lifting, Torvald asked, 'What—'
    'Silver jakatas, mostly,' Keeper said. 'Some local coin, too, but those are of very high denomination, so be careful of showing them. Ehrlitan's cutpurses are legendary.'
    'Keeper—'
    The Napan waved a hand. 'Listen, lad. When a man arranges his own death, he needs to plan ahead. A life of anonymity doesn't come as cheap as you'd imagine. I emptied half of Aren's treasury a day before my tragic drowning. Now, you might manage to kill me and try to find it, but it'd be hopeless. So thank me for my generosity and get on your way.'
    'One day,' Karsa said, 'I shall return here and repay you.'
    'For the coin or the broken ribs?'
    The Teblor simply smiled.
    Keeper laughed, then rose and ducked through the doorway. A moment later, they could hear him climbing the frame.
    Torvald collected the pack, drawing the straps over his shoulders, then handed one of the gourds to Karsa.
    They set off down the road.

CHAPTER FOUR
    'Has a drowned Napan's body ever surfaced?'
    Empress Laseen to High Mage Tayschrenn following the Disappearances Life of Empress Laseen
Abelard
     
    There were villages on the coastal road, usually set on the inland side, as if the inhabitants sought nothing from the sea. A scattering of adobe dwellings, flimsy corrals, goats, dogs and dark-skinned figures hidden within swaths of full-length, sun-bleached cloth. Shadowed faces tracked the Teblor and the Daru from doorways but otherwise made no move.
    On the fourth day, in the fifth of such villages, they found a merchant's wagon drawn up in the virtually empty market square, and Torvald managed to purchase, for a handful of silver, an antique sword, top-heavy and sharply curved. The merchant had bolts of cloth for sale as well, but nothing already made into clothing. The sword's handle fell apart shortly afterwards.
    'I need to find a wood-carver,' Torvald said after a lengthy and rather elaborate string of curses. They were once more walking down the road, the sun overhead fiercely hot in a cloudless sky. The forest had thinned to
either side, low, straggly and dusty, allowing them a view of the turquoise water of the Otataral Sea to their right, and the dun tones of the undulating horizon inland. 'And I'd swear that merchant understood Malazan – even as bad as I speak it. He just wouldn't admit to that fact.'
    Karsa shrugged. 'The Malazan soldiers in Genabaris said the Seven Cities was going to rebel against their occupiers. This is why the Teblor do not make conquests. Better that the enemy keeps its land, so that we may raid again and again.'
    'Not the imperial way,' the Daru responded, shaking his head. 'Possession and control, the two are like insatiable hungers for some people. Oh, no doubt the Malazans have thought up countless justifications for their wars of expansion. It's well known that Seven Cities