A Malazan Book of the Fallen Collection 3

They
generally use them, a lot.'
    'Not where it was headed, assassin. What's this? Some
kind of bird?'
    'Yes,' said Quick Ben. 'Grouse. So, where was the T'lan
Imass headed, then?'
    'Grouse. What's that, some kind of duck? It went into a
big wound in the sky, to seal it.'
    The wizard leaned back. 'Don't expect it any time soon,
then.'
    'Well, it took the head of a Tiste Andii with it, and that
head was still alive – Truth was the only one who saw
that – the other T'lan Imass didn't, not even the
bonecaster. Small wings – surprised the thing could fly at
all. Not very well, hah, since someone caught it!' He
finished the Grisian and tossed away the bottle. It thumped
in the thick dust. Stormy then reached for the Napan
belack. 'You know what's the problem with you two? I'll tell
ya. I'll tell ya the problem. You both think too much, and
you think that by thinking so much you get somewhere
with all that thinking, only you don't. Look, it's simple.
Something you don't like gets in your way you kill it, and
once you kill it you can stop thinking about it and that's
that.'
    'Interesting philosophy, Stormy,' said Quick Ben. 'But
what if that "something" is too big, or too many, or nastier
than you?'
    'Then you cut it down to size, wizard.'
    'And if you can't?'
    'Then you find someone else who can. Maybe they end
up killing each other, and that's that.' He waved the half-empty
bottle of belack. 'You think you can make all sortsa
plans? Idiots. I squat down and shit on your plans!'
    Kalam smiled at Quick Ben. 'Stormy's onto something
there, maybe.'
    The wizard scowled. 'What, squatting—'
    'No, finding someone else to do the dirty work for us.
We're old hands at that, Quick, aren't we?'
    'Only, it gets harder.' Quick Ben gazed up at the sky keep.
'All right, let me think—'
    'Oh we're in trouble now!'
    'Stormy,' said Kalam, 'you're drunk.'
    'I ain't drunk. Two bottlesa wine don't get me drunk. Not
Stormy, they don't.'
    'The question,' said the wizard, 'is this. Who or what
defeated the K'Chain Che'Malle the first time round? And
then, is that powerful force still alive? Once we work out
the answers to those—'
    'Like I said,' the Falari growled, 'you talk and talk and
talk and you ain't getting a damned thing.'
    Quick Ben settled back, rubbing at his eyes. 'Fine, then.
Go on, Stormy, let's hear your brilliance.'
    'First, you're assuming those lizard things are your enemy
in the firs' place. Third, if the legends are true, those lizards
defeated themselves, so what in Hood's soiled trousers are
you panicking 'bout? Second, the Adjunct wanted to know
all 'bout them and where they're going and all that. Well,
the sky keeps ain't going nowhere, and we already know
what's inside 'em, so we done our job. You idiots want to
break into one – what for? You ain't got a clue what for.
And five, you gonna finish that white wine, wizard? 'Cause
I ain't touching that rice piss.'
    Quick Ben slowly sat forward and slid the bottle towards
Stormy.
    No better gesture of defeat was possible, Kalam decided.
'Finish up, everyone,' he said, 'so we can get outa this
damned warren and back to the Fourteenth.'
    'Something else,' said Quick Ben, 'I wanted to talk
about.'
    'So go ahead,' Stormy said expansively, waving a grouse
leg. 'Stormy's got your answers, yes he does.'
    'I've heard stories ... a Malazan escort, clashing with a
fleet of strange ships off the Geni coast. From the
descriptions of the foe, they sound like Tiste Edur. Stormy,
that ship of yours, what was it called?'
    'The Silanda. Dead grey-skinned folk, all cut down on the
deck, and the ship's captain, speared right through, pinned
to his Hood-damned chair in his cabin – gods below, the
arm that threw that ...'
    'And Tiste Andii ... heads.'
    'Bodies were below, manning the sweeps.'
    'Those grey-skinned folk were Tiste Edur,' Quick Ben
said. 'I don't know, maybe I shouldn't put the two together,
but something about them makes me nervous. Where did
that Tiste Edur fleet come from?'
    Kalam grunted, then said, 'It's a big world, Quick. They
could've come from anywhere, blown off course by some
storm, or on an exploratory mission of some kind.'
    'More like raiding,' Stormy said. 'If they attacked right
off" like they did. Anyway, where we found the Silanda in
the first place – there'd been a battle there, too. Against
Tiste Andii. Messy.'
    Quick Ben sighed and rubbed his eyes again. 'Near
Coral, during the Pannion War, the body of a Tiste Edur
was found. It had come up from