A Malazan Book of the Fallen Collection 3

long as she
could. Bottle knew all that. Still ...
    'We're dead, you know.'
    He looked over at Koryk, who sat cross-legged nearby, a
child sleeping beside him. 'If we're dead,' Bottle said, 'why
do we feel so awful?'
    'As far as the Adjunct's concerned. We're dead. We can
just ... leave.'
    'And go where, Koryk? Poliel stalks Seven Cities—'
    'Ain't no plague gonna kill us. Not now.'
    'You think we're immortal or something?' Bottle asked.
He shook his head. 'We survived this, sure, but that doesn't
mean a damned thing. It sure as Hood doesn't mean that
the next thing to come along won't kill us right and quick.
Maybe you're feeling immune – to anything and everything
the world can throw at us, now. But, believe me, we're not.'
    'Better that than anything else,' Koryk muttered.
    Bottle thought about the soldier's words. 'You think
some god decided to use us? Pulled us out for a reason?'
    'Either that, Bottle, or your rat's a genius.'
    'The rat was four legs and a good nose, Koryk. Her soul
was bound. By me. I was looking through her eyes, sensing
everything she sensed—'
    'And did she dream when you dreamed?'
    'Well, I don't know—'
    'Did she run away, then?'
    'No, but—'
    'So she waited around. For you to wake back up. So you
could imprison her soul again.'
    Bottle said nothing.
    'Any god tries to use me,' Koryk said in a low voice, 'it'll
regret it.'
    'With all those fetishes you wear,' Bottle noted, 'I'd have
thought you'd be delighted at the attention.'
    'You're wrong. What I wear ain't for seeking blessings.'
    'Then what are they?'
    'Wards.'
    'All of them?'
    Koryk nodded. 'They make me invisible. To gods, spirits,
demons ...'
    Bottle studied the soldier through the gloom. 'Well,
maybe they don't work.'
    'Depends,' he replied.
    'On what?'
    'Whether we're dead or not.'
    Smiles laughed from nearby. 'Koryk's lost his mind. No
surprise, it being so small, and things being so dark in
there ...'
    'Not like ghosts and all that,' Koryk said in a sneering
tone. 'You think like a ten-year-old, Smiles.'
    Bottle winced.
    Something skittered off a rock close to Koryk and the
soldier started. 'What in Hood's name?'
    'That was a knife,' Bottle said, having felt it whip past
him. 'Amazing, she saved one for you.'
    'More than one,' Smiles said. 'And Koryk, I wasn't aiming
for your leg.'
    'I told you you weren't immune,' Bottle said.
    'I'm – never mind.'
    I'm still alive, you were going to say. Then, wisely, decided
not to.
     
    Gesler crouched down in front of the captain. 'We're a
hairless bunch,' he said, 'but otherwise pretty well
mending. Captain, I don't know what made you believe in
Sinn, enough to run from the army, but I'm damned glad
you did.'
    'You were all under my command,' she said. 'Then you
got too far ahead of me. I did my best to find you, but the
smoke, the flames – all too much.' She looked away. 'I
didn't want to leave it at that.'
    'How many did the legion lose?' Gesler asked.
    She shrugged. 'Maybe two thousand. Soldiers were still
dying. We were trapped, Fist Keneb and Baralta and about
eight hundred, on the wrong side of the breach – until Sinn
pushed the fire back – don't ask me how. They say she's a
High Mage of some kind. There was nothing addled about
her that night, Sergeant, and I didn't think she was addled
when she tried getting back into the city.'
    Nodding, Gesler was silent for a moment, then he rose.
'I wish I could sleep ... and it looks like I'm not alone in
that. I wonder why that is ...'
    'The stars, Sergeant,' said Faradan Sort. 'They're glittering
down.'
    'Aye, might be that and nothing more.'
    'Nothing more? I would think, more than enough.'
    'Aye.' He looked down at the small bite on his right
index finger. 'All for a damned rat, too.'
    'All of you fools are probably infected with plague, now.'
    He started, then smiled. 'Let the bitch try.'
     
    Balm rubbed the last crusted mud from his face, then
scowled over at his corporal. 'You, Deadsmell, you think I
didn't hear you praying and gibbering down there? You ain't
fooled me about nothing worth fooling about.'
    The man, leaning against a rock, kept his eyes closed as
he replied, 'Sergeant, you keep trying, but we know. We all
know.'
    'You all know what?'
    'Why you're talking and talking and still talking.'
    'What are you talking about?'
    'You're glad to be alive, Sergeant. And you're glad your
squad's made it through in one piece, the only one barring
Fid's, and maybe Hellian's, as far as I can tell. We were
charmed and that's