A Malazan Book of the Fallen Collection 3

Boatfinder.
    Samar Dev watched the giant warrior walk ahead, up the
opposite slope of the depression, halting on the summit of
the basolith. He slowly unslung his stone sword.
    And now she too caught a faint sourness in the air, the
smell of death. She made her way to Karsa's side.
    Beyond the dome of rock the trail wound quickly downward
to debouch on the edge of a small boggy lake. To one
side, on a slight shelf above the shoreline, was a clearing in
which sat the remnants of a rough camp – three round
structures, sapling-framed and hide-walled. Two were halfburnt,
the third knocked down in a mass of shattered wood
and torn buckskin. She counted six bodies lying motionless
here and there, in and around the camp, one face-down,
torso, shoulders and head in the water, long hair flowing
like bleached seaweed. Three canoes formed a row on the
other side of the trail, their bark hulls stove in.
    Boatfinder joined her and Karsa on the rise. A small
keening sound rose from him.
    Karsa took the lead down the trail. After a moment,
Samar Dev followed.
    'Stay back from the camp,' Karsa told her. 'I must read
the tracks.'
    She watched him move from one motionless form to the
next, his eyes scanning the scuffed ground, the places
where humus had been kicked aside. He went to the hearth
and ran his fingers through the ash and coals, down to the
stained earth beneath. Somewhere on the lake beyond, a
loon called, its cry mournful and haunting. The light had
grown steely, the sun now behind the forest line to the
west. On the rise above the trail, Boatfinder's keening rose
in pitch.
    'Tell him to be quiet,' Karsa said in a growl.
    'I don't think I can do that,' she replied. 'Leave him his
grief.'
    'His grief will soon be ours.'
    'You fear this unseen enemy, Karsa Orlong?'
    He straightened from where he had been examining the
holed canoes. 'A four-legged beast has passed through here
recently – a large one. It collected one of the corpses ... but
I do not think it has gone far.'
    'Then it has already heard us,' Samar Dev said. 'What is
it, a bear?' Boatfinder had said that black bears used the
same trails as the Anibar, and he'd pointed out their scat on
the path. He had explained that they were not dangerous,
normally. Still, wild creatures were ever unpredictable, and
if one had come upon these bodies it might well now view
the kill-site as its own.
    'A bear? Perhaps, Samar Dev. Such as the kind from my
homeland, a dweller in caves, and on its hind legs half
again as tall as a Teblor. But this one is yet different, for the
pads of its paws are sheathed in scales.'
    'Scales?'
    'And I judge it would weigh more than four adult warriors
of the Teblor.' He eyed her. 'A formidable creature.'
    'Boatfinder has said nothing of such beasts in this forest.'
    'Not the only intruder,' the Toblakai said. 'These Anibar
were murdered with spears and curved blades. They were
then stripped of all ornaments, weapons and tools. There
was a child among them but it was dragged away. The
killers came from the lake, in wooden-keeled longboats. At
least ten adults, two of them wearing boots of some sort,
although the heel pattern is unfamiliar. The others wore
moccasins made of sewn strips, each one overlapping on
one side.'
    'Overlapping? Ridged – that would improve purchase, I
think.'
    'Samar Dev, I know who these intruders are.'
    'Old friends of yours?'
    'We did not speak of friendship at the time. Call down
Boatfinder, I have questions for him—'
    The sentence was unfinished. Samar Dev looked over to
find Karsa standing stock-still, his gaze on the trees beyond
the three canoes. She turned and saw a massive hulking
shape pushing its forefront clear of bending saplings. An
enormous, scaled head lifted from steep shoulders, eyes
fixing on the Toblakai.
    Who raised his stone sword in a two-handed grip, then
surged forward.
    The giant beast's roar ended in a high-pitched squeal, as
it bolted – backward, into the thicket. Sudden crashing,
heavy thumps—
    Karsa plunged into the stand, pursuing.
    Samar Dev found that she was holding her dagger in her
right hand, knuckles white.
    The crashing sounds grew more distant, as did the frantic
squeals of the scaled bear.
    She turned at scrabbling from the slope and watched
Boatfinder come down to huddle at her side. His lips were
moving in silent prayers, eyes on the broken hole in the
stand of trees.
    Samar sheathed her dagger and crossed her arms. 'What
is it with him and monsters?' she