A Malazan Book of the Fallen Collection 3

fortuitous in all this. We have some savanna spirit
driving us along with these winds, as if every moment
gained is somehow crucial. A savannah spirit, for Hood's
sake. And now, you've worked a ritual to fashion an
enormous gate on the seas. That ritual must have been
begun months ago—'
    'Two years, High Mage.'
    'Two years! You said you were waiting for us – you knew
we were coming – two years ago? Just how many spirits and
gods are pushing us around here?'
    The Destriant said nothing, folding his hands together
before him on the map-table.
    'Two years,' Quick Ben muttered.
    'From you, High Mage, we require raw power – taxing,
yes, but not so arduous as to leave you damaged.'
    'Oh, that's nice.'
    'High Mage,' the Adjunct said, 'you will make yourself
available to the Grey Helms.'
    He sighed, then nodded.
    'How soon, Destriant?' Admiral Nok asked. 'And how
shall we align the fleet?'
    'Three ships across at the most, two cables apart, no
more – the span of a shortbow arrow's flight between each.
I suggest you begin readying your fleet immediately, sir. The
gate shall be opened at dawn tomorrow.'
    Nok rose. 'Then I must take my leave. Adjunct.'
    Keneb studied Quick Ben on the other side of the table.
The High Mage looked miserable.
     
    Kalam waited until Quick Ben emerged onto the mid deck,
then made his way over. 'What's got you shaking in your
boots?' he asked.
    'Never mind. If you're here to badger me about something
– anything – I'm not in the mood.'
    'I just had a question,' the assassin said, 'but I need to ask
it in private.'
    'Our hole in the knuckle below.'
    'Good idea.'
    A short time later they crouched once more in the
narrow unlit aisle between crates and bales. 'It's this,'
Kalam said, dispensing with any small talk. 'The Adjunct.'
    'What about her?'
    'I'm nervous.'
    'Oh, how sad for you. Take it from me, it beats being
scared witless, Kalam.'
    'The Adjunct.'
    'What is that? A question?'
    'I need to know, Quick. Are you with her?'
    'With her? In what? In bed? No. T'amber would kill me.
Now, maybe if she decided to join in it'd be a different
matter—'
    'What in Hood's name are you going on about,
Quick?'
    'Sorry. With her, you asked.' He paused, rubbed at his
face. 'Things are going to get ugly.'
    'I know that! That's why I'm asking, idiot!'
    'Calm down. No reason to panic—'
    'Isn't there?'
    Quick Ben shifted from rubbing his face to scratching it,
then he pulled his hands away and blinked tearily at the
assassin. 'Look what's happening to me, and it's all your
damned fault—'
    'Mine?'
    'Well, it's somebody's, is what I'm saying. You're here so
it might as well be you, Kal.'
    'Fine, have it that way. You haven't answered me yet.'
    'Are you?' the wizard countered.
    'With her? I don't know. That's the problem.'
    'Me neither. I don't know. She's a hard one to like,
almost as hard to hate, since if you look back, there's
nothing really to do either with, right?'
    'You're starting to not make sense, Quick.'
    'So what?'
    'So you don't know, and I don't know. I don't know
about you,' Kalam said, 'but I hate not knowing. I even
hate you not knowing.'
    'That's because, back then, Laseen talked you onto her
side. You went to kill her, remember? And she turned you
round. But now you're here, with the Adjunct, and we're
on our way back, to her. And you don't know if anything's
changed, or if it's all changed. It was one thing standing
with Whiskeyjack. Even Dujek. We knew them. But the
Adjunct ... well ... things aren't so simple.'
    'Thank you, Quick, for reiterating everything I've just
been telling you.'
    'My pleasure. Now, are we done here?'
    'Sorry, in need of changing your loincloth again, are
you?'
    'You have no idea what we're about to do, Kal. What I
suggest is, come tomorrow morning, you head back down
here, close your eyes and wait. Wait, and wait. Don't move.
Or try not to. You might get tossed round a bit, and maybe
these bales will come down on you. In fact, you might end
up getting crushed like a gnat, so better you stay up top.
Eyes closed, though. Closed until I say otherwise.'
    'I don't believe you.'
    The High Mage scowled. 'All right. Maybe I was trying
to scare you. It'll be rough, though. That much is true. And
over on the Silanda, Fiddler will be heaving his guts out.'
    Kalam, thinking on it, suddenly smiled. 'That cheers me
up.'
    'Me too.'
     
    Like a tidal flow clashing at the mouth of a raging river,
walls of water rose in white, churning explosions on all
sides as the Silanda