A Malazan Book of the Fallen Collection 4

want.'
    'Why won't you give it to me?'
    'I answer as a god: if I give you what you want, we all die.
Hah, I know – you don't care! Oh, you humans, you are
something else. You make my every breath agony. And my
every convulsion is your ecstasy. Very well, mortal, I will
answer your prayers. I promise. Just do not ever say I didn't
warn you. Do not. Ever .'
    Janall laughed, spraying spit. 'We are mad,' she
whispered. 'Oh yes, quite mad. And we're climbing into the
light . . .'
    For all the scurrying servants and the motionless, helmed
guards at various entrances, Nisall found the more populated
areas of the Eternal Domicile in some ways more
depressing than the abandoned corridors she'd left behind
a third of a bell past. Suspicion soured the air, fear stalked
like shadows underfoot between the stanchions of torchlight.
The palace's name had acquired a taint of irony, rife
as the Eternal Domicile was with paranoia, intrigue and
incipient betrayal. As if humans could manage no better,
and were doomed to such sordid existence for all time.
    Clearly, there was nothing satisfying in peace, beyond
the freedom it provided to get up to no good. She had been
shaken by her visit to the supposedly insane once-empress,
Janall. This Crippled God indeed lurked in the woman's
eyes – Nisall had seen it, felt that chilling, unhuman
attention fixing on her, calculating, pondering her
potential use. She did not want to be part of a god's plans,
especially that god's. Even more frightening, Janall's
ambitions remained, engorged with visions of supreme
power, her tortured, brutalized body notwithstanding. The
god was using her as well.
    There were rumours of war hissing like wind in the
palace, tales of a belligerent conspiracy of border kingdoms
and tribes to the east. The Chancellor's reports to Rhulad
had been anything but simple in their exhortations to raise
the stakes. A formal declaration of war, the marching of
massed troops over the borders in a pre-emptive campaign
of conquest. Far better to spill blood on their lands than on
Letherii soil, after all. ' If the Bolkando-led alliance wants war, we should give it to them .' The Chancellor's glittering eyes
belied the cool, almost toneless enunciation of those
words.
    Rhulad had fidgeted on his throne, muttering his unease
– the Edur were too spread out, the K'risnan were overworked.
Why did the Bolkandans so dislike him? There had
been no list of grievances. He had done nothing to spark
this fire to life.
    Triban Gnol had pointed out, quietly, that four agents
of the conspiracy had been captured entering Letheras only
the other day. Disguised as merchants seeking ivory. Karos
Invictad had sent by courier their confessions and would
the Emperor like to see them?
    Shaking his head in denial, Rhulad had said nothing, his
pain-racked eyes fixed on the tiles of the dais beyond his
slippered feet.
    So lost, this terrible Emperor.
    As she turned onto the corridor leading to her private
chambers, she saw a tall figure standing near her door. A
Tiste Edur, one of the few who were resident in the palace.
She vaguely recalled the warrior's having something to do
with security.
    He tilted his head in greeting as she approached. 'First
Concubine Nisall.'
    'Has the Emperor sent you?' she asked, stepping past and
waving him behind her into the chambers. Few men could
intimidate her – she knew too well their minds. She was
less at ease in the company of women, and the virtually
neutered men such as Triban Gnol.
    'Alas,' the warrior said, 'I am not permitted to speak to
my Emperor.'
    She paused and glanced back at him. 'Are you out of
favour?'
    'I have no idea.'
    Intrigued now, Nisall regarded the Edur for a moment,
then asked, 'Would you like some wine?'
    'No, thank you. Were you aware that a directive has
been issued by Invigilator Karos Invictad to compile
evidence leading to your arrest for sedition?'
    She grew very still. Sudden heat flashed through her,
then she felt cold, beads of sweat like ice against her skin.
'Are you here,' she whispered, 'to arrest me?'
    His brows rose. 'No, nothing of the sort. The very
opposite, in fact.'
    'You wish, then, to join in my treason?'
    'First Concubine, I do not believe you are engaged in any
seditious acts. And if you are, I doubt they are directed
against Emperor Rhulad.'
    She frowned. 'If not the Emperor, then whom? And how
could it be considered treasonous if they are not aimed at
Rhulad? Do you think I resent the Tiste Edur