A Malazan Book of the Fallen Collection 4

and he staggered back. He
recovered with bared teeth. 'My true self? Oh, you damned
fool! You see only what you want to see! In this last moment
of your pathetic, useless life! May your soul rage for eternity
in the heart of a star, Tiste Andii! May you yearn for what
you can never have! For all infernal eternity!'
    Spinnock had flinched back at the tirade. 'Do you now
curse me, High King?' he asked in a whisper.
    Kallor's face looked ready to shatter. He dragged a forearm
across his eyes. 'No,' he said. 'Of course not. I will kill
you clean. For what you have shown me this night – I have
never before faced such a defence.' And then he paused,
edging forward again, his eyes burning in their pits. 'You
had chances, Spinnock Durav. To strike back. You could
have wounded me – yes, you could have . . .'
    'I was not here to do that, Kallor.'
    The High King stared, and a glint of comprehension lit
in his face. 'No,' he said. 'You only needed to delay me.'
    Spinnock closed his eyes once more and settled his head
back. 'For a time. You may never accept this, but it was for
your own good. It's a mess over there. In that city. My Lord
wanted you kept away.'
    Kallor snarled. 'How generous in his mercy is your
Lord.'
    'Yes,' sighed Spinnock, 'he was ever that.'
    Silence, then.
    Not a sound. A dozen laboured heartbeats. Another
dozen. Finally, some odd unease forced Spinnock to open
his eyes yet again, to look upon Kallor.
    Who stood, head bowed.
    'Yes,' said Spinnock, in true sorrow, 'he is gone.'
    Kallor did not lift his gaze. He did not move at all.
    'And so,' continued Spinnock, 'I have stood here. In his
stead. One last time.' He paused. 'And yes, it makes my
death seem . . . easier—'
    'Oh shut up, will you? I am thinking.'
    'About what?'
    Kallor met his eyes and bared his teeth. 'That bastard. The bold, brazen bastard!'
    Spinnock studied the High King, and then he grunted.
    'Well, that's it, then.'
    'I don't ever want to see you again, Spinnock Durav. You
are bleeding out. I will leave you to that. I hear it's quieter,
easier – but then, what do I know?'
    The Tiste Andii watched him set off then, up the road,
to that fair city that even now bled with its own terrible
wounds.
    Too late to do anything, even if he'd wanted to. But,
Spinnock Durav now suspected, Kallor might well have
done nothing. He might have stood aside. 'High King,'
he whispered, 'all you ever wanted was a throne. But trust
me, you don't want Rake's. No, proud warrior, that one you
would not want. I think, maybe, you just realized that.'
    Of course, when it came to Kallor, there was no way to
know.
    The Great Ravens were descending now, thumping
heavily on to the blood-splashed, muddy surface of the
road.
    And Spinnock Durav looked skyward then, as the dark
forms of two dragons sailed past, barely a stone's throw
above the ground.
    Racing for Kallor.
    He saw one of the dragons suddenly turn its head, eyes
flashing back in his direction, and the creature pitched to
one side, coming round.
    A moment later the other dragon reached Kallor,
catching him entirely unawares, talons lashing down
to grasp the High King and lift him into the air. Wings
thundering, the dragon carried its charge yet higher. Faint
screams of fury sounded from the man writhing in that
grasp.
    Dragon and High King dipped behind a hill to the
north.
    One of the Great Ravens drew up almost at Spinnock's
feet.
    'Crone!' Spinnock coughed and spat blood. 'I'd have
thought . . . Darujhistan . . .'
    'Darujhistan, yes. I'd have liked to. To honour, to
witness. To remember, and to weep. But our Lord . . . well,
he had thoughts of you.' The head tilted. 'When we saw
you, lying there, Kallor looming as he so likes to do, ah, we
thought we were too late – we thought we had failed our
Lord – and you. We thought – oh, never mind.'
    The Great Raven was panting.
    Spinnock knew that this was not exhaustion he was
seeing in the ancient bird. You can shed no tears, yet tears
take you none the less. The extremity, the terrible distress.
    The dragon that had returned now landed on the grasses
to the south of the track. Sembling, walking towards
Spinnock and Crone and the haggle of Crone's kin.
    Korlat.
    Spinnock would have smiled up at her, but he had lost
the strength for such things, and so he could only watch
as she came up to him, using one boot to shunt a squawking
Crone to one side. She knelt and reached out a hand
to brush Spinnock's spattered cheek. Her eyes were bleak.
'Brother . .