Dust of Dreams

manages to get old.’
    Yes. It is.
    ‘The Awl has convinced them.’
    ‘Not Talamandas?’
    ‘No. They say dead warlocks never have anything good to say. They say your sticksnare kneels at the foot of the Death Reaper. They call it a Malazan puppet.’
    By the spirits, I cannot argue against any of that!
    ‘You sense all that takes place on these plains, Setoc. What do you know of the enemy that killed the scouts?’
    ‘Only what the rhinazan whisper, Great Warlock.’
    Winged lizards again . . . spirits below!
‘In our homeland, on the high desert mesas, there are smaller versions that are called rhizan.’
    ‘Smaller, yes.’
    He frowned. ‘Meaning?’
    She shrugged. ‘Just that. Smaller.’
    He wanted to shake her, rattle loose her secrets. ‘Who killed our scouts?’
    She bared her teeth but did not face him. ‘I have already told you, Great Warlock. Tell me, have you seen the green spears in the sky at night?’
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘What are they?’
    ‘I don’t know. Things have been known to fall from the sky, whilst others simply pass by like wagons set ablaze, crossing the firmament night after night for weeks or months . . . and then vanishing as mysteriously as they arrived.’
    ‘Uncaring of the world below.’
    ‘Yes. The firmament is speckled with countless worlds no different from ours. To the stars and to the great burning wagons, we are as motes of dust.’
    She turned to study him as he spoke these words. ‘That is . . . interesting. This is what the Barghast believe?’
    ‘What do the wolves believe, Setoc?’
    ‘Tell me,’ she said, ‘when a hunter throws a javelin at a fleeing antelope, does the hunter aim at the beast?’
    ‘Yes and no. To strike true, the hunter must throw into the space in front of the antelope—into the path it will take.’ He studied her. ‘Are you saying that these spears of green fire are the javelins of a hunter, and that we are the antelope?’
    ‘And if the antelope darts this way, dodges that?’
    ‘A good hunter will not miss.’
    The war-party had reappeared on the ridge, and accompanying it was the Awl warrior on his horse, along with two more dogs.
    Cafal said, ‘I will find Stolmen, now. He will want to speak with you, Setoc.’ He hesitated, and then added, ‘Perhaps the Gadra warchief can glean clearer answers from you, for in that I have surely failed.’
    ‘The wolves are clear enough,’ she replied, ‘when speaking of war. All else confuses them.’
    ‘So you indeed serve the Lady and Lord of the Beast Throne. As would a priestess.’
    She shrugged.
    ‘Who,’ Cafal asked again, ‘is the enemy?’
    Setoc looked at him. ‘The enemy, Great Warlock, is peace.’ And she smiled.
     
    The ribbers had dragged Visto’s body a dozen or so paces out into the flat, until something warned them against eating the wrinkled, leathery flesh of the dead boy. With the dawn, Badalle and a few others walked out to stand round the shrunken, stomach-burst thing that had once been Visto.
    The others waited for Badalle to find her words.
    Rutt was late in arriving as he had to check on Held and make adjustments to the baby’s wrap. By the time he joined them, Badalle was ready. ‘Hear me, then,’ she said, ‘at Visto’s deading.’
    She blew flies from her lips and then scanned the faces arrayed round her. There was an expression she wanted to find, but couldn’t. Even remembering what it looked like was hard, no, impossible. She’d lost it, truth be told. But wanted it, and she knew she would recognize it as soon as she saw it again. An expression . . . some kind of expression . . . what was it? After a moment, she spoke,

‘We all come from some place
And Visto was no different
He come
From some
Place
And it was different and
It was the same no different
If you know what I mean
And you do
You have to
All you standing here
The point is that Visto
He couldn’t remember
Anything about that place
Except that he come from it
And that’s like lots of you
So let’s say now
He’s gone back there
To that place
Where he come from
And everything he sees
He remembers
And everything he remembers
Is new’

    They always waited, never knowing if she was finished until it became obvious that she was, and in that time Badalle looked down at Visto. The eggs of the Satra Riders clung like crumbs to Visto’s lips, as if he had been gobbling down cake. The adult riders had chewed out through his stomach and no one knew where they went,