Steven Erikson - Memories of Ice

Relieved, he stepped closer and began, with the gentlest of touches, to daub her cuts. 'Who struck you?' he asked quietly.

'The Mhybe. I think I have just made a dreadful mistake, for all my good intentions …'

'That's often the case,' he murmured, 'with good intentions.'

Korlat's gaze narrowed searchingly. 'Pragmatic Malazans. Clear-eyed indeed. Why do we keep thinking of you as just soldiers? Brood, Rake, Kallor … myself, we all look upon you and Dujek and your army as something … ancillary. A sword we hope to grasp in our hands when the need arrives. It seems now that we're all fools. In fact, not one of us has come to realize the truth of how things now stand.'

He frowned. 'And how do they now stand?'

'You have become our backbone. Somehow, you are what gives us our strength, holds us together. Oh, I know you possess secrets, Whiskeyjack-'

He smiled wryly. 'Not as many as you seem to think. I will tell you the biggest one. It's this. We feel outmatched. By you — by Rake, by Caladan Brood, by Kallor. By the Tiste Andii army and that of the Rhivi and the Barghast. Hood, even that mob of mercenaries accompanying you makes us nervous. We don't have your power. We're just an army. Our best wizard isn't even ranked. He's a squad mage, and right now he's very far away and, I suspect, feeling like a fly in a web. So, come the battles, we know we'll be the spear's head, and it's going to cost us dear. As for the Seer himself, and whatever hides behind him, well, we're now hoping you'll deal with that. Same goes for the Crippled God. You're right, Korlat, we're just soldiers. Tired ones, at that. If we're this combined army's backbone, then Hood help us, it's a bowed, brittle one.'

She reached up and laid her hand over his, pressed it against her cheek. Their eyes locked. 'Bowed and brittle? I think not.'

Whiskeyjack shook his head. 'I'm not being modest, Korlat. I speak the truth, though I fear you're not prepared to hear it.'

'Silverfox is manipulating her mother,' the Tiste Andii said after a moment. 'Somehow. Possibly even being responsible for the old woman's terrible nightmares.'

'I find that hard to countenance-'

'Not something Tattersail would do, right? But what of this Nightchill? Or the Thelomen? You knew them, Whiskeyjack. Better than any of us, at least. Is it possible that one of them — or both — are responsible for this?'

He said nothing while he completed wiping clean the wounds on her cheek. 'This will require a healer's touch, Korlat, lest infection-'

'Whiskeyjack.'

He sighed, stepped back. 'Nightchill, I fear, might well harbour feelings of betrayal. Her targets for vengeance could be chosen indiscriminately. Same for Bellurdan Skullcrusher. Both were betrayed, after all. If you are right, about what's happening to the Mhybe — that they're doing something to her — then I still think that Tattersail would be resisting them.'

'What if she's already lost the struggle?'

'I've seen no sign of-'

Korlat's eyes flashed and she jabbed a finger against his chest. 'Meaning your two marines have reported no sign of it!'

He grimaced. 'They are volunteers none the less, Korlat. Given the alarming extent of our ignorance in these matters, it pays to be watchful. Those two marines chose to guard Silverfox because they see in her Tattersail; Not just physically, but in the woman's personality as well. If anything had gone awry, they would've noticed it, and they would've come to me. Fast.'

Korlat lowered her hand. She sighed. 'And here I've come storming in to tear your head from your shoulders. Damn you, Whiskeyjack, how did I come to deserve you? And, the Abyss take me, why are you still here? After all my accusations …'

'A few hours ago, Dujek made a similar entrance.' He grinned. 'It's just been that kind of day, I suppose. Now, we should call for a healer-'

'In a moment.' She studied him. 'Whiskeyjack. You've truly no idea of how rare a man you are, do you?'

'Rare?' His grin broadened. 'Of course I know. There's only one of me, thank Hood.'

'That's not what I meant.'

He moved closer and drew an arm about her waist. 'Time to find a healer, woman. I've got simple needs, and we're wasting time.'

'A soldier's reply,' she said. 'I'm not fooled, you know.'

Unseen by her, he closed his eyes. Oh, but you are, Korlat. If you'd known the full extent of my fear. that I might lose you.

Arms waving expansively, Kruppe, Eel of Darujhistan, occasional fence and thief, Defier of Caladan Brood the Warlord, ambled his way down the main avenue of tents towards the supply wagons. He had just come from the cook tent of the Mott Irregulars, and in each hand was a Nathi black-cake, dripping with syrup. A few paces in his wake, his mule kept pace, nose stretched out to those two cakes, ears pricked forward.

The second bell since midnight had just tolled through the camps, stirring the distant herds of bhederin to a mournful lowing, which faded as the beasts slipped back into slumber. As he reached the edge of the wagons — arranged rectangularly to form a wheeled fort — he noted two Malazan marines, cloaks wrapped about their bodies, sitting before a small dung-fire.

Kruppe altered his course and approached. 'Gentle friends,' he softly called.' Tis late and no doubt your pretty selves are due for some sweetness.'

The two women glanced up. 'Huh,' one of them grunted. 'It's that fat Daru.'

'And his mule, hovering there in the shadows.'

'Unique indeed is Kruppe! Behold!' He thrust forward the dripping cakes. 'For you, darlings.'

'So which should we eat, the cakes or your hands?'

The other drew her knife at her companion's words. 'A couple of quick cuts and we can choose for ourselves, right?'

Kruppe stepped back. 'Queen of Dreams! Hard-bitten and distinctly unfeminine! Guardians of fair Silverfox, yes? Reassuring truth. Heart of Tattersail, shining so bright from the child-now-woman-'

'Aye, we seen you before plenty enough. Chatting with the lass. She's the sorceress, all right. Plain to see for them of us who knew her.'

'Extraordinary disconnectiveness, this exchange. Kruppe is delighted-'

'We getting them syrup cakes or what?'

'Naturally, though the flash of that blade still blinds generous Kruppe.'

'Y'ain't got no sense of humour, have ya? Join us, if you dare.'

The Daru smiled and strode forward. 'Nathi black-cakes, my dears.'

'We recognize 'em. The Mott Irregulars used to throw them at us when they ran out of arrows.'

'Jaybar got one full in the face, as I recall.'

'That he did, then he stumbled and when he came up he was like the forest floor with eyes.'

'Dreadful sap, deadly weapon,' Kruppe agreed, once more offering the cakes to the two marines.

They took them.

'Courageous task, protection of the Rhivi lass.'

'She ain't no Rhivi lass. She's Tattersail. That fur and the hides are just for show.'

'Ah, then you have spoken with her.'

'Not much and we don't need to. These cakes go down better without all the twigs and leaves, don't they just.'

Kruppe blinked, then slowly nodded. 'No doubt. Vast responsibility, being the eyes of your commander regarding said lass.'

Both women paused in their chewing. They exchanged a glance, then one of them swallowed and said, 'Who, Dujek? If we're his eyes then he's blind as a mole.'

'Ah, Kruppe meant Whiskeyjack, of course.'

'Whiskeyjack ain't blind and he don't need us to see for him, either.'

'None the less,' the Daru smiled, 'he no doubt is greatly comforted by your self-appointed task and reports and such. Were Kruppe Whiskeyjack, he knows he would.'

'Would what?'

'Why, be comforted, of course.'

Both women grunted, then one snorted and said, 'That's a good one. If you were Whiskeyjack. Hah.'