'I knew it, you damned bastard. Fine, it stays between you and me, but in exchange want to hear your thoughts. What about Balm?'
'He's Dal Honese.'
'I know that, idiot.'
'Well, his skin's crawling, is my guess.'
'So's mine, Bottle.'
Ah, that explains it, then. 'She's with us, now. Again, I mean.'
'She?'
'You know who.'
'The one who plays with your-'
'The one who also healed you, Sergeant.'
'What's she got to do with Balm?'
'I'm not sure. More like where his people live, I think.'
'Why is she helping us?'
'Is she, Sergeant?' Bottle turned to study Fiddler. 'Helping us, I mean. True, the last time… Quick Ben's illusion that chased off that enemy fleet. But so what? Now we've got this gale at our backs, and it's driving us west, fast, maybe faster than should be possible – look at that coast – our lead ships must be due south of Monkan by now. At this pace, we'll reach Sepik before night falls. We're being pushed, and that makes me very nervous – what's the damned hurry?'
'Maybe just putting distance between us and those grey skinned barbarians.'
'Tiste Edur. Hardly barbarians, Sergeant.'
Fiddler grunted. 'I've clashed with the Tiste Andii and they used Elder magic – Kurald Galain – and it was nothing like what we saw a week ago.'
'No, that wasn't warrens. It was Holds – older, raw, way too close to chaos.'
'What it was,' Fiddler said, 'doesn't belong in war.'
Bottle laughed. He could not help it. 'You mean, a little bit of wholesale slaughter is all right, Sergeant? Like what we do on the battlefield? Chasing down fleeing soldiers and caving their skulls in from behind, that's all right?'
'Never said I was making sense, Bottle,' Fiddler retorted. 'It's just what my gut tells me. I've been in battles where sorcery was let loose – really let loose – and it was nothing like what those Edur were up to. They want to win wars without drawing a sword.'
'And that makes a difference?'
'It makes victory unearned, is what it does.'
'And does the Empress earn her victories, Sergeant?'
'Careful, Bottle.'
'Well,' he persisted, 'she's just sitting there on her throne, while we're out here-'
'You think I fight for her, Bottle?'
'Well-'
'If that's what you think, you wasn't taught a damned thing at Y'
Ghatan.' He turned and strode off.
Bottle stared after him a moment, then returned his attention to the distant horizon. Fine, he's right. But still, what we're earning is her currency and that's that.
****
'What in Hood's name are you doing down here?'
'Hiding, what's it look like? That's always been your problem, Kal, your lack of subtlety. Sooner or later it's going to get you into trouble. Is it dark yet?'
'No. Listen, what's with this damned gale up top? It's all wrong-'
'You just noticed?'
Kalam scowled in the gloom. Well, at least he'd found the wizard. The High Mage of the Fourteenth, hiding between crates and casks and bales. Oh, how bloody encouraging is that? 'The Adjunct wants to talk to you.'
'Of course she does. I would too if I was her. But I'm not her, am I?
No, she's a mystery – you notice how she almost never wears that sword? Now, I'll grant you, I'm glad, now that I've been chained to this damned army. Remember those sky keeps? We're in the midst of something, Kal. And the Adjunct knows more than she's letting on. A lot more. Somehow. The Empress has recalled us. Why? What now?'
'You're babbling, Quick. It's embarrassing.'
'You want babbling, try this. Has it not occurred to you that we lost this one?'
'What?'
'Dryjhna, the Apocalyptic, the whole prophecy – we didn't get it, we never did – and you and me, Kal, we should have, you know. The Uprising, what did it achieve? How about slaughter, anarchy, rotting corpses everywhere. And what arrived in the wake of that? Plague. The apocalypse, Kalam, wasn't the war, it was the plague. So maybe we won and maybe we lost. Both, do you see?'
'Dryjhna never belonged to the Crippled God. Nor Poliel-'
'Hardly matters. It's ended up serving them both, hasn't it?'
'We can't fight all that, Quick,' Kalam said. 'We had a rebellion. We put it down. What these damned gods and goddesses are up to – it's not our fight. Not the empire's fight, and that includes Laseen. She's not going to see all this as some kind of failure. Tavore did what she had to do and now we're going back, and then we'll get sent elsewhere.
