Kalam scowled. 'All right, I'm less surprised than I should be.'
'Then you're an idiot. He did it by having a conversation with Hood.'
'How do you know?'
'I was there, listening in. At Hood's Gate.'
'What were you doing hanging around there?'
'We were all going to die, weren't we?'
'Oh, so you wanted to beat the rush?'
'Hilarious, Kalam. No, I was planning on doing some bargaining, but that's irrelevant now. Ended up, it was Paran who did the bargaining.
Hood said something. He wants something – by his own damned breath, it shocked me, let me tell you-'
'So do that.'
'No. I need to think.'
Kalam closed his eyes and leaned back against the bale. It smelled of oats. 'Ganoes Paran.' A pause, then, 'Do you think she knows?'
'Who, Tavore?'
'Yes, who else?'
'I have no idea. Wouldn't surprise me. Nothing about her would surprise me, in fact. She might even be listening in right now-'
'Wouldn't you sense that?'
'Kalam, something's wandering through this fleet tonight, and it isn't pleasant, whatever it is. I keep feeling it brush by… close, then, before I can grab it by the throat, it whispers away again.'
'So, you are hiding down here!'
'Of course not. Not any more, I mean. Now I'm staying here, in order to lay a trap.'
'A trap. Right. Very clever, High Mage.'
'It is. For the next time it sidles close.'
'Do you really expect me to believe that?'
'Believe what you like, Kalam. What do I care, even if it's my oldest friend who no longer trusts me-'
'For Hood's sake, Quick Ben, I've never trusted you!'
'Now that's hurtful. Wise, but still hurtful.'
'Tell me something, Quick, exactly how did you manage hiding at Hood's Gate, with both Paran and the god himself standing there?'
A sniff. 'They were distracted, of course. Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight.'
'And between them, they saved the world.'
'Gave the rock a nudge, Kal. The rest belonged to someone else. Don't know who, or what. But I will tell you one thing, those falling suns, they were filled with voices.'
'Voices?'
'Enormous pieces of stone. Jade, sailing down from the stars. And in those broken mountains or whatever they were, there were souls.
Millions of souls, Kalam. I heard them.'
Gods, no wonder you hid down here, Quick. 'That's… uncanny. You're sending shivers all through me.'
'I know. I feel the same way.'
'So, how did you hide from Hood?'
'I was part of the Gate, of course. Just another corpse, just another staring face.'
'Hey, now that was clever.'
'Wasn't it?'
'What was it like, among all those bones and bodies and stuff?'
'Kind of… comforting…'
I can see that. Kalam scowled again. Hold on… I wonder… is there maybe something wrong with us? 'Quick, you and me.'
'Yes?'
'I think we're insane.'
'You're not.'
'What do you mean?'
'You're too slow. You can't be insane if you only just realized that we're insane. Understand?'
'No.'
'As I said, then.'
'Well,' the assassin grunted, 'that's a relief.'
'For you, yes. Shh!' The wizard's hand clutched Kalam's arm. 'It's back!' he hissed. 'Close!'
'Within reach?' Kalam asked in a whisper.
'Gods, I hope not!'
****
A solitary resident in this cabin, and in the surrounding alcoves and cubby berths, a cordon of Red Blades, fiercely protective of their embittered, broken commander, although none elected to share the Fist' s quarters, despite the ship's crowded conditions. Beyond those soldiers, the Khundryl Burned Tears, seasick one and all, filling the air below-decks with the sour reek of bile.
And so he remained alone. Wreathed by his own close, fetid air, no lantern light to beat back the dark, and this was well. For all that was outside matched what was inside, and Fist Tene Baralta told himself, again and again, that this was well.
Y'Ghatan. The Adjunct had sent them in, under strength, knowing there would be slaughter. She didn't want the damned veterans and their constant gnawing at her command. She wanted to be rid of the Red Blades, and the marines – soldiers like Cuttle and Fiddler. She had probably worked it out, conspiring with Leoman himself. That conflagration, its execution had been too perfect, too well-timed.
