'Well, they ain't consistent, if that's what you're wondering. There's breaks – other maps of other places, I guess. It's all jumbled, but I'd say the scale was the same on all of them.'
Fiddler slowly straightened. 'But that means ...' His voice trailed into silence, as he looked out upon this endless floor, stretching for leagues in every direction. Every god in the Abyss! Are these all the realms? Every world – every place home to a House of the Azath? Queen of Dreams, what power is this?
'Within the warren of the Azath,' Mappo said, his tone one of awe, 'you could go ... anywhere.'
'Are you sure of that?' Crokus asked. 'Here are the maps, yes, but –' he pointed down at the tile displaying the continent of Quon Tali – 'where's the gate? The way in?'
No-one spoke for a long moment, then Fiddler cleared his throat. 'You got an idea, lad?'
The Daru shrugged. 'Maps are maps – this one could be sitting on a tabletop, if you see my point.'
'So what do you suggest?'
'Ignore it. The only thing these tiles signify is that every House, in every place, is part of a pattern, a grand design. But even knowing that doesn't mean we can actually make sense of it. The Azath is beyond even the gods. We can end up getting lost in suppositions, in a mental game that takes us nowhere.'
'That's true enough,' the sapper grunted. 'And we're nowhere closer to figuring out which direction to walk in.'
'Perhaps Iskaral Pust has the right idea,' Apsalar said. Her boots grated on the tiles as she turned. 'Alas, he seems to have disappeared.'
Crokus spun around. 'Damn that bastard!'
The High Priest of Shadow, who had been ceaselessly circling them, was indeed nowhere to be seen. Fiddler grimaced. 'So he figured it out and didn't bother explaining before taking his leave—'
'Wait!' Mappo said. He set Icarium down, then took a dozen paces. 'Here,' he said. 'Hard to make out at first but now I see it clearly.'
The Trell seemed to be staring at something at his feet. 'What have you found?' Fiddler asked.
'Come closer – almost impossible to see otherwise, though that makes little sense ...'
The others approached.
A gaping hole yawned, a ragged gap where Iskaral Pust had simply fallen through and vanished. Fiddler knelt, edging closer to the hole. 'Hood's breath!' he groaned. The tiles were no more than an inch thick. Beneath them was not solid ground. Beneath them there was ... nothing.
'Is that the way out, do you think?' Mappo asked behind him.
The sapper edged back, the slick tiles suddenly feeling like the thinnest ice. 'Damned if I know, but I don't plan on jumping in and finding out.'
'I share your caution,' the Trell rumbled. He turned back to where Icarium lay and gathered his companion once again in his arms.
'That hole might spread,' Crokus said. 'I suggest we get moving. Any direction, just away from here.'
Apsalar hesitated. 'And Iskaral Pust? Perhaps he's lying unconscious on a ledge or something?'
'Not a chance,' Fiddler replied. 'From what I saw, the poor man's still falling. One look and every bone in me screamed oblivion. I think I'll trust my instincts on this one, lass.'
'A sad demise,' she said. 'I had grown almost fond of him.'
Fiddler nodded. 'Our very own pet scorpion, aye.'
Crokus took the lead as they moved away from the hole. Had they waited a few minutes longer, they would have seen a dull yellow mist rise from the gaping darkness, thickening until it was opaque. The mist remained for a time, then it began to dissipate, and when it finally vanished, so too had the hole – as if it had never been. The mosaic was complete once more.
Deadhouse. Malaz City, the heart of the Malazan Empire. There is nothing for us there. More, an explanation that made sense would challenge even my experienced inventiveness. We must, I fear, take our leave.
Somehow.
But this is far beyond me-this warren – and worse, my crimes are like wounds that refuse to close. I cannot escape my cowardice. In the end – and all here know it, though they do not speak of it – my selfish desires made a mockery of my integrity, my vows. I had a chance to see the threat ended, ended for ever.
How can friendship defeat such an opportunity? How can the comfort of familiarity rise up like a god, as if change itself had become something demonic? I am a coward – the offer of freedom, the sighing end to a lifetime's vow, proved the greatest terror of all.