'Gossip. Indeed.'
'This is what you wanted to show me, then? This … hole?'
Bauchelain raised an eyebrow. 'Not precisely. This hole is but the entrance. We intend to visit the Jaghut tomb that lies below it.'
'Oponn's blessing to you, then,' Gruntle said, turning away.
'I imagine,' the man said behind him, 'that your master would urge you to accompany us.'
'He can urge all he likes,' the captain replied. 'I wasn't contracted to sink in a pool of mud.'
'We've no intention of getting covered in mud.'
Gruntle glanced back at him, crooked a wry grin. 'A figure of speech, Bauchelain. Apologies if you misunderstood.' He swung round again and made his way towards the trail. Then he stopped. 'You wanted to see Moon's Spawn, sirs?' He pointed.
Like a towering black cloud, the basalt fortress stood just above the south horizon.
Boots crunched on the ragged gravel, and Gruntle found himself standing between the two men, both of whom studied the distant floating mountain.
'Scale,' Bauchelain muttered, 'is difficult to determine. How far away is it?'
'I'd guess a league, maybe more. Trust me, sirs, it's close enough for my tastes. I've walked its shadow in Darujhistan — hard not to for a while there — and believe me, it's not a comforting feeling.'
'I imagine not. What is it doing here?'
Gruntle shrugged. 'Seems to be heading southeast-'
'Hence the tilt.'
'No. It was damaged over Pale. By mages of the Malazan Empire.'
'Impressive effort, these mages.'
'They died for it. Most of them, anyway. So I heard. Besides, while they managed to damage Moon's Spawn, its lord remains hale. If you want to call kicking a hole in a fence before getting obliterated by the man who owns the house "impressive", go right ahead.'
Korbal Broach finally spoke, his voice reedy and high-pitched. 'Bauchelain, does he sense us?'
His companion frowned, eyes still on Moon's Spawn, then shook his head. 'I detect no such attention accorded us, friend. But that is a discussion that should await a more private moment.'
'Very well. You don't want me to kill this caravan guard, then?'
Gruntle stepped away in alarm, half drawing his cutlasses. 'You'll regret the attempt,' he growled.
'Be calmed, Captain.' Bauchelain smiled. 'My partner has simple notions-'
'Simple as an adder's, you mean.'
'Perhaps. None the less, I assure you, you are perfectly safe.'
Scowling, Gruntle backed away down the trail. 'Master Keruli,' he whispered, 'if you're watching all this — and I think you are — I trust my bonus will be appropriately generous. And, if my advice is worth anything, I suggest we stride clear and wide of these two.'
Moments before he moved beyond sight of the crater, he saw Bauchelain and Korbal Broach turn their backs on him — and Moon's Spawn. They stared down into the hole for a brief span, then began the descent, disappearing from view.
Sighing, Gruntle swung about and made his way back to the camp, rolling his shoulders to release the tension that gripped him.
As he reached the road his gaze lifted once more, south-ward to find Moon's Spawn, hazy now with distance. 'You there, lord, I wish you had caught the scent of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, so you'd do to them what you did to the Jaghut Tyrant — assuming you had a hand in that. Preventative medicine, the cutters call it. I only pray we don't all one day come to regret your disinterest.'
Walking down the road, he glanced over to see Emancipor Reese, sitting atop the carriage, one hand stroking the ragged cat in his lap. Mange? Gruntle considered. Probably not.
The huge wolf circled the body, head low and turned inward to keep the unconscious mortal within sight of its lone eye.
The Warren of Chaos had few visitors. Among those few, mortal humans were rarest of all. The wolf had wandered this violent landscape for a time that was, to it, immeasurable. Alone and lost for so long, its mind had found new shapes born of solitude; the tracks of its thoughts twisted on seemingly random routes. Few would recognize awareness or intelligence in the feral gleam of its eye, yet they existed none the less.
The wolf circled, massive muscles rippling beneath the dull white fur. Head low and turned inward. Lone eye fixed on the prone human.
The fierce concentration was efficacious, holding the object of its attention in a state that was timeless — an accidental consequence of the powers the wolf had absorbed within this warren.