Tehol Beddict and his manservant were standing on the side overlooking the canal, their backs to Shurq as she approached. Tehol glanced over a shoulder and gave her a warm smile. He looked… different.
‘Tehol Beddict,’ she said as she came to stand beside him, ‘one of your eyes is blue.’
‘Is it? Must be some kind of nefarious infection, Shurq, since I can barely see with it besides.’
‘It’ll clear up in time,’ Bugg said.
‘So,’ Shurq said, ‘have you resumed plotting the end of civilization, Tehol?’
‘I have, and a delicious end it will be.’
She grunted. ‘I’ll send you Shand, Hejun and Rissarh, then-’
‘Don’t you dare. Deliver them to the islands. I work better alone.’
‘Alone?’
‘Well, with Bugg here, of course. Every man needs a manservant, after all.’
‘I imagine so. Well, I am here, then, to say goodbye.’
‘Off for some pirating, are we?’
‘Why not? I’m simply elaborating on a well-established career.’
Tehol looked to Bugg, and said, ‘The thief who sank…’
‘… has resurfaced,’ Bugg finished.
The two men smiled at each other.
Shurq Elalle turned away. ‘Well, that’s one thing I won’t miss.’
After she was gone, Tehol and Bugg stared out for a while longer at the reawakening city of Letheras. The city occupied, the throne usurped, strangers in the streets looking rather… lost.
The two-headed insect clung to Tehol’s shoulder and would not move. After a time, Tehol rubbed at his weak eye and sighed. ‘You know, Bugg, I am glad you didn’t do it.’
‘Do what?’
‘Make me forget.’
‘I figured you could handle it.’
‘You’re right. I can. At least, this way, I can grieve.’
‘In your own way.’
‘In my own way, yes. The only way I know how.’
‘I know, master.’
A short while later, Bugg turned about and walked towards the hatch. ‘I’ll be back shortly.’
‘Right. And when you do, clean up down there.’
The manservant paused at the hatch, considered, then said, ‘I think I will find the time to do just that, master.’
‘Excellent. Now I’m going to bed.’
‘Good idea, master.’
‘Well, of course it is, Bugg. It’s mine, isn’t it?’
EPILOGUE
And it is this moment, my friends, When you must look away, As the world unfurls anew In shapes announced both bright And sordid, in dark and light And the sprawl of all existence That lies between.
Fisher kel Tath
THE HOLE WAS VAST AND DEEP. THE TWO KENRYLL’AH DEMON PRINCES stood at its edge, staring down into it, as they had been for some time.
Finally, one said, ‘How far down do you think it goes, brother?’
‘I suspect, brother,’ the other replied, ‘if we were to vacate our bladders into this abyss the streams would fray into mist long before they reached bottom.’
‘I suspect you are right. And that Forkrul Assail went down there, didn’t he?’
‘He did. Head first.’
‘You shouldn’t have thrown him, then.’
‘You are wrong, brother. I simply threw him in the wrong direction.’
‘That, or the world suddenly turned.’
‘Unlikely. This place doesn’t do things like that.’
‘You’re right. It is proving exceedingly dull, isn’t it?’
‘Exceedingly.’
‘Well, shall we?’
‘Why not?’
The two demons began loosening straps on their ornate baldrics. Dropping flaps. Shifting their stances to adequate width.
And they stood there, side by side, until, perfectly timed, their flows were done.
The storm had risen sudden, impressively fierce as it raged on the seas. Three Nachts huddled at his feet, Withal stood on the beach, feeling the faint wisps of wind that managed to reach through the sorcerous barrier surrounding the island, brushing against his face like a woman’s breath.
A sweet woman, to be more precise. Unlike the one standing beside him. This tall, iron-eyed, foul-mouthed, humourless apparition who followed him around and never seemed to sleep and certainly would not let him sleep, not a single damned night the whole night through, not once. Always asking, asking and asking. What are you going to do? Besides praying ?
Well, what else could he do?