Return of the Crimson Guard

pulled Grief upright and he stood swaying, brushed the dust from his leathers. He cupped his neck in both hands, twisted his head side to side. ‘Well, now that that's out of the way maybe we can get out of here.’

‘What!’ came a bellow of consternation from above.

The inmates flinched away leaving a broad empty circle around the three Malazans. Su burst out laughing her contempt. ‘Difficult to kill, these two.’ She cocked her head, addressed Grief. ‘Come recruiting?’

Grief examined her up and down. ‘Wickan? Definitely.’

Yath arrived, his eyes wild. ‘What is this? Still alive?’ He gestured to the spearmen. ‘What are you waiting for? They are obviously a threat! Kill them now.’

Treat snatched a spear from the nearest, levelled it against Yath. Sessin was suddenly there to slap his hands on the haft just short of the knapped stone point. The two men yanked back and forth, spear between them, sandalled feet shifting in the dry dirt. ‘Stop this now!’ Ho shouted. Yath waved everyone back. The tug of war continued, Sessin grinning, his back hunched, Treat's mouth tight, eyes gauging. They strained, motionless, as if engaged in a pantomime of effort, until with an explosive report the spear burst in half between them. Each staggered backwards.

Yath raised a hand, shouted something in the Seven Cities dialect. He addressed Grief: ‘Who are you?’

‘An ally.’ Grief raised his voice to address everyone. ‘We've come to bring you all back to Quon to fight the Empire. What say you? Revenge against those who imprisoned you?’

Yath stared, eyes bulging, then he laughed his madman's laugh. ‘You idiot! What use can any of these old men and women be? What of the Otataral?’

Grief shrugged. ‘The Pit has long since been mined out. It's just a prison now. The little ore that remains that you have been digging out contains the barest trace element. And that raw, unrefined. It can be cleaned off.’

‘It's in the food!’ someone called out.

Again the shrug. ‘A change of diet. It will pass.’

Yath smoothed his beard, thinking. ‘If its presence is as mild as you say — then why can none of us draw upon the Warrens? Why is all theurgy closed to us?’

‘Proximity. It's our location here on the island. Once we get away it will come back.’

‘But we've been breathing it in!’ a voice objected.

‘There are many alchemical treatments, expectorants.’

‘That's true,’ someone said. ‘D'bayang powder inhaled with sufficient force can-’

‘Will you shut up!’ Yath snarled. He clasped his staff in both hands across his middle. ‘Believe me, Mezla, I want revenge upon your Empire more than you can possibly imagine. But we are down here in this — prison — as you name it and I do not see how you propose to get us out!’

Grief was rubbing and rolling a shoulder, grimacing. ‘Fair enough.’ He glanced around. ‘What time of day is it above?’

‘Before dawn,’ someone answered, nods all around.

‘OK. Let's go up to the mine-head and we'll have you lot out by dawn.’

Yath sneered. ‘Lies! Once there you'll call for the guards to rescue you.’

‘So stick us with your spears.’

Yath subsided, glowering, his mouth working. Su laughed her scorn. The two headed to the tunnel; everyone moved from their path.

Ho brought up the rear, waiting for Su. Once the rest of the inmates were sufficiently ahead he asked, ‘So, who are they then?’

The witch cast him a creamy self-satisfied look. ‘Have you not guessed by now?’

‘No. So, they're not Malazan.’

Her stick lashed him across his shin and he danced away, wincing. ‘Please! Of course they are Malazan. But then there are Malazans and then there are Malazans.’

‘I don't understand.’

‘Obviously.’

They walked along in silence for a time. ‘So they're with this secessionist movement we've been hearing of.’

Su waved him away like an annoying insect and headed off. At the long ascending tunnel he waited while she caught her breath. ‘I am old,’ she said suddenly. ‘Strange how those of us who have benefited from manipulating the Warrens, or by ritual, to linger on — continue to do so here in the mines?’ Ho did not answer; what was there to say? That it was a mystery? For a time I feared I would spend eternity here. Or until the wind eroded the island down around me and I could simply walk away. Do you have no such fears?’

Ho shook his head. ‘I've never thought about it.’

She studied him keenly once more, frowning. ‘You have no imagination, Ho. In fact, you lack many things that would make a man whole.’

‘Is that an insult?’

‘A temper, for example. I don't recall ever seeing you angry. Where did your temper walk off to, magus? Your ambition? Your drive?’

‘That subject's closed, Su,’ he growled and headed off.

He waited for her where the sloping tunnel met the side gallery. From here they walked along side by side, though quiet. They met no one. Coming to the main gallery they found this deserted as well. Ho wondered if Grief and Treat had already whisked everyone off — perhaps they'd dug a tunnel climbing all the way to the surface, with toothpicks.

The murmur of many voices, however, reached them from the round mine-head. A milling mass of what appeared to be the entire Pit's population, all talking, mixing, exchanging opinions and rumours. Ho caught the eye of the nearest. ‘What's going on?’

‘Two of the newcomers climbed the wall.’

Ho's brows rose. ‘Really.’ Just as they'd said. ‘But everyone's tried that.’

A helpless wave. ‘Apparently one had two short sticks that he jabbed into the wall, climbing like that, one then the other. The second followed along his path, punching and kicking the holes deeper.’ Ho thought of the short batons he'd seen Grief whittling. So not weapons after all.

‘Since then?’ Su asked.

‘Nothing. Silence. Yath says they've run off.’

‘He would say that.’ There was something pathological about that man's hatred. If they did get out he'd have to keep an eye on him. Who knew what he might try; he'd already attempted murder.

Grating and ratcheting above announced the hanging platform moving. All talking stopped. A number of inmates fled the mine-head, perhaps afraid it was the guards on their way to bash heads. Ho thought it possible, but unlikely. Why come down here to dirty their hands when they could just withhold food?

As the platform descended it became obvious that it held only one occupant, Grief. After it touched down, rather clumsily, he unclipped a safety rope and waved an invitation. ‘Five at a time, please.’

No one spoke, or moved. Faces turned to examine one another in wonderment as if searching for some clue as to what next to do. Grief frowned his disappointment. ‘Well, aren't you all an eager lot. Don't trample anyone.’

Taking a steadying breath, Ho stepped forward. ‘What happened up there, Grief?’

‘C'mon up. Take a look around.’

‘I'll come,’ said a female inmate, stepping up. Ho recognized her as another of the latest newcomers who had arrived with Grief and Treat. Three other inmates joined them. On the platform, Ho asked the woman, ‘You know each other?’

She looked Grief up and down. ‘No.’

Grief pulled a cord strung among the fat hemp rope suspending the platform and shortly afterwards the mechanism jerked upwards, climbing. Ho saw that two mismatched swords now hung at the man's belt.

The grey, yellow and gold sedimentary layers of the excavated rock edged past as they rose. The rope creaked alarmingly. Ho glanced down, thinking, how many decades kicking through that dust? Six? Seven? Had he simply lost count? Somehow the future now alarmed him. What would he do? Where would he go? He'd gone too long now without even having to consider such questions. He eyed Grief; not a mark on the man and how many