A buzzing, frenzied sound reached them, coming from the smoky air above the town. The sound grew louder. Sinker Lake's smooth surface vanished beneath what seemed a spray of hailstones.
Felisin crouched lower in fear. 'What is it? What's happening?'
Heboric was silent a moment, then he hissed, 'Bloodflies! Drawn, then driven, by the fires. Quickly, lass, scoop up mud — cover yourself! And then me. Hurry!'
Glittering clouds of the insects swept into view, racing like gusts of fog.
Frantic, Felisin dug her fingers into the cool mud between the reed stems, slapping handfuls against her neck, arms, face. As she worked she crawled forward on her knees until she sat in the lake water, then she turned to Heboric. 'Come closer!'
He scrambled to her side. 'They'll dive through the water, girl — you need to get out of there — cover your legs in mud!'
'Once I'm done with you,' she said.
But it was too late. All at once the air was almost unbreathable as a cloud engulfed them. Bloodflies shot down into the water like darts. Pain lanced through her thighs.
Heboric pushed her hands away, then ducked down. 'Mind yourself, lass!'
The command was unnecessary, as all thoughts of helping Heboric had vanished with the first savage bite. Felisin leapt from the water, clawed gouges of mud free and slapped them down on her blood-smeared thighs. She quickly added more down to her calves, her ankles and feet. Insects crawled through her hair. Whimpering, she clawed them away, then covered her head with mud. Bloodflies rode her drawn gasps into her mouth, biting as she gagged and spat. She found herself biting down, crunching them, and their bitter juices burned like acid. They were everywhere, blinding her as they gathered in frenzied clumps around her eyes. Screaming, she scraped them away, then reached down and found more mud. Soothing darkness, yet her screaming did not stop, would not stop. The insects were at her ears. She filled them with mud. Silence.
Handless arms wrapped tight around her, Heboric's voice reaching her as if from a great distance away. 'It's all right, lass — it's all right. You can stop screaming, Felisin. You can stop.'
She had curled into a ball amidst the reeds. The pain of the bites was passing to numbness — on her legs, around her eyes and ears, and in her mouth. Cool, soft numbness. She heard herself fall silent.
'The swarm's passing,' Heboric said. 'Fener's blessing too fierce a touch for them. We're all right, lass. Wipe clear your eyes — see for yourself.'
She made no move. It was too easy to lie still, the numbness spreading through her.
'Wake up!' Heboric snapped. 'There's an egg in every bite, each secreting a poison that deadens, turns your flesh into something soft. And dead. Food for the larvae inside those eggs. You understanding me, lass? We need to kill those eggs — I've a tincture, in the pouch at my belt — but you'll need to apply it yourself, right? An old man without hands can't do it for you-'
She moaned.
'Wake up, damn you!'
He struck her, pushed, then kicked. Cursing, Felisin sat up. 'Stop it, I'm awake!' Her words slurred passing through her numbed mouth. 'Where is that pouch?'
'Here. Open your eyes!'
She could barely see through the puffed swelling, but a strange blue penumbra rising from Heboric's tattoos illuminated the scene. He was unbitten.
He gestured at the pouch at his belt. 'Quickly, those eggs are about to hatch, then the larvae will start eating you — from the inside out. Open the pouch … there, the black bottle, the small one. Open it!'
She removed the stopper. A bitter smell made her recoil.
'One drop, on your fingertip, then push that drop right into the wound, push it hard. Then the next one and the next-'
'I–I can't feel the ones around my eyes-'
'I'll guide you, lass. Hurry.'
The horror did not end. The tincture, a foul, dark-brown juice that stained her skin yellow, did not kill the emerging larvae, but drove them out. Heboric directed her hands to the ones around her eyes and ears as each sluggishly wriggled free, and she plucked them from the holes made by the bites, each larva as long as a nail clipping, limp with the soporific effect of the tincture. The bites she could see illustrated what was happening around her eyes and ears. In her mouth, the tincture's bitterness overrode the bloodfly larvae's poison, making her head spin and her heart beat alarmingly fast. The larvae fell like grains of rice onto her tongue. She spat them out.
'I'm sorry, Felisin,' Heboric said after she had done. He was examining the bites around her eyes, his expression filled with compassion.
A chill ran through her. 'What's wrong? Will I go blind? Deaf? What is it, Heboric!'
He shook his head, slowly sat back. 'Bloodfly bites … the deadening poison kills the flesh. You'll heal, but there will be pockmarks. I'm so sorry, lass. It's bad around your eyes. It's bad.. '
She almost laughed, her head reeling. Another shiver rippled through her and she hugged herself. 'I've seen those. Locals. Slaves. Here and there-'
'Aye. Normally, bloodflies don't swarm. It must have been the flames. Now listen, a good enough healer — someone with High Denul — can remove the scarring. We'll find ourselves such a healer, Felisin. I swear it, by Fener's tusks, I swear it.'
'I feel sick.'
'That's the tincture. Rapid heart, chills, nausea. It's the juice of a plant native to Seven Cities. If you drank down what's left in that tiny bottle you'd be dead in minutes.'
This time she did laugh, the sound shaky and brittle. 'I might welcome Hood's Gates, Heboric' She squinted at him. The blue glow was fading. 'Fener must be very forgiving.'
He frowned at that. 'I can make no sense of it, to be honest. I can think of more than one High Priest to Fener who'd choke at the suggestion that the boar god was … forgiving.' He sighed. 'But it seems you're right.'
'You might want to offer thanks. A sacrifice.'
'I might,' he growled, looking away.
'It must have been a great offence that drove you from your god, Heboric.'
He did not reply. After a moment he rose, eyes on the flame-wracked town. 'Riders coming.'
She sat up straighter, still too dizzy to stand. 'Beneth?'
He shook his head.
Moments later a troop of Malazans rode up, halting directly opposite Heboric and Felisin. At the head was Captain Sawark. A Dosii blade had laid open one cheek. His uniform was wet and dark with blood. Felisin involuntarily shrank back from his cold lizard eyes as they fixed on her.
He finally spoke, 'When you're up on the rim. . look south.'
Heboric cursed softly in surprise. 'You're letting us go? Thank you, Captain.'
His face darkened. 'Not for you, old man. It's seditious bastards like you that are the cause of all this. I'd rather spit you on a spear right now.' He made as if to say something more, his eyes finding Felisin once again, but instead he simply reined his mount around.
The two fugitives watched the troop ride back into Skullcup. They were heading for a battle. Felisin knew this instinctively. Another sourceless certainty told her, in a whisper, that they would all die. Captain Sawark. Pella. Every Malazan. She glanced over at Heboric. The man looked thoughtful as he watched the troop reach the edge of town, then vanish into the smoke.
A moment later Baudin rose from a bed of reeds nearby.
Felisin clambered to her feet and stepped towards him. 'Where's Beneth?'
'Dead, lass.'
'You — you…' Her words were drowned out in a flood of pain rising up within her, an anguish more thorough in shattering her than anything she'd yet suffered. She staggered back a step.
Baudin's small, flat eyes held steady on her.
Heboric cleared his throat. 'We'd best hurry. Dawn's not far off, and while I doubt our crossing the lake is likely to be noticed, there's no point in making our intentions obvious. After all, we're Malazan.' He strode down to the waiting bladders. 'The plan is to wait out the coming day at the other end of the reach, then set out after
