'Do you know,' Itkovian asked her, 'what is about to occur?'
'Probably nothing,' she snapped, swinging up into her saddle. 'Gruntle must've bumped his head-'
She got no further, as before them Gruntle and his legion seemed to blur, to meld together in an indistinct flicker of barbed stripes, a single form, massive, low to the ground — that suddenly flowed forward, cat-like, and was gone in the night.
'Bern fend!' Stonny hissed. 'After it!' she cried, driving heels to her horse's flanks.
And so they had ridden, hard.
They passed by Brood's encampment, had noted that it was rousing, even though dawn was still a bell away, with considerable haste.
They witnessed, without a word exchanged between them, the flash and flare of sorcery in the sky to the southwest.
Occasionally, through the darkness, they caught a glimpse of the huge creature they pursued, the dull flicker of yellow, black-slashed, moving as if through impossibly high grasses, as if beneath jungle fronds, webbed in shadows, a fluid hint of motion, deadly in its speed and in its silence.
Then the sky began to lighten, and the horizon to the south was revealed, stands of trees, the trader road wending between them.
Still the striped beast defied the eye, evaded sharp detection as it reached the parkland's hills.
Lathered, mouths coughing foam, the horses thundered on, hooves pounding heavy and ragged. Neither animal would ever recover from this ordeal, Itkovian knew. Indeed, their deaths waited only for the journey's end.
Brave and magnificent, and he wondered if the sacrifice was worth it.
They rode the track between coppiced stands, the path gently rising towards what Itkovian judged to be an escarpment of some kind.
Then, directly ahead, wagons. A few figures, turning to watch them approach.
If they had seen the creature, they showed no sign — no alarms had been raised, all seemed calm.
Itkovian and Stonny rode past the Malazan rearguard.
The crackle of sorcery — close.
Soldiers lined the ridge before them, an army assembled, facing south — now breaking into disorganized motion. Dismay struck Itkovian with palpable force, a flood of raw pain, of immeasurable loss.
He reeled in his saddle, forced himself upright once more. Urgency thundered through him, now, sudden, overwhelming.
Stonny was shouting, angling her stumbling horse to the right, leaving the road, approaching a hilltop where stood the Malazan standard, drooped in the windless air. Itkovian followed, but slower, drawing back. His soul was drowning in cold horror.
His horse surrendered its gallop, staggered, head thrusting out. Canter to a weaving, loose walk, then halting, slowly drawing square-footed twenty paces from the hill's base.
Then dying.
Numbed, Itkovian slipped his boots from the stirrups, drew an aching leg over the beast's rump, then dropped down to the ground.
On the hill to his right, he saw Stonny, stumbling free from her horse — the slope had defeated it — and clambering upward. Gruntle and his troop had arrived, human once again, crowding the hill, yet seemingly doing nothing.
Itkovian turned his gaze away, began walking along one side of the road, which had straightened for the final, downhill approach to the killing field, and the city beyond.
Cold horror.
His god was gone. His god could not deflect it as it had once done, months ago, on a plain west of Capustan.
Loss and sorrow, such as he had never felt before.
He walked, seeing nothing of the soldiers to his left and right, stepping clear of the uneven line, leaving behind the army that now stood, weapons lowered, broken before the battle had even begun — broken by a man's death.
Itkovian was oblivious. He reached the slope, continued on.
Down.
Down to where the T'lan Imass waited in ranks before eight hundred K'Chain Che'Malle.
The T'lan Imass, who, as one, slowly turned round.
Warrens flared on the hilltop.
Bellowing, Gruntle ordered his followers to take position on the south slope. He stood, motionless after so long, still trembling from the god's power. The promise of murder filled him, impassive yet certain, a predator's intent that he had felt once before, in a city far to the north.
His vision was too sharp, every motion tugging at his attention. He realized he had his cutlasses in his hands.
He watched Orfantal stride from a warren, Brood appearing behind him. He saw Stonny Menackis, looking down on three corpses. Then the warlord was pushing past her, sparing but a single glance at the bodies on his way to where a fourth body lay — closer to where Gruntle stood. A Tiste Andii woman. Two figures crouched beside her, flesh rent, one whose soul still writhed in the grip of savage, chaotic sorcery. The other … Silverfox, round face streaked with tears.
He saw Kruppe, flanked by Hetan and Cafal. The Daru was pale, glassy-eyed, and seemed moments from unconsciousness. Strange, that, for it was not grief that so assailed the Daru. He saw Hetan suddenly reach for him even as he collapsed.
But the man Gruntle was looking for was nowhere to be seen.
He strode to the south crest to observe the positioning of his legion. They were readying weapons. Assembling below them were the Grey Swords, clearly preparing to advance on the city-a city shrouded in smoke, lit with the flash of sorcery, of munitions, a city ripping itself apart-
Gruntle's hunting gaze found the man.
Itkovian.
Walking towards the T'lan Imass.
A sharp cry sounded from the hilltop behind Gruntle, and he turned to see Silverfox straightening from Korlat's side, wheeling round-But the tens of thousands of T'lan Imass faced Itkovian now.
Gruntle watched his friend's steps slow, then stop when he was twenty paces from the undead warriors.
Silverfox screamed in comprehension, began running-
He felt his god's horror, burgeoning to overwhelm his own-
As the T'lan Imass made reply.
Falling to their knees. Heads bowing.
And, now, it was far too late.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
There can be no true rendition of betrayal, for the moment hides within itself, sudden, delivering such comprehension that one would surrender his or her own soul to deny all that has come to pass. There can be no
