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’Enough to alleviate the potential threat? You must make Brood understand, Korlat, that what the two souls once were is nothing to what they have beco child, the Mhybe continued, ’She was created within the influence of a T’lan I threads, and were so woven by an Imass bonecaster -- a bonecaster of flesh and blood, Korlat This child belongs to the T’lan Imass She may well be clothed in the flesh of a Rhivi, and she es, but she is now a Soletaken, and es of what she will become Tell me, what need have the immortal T’lan Imass for a flesh and blood Bonecaster?’
Korlat’s grimace ry ’I am not the person to ask’
’Nor are the Malazans’
’Are you certain of that? Did not the T’lan Imass march under Malazan banners?’
’Yet they do so no longer, Korlat What hidden breach exists between theht lie beneath all that the Malazans advise? We have no way of guessing, have we?’
’I iine Caladan Brood is aware of such possibilities,’ the Tiste Andii said drily ’In any case, you may witness and partake in these ent approaches, and the Warlord seeks your presence at the parley’
The Mhybe turned about Caladan Brood’s encaanized as usual Mercenary ele the centre, and her own Rhivi camps and the bhederin herds to the east The h the cities of Cat and then Patch, and finally onto the south-wending old Rhivi Trail crossing the plain that was the Rhivi’s traditional ho ar fro in black-specked silence, horror descending on our camps our sacred herds
Yet noe are to clasp wrists with our enemy With the Malazan invaders and the cold-blooded Moranth, we are to weave braids of e -- our two ar, but a e not in the name of peace No, these warriors now seek another enemy, a new enemy …
Beyond Brood’s army to the south rose the recentlyreminder of Malazan sorceries A knot of riders had just departed frorey banner announcing their outlawry for all to see as they slowly rode across the bare killing ground towards Brood’s encaaze narrowed suspiciously on that pennant Old woman, your fears are a curse Think not of mistrust, think not of the horrors visited upon us by these once-invaders Dujek Onearm and his Host have been outlawed by the hated Eins Spirits below, shall we ever see an end to war?
The child joined the tolanced down at her, saithin the steady, unwavering eyes of the girl a knowledge and wisdom that seemed born of millennia -- and perhaps it was indeed so Here we three stand, for all to see -- a child of ten or eleven years, a woe with unhuman eyes, and a bent old woman -- and it is, in every detail, an illusion, for what lies within us is reversed I am the child The Tiste Andii has known thousands of years of life, and the girl hundreds of thousands
Korlat had also looked down at the child The Tiste Andii smiled ’Did you enjoy your play, Silverfox?’
’For a tily low ’But I grew sad’
Korlat’s brows rose ’And why is that?’
’There was once a sacred trust here -- between these hills and spirits of the Rhivi It is now broken The spirits were naught but untethered vessels of loss and pain The hills will not heal’
The Mhybe felt her blood turn to ice Increasingly, the child was revealing a sensitivity to rival the wisest shoulderwo the tribes Yet there was a certain coolness to that sensitivity, as if a hidden intent lay behind every cohter?’
Silverfox shrugged ’It is no longer necessary’
Such as now ’What do you irl smiled up at the Mhybe ’If we are to witness the parley, Mother, we’d best hurry’
The place ofwas thirty paces beyond the outermost pickets, situated on a low rise The recent barrows that had been raised to dispose of the dead after the fall of Pale were visible to the west The Mhybe wondered if those countless victi before her Spirits are born of spilled blood, after all And without propitiation, they often twist into inihtmare visions and filled with spite Is it only the Rhivi who know these truths?