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’Well, how long do you think that will take?’

The Rhivi shrugged ’It will be done when it is done’

The second three hundred bhederin rumbled their way up the causeway The herders moved to meet them

Gruntle heard aback The Daru turned in ti shirt pulled up around a hefty pile of dung, run full tilt past, onto the rale Rhivi herder, who had clearly been left to guard the dung, lay sprawled beside the looted heap, unconscious, the red irinned over at the old herder, as juside him ’Sir, did you see that?’

’No, alas, just the tail end’

’That punch came out of nowhere -- I did not even see him step close The poor Rhivi dropped like a sack of … of-’

’Dung?’

After a long ht it would never come -- Itkovian smiled

Rain clouds had rolled in fro iron helh force to shatter into rey wall, the trader road churned to clingingdown through his visor -- which he had lowered in an only partially successful atteled to er had called hi barely heard words concerning a broken axle, the train halted in disarray, injured animals At the moment, all he could , slipping, knotting ropes and shouting inaudibly to each other, and at least three wagons buried to their axles on what had once been the road but had since turned into a river ofpulled clear on the far side, the beasts bellowing

He sat on his horse, watching There was no point in cursing the fickle vagaries of nature, nor the failure of over-burdened wagons, nor even the pace which they all laboured under Hiswhat needed to be done, despite the apparent chaos The squall was likely to be shortlived, given the season, and the sun’s thirst was fierce None the less, he wondered which gods had conspired against hile day of this frantic march had passed without incident -- and not one of those incidents had yielded mercy to their desires

It would be two more days, at the very least, before they reached Coral Whiskeyjack had received no communication from Quick Ben since before Maurik, and the wizard, Paran and the Bridgeburners had been still half a night’s travel from Coral’s environs at that time He was sure they had reached the city by noas equally certain that Dujek and his co in for the rendezvous If a battle was to co his horse round, nudged the weary beast along the track’s edge to return to the vanguard Night was fast approaching, and they would have to stop, at least for a few bells He would then have soours of this march had kept them apart far too often, and while he and Korlat held to the belief that her Lord, Anomander Rake, could not yet be counted out, she had assu her Tiste Andii kin in all respects -- cold, remote, focused exclusively on the disposition of her brothers and sisters

They were, under her direction, exploring Kurald Galain, their Warren of Darkness, drawing upon its power in an effort to purge it of the Crippled God’s infection Whiskeyjack had seen, upon their shortlived, infrequent reappearances, the cost borne by Orfantal and the other Tiste Andii But Korlat wanted Kurald Galain’s poithin reach -- without fear of corruption -- by the tie had come to her, he sensed Some bleak resolve had hardened all that ithin her Perhaps it was the possible death of Anomander Rake that had forced such induration upon her spirit Or, perhaps, it was their future paths they had so naively entwined without regard for the harsh demands of the real world The past was ever restless, for them both

Whiskeyjack, in his heart, was certain that Anomander Rake was not dead Nor even lost In the half-dozen late-night conversations he had shared with the Lord of Moon’s Spawn, the Malazan had acquired a sense of the Tiste Andii: despite the alliances, including the long-term partnership with Caladan Brood, Anoical independence He was indifferent to the needs of others, for whatever reassurance or confirht expect or demand He said he would be there for the assault on Coral, and so he will