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‘Perhaps it likes company,’ Nok observed ‘The island’s fishermen all swear the harbour’s haunted, after all The frequency hich nets are lost-’

‘Ad on the dead hearth, ‘there is you, and three others All who are left’

Gae Tayschrenn, Dujek Onearods, is that all now? Tattersail, Bellurdan, Nightchill, Duiker … sothe Adjunct He had stood against the wrath of the Empress, first with Cartheron Crust’s disappearance, then Urko’s and Ao

‘I do not speak for the Empress,’ Tavore said after a moment ‘Nor am I interested in… details What interests me is… a matter of personal… curiosity I would seek to understand, Admiral, why they abandoned her’

There was silence, filling the roo like an impasse Gamet leaned back and closed his eyes Ah, lass, you ask questions of… of loyalty, as would someone who has never experienced it You reveal to this admiral what can only be construed as a critical flaw You command the Fourteenth Ar the very barricades you must needs take down if you would truly lead What does Nok think of this, now? Is it any wonder he does not -

‘The answer to your question,’ the adth and a flaw of the Eathered to raise an ean with but one companion-Dancer The two then hired a handful of locals in Malaz City and set about conquering the criminal element in the city-I should point out, that criet was Mock, Malaz Island’s unofficial ruler A pirate, and a cold-blooded killer’

‘Who were these first hirelings, Admiral?’

‘Myself, Ameron, Dujek, a woman named Hawl-my wife I had been First Mate to a corsair that worked the sea lanes around the Napan Isles-which had just been annexed by Unta and were providing a staging point for the Untan king’s planned invasion of Kartool We’d taken a beating and had limped into Malaz Harbour, only to have the ship and its crew arrested by Mock, as negotiating a trade of prisoners with Unta Only Ameron and Hawl and I escaped A lad named Dujek discovered where ere holed up and he delivered us to his new employers Kellanved and Dancer’

‘Was this before they were granted entry into the Deadhouse?’ Gamet asked

‘Aye, but only just Our residency in the Deadhouse rewarded us with-as is now clearly evident-certain gifts Longevity, is The Deadhouse also provided us with an unassailable base of operations Dancer later bolstered our nuee Napans who’d fled the conquest: Cartheron Crust and his brother, Urko And Surly-Laseen Three more men were to follow shortly thereafter Toc Elder, Dassem Ultor-as, like Kellanved, of Dal Honese blood-and a renegade High Septarch of the D’rek Cult, Tayschrenn And finally, Duiker’ He half smiled at Tavore ‘The family With which Kellanved conquered Malaz Island Swiftly done, with minimal losses…’

Minimal … ‘Your wife,’ Ga ed and continued, ‘To answer you, Adjunct Unknown to the rest of us, the Napans aees Surly was of the royal line Crust and Urko had been captains in the Napan fleet, a fleet that would have likely repelled the Untans if it hadn’t been virtually destroyed by a sudden storular purpose-to crush the Untan hege Kellanved to achieve that In a sense, that was the first betrayal within the family, the first fissure Easily healed, it seemed, since Kellanved already possessed imperial ambitions, and of the two major rivals on the mainland, Unta was by far the fiercest’

‘Admiral,’ Tavore said, ‘I see where this leads Surly’s assassination of Kellanved and Dancer shattered that fa falters Surly had taken the Napan cause to its penultimate conclusion Yet it was not you, not Tayschrenn, Duiker, Dassem Ultor or Toc Elder who… disappeared It was… Napans ’

‘Barring Ameron,’ Gamet pointed out

The admiral’s lined face stretched as he bared his teeth in a hurin ‘Ameron was half-Napan’