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Besides, this champion would taste blood… and soon

For the s to unravel…

Limbs stiff as death But the heart laboured on

A shadow slipping over Kalam’s face awakened hie of an oldbehind waves of heat Dal Honese, hairless, jutting ears, his expression twisted into a scowl ‘I was looking for you!’ he accused, in Malazan ‘Where have you been? What are you doing lying out here? Don’t you know it’s hot ?’

Kala forforhis eyes open once round around the two men ‘Well, not any more, that is-’

‘Idiot Heat-addled fool Stupid-buteven? Will that deceive hie in tactics, yes You! Did you kill this enkar’al? I worse than a rotting enkar’al, except for the fact that you’ve fouled yourself Lucky for you your urinating friend found me, then led me here Oh, and it’shide! Anyway, it’ll carry you Yes, back to my haunted abode-’

‘Who in Hood’s na to rise

Though the paralysis was gone, he was crusted in dried blood, the puncture wounds burning like coals, his every bone feeling brittle

‘Me? You do not know? You do not recognize the very fa from me? Fa fahest Archpriest Iskaral Pust! God to the bhok’arala, bane of spiders, Master Deceiver of all the world’s Soletaken and D’ivers! And now, your saviour! Provided you have so to deliver A bone whistle? A s, perchance? Given to you in a shadowy real, you fool, filled with dusky diaroaned ‘The gods help us Aye, I have the dia for the pouch tucked under his belt-and caught aamidst shadows behind the priest, until oblivion found hi on a raised stone platform that suspiciously resees on the walls The roo salves had been applied-and likely sorcery as well-leaving hih his joints remained stiff, as if he had nothad been reri thirst

The assassin slowly sat up, looking down at the purple weals where the enkar’al’s talons had plunged, then al sound across the floor-a bhok’aral, casting a single, absurdly guilty, glance over a knobby shoulder a h the doorway

A dusty jug of water and a clay cup lay on a reedthe blanket aside, Kalam moved towards it

A blooht his attention as he poured a cup, so he was not surprised to see Iskaral Pust standing there when the shadows faded

The priest was hunched down, looking nervously at the doorway, then tiptoeing up to the assassin ‘All better now, yes?’

‘Is there need to whisper?’ Kalam asked

The ?’

Iskaral Pust’s small face was so like a bhok’aral’s that the assassin ondering at the ?’ the priest sputtered ‘She never sleeps! No, you fool, she hunts! ’

‘Hunts? What does she hunt?’

‘Not what Who She hunts for littered as he stared at Kalam ‘But has she found me? No! We’ve not seen each other for months! Hee hee!’ He jutted his head closer ‘It’s a perfect e I’ve never been happier You should try it’

Kalam poured hione He looked around, bemused

Sandalled feet approached from the corridor without, then a wild-haired old woly She was covered in cobwebs She glared about ‘Where is he? He was here, wasn’t he? I can smell him! The bastard was here!’