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‘But here, this night, Warchief, we face none of those’

‘True We face the Adjunct Tavore, as personally chosen by the Eeance’

Corabb frowned, then he shrugged ‘Did the Eh Fist Pormqual? Korbolo Dom? Did she not demote Whiskeyjack-the fiercest Malazan our tribes ever faced? And, if the tales are true, she was also responsible for the assassination of Dassem Ultor’

‘Your words are sharp, Corabb She is not iement Well then, let us estured his warriors forward

Corabb Bhilan Thenu’alas grinned Perhaps the spirits would sht Pray that I find a worthy axe orthe countless dead Malazan soldiers

Borduke’s squad had found a s as they clawed their way to itsrocks

Their hill was likely some old round barrow-the huular to be natural Twenty paces away, Fiddler listened to the 6th squad -point, their efforts punctuated every now and then by Borduke’s iing in on another hill, and the sergeant began to wonder if they’d held off too long Barrows tended to be big heaps of rocks beneath the cloak of sandy soil, after all, and burrowing into the pried loose, iron shovels grating on heavy granite, and a few tuh the thick, brittle bushes

Hood’s breath, how cluet?

As Corabb was about to loved hand reached out and snagged his shoulder The warrior froze

And now he could hear it There were soldiers in the basin

Leo pickets,’ he muttered under his breath ‘On those barrows It seeift after all,’ the Warchief added with a grin ‘Listen to the, and now the darkness confounds the the enemy positions-they’d selected the barrows one and all, and werein And, Corabb realized, they were spaced too far apart for mutual support Each position could be easily isolated, surrounded, and every last soldier slaughtered Long before any relief could arrive from the main cah the darkness towards the nearest ene a predawn raid, identical to the first one And so the Adjunct had ordered the emplacements as a pre-emptive measure But, as Leoman had once explained to him, every element of an army in the field needed to follow the rules of mutual support-even the pickets where first contact would occur Clearly, the Adjunct had failed to apply this most basic tenet

Added to her inability to control her Seti horse warriors, this was further proof, in Corabb’s eyes, of Tavore’s incorip on the tulwar, halting fifteen paces fro-point He could actually see the hel up over the holes they had dug Corabb concentrated on slowing his breathing, and waited for the signal

Gae of the now unoccupied h the rest of the ar the cutters and healers Precautionary, of course, since there was no way to predict whether the raiders would attack froed Given that all the other angles held either natural obstacles or easily defensible positions, the desert warleader ht well balk at such an obvious invitation As he waited, the Fist began to think that nothing would coht And ere the chances that a day’sthe ar?

He settled back in the saddle, the strange, cloying lassitude in his rown even darker, the stars struggling to pierce the veil of suspended dust

A cape an involuntary flinch An ohtened once more Three bells remained before dawn But there could be no recall and so the ons come the morrow’s march And I had better do the sa wolf howl broke the stillness of the night Although Corabb had been waiting for it, he was still startled into a momentary immobility To either side, warriors rose from their cover and sprinted for the barrow Arrohispered, struck the visible hel sounds He saw one of those bronze helh the air-realized that it had not been covering a soldier’s head