House of Chains

‘I would think,’ Onrack replied, as they slowed their pace to match that of the tortoise, ‘that it feels the same.’

‘Hence this grand journey… indeed, a noble quest, in which I find a certain sympathy.’

‘You miss your kin, then, do you, Trull Sengar?’

‘Too general a statement.’

‘Ah, the needs of procreation.’

‘Hardly. My needs have nothing to do with engendering whelps with my hairline, nor, gods forbid, my ears.’ He reached down and tapped the tortoise’s dusty shell. ‘Like this fellow here, there’s no time to think of eggs it won’t even lay. Singular intent, disconnected from time-from those messy consequences that inevitably follow, if only to afflict whatever lass tortoise our dogged friend here happens to pounce upon.’

‘They are not wont to pounce, Trull Sengar. Indeed, the act is a far more clumsy endeavour-’

‘Aren’t they all?’

‘My own memories-’

‘Enough of that, Onrack. Do you think I want to hear of your supple prowess? I will have you know that I have yet to lie with a woman. Thus, I am left with naught but my sparsely seeded imagination. Inflict no luscious details upon me, I beg you.’

The T’lan Imass slowly turned its head. ‘It is your people’s custom to withhold such activities until marriage?’

‘It is. It wasn’t among the Imass?’

‘Well, yes, it was. But the custom was flouted at every opportunity. In any case, as I explained earlier, I had a mate.’

‘Whom you gave up because you fell in love with another woman.’

‘Gave up, Trull Sengar? No. Whom I lost . Nor was that loss solitary. They never are. From all you have said, I assume then that you are rather young.’

The Tiste Edur shrugged. ‘I suppose I am, especially in my present company.’

‘Then let us leave this creature’s side, so as to spare you the reminder.’

Trull Sengar shot the T’lan Imass a look, then grinned. ‘Good idea.’

They increased their pace, and within a few strides had left the tortoise behind. Glancing back, Trull Sengar gave a shout.

Onrack halted and swung round.

The tortoise was turning back, stumpy legs taking it in a wide circle.

‘What is it doing?’

‘It has finally seen us,’ Onrack replied, ‘and so it runs away.’

‘Ah, no fun and games tonight, then. Poor beast.’

‘In time it will judge it safe to resume its journey, Trull Sengar. We have presented but a momentary obstacle.’

‘A humbling reminder, then.’

‘As you wish.’

The day was cloudless, heat rising from the old seabed in shimmering waves. The odhan’s grassy steppes resumed a few thousand paces ahead. The salt-crusted ground resisted signs of passages, though Onrack could detect the subtle indications left behind by the six renegade T’lan Imass, a scrape here, a scuff there. One of the six dragged a leg as it walked, whilst another placed more weight on one side than the other. They were all no doubt severely damaged. The Ritual, despite the cessation of the Vow itself, had left residual powers, but there was something else as well, a vague hint of chaos, of unknown warrens-or perhaps familiar ones twisted beyond recognition. There was, Onrack suspected, a bonecaster among those six.

Olar Ethil, Kilava Onas, Monok Ochem, Hentos Urn, Tern Benasto, Ulpan Nodost, Tenag Ilbaie, Ay Estos, Absin Tholai… the bonecasters of the Logros T’lan Imass. Who among them are lost? Kilava, of course, but that is as it has always been. Hentos Ilm and Monok Ochem have both in their turn partaken of the hunt. Olar Ethil seeks the other armies of the T’lan Imass-for the summons was heard by all.

Benasto and Ulpan remain with Logros. Ay Estos was lost here on the Jhag Odhan in the last war. I know naught of the fate of Absin Tholai. Leaving Tenag Ilbaie, whom Logros sent to the Kron, to aid in the Laederon Wars. Thus. Absin Tholai, Tenag Ilbaie or Ay Estos.

Of course, there was no reason to assume that the renegades were from the Logros, although their presence here on this continent suggested so, since the caves and the weapons caches were not the only ones to exist; similar secret places could be found on every other continent. Yet these renegades had come to Seven Cities, to the very birthplace of the First Empire, in order to recover their weapons. And it was Logros who was tasked with the holding of the homeland.

‘Trull Sengar?’

‘Yes?’

‘What do you know of the cult of the Nameless Ones?’

‘Only that they’re very successful.’