Memories of Ice & House of Chains - By Steven Erikson Page 0,633

– all three veins are now sealed. The giants are ... intruders to our world. From some other realm.'

'Arriving,' Heboric muttered, 'only to be wrapped in chains of otataral.'

'Ah, you are not without your own knowledge, then. Indeed, it seems their arrival has, each time, been anticipated. Someone, or something, is ensuring that the threat these giants impose is negated—'

But Heboric shook his head at that and said, 'No, I think you are wrong, L'oric. It is the very passage – the portal through which each giant comes – that creates the otataral.'

'Are you certain?'

'Of course not. There are too many mysteries surrounding the nature of otataral to be certain of anything. There was a scholar – I forget her name – who once suggested that otataral is created by the annihilation of all that is necessary for sorcery to operate. Like slag with all the ore burned out. She called it the absolute draining of energy – the energy that rightfully exists in all things, whether animate or otherwise.'

'And had she a theory as to how that could occur?'

'Perhaps the magnitude of the sorcery unleashed – a spell that is all-devouring of the energy it feeds on.'

'But not even the gods could wield such magic.'

'True, but I think it is nevertheless possible ... through ritual, such as a cadre – or army – of mortal sorcerers could achieve.'

'In the manner of the Ritual of Tellann,' L'oric nodded. 'Aye.'

'Or,' Heboric said softly as he reached for the cup, 'the calling down of the Crippled God...'

L'oric was motionless, staring fixedly at the tattooed ex-priest. He said nothing for a long time, whilst Heboric sipped the hen'bara tea. He finally spoke. 'Very well, there is one last piece of information I will tell you – I see now the need, the very great need to do so, though it shall... reveal much of myself.'

Heboric sat and listened, and as L'oric continued speaking, the confines of his squalid hut dimmed to insignificance, the heat of the hearth no longer reaching him, until the only sensation left came from his ghostly hands. Together, there at the ends of his wrists, they became the weight of the world.

The rising sun washed all tones from the sky to the east. Karsa checked his supplies one last time, the foodstuffs and waterskins, the additional items and accoutrements necessary for survival in a hot, arid land. A kit wholly unlike what he had carried for most of his life. Even the sword was different – ironwood was heavier than blood-wood, its edge rougher although almost – but not quite – as hard. It did not slice the air with the ease of his oiled bloodwood sword. Yet it had served him well enough. He glanced skyward; dawn's colours were almost entirely gone, now, the blue directly above vanishing behind suspended dust.

Here, in Raraku's heart, the Whirlwind Goddess had stolen the colour of the sun's own fire, leaving the landscape pallid and deathly. Colourless, Karsa Orlong? Bairoth Gild's ghostly voice was filled with wry humour. Not so. Silver, my friend. And silver is the colour of oblivion. Of chaos. Silver is when the last of the blood is washed from the blade—

'No more words,' Karsa growled.

Leoman spoke from nearby. 'Having just arrived, Toblakai, I am yet to even speak. Do you not wish my farewell?'

Karsa slowly straightened, slinging his pack over a shoulder. 'Words need not be spoken aloud, friend, to prove unwelcome. I but answered my own thoughts. That you are here pleases me. When I began my first journey, long ago, none came to witness.'

'I asked Sha'ik,' Leoman replied from where he stood ten paces away, having just passed through the trail's gap in the low, crumbled wall – the mud bricks, Karsa saw, were on their shaded side covered with rhizan, clinging with wings contracted, their mottled colourings making them almost identical to the ochre bricks. 'But she said she would not join me this morning. Even stranger, it seemed as if she already knew of your intentions, and was but awaiting my visit.'

Shrugging, Karsa faced Leoman. 'A witness of one suffices. We may now speak our parting words. Do not hide overlong in your pit, friend. And when you ride out with your warriors, hold to the Chosen One's commands – too many jabs from the small knife can awaken the bear no matter how deep it sleeps.'

'It is a young and weak bear, this time, Toblakai.'

Karsa shook his head. 'I have come to respect