Midnight Tides & The Bonehunters - By Steven Erikson Page 0,191

am led to despair!'

'You'll have company here,' Shand said.

'He was to have been your bodyguard. That was the intent. Instead, you abused him—'

'No we didn't!' Hejun snapped. 'Well, only a little. All in good fun, anyway.'

'And now I have to find you a new bodyguard.'

'Oh no you don't,' Shand said, sitting straighter. 'Don't even think it. We've been corrupted enough—'

Tehol's brows rose. 'In any case,' he said, 'Ublala has now found someone who cares deeply for him—'

'You idiot. She's dead. She's incapable of caring.'

'Not true. Or, rather, there's something inside her that does care. A lot. My point is, it's time to get over it. There's work to be done.'

'We tried following up on that list you gave us. Half those companies don't even exist. You tricked us, Tehol. In fact, we think this whole thing is a lie.'

'What an absurd accusation. Granted, I padded the list somewhat, but only because you seemed to need to stay busy. Besides which, you're now rich, right? Wealthy beyond your wildest dreams. My investment advice has been perfect thus far. How many money-lending institutions do you now hold interest in?'

'All the big ones,' Shand admitted. 'But not controlling interest—'

'Wrong. Forty per cent is sufficient and you've acquired that.'

'How is forty per cent enough?'

'Because I hold twenty. Or, if not me, then my agents, Bugg included. We are poised, dear ladies, to loose chaos upon the Tolls.'

He had their attention now, he saw. Even Rissarh sat up. Eyes fixed upon him, eyes in which the gleam of comprehension was dawning. 'When?' Hejun asked.

'Ah, well. That is entirely another matter. There is news on the wind, which, had any of you been in a proper state, would already be known to you. It seems, my sweet friends, that Lether is at war.'

'The Tiste Edur?'

'Indeed.'

'Perfect!' Shand barked, thumping the desktop with a fist. 'We strike now and it'll all come down!'

'Likely,' Tehol said. 'And also, disastrous. Do you want the Edur to march in and burn everything to the ground?'

'Why not? It's all corrupt anyway!'

'Because, Shand, bad as it is – and we're all agreed it's bad – matters can get a whole lot worse. If, for example, the Tiste Edur win this war.'

'Hold on, Tehol! The plan was to bring about a collapse! But now you're going back on it. You must be a fool to think the Edur would win this war without our help. No-one wins against Lether. Never have, never will. But if we strike now ...'

'All very well, Shand. For myself, however, I am not convinced the Edur will prove ideal conquerors. As I said, what is to stop them from putting every Letherii to the sword, or enslaving everyone? What's to stop them from razing every city, every town, every village? It's one thing to bring down an economy, and so trigger a reformation of sorts, a reconfiguring of values and all that. It's entirely another to act in a way that exposes the Letherii to genocide.'

'Why?' Rissarh demanded. 'They've not hesitated at committing genocide of their own, have they? How many Tarthenal villages were burned to the ground? How many children of the Nerek and the Faraed were spitted on spears, how many dragged into slavery?'

'Then you would descend to their level, Rissarh? Why emulate the worst behaviours of a culture, when it is those very behaviours that fill you with horror? Revulsion at babes spitted on spears, so you would do the same in return?' He looked at each of them in turn, but they made no reply. Tehol ran a hand through his hair. 'Consider the opposite. A hypothetical situation, if you will. Letheras declares a war in the name of liberty and would therefore assert the right of the moral high ground. How would you respond?'

'With disgust,' Hejun said, relighting her pipe, face disappearing behind blue clouds.

'Why?'

'Because it's not liberty they want, not the kind of liberty that serves the people in question. Instead, it's the freedom of Letherii business interests to profit from those people.'

'And if they act to prevent genocide and tyranny, Hejun?'

'Then no moral high ground at all, for they have committed their own acts of genocide. As for tyranny, tyrannies are only reprehensible to the Letherii when they do not operate in collusion with Letherii business interests. And, by that definition, they make their claims of honour suspect to everyone else.'

'All very well. Now, I have considered each and every one of those arguments. And could only conclude one thing: the Letherii,