Night of Knives_ A Novel of the Malazan Empire - By Ian C. Esslemont Page 0,25
alleys of Malaz. Kiska could still move her arms so she punched him across the mouth and he fell back in surprise. With that she was free and she ran on around the curve of the canyon.
Two sinuous turns later the channel ended in a cul-de-sac of stone layered like folded cloth. Snarling, Kiska threw herself at it. She scrabbled and grabbed for hand and footholds. After she had climbed only an arm’s length the rotten layers crumbled beneath her like brittle old leather, and she slid down, scraping her side and chin. She lay gasping in the dust.
‘Nothing’s as easy as it seems, is it? Would that I had kept that in mind.’
Kiska yelped and lunged to her feet, drawing her knife.
The old man sneered, brushed dirt from his robes. ‘I’m dead. Remember?’
Kiska didn’t allow the point of her blade to waver. ‘Where are we? What’s going on?’
The man’s wide crazed grin returned. He opened his arms, looked about. ‘Magnificent, isn’t it? This place?’
‘What have you done to me?’
‘A place,’ the old man continued, ‘whose existence has been theorized for the last millennia. A place whose characteristics I deduced from ancient sources. A place – a Realm – that, should it belong to anyone, belongs to me. My realm which I should rule, suzerain. The Path of Shadow.’
The man’s a gibbering lunatic.’Send me back. I don’t want to be here. I want to be back home, on Malaz.’
He raised one crooked finger. ‘Ah. But you are, you see. You’re still on your wretched little isle. And at the same time, you are here. Two realms overlapping. Two places at once. What is called a Convergence.’
‘I don’t give a shit what it’s called. Send me back!’
The man’s lips moved but his words were obliterated by the bellow of a beast that echoed through the maze of canyons surrounding them. Shards of stone clattered down around them. The hairs of Kiska’s arms and neck stood on end. That was no dog . . .
The man darted his gaze to the sides of the canyon, his face falling. ‘Less time than I’d hoped.’
The blade quivered in Kiska’s hand. She wanted to run, to scream, to plead for help. ‘Time for what? What’s—’
The man silenced her with a wave. ‘Listen to me. My name is Oleg. Many years ago a man came to me. He claimed to be interested in the arcanum of my research. We worked together. We shared knowledge. His prowess and grasp of Warren manipulation astounded me. I, who admit no peer in such mastery. He—’
The old man jammed the heels of both hands to his eyes then let out a wordless scream of rage. ‘He betrayed me! He stole my work and left me for dead!’ His fists slipped down to his mouth. ‘A life’s work,’ he moaned, staring at some scene. ‘Gone. Obliterated. Wrenched from me like a limb. My sight. My power of speech.’
‘Send me back, Oleg,’ Kiska whispered. ‘Please.’
Throwing his face up to the sky, he yelled, ‘You . . . will . . . not . . . succeed!’
Kiska stared, stunned by the extravagance of his madness.
Ignoring her dagger, he took her by the shoulders, stared with eyes like pits in which things writhed. ‘That man was Kellanved, Emperor of Malaz. He returns tonight to this island. The Claws and their mistress no doubt think he returns to reclaim the throne, but all who believe such things are fools. He returns to attempt to re-enter the Deadhouse. They are after another, far greater prize. He and Dancer.’
Oleg’s hands were hot on Kiska’s shoulders. She struggled but he held with a grip like a beast. For some reason she could not bring herself to use the weapon in her hand – perhaps because she did not want to know just how useless it was.
Oleg continued, his eyes white all around. ‘Should they succeed, this realm where we stand, Shadow Realm, will be theirs! Long ago Kellanved and Dancer entered that cursed place you call the Deadhouse and there discovered a strange thing. Strange discoveries that have taken him a hundred years to understand.’
He ducked his head with a grimace. ‘That and my work, of course. But now they are ready. They must be stopped. Tell – tell the man I met – the blind fool! Tell him that now I have entered Shadow, I have seen it all. I was right!’
Kiska twisted herself free, backed away. ‘But how can I?’