The Mhybe glanced across at Korlat. The Tiste Andii’s expression was distraught. The air within the tent was sweltering, the currents around the three of them damp and turgid. After a moment, the old woman returned her gaze to Caladan Brood. ‘Silverfox is of Tellann, of the T’lan Imass, Warlord. They have no life-force to give her. They are kin, yet can offer no sustenance, for they are undead, whilst their new child is flesh and blood. Tattersail too is dead. As was Nightchill. Kinship is more important than you might think. Blood-bound lives are the web that carries each of us; they make up that which a life climbs, from newborn to child, then child to adulthood. Without such life-forces, one withers and dies. To be alone is to be ill, Warlord, not just spiritually, but physically as well. I am my daughter’s web, and I am alone in that—’

Brood was shaking his head. ‘Your explanation does not answer her ... impatience, Mhybe. She claims she will command the T’lan Imass. She claims they have heard her summons. Does this not in turn mean that the undead armies have already accepted her?’

Korlat spoke up. ‘Warlord, you believe Silverfox seeks to hasten her own growth in order to confirm her authority when she comes face to face with the T’lan Imass? The undead armies will reject a child summoner – is this your belief?’

‘I am seeking the reason for what she’s doing to her mother, Korlat,’ Brood said, with a pained expression.

‘You might well be correct, Warlord,’ the Mhybe said. ‘Bone and flesh can hold only so much power – the limit is always finite. For such beings as you and Anomander Rake – and you, too, Korlat – you possess the centuries of living necessary to contain what you command. Silverfox does not, or, rather, her memories tell her she does, yet her child’s body denies those memories. Thus, vast power awaits her, and to fully command it she must be a grown woman – and even then ...’

‘Ascendancy is born of experience,’ Korlat said. ‘An interesting notion, Mhybe.’

‘And experience . . . tempers,’ the Rhivi woman nodded.

‘Thus, Kallor’s fear,’ Brood rumbled, rising from his chair with a restless sigh. ‘Untempered power.’

‘It may be,’ Korlat said in a low voice, ‘that Kallor himself is the cause of the child’s impatience – she seeks to become a woman in order to alleviate his fears.’

‘I’d doubt he’d appreciate the irony,’ the warlord muttered. ‘Alleviate, you said? Thinking on it, more likely she knows she’ll have to defend herself against him sooner or later—’

‘A secret hovers between them,’ Korlat murmured.

There was silence. All knew the truth of that, and all were troubled. One of the souls within Silverfox had crossed paths with Kallor before. Tattersail, Bellurdan or Nightchill.

After a long moment, Brood cleared his throat. ‘Life experiences ... the child possesses those, does she not, Mhybe? The three Malazan mages ...’