‘Redeem them. Please.’

Pran Chole spoke, ‘Summoner, we shall destroy the Jaghut who hides within this Pannion Domin. And then, we would ask for an end. It is as Kruppe has said. We have no reason to exist, thus we exist without honour, and it is destroying us. The renegades Logros T’lan Imass hunts are but the first. We shall lose more of our kin, or so we fear.’

Kruppe saw that Silverfox was trembling, but her words were tightly controlled as she addressed the antlered shaman. ‘You create me as the first flesh and blood Bonecaster in almost three hundred thousand years. The first, and, it seems, the last.’

‘Do as we ask, Summoner, and the remainder of your life is yours.’

‘What life? I am neither Rhivi nor Malazan. I am not even truly human. It is what all of you do not grasp!’ She jabbed a finger at Kruppe and the two marines to complete an all-encompassing gesture. ‘None of you! Not even Paran, who thinks – no, what he thinks I will deal with in my own time – it is not for any of you. T’lan Imass! I am your kin, damn you! Your first child in three hundred thousand years! Am I to be abandoned again?’

Kruppe stepped back. Again? Oh, gods below— ‘Silverfox—’

‘Silence!’

But there was no silence. Instead, a rustling and creaking whispered through the air, and Silverfox and Kruppe swung to the sound.

To see tens of thousands of T’lan Imass lowering themselves to their knees, heads bowing.

Olar Ethil was the last standing. She spoke. ‘Summoner, we beg you to release us.’ With those words, she too settled onto the ground.

The scene twisted a knife in Kruppe’s very soul. Unable to speak, barely able to breathe, he simply stared out at the broken multitude in growing horror. And when Silverfox gave answer, the Daru’s heart threatened to burst.

‘No.’

In the distance, on all sides, the undead wolves began to howl.

‘Hood’s breath!’ one of the marines swore.

Aye, theirs is a voice of such unearthly sorrow, it tears at the mortal mind. Oh, K’rul, what are we to do now?

‘One assumes a lack of complexity in people whose lives are so short.’

Whiskeyjack grinned sourly. ‘If that’s meant to be an apology, you’ll have to do better, Korlat.’

The Tiste Andii sighed, ran a hand through her long black hair in a very human gesture.

‘Then again,’ the Malazan continued, ‘from you, woman, even a grunt will do.’

Her eyes flashed. ‘Oh? And how am I to take that?’

‘Try the way it was meant, lass. I’ve not enjoyed the last few days much, and I’d rather we were as before, so I will take what I can get. There, as simple as I can make it.’

She leaned in her saddle and laid a hand against his chain-clothed arm. ‘Thank you. It seems I am the one needing things simple.’

‘To that, my lips are sealed.’