‘Whiskeyjack, we’re the Malazans, remember? Nothing we do is ever supposed to reveal a hint of our long-term plans – mortal empires aren’t supposed to think that far ahead. And we’re damned good at following that principle, you and I. Hood take me, Laseen inverted the command structure for a reason, you know.’

‘So the right people would be there at ground level when Shadowthrone and Cotillion made their move, aye.’

‘Not just them, Whiskeyjack.’

‘This should be made known to Quick Ben – to all of the Bridgeburners, in fact.’

‘No. In any case, don’t you think your wizard’s figured things out yet?’

‘If so, then why did he send Kalam after the Empress?’

‘Because Kalam needs to be convinced in person, that’s why. Face to face with the Empress. Quick Ben knew that.’

‘Then I must be the only thick-witted one in this entire imperial game,’ Whiskeyjack sighed.

‘Maybe the only truly honourable one, at any rate. Look, we knew the Crippled God was getting ready to make a move. We knew the gods would make a mess of things. Granted, we didn’t anticipate the Elder Gods getting involved, but that’s neither here nor there, is it? The point was, we knew trouble was coming. From more than one direction – but how could we have guessed that what was going on in the Pannion Domin was in any way related to the efforts of the Crippled God?

‘Even so, I don’t think it was entirely chance that it was a couple of Bridgeburners who bumped into that agent of the Chained One – that sickly artisan from Darujhistan; nor that Quick Ben was there to confirm the arrival of the House of Chains. Laseen has always understood the value of tactical placement yielding results – Hood knows, she taught that to the Emperor, not the other way round. The Crippled God’s pocket-warren wanders – it always has. That it wandered to the hills between Pale and Darujhistan was an opportunity the Crippled God could not pass up – if he was going to do anything, he had to act. And we caught him. Maybe not in a way we’d anticipated, but we caught him.’

‘Well enough,’ Whiskeyjack muttered.