Picker's sword lay on the table, its tip smeared in drying blood. Antsy had added his shortsword, its blade far messier. Together, mute testaments to this impromptu meeting's agenda.

Bluepearl sat at one end of the long table, nursing his headache with a tankard of ale; Blend was by the door, arms folded as she leaned against the frame. Mallet sat in a chair to Bluepearl's left, with all his nerves pushed into one jumpy leg, the thigh and knee jittering, while his face remained closed as he refused to meet anyone's eyes. Near the ratty tapestry dating back to the time when this place was still a temple stood Duiker, once Imperial Historian, now a broken old man.

In fact, Picker was mildly surprised that he'd accepted the invitation to join them. Perhaps some remnant of curiosity flickered still in the ashes of Duiker's soul, although he seemed more interested in the faded scene on the tapestry with its aerial flotilla of dragons approaching a temple much like the one they were in.

n.o.body seemed ready to start talking. Typical. The task always fell at her feet, like some wounded dove. 'a.s.sa.s.sins' Guild's taken on a contract,' she said, deliberately harsh. 'Target? At the very least, me, Antsy and Bluepearl. More likely, all us partners.' She paused, waiting to hear some objection. Nothing. 'Antsy, we turn down any offers on this place?'

'Picker,' the Falari said in an identical tone, 'ain't n.o.body's ever made an offer on this place.'

'Fine,' she replied. 'So, anyone catch a rumour that the old K'rul cult has been resurrected? Some High Priest somewhere in the city wanting the old temple back?'

Bluepearl snorted.

'What's that supposed to tell us?' Picker demanded, glaring at him.

'Nothing,' the Napan mage muttered. 'I ain't heard nothing like that, Pick. Now if Ganoes Paran ever comes back from wherever he's gone, we could get ourselves a sure answer. Still, I don't think there's any cult trying to move back in.'

'How do you know?' Antsy demanded. 'Can you smell 'em or something?'

'Oh, not now,' Bluepearl complained. 'No more questions tonight. That Mockra's chewed everything in my skull to pulp. I hate Mockra.'

'It's the ghosts,' said Mallet in that odd, gentle voice of his. He glanced across at Bluepearl. 'Right? They're not whispering anything they haven't been whispering since we moved in. Just the usual moans and begging for blood.' His gaze shifted to the swords on the table before him. 'Blood spilled here, that is. Stuff brought in from outside doesn't count. Luckily.'

Blend said, 'So try not cutting yourself shaving, Antsy.'

'There's been the odd sc.r.a.p downstairs,' Picker said, frowning at Mallet. 'Are you saying that's been feeding the d.a.m.ned ghosts?'

The healer shrugged. 'Never enough to make a difference.'

'We need us a necromancer,' Bluepearl announced.

'We're getting off track,' Picker said. 'It's the d.a.m.ned contract we got to worry about. We need to find out who's behind it. We find out who, we throw a cusser through his bedroom window and that's that. So,' she continued, looking at the others, 'we need to come up with a plan of attack.

Information to start. Let's hear some ideas on that.'

More silence.

Blend stepped away from the door. 'Someone's coming,' she said.

Now they could all hear the boots thumping up the stairs, hissed protestations in their wake.

Antsy collected his sword and Bluepearl slowly rose and Picker could smell the sudden awakening of sorcery. She held up a hand. 'Wait, for Hood's sake.'

The door was flung open.

In strode a large, well-dressed man, out of breath, his light blue eyes scanning faces until they alighted on Mallet, who rose.

'Councillor Coll. What is wrong?'

'I need your help,' the Daru n.o.ble said, and Picker could hear the distress in the man's voice. 'High Denul. I need you, now.'

Before Mallet could reply, Picker stepped forward. 'Councillor Coll, did you come here alone?'

The man frowned. Then a vague gesture behind him. 'A modest escort. Two guards.' Only then did he note the sword on the table. 'What is happening here?'

'Picker,' said Mallet, 'I'll take Bluepearl.'

'I don't like-'

But the healer cut her off. 'We need information, don't we? Coll can help us. Besides, they wouldn't have set more than one clan on us to start and you took care of that one.

The Guild needs to recover, rea.s.sess we've got a day at least.'

Picker looked across at the councillor, who, if he didn't quite grasp what was going on, now had enough for a fair guess. Sighing, she said to him, 'Seems there's someone wants us dead. You might not want to get involved with us right now-'

But he shook his head, fixed his gaze once more on Mallet. 'Healer, please.'

Mallet nodded to a scowling Bluepearl. 'Lead on, Councillor. We're with ya.'

'. . . came upon Osserick, stalwart ally, broken and with blood on his face, struck into unconsciousness. And Anomander fell to his knees and called upon the Thousand G.o.ds who looked down upon Osserick and saw the blood on his face. With mercy they struck him awakened and so he stood.

'And so stood Anomander and they faced one another, Light upon Dark, Dark upon Light.

'Now there was rage in Anomander. "Where is Draconnus?" he demanded of his stalwart ally. For when Anomander had departed, the evil tyrant Draconnus, Slayer of Eleint, had been by Anomander's own hand struck into unconsciousness and there was blood on his face. Osserick, who had taken the charge of guarding Draconnus, fell to his knees and called upon the Thousand G.o.ds, seeking their mercy before Anomander's fury. "I was bested!" cried Osserick in answer. "Caught by Sister Spite unawares! Oh, the Thousand G.o.ds were turned away, and so was I struck into unconsciousness and see there is blood on my face!"

'"One day," vowed Anomander, and he was then the darkness of a terrible storm, and Osserick quailed like a sun behind a cloud, "this alliance of ours shall end. Our enmity shall be renewed, O Son of Light, Child of Light. We shall contest every span of ground, every reach of sky, every spring of sweet water. We shall battle a thousand times and there shall be no mercy between us. I shall send misery upon your kin, your daughters. I shall blight their minds with Unknowing Dark. I shall scatter them confused on realms unknown and there shall be no mercy in their hearts, for between them and the Thousand G.o.ds there shall ever be a cloud of darkness."

'Such was Anomander's fury, and though he stood alone, Dark upon Light, there was sweetness lingering in the palm of one hand, from the deceiving touch of Lady Envy. Light upon Dark, Dark upon Light, two men, wielded as weapons by two sisters, children of Draconnus. Who stood unseen by any and were pleased by what they saw and all that they heard.

'It was decided then that Anomander would set out once more, to hunt down the evil tyrant. To destroy him and his cursed sword which is an abomination in the eyes of the Thousand G.o.ds and all who kneel to them. Osserick, it was decided, would set out to hunt Spite and exact righteous vengeance.

'Of the vow spoken by Anomander, Osserick knew the rage from which it was sp.a.w.ned, and in silence he made vow to answer it in his own time. To spar, to duel, to contest every span of ground, every reach of sky, and every spring of sweet water. But such matters must needs lie upon calm earth, a seed awaiting life.

'This issue with Draconnus remained before them, after all, and now Spite as well. Did not the Children of Tiam demand punishment? There was blood on the faces of too many Eleint, and so Anomander and so Osserick had taken on themselves this fated hunt.

'Could the Eleint have known all that would come of this, they would have withdrawn their storm-breath, from both Anomander and Osserick. But these fates were not to be known then, and this is why the Thousand G.o.ds wept . . .'

Rubbing his eyes, High Alchemist Baruk leaned back. The original version of this, he suspected, was not the mannered shambles he had just read through. Those quaint but overused phrases belonged to an interim age when the style among historians sought to resurrect some oral legacy in an effort to reinforce the veracity of eyewitnesses to the events described. The result had given him a headache.

He had never heard of the Thousand G.o.ds, and this pantheon could not be found in any other compendium but Dillat's Dark and Light Dark and Light. Baruk suspected Dillat had simply made them up, which prompted the question: how much else did she invent?

Leaning forward once more, he adjusted the lantern's wick, then leafed through the brittle sheets until another section caught his interest.

'In this day there was war among the dragons. The First Born had all but one bowed necks to K'rul's bargain. Their children, bereft of all that they would have inherited, burst skyward from the towers in great flurry yet even these were not united beyond rejecting the First Born. Factions arose and red rain descended upon all the Realms. Jaws fastened upon necks. Talons opened bellies. The breath of chaos melted flesh from bones.

'Anomander, Osserick and others had already tasted the blood of Tiam, and now there came more with raging thirst and many a demonic abomination was sp.a.w.ned of this crimson nectar. So long as the Gates of Starvald Demelain remained open, unguarded and held by none, the war would not end, and so the red rain descended upon all the Realms.

'Kurald Liosan was the first Realm to seal the portal between itself and Starvald Demelain, and the tale that follows recounts the slaughter committed by Osserick in cleansing his world of all the pretenders and rivals, the Soletaken and feral purebloods, even unto driving the very first D'ivers from his land.

'This begins at the time when Osserick fought Anomander for the sixteenth time and both had blood on their faces before Kilmandaros, she who speaks with her fists, took upon herself the task of driving them apart . . .'

Baruk looked up, then twisted in his chair to regard his guest, who was busy preening herself on his map-table. 'Crone, the inconsistencies in this text are infuriating.'

The Great Raven c.o.c.ked her head, beak gaping for a moment in laughter, then said, 'So what? Show me a written history that makes sense, and I will show you true fiction. If that is all you want, then look elsewhere! My master concluded that Dillat's nonsense would make a fine gift for your collection. If you are truly displeased, there are plenty of other idiocies in his library, those that he bothered to extract from Moon's Sp.a.w.n, that is. He left whole rooms crammed with the rubbish, you know.'

Baruk blinked slowly, struggling to keep his horror from his voice as he said, 'No, I did not know that.'

Undeceived, Crone cackled. Then she said, 'My master was most amused at the notion of falling to his knees and crying out to the Hundred G.o.ds-'

'Thousand. The Thousand G.o.ds.'

'Whatever.' A duck of the head and the wings half spread. 'Or even making a vow to battle Osserc. Their alliance fell apart because of a growing mutual dislike. The disaster with Draconus probably delivered the death-blow. Imagine, falling for a woman's wiles and a daughter of Draconus at that! Was Osserc not even remotely suspicious of her motives? Hah! The males among every species in existence are so . . . predictable!'

Baruk smiled. 'If I recall Fisher's Anomandaris Anomandaris, Lady Envy managed pretty much the same with your master, Crone.'

'Nothing he was unaware of at the time,' the Great Raven said with a strange clucking sound to punctuate the statement. 'My master has always understood the necessity of certain sacrifices.' She fluffed up her onyx feathers. 'Consider the outcome, after all!'

Baruk grimaced.

'I'm hungry!' Crone announced.

'I didn't finish my supper,' Baruk said. 'On that plate-'

'I know, I know! What do you think made me hungry in the first place? Sit in wonder at my patience, High Alchemist! Even as you read on interminably!'

'Eat now and quickly, old friend,' Baruk said, 'lest you die of malnutrition.'

'You were never such a careless host before,' the Great Raven observed, hopping over to the plate and spearing a sliver of meat. 'You are troubled, High Alchemist.'

'By many things, yes. The Rhivi claim that the White Face Barghast have disappeared. Utterly.'

'Indeed,' Crone replied. 'Almost immediately after the fall of Coral and the Tiste Andii invest.i.ture.'

'Crone, you are a Great Raven. Your children ride the winds and see all.'

'Perhaps.'

'Why then will you not tell me where they went?'

'Well, the Grey Swords as you know marched south, down to Elingarth,' Crone said, circling the plate in short hops.

'And there they purchased ships.' A pause and c.o.c.k of the head. 'Could they see the wake before them? Did they know to follow? Or is there perhaps a great hole in the world's ocean, drawing every ship into its deadly maw?'

'The White Face took to the seas? Extraordinary. And the Grey Swords followed followed them.' them.'

'None of this is relevant, High Alchemist.'

'Relevant to what?'

'Your unease, of course. You fling queries at your poor bedraggled guest in order to distract yourself.'

It had been months since Crone's previous visit, and Baruk had come to believe, with some regret, that his cordial relations with the Son of Darkness were drawing to a close, not out of any dispute, simply the chronic ennui of the Tiste Andii. It was said the permanent gloom that was Black Coral well suited the city's denizens, both Andii and human.

'Crone, please extend to your master my sincerest thanks for this gift. It was most unexpected and generous. But I would ask him, if it is not too forward of me, if he is reconsidering the Council's official request to open diplomatic relations between our two cities. Delegates but await your master's invitation, and a suitable site has been set aside for the construction of an emba.s.sy not far from here, in fact.'

'The estate crushed by a Soletaken demon's inglorious descent,' Crone said, pausing to laugh before spearing another chunk of food. 'Aagh, this is vegetable! Disgusting!'

'Indeed, Crone, the very same estate. As I said, not far from here.'

'Master is considering said request, and will continue considering it, I suspect.'

'For how much longer?'

'I have no idea.'

'Does he have concerns?'

The Great Raven, leaning over the plate, tilted her head and regarded Baruk for a long moment.

Baruk felt vaguely sickened and he looked away. 'So, I have reason to be . . . troubled.'

'Master asks: when will it begin?'

The High Alchemist eyed the stack of loosely bound parchment that was Anomander's gift, and nodded. But he did not answer.

'Master asks: do you wish for a.s.sistance?'

Baruk winced.

'Master asks,' Crone went on, relentless, 'would said a.s.sistance better serve you if it was covert, rather than official?'

G.o.ds below.

'Master asks: should sweet Crone stay the night as Baruk's guest, awaiting answers to these queries?'

Clattering at the window. Baruk swiftly rose and approached it.

'A demon!' cried Crone, half spreading her enormous wings.

'One of mine,' said Baruk, unlatching the iron frame and then stepping back as Chillbais clambered awkwardly into view, grunting as he squeezed through. 'Master Baruk!' he squealed. 'Out! Out! Out!'

Baruk had felt ill a moment earlier. Now he was suddenly chilled in his very bones. He slowly shut the window, then faced the Great Raven. 'Crone, it has begun.'

The demon saw her and bared needle fangs as he hissed, 'Grotesque monstrosity!'

Crone made stabbing motions with her beak. 'Bloated toad!'

'Be quiet, both of you!' Baruk snapped. 'Crone, you will indeed stay the night as my guest. Chillbais, find somewhere to be. I have more work for you and I will collect you when it's time.'