The First Empire, whence this colony originally came all those centuries ago, seemed to be a complicated place, home to countless peoples each with their own languages and gods. For all the imperial claims to being the birth of human civilization, it was clear to Feather Witch that no such claim could be taken seriously. Perhaps the First Empire marked the initial nation consisting of more than a single city, probably born out of conquest, one city-state after another swallowed up by the rampaging founders. Yet even then, the fabled Seven Cities was an empire bordered by independent tribes and peoples, and there had been wars and then treaties. Some were broken, most were not.
Imperial ambitions had been stymied, and it was this fact that triggered the age of colonization to distant lands.
The First Empire had met foes who would not bend a knee. This was, for Feather Witch, the most important truth of all, one that had been conveniently and deliberately forgotten. She had gained strength from that, but such details were themselves but confirmation of discoveries she had already made-out in the vast world beyond. There had been clashes, fierce seafarers who took exception to a foreign fleet’s invading their waters. Letherii and Edur ships had gone down, figures amidst flotsam-filled waves, arms raised in hopeless supplication-the heave and swirl of sharks, dhenrabi and other mysterious predators of the deep-screams, piteous screams, they still echoed in her head, writhing at the pit of her stomach. Revulsion and glee both.
The storms that had battered the fleet, especially west of the Draconean Sea, had revealed the true immensity of natural power, its fickle thrashings that swallowed entire ships-there was delight in being so humbled, coming upon her with the weight of revelation. The Lether Empire was puny-like Uruth Sengar, it held to airs of greatness when it was but one more pathetic hovel of cowering mortals.
She would not regret destroying it.
Huddled now in her favoured chamber, the ceiling overhead a cracked dome, its plaster paintings obscured by stains and mould, Feather Witch sat herself down cross-legged and drew out a small leather pouch. Within, her most precious possession. She could feel its modest length through the thin hide, the protuberances, the slightly ragged end, and, opposite, the curl of a nail that had continued growing. She wanted to draw it out, to touch once again its burnished skin-
‘Foolish little girl.’
Hissing, Feather Witch flinched back from the doorway. A twisted, malformed figure occupied the threshold-she had not seen it in a long time, had almost forgotten-
‘Hannan Mosag. I do not answer to you. And if you think me weak-’
‘Oh no,’ wheezed the Warlock King, ‘not that. I chose my word carefully when I said “foolish”. I know you have delved deep into your Letherii magic. You have gone far beyond casting those old, chipped tiles of long ago, haven’t you? Even Uruth has no inkling of your Cedance-you did well to disguise your learning. Yet, for all that, you are still a fool, dreaming of all that you might achieve-when in truth you are alone.’
‘What do you want? If the Emperor were to learn that you’re skulking around down here-’
‘He will learn nothing. You and I, Letherii, we can work together. We can destroy that abomination-’
‘With yet another in his place-you.’
‘Do you truly think I would have let it come to this? Rhulad is mad, as is the god who controls him. They must be expunged.’
‘I know your hunger, Hannan Mosag-’
‘You do not!’ the Edur snapped, a shudder taking him. He edged closer into the chamber, then held up a mangled hand. ‘Look carefully upon me, woman. See what the Chained One’s sorcery does to the flesh-oh, we are bound now to the power of chaos, to its taste, its seductive flavour. It should never have come to this-’
‘So you keep saying,’ she cut in with a sneer. ‘And how would the great empire of Hannan Mosag have looked? A rain of flowers onto every street, every citizen freed of debt, with the benign Tiste Edur overseeing it all?’ She leaned forward. ‘You forget, I was born among your people, in your very tribe, Warlock King. I remember going hungry during the unification wars. I remember the cruelty you heaped upon us slaves-when we got too old, you used us as bait for beskra crabs-threw our old ones into a cage and dropped it over the side of your knarri. Oh, yes, drowning was a mercy, but the ones you didn’t like you kept their heads above the tide line, you let the crabs devour them alive, and laughed at the screams. We were muscle and when that muscle was used up, we were meat.’
‘And is Indebtedness any better-’
‘No, for that is a plague that spreads to every family member, every generation.’
Hannan Mosag shook his misshapen head. ‘I would not have succumbed to the Chained One. He believed he was using me, but I was using him. Feather Witch, there would have been no war. No conquest. The tribes were joined as one-I made certain of that. Prosperity and freedom from fear awaited us, and in that world the lives of the slaves would have changed. Perhaps, indeed, the lives of Letherii among the Tiste Edur would have proved a lure to the Indebted in the southlands, enough to shatter the spine of this empire, for we would have offered freedom.’
She turned away, deftly hiding the small leather bag. ‘What is the point of this, Hannan Mosag?’
‘You wish to bring down Rhulad-’
‘I will bring you all down.’
‘But it must begin with Rhulad-you can see that. Unless he is destroyed, and that sword with him, you can achieve nothing.’
‘If you could have killed him, Warlock King, you would have done so long ago.’
‘Oh, but I will kill him.’
She glared across at him. ‘How?’
‘Why, with his own family.’
Feather Witch was silent for a dozen heartbeats. ‘His lather cowers in fear. His mother cannot meet his eyes. Binadas and Trull are dead, and Fear has fled.’
‘Binadas?’ The breath hissed slowly from Hannan Mosag.
I did not know that.’
‘Tomad dreamed of his son’s death, and Hanradi Khalag quested for his soul-and failed.’
The Warlock King regarded her with hooded eyes. ‘And did my K’risnan attempt the same of Trull Sengar?’
‘No, why would he? Rhulad himself murdered Trull.
Chained him in the Nascent. If that was meant to be secret, it failed. We heard-we slaves hear everything-’
‘Yes, you do, and that is why we can help each other. Feather Witch, you wish to see this cursed empire collapse-so do I. And when that occurs, know this: I intend to take my Edur home. Back to our northlands. If the south is in flames, that is of no concern to me-I leave the Letherii to the Letherii, for no surer recipe for obliteration do any of us require. I knew that from the very start. Lether cannot sustain itself. Its appetite is an addiction, and that appetite exceeds the resources it needs to survive. Your people had already crossed that threshold, although they knew it not. It was my dream, Feather Witch, to raise a wall of power and so ensure the immunity of the Tiste Edur. Tell me, what do you know of the impending war in the east?’
‘What war?’
Hannan Mosag smiled. ‘The unravelling begins. Let us each grasp a thread, you at one end, me at the other. Behind you, the slaves. Behind me, all the K’risnan.’
‘Does Trull Sengar live?’
‘It is Fear Sengar who seeks the means of destroying Rhulad. And I mean for him to find it. Decide now, Feather Witch. Are we in league?’
She permitted herself a small smile. ‘Hannan Mosag, when the moment of obliteration comes… you had better crawl fast.’
‘I don’t want to see them.’
With these words the Emperor twisted on his throne, legs drawing up, and seemed to focus on the wall to his left. The sword in his right hand, point resting on the dais, was trembling.