A hand settled on his shoulder, soft, plump.

Cutter closed his eyes and said, ‘I’ve got to stop sitting with my back to the door.’

Murillio rose, suddenly formal as he bowed to someone standing behind Cutter. ‘Historian. We have met once or-’

‘I recall,’ the man replied, moving round into Cutter’s sight as he collected two chairs from a nearby table. Thank the gods, not his hand.

‘Please do thank Mallet again-’

‘I will,’ the historian replied. ‘In the meantime, I’m not the one who should be doing the introductions.’ Those weary, ancient eyes fixed on Cutter. ‘You’re Cutter, yes?’

He twisted to look at the woman standing behind his chair. Seated as he was, his eyes were level with a pair of breasts covered in tight-fitting linen. And he knew them well. It was a struggle to lift his gaze higher. ‘Scillara.’

‘You call that an introduction?’ she asked, dragging up the other chair the historian had pulled close. She wedged herself in on Cutter’s right and sat down. ‘I’ve never seen bones picked so clean on a plate before,’ she observed, her eyes on the leavings of lunch.

Kruppe wheezed upright. He began waving his hands. ‘Kruppe hastens with proper welcome to this grand company to already beloved Scillara of the Knowing Eyes and other assorted accoutrements of charm Kruppe would dearly wish to knowingly eye, if not for the dastardly demands, of decorum. Welcome, cries Kruppe, even as he slumps back-oof!-exhausted by his enthusiasm and dimpled with desire.’Murillio bowed to Scillara. ‘I won’t be as crass as dimpled Knvppi, I am Muril-lio, an old friend of Cro-Cutter’s.’

She began repacking her pipe with rust leaf. ‘Cutter spoke often of your charm, Murillio, when it comes to women,’ and she paused to smile.

Murillio sat back down a tad hard and Cutter saw, wryly amused, that he looked more awake now than he had in days, perhaps since the stabbing.

Kruppe was fanning his flushed face. Then he raised a hand. ‘Sulty! Sweet creature, the finest wine in the house! No, wait! Go down the street to the Peacock and buy us a bottle of their finest wine! The finest wine in their house, yes! Is something wrong, Meese? Kruppe meant no insult, honest! Sulty, be on with you, child! Meese, why-’

‘No more,’ cut in Murillio, ‘unless you want to pile on ever more insults to our faithful proprietor, until she comes over here and kills you outright.’

‘Dire misunderstanding! Enthusiasm and-’

‘Dimples, we know.’

Cutter spoke up, ‘Scillara was a camp follower in Sha’ik’s rebel city in Raraku. Er, not a follower like that, I mean-’

‘Yes I was,’ she said. ‘Just that.’ She struck sparks to the bowl. ‘Plaything to soldiers. In particular, Malazans. Renegades from Korbolo Dom’s turncoat army. His Dogslayers. I was then plucked from what would have been a short, benumbed existence by a Malazan priest with no hands, who dragged me across half of Seven Cities, along with Cutter here.’ She sent a stream of smoke upward, then continued. ‘Just inland of the Otataral Sea, we got jumped. The priest was cut down. Cut-ter got disembowelled and I had a baby-no real connection between the two, by the way, apart from bad timing. Some villagers found us and saved us-the son of Osserc showed up for that-and that’s how we collected Barathol Mekhar and Chaur, making up for the two we’d lost in the ambush,

‘Now, normally I don’t tell long-winded tales like this one, but what I gave you was necessary for you to understand a few important things. One: I left the baby in the village, with no regrets. Two: Cutter, who was with us because The Rope thought Felisin Younger needed protecting, nearly died and is now living with a feeling of having failed at his task, since Felisin was taken from us. Three: Cutter also has a broken heart, and no matter how much fun we eventually had, him and me, it’s clear that I can’t help him with that. And finally, four: he’s embarrassed by me because he probably thinks I’m too fat and he thinks you’ll all be thinking the same thing, too.’

All three men facing her fervently shook their heads at that, while Cutter sat head in hands.

Sulty arrived to slam down a thick-based dusty clay bottle and two more goblets. ‘Three councils, Kruppe!’

Kruppe set three silver coins into her hand without a whimper.

After a long moment, the historian sighed, reached out and uncorked the bot-tle. He sniffed the mouth. Brows lifted. ‘Empty the rubbish in your cups, please.’

They did and Duiker poured.

‘Cutter,’said Murillio. ‘What?’

‘You were disembowelled? Gods below, man!’

‘Kruppe struggles to taste the wonder of this wondrous vintage, so gasted of flabber is he at said horrendous tale. The world is most cruel, yet salvation unfolds at the last, blessed be all the gods, goddesses, spirits, marsupials and amphibians and indeed all the rest. Made drunk by punches is poor Kruppe, rocked this way, knocked that, buffeted askew in every direction at once very nearly unto exploding. Beloved Scillara, you tell a most awkward tale, and tell it badly. Despite this, see us here, each one reeling at said poorly told revelations!’

‘Perhaps excessive in my efforts at summarizing, I’ll grant you,’ Scillara al-lowed. ‘But I thought: best to push through the uncomfortable stage, and now here we are, relaxed and eager to quaff down this fine wine. I have decided I like the Phoenix Inn.’

Duiker rose. ‘My task complete, I shall-’

‘Sit back down, old man,’ she said. ‘If I have to slap the life back into you I will. Less painful, one hopes, partaking of our company this day, don’t you think?’ The historian slowly sat back down.

Kruppe gusted out a sigh. ‘Pity us men at this table, we are outnumbered!’

‘I take it Cutter’s told nothing,’ Scillara observed. ‘Not even how we almost drowned when the moon broke up and fell out of the sky. Saved by a dragon.’

‘I will indeed stay,’ said Duiker, ‘provided you back up and tell us all this prop-erly, Scillara.’

‘As you like.’

‘From the moment you first met Heboric.’

‘This will take all night,’ she said. ‘And I’m hungry.’

‘Murillio will be delighted to purchase our suppers,’ declared Kruppe.

‘For once you are right,’ Murillio said.

‘I don’t think you’re too fat,’ said Cutter. ‘I don’t think anything like that, Scil-lara.’ Too good, yes. And why don’t you see how Barathol looks at you? As for me, well, Apsalar was smart enough to get away and I won’t begrudge her that. In fact, I doubt there’s a woman low enough for me anywhere in the world.

Was that too self-pitying? No, just realistic, he decided.

Oh, and by the way, everyone, that dragon is wearing silks and biding her time aboard her damned ship, right there in Darujhistan harbour… Oh, and did I mention that the city is in imminent danger?

The bottle of wine was done and Sulty was sent off for another one. Meese was quickly appeased by the orders for supper and the knowledge that, eventually, the swill she stocked would be broached and consumed to excess.

As Scillara told her tale.

While Cutter’s mind, sodden with alcohol, wandered through all those thoughts that were anything but self-pitying. Not a woman anywhere…

Lady Challice Vidikas sat at one end of the table, Shardan Lim on her left, Hanut Orr to her right. For this night she wore emerald green silks, the short coat tight-fitting, collarless to expose Iter unadorned, powdered throat and low tut to reveal her scented breasts. Her hair was tied up, speared through with silver pins. Rouge blushed her cheeks. Kohl thickened her lashes. Earrings depended from her ears in tumbling, glittering array, the green of emerald and the blue of sapphire. The coat’s short sleeves revealed her bared arms, the skin soft, smooth, slightly plump, unstained by the sun. Leggings of brushed kid leather covered her lower limbs and on her feet was the latest style of sandals, the one with a high peglike heel.