'Simple, love, we shall carve our way through.'
Gods, if I stay with these people, I am a dead man.
Lady Envy was still smiling, her eyes on Tool. 'Like a white-hot knife through ice, we thrust to the heart … of a frozen, timeless soul.' Her voice rising slightly, she added, 'Or so we suspect, do we not, Onos T'oolan?'
The T'lan Imass stopped.
Baaljagg pulled away from beneath Toc's hand, padded forward. The dog Garath followed.
The Malazan spun upon hearing three sets of swords slide from scabbards.
'Oh,' Lady Envy said. 'Something's coming.'
Toc unslung his bow and planted its butt to string it as he scanned the horizon ahead. 'I don't see anything … but I'll take everyone's word for it.'
Moments later a K'Chain Che'Malle crested the ridgeline a hundred paces ahead, huge, slung forward and seeming to flow over the ground on two legs. Blades flashed at the ends of its arms.
Ay and dog flinched back.
Toc's recollection of such a creature — fraught with the pained memories of Trake's death — returned to him with a jolt that shortened his breath.
'K'ell Hunter,' Tool said. 'Lifeless.' He had not yet reached for his stone sword. The T'lan Imass pivoted, faced the three Seguleh. A frozen moment stretched between them, then Tool nodded.
Senu on Mok's right, Thurule on his left and both brothers a step ahead of the Third, the Seguleh padded forward to meet the K'Chain Che'Malle.
'A gamble,' Lady Envy murmured.
'The time has come,' Tool said, 'to gauge their worth, Lady. Here, at the border to the Domin. We must know our … knife's efficacy.'
Toc nocked an arrow. 'Something tells me I might as well throw twigs at it,' he muttered, recalling Trake's death.
'Wrong,' Tool said, 'yet there is no need to test the stone's power of your arrows.'
'Power, huh? Fine, but that's not the problem. I've only got one eye, Tool. I can't judge distances worth a damn. And that thing's fast.'
'Leave this one to the Seguleh,' the T'lan Imass said.
'As you say,' Toc replied, shrugging. His heart did not slow its hammering.
The K'Chain Che'Malle was blurred lightning as it plunged among the three brothers. The Seguleh were faster. Senu and Thurule had already moved past the creature, throwing savage, unerring blows behind them without turning, sliding effortlessly like snakes to avoid the hunter's whipping tail.
Mok, standing directly in front of the creature, had not backed up a step.
The beast's huge arms flew past to either side of the Third — both severed at the shoulder joint by the flanking brothers in their single pass. Mok's swords darted upward, stabbed, cut, twisted, hooked then withdrew with the hunter's massive head balanced on the tips for the briefest of moments before the Third flung its blade-bending weight aside and leapt to the right, barely avoiding the decapitated body's forward pitch.
The K'Chain Che'Malle thundered as it struck the ground, legs kicking and tail thrashing. Then its movements ceased.
'Well,' Toc said after he'd regained his breath, 'that wasn't so hard. Those beasts look tougher than they are, obviously. Good thing, too. We'll just stroll into the Domin, now, right? Gawking at Bastion's wonder, then beyond-'
'You're babbling,' Lady Envy said. 'Very unattractive, Toc the Younger. Please stop, now.'
Mouth clamped shut, Toc managed a nod.
'Now, let us go and examine the K'Chain Che'Malle. I, for one, am curious.'
He watched her walk ahead, then followed at a stumble. As he passed Tool, he offered the T'lan Imass a sickly grin. 'I think you can relax, now, right?'
The deathless face turned to him. 'The Third's dismantling, Toc the Younger …'
'Yes?'
'I could not have done that. I have never seen such … skill.'
Toc paused, his eye narrowing. 'Tool, that was glorified dissection — are you not his match in speed?'
'Perhaps.'
'And could he have done that without his brothers slicing those arms off? What if the beast had attacked with its feet instead of its jaws? Tool, that K'Chain Che'Malle was trying for all three of them at once. Stupid. Arrogant.'
The T'lan Imass cocked his head. 'Arrogance. A vice of being undead, Toc the Younger.'
The Malazan's grin broadened. 'And yours has just been shaken, Tool?'
'An unfamiliar sensation.'