Everything was breaking inside him. Trull stepped away from Hannan Mosag, and sank slowly to his knees. I need Fear. I need to find him. Talk .
‘Please, Trull… I never meant, I never meant…’
Trull stared down at his hands. He’d dropped his spear – he did not even know where it was. There were six Letherii guards – he looked up – no, they were gone. Where had they gone? The old man standing beside the body of the First Eunuch – where was he? The woman? Where had everybody gone?
Tehol Beddict opened his eyes. One of them, he noticed, did not work very well. He squinted. A low ceiling. Dripping.
A hand stroked his brow and he turned his head. Oh, now that hurts . Bugg leaned forward, nodded. Tehol tried to nod back, almost managed. ‘Where are we?’
‘In a crypt. Under the river.’
‘Did we… get wet?’
‘Only a little.’
‘Oh.’ He thought about that for a time. Then said. ‘I should be dead.’
‘Yes, you should. But you were holding on. Enough, anyway, which is more than can be said for poor Chalas.’
‘Chalas?’
‘He tried to protect you, and they killed him for it. I am sorry, Tehol. I was too late in arriving.’
He thought about that, too. ‘The Tiste Edur.’
‘Yes. I killed them.’
‘You did?’
Bugg nodded, looked briefly away. ‘I am afraid I lost my temper.’
‘Ah.’
The manservant looked back. ‘You don’t sound surprised.’
‘I’m not. I’ve seen you step on cockroaches. You are ruthless.’
‘Anything for a meal.’
‘Yes, and what about that, anyway? We’ve never eaten enough – not to have stayed as healthy as we did.’
‘That’s true.’
Tehol tried to sit up, groaned and lay back down. ‘I smell mud.’
‘Mud, yes. Salty mud at that. There’s footprints here, were here when we arrived. Footprints, passing through.’
‘Arrived. How long ago?’
‘Not long. A few moments…’
‘During which you mended all my bones.’
‘And a new eye, most of your organs, this and that.’
‘The eye doesn’t work well.’