Assail (Malazan Empire, #6)(48)

‘Is that not in keeping with the laws of Lether?’

‘Well, yes …’

‘And the debt is considered discharged should I succeed?’

Luthal chuckled, but his eyes remained flat and hard. ‘If you should succeed … yes.’

‘Very well. I accept payment by trial.’

Luthal waved his guards forward and they took hold of K’azz. Shimmer felt just as confused as Ghelath. ‘K’azz, what is this?’ she demanded.

He glanced down at her. ‘Do not interfere.’ Then his face softened and he added: ‘Promise?’

She grated her teeth as she watched the guards yank him away. ‘If I must,’ she murmured savagely. Infuriating! She had thought that after Jacuruku all his secrecy would be done with. But it seemed that after all nothing had been resolved. What had he gained from Ardata in any case? A name. A location. Nothing more. Assail. A place he was then seemingly completely unwilling to travel to. And now that he was so close – despite his every effort! – he would rather indulge this pompous Letherii merchant.

Someone was laughing and she spun to see the scarecrow figure of Cowl approaching along the beach. He was clapping silently and chuckling his eerie unnerving laugh. It was all Shimmer could do to restrain herself from slapping the man. She looked to Bars, who was frowning as he watched K’azz being marched off. ‘You know what’s going on,’ she accused him.

Grimacing, he lowered his gaze and nodded. ‘Yeah.’

‘Well?’

He glanced up. His lips were pressed tight but he eased them, sucking in a breath. ‘Seen one of these trials while I was in Lether.’

‘Yes?’

He cleared his throat and dragged a hand across his chin and his growing russet and grey beard; he appeared to be searching for the best away to present what he’d seen. ‘They load the debtor up with chains and weights and drop him into one of their canals. If he’r she can walk the canal, then they’ve discharged their debt.’

Shimmer felt her brows rising in growing disbelief and horror. ‘And has anyone ever managed this feat?’

‘Ah – only one, as I heard tell.’

‘This is absurd.’ Shimmer dismissed him to chase after K’azz.

‘You swore to obey,’ Cowl called in warning.

Shimmer felt again the grating jagged blade the man’s voice drew down her spine. She slowly turned to face him. ‘You would have him killed?’

Something strange crossed the man’s features, almost a secretive knowing amusement, and he chuckled anew. ‘I would have his orders followed,’ he said, still laughing.

She looked to the knot of Lether soldiers escorting K’azz, and Luthal following after, his hands clasped behind his back. ‘Well,’ she murmured. ‘There’re no canals here.’

Bars cleared his throat. Having her attention, he motioned to the waters of the lagoon beyond where the Lether ships rested at anchor.

‘Oh, dammit, no …’

Indeed, the soldiers were taking K’azz to the launches drawn up on the beach. ‘What do we do?’ she asked.

The big man hunched his rounded shoulders, considering. ‘Well,’ he ventured at length, ‘I believe you can request to witness the trial.’

It turned out that Letherii law allowed two individuals, relations or acquaintances of the accused, to witness their trial. Shimmer and Blues attended. Avowed brought Blues to the island and rowed them across to the flagship of Luthal’s merchant flotilla. To Shimmer’s eyes the proceedings in no way resembled a trial as she knew it. K’azz stood bound while stone weights were hung upon him by way of stout rope. No questions were posed. No charges were read. No opportunity was given for a response from the accused. She supposed that being away from civilized lands, Luthal had dispensed with such finer points of the law.

All the while she held K’azz’s gaze. She knew her expression conveyed her questions, doubts and fears. He answered with calm forbearance. He even raised a bound hand, as far as he could, to further reassure her.

Meanwhile, Blues at her side was seething. ‘What is this Togg-forsaken nonsense?’ he muttered. ‘We should step in …’

‘He doesn’t want any bloodshed.’ And she noted the many Letherii soldiers about the deck, all with crossbows cocked and readied.

‘No bloodshed in drowning, that’s certain,’ he growled.

‘Those are his orders.’

‘Seems he really does want you in command, Shimmer.’

She glanced to him, the grey-blue hue of his face even darker in his anger, and had opened her mouth to dismiss such a thing when Luthal spoke.

The guards turned K’azz to face the ship’s side, out over the water of the lagoon, towards the shore. ‘The indebted has chosen a trial,’ Luthal began. ‘In order to win free of his obligation he merely has to carry his burden underwater to the shore. It is his free choice. No one forced the accused to take on these debts and burdens. The lenders and creditors are the innocent aggrieved parties in this exchange.’

Luthal coughed into his fist and nodded to the guards. Seeing his expression of untroubled solemnity, it occurred to Shimmer that the man actually believed the nonsense he was spouting. As if watching one’s children starve, or struggling to salvage a lifetime of work, wouldn’t force anyone to do anything. No, there was no coercion at all in the battle to keep a roof over one’s head and survive in this world. Such a belief – and the circumstances that allowed it – must be a convenient and soothing balm indeed.