House of Chains/Chapter 2

There are hints, if one scans the ground with a clear and sharp eye, that this ancient Jaghut war, which for the Kron T’lan Imass was either their seventeenth or eighteenth, went terribly awry. The Adept who accompanied our expedition evinced no doubt whatsoever that a Jaghut remained alive within the Laederon glacier. Terribly wounded, yet possessing formidable sorcery still. Well beyond the ice river’s reach (a reach which has been diminishing over time), there are shattered remains of T’lan Imass, the bones strangely malformed, and on them the flavour of fierce and deadly Omtose Phellack lingering to this day.
    Of the ensorcelled stone weapons of the Kron, only those that were broken in the conflict remained, leading one to assume that either looters have been this way, or the T’lan Imass survivors (assuming there were any) took them with them...

The Nathii Expedition of 1012
Kenemass Trybanos, Chronicler

Teblor lands

Karsa, Bairoth, and Delum decide to avoid the other Rathyd villages, concerned they may be weighed down with "too many trophies" by the time they reach Silver Lake. Inside a cave, they discover glyphs chiseled in the stone wall in the Teblor language. The glyphs describe a group whose blood has become "cloudy" being hunted by T'lan Imass and the author's plan to return the hunted group to "ancient ways of legends," mentioning by name some of the present day Teblor clans.

As they press farther into the valley of the Sunyd, they find the villages long abandoned. They realize that the "lowlanders" have driven the Sunyd from their lands. The three Uryd change their mission to one of vengeance for the Teblor. That night, they discuss the meaning behind the glyphs found in the cave. Bairoth says the Teblor are a fallen people.

Before reaching Silver Lake, they discover a huge flat slab of stone with a blue-green hand sticking out from underneath. The hand moves when approached and Karsa concludes that it is a demon pinned there for eternity. Bairoth advises to free the demon, which they do after some deliberation. The demon then spontaneously attacks Karsa. Delum, who intervenes, is thrown down by a blow to the forehead. The demon identifies herself as a Forkrul Assail named Calm. In a show of gratitude for being freed, Calm tells Karsa that he has been chosen but refuses to tell for what purpose. She then leaves. Delum's skull is cracked and clear "thought blood" is seen leaking out of his head. Karsa comments on how nobody recovers once thought blood leaks out.

As they travel, Delum moves with the dogs and starts to behave as if he were one. Karsa and Bairoth begin to argue after Bairoth states that he does not intend to follow Karsa anymore. When Bairoth informs Karsa that he and Dayliss are lovers and she carries his child, Karsa vows to denounce her for sleeping with a man out of wedlock and to take her as a slave. Upon hearing this, Bairoth attacks Karsa, but the dogs intervene and attack Bairoth savagely.

Karsa calls off the dogs when he hears someone approaching, and the fight is put aside. They see a group of lowlander priests and guards, and Karsa attacks them. To the shock of the four mages among the group, Karsa walks through their magical fire unscathed and slaughters them all, save for one of the guards who flees. Bairoth agrees to follow Karsa from then on.

Silver Lake

They press hard toward Silver Lake, hoping to beat the lone survivor so he cannot raise the alarm ahead of them. After a perilous trek down a steep staircase made of bones, they finally reach Silver Lake. They are surprised to discover that the rich farm of Pahlk's stories is now a walled town. Undaunted, they charge the town, attacking anyone within reach and gaining access into the town's walls. Karsa, Bairoth, Delum (who fights like a dog), and the dogs slaughter scores of lowlanders before both of their mounts are killed by pikemen. In the assault, Karsa and Bairoth are separated. Karsa witnesses Delum being slain. Gnaw is injured and Karsa hides him in a barn. In his pursuit of one lowlander, the unpopular town factor who attacked Gnaw with a mattock, Karsa jumps down from a raised platform. He kills the factor, but the floor gives way. Karsa falls into the cellar below and is impaled on a spike of wood. He is forced to surrender and is captured.

When Karsa mentions the name of his grandfather, the guard who fled the previous night, Damisk, reveals the truth behind Pahlk's stories and how Pahlk arrived at Silver Lake on the brink of death a few centuries earlier. He was taken in by the early settlers and nursed back to health. When Pahlk's health was restored, he killed almost all of them and fled back to the Teblor lands.

The lowlander tells Karsa that they know all about the Uryd from the Sunyd slaves they have taken and plan on enslaving them eventually as well. Many of the lowlanders are identified as Malazans, who have an army company visiting the town. A new lowlander arrives, a slaver named Master Silgar, who says he has a lesson prepared for Karsa. Karsa is led to an area where Bairoth is badly wounded and bound against a wheel. They attempt to extract details about the Uryd but then kill Bairoth when he refuses to give any information. Bairoth dies sneering the words, "Lead me, warleader!" Karsa is told that he will be spared only to become a slave.

Karsa and Torvald
by Marc Simonetti

Karsa is thrown in a slave pit, chained to a tree trunk. There he meets another prisoner named Torvald Nom from Darujhistan. Karsa manages to work himself free from his bonds, frees Torvald, and the two make their escape. Torvald suggests a direction to flee, but Karsa states his intentions to stay and enact vengeance upon the lowlanders, providing a diversion for Torvald. Karsa is soon captured by Cord's squad of Malazans with the use of a net enchanted by the squad mage, Ebron. Normally used to snare and stun Dhenrabi, the net should kill a normal man, but Karsa is merely subdued by it and even soon feels its power lessening.

The leader of the Malazans, Captain Kindly, informs Silgar that Karsa is now a prisoner of the Malazans for his crimes during his assault. When the slaver attempts to buy the Teblor from the Malazans, Kindly has him and Damisk arrested for bribery. Karsa is reunited with Torvald, now in Malazan captivity after he was also apprehended.