Hedge

Hedge
Fan art by Corporal_Nobbs
Biographical information
Race	Human
Appearance	A weathered face, nearly bald pate usually covered by a scorched leather cap, bow-legged
Social information
Affiliation	Malazan Empire Bridgeburners
Occupation(s)	Soldier / Sapper

"Some people would like to take gold with 'em when they go. Me, I'll take Moranth munitions over gold any day. After all, you don't know what you're going to meet on the other side, right? So, it's always better holding onto the option of blowing things up."

―Hedge, the eternal sapper

Hedge was a sapper and a Bridgeburner. He and Fiddler were notorious for their expertise with Moranth munitions, although Whiskeyjack thought they made terrible soldiers as they had forgotten any of the discipline instilled in basic training. The pair often collaborated on schemes that were less than aboveboard.

He was described as having a weathered face the same colour as his scorched leather cap which he used to cover the wisps of hair on his nearly bald pate. Antsy called him bow-legged.

Hedge had a reputation for adopting strays and other 'needy creatures' and he could get quite stubborn about that tendency.

Fiddler and Hedge were "as close as brothers. When together, they [were] mayhem. A conjoined mindset more dangerous than amusing most of the time. As legendary as the Bridgeburners themselves."

Detoran appeared to have a crush on Hedge. It was not clear how willing a participant Hedge was in their relationship, as she was known to grab him by the throat and shake him until he ceased struggling. This did not stop the sapper from returning to her arms night after night.

Like many Malazan soldiers, his name was bestowed by the legendary Master Sergeant, Braven Tooth.

In Gardens of the Moon

Interpretation of Hedge and Fiddler by slaine69

Hedge was a sapper in the 9th Squad of the Bridgeburners. He was one of the lucky few survivors of the collapse of the sapper tunnels at the Siege of Pale. About a week later, he and his squad mates were assigned a covert mission to Darujhistan. Having been dropped on the northern shore of Lake Azur by Black Moranth Quorl, Fiddler and Hedge took delivery of a consignment of Moranth munitions, delivered by Green Moranth, making them 'two happy sappers' according to Kalam.

Before crossing the Lake via fishing boat also supplied by the Moranth, Whiskeyjack told them that he had changed the official plan as that would get them all killed. He divided the squad into two teams, one to be led by Kalam, the other one by the Sergeant himself. Hedge would be in Whiskeyjack's team. Kalam told Whiskeyjack that he was concerned for Fiddler, Hedge and Trotts, who had all shifted a lot of earth in the tunnels at Pale. Trotts was trying to get the boat into the water and getting no help from the others. Seeing this, Whiskeyjack told him to sit in the boat and ordered the others to push it into the water. He also said that it was the kind of thing he would expect from Fiddler and Hedge.

Less than an hour after their midnight landing in Darujhistan, Hedge and Fiddler somehow acquired a waggon full of cobbles enabling them and the rest of the squad to pose as road maintenance workers and mine the intersections of the city's streets with munitions. At the proper time the munitions could be fired to bring down buildings and block intersections and sow chaos and confusion amongst the city's defenders.

During Lady Simtal's Gedderone Fête he posed as a hired guard along with the other Bridgeburners. The party was attacked by the Jaghut Tyrant Raest possessing the body of the mage Mammot. When Quick Ben's magic failed to eliminate the Tyrant, Hedge fired a munition from his arbalest, gravely wounding the creature. He and Fiddler then raced away to set off their charges, but were stopped in their tracks by the appearance of the demon Lord of Galayn. The delay saved the city as it gave time for Kalam to stop the plan that would have unknowingly touched off the city's enormous gas reserves.

In Memories of Ice

Hedge by Dejan Delic

After Dujek Onearm's army went renegade, the decimated Bridgeburners were reorganised and Hedge was moved to Antsy's 7th Squad. Dujek allied the Malazans with their old enemies, Caladan Brood and Anomander Rake, against the Pannion Domin. Cadre mage Spindle led Hedge, Blend, Detoran, Picker, and Trotts into Brood's command tent to steal Fiddler and Hedge's old card table. Rigged to win card games using the Deck of Dragons, it had been lost as a spoil of war when the Bridgeburner camp in Mott Wood was overrun. Spindle and the squad soon put the table back into action to swindle their fellow soldiers. But the presence of a new and heretofore unknown Master of the Deck card caused the plan to backfire, lightening their own purses.

The Bridgeburners were sent by Quorl to the Barghast Range to secure an alliance with Humbrall Taur and the White Face Barghast. Hedge was part of a detachment led by Antsy that was to meet and escort Quick Ben to the Barghast camp. While the bored soldiers waited, Hedge ridiculed Detoran who responded by beating him senseless.

The Bridgeburners and the Barghast were the first of the allied forces to make contact with the enemy at the Siege of Capustan. Using munitions, Hedge and the Bridgeburners punched their way through 200 Betaklites and over a thousand Tenescowri at Capustan's North Gate.

After the siege was lifted, the Bridgeburners traveled secretly to Coral to reconnoiter the next battlefield. By this time, Detoran and Hedge had patched up their differences. During the Siege of Coral, Hedge and the other Bridgeburners were inserted into the city by quorl under the cover of darkness. Their mission was to attack the keep of the Pannion Seer while Dujek led the rest of the army into the city itself. Hedge and Spindle rigged one of the keep's towers with munitions to blow open an entrance for the Bridgeburner attack.

Spoiler warning: The following section contains significant plot details about Hedge.

Amidst the rubble of the breach, they were attacked by one of the Seer's undead K'Chain Che'Malle K'ell Hunters. The charging reptile was on Hedge in a moment, so he threw a Cusser straight down, killing both of them instantly and saving his comrades. Like the other Bridgeburners who perished, his body was placed in a sarcophagus within the throne room of Moon's Spawn after the battle by Anomander Rake. The failing Skykeep was then sent out over the Rust Ocean where it was presumed to have crashed into the sea. Quick Ben promised to tell Fiddler how Hedge died the next time he saw him.

In House of Chains

He later ascended, along with his fellow fallen Bridgeburners, due to the Master of the Deck's blessing and the song of Kimloc, a Tanno Spiritwalker.

The ghosts of the Bridgeburners returned to Raraku on the eve of the confrontation between Adjunct Tavore Paran and Sha'ik Reborn. In the battle, Hedge saved Fiddler's life during an ambush by Corabb and his desert warriors. The sapper knocked his friend to the ground and lay on top of him just as a massive munitions detonation went off killing Lieutenant Ranal. Afterwards, Hedge departed with a laugh saying Fiddler would see him and all the other Bridgeburners again soon.

In The Bonehunters

As Fiddler lay bleeding out in the tunnels deep below Y'Ghatan he experienced a Carelbarra-induced vision of Hedge. Hedge admonished his old friend to get up and not die or else Hood would find him and he would never see the Bridgeburners again. He said "you got to take us with you, right to the end" and "you better get going, you're running out of time." Hedge would not elaborate.

Soon after, Ganoes Paran, now Master of the Deck, travelled to the newly reborn sea of Raraku. On its shores he performed a ritual to summon all of the dead Bridgeburners by name. Among the ranks, Hedge bragged this was not the first time this group of dead Bridgeburners had walked among the living, noting that they had twisted the hair of Korbolo Dom and his Dogslayers at the Battle of Raraku. He also informed Paran that Fiddler had joined the Malaz 14th Army where, thanks to Hedge, he was still all right. Shank spoke directly to Paran, asking their former captain what he required. Paran requested that they help him find the Deragoth to destroy Dejim Nebrahl.

Hedge spent some time wandering as a ghost and helped Ganoes Paran cross a bridge to the underworld with the Trygalle Trade Guild and free the Deragoth.

In Reaper's Gale

He was ultimately resurrected in the Refugium (due to the birth of an Azath House) where he met up with Quick Ben and help him defeat and drive off Menandore, Sheltatha Lore and Sukul Ankhadu.

Significant plot details end here.

In Dust of Dreams

Interpretation of Hedge, by Johntocaelpiano‎‎

Hedge rejoined the Malazan Army, but his relationship with Fiddler was awkward. As the Bonehunter army marched east, Hedge took in a company of Letherii recruits and christened them Bridgeburners. He also commissioned a Letherii alchemist, Bavedict, to create new munitions to replace the quickly dwindling Moranth munition supply of the army. Bavedict's secret concoctions (referred to as "kittens" to keep the hoard for his Bridgeburners) were markedly different from Moranth munitions in their functions, but no less deadly. During the battle with the Nah'ruk, Hedge's Bridgeburners reduced an entire phalanx of the enemy to a paste using a salvo of acid grenados.

In The Crippled God

Before the final battle to defend the Crippled God's body, Hedge disobeyed orders and led his Bridgeburners with all their supplies to join with Fiddler's company, where the two resolved their differences. Hedge's munitions and Bridgeburners proved as deadly as ever and were instrumental in winning the battle. He survived the battle and elected to stay behind rather that leave with the Guardians of the Gate, so that he could keep Fiddler company.

Trivia

• Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont had originally named Hedge 'Prairie Dog', but Erikson changed the name as it was causing problems with publishers. He said that Hedge moved well beyond the original derivation of hedge-hog. See his comments in a Tor Q&A session.
• Some non-English versions of the Malazan books correctly translate Hedge's name using the hedgehog derivation (see the German use of "Igel"). Other languages translate the word to something closer to hedgerow (see the Dutch use of "Haag" and the Polish use of "Płot").

Quotes

Trull Sengar: "Have I offended you, [Hedge]—"

Quick Ben: "Ignore Hedge, at least when he's talking. Trust me, it was the only way the rest of us in the squad stayed sane. Ignore him… until he reaches into that damned sack of his."

Trull Sengar: "And then?"

Quick Ben: "Then run like Hood himself was on your heels."

―Quick Ben and Trull Sengar

Notes and references

List of abbreviations • Paginations • How to reference an article