The Crippled God/Chapter 18

The Crippled God
Dramatis Personae	Pagination
"He was a soldier"
Chapter 1	Chapter 2
Chapter 3	Chapter 4
All the takers of my days
Chapter 5	Chapter 6
Chapter 7
To charge the spear
Chapter 8	Chapter 9
Chapter 10
The fists of the world
Chapter 11	Chapter 12
Chapter 13
A hand upon the fates
Chapter 14	Chapter 15
Chapter 16
To one in chains
Chapter 17	Chapter 18
Chapter 19	Chapter 20
Your private shore
Chapter 21	Chapter 22
Chapter 23	Chapter 24
Epilogue I	Epilogue II

Epigraph

Down on the strand where the sea meets the land Where fishermen kneel over wounds that won't heal And the water weeps at the end of the day     In the mirror you walk away Among the red trees and the long dead leaves The axeman wanders but cannot remember And the earth runs like tears and will not stay     In the mirror you walk away In the silent season high on the hill's bastion In the burning rain and the soul's dark stain Where the children lie where they lay     In the mirror you walk away Along the furrows of his heels a long shadow steals Down from the altar pulled all the destinies fulfilled Tell the tale another god has had his day     And in the mirror you walk away When on the grey fields the troubles fall still Another soldier's cause dies for what never was Drifting past the dreams now gone astray     In the mirror you walk away Soiled the sacrament and broken the monument Sullied the sculpture and soured the rapture Beauty lives but brief its stay     And in the mirror you walk away Gods will give and then take away If faith tastes of blood drink deep when you pray Beauty lives but brief its stay And when it all goes away And there's nothing left to save In the mirror you walk away In the mirror you walk away Song of the Last Prayer (in the age of adjudication) Sevul of Kolanse

Kalam Mekhar has for a long time been lying, poisoned, in the Malaz City Deadhouse. Quick Ben and Kalam's ex-wife, Minala, rouse him. They depart by warren to Kolanse.

In North Citadel the recently-arrived Pure, Sister Belie, has arranged a parley with the leader of the besieged Malazans; she intends to order him to kill himself in front of the defenders. However that leader is Ganoes Paran, the Master of the Deck, and he deflects the command.

On Death's ship Hood and the undead Shurq Elalle discuss life and death, and how the old gods take but don't give. Hood explains how Shadowthrone and Cotillion conspired with other gods and Ascendants to remedy the situation. They encounter a Forkrul Assail ship, captained by a Watered. Felash's handmaiden boards it to negotiate. Told that they will all be killed, she attacks and kills them all, including the Watered. Felash mentions that five of her sisters have similar handmaidens, and that they originally had insisted on wearing masks.

Draconus tells Ublala Pung that they must separate; Ublala should go north. He then veers and flies away.

In Kolanse City the Pures learn that the assault on North Citadel has failed, and why. A delegation of Perish Grey Helms from the fleet arrive and, having duplicated the Shield Anvil's reasoning, wish to ally with the Assail. Instead they are enslaved and sent to attack North Citadel.

The Shi'Gal Assassin Gu'Rull discovers the unconscious Krughava and rescues her from the swarm of Shards that was about to eat her. When recovered she warns the Bonehunters that they can no longer rely on the Perish Grey Helms army to fight on their side.

That army has reached Kolanse. Setoc arrives, possessed by the Wolves of Winter to whom she is Destriant. The Wolves wish the Perish to fight on the side of the Bonehunters, to the chagrin of Shield Anvil Tanakalian.

Kilava and Gruntle are evenly matched, even without Trake's presence. Then Starvald Demelain opens and an Eleint dragon emerges. Gruntle, possessed now by Trake, attacks it successfully but Kilava takes the opportunity to kill Gruntle, to her regret. All the Eleint emerge into the world.