The T’lan Imass cocked its head. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, their existence has remained hidden from me. I’ve never heard of them.’
Ah . ‘Logros commanded that the First Throne be removed from this land, because the Nameless Ones were drawing ever closer to discovering its location. They had come to realize that its power could be claimed, that the T’lan Imass could be made to bow in service to the first mortal to seat him or herself upon it.’
‘And Logros didn’t want one of these Nameless Ones to be that mortal. Why? What terrible purpose drives them? And before you answer, Onrack, I should tell you that as far as I am concerned, “terrible purpose” has rather dire measure, given both your kind and my own.’
‘I understand, Trull Sengar, and it is a valid point you make. The Nameless Ones serve the Houses of the Azath. Logros believed that, had a priest of that cult taken the First Throne, the first and only command given to the T’lan Imass would be to voluntarily accept eternal imprisonment. We would have been removed from this world.’
‘So the throne was moved.’
‘Yes, to a continent south of Seven Cities. Where it was found by a mage-Kellanved, the Emperor of the Malazan Empire.’
‘Who now commands all the T’lan Imass? No wonder the Malazan Empire is as powerful as it seems to be-then again, by now, it should have conquered the whole world, since he could have called upon all the T’lan Imass to fight his wars.’
‘The Emperor’s exploitation of our abilities was… modest. Surprisingly constrained. He was then assassinated. The new Empress does not command us.’
‘Why didn’t she just sit on the First Throne herself?’
‘She would, could she find it.’
‘Ah, so you are free once more.’
‘So it seems,’ Onrack replied after a moment. ‘There are other… concerns, Trull Sengar. Kellanved was resident in a House of the Azath for a time…’
They reached the slope beyond the salt flat, began making their way upward. ‘These are matters of which I know very little,’ the Tiste Edur said. ‘You fear that the Emperor was either one of these Nameless Ones, or had contact with them. If so, then why didn’t he issue that one command you so dreaded?’