‘He will learn nothing. You and I, Letherii, we can work together. We can destroy that abomination-’
‘With yet another in his place-you.’
‘Do you truly think I would have let it come to this? Rhulad is mad, as is the god who controls him. They must be expunged.’
‘I know your hunger, Hannan Mosag-’
‘You do not!’ the Edur snapped, a shudder taking him. He edged closer into the chamber, then held up a mangled hand. ‘Look carefully upon me, woman. See what the Chained One’s sorcery does to the flesh-oh, we are bound now to the power of chaos, to its taste, its seductive flavour. It should never have come to this-’
‘So you keep saying,’ she cut in with a sneer. ‘And how would the great empire of Hannan Mosag have looked? A rain of flowers onto every street, every citizen freed of debt, with the benign Tiste Edur overseeing it all?’ She leaned forward. ‘You forget, I was born among your people, in your very tribe, Warlock King. I remember going hungry during the unification wars. I remember the cruelty you heaped upon us slaves-when we got too old, you used us as bait for beskra crabs-threw our old ones into a cage and dropped it over the side of your knarri. Oh, yes, drowning was a mercy, but the ones you didn’t like you kept their heads above the tide line, you let the crabs devour them alive, and laughed at the screams. We were muscle and when that muscle was used up, we were meat.’
‘And is Indebtedness any better-’
‘No, for that is a plague that spreads to every family member, every generation.’
Hannan Mosag shook his misshapen head. ‘I would not have succumbed to the Chained One. He believed he was using me, but I was using him. Feather Witch, there would have been no war. No conquest. The tribes were joined as one-I made certain of that. Prosperity and freedom from fear awaited us, and in that world the lives of the slaves would have changed. Perhaps, indeed, the lives of Letherii among the Tiste Edur would have proved a lure to the Indebted in the southlands, enough to shatter the spine of this empire, for we would have offered freedom.’
She turned away, deftly hiding the small leather bag. ‘What is the point of this, Hannan Mosag?’
‘You wish to bring down Rhulad-’
‘I will bring you all down.’
‘But it must begin with Rhulad-you can see that. Unless he is destroyed, and that sword with him, you can achieve nothing.’
‘If you could have killed him, Warlock King, you would have done so long ago.’