'where you goin?' hellian demanded.

'you opened the door,' urb said. 'and asked me to take point.'

'i did? i did? take point-in a broffle?'

'that's right.'

'okay, then get your weapon out, urb, in case we get jumped.'

he hesitated, and then said, 'i'm a fast draw, hellian.'

'not what i seen,' she said behind him.

confused, he paused again. 'what do you mean?'

'meanin' you need some lessons in cruption, i'd say.' she straightened up, but that wasn't so straight, since she used a wall to manage the posture. 'unless o'course it's squatdeath y'want. not that you'd fit in my knickers, though. hey, are these baby pelts?'

'rabbit. i ain't interested in skulldeath, hellian. and no, i don't want to wear your knickers-'

'listen you two-' someone snapped from behind a door to one side, 'quit that foreign jabbering and find a room!'

face darkening, hellian reached for her sword, but the scabbard was empty. 'who stole-you, urb, gimme your sword, damn you! or bust down this door-yah, this one 'ere. bust it down the middle. use your head-smash it!'

instead of attempting any of that, urb took hellian's arm and guided her farther down the corridor. 'they're not in that one,' he said, 'that man was speaking letherii.'

'that was letherii? that foreign jabber? no wonder this city's fulla ijits, talking like that.'

urb moved up alongside another door and leaned close to listen. he grunted. 'voices. negotiating. this could be the one.'

'kick it down, bash it, find us a battering ram or a cusser or an angry napan-'

urb flipped the latch and shoved the door back and then he stepped inside.

two corporals, mostly undressed, and two women, one stick thin, the other grossly fat, all staring at him with wide eyes. urb pointed at brethless and then at touchy. 'you two, get your clothes on. your sergeant's in the corridor-'

'no i ain't!' and hellian reeled into the room, eyes blazing. 'he hired two of 'em! cruption! scat, hags, afore i cut my leg off!'

the thin one spat something and suddenly had a knife in a hand, waving it threateningly as she advanced on hellian. the fat prostitute picked up a chair and lumbered forward a step behind her.

urb chopped one hand down to crack on the knife-wielder's wrist-sending the weapon clattering on the floor-and used his other to grasp the fat woman's face and push her back. squealing, the monstrous whore fell on to her ample backside-the room shook with the impact. clutching her bruised forearm, the skinny one darted past and out the door, shrieking.

the corporals were scrambling with their clothes, faces frantic with worry.

'get a refund!' hellian bellowed. 'those two should be paying you ! not t'other way round! hey, who called in the army?'

the army, as it turned out, was the establishment's six pleasure guards, armed with clubs, but the fight in the room only turned nasty when the fat woman waded back in, chair swinging.

standing near the long table, brys beddict took a cautious sip of the foreign ale, bemused at the motley appearance of the reading's participants, the last of whom arrived half-drunk with a skittish look to his eyes. an ex-priest of some sort, he surmised.

they were a serious, peculiar lot, these malazans. with a talent for combining offhand casual rapport with the grimmest of subject matter, a careless repose and loose discipline with savage professionalism. he was, he admitted, oddly charmed.

at the same time, the adjunct was somewhat more challenging in that respect. tavore paran seemed virtually devoid of social graces, despite her noble ancestry-which should have schooled her in basic decorum; as indeed her high military rank should have smoothed all the jagged edges of her nature. the adjunct was awkward in command and clumsy in courtesy, as if consistently distracted by some insurmountable obstacle.

brys could imagine that such an obstacle might well be found in the unruliness of her legions. and yet her officers and soldiers displayed not a flicker of insubordination, not a single eye-roll behind her back, nor the glare of daggers cast sidelong. there was loyalty, yes, but it was strangely flavoured and brys was still unable to determine its nature.

whatever the source of the adjunct's distraction, she was clearly finding no release from its strictures, and brys thought that the burden was slowly overwhelming her.

most of the others were strangers to him, or at best vaguely familiar faces attesting to some past incidental encounter. he knew the high mage, ben adaephon delat, known to the other malazans as quick ben-although to brys that name seemed a version lacking in the respect a ceda surely deserved. he knew hedge and fiddler as well, both of whom had been among the soldiers first into the palace.