| abstract
| - Nine days east of the River P'atha, Duiker looks over Coltaine's Chain of Dogs as it continues to march westward. They are tired, dusty, and dying of thirst. The column is laid as this from front to rear: 1.
* Coltaine and a thousand riders of the Crow Clan at the vanguard. 2.
* Wagons of seriously wounded and their caretakers. 3.
* Almost one thousand members of the Seventh that are considered "walking wounded". 4.
* Malazan nobles with carriages and wagons flanked on either side by ten companies of the Seventh infantry. 5.
* Two hundred riders comprising the Seventh's surviving attachment of medium-equipped cavalry. 6.
* The nearly fifty thousand refugees and livestock, flanked on each side by a column of loyal Hissari infantry and Marines. 7.
* A south-facing guard comprised of five companies of the Seventh, numbering almost one thousand, and two 250 man patrols of Foolish Dog and other Wickans. Duiker and Corporal List accompanying. 8.
* A north-facing guard comprised of five companies of the Seventh, numbering almost one thousand, and two 250 man Wickan patrols. 9.
* A rearguard two-thirds of a league behind the others of one thousand riders from each Wickan clan, broken up into units of twelve or less. Tithansi Raiders are constantly skirmishing with the Wickan rearguard, attacking the tail end of the column. They are under the leadership of a new and nameless commander within Kamist Reloe's Army of the Apocalypse. Duiker contemplates the horror of the camp at night and the sounds of suffering livestock being slaughtered. He witnesses a baby dying in its mother's arms, and overhears a rumor that the nobles are kidnapping and eating babies at night. Captain Lull tells Duiker that they are going to sneak out that night and assassinate the Tithansi war leader that has been harassing their flank. Duiker is advised that he has been volunteered. As they head out that night, Duiker reminisces on how Emperor Kellanved made him historian. He was an illiterate soldier at the time and the Emperor had him pulled from the ranks to have him taught by Toc the Elder. Also being taught was the young boy, Toc the Younger, who soon helped in Duiker's education. The group is made up of Duiker, Lull, four of Lull's marines, Nil, another young warlock, and three squads of sappers. The sappers set off explosions to the northeast as a diversion while the others use a warlock-generated fog and water-logged tunnel to approach their target unobserved. At a small Tithansi camp they find several Tithansi soldiers as well as the Tithansi warleader and a Semk tribesman. The marines shoot at them with their crossbows killing two of the Tithansi soldiers and their warleader. An earth spirit conjured by a warlock attacks the others. The Semk tribesman seems impervious to their attacks and begins tearing the earth spirit apart. Nil falls into a catatonic state while the other young warlock is torn to pieces by sorcerous powers. Duiker comes to the sickening realization that the Semk is possessed by the Semk tribal god (thought to have been killed by Sormo E'nath, Nil, and Nether), and that it is the true warleader. One of the female Marines, carries the unconscious Nil to safety while Duiker accompanies her fighting off Tithansi attacks. He is unexpectedly competent, and a spark of attraction develops between the two soldiers. After crossing back over the picket line, a squad of sappers tells Duiker that even though they exploded two sharpers on the Semk, he just got back up. Nil is placed on a travois pulled by the Wickan cattle-dog Bent and sent to the healers. Duiker informs Lull that a Claw was present during the fighting as he noticed several Tithansi bodies embedded with the assassins' trademark throwing stars and knives. Later, at a council of the Army's leaders, Sormo explains that a piece of the Semk god must have survived and been ingested and sealed within the Semk tribesman. Coltaine is rattled by Duiker's claims of a Claw presence among them. Duiker also advises Coltaine and the other leaders of the water that was found in the warlock tunnel just below the land's surface, ending the army's thirst. By dawn the camp is rejoicing as water is retrieved from pits dug throughout the camp.
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