Both legs were severed clean just beneath the kneecaps, the water warm in their immediate wakes.
Torvald had glanced back. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.
‘Do you think there are catfish in these waters?’
‘I doubt it,’ the Daru replied. ‘That was fresh water, after all.’
‘Good,’ Karsa grunted, resuming his swim.
There was no recurrence of the light Torvald had seen. They continued on in the unrelieved darkness, through perfectly calm water.
‘This is foolish,’ Silgar pronounced after a time. ‘We exhaust ourselves for no purpose-’
Torvald called, ‘Karsa, why did you ask about the catfish?’
Something huge and rough-skinned rose up to land on Karsa’s back, its massive weight driving him under. Borrug’s wrists were torn from his grip, the arms whipping back and vanishing. Pushed more than a warrior’s height beneath the surface, Karsa twisted round. One of his kicking feet collided with a solid, unyielding body. He used the contact to propel himself away and back towards the surface.
Even as he reached it-bloodsword in his hands-he saw, less than a body length distant, an enormous grey fish, its jagged-toothed mouth closing about the little that remained visible of Borrug. Lacerated head, shoulders and flopping arms. The fish’s wide head thrashed wildly back and forth, its strange saucer-like eyes flashing as if lit from within.
There was screaming behind Karsa and he turned. Both Damisk and Silgar were kicking wildly in an effort to escape. Torvald was on his back, the oar held tight in his hands, his legs kicking beneath the surface-he alone was making no noise, though his face was twisted with fear.
Karsa faced the fish once more. It seemed to be having trouble swallowing Borrug-one of the man’s arms was lodged crossways. The fish itself was positioned close to vertical in the water, ripping its head back and forth.
Growling, Karsa swam towards it.
Borrug’s arm came free even as the Teblor arrived, the corpse disappearing within the maw. Taking a deep breath and kicking hard, Karsa half rose out of the water, his bloodsword a curving spray as it chopped down into the fish’s snout.
Warm blood spattered Karsa’s forearms.
The fish seemed to fling its entire body backward.
Karsa lunged closer, closing his legs around the creature’s body just beneath the flanking flippers. The fish twisted away at the contact, but could not drag itself free of Karsa’s tightening grip.
The Teblor reversed his sword and plunged it deep into the beast’s belly, ripped it downward.
The water was suddenly hot with blood and bile. The fish’s body became a dead weight, dragging Karsa downward. He sheathed his sword; then, as he and the fish sank beneath the surface, he reached down into the gaping wound. One hand closed on the thigh of Borrug-a shredded mass of flesh-and the fingers dug in to close around bone.
Karsa pulled the lowlander through a cloud of milky, eye-stinging fluid, then, drawing the body with him, returned to the surface.
Torvald was shouting now. Turning, Karsa saw the Daru, standing in waist-deep water, both arms waving. Near him, Silgar and Damisk were wading their way onto some kind of shore.
Dragging Borrug with him, Karsa made his way forward. A half-dozen strokes and his feet thumped and scraped on a sandy bottom. He stood, still holding one of Borrug’s legs. Moments later, he was on the beach.
The others sat or knelt on the pale strip of sand, regaining their breaths.
Dropping the body onto the beach, Karsa remained standing, his head tilted back as he sniffed the warm, sultry air. There was heavy, lush foliage beyond the strand’s shell-cluttered high-tide line. The buzz and whine of insects, a faint rustle as something small moved across dry seaweed.
Torvald crawled close. ‘Karsa, the man’s dead. He was dead when the shark took him-’
‘So that was a shark. The sailors on the Malazan ship spoke of sharks.’
‘Karsa, when a shark swallows someone you don’t go after the poor bastard. He’s finished-’
‘He was in my care,’ Karsa rumbled. ‘The shark had no right to him, whether he was dead or alive.’
Silgar was on his feet a few paces away. At Karsa’s words he laughed, the sound high-pitched, then said, ‘From a shark’s belly to seagulls and crabs! Borrug’s pathetic spirit no doubt thanks you, Teblor!’
‘I have delivered the lowlander,’ Karsa replied, ‘and now return him to your care, Slavemaster. If you wish to leave him for seagulls and crabs, that is for you to decide.’ He faced the dark sea once more, but could see no sign of the dead shark.