Chapter One

On a coastal road, a fishergirl watches a Malazan cavalry column as Rigga the Seer warns of a looming fate and a shadowed savior. An outrider strikes Rigga dead. Two hooded men—Cotillion and Ammanas—arrive, loose seven Hounds upon the column as a diversion, and decide to use the fishergirl for a long vengeance against Empress Laseen. Cotillion engulfs the girl in shadow, claiming her and later naming her Sorry.

By morning, Adjunct Lorn and a local captain reach the carnage: an Itko Kan regiment and many civilians savaged by massive natural jaws, with no tracks. Lieutenant Ganoes Paran, bloodied from inspection, reports two emptied huts at a nearby fishing hamlet—an old woman’s and a father–daughter’s. Lorn orders the scene erased, sends Paran to learn the missing family’s names, and seeks a list of recent recruits among women and old men.

In Kan, Staff Sergeant Aragan recruits a preternaturally self‑possessed girl who asks for Onearm’s Host; she gives her name as “Sorry.” Paran rides to Gerrom and finds the town abandoned; the Constabulary is filled with pigeons and asphyxiated guards, records rotted—clear sorcerous cleanup. On the road back, Topper, a Claw, intercepts him, shares wine, and opens the Imperial Warren to rush Paran to Unta.

They emerge in Laseen’s throne room; Paran awkwardly arrives mounted, then is sent to Adjunct Lorn. In her tower, Lorn confirms the massacre masks a greater sorcery and that the father and daughter were taken, not killed. She officially returns Paran to normal postings while secretly making him central to a slow pursuit.

Paran walks Unta changed by what he has seen. He returns to his family estate, meets the veteran guard Gamet, and exchanges cool words with his capable sister Tavore, who manages the house as their father declines. Felisin remains soft‑hearted and eager to see him. Paran broods over the shrinking world of his childhood and his new role in the Empire’s shadows.