Deadhouse Gates Made Simple: Every Chapter Explained

During the Season of Rot, a fly-shrouded Hood priest shambles through Unta’s Judgement’s Round. When challenged, the buzzing forms words; the flies explode outward to reveal nothing beneath. Death itself has walked among mortals as an empty vessel.

Felisin Paran, fifteen and youngest daughter of House Paran, waits in chains among condemned nobles. Empress Laseen has orchestrated a brutal purge: midnight arrests, mock trials, public executions. Felisin’s own sister, Adjunct Tavore, has ordered her arrest, renouncing their House to prove loyalty. Chained beside her: Heboric Light Touch, a handless ex-priest whose tattooed body and forbidden histories made him a traitor; and Baudin, a brutal thug whose competence hints at hidden depths.

The march to the slave ships becomes a bloodbath. When the mob breaches the lines, Baudin becomes a killing machine, beheading an elderly noblewoman to satisfy the crowd’s bloodlust. “I just hate making deals with bastards,” he explains afterward. Of 300 prisoners, fewer than 100 reach the ships bound for the Otataral mines. Felisin, stripped and traumatized, realizes her lessons have begun.

What to track: The empty Hood priest; death as absence recurs throughout. Tavore’s betrayal drives events across multiple books; her motivations stay deliberately opaque. Baudin’s brutal efficiency suggests he’s far more than a common criminal.

Three storylines launch simultaneously across Seven Cities.

In the Pan’potsun Odhan, Mappo Runt (an ancient Trell) and Icarium (a half-Jaghut with grey-green skin) observe signs of a Convergence: Soletaken and D’ivers shapeshifters seeking a mysterious Path of Hands that supposedly offers Ascendancy. When Ryllandaras, a powerful D’ivers who manifests as six wolves, confronts them with threats, Mappo simply names himself and Icarium. The wolves flee in terror. Mappo internally notes he is “sworn to prevent” something related to Icarium; he fears what happens when his friend draws weapons.

In Hissar, Imperial Historian Duiker watches Wickan horsesoldiers pour off transport ships in apparent chaos. Beside him stands Mallick Rel, a sinister Jhistal priest whose rivals mysteriously die. The chaos proves theatrical: the wildest warrior is Coltaine, the new Fist of the 7th Army, demonstrating absolute command with a single cry. A former rebel against the Empire, Coltaine has been sent to crush the coming rebellion in Seven Cities. Who better than a man who once led one?

On the Kansu Sea, Fiddler, Kalam, Crokus, and Apsalar sail toward Seven Cities. When a Soletaken sea-serpent attacks, Fiddler kills it with a single Moranth munition. Crokus demands to know their true purpose. Kalam’s answer: he intends to assassinate Empress Laseen. They’re starting in Seven Cities because rebellion is about to erupt, and they plan to use it.

What to track: Icarium’s reputation; even ancient shapeshifters flee his name. Mappo guards him from something, sworn by unknown parties. Mallick Rel schemes beside Duiker; this priest becomes one of the series’ greatest villains. Coltaine’s appointment sets up the Chain of Dogs. Kalam’s assassination mission drives a major plot thread.

Duiker investigates the secret pictographic language spreading across Seven Cities: symbols warning of rebellion. Disguised as a merchant, he witnesses a Circle of Seasons divination where a blind boy prophesies: “Two fountains of raging blood! Face to face. The blood is the same.” The boy dies immediately; a rare gift from Dryjhna, goddess of the Apocalypse.

At Coltaine’s war council, Sormo E’nath arrives: a warlock executed eleven years ago whose soul was carried away by eleven crows, now reborn in a ten-year-old’s body. Mallick Rel delivers orders from High Fist Pormqual that would abandon the eastern provinces. Coltaine’s uncle Bult publicly humiliates Rel, revealing the Empress knows nothing of him. Duiker privately asks the mage Kulp for help rescuing Heboric from the Otataral mines.

In Ehrlitan, Fiddler saves two girls from a pimp and returns them to their grandfather: Kimloc Spiritwalker, a legendary Tano priest. Kimloc gives Fiddler a protective conch shell and warns that the Convergence makes desert travel deadly. Meanwhile, Kalam meets the spy Mebra in the ruins of Jen’rahb and obtains the stolen Holy Book of Dryjhna; he will carry it to Sha’ik as passage guarantee. But Mebra is a double agent. Red Blade Commander Tene Baralta plans to use Kalam to find Sha’ik’s camp.

Mappo and Icarium reach Tesem, a Shadow temple where eccentric High Priest Iskaral Pust rambles cryptically. Icarium discovers he’s “missing time”: an arrow gone, blood on his sword. Mappo lies: “A leopard attacked while you slept.” The terrible secret Mappo keeps begins to emerge.

What to track: The prophecy “Two fountains, blood the same” is important; remember it. Sormo’s eleven crows each carry part of his soul; their loss will diminish him. Kalam unknowingly leads enemies to Sha’ik. Icarium’s blackouts reveal something Mappo fears deeply.

Felisin has become Beneth’s woman. The mining camp master controls food, shelter, and work assignments at Skullcup; he is “king” of twelve thousand slaves. Felisin learned on the slave ship that her body was currency. Now she trades herself for Heboric’s survival, securing his transfer from deadly Deep Mine to safer work.

Guard Pella cryptically hints at a rescue plan: “Worth learning… Maybe you’ll find someone’s memory worth dragging a net through.” But Felisin is too traumatized to understand. That night, she overhears Baudin and Heboric whispering plans that exclude her. Devastated, she concludes: “I’m alone. There’s just Beneth now.”

In Hissar, Red Blades under brothers Baria and Mesker Setral nearly massacre market civilians until Wickan warriors emerge from the crowd in disguise, laughing with fearless derision. Coltaine had infiltrated the market. At training, the Seventh finally defeats the Wickans in urban warfare exercises. Corporal List, who has “died” in every previous exercise, is knocked unconscious within minutes, but the unit prevails.

Mappo recalls standing before the Nameless Ones: seven robed figures whose staves writhed with ever-changing runes. One fixed grey eyes on him: “Chosen warrior… what can you learn of patience?” The Nameless Ones appointed Mappo to guard Icarium across centuries.

What to track: Felisin’s isolation; excluded from escape plans, she bonds deeper with her abuser. Pella’s hints signal the rescue will come through Duiker’s network. Corporal List’s repeated training “deaths” prepare him to survive reality. The Nameless Ones think in centuries; their purposes transcend mortal understanding.

A mine collapse kills thirty slaves; had Felisin not secured Heboric’s transfer, he would be among the dead. She feels only a “faint residue of pity”; her numbing continues. Head clouded with durhang smoke, she offers herself to Pella when he tries again to communicate the rescue plan. When Beneth takes her to Captain Sawark, the pit commander’s face drains of blood upon learning she’s fifteen, from the last Unta transport. He knows who she truly is. Beneth beats her savagely, demanding her identity; she lies desperately. Heboric later finds her broken in an alley.

Kalam shelters at Ladro Keep during a sandstorm. A merchant’s wife throws her Deck of Dragons at him in anger; it lands in a perfect spread with The Rope (Assassin of Shadow) surrounded by all six cards of High House Death. After Kalam leaves, Lostara Yil and her Red Blade companion methodically murder everyone at the Keep. No witnesses.

Mappo and Icarium discover the Path of Hands Gate lies beneath Tesem temple: an octagonal chamber radiating overwhelming sorcery, its carvings defaced by claws. At a dead oasis, Sormo E’nath opens himself to the land’s spirits, but the Convergence intrudes catastrophically. D’ivers attack; wasps, fire ants, rats, and snakes swarm the group. A massive black demon (an aptorian) fights to protect them but is overwhelmed. Kulp punches Sormo unconscious to end the ritual. One of Sormo’s eleven crow-souls has been damaged; only ten remain.

What to track: Sawark’s reaction confirms Felisin is recognized as House Paran. The Deck reading shows Hood’s entire House surrounding Kalam; he carries Death with him. Lostara proves ruthless; her path crosses Kalam’s repeatedly. The Gate beneath Tesem is the Convergence’s destination. Each lost crow weakens Sormo; track how many remain.

Fiddler’s group approaches G’danisban to find rebels executing Malazan merchants. The streets show the aftermath of atrocity: children’s toys, blood-stained cobbles, bodies of elderly and children savagely butchered. When six armed men pursue a naked, brutalized girl, Fiddler acts. The Gral horse kicks in one man’s chest; Fiddler rides down two more; Apsalar wounds two with precise knife-work; Crokus throws a blade into the last man’s throat. The girl escapes.

Riding through the massacre’s aftermath, Apsalar speaks with Cotillion’s memories, revealing one of the series’ most stunning truths: Dancer was never assassinated; he ascended, becoming Cotillion. Kellanved ascended with him, becoming Shadowthrone. The T’lan Imass massacre at Aren was ordered by Laseen, not the Emperor. Cotillion trusts no one. Dancer trusted only two men: Kellanved and Dassem Ultor, the First Sword. Dassem is dead.

Kalam delivers the Book of Dryjhna to Sha’ik herself: a small, honey-skinned woman radiating power. She speaks of her vision: at dawn she will open the Book, emerge “renewed.” She gives Kalam an aptorian demon as escort.

At dawn, Sha’ik sits before the Book. A crossbow quarrel strikes her forehead. Lostara Yil fired the killing shot. Red Blades attack; Leoman and the Toblakai (a seventeen-year-old giant with forty-one kills) fight back with devastating skill. The Red Blades retreat with heavy losses, declaring victory. There will be no Whirlwind.

Leoman wraps Sha’ik’s body. The Toblakai asks what they do now. “She said she would be… renewed… We wait.” The Toblakai sniffs: “There’s a storm coming.”

What to track: Kellanved and Dancer ascended; this recontextualizes everything about Shadow and the Empire. Laseen ordered Aren’s massacre, not the Emperor. Sha’ik is dead, but prophecy spoke of “renewal”; someone must take her place. The Toblakai becomes a major series character. The Whirlwind will rise despite Sha’ik’s death.

The Whirlwind erupts across Seven Cities in a single night of coordinated slaughter.

At Skullcup, Dosii guards mutiny. Cavalry sweep through the mining camp, trampling unarmed slaves. Pella finds Felisin and reveals the truth: Baudin has been hiding in a cave for a week; Duiker arranged the escape through the young guard. They’ll swim Sinker Lake, enter an old mineshaft, and cross the desert. Felisin insists on bringing Beneth; Baudin goes to find him.

Waiting in the reeds, Heboric and Felisin are attacked by bloodflies driven mad by fires. The flies bite around Felisin’s eyes, ears, inside her mouth; each bite deposits eggs that would eat her flesh from within. Heboric’s tattoos flare with protective blue light; Fener’s blessing shields him. He forces Felisin to apply tincture that drives out the larvae. The bites leave permanent pockmarks; Felisin’s beauty is destroyed.

Captain Sawark arrives with cavalry. He looks at Felisin with cold recognition, then speaks: “When you’re up on the rim… look south.” He lets them go, riding back toward certain death. Baudin emerges from the reeds. Beneth? “Dead, lass.”

From the desert rim, they see the glow of Dosin Pali: sorcery visible from thirty leagues. “It’s come. Seven Cities has risen. Dryjhna. The Whirlwind’s come.”

Duiker and Kulp flee a village mob with Corporal Gesler’s Coastal Guard: Gesler, Stormy, Truth, and sailors. A High Mage’s sorcery destroys the inn; they escape aboard the Ripath. The crew are Boar Company, secret Fener cultists. When Kulp mentions rescuing a High Priest of Fener, they enthusiastically agree to cross the strait.

Duiker reaches Hissar at dawn to find it burning, but the Seventh was not caught in their beds. They’ve sortied out with ten thousand refugees, heading south. Kamist Reloe plans to encircle and destroy them in three days.

What to track: Felisin’s scars mirror her psychological transformation. Sawark’s sacrifice shows even antagonists can find nobility. Baudin killed Beneth; the question is why he was really sent. The Chain of Dogs begins; Coltaine flees with tens of thousands.

Duiker rides through the aftermath of the Battle of Bat’rol: burning wagons, scattered bodies. Despite the slaughter, this was a shattering Malazan victory. Coltaine’s forces killed thousands while suffering minimal losses. The Fist leads his forces southwest toward the Sekala River with tens of thousands of refugees. “How can Coltaine hope to defend all this? Even Dassem Ultor would have balked.”

Felisin, Baudin, and Heboric cross the desert, starving. They discover the Jade Finger: a massive carved finger of a buried giant; fifty men couldn’t encircle its base. Heboric presses his stump against it; his tattoos flare. At a poisoned waterhole, Baudin makes a desperate gamble: pressing Heboric’s infected stump against Fener’s sacred mark on the ex-priest’s chest.

The god manifests. A massive furred hoof appears, rising from the desert: Fener’s own hoof pulled into the mortal realm. The tattoos leap from Heboric’s skin to spread across the sky. Fener did not want to come; his scream is agony and rage. The manifestation ends; Heboric is healed, his ghost-hands returned. But Fener now walks the mortal realm, vulnerable and hiding.

Mappo recalls the pivotal moment when he accepted his burden. He returned home to find his Trell trader town destroyed: 15,000 slain. A Nameless One awaited him: “We do not see in years. But in centuries.” The implication is staggering: Icarium destroyed Mappo’s home. Yet Mappo accepted guardianship of the being who murdered everyone he loved.

Fiddler’s group rides desperately along an ancient road as shapeshifters tear each other apart in the Convergence. When Gral hunters attack, Apsalar displays terrifying skill; Cotillion’s training surfaces unbidden. Gryllen arrives: the D’ivers “Tide of Madness,” thousands upon thousands of rats. Then Icarium appears. He simply speaks: “Gryllen! Leave here. I now protect them.” The rats hesitate, then withdraw. The most terrifying D’ivers in the world flees from Icarium’s reputation alone.

What to track: Fener pulled into the mortal realm; gods are vulnerable here. Heboric’s ghost-hands transform his connection to Fener into something stranger. Icarium destroyed Mappo’s home; the tragedy beneath their friendship deepens unbearably. Even Gryllen flees Icarium’s name.

While the Seventh guards refugees at Dryj Spring, Coltaine leads night ambushes that slaughter enemy Tithansi. Terrified survivors spread legends: Wickans breathe fire; their arrows multiply; a Mezla Ascendant has been conjured. “Coltaine was conducting a campaign. Engaged in a war, not a panicked flight.”

Felisin’s group reaches the coast, but no boat awaits. Felisin attempts to seduce Baudin, planning to murder him with a stolen knife. He catches her wrist the instant she begins her thrust: “You think I don’t check my gear? You think you’re a mystery to me?” He reveals he killed Beneth himself; snapped his neck. The man deserved more pain, but there wasn’t time.

Lightning rolls across the sea: sorcery from a mage driven mad by Otataral. Kulp and the Ripath crew crash onto the beach, sail aflame. Kulp’s warren-sight reveals Heboric’s transformation: one stump grips Fener’s warren; the other shows two powers in combat. Veins of green (unknown) fighting Otataral red. The green is winning.

The combined group attempts to escape through the mad sorcerer’s warren-storm, but the Ripath is holed in four or five places and begins sinking. In the strange flooded realm they’ve entered, they spot another vessel: a Pre-Imperial Quon dromon with twin banks of oars. They swim to it as the Ripath goes down. Baudin identifies the ship: the Silanda, the only craft sanctioned to trade with the Tiste Andii of Drift Avalii. She vanished when the Emperor’s forces overran Quon and never returned.

Below decks, they discover headless corpses manning the oars, three to a bench. The severed heads are stacked in a grisly pyramid around the main mast; these are the Tiste Andii crew, beheaded when Tiste Edur captured the vessel. Kulp finds a whistle around the dead captain’s neck; when Gesler blows it, the undead rowers come to life, oars dipping in unison to a spectral drum. The Silanda becomes their vessel, crewed by the headless dead.

Felisin confronts Baudin about the talon hidden in his pack alongside assassin’s tools. Heboric overhears and immediately understands: “Well done. So far.” When Felisin demands explanation, Heboric refuses: “You should have paid better attention to your history tutors.” The talon marks something significant.

What to track: Coltaine fights a war, not a retreat; he creates legends that demoralize enemies. The talon connects Baudin to Dancer’s organization; Heboric’s recognition confirms deeper purpose. The green power inhabiting Heboric’s stump connects to the Jade Finger. Felisin’s corruption is complete; Skullcup made her manipulative and murderous. The Silanda and its headless Tiste Andii crew appear in later books; remember how they found her.

Kalam and his aptorian demon Apt encounter Apocalypse “soldiers”: actually bandits using rebellion as cover for rape and murder. They reveal intelligence: Coltaine leads the last Malazan army, fleeing with thousands of refugees; all cities but Aren are rebel-held. When the bandits demand his weapons, Kalam kills them all.

Eight men in minutes. Bordu’s throat slit first; the body propped in saddle as distraction. Arrow through a commander’s eye. Close-quarters work with long-knife and dagger. The final two fumble with unfamiliar crossbows; dead before they can load.

The refugees he saves include Captain Keneb (badly wounded), his wife Selv, her sister Minala (a formidable horsewoman), and two young boys. Minala saw eight dead men; she realizes who Kalam is. When he identifies himself as “Corporal Kalam, Ninth Squad, Bridgeburners,” Keneb nearly faints: “Kalam, who rode with Whiskeyjack across Raraku…”

Kalam agrees to escort them to Aren. In exchange, Keneb will help him rejoin Imperial ranks. Apt’s assistance remains hidden; Minala mentions finding two more dead bandits “torn to pieces, big chunks missing.” Kalam jokes he “hadn’t had much to eat.” They agree to call it a “plains bear.”

What to track: Kalam’s lethality; eight kills demonstrates why he’s considered the Empire’s deadliest assassin. Minala becomes increasingly important. Apt protects Kalam despite his destination being assassination. The Keneb family’s survival thread weaves through to the end.

Duiker has followed Coltaine’s trail for a week, unable to catch up due to enemy outriders. At dusk he makes his move: galloping between enemy camps straight at Malazan lines. He’s waved through, greeted by Wickans who promise his brave mare will recover.

The army’s state shocks him: hundreds of wagons filled with wounded; cattle packed into seething masses; tens of thousands of refugees on an oxbow island; everyone gaunt and exhausted. Captain Lull of the Sialk Marines explains their transport ship started sinking; they pulled into Sialk for repairs just as the mutiny happened, rescued what Marines they could, and escorted refugees out.

At Coltaine’s war council, Captain Sulmar complains the sapper captain never attends briefings. The sappers have been collecting large stones and doing something to the wagons, making them ride heavier despite supposedly carrying wounded. The Council of Nobles arrives, led by pompous Nethpara who demands refugees cross before cattle. They’re ejected before learning the sappers’ secret.

Coltaine orders the Sekala crossing immediately: wounded first, then livestock, then refugees. Sormo’s revelation: “The warrens have become difficult. D’ivers and Soletaken infest every warren. I have been forced to turn to the old ways, the sorceries of the land.” Kamist Reloe cannot use his High Mage powers either; he lacks Elder knowledge.

The destination: Ubaryd, two months away. Coltaine doesn’t know if it still holds.

What to track: The wagon mystery; whatever the sappers hide will prove decisive at a crucial moment. The Council of Nobles creates ongoing friction. Sormo shifts to Elder magic, awakening land spirits. Captain Lull’s philosophical nature produces the book’s most famous line.

The Silanda remains trapped in the flooded Elder Warren, its headless oarsmen rowing endlessly toward no horizon. Kulp sits in the captain’s cabin, spirit wandering Meanas Warren as he searches for a way out. He senses something vast approaching and conceives an audacious plan: use the creature’s wake to tear open passage home.

The creature is an undead dragon: hugely boned, wingspan dwarfing even Anomander Rake’s, ancient and primordial. Kulp tears open a rift, but it keeps widening, flooding Meanas with water. The damage is potentially cosmic, until the dragon, with glacial irritation, lends its power to seal the breach.

The dragon seeks to purge the mortals by diving through a warren of bronze fire. Baudin wraps himself around Felisin, shielding her as flames engulf the ship. They emerge in Raraku: Baudin’s skin not burned but gilded; Felisin’s bloodfly pockmarks fading. Gesler, Stormy, and the marines went below decks; their fate unknown.

Kulp confronts Baudin about his true identity. Heboric explains: Dancer created a covert organization called the Talons; when Laseen became Regent, her Claws hunted them nearly to extinction. Baudin is a Talon, sent by Tavore to protect Felisin. Tavore used the old organization because she needed to work outside Claw knowledge.

Felisin’s rejection: “My need for a bodyguard is ended. Get out of my sight, Baudin… I will try to kill you. Every chance I get.” Baudin simply walks away.

The Whirlwind catches them, rolling across the desert like a leviathan. At Tesem, Fiddler broods about Iskaral Pust’s schemes. Mappo mentions their destination: Tremorlor, an Azath House in the desert. “Sane people don’t go looking for places like that.”

What to track: Baudin is a Talon; Tavore was working to save Felisin all along. Felisin rejects salvation, pushing away her protector. The bronze fire transforms them: Baudin’s gilded skin, Felisin’s healing scars. Tremorlor becomes crucial to the climax.

Duiker rides with the Chain of Dogs through grinding attrition. Close to 50,000 refugees; five companies of the Seventh flanking; Wickan patrols on all sides; a rearguard of 1,000 in eternal skirmish. Children die daily. Water runs critically low. “A slow, calculated slaughter. We’re being toyed with.”

Duiker has stopped attending briefings. He wanders camps at night, watching death after death. He sees a baby die in its mother’s arms: “The moment when the struggle’s already lost, surrendered, and the tiny heart slows in its own realization, then stops in mute wonder.”

Captain Lull conscripts him for a mission to kill the Tithansi warleader. When Duiker protests his failing health, Lull delivers the book’s most famous lines:

“Children are dying.”

Lull nodded. “That’s a succinct summary of humankind, I’d say. Who needs tomes and volumes of history? Children are dying. The injustices of the world hide in those three words. Quote me, Duiker, and your work’s done.”

At Nil’s hearth, the kill-team tunnels beneath enemy lines. The ambush catches the warleader, but beside him stands a Semk with mouth sewn shut, carrying a piece of his tribe’s god. The Semk unleashes devastating sorcery; a young warlock’s face is stripped to bone.

Duiker drags unconscious Nil toward safety. When three Tithansi attack, he kills two, and finds the third already dead: a Claw throwing knife in his back. Someone is helping them. A demon walked the land that night.

What to track: “Children are dying” crystallizes the book’s thesis on history and suffering. The mystery demon is Apt with her “familiar”: a boy we’ll meet later. Duiker’s soldier past saves his life. Divine fragments walk the battlefield.

A Wickan cattle-dog runs past Duiker with a Hengese lapdog in its mouth: expensive pet becoming dinner. Noble Tullyk Alar threatens Duiker until Corporal List invokes Coltaine’s name. When Duiker finds Lenestro flogging an elderly servant over the lost lapdog (a man who held shields at Sekala Crossing), he physically shakes the nobleman until he faints.

At Coltaine’s tent, Duiker reports that returning servants was a mistake; nobles beat them to prevent losing them again. Coltaine’s solution: buy the servants outright with gold jakatas, the soldiers’ pay. “The Empire will honor its debts.”

Unable to sleep, Duiker sits by dying embers. Coltaine joins him, revealing intelligence: four tribes oppose them; six city legions have joined; two armies hold the south. Sha’ik has not marched from Raraku. The Fist’s strategic vision extends far beyond the immediate crisis: “I intend to arrive at Vathar two days before it.” Vathar is months away. When Duiker asks about tomorrow: “Tomorrow we crush Kamist Reloe’s army, of course. One must think far ahead to succeed, Historian.”

At dawn, Duiker discovers the Wickans donning heavy cavalry armor: ornate boiled leather dyed red and green, horse armor too. This equipment was designed during Coltaine’s rebellion but never used. The Wickans have carried this secret across the Empire for years, waiting.

The Weasel Clan has filed their teeth since Sekala. The sappers have done something decisive with the wagons.

What to track: Coltaine buys servants with soldiers’ pay; leadership through sacrifice. The heavy cavalry armor waited years for this moment. The Weasel Clan turns feral. Coltaine plans months ahead while fighting daily for survival.

Felisin, Heboric, and Kulp shelter in a dead city’s courtyard within the Whirlwind. They’re hunted by shapeshifters. Heboric guides them using knowledge from the city’s ghosts, past scenes of ancient battle: bodies of humans, shapeshifters, and T’lan Imass scattered everywhere.

They reach a temple with columns carved as tree trunks. The frieze depicts the Elder Deck: not Houses but Holds. The Hold of the Beast shows T’lan Imass flanking an empty throne. “There should be someone on the throne. Every echo of memory tells me there used to be.”

The temple tunnels through the mountain. Heboric carries them down a 200-arm-span cliff using ghost-hands that plunge into solid rock. The sand strips skin from Felisin’s body.

They stumble into a sphere of calm. Within sits Nawahl Ebur, a massive corpulent man offering healing and sanctuary. He takes interest in Felisin: “All that you grant of your free will is my reward.”

A Soletaken bear attacks the barrier. In that distraction, Nawahl transforms. Beneath his silks, rats pour forth: hundreds. Nawahl is Gryllen, the Tide of Madness disguised.

Kulp’s death: the rats swarm over him. When they dissipate, only wet bones and ragged cloak remain. The mage is devoured in seconds.

Baudin returns despite banishment, carrying lanterns. He smashes them, spreading fire, wading into the swarm. Felisin drags Heboric toward Messremb, the bear fighting Gryllen, choosing honest violence over seductive lies.

What to track: Kulp’s death leaves the group without their mage. The Elder Deck’s Holds predate the Houses; the empty throne signals cosmic change. Baudin returns despite rejection, proving his mission transcends personal hurt. Felisin chooses honest violence over false kindness.

Kalam sits aboard the Ragstopper, heading for Unta. Time seems distorted; weather patterns defy natural law. Salk Elan openly offers to help assassinate the Empress, but Kalam denies any such plan. The assassin admits he has contacts in Malaz City: at the Deadhouse itself.

Kalam breaks his signaling stone to contact Quick Ben. The mage is exhausted; things have gone to “Hood’s shithole” on Genabackis. Quick promises to reach Kalam within hours.

Duiker and the Chain of Dogs enter the ancient Vathar Forest. The trees are petrified; among them stand T’lan Imass embedded in bark, their hollow eye sockets tracking the army’s passage. Corporal List sees with spirit-vision: “Sites of engagement, the various clans, wherever the Jaghut turned from flight.” This was a Jaghut refuge, defended tower by tower over millennia until the T’lan Imass finally destroyed the family. The too-shattered survivors were brought here: living monuments to genocide.

Korbolo Dom pursues but does not attack in the haunted forest. Even he fears what walks among petrified trees.

What to track: Quick Ben’s crisis references events on Genabackis (Memories of Ice). The Vathar Forest holds a Jaghut family’s millennia-long last stand. Korbolo Dom will prove the Chain’s greatest enemy. The Deadhouse holds cosmic significance.

The Chain of Dogs reaches the Vathar River: a massive gorge with a ford of submerged stones. Millions of butterflies fill the forest in surreal beauty.

Duiker encounters Gesler, Stormy, and Truth aboard the Silanda: they survived the bronze fire and emerged with bronze-hued skin, permanently transformed. Gesler reveals Kulp, Heboric, Felisin, and Baudin jumped overboard when the ship was aflame; their fate is unknown.

Coltaine orders the wounded loaded onto the Silanda. They will be carried to Aren by river and sea, arriving ahead of the army. This is the only way to save the critically injured.

The enemy has strung ropes across the gorge, preparing to trap the crossing army. Wickan scouts report tens of thousands massing on the far side. The Battle of Vathar Crossing is imminent: the bloodiest engagement yet.

What to track: Gesler’s bronze transformation marks them as Ascendant-touched. The Silanda carries wounded to Aren with truth of the march. Vathar’s crossing will cost more lives than any previous battle.

Something is wrong aboard the Ragstopper. The captain hints at time distortion: they left on a quarter moon, but now it’s three-quarters full. “Four days… or fourteen?” Strange winds push them faster than should be possible.

When pirates close in, Kalam reveals his identity to the marines: “Corporal Kalam. Ninth Squad, Bridgeburners.” The name alone earns their trust. The naval battle is brutal—Ragstopper rams a pirate ship in a storm, marines boarding amid screaming winds.

Then treachery: the treasurer’s bodyguards have killed the First Mate and officers. The treasurer planned to surrender the cargo to his pirate relatives. But Kalam and Salk Elan move first. When the pirates summon an enkar’al—a massive flying reptile—Kalam climbs onto the beast and slashes its wings until it falls. The treasurer ends his voyage loaded with coins and fed to the sharks.

In Raraku, Felisin dons Sha’ik’s clothing and silver jewelry, preparing to enter the rebel camp. Leoman warns of resistance from the High Mages. She tells Heboric: “I have learned one thing from you: patience.”

As Ragstopper limps toward Falar, the lookout sights sails: Adjunct Tavore’s fleet, heading for Seven Cities. The serpent’s head on that long Imperial neck.

What to track: Kalam’s Bridgeburner identity opens doors. Salk Elan proves useful but his motives remain unclear. Felisin transforms into Sha’ik. Tavore’s fleet means vengeance is coming.

Fiddler’s group reaches Tremorlor, the Azath House. D’ivers and Soletaken converge behind them, including Gryllen. The Azath is under siege; its grounds erupt with roots snaring the Hounds of Shadow. Icarium begins to awaken, his keening power threatening destruction. The group is trapped between Icarium’s building rage and Gryllen’s swarm closing in.

In Raraku, Felisin finds where Sha’ik Elder died. Leoman and the Toblakai have been waiting for the prophesied renewal. Felisin, scarred, bitter, broken, takes up the Book of Dryjhna. The Whirlwind Goddess claims her. A pillar of golden light erupts skyward. When it fades, Sha’ik Reborn stands where Felisin was: a woman who is and is not the girl from Unta.

What to track: Tremorlor is under siege from shapeshifters. Icarium’s rage threatens everything. Felisin becomes Sha’ik: the Paran sisters’ war becomes goddess against Adjunct.

The Battle of Vathar Crossing has been fought. The losses are catastrophic:

• Over 20,000 refugees dead
• The Foolish Dog Clan reduced to fewer than 500 warriors
• Seven hundred soldiers of the Seventh dead, wounded, or lost
• Only a dozen engineers remain standing
• Sormo E’nath is dead: the greatest loss

Within Sormo were eight elder warlocks. His death means wisdom, experience, and knowledge gone forever.

Captain Lull asks the question haunting them all: “How does a mortal make answer to what his or her kind are capable of?” Duiker’s answer:

“Each of us has his own threshold. We can only take so much before we cross over… into something else. A change of perspective: you see but do not feel, or you weep yet look upon your own anguish as if from somewhere else.”

Lull presses: “How to answer this?”

“Sleight of hand. Think of a trickster: the games of illusion they played with their hands. If you fight both tears and a smile, you’ll have found one.”

One of the book’s most beloved scenes: Coltaine attempts to promote the mysterious sapper captain for heroism. The “captain” is Mincer: squat, impossibly ugly, sleeping while marching. When promoted to sergeant, another sapper reveals: “He was a captain not two minutes ago. The Fist’s just demoted him.” Mincer nominates his sergeant Bungle for the now-vacant captaincy. Captain Lull whispers: “Sleight of hand.” Coltaine is bewildered—he just demoted a man for unsurpassed bravery! But the soldiers love him even more.

What to track: Vathar’s cost bleeds the Chain dry. Sormo’s death ends magical protection. “Sleight of hand” becomes the book’s emotional thesis—both in Duiker’s philosophy and the sappers’ irreverent genius.

Tremorlor’s door won’t open. Everyone tries: Mappo, Apsalar, Crokus. None can turn the latch. Icarium begins to awaken, his keening power threatening destruction as D’ivers swarm the yard. At the last moment, Moby crawls down Fiddler’s arm and touches the latch. The door opens. Moby is a Soletaken: a shapeshifter traveling with them all along.

Inside, they find a withered corpse: the old Keeper, a Forkrul Assail, one of the Elder Races. A bell rings; impossibly, a Trygalle Trade Guild caravan waits outside, delivering a package from Darujhistan. Inside: Moranth munitions from Quick Ben. Cussers, crackers, flamers. The sapper is armed.

Tremorlor claims Gryllen (the D’ivers of rats) forever. And Moby? Apsalar explains: “Tremorlor needed a new guardian.” Crokus’s uncle’s familiar will become the new Keeper.

Duiker leads the refugees toward Aren under Kherahn Dhobri escort. Coltaine stays behind with what remains of the army to buy them time. The historian carries a message from Coltaine: “It is not the Empire’s soldiers the Empress cannot afford to lose, it is its memory.”

What to track: Moby is Soletaken and becomes Tremorlor’s new guardian. Quick Ben’s munitions arrive via the deadliest courier service. The refugees escape while Coltaine holds the line. Mappo refuses to surrender Icarium to the Azath.

Sha’ik (Felisin reborn) stands with Heboric on a watchtower. She has sealed Raraku; the storm can scour flesh from bones. She speaks of her adopted daughter, a girl she has named Felisin: “It’s a fine name. It holds such… promise.” Heboric weeps.

THE FALL OF COLTAINE

Duiker reaches Aren. Nether drags him to the tower where soldiers line the walls in silence.

On a barrow less than 500 paces from Aren’s walls, Coltaine makes his last stand. Fewer than 400 soldiers remain. Three standards still fly. Korbolo Dom’s tens of thousands press in from all sides.

High Fist Pormqual refuses to sortie: “I cannot save them! Too many!” Mallick Rel stands beside him, face a mask of false grief.

Bult goes down first: pinned by lances, hacked to death defending the standard. Corporal List dies mid-leap, decapitated. Coltaine fights to the last. When the mob buries him, a massive arrow-studded cattle-dog leaps to where he fell, speared, dying with teeth in a soldier’s throat.

A cross is raised. Coltaine is nailed to it alive. Kamist Reloe unleashes sorcery against approaching crows: the vessels meant to carry Coltaine’s soul. The crows approach; Reloe destroys them by hundreds. Again they gather; again he burns them.

The garrison commander calls for Squint, an old bowman. “Mercy.” At over 500 paces, in fading light, Squint fires. The arrow strikes true. Coltaine dies.

The crows converge: thousands upon thousands, a black sea swallowing the sky. They take his soul—but not to Hood’s realm.

What to track: Coltaine dies crucified within sight of salvation. Pormqual’s betrayal lets ten thousand soldiers watch helplessly. Squint’s impossible arrow delivers mercy. The crows carry Coltaine somewhere other than death.

Kalam crawls ashore in Malaz City, wounded, stripped of weapons by Salk Elan’s betrayal. Within minutes he’s killed two Claws and armed himself from their corpses.

He sets out into the night, hunting Claw. The Hand’s leader confers with hunters; Kalam approaches in disguise and kills all three in seconds. He speaks into the dead leader’s ear: “I know you can hear me, Topper. Two Hands left. Run and hide—I’ll still find you.”

Topper speaks through the corpse: “Welcome back, Kalam.” More Hands pour through the Imperial Warren.

Fiddler’s group walks across an endless mosaic floor within the Azath Warren: each tile a map. Apsalar’s father recognizes the Quon Tali coastline on a single tile. “Are these all the realms? Every world home to a House of the Azath?” Within this warren, one could go anywhere.

Iskaral Pust disappears: fallen through a hole in the tiles. Then Mappo and Icarium fall through as well, vanishing into the void.

What to track: Kalam becomes the hunter, killing the Empire’s assassin organization. The Azath Warren maps every realm on tiles. Mappo and Icarium are lost; their story continues elsewhere.

Fiddler’s group emerges from the Azath Warren into the Deadhouse in Malaz City. They find the guardian by the fire: a massive tusked figure with grey-green skin. The guardian is Gothos, an ancient Jaghut. And he is Icarium’s father.

“My son must be stopped—his rage is a poison. Some responsibilities surpass friendship, surpass even blood.”

Gothos explains: Icarium sought to free his father from the Azath and failed. The attempt damaged him, stripped his memories. Now he carries rage without understanding.

The Nameless Ones’ crime revealed: “The Elders scarred him deep when they destroyed an entire settlement and laid the blame at Icarium’s feet.” The Nameless Ones framed Icarium for destroying Mappo’s home. The massacre was their doing, designed to bind Mappo as guardian. The Trell has spent centuries guarding a friend he believes murdered his family, when the Nameless Ones committed the crime themselves.

Outside, Kalam kills Hand after Hand throughout Malaz City. Each kill costs him wounds. Cornered on a balcony, a small black ratter dog reveals his position—then attacks the Claw below, tearing open his face.

Surrounded by a full Hand, Kalam prepares to die. A crossbow bolt takes the leader: Minala charges in on Kalam’s stallion. She pulls him up: “You wanted the Empress? She’s right there—in Mock’s Hold!”

Laseen is in Malaz City. Shadow magic catches them; they emerge inside Mock’s Hold itself.

What to track: Gothos is Icarium’s father, guardian of the Deadhouse (not Tremorlor). The Nameless Ones framed Icarium and massacred Mappo’s people. Minala followed Kalam across an ocean. Shadow intervenes to deliver Kalam to the Empress.

Sha’ik leads her army out of the Whirlwind Warren south of Aren. They emerge onto a battlefield: one of Korbolo Dom’s massacres. Black grass, dried blood, capemoths feeding.

Heboric senses something worse ahead. They reach the Aren Gate and discover Korbolo Dom’s monument: the Aren Way, crucified Malazan soldiers for over three leagues. “More than three leagues—as far as we could see. There are thousands.”

Ten thousand soldiers nailed to trees. The Seventh. The refugees who surrendered. Everyone Pormqual gave to Korbolo Dom.

Sha’ik orders Korbolo Dom to withdraw and submit. His independent rampage is over. She orders return to Raraku: she needs the Holy Desert’s power to face her sister. “We shall meet Tavore. But the time and place shall be of my choosing.”

Heboric approaches a crucified corpse. The fat priest of Mael speaks: “An old man. A soldier, no more than that. One among ten thousand.” Heboric hears Fener’s laughter: mocking, endless.

In Aren, Adjunct Tavore ascends the palace steps: young, hard, untested, commanding an army of recruits. The Seventh’s survivors are assembled. “Those survivors, sir…” “I know, Keneb. I know.” They’re broken.

Mappo has emerged from the Azath Warren north of Aren. He encounters Gesler, Stormy, and Truth on a cart, searching the Aren Way—checking every crucified body.

“Coltaine guided thirty thousand refugees from Hissar to Aren. It was impossible, but that’s what he did. He saved those ungrateful bastards and his reward was to get butchered not five hundred paces from the city’s gate.”

They’re looking for Coltaine’s body. Gesler lies to Truth: “He ain’t here, lad.” But Mappo sees the truth in his eyes. They found him.

Wounded cattle-dogs lie on the cart: the only survivors of the Fall.

What to track: The Aren Way holds ten thousand crucified. Sha’ik takes command; sister will face sister. Tavore arrives with an untested army. Gesler retrieves Coltaine’s body. The cattle-dogs survive as last witnesses.

On the Wickan Plains, Coltaine’s widow walks from the horsewife’s yurt carrying a small clay flask: poison to end her pregnancy. The horsewife has examined her and delivered grim news: “The child within her is… empty. A thing without a soul. It has been cursed.” The child must be returned to the earth.

She kneels on the plain, unstoppers the flask, raises it to her lips; a hand seizes her wrist. The horsewife has followed, breathless, staring at the northern horizon.

A storm cloud approaches; but it is not a cloud. A swarm, seething and black, striding like a giant across the plains. “Flies! Oh, spirits below—flies…” The horsewife screams.

But they are not flies. “Crows. Crows, so many crows—”

Deep within her, the child stirs.

The crows that took Coltaine’s soul have crossed the continent. They have found his widow. They have found her “soulless” child. Coltaine will be reborn.

“This ends the second tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.”

“What exactly happened to Felisin?”

Felisin’s arc is the book’s darkest thread. Arrested in the Cull, sent to the Otataral mines, she survived by trading her body for protection. The experience broke something in her. When she found where Sha’ik Elder died, the Whirlwind Goddess claimed her as Sha’ik Reborn. The girl who entered Skullcup no longer exists; what emerged in Raraku is something else entirely. Her confrontation with her sister Tavore is coming.

“Was Baudin actually trying to protect Felisin?”

Yes. Baudin was a Talon (Dancer’s old organization) sent by Tavore to protect her youngest sister. Tavore couldn’t act openly without revealing her hand to the Claw, so she used the nearly-extinct Talon network. Every brutal thing Baudin did; killing Beneth, refusing to explain himself, enduring Felisin’s hatred; was in service of keeping her alive. When Gryllen’s rats attacked, Baudin waded into the swarm with lanterns to buy Felisin and Heboric time to escape. We don’t see him again after that. She never knew the truth about why he was sent.

“Is Coltaine really dead? What happened with the crows?”

Coltaine is dead; Squint’s arrow saw to that. But his soul didn’t go to Hood. The crows carried it across the continent to the Wickan Plains, where Coltaine’s widow was about to poison herself and her “soulless” unborn child. The implication: Coltaine will be reborn through Wickan soul-magic. This thread continues in later books.

“What happened to Kalam’s assassination attempt?”

Kalam reached Malaz City and fought his way through multiple Claw Hands, demonstrating why he’s considered the deadliest assassin in the Empire. Shadow magic delivered him and Minala directly into Mock’s Hold where Laseen waited. The book ends without showing what happened next; that confrontation’s outcome is deliberately left unresolved. Kalam’s story continues in later books.

“Where did Mappo and Icarium go?”

They fell through a hole in the Azath Warren’s tile floor and got separated. Mappo emerges alone near Aren in Chapter 24, where he encounters Gesler’s group searching for Coltaine’s body. Icarium’s whereabouts remain unknown; their story continues in later books. The revelation about Icarium (that the Nameless Ones framed him for destroying Mappo’s home, when they committed the massacre themselves) adds tragic weight to their friendship.

“Do I need to remember everything for Memories of Ice?”

Not really. Memories of Ice returns to Genabackis with characters from Gardens of the Moon. The Deadhouse Gates storylines (Felisin/Sha’ik, the Seven Cities rebellion, Tavore’s army) continue in Book 4 (House of Chains), not Book 3. You can let some details fade; Erikson will remind you when they matter again.