Assail

How it opens

Word of gold in northern Assail draws fortune-hunters across the seas, among them a Mare galley that takes Kyle aboard in Korel for the crossing east. In Stratem, Shimmer and a party of the Crimson Guard’s Avowed sail for Assail to rescue comrades trapped there. On a stretch of the Assail coast, Silverfox keeps watch as T’lan Imass come out of the sea to carry on an old war. Inland, a young lowlander named Orman leaves home to join a party bound for the gold of the Iceblood Holdings.

Who you meet early

• ShimmerShimmer, back in Stratem from Jacuruku, formally questions K’azz’s fitness to command while Cal-Brinn and the Fourth remain trapped in Assail. She then readies the voyage to Assail herself, and K’azz joins the ship at the Cape of the Stone Army.
• SilverfoxSilverfox, Summoner of the T’lan Imass, keeps watch on a stretch of the Assail coast that locals call the Dead Coast. When Kerluhm Imass come ashore she commands an end to the war, but they fight the Kron instead.
• Fisher kel TathFisher Kel Tath, a bard, returns to the Bone Peninsula of Assail and finds it crowded with foreigners come for gold. He takes charge of an unconscious Tiste Andii found washed up on the shore and carries him on a travois as he follows the gold-seekers up into the Bone range.
• OrmanOrman, Bregin’s son, a lowlander from outside Curl, agrees to meet Old Bear’s party, which he takes to be a strike for the gold fields. He takes his father’s spear Boarstooth from his uncle’s hall. His uncle’s wife Raina names him thief, and he runs for the woods.
• Tulan OrbedTulan Orbed, Master of the Mare galley Lady’s Luck, takes Kyle aboard for the crossing east to Assail. He says he means to lie in wait along the coast and take the gold that others carry out.
• Malle of GrisMalle of Gris, an older Malazan aristocrat, signs an agreement with Marshal Teal and Enguf for equal shares of gold from the Salt range. She tells Fisher she wants funds to return her family name to the power it once held.