Orb Sceptre Throne

How it opens

In Hurly, on the south coast of Genabackis, fortune-hunters wait for boats out to the Spawns, the isles born when the last fragments of Moon’s Spawn crashed into the Rivan Sea. In Darujhistan, a scholar digs his way into an old tomb, and the Moranth ask the Malazan ambassador to look into the burial grounds south of the city. Far from both, Kiska and Leoman walk the black sand shores of a sea of light.

Who you meet early

• AntsyAntsy, a Malazan veteran, comes down to Hurly looking for a boat to the Spawns and gives his name as Red. Unable to pay the fee for the boats, he takes work as a guard for a stranger’s expedition to the isles.
• OrchidOrchid is a young woman in Hurly without the price of a berth to the Spawns. She says she was raised in a temple monastery of Elder Night and can read the Tiste Andii script.
• MalakaiMalakai, as a hooded stranger asks to be called, follows Antsy and Orchid out of Hurly and offers to buy the object Antsy showed the fee-collector. He then hires Antsy as his guard and agrees to take Orchid on his expedition to the Spawns.
• LeomanLeoman of the Flails, once bodyguard to the rebel leader Sha’ik, is with Kiska on the shores of the Sea of Vitr. There they meet the being who calls himself Maker.
• AraganAragan is ambassador of the Imperial Malazan delegation in Darujhistan. The Moranth attaché Torn asks him to set his mages to look into the burial grounds south of the city, and he agrees as a favour.
• EbbinScholar Ebbin, backed by the ironmonger Humble Measure, digs into a tomb and finds one chamber still sealed. Measure grants him more funding, with labourers and armed guards.
• Rallick NomRallick Nom is called out by the assassin Krute to see two dead ex-Warden guards in Darujhistan. He tells Krute that Vorcan has moved on, as has he.
• KruppeKruppe is asleep in his chair at the Phoenix Inn when Rallick comes looking for Cutter. Kruppe assures him that Cutter is not in the city.