Stonewielder

How it opens

On the Stormwall of Korel, Lord Protector Hiam faces falling numbers of recruits, and his Master Engineer warns him that frost from the Riders' assaults is breaking the wall's stone apart. In the far south of Jourilan, a young Priestess of the Lord of Tragedy asks Ivanr, a former champion who refused the Call to the Stormwall, to come and sit at her side. In Banith, the Assessor Bakune looks into the death of a nun of the Cloister of Our Lady, found in a dead-end alley. Near Unta, the recruit Suth joins the 17th Squad of the Malazan Fourth Army as it boards ships for a destination no one will name.

Who you meet early

• HiamHiam, Lord Protector of the Stormwall, inspects the wall with Wall Marshal Quint and orders more provincial levies. He expects an offensive, but he tells Shool it will not come from the Malazans.
• IvanrIvanr, once lauded as the greatest Jourilan champion in living memory, refused the Call to the Stormwall and now farms a hillside in the south. The Priestess presses into his hand an iron nail, the symbol of the cult of Dessembrae.
• BakuneBakune, Assessor and magistrate of Banith, looks into the death of a nun from the Cloister. He questions Abbot Starvann Arl about her and then asks to see the captain of the Watch.
• SuthSuth, a Dal Hon recruit whose name was shortened by the Malazan recruiting officer, joins the 17th Squad as a heavy under Sergeant Goss.
• GreymaneGreymane, a Malazan renegade, has been running a sword school in Delanss under the name Orjin until four Korelri come to kill him on a charge of making pacts with the Riders. He says he only talked with them, and that they gave him a sword.
• CorloCorlo, a mage of the Crimson Guard, is a prisoner on the Stormwall along with his commander Iron Bars, an Avowed. He works to keep Bars from giving up.
• AgaylaAgayla, Kiska's aunt though not by blood, takes Kiska in at her spice shop in Malaz city. At her loom she asks the Enchantress for guidance.