Ahira's Hangar

This is the chapter of the sexual confirmation of the marriage of Rhulad and Mayen. Both are virgins and inexperienced, and of course, Rhulad is encased in wax and heavy gold coins, and has a huge sword he cannot put down. The sex cannot possibly be good, though Mayen tries to make the best of it, despite her horror.

Udinaas and the incredibly annoying Feather Witch, as personal slaves of the newly royal couple, must witness the first coupling, but are ordered out when Feather Witch cannot stop crying.

There is confusion and jockeying among the people in the Letharii treaty delegation, as well as with the Letharii already there, like Hull and Seren.

Rhulad orders Seren and the trader she guides to get the hell out of Edur lands, with three days to leave. they must leave everything - their trade goods, wagons, and slaves. But they will have their lives if they are quick enough. She decides to go back to her seldom used home in Lethar.

Hull pledges himself loyal to Rhulad, and betrays all of the military secrets of Lethar to him. Hull Beddict will finally have his vengeance upon hsi own people, who used him as an inadvertant and unknowing tool of genocide.

The delegation is told to bring back word to the Letharii king that the Edur will bring war to them in the name of their genocidal crimes, and that Lethar will fall.

It is clear to Udinaas and others who know him well, that Rhulad's hold on sanity is pretty shakey. And it is also clear that he is now emotionally dependant upon Udinaas, a slave of the Letharii race, to keep his hold on that crumbling sanity.

Seren and Trull part, without really speaking or acting on their mutual attraction.

If you don't like Feather Witch now, just wait until you read Reaper's Gale. You'll want to pluck your eyeballs out.

She truly makes me want to pluck my eyeballs out now. Probably my least favorite character in all of Malazan.

Sounds like by the time I finally read RG, I will be starting a thread called "How Many Cool Ways Can You Think of for Feather Witch to Gruesomely Die???"