So, Hissar is always an interesting part of Deadhouse Gates (at least to me) because of all the nuances. You get the Jhistal Priest, you get the Wickans, you get the Seventh, and you get the Red Blades (not to mention the actual citizens of Hissar..). But most importantly, Coltaine's Wickans.
The Wickan entrance into Hissar when they're getting off the ships always sends a huge message. They're wild as they disembark, completely haywire and (apparently) leaderless to most anyone who's watching the scene, and the Hissar City Guard is pretty freaking worried and thinking they'll have to fight these savages.
And then, all of a sudden, they calm down and form ranks in a very short span of time, and they're in an Imperial Parade Formation, proceeding in an orderly manner up from the Harbour.
I always love that, simply for the fact that the Wickans indulge the Malazans' preconceptions of them, and then prove them wrong.
Moving on to the audience the Wickans have, I love Duiker's input, all the time.
"Who better to deal with insurrection than a warrior who led one himself?"
And this increasingly becomes obvious as Coltaine trains the Seventh for precisely what they will become.
"That ruined monastery on the hill south of the city - you know the one? Just foundations left except for the central temple, but the chest-high walls cover the entire hilltop like a small city. The sappers have built them up, roofed some of them over. It was like a maze of alleys and cul-de-sacs to begin with, but Coltaine had them turn it into a nightmare. The Wickan has us there every afternoon, mock battles, street control, assaulting buildings, break-out tactics, retrieving wounded."
And, perhaps most importantly, he trains them to deal with REAL refugees. He makes Kulp create these illusions - thousands of them - that act like real people, doing exactly what panicking people are bound to do when they are forced to abandon their homes for an uncertain future.
"I create Malazan refugees, historian. By the hundred. A thousand weighted scarecrows for the soldiers to drag around aren't sufficient for Coltaine, the ones he has me create flee the wrong way, or refuse to leave their homes, or drag furniture and other possessions. Coltaine's orders - my refugees create chaos, and so far cost more lives than any other element in the exercises."
Coltaine knows exactly what's coming. And he needs his army to be ready.
2087
izzy806
prguitarman
andulkaphoto
dailybridgerton
