Help
I've been rereading the series and I've gotten to Deadhouse Gates. I'm reading the Chain of Dogs and such, Coltaine is a badass, yadda yadda, but what really piqued my interest is the sappers. My memory is fuzzy so I would like to be filled in on a certain nagging question.
Question: Did the sappers leave during the march, or did they stay with Coltaine during his stand outside Aren?
The reason I ask is this: Duiker is crossing the river that the engineers put stones on to build an artificial roadway. He encounters the engineers. The leader of them, presumably Mincer, tells another sapper to pull on a hair(which I assume is a rope or something?) that would lower the road and raise the water level. This sapper is Cuttle, a very skilled sapper and essentially becomes Fiddler's right hand man during The Bonehunters and Reaper's Gale, almost filling in for Hedge in a way, albeit in a less insane way, but the two are the top sappers in the Bonehunters company. He could even be one of the best sapper's we've met. He is the sapper that assists Fiddler with the drum, so we know he isn't a rookie in any regard.
These are passages I found on the encyclopedia during the fall of Aren and they raise questions, despite their badassery:
Quote
Duiker saw Coltaine there, amidst a knot of Mincer's engineers and a handful of Lull's marines, his round shield a shattered mess on his left arm, his lone long-knife snapped to the length of a short sword in his right hand, his feather cloak glistening as if brushed with tar. The historian saw Commander Bult, guiding the retreat towards the hill's summit. Cattle-dogs surged and leapt around the Wickan veteran like a frantic bodyguard even as arrows swept through them in waves. Among the creatures one stood out, huge, seemingly indomitable, pincushioned with arrows, yet fighting on.
The horses were gone. The Weasel Clan was gone. The Foolish Dog warriors were but a score in number, surrounding half a dozen old men and horsewives - the very last of a dwindled, cut-away heart. Of the Crow, it was clear that Coltaine and Bult were the last.
Soldiers of the Seventh, few with any armour left, held themselves in a solid ring around the others. Many of them no longer raised weapons, yet stood their ground even as they were cut to pieces. No quarter was give, every soldier who fell with wounds was summarily butchered - their helmets torn off, their forearms shattered as they sought to ward off the attacks, their skulls crumpling to multiple blows.
...
He saw fewer than a hundred soldiers still upright, but it had become a slaughter - the only battle that remained was among Korbolo's forces for the chance of delivering fatal blows and raising grisly trophies with triumphant shrieks. The Seventh were falling and falling, using naught but flesh and bone to shield their leaders - the ones who had led them across a continent to die now, almost within the shadow of Aren's high walls.
...
The last of the Seventh vanished beneath swarming bodies. Bult stood with his back to the standard bearer, a Dhobri tulwar in each hand. A mob closed on him and drove lances into the veteran, sticking him as they would a cornered boar. Even then he tried to rise up, slashing out with a tulwar to chop into the leg of a man - who reeled back howling. But the lances stabbed deep, pushed the Wickan back, pinned him to the ground. Blades flashed down on him, hacking him to death.
The standard bearer left his position - the standard itself propped up between corpses - and leapt forward in a desperate attempt to reach his commander. A blade neatly decapitated him, sending his head toppling back to join the bloody jumble at the standard's base, and thus did Corporal List die, having experienced countless mock deaths all those months ago at Hissar.
The Foolish Dog's position vanished beneath a press of bodies, the standard toppling moments later. Bloody scalps were lifted and waved about, the trophies spraying red rain.
Surrounded by the last of the engineers and marines, Coltaine fought on. His defiance lasted but a moment longer before Korbolo Dom's warriors killed the last of defender, then swallowed up Coltaine himself, burying him in their mindless frenzy.
A huge arrow-studded cattle-dog darted to where Coltaine had gone down, but then a lance speared the beast, raising it high. It writhed as it slid down the shaft, and even then the creature delivered one final death to the enemy gripping the weapon, by tearing out the soldier's throat.
Then it too was gone.
The Crow standard wavered, leaned to one side, then pitched down, vanishing in the press.
The horses were gone. The Weasel Clan was gone. The Foolish Dog warriors were but a score in number, surrounding half a dozen old men and horsewives - the very last of a dwindled, cut-away heart. Of the Crow, it was clear that Coltaine and Bult were the last.
Soldiers of the Seventh, few with any armour left, held themselves in a solid ring around the others. Many of them no longer raised weapons, yet stood their ground even as they were cut to pieces. No quarter was give, every soldier who fell with wounds was summarily butchered - their helmets torn off, their forearms shattered as they sought to ward off the attacks, their skulls crumpling to multiple blows.
...
He saw fewer than a hundred soldiers still upright, but it had become a slaughter - the only battle that remained was among Korbolo's forces for the chance of delivering fatal blows and raising grisly trophies with triumphant shrieks. The Seventh were falling and falling, using naught but flesh and bone to shield their leaders - the ones who had led them across a continent to die now, almost within the shadow of Aren's high walls.
...
The last of the Seventh vanished beneath swarming bodies. Bult stood with his back to the standard bearer, a Dhobri tulwar in each hand. A mob closed on him and drove lances into the veteran, sticking him as they would a cornered boar. Even then he tried to rise up, slashing out with a tulwar to chop into the leg of a man - who reeled back howling. But the lances stabbed deep, pushed the Wickan back, pinned him to the ground. Blades flashed down on him, hacking him to death.
The standard bearer left his position - the standard itself propped up between corpses - and leapt forward in a desperate attempt to reach his commander. A blade neatly decapitated him, sending his head toppling back to join the bloody jumble at the standard's base, and thus did Corporal List die, having experienced countless mock deaths all those months ago at Hissar.
The Foolish Dog's position vanished beneath a press of bodies, the standard toppling moments later. Bloody scalps were lifted and waved about, the trophies spraying red rain.
Surrounded by the last of the engineers and marines, Coltaine fought on. His defiance lasted but a moment longer before Korbolo Dom's warriors killed the last of defender, then swallowed up Coltaine himself, burying him in their mindless frenzy.
A huge arrow-studded cattle-dog darted to where Coltaine had gone down, but then a lance speared the beast, raising it high. It writhed as it slid down the shaft, and even then the creature delivered one final death to the enemy gripping the weapon, by tearing out the soldier's throat.
Then it too was gone.
The Crow standard wavered, leaned to one side, then pitched down, vanishing in the press.
Presumably, Cuttle isn't the sapper's real name. We all know Braven Tooth is infamous in nickname giving, and he wouldn't give two guys the same nickname. So here's the question, did Cuttle admit to surviving the Chain of Dogs in the later books? The only ways I can see him surviving that is him being with the refugees that Duiker leads into Aren. But does Cuttle seem like the kind of guy who would abandon his squad? Perhaps the sappers were given a choice?
Basically, was Cuttle at that final stand, and if he was, how the FUCK did he survive it? Any help or ideas would be nice.
edit: I can see why this was moved, but to House of Chains?
This post has been edited by Apocalypse Now: 21 January 2009 - 10:38 PM
different forum I spose.
