[Dolorous Menhir]

You saw Temper earlier in the book, drinking with Banaschar, Braven Tooth & Foreigner. He's an old soldier, not sure what else you learn in the course of BH.

We know a lot more about him from the novella Night of Knives, there are some pretty heavy spoilers from that book below, which touch on several main series storylines, so avoid if you want to read it with fresh eyes:

Spoiler

When Dassem Ultor was First Sword of the Empire, he travelled with a personal entourage of peerless fighters, collectively known as his "Sword". They would protect Dassem while he fought (and defeated) the Champion of whatever city they were besieging.

Temper was a member of this group. When Dassem Ultor was betrayed at Y'Ghatan (apparently by the Claw under Surly's orders), all the members of the Sword except Temper and one other died. Temper, the other Sword member, and Dassem himself were retrieved alive from the battle, Temper and Dassem heavily wounded. The other Sword member - whose name was Ferrule - woke Temper and they saved the apparently comatose Dassem from assassination by Claws, facing down Surly herself. The three men then went their own ways. It's heavily implied that Dassem is Traveller.

Later, Temper moves to Malaz City and takes a job as a guard on Mock's Hold - nobody knows who he is. Then he apparently becomes Guardian to the Deadhouse. There seems to be some division of labour - Gothos mans the inside of the building, while Temper protects the grounds. As this new position would imply, Temper is not someone you would want to mess with.

So Kellanved fears Temper for two reasons I can think of

- Temper is an Old Guard man who was loyal to Dassem Ultor, and I would assume not at all fond of Kellanved, though there wasn't much to confirm that in NoK. But there could be past history between the two we don't know about.

- Temper is Guardian of the Deadhouse, and so may well have been capable of imprisoning even Shadowthrone in the Azath. You can see why he would flee.

[GardenGnome]

I'll let Dolorous Menhir handle this one: http://www.malazanem...read.php?t=5330

[Obdigore]

Oakley,

That has been discussed numerous times.

The general conclusion is that the 'child' is the Malazan Empire, or Malaz City itself, not an actual person.

and GG beat me too it.

[Dolorous Menhir]

Ha, someone already linked to my post about that, so I'm not going to shout at you about it. Peace.