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Mallet was a healer in the Bridgeburners 9th Squad.[1] He used to lead a healer's cadre in the days of the Emperor but was busted down like many of the Bridgeburners.[2] Mallet had the ability to access High Denul.

He was described as a wide and burly man[3] with heavy brows,[4] small eyes,[5] and a round face.[6] He spoke with a high voice.[7]

He fought with a shortsword and crossbow, whose initial bolt was kept readied in place by a loop of leather.[8]

Like many Malazan soldiers, his name was bestowed by the legendary Master Sergeant, Braven Tooth.[9]

In Gardens of the Moon[]

The Bridgeburners - Sorry, Hedge, Detoran, Fiddler, Quick Ben, WhiskeyJack, Mallet, Antsy, Kalam - Interpretation by Shadaan

Mallet was one of the card players in Knobb's Inn when Ganoes Paran first encountered the 9th squad.[10] After Sorry attempted to assassinate Paran, Mallet said that a forced healing should have been an impossible, but his Denul skills sufficed because healing from outside forces had already been in progress.[6]

In Memories of Ice[]

When Dujek's army went renegade, the decimated Bridgeburners were reorganised and Mallet was moved to Antsy's 7th Squad. He stayed close to Whiskeyjack, acting as his confidante on matters relating to the Bridgeburners. The pair discussed Ganoes Paran's unusual behavior after the mission in Darujhistan and Whiskeyjack ordered the healer to watch the new captain's back. Mallet tried several times to tend to Whiskeyjack's poorly healing leg, itself a result of the events in Darujhistan, but Whiskeyjack was always too busy to accommodate him.[11]

Dujek allied the Malazans with their old enemies, Caladan Brood and Anomander Rake, against the Pannion Domin. The Bridgeburners were sent by Quorl to the Barghast Range to forge an alliance with Humbrall Taur and the White Face Barghast. Mallet was part of a detachment led by Antsy that was to meet and escort Quick Ben to the Barghast camp. While waiting, the healer found his access to Denul hindered by the Crippled God's growing infection of the Warrens.[12]

Trotts successfully defeated Taur's youngest son in single combat, but his trachea was crushed in the process and he hovered at the brink of death. The alliance and the lives of the Bridgeburners, surrounded by thousands of angry Barghast, depended on Mallet's healing skills. Quick Ben made a deal with Talamandas and the Barghast Elder Spirits to channel their untarnished power through Mallet. Many of the spirits gave their lives and Mallet himself was nearly overcome, but Trotts was saved. Mallet, still inhabited by the spirits, was brought before Taur and the alliance was secured.[13]

Mallet by Dejan Delic

The Bridgeburners and the Barghast were the first of the allied forces to make contact with the enemy at the Siege of Capustan. Using Moranth munitions, the Bridgeburners punched their way through 200 Betaklites and over a thousand Tenescowri at Capustan's North Gate.[14] Passing through the empty streets followed by peasant cannibals, they quickly encountered Gruntle and joined his troop atop a defendable tenement rooftop. Mallet used the spirit powers to save the life of the mortally wounded Stonny Menackis.[15] Frightened and angered by their precarious situation and by the sickly Paran's lack of communication, Antsy nearly drew his sword on the captain. Paran offered his unprotected back to the sergeant before Mallet was able to defuse the situation.[16]

Once the siege was lifted, Mallet helped Itkovian recover from his ordeal with Rath'Shadowthrone and assisted to the needs of the wounded.[17][18]

The Bridgeburners traveled secretly to Coral to reconnoiter the next battlefield. During the Siege of Coral, Hedge and the other Bridgeburners were inserted into the city by quorl under the cover of darkness. Their mission was to attack the keep of the Pannion Seer while Dujek led the rest of the army into the city itself.[19] Mallet assisted with driving away the Seer's demonic Condors while the squad sappers blasted a breach in the keep's wall.[20] Then he joined the others inside the keep to fight the enemy Seerdomin.[21] He fought alongside Detoran as she was cut down and was accidentally stabbed by Trotts in the chaos. His own magic used up, the healer's life was saved by Lady Envy.[22]

Spoiler warning: The following section contains significant plot details about Mallet.

Mallet was one of only a handful of Bridgeburners to survive the battle. Returning to the Malazan command tent, Mallet collapsed upon seeing the body of Whiskeyjack. The Bridgeburner commander had fallen when the leg he had never made time for Mallet to fully heal had given out during a duel with the traitorous Kallor. Picker and the other survivors stayed close to the healer for fear he would fall on his own knife.[23]

Dujek allowed Mallet and the remaining Bridgeburners to secretly retire as had been Whiskeyjack's wish.[24] The healer went to Darujhistan where several of his comrades used their accumulated back pay to establish K'rul's Bar.[25]

In The Bonehunters[]

Quick Ben told Fiddler and Kalam Mekhar that contrary to reports there had been some survivors in Coral and he named Mallet as one of those now living in Darujhistan.[26] He said the healer could not forgive himself for what happened to Whiskeyjack.[27] Ganoes Paran told Apsalar that Mallet was one of several retired Bridgeburners who had become proprietors of K'rul's Bar in Darujhistan.[28]

The Queen of Dreams revealed that Whiskeyjack's death had been an act of vengeance by Hood. Many years before, Whiskeyjack had stolen his infant half-sister, Dunsparrow, from Hood's temple and the god never forgave him. After Whiskeyjack injured his leg, Hood made sure to turn away any healer attempting to repair the injury. The Queen of Dreams believed Hood later regretted his actions.[29]

In Toll the Hounds[]

Mallet became a regular at the Darujhistan bar founded in the former K'rul's Belfry by remnants of the 9th and 7th Bridgeburner Squads.

He died fighting in K'rul's Bar defending it from a savage attack by the city's Assassins' Guild.[30]

Up until his death he blamed himself for Whiskeyjack's death, because he allowed the Sergeant to steadfastly refuse to allow him to heal his leg. He felt that somehow he should have been able to convince Whiskeyjack to be healed.

In Dust of Dreams[]

Mallet's ghost appeared along with his fellow Bridgeburners guarding the gates to Hood's realm.

Significant plot details end here.

In Orb Sceptre Throne[]

Mallet appeared in front of Antsy as Antsy and his group sought to escape the ruined Moon's Spawn. He asked Antsy to live his life and not look for trouble anymore. He also tried to push away Antsy from trying to join them as guardians of Hood's Gates, saying no one ever liked his constant moaning and philosophies on life. In reality, he just wanted Antsy to live and not be eager to join them.[31]


Mallet: "Looks like the parley went off as planned. We haven't been cut down by a sleet of quarrels yet."
Paran: "I too take that as promising."
―Mallet and Ganoes Paran discussing the first meeting of the Malazan renegades with Caladan Brood and the Tiste Andii[src]

"I don’t like being retired. It's like announcing an end to your worth, whatever that worth was, and the longer you go on, the more you realize that that worth wasn't worth anything like you once thought it was, and that just makes it worse."

Notes and references[]

  1. Gardens of the Moon, Dramatis Personae, UK MMPB p.xii
  2. Memories of Ice, Chapter 21, UK MMPB p.906
  3. Memories of Ice, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.876
  4. Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 3, UK MMPB p.121
  5. Memories of Ice, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.382
  6. 6.0 6.1 Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 4, UK MMPB p.153
  7. Memories of Ice, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.380
  8. Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.928
  9. House of Chains, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.252
  10. Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 3, UK MMPB p.121
  11. Memories of Ice, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.82/85
  12. Memories of Ice, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.379-382
  13. Memories of Ice, Chapter 11, US SFBC p.386-394/398-403/408/411
  14. Memories of Ice, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.560-566
  15. Memories of Ice, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.568-572
  16. Memories of Ice, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.576-577
  17. Memories of Ice, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.602
  18. Memories of Ice, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.706
  19. Memories of Ice, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.877-878
  20. Memories of Ice, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.883
  21. Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.918
  22. Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.928-930/938
  23. Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.978/987
  24. Memories of Ice, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.991-992
  25. Memories of Ice, Epilogue, US SFBC p.997-1000
  26. The Bonehunters, Chapter 2, US SFBC p.98
  27. The Bonehunters, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.191
  28. The Bonehunters, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.254-255
  29. The Bonehunters, Chapter 14, US SFBC p.563
  30. Toll the Hounds, Chapter 11, US PB p.374
  31. Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 16
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