"Where do you think it came from? It looked as if it just . . . appeared, just above one of the buildings, and then dropped, smashing everything in its path, ending with itself. Do yourecall those old pumps, the ones beneath Dreth Street in Malaz City? Withal found them in those tunnels he explored? Well, he took us on a tour—"
"I remember, Skin."
"I'm reminded of those machines – all the gears and rods, the way the metal components all meshed so cleverly, ingeniously – I cannot imagine the mind that could think up such constructs."
"What is all this about, Skin?"
"Nothing much. I just wonder if that thing is somehow connected with the arrival of the Dving God."
"Connected how?"
"What if it was like a skykeep? A smaller version, obviously. What if the Dying God was inside it? Some accident brought it down, the locals pulled him out. What if that machine was a kind of throne?"
Nimander thought about that. A curious idea. Andarist had once explained that skykeeps – such as the one Anomander Rake claimed as his own – were not a creation of sorcery, and indeed the floating fortresses were held aloft through arcane manipulations of technology.
K'Chain Che'Malle, Kallor had said. Clearly, he had made the same connection as had Skintick.
"Why would a god need a machine?" Nimander asked.
"How should I know? Anyway, it's broken now."
Toll the Hounds, by Steven Erikson (Malazan Book of the Fallen #8)
