“Tal is gone. You say he was stupid and asked for it and you’re right. But he was one of the most important men in Taglios. So was Jahamaraj Jah. He asked for it, too. When she picks off the next one, well, maybe everybody will say the same thing again. He asked for it. And the next one and the next and then it’s you and the Prahbrindrah Drah and after that the deluge. Never mind professionalism as a soldier. She might be the best that ever was. Maybe she can ruin the Shadowmasters in her sleep. But even if they never cross the Main again, if they never come north of Dejagore, if they never win another skirmish, if she’s in charge, Taglios will lose as certainly as if we hadn’t resisted at all.”
The Prahbrindrah Drah started to speak. The Radisha jumped in first. “He has a point. Taglios won’t ever be the same.”
“Oh?”
“If we give the woman a free hand she’ll make Taglios over into the image of the Shadowlands because that’s what it will take to win. Smoke, I see that. Even if you’re obsessive about the Stranglers and the Year of the Skulls. I’ve watched the woman. I doubt if anyone but that man Croaker ever had any influence on her. Brother, he’s right. She’ll turn us into what we fear in order to save us.”
“Then we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t. We let her go on, we’re done. We don’t, the Shadowmasters eat us.”
Smoke said, “There’s another way....” But he could not tell them. He had not told them everything when he had reported the approach by Longshadow’s agents. Too late now. If he brought up overlooked details they would no longer trust him. They might even think his opposition to the woman had been ordered by Taglios’ enemies.
That wrinkled little man had foreseen this. Damn him.
“Well?” the Radisha demanded.
“I had a thought. It was impractical. Emotion guiding the mind. Forget it. Kina is stirring. The Daughter of Night walks among us. We must silence her.”
The Prahbrindrah Drah said, “We can talk about this all night. None of us will change our minds. We’d better concentrate on staying a step ahead of the priests till we do agree.”
Smoke shook his head. That would not do. The woman would keep everyone confused and divided; then it would be too late. That was the way of darkness. Deceit. Endless deceit.
No point talking anymore. There was only one choice left.
They would hate him if they caught him. They would brand him traitor. But there was no other answer.
He had to pray for courage and a clear head. The Shadowmasters were masters of deceit themselves. They would use him if they could. But if he played the game carefully he could serve Taglios better than any dozen armies.
He started trying to cut the conversation short. As brother and sister were leaving, the prince said, “Smoke, I meant to ask. Why would she put a bounty on bats all of a sudden?” “A what?”
“The Shadar Singh mentioned it. He heard it on his way here. She put out word that any children who wanted could pick up a few coppers by bringing her dead bats. Every poor family in town will start hunting them. And the treasury will have to pay for them. Why?” “I have no idea,” Smoke lied. His heart was in his throat. She knew. That business about reporting strangers... It wasn’t a propaganda ploy. She knew. “A few exotic spells use bat parts powdered. Fur, claws, livers. But they’re the kind that make your neighbor’s cattle sterile or his hens stop laying. Nothing of use to her.”
But live bats were useful to the Shadowmasters. He barely waited till the prince and his sister turned a corner down the hall. Then he headed for the world outside, before there were no bats left to find him.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Croaker sat on a rock in the wood, leaning against a tree, twisting an animal figure. He finished it and tossed it at a stump. Crows watched. He paid them no heed. He was thinking about Soulcatcher.
She was not great company. She had spent ages turned inward. She could be amiable and animated for brief periods but did not know how to keep it up. Neither did he. Sometimes it seemed they were moving in parallel rather than together. But she would not let him go just because they weren’t soulmates. She had uses for him.
She had been bustling around the temple all day. He did not know why. He felt no urge to find out. He was depressed. He came to this spot when his mood was at low ebb.
The imp Frogface materialized. “Why the long face, Cap?” “Why not?” “You got me there.” “What’s happening in Dejagore?”
“Got me there, too. I’ve been busy.”
“Doing what?”
“Can’t say.” The imp aped his morose stance. “Last time I was there your boys was doing fine. Maybe fussing and feuding a little more than before. Old One-Eye and his sidekick don’t get along with that Mogaba, not even a little. They been talking about doing a fade and letting him go to hell his own way.”
“He’d get wiped out if they did.”
“He don’t appreciate them enough, that’s sure.”
“She says we’re going down there.”
“Well. Then you can look for yourself.”
“I don’t think that’s what she’s got in mind. She call you in?”
“Came to report. Interesting things happening. You could ask. She might tell you.”
“What’s she doing?”
“Fixing the place up so it don’t look like somebody’s been living there. That Festival thing is coming up. Them weirdos will be getting here real soon.”
Croaker doubted he would get a straight answer but he asked anyway. “How’s Lady?”
“Fine. Keeps on, she’ll be running the whole show in six months. Got every poobah in Taglios so confused she’s doing any damned thing she pleases.”
“She’s in Taglios?” He hadn’t known that. Catcher hadn’t told him. He hadn’t asked.
“Has been for weeks. Left that Blade character in charge at Ghoja and went up to the city and started taking over.”
“She would. She isn’t the kind to wait for things to happen.”
“Tell me about it. Whoa! I hear the boss calling. Better get on over there. Pack up your things.”
“What things?” He did not have much but the clothes he wore. And those were rags.
“Whatever you have to take with you. She’s leaving in an hour.”
He did not argue. That was as futile as arguing with a stone. His wants and interests did not count. He had less freedom than a slave. “Take it easy, Cap,” the imp said. And vanished.
They rode till Croaker collapsed. They rested, then rode again. Soulcatcher ignored such niceties as restricting travel to daylight hours. She permitted a third halt only after they entered the hills northwest of Dejagore. She spoke seldom except to her crows, and to Frogface briefly after they arrived, while Croaker was sleeping.
She wakened him as the sun rose. “We reenter the world today, my love. Sorry I haven’t been as attentive as I should.” He could tell nothing from her choice of voices. This one he thought was her own, much like her sister’s, always neutral. “I’ve had a lot on my mind. I should bring you up to date.”
“That would be nice.”
“Your flair for sarcasm hasn’t disappeared.”
“It keeps me going.”
“Maybe. This is how things stand. Last week Spinner attacked Dejagore in force. He was thrown back. He would have succeeded if he’d used all his skills. But he couldn’t without Longshadow finding out he’s not as feeble as he pretends. He’ll try again tonight. He could succeed. Your One-Eye and Goblin have broken with their commander.
“My beloved sister has obtained a strong position in and around Taglios. She has five or six thousand men, none of them worth a damn.
“She left the man Blade at Ghoja when she headed north. He has the same problems and none of her expertise but some of the men he has have legionary experience. He’s decided to let them learn the hard way. He’s begun occupying surrounding territories, especially southward along the road to Dejagore.”
“Makes it easier to f
eed his men, probably.”
“Yes. He has a force exceeding three thousand men now. His scouts have skirmished with Shadowspinner’s patrols.
“And the big news, of course, is that the wizard Smoke has been seduced by Longshadow.”
“Say what? That little bastard. I never did trust him.”
“Longshadow appealed to his idealism. And to his fear of my sister and the Black Company. Offered him assurances he couldn’t help but believe, made him think he could become a hero by saving Taglios from its supposed saviors while he made peace with the Shadowlands.”
“That man is a fool. I thought you had to be smart to be a wizard.”
“Smart doesn’t mean sensible, Croaker. And he isn’t a complete fool. He didn’t trust Longshadow. He used every device he could to make Longshadow keep his word. His real mistake was going to visit Longshadow at Shadowcatch.”
“What?”
“The Howler and Longshadow combined their talents to create a flying carpet like those we had back when, before they were destroyed. It’s a puny one but good enough for Howler to fly the wizard to Shadowcatch and to drop spies into Taglios. Smoke is down there now. Frogface is watching him. Longshadow is trying to do a poor man’s Taking of Smoke. He’ll go back to Taglios as Longshadow’s creature.”
Croaker did not like the sums he came up with. Three major wizards against Taglios now, and Taglios’ only magical defender was a creature of the enemy. Lady might be doing well but could not be doing as well as she must to manage both the Shadowmasters and her enemies behind her.
Doom would be stalking Taglios long before anyone expected it.
Khatovar was farther away than ever.
He could not manage that mission on his own. Taking the Annals back... He did not have them. They were trapped inside Dejagore. He could not get to them.
Was Murgen keeping them up? He’d better be.
“You haven’t said anything about our part in all this.”
“But I have. Often. We’re just going to have fun with it. We’re going to kick the props out from under people. Tonight we’ll have this whole end of the world wondering what’s going on and who’s doing what to who.”
He began to understand soon after she told him to start getting ready.
“Ready how?”
“Get your armor on. It’s time to scare the shit out of Spinner’s men and save Dejagore.”
He just stood there, puzzled. She asked, “Would you rather let them be wiped out?”
“No.” The Annals were in the city. They had to be preserved. He unpacked the armor they had lugged all the way from the temple. “I can’t get this on by myself.”
“I know. You’ll have to help me with mine, too.”
With hers? He had assumed she would use her old Soulcatcher guise. He began to see her subtlety.
The armor she had made at the temple was a copy of Lady’s Lifetaker rig. Their appearance would leave all the principals completely confused. His Widowmaker was supposed to be dead. Lady’s Lifetaker was supposed to be in Taglios. Neither was supposed to amount to anything in sorcerous terms. The besieged would be stunned. Spinner’s men would be dismayed. Longshadow might suspect the truth but would not be sure. Smoke and the Taglian prince and his sister would be baffled. Even Lady would be confused.
He was sure she believed him dead.
“Damn you,” he said as he settled her helmet over her head. “Damn you to hell.” He could not refuse to cooperate. Dejagore would fall and its defenders would be massacred if he and she did not intercede.
“Relax, my love. Relax. Put emotion aside. Have fun with it. Look. The lance.” She pointed.
It was the lance that had carried the Company standard for centuries. He had searched in vain for it at the temple. He had not seen it coming down. Now it stood beyond the fire they had lighted for illumination. It glowed gently. A banner hung from it but he could not make it out.
“How did you...?” To hell with her. Sorcery. He would play her game only as far as he had to. He would give her no pleasure.
“Get it, Croaker. Mount up. It’s time.” She’d even conjured the armor that went with the stallions, baroque and beginning to show highlights of witchfire.
He did as he was told. And was startled. Her armor had a subtly different look from that which Lady had created for her Lifetaker character. This was more intimidating. It radiated menace. It had the feel of an archetypal doom.
Two huge black crows settled on his shoulders. Their eyes burned red. More crows circled Catcher. Frogface materialized on the neck of her horse, chattered briefly, vanished. “Come. We should arrive just in time to save the day.” The voice she used was that of a happy kid contemplating a prank.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Mather stuck his head into the room. “He’s on his way, Willow.”
Swan grunted, opened shutters for more light. He looked out at Blade’s camp and its satellites. The gods themselves were on Blade’s team. Recruits had een arriving in droves. None of them wanted to enlist in the Radisha’s guard. He’d had high hopes when he had invented that. But the Radisha’s name carried less weight here than Blade’s. And, damn him, he was as stubborn about sticking with Lady as Cordy was about the Radisha.
“Cordy, Cordy, why the hell don’t we just go home?” he muttered to himself.
Blade came in, escorted by Mather. That human stump Sindu was right behind them. He was like Blade’s shadow, anymore. Swan did not like the man. He was creepy.
Blade said, “Cordy says you have something.”
“Yeah. We finally got one up on you.” He had begun fielding patrols of his own after Blade started expanding southward. “Our boys grabbed some prisoners.”
“I know.”
Of course he did. There was no hiding from each other here. They did not try. They remained friends, however much they disagreed. Blade did most of his planning in that room, on the map table there. Anything Swan wanted to know he could see right there.
“There was a big dust-up at Dejagore the other night. Shadowspinner hit the burg with everything he had. He grabbed our friends by the short hairs. Then what should pop up but two giant fire-breathing riders in black armor flinging thunderbolts around and kicking ass wholesale. When the smoke cleared away it was the Shadowlanders that got whupped. One of the prisoners saw it with his own eyes. He said Shadowspinner had to yank everything out of his trick bag to hold those two off. Here’s the way they say it went down.”
Swan kept a close eye on Blade while he chattered. There was some emotion showing through that bland facade.
He finished his tale-“What you think, old buddy? Those two miracle visitors sound like anybody we know?”
“Lady and Croaker. In their costume armor.”
“Bingo! But?”
“He’s dead and she’s in Taglios.”
“Two in a row. Give the man a prize. I think. So what the hell really went down? Sindhu. What you grinning about, man?”
“Kina.”
The others looked hard at the broad man. Mather said, “Descriptions again, Willow.”
Swan repeated.
Mather said, “Kina. The way she’s described by people who know her.”
“Not her,” Sindhu said. “Kina sleeps. The Daughter is bound in flesh.” Sindhu’s association with the Deceivers was an open secret. But he was not much help. Usually it was like this. He would say one thing, then contradict himself.
Swan said, “I’m not going to try to figure that out, buddy. Somebody fits the description went in and tore them new buttholes down there. Kina or not-Kina, I don’t care. Somebody wanted people to think Kina. Right?”
Sindhu nodded.
“So who was that with her? That fit anywhere?”
Sindhu shook his head. “This confuses me.”
Mather hoisted himself to a seat in the window. Swan shuddered. Cordy had a forty-foot drop behind him. He said, “Be quiet. Let me think.”
Swan echoed, “Quiet. Le
t him.” Cordy was a genius when he took the trouble.
They waited. Swan paced. Blade studied the map. He let no time waste. Sindhu remained impassive and still, yet seemed shaken.
Mather said, “There’s another force in the field.”
“Say what?” Swan chirped.
“Only way it adds up, Willow. The Shadowmasters are out to get each other but they wouldn’t go that far. Helps us too much. Our side doesn’t have anybody who could pull off the sorcery angle. So somebody else did it.”
“What the hell for?”
“To confuse things?”
“They did that. Why?”
“I couldn’t guess.”
“Then who?”
“I don’t know. Just like everyone else won’t know, and will be chasing their tails trying to figure it out.”
Was Blade listening? Didn’t seem like it. He asked, “How bad were the Shadowlanders hurt?”
“Huh?”
“Shadowspinner’s armies. How bad off are they?”
“Bad enough they can’t take a crack at Dejagore again till they get replacements. But not so bad our guys have a crack at breaking out.”
“Just enough interference to keep the balance, then.”
“Our guys got cut up bad, way the prisoners talked. As many as half of them killed. Meaning the Shadowmasters’ men really got mauled.”
“But they could still send out patrols for you to catch?”
“Shadowspinner is scared we’ll move on him. He doesn’t want any more surprises.”
Blade paced. He returned to the map, tapped out the garrisons and posts he had established as much as a hundred fifty miles south. He paced. He asked Mather, “Is it true? Or is it something they want us to believe? Bait for a trap?”
Swan said, “The prisoners believed it.”
Blade said, “Sindhu, why haven’t we heard from Hakim? Why did this news reach us this way?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out. Go talk to your friends right now. If this is true we should have known before their patrol got here with the prisoners.”
Sindhu departed, disturbed.
Swan said, “Now you got rid of him, what’s on your mind?”