I did not know her name, neither given, family, nor clan. Her associates called her Snow Woman. She had become a sort of friend because we shared an appreciation for books and history.
I arranged access to material I wanted Mischievous Rain to review. She might spot something that I had missed because of cultural blindness while I was looking for her.
Snow Woman had stuff brought to us. Her volunteers reeked of conflicted emotions. They were terrified of the Taken but curious about the lapsed konzertosma. None seemed to have known her as Tides Elba.
We were alone with a midden of ancient paper. Mischievous Rain whispered, “Your Snow Woman is a flaming hypocrite. She loves the man-bone more than most. Your Goblin is one of a dozen men, unbeknownst to one another, who serve her lusts. She has them all thinking that they alone have succeeded where every man before them failed. Snow Woman is deeply, emotionally invested in a virginal persona she created when she was a maiden who failed to attract any male attention.”
“Really? How could you know all that?”
“I read her secret journal.”
“Huh?”
“Some nights I have trouble sleeping. I find ways to amuse myself.”
That brought home what I overlooked because I was close to her. She could do things that only a Taken could. Not only could she discover Snow Woman’s deep secret, she could root out the hidden lore of most Aloens. She might be able to sort the good folks from the bad. Well, make that sort out our friends from our secret foes.
She had warned me that she meant to create her own intelligence system. And she had, obviously, without me noticing, despite my being so close.
Seldom do I have trouble sleeping.
I asked, “Can you read any of the old languages? Like Levanev?”
“Levanev, Khansai, and Margelin, some. They beat those into you in the temple. You need them to read the sacred texts.”
“All right, I’ll sort out what I can handle and leave the rest to you.”
“Isn’t that always the way?”
“Excuse me?”
“Just bitching because I always get the hard part. Pay no attention.”
I smiled, suffered it, sorted materials, then said, “I went through most of this when I was looking for you.”
“And you found me, you clever man. And now we have children.”
Library women, lurking close by, overheard every word.
* * *
We found nothing of interest. Mischievous Rain told me, “I don’t see what you get out of this. I can’t make myself care about anything that happened before I was born.”
“A nice long soak in the past helps you understand why today is the way it is.” I thought I was starting to get a handle on the woman behind the Mischievous Rain mask. She never meant half of what she said when she talked like that. She just wanted to see a reaction.
I reminded me that, although she was Taken and a mother, she was also a girl who had been shielded from the real world most of her life. It was surprising that she was as well-grounded as she was.
I said, “I don’t see anything that we don’t already know. How about we go root around in vital statistics?”
“It’s late. Won’t they want to close down soon?”
“They won’t mind doing a little something extra for one of the Taken.”
* * *
The records people got grim behind their efforts to be helpful. Then Elmo turned up. “Go home and get some rest, Croaker. Captain’s orders. No questions, no discussion. Immediate execute.” He bowed to Mischievous Rain. “You, ma’am, are, of course, welcome to do whatever you deem appropriate.”
* * *
I headed for Admin once we reached the compound. I found the Old Man. “You wanted to see me, sir?”
“No. I wanted your ass back here so you can rest. We move out in the morning. Did Elmo screw that up?”
“No sir. That’s what he said. Minus the part about movement. I just assumed…”
“You know the mantra about assuming. On your dumbass way to bed tell the Taken that I would like a word if she has the time.”
This when there was still some light out.
Beloved Shin awaited me out front. I told him, “Tell your mother the Captain wants to see her.”
“Tell her yourself. She sent me to get you. Supper is ready.”
She had not prepared that herself, of course. The town girls had. They would need locking up till after we rolled out in the morning.
“Fish again?” Beloved Shin complained. “How come so much fish? Why not pork? I like pork. Where does all this fish come from, anyway? Not that puny creek down there?”
“I like fish,” Firefly announced.
Of course she did. And she would love fish until Shin discovered a taste for fish himself.
Mischievous Rain said, “There is a lake northwest of here. I go fishing there when my patrols take me that way. I like fish, too, Firefly.”
Beloved Shin looked to me for support. I told him, “Half a vote, kiddo. I prefer mutton. But fish will do. It’s good for you.”
“You just don’t want to irritate Mom.”
His mother told him, “He doesn’t need to irritate me, Shin. You manage admirably on your own.”
Firefly stuck out her tongue.
I then relayed the Captain’s request.
“I’ll see him once we’re done. I can guess what he wants.”
* * *
The compound locked down. Troopers came in but did not leave. Reliable noncoms collected men otherwise disinclined to return from town. Anyone interested had to realize that something was afoot. I was so far from inside that I was surprised completely when I was awakened before first light and told to get ready to travel. As I headed for my clinic I saw Mischievous Rain’s carpet go airborne, staggering under the weight of a crowd.
A soldier called Sharps awaited me at the clinic. He had brought me two horses and three mules.
“What’s this?”
“Load your stuff on the mules. One horse is for you. The other is for Edmous Black. You’re to take the road to Honnoh and push hard. Captain’s orders.”
Said Captain himself shambled out of the darkness, demanding, “Where is Edmous Black?”
Black was my current apprentice, a local younger man who, at this point, had been my understudy for a scant ten days. I had recruited him only because he had veterinary experience.
“Here, sir,” from behind the Old Man. Black was still arranging his clothing. He asked me, “What are we doing, sir?”
“Looks like we get to participate in a nighttime exercise. Get the field supplies aboard these mules. I’ll join you in a minute.” I considered the horses. Both were saddled and ready. I do not ride often but riding is a required skill. The Company does act as mounted infantry sometimes.
Speaking of, a racket arose as horsemen began moving outside the compound wall.
The Captain told me, “You’re already working on getting left behind. Do you want to cross hostile ground on your own? Corey, Sharps, help Black load the mules.” Then, satisfied that he had rained on my morning, he stalked off to visit misery somewhere else.
* * *
Though we wasted no time Black and I were well behind when we did move out. The mules were not eager. Time fled. We fell back farther and farther. Other slow starters kept passing us. My patience thinned. I would be irritated severely if I got to Honnoh and found out that somebody had died while waiting for me.
* * *
These things happened at Honnoh while I was en route. Two Dead and his scouts rushed in at sunrise, not unexpected. They fixed the attention of the locals. Then Mischievous Rain came out of the rising sun with the rest of our wizards, each accompanied by bodyguards. They spread out. The Taken joined the fun. Resistance collapsed. Our mounted men collected fugitives as they advanced toward Honnoh.
When I arrived the only action was in the underground, where our sorcerers were making being a Rebel an unhappy life ch
oice. The other side had to fight without magic users of their own.
Aboveground other sorcerers sorted enemies from ordinary folks. Company brethren who had nothing better to do lugged plunder up out of the underground.
The Company suffered no fatalities and only a handful of injuries. The attack had gone off like an exercise, thank you Mischievous Rain.
That all left me with a nervous stomach. Things never go smoothly once the enemy gets involved. He has ideas of his own.
I treated my people, then waited on the triage of the locals. I would fix up injured innocents but not a Rebel unless instructed to do so. Why help somebody who was about to get dead anyway?
I had commandeered a small shop for my surgery. There was a bench out front where in normal times old guys sat and swapped lies about their glory days. I sprawled there and swatted flies while Edmous Black entertained himself by cleaning instruments.
Mischievous Rain plopped down beside me, leaned against me. She had produced no hint of a tinkle approaching. Her tattoos were dancing ugly. “I’m beat. All those men on the carpet … That was too much.” She snuggled closer. “Don’t wake me up for anything less than the end of the world.”
“There’s a cot inside if you want to use it.”
“This is fine. I’ll be good in a few minutes.”
And she did sleep, right there, right then, right in front of any part of the world that wandered by. I started thinking that, all else aside, Mischievous Rain was extremely desirable. Deeply manipulative, too.
Black Company guys, Rebel soldiers, local civilians, everybody got a look. Way to sell the story, woman.
She kind of clung to my left arm and sprawled across my chest. And snored.
I endured it bravely until people asked for my help. It was not that hard to take.
* * *
Honnoh was another heartbreak for the eastern Rebel, again delivered by the Black Company, made possible by a woman I never saw do much. A woman who garnered poor Croaker untold gobs of resentment when she insisted that he return to Aloe with her, aboard her carpet, leaving her former passengers to walk or ride liberated livestock. Edmous Black had to manage our horses and mules and equipment on his own.
Six prisoners joined us aboard the carpet. Two were older men, senior Rebels. Four were girls, each one a copy of Mischievous Rain.
Mischievous Rain’s nap had refreshed her. I was not so lucky. I dozed off while we were airborne despite being the only one available to wrangle captives.
I wakened to excitement in progress. The male prisoners had gone after the Taken despite the carpet being a hundred feet in the air and them having no chance of making it work if they did overpower her.
One was unconscious and leaking from a torn right cheek. Beloved Shin stood over him. The second, although nearly as big as Buzzard Neck Tesch, was on his knees, fingertips raking his throat, while Blessed Baku squeezed his left shoulder with her little right hand.
Ankou had the female captives herded into the left rear corner of the carpet, which sagged four feet lower than the right front.
Shin glared daggers. Firefly said, “Seriously, Dad, how could you go to sleep?” Ankou delivered a judgmental glare of his own.
Mischievous Rain said, “Ignore them. I was never in any danger. We’re about to arrive. You jump off. I’ll hover while you round up somebody to take control of these people.”
In minutes I was updating the Captain, who kept interjecting questions.
Five minutes after that I watched the Rebel officers being put into irons while the captive girls were shown to the stockade. And they were just girls. The oldest might be seventeen.
Five minutes later still the Taken and I finished sliding her carpet into storage. We agreed that we needed rest badly. After supper. Interrogations could wait.
I went to my quarters. She went to hers. I did not want company. I was starving, having skipped my noonday meal. Her attitude was the same.
I snacked on hard cheese and harder bread that I washed down with nasty local wine, then for the second evening running I went to bed before the light of day expired.
* * *
Edmous Black made it back with my equipment intact and our animals still healthy. He wrapped everything up without complaining despite being totally unhappy with his boss. I was pleased with him and let him know, obliquely.
* * *
The troops who returned by traditional means, herding prisoners serving as pack animals, began to arrive late next day.
The Honnoh triumph would improve our standing with anyone who loathed the Rebel and the Resurrectionist. Those people were plentiful but carefully not outspoken. The Rebel was neither big on freedom of speech nor tolerant of other ideologies.
Mischievous Rain got to work on our captives long before the raiders began straggling in.
I found Edmous Black snoring in the clinic. Normally he spent off-duty time with family in town. This once he had been too fagged to make the walk.
Only a dozen guys showed for sick call. The most badly injured raiders went straight to the hospital now installed in the Company-claimed space in the Taken’s new building. The wards lay on the other side of one wall of my new quarters.
Always thinking, our Captain. Always scheming.
In time my whole clinic would move.
Elmo turned up while I was working on the shoulder of a fool who had become distracted in the presence of a mule and had gotten herself bitten. “Avoid Admin and the Old Man if you can.”
“What’s up?”
“I don’t know. The Taken and the Old Man were talking about you.”
“And?”
“And she wanted you for something. The Captain didn’t want to give you up. He don’t have anybody to take your place.”
“Being needed is almost as good as being loved.”
“You think? He maybe got overruled. The Lady weighed in. Anyway, I figure that if they can’t find you they can’t fuck you over.”
“The One-Eye option.” One-Eye had been conspicuously invisible since his exorcism, though he had turned up for the raid.
He probably came back with his pockets sagging.
“Exactly.”
“Elmo, you’re a good friend. Thanks. But me trying to skate out of whatever the Taken wants, let alone what the Lady wants, would be what the philosopher meant when he said, ‘This shit is hopeless.’”
“You’re probably right. But I thought you might want to get a running start.”
I could not imagine any situation that dire. “I’ll wait and see.”
He shrugged. “Your funeral.” He had done what he could. Now he could get busy thinking of clever things to say as Outsweeper put me into the ground.
The powers might not be planning something to make me happy but I could not see them imposing anything too terribly awful, either.
* * *
The Captain told me, “The Lady wants the Honnoh prisoners brought to the Tower.”
Oh my. Maybe I should have run. “How do I slide out of that?” Mischievous Rain could not handle that by herself. “Suicide?”
“Save that for a darker day. You’re not going. You’ll stay here, doctoring and daddying.”
“What?” Deflation, seriously.
“Did I stutter? Did I speak a tongue that you don’t understand? The Taken wanted to drag you along. The Lady wanted to see you. I reminded them that I have seven hundred soldiers and a thousand animals all in need of medical care that only you can provide.”
Oh. I was disappointed. But why? I had to study on that, the way the Tower gave me the jimjams. “Look out for the kids. Got it.” Having only a limited notion of what that would entail. “For how long?”
“Ask her. Did Edmous Black do all right at Honnoh?”
“He did. And he does know his animals. He’s the man I’ve been looking for.”
“Keep an eye on him. Buzz thinks he’s a plant.”
Crap. Just my luck. A traitorous assistant layered atop an
unwanted wife and some even less wanted children.
* * *
“Four days for travel,” Mischievous Rain told me when I asked how long she would be gone. “A couple more to rest and deal with business, but probably longer for me in inside-the-Tower time.” She was uneasy, probably because the trip would be dangerous. Crossing the Plain of Fear was never without risk, even at high altitude. “Can you handle the children?”
“If they give me any grief I’ll stuff them into pickle barrels the way we did One-Eye that time.”
“Seriously.” She was more worried about her kids than about what lay ahead for her.
“I’ll cope. You just put the fear of the Lady in them before you go. Why does she want to see those people in person, anyway?”
Her hand strayed to the clip in her hair. Need to know, evidently. “Those girls could be my sisters. My twins, even, but younger. We all share the same birthmark.” She chopped air with her right hand, a suggestion that we cut the chatter.
“Oh. So then we got luckier than we hoped at Honnoh.”
She nodded, then made that chopping motion again.
“All right. But that just worries me more, you being alone with six desperate…”
“I won’t be alone. Colonel Chodroze will accompany me.”
“Two Dead? A one-handed guy that … You know…”
“I do know. But I’m a big girl, sweetheart,” with a steaming helping of sarcasm. “I did want you to come with. Your Captain convinced the Lady that you’re more valuable here.”
Again a moment of elation morphed into brooding disappointment. How come?
“We all had to settle for second choice.”
And Two Dead for last. “I’m sorry. For Two Dead.”
“He’ll be fine. She isn’t half as bad as you think.”
Really? Are you insane, woman? What She are you referencing? Or was that just something you put out there because somebody might be listening?
“I told the kids what their responsibilities will be. They’ll try to behave while I’m gone. But they are children. Children sometimes act without thinking.”
So do big people. She was stalling. She did not want to go where she had to go. She said, “While I’m away I want you to visit the temple. Take Silent and the twins. Check out everyone, konzertasa to the youngest orphan, and even the outside employees. No exceptions. Find anyone who looks like me.”