A great deep booming thundered in my head. It was pain incarnate, yet seemed to carry a message. I tried to listen.
Time expanded to encompass the throbbing within me, which became a slow, deep voice that speeded up until it turned into Thai Dei nagging worriedly in Nyueng Bao. “Standardbearer! Speak to me.”
I tried but my jaws would not work. I could do nothing but make inarticulate noises.
“He’s all right.” That was Uncle Doj. I opened my eyes. Doj knelt beside me, fingers against the side of my neck. “What happened, Bone Warrior?”
I sat up. My muscles were watery. I was drained. But it seemed no time had passed. I volleyed the question back. “What happened over there?” Crows still swarmed in the distance, though not in clouds like I had seen.
“Where?” Thai Dei asked.
“There. Where the birds are.”
Thai Dei said. “I do not know. I saw nothing unusual.”
“No cloud of darkness? No lightning?”
After a pause, “None that I saw.”
Uncle Doj considered the distance thoughtfully.
“I need something to eat.” Though I had not been ghost-walking, I was that weak.
The event was troubling.
85
The summons came from Croaker. I went across. Only a few days had passed but already the world had begun to seem peaceful again. The soldiers looked less haggard.
Shadows were not a problem now. For us.
“I’m here,” I told the Old Man. The guard outside had sent me right in.
“Where’s your mother-in-law?”
“Good question. The other day she said she was going after firewood. We haven’t seen her since.”
“One-Eye’s gone, too.”
I gaped. Then I started to snicker. The snicker turned into a guffaw. Before long I was bent double, unable to regain control. “They eloped? Don’t tell me they eloped.”
“I wouldn’t think of it. Knock off the braying. You sound like a jackass giving birth.” A stone impossibility. He indicated the alcove where special people were stored. “Use Smoke. Find them.”
I headed that way, still shivering with restless giggles. “How come I have to do it? You and Lady were already here.”
“We’re busy restructuring the force. We don’t have time.”
“She over being hooked on ghostwalking?”
“She’s gonna have to be. Get busy. I don’t have time to jack my jaw, either.” He pointed. He was not in a playful mood. Must have been getting less sleep than usual.
Smoke was alone behind the curtain. “What happened? You bury the other two?”
“Stashed them in what’s left of your dugout. We needed the room. Get to work.”
I pulled the curtain. He was the boss. He did not have to be a nice guy all the time.
Smoke did not look the same. Lady had done something to keep him under. He seemed more drugged than comatose.
He smelled, too. Bad. Somebody had been letting their chores slide. “You’re the physician, you ought to know about keeping clean. This guy is a mess.”
“I’ll get you a bucket.”
I did not wait for him to tell me. I went to work.
Croaker had made appropriate preparations. There was drinking water and fresh bread. I ate some of the latter immediately. The command types sure lived the good life. I had not had anything but bad bitterroot for the past several days — and not nearly enough of that. A point I ought to make to Rudy.
“Send out for sausages,” I muttered. Maybe when we finally found Khatovar it would be like the Vehdna paradise. Hot and hotter running houris driven by an overwhelming passion for smelly old guys with no social skills, houris who spent the rest of their time whipping up lots of freshly cooked food. Good food.
“Quit stalling around,” Croaker growled a while later. “That little prick is clean enough.”
I was not anxious to go out. “Somebody ought to watch what he eats.” Smoke looked like he was suffering the early stages of dietary disease.
Croaker just gave me a dark look. He did not much care, apparently. “You have a problem doing your job?”
“Cranky, cranky.”
I had a problem with going out. It had been scary getting batted around between Catcher and Kina and the place of the bones the other day. I had tapped a reservoir of fear I did not know I contained.
I especially did not like being a bird. That part I had not understood at all.
Catcher now knew I could walk the ghostworld without her manipulations. Maybe I could because she had opened the way. Now I feared she could hunt me down and snap me up out there whenever the mood took her. I was not inclined to suffer her torments voluntarily.
“Murgen.”
I chomped down a last mouthful of bread, followed it with a slug of water. Bloated, I did what I had to do.
Goblin must have had a notion that he was being watched from afar. Or suspected that he could be. I would not have found him had I had no idea how his mind worked. The clever little shit. The spells he used to camouflage himself and his men were of the simplest sort, almost undetectable. All they did was make the eye wander away from what was probably just a modest boulder lurking in the bushes, gently so as to go unremarked even when you were expecting something. He and his rangers were scattered so no concentration stood out. Mogaba did not appear to be a concern.
I might be wrong but I assumed One-Eye’s first move, if he deserted, would be to find Goblin. They had been best friends before anyone else in the Company was born. If you didn’t count Lady.
A quick, determined search revealed that One-Eye had not joined Goblin yet. A cruise up and down the road from Kiaulune did not turn him up, either. He must be in hiding for the day.
I did not feel Kina or Soulcatcher. More confident, I found Goblin again, rode Smoke backward in time.
Goblin did a good job ambushing the Prahbrindrah Drah’s gang. And no spells concealed the encounter. He’d been too busy with other work.
It was a traditional Black Company-style ambush. The Prince hurried into it at dusk. He was accompanied by several hundred soldiers. They outnumbered Goblin’s force heavily. A few arrows wobbled in from the brush south of the road, striking several Taglians. Ululations went up. Brush rustled. More arrows flew.
The Prahbrindrah Drah had no idea who was attacking. Shadowlander partisans probably seemed more likely than the Company. He did not know about Goblin.
We had taught the Taglians to respond to an ambush by counterattacking immediately. That is what the Prince’s companions did, though not quite instantly.
Better than half charged into the brush, chasing rustlings. A handful of those rustles were created by Goblin’s men but most were contributed by little owls groggily trying to get away from they knew not what without ever rising out of the cover.
Goblin’s second attack, from the opposite hillside, was far more vigorous and included illusory people the Taglians would know could not possibly be there if they just thought. I saw my own doppelganger wading through the brush waving a nicked-up, rusty sword.
A couple of Goblin’s men and a gang of ghosts retreated toward Kiaulune, drawing most of the remainder of the Prince’s band with them. Then the remainder of Goblin’s force jumped in after the Prince. It was a brisk fight. When the dust settled our erstwhile employer was a prisoner, alive but in no shape to trouble anyone. He had collected a dozen wounds.
Goblin faded away. Rangers and illusions harassed and baffled the Taglians till dawn made Goblin’s illusions too obviously illusory.
The Taglians made a valiant effort to find their Prince. They had no luck. Soon after the next sunset a brush with a killer shadow panicked them. They fled north with the news that the Prince might be dead.
I could imagine the effect that would have when it reached Taglios. The capital would fall into chaos if the priesthoods rejected the Radisha’s right to rule. It could mean civil war. The Woman had noncanonical supporters and there
was no alternate heir-apparent. The question of the succession had been around for years but always got pushed aside by more immediate crises.
Hee-hee. She would start paying the price of her perfidy before we ever glanced her way.
One-Eye and Gota must still be on the road. Instead of trying to find them there it seemed easier to go all the way back and pick them up as they began their adventure.
That worked. After a fashion. When Gota caught One-Eye alone they held only a brief discussion before the little wizard grunted, dug a pack out of his ruined bunker and joined her in slipping off into the nearest woods. Obviously the matter had been discussed before. Preparations had been made.
They did not talk much, which was hard to credit. One-Eye was not known for his reticence and Mother Gota was worse. He only grunted occasionally. When she said anything at all it was just to complain about the general unfairness of life.
Total silence descended once they entered the shade of the trees. Light and shadow fluttered about as the wind stirred the branches and leaves. They became increasingly hard to track... Oh, but the little shit was a wizard, wasn’t he? And one who damned well knew about Smoke.
He made me work at it but I stayed with him till my world began to shake.
Earthquake? Again?
It dawned on me at last. Somebody outside the ghostworld wanted me. Reluctantly, I returned to flesh. “About damned time!” the Old Man snapped when I opened my eyes. “I really thought we lost you this time.”
“Huh?” That came out a dry-throated croak. I tried for a cup but found I had no strength to extend my arm. I was wasted bad. The Captain had to pour water into my mouth for me.
“I really fucked up. How long was I out there?”
“Eleven hours.” That was how tough One-Eye had made it to track him.
“I bet there’s no finding him at all once it gets dark,” I said after I had gotten a little sugar water inside me. I was confused about when I was. I meant after dark the day he fled. He could lose himself thoroughly in the dark.
And darkness always comes.
Croaker wasted a lot of energy cursing.
I said, “I can watch for crows. Wherever there’re crows there’s something they’re watching.” Except around Goblin, who had his owls and confusion spells. Unless they never looked because Catcher did not know he was out there. “Mostly they’re too dim to be fooled by low-grade glamors.” Which had to say something about people and crows both but I am not bright enough to define it.
“I’ll just count him gone. For now. I don’t want you going out there if you’re going to lose track so bad that you forget you’ve got to come back.”
It was my own habit of dreaming that endangered me. I had encountered fewer perils roaming around that way.
Again Croaker said, “I’ll just count him gone.” He smiled grimly. “He’ll be back. Right after he strangles that woman. Which will happen about as soon as the new wears off. You go back over there. Keep a close eye on the standard. And send me whatever writings you’ve got ready for review.”
Ulp. I was not ready for this. He had not shown much interest ever before.
“When are we going to move on? Or are we not going to?”
“Not till we have our crops in. Unless we’re under really heavy pressure. Five months minimum. Enjoy the rest.”
Enjoy the rest. Like I enjoyed all that loafing around when we were bottled up inside Dejagore. He missed all that because he could not turn down the chance to go off and play games with Soulcatcher.
“When you went after Catcher the other day... Was there a plan? Did you really expect to accomplish anything?” I retained doubts about the depth of their antagonism even now.
“Check with my dearly beloved. That was her scheme. You’ll probably see it again. She’s got the notion that if she keeps harassing Soulcatcher, Catcher won’t be able to concentrate on giving us grief.”
“Now there’s an idea. Jab sticks into a nest of vipers so they don’t have time to come hunt you down. Why not whack on hornets’ nests and hibernating bears while we’re at it?”
“Find One-Eye or go work on the Annals. I’ve got all the bitching I can handle right here at home.”
“You ought to get some sleep,” I said, heading out. “You’re way too crabby.”
There is color. There is life of a sort. There is light. Without light there can be no darkness.
There is death. The husks of a hundred crows surround the listing throne.
Death will find a way. Darkness will find a way inside.
Darkness always comes.
The thing on the throne sits wide-eyed, blind. Its orbs show no pupils. They are half-fried egg-white blanks, yet the creature does seem to see. Certainly it is aware. Grimacing in agony, its face turns as it tracks each venturesome spy from the world. It concentrates its will on each newcomer, wanting it to land. A twinge of evil humor stirs its features whenever a weak bird fails to carry out its instructions.
The earth quivers.
The throne slides a foot, tilts another inch. Alarm underscores the refreshed pain on the face of the sleeper.
The crack in the earth opens wider. The color wafting up brightens. A breeze whispers out of the bowels of the earth. It is colder than the heart of a starving spider. It carries a black vapor.
The throne jerks another inch.
Death will find a way.
Even the gods must pass.
86
Things went too well for too long. Summer was an idyll. It never got too hot. The rains were perfect for the crops we planted. We were threatened with the sort of harvest for which peasants pray. We made sure the peasants we encountered understood that the wonderful weather was all our fault. Our foragers had liberated draft animals enough to support us if we traveled light, leaving the heavy equipment that had followed us down from friendly territory. There were even a few sheep for those not bound by Gunni strictures against eating flesh.
The old saw is true. An army does travel on its stomach. What we accomplished by projecting the Taglian will the distance we did was a tribute to Croaker’s planning, preparation and devotion. And psychosis. And, of course, it was founded on the four years given us by Longshadow’s utter failure to interfere. Poor boy. Should have listened to Mogaba. He would not be living in a kennel. Not that he could be faulted for having been deceived by the Mother of Deceivers when Kina could spin webs of deception to warp the eyesight of gods as great as she.
We had not yet fattened up from the winter but we were getting set to take the next leap already.
Neither Soulcatcher nor Mogaba, neither lost Taglian loyalists nor the local population seemed further inclined to make our lives miserable. We were getting along with the latter fairly well, now.
After apparently at Lady’s insistence finally sending recon forces to winkle out the secrets of Overlook, the Old Man had discovered that the fortress contained several treasures. Half became the Company treasury, something we have not had for a generation. All pledged brothers received equal shares of the rest. Eventually, Croaker ordered a market established where locals could bring anything they cared to sell.
Results were disappointing at first. But once we demonstrated that we would not rob or murder anybody trade picked up. Peasants are resilient. They are realists. These did not see how our yoke could weigh heavier than Longshadow’s. They had no problems with old or imagined myths of the Black Company despite existing so much closer to Khatovar.
They did not know the name Khatovar, as such, either. Nor were they concerned about Kina, under any of her names. Their Kina was a creator as well as a destroyer, fierce but no unhallowed queen of darkness. The Year of the Skulls was no terror to them. They could imagine no future more grim than their past.
Nobody hailed us as liberators, however. We were but the shadow that displaced the darkness.
I wandered the market occasionally, accompanied by Thai Dei and an interpreter. Thai Dei objected. He was sure my curio
sity would get me killed. He was not shy about advising me that curiosity was a lethal curse.
Uncle Doj usually tagged along. Despite pretenses to the contrary, a lot of strain had developed between us. I could not forgive Sarie’s absence, though I controlled my urge to bring my knowledge into the open. What I did to irritate him was ask every southerner I interviewed about the constellation called the Noose.
But nobody knew it.
Except for the devastation that was Kiaulune it would have seemed a good world.
I enjoyed myself, except for missing Sarie. And I saw her in my dreams. There were fewer demands on me lately, though I was in charge at the Shadowgate. Red Rudy and Bucket did most of the real work there, showing me the ropes as they went. Nobody said so but I was getting educated in case I ever had to take over. I did not remind anybody that I managed the Old Crew tolerably during our ordeal in Dejagore. I did not remind them that we had a Lieutenant and she was a whole lot more experienced and hard-edged than me. Anytime you say anything you just get more work piled on.
87
I looked downslope one morning and saw a young army headed my way, twenty-five men and as many jackasses, loaded down with packs and bamboo. I told Thai Dei, “I don’t like the looks of this. That’s Loftus, Longinus and Cletus all at the same time.” Not to mention Otto and Hagop, whom I had not seen for a while. “When them three all clot up together you can bet something is up.”
Thai Dei looked at me like he wondered if I really thought he was dim enough to think they were off for a picnic. He remembered the brothers from Dejagore and probably understood their obsessions better than I did.
Something was in the wind, though.
I went down to meet them.
“Hey!” Clete hollered, waving. “It’s the hermit prince.”
“What’re you guys up to?”
“We heard you set up your own kingdom over here. We come to see its wonders.”