“Who? Me?” One-Eye squeaked. “Not me. No way. I don’t touch the stuff anymore.”
I observed, “He hasn’t had time to get set up.”
“That means jack shit. There’s any to be stolen, he’ll find that. You know anyone else who’d suddenly start a fight for no good reason?”
“Ain’t nobody in this outfit like that,” One-Eye insisted. “Unless you count Goblin. Sometimes he... He in this outfit anymore, Captain?”
Croaker ignored him. He asked me, “You planning to take Smoke back out now?”
“No.” That had not occurred to me. Food had.
Croaker grunted. “I need to talk to my staff wizard, here. One-Eye?”
I moved out. What now?
That food.
I ate till the cooks began to grumble about some folks thinking they were special.
After I finished I strolled across the snowy slopes trying to calm the storm inside me. The sky promised more snow. We had been lucky so far, I suspected. None of the snows had been heavy and none had stuck long. I spied Thai Dei and his mother, the latter offering a piece of her mind. Still.
It kept them at a distance.
I glimpsed Swan and Blade, far off, trotting somewhere in a big hurry. That meant Lady had come in, or at least would arrive soon. Her advance force had a camp under construction.
South, beyond Kiaulune, a spear of sunlight broke through the overcast, struck Overlook. The whole vast fortress gleamed like some religions’ notion of heaven. I needed to take Smoke over there and get caught up. But not right away. One-Eye and the Old Man still had their heads together. Maybe talking about me.
I strolled downhill toward where Lady’s soldiers were building their camp.
I wondered how Lady and Blade were getting along. He had been her main helper before his defection. He had not let her know what was happening when he did that. I could not see her forgiving him the deceit, however successful its end result.
Crows fluttered over the camp. Maybe Lady was there.
Croaker was right. We had to be paranoid. All the time. If it was not the Shadowmaster spying it would be Soulcatcher or the Deceivers or the Howler. Or Kina herself. Or the Nyueng Bao. Or the Radisha’s agents. Or spies for the priests, or...
42
Lady had come in without me being told. I had no trouble getting in to see her. That made me wonder if it was going to be easy to get out.
She had questions of her own. “What are we doing now, Murgen? What’s his game this time?”
I halted one step into the presence, mouth open. There had been changes since last I saw her. This was not the Lady with whom I had ridden south. This was not the woman who had seemed so haunted in front of the Dandha Presh. This creature was the Lady of olden times resurrected, a being of such terrible power it had trouble constraining itself in a presentable form.
“What the hell happened?”
“Murgen.”
“What?” I squeaked. I reminded myself that I was the Annalist. The Annalist is fearless. He stands aside from squabbles within the Company. He is not intimidated by his brothers. He records the truth.
She scared me anyway.
“I want to know —”
“Anything you want to know, you’d better ask the Old Man. I couldn’t tell you even if I was as goofy as Willow Swan. He don’t tell me anything, either. He’s still keeping it all inside his head. You seen that place over there? Worse than the Tower at Charm. He hasn’t paid any attention to it since we got here. I haven’t seen him do much of anything. Longshadow and Howler haven’t done much, either, though.”
“It’s frustrating.”
“Yeah. And maybe not even very smart considering what shape we’d be in if the Stranglers got him.”
“Less likely than you think.”
“Because of Soulcatcher?”
“Yes.”
“She can’t be everywhere any more than you can. And they call them the Deceivers for a reason.” I hoped my voice was not squeaking. I was trying to play the fearless man.
“None of that is why you wanted to see me.”
“No. I’ve got a problem. My dreams are getting worse! They’re really bad now. I want to know how to shut them out.”
“I haven’t found a way. You have to learn to remember what they are. Has Kina been calling you?”
“I don’t think so. It’s more like she’s passing through my dreams and doesn’t notice me if I lie real still. Or maybe I’m eavesdropping on someone else’s nightmares.”
“Tell me about them.”
I told her.
“Those are pretty much the dreams I’ve always had. Mostly I’m on the plain anymore.”
“Are there crows there?”
“Crows? No. There isn’t anything alive there.”
I considered. “Actually, what I said before isn’t quite true. She does seem to be aware of me specifically. The other night I got led through a version of the plain dream where I saw my wife. I talked to Sarie. The implication was there that I could get her back.”
“That’s new. For me the horrors just get worse. I think they’re supposed to overwhelm me eventually.”
I had a feeling she was not telling the whole truth, either. I said, “I find it hard to believe that she could feed me anything worse than what I’ve seen in real life. Knowing what she’s trying to do —”
“She managed to use me, Murgen. Because I thought I knew what she was doing. But I didn’t. She is the Queen of Deceivers. I wasn’t her Daughter of Night at all. I was just a brood mare who was going to carry a Deceiver messiah for her. Don’t make the mistake I made. If she really has noticed you, you be very, very careful. And keep me posted.”
I grunted.
“Did you keep track of times when you thought you sensed Kina?”
“Uh...” I had. But most of the time she came near me I was out with Smoke. “Not very well.” I gave her a couple of times that seemed harmless.
“That isn’t much help. Control your emotions. Your wife would be an obvious way to manipulate you. You have any idea why?”
“I’d guess the standard.”
“Of course. Hints pile up but we never get the story. The Lance of Passion. Only the thing’s never shown any special properties.”
It had, but in a time and manner I could not explain without exposing Smoke. Croaker stuck Howler with it once, just a flesh wound, but the little wizard almost died. “Maybe we don’t really have the Lance. People might just think we do.”
She murmured, “Is this another complicated deceit?”
I asked, “How do I stop the dreaming?”
“Weren’t you listening? You don’t.”
“I don’t think I’m strong enough just to live with them.”
“You learn. Mine went away after the baby was born. But not for long. I think Kina forgot to sever the connection.”
“Maybe Narayan was supposed to do that when he took your daughter.”
“Of course he was.”
“I didn’t mean to remind you of —”
“I don’t need reminding. I remember just fine. Every minute of every hour. And someday soon I plan to discuss it with Narayan, up close and personal.” When she said that she seemed as nasty as Kina herself, though maybe you had to be there and had to know her history to enjoy the full impact. “He’s going to get his Year of the Skulls now. He’s run out of places to hide.”
“You’ve seen Overlook. You think he needs to hide?”
Before she answered Blade shoved his head into the ragged tent. “A Strangler just took a crack at Willow. Willow’s having a little trouble breathing but he’ll be all right.”
“You take the assassin alive?” Lady asked.
I eased toward the exit. Her mood was getting blacker. I did not want her pressing me hard.
Blade grinned. “He’s in perfect health. Though he’d have a heart attack if he could.”
I began easing around Blade. Lady gave me an eyeball-the-bug
look that said she thought we ought to talk more later. I might consider staying out of her way. Maybe I had been too open with her already.
I stayed at a distance but watched. Lady’s interrogation methods were deft, vicious and effective. The lesson was not lost on any witnesses.
Within minutes the Strangler admitted that he had infiltrated the camp-follower crowd after our victory at Charandaprash. The order had come from Narayan Singh himself. Willow Swan had been his primary target. Other red rumel men had been assigned other targets. They, too, had concealed themselves among the camp followers. They had been directed by the Daughter of Night herself to be very careful executing their missions. The Children of Kina had become so few that part of their obligation to their goddess now was to preserve themselves for her sake.
Lady knew just how to charm a man into talking. One of those things you learn when you are around forever, I suppose. One of those things people like Longshadow would like to mine out of your head.
She was so effective the Strangler abandoned hope of his eternal reward to tell her names.
I took a walk as Blade began organizing a throat-cutting expedition.
Just to underscore her disaffection with them Lady strangled one of the Deceivers herself. She used her own black scarf, taken from a black rumel man years ago. Every Deceiver knew the tale.
She sent her messages thus.
Crows took off in multitudes.
By way of conversation with Narayan Singh, Lady had the heads of the Deceivers put on lances and carried across to Overlook.
Croaker joined me. “That’s my sweetie,” he said, shaking his head. Like he would have been kinder had he gotten to those men first.
He knew what I was thinking. “A lady doesn’t murder people in polite company.” He grinned.
“What polite company? The Company ain’t polite. And I think it was a very Lady-like thing she did.”
“Yeah.” He seemed almost cheerful about it all.
43
I spent a good many hours at it but I finally located Sleepy with some base-camp elements from Big Bucket’s special forces battalion. Bucket’s gang was doing the biggest part of the work of hunting Mogaba’s partisans. I told the kid, “Let’s go for a walk. I need to talk to you.” I collected a handful of flat stones to throw at crows if those squawking nightmares got too curious.
“This about what I hope it is?” The boy was excited. I could not remember having been excited about becoming the standardbearer. But I had gotten the job by default. There had been no one else able to do it. It had had to be handled.
“Partly. I got the final word from the Old Man. He says you’re all right with him. He’s leaving the choice up to me. So you’re in, far as I’m concerned. But he wants me to handle the standard myself till after we know one way or the other how it’s going to go with Longshadow. We can start teaching you some stuff right away. And see that you get out of some of the more unpleasant duties so you’ll have time. Especially for working on your reading and writing.”
The boy beamed. I felt a little shitty. “But there’s one special job I need you to do first.” I saw Big Bucket headed our way, probably to hand the kid one of the very jobs I had just mentioned.
“What? I can handle it.”
Absolutely. Which was why Bucket would pick him out of the crowd.
“I’ve got a secret message that needs to get to Taglios. It’s critical. You can take a few guys with you, just in case. Use guys who can ride hard. I’ll give you authorization to use courier remounts.” I raised a hand to forestall anything Bucket had to say. “This has to go through as fast as it can.”
Bucket had heard some of it. “You taking away my best man to carry a letter?”
“Yes. Because it has to get through.”
“This really serious?” Bucket asked.
“That’s why I have him out here where nobody can hear us.”
“Then I’d better go away.” For a fugitive thief Bucket made a very good soldier...
“Probably.”
“Hate to lose you, kid.” Bucket shuffled off to dump whatever it was on somebody else.
Sleepy said, “If you loan me your horse I won’t have to take anybody with me. And I’ll get there and back a lot faster.”
He had a point. He had a marvelous point and it had not occurred to me. “Let me think about this.”
There was an iffy side. The Old Man might want me to do something before Sleepy got back. If I did not have my horse he would ask questions.
I was not planning to share my plan with the Captain. If I did he would forbid it.
“I’ll be back in less than a month.”
With my horse he could manage that if he had a butt of iron. He was young and hardy but I did not think anybody was that tough. Still... Nothing was likely to happen around here for at least that long. It would take more than a month for all the stragglers to come in, for our leaders to hash out some kind of plan. It was not possible that Croaker had a plan worked out for Overlook the way he had had for Charandaprash. I was not likely to get caught.
And once the kid had a week’s head start even Soulcatcher would not be able to intercept him.
“All right. We’ll do it your way. One thing, though. The message has to be put into the hands of a specific person. He might not be available right away. You might have to wait for him.”
“I’ll do whatever the job calls for, Murgen.”
“All right. Come down to my...” I could not do that. Thai Dei was sure to overhear something. “No. First, I have to tell you who to find.” I glanced around. Sleepy was one of the few veterans of Dejagore who had not acquired a Nyueng Bao bodyguard, but the Nyueng Bao as a group did keep an eye on him.
“I’m listening.” The kid was eager to prove himself.
“His name is Banh Do Trang. He was a friend of my wife’s. He’s a trading factor who goes back and forth between Taglios and the delta. He sells everything from rice to crocodile skins. He’s old and slow but he’s the only way to get a message into the swamp.”
“You have a whole family —”
“You might’ve noticed how little the Captain trusts those people.”
“Yes.”
“There’s good reason not to trust them. Any of them who’re here with us. In this case, any of them but Banh Do Trang himself.”
“I understand. Where do I find this man?”
I gave him directions. “You can tell him who the message is from but only if he asks. He should deliver it to Ky Sahra at the Vinh Gao Ghang temple of Ghanghesha.”
“You want me to wait for an answer?”
“That won’t be necessary.” If the message got through I would get my answer directly from Sarie. “I’m going to go write several copies of the message. You do what you think is best to make sure one of them survives the whole journey.”
“I understand.”
Though he had not reacted to Sahra’s formal name I suspected that he understood more than I was telling.
Later, I introduced Sleepy to my horse and made the stallion understand that it was time to earn his oats. The animal was smart enough to be as disgruntled as any soldier asked to get up and bust his butt.
The kid slipped away without anybody but Bucket knowing that he was going.
44
The Shadowmaster was in his crystal tower, immersed in some arcane experiment. He was seeing no one. The stinking ragbag that contained the Howler was perched atop some of the highest scaffolding surrounding Overlook. Work had resumed, though at a snail’s pace. Longshadow would not quit just because an army was nearby.
The sky was heavily overcast. A chill breeze whined through the scaffolding. Unpleasant weather was headed our way.
“You sent for me?” Singh sounded offended. He was cold for certain.
“It was not a summons, friend Narayan,” Howler replied. The Deceiver’s approach had been impressively discreet. Easy to see how he had become a master Strangler. “An invitation
only. Perhaps my messenger failed to relay my exact words.”
A crow whipped past. Another settled nearby. It pecked at crumbs left scattered where workmen had paused to eat. Singh ignored them. There had been crows everywhere since the earthquake. Times were good for the black birds. Howler said, “It occurred to me that you might be interested in what’s been happening outside. I believe Lady has sent you a personal message.”
Singh stared down at the array of severed heads indicated by Howler. Undaunted by the presence of workmen, Taglian cavalrymen had set up their trophies close enough for their faces to be recognized.
Narayan counted heads. His skinny shoulders slumped. Howler’s stance became subtly mocking. “I was right? It is a message?”
“A prophecy. She’s trying to foretell my future. She does these things.”
“I worked for her. And her husband before her. This is nothing.” Howler tried and failed to stifle a shriek. “Seems to me Kina hasn’t taken good care of her children lately.”
Singh did not argue.
“How will you bring on the Year of the Skulls now? How many of your freak brothers are left?”
“You risk more than you know when you mock the Goddess.”
“I doubt it.” Howler controlled another rising scream. Like a man choking down a persistent cough, he could manage for short times. “In any case, I don’t think I’m going to stay around to find out. Longshadow is too damned crazy to do what he has to do. I refuse to be dragged down with him.” He eyed Singh sidelong, watching for a reaction.
Narayan smiled as though privy to a huge and ugly secret. “You fear Lady. You cannot control your functions when you think of her.”
Me, Murgen, ectoplasmic spy, sat on the runt’s shoulder and wondered if these two would be kind enough to take it a little further and give me something I could use. Howler had something on his mind.
Singh started to leave. It was obvious that those heads out there did little to sustain his faith. Unlike his spooky ward he did not enjoy visitations from his goddess. Neither she nor the Daughter of Night had bothered providing explanations for the countless disasters befalling his brethren.
Howler read his mood perfectly. “Makes you wonder about the divine order, doesn’t it?” He screamed before Singh could respond.