Bathdek covered Papa with a ragged light blanket, then checked on Laissa. Laissa was sleeping normally, too. Satisfied, Bathdek went out into the cool of the night in hopes of getting herself calmed down. She settled on a boulder from which she could study an incredible swath of silvered sky.
It was time for some serious thought.
She could not keep on living from moment to moment. She had to plan what she was going to do and then execute her plan, not just be content to wait for something to happen. Something almost had happened tonight and it would have done nothing good for her or Laissa if it had.
She needed to have a serious talk with Papa about long-term planning. And once she had done that she would have to make sure the plans got carried out.
There were lots of shooting stars, two of them spectacular and one whose death lit up the entire world for one blinding instant.
A large animal came snuffling around, curious because of all the strange smells. Bathdek chased it off with a shower of sparks.
A while later, now calm and determined, she went back inside and lay down with Laissa. Laissa was cool but not nearly as cold as she had been before Papa treated her.
Bathdek whispered, “We’ll find a way, Sis. I promise. We’ll find a way.” Or maybe that was Kitten whispering.
21
In Modern Times: Shadow Soup
We had us some serious weather. For days the rain came down in sheets, seldom letting up. Watercourses ran ridiculously high, washing away banks, brush, and nearby trees. Fields became waterlogged to the point where farmers feared they would lose their crops. The Old Man pledged the Company’s assistance wherever stoop labor might make a difference. He began trying to recruit volunteer helpers from town.
Our enemies offered nothing.
The Rebel even gave up nuisance terror attacks on those who cooperated with us. The silence seemed ominous. Those devils, however badly hurt, must be up to something. When it happened it would be a something that I would not like even a little.
High water and impassable roads put an end to patrols for a while.
* * *
Ten days had passed since the malaise epidemic peaked. It had touched people as far off as downtown Aloe. Locked into worry mode, I wrestled a dread that I could not master. If Sergeant Nwynn was right the malaise would begin to build again in a few weeks. It would get worse. And it might be killer the month after that, especially if we caught us any more girls.
I asked Nwynn, “How do we keep that from happening?”
“Scatter the herd.”
That did seem logical. “But then how do we keep them controlled?”
“That’s the trade-off, isn’t it?”
“I wish the Taken was here. She’d know what to do.”
“That might not be good. If she was here then, being pulled at by them all.”
Our chat was taking place at my desk in my new hospital. Even my clinic had moved there, now. I had just two inpatients at the moment, neither injured in action. Edmous Black tended them, muttering something about how could you find a cure for stupid?
“It might be too personal to ask but it might matter. Did the synch-up affect your squad?”
“It did. It was bad. It will get worse.” She got red-hot angry suddenly, either at me for asking or at the universe for its cruelty toward women. “Bottom line, we’ll probably get synched up, too.”
“Not good?”
“Very much not good. Every woman in sight could get sucked in. This shit goes on for six months, the whole damned province could become part of whatever happens.”
There were a thousand sexist jokes that could have been born right then. I was not tempted, not even a little. I was able to feel, fully, just how distressed Nwynn was. Hers was the soul-deep kind of dread I had felt while watching wave after wave of Rebel killers smash against our weak lines in the Battle at Charm. It was one trigger moment short of a surrender of all hope.
“So what…?”
Gurdlief blasted in. I had not seen the kid since the night One-Eye came to warn me about the girls. “Carpet!” He puffed violently. “Slapback saw a flying carpet sliding along east right on the other side of the trees across the crick.”
I exchanged puzzled looks with Nwynn. That sounded like a Taken on the sneak. Mischievous Rain had no reason to sneak. “Could Slapback tell who it was?”
“No. They was too far away.”
Firefly materialized, I am unsure how. I did not hear a door. She looked troubled. She crowded up against me on my right, fingers in her mouth. That was little-kid behavior I had not seen from her before.
She had only just moved in when Ankou and Shin appeared, also with no door noise. They emerged from a shadow that drew no notice until it birthed something unexpected. Shin looked as troubled as Baku was.
“What’s going on, guys?” O ugly thought. That might have been the Limper out there, scouting chances for executing some wicked monkey business. And he was unlikely to harbor any affection for a fellow Taken’s offspring. Neither kid responded to my question. After a long silence, though, Shin did say, “Things are going to change.” He moved in close on my left, not quite touching, as though to enter the safety of my shadow.
Sergeant Nwynn grumbled, “If it’s gonna start raining shit I better put myself where I can do some good.” She took a couple steps, stopped. “Maybe we’ll get some answers, now.”
“Let us hope.”
She left. Edmous Black appeared, spied the family moment, decided that something needed doing somewhere else. Gurdlief did a nervous sort of pee-pee dance. Like me he had no idea why the twins were distressed. I did note, however, that he was hiding a considerable state of distress himself. I could not imagine what was tormenting any of them.
I said, “We won’t accomplish anything hanging around here. Let’s take it out into the sunshine.”
I thought that might bother the twins, what with their affinity for shadows, but the suggestion seemed to brighten them up. Firefly, especially, showed an improvement in mood.
I was never going to understand Tower people, young or old. Hell, I was still too young to understand me.
* * *
Word was out. A carpet had been spotted. I seemed to be alone in fearing that that might mean trouble.
A lot of people found excuses to be outside, doing nothing productive. As the kids and I hit the street, the Captain and the Lieutenant emerged from Admin. The Old Man looked my way, did a double take. I suppose I did look strange there with my right arm around Firefly and my left hand on Shin’s shoulder while Ankou sat on his haunches a foot in front of my toes. How much more of a familial picture could I present?
A shadow rippled along what, because of recent construction, had become the central street of the compound. If we put up any more structures the drill ground would be gone. The shadow was that of a carpet that streaked over, banked through a full turn, and came back slowly, wobbling as it shed altitude. There were two people aboard, and more plunder than Mischievous Rain had brought out last time.
The carpet settled right where it would be easiest to tilt it and slide it into storage. That was not, unfortunately, the best place to unload cargo meant to go into the Taken’s quarters.
A bit of dust puffed out from under when the carpet touched down. I had not yet planted the grass that she had asked me to plant before she left. In truth, there was no chance that I would ever get around to doing that.
The passenger person rose and stepped down. That was Two Dead, paler and more tired than he had been when he left us. He was wobbly, which was not unreasonable after a stressful thousand-mile flight that included a passage over the Plain of Fear.
There was more there, though. Without talking to him or even getting close I knew this Two Dead was not the Two Dead who had gone to the Tower with Mischievous Rain. This Two Dead had spent months inside the Tower. Years, maybe, the way time gets corrupted there.
So how had my woman, the mother of my children, weathe
red her visit?
Neither twin rushed to greet her. Devil cat Ankou remained motionless, too. For a half minute the Taken did not move, either. On her knees, bent forward, her head almost in her lap, she let tension drain away. Then, at last, she rose and stepped down carefully, feeling with her right foot as though she could not see all the way to the ground. She was so wobbly that Colonel Chodroze took her right arm to help her maintain her balance.
The passage over the Plain of Fear must have been more terrible than usual.
Coming east the Company crossed the Plain by following a dedicated caravan route the Plain’s denizens generally respect. We lost only two idiots who just had to go explore. The rest of us came to our new post safely, though Plain things continually tried to lure us off the hallowed path.
The Taken took a bit longer to collect herself, then straightened, lifted her gaze, surveyed her surroundings. She zeroed in on the girls’ dorm right away. She looked like she had developed a sudden severe case of gastric distress.
Meantime, I surprised myself with the pleasure I felt at her return. I had missed the midnight yukata and its swirling stars, and I had missed the woman who wore it.
Her attention shifted to me and the children. Or maybe just the twins. She headed our way, expression shifting from hangover discomfort to a smile that looked like it would have been real if she were not constipated.
From behind me, Gurdlief whispered, “Slapback says that’s not the carpet he saw before. He told me to say.”
Oh, joy! But there was no time to pursue that. The Taken was upon us. The kids responded without excitement.
It might be stomach pain or hangover but the Taken did not act like this was a long-anticipated reunion. She bent down to scratch Ankou’s ears. Remarkable. I never saw her touch the cat before. She then rested a gentle hand atop Firefly’s head, caressed Shin lightly on the right shoulder, and said, “Let’s go inside. After we put the carpet away.”
The Captain had a work party unloading the carpet already.
The Taken’s soft words sounded mechanical.
The twins’ absence of emotion puzzled me. They had been devoted to their mother before.
Had she been changed that much?
We did what the Taken suggested. The Old Man and everyone else tried not to interact at all, not out of respect for a family reunion but out of fear. The Taken did not appear to be in a forgiving mood.
The children remained withdrawn, and Ankou downright depressed.
Something was wrong. Seriously wrong. Could it be connected with that other carpet and Taken out there?
* * *
We shared a meal during which no one spoke. The main course was fish but Shin never whined. Sana made her first trip in from the kitchen bearing a platter of slices of early local melon. She stared at the Taken with a puzzled, goofy expression.
“Ma’am? Why did you change your hair? It was so much more striking when it was that black with red stripes.”
She was right! Mischievous Rain’s hair had gone back to the shade that it had been when we sent her off to the Tower.
There must have been a glamour meant to keep the change from being noticed. It failed with Sana. Her saying so broke the spell.
The twins studied me guardedly.
I studied Mischievous Rain. The hair was the only change I could see, other than her subdued attitude. “How long was it for you, this time, inside?”
Shin sniffled. Firefly rolled her eyes. They knew something that I did not. They were exasperated because, even with the spell broken, I still did not see it. But, of course, they were not going to make it easy and tell me what it was.
“I don’t know.” Husky, little more than a whisper, dreamy-eyed, as though only a fraction of her was with us now. “I don’t remember. It must have been a long time, though.” Her journey back from wherever she was went slowly. She did everything, including basic eating, like she was having trouble reacquainting herself with me, the children, the cat, the place, and with how things were done in daily life. “I need to sleep. I have done without for more than two days.”
Flora stepped into the room. “Doctor Croaker sir, that Gurdlief boy was just here. He said to tell you that you’re needed in the hospital.”
“Tell him I’m on my way.”
“He already left, sir.”
“I want to go, too, Dad,” Firefly said. She had something on her mind. I glanced at Mischievous Rain. She did not object.
“Let’s go, then.” The kid was unlikely to see anything too gruesome for her.
* * *
Firefly halted the moment we stepped outside. (The hospital entrance was around on the far side of the building.) She said, “You do know that that isn’t our mother, don’t you?”
“What?” I jerked a thumb in the direction of the second floor.
“Yes. Her. That isn’t Mom. She might not know that she isn’t Mom, but she isn’t. Shin and Ankou and I saw it right away but you didn’t. You should probably keep pretending that you think she’s who she wants you to think she is.”
“I’m confused.”
“I have noticed that about you, Dad. You only ever see surface things, what you expect to see. Mom says surfaces are really only mirrors.”
Six years old, spouting philosophy. And, scary stuff, she understood what she was saying.
“I’ll take your word. You know your mother better than I do. But if that isn’t her, who is she? And why is she here in your mother’s place?” I thought about Slapback’s mysterious carpet, not seen by anyone since his lone glimpse.
Firefly shrugged. “Grown-up stuff. There are lots of copies around. Right?” The brat had a smile on like she knew she was smarter than, and knew more than, the nearest grown-up.
“A good point.” Things going as weird as they do inside the Tower, this Mischievous Rain could be one of the Honnoh girls all grown up. “Do you know what’s going on?”
She referenced her previous answer. “Nope. I’m just a kid. Nobody tells me nothing.”
There was a load of guano.
She added, “We better go see what’s happening. Some soldier might get mad if he dies while you’re out here worrying about family stuff that won’t change any because you’re fussing.”
No way this little beast was only six. She was a devil wearing a kid disguise. As cute a disguise as they came, though.
* * *
The emergency patient was Colonel Chodroze. I got called because Edmous Black had gone home. Two Dead was unconscious but making noises like a man trying to speak in tongues.
Sergeant Nwynn and her trollish Aloen henchwoman had brought him in. Gurdlief watched them like he thought they were about to break pieces off the Colonel. I told him that he needed to leave, then I asked Nwynn, “What’s the trouble?”
She was in a foul humor. She made a huge effort not to let that interfere with business. A calming breath taken, she explained, “This dickhead tried to bust into the girls’ dorm. He ain’t back three hours and he’s drunk and acting like a raving asshole.”
There was a character conflict here. Colonel Shoré Chodroze was, absolutely, an asshole, but not that kind of asshole. “Got my kid with me, Sergeant.”
Firefly’s presence did not impact Nwynn’s future word choices. But … Well … Firefly had heard it all before. She did live among seven hundred soldiers.
“So he wanted in and you didn’t let him get there. And that’s how he got hurt.” I could see that Two Dead had taken a royal beating.
“Basically.”
“Basically? So? Is there more? Did say why he wanted in?”
“He claimed it was business and we should get the … uh, out of his way. He was such an arrogant prick that…”
“It was me that lost my temper and hit him,” the Aloen woman said. “All my fault. Not Sarge’s. He really asked for it.”
Nwynn said, “He was drunk or hopped up. You couldn’t understand half what he said, but it boiled down to he wanted to get a
t the girls and he didn’t care what our orders were, we weren’t going to stop him.”
It did sound like Two Dead had been begging for it. I looked forward to hearing his side. “But you did stop him.”
“That we did.”
“I did,” the Aloen woman said.
“Uhm? Two female troopers took down a sorcerer of near-Taken caliber?”
Nwynn said, “He was wasted. And he’s only got one hand.”
The other woman insisted, “One trooper. Me. He had his back to me. I probably overdid it. But I was scared because he’s a big-time sorcerer.”
I extracted a reluctant and creative description of the pounding that Two Dead had taken, then said, “You two should get back to your posts. I’ll handle it from here.”
Nwynn looked like she wanted to argue. I said, “Out. I’ll deal with it.”
“Then I owe you one.”
“Keep that in mind when I do decide to come shopping.”
“Dad!”
Not the best idea to tease in front of your kid and in those circumstances. Nwynn might have blown up had Firefly not been there expressing her own disapproval. Blessed Baku’s eyes were harder than chrome when she looked at the sergeant. Nwynn took a moment. That was all she needed to get that I was yanking her chain.
“Bad taste, sir, considering.”
“I need to pick my moments better.”
Nwynn indicated Two Dead. “Especially around short-tempered women. Cato! Let’s go!”
* * *
Firefly clambered onto a tabletop to watch while I looked Two Dead over. I asked her, “What do you think the story is on the woman who is pretending to be your mom?”
The kid was not wrong. Up close the differences were obvious. No way could the woman pass for the Mischievous Rain that I had shared a house and family with before. But from a distance … Yet even then, only for a while.
The kid shrugged. “I don’t know. Grown-up stuff. Politics.”
No doubt. “So where is your real mom?”
“Back there, I guess. Watching.”