Shin began laying out a new game. When the Taken was out of sight he produced a miniature beer stein of the sort that has the pewter flip lid, which he handed to Firefly. Firefly made it disappear inside her jacket.
* * *
The Taken was not pleased by the crowd in Admin. But she was not pleased with anything, anyway. Every sorcerer but Silent was there. They all looked like they had bitten into something foul. Goblin, One-Eye, the Third, and Buzz were scattered around the room, as were Candy, the Lieutenant, and Sergeant Nwynn. Two Dead looked like death warmed over, like he had added the drizzling shits to his hangover and his aching thousand bruises plus one. He had him a fixed ugly vengeance look on. He aimed it more at the Taken than at Sergeant Nwynn.
The Captain practically glowed at the center of his the-father-of-all-around-him body language. He told the Taken, “Explain yourself.”
“Excuse me?”
“You girls are bright, every one. You were the first one, Tides Elba, before you went to the Tower. Now we have twenty-nine more of you, all different ages, caught since a version called Mischievous Rain took our first four captive girls off to the Tower. Explain yourself.”
This Tides Elba was not Mischievous Rain, though she claimed the title and believed that it belonged to her. A puzzle hidden inside an enigma surrounded by mysteries. The other Tides Elba, so different in personality, so much warmer, had known every smallest thing that Tides Elba ought to know …
The Old Man believed this to be the real Tides Elba. He might be right, but I did still doubt. The Tides Elba we sent to the Tower was more self-confident.
Of course, during a real-world year in the Tower her whole soul could have been reconstructed.
Whoever she was, and whatever else she might be, the woman was Taken. Only the Taken, never more than ten of the most powerful sorcerers in existence, received the knowledge and power needed to manage a flying carpet.
She said, “In truth, right now, I can’t answer with certainty. I have no exact idea of my place, here. I was sent to help end the menace of the Port of Shadows. The hard work was supposedly done already. The mop-up would be my first mission. I would spend a few months here, where I know my way around, doing make-work.” She choked. Literally.
Every wizard there blurted an expletive, though I was convinced that they had expected something. They did wizard stuff. Blessed Baku squealed and clapped beside me.
The Taken froze. The stars on her yukata scampered wildly, then froze too. Then they unfroze, scampered, and froze again. The cycle repeated several times. There was not light enough to show what any tattoos might be doing.
Beloved Shin, sprung from nowhere, served the Taken’s left cheek a savage slap, spun round, then was no longer with us. The sole evidence that he had appeared was a knave of swords card stuck to the Taken’s cheek.
From the corner of my eye I saw Blessed Baku slip that stein back inside her jacket.
The Taken moaned. She cried, “They are too strong for me, Mistress! They are too many! They devour me.”
Sergeant Nwynn observed, “In about thirteen days it gets worse for the rest of us.”
Seldom have I seen so many men so much at a loss for what to do about a flock of pretty girls—though I am sure they all expected the Tower to be cruel. Outsweeper should ought to start digging now. We might need a lot of holes.
This was getting ridiculous. The Company has encountered numerous existential threats across the centuries but never any this uncomfortable, nor as much a product of our own good intentions.
The Captain asked, “Is this what it looks like, gentlemen?” He got only shrugs in response.
Sergeant Nwynn said, “It is. And it might be worse than we imagine.”
The Taken, hand pressed to her slapped cheek and the knave of swords, shed a flow of tears while saying, “She is correct. The girls are developing one mind—with no direction or plan. They’re all little girls lost, crying themselves to sleep at night, terrified of what might happen next.” Then her eyes glazed over. Her face went slack. She began to sink back into the overmind that had seized control as she left her carpet. Shin’s card may not have kicked her completely free.
Two Dead, of all hard cases going, growled, “This sucks! This bites totally and completely. And the Tower will see only one possible solution.”
The Lieutenant raised a hand. He looked embarrassed.
I took it. “Captain, do you recall the bad joke the Lieutenant made a while back? About the girls?”
“I do.”
I said, “That might be an alternative to killing them.”
“Hell of a choice, rape or murder.”
“Sergeant Nwynn once suggested that we scatter the herd so the girls couldn’t feed off one another. That’d solve the problem that we have now but there’d always be the threat of them coming back together later.”
The Taken said, “They would try to find one another. The ones here are trying to find their sisters now that they know those sisters exist.”
I said, “Sergeant Nwynn has been obsessively attentive. She gave every girl a detailed physical exam.” Nwynn had concealed nothing done to create her roster. “Only two aren’t virgin. Assuming that matters.”
Nwynn was not embarrassed. “The oldest is sixteen. She mothered a child who became an orphan at the same temple. The other is fourteen. She made a poor choice only hours before we snagged her. It will be a while yet before we can be sure how poor a choice she actually made. The others haven’t been touched. I can’t report anything about girls that we don’t have in custody. Somewhere out there a Port of Shadows girl might be having herself a great fun time with the man destined to father the child who will become the Dominator reincarnated.”
This all seemed especially absurd because the girls belonged to the temples of Occupoa. I said again, “The Lieutenant suggested that we neutralize them by making sure that none of them are virgins.”
Every guy leaned in, prurience piqued.
The Taken was regaining control of herself. After several deep breaths, she said, “A mass rape? No good. To close the Port of Shadows you’d have to make sure that every girl got pregnant by one of you. Which still probably wouldn’t help with the mind thing.”
Two Dead grumbled, “Folks, we’re going to have a lot of dead little girls on our consciences.”
That was a stopper. Nobody would have bet a corroded copper on Two Dead knowing what conscience was.
No human who ever lived was without a hidden surprise.
Two Dead had gotten his mind clear.
The Taken had recovered and regrouped as well. She said, “Although I am one of them I must admit that there may be no alternative to decimation, from the imperial perspective.”
Hard as stone, every one, we had spent vast tracts of our lives in a brutal profession. Physician Croaker was the softhearted candy-ass of the crew. But no one else said, “Screw it! Put the pretty little bitches in the ground.”
Buzzard Neck opined, “There must be a way to save the children.”
The Old Man said, “Saving them isn’t a problem. But saving them while stopping them from doing what they’ve been doing, and from becoming what they are becoming, that is a problem. They could destroy us and the empire both if they get there.”
I added, “Plus we have to make sure that none of them get together with the man who will make one of them the Port of Shadows.”
The Taken had her legs under her again. She told Sergeant Nwynn, “If you cut out the five strongest girls, the potentially most dangerous ones, Colonel Chodroze and I will take them to the Tower. We should be able to remove two sets before the next lunar cycle.”
Nwynn said, “That would for sure kill a synch-up more serious than the last one.”
I said, “But…”
The Taken pointed a finger like it was a weapon. “They will not be murdered.”
I surrendered. She was one of them herself. “Then do that. Take them all, if you have to.”
br /> “If we have to. If that is what She wants.”
One cannot forget where the final authority lies.
Two Dead went gray when he was conscripted to help make deliveries to the Tower. Like anyone who had gone inside and had returned, he recalled nothing but was convinced that he had suffered a passage through Hell. He said, “Much as going back to that place horrifies me, that may be the answer. The girls we delivered before were not mistreated.” But how did he know that?
The Captain looked to me for an opinion. All I could do was shrug. “I wasn’t, either. Other than having my mind wrung out. Far as I recall.”
The Lieutenant said, “I smell some interesting math. We have twenty-nine girls, fifteen under age. We would be out of the woods if we got rid of ten.” Then, “Crap! You had that figured out.”
I said, “But we’ll find more of them. Maybe lots more. That’s some stinky interesting math, too.”
Goblin spoke for the first time. “True, that. I got a pigeon from Silent just before I got told to come over here. Him and Elmo caught nine more girls yesterday. They killed some Rebels, too. And they think they might be on to some more Resurrectionist stuff.”
The Old Man grumbled, “And you’re just getting around to telling me now?”
“Shit’s been happening, boss. We’re all busy dealing with it. This’s the first chance I’ve had to tell you. You’re all worried about girls having periods instead of … Now you know.”
The Old Man scowled fiercely. “I wish we had more carpets … What, Croaker?”
“The carpet that Slapback spotted. That’s something else we need to worry about.” I faced the Taken. “Do you know anything about that?”
She did not. Her arrival was a unique event. No one outside the Tower should know about it. Which meant that there could be no connection.
I had to be content with the knowledge that the mystery carpet had been made known to the Tower. It should be a mystery to Her for no time at all. Jumping subject, I told the Taken, “I have some captured Resurrectionist documents, in UchiTelle, that need to go to the Tower, too.”
“Weight?” she asked. “There’s only so much I can haul.”
I recalled all the luxuries that she had brought out with her. “The stack isn’t that big.”
My bold response got me some looks. Half these people did not yet realize that this was not Mischievous Rain with her hair color changed.
The Captain said, “Everybody shut it. Goblin. Tell me what you got from Silent.”
Five minutes later Two Dead and the Taken had orders to go find Elmo and see what he had stumbled into. Then Buzz got told to take a ranger platoon out to reinforce Elmo. It sounded like he and Silent might be in trouble.
* * *
Clever me, I hitched a ride to the country. I carried Firefly’s little stein, that she had pushed up under my shirt, and some cards that Shin had planted on me as we hauled the Taken’s carpet out of storage. The stein was cold against my ribs. The only card I saw during the planting was the Hanged Man, which brought to mind one of the old-time Taken, nearly as foul as the Limper: the Hanged Man.
The flight was too intimate for me to check the other cards. I wasted mental energy trying to figure out what the point of carrying them was, and why Shin had been careful to transfer them unseen by anyone but me.
We flew eastward at a speed that threatened to pull my curly locks out by the roots. Then, “Holy shit! You guys feel the change?”
Twenty miles into a thirty-five-mile run we crossed a boundary. Once beyond it we sensed nothing from the captive girls. I felt like bellowing an aria in praise of the moon.
Meantime, at least for the moment, Two Dead reverted to the sour-face tight-ass of unfond memory. But then he broke into a toothy grin while the Taken morphed into the Tides Elba I recalled from last year, although uncertainly.
I said, “We’re out of range.”
She replied, “We are. And you two would have been free much sooner if I weren’t with you. So. Colonel. While we’re free we should ready ourselves for what we’ll suffer when we have to go back to collect our cargo.”
Two Dead growled, “I’m not going through that again.”
I do not know what he meant. It did not matter. The point was, we were beyond the clowder’s influence. Being aware of that influence, now, they should be better able to resist it.
The change in the Taken was striking. She had become a woman much like Mischievous Rain before. She had been overwhelmed by all those younger sisters.
* * *
The moon would be full in two more nights. It was high and bright tonight. I could see reasonably well even down in the woods.
“So what happened?” I asked Elmo. Two Dead and the Taken were content to let me do the talking, which I did while attending men wounded during an attack that our arrival had scattered.
“I hadn’t opened the shadow pots yet. They’re open now, and I’ll never make that mistake again.”
“Let’s hope those dickheads try it again, then. Not what I meant, though. I was being more general.” I swept an arm around. “Is this the Resurrectionist place?” All I saw was trees.
“You look that way, straight west, you can maybe make out a hump something like a barrow.”
I could not make it out.
“Come on. I’ll show you.”
I asked the Taken, “Could you make a fast flight back with these guys?” I indicated the wounded.
“I am not going back into that.”
Two Dead showed us that he had had a change of heart since his own proclamation of a similar sentiment not long ago. “Of course you are. We all are. It’s our job.”
The Taken scowled, then said, “You’re right. But I will need you with me. Otherwise I’ll get swallowed by the mind field.”
“Of course. But first let’s look around here. Resurrectionists are masters at hiding things inside sophisticated glamours.”
Once again we saw a fresh side of Two Dead. He was completely diplomatic while saying that Elmo might have missed something. Had time in the Tower hammered him into a facsimile of a decent human being?
Silent, as yet unseen, would not be pleased to see his work double-checked, even so.
Elmo’s “barrow” was a hump six feet tall at the low end and fourteen feet on the high, hard to make out even with the moon so bright. The surrounding “clearing” lacked old-growth timber but did boast saplings and young oaks. The ground cover was grass. There was no brush close in. The grass had been trampled down. There were bodies scattered around. This was where the fight had drifted after our arrival. An injured enemy fighter was trying to drag himself toward cover.
I asked, “Do we need this one?”
The Taken said, “If he’ll talk I’ll take him to be treated with our own injured.”
I would hear it from the Old Man tomorrow. Why was I away snooping when we had wounded coming in?
I would have to go back with the ambulance flight.
Elmo said, “Over here.” He led me to a tangle of blackberry canes.
“What’s this?”
“The entrance to elf hill.”
Two Dead said, “This is mostly illusion, but effective in this light.”
Elmo said, “If you look hard you can just make out a strand of red string. Put your right hand on it. It will lead you through the real brambles.”
I got in line behind Two Dead. Elmo came behind me. The Taken stayed with the wounded enemy, trying to determine whether salvaging him would be worthwhile.
The string led down a steep stone stairway. The blackberries probably ought not to be navigated at night. Too many were not illusions. I gathered an unpleasant collection of thorn bites.
“The thorns aren’t poisoned,” Two Dead assured me.
“That’s good.” Inanely.
Eight steps on I noticed that there was a flow of air going down with me. You would want good circulation if you gathered people underground.
“There must
be other ways in and out.”
Elmo puffed, “Still looking for those.”
The bottom of the stair was six more steps below. We pushed ahead through curtains of swirling cloth strips that, by feel, were almost new, then we were in the Resurrectionist hall. It was obvious immediately why a brisk breeze came with us.
There had to be a hundred candles and lanterns burning there.
Everything sloped uphill from where we entered. The floor was hard gray stone set in steps eight feet wide. The ceiling was metal concealed by lampblack. “This feels more like a place of worship than a secret meeting hall.” The high end boasted a stage raised something over two feet above the floor there. On it was what, out west, might be called a pulpit. But maybe the whole just served as a speaker’s rostrum.
The hall being tilted, heated air flowed uphill. If Elmo really wanted to know where the exits were he could make some heavy smoke, then go outside and watch.
I would have put the rostrum on the low end so my top people could enjoy the sweetest air.
I now knew what Silent was up to. He and two soldiers were dismantling the rostrum, one short board at a time. He paid us scant attention but did make a small, quick field sign urging caution.
I observed, “This is fine for a hole in the ground.” Expensive materials had been used to build the place. Fortunes had been spent to decorate it.
Elmo said, “It ain’t that old according to Silent. Built since the Lady’s resurrection.”
I tried to calculate how long that might be but could not put it together. “This is really far from the Barrowland.” An ugly historical mosaic covered the eastern wall. “This was about the last country that the Dominator conquered before the White Rose yanked it all out from under him.”
The west wall had been set up for storage. Cabinets of varying sizes ran from floor to ceiling along the entire wall. Every drawer or door had been painted a color different from any contiguous neighbor. That wall must have been a sight before Elmo’s men took it apart. No doubt the captured documents had come from there. And, no doubt either, anything of any imaginable value found there had vanished into the ether.
Two Dead said, “That stage is booby-trapped, Silent.”