“Taking a crap.”
Bomanz sighed, sat down. His son appeared a moment later, brushing sweat off his forehead. Why? It was a cool night.
“Stance, did Besand change his mind? I saw him leave this morning. A while ago I heard men plotting to kill somebody. Sounded like they meant him.”
“Kill? Who?”
“I don’t know. One of them might have been Men fu. There were three or four of them. Did he come back?”
“I don’t think so. You didn’t dream something, did you? What are you doing out in the middle of the night, anyway?”
“That nightmare again. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t imagine it. Those men were going to kill somebody because he wouldn’t leave.”
“That doesn’t make sense, Pop.”
“I don’t care …” Bomanz whirled. He heard the strange noise again. A figure staggered into the light. It took three steps and fell.
“Besand! It is Besand. What did I tell you?”
The former Monitor had a bloody wound across his chest. “I’m okay,” he said. “I’ll be okay. Just shock. It’s not as bad as it looks.”
“What happened?”
“Tried to kill me. Told you all hell would break loose. Told you they’d make a play. Beat them this round, though. Got their assassin instead.”
“I thought you left. I saw you leave.”
“I changed my mind. Couldn’t go. I took an oath. Bo.
They took away my job but not my conscience. I’ve got to stop them.”
Bomanz met his son’s gaze. Stancil shook his head. “Pop, look at his wrist.”
Bomanz looked. “I don’t see anything.” “That’s the point. His amulet is gone.” “He turned it in when he left. Didn’t you?” “No,” Besand said. “Lost it in the fight. Couldn’t find it in the dark.” He made that funny sound.
“Pop, he’s bad hurt. I better go to the barracks.” “Stance,” Besand gasped. “Don’t tell him. Get Corporal Husky.”
“Right.” Stancil hurried off.
The light of the comet filled the night with ghosts. The Barrowland seemed to twist and crawl. Momentary shapes drifted amongst the brush. Bomanz shuddered and tried to convince himself that his imagination was acting up now.
Dawn was approaching. Besand was over his shock, sipping broth Jasmine had sent. Corporal Husky came to report the result of his investigation. “Couldn’t find anything, sir. Not no body, not no amulet. Not even no sign of no fight. It’s like it never happened.”
“I sure as hell didn’t try to kill myself.”
Bomanz became thoughtful. Had he not overheard the conspirators, he would have doubted Besand. The man was capable of staging an assault for sympathy.
“I believe you, sir. I was just saying what I found.”
“They blew their best chance. We’re warned now. Keep alert.”
“Better not forget who’s in charge now,” Bomanz interjected. “Don’t get anybody in trouble with our new leader.”
“That rockbrain. Do what you can, Husky. Don’t crawl out on a limb.”
“Yes, sir.” The corporal departed.
Stancil said, “Pop, you ought to get back to the house. You’re looking grey.”
Bomanz rose. “You all right now?” he asked.
Besand replied, “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me. The sun is up. That kind don’t try anything in broad daylight.”
Don’t bet on it, Bomanz thought. Not if they’re devotees of the Domination. They’ll bring the darkness to high noon.
Out of earshot, Stancil said, “I was thinking last night, Pop. Before this got started. About our name problem. And suddenly it hit me. There’s an old stone in Oar. A big one with runic carvings and pictographs. Been around forever. Nobody knows what it is or where it came from. Nobody really cares.”
“So?”
“Let me show you what’s carved on it.” Stancil picked up a twig, brushed a dusty area clear of debris. He started drawing. “There’s a crude star in a circle at the top. Then some lines of runes nobody can read. I can’t remember those. Then some pictures.” He sketched rapidly.
“That’s pretty rough.”
“So is the original. But look. This one. Stick figure with a broken leg. Here. A worm? Here, a man superimposed over an animal. Here, a man with a lightning bolt. You see? The Limper. Nightcrawler. Shifter. Stormbringer.”
“Maybe. And maybe you’re reaching.”
Stancil kept drawing. “Okay. That’s the way they are on the rock. The four I named. In the same order as on your chart. Look here. At your empty spots. They could be the Taken whose graves we haven’t identified.” He tapped what looked like a simple circle, a stick figure with its head cocked, and a beast head with a circle in its mouth.
“The positions match,” Bomanz admitted.
“So?”
“So what?”
“You’re being intentionally thick, Pop. A circle is a zero, maybe. Maybe a sign for the one called the Faceless Man or Nameless man. And here the Hanged Man. And here Moondog or Moonbiter?”
“I see it. Stance. I’m just not sure I want to.” He told Stance about having dreamed of a great wolf’s head snapping at the moon.
“You see? Your own mind is trying to tell you. Go check the evidence. See if it don’t fit this way.”
“I don’t have to.”
“Why not?”
“I know it by heart. It fits.”
“Then what’s the matter?”
“I’m not sure I want to do it anymore.”
“Pop … Pop, if you won’t, I will. I mean it. I’m not going to let you throw away thirty-seven years. What’s changed, anyway? You gave up a hell of a future to come out here. Can you just write that off?”
“I’m used to this life. I don’t mind it.”
“Pop … I’ve met people who knew you back when. They all say you could have been a great wizard. They wonder what happened to you. They know that you had some great secret plan and went off to chase it. They figure you’re dead now, ‘cause anybody with your talent would’ve been heard from. Right now I’m wondering if they’re not right.”
Bomanz sighed. Stancil would never understand. Not without getting old under the threat of the noose.
“I mean it, Pop. I’ll do it myself.”
“No, you won’t. You have neither the knowledge nor the skill. I’ll do it. I guess it’s fated.”
“Let’s go!”
“Not so eager. This isn’t a tea party. It’ll be dangerous. I need rest and time to get into the right frame of mind. I have to assemble my equipment and prepare the stage.”
“Pop …”
“Stancil, who is the expert? Who is going to do this?”
“I guess you are.”
“Then shut your mouth and keep it shut. The quickest I could try is tomorrow night. Assuming I stay comfortable with those names.”
Stancil looked pained and impatient.
“What’s the hurry? What’s your stake in it?”
“I just … I think Tokar is bringing Glory. I wanted everything out of the way when she got here.”
Bomanz raised a despairing eyebrow. “Let’s go to the house. I’m exhausted.” He glanced back at Besand, who was staring into the Barrowland. The man was stiff with defiance. “Keep him out of my hair.”
“He won’t be getting around too good for a while.”
Later Bomanz muttered, “I wonder what it was all about, anyway? Really Resurrectionists?”
Stancii said, “The Resurrectionists are a myth Besand’s bunch use to keep themselves employed.”
Bomanz recalled some university acquaintances. “Don’t be too sure.”
When they reached the house, Stance trudged upstairs to study the chart. Bomanz ate a small meal. Before lying down, he told Jasmine, “Keep an eye on Stance. He’s acting funny.”
“Funny? How?”
“I don’t know. Just funny. Pushy about the Barrowland. Don’t let him find my gear. He might try to
open the path himself.”
“He wouldn’t.”
“I hope not. But watch him.”
Chapter Fifteen: THE BARROWLAND
Case heard Corbie was back at last. He ran to the old man’s home. Corbie greeted him with a hug. “How you been, lad?”
“We thought you were gone for good.” Corbie had been away eight months.
“I tried to get back. There’s damned near no roads anymore.”
“I know. The Colonel asked the Taken to fly supplies in.”
“I heard. The military government in Oar got off their butts when that hit. Sent a whole regiment to start a new road. It’s about a third of the way built. I came up on part of it.”
Case donned his serious face. “Was it really your daughter?”
“No,” Corbie said. On departing he had announced that he was off to meet a woman who might be his daughter. He claimed to have given over his savings to a man who would find his children and bring them to Oar.
“You sound disappointed.”
He was. His researches had not worked out well. Too many records were missing.
“What sort of winter was it, Case?”
“Bad.”
“It was bad down there, too. I worried for you all.”
“We had trouble with the tribes. That was the worst part. You can always stay inside and throw another log on. But you can’t eat if thieves steal your stores.”
“I thought it might come to that.”
“We watched your house. They broke in some of the empty places.”
“Thank you.” Corbie’s eyes narrowed. His home had been violated? How thoroughly? A careful searcher might have found enough to hang him. He glanced out a window. “Looks like rain.”
“It always looks like rain. When it don’t look like snow. It got twelve feet deep last winter. People are worried. What’s happened to the weather?”
“Old folks say it goes this way, after the Great Comet. The winters turn bad for a few years. Down in Oar it never got that cold. Plenty of snow, though.”
“Wasn’t that cold here. Just snowed so much you couldn’t get out. I like to went crazy. The whole Barrowland looked like a frozen lake. You could hardly tell where the Great Barrow was.”
“Uhm? I have to unpack yet. If you don’t mind? Let everyone know I’m back. I’m near broke. I’ll need work.”
“Will do, Corbie.”
Corbie watched from a window as Case ambled back to the Guard compound, taking an elevated walkway built since his departure. The mud below explained it. That and Colonel Sweet’s penchant for keeping his men occupied. Once Case vanished he went to the second floor.
Nothing had been disturbed. Good. He peeped out a window, toward the Barrowland.
How it had changed in just a few years. A few more and you would not be able to find it.
He grunted, stared the harder. Then he retrieved the silken map from its hiding place, studied it, then the Barrowland again. After a time he fished sweat-stained papers from inside his shirt, where he had carried them since stealing them from the university in Oar. He spread them over the map.
Late that afternoon he rose, donned a cloak, gathered the cane he now carried, and went out. He limped through the water and mud and drizzle till he reached a point overlooking the Great Tragic River.
It was in flood, as always. Its bed had continued to shift. After a time he cursed, smote an old oak with his cane, and turned back.
The day had gone grey with the hour. It would be dark before he got home.
“Damned complications,” he muttered. “I never counted on this. What the hell am I going to do?”
Take the high risk. The one chance he wished most to avoid, though its possible necessity was his real reason for having wintered in Oar.
For the first time in years he wondered if the game were worth the candle.
Whatever his course, it would be dark before he got home.
Chapter Sixteen: THE PLAIN OF FEAR
You get mad and walk out on Darling, you can miss a lot. Elmo, One-Eye, Goblin, Otto, those guys like to bait me. They were not about to clue me in. They got everybody else to go along. Even Tracker, who seemed to be taking a shine to me and chattered at me more than everybody else combined, would not drop a hint. So when the day came, I went topside in total ignorance.
I’d packed the usual field gear. Our traditions are heavy infantry, though mostly we ride these days. All of us are too old to lug eighty pounds of gear. I dragged mine to the cavern that serves as a stable and smells like the grandfather of them all-and found that not one animal was saddled. Well, one. Darling’s.
The stable boy just grinned when I asked what was going on. “Go on up,” he said. “Sir.”
“Yeah? Rotten bastards. They play games with me? I’ll get them. They damned well better start remembering who keeps the Annals around here.” I bitched and moaned all the way into the pre-moonset shadows that lurked around the tunnel mouth. There I found the rest of the outfit, all already up, with light gear. Each man carried his weapons and a sack of dried food.
“What you doing, Croaker?” One-Eye asked with suppressed laughter. “Look like you’re taking everything you own. You a turtle? Carry your house on your back?”
And Elmo: “We ain’t moving, boy. Just going on a raid.”
“You’re a bunch of sadists, you know that?” I stepped into the wan light. The moon was half an hour from setting. Far, Taken drifted on the night. Those son-of-a-bitches were determined to keep a close watch. Nearer, a whole; horde of menhirs had gathered. They looked like a graveyard out on the desert, there were so many of them. There were a lot of walking trees, too.
More, though there was no breeze, I could hear Old Father Tree tinkling. No doubt that meant something. A menhir might have explained. But the stones remain close-mouthed about themselves and their fellow species. Especially about Father Tree. Most of them won’t admit he exists.
“Better lighten your load, Croaker,” the Lieutenant said. He would not explain either.
“You going too?” I asked, surprised.
“Yep. Move it. We don’t have long. Weapons and field medical kit should do it. Scoot.”
I met Darling going down. She smiled. Grouchy as I was, I smiled back. I can’t stay mad at her. I have known her since she was so high. Since Raven rescued her from the Limper’s thugs long ago, in the Forsberg campaigns. I cannot see the woman that is without recalling the child that was. I get all sentimental and soft.
They tell me I suffer from a crippling romantic streak. Looking back, I’m almost inclined to agree. AH those silly stories I wrote about the Lady …
The moon was on the rim of the world when I returned topside. A whisper of excitement coursed among the men. Darling was up there with them, astride her flashy white mare, moving around, gesturing at those who understood sign. Above, the spots of luminescence that are characteristic of windwhale tentacles drifted lower than I’d ever heard tell of. Except in horror stories about starved whales dropping down to drag their tentacles on the ground, ripping up every plant and animal in their path.
“Hey!” I said. “We’d better look out. That sucker is coming down.” A vast shadow blotted out thousands of stars. And it was expanding. Manias swarmed around it. Big ones, little ones, in-between ones-more than I’d ever seen.
My expostulation drew laughter. I turned surly again. I moved among the men, harassing them about the medical kits I expect them to carry on a mission. I was in a better mood when I finished. They all had them.
The windwhale kept coming down.
The moon disappeared. The instant it did the menhirs began to move. Moments later they began to glow on the side toward us. The side away from the Taken.
Darling rode along the pathway they marked. When she passed a menhir its light went out. I suspect it moved to the far end of the line.
I had no time to check. Elmo and the Lieutenant herded us into a line of our own. Above, the night filled with the
squeaks and flutter of manias squabbling for flying room.
The windwhale settled astride the creek.
My god, it was big. Big! I had no idea … It stretched from the coral over the creek another two hundred yards. Four, five hundred yards long, all total. And seventy to a hundred wide.
A menhir spoke. I could not make out its words. But the men began moving forward.
In a minute my worst suspicions were confirmed. They were climbing the creature’s flank, onto its back, where mantas normally nested.
It smelled. Smelled unlike anything I’ve ever smelled before, and strongly. Richly, you might say. Not necessarily a bad smell, but overpowering. And it felt strange to the touch. Not hairy, scaly, horny. Not exactly slimy, but still spongy and slick, like a full, exposed intestine. There were plenty of handholds. Our fingers and boots did not bother it.
The menhir mumbled and grumbled like an old first sergeant, both issuing orders and relaying complaints from the windwhale. I got the impression the windwhale was a naturally grouchy sort. He did not like this any more than did I. Can’t say I blame him.
Up top there were more menhirs, each balanced precariously. As I arrived, one menhir told me to go to another of its kind. That one told me to sit about twenty feet away. The last men climbed aboard only moments later.
The menhirs vanished.
I began to feel odd. At first blush I thought that was because the whale was lifting off. When I flew with the Lady or Whisper or Soulcatcher, my stomach was in continual rebellion. But this was a different malaise. It took a while to understand it as an absence.
Darling’s null was fading. It had been with me so long it had become part of my life …
What was happening?
We were going up. I felt the breeze shift. The stars turned ponderously. Then, suddenly, the whole north lighted up.
Mantas were attacking the Taken. A whole mess of them. The stroke was a complete surprise, for all the Taken must have sensed their presence. But the mantas were not doing that sort of thing …
Oh, hell, I thought. They’re pushing them our way …
I grinned. Not our way at all. Toward Darling and her null, in a place unexpected.
As the thought occurred I saw the flash of vain sorceries, saw a carpet stagger, flutter earthward. A score of mantas swarmed it.