by Glen Cook
“And I almost walked into the middle of it.” I mused, “How did they know the books were gone? I replaced them with discards.” But maybe Master Santaraksita, if he was a crook, had been doing that, too.
If he had been corrupt, he had had me fooled.
We would have to talk.
“Near as Murgen could find out, Dorabee Dey Banerjae isn’t suspected of anything worse than naïveté. Surendranath Santaraksita, though, is in deep shit. Soulcatcher is going to kill him one limb at a time and let him watch the crows eat them as they go. And after that she’s going to get nasty.” One-Eye grinned a grin in which just the one lonely tooth loomed. Not exactly a recommendation of his talents as the Company dental specialist.
“Say what you like about Soulcatcher, she doesn’t put up with any corruption.”
Which was just another black mark in her ledger as far as One-Eye was concerned.
“I’m safe,” I said. “Here’s food for thought. A white crow was waiting at the gate, possibly to warn me. It made a definite attempt to communicate. So what’s the story with Sahra?”
“She’s going ahead. That Jaul Barundandi is a real dim-wit. He bought Goblin’s feeble imitation of your Sawa character. Then he tried to get Tobo away from Sahra. Sahra threatened to tell his wife.”
Minh Subredil was going to have trouble staying employed if she kept up the bad attitude.
“The cover team in place?”
“Little Girl, who’s been doing this shit since before your great-grandmother was born?”
“You always check again. And keep on checking. Because sooner or later, you’re going to save someone who overlooked something. Is the evacuation team operational?” Chances were good we were going to have to leave Taglios long before I wanted. Soulcatcher soon would be hunting us hard.
One-Eye said, “Ask Do Trang. He said he’d take care of it. You might find it interesting to note that Catcher dropped the watch on Arjana Drupada when the library jumped to the head of her list and she needed trustworthy people there.”
“She doesn’t have enough to go around?”
“Not that she trusts. Most of those she’s had watching the Bhodi disciples so she can head them off before they pull any more suicide stunts.”
“Then we have to hit Drupada —”
“Go teach your granny to suck eggs, Little Girl. Like I said, who was playing these games when Granny’s mommy was still shitting her nappies?”
“Who’s covering the warehouse, then?” Having so many things in the air meant that every brother had to be occupied somewhere. Soulcatcher was not alone in facing manpower limitations.
“You and me, Little Girl. Pooch and Spiff are around somewhere, being a mixture of sentries and couriers.”
“You’re sure Drupada is clean?”
“Murgen checks every half hour. Much as he’d rather be haunting his honey. Friend Arjana is clean. For now. But how long will it last? And Murgen’s also been keeping an eye on Slink at Semchi. Checking him every couple of hours. Looks like that’s going to happen today, too. Soulcatcher is going to shit. She’s just going to shit rocks. We’re going to do everything but stroll up and bite her on the tit today.”
“Language, old man. Language.”
Uncle Doj murmured something.
One-Eye hastened to the mist projector.
37
Despite her enthusiasm the night before, Sahra had been worried about having Goblin along, playing Sawa’s role. The little man was not reliable. He was bound to do something...
She did not give him enough credit. He had not survived so long by doing stupid things in tight places. He was determined to be more completely Sawa than ever I had played the role. He did nothing on his own. Minh Subredil guided him completely. But over his conservative role-playing he laid a glamour of disinterest. Jaul Barundandi and everyone else merely gave the idiot woman a glance and concentrated on Shiki, who appeared particularly attractive this morning. Who carried her flute hung on a thong around her neck. Anyone who tried to use force would suffer a cruel surprise.
The flute was not new but the Ghanghesha that Shiki carried was. Today even Sawa carried a statue of the god. Jaul Barundandi mocked Subredil. “When will you start carrying a Ghanghesha in each hand?” This was after he had been threatened because of Shiki and he was not feeling kindly.
Subredil bent and whispered to her Ghanghesha, something about pardoning Barundandi because at heart he was a good man who needed help finding his anchor within the light. Barundandi heard some of that. It disarmed him for a while.
He turned the madwoman and her companions over to his wife, who had developed an almost proprietary interest lately. Subredil, in particular, made her look good because she got so much work done.
Narita, too, noted the Ghanghesha. “If religious devotion will win you a better life next time around the Wheel, Subredil, you’re headed for the priestly class for sure.” Then the fat woman frowned. “But didn’t you leave your Ghanghesha here yesterday?”
“Ah? Ah! Ah! I did? I thought I lost that one forever. I didn’t know what had become of it. Where is it? Where is it?” She had prepared for this, though the Ghanghesha had been left behind intentionally.
“Easy. Easy.” Subredil’s love affair with her Ghanghesha amused everyone. “We took good care of it.”
There was a lot of work scheduled for the day, which was good. It helped pass the time. Nothing else could be done till much later, and even then, luck would have to play a big part. Another dozen Ghangheshas would not have been out of place where the need for luck went.
During the noon break, over kitchen scraps, Subredil’s party heard rumors of the Protector’s rage over someone having stolen some books from the royal library. She was out there now, investigating personally.
Subredil shot warning looks at her companions. No questions. No worrying about the people they could not possibly help.
Later in the day there were more rumors. The Purohita and several members of the Privy Council, along with bodyguards and hangers-on, had been treated to a wholesale slaughter on the very steps of the Kernmi What, in what sounded like a full-scale military assault supported by heavy sorcery. Reports were vague and confused because everyone but the attackers had been trying to find somewhere safe to hide.
Subredil tried to take that into account but could not control her anger entirely. Kendo Cutter was too violent a man to have been in charge. And too devout a Vehdna. The Gunni were not going to be pleased about bloodshed happening on the very steps of a major temple.
There was much talk about the signs and portents thrown up as cover and diversion while the attackers faded away. There would be no doubt who had been responsible, nor even who was next on the list of the doomed. Any smoke cloud that did not declare “Water Sleeps” thundered “My Brother Unforgiven.”
It had been rumored only for a day that the Great General had been summoned to Taglios to deal with the dead who refused to lie down. To the people in the street, it looked like the Company would be waiting.
Sahra was worried. Soulcatcher was sure to abandon the library when she heard about the attack. If she returned to the Palace extremely agitated, Sahra’s operation might have to be abandoned because the sorceress would be too alert.
The Radisha stormed through not long after the news began to make the rounds. She was distraught. She headed directly for her Anger Chamber. Sawa looked up from the brasswork she was cleaning, just for an instant, apparently badly troubled. Subredil set her mop aside and went to see what was wrong. No one else paid them any attention.
Not much later, when Jaul Barundandi dropped in to see how the work was going and somehow got into an argument with Narita, Sawa wandered away when no one was looking. No one noticed right away because Sawa almost never did anything to be noticed and today she wore charms reinforcing that.
Shiki drifted closer to her mother. She looked pale and troubled and kept touching her flute. She whispered, “Shouldn’t be we go
ing?”
“It isn’t time. Place your Ghanghesha.” Shiki was supposed to have done that hours ago.
Rumor rushed through, pursued by uglier rumor still. The Protector had returned and she was in a frothing rage. She was visiting her shadows now. It was going to be another night of terror in the streets of Taglios.
The women started talking about the possible wisdom of finishing work before the Protector decided she had to see the Radisha. The Protector would not respect the privacy of the Princess. She made no secret of her contempt for Taglian custom. Even Narita seemed to hold the opinion that it would be best not to be where you could be seen when the Protector was in a mood.
At that point Shiki discovered that her aunt was missing.
“Damn it, Subredil!” Narita fumed. “You promised you’d watch her closer the last time this happened.”
“I’m sorry, mistress. I became so frightened. She probably decided to go to the kitchen. That was what she was trying to do when she got lost last time.”
Shiki was going already. Not more than a minute later, she called, “I found her, Mother.”
When the rest of the women arrived, they found Sawa seated against a wall, brass lamp in her lap, unconscious, with vomit all over her. “Oh, no!” Subredil cried. “Not again.” And in a whirlwind of nonsense and apparently vain efforts to get Sawa’s attention, she got across the hint of a fear that Sawa might be pregnant after having been abused by one of the Palace staff.
Narita was away in seconds, fuming. Subredil and Shiki were right behind her, supporting Sawa between them, heading for the servants’ postern. Nobody noticed that none of the women were carrying their Ghangheshas, not even the one that Subredil had forgotten the day before.
Because of the state Sawa was in, and the state Narita was in, and the imminent explosion of displeasure expected from the Protector, the women managed to draw their pay, then to escape without having to deal with Barundandi’s kickback lieutenant. Again.
They were able to lay Sawa inside a covered ox cart not long after they got into the twisty streets downhill from the Palace. Subredil had to caution Shiki repeatedly against celebration.
38
Everything we did must have been seen by somebody,” I told the gathered troops. “When word gets out that the Radisha has vanished, all those people are going to remember and try to help. Soulcatcher is supposed to have a knack for separating wheat from chaff.”
“Also a knack for calling up the kind of supernatural assistance that can pick your particular trail out of a thousand,” Willow Swan volunteered. He was present because he had agreed to take care of the Radisha. She was going to be in a state when she awakened and discovered that her demons had caught up with her at last.
Banh Do Trang wanted to know, “Are you going to flee or not?” The old man was at the edge of collapse. He had been working since before dawn.
“Can we?” I asked.
“You could go this instant if the situation became totally desperate. It will be a few hours yet before the barges are completely provisioned, however.”
Nobody wanted to go, though. Not just yet. A lot of the men had developed ties. Everyone had unfinished business. That was life. The same situation had come up time and again over the course of the Company’s history.
Sahra said, “You still haven’t gotten Narayan to give you the Key.”
“I’ll talk to him. Is River back yet? No? What about Kendo? How about Pooch and Spiff?” We had people running all over on special assignments. Good old One-Eye had sent our last two men, the barely competent Pooch and Spiff, to assassinate Adoo the gateman because Murgen had been able to determine that it had been he who had caused all the excitement at the library. More, Adoo knew the general neighborhood where I lived.
One-Eye informed me, “Kendo Cutter is coming through the web right now. Arjana Drupada appears to be reasonably healthy for a man with a dozen knife wounds. Hang on.”
Murgen was whispering something. It was thundering and hailing outside. I could not hear a word.
“It’s started at Semchi, Murgen says. Slink hit them just as they were starting to pitch camp. Cut them off from their weapons.”
“Darn!” I swore. “Darn-darn-darn!”
“What’s the matter with you, Little Girl?”
“He should’ve waited until they tried to do something to the Bhodi Tree. This way, nobody will know why we jumped them.”
“There’s why you don’t have you a man.”
“What?”
“You ask too much. You sent Slink out there to kill some people. Unless you told him it’s got to be a show, all our guys allowed to fight only left-handed or something, he’s going to do it fast and dirty and with as little risk to our own guys as he can.”
“I thought he understood —”
“Did you assume, Little Girl? At this late stage in your career? You, who’s got to run a checklist on lacing your own boots?”
He had me. And he had me good. I tried to change the subject. “If we decide to evacuate, we’re going to have to run somebody out there to warn Slink and tell him where to rendezvous.”
“Don’t try to change the subject.”
I turned away. “Kendo. Does he need medical attention?”
“Drupada? He’s not bleeding that much anymore.”
“Then let’s take him back to meet his new roommate.” One-Eye catching me out had me feeling particularly evil. This seemed like a good time to take it out on the enemy. “The rest of you, take real good care of the Radisha. We don’t want her coming up with a hangnail anybody can blame on us.”
Cutter bobbed his head and muttered something under his breath.
“Hey, pervert!” I called to the Inspector-General of the Records. “I don’t want you ever to say that the Black Company don’t cater to its guests, so here’s your very own human play toy. Maybe a little longer in the tooth than you prefer but it’s only until the Protector gets around to rescuing you.”
Kendo planted a boot in Drupada’s behind and shoved. Into the cage the Purohita went. He and Gokhale backed off into opposite corners and glared at one another. Human nature being what it is, each man probably thought the other was responsible for his dismay.
I told Kendo, “Relax now. Get something to eat. Take a nap. But stay away from the girl.”
“Hey, I got it the first time, Sleepy. And more so now she’s started sleepwalking. So ease up.”
“Give me a reason.”
“Why don’t we just skrag her?”
“Because we need Singh to help open the way through the Shadowgate. And he won’t unless he feels confident that we’ll be good to the Daughter of Night.”
“I don’t know any of the Captured that well. Don’t feel like you’ve got to save them on my account.”
“I feel like we have to save them on the Company’s account, Kendo. Just the same as we’d be doing if it was you out there.”
“Sure. Right.” Kendo Cutter was one of those people who tended to look on the dark side no matter what.
“Get some rest.” I went to talk with Narayan while I waited for Murgen to generate some report on what was happening inside the Palace.
I did not want to run away but knew it was very close to time for the Company to go. We had to see what Soulcatcher’s reaction to the kidnapping would be. And we had to get Goblin out of the Palace.
If Soulcatcher did not come after us like a screaming monsoon storm, I was going to get really worried about what she was up to.
“I’ve had a real good day, thank you, Mr. Singh. A whole lot of planning and a little inspired improvisation fell into place all at once. Just one thing more could make the day perfect.” I sniffed the air. It smelled like One-Eye and friends were cooking up a new batch. Probably so they could take a little something along when we had to run.
I kicked a bundle of hides of some kind over beside the bars of Singh’s cage, settled myself. I caught him up on the latest gossip. Including, “No
ne of your people seem to be worried about you two. Maybe you were just a little too secretive. Be kind of pathetic if the whole cult faded away because everyone just sat around waiting to find out what was going on.”
“I’ve been told that I’m free to deal with you.” There was no cringe to the man tonight. He had gotten a little backbone somewhere. “I’m prepared to discuss the object you seek if I receive absolute assurances that the Black Company will never do the Daughter of Night any harm.”
“Never is an awful long time. You’re out of luck.” I got up. “Goblin’s been wanting to work on her just forever. I’m going to let him pull a few fingers off now to show you we have no conscience or remorse where certain old enemies are concerned.”
“I offered you what you asked.”
“You offered me a delayed death warrant. If I agree to that kind of nonsense, ten years from now the blackhearted witch will start poisoning us and we’ll be stuck with the disastrous choice of keeping our word and accepting destruction or breaking our word and seeing our reputation destroyed. I’m certain you don’t know much northern mythology. There’s an old religion up there that tells how a leading god allowed himself to be slain so his family would no longer be bound by a promise he made foolishly to an enemy, who wore it like a turtle’s shell.”
Narayan stared at me, cold as a cobra, waiting for me to crack. And I did, a little, because I bothered to explain. One-Eye has told me a hundred times that I should not explain. “I just don’t want that artifact badly enough to commit my people to the level of vulnerability that you’re asking. In particular, I won’t undertake commitments for those of us who are buried. On the other hand, maybe you’d like to undertake commitments whereby, assuming you get out of this alive, you guarantee never to be a pain in the Company neck ever again. Whereby you agree to go to the Captain and the Lieutenant and beg their forgiveness for stealing their child.”
The very suggestion appalled the living saint of the Deceivers. “She’s the Child of Kina. The Daughter of Night. Those two are irrelevant.”