The Many Deaths of the Black Company

by Glen Cook

  “I fear you will live to regret this, Aridatha Singh.”

  In that moment, with the bird’s voice changing, Singh understood that he was in touch with the Protector. But her enemies had buried her beneath the glittering plain. Had they not? “I await your message. If it’s just a threat I’ll have Vasudha step on your head.”

  “Very well. Until the day, Aridatha Singh. Aridatha Singh, you are now my viceroy in Taglios. Mogaba and Ghopal are no more. I will instruct you as to what steps to take.…”

  “Excuse me. The Great General and General Singh have been killed?”

  “They tried to do something foolish. For their trouble the enemy’s shadow creatures destroyed them. Which elevates you to…”

  Aridatha turned his back on the crow. “Jitendra. Get that word out. I want every company to disengage. The only exception is to be where the enemy won’t let them. And get the word across the lines that I’m prepared to discuss terms.”

  The white crow flew into a cursing rage.

  “Throw the blanket on that thing again, Vasudha. We may have some use for it later but I don’t want to listen to its nagging now.”

  “You could get you a wife if you needed that, General.”

  124

  Taglios: The Sandbar

  Already there were stories on the street about how the Great General had sacrificed himself in order to void the strictures of all the oaths and vows binding him and his allies. Because he had wanted to spare the city further devastation by the invading rebels and outlanders. Amazing. We had just started taking charge and already people were nostalgic for the good old days of the Protectorate.

  Hard to blame them, I suppose. It was a generation ago that the Prahbrindrah Drah last saw the inside of his capital city.

  Let them feel however they wanted. As long as they stayed out of my way.

  * * *

  Tobo and I drifted above the Palace, studying the ruin. Smoke still found its way out of the rock pile. Every few hours a little more caved in. A third had collapsed already. That third included almost all of the occupied modern sector. Maybe the abandoned parts had been constructed from sterner stuff. They had survived generations of neglect.

  Even during the worst fighting Aridatha had used volunteers from the City Battalions to keep sifting the ruins for survivors to rescue and bodies to deliver to distraught relatives. He continued in that role, now reinforced by units formerly committed to the fighting. Elsewhere, whole battalions now engaged the more stubborn fires instead of invaders.

  I asked Tobo, “You really think they’re still in there somewhere?” I meant Booboo and Goblin.

  “I know they are. The hidden folk have seen them. They just can’t remember how to get to them.”

  “Strange as it may seem, I need them out of there alive. Without them I can’t keep my promise to Shivetya.”

  Tobo grunted. I had not included him in my planning. In fact, the inner circle still consisted of a council of one. Me. And I intended to keep it that way. Nothing spoken, nothing betrayed.

  “I think Arkana’s in love.” Below, the Voroshk girl had come up with another excuse to consult Aridatha Singh.

  Tobo grunted again. He was better than he had been but victory had given him no satisfaction. He would be a long time getting over the loss of his mom and dad.

  I asked, “Have you found any trace of Mogaba or Ghopal Singh?” Aridatha said they were dead. He claimed to have been told so by the white crow—not an entirely reliable witness.

  The boy studied me before responding. “They drowned. While trying to escape upriver. By boat. Evidently the boat capsized.”

  “I see.”

  My tone made him stare at me intently. I could not see his expression, of course. The Voroshk apparel concealed that. And mine masked my features. We continued to dress up because some people did not approve of our conquest. Incidents abounded.

  Mostly, though, Taglios had heaved a huge collective sigh and began getting on with the business of life. Thus far there had been almost no retribution against those who had served the displaced regime. Most people seemed of the opinion that the Greys had done more good than harm, since they had repressed criminal behavior with a ferocity greater than they had shown to enemies of the Great General and the Protector.

  In general, the masses of people were entirely indifferent to who ruled Taglios and its dependencies. The who seldom touched their lives deeply, one way or another.

  The human species never ceases to amaze me. I would have bet more people would have cared a lot more. But from the inside nothing is ever what it looks like from without.

  RAJADHARMA graffiti continued to appear. Some folks are never satisfied. THI KIM IS HERE was turning up now, too. I had not pressed the kid on that. He did not want to talk about it.

  I would let it ride even though that mystery was not yet solved to my satisfaction. There had to be more to his relationship with the Unknown Shadows than had become obvious so far.

  I left the boy and circled the Palace. Our men had replaced the City Battalions on that perimeter. They made a colorful line. City troops were clearing rubble, particularly in areas where Tobo’s friends believed people were trapped. A number remained alive, caught inside interior rooms that had not collapsed. Now thirst was their implacable enemy.

  All was going as it should. It seemed. But I was not comfortable. I had a sense of there being a wrongness somewhere. Intuition. Based upon subconscious cues.

  I drifted away from the Palace, waving in passing to Shukrat, who just had to see Tobo after having completed a courier run to the approaching Prahbrindrah Drah and Radisha. Once out of sight I put on speed and headed for the river.

  I started at the downstream end of the waterfront. I drifted upstream. The boats were out. As they would have been had the fighting still been under way. I asked a few questions of terrified fishermen, not at all sure what I might find. The current had had ample time to carry bodies and wreckage down to the delta swamps.

  Or perhaps not.

  There is a miles-long sandbar just off the curve of the north bank. It has been there so long that it is an island now, with grass on its flanks, brush above that and trees along its highest parts. The channel on its north side is narrow, shallow and choked with mud. An overturned boat lay in the mouth of that channel. One dead man sprawled in the mud. A dozen Taglians clad only in loincloths were trying to right the boat preparatory to dragging it off the bar. None of those men showed the least interest in the corpse. But it was obviously Shadar and they were all Gunni.

  The scavengers had a definite interest in not being anywhere around when people came swooping out of the sky in a billowing black cloud. A couple jumped into the channel and swam for the north bank. Others ran into the growth on the island’s spine. A few tried to make it back to the boat that had brought them. It had beached a hundred yards down the bar.

  The dead Shadar appeared to have been an officer of the Greys. I discovered a second corpse underneath the boat, also Shadar. There were disturbed crows in and above the nearby trees, which was interesting because we saw so few of those birds anymore.

  I made a couple of lazy passes overhead, to finish scaring the birds away, before dropping carefully through the branches.

  Mogaba was recognizable only because of the unique color of the bits of skin left to him. Ghopal Singh I identified only by deduction. They had been tortured. Terribly, and for a long time. Mogaba maybe for days. His corpse was not that old.

  I slid downstream behind the island and eventually rejoined my own people. I searched out Arkana. “We need to talk, adopted daughter.” I jerked a thumb. Somewhere up high, in the brilliant noonday sun.

  She picked up on my concern. She drove upward a thousand feet, tending south, as though we were going to check on the Prahbrindrah Drah’s progress. In fact, a sizable dust cloud could be seen to the south.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “I think Tobo may be out of control. Or so close to
it as makes no difference. If we’re not careful we might all be sorry his mother isn’t here to scold him. And that Sleepy and Murgen are gone. He may be a grown man but he still needs direction.” I told her what I had found on the sandbar.

  “Why tell me? You don’t let anybody in on anything, Pop.”

  “Because I’ve seen you making moon eyes at General Singh. And he was a partner with the Great General and Ghopal Singh. If Tobo’s really unhinged he might go after Aridatha next.”

  “Why do you blame Tobo?”

  I led her through my reasoning, which relied heavily on my assessment of the character of the Great General. “Mogaba knew Aridatha wanted to spare Taglios from the fighting. He wanted that himself. He couldn’t surrender, though. And Aridatha’s sense of honor wouldn’t let him desert Mogaba. So Mogaba decided to arrange it so Aridatha wouldn’t be encumbered. And Tobo got him.”

  “You didn’t say why you blame Tobo.”

  “Because only Tobo could’ve known what Mogaba was doing and where he would be doing it. There was something badly wrong on the river that night. All the waterfront people felt it and ran off to hide in the city.”

  “All right. Suppose it’s true. What’re you going to do?”

  “I just did it. I told you to be careful. And now I’m going to see if my wife’s gotten any better since this morning.”

  I knew Lady would not have done so. I had begun to lose hope for her.

  125

  Taglios: An Afternoon Off

  I took Lady out for a picnic. With a little help from my adopted daughters. In the vain hope that some sunlight and fresh air would make a difference when even Tobo’s best effort could not shake the enchantment holding her. According to the boy wizard I was supposed to consider myself lucky. If she had not been Lady, had been some ordinary person, she would have been long dead. He assured me this was not the spell that had claimed Sedvod and still gripped Soulcatcher. I could not see any obvious difference—except that Lady was getting no worse.

  His best advice was to take my questions to the perpetrator once we found him.

  The girls left me alone with my honey. I held her hand and rambled on about a thousand things: recollections, current affairs, hopes. I shared my suspicions and concerns about Tobo, too, which might have been dangerous since I had no idea what might be listening.

  Nothing I did helped her even a little, nor did it seem to do me any good. I fought the good fight against despair.

  A squeaky clean, thoroughly polished corporal from Hsien trotted up. “Captain’s compliments, sir, and could you come to the Palace? They think they may have located the Khadidas and the Daughter of Night.”

  “Damn! Yes. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Tell them not to mess with anything. Tell them to be very careful. Those two are extremely dangerous.”

  They knew that, of course. And Tobo would be right there to remind them. But repetition never hurts. Not when it helps get you through the deadly times.

  Shukrat and Arkana came running. “What’s up?” Shukrat asked.

  As I explained I reflected on how much better the girls were getting along. They seemed to have shed the conflicts they had brought into Captivity.

  As we three got Lady ready to go back to my tent I asked Arkana, “Will you want to go home someday?”

  “What?”

  “Home. Where you were born. The world I used to call Khatovar. Do you want to go back? I think I could make it happen.”

  “But it’s all destroyed.”

  “Not really. The First Father and Nashun the Researcher said so, but that was just to excuse their cowardice.”

  “I’m not sure I want to believe that.”

  “Good. Excellent. That’s the way I want my kids to be. Skeptical. That’s the truth according to Shivetya. And I’m not a hundred percent sure of our demonic friend myself.”

  “Why didn’t you ask me if I want to go?” Shukrat demanded.

  “Because you don’t want to go. You just want to be where Tobo is.”

  “That isn’t exactly a secret. It isn’t a crime, either. But I’m not bereft of my senses. You’ll sure never see me do some die-for-love kind of thing. If you guys do go, tell me. I’ll decide what I want to do then.”

  126

  Taglios: Royal Return

  I did not make it to the Palace. Shukrat beat me there and came right back with instructions to head for the South Gate. The Prahbrindrah Drah was about to arrive and Suvrin wanted somebody there to greet the man we had been touting as the city’s legitimate ruler.

  Per instructions I rounded up a few men from the City Battalions, along with a handful of their officers, and off I went, grumbling all the way. I expected the Prince’s homecoming would be a huge disappointment for him and his sister.

  Taglios did not care.

  I told several people to spread the word, to try to get something going.

  That did very little good. The route inward from the gate was never more than sparsely populated with spectators and the rare feeble cheer we did hear came from really old people.

  I hate to waste pomp and pageantry. Not that we did put much on. Aridatha got to bring out his marching band, a little late. Never would have been better. They were terrible. And not just because what passes for music here is so alien. I have spent half my life in this end of the world. I asked Singh, “Those guys practice much?”

  “They’ve been too busy being soldiers.”

  Aridatha had an attitude I appreciated. Each one of his men was expected to be a soldier first, and whatever else secondarily.

  Singh said, “I do have to tell you, this Prince doesn’t look very impressive. I hope he’s a better ruler than he is a showman.”

  I was no longer sure bringing the Prince back would be good for Taglios, myself. There had been big changes in the city and bigger changes in the man. They might have nothing in common anymore.

  I shrugged. “He’s old. If he hasn’t got what Taglios needs Taglios won’t have to put up with him for long.”

  In the old days the Prince and I had gotten along well. Until he had turned on us. As an officer in my command he had shown a hunger for learning and a lust for doing the best thing. So I told him straightaway, when we met inside the South Gate, that his first order of business, now that he was back in business, had to be the establishment of a generally acceptable line of succession. Otherwise chaos would follow his demise.

  “Rajadharma, old buddy. Let’s get the job done.”

  My remarks earned me a tired growl and not much more. The Prince seemed used up and worn out. His sister showed more spark but had a lot more years on her because she had not shared the stasis of the Captivity with her brother. Chances were, nowadays, that she would go first, despite being the younger.

  She could not be titular ruler, anyway. When she did exercise the power, during all those years, there had been a pretense of a regency, in place until the legitimate ruler could resume control. Because the Prahbrindrah Drah was still alive somewhere. Neither custom nor law allowed a woman to rule in her own right.

  Arkana came to meet me with the news. “They’ve definitely found the Khadidas and the Daughter of Night, Pop.” She was a willing participant in that charade now and, more and more, helping herself to a job as my personal assistant. Now, if I could just teach her written Taglian.… I suspect the frequency with which I crossed the path of Aridatha Singh had something to do with all that. Singh, I noted, had not failed to recognize what a tasty morsel my little girl was, either, though Voroshk protective apparel seldom flattered.

  Tobo remained patient enough to wait until I reached the Palace. Barely. And only out of impatient courtesy, because that was my real daughter and my former friend in there.

  My real daughter. A grown woman, whom I had never seen. Arkana, known less than a year, was more daughter to me in life. And Narayan Singh was more a father to Booboo.

  Aridatha was there and interested. I wondered why. Then I recalled that he had seen
Booboo a few times before and those women have a way of getting under your skin without ever trying.

  It did not occur to me that he might be thinking more about the Khadidas.

  At first the Prince was put out by everyone’s sudden loss of interest in him … then he got a good look at what had happened to the Palace.

  He moaned aloud, a textbook cry of anguish. He managed some respectable gnashing of teeth.

  Suvrin stepped in. The little pudgeball could be weasel-slick handling people when he wanted. Which might be the ideal leadership skill for the times. I turned to Arkana, gave her special instructions. She flew off to my rooms in the building we had taken for our headquarters. Once upon a time it had been a Greys barracks.

  Most of the Greys have vanished. We all pretended not to notice that there are a disproportionate number of Shadar in the City Battalions, say compared to when we were duking it out with them in the streets.

  Aridatha was sharing his own good fortune. Though there was less popular inclination toward vengeance than I had expected. And that little focused entirely on individuals.

  * * *

  The Radisha Drah also let out a disconsolate wail on discovering the state of the Palace. She and her brother remained still and silent for minutes. Then she slew the silence with another cry of pain.

  I told Suvrin, “I hope they don’t decide that this is all our fault and they just have to get even.” I did not think they would be that stupid, after having survived what they had suffered for having turned on us before, but with royalty you never know. They think differently than real people. The real world never quite seems to reach them.

  Smoke still trickled out of the ruins, here and there. While we watched a small avalanche of weakened masonry cascaded down.

  The Prince observed, “The stonework must have suffered more than we thought during the earthquake.”

  “Hunh?” That had happened so long ago that I had forgotten it. “You’re probably right. Plus the Protector never wasted a copper on maintenance while she was in charge.” I approached Tobo, who continued to prance about impatiently. “Where are my treasures?”