Cautious entrepreneurs found a hundred ways to go after that money. Crowds came just to see. One enterprising band started tearing up the street to dig under. Police ran them off.
Soulcatcher took a seat beside the window and never moved. Once he told me, “Have to modify the spells. I didn’t anticipate this much ingenuity,”
Surprised at my own audacity, I asked, “What’s the Lady like?” I had just finished one of my fantasy sketches.
He turned slowly, stared briefly. “Something that will bite steel.” His voice was female and catty. An odd answer. Then, “Have to keep them from using tools.”
So much for getting an eyewitness report. I should have known better. We mortals are mere objects to the Taken. Our curiosities are of supreme indifference. I retreated to my secret kingdom and its spectrum of imaginary Ladies.
Soulcatcher modified the ward sorceries that night. Next morning there were corpses in the square.
One-Eye wakened me the third night. “Got a customer.”
“Hunh?”
“A guy with a head.” He was pleased.
I stumbled to the window. Goblin and Raven were there already. We crowded one side. Nobody wanted to get too close to Soulcatcher.
A man stole across the square below. A head dangled from his left hand. He carried it by its hair. I said, “I wondered how long it would be before this started.”
“Silence,” Soulcatcher hissed. “He’s out there.”
“Who?”
He was patient. Remarkably patient. Another of the Taken would have struck me down. “Raker. Don’t give us away.”
I do not know how he knew. Maybe I would not want to find out. Those things scare me.
“A sneak visit was in the scenario,” Goblin whispered, squeaking. How can he squeak when he whispers? “Raker has to find out what he’s up against. He can’t do that from anywhere else.” The fat little man seemed proud.
The Captain calls human nature our sharpest blade. Curiosity and a will to survive drew Raker into our cauldron.
Maybe he would turn it on us. We have a lot of handles sticking out ourselves.
Weeks passed. Raker came again and again, apparently content to observe. Soulcatcher told us to let him be, no matter how easy a target he made of himself.
Our mentor might be considerate of us, but he has his cruel streak. It seemed he wanted to torment Raker with the uncertainty of his fate.
“This berg is going bounty-crazy,” Goblin squealed. He danced one of his jigs. “You ought to get out more, Croaker. They’re turning Raker into an industry.” He beckoned me into the corner farthest from Soulcatcher, opened a wallet. “Look here,” he whispered.
He had a double fistful of coins. Some were gold. I observed, “You’re going to be walking tilted to one side.”
He grinned. Goblin grinning is a sight to behold. “Made this selling tips on where to find Raker,” he whispered. With a glance toward Soulcatcher, “Bogus tips.” He put a hand on my shoulder. He had to stretch up to do it. “You can get rich out there.”
“I didn’t know we were in this to get rich.”
He scowled, his round, pale face becoming all wrinkles. “What are you? Some kind of?...”
Soulcatcher turned. Goblin croaked, “Just an argument about a bet, sir. Just a bet.”
I laughed aloud. “Really convincing, Chubbo. Why not just hang yourself?”
He pouted, but not for long. Goblin is irrepressible. His humor breaks through in the most depressing situations. He whispered, “Shit, Croaker,, you should see what One-Eye is doing. Selling amulets. Guaranteed to tell if there’s a Rebel close by.” A glance toward Soulcatcher. “They really work, too. Sort of.”
I shook my head. “At least he’ll be able to pay his card debts.” That was One-Eye all over. He had had it rough at Meystrikt, where there was no room for his usual forays into (he black market.
“You guys axe supposed to be planting rumors. Keeping the pot boiling, not...”
“Sshh!” He glanced at Soulcatcher again. “We are. Every dive in town. Hell, the rumor mill is berserk out there. Come on. I’II show you.”
“No.” Soulcatcher was talking more and more. I had hopes of inveigling a real conversation.
“Your loss. I know a bookmaker taking bets on when Raker will lose his head. You got inside dope, you know.”
“Scoot out of here before you lose yours.”
I went to the window. A minute later Goblin scampered across the square below. He passed our trap without glancing its way.
“Let them play their games,” Soulcatcher said.
“Sir?” My new approach. Brown-nosing.
“My ears are sharper than your friend realizes.”
I searched the face of that black morion, trying to capture some hint of the thoughts behind the metal.
“It’s of no consequence.” He shifted slightly, stared past me. “The underground is paralyzed by dismay.”
“Sir?”
“The mortar in that house is rotting. It’ll crumble soon. That would not have happened had we taken Raker immediately. They would have made a martyr of him. The loss would have saddened them, but they would have gone on, The Circle would have replaced Raker in time for the spring campaigns.”
I stared into the plaza. Why was Soulcatcher telling me this? And all in one voice. Was it the voice of the real Soulcatcher?
“Because you thought I was being cruel for cruelty’s sake.”
I jumped. “How did you?...”
Soulcatcher made a sound which passed as laughter. “No. I didn’t read your mind. I know how minds work. I am the Catcher of Souls, remember?”
Do the Taken get lonely? Do they yearn for simple companionship? Friendship?
“Sometimes.” This in one of the female voices. A seductive one.
I half-turned, then faced the square quickly, frightened.
Soulcatcher read that, too. He went back to Raker. “Simple elimination was never my plan. I want the hero of Forsberg to discredit himself.”
Soulcatcher knew our enemy better than we suspected. Raker was playing his game. Already he had made two spectacular, vain attempts on our trap. Those failures had ruined his stock with fellow-travelers. To hear tell, Roses seethed with pro-Empire sentiment.
“He’ll make a fool of himself, then we’ll squash him. Like a noxious beetle.”
“Don’t underestimate him.” What audacity. Giving advice to one of the Taken. “The Limper...”
“That I won’t do. I’m not the Limper. He and Raker are two of a kind. In the old times... The Dominator would have made him one of us.”
“What was he like?” Get him talking, Croaker. From the Dominator it is only one step to the Lady.
Soulcatcher’s right hand rolled palm upward, opened, slowly made a claw. The gesture rattled me. I imagined that claw ripping at my soul. End of conversation.
Later on I told Elmo, “You know, that thing out there didn’t have to be real. Anything would have done the job if the mob couldn’t get to it.”
Soulcatcher said, “Wrong. Raker had to know it was real.”
Next morning we heard from the Captain. News, mostly.
A few Rebel partisans were surrendering their weapons in response to an amnesty offer. Some mainforcers who had come south with Raker were pulling out. The confusion had reached the Circle. Raker’s failure in Roses worried them.
“Why’s that?” I asked. “Nothing has really happened.”
Soulcatcher replied, “It’s happening on the other side, In peoples’ minds.” Was there a hint of smugness
