“What is it?”
“My shadow trap. They come through the gateway you breached, the great old strong ones. Not the toys you drew into your services, these. I could loose them. I might if you fail again.”
The three stirred. He had to go for certain.
He laughed, reading their thoughts. “And the key to that trap is my Name, my brethren. If I perish the trap collapses and the gateway stands open to the world.” He laughed again.
The male who spoke the least when they gathered spat angrily and made to depart. After hesitating the other two followed. There was nothing more to be said.
Mad laughter pursued them down the endless spiral of the stairs.
The woman observed, “Maybe he can’t be conquered. But while he persists in facing south he offers us no peril. Let us ignore him henceforth.”
“Three against two, then,” her companion grumbled. The other, in the lead, grunted.
“But there is one in the swamps, whose debt of anger might be manipulated if we grow desperate. And we have gold. Always there are tools to be found in the ranks of the enemy when gold is allowed to speak. Not so?” She laughed. Her laughter was almost as crazy as that peeling out above.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Night strife
I gave Murgen my dirtiest look as he rode up. He understood it. We would talk later. For the moment he said, “You told me to keep an eye on them.”
Swan reached me a moment later. “Gods, you guys move fast. I’m shot.” He made an obscene gesture at the sky. “We leave five minutes after you and find out you had time to take a couple of breaks and still stay ahead of us.” He shook his head. “Bunch of iron men. Told you I wasn’t cut put for this crap, Cordy.”
“Where is everybody?” Murgen asked.
“I don’t know. We got ambushed. We got separated.”
Mather, Swan, and Blade exchanged glances. Swan asked, “Little brown guys? All wrinkly?”
“You know them?”
“We had a run-in with them when we were headed north. Man, I got me a brainstorm. We going to jaw, let’s do it out of the rain. My lumbago is killing me.”
“Lumbago?” Mather asked. “When did you come up with lumbago?”
“When I forgot my hat and it started raining on my head. Blade, you was in this place last year. They got like an inn, or something?”
Blade didn’t say anything, just turned his horse and headed out. He was an odd one for sure. But Swan thought he was an all-right guy, and I liked Swan as much as I could like anybody who worked for somebody who was trying to play games with me.
I was about to follow up last, with Murgen, when Murgen said, “Hold up. Somebody’s coming.” He pointed.
I looked into the drizzle to the south and saw three shapes, riders coming in. Their mounts were tall enough that they could be nothing but Lady’s gifts. Swan cursed the delay but we waited.
The three were Hagop, Otto, and the roi Shadid. Shadid looked ragged. And Hagop and Otto were wounded. “Damn you two. Can’t you take a crap without getting hurt?” In the thirty or so years I had known them it seemed they had come up wounded about three times a year. And survived everything. Pd begun to suspect they were immortal and the blood was the price they paid.
“They piled an ambush on top of the ambush, Croaker,” Hagop said. “They ran us down that valley right into another gang on horseback.”
My stomach tightened. “And?”
He put on a feeble grin. “I figure they’re sorry they did. We cut them up bad.”
“Where are the others?”
“I don’t know. We scattered. Lady said for Shadid to ride back up here with us and wait. She led them off.”
“All right. Blade. Why don’t you show us where to roost?”
Murgen looked at me with a question unspoken. I told him, “Yeah. We’ll get them settled. Then we’ll go.”
The place Blade took us wasn’t really an inn, just a big house where the owner made a bit taking in travellers. He was not thrilled to see us, though like everybody else in this end of the world he seemed to know who we were. The color of our coin brightened his day and livened his smile. Still, I think he let us in mainly because he thought we would get rowdy if he didn’t.
I got Otto and Hagop sewed up and bandaged and generally settled into a routine they knew all too well. Meanwhile, the householder brought food, for which Swan expressed our sincere gratitude.
Murgen said, “It’s going to be getting dark, Croaker.”
“I know. Swan, we’re going put to find the others. Got a spare horse if you want to ride along.”
“You kidding? Go out in that muck when I don’t have to? Hell. All right. I guess.” He started levering himself out of his chair.
“Sit down, Willow,” Mather said. “I’ll go. I’m in better shape than you are.”
Swan said, “You talked me into it, you smooth-talking son of a bitch. I don’t know how you do it, you golden- tongued bastard. You can get anything you want out of me. Be careful.”
“Ready?” Mather asked me. He stifled a small smile.
“Yeah.”
We went out and climbed onto the horses, who were beginning to look a little put-upon. I led out, but Shadid soon slipped past, suggesting he lead since he knew whence they had come. The day was getting on. The light was feeble. It was about as dreary as it could get. More to distract myself than because I cared, I told Murgen, “Better explain what’s going on.”
“Cordy can tell you better than me. I just stuck with them.”
The roi was not setting a blistering pace. I fought down the growls breeding in my gut. I kept telling me she was a big girl and she’d been taking care of herself since before I was born. But the man in me kept saying that’s your woman, you got to take care of her.
Sure.
“Cordy? I know you guys don’t work for me and you got your own priorities, but...”
“Nothing to cover up, Captain. Word came that some of you guys was going to ride out. That boggled the Woman. She figured you all to make a break for the Main in a mob and learn about the Shadowmasters the hard way. Instead, you went to scout it. She didn’t think you were that smart.”
“We’re talking about the old broad you guys brought down the river, right. The Radisha?”
“Yeah. We call her the Woman. Blade hung it on her before we knew who she was.”
“And she knew we were heading out before we went. Interesting. This is a wondrous time of my life, Mr. Mather. For the last year everybody in the world has known what I was going to do before I did. It’s enough to make a guy nervous.”
We passed some trees. In one I spied this incredibly bedraggled crow. I laughed, and hoped aloud he was as miserable as me. The others eyed me uncertainly. I wondered if I shouldn’t start cultivating a new image. Work it up slowly. All the world dreads a madman. If I played it right...
“Hey, Cordy, old travelling buddy. You sure you don’t know anything about those little brown guys?”
“All I know is they tried to ice us when we was headed north. Nobody ever saw anybody like them before. They figure to be out of the Shadowlands.”
“Why are the Shadowmasters paranoid about us?” I did not expect an answer. I did not get one. “Cordy, you guys really serious about winning it for the Prahbrindrah?”
“I am. For Taglios. I found something there I never found anywhere else. Willow too, though you could roast him and never get it out of him. I don’t know about Blade. I guess he’s in because we’re in. He’s got one and a half
