country north of them, under the river. And you know what’s on the other side of Shadowcatch.”
“I don’t believe it. You know how far they’d have to come?”
“About as far as you and Cordy.” Blade had joined Willow and Cordwood Mather two thousand miles into their journey south.
“Yeah. You tell me, Blade. Who in the hell besides you and me and Cordy would be crazy enough to travel that far without any reason?”
“They got a reason. According to Smoke.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. You go up there like the Woman says. Maybe she’ll tell you.”
“I’ll go. We’ll all go. Just to stall. And first chance we get we’re going to get the hell out of Taglios. If they got the Shadowmasters stirred up down there, and the Black Company coming in, I don’t want to be anywhere around.”
Blade leaned back so one of the girls could wiggle in closer. His expression was questioning.
Swan said, “I seen what those bastards could do back home. I saw Roses caught between them and... Hell. Just take my word for it, Blade. Big mojo, and all bad. If they’re coming for real, and we’re still around when they show, you might end up wishing we’d let those crocs go ahead and snack on you.”
Blade never had been too clear on why he had been thrown to the crocodiles. And Willow was none too clear on why he had talked Cordy into dragging him out and taking him along. Though Blade had been a right enough guy since. He’d paid back the debt.
“I think you ought to help them, Swan,” Blade said. “I like this town. I like the people. Only thing wrong with them is they don’t have sense enough to burn all the temples down.”
“Damnit, Blade, I ain’t the guy can help.”
“You and Cordy are the only ones around who know anything about soldiering.”
“I was in the army for two months. I never even learned how to keep in step. And Cordy don’t have the stomach for it anymore. All he wants is to forget that part of his life.”
Cordy had overheard most of what had been said. He came over. “I’m not that bad off, Willow. I don’t object to soldiering when the cause is right. I just was with the wrong bunch up there. I’m with Blade. I like Taglios. I like the people. I’m willing to do what I can to see they don’t get worked over by the Shadowmasters.”
“You heard what he said? The Black Company?”
“I heard. I also heard him say they want to talk about it. I think we ought to go find out what’s going on before we run our mouths and say what we’re not going to do.”
“All right. I’m going to change. Hold the fort, and all that, Blade. Keep your mitts off the one in the red. I got first dibs.” He stalked off.
Cordy Mather grinned. “You’re catching on how to handle Willow, Blade.”
“If this’s going down the way I think, he don’t need handling. He’ll be the guy out front when they try to stop the Shadowmasters. You could roast him in coals and he’d never admit it, but he’s got a thing for Taglios.”
Cordy Mather chuckled. “You’re right. He’s finally found him a home. And no one is going to move him out. Not the Shadowmasters or the Black Company.”
“They as bad as he lets on?”
“Worse. Lots worse. You take all the legends you ever heard back home, and everything you heard tell around here, and anything you can imagine, and double it, and maybe you’re getting close. They’re mean and they’re tough and they’re good. And maybe the worst thing about them is that they’re tricky like you can’t imagine tricky. They’ve been around four, five hundred years, and no outfit lasts that long without being so damned nasty even the gods don’t screw with them.”
“Mothers, hide your babies,” Blade said. “Smoke had him a dream.”
Cordy’s face darkened. “Yeah. I’ve heard tell wizards maybe make things come true by dreaming them first. Maybe we ought to cut Smoke’s throat.”
Willow was back. He said, “Maybe we ought to find out what’s going on before we do anything.”
Cordy chuckled. Blade grinned. Then they began shooing the marks out of the tavern-each making sure an appointment was understood by one or more of the young ladies.
Chapter Four
The dark Tower
I piddled around another five days before working myself up to a little after-breakfast skull session. I introduced the subject in a golden-tongued blurt: “Our next stopover will be the Tower.”
“What?”
“Are you crazy, Croaker?”
“Knew we should have kept an eye on him after the sun went down.” Knowing glances Lady’s way. She stayed out of it.
“I thought she was going with us. Not the other way around.”
Only Murgen did not snap up a membership in the bitch-of-the-minute club. Good lad, that Murgen.
Lady, of course, already knew a stopover was needed.
“I’m serious, guys,” I said.
If I wanted to be serious, One-Eye would be, too. “Why?” he asked.
I sort of shrank. “To pick up the Annals I left behind at Queen’s Bridge.” We got caught good, there. Only because we were the best, and desperate, and sneaky, had we been able to crack the imperial encirclement. At the cost of half the Company. There were more important concerns at the time than books.
“I thought you already got them.”
“I asked for them and was told I could have them. But we were busy at the time. Remember? The Doroinator? The Limper? Toadkiller Dog? All that lot? There wasn’t any chance to actually lay hands on them.”
Lady supported me with a nod. Getting really into the spirit, there.
Goblin pasted on his most ferocious face. Made him look like a saber-toothed toad. “Then you knew about this clean back before we ever left the Barrowland.”
I admitted that that was true.
“You goatfu-Lover. I bet you’ve spent all this time concocting some half-assed off-the-wall plan that’s guaranteed to get us all killed.”
I confessed that that was mostly true, too. “We’re going to ride up there like we own the Tower. You’re going to make the garrison think Lady is still number one.”
One-Eye snorted, stomped off to the horses. Goblin got up and stared down at me. And stared some more. And sneered. “We’re just going to strut in and snatch them, eh? Like the Old Man used to say, audacity and more audacity.” He did not ask his real question.
Lady answered it for him, anyway. “I gave my word.”
Goblin did not mouth the next question, either. No one did. And Lady left it hanging.
It would be easy for her to job us. She could keep her word and have us for breakfast afterward. If she wanted.
My plan (sic), boiled down, depended entirely on my trust in her. It was a trust my comrades did not share.
But they do, however foolishly, trust me.
The Tower at Charm is the largest single construction in the world, a featureless black cube five hundred feet to the dimension. It was the first project undertaken by the Lady and the Taken after their return from the grave, so many lifetimes ago. From the Tower the Taken had marched forth, and raised their armies, and conquered half the world. Its shadow still fell upon half the earth, for few knew that the heart and blood of the empire had been sacrificed to buy victory over a power older and darker still.
There is but one ground-level entrance to the Tower. The road leading to it runs as straight as a geometrician’s dream. It passes through parklike grounds that only someone who had been there could believe was the site of history’s bloodiest battle.
