Yet I doubted. I liked what I had seen of the Taglian people and especially liked their spirit. After the wounds they had taken keeping their independence they were still fired up for the Shadowmasters. And I had a good notion I wouldn’t like those folks if I got to know them. So before it was fairly begun I’d broken the prime rule and become emotionally involved. Fool that I am.
That damned rain had a personal grudge. It got no heavier but it never let up. Yet to east and west I saw light that indicated clear skies in those directions. The gods, if such existed, were laying on the misery especially for me.
The last tenanted place we passed lay six miles from the Ghoja ford. Beyond, the countryside had been abandoned. It had been empty for months. It was not bad land, either. The locals must have had a big fear on to uproot and flee. A change of overlords usually isn’t that traumatic for peasants. The five thousand who had come north and not returned must have had a real way about them.
The country was not rugged. It was mostly cleared land that rolled gently, and the road was not awful, considering, though it had not been built to carry military traffic. Nowhere did I see any fortifications, manmade or natural. I’d seen none of the former anywhere in Taglian territory. There would be no place to run and few places to hide in the event of disaster. I became a bit more respectful of Swan and his buddies, daring what they had.
The ground, when soaked, became a clayey, clinging mud that exercised the strength and patience even of my tireless steed. Note to the chief of staff. Plan our battles for clear, dry days.
Right. And while we’re at it, let’s order up only blind enemies.
You have to take what is handed you in this trade.
“You’re damned broody today, Croaker,” Goblin said, after a long while.
“Me? You been chattering like a stone yourself.”
“I’m troubled about all this.”
He was troubled. That was a very un-Goblin-like remark. It meant he was worried right down to his toenails. “You don’t think we can handle it if we have to take the commission?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe. You always grab something out of the trick bag. But we’re getting worn out, Croaker. There’s no zest in it anymore. What if we did pull it off, and broke through, and got to Khatovar, and ended up with a big nothing?”
“That’s been the risk since we started. I never claimed anything for this trip. It’s just something I thought had to be done because I pledged to do it. And when I turn the Annals over to Murgen I’ll extract the same oath from him.”
“I guess we don’t have anything better to do.”
“To the end of the world and back again. It’s an accomplishment of sorts.”
“I wonder about the first purpose.”
“So do I, old friend. It got lost somewhere between here and Gea-Xle. And I think these Taglians know something about it. But they’re not talking. Going to have to try some old-fashioned Company double shuffle on them sometime.”
The drizzle had its good side, I suppose. It lessened visibility. We were over the last crest and headed down toward the Main and Ghoja ford before I realized we had come that far. Sentries on the south bank would have spotted us immediately in better weather.
Goblin sensed it first. “We’re there, Croaker. The river’s right down there.”
We reined in. I asked, “You feel anything on the other side?”
“People. Not alert. But there’s a couple poor fools on sentry duty.”
“What kind of outfit does it feel like?”
“Sloppy. Third rate. I could get a better look if I had a little time.”
“Take some time. I’m going to roam around and look it over.”
The site was what I had been told it would be. The road wandered down a long, bare slope to the ford, which lay just above an elbow in the river. Below the elbow a creek ran into the river from my side, though I had to go make sure because it lay behind higher ground. The creek had a beard of the usual growth along both banks. There was also a slight rise in the other direction, so that the road to the ford ran down the center of a slight concavity. Above the ford the river arched southward in a slow, lazy curve. On my side its bank was anywhere from two to eight feet high and overgrown with trees and brush everywhere but at the crossing itself.
I examined all that very carefully, on foot, while my mount waited with Goblin beyond the ridge. I sneaked down to the edge of the ford itself and spent a half hour sitting in the wet bushes staring at the fortifications on the other side.
We were not going to get across here. Not easily.
Were they worried about us coming to them? Why?
I used the old triangulation trick to figure out that the watchtower of the fortress stood about seventy feet high, then withdrew and tried to calculate what could be seen from its parapet. Most of the light was gone when I finished.
“Find out what you need to know?” Goblin asked when I rejoined him.
“I think so. Not what I wanted, either. Unless you can cheer me up. Could we force a crossing?”
“Against what’s in there now? Probably. With the water down. If we tried in the dead of the night and caught them napping.”
“And when the water does go down they’ll have ten thousand men hanging around over there.”
“Don’t look good, does it?”
“No. Let’s find a place to get out of the rain.”
“I can stand to ride back if you can.”
“Let’s try. We’ll sleep dry if we make it. What do you think of the men over there? Professionals?”
“My guess is they’re just a little better than men disguised as soldiers.”
“They looked pretty sloppy to me, too. But maybe they don’t have to be any better in these parts.”
I had seen and watched four men while I was crouching near the ford. They had not impressed me. Neither had the design or construction of the fortifications. Clearly, these Shadowmasters had brought in no professionals to train their forces and they had not developed a good edge on what they did have.
“’Course, maybe we saw what we were supposed to see.”
“There’s always that.” An interesting thought, maybe worth some consideration, because at that moment I noticed a couple of bedraggled crows watching us from a dead branch on an elm tree. I started to look around for
the stump, thought the hell with it. I would handle that when the time came.
“You remember Shifter’s woman, Goblin?” “Yeah. So?”
“You said you thought she seemed familiar back in Gea-Xle. Now it’s all of a sudden coming on me that maybe you were right. I’m sure we ran into her somewhere before. But I can’t for the life of me think where or when.”
“Does it matter?”
“Probably not. Just one of those things that nag at you. Let’s cut off to the left here.” “What the hell for?”
“There’s a town on the map, called Vejagedhya, that I want to look at.”
“I thought we were going back-” “It’ll only take a few minutes extra.” “Right.” Grumble, grumble, ragglesnatz. “Looks like we might have to fight. I need to know the country.”
Fraggin snigglebark.
We ate cold food as we rode. It is not often that I do so, but at such moments I sometimes envy the man with a cottage and wife.
Everything costs something. It was ghost country we rode, spooky country. The hand of man was evident everywhere, even in darkness. Some of the homes we inspected looked like they had been closed up only yesterday. But not once did we encounter another human being. “I’m surprised thieves haven’t been working all this.”
“Don’t tell One-Eye.”
I forced a chuckle. “I guess they were smart enough to take their valuables with them.”
“These people do seem determined to pay whatever price they have to, don’t they?” He sounded impressed. Grudgingly, I was developing a case of respect. “And it looks like the Company is going to be their one toss of the bones with fate.” “If you let them.”
