Narayan said, “There’s a group of four, five hundred headed out south, Mistress.”
I checked. Hard to tell from so far away but they looked more like a labor battalion than armed men on the march. Curious. A similar group was forming north of the city.
Sindhu appeared. “They got the word about yesterday. They’re bad rattled.”
I lifted an eyebrow.
“I got close enough to hear some talk. They’re making a move. Don’t know what it is.”
Daring, Sindhu. “You didn’t hear where we could find Shadowspinner, did you?”
“No.”
I sent everybody off with instructions. Ram and I donned our armor. Ram said nothing the whole time. Usually he had some small talk, thoughtless but comforting.
“You’re awfully quiet.”
“Thinking. All what’s happened in just a couple months. Wondering.”
“What?”
“If the world really is so black it’s time for the Year of the Skulls.”
“Oh, Ram.” He was not a fast thinker but an inexorable one, now suffering a crisis of faith brought on by events in the grove but sprouting from seeds that had fallen earlier. He cared again. Kina was losing her hold.
And damn me, I let Croaker get past my defenses and turn me soft inside, too. I Felt enough now that I could not just use and discard.
Maybe that soft center was there all the time. Maybe I was like an oyster. Croaker always thought so. Before we hardly knew one another he wrote about me in ways that suggested he thought there was something special inside me.
Those people down there took him. They destroyed his dreams and hamstrung mine. I did not give a damn about the Year of the Skulls or Kina. I wanted restitution.
“Ram, stop.” I stepped close, placed a hand on his chest, looked him in the eye. “Don’t worry. Don’t tear your heart out. Believe me when I tell you I’ll try to make everything work out.”
He did trust me, damn him. A big damn faithful dog look came into his eyes.
Chapter Forty-Three
The Prahbrindrah Drah took Smoke’s advice. He reread the old books about the Black Company’s first visit. They told a tale of death and heartbreak but reread as he might he found nothing to indict the Company returned from the north. The more he studied the more he veered from the attitude Smoke wanted him to adopt.
The Radisha joined him. “You’re going to wear those things out.”
“No. I don’t have to read any more. Smoke is wrong.”
“But...”
“Never mind the woman. I’d bet my life-and I am-that she has no intention of becoming the Daughter of Night. It’s subtle. You have to read this stuff over and over before it sinks in, but there’re signs missing that would be there no matter how hard they tried to hide them. They were exactly what they pretended.”
“Oh?” the Radisha asked. “Didn’t they mean to return to Khatovar?”
“Without knowing what it is. Could have been interesting seeing what would have happened if they’d made it.”
“We still might find out. If anyone can pull down the Shadowmasters that woman can.”
“Maybe.” The prince smiled. “Peaceful as it’s been, I’m tempted to ride south myself. There’s no one left here to bother me.”
“Don’t let it go to your head.”
“What?”
“People being scared of you. It won’t last. Better win their respect before their fear wears off.”
“Just once I’d like to go off and do something because I want to do it, not because it will strengthen the office.”
That sparked an exchange halfway between argument and discussion. Smoke arrived in its midst. He stepped into the room, stopped, stared stupidly.
They stared back. The Radisha demanded, “Where the hell have you been?”
The prince silenced her with a touch. “What’s happened, Smoke? You look awful.”
Smoke was stunned. His thoughts oozed too slowly. This was the last thing he expected, walking right into those two. He needed time to get hold of himself.
He opened his mouth.
Longshadow flashed behind his eyes. The terror and pain closed in. He could not tell them. He could do nothing but carry out his orders. And pray.
“Where the hell have you been?” the Radisha demanded again. “Do you have any idea what’s happened while you’ve been off fooling around?”
She was angry. Good. That would distract her some. “No.”
She told him.
He was dismayed. “She murdered them? All of them?” It was a chance to press his point with passion but he did not have the strength or will. He just wanted to lie down and sleep all night for the first time since... since...
“All of them that counted for anything. Right now she could do anything she pleased with Taglios. If she was here.”
“She isn’t?” Longshadow had not kept him posted. “Where is she?”
“By now she may be in Dejagore.”
Slowly, slowly, he milked the Radisha of news. A lot had happened. Perhaps Longshadow had told him none of this because he did not know himself. Which might place the situation beyond reclamation.
Who broke up Shadowspinner’s attack on Dejagore?
The prince never said a word. He just sat there looking sleepy. An awful sign. The prince was most dangerous when he seemed indifferent.
He was not going to pull it off.
He did not want to. But if he failed... The face of the Shadowmaster burned in his brain. Terror unmanned him. He gobbled, “We have to do something. We have to control her before she devours this whole nation...” The Prahbrindrah had opened his eyes. There was no sympathy in them.
“I took your advice, Smoke. I reread those old books six times. They’ve convinced me.”
The wizard nearly collapsed with joy.
“They’ve convinced me you’re full of shit. This Company has nothing to do with that. I’m on her side.”
Chapter Forty-Four
I scattered the spell that baffled shadows, though it was not yet dark. It would be dark before we finished.
The horsemen were in place. The Shadowlanders did not appear suspicious. They were up to whatever with those work parties. Both had vanished into the hills, taking a thousand men out of my way.
What temper possessed Shadowspinner? Not a good one, surely. Having four thousand men nipped off an undermanned siege force had to stick in his craw.
Blade had spread enough infantrymen around to cover the cavalry withdrawal. I told Ram, “It’s time.”
He nodded. He did not have much to say now.
I urged my stallion onto an outcrop from which we would be visible all over the plain. He followed. I hoped he would do nothing clumsy. Falling off your horse takes something away from high drama.
I drew my sword. It blossomed fire.
