The Company passed through later still, marching from somewhere unpleasant to somewhere where we would be unhappy. The whole country had been turned desert in the name of freedom from the tyranny of the Lady’s empire.
61
Lady sent for me after six days. I had shaken the runs and had eaten well enough to regain a few of the pounds I lost in the pen. I still looked like a refugee from hell. And I was. I was indeed.
Lady did not look good. Tired, pale, under severe pressure, apparently still fighting the sickness that had her puking the other day. She wasted no time on small talk. “I’m sending you back to Dejagore, Murgen. We’re getting disturbing reports about Mogaba.”
I nodded. I had heard some of them. Every night more rafts crossed the lake. The deserters and refugees always were astonished to learn that Shadowspinner was dead and Lady controlled his army though that was evaporating through desertion, too.
Lady was a hard one. My guess was she meant to let the problem posed by Mogaba solve itself despite what that would cost Taglios and the Black Company.
“Why?” That was not smart. All those Taglians in there had relatives back home. Many were people of place and substance, for it was that sort who had volunteered to defend Taglios.
“I need you to just go back and be yourself. But write things down. Hone your skills. Keep the Company together. Be prepared for anything.”
I grunted. That wasn’t something I wanted to hear, knowing that the siege could be ended right now.
Lady sensed my reservations. She smiled wanly, made a sudden gesture. “Sleep, Murgen.”
I collapsed on the spot.
She was her nasty old self.
My mind would not clear. The Taglians who had helped me leave Dejagore were like zombies. They did not talk and seemed almost blind. “Down!” I muttered. “Patrol coming.” They did what I said but like men heavily drugged.
Patrols were few by day. It was easy to elude them. It was not their mission to keep people out, anyway. We reached lakeside without any trouble.
“Rest,” I ordered. “Wait for dark.” I was not sure why we had crossed the hills by day. I did not recall starting. “Have I been acting real weird?” I asked.
The taller Taglian shook his head slowly, not quite sure. He was more confused than I was.
I said, “I feel like I walked out of a fog a couple hours ago. I remember getting captured. I remember them keeping us in a nasty pen. I know there was a fight or something. But I don’t remember how we got away.”
“Nor do I, sir,” the shorter soldier said. “I do have a very strong feeling that we need to get back to our comrades quickly. But I don’t know why.”
“How about you?”
The taller man nodded, frowning. He was going to bust a vein trying to remember.
I said, “Maybe Shadowspinner did something to us and let us go. That’s worth keeping in mind-especially if you have urges that really surprise you.”
After dark we stole along the shoreline till we found a raft, jumped aboard and headed for Dejagore. And discovered immediately that we were going to get nowhere using poles. The water was too deep. We ended up using poles and broken boards as inefficient paddles. It took us half the night to make the crossing. And then, naturally, everything went to hell.
One-Eye was on watch and had been passing the time making love to a keg of beer. He heard water splash and people ask for a hand up and concluded that the evil hordes were upon him, whereupon he flung fireballs hither and yon so any handy archers could plink us.
One-Eye recognized me before more than three or four arrows whizzed past. He yelled for a ceasefire. But the damage had been done. The Nar at the North Gate saw us.
We were far enough away that they should not recognize faces. But the possibility that the Old Crew might have outside contacts would get Mogaba’s interest.
“Hey, Kid, good to see you,” One-Eye said as I clambered to the top of the wall. “We thought you was dead. We was going to have a funeral in a few more days if we got time. I been stalling it, account of if you was officially dead then I’d have to start keeping the Annals.” Generously, he offered me a drink from his very own unwashed for a fortnight mug. I declined the honor. “You all right, Kid?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you can tell me.” I told him what I could remember.
“You have another spell?”
“If I did these guys had it with me.”
“Interesting. Come around and see me about it tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“I’m gonna be off watch in ten minutes and I intend to hit the sack. And you need some sleep yourself.”
My pal. Don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have One-Eye to worry about me.
62
Bucket wakened me. “One of Mogaba’s guys is here, Murgen. Says His Majesty wants to see you.” I groaned. “Does it have to be so bright out there?” I had not bothered to go down into the warrens.
“He’s pissed off. We’ve been pretending you were here but couldn’t talk to him. Goblin and One-Eye put doubles of you on the wall sometimes so the Nar could see you.”
“And now you have the real Murgen back you want to throw him to the wolf.”
“Uh... Well... He didn’t ask for nobody else.” Meaning he did not want Goblin or One-Eye. He wanted to stay away from those two.
“Find my bitty buddies and tell them I need them. Now.” The wizards turned up at their own leisure, of course. I told them, “Put me in a litter and lug me over to the citadel. We’re going to admit that you’ve been lying about me but only because I was totally sick. What we were doing on that raft last night was taking baths. You thought it would be cute to pop off a few fireballs while I had my pants down.”
One-Eye started to complain but before he could start I growled, “I’m not face Mogaba without backup. He don’t have any reason to be nice anymore.”
“He won’t be in a good mood,” Goblin predicted. “There’s been rioting. Food shortages are getting really bad. He won’t turn one grain of rice loose. Even his handpicked Taglian sergeants have started to desert.”
“It’s all falling apart for him,” I said. “He was going to take over and show the world wonders but his followers can’t match his iron will.”
“And we’re some kind of philanthropic brotherhood?” One-Eye muttered.
“We never kill nobody who don’t ask for it. Come on. Let’s do it. And be ready for anything. Both of you.”
But first we went up to the battlements, both so I could see this world by daylight and so the Nar at the North Gate could see me looking sick before I presented myself that way.
The water level was just eight feet below the ramparts, higher than Hong Tray’s prediction. “Any flooding inside?”
“Mogaba sealed the gates somehow. He has Jaicuri working parties bucket-brigading what seepage there is.” “Good for him. How about down below?” “There’s some seepage in the catacombs. Not a lot. We could keep up by hauling it up in buckets.”
I grunted. I stared at Shadowspinner’s lake. I saw more corpses than I could count. “Those didn’t float up from the mounds, did they?”
Goblin told me, “Mogaba threw people off the wall during the riots. And some might be from rafts that turned over or broke up.”
