about taking care of them but would he deliver?
“I’ll look forward to reading the Book of Murgen. If it’s any good you’ve got the job for life.”
Swan said something about Lady planning to write a book of her own when she got time. Croaker flung a stone at a crow. It was the first of those birds I had spotted since the albino in the night. Maybe he brought it with him. I sketched some of what had been happening in Dejagore.
“Guess it hasn’t been fun for anybody. Seems Mogaba is the main problem. Better get right after him. How many people are still over there?”
“My guess is him and the Nar have a thousand to fifteen hundred men. I don’t know how many people I have. Some come out every night but since I got elected prisoner here I can’t keep track. Goblin and One-Eye and most of the Company are still over there.” I hoped Uncle Doj and Thai Dei were using this distraction to get To Tan and Sahra and themselves on the road.
“Why would they stay?”
“They don’t want to leave. They say they want to wait till Lady gets all her powers back. They say something is out here waiting for them.”
“Powers back?”
“It’s happening,” Blade said.
“Hunh. So what are they afraid of, Murgen?”
“Shapeshifter’s apprentice. That bitch from Juniper. She almost got One-Eye once already once...” How come I believed the little rat now but had not when he had told me?
I had a momentary vision of One-Eye puffing through the night with fanged death closing in. It was as solid as actual memory.
“I remember her. She was a real piece of work. Marron Shed should have taken care of her when he had the chance.”
“Evidently she wants to get even with us for doing Shifter. She may be locked into the forvalaka shape, too. Which would really piss anybody off, I guess. But if you was to ask my personal opinion I think she’s only an excuse. They want to stay where they are because otherwise they might have to leave something behind.”
“Like what?”
I shrugged. “They’re Goblin and One-Eye. They’ve had months to pilfer and profiteer.”
“Tell me about Mogaba.”
Now we got down to the grim stuff.
Before the discussion ended even nasty Sindhu condemned the Nar.
“I’ll put an end to that. You want to take a message to Mogaba?”
I looked over my shoulder. He could not be asking the guy behind me. There was nobody there. “You shitting me? Not unless it’s an order. And maybe not then. Mogaba wants my head. Not to mention my heart and liver for breakfast. Crazy as he is right now he might go after me with you standing right behind me.”
“I’ll get somebody else.”
“Good idea.”
“I’ll go,” Swan volunteered. Then him and Mather got into an argument about that. Evidently Swan had something to prove to himself and Cordy did not believe he needed to bother.
83
My status in camp changed sharply. Suddenly I never was a prisoner, never had been unfree to do whatever served the common good.
Only problem was, my tent was cold. All I had left of Sahra and the Nyueng Bao was the jade amulet Sahra had taken from Hong Tray before we had carried the children out of the killing place.
“You done yet?” Croaker demanded, finding me seated in front of my tent, working on the standard.
I showed him what I was doing. “Good enough?”
“Perfect. You ready?”
“Ready as I’ll ever get.” I touched the jade amulet.
“She pretty special?”
“Very special.”
“I want to hear all about her people.”
“Someday.”
We walked through the hills and down to the shore. A sizable boat was out on the lake already. Blade’s soldiers had transported it overland after having failed to work it along the canal from the nearest river to the lake. Croaker and I took up position on a prominent hummock. I displayed the standard. They would be able to see that from the city even if they did not recognize me and the Old Man.
Mogaba wanted to know where the standard was? He could see for himself, now.
While the boat crossed over and returned Croaker and I speculated as to what made both Mogaba and Lady want to be in charge so badly.
“Looks like Swan is getting results. Can you see what’s going on?”
“Looks like somebody black getting into the boat.”
That somebody turned out to be Sindawe. I told the Old Man, “This guy was always as right with us as having Mogaba for a boss would allow. Ochiba and Isi and some of the others weren’t too bad, either. But they wouldn’t disobey orders.”
Sindawe stepped ashore. Croaker saluted him. He responded uncertainly, looked to me for a clue. I shrugged. He was on his own. I had no idea where this was headed.
Sindawe made sure he was face to face with the real Captain. Once he was satisfied, he suggested, “Let us step out of sight and talk.”
The Old Man made a small gesture that told me I should let them talk in complete privacy. They walked around behind the hummock and sat on a rock. They talked for a long time, voices never rising. Sindawe finally rose and walked back to the boat like a man borne down by an incredibly heavy burden.
“What’s the story?” I asked Croaker. “He looks like he suddenly added twenty years on top of the wear and tear of the siege.”
“Years of the heart, Murgen. Feeling morally compelled to betray somebody who has been your best friend since childhood will do that to you.”
“What?”
He would say nothing more. “We’re going over there. I’m going to meet Mogaba nose to nose.”
I thought of a pile of arguments against. I did not bother. He would not listen. “Not me.” I shuddered. My spine was shivering to that chill they say happens when somebody walks over your grave.
Croaker looked at me hard. I drove the butt of the standard into the earth, vigorously, meaning, “Here I stand.” He grunted, turned and went down to the boat. The creature Sindhu snaked out of nowhere and joined the party. I wondered how much of Sindawe’s and Croaker’s conversation he had overheard. Not a word, probably. The Old Man would have used the Jewel Cities dialect.
Once the boat was well out onto the water I sat down beside the standard, clung to the pole and tried to figure out what made it impossible for me to go back over there.
84
I had suffered no big seizures for a while. I was not on guard anymore. This one began insidiously, like just losing focus and drifting into a lazy daydream. I stared at Dejagore but no longer really saw it, thought of the women who had entered my life and the ancient one who had left it. Already I missed Sahra and so-serious To Tan.
A white crow landed on the crossbar of the standard, cawed down at me. I paid no attention.
