everywhere. They were unpleasant, even for Catcher’s agents. They swooped around shooting crow shit everywhere.
“When you’re done checking on Longshadow and Howler I want you to start identifying the whereabouts of every man of ours.”
“Ours?”
“The Company. Old Crew. Nar. I want to get everybody together. Real soon now.”
“You got it.”
“Of course. But add in a dab of common sense, Murgen. To get to Khatovar the Company needs a standardbearer. Probably more than it’ll ever need a Captain or Lieutenant.”
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If anybody had a clue what you were up to it’s just possible they could do the things you want done when you want them done.” I walked away before we squabbled in front of the troops.
Longshadow was taking it out on Howler. And Howler was getting him even more pissed off by not paying a lot of attention. He was witching up some colorful little construct out of thin air. I had to study it a while before I recognized it as a representation of the areas of Overlook that were in our side’s hands. It was a complicated little cyan and magenta mess with a tail that dipped through the foundations of the wall to Lady’s positions outside.
He did nothing to restrain his screams. Several came in quick succession, howls that seemed to have a little extra emotion behind them.
The third howl triggered something inside Longshadow’s head. He shut up. He adjusted his mask, leaned forward to stare at Howler’s construct. He reached out with fingers as skinny as spider legs despite being inside a glove, poked at the tail leading to the outside. “How did she manage that? That should not have been possible.” His lunacy, his rant, vanished like mist in the morning sun. It was almost as if his reason had cleared. “The stone cannot be worked.”
“That’s Senjak out there, if you’ll recall. She’ll work the stone the same way you did.”
Longshadow made a noise like a cat’s growl. I thought his moment of lucidity had passed. I thought he was about to have an all-time fit. He fooled me. “Find the Deceiver and his brat. They need to be here, inside this tower, before midnight. If they want to survive.”
Howler replied with an interrogative grunt.
“I have no use for them anymore. I owe them nothing. They have done nothing for me. But I will give them this opportunity to survive.”
I did not wait around to learn what happened next.
“What’re you doing back already?” Croaker demanded when I sat up. “You haven’t been out long enough —”
“Excuse me, boss. I’ve already got a mother-in-law. Yes, I was out there long enough to hear Longshadow say he’s going to turn the shadows loose tonight.”
Croaker shut his mouth. I hurried through the information. He said, “You’re right. He didn’t say shadows in that many words but it can’t be anything else. Get back to it. I’ll round up One-Eye and get the word out.”
“How long do we have?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure what time it is now. Just get going.”
“I’ll need water and food brought in. The water should be sweet.”
“Go.” I went.
59
I came back to flesh every few minutes to report the whereabouts of those Company brothers I could locate. The Old Man sent warnings to those he could, telling them to get over to the division at the Shadowgate.
Wagons were on the move soon, leaving Lady’s crude factories with stocks of bamboo her workers had been able to reload. The supply seemed woeful to me.
I darted everywhere. When I thought it would not hurt I fluttered northward. Swarms of crows came and went from the ravine where Soulcatcher holed up. I skipped backward in time, watched the Old Man and, sure enough, I found a time when he whispered to those two huge crows of his and they promptly flapped off to gossip with the crazy sister. I could not get Smoke anywhere near her, of course, and anytime I pushed even a little I got that tickling she is the darkness sensation.
I got a ghost of the same thing when I swarmed off to see what the Daughter of Night was doing, though Smoke showed no reluctance to move a little closer. The child was writing furiously, her little face contorted in pain. She was working on a different volume. This one she had only just begun.
“Oh, shit!” She finished the first one already? Croaker needed to know that. We might be in deeper shit than I had thought.
Where was the Book? I did not see it anywhere. I had better find out.
I took a dive into the past.
I found the Daughter of Night crying. I found Narayan Singh stunned by that. He had not seen that before and did not know how to comfort her, though he had had children of his own in another time, another world, before the Black Company came to Taglios.
I pushed back farther, to discover the cause of this bizarre circumstance. I could think of a hundred unlikely candidates I expected to see cry before that grim midget broke down.
It started when she and Singh returned to their apartment after having escaped it only a step ahead of Lady’s raiders. Though forewarned the child had been too busy writing to pay close attention and had waited almost too long.
Their exit had been so hasty they had had to leave the Book behind.
So, I thought, some lad from Lady’s gang realized it was important and decided to take it back to the boss. I would have suspected Swan or Blade had they been inside Overlook.
I was surprised again when I did identify the culprit.
Howler. The little snake managed to slither into those quarters while supposedly driving our men back, while Narayan and the girl were suffering the effects of a mild disorientation spell not fifty feet away. He made the Book vanish.
The screaming wizard must have feared that he could be seen from afar because he pulled a bunch of stunts and used a handful of spells, over the next several hours, to make sure the Book got lost to everybody but himself.
He left a blank book behind. It was a twin of the one he took.
Curious. How did Howler know about the Book? I checked my memories against whatever Smoke could find fast. Yep. Neither the kid nor Singh mentioned it to anybody. Longshadow’s people did tell him that they had asked for writing stuff but the Shadowmaster had not passed that on to Howler.
I knew about the Book. I had told Croaker about it. Howler had visited Soulcatcher. The Old Man communicated with Catcher.
Could it be?
If I got a chance to dream my way around there again I might try to find out... Shit! I could see only what was happening right now.
I ripped out of there, went back to my flesh. I was starving and thirsty when I came out.
“About time,” One-Eye told me.
I guzzled water. “Where’s Croaker?”
“Out making sure everybody knows they need to keep their shelters buttoned up tight tonight. Trying to get those shadow repellent candles out where we’re thin on bamboo poles.”
“Oh.” I ate for a few minutes. My manners were not upper-class. Then I asked, “You got any idea what’s going on between the Captain and Soulcatcher?”
“I didn’t know anything was.”
I groaned, drank some more water. “You blind?”
He shrugged. “What did I miss?”
