I could not carry my lamp and plunder, too. I used to live here. I could find my way around without a lamp. Besides, there was a glimmer of twilight still leaking in through the doorway.
The alcohol was taking effect. As I stepped over him I told Smoke, “I wouldn’t have your luck on a bet, chief.”
Smoke opened his eyes.
I jumped. It had been five or six years... And he did not appear to be in a friendly mood.
I discovered that I just wanted to get out and indulge my taste for beer.
Thai Dei helped me with my burdens. Somehow, one bottle of beer stuck to his hand. I noted that his charges were all healthy still, though Narayan Singh might have acquired a fresh crop of bruises.
“Where the hell is everybody?” I grumbled again. “I’ve got stuff to do. But we can’t go off and leave these characters alone. They’re bound to get into some kind of mischief.” Longshadow, Howler and Singh were not volunteering to go back into captivity.
I took another long drink.
The quiet really bothered me. It might indicate yet another less-than-brilliant attempt to subdue Soulcatcher. She had grudges enough against us as it was.
I had seen the ground that had suffered Lady’s barrage. It bore no resemblance to its springtime self. Rocks as big as houses had had holes punched right through them. Most of the busted-up trees had burned. There had been rockslides and cave-ins. In places the rock appeared to have become plastic. It had sagged like candle wax. Catcher’s cave could not be found.
The only bodies found so far were those of crows. There was no evidence that Soulcatcher or her prisoner had suffered any serious discomfiture.
Live crows laughed amongst the tortured rocks.
91
Thai Dei grunted. These days he was positively garrulous, sometimes mouthing as many as two entire sentences in an hour. But this time he needed no words. He just put his beer in his other hand and pointed into the gathering darkness.
The missing folks were returning in a mob, coming from the direction of Catcher’s disaster. Why would they all charge off into the foothills? Because the Old Man realized my seizure must have been caused by Lady’s rascal sister?
No. He would not bother for something that trivial.
But he would go to all that trouble to round up Sleepy.
“Where did you find him?” I asked Sparkle, who was leading the mule dragging the travois onto which Sleepy was strapped. It was obvious that the kid had had it rough. His weight was down. His wardrobe was not much fresher than Narayan Singh’s. Whom I mentioned to the Old Man as soon as I found him. “It was pure luck that we showed up when we did. We got them under control. But you’ve got to do something. Or they’re going to become a major bite in the ass someday. Where did Sleepy come from?”
“A patrol spotted him in the hills not far from Lady’s tear-up. He didn’t know who he was.”
I grunted. I laid a narrow look on the kid as he passed. “It took this whole mob to bring him in?”
“Took them all to hunt him down. You all right now? What happened?”
“I had one of my seizures. Like I used to have when I went back to Dejagore.”
He frowned, tossed off orders right and left. Soldiers scattered to resume chores they should not have abandoned.
“Did you know that One-Eye had your bow?”
“My bow? What bow?”
“The one Lady gave you as a present.”
“No. I didn’t. Though maybe I told him to put it away for me one time. Or something. I haven’t seen it in so long I’d forgotten it.” He sniffed the air. “What else did you find?” I still smelled of beer.
“All kinds of treasures. And circumstantial evidence that One-Eye wasn’t planning to stay away forever.”
Croaker grunted. It was getting too dark to read his expressions well. Was he irked because I had figured something out? Or was he considering the possibilities?
I said, “I can’t believe that finding Sleepy would cause so much excitement.”
“Lady hoped we could catch Catcher all goofed up, too.”
“But we already knew she was all right. She was sending shadows down. She was messing with me.” Maybe she was just tickling me because I was there when her big sister yanked her pigtails.
“We didn’t know. We suspected. If Sleepy had been her prisoner and wandered away, then maybe she wasn’t in control after all. There isn’t anybody around here who wouldn’t love to add Catcher to our zoo. And, too, there was the chance that... the girl...”
Yeah. There was the chance they could grab their daughter back. Maybe when nobody was looking. “Where’s Lady?”
“Still out there.” His tone told me I had used my quota of questions in that area.
“Sleepy said anything useful?” I asked.
“He hasn’t said anything. He doesn’t act like he’s all there.”
“Just what this outfit needs. Another goofball.”
“You finding One-Eye’s stash reminds me. You stumbled over either one of our prodigal conjuremen lately?”
“I don’t dream that much, boss. When I do, it’s always in real time. Which means only after dark, when they can hide a lot better. And they do have to be hiding if they’re still in this part of the world. I don’t even find campfire traces anymore.”
“One-Eye would know who was looking and how,” Croaker mused. “Tell you the truth, Murgen, I don’t miss them that much nowadays. It was a stroke of genius, if I do say so myself, to split them up. I couldn’t have survived the last couple of years, working twenty-hour days, with them squabbling around me all the time.”
“You’d think if they’d joined forces there would’ve been forest fires and avalanches to mark the occasion.”
“We do keep having earthquakes.”
“I’m worried about them, boss. Because of the spear.”
“Spear? What spear?”
“The black spear. I told you I found it. The one One-Eye made while we were in Dejagore. He didn’t take it with him. But he hasn’t come back for it.”
“And?”
“He would. Using some sneak spell if he had to. It was important to him. He didn’t brag but he considered it his masterpiece. He wouldn’t just throw it away—no matter how many times he’s been through the Company having to cut and run.”
“You saying he’s coming back?”
“I’m saying I think he planned to. He might not have been one hundred percent serious about eloping. Wouldn’t be the first time a man wasn’t completely honest with a woman.”
Croaker looked at me like he was trying to figure out what was really going on inside my head. Then he shrugged, said, “Could be. You men. Take Sleepy into my shelter. Leave him on the examining table.”
“Good idea,” I said. “See how bad he’s been treated.”
Croaker grunted. “You stay out here,” he told Thai Dei, who was standing over his captives with his beer- drinking hand tucked up behind him. “You come with me, Murgen.” Like Thai Dei needed reminding that the Old Man did not want him in his house. “Jamadar Subadir. See that those prisoners are put away properly. And make certain that the rest of our guests haven’t exceeded themselves, too.”
I said, “The Prince never tried anything.” The Prahbrindrah Drah did not have to suffer the indignity of shackles. Our Taglians would not have tolerated that.
I spied Uncle Doj watching from some shadows, arms crossed. I wondered why he stayed with us. Narayan
