twisted iron cage lying on its side as though it was exhausted and dying. She waved a finger. “Naughty, naughty.”
Willow Swandamn his treacherous, should-be-dead bones! and the Nyueng Bao family stared back impassively. The pale-faced little wizard Goblin smirked, obviously remembering whose fault it was that she could no longer walk normally. And the ugly little woman smiled evilly. She said, “I wasn’t
What the hell did that mean?
70
No human being can jump as high as Soulcatcher did. Nevertheless, she managed to get her heels ten feet off the ground a gnat’s breath before the fireball ripped through the air where she had stood. I should have kept my big darned mouth shut. Gloating will do you in every time. How many stories and sagas are there where the hero survives because his captor insists on wasting time bragging and gloating before the execution? Add another one to the roll, where Company Annalist Sleepy does the incredibly dumb deed and leaves the target not quite relaxed enough.
Of course, she was
It did not play out the way I hoped, only the way I expected. Now Khusavir Pete would have a hard time repaying any debt he still owed us.
I caught a glimpse of motion, the white crow plunging like a striking hawk. It pulled out and glided away. I murmured to myself, “Sister, sister.” I was beginning to read the messages.
“Come here, Tobo.” He was carrying the Key. He was supposed to be up at the head of the column but had hung back so he could watch the fireworks. He was the only one of us who did not have the sense to be frightened. Because he was not up where he belonged, all progress had come to a halt above us. He wore a hangdog look as he approached. He expected to be chastised. And he would be, later. “Hold up the Key.”
“But won’t that-”
“The Company isn’t a debating club, Tobo. Show her the Key. Today.”
He hoisted the Key overhead angrily. The morning sunlight blazed off the golden pick.
Soulcatcher did not show much excitement. But I had not meant the demonstration for her benefit, really. I wanted Narayan Singh to know what he had let slip through his fingers.
It was the Key, of course, but it was also some ancient and holy relic of Kina’s Strangler cult. In their glory days every Deceiver company priest had carried a replica. I muttered, “You win some, you lose some, Narayan. In the excitement you got the girl back. But I’ve got this. And I can carry it. You’ve got the Daughter of Night and you can take her anywhere you want to. If you can carry her and her cage.” Goblin and One-Eye had crafted a masterpiece of wicked sorcery. She could not even escape by destroying the cage. Whatever happened to it would happen to her.
I was not pleased about having to leave the cage behind but the Shadowgate had been decidedly stubborn in resisting its passage. That could have been overcome by sheer muscle power but I had not been able to get enough men onto it fast enough to force it through before the fireballs started flying.
Good luck, Baby Darkness, dragging all that iron around whilst you pursue your wickedness.
I hoped Singh had left the Book of the Dead hidden on the other side of the Dandha Presh so it would be a long time before the girl and it embraced one another. Long enough for me to get where I wanted to go and accomplish what I wanted to accomplish.
“That’s good, Tobo. Now get back up front and get this mob moving. Swan. Tell me about the camping circles. And give me your best guess about how soon we’re likely to run into trouble because of breaks in the protection of the road.”
“I don’t remember them ever being more than a few hours apart. And although we used them as camping places, I think that they were actually crossroads. That’s easier to tell at night.” Ominously, he added, “You’ll see. Everything is different at night.”
I did not like the sound of that.
I was still in the rear guard and only halfway to the crest when Soulcatcher found out what had happened to her flying carpet. The sound of her anger reached us despite the dampening effect of whatever barrier stood between us and the rest of the world. The earth shivered at the same time.
Uncle Doj was not far away, standing at the edge of the road, watching for evidence of his success. I said, “She seems displeased with the prospect of having to walk home.” My friend the horse stood behind me, looking over my shoulder. It made a sound that could have passed for a snicker if it had not been a horse making it.
Doj indulged in a rare smile. He was thoroughly pleased with himself.
Willow Swan asked me, “What did you do now?”
“Not me. Doj. He totally obliterated her means of transport. She’s on her own two hooves, now. She’s a hundred miles from her only friend. And Goblin’s already fixed up one of her feet so she can’t run or dance.”
“What you’re telling me, then, is that you’ve created another Limper.”
He was old enough to remember that nemesis of the Company. I could not contradict him. I did lose my smile. I had read those Annals often because they had been recorded by the Captain himself when he was young. “Nah, I don’t think so. Soulcatcher doesn’t have the concentrated venom and nearly divine malice that possessed the Limper. She doesn’t get obsessed the way he did. She’s more chaos walking while he was malevolence incarnate.”
I showed Swan my crossed fingers. “I’d better dash up front and pretend that I know what I’m doing. Tobo?”
“He went ahead without you,” Doj said. “You upset him.”
I noted that the column had resumed moving, which meant that Tobo was on the plain already, carrying the Key like a protective talisman.
I needed to give a lot of thought to the fact that that artifact, evidently considered a holy of holies by the Stranglers, may actually have been brought off the plain into my world by the ancestors of the Nyueng Bao. I had to spend some thought on what the Key might mean to the last informed priest of the Nyueng Bao.
71
Something beside the road caught my attention just before I reached the crest and got my first close look at the glittering plain. It was a small frog, mostly black but with stripes and whorls of dark green upon its back. It had eyes the color of fresh blood. It clung to a slightly tilted slab of grey-black rock. It wanted to go somewhere, anywhere, but its right hind leg was injured and when it tried to jump, it just sort of spun around in place. “Where the heck did that come from? There isn’t supposed to be anything alive up here.” I had been looking forward to having the clouds of flies that followed the animals get thinned out when they buzzed out beyond the safe zones and encountered killer shadows.
Swan said, “It won’t be alive for long. The white crow dropped it. I think it was bringing it along for a snack.” He pointed.
At the white crow. Bolder than ever, the bird had made itself at home on the back of my friend the mystic stallion. The horse seemed content with the situation. Perhaps even a little smug when it looked at me.
“I just remembered,” Swan said. “For what it’s worth. Last time we came up here Croaker made everybody who belonged to the Company touch their badges and amulets to the black stripe that runs down the middle of the road. Right after he touched the stripe with the lancehead on the standard. Maybe none of that amounts to anything. But I’m a superstitious kind of guy and I’d be more comfortable-”
“You’re right. So be quiet. I recently reread everything Murgen had to say about his trip and he thought it
