Sleepy, was in a trousers-soiling panic but something else was inside the bird with me. And it was having fun.
Who is “me?”
The exercise was over. I was in my body on the plain, in the rain, shuddering while my mind’s eye observed the capering dreamwalkers. I examined what I had experienced and concluded that I had been given a message, which was that Kina knew we were coming. The dreaming goddess had been pretending quiescence of recent decades. She knew patience intimately, by all its secret names. And I may have been given another message as well.
Kina still was the Mother of Deceit. Quite possibly nothing I had learned recently was entirely or even partially true if Kina had found a way to wander the shadowed reaches of my mind. I had no doubt that she could. She had managed to inform entire generations and regions with a hysterical fear of the Black Company before the advent of the Old Crew.
I swear I sensed her amusement over having quickened in me a deeper and more abiding distrust of everything around me.
80
Suvrin wakened me early. He sounded glum. I could not see his face in the darkness. “Trouble, Sleepy,” he whispered. And I have to give him credit. He was first to realize the implications of the fact that it was snowing. But then, he had seen more of the white stuff than any of us but Swan. And Willow had been away from it long enough to turn into an old man.
I wanted to moan and groan but that would have done no good and we needed to get a handle on the situation right away. “Good thinking,” I told him. “Thanks. Go around in that direction and wake up the sergeants. I’ll circle around to the left.” Despite my nightmares, I felt rested.
The snowfall in no way recognized the presence of the protection shielding our campsite. Which meant the boundaries were no longer obvious. I sensed a heightened killing lust amongst the shadows. They had seen this before. It would be snack time if anyone started running around nervously.
We had One-Eye and Goblin on our side. Tobo, too. They could winkle out the whereabouts of the boundaries.
But they needed a little light to do the job.
One by one I made sure everyone wakened and understood the gravity of the situation, especially the mothers. I made sure everyone understood that no one should move around until daylight.
Wonder of wonders, nobody did anything stupid. Once there was light enough, the wizards started drawing lines in the snow.
I arranged for teams to enforce the boundaries.
Everything went so well I was feeling smug before it turned time to go. Then I discovered that it was going to be a long day which, of course, I should have known instinctively.
This next leg of the journey had taken the Captured only a few hours. It would take us far longer. The shattered fortress could not be discerned behind the falling snow. The old, old men would have to mark out every step before it could be taken, walking to either side of Tobo and the Key, keeping him centered on the road but never getting ahead of him. Just in case.
A quarter mile along I was worrying about time already. We had too many mouths and too few supplies. Harsh rationing was in place. These people had to be gotten across the plain fast, excepting those of us who would bring out the Captured.
“This’s getting out of hand!” Goblin yelled. “If it gets any heavier, we’re up Shit Creek.”
He was right. If this snowfall turned into a blizzard, we were going to have no other worries. If it worsened much, we were going to die out here and make Soulcatcher the happiest girl in the world.
She probably was anyway, now that she had had time to reflect on the fact that there was no one left able to dispute her in any whim she cared to indulge. Water sleeps? So what. Those days were over.
Not while I was still standing, they were not.
Swan joined me for breakfast. “How’s my wife this morning?”
“Frigid.” Darn! Open mouth, insert boot with manure veneer.
Swan grinned. “I’ve known that for years. Isn’t this something? There’s more than an inch already.”
“It’s something, all right. Unfortunately, I don’t encourage myself to use the kind of language needed to describe it. Most of these people have never seen snow. Watch out for somebody to do something stupid. In fact, you might stick close to the Radisha. I don’t want her getting hurt because somebody doesn’t use his head.”
“All right. Did you dream last night?”
“Of course I did. I got to meet Kina right up close, too.”
“I saw lights on the road to the east of us.”
That got my attention. “Really?”
“In my dream. They were just witchlights. Maybe the plain’s own memories, or something. There wasn’t anything there when I went to look.”
“Getting bold in your old age, are you?”
“It just sort of happened. I wouldn’t have done it if I’d thought about it.”
“Did I snore again last night?”
“You solidified your grasp on the all-time women’s championship. You’re ready to compete at the next level.”
“Must have something to do with the dreaming.”
Sahra drifted up. She looked grim. She did not like what was happening even a little, the snow or the way we had to cope with it. But she bit her tongue. She understood that it was now too late to be a fussy mom. Like it or not, her boy was carrying us all right now.
One-Eye limped along using a staff somebody had made for him from one of the smaller bamboo weapons. I did not know if it was still armed. Very likely so, he being One-Eye. He told me, “I’m not going to last at this, Little Girl. But I’ll go as long as I can.”
“Show Tobo what to do and let him take over as soon as he’s got it. Let Gota carry the pickax and you get up on the horse. Advise from there.”
The old man just nodded instead of finding some reason to argue, betraying his true weakness. Goblin scowled at me, though, assuming he was going to get a large ration of unsolicited counsel. But he shrugged off the temptation to debate.
“Tobo. Hold up. You really understand what we have to do today?”
“I’ve got it, Sleepy.”
“Then give your grandmother the Key. Where is that horse buddy of mine? Get up here, you. Carry One-Eye.” I noted that the white crow had left the beast’s back. In fact, the bird was nowhere to be seen. “Up you go, old man.”
“Who you calling old, Little Girl?” One-Eye drew himself up as tall as he got.
“You, so old you’ve gotten shorter than me. Get your tail up there. I really want to get there today.” I offered Goblin a hard look, just in case he got a notion to try poking sticks in the spokes. He just looked back blankly. Or maybe blandly.
Spoiled brat, me. I got my way. The ruined fortress loomed out of weakly falling snow around what felt like noon. Once Tobo got the hang of discovering the boundaries well enough to keep up with Goblin, the band began moving at a pace limited only by Mother Gota’s capacities. And she seemed taken by a sudden urge to hasten toward whatever destiny awaited whoever arrived with the Key.
My natural pessimism went almost entirely unrewarded. Had Iqbal’s boys not discovered the wonders of snowballs, I would have had nothing to complain about at all. Even then I would have been entertained had not a few wild volleys of missiles not strayed my way.
We arrived at the chasm Murgen had mentioned, a tear in the face of the plain rent by powers almost
