ain't just going to hang round here?'
'I'm sure. They'll return to their home realm – that's what the first two did, didn't they?'
'Aye, but they had their shadows. Might be these ones will go hunting their own first.'
Paran frowned. He'd not considered that. 'Oh, I see. Into the Realm of Shadow, then.'
'If that's where the Hounds of Shadow are at the moment, aye.'
Damn. 'All right, set your charges, Hedge, but don't start the sand grains running just yet.'
'Right.'
Paran watched the sapper head off. Then he drew out his Deck of Dragons. Paused, glancing over at Ganath, then Karpolan Demesand. Both saw what he held in his hands. The Trygalle master visibly blanched, then hurried back to his carriage. After a moment – and a long, unreadable look – the Jaghut followed suit.
Paran allowed himself a small smile. Yes, why announce yourselves to whomever I'm about to call upon? He squatted, setting the deck facedown on the mudstained walkway of branches. Then lifted the top card and set it down to the right. High House Shadow – who's in charge here, damned Deck, you or me? 'Shadowthrone,' he murmured, 'I require your attention.'
The murky image of the Shadow House remained singularly lifeless on the lacquered card.
'All right,' Paran said, 'I'll revise my wording. Shadowthrone, talk to me here and now or everything you've done and everything you're planning to do will get, quite literally, torn to pieces.'
A shimmer, further obscuring the House, then something like a vague figure, seated on a black throne. A voice hissed out at him, 'This had better be important. I'm busy and besides, even the idea of a Master of the Deck nauseates me, so get on with it.'
'The Deragoth are about to be released, Shadowthrone.'
Obvious agitation. 'What gnat-brained idiot would do that?'
'Can't be helped, I'm afraid-'
'You!'
'Look, I have my reasons, and they will be found in Seven Cities.'
'Oh,' the figure settled back down, 'those reasons. Well, yes. Clever, even. But still profoundly stupid.'
'Shadowthrone,' Paran said, 'the two Hounds of Shadow that Rake killed. The two taken by Dragnipur.'
'What about them?'
'I'm not sure how much you know, but I freed them from the sword.' He waited for another bout of histrionics, but… nothing. 'Ah, so you know that. Good. Well, I have discovered where they went… here, where they conjoined with their counterparts, and were then freed – no, not me. Now, I understand that they have since been killed. For good, this time.'
Shadowthrone raised a long-fingered hand that filled most of the card.
Closed it into a fist. 'Let me see,' the god's voice purred, 'if I understand you.' One finger snapped upward. 'The Nameless Idiots go and release Dejim Nebrahl. Why? Because they're idiots. Their own lies caught up with them, so they needed to get rid of a servant who was doing what they wanted him to do in the first place, only doing it too well!' Shadowthrone's voice was steadily climbing in pitch and volume.
A second finger shot into view. 'Then, you, the Master Idiot of the Deck of Dragons, decide to release the Deragoth, to get rid of Dejim Nebrahl. But wait, even better!' A third finger. 'Some other serious nasty wandering Seven Cities just killed two Deragoth, and maybe that nasty is still close by, and would like a few more trophies to drag behind his damned horse!' His voice was now a shriek. 'And now! Now!'
The hand closed back into a fist, shaking about. 'You want me to send the Hounds of Shadow to Seven Cities! Because it's finally occurred to that worm-ridden walnut you call a brain that the Deragoth won't bother with Dejim Nebrahl until they find my Hounds! And if they come looking here in my realm, there'll be no stopping them!' He halted suddenly, the fist motionless. Then various fingers sprang into view in an increasingly chaotic pattern. Shadowthrone snarled and the frenzied hand vanished. A whisper: 'Pure genius. Why didn't I think of that?' The tone began rising once more. 'Why? Because I'm not an idiot!!'
With that the god's presence winked out.
Paran grunted, then said, 'You never told me if you were going to send the Hounds of Shadow to Seven Cities.'
He thought then that he heard a faint scream of frustration, but perhaps it was only imagined. Paran returned the card to the deck, put it back into an inside pocket, and slowly straightened. 'Well,' he sighed, 'that wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be.'
By the time Hedge returned, both Ganath and Karpolan had reappeared, their glances towards Paran decidedly uneasy.
The ghost gestured Paran closer and said quietly, 'It ain't going to work the way we wanted it, Captain. Too much distance between them – by the time I get to the closest one, the farthest one will have gone up, and if those Hounds are close, well, like I said, it ain't going to work.'
'What do you suggest?'
'You ain't going to like it. I sure don't, but it's the only way.'
'Out with it, sapper.'
'Leave me behind. Get going. Now.'
'Hedge-'
'No, listen, it makes sense. I'm already dead – I can find my own way out.'
'Maybe you can find your own way out, Hedge. More likely what's left of you will get torn to pieces, if not by the Deragoth, then any of a host of other local nightmares.'
'Captain, I don't need this body – it's just for show, so's you got a face to look at. Trust me, it's the only way you and the others are going to get out of this alive.'
'Let's try a compromise,' Paran said. 'We wait as long as we can.'
Hedge shrugged. 'As you like, just don't wait too long, Captain.'
'Get on your way, then, Hedge. And… thank you.'
'Always an even trade, Captain.'
The ghost headed off. Paran turned to Karpolan Demesand. 'How confident are you,' he asked, 'about getting us out of here fast?'
'This part should be relatively simple,' the Trygalle sorceror replied. 'Once a path is found into a warren, its relationship to others becomes known. The Trygalle Trade Guild's success is dependent entirely upon its Surveyants – its maps, Ganoes Paran. With each mission, those maps become more complete.'
'Those are valuable documents,' Paran observed. 'I trust you keep them well protected.'
Karpolan Demesand smiled, and said nothing.
'Prepare the way, then,' Paran said.
Hedge was already out of sight, lost somewhere in the gloom beyond the nearest statues. Mists had settled in the depressions, but the mercurial sky overhead seemed as remote as ever. For all that, Paran noticed, the light was failing. Had their sojourn here encompassed but a single day? That seemed… unlikely.
The bark of a munition reached him – a sharper. 'That's the signal,'
Paran said, striding over to his horse. 'The farthest statue will go first.' He swung himself into the saddle, guided his horse closer to the carriage, into which Karpolan and Ganath had already disappeared.
The shutter on the window slid to one side as he arrived.
'Captain-'
A thunderous detonation interrupted him, and Paran turned to see a column of smoke and dust rising.
'Captain, it seems – much to my surprise-'
A second explosion, closer this time, and another statue seemed to simply vanish.
'As I was saying, it appears my options are far more limited than I first-'
From the distance came a deep, bestial roar.
The first Deragoth'Ganoes Paran! As I was saying-'
The third statue detonated, its base disappearing within an expanding, billowing wave of smoke, stone and dust. Front legs shorn through, the huge edifice pitched forward, jagged cracks sweeping through the rock, and
