We had been in the
holy land of my imagination for four days. Nothing had been gained.
Something had been lost. An old Company hand named Spiff was dead.
Likewise, Cho Dai Cho, alias JoJo, the Nyueng Bao who had been
One-Eye’s indifferent bodyguard for so long.
Shadows had gotten them the first night. Killer shadows that had
escaped the glittering plain after the forvalaka’s breakout
had damaged the Khatovar shadowgate. Shadows that had depopulated
this part of Khatovar.
Once we knew they were there we had little trouble luring and
destroying them. We had had plenty of experience. But the alarm
method was awfully unpleasant.
It could have been worse. The fact of regional devastation had
inspired everyone to a higher state of readiness.
During subsequent nights we eliminated a total of nine shadows.
I hoped that augured well for the rest of this world. I hoped they
were now that uncommon.
The Black Hounds helped destroy the shadows. They hated their
undomesticated cousins from the plain. And feared them greatly.
Though these shadows seemed much less aggressive than those we had
encountered in the past.
They ranged afar, too, and found no living people south of
Khatovar’s equivalent of the Dandha Presh. Of the
forvalaka they found little sign, either. Its trail, though, they
were able to uncover. Apparently it was so plain my ravens
suspected that it had been left that way on purpose.
“You really want to cross those mountains again?”
Swan asked.
Lady remarked, “He looks exhausted already, doesn’t
he? And we haven’t walked a foot.”
I admitted, “This would be a great time to have one of
those flying carpets.”
“There’re a lot of things we could use. Several of
the black stallions from Charm would be handy. So would a hundred
more fireball throwers. You wouldn’t steal Sleepy’s
horse.”
“Well, I couldn’t, could I? It’s the last one
left. She’d notice it was missing.”
“But she isn’t missing you and me and the rest of
these droppings beneath the roost of the rooks of dim
wittedness.”
“That’s a cute image,” Swan said. “Here
come the lead birds of the flock.” Murgen. Thai Dei and Uncle
Doj were approaching. Like the rest of the band they wanted to
know, “What now?” and I had promised to tell them this
afternoon.
Murgen asked, “So what’re we going to do,
boss?”
“Go get it. We can’t stay here. The shadows wiped
out almost all the game.”
They just kill. They will kill bugs if the passion takes them.
Large animals they overlook only when they have the opportunity to
suck the life out of something human.
Murgen asked, “You think that’s why she didn’t
hang around here?”
Only part of it. “She does have to eat.” A glance
around told me the fire in their bellies for revenge no longer
burned so hot.
Doj said, “But there is food here. And it’s not that
hard to find. I’ve seen wild pigs and a species of miniature
deer that I didn’t recognize. I’ve seen rabbits and
several kinds of smaller rodents. I’d say there was food
enough if she wanted it. I’d also say the shadows
haven’t been active here for a long time. Otherwise I
wouldn’t have seen the animals I have. The monster had to be
rejoining her allies. And the shadows had to be sent. To spy on
us.”
I said, “Do go on.”
“I’ve considered several alternate frames for the
evidence. Maybe it does add up to nothing more than the surface
picture. A raid by an insane monstrosity. But I think that is just
too simple. I feel there has to be more. Insanity and revenge as
motives don’t seem adequate. But if she’s working with
someone local . . . ”
I had been supposing almost from the moment I broke out of my
coma. I did not have enough information to support my guesswork,
though.
I grunted.
“The monster had to know she would be pursued. The
Soldiers of Darkness have that reputation. And they’ve tried
to kill her before, with much weaker provocation.”
“And Goblin also tried to help her, as I recall. Which she
repaid by turning on him before he could do her any
good.”
Doj continued, “She had to get through two shadowgates to
reach Hsien. Which she knew, somehow, was where One-Eye could be
found. Both shadowgates, as far as she knew, were damaged. So even
if she was safe on the roads she could expect to be vulnerable at
the gates. But she didn’t get hurt. And then the distance
between the gates would be a long one if she got no help from
Shivetya. We have no reason to believe he helped her. On its face
it looks like it would’ve been too long and too dangerous and
too hungry a journey if One-Eye’s murder was all she hoped to
accomplish and could expect no help managing it.”
I turned to Lady, then looked back to Doj. He was as smart as I
was. “I see. Of course she couldn’t have managed
without help. With the shadows and, especially, with food. She had
no chance to feed while she was in Hsien. The Hounds were after her
all the time.”
Lady chipped in, “Then she had help from helpers who
expected a sizable payback. What might that be?”
“How about the same thing we worked for four years to dig
out of the Land of Unknown Shadows?” Murgen said. “The
secrets of the shadowgates.”
Heads nodded. I asked, “How would they know? And why would
they want it? To stop this gate from leaking? Didn’t Shivetya
say they always repair themselves to that level? Tobo and Suvrin
never found any that were open, did they?” I assumed Doj
would be familiar with Tobo’s adventures.
All eyes were on me. Murgen suggested, “This is Khatovar.
Source of the Free Companies.”
“More than four hundred years ago. Closer to five, now.
They might not even remember.”
“Probably not.”
“And they must have some knowledge of shadowgates. They
got Bowalk through this one, in and out of Hsien, then back through
here again. Without destroying anything.”
Lady said, “Another thing we can infer is that someone
here knows something about controlling shadows.”
“We can?”
“Implicit in the fact that Bowalk made it to Hsien and
back again. As well as in the fact that we should’ve had more
shadows to deal with here if a horde did break out and devastate
the world when Bowalk came through the gate the first time.
There’s game, Doj says. If those were feral shadows we
destroyed they would’ve killed all the game. Those things
were here to watch us.”
I growled. “Damn! Murgen. All that time at Khang Phi. You
ever hear tell of any Shadowmasters that never were accounted for?
We’re not going to have to butt heads with Longshadow’s
long-lost mom, are we?”
“They’re accounted for. Any that turn up here would
have to be home grown.” Which was possible. Two of the three
we had destroyed in our world were exactly that. One had been one
of the Lady’s henchwomen believed dead but gone fugitive
instead.
Continued talk led to the notion that we might have been lured
to Khatovar specifically so we could be stripped of whatever
knowledge we might possess.
Even now Lady remained a tremendous repository of arcane
information.
I went off alone with my raven companions. One I told to take
the Unknown Shadows out scouting, ranging as far as necessary to
find the nearest natives. The other I sent to find Tobo. It carried
a detailed and honest report, just as if Sleepy had sent us to
Khatovar and expected regular communiques.
I hoped Tobo might have some useful suggestions. I hoped he knew
more about Khatovar than he had pretended.
Neither Lady nor I could sleep. The white raven had not taken
long to find people. An army was headed our way, though it was
still on the far side of the mountains. The forvalaka was there,
accompanying a family of wizards who, according to reports from
Tobo, were the uncontested overlords of modern Khatovar.
Tobo’s source was indirect. He had consulted the scholar
Baladitya, who took our questions to the demon Shivetya. Shivetya
then tacitly acknowledged his ability to monitor events in the
worlds connected to the glittering plain.
The rulers of Khatovar were a sprawling, brawling, turbulent
clan of wizards known as the Voroshk, which was simply their family
name. The founding father’s talented blood had bred true. And
often. He had been a man of immense appetites. There were several
hundred Voroshk today. Their regime was cruel. Its sole purpose was
to further enrich and empower the Family. Following the disaster
caused by the forvalaka’s breakthrough into Khatovar, the
Voroshk had learned to manage the shadows. It would be the Voroshk
who had sent the shadows we had destroyed.
Kina, or Khadi, was no longer worshipped in the world bearing
the name that meant Khadi’s Gate. The Voroshk had
exterminated the Children of Kina.
Nevertheless, once each year, sometime during the time when the
Deceivers would have celebrated their Festival of Lights, somebody
managed to strangle a member of the Family and get away.
Chances were good that the Voroshk knew their history well
enough to recall that the Free Companies of Khatovar had gone out
as missionaries on behalf of the Mother of Night. They might well
dread the Queen of Darkness’s return.
My own supernatural allies were under instruction to avoid
notice except in instances where Khatovar’s shadows could be
picked off without risk of our secret strength being revealed.
Her face against my chest, Lady murmured, “These Voroshk
sound like bad people, hon. As bad as any you’ve run into
before.”
“Including you?”
“Nobody’s as bad as me. But you need to worry about
this. There’s a whole family of them. And they don’t
squabble amongst themselves. Much. Even when I had the Ten on their
shortest rein they were always trying to stab each other in the
back.”
There was a message there, under her teasing. I held her and
told her, “I’ll retreat to the plain rather than risk
the confrontation. We can always sneak back here some other
time.” But I would not be happy if I had to let Bowalk get
away yet again.
I drifted off wondering about the minds of the Voroshk.
Wondering about this mysterious world that had sent our forbrethren
out so long ago, on a crusade that had gotten lost. Were the
Voroshk unwitting pawns of Kina? Could they be yet another device
by which the Dark Mother might try to bring on the Year of the
Skulls?
“No,” Lady said when I suggested it aloud. “We
know whose role that is.”
“Don’t want to think about Booboo, hon. Just want to
go to sleep.”
We had been in the
holy land of my imagination for four days. Nothing had been gained.
Something had been lost. An old Company hand named Spiff was dead.
Likewise, Cho Dai Cho, alias JoJo, the Nyueng Bao who had been
One-Eye’s indifferent bodyguard for so long.
Shadows had gotten them the first night. Killer shadows that had
escaped the glittering plain after the forvalaka’s breakout
had damaged the Khatovar shadowgate. Shadows that had depopulated
this part of Khatovar.
Once we knew they were there we had little trouble luring and
destroying them. We had had plenty of experience. But the alarm
method was awfully unpleasant.
It could have been worse. The fact of regional devastation had
inspired everyone to a higher state of readiness.
During subsequent nights we eliminated a total of nine shadows.
I hoped that augured well for the rest of this world. I hoped they
were now that uncommon.
The Black Hounds helped destroy the shadows. They hated their
undomesticated cousins from the plain. And feared them greatly.
Though these shadows seemed much less aggressive than those we had
encountered in the past.
They ranged afar, too, and found no living people south of
Khatovar’s equivalent of the Dandha Presh. Of the
forvalaka they found little sign, either. Its trail, though, they
were able to uncover. Apparently it was so plain my ravens
suspected that it had been left that way on purpose.
“You really want to cross those mountains again?”
Swan asked.
Lady remarked, “He looks exhausted already, doesn’t
he? And we haven’t walked a foot.”
I admitted, “This would be a great time to have one of
those flying carpets.”
“There’re a lot of things we could use. Several of
the black stallions from Charm would be handy. So would a hundred
more fireball throwers. You wouldn’t steal Sleepy’s
horse.”
“Well, I couldn’t, could I? It’s the last one
left. She’d notice it was missing.”
“But she isn’t missing you and me and the rest of
these droppings beneath the roost of the rooks of dim
wittedness.”
“That’s a cute image,” Swan said. “Here
come the lead birds of the flock.” Murgen. Thai Dei and Uncle
Doj were approaching. Like the rest of the band they wanted to
know, “What now?” and I had promised to tell them this
afternoon.
Murgen asked, “So what’re we going to do,
boss?”
“Go get it. We can’t stay here. The shadows wiped
out almost all the game.”
They just kill. They will kill bugs if the passion takes them.
Large animals they overlook only when they have the opportunity to
suck the life out of something human.
Murgen asked, “You think that’s why she didn’t
hang around here?”
Only part of it. “She does have to eat.” A glance
around told me the fire in their bellies for revenge no longer
burned so hot.
Doj said, “But there is food here. And it’s not that
hard to find. I’ve seen wild pigs and a species of miniature
deer that I didn’t recognize. I’ve seen rabbits and
several kinds of smaller rodents. I’d say there was food
enough if she wanted it. I’d also say the shadows
haven’t been active here for a long time. Otherwise I
wouldn’t have seen the animals I have. The monster had to be
rejoining her allies. And the shadows had to be sent. To spy on
us.”
I said, “Do go on.”
“I’ve considered several alternate frames for the
evidence. Maybe it does add up to nothing more than the surface
picture. A raid by an insane monstrosity. But I think that is just
too simple. I feel there has to be more. Insanity and revenge as
motives don’t seem adequate. But if she’s working with
someone local . . . ”
I had been supposing almost from the moment I broke out of my
coma. I did not have enough information to support my guesswork,
though.
I grunted.
“The monster had to know she would be pursued. The
Soldiers of Darkness have that reputation. And they’ve tried
to kill her before, with much weaker provocation.”
“And Goblin also tried to help her, as I recall. Which she
repaid by turning on him before he could do her any
good.”
Doj continued, “She had to get through two shadowgates to
reach Hsien. Which she knew, somehow, was where One-Eye could be
found. Both shadowgates, as far as she knew, were damaged. So even
if she was safe on the roads she could expect to be vulnerable at
the gates. But she didn’t get hurt. And then the distance
between the gates would be a long one if she got no help from
Shivetya. We have no reason to believe he helped her. On its face
it looks like it would’ve been too long and too dangerous and
too hungry a journey if One-Eye’s murder was all she hoped to
accomplish and could expect no help managing it.”
I turned to Lady, then looked back to Doj. He was as smart as I
was. “I see. Of course she couldn’t have managed
without help. With the shadows and, especially, with food. She had
no chance to feed while she was in Hsien. The Hounds were after her
all the time.”
Lady chipped in, “Then she had help from helpers who
expected a sizable payback. What might that be?”
“How about the same thing we worked for four years to dig
out of the Land of Unknown Shadows?” Murgen said. “The
secrets of the shadowgates.”
Heads nodded. I asked, “How would they know? And why would
they want it? To stop this gate from leaking? Didn’t Shivetya
say they always repair themselves to that level? Tobo and Suvrin
never found any that were open, did they?” I assumed Doj
would be familiar with Tobo’s adventures.
All eyes were on me. Murgen suggested, “This is Khatovar.
Source of the Free Companies.”
“More than four hundred years ago. Closer to five, now.
They might not even remember.”
“Probably not.”
“And they must have some knowledge of shadowgates. They
got Bowalk through this one, in and out of Hsien, then back through
here again. Without destroying anything.”
Lady said, “Another thing we can infer is that someone
here knows something about controlling shadows.”
“We can?”
“Implicit in the fact that Bowalk made it to Hsien and
back again. As well as in the fact that we should’ve had more
shadows to deal with here if a horde did break out and devastate
the world when Bowalk came through the gate the first time.
There’s game, Doj says. If those were feral shadows we
destroyed they would’ve killed all the game. Those things
were here to watch us.”
I growled. “Damn! Murgen. All that time at Khang Phi. You
ever hear tell of any Shadowmasters that never were accounted for?
We’re not going to have to butt heads with Longshadow’s
long-lost mom, are we?”
“They’re accounted for. Any that turn up here would
have to be home grown.” Which was possible. Two of the three
we had destroyed in our world were exactly that. One had been one
of the Lady’s henchwomen believed dead but gone fugitive
instead.
Continued talk led to the notion that we might have been lured
to Khatovar specifically so we could be stripped of whatever
knowledge we might possess.
Even now Lady remained a tremendous repository of arcane
information.
I went off alone with my raven companions. One I told to take
the Unknown Shadows out scouting, ranging as far as necessary to
find the nearest natives. The other I sent to find Tobo. It carried
a detailed and honest report, just as if Sleepy had sent us to
Khatovar and expected regular communiques.
I hoped Tobo might have some useful suggestions. I hoped he knew
more about Khatovar than he had pretended.
Neither Lady nor I could sleep. The white raven had not taken
long to find people. An army was headed our way, though it was
still on the far side of the mountains. The forvalaka was there,
accompanying a family of wizards who, according to reports from
Tobo, were the uncontested overlords of modern Khatovar.
Tobo’s source was indirect. He had consulted the scholar
Baladitya, who took our questions to the demon Shivetya. Shivetya
then tacitly acknowledged his ability to monitor events in the
worlds connected to the glittering plain.
The rulers of Khatovar were a sprawling, brawling, turbulent
clan of wizards known as the Voroshk, which was simply their family
name. The founding father’s talented blood had bred true. And
often. He had been a man of immense appetites. There were several
hundred Voroshk today. Their regime was cruel. Its sole purpose was
to further enrich and empower the Family. Following the disaster
caused by the forvalaka’s breakthrough into Khatovar, the
Voroshk had learned to manage the shadows. It would be the Voroshk
who had sent the shadows we had destroyed.
Kina, or Khadi, was no longer worshipped in the world bearing
the name that meant Khadi’s Gate. The Voroshk had
exterminated the Children of Kina.
Nevertheless, once each year, sometime during the time when the
Deceivers would have celebrated their Festival of Lights, somebody
managed to strangle a member of the Family and get away.
Chances were good that the Voroshk knew their history well
enough to recall that the Free Companies of Khatovar had gone out
as missionaries on behalf of the Mother of Night. They might well
dread the Queen of Darkness’s return.
My own supernatural allies were under instruction to avoid
notice except in instances where Khatovar’s shadows could be
picked off without risk of our secret strength being revealed.
Her face against my chest, Lady murmured, “These Voroshk
sound like bad people, hon. As bad as any you’ve run into
before.”
“Including you?”
“Nobody’s as bad as me. But you need to worry about
this. There’s a whole family of them. And they don’t
squabble amongst themselves. Much. Even when I had the Ten on their
shortest rein they were always trying to stab each other in the
back.”
There was a message there, under her teasing. I held her and
told her, “I’ll retreat to the plain rather than risk
the confrontation. We can always sneak back here some other
time.” But I would not be happy if I had to let Bowalk get
away yet again.
I drifted off wondering about the minds of the Voroshk.
Wondering about this mysterious world that had sent our forbrethren
out so long ago, on a crusade that had gotten lost. Were the
Voroshk unwitting pawns of Kina? Could they be yet another device
by which the Dark Mother might try to bring on the Year of the
Skulls?
“No,” Lady said when I suggested it aloud. “We
know whose role that is.”
“Don’t want to think about Booboo, hon. Just want to
go to sleep.”