I can’t
believe he did that!” I said, still climbing out of
Sawa’s smelly rags and crippled personality. Word had beaten
us home. The suicide was all anyone wanted to discuss. Our own
nighttime effort had become secondary. That was over and they had
survived.
Tobo definitely did not believe it. He mentioned that in passing
and insisted on telling us everything his father had seen inside
the Palace last night. He referred to notes he had made with
Goblin’s help. He was thoroughly proud of the job he had done
and wanted to rub our noses in it. “But I couldn’t
really get him to talk to me, Mom. Anything I asked seemed to be
just an irritation. It was like he just wanted to get it over with
so he could go away.”
“I know, dear,” Sahra said. “I know.
He’s that way with me, too. Here’s some nice bread they
let us bring home. Eat something. Goblin. What did they do with
Swan? Is he healthy?”
One-Eye cackled. He said, “Healthy as a man with cracked
ribs can be. Scared shitless, though.” He cackled again.
“Cracked ribs? Explain.”
Goblin told her, “Somebody with a grudge against the Greys
got overexcited. But don’t worry about it. The guy is going
to have plenty of opportunity to be sorry he let his feelings get
the best of him.”
“I’m exhausted,” Sahra said. “We spent
the whole day in the same room as Soulcatcher. I thought I would
burst.”
“You did? It was all I could do not to run out of there
screaming. I concentrated so hard on being Sawa that I missed half
of what they said.”
“What didn’t get said might be more important.
Soulcatcher was really suspicious about the attack.”
“I told you, go for the throat!” One-Eye barked.
“While they still didn’t believe in us. Kill them all
and you wouldn’t have to sneak around trying to figure out
how to get the Old Man out. You could make those guys at the
library do your research for you.”
“We’d’ve just gotten killed,” Sahra
said. “Soulcatcher was already looking for trouble. The news
about the Daughter of Night did that. Speaking of whom, I want you
two looking for her, and Narayan, too.”
“Too?” Goblin asked.
“Soulcatcher will hunt them with a great deal of
enthusiasm, I expect.”
I observed, “Kina must be stirring again. Narayan and the
girl wouldn’t come to Taglios unless they were confident of
her protection. Which means the girl will start copying the Books
of the Dead again, too. Sahra, tell Murgen to keep an eye on
them.” Those terrible, ancient volumes were buried in the
same cavern as the Captured. “I had a thought while we were
up there—after I ran out of candlesticks and didn’t have
anything else to do. It’s been a long time since I read
Murgen’s Annals. It didn’t seem like they had much
bearing on what we’re trying to do. Being so modern. But when
I was sitting there, just a few feet from Soulcatcher, I got a
really creepy feeling that I had missed something. And it’s
been so long since I studied those things, I can’t guess
what.”
“You should have time. We’ll need to lie pretty low
for a few days.”
“You’ll be going to work, won’t
you?”
“It would be suspicious if I didn’t.”
“I’m going to the library. I located some histories
that go back to the earliest days of Taglios.”
“Yeah?” One-Eye croaked, jerked himself out of a
half-sleep. “Then find out for me why the hell the ruling
gang are only princes. The territories they rule are bigger than
most kingdoms around here.”
“A question that never would have occurred to me,” I
said politely. “Or to any native of this end of the world,
probably. I’ll ask.” If I remembered.
Nervous laughter came from the shadows in the back of the
warehouse. Willow Swan. Goblin said, “He’s playing tonk
with some guys he knew in the old days.”
Sahra said, “We should get him out of the city. Where can
we keep him?”
“I need him here,” I said. “I need to ask him
about the plain. That’s why we grabbed him first. And
I’m not going off to some place in the country when
I’ve finally started getting somewhere at the
library.”
“Soulcatcher might have him marked somehow.”
“We’ve got two half-ass wizards of our own. Have them
check him over. They add up to one competent—”
“You watch your mouth, Little Girl.”
“I forget
myself, One-Eye. You two together add up to half as much as either
one alone.”
“Sleepy has a point. If Soulcatcher marked him, you two
ought to be able to find out.”
One-Eye snapped, “Use your head! If she’d marked
him, she’d already be here. She wouldn’t be up there
asking her lackeys if they’d found his bones yet.” The
little man climbed out of his chair, creaking and groaning. He
headed for the shadows at the rear of the warehouse but not toward
Swan’s voice.
I said, “He’s right.” I headed to the back
myself. I had not seen Swan up close for fifteen years. Behind me,
Tobo started grilling his mother about Murgen. He was upset because
his father had been indifferent.
Seemed to me there was a good chance Murgen did not understand
who Tobo was. He had trouble with time. He had had that problem
since the siege of Jaicur. He might think it was still fifteen
years ago and he was stumbling away into a possible future.
Swan stared at me for a few seconds after I stepped into the
light of the lamp illuminating the table where he was playing cards
with the Gupta brothers and a corporal we called Slink.
“Sleepy, right? You haven’t changed. Goblin or One-Eye
put some kind of hex on you?”
“God is good to the pure of heart. How are your
ribs?”
Swan ran fingers through the remnants of his hair. “So
that’s the story.” He touched his side.
“I’ll live.”
“You’re taking it well.”
“I needed a vacation. Nothing’s in my hands now. I
can relax until she finds me again.”
“Can she do that?”
“You the Captain now?”
“The Captain is the Captain. I design ambushes. Can she
find you?”
“Well, son, this looks like the fabled collision between
the unstoppable whatsis and the immovable thingee. I don’t
know where to lay my bets. Over here we got the Black Company with
four hundred years of bad and tricky. Over there you got
Soulcatcher with four centuries of mean and crazy. It’s a
toss-up, I guess.”
“She doesn’t have you marked somehow?”
“Only with scars.”
The way he said that made me feel I knew exactly what he meant.
“You want to come over to our side?”
“You’re kidding. You pulled all that stuff this
morning just to ask me to join the Black Company?”
“We pulled all that stuff this morning to show the world
that we’re still here and that we could do what we want,
whenever we want, Protector or no Protector. And to take you so I
can question you about the plain of glittering stone.”
He looked at me for several seconds, then checked his cards.
“There’s a subject that hasn’t come up in a
while.”
“You going to be stubborn about it?”
“You kidding? I’ll talk your ear off. But I’ll
bet you don’t learn a damned thing you didn’t already
know.” He discarded a black knave.
Slink jumped on the card, laid down a nine-queen spread,
discarded a red queen and grinned. He needed to see One-Eye about
those teeth.
“Shit!” Swan grumbled. “I missed this game.
How did you people learn? It’s the simplest damn game in the
world but I never met a Taglian who could figure it out.”
I observed, “You learn fast when you play with One-Eye.
Scoot over, Sin. Let me play while I pick this guy’s
brain.” I pulled up a stool, studying Swan every second. The
man knew how to get into a character. This was not the Willow Swan
that Murgen wrote about or the Swan that Sahra saw when she visited
the Palace. I picked up my five cards from the next deal.
“This ain’t a hand, it’s a foot. How come
you’re so relaxed, Swan?”
“No stress. You can’t have a worse hand than mine. I
don’t got no two cards of the same suit.”
“No stress?”
“As of today I got nothing to do but lean back and take it
easy. Just play tonk till my honey comes and takes me
home.”
“You’re not afraid? Reports I’ve had said
you’re shakier than Smoke used to be.”
His features hardened. That was not a comparison he liked.
“The worst has happened, hasn’t it? I’m in the
hands of my enemies. But I’m still healthy.”
“There’s no guarantee you’ll stay that way.
Unless you cooperate. Darn! I’m going to have to rob a poor
box if this keeps on.” Play had not gotten all the way back
to me before the hand ended. I did not win.
“I’ll sing like a trained crow,” Swan said.
“Like a chorus. But I can’t do you much good. I was
never as close to the center as you may think.”
“Possibly.” I watched his hands closely as he dealt.
It seemed like a moment when a skilled manipulator’s ego
might compel him to show himself how good he was at pulling fast
moves. If he had any moves, he would not get them by me. I learned
the game from One-Eye, too. “Prove it. Tell me how
Soulcatcher kept you two alive long enough to get off the
plain.”
“That’s an easy one.” He completed a straight
deal. “We ran away faster than the ghosts chasing us could
run. We were riding those black horses the Company brought down
from the north.”
I had ridden those enchanted beasts a few times myself.
That could be the answer. They could outdistance any normal
horse and could run almost forever without tiring. “Maybe.
Maybe. She didn’t have any special talisman?”
“Not that she mentioned to me.”
I looked down at another terrible hand. Grilling Swan could get
expensive. I am not one of the better tonk players in the gang.
“What happened to the horses?”
“Far as I know, they’re all dead. Time or magic or
wounds got them. And the queen bitch wasn’t happy about that,
either. She don’t like walking and she ain’t fond of
flying.”
“Flying?” Startled, I discarded a card I should have
kept. That allowed one of the Guptas to go down and take me for
another couple of coppers.
Swan said, “I think I’m going to like playing with
you. Yeah. Flying. She’s got a couple of them carpets that
was made by the Howler. And she just ain’t real good with
them. I can tell you that from personal experience. Your deal.
Ain’t nothing like falling off of one of them suckers while
it’s hauling ass, even if you’re only five feet
high.”
One-Eye materialized. He looked about as bright and alert as he
ever did these days. “Room for one more?” His breath
smelled of alcohol.
Swan grumbled, “I know that voice. No. I figured you out
twenty-five years ago. I thought we got your ass at Khadighat. Or
maybe it was Bhoroda or Nalanda.”
“I’m quick on my feet.”
Slink said, “You’re in only if you show some money
up front and you agree not to deal.”
“And you keep your hands on top of the table all the
time,” I added.
“You smite me to the heart, Little Girl. People might get
the idea you don’t trust me not to cheat.”
“Good. That’ll save them a lot of time and
pain.”
“Little girl?” Swan asked. There was a whole
different look in his eye suddenly.
“One-Eye’s got diarrhea of the mouth. Sit down, old
man. Swan was just telling us about Soulcatcher’s magic
carpets and how she doesn’t like flying. And I’m
wondering if we couldn’t find some way to take advantage of
that.”
Swan looked from one of us to the other. I watched
One-Eye’s hands as he picked up his first bunch of cards.
Just in case he might have done something to this deck sometime in
the past. “Little girl?”
“Is there an echo in here?” Slink asked.
“Is that suddenly a problem?” I asked.
“No! No.” Swan showed me the palm of his free hand.
“I’m just getting a lot of surprises here. Soulcatcher
thought she was pretty solid on the Company survivors. But
I’ve already run into four people who are known to be dead,
including the world’s ugliest wizard and that Nyueng Bao
woman who acts like she’s in charge.”
One-Eye growled, “Don’t you go talking about Goblin
that way. He’s my pal. I’ll have to stand up for him.
Someday.” He snickered.
Swan ignored him. “And you. That we had down as a
man.” ’
I shrugged. “Not many knew. And it’s not important.
The dope with the eye patch and smelly hat should’ve had
sense enough not to mention it in front of an outsider.” I
glared.
One-Eye grinned, drew a card from the pile, discarded.
“She’s feisty, Swan. Smart, too. Designed the plan that
pulled you in. You started on another one, Little Girl?”
“Several. I think Sahra will want the Inspector-General
next, though.”
“Gokhale? He can’t tell us anything.”
“Say it’s personal. Swan. You know anything about
Gokhale? He dabble in little girls like Perhule Khoji used
to?”
One-Eye gave me an evil look. Swan stared. My mess-up this time.
I had given something away.
Too late to fuss about it. “Well?”
“Actually, yes.” Swan was pale. He focused on his
cards, having trouble keeping his hands steady. “Those two
and several others in that office. Common interests brought them
together. The Radisha doesn’t know. She doesn’t want to
know.” He discarded out of turn. He had lost his zest for the
game.
I realized what the problem was. He thought my speaking freely
meant I expected to elevate him to a higher plane before long.
“You’re all right, Swan. Long as you behave. Long as
you answer questions when you’re asked. Hell, I got to save
you. There’s a bunch of guys buried under the glittering
plain that want to talk to you about that when they get
back.” Might be interesting to watch him talk it over with
Murgen.
“They’re still alive?” The idea seemed to stun
him.
“Very alive. Just frozen in time. And getting angrier by
the minute.”
“I thought . . . Great
God . . . shit.”
“Do not speak so on the name of God!” Slink
growled.
Slink was Jaicuri Vehdna, too. And much less lapsed than I. He
managed prayers at least once a day and temple several times a
month. The local Vehdna thought he was a Dejagoran refugee employed
by Banh Do Trang because he had done the Nyueng Bao favors during
the siege there. Most of our brothers endured genuine employment
and worked hard to resemble pillars of the local community.
Swan swallowed, said, “You people ever eat? I ain’t
had nothing since yesterday.”
“We eat,” I said. “But not like you’re
used to. It’s true what they say about Nyueng Bao. They
don’t eat anything but fish heads and rice. Eight days a
week.”
“Fish will do right now. I’ll save the bitching till
my belly’s full.”
“Slink,” I said. “We need to send a kill team
down to Semchi to watch the Bhodi Tree. The Protector’s
probably going to try to smash it. We could make some friends if we
save it.” I explained about the Bhodi disciple who burned
himself and Soulcatcher’s threat to turn the Bhodi Tree into
kindling. “I’d like to go myself, just to see if the
Bhodi non-violent ethic is strong enough to make them stand around
while somebody destroys their most holy shrine. But I have too much
work to do here.” I tossed my cards in. “In fact, I
have work to do now.”
I was tired but figured I could study Murgen’s Annals for
a few hours before I passed out.
As I walked away, Swan whispered, “How the hell does she
know all that? And is she really a she?”
“Never checked personally,” Slink said. “I
have a wife. But she’s definitely got some female habits on
her.”
What the devil did that mean? I am just one of the guys.
I can’t
believe he did that!” I said, still climbing out of
Sawa’s smelly rags and crippled personality. Word had beaten
us home. The suicide was all anyone wanted to discuss. Our own
nighttime effort had become secondary. That was over and they had
survived.
Tobo definitely did not believe it. He mentioned that in passing
and insisted on telling us everything his father had seen inside
the Palace last night. He referred to notes he had made with
Goblin’s help. He was thoroughly proud of the job he had done
and wanted to rub our noses in it. “But I couldn’t
really get him to talk to me, Mom. Anything I asked seemed to be
just an irritation. It was like he just wanted to get it over with
so he could go away.”
“I know, dear,” Sahra said. “I know.
He’s that way with me, too. Here’s some nice bread they
let us bring home. Eat something. Goblin. What did they do with
Swan? Is he healthy?”
One-Eye cackled. He said, “Healthy as a man with cracked
ribs can be. Scared shitless, though.” He cackled again.
“Cracked ribs? Explain.”
Goblin told her, “Somebody with a grudge against the Greys
got overexcited. But don’t worry about it. The guy is going
to have plenty of opportunity to be sorry he let his feelings get
the best of him.”
“I’m exhausted,” Sahra said. “We spent
the whole day in the same room as Soulcatcher. I thought I would
burst.”
“You did? It was all I could do not to run out of there
screaming. I concentrated so hard on being Sawa that I missed half
of what they said.”
“What didn’t get said might be more important.
Soulcatcher was really suspicious about the attack.”
“I told you, go for the throat!” One-Eye barked.
“While they still didn’t believe in us. Kill them all
and you wouldn’t have to sneak around trying to figure out
how to get the Old Man out. You could make those guys at the
library do your research for you.”
“We’d’ve just gotten killed,” Sahra
said. “Soulcatcher was already looking for trouble. The news
about the Daughter of Night did that. Speaking of whom, I want you
two looking for her, and Narayan, too.”
“Too?” Goblin asked.
“Soulcatcher will hunt them with a great deal of
enthusiasm, I expect.”
I observed, “Kina must be stirring again. Narayan and the
girl wouldn’t come to Taglios unless they were confident of
her protection. Which means the girl will start copying the Books
of the Dead again, too. Sahra, tell Murgen to keep an eye on
them.” Those terrible, ancient volumes were buried in the
same cavern as the Captured. “I had a thought while we were
up there—after I ran out of candlesticks and didn’t have
anything else to do. It’s been a long time since I read
Murgen’s Annals. It didn’t seem like they had much
bearing on what we’re trying to do. Being so modern. But when
I was sitting there, just a few feet from Soulcatcher, I got a
really creepy feeling that I had missed something. And it’s
been so long since I studied those things, I can’t guess
what.”
“You should have time. We’ll need to lie pretty low
for a few days.”
“You’ll be going to work, won’t
you?”
“It would be suspicious if I didn’t.”
“I’m going to the library. I located some histories
that go back to the earliest days of Taglios.”
“Yeah?” One-Eye croaked, jerked himself out of a
half-sleep. “Then find out for me why the hell the ruling
gang are only princes. The territories they rule are bigger than
most kingdoms around here.”
“A question that never would have occurred to me,” I
said politely. “Or to any native of this end of the world,
probably. I’ll ask.” If I remembered.
Nervous laughter came from the shadows in the back of the
warehouse. Willow Swan. Goblin said, “He’s playing tonk
with some guys he knew in the old days.”
Sahra said, “We should get him out of the city. Where can
we keep him?”
“I need him here,” I said. “I need to ask him
about the plain. That’s why we grabbed him first. And
I’m not going off to some place in the country when
I’ve finally started getting somewhere at the
library.”
“Soulcatcher might have him marked somehow.”
“We’ve got two half-ass wizards of our own. Have them
check him over. They add up to one competent—”
“You watch your mouth, Little Girl.”
“I forget
myself, One-Eye. You two together add up to half as much as either
one alone.”
“Sleepy has a point. If Soulcatcher marked him, you two
ought to be able to find out.”
One-Eye snapped, “Use your head! If she’d marked
him, she’d already be here. She wouldn’t be up there
asking her lackeys if they’d found his bones yet.” The
little man climbed out of his chair, creaking and groaning. He
headed for the shadows at the rear of the warehouse but not toward
Swan’s voice.
I said, “He’s right.” I headed to the back
myself. I had not seen Swan up close for fifteen years. Behind me,
Tobo started grilling his mother about Murgen. He was upset because
his father had been indifferent.
Seemed to me there was a good chance Murgen did not understand
who Tobo was. He had trouble with time. He had had that problem
since the siege of Jaicur. He might think it was still fifteen
years ago and he was stumbling away into a possible future.
Swan stared at me for a few seconds after I stepped into the
light of the lamp illuminating the table where he was playing cards
with the Gupta brothers and a corporal we called Slink.
“Sleepy, right? You haven’t changed. Goblin or One-Eye
put some kind of hex on you?”
“God is good to the pure of heart. How are your
ribs?”
Swan ran fingers through the remnants of his hair. “So
that’s the story.” He touched his side.
“I’ll live.”
“You’re taking it well.”
“I needed a vacation. Nothing’s in my hands now. I
can relax until she finds me again.”
“Can she do that?”
“You the Captain now?”
“The Captain is the Captain. I design ambushes. Can she
find you?”
“Well, son, this looks like the fabled collision between
the unstoppable whatsis and the immovable thingee. I don’t
know where to lay my bets. Over here we got the Black Company with
four hundred years of bad and tricky. Over there you got
Soulcatcher with four centuries of mean and crazy. It’s a
toss-up, I guess.”
“She doesn’t have you marked somehow?”
“Only with scars.”
The way he said that made me feel I knew exactly what he meant.
“You want to come over to our side?”
“You’re kidding. You pulled all that stuff this
morning just to ask me to join the Black Company?”
“We pulled all that stuff this morning to show the world
that we’re still here and that we could do what we want,
whenever we want, Protector or no Protector. And to take you so I
can question you about the plain of glittering stone.”
He looked at me for several seconds, then checked his cards.
“There’s a subject that hasn’t come up in a
while.”
“You going to be stubborn about it?”
“You kidding? I’ll talk your ear off. But I’ll
bet you don’t learn a damned thing you didn’t already
know.” He discarded a black knave.
Slink jumped on the card, laid down a nine-queen spread,
discarded a red queen and grinned. He needed to see One-Eye about
those teeth.
“Shit!” Swan grumbled. “I missed this game.
How did you people learn? It’s the simplest damn game in the
world but I never met a Taglian who could figure it out.”
I observed, “You learn fast when you play with One-Eye.
Scoot over, Sin. Let me play while I pick this guy’s
brain.” I pulled up a stool, studying Swan every second. The
man knew how to get into a character. This was not the Willow Swan
that Murgen wrote about or the Swan that Sahra saw when she visited
the Palace. I picked up my five cards from the next deal.
“This ain’t a hand, it’s a foot. How come
you’re so relaxed, Swan?”
“No stress. You can’t have a worse hand than mine. I
don’t got no two cards of the same suit.”
“No stress?”
“As of today I got nothing to do but lean back and take it
easy. Just play tonk till my honey comes and takes me
home.”
“You’re not afraid? Reports I’ve had said
you’re shakier than Smoke used to be.”
His features hardened. That was not a comparison he liked.
“The worst has happened, hasn’t it? I’m in the
hands of my enemies. But I’m still healthy.”
“There’s no guarantee you’ll stay that way.
Unless you cooperate. Darn! I’m going to have to rob a poor
box if this keeps on.” Play had not gotten all the way back
to me before the hand ended. I did not win.
“I’ll sing like a trained crow,” Swan said.
“Like a chorus. But I can’t do you much good. I was
never as close to the center as you may think.”
“Possibly.” I watched his hands closely as he dealt.
It seemed like a moment when a skilled manipulator’s ego
might compel him to show himself how good he was at pulling fast
moves. If he had any moves, he would not get them by me. I learned
the game from One-Eye, too. “Prove it. Tell me how
Soulcatcher kept you two alive long enough to get off the
plain.”
“That’s an easy one.” He completed a straight
deal. “We ran away faster than the ghosts chasing us could
run. We were riding those black horses the Company brought down
from the north.”
I had ridden those enchanted beasts a few times myself.
That could be the answer. They could outdistance any normal
horse and could run almost forever without tiring. “Maybe.
Maybe. She didn’t have any special talisman?”
“Not that she mentioned to me.”
I looked down at another terrible hand. Grilling Swan could get
expensive. I am not one of the better tonk players in the gang.
“What happened to the horses?”
“Far as I know, they’re all dead. Time or magic or
wounds got them. And the queen bitch wasn’t happy about that,
either. She don’t like walking and she ain’t fond of
flying.”
“Flying?” Startled, I discarded a card I should have
kept. That allowed one of the Guptas to go down and take me for
another couple of coppers.
Swan said, “I think I’m going to like playing with
you. Yeah. Flying. She’s got a couple of them carpets that
was made by the Howler. And she just ain’t real good with
them. I can tell you that from personal experience. Your deal.
Ain’t nothing like falling off of one of them suckers while
it’s hauling ass, even if you’re only five feet
high.”
One-Eye materialized. He looked about as bright and alert as he
ever did these days. “Room for one more?” His breath
smelled of alcohol.
Swan grumbled, “I know that voice. No. I figured you out
twenty-five years ago. I thought we got your ass at Khadighat. Or
maybe it was Bhoroda or Nalanda.”
“I’m quick on my feet.”
Slink said, “You’re in only if you show some money
up front and you agree not to deal.”
“And you keep your hands on top of the table all the
time,” I added.
“You smite me to the heart, Little Girl. People might get
the idea you don’t trust me not to cheat.”
“Good. That’ll save them a lot of time and
pain.”
“Little girl?” Swan asked. There was a whole
different look in his eye suddenly.
“One-Eye’s got diarrhea of the mouth. Sit down, old
man. Swan was just telling us about Soulcatcher’s magic
carpets and how she doesn’t like flying. And I’m
wondering if we couldn’t find some way to take advantage of
that.”
Swan looked from one of us to the other. I watched
One-Eye’s hands as he picked up his first bunch of cards.
Just in case he might have done something to this deck sometime in
the past. “Little girl?”
“Is there an echo in here?” Slink asked.
“Is that suddenly a problem?” I asked.
“No! No.” Swan showed me the palm of his free hand.
“I’m just getting a lot of surprises here. Soulcatcher
thought she was pretty solid on the Company survivors. But
I’ve already run into four people who are known to be dead,
including the world’s ugliest wizard and that Nyueng Bao
woman who acts like she’s in charge.”
One-Eye growled, “Don’t you go talking about Goblin
that way. He’s my pal. I’ll have to stand up for him.
Someday.” He snickered.
Swan ignored him. “And you. That we had down as a
man.” ’
I shrugged. “Not many knew. And it’s not important.
The dope with the eye patch and smelly hat should’ve had
sense enough not to mention it in front of an outsider.” I
glared.
One-Eye grinned, drew a card from the pile, discarded.
“She’s feisty, Swan. Smart, too. Designed the plan that
pulled you in. You started on another one, Little Girl?”
“Several. I think Sahra will want the Inspector-General
next, though.”
“Gokhale? He can’t tell us anything.”
“Say it’s personal. Swan. You know anything about
Gokhale? He dabble in little girls like Perhule Khoji used
to?”
One-Eye gave me an evil look. Swan stared. My mess-up this time.
I had given something away.
Too late to fuss about it. “Well?”
“Actually, yes.” Swan was pale. He focused on his
cards, having trouble keeping his hands steady. “Those two
and several others in that office. Common interests brought them
together. The Radisha doesn’t know. She doesn’t want to
know.” He discarded out of turn. He had lost his zest for the
game.
I realized what the problem was. He thought my speaking freely
meant I expected to elevate him to a higher plane before long.
“You’re all right, Swan. Long as you behave. Long as
you answer questions when you’re asked. Hell, I got to save
you. There’s a bunch of guys buried under the glittering
plain that want to talk to you about that when they get
back.” Might be interesting to watch him talk it over with
Murgen.
“They’re still alive?” The idea seemed to stun
him.
“Very alive. Just frozen in time. And getting angrier by
the minute.”
“I thought . . . Great
God . . . shit.”
“Do not speak so on the name of God!” Slink
growled.
Slink was Jaicuri Vehdna, too. And much less lapsed than I. He
managed prayers at least once a day and temple several times a
month. The local Vehdna thought he was a Dejagoran refugee employed
by Banh Do Trang because he had done the Nyueng Bao favors during
the siege there. Most of our brothers endured genuine employment
and worked hard to resemble pillars of the local community.
Swan swallowed, said, “You people ever eat? I ain’t
had nothing since yesterday.”
“We eat,” I said. “But not like you’re
used to. It’s true what they say about Nyueng Bao. They
don’t eat anything but fish heads and rice. Eight days a
week.”
“Fish will do right now. I’ll save the bitching till
my belly’s full.”
“Slink,” I said. “We need to send a kill team
down to Semchi to watch the Bhodi Tree. The Protector’s
probably going to try to smash it. We could make some friends if we
save it.” I explained about the Bhodi disciple who burned
himself and Soulcatcher’s threat to turn the Bhodi Tree into
kindling. “I’d like to go myself, just to see if the
Bhodi non-violent ethic is strong enough to make them stand around
while somebody destroys their most holy shrine. But I have too much
work to do here.” I tossed my cards in. “In fact, I
have work to do now.”
I was tired but figured I could study Murgen’s Annals for
a few hours before I passed out.
As I walked away, Swan whispered, “How the hell does she
know all that? And is she really a she?”
“Never checked personally,” Slink said. “I
have a wife. But she’s definitely got some female habits on
her.”
What the devil did that mean? I am just one of the guys.