Men were charging
everywhere around the warehouse. Some were continuing frenetic
preparations for the Company’s evacuation. Some were getting
ready to accompany Narayan and me to the Grove of Doom to collect
the Nyueng Bao Key. The Nyueng Bao, Do Trang’s confederates
and the handful still attached to the Company somehow, seemed to be
doing a lot of nervous moving around just to be moving. They were
scared and worried.
Banh Do Trang had suffered a stroke during the night.
One-Eye’s prognosis was not encouraging.
I told Goblin, “I’m not saying she had anything to
do with it but Do Trang was the first one to realize that the girl
was roaming around outside her flesh.”
“He’s just old, Sleepy. Nobody did it to him. You
ask me, he’s really way overdue. He hung on here because he
cares about Sahra. She’s all right now. It looks like her
husband might actually be freed. And he’s too old to run
away. Soulcatcher is going to find this place eventually, once
Mogaba arrives and starts searching. I wouldn’t be surprised
if Do Trang just decided that dying was the best thing he could do
for everyone right now.”
I did not want Do Trang to go, for all the reasons none of us
like to see those close to us die, but also because he was, in his
quiet way, the best friend the Company had had in generations.
Like everyone else, I tried to lose myself in work. I told
Goblin, “Even if she’s totally innocent, I want the
girl fixed so she can’t wander. Whatever you have to do short
of permanently crippling or killing her.”
Goblin sighed. Lately that was all he did when someone gave him
more work. I guess he was too tired to squawk anymore.
“Where is One-Eye?”
“Uh—” Furtive look around. A whisper.
“Don’t say I said anything. I think he’s trying
to figure out how to take his equipment with us.”
I shook my head and walked away.
Santaraksita and Baladitya called out to me. They had accepted
their situation and were applying themselves with a will. The
Master Librarian seemed particularly excited about facing a real
academic challenge for the first time in years. He said,
“Dorabee, in all the excitement I forgot to mention that I
did get an answer to your question about a written Nyueng Bao
language. There was one. And not only was there one, this oldest
book is written in an antique dialect of that language. The others
were recorded in an early Taglian dialect, although the original of
the third volume does so employing the foreign alphabet instead of
native characters.”
“Which argues that the invader alphabet had well-defined
phonetic values that at the time must have been more precise than
those of the native script. Right?”
Santaraksita gawked. After a moment he said, “Dorabee, you
never cease to amaze me. Absolutely correct.”
“So have you discovered anything interesting?”
“The Black Company came off the plain, which was called
Glittering Stone even then, and mostly minced around from one small
principality to the next, squabbling internally over whether or not
they were going to sacrifice themselves to bring on the Year of the
Skulls. There was plenty of enthusiasm among the priests attached
to the Company but not much among the soldiers. Many of those
apparently volunteered as a way to escape something called The Land
of Unknown Shadows, not because they wanted to bring on the end of
the world.”
“The Land of Unknown Shadows, eh? Anything
else?”
“I’ve developed some very good information on the
price of horseshoe nails four centuries ago and on the scarcity of
several medicinal plants that are now found in every herb
garden.”
“Earthshaking stuff. Stay with it, Sri.”
I meant to tell him he had to evacuate with the rest of us but
decided not to upset him right away. He was having a good time. No
point making him face a choice between abduction and being put to
death just yet.
Uncle Doj materialized. “Do Trang wants to see
you.”
I followed him to the tiny room the old man had built for
himself in a remote corner of the warehouse. On the way, Doj warned
me that Do Trang was unable to speak. “He’s already
seen Sahra and Tobo. I think he was fond of you, too.”
“We’re going to get married in the next life. If the
Gunni are right.”
“I am ready to travel.”
I stopped. “What?”
“I’m going with you to the Grove of Doom.”
“You’d better not have some crazy idea about
snatching the Key.”
“I agreed to help. I’ll help. I want to be there to
make sure the Deceiver keeps his word. The Deceiver, Miss Sleepy.
Deceiver. Also, I agreed to turn over that volume of the Books of
the Dead. Its hiding place is on the way.”
“Very well. The presence of Ash Wand will be a comfort to
me and a vexation to my enemies.”
Doj chuckled. “It will indeed.”
“We won’t be coming back here.”
“I know. When we leave, I’ll be carrying everything
I wish to retain. You won’t need to pretend with Do Trang. He
knows his path. Do him the honor of an honest farewell.”
I did more. I became all teary for the first time in my adult
life. I rested my head on the old man’s chest for a minute
and whispered my thanks for his friendship and renewed my promise
to see him in the next life. A small heresy but I do not think God
has been monitoring me too closely.
Banh lifted a hand weakly and stroked my hair. And after that I
got up and went away somewhere to be alone with my grief for a man
who, it seemed, had never been that close, yet who was going to
have a major impact on the rest of my life. I understood that after
the tears stopped, I would never be quite the same Sleepy again.
And that that was one legacy Do Trang wanted to leave behind.
Men were charging
everywhere around the warehouse. Some were continuing frenetic
preparations for the Company’s evacuation. Some were getting
ready to accompany Narayan and me to the Grove of Doom to collect
the Nyueng Bao Key. The Nyueng Bao, Do Trang’s confederates
and the handful still attached to the Company somehow, seemed to be
doing a lot of nervous moving around just to be moving. They were
scared and worried.
Banh Do Trang had suffered a stroke during the night.
One-Eye’s prognosis was not encouraging.
I told Goblin, “I’m not saying she had anything to
do with it but Do Trang was the first one to realize that the girl
was roaming around outside her flesh.”
“He’s just old, Sleepy. Nobody did it to him. You
ask me, he’s really way overdue. He hung on here because he
cares about Sahra. She’s all right now. It looks like her
husband might actually be freed. And he’s too old to run
away. Soulcatcher is going to find this place eventually, once
Mogaba arrives and starts searching. I wouldn’t be surprised
if Do Trang just decided that dying was the best thing he could do
for everyone right now.”
I did not want Do Trang to go, for all the reasons none of us
like to see those close to us die, but also because he was, in his
quiet way, the best friend the Company had had in generations.
Like everyone else, I tried to lose myself in work. I told
Goblin, “Even if she’s totally innocent, I want the
girl fixed so she can’t wander. Whatever you have to do short
of permanently crippling or killing her.”
Goblin sighed. Lately that was all he did when someone gave him
more work. I guess he was too tired to squawk anymore.
“Where is One-Eye?”
“Uh—” Furtive look around. A whisper.
“Don’t say I said anything. I think he’s trying
to figure out how to take his equipment with us.”
I shook my head and walked away.
Santaraksita and Baladitya called out to me. They had accepted
their situation and were applying themselves with a will. The
Master Librarian seemed particularly excited about facing a real
academic challenge for the first time in years. He said,
“Dorabee, in all the excitement I forgot to mention that I
did get an answer to your question about a written Nyueng Bao
language. There was one. And not only was there one, this oldest
book is written in an antique dialect of that language. The others
were recorded in an early Taglian dialect, although the original of
the third volume does so employing the foreign alphabet instead of
native characters.”
“Which argues that the invader alphabet had well-defined
phonetic values that at the time must have been more precise than
those of the native script. Right?”
Santaraksita gawked. After a moment he said, “Dorabee, you
never cease to amaze me. Absolutely correct.”
“So have you discovered anything interesting?”
“The Black Company came off the plain, which was called
Glittering Stone even then, and mostly minced around from one small
principality to the next, squabbling internally over whether or not
they were going to sacrifice themselves to bring on the Year of the
Skulls. There was plenty of enthusiasm among the priests attached
to the Company but not much among the soldiers. Many of those
apparently volunteered as a way to escape something called The Land
of Unknown Shadows, not because they wanted to bring on the end of
the world.”
“The Land of Unknown Shadows, eh? Anything
else?”
“I’ve developed some very good information on the
price of horseshoe nails four centuries ago and on the scarcity of
several medicinal plants that are now found in every herb
garden.”
“Earthshaking stuff. Stay with it, Sri.”
I meant to tell him he had to evacuate with the rest of us but
decided not to upset him right away. He was having a good time. No
point making him face a choice between abduction and being put to
death just yet.
Uncle Doj materialized. “Do Trang wants to see
you.”
I followed him to the tiny room the old man had built for
himself in a remote corner of the warehouse. On the way, Doj warned
me that Do Trang was unable to speak. “He’s already
seen Sahra and Tobo. I think he was fond of you, too.”
“We’re going to get married in the next life. If the
Gunni are right.”
“I am ready to travel.”
I stopped. “What?”
“I’m going with you to the Grove of Doom.”
“You’d better not have some crazy idea about
snatching the Key.”
“I agreed to help. I’ll help. I want to be there to
make sure the Deceiver keeps his word. The Deceiver, Miss Sleepy.
Deceiver. Also, I agreed to turn over that volume of the Books of
the Dead. Its hiding place is on the way.”
“Very well. The presence of Ash Wand will be a comfort to
me and a vexation to my enemies.”
Doj chuckled. “It will indeed.”
“We won’t be coming back here.”
“I know. When we leave, I’ll be carrying everything
I wish to retain. You won’t need to pretend with Do Trang. He
knows his path. Do him the honor of an honest farewell.”
I did more. I became all teary for the first time in my adult
life. I rested my head on the old man’s chest for a minute
and whispered my thanks for his friendship and renewed my promise
to see him in the next life. A small heresy but I do not think God
has been monitoring me too closely.
Banh lifted a hand weakly and stroked my hair. And after that I
got up and went away somewhere to be alone with my grief for a man
who, it seemed, had never been that close, yet who was going to
have a major impact on the rest of my life. I understood that after
the tears stopped, I would never be quite the same Sleepy again.
And that that was one legacy Do Trang wanted to leave behind.