A brutal argument
was under way aboard Soulcatcher’s carpet as she approached
her destination, skimming the rocks, the sun’s blinding fires
behind her. Part of her wanted to forget about assuming a disguise
and infiltrating the enemy. That part wanted to arrive as a killing
storm, destroying everything and everyone that was not Soulcatcher.
But by doing that she would expose herself to the counterefforts of
people who had shown themselves very resourceful in the past.
Innovation was one of the more irksome traditions of the Black
Company.
She grounded the carpet and stepped off, concealed it using a
minor spell. Then she crept toward the Company encampment, a few
yards at a time, until she found a good hiding place where she
could undertake the illusion creations and modest shapechanges that
would render her unrecognizable. That work required total
concentration.
Back in the brush, not far from where she had set down, Uncle
Doj crept forward and after having used his small wizard’s
skills to make sure there were no booby traps, demolished
Soulcatcher’s flying carpet in a straightforward, no-nonsense
manner using a hatchet. He might be old and a step slower, but he
was still very quick and very sneaky. He was almost all the way
back to the Shadowgate when Soulcatcher appeared, looking the
epitome of scruffy young manhood.
A white crow, balanced precariously in a bit of rain-hungry
brush, observed her passage. When she could no longer glance back
and see anything damning, the bird flapped into the place where she
had changed and started going through the clothing and whatnot she
had left behind. The bird kept making noises like it was talking to
itself.
Soulcatcher entered the encampment where she had expected to
find the remnants of the Black Company. It was empty. But up ahead
she saw a long column already beyond the Shadowgate. One man with a
sword across his back had not passed through the gate yet but he
was moving swiftly, and a number of people were waiting for him
just on the other side.
They did have the Key! And they had used the damned thing! She
should have gotten here faster! She should have attacked! Dammit,
everyone knew subtlety was no good with these people. Hey! They had
to have known that she was coming. There was no other explanation
for this. They had known she was coming and they knew where she was
now and . . .
The first fireball was so accurately directed that it would have
taken her head off if she had not been getting down already. In
another moment the damned things were streaking in from several
different sources. They set brush afire and shattered rocks. She
got down on her stomach and crawled. Before she worried about her
dignity, she had to get away from the focal point of the fire.
Unfortunately, her efforts did not seem to matter. The assassins
seemed to know exactly where she was and her disguise did not fool
them for an instant.
As a swarm of fireballs closed in, she flung herself into a deep
hole that had been a cesspit not that long ago. No matter. Right
now shelter was priceless. Now the snipers could not get her
without coming out of hiding and coming to her.
She took advantage of the respite to engineer, prepare and
launch a counterattack. That involved a lot of color and fire and
boiling, oily explosions, none of which did much harm because her
surviving attackers had fled through the Shadowgate as soon as she
went into the pit.
She climbed out. Nothing happened. She glared up the hill. So.
Even the snipers were beyond the Shadowgate now. Nearly a dozen
people were standing around there, waiting to see what she would
do. She calmed herself. She could not let them goad her into doing
something stupid. The Shadowgate was in extremely delicate shape.
One angry, thoughtless move on her part might damage it beyond
repair.
She conquered the rage that threatened to conquer her. She was
ancient in her wickedness. Time was an intimate ally. She knew how
to abide.
She limped uphill, urging her anger to bleed off in movement,
with an ease no normal being could manage.
The slope immediately below the Shadowgate was covered with
swaths and patches of colored chalk. A carefully marked safe path
passed through. Soulcatcher did not yield to temptation and try to
follow it. There was a chance that they had forgotten that she had
gone this way before. Or perhaps they refused to believe she could
recall that in those days the safe path had entered the Shadowgate
eight feet farther west, just beyond that rusty, twisted iron cage
lying on its side as though it was exhausted and dying. She waved a
finger. “Naughty, naughty.”
Willow Swan—damn his treacherous, should-be-dead bones!—and the
Nyueng Bao family stared back impassively. The pale-faced little
wizard Goblin smirked, obviously remembering whose fault it was
that she could no longer walk normally. And the ugly little woman
smiled evilly. She said, “I wasn’t trying to suck you
in, Sweet Stuff. I did suck you in.” She lifted a hand and
raised a middle finger in a sign obviously learned from a
northerner. “Water sleeps, Protector.”
What the hell did that mean?
A brutal argument
was under way aboard Soulcatcher’s carpet as she approached
her destination, skimming the rocks, the sun’s blinding fires
behind her. Part of her wanted to forget about assuming a disguise
and infiltrating the enemy. That part wanted to arrive as a killing
storm, destroying everything and everyone that was not Soulcatcher.
But by doing that she would expose herself to the counterefforts of
people who had shown themselves very resourceful in the past.
Innovation was one of the more irksome traditions of the Black
Company.
She grounded the carpet and stepped off, concealed it using a
minor spell. Then she crept toward the Company encampment, a few
yards at a time, until she found a good hiding place where she
could undertake the illusion creations and modest shapechanges that
would render her unrecognizable. That work required total
concentration.
Back in the brush, not far from where she had set down, Uncle
Doj crept forward and after having used his small wizard’s
skills to make sure there were no booby traps, demolished
Soulcatcher’s flying carpet in a straightforward, no-nonsense
manner using a hatchet. He might be old and a step slower, but he
was still very quick and very sneaky. He was almost all the way
back to the Shadowgate when Soulcatcher appeared, looking the
epitome of scruffy young manhood.
A white crow, balanced precariously in a bit of rain-hungry
brush, observed her passage. When she could no longer glance back
and see anything damning, the bird flapped into the place where she
had changed and started going through the clothing and whatnot she
had left behind. The bird kept making noises like it was talking to
itself.
Soulcatcher entered the encampment where she had expected to
find the remnants of the Black Company. It was empty. But up ahead
she saw a long column already beyond the Shadowgate. One man with a
sword across his back had not passed through the gate yet but he
was moving swiftly, and a number of people were waiting for him
just on the other side.
They did have the Key! And they had used the damned thing! She
should have gotten here faster! She should have attacked! Dammit,
everyone knew subtlety was no good with these people. Hey! They had
to have known that she was coming. There was no other explanation
for this. They had known she was coming and they knew where she was
now and . . .
The first fireball was so accurately directed that it would have
taken her head off if she had not been getting down already. In
another moment the damned things were streaking in from several
different sources. They set brush afire and shattered rocks. She
got down on her stomach and crawled. Before she worried about her
dignity, she had to get away from the focal point of the fire.
Unfortunately, her efforts did not seem to matter. The assassins
seemed to know exactly where she was and her disguise did not fool
them for an instant.
As a swarm of fireballs closed in, she flung herself into a deep
hole that had been a cesspit not that long ago. No matter. Right
now shelter was priceless. Now the snipers could not get her
without coming out of hiding and coming to her.
She took advantage of the respite to engineer, prepare and
launch a counterattack. That involved a lot of color and fire and
boiling, oily explosions, none of which did much harm because her
surviving attackers had fled through the Shadowgate as soon as she
went into the pit.
She climbed out. Nothing happened. She glared up the hill. So.
Even the snipers were beyond the Shadowgate now. Nearly a dozen
people were standing around there, waiting to see what she would
do. She calmed herself. She could not let them goad her into doing
something stupid. The Shadowgate was in extremely delicate shape.
One angry, thoughtless move on her part might damage it beyond
repair.
She conquered the rage that threatened to conquer her. She was
ancient in her wickedness. Time was an intimate ally. She knew how
to abide.
She limped uphill, urging her anger to bleed off in movement,
with an ease no normal being could manage.
The slope immediately below the Shadowgate was covered with
swaths and patches of colored chalk. A carefully marked safe path
passed through. Soulcatcher did not yield to temptation and try to
follow it. There was a chance that they had forgotten that she had
gone this way before. Or perhaps they refused to believe she could
recall that in those days the safe path had entered the Shadowgate
eight feet farther west, just beyond that rusty, twisted iron cage
lying on its side as though it was exhausted and dying. She waved a
finger. “Naughty, naughty.”
Willow Swan—damn his treacherous, should-be-dead bones!—and the
Nyueng Bao family stared back impassively. The pale-faced little
wizard Goblin smirked, obviously remembering whose fault it was
that she could no longer walk normally. And the ugly little woman
smiled evilly. She said, “I wasn’t trying to suck you
in, Sweet Stuff. I did suck you in.” She lifted a hand and
raised a middle finger in a sign obviously learned from a
northerner. “Water sleeps, Protector.”
What the hell did that mean?