Sleepy?”
My
soul wanted to leap up and flail around in terror. My flesh was
incapable and quite possibly indifferent. I was so stiff and I hurt
so much that I just could not move.
My mind still worked fine. It ran as sparkling swift as a
mountain stream. “Huh?” I continued trying to get the
muscles unlocked.
“Easy. It’s Willow. Just open your eyes.
You’re safe.”
“What’re you doing way down here?”
“Way down where?”
“Uh—”
“You’re one landing downstairs from the cave of the
ancients.”
I kept trying to get up. Muscle by muscle my body gradually
yielded to my will. I looked around, vision foggy. Suvrin and
Master Santaraksita were still asleep.
Swan said, “They were tired, guaranteed. I heard you
snoring all the way up in the cave.”
Twinge of fear. “Where’s Tobo?”
“He went on up top. Everyone went. I made them go. I
stayed in case . . . The crow told me not to
come down. But what’s one landing? You think you can get
moving again? I can’t carry anybody. I can barely keep going
myself.”
“I can manage one flight. Up to the cave. That’s far
enough for now.”
“The cave?”
“I still have something to do there.”
“Are you sure you want to go out of your way?”
“I’m sure, Willow.” I could tell him it was a
matter of life or death. For a whole world. Or maybe for multiple
worlds. But why be melodramatic? “Can you get these two
moving again? And headed toward the top?” I did not think
Master Santaraksita could bear seeing what I intended to do
next.
“I’ll get them moving. But I’m sticking with
you.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“Yes, it will. You can hardly stand up.”
“I’ll work it out.”
“You go right ahead and talk. It’ll get the kinks
out of your jaw. But I’m staying.”
I stared at him hard for some time. He did not back down.
Neither did he betray any motive but concern for a brother he
suspected of failing to be in her right mind. I closed my eyes for
half a minute, then opened them to peer down the stairs. “God
was listening.”
Swan was working on Suvrin. The Shadowlander officer had his
eyes open but seemed unable to move. He murmured, “I must be
alive. Otherwise I wouldn’t hurt so much.” Panic
flooded his eyes. “Did we get away?”
I said, “We’re getting away. We’ve still got a
long way to climb.”
“Goblin’s dead,” Swan said. “The crow
told me when it came up to get something to eat.”
“Where is that thing?”
“Down there. Watching.”
I felt a chill. Paranoia touched me. There had been a connection
between Lady and Kina ever since Narayan Singh and Kina had used
Lady as a vessel to produce the Daughter of Night. That had created
a connection, a connection Lady had hammered into place cleverly,
unbreakably, so that she could steal power from the goddess
indefinitely. “Forgive me, O Lord. Drive these infidel
thoughts from my heart.”
Swan said, “Huh?”
“Nothing, part of the ongoing dialog between me and my
God. Suvrin! Sweety. You ready to do some jumping jacks?”
Suvrin offered me an old-fashioned, storm-cloud glower.
“Smack her, Swan. At a time like this, cheerful ought to be
against the laws of heaven and earth.”
“You’ll be cheerful in a minute, too. As soon as you
figure out that you’re still alive.”
“Humph!” He began to help Swan waken Master
Santaraksita.
Upright now, I did a few small exercises to loosen up even
more.
“Ah, Dorabee,” Santaraksita said softly. “I
have survived another adventure with you.”
“I’ve got God on my side.”
“Excellent. Do keep him there. I don’t think I can
survive another of your adventures without divine
assistance.”
“You’ll outlive me, Sri.”
“Perhaps. Probably, if I do get out of this and I
don’t tempt fate ever again. You, you’ll probably
graduate to snake-dancing with cobras.”
“Sri?”
“I’ve decided. I don’t want to be an
adventurer anymore, Dorabee. I’m too old for it. It’s
time to wrap myself up in a cozy library again. This just hurts too
much. Ow! Young man . . . ”
Swan grinned. He was not that much younger than the librarian.
“Let’s get going, old-timer. You keep lying around here
and whatever adventure you found down there is going to catch up
and have you all over again.”
A possibility that posed a fine motivation for us all.
When we finally got moving again, I brought up the rear. Swan
wrangled my companions. I gripped the golden pickax so tightly my
knuckles ached.
Goblin was dead.
That did not seem possible.
Goblin was a fixture. A permanent fixture. A cornerstone.
Without its Goblin, there could be no Black
Company . . . You are mad, Sleepy. The family
will not cease to exist simply because one member, unexpectedly,
has been plucked out by evil fortune. Life would not end because of
Goblin’s absence. It would just get a lot harder. I seemed to
hear Goblin whisper, “He is the future.”
“Sleepy. Snap out of it.”
“Huh?”
Swan said, “We’re at the cave. You two. Keep
climbing. We’ll catch up with you.”
Suvrin started to ask. I shook my head, pointed upward.
“Go. Now. And don’t look back.” I waited until I
saw Suvrin actually guide Master Santaraksita over the tumbled
stones and onto the stairs. “We’ll catch up.”
“What’s that?” Swan asked. He cupped an
ear.
“I don’t hear anything.”
He shrugged. “It’s gone now. Something from
upstairs.”
We entered the cavern of the ancients. The wonder had been
polished off it by the trampling about of a horde of Company
people. I was amazed that they had managed without damaging any
more of the sleepers. As it was, almost all the wondrous ice
webbing and cocooning had broken up and collapsed. A few
stalactites had fallen from the ceiling. “How did that
happen?”
Swan frowned. “During the earthquake.”
“Earthquake? What earthquake?”
“You didn’t . . . there was one
hell of a shake. I can’t say exactly how long ago. Probably
when you were all the way down. It’s hard to tell time in
here.”
“No lie. Oh, yuck.” I had discovered why the white
crow had all that energy. It had been dining on one of my dead
brothers.
Some evil part of me tossed up the thought that I could follow
the bird’s example. Another part wondered what would happen
if Croaker found out. That man was obsessed with the holy state of
Company brotherhood.
“You never know what you’ll do until you’re in
the ring with the bull, do you?”
“What?”’
“A proverb from back home. Means that actually facing the
reality is never quite like preparing to face the reality. You
never really know what you’ll do until you get
there.”
I passed the rest of the Captured, not meeting any open eyes. I
wondered if they could hear. I offered up some reassurances that
sounded feeble even to me. The cavern shrank. When it came time to
get down and crawl, I crawled. I told Swan, “Maybe it’s
good, you being here after all. I’m starting to have little
dizzy spells.”
“You hear anything?”
I listened. This time I did hear something. “Sounds like
somebody singing. A marching song? Something full of
‘yo-ho-ho’s.’ ” What the devil?
“Down here? We have dwarfs, too?”
“Dwarfs?”
“Mythical creatures. Like short people with big beards and
permanent bad tempers. They lived underground, like nagas, only
supposedly big on mining and metalworking. If they ever did exist,
they died out a long time ago.”
The singing was getting louder. “Let’s get this
handled before somebody interrupts.”
Sleepy?”
My
soul wanted to leap up and flail around in terror. My flesh was
incapable and quite possibly indifferent. I was so stiff and I hurt
so much that I just could not move.
My mind still worked fine. It ran as sparkling swift as a
mountain stream. “Huh?” I continued trying to get the
muscles unlocked.
“Easy. It’s Willow. Just open your eyes.
You’re safe.”
“What’re you doing way down here?”
“Way down where?”
“Uh—”
“You’re one landing downstairs from the cave of the
ancients.”
I kept trying to get up. Muscle by muscle my body gradually
yielded to my will. I looked around, vision foggy. Suvrin and
Master Santaraksita were still asleep.
Swan said, “They were tired, guaranteed. I heard you
snoring all the way up in the cave.”
Twinge of fear. “Where’s Tobo?”
“He went on up top. Everyone went. I made them go. I
stayed in case . . . The crow told me not to
come down. But what’s one landing? You think you can get
moving again? I can’t carry anybody. I can barely keep going
myself.”
“I can manage one flight. Up to the cave. That’s far
enough for now.”
“The cave?”
“I still have something to do there.”
“Are you sure you want to go out of your way?”
“I’m sure, Willow.” I could tell him it was a
matter of life or death. For a whole world. Or maybe for multiple
worlds. But why be melodramatic? “Can you get these two
moving again? And headed toward the top?” I did not think
Master Santaraksita could bear seeing what I intended to do
next.
“I’ll get them moving. But I’m sticking with
you.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“Yes, it will. You can hardly stand up.”
“I’ll work it out.”
“You go right ahead and talk. It’ll get the kinks
out of your jaw. But I’m staying.”
I stared at him hard for some time. He did not back down.
Neither did he betray any motive but concern for a brother he
suspected of failing to be in her right mind. I closed my eyes for
half a minute, then opened them to peer down the stairs. “God
was listening.”
Swan was working on Suvrin. The Shadowlander officer had his
eyes open but seemed unable to move. He murmured, “I must be
alive. Otherwise I wouldn’t hurt so much.” Panic
flooded his eyes. “Did we get away?”
I said, “We’re getting away. We’ve still got a
long way to climb.”
“Goblin’s dead,” Swan said. “The crow
told me when it came up to get something to eat.”
“Where is that thing?”
“Down there. Watching.”
I felt a chill. Paranoia touched me. There had been a connection
between Lady and Kina ever since Narayan Singh and Kina had used
Lady as a vessel to produce the Daughter of Night. That had created
a connection, a connection Lady had hammered into place cleverly,
unbreakably, so that she could steal power from the goddess
indefinitely. “Forgive me, O Lord. Drive these infidel
thoughts from my heart.”
Swan said, “Huh?”
“Nothing, part of the ongoing dialog between me and my
God. Suvrin! Sweety. You ready to do some jumping jacks?”
Suvrin offered me an old-fashioned, storm-cloud glower.
“Smack her, Swan. At a time like this, cheerful ought to be
against the laws of heaven and earth.”
“You’ll be cheerful in a minute, too. As soon as you
figure out that you’re still alive.”
“Humph!” He began to help Swan waken Master
Santaraksita.
Upright now, I did a few small exercises to loosen up even
more.
“Ah, Dorabee,” Santaraksita said softly. “I
have survived another adventure with you.”
“I’ve got God on my side.”
“Excellent. Do keep him there. I don’t think I can
survive another of your adventures without divine
assistance.”
“You’ll outlive me, Sri.”
“Perhaps. Probably, if I do get out of this and I
don’t tempt fate ever again. You, you’ll probably
graduate to snake-dancing with cobras.”
“Sri?”
“I’ve decided. I don’t want to be an
adventurer anymore, Dorabee. I’m too old for it. It’s
time to wrap myself up in a cozy library again. This just hurts too
much. Ow! Young man . . . ”
Swan grinned. He was not that much younger than the librarian.
“Let’s get going, old-timer. You keep lying around here
and whatever adventure you found down there is going to catch up
and have you all over again.”
A possibility that posed a fine motivation for us all.
When we finally got moving again, I brought up the rear. Swan
wrangled my companions. I gripped the golden pickax so tightly my
knuckles ached.
Goblin was dead.
That did not seem possible.
Goblin was a fixture. A permanent fixture. A cornerstone.
Without its Goblin, there could be no Black
Company . . . You are mad, Sleepy. The family
will not cease to exist simply because one member, unexpectedly,
has been plucked out by evil fortune. Life would not end because of
Goblin’s absence. It would just get a lot harder. I seemed to
hear Goblin whisper, “He is the future.”
“Sleepy. Snap out of it.”
“Huh?”
Swan said, “We’re at the cave. You two. Keep
climbing. We’ll catch up with you.”
Suvrin started to ask. I shook my head, pointed upward.
“Go. Now. And don’t look back.” I waited until I
saw Suvrin actually guide Master Santaraksita over the tumbled
stones and onto the stairs. “We’ll catch up.”
“What’s that?” Swan asked. He cupped an
ear.
“I don’t hear anything.”
He shrugged. “It’s gone now. Something from
upstairs.”
We entered the cavern of the ancients. The wonder had been
polished off it by the trampling about of a horde of Company
people. I was amazed that they had managed without damaging any
more of the sleepers. As it was, almost all the wondrous ice
webbing and cocooning had broken up and collapsed. A few
stalactites had fallen from the ceiling. “How did that
happen?”
Swan frowned. “During the earthquake.”
“Earthquake? What earthquake?”
“You didn’t . . . there was one
hell of a shake. I can’t say exactly how long ago. Probably
when you were all the way down. It’s hard to tell time in
here.”
“No lie. Oh, yuck.” I had discovered why the white
crow had all that energy. It had been dining on one of my dead
brothers.
Some evil part of me tossed up the thought that I could follow
the bird’s example. Another part wondered what would happen
if Croaker found out. That man was obsessed with the holy state of
Company brotherhood.
“You never know what you’ll do until you’re in
the ring with the bull, do you?”
“What?”’
“A proverb from back home. Means that actually facing the
reality is never quite like preparing to face the reality. You
never really know what you’ll do until you get
there.”
I passed the rest of the Captured, not meeting any open eyes. I
wondered if they could hear. I offered up some reassurances that
sounded feeble even to me. The cavern shrank. When it came time to
get down and crawl, I crawled. I told Swan, “Maybe it’s
good, you being here after all. I’m starting to have little
dizzy spells.”
“You hear anything?”
I listened. This time I did hear something. “Sounds like
somebody singing. A marching song? Something full of
‘yo-ho-ho’s.’ ” What the devil?
“Down here? We have dwarfs, too?”
“Dwarfs?”
“Mythical creatures. Like short people with big beards and
permanent bad tempers. They lived underground, like nagas, only
supposedly big on mining and metalworking. If they ever did exist,
they died out a long time ago.”
The singing was getting louder. “Let’s get this
handled before somebody interrupts.”