She Is the Darkness: Book Two of Glittering Stone: A Novel of the Black Company (22 page)

I told the Old Man about the troops shooting over the Shadowgate. He scowled
blackly. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He bellowed for a courier. He sent
out a strong suggestion to our brothers with the division to the south. “No
crows around here,” I noted.

“One-Eye custom-built me a spell I can use to make them get hungry and go away
for a while. But not forever.”

I got the hint. “I don’t think we’re doing enough to support Lady’s men inside
Overlook.”

Croaker shrugged. “I’m not concerned about Overlook anymore. Much.”

“What? Not worried about Longshadow? Howler? Narayan Singh and your . . . the
Daughter of Night?”

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not indifferent. They just don’t matter as much as they
did.”

“I must’ve missed something. What’re you saying?”

“I’m just suggesting it, Murgen. But we could go on south now. If we wanted. If
I’m right about the standard.”

“Uh . . . ” I said. No flies on me.

“The standard has to be the key to the Shadowgate. I think we could walk right
through and keep on going, without any danger, as long as we carry the
standard.”

“Uh . . . ” I said again, but this time I had a few more thoughts. “You mean we
could just get everybody together, say screw you to the rest of this mob, and
trot off singing merry marching songs?”

“Exactly. Maybe.” So he was not completely sure.

“Wouldn’t that leave a lot unsettled? Not to mention risk opening the Shadowgate
the wrong way?”

“Longshadow is the master of the Shadowgate. He can keep it sealed.”

“What if he can’t?”

Croaker shrugged. “We don’t owe anybody . . . You just got finished telling me
the Radisha is still fixing to screw us. The Prahbrindrah Drah was up to
something down here. Howler is no friend of ours and Catcher has been helping me
only because she thinks that’ll help her get an angle on Lady.”

“I’ve got a wife out there, Boss. And she’s got a bun in the oven. Not to
mention Goblin and his crew. Whom I can’t find, but I’m sure they’re out there
somewhere, on some mystery mission from you.”

“Hmm? Didn’t think about that. There’s no mystery. Goblin’s job is to be
forgotten. Then he’s supposed to be in the right place if the Prince runs out on
us. Or decides to pull some other stunt where we could use some help that comes
from the blind side.”

I grunted. It might be true. Or it might only be what he wanted me to think. I
set it aside. I could answer the question using Smoke if I was determined and
clever and felt any real need. I asked, “What about Singh? You just going to
walk away from him?”

I did not believe Lady would accept that. It was hard to tell what was going on
inside her head but I did think that no one and nothing would make her walk away
while Narayan Singh remained in good health.

“I’ve been letting things work themselves out. I’ll go on doing that for a
while. But when the moment comes I won’t hesitate to take the Company on down
the road to Khatovar.” His voice turned cold and hard and confidently formal.

I was getting angry. That was not good. I told him, “I think I’d better excuse
myself now.”

“Just in time, too.” He flashed a wan smile.

One of his huge crows had shoved its beak into the room. If it was possible for
a bird to look puzzled this one did.

It also smelled. It had lunched in the ruins.

I asked One-Eye, “How much weight should we put on our contract with the
Taglians?”

“Uhn?” He gave me nothing but the puzzled grunt. He wanted me to go away so he
could play with his still.

“I mean are we obligated to keep our part of the bargain until they actually try
to screw us?”

“What’s your problem?” He gestured. There were no snoopy beaks over here.

“The Old Man’s talking about walking on past Overlook. Forgetting Longshadow and
everything else. Leaving them to enjoy each other while we head on south.”

That idea startled the little wizard. He stopped trying to get rid of me. “He
figured out how we could do that?”

“He thinks maybe. I don’t think he knows for sure. But I do believe he’s willing
to test it the hard way.”

“That’s not good. That could bring on a shitstorm the likes of which . . . Like
nothing we can imagine, probably. Like something out of the myths.”

“I thought so, too. He could be just shooting his mouth off. But it might be a
good idea to remind him that we still haven’t read those three missing volumes
of the Annals. I’ve got a feeling we shouldn’t overlook that.”

One-Eye does not have a quarter of my faith in the Annals, nor a tenth of
Croaker’s, but he grimaced. “A good point. I’ll remind him.”

“Subtly? You hit him with a hammer, he tends to get stubborn.”

“Subtly? You know me, Kid. I’m slicker than greased owl shit.”

“I do know you. That’s what scares me.”

“I don’t know what’s got into your generation. You got no trust. You got no
respect.”

“And not much patience with bullshitters, either,” I admitted. “I’ve got
journals to write. Not to mention worries to worry.” And food to eat. I was
hungry again. Much as I ate when I was walking the ghost I should have gotten
too fat to waddle.

I joined my in-laws beside their fire. Mother Gota dished me up a bowl of
whatever it was she kept simmering in her pot. Nobody said anything. I had not
talked to them much lately. They had begun to suspect that I was not real social
anymore. I wondered why the old woman would not do her cooking inside. Thai Dei
and I had set her up a whole private suite in our ever-expanding dugout but she
would go inside only when the weather turned foul or it was time to sleep.

Thai Dei did most of the work on our shelter. There was not much else for him to
do. He was not involved in the schemes of his mother and Uncle Doj.

“Thank you,” I told Mother Gota as I finished. “I needed that.” I could not
compliment her on her cooking. If ever she did screw up and make something
palatable she would not buy the real thing. She never did claim any culinary
skills.

“You,” she said, initiating conversation, which she did rarely, “Bone Warrior,

you are wary of crows? They are significant?” Her Taglian was abominable. I
spoke Nyueng Bao much better but she would not do me the courtesy. I suppose
that would, somehow, lend legitimacy to my relationship with Sahra.

I stopped trying to make sense of Mother Gota’s thinking years ago.

I responded in Nyueng Bao. “They carry messages sometimes. They spy. We know
this. Mice and bats do the same. Those who use the animals aren’t our friends.”

I exceeded myself telling her that much. Croaker would not be pleased. But I was
fishing. It would be nice to find out what she knew or suspected. Sometimes she
just could not help showing off.

“I have seen owls in the night, too, Stone Soldier. They do not behave the way
owls should.”

I grunted. That was news. And it told me that if owls were being used and no one
else had noticed, then the old woman was a lot sharper than I had suspected.

“Last night many crows came and went from the shining fortress.”

I looked at her more closely. Last night. While Thai Dei and I were in town with
the lost boys. While she was traipsing through the night with Uncle Doj. She had
seen something that I missed. Maybe.

Crows had been scarce near Overlook lately. Longshadow had taken a dislike to
the dark harbingers. His crystal turrets were surrounded with nasty little
spells that worked like trapdoor spiders, striking when birds came too close.

“That’s interesting,” I said. “That might be something new.”

“There have been crows before. But never so many.”

“Uhm.” What went on in there last night that Soulcatcher found so interesting? I
had seen nothing abnormal today. It might be worth checking.

Maybe I was being worked. Maybe Uncle Doj and Mother Gota were bound to start
checking out the oddities they had noticed about my behavior in recent months.

Maybe they were getting ready to do whatever Croaker suspected they were going
to do. If he did anything more than just suspect.

He suspected everybody of something.

“The one who flies went out last night, Soldier of Darkness.”

“Ah.” She was trying to manipulate me. She knew I hated those enigmatic titles
first employed by her father, Ky Dam. The old Speaker never explained them and
Mother Gota would not waddle where her dad had refused to tread. “That is
interesting.” There had been no aerial sightings of the Howler for a while. He
liked to use spells of concealment when he was aloft, though.

She wanted me to ask questions so she could toy with me and frustrate me. The
information she had given was all I was going to get. Right now.

I refused to play her game. I turned to Thai Dei. “Did I just get promoted to
honorary member of the tribe?”

He shrugged. He seemed mildly surprised that his mother had told me anything at
all.

I did not rush right over to visit Smoke. If that was what the old woman wanted
I meant to disappoint her in a big way. I tended to chores, helped Thai Dei work
on our dugout, ate again, drank plenty, worked on the Annals for a while. I
could change nothing that had happened during the night. And whatever that was,

it had not been so earthshaking that it was an immediate threat.

One-Eye actually made it easy. Shortly after sundown he came over with a clay
pot. “Soup’s ready,” he said. He sloshed the pot’s contents. The stink of a
really bad beverage quickly filled my dugout.

“All right!” I got up and followed him into the darkness.

“That was a stroke of luck, you showing up just then,” I told One-Eye. “I needed
to get away.” I relayed what Mother Gota had told me.

“How would she know that?”

I told him about spotting her and Uncle Doj during the night. “Maybe they
spotted me, too.”

“Thai Dei could’ve told them.”

“I guess.”

“You think it’s important?”

“They make a special point of making sure I know, I’d better check it out. I
didn’t notice anything when I did my routine snooping.”

One-Eye grunted. He looked thoughtful. “Goes to show you. No matter how well set
up we are we’re going to miss stuff because we don’t know what to watch for.”

Which was true. Things could be right there in the open and even with the
advantage Smoke gave me I could miss them if I did not know to look.

There just was not enough time to look everywhere all the time.

I suggested, “Why don’t you take some of your magic potion over to my in-laws?

Screw up their thinking for a while.”

“Thought they didn’t touch the stuff.”

“They’re not supposed to. But I’ve seen Thai Dei take a tummy-warmer a time or
three, to be sociable, and his mother would’ve developed a taste for it if Uncle
Doj hadn’t been there most of the time we were in Taglios. She’d sneak a few
pints whenever he was away. She hasn’t had a chance since we’ve been on the
road.”

“Very interesting.” The little black man started rustling around. “Tell you
what. I’ll just go over there and keep them company while you’re out. I’ll tell
them you’re working.”

He left before I finished my preparations. He lugged a slimy old wooden bucket
with him. I muttered, “I got to get him to talk to Swan.” Willow Swan made bad
beer, too, but he did know a little about the brewer’s art. Compared to
One-Eye’s product Willow’s was ambrosia.

There was very nearly a warmth to Smoke when I took hold of him, as though some
part of him sensed that he was no longer alone and was pleased. I took him
directly to Overlook, sliding backward in time as we went, avoiding the ruins
where the fires burned so I would not see myself. I had to shuffle forward and
backward to find Mother Gota’s crows. They were visible only briefly and were
never obvious. They streaked in from the north, high above the fortress, then
plummeted into Overlook like falling stones. There were no more than a dozen so
any message they carried, either direction, would be severely limited. I
expected greater numbers from what my mother-in-law had said.

I followed the last one down. The flock did not go near Longshadow’s glowing
towertop, where the Shadowmaster labored late over some esoteric text. They
plunged into the darkness of a courtyard and entered the fortress through a door
standing just a crack ajar. They muttered among themselves, uncomfortable with
where they were. A sharp cry, broken off, nearly spooked them.

A voice whispered. I could see nothing but the vaguest shape in the darkness but
recognized the Howler’s aborted cry. I did not understand a word he said. I did
not understand the crows, who took turns making noises that might have
constituted a message. For me the critical piece of information was not included
in the body of the message but in the existence of the message.

Soulcatcher and Howler were communicating.

I ran back in time another hour. Howler did nothing but sit there and wait. I
jumped forward, planning to bracket him till I found something else interesting.

I had to advance only a few minutes beyond the arrival of the crows.

They stayed only briefly. Then Howler rustled back into the darkness. I drifted
along behind him, tracking him by ear and by smell. Even in the ghostworld
Howler had an air about him.

He stayed in darkness, away from routes Longshadow might use, till he reached a
particular door. He knocked, which surprised me. Howler was the kind of guy who
just invited himself in.

Narayan Singh opened the door a crack. Howler fought down a shriek. He was
developing a talent for silence. Singh stepped back and allowed him to enter.

Howler slipped in like a diminutive Deceiver on a deadly skulk. “It’s time,” he
whispered.

Time for what?

Singh knew. He went to the Daughter of Night immediately. The kid was hunched up
in front of a small fire, fanatically transcribing that first Book of the Dead.

Looked to me like she was almost done. But who knew how long a book it was?

Singh seemed unsure how to approach the girl. He seemed unsure about a lot
lately. He was close to superfluous and knew it.

Lady always would have a use for him, though.

He got the girl’s attention. Gods, she was getting spooky! There was an aura
about her, something you might call a glow of darkness. In that light her eyes
seemed to shimmer like those of a big cat stealing toward your dying campfire.

You were drowsing and she was hungry.

“It’s time,” Narayan told her, his whisper barely strong enough to stir the air.

The child nodded curtly. She made a tiny gesture. Narayan bowed, backed away.

There was no doubt who was in charge here, who ruled and who obeyed. Nor any
doubt that she was herself controlled by a determined power. She extended her
writing hand to Narayan for help rising. It was a claw she could not relax. Her
legs were too stiff to unfold on their own. For a moment I pitied her,

forgetting she was no true child.

Howler returned to the corridor. He drifted along ahead of Singh and the girl,

scouting. Those two insisted on a lamp, which troubled Howler deeply. He
muttered and fussed the whole time they were doing their sneak.

By a tortuous route that avoided Longshadow, the garrison and the enclave still
held by Lady’s soldiers, Howler led them to an unguarded piece of wall
overlooking Kiaulune. Fires were burning down there. I was down there with Thai
Dei, cold and disappointed with myself for having been dumb enough to insist on
the eyewitness view.

I did not tag along in real time. I skipped forward, compressing events.

Howler’s destination was a small carpet concealed atop a domeless tower
otherwise not in use. It was a new carpet, smaller than those we had seen
before, black as the night around us. More evidence that you cannot know
everything that is happening unless you want to spend every minute watching. I
had not seen Howler working on this carpet.

With no words exchanged the three lifted it, walked to the edge of the parapet,

lockstepped right off into space. They clambered aboard as they fell. Narayan
moaned softly, eyes closed. The Daughter of Night was not impressed.

Howler took control in time not to smear them all over the rocks and wreckage
below. He began sliding gently along just a few feet above the ground, trying to
keep solid objects between himself and Overlook.

I took a quick look at Longshadow.

The Shadowmaster was restless. He had left his studies to stare vaguely toward
Kiaulune. He sensed that something was happening but could not determine what.

Howler was playing around behind his ally’s back.

I almost lost the little shit. I had to go back to the moment I left him to pick
him up again. Soon afterward he drifted past a band of Mogaba’s guerrillas in
the ruins. The guerrillas did not see him but sensed him and panicked, thinking
one of the Shadowmaster’s pets was on the prowl. The racket they made drew the
attention of nearby Taglians. The soldiers saw something shadowy drifting
through the darkness. They wasted no time getting off a volley of fireballs.

Howler changed tactics.

He put on a burst of speed and employed a spell of concealment neither of which
he wanted to do that near Overlook. I would have lost him then had not chance
favored me.

A wild fireball clipped the corner of the invisible carpet, which began to
smolder. The spell of concealment did not include the glow as long as I stayed
close.

Howler hauled ass. But he did stay so low that brush scraped the underside of
his carpet. At one point he ploughed through some tents and clotheslines in one
of the Prahbrindrah Drah’s division camps. He was less concerned about being
noticed by our side than by his own.

The race brought on a mild sense of exhilaration. I did not notice it
immediately. Then it hit me that I was feeling more emotion than usual.

Eventually I realized what I was feeling was some feeble spillover from Smoke.

Sometime during the flight we passed close enough to Uncle Doj and Mother Gota
to be noticed but I saw no sign of them. We also swept over my own headquarters
close enough to startle the sentries and horses.

I was not entirely surprised when Howler headed for a certain snow-choked
canyon. Smoke did not notice until we were close enough to watch Howler land in
front of a waiting Soulcatcher amidst an explosion of terrified crows.

In my amusement at the birds I relaxed just a little bit. And Smoke rebelled.

She is the darkness.

What?

That was not me. But it did not happen again.

I backed out and up and away, content to go back to my flesh with the knowledge
that Howler and Soulcatcher were up to some treachery that included Narayan
Singh and the Daughter of Night.

The mood Smoke exuded now, if so feeble a thing could be called a mood, was
terror.

And terror was out there roving the night, though it was not the terror that
haunted my spirit steed.

I caught a whiff of corruption as I moved toward my flesh. I saw nothing. I
stopped, experimented, moved in a direction away from the invisible source.

Maybe it caught a whiff of me. The stench grew stronger suddenly. I felt a
sensation as of something onrushing. Light flickered in the ghostworld. I saw
Kina’s hideous face for an instant, looking directly toward me. But her eyes
were blind. Her nostrils flared as though she was trying to catch my wind.

Smoke’s terror might have been what she smelled. He fled in total panic. She is
the darkness.

It was more feeble this time but it was there. It was not my imagination.