"Anything you want to know, you'd better ask the Old Man. I couldn't tell you even if I was as goofy as Willow Swan. He don't tell me anything, either. He's still keeping it all inside his head. You seen that place over there? Worse than the Tower at Charm. He hasn't paid any attention to it since we got here. I haven't seen him do much of anything. Longshadow and Howler haven't done much, either, though."
"It's frustrating."
"Yeah. And maybe not even very smart considering what shape we'd be in if the Stranglers got him."
"Less likely than you think."
"Because of Soulcatcher?"
"Yes."
"She can't be everywhere any more than you can. And they call them the Deceivers for a reason." I hoped my voice was not squeaking. I was trying to play the fearless man.
"None of that is why you wanted to see me."
"No. I've got a problem. My dreams are getting worse! They're really bad now. I want to know how to shut them out."
"I haven't found a way. You have to learn to remember what they are. Has Kina been calling you?"
"I don't think so. It's more like she's passing through my dreams and doesn't notice me if I lie real still. Or maybe I'm eavesdropping on someone else's nightmares."
"Tell me about them."
I told her.
"Those are pretty much the dreams I've always had. Mostly I'm on the plain anymore."
"Are there crows there?"
"Crows? No. There isn't anything alive there."
I considered. "Actually, what I said before isn't quite true. She does seem to be aware of me specifically. The other night I got led through a version of the plain dream where I saw my wife. I talked to Sarie. The implication was there that I could get her back."
"That's new. For me the horrors just get worse. I think they're supposed to overwhelm me eventually."
I had a feeling she was not telling the whole truth, either. I said, "I find it hard to believe that she could feed me anything worse than what I've seen in real life. Knowing what she's trying to do-"
"She managed to use me, Murgen. Because I thought I knew what she was doing. But I didn't. She is the Queen of Deceivers. I wasn't her Daughter of Night at all. I was just a brood mare who was going to carry a Deceiver messiah for her. Don't make the mistake I made. If she really has noticed you, you be very, very careful. And keep me posted."
I grunted.
"Did you keep track of times when you thought you sensed Kina?"
"Uh..." I had. But most of the time she came near me I was out with Smoke. "Not very well." I gave her a couple of times that seemed harmless.
"That isn't much help. Control your emotions. Your wife would be an obvious way to manipulate you. You have any idea why?"
"I'd guess the standard."
"Of course. Hints pile up but we never get the story. The Lance of Passion. Only the thing's never shown any special properties."
It had, but in a time and manner I could not explain without exposing Smoke. Croaker stuck Howler with it once, just a flesh wound, but the little wizard almost died. "Maybe we don't really have the Lance. People might just think we do."
She murmured, "Is this another complicated deceit?"
I asked, "How do I stop the dreaming?"
"Weren't you listening? You don't."
"I don't think I'm strong enough just to live with them."
"You learn. Mine went away after the baby was born. But not for long. I think Kina forgot to sever the connection."
"Maybe Narayan was supposed to do that when he took your daughter."
"Of course he was."
"I didn't mean to remind you of-"
"I don't need reminding. I remember just fine. Every minute of every hour. And someday soon I plan to discuss it with Narayan, up close and personal." When she said that she seemed as nasty as Kina herself, though maybe you had to be there and had to know her history to enjoy the full impact. "He's going to get his Year of the Skulls now. He's run out of places to hide."
"You've seen Overlook. You think he needs to hide?"
Before she answered Blade shoved his head into the ragged tent. "A Strangler just took a crack at Willow. Willow's having a little trouble breathing but he'll be all right."
"You take the assassin alive?" Lady asked.
I eased toward the exit. Her mood was getting blacker. I did not want her pressing me hard.
Blade grinned. "He's in perfect health. Though he'd have a heart attack if he could."
I began easing around Blade. Lady gave me an eyeball-the-bug look that said she thought we ought to talk more later. I might consider staying out of her way. Maybe I had been too open with her already.
I stayed at a distance but watched. Lady's interrogation methods were deft, vicious and effective. The lesson was not lost on any witnesses.
Within minutes the Strangler admitted that he had infiltrated the camp-follower crowd after our victory at Charandaprash. The order had come from Narayan Singh himself. Willow Swan had been his primary target. Other red rumel men had been assigned other targets. They, too, had concealed themselves among the camp followers. They had been directed by the Daughter of Night herself to be very careful executing their missions. The Children of Kina had become so few that part of their obligation to their goddess now was to preserve themselves for her sake.
Lady knew just how to charm a man into talking. One of those things you learn when you are around forever, I suppose. One of those things people like Longshadow would like to mine out of your head.
She was so effective the Strangler abandoned hope of his eternal reward to tell her names.
I took a walk as Blade began organizing a throat-cutting expedition.
Just to underscore her disaffection with them Lady strangled one of the Deceivers herself. She used her own black scarf, taken from a black rumel man years ago. Every Deceiver knew the tale.
She sent her messages thus.
Crows took off in multitudes.
By way of conversation with Narayan Singh, Lady had the heads of the Deceivers put on lances and carried across to Overlook.
Croaker joined me. "That's my sweetie," he said, shaking his head. Like he would have been kinder had he gotten to those men first.
He knew what I was thinking. "A lady doesn't murder people in polite company." He grinned.
"What polite company? The Company ain't polite. And I think it was a very Lady-like thing she did."
"Yeah." He seemed almost cheerful about it all.
43.
I spent a good many hours at it but I finally located Sleepy with some base-camp elements from Big Bucket's special forces battalion. Bucket's gang was doing the biggest part of the work of hunting Mogaba's partisans. I told the kid, "Let's go for a walk. I need to talk to you." I collected a handful of flat stones to throw at crows if those squawking nightmares got too curious.
"This about what I hope it is?" The boy was excited. I could not remember having been excited about becoming the standardbearer. But I had gotten the job by default. There had been no one else able to do it. It had had to be handled.
"Partly. I got the final word from the Old Man. He says you're all right with him. He's leaving the choice up to me. So you're in, far as I'm concerned. But he wants me to handle the standard myself till after we know one way or the other how it's going to go with Longshadow. We can start teaching you some stuff right away. And see that you get out of some of the more unpleasant duties so you'll have time. Especially for working on your reading and writing."
The boy beamed. I felt a little shitty. "But there's one special job I need you to do first." I saw Big Bucket headed our way, probably to hand the kid one of the very jobs I had just mentioned.
"What? I can handle it."
Absolutely. Which was why Bucket would pick him out of the crowd.
"I've got a secret message that needs to get to Taglios. It's critical. You can take a few guys with you, just in case. Use guys who can ride hard. I'll give you authorization to use courier remounts." I raised a hand to forestall anything Bucket had to say. "This has to go through as fast as it can."
Bucket had heard some of it. "You taking away my best man to carry a letter?"
"Yes. Because it has to get through."
"This really serious?" Bucket asked.
"That's why I have him out here where nobody can hear us."
"Then I'd better go away." For a fugitive thief Bucket made a very good soldier...
"Probably."
"Hate to lose you, kid." Bucket shuffled off to dump whatever it was on somebody else.
Sleepy said, "If you loan me your horse I won't have to take anybody with me. And I'll get there and back a lot faster."
He had a point. He had a marvelous point and it had not occurred to me. "Let me think about this."
There was an iffy side. The Old Man might want me to do something before Sleepy got back. If I did not have my horse he would ask questions.
I was not planning to share my plan with the Captain. If I did he would forbid it.
"I'll be back in less than a month."
With my horse he could manage that if he had a butt of iron. He was young and hardy but I did not think anybody was that tough. Still...Nothing was likely to happen around here for at least that long. It would take more than a month for all the stragglers to come in, for our leaders to hash out some kind of plan. It was not possible that Croaker had a plan worked out for Overlook the way he had had for Charandaprash. I was not likely to get caught.
And once the kid had a week's head start even Soulcatcher would not be able to intercept him.
"All right. We'll do it your way. One thing, though. The message has to be put into the hands of a specific person. He might not be available right away. You might have to wait for him."
"I'll do whatever the job calls for, Murgen."
"All right. Come down to my..." I could not do that. Thai Dei was sure to overhear something. "No. First, I have to tell you who to find." I glanced around. Sleepy was one of the few veterans of Dejagore who had not acquired a Nyueng Bao bodyguard, but the Nyueng Bao as a group did keep an eye on him.
"I'm listening." The kid was eager to prove himself.
"His name is Banh Do Trang. He was a friend of my wife's. He's a trading factor who goes back and forth between Taglios and the delta. He sells everything from rice to crocodile skins. He's old and slow but he's the only way to get a message into the swamp."
"You have a whole family-"
"You might've noticed how little the Captain trusts those people."
"Yes."
"There's good reason not to trust them. Any of them who're here with us. In this case, any of them but Banh Do Trang himself."
"I understand. Where do I find this man?"
I gave him directions. "You can tell him who the message is from but only if he asks. He should deliver it to Ky Sahra at the Vinh Gao Ghang temple of Ghanghesha."
"You want me to wait for an answer?"
"That won't be necessary." If the message got through I would get my answer directly from Sarie. "I'm going to go write several copies of the message. You do what you think is best to make sure one of them survives the whole journey."
"I understand."
Though he had not reacted to Sahra's formal name I suspected that he understood more than I was telling.
Later, I introduced Sleepy to my horse and made the stallion understand that it was time to earn his oats. The animal was smart enough to be as disgruntled as any soldier asked to get up and bust his butt.
The kid slipped away without anybody but Bucket knowing that he was going.
44.