Bleak Seasons

45

Wheezer barely made it to the top. Then he spent five minutes hacking and wheezing before he could talk. That old man had no business soldiering at his age. He ought to be off living off his grandchildren. But like the rest of us he had nothing outside the Company. He would die under the deathshead standard. Under what passed for a standard today.

It was sad. Pathetic, even.

Wheezer was an anomaly. Usually the mercenary life is brutal and short, pain and fear and misery only occasionally interrupted by a fleeting moment of pleasure. What keeps you sane is the unfailing comradeship of your brethren. In this company.

In lesser bands... But they are not the Black Company.

Croaker and I both put a lot of effort into sustaining that brotherhood. In fact, it looked like time to resurrect Croaker's habit of readings from the Annals so the men would remember that they were part of something more enduring than most kingdoms.

I told Wheezer, "You better take a couple hours off."

He shook his head. He would go on the best he could until he could go on no more. "The Nar lieutenant. Sindawe. Sends greetings. He said we better look out tonight."

"He mention why?"

"He sort of hinted... that Mogaba might try... some big stunt after... dark."

Mogaba was always trying some big stunt. Shadowspinner ought to let him set himself up. One raid too many, at the wrong time, and Mogaba would find out personally why Spinner was called a Shadowmaster.

Wheezer said something in his native tongue. Only One-Eye understood him. Sounded like a question. One-Eye muttered a few clicky syllables in reply. I figured the old man wanted to know if it was all right to talk in front of the Nyueng Bao. One-Eye gave him the go ahead.

Wheezer said, "Sindawe said tell you guys the rumors about a big battle are probably true."

"We owe Sindawe, guys," I said. "That sounds to me like him telling us he won't back Mogaba a hundred percent anymore."

Thai Dei and Uncle Doj sucked up our conversation like Nyueng Bao sponges.

Tension built for hours. With no real evidence we began to feel this night would be critical. Mostly the guys worried about new nastinesses from Mogaba. We didn't expect trouble from the Shadowmaster any time soon.

I kept an eye on the hills.

One-Eye snapped, "There it is!" He shared my anticipations. Pinkish light flared. Lightning crackled around a bizarre rider.

"She's back," somebody said. "Where's the other one?"

I did not see a Widowmaker right away.

Panic swept the plain. The apparition had taken the scattered Shadowlander camps unawares. Sergeants shrieked orders. Messengers galloped around. Soldiers stumbled into one another.

"There he is!" Bucket yelled.

"There who is?"

"Widowmaker." He pointed. "The Old Man." The Widowmaker figure shimmered back in the hills, larger than life.

Goblin grabbed my arm. I don't know where he came from. "Look over there." He indicated the Shadowlander main camp. We could not see the camp itself but a pale, gangrenous glow rose from its approximate location. The light intensified steadily.

"Spinner wants to play," I observed.

"Yeah. He's sending a big one."

"A big what? Do we need to get our heads down?"

"Wait and see."

I waited. And I saw. A nasty ball of green fire streaked toward the hills. It hit near where Lifetaker first showed herself. Earth flew. Stone burned. All to no avail. Lifetaker was long gone.

"He missed."

"What an eye!"

"Lifetaker didn't play fair. She didn't stand still."

"He made a stupid choice of tools," One-Eye sneered. "You can't expect somebody to just hang around and wait for you."

"Maybe that was his best go. He hasn't been healthy."

I sidled away. In a few minutes Goblin and One-Eye would start bickering.

The confusion on the plain worsened. The southerners were more rattled than seemed reasonable. What I could get from their chatter suggested that they had been caught just starting something big of their own and their disarray left them virtually unable to defend themselves. In hushed tones, too, I heard Kina mentioned.

Lifetaker, who resembled that goddess of corruption, vanished. Maybe she lost interest. She did not reappear. Shadowspinner pasted the hills with any sorcery he could slap together. Other than starting a few brush fires he had no obvious impact.

The fox was in the henyard. Southerners scooted all over, their panic feeding on the panic of others. When one got close my guys took turns sniping. Goblin said, "They keep cussing about their feet getting wet." I heard that, too. It made no sense.

"Holy shit!"

I don't know who said it but I could not have agreed more.

Scores of brilliant white fireballs erupted straight up above the Shadowlander main camp. They obliterated the darkness completely. They seemed a tool of more use to a Shadowmaster's enemies than to the villain himself.

A huge uproar followed.

Uncle Doj vanished. One moment he was beside me, the next a shadow running through the street below, then gone.

One-Eye told me, "This time I'm sure it's Lady."

His tone alerted me. "But what?"

"But the other one ain't the Captain."

Widowmaker had been visible for less than one minute. "Tell me it ain't so," I muttered.

"What?"

"That we got two sets. Each one only half the real thing."

A crow nearby cackled.

I asked, "What kind of sorcery would do that? Split them in two?"

"I wish I could tell you something you want to hear, Kid. But I've got a very bad feeling there's stuff going on we don't even want to know about."