Bleak Seasons

75

"Talk to me," I told the runt wizards.

Goblin said, "We think something was done to you when you were out there." He jerked his head shoreward.

"What? Get serious! I... "

"We are. You were gone a long time. And you changed. How many disappearing spells have you had since you got back?"

I gave it an honest think. "Only one. Maybe. When I was kidnapped. I don't remember anything about it. I'm sure they drugged me. I was drinking tea with the Speaker, then I was in that street where you found me. I have no idea how I got there. I have vague recollections of smelling smoke and going out a door which put me somewhere that I did not expect to be when I got to the other side. I vaguely remember thinking something about being in the house of pain."

"They tortured you."

"They did." I still had the nicks and bruises to prove it. I had no idea what I might have been asked, if anything. I did suspect that Sindhu's pals were behind my abduction and the attempt on Mogaba.

If so, their life sure took an unpleasant turn when the Black Company found them.

"We've been watching you," Goblin said. "And you have been behaving pretty strange sometimes. What we want to do is put you to sleep and see if we can't reach the part of you that was there when things happened."

"I don't get you."

"You don't have to. You just have to cooperate."

"You're sure?"

"We're sure."

He did not sound sure.

I awakened on my own pallet. Not refreshed. Someone was wiping my hot face with a cold, wet cloth. I opened my eyes. In the light of one tiny candle Sahra looked more lovely than ever. She looked better than imagination. She continued to wipe my face.

I had another hangover type headache. What had they done? I ought at least to get the enjoyment that came before the pain.

To Tan began to fuss. He slept in a basket of evil smelling rags beneath my writing table. I reached over and took his hand. He stopped crying, content to have human contact. He did not cry for his mother much anymore.

I raised my other hand to take Sahra's. She pushed it back gently. She never spoke. I never did hear her speak, not even to her own children.

I looked around. Thai Dei was gone. Anymore it seemed I had a better chance of shaking my shadow. Thai Dei was there even in the dark.

I started to sit up. Sahra held me down with two fingers. I was too weak to do anything. And my head felt like it doubled in size just rising that foot.

Sahra offered me a hand-carved wooden cup filled with something that smelled so foul my eyes watered. Nyueng Bao swamp medicine. I drank. It tasted worse than it smelled.

She continued to mop my face. I shivered and shook. The pain went away. I began to relax, to feel both energetic and positive. That was good stuff. Maybe they made it smell and taste bad so people would not take it all the time.

We stared at one another a long time, saying nothing but reaching a decision our conscious minds did not entirely recognize at the moment. Hong Tray drifted across my thoughts with a smile and an admonition.

This time I managed a smile when I sat up. Unchallenged. "I have work to do."

Sahra shook her head. She fished under the table for To Tan, dug him out of his basket. He was in desperate need of changing. Sahra tugged my finger.

"I haven't done this in twenty years." Not since I was a kid myself and had baby brothers and sisters and cousins to change. "Stop wiggling, you little turd. You ought to know the drill by now." To Tan looked back at me with serious big eyes, not understanding my words but catching my tone.

We got him cleaned up and clothed again, in rags that would have embarrassed a beggar. I told Sahra, "I'll go kill somebody, get him something better to wear."

She laid a hand lightly on my forearm, restraining me. "That was a joke, hon. You hang around with me, you're going to hear some dark stuff. I don't mean it literally. I'm going to work now."

I moved into the passageway slowly, my legs watery. Sahra followed, To Tan straddling her left hip. We ran into Bucket right away, looking groggy as he headed for his own pallet. I asked, "You seen Goblin and One-Eye?"

"They went upstairs with their magic junk. To the big lookout."

"Thanks."

Before we walked five feet, Bucket called, "Longo tell you the water is coming up in the catacombs?"

I sighed and shook my head, listened to the half-hearted rumble of my stomach, wondered if anybody had found a way to get some food cooked, wound my way through the maze to the ladders that would take me up to Goblin and One-Eye.

The light of day might do me good. If I had the strength to climb that far. I had not seen the sun for a long time.