Dreams of Steel

Chapter Thirty-Four

Mather stuck his head into the room. “He’s on his way, Willow.”

Swan grunted, opened shutters for more light. He looked out at Blade’s camp and its satellites. The gods themselves were on Blade’s team. Recruits had een arriving in droves. None of them wanted to enlist in the Radisha’s guard. He’d had high hopes when he had invented that. But the Radisha’s name carried less weight here than Blade’s. And, damn him, he was as stubborn about sticking with Lady as Cordy was about the Radisha.

“Cordy, Cordy, why the hell don’t we just go home?” he muttered to himself.

Blade came in, escorted by Mather. That human stump Sindu was right behind them. He was like Blade’s shadow, anymore. Swan did not like the man. He was creepy.

Blade said, “Cordy says you have something.”

“Yeah. We finally got one up on you.” He had begun fielding patrols of his own after Blade started expanding southward. “Our boys grabbed some prisoners.”

“I know.”

Of course he did. There was no hiding from each other here. They did not try. They remained friends, however much they disagreed. Blade did most of his planning in that room, on the map table there. Anything Swan wanted to know he could see right there.

“There was a big dust-up at Dejagore the other night. Shadowspinner hit the burg with everything he had. He grabbed our friends by the short hairs. Then what should pop up but two giant fire-breathing riders in black armor flinging thunderbolts around and kicking ass wholesale. When the smoke cleared away it was the Shadowlanders that got whupped. One of the prisoners saw it with his own eyes. He said Shadowspinner had to yank everything out of his trick bag to hold those two off. Here’s the way they say it went down.”

Swan kept a close eye on Blade while he chattered. There was some emotion showing through that bland facade.

He finished his tale- “What you think, old buddy? Those two miracle visitors sound like anybody we know?”

“Lady and Croaker. In their costume armor.”

“Bingo! But?”

“He’s dead and she’s in Taglios.”

“Two in a row. Give the man a prize. I think. So what the hell really went down? Sindhu. What you grinning about, man?”

“Kina.”

The others looked hard at the broad man. Mather said, “Descriptions again, Willow.”

Swan repeated.

Mather said, “Kina. The way she’s described by people who know her.”

“Not her,” Sindhu said. “Kina sleeps. The Daughter is bound in flesh.” Sindhu’s association with the Deceivers was an open secret. But he was not much help. Usually it was like this. He would say one thing, then contradict himself.

Swan said, “I’m not going to try to figure that out, buddy. Somebody fits the description went in and tore them new buttholes down there. Kina or not-Kina, I don’t care. Somebody wanted people to think Kina. Right?”

Sindhu nodded.

“So who was that with her? That fit anywhere?”

Sindhu shook his head. “This confuses me.”

Mather hoisted himself to a seat in the window. Swan shuddered. Cordy had a forty-foot drop behind him. He said, “Be quiet. Let me think.”

Swan echoed, “Quiet. Let him.” Cordy was a genius when he took the trouble.

They waited. Swan paced. Blade studied the map. He let no time waste. Sindhu remained impassive and still, yet seemed shaken.

Mather said, “There’s another force in the field.”

“Say what?” Swan chirped.

“Only way it adds up, Willow. The Shadowmasters are out to get each other but they wouldn’t go that far. Helps us too much. Our side doesn’t have anybody who could pull off the sorcery angle. So somebody else did it.”

“What the hell for?”

“To confuse things?”

“They did that. Why?”

“I couldn’t guess.”

“Then who?”

“I don’t know. Just like everyone else won’t know, and will be chasing their tails trying to figure it out.”

Was Blade listening? Didn’t seem like it. He asked, “How bad were the Shadowlanders hurt?”

“Huh?”

“Shadowspinner’s armies. How bad off are they?”

“Bad enough they can’t take a crack at Dejagore again till they get replacements. But not so bad our guys have a crack at breaking out.”

“Just enough interference to keep the balance, then.”

“Our guys got cut up bad, way the prisoners talked. As many as half of them killed. Meaning the Shadowmasters’ men really got mauled.”

“But they could still send out patrols for you to catch?”

“Shadowspinner is scared we’ll move on him. He doesn’t want any more surprises.”

Blade paced. He returned to the map, tapped out the garrisons and posts he had established as much as a hundred fifty miles south. He paced. He asked Mather, “Is it true? Or is it something they want us to believe? Bait for a trap?”

Swan said, “The prisoners believed it.”

Blade said, “Sindhu, why haven’t we heard from Hakim? Why did this news reach us this way?”

“I don’t know.”

“Find out. Go talk to your friends right now. If this is true we should have known before their patrol got here with the prisoners.”

Sindhu departed, disturbed.

Swan said, “Now you got rid of him, what’s on your mind?”

“Is the story true? That’s what’s on my mind. Sindhu has people babysitting Dejagore. They should’ve had a messenger moving the minute the dust-up started. Another should’ve brought a complete report when it was over. One might not have gotten through but two wouldn’t have failed. We made that road safe. We enlisted most of the bandits and feistier peasants.”

“You think the prisoners are plants?”

Blade paced. “I don’t know. If they are, why on you? Mather?”

Cordy thought. “If they’re a plant we shouldn’t have been the captors. Unless their purpose is to cause confusion. Or they don’t know the difference. It could be they’re telling the truth but we’re not supposed to believe it because you haven’t heard from your scouts. It could be a device to buy time.”

“Illusion,” Swan said. “You remember what Croaker used to say? That his favorite weapon was illusion?”

“That’s not quite what he said, Willow,” Mather corrected. “But close enough. Somebody wants us to see something that isn’t there. Or to ignore something that is.”

Blade said, “I’m moving.”

Swan squawked. “What do you mean, moving?”

“I’m heading down there.”

“Hey! Man! What are you, crazy? You’re getting a little carried away, chasing that tail.”

Blade walked out.

Willow spun on Mather. “What do we do, Cordy?”

Mather shook his head. “I don’t know about friend Blade anymore. He’s looking to get killed. Maybe we shouldn’t have taken him away from those crocs.”

“Yeah. Maybe. But what do we do now?”

“Send a message north. Then go with him.”

“But...”

“We’re in charge. We can do whatever we want.” Mather hustled out.

“They’re both crazy,” Swan muttered. He looked at the map a minute, went to the window, watched the excitement in Blade’s camp, eyed the ford and the swarming engineers setting wooden pylons for Lady’s temporary bridge. “Everybody’s gone crazy.” He laid a finger between his lips and wiggled it furiously while saying, “Why the hell should I be any different?”