She Is The Darkness

75

"Use this salve," Croaker told me. "And try to keep it as clean and dry as you can."

"I was walking bowlegged before we got back." I scowled at One-Eye, who was seated on the floor near Croaker's fire, not saying a word. He looked like he wished we would let him fall asleep for a year, so the pain would go away. He was still in such bad shape that he did not have energy enough to complain.

Mother Gota was more resilient. Her youth, I suppose. She and Uncle Doj had been working on the family dugout when Thai Dei and I returned from our adventure. Nobody, including Uncle Doj, had anything to say. I ignored his long absence. I had no time for Nyueng Bao mystery games. I left them stirring the mud in an effort to get a shelter up before night fell again.

Lady had Howler on the door table, examining him. She concluded, "He should recover."

I asked, "You get issued nine lives when you get Taken? That little shit is starting to look stubborner than the Limper was." We killed that asshole half a dozen times. We thought. And he just kept coming back.

Lady said, "No. But anybody who has the drive to become a wizard of his level is the sort who wastes no opportunity to further prepare for any imaginable possibility."

I asked the Old Man, "What's it look like out there?" There had been dramatic changes in the few hours I was away. Besides the passage of the rain. Most of the survivors had been collected either in the vicinity of the headquarters group or directly below the Shadowgate. A lot of manhours had gone into locating every surviving piece of workable bamboo. Lady's reloading factory was hard at work, too, but the effort there was little more than symbolic of the leadership's commitment to continue the struggle.

"Looks better than I thought it would. Lady got Longshadow stabilized. That should mean we're back to the slow leakage we had before he got hurt. If he mends all right we'll have him shut it down in a couple of days."

"We going to be able to control him?"

"Oh yeah. You've seen statues of dead generals that had more freedom of action than she's left him."

Lady looked up from her work. She wore the tiniest of smiles but it betrayed the confident amusement of an old, old evil. She is the darkness. Smoke was for sure right about that.

I said, "Wouldn't we be better off if we moved into Overlook?"

"Maybe. And we might do that. Once we get straightened out and know where everybody is. And figure out where, for right now, their loyalties lie."

"Speaking of which. Uncle Doj is back. He's out there helping my mother-in-law and acting like he was never gone."

"I heard."

"I'm wondering how he managed to survive. Especially last night."

Lady looked at me like I had sparked a surprise thought. She said, "Watch Howler. Call me if he moves. I'll be right outside." She hurried out the doorway.

I looked at Croaker. He shrugged. "I don't ask anymore."

"She looks pretty ragged."

"Don't we all? But maybe we'll get to rest up now. If we get the Shadowgate under control there won't be anybody to aggravate us for a long time. If ever."

Mogaba was out there. But he had no patron anymore. That meant that nobody could cover his ass magically. He would have to back off. And the Prahbrindrah Drah might not live long enough to become a problem. He had to evade both shadows and Goblin to reach friendly territory. And even so-called-friendly territory would not be very friendly if he could not pull together a band big enough to look out for itself. Peasants are notoriously cruel to fleeing soldiers when they catch them at a disadvantage. Possibly that is because soldiers are so cruel to peasants when the advantage lies in their hands, though many from the hyperrefined warrior classes have insisted it springs from the beastly nature of the peasantry.

"Can you get over to the Shadowgate?"

"Me? Now?"

"You. Now. Before dark. Carrying the standard. To test my theory about what it is. And to help cover the troops there if I'm right."

"I can try. But I'm in pretty lousy shape."

"You could ride."

That was asking for another set of galled spots entirely but he was right.

With a slightly nasty smile he observed, "You could have your understudy do it for you if you had one."

So he knew Sleepy was missing. I needed to check on the kid first chance I got.

Lady pushed back inside. She was not a big woman but she had a big presence. I was always surprised when I saw her after a separation because I always remembered her about a foot taller. She told me, "Your friend Doj isn't just a priest from some obscure cult. He's a sorcerer. Very minor. Less than One-Eye in ability. But he's carrying something—an amulet, an artifact, what exactly I couldn't determine—that protects him from shadows."

Croaker looked at me like I ought to have known all about that years ago. "I don't know, boss. This's the first I've heard about it." Though I had always suspected that Uncle Doj might be able to do something besides crochet with a sword. In fact, his skills with a blade always did seem almost magically augmented. How could a guy pull off something like that attack on the Deceivers at Charandaprash without getting swamped by sheer weight of numbers?

I do not know why but I told Lady, "My wife isn't dead. The Deceivers never touched her when they raided our apartment. Thai Dei and Doj and some cousins took her away, then told me she was dead. They also convinced her that I was dead while they were taking her back to the swamp. They've got her stashed in a temple there now, where she won't embarrass them by being pregnant. Doj and Gota don't want us two together. They only ever put up with it at all because Gota's parents insisted." Sarie, her family and the Nyueng Bao were not something I had discussed with Lady before. I never talked with her much about anything except stuff that needed to go into the Annals or the stuff that she had written there that needed clarification.

She checked Howler again while she listened to my chatter. She suggested, "Tell me all about this. I've always had a feeling that there was something going on."

Yeah? Right. Her and everybody else smart enough not to eat dirt.

Croaker went to the doorway and stuck his head out. He popped back inside. "Hey. Why didn't you say it'd stopped raining? Maybe I can get these assholes to move a little faster now." Out he went. I felt for him. He looked even more worn out than I felt.

I said, "I did tell him."

"He doesn't always listen. Talk to me about the Nyueng Bao."

I talked. Lady listened. She asked sharp questions. I returned the favor at times, when we touched on anything I thought I wanted to know.

She said, "I want to know about your dreams, too."

"They're different than yours. I think."

"I know. How they're different might mean a lot."

We talked a long time. But not long enough for me to get out of trekking over to the Shadowgate with the goddamn standard.