Soldiers Live

27

Shadowlands: Breakout

The Captain slithered up beside Suvrin, lifted her head just enough to be able to see the shadowgate separating the plain from home. "We're only thirty miles from where you were born, Suvrin." She had tried for years now to think of a better nickname than Suvrin, which meant Junior in Sangel, his native tongue. She had not found anything more exotic that fit.

"Less. I wonder if anybody'll remember me."

Behind them thousands waited anxiously. Hungrily. Way too much time had gotten wasted crossing the plain. Sleepy brushed aside a twinge of guilt.

"How many of them are there?" she asked. A camp lay just below the shadowgate. Built on the remains of old Company camps, it looked to have been there a long time. Its shelters had a makeshift but permanent appearance. They were part of a squalor which characterized all things military under the Protector's rule.

"There are fifty-six people. Including nine women and twenty-four children."

"That isn't exactly enough to stop a breakout attempt."

"We aren't why they're there. They're armed but they aren't real soldiers. They don't pay any attention to the road or the gate. During the day most of them just work their fields." Several feeble examples of primitive agriculture lay scattered along the banks of the creek at the bottom of the hill. "I thought about jumping them but decided I'd better wait till Tobo could look them over. I think they're really here because of the shadows."

"We'll send commandos down after sunset. Roll them up before they know what hit them." The Captain was not pleased with her protege's indecision.

Suvrin said, "Better have Tobo check them out first. Really. They're always more active after dark."

"Excuse me?"

"It's almost twilight now. Hang on. You'll see what I mean."

"Don't make me wait all night, Suvrin." Sleepy eased back. Once she could rise without being seen from below she did so, strode to her waiting staff. "There's a garrison in our way. Not a large one. Shouldn't be any trouble because they don't appear to be expecting anything. I want to make sure none of them get away once we move. Runmust. Iqbal. Head back up the road. Have everybody fall out. Maintaining plain discipline. Tell them to eat. To get their weapons ready. No fires permitted, though. We don't want to show any smoke or light. We might not go in till after midnight but I want everyone ready to go when I say it's time to go."

Relays of messengers carried word back along the column.

"There. Watch. That's what I mean," Suvrin said, pointing. Tobo and the Captain lay to either side of him. The garrison below had begun an exhaustive examination of the area around the shadowgate, illuminating the area from several directions using a variety of sources of light. "They're obviously looking for leaks right now. It'll get more interesting in a minute."

Soon afterward a three-man team brought up a thin-necked earthenware jar of about a gallon's capacity mounted in a wooden rack which they crowded right up against the sorcerous boundary that prevented the shadows, the Unforgiven Dead, from leaving the plain.

The lighting was bright but still not good enough for even Tobo's sharp young eyes to discern clearly what was going on but, whatever they were up to, those people were being extremely cautious.

"I've got it!" Tobo said after watching intently for about ten minutes. "They're trying to catch shadows. They've got a tiny little hole bored through the barrier there and they're hoping an overeager shadow will pop through it into their jar."

"They work for Soulcatcher," Sleepy said, maybe just to dampen the boy's enthusiasm. She now understood why Suvrin had been so cautious.

"Of course they do. Who else? We need to think this over. If she has a whole bunch of shadows under her control... "

"It's too late to turn back." As though he had suggested anything of the sort. Sleepy rolled onto her back, rubbed her forehead with her left hand. The stars above were the stars of her childhood. She had not seen them for far too long. "I missed our stars."

Suvrin replied, "I did, too. I've spent a lot of time here just enjoying them."

"You haven't sent even one scout through yet?"

"I really haven't had the chance. I didn't want to commit you to anything by taking everything into my own hands. Anyway, I had to fix the gate before I could do anything else and I've gotten maybe an hour a night when I could get down there to work on that."

"It's ready, now, though. Isn't it? I've got twelve thousand men up here. Don't tell me we have to wait some more."

"You can go through any time."

Tobo grunted. "The Nef."

Sleepy rolled back onto her stomach. Sure enough, the dreamwalkers had appeared down by the locals. They remained transparent. They jumped and gestured. The workers beyond the barrier ignored them.

"They can't see them," Tobo said.

The Nef abandoned their effort to communicate with the shadowcatchers and swept upslope to harangue the watchers on the lip of the plain.

"What're they trying to tell us?" Sleepy asked.

Tobo replied, "I don't know. I can actually hear a whisper sometimes but I still can't understand them. If Dad was here... He was almost a dreamwalker. I think he might understand them a little bit."

"It's probably safe to assume that there's something they don't want us to do. That's what it always has been once somebody does figure it out. But doing what we want hasn't ever led to trouble for us. Has it?"

The wait stretched. Suvrin said, "It's always like this." He rolled over. "Why don't we watch for shooting stars?"

Tobo said, "I'm going down there. I want to hear what they're saying."

"Ignoring the fact that they'll see you, when did you learn to speak Sangel?" Sleepy asked.

"I've picked up a few words from Suvrin. We had to do something during those tedious journeys to the shadowgates. Although I don't think these guys will be speaking anything but Taglian. They have to be people the Protector trusts. Meaning people whose families are where she can eat them up if she's disappointed with anybody's behavior. They aren't going to see me."

Doj had taught him well. He was all but invisible descending that slope, using no magic at all. The shadowcatchers noticed nothing. But the dreamwalkers did. They became agitated. Then the few shadows in the vicinity, not swarming beside the road with all their kin, hoping some soldier would stupidly break the protective barrier, also began to scoot from hiding place to hiding place erratically. One darted up and through the pinhole into the earthenware jar.

The shadowcatchers congratulated one another. In a moment they had both jar and barrier sealed, the latter with an almost invisible bit of bamboo. Tobo sensed powerful spells in its wood. Soulcatcher did not want the more potent shadows pushing through that valve.

The capture of a single shadow satisfied the shadowcatchers. They packed up for the night.

"That's it?" Sleepy asked.

"That's the first time I've actually seen them catch one," Suvrin replied. "I guess it doesn't happen very often."

Moments after the shadowcatchers left, Tobo stepped through the shadowgate into the world of his birth. Suvrin had made his repairs correctly.

The boy took a deep breath. He listened to the soft noises made by the commandos already coming down from the plain. There had been no alarm as he had passed through the shadowgate and there was none when the commandos began to ease through. Plainly, the Protector did not fear the south. Though she had leapt up from the grave a few times herself, she did not anticipate that kind of refractory behavior on the part of her enemies.

"Water sleeps," Tobo told the night, and began to cast a spell that would send the shadowcatcher crew into a deep sleep. He had learned the spell from One-Eye, who had stolen it from Goblin over a hundred years ago.

Always his thoughts found their way back to Goblin.

Kina was the Mother of Deceivers. Suppose she had done nothing whatsoever to the little wizard? Nobody would believe that. And nobody would ever trust him again. Tons of time and resources would be wasted keeping an eye on him.

Was that it? Was Goblin just a diversion? Was there any way to find out?

He was supposed to be on fire with the creative brilliance of youth. He ought to be able to devise something workable.

The prisoners looked on in wide-eyed amazement as battalion after battalion marched down off the plain. An army this size had not been seen since the Kiaulune wars. Soulcatcher had won the laurels in that round because the Company had been hopelessly outclassed in matters of sorcery.

The Radisha Drah and the Prahbrindrah Drah had prominent places in that parade. Clad in imperial finery, accompanied by dozens of Taglian royal banners, their presence was a declaration Sleepy wanted made early and often.

It was a declaration that was wasted here, of course, because none of these witnesses would be allowed to carry the news out ahead of the advance of the invasion force. But Sleepy thought it would be a good idea for the Prince and Princess to begin practicing to reassume their historic roles.

Suvrin was gone already. As were scores more pickets and scouts and recon soldiers. The Soldiers of Darkness were loose. Poor Suvrin was having to run ahead again, now tasked to close the southern end of the pass through the Dandha Presh. A job for which he needed no special training. It was the one he had held at the time when Sleepy had taken him prisoner, while on her way to release us poor old Captured from our durance beneath the plain.

Once Suvrin was sure the pass could not be used by rumor-mongers from the south side he was supposed to go on through and seize the military works at Charandaprash. Which were likely to have no garrison at all, considering Soulcatcher's attitude toward her armed forces.

Suvrin would know that layout well before he got there. Tobo had brought sack after sack of old snail shells off the plain once the way was open. An unseen flood had begun to spread across the region once known as the Shadowlands. Tobo would know everything his creatures knew. Tobo would have those creatures carry the news to anyone else who needed to know it.

Tension ran high and continued to rise. Those who knew Soulcatcher knew she would hear of the invasion eventually. Her response was sure to be violent and showy, swift and unpredictable and nothing anyone wanted to endure.