Soldiers Live

55

The Nether Taglian Territories: Along the Viliwash

Sleepy surprised us all. She was irked about us dealing with Soulcatcher but she made no great fuss. "This situation isn't the one I prepared for. Tobo. I trust you're taking steps to prevent the Protector from observing what we're doing."

"She sees what we want her to see. Which means she doesn't see what we're doing, only what our mutual enemies are doing."

Which was not much on Booboo's part. Despite her best effort to vanish during the night after her captors first encountered Soulcatcher's pickets, she remained a captive. She would be turned over to Soulcatcher herself within a few days.

Goblin, moving faster than the girl's captors were, had been gaining ground fast and Tobo now placed him only about thirty miles behind. I suggested that he would be more trouble to Soulcatcher than Booboo ever could.

Thinking out loud, I said, "I wonder if this is how myths get started."

People looked at me like they were not sure they wanted to know what that was all about.

I explained. "Here we've got a bunch of people visiting strange places most people couldn't get to even if they wanted. We've got close relatives squabbling and even trying to murder each other."

"That's reaching," Murgen said.

"I like it," Tobo said. "A thousand years from now they'll remember me as the god of storms. Or something."

"Or something?" his father asked. "How about the small god who makes littler rocks out of runty stones?"

Earlier Tobo had gotten caught making stones explode. He had been doing it for the sheer joy of watching them shatter and hearing the fragments ricochet. He was embarrassed. But you have got to have fun once in a while. Today's Company is not nearly as much fun as it was when I was young.

I snickered. "We marched forty miles every day. Uphill all the way. In the snow. When we weren't in the swamp."

"What?"

"Thought I'd start practicing for when I get really old. How do you make rocks explode?"

"Oh. That's easy. You just kind of feel what they're like inside. You find the water. You make it hot enough and the rock goes boom."

Find the water. Inside a rock. And the rock goes boom. Right. I had to ask. I changed the subject. "How are those Voroshk kids doing?" Despite everything he had to do, Tobo found time to spend with our captives.

It was amazing how much the kid could handle in a day.

I could recall when life worked that way for me. Back when we were marching up all those hills. With cold, wet feet.

"Uncle Doj has them speaking Taglian like they were born in the delta, in the shadow of the temple of Ghanghesha."

"Excellent." He was poking fun, of course.

"They're picking up the language. Shukrat and Magadan could get by now. Arkana is having trouble but she's catching on. None of them are mourning Sedvod. Gromovol, the brother, is being stubborn. He doesn't like not being the only conduit. He likes to be in control. Of something. But even he is making progress."

"Gromovol is the pain in the ass, then? Which're which with the other names? I haven't heard any names before."

"That's because they hadn't given up hope that their family would rescue them from their own dumb mistake. Even more than the Gunni do, they believe their names can be used against them. There's a connection with their souls."

"Which means that Shukrat and Magadan and whatnot won't actually be real names."

"They're real public names. Work names. Just not true names."

"I've never understood the concept but it's one I've learned to live with. Which one is which?"

"Shukrat is the shorter girl. The one who crashed."

"The one who's working up a crush on you."

Tobo ignored me. The ability to ignore seems to be coupled with a talent for sorcery. "Arkana is the ice queen. Which I definitely would not mind melting. Magadan is the quiet guy."

Magadan, in my estimation, would be the dangerous one. If he so chose. He observed and studied and prepared. He did not bluster or invoke the threat of powers from a world away. "Did you tell them what happened at the shadowgate?"

"They didn't want to believe me but they did enough to decide to introduce themselves. Enough to conclude that they're likely to be a part of our world for a long time to come."

"You did remind them that that's what they asked for?"

"Sure. Shukrat even managed to joke about it. She has a great sense of humor. For a girl. Who didn't ask to be here."

Considering the females in his experience I could see how he might think a feeble sense of humor was a sex-linked characteristic. Only Iqbal Singh's wife ever smiled and joked. And Suruvhija's lot was the poorest of all the women associated with the Company.

"But all you can see is long legs, long blonde hair, big blue eyes and a monumental set of gazoombies." Once we got up into settled country we needed to find the kid a whore. Twenty years old and never been laid.

On the other hand, harnessing all that energy the way we were right now had a lot to recommend it. We were not headed into an era where we could let our most talented wizard be distracted by nature.

Maybe we should find him a traveling companion.

I could just imagine what his mother would say about that.

"The future," I said, raising my hand as though holding a drink. "We have to get Swan and Blade set up in the brewing business."

Murgen said, "That's what I miss most about One-Eye, too."

"Here's a thought. Maybe Goblin will get so thirsty he'll shake Kina off and set up a still."

I had to mention Goblin. That took the pleasure out of the moment.

Everybody who remembered the old Goblin had to deal with those memories each time the man's name came up. Those memories were going to be treacherous if ever we confronted the revenant himself. Even if they caused just a moment's hesitation.

If we had to go after Goblin hard we would be better served to send people from Hsien. They would not be sentimental about him. Their exposure was entirely hearsay.

I did not want to hasten the day.

I asked, "Tobo, now that we've slowed down, what are we going to do about the Howler?" An entire infantry company had been saddled with that sleeping sorcerer from the day he and Longshadow had been brought up out of the earth. That company had no other duties but transporting and protecting the Howler. "Something's got to be. If she don't wake him up and make a deal we'd better kill him. Before Soulcatcher figures out that we've got him and steals him so she can use him herself."

I was worried that Sleepy was not taking the Howler seriously enough. She had no experience of him. Not enough to understand just how dangerous he could be, which was just as dangerous as Soulcatcher. And he was crazier than she was.

The Howler was no dedicated enemy of ours though he had worked against us far more often than otherwise. His nature seemed to make him a follower. He gravitated toward where the strength seemed to be. He was so powerful I would prefer he was with us rather than not. Or, if not with us, dead.

"There's a certain amount of debate. Sleepy would rather just leave him for the jackals. Mom would, too, only she keeps having these premonitions. You know how big premonitions are with the women of the Ky family."

"One got your mom and dad together."

"No use crying over spilled milk," Willow Swan said. "How about somebody tells Sleepy if she's not going anywhere in a hurry why don't we set down in one place? It's a pain to set up and tear down every day if we're not going anywhere."

Our northward drift did allow for a lot of camp time. I used it to work on these Annals. Lady used it to get several wagon loads of large bamboo poles collected so she could begin manufacturing a new generation of fireball projectors. Tobo used it to teach the Voroshk youngsters. I joined him occasionally. The boy Magadan seemed to have a healing touch. We needed to nurture that.

Arkana remained the ice queen. Shukrat grew more relaxed with us. And Gromovol decided he wanted to become my buddy—in support of whatever scheme was shaping up inside of him.

Although he did not spread it around, Tobo figured out the basics of riding the Voroshk flying post. At least, a particular flying post. I suspect Shukrat helped him. It was her post he sneaked out in the middle of the night, indulging all of a young man's joy in adventure.