Water Sleeps

55

O ur crossing at Ghoja was another grand anticlimax.

We all worked ourselves into a state of nerves before we reached the bottleneck. I sent Slink forward to scout and did not believe a word, emotionally, when he reported the only attention being paid anyone went to those few travelers who argued about paying a two-copper pais toll for use of the bridge. These tightwads were commended to the old ford downstream from the bridge. A ford that was impassable because this was the rainy season. Traffic was heavy. The soldiers assigned to watch the bridge were too busy loafing and playing cards to harass wayfarers.

Some part of me was determined to expect the worst.

Ghoja had grown into a small town serving those who traveled the Rock Road, which was one of the Black Company's lasting legacies. The Captain had had the highway paved from Taglios to Jaicur during his preparations for invading the Shadowlands. Prisoners of war had provided the labor. More recently, Mogaba had used convicts to extend the road southwestward, adding tributaries, to connect the cities and territories newly taken under Taglian protection.

Once we were safely over the Main, I began to ponder our next steps. I gathered everyone. "Is there any way we could forge a rescript ordering the garrison here to arrest Narayan if he crosses the bridge?"

Doj told me, "You're too optimistic. If he's going south, he's already ahead of us."

Swan added, "Not to mention that if he fell into the Protector's hands, she'd find out everything he knows about you."

"The voice of an expert heard."

"I didn't take the job voluntarily."

"All right. She could, yes. He knows where we're headed. And why. And that we have the Key. But what does he know about the other bunch? If he doesn't get caught, won't he try to intercept them so he can do something about getting the Daughter of Night away from them?"

No one found any cause to disagree.

"I suggest we remind one another of that occasionally, so it gets said sometime when Murgen is around to hear it." Sahra never promised to spare Narayan's ragged old hide. Maybe she could ambush him and take back that unfinished first Book of the Dead.

Swan pointed out, "That crow is still following us."

A small but lofty fortification overlooked the bridge and ford from the south bank. The bird was up top watching us. It had not moved since our crossing. Maybe it wanted to rest its bones, too.

River whispered, "We still have one bamboo pole with crow-killing balls in it."

"Leave it alone. It doesn't seem to mean any harm. For now, anyway." I was sure it had tried to communicate several times. "We can take it out if anything changes."

At Ghoja we heard nothing but the traditional grumbling about those in charge. Rumors concerning events in Taglios seemed so exaggerated that no one believed a tenth of anything they heard. Later, after we reached Jaicur and were taking it easy for a while, the temper of rumor began to change. It now carried a subtle vibration suggesting the great spider at the heart of the web had begun to stir. It would be a long time before any concrete news caught up but the general consensus was that we should get going right now and not dawdle along the way.

Runmust discovered that a man answering Narayan's description had been seen lurking in the vicinity of the shop operated by his now-pseudonymous offspring, Sugriva. "The man does have a weakness. Should we kill Sugriva while we're here?"

"He's never done anything to us."

"His father did. It would be a reminder to him."

"He doesn't need reminding. If Narayan is so dim that he thinks we're done with him now, let him. Just let me be there to see the look on his face when we catch him again."

Narayan had stood out in Jaicur because the city was still very nearly a military encampment. People would remember us as well, if asked during the next few weeks.

I roamed around looking for my childhood a few times but nothing that I remembered, people or places, good or evil, remained. That past survived nowhere but within my mind. Which was the one place I wished that it could die.