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everybody formed a larger diamond around those three. Longinus and Loftus
conversed with the Prince as though this venture was nothing remarkable.
I admired the Prahbrindrah Drah. He was a good man and a sound one. It was a
pity we could not let him go home. After his years in the field he had the
self-confidence and willpower to stand up to his sister and take up the reins
of the state. He had learned enough and had developed the strength of
character to resist the extortion efforts of the senior priests.
The panther that used to be a woman was in a cage that was more like a coffin.
She could not stand up. At no time would she be able to use the full leverage
of her powerful muscles. She could do little but lie there and be angry.
The Captain did not believe in taking chances. He had seen what the forvalaka
could do ages ago.
All our enemies would share our adventure. And our fate unless they elected to
warn us about something.
Rudy slipped down the slope to meet the Captain, alerted by Bucket's remark
about it being game time. I did not look back.
I knew he meant that Sleepy had come out of the bunker and was sprawled
against the wall by the door again. Just the way we wanted.
Rudy would ask the Old Man to have his crowd make a racket coming into my
shanty monarchy.
One of Bucket's favorite Taglian lieutenants, stuck with the name Lhopal Pete
to distinguish him from a sergeant everybody called Khusavir Pete (both
"Petes" deriving from the center syllable of an eleventeen-syllable Gunni
godname), came to tell his leader he would need to bring up a lot more water
if the men were going to take care of all the cleanup I wanted them to do
while I explored beyond the Shadowgate. Bucket told him, "Wait till that bunch
of aristocratic assholes gets on up here. We don't want anybody to get
trampled."
"Yes, sir." Lhopal Pete collected his work party and took them around behind
my bunker where they would be out of the way till Croaker arrived and made
enough noise to cover the bunch sneaking up on Sleepy.
I started spooning mush into my mouth. "You're right, Thai Dei. Even grubs and
bugs couldn't hurt this stuff. Give me a bowl for Sleepy."
I took it over myself. "Here you go, kid."
Sleepy just stared. I moved the bowl up under his nose. "You better get well
enough to feed yourself, kid. I'm in no mood to keep doing it for you." I
glanced back to see how close Croaker was. There was enough light now that
torches were becoming superfluous.
In minutes he was close enough. The racket was loud enough. I dropped the
wooden spoon into Sleepy's lap, seized his wrists, clamped down. The guys came
out from behind the bunker. One grabbed Sleepy's hair and yanked his head
back. Another shoved a wad of dirty rag into the kid's mouth.
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Soulcatcher fought. But the surprise was complete. She never had a chance.
"All wrapped up," I told the Old Man when he stopped his mount beside us.
"You use every piece of rope you had?"
Catcher did look like a victim of excessive enthusiasm.
"Don't want to take any chances, boss. I wish you'd brought another one of
those cages."
"Now that would've been a dead giveaway, wouldn't it? Even if I'd known what
you planned."
Lady stopped right behind Croaker. She had her Lifetaker helmet on. There was
no way to tell what she was thinking. She never said a word, just stared at
the sister who had caused her so much trouble for so long.
Catcher did not abandon the Sleepy form. She was not a natural shapeshifter so
maybe changing was difficult to do. I did not count on that, though. She had a
history of altering her appearance. I asked, "She have to stay this way as
long as we've got her tied up?"
Lady did not respond. She just stared.
"I mean, I wouldn't want her turning to jelly and oozing away when I wasn't
looking. I guess I could stuff her into a big jar. If I had a jar. If it had a
lid that could be sealed."
Croaker said, "I don't think she can do anything as long as she's gagged and
her hands are tied."
"Want we should cut off her fingers?"
"I think she'll behave. For now. Won't you?"
Catcher did not respond.
She was over her surprise. Already I could sense calculation and the
beginnings of what might be amusement.
Bucket asked, "Any of you geniuses decide what to do with her now that you've
caught her?"
I said something real intelligent like, "Huh?"
"Like Murgen said, you should of brung a cage. Or was you just going to let
her walk?"
The Old Man's mood blackened. "Make a litter. She always wanted to be treated
like a queen. She can even have her own royal guards. Swan! Mather! You guys
can carry the lady."
"Aw, go fuck yourself," Swan said.
Cordy said, "Take it easy, Willow."
"What the fuck's he gonna do, Cordy? Drag me off to Khatovar?"
Lady tugged her reins. Her mount turned till she was facing Swan and Mather.
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After a moment Swan said, "All right. All right." Ten minutes later he was
carrying the downhill end of a litter. He never stopped grumbling but he was
far enough behind me that I did not have to listen. Hagop let Swan and Mather
start rotating with others after a few miles.
I went through the Shadowgate first. Croaker followed. After a few dozen
yards, he said, "Stop here. I want to experiment. Lower the Lancehead to the
black path." He dismounted as I did that. He took his silver Company badge off
his cloak, held it to the Lance for a moment, then knelt and pressed it
against the ribbon of black. His knees creaked. He grunted and strained.
I asked, "What's that all about?"
"I'm not sure. Lady thought it couldn't hurt."
So the killer shadows could pick us out of the crowd? Or maybe the other way
around. Lady's instincts were sound. She had been around since before the
original Company came down this mountain.
Croaker told me, "Stay here till everybody goes by. Have all our guys get
their badges blessed. And don't forget yourself."
Lady dismounted, followed the Old Man's example. Then she remounted and
continued up the slope, following Croaker, single file.
Man by man and animal by animal the column filed past. I got puzzled looks
from the Company guys and black looks from everybody else. I checked to see
where the Old Man was. In Nyueng Bao I told Thai Dei, "If you want you could
touch the Lancehead, then that spot on the ground. The others, too."
He thought about that. "I wish Uncle was here to make a ruling."
"What's it gonna hurt? And it might be some kind of protection. You don't have
to count it as some big-ass commitment to Company fortunes."
He thought some more, probably wondering if we were not sucking them in little
by little, then he shouted at the other Nyueng Bao. He gathered them round,
told them they had the option and that taking the blessing might offer a
measure of protection once the sun went down.
Many of the Nyueng Bao did not like the idea.
Sparkle came past leading a string of overburdened but infinitely patient
bullocks. "You going to bless the animals, too?" He was being sarcastic but I
wondered if it might not be worthwhile. Shadows seldom bothered animals in the
world outside if human prey was available. But we were not in that world
anymore.
The Nyueng Bao argued heatedly but so softly I could not make out a word. Thai
Dei eventually had enough. "You do as each of you wishes." He stalked over,
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