I did not have a good night after visiting Raven’s ship.
It was a night of dreams. Of nightmares, if you will. Of terrors I
dared not mention when I wakened, for the others had troubles and
fears enough.
She came to me in my sleep, as she had not done since our grim
retreats when the Rebel was closing in on Charm, so long ago. She
came, a golden glow that might have been no dream at all, for it
seemed to be there in the room I shared with five other men,
illuminating them and the room while I lay with heart hammering,
staring in disbelief. The others did not respond, and later I was
not sure I had not imagined the whole thing. It had been that way
with the visits in the way back when.
“Why did you abandon me, physician? Did I treat you less
than well?”
Baffled, confused, I croaked out, “It was run or be
killed. We would not have fled had there been a choice. We served
you faithfully, through hazards and horrors greater than any in our
Company’s history. We marched to the ends of the earth for
you, without complaint. And when we came to the city Juniper, and
spent half our strength storming the black castle, we learned that
we were to be rewarded by being destroyed.”
That marvelous face formed in the golden cloud. That marvelous
face drawn in sadness. “Whisper planned that. Whisper and
Feather. For reasons of their own. But Feather is gone and Whisper
has been disciplined. I would not have allowed such a crime in any
case. You were my chosen instruments. I would permit no machination of the Taken to harm you. Come
back.”
“It’s too late, Lady. The die is cast. Too many good
men have been lost. Our heart is gone. We have grown old. Our only
desire is to return to the South, to rest in the warm sun and
forget.”
“Come back. There is much to be done. You are my chosen
instruments. I will reward you as no soldiers have ever been
rewarded.”
I could detect no hint of treachery. But what did that mean? She
was ancient. She had deluded her husband, who was far harder to
fuddle than I. “It’s too late, Lady.”
“Come back, physician. You, if no one else. I need your
pen.”
I do not know why I said what I did next. It was not the wisest
thing to do, if she was feeling the least benevolent toward us, the
least disinclined to come howling after us. “We will do one
more thing for you. Because we are old and tired and want to be
done with war. We will not stand against you. If you do not stand
against us.”
Sadness radiated from the glow. “I am sorry. Truly sorry.
You were one of my favorites. A mayfly who intrigued me. No,
physician. That cannot be. You cannot remain neutral. You never
could. You must stand with me or against me. There is no middle
ground.”
And with that the golden cloud faded, and I fell into a deep
sleep—if ever I had been awake.
I woke feeling rested but worried, at first unable to recall the
visit. Then it slammed back into consciousness. I dressed
hurriedly, raced to the Lieutenant. “Lieutenant, we got to
start moving faster. She won. She’s going to come after
us.”
He looked startled. I told him about the night vision. He took
it with a pound of salt till I told him that she had done the same
before, during the long retreat and series of encounters that had
brought the Rebel main forces to the gates of Charm. He did not
want to believe me, but he dared not do otherwise. “Get out
there and find that Asa, then,” he said. “Candy, we
move on that ship tonight. Croaker, you pass the word. We’re
pulling out in four days, whether you guys find Raven or
not.”
I sputtered a protest. The critical thing now was to find
Darling. Darling was our hope. I asked, “Why four
days?”
“It took us four days to sail here from Juniper. Good
winds and seas all the way. If the Lady left when you turned her
down, she couldn’t get here any quicker. So I’ll give
you that long. Then we hit the sea. If we have to fight our way
out.”
“All right.” I didn’t like it, but he was the
man who made the decisions. We had elected him to do that.
“Hagop, find Kingpin. We’re going looking for
Asa.”
Hagop hurried away like his tail was aflame. He brought Kingpin
back in minutes, King crabbing because he hadn’t yet eaten,
hadn’t yet gotten his eight hours of sleep.
“Shut up, King. Our ass is in a vise.” I explained,
though it wasn’t necessary. “Grab something cold and
eat on the run. We’ve got to find Asa.”
Hagop, Kingpin, One-Eye and I hit the street. As always, we drew
a lot of attention from morning marketers, not only because we had
come from Juniper, but because One-Eye was an oddity. They’d
never seen a black man in Meadenvil. Most people hadn’t heard
of blacks.
Kingpin led us a mile through twisting streets. “I figure
he’ll hole up in the same area as before. He knows it.
He’s not very bright, either, so it wouldn’t occur to
him to move because you guys came to town. Probably just plans to
keep his head down till we pull out. He’s got to figure we
have to keep moving.”
His reasoning seemed sound. And so it proved. He interviewed a
few people he had met in the course of previous poking around,
quickly discovered that Asa was, indeed, hiding out in the area.
Nobody was sure where, though.
“We’ll take care of that in a hurry,” One-Eye
said. He parked himself on a doorstep and performed a few cheap
magic tricks that were all flash and show. That arrested the
attention of the nearest urchins. Meadenvil’s streets are
choked with children all the time.
“Let’s fade,” I told the others. We had to be
intimidating to small eyes. We moved up the street and let One-Eye
draw his crowd.
He gave the kids their money’s worth. Of course. And
fifteen minutes later he rejoined us, trailed by an entourage of
street mites. “Got it,” he said. “My little
buddies will show us where.”
He amazes me sometimes. I would have bet he hated kids. I mean,
when he mentions them at all, which is about once a year, it is in
the context of whether they are tastier roasted or boiled.
Asa was holed up in a tenement typical of slums the world over.
A real rat- and firetrap. I guess having come into money
hadn’t changed his habits. Unlike old Shed, who had gone
crazy when he had money to spend.
There was but one way out, the way we went in. The children
followed us. I did not like that, but what could I do?
We pushed into the room Asa called home. He was lying on a
pallet in a corner. Another man, reeking of wine, lay nearby, in a
pool of vomit. Asa was curled into a ball, snoring. “Time to
get up, sweetheart.” I shook him gently.
He stiffened under my hand. His eyes popped open. Terror filled
them. I pressed down as he tried to jump up. “Caught you
again,” I said. He gobbled air. No words came out.
“Take it easy, Asa. Nobody’s going to get hurt. We just
want you to show us where Raven went down.” I withdrew my
hand.
He rolled over slowly, watched us like a cat cornered by
dogs. “You guys are always saying you just want
something.”
“Be nice, Asa. We don’t want to play rough. But we
will if we have to. We have four days before the Lady gets here.
We’re going to find Darling before then. You’re going
to help. What you do afterward is your own business.”
One-Eye snorted softly. He had visions of Asa with a cut throat.
He figured the little man deserved no better.
“You just go down the Shaker Road. Turn left on the first
farm road past the twelfth milestone. Keep heading east till you
get to the place. It’s about seven miles. The road turns into
a trail. Don’t worry about that. Just keep going and
you’ll get there.” He closed his eyes, rolled over, and
pretended to snore.
I indicated Hagop and Kingpin. “Get him up.”
“Hey!” Asa yelped. “I told you. What more do
you want?”
“I want you to come along. Just in case.”
“In case what?”
“In case you’re lying and I want to lay hands on you
fast.”
One-Eye added, “We don’t believe Raven
died.”
“I saw him.”
“You saw something,” I countered. “I
don’t think it was Raven. Let’s go.” We grabbed
his arms. I told Hagop to see about rounding up horses and
provisions. I sent Kingpin to tell the Lieutenant we wouldn’t
be back till tomorrow. Hagop gave a fistful of silver from
Raven’s chest. Asa’s eyes widened slightly. He
recognized the mintage, if not the immediate source.
“You guys can’t push me around here,” he said.
“You’re not anything more than I am. We go out in the
street, all I have to do is yell
and . . . ”
“And you’ll wish you hadn’t,” One-Eye
said. He did something with his hands. A soft violet glow webbed
his fingers, coalesced into something serpent-like that slithered
over and under his digits. “This little fellow here can crawl
into your ear and eat out your eyes from behind. You can’t
yell loud enough or fast enough to keep me from siccing him on
you.”
Asa gulped and became amenable.
“All I want is for you to show me the place,” I
said. “Quickly. I don’t have much time.”
Asa surrendered. He expected the worst of us, of course. He had
spent too much time in the company of villains nastier than us.
Hagop had the horses within half an hour. It took Kingpin
another half-hour to rejoin us. Being Kingpin, he dawdled, and when
he appeared, One-Eye gave him such a look he blanched and half drew
his sword.
“Let’s get moving,” I growled. I did not like
the way the Company was turning upon itself, like a wounded animal
snapping at its own flank. I set a stiff pace, hoping to keep
everybody too tired and busy to fuss.
Asa’s directions proved sound and were easily followed. I
was pleased, and when he saw that, he asked permission to turn
back.
“How come you’re so anxious to stay away from this
place? What’s out there that’s got you
scared?”
It took a little pressure, with One-Eye conjuring his violet
snake again, to loosen Asa’s jaw.
“I came out here right after I got back from Juniper.
Because you guys didn’t believe me about Raven. I thought
maybe you were right and he’d fooled me somehow. So I wanted
to see how he maybe did it.
And . . . ”
“And?”
He checked us over, estimating our mood. “There’s
another of those places out there. It wasn’t there when he
died. But it is now.”
“Places?” I asked. “What kind of
places?”
“Like the black castle. There’s one right where he
died. Out in the middle of the clearing.”
“Tricky,” One-Eye snarled. “Trying to send us
into that. I’m going to cut this guy, Croaker.”
“No, you’re not. You let him be.” Over the
next mile I questioned Asa closely. He told me nothing more of
importance.
Hagop was riding point, being a superb scout. He threw up a
hand. I joined him. He indicated droppings in the trail.
“We’re following somebody. Not far behind.” He
swung down, poked the droppings with a stick, duck walked up the
trail a way. “He was riding something big. Mule or
plowhorse.”
“Asa!”
“Eh?” the little man squeaked.
“What’s up ahead? Where is this guy
headed?”
“Nothing’s up there. That I know of. Maybe
it’s a hunter. They sell a lot of game in the
markets.”
“Maybe.”
“Sure,” One-Eye said, sarcastic, playing with his
violet snake.
“How about you put a little silence on the situation,
One-Eye? No! I mean so nobody can hear us coming. Asa. How far to
go?”
“Couple miles, anyway. Why don’t you guys let me
head back now? I can still get to town before dark.”
“Nope. You go where we go.” I glanced at One-Eye. He
was doing as I had requested. We would be able to hear one another
talk. That was all. “Saddle up, Hagop. He’s only one
guy.”
“But which guy, eh, Croaker? Suppose it’s one of
them creepy things? I mean, if that place in Juniper had a whole
battalion that came out of nowhere, why shouldn’t this place
have some?”
Asa made sounds that indicated he had been having similar
thoughts. Which explained why he was anxious to get back to
town.
“You see anything when you were there, Asa?”
“No. But I seen where the grass was trampled like
something was coming and going.”
“You pay attention when we get there, One-Eye. I
don’t want no surprises.”
Twenty minutes later Asa told me, “Almost there. Maybe two
hundred yards up the creek. Can I stay here?”
“Quit asking stupid questions.” I glanced at Hagop,
who pointed out tracks. Somebody was ahead of us still.
“Dismount. And stow the chatter. Finger talk from here on in.
You, Asa. don’t open your mouth for nothing. Understand?”
We dismounted, drew our weapons, went forward under cover of
One-Eye’s spell. Hagop and I reached the clearing first. I
grinned, waved One-Eye forward, pointed. He grinned too.
I waited a couple of minutes, for the right time, then strode
out, stepped up behind the man, and grabbed his shoulder.
“Marron Shed.”
He shrieked and tried to pull a knife, tried to run at the same
time. Kingpin and Hagop headed him off and herded him back. By that
time I was kneeling where he had knelt, examining the scatter of
bones.
I did not have a good night after visiting Raven’s ship.
It was a night of dreams. Of nightmares, if you will. Of terrors I
dared not mention when I wakened, for the others had troubles and
fears enough.
She came to me in my sleep, as she had not done since our grim
retreats when the Rebel was closing in on Charm, so long ago. She
came, a golden glow that might have been no dream at all, for it
seemed to be there in the room I shared with five other men,
illuminating them and the room while I lay with heart hammering,
staring in disbelief. The others did not respond, and later I was
not sure I had not imagined the whole thing. It had been that way
with the visits in the way back when.
“Why did you abandon me, physician? Did I treat you less
than well?”
Baffled, confused, I croaked out, “It was run or be
killed. We would not have fled had there been a choice. We served
you faithfully, through hazards and horrors greater than any in our
Company’s history. We marched to the ends of the earth for
you, without complaint. And when we came to the city Juniper, and
spent half our strength storming the black castle, we learned that
we were to be rewarded by being destroyed.”
That marvelous face formed in the golden cloud. That marvelous
face drawn in sadness. “Whisper planned that. Whisper and
Feather. For reasons of their own. But Feather is gone and Whisper
has been disciplined. I would not have allowed such a crime in any
case. You were my chosen instruments. I would permit no machination of the Taken to harm you. Come
back.”
“It’s too late, Lady. The die is cast. Too many good
men have been lost. Our heart is gone. We have grown old. Our only
desire is to return to the South, to rest in the warm sun and
forget.”
“Come back. There is much to be done. You are my chosen
instruments. I will reward you as no soldiers have ever been
rewarded.”
I could detect no hint of treachery. But what did that mean? She
was ancient. She had deluded her husband, who was far harder to
fuddle than I. “It’s too late, Lady.”
“Come back, physician. You, if no one else. I need your
pen.”
I do not know why I said what I did next. It was not the wisest
thing to do, if she was feeling the least benevolent toward us, the
least disinclined to come howling after us. “We will do one
more thing for you. Because we are old and tired and want to be
done with war. We will not stand against you. If you do not stand
against us.”
Sadness radiated from the glow. “I am sorry. Truly sorry.
You were one of my favorites. A mayfly who intrigued me. No,
physician. That cannot be. You cannot remain neutral. You never
could. You must stand with me or against me. There is no middle
ground.”
And with that the golden cloud faded, and I fell into a deep
sleep—if ever I had been awake.
I woke feeling rested but worried, at first unable to recall the
visit. Then it slammed back into consciousness. I dressed
hurriedly, raced to the Lieutenant. “Lieutenant, we got to
start moving faster. She won. She’s going to come after
us.”
He looked startled. I told him about the night vision. He took
it with a pound of salt till I told him that she had done the same
before, during the long retreat and series of encounters that had
brought the Rebel main forces to the gates of Charm. He did not
want to believe me, but he dared not do otherwise. “Get out
there and find that Asa, then,” he said. “Candy, we
move on that ship tonight. Croaker, you pass the word. We’re
pulling out in four days, whether you guys find Raven or
not.”
I sputtered a protest. The critical thing now was to find
Darling. Darling was our hope. I asked, “Why four
days?”
“It took us four days to sail here from Juniper. Good
winds and seas all the way. If the Lady left when you turned her
down, she couldn’t get here any quicker. So I’ll give
you that long. Then we hit the sea. If we have to fight our way
out.”
“All right.” I didn’t like it, but he was the
man who made the decisions. We had elected him to do that.
“Hagop, find Kingpin. We’re going looking for
Asa.”
Hagop hurried away like his tail was aflame. He brought Kingpin
back in minutes, King crabbing because he hadn’t yet eaten,
hadn’t yet gotten his eight hours of sleep.
“Shut up, King. Our ass is in a vise.” I explained,
though it wasn’t necessary. “Grab something cold and
eat on the run. We’ve got to find Asa.”
Hagop, Kingpin, One-Eye and I hit the street. As always, we drew
a lot of attention from morning marketers, not only because we had
come from Juniper, but because One-Eye was an oddity. They’d
never seen a black man in Meadenvil. Most people hadn’t heard
of blacks.
Kingpin led us a mile through twisting streets. “I figure
he’ll hole up in the same area as before. He knows it.
He’s not very bright, either, so it wouldn’t occur to
him to move because you guys came to town. Probably just plans to
keep his head down till we pull out. He’s got to figure we
have to keep moving.”
His reasoning seemed sound. And so it proved. He interviewed a
few people he had met in the course of previous poking around,
quickly discovered that Asa was, indeed, hiding out in the area.
Nobody was sure where, though.
“We’ll take care of that in a hurry,” One-Eye
said. He parked himself on a doorstep and performed a few cheap
magic tricks that were all flash and show. That arrested the
attention of the nearest urchins. Meadenvil’s streets are
choked with children all the time.
“Let’s fade,” I told the others. We had to be
intimidating to small eyes. We moved up the street and let One-Eye
draw his crowd.
He gave the kids their money’s worth. Of course. And
fifteen minutes later he rejoined us, trailed by an entourage of
street mites. “Got it,” he said. “My little
buddies will show us where.”
He amazes me sometimes. I would have bet he hated kids. I mean,
when he mentions them at all, which is about once a year, it is in
the context of whether they are tastier roasted or boiled.
Asa was holed up in a tenement typical of slums the world over.
A real rat- and firetrap. I guess having come into money
hadn’t changed his habits. Unlike old Shed, who had gone
crazy when he had money to spend.
There was but one way out, the way we went in. The children
followed us. I did not like that, but what could I do?
We pushed into the room Asa called home. He was lying on a
pallet in a corner. Another man, reeking of wine, lay nearby, in a
pool of vomit. Asa was curled into a ball, snoring. “Time to
get up, sweetheart.” I shook him gently.
He stiffened under my hand. His eyes popped open. Terror filled
them. I pressed down as he tried to jump up. “Caught you
again,” I said. He gobbled air. No words came out.
“Take it easy, Asa. Nobody’s going to get hurt. We just
want you to show us where Raven went down.” I withdrew my
hand.
He rolled over slowly, watched us like a cat cornered by
dogs. “You guys are always saying you just want
something.”
“Be nice, Asa. We don’t want to play rough. But we
will if we have to. We have four days before the Lady gets here.
We’re going to find Darling before then. You’re going
to help. What you do afterward is your own business.”
One-Eye snorted softly. He had visions of Asa with a cut throat.
He figured the little man deserved no better.
“You just go down the Shaker Road. Turn left on the first
farm road past the twelfth milestone. Keep heading east till you
get to the place. It’s about seven miles. The road turns into
a trail. Don’t worry about that. Just keep going and
you’ll get there.” He closed his eyes, rolled over, and
pretended to snore.
I indicated Hagop and Kingpin. “Get him up.”
“Hey!” Asa yelped. “I told you. What more do
you want?”
“I want you to come along. Just in case.”
“In case what?”
“In case you’re lying and I want to lay hands on you
fast.”
One-Eye added, “We don’t believe Raven
died.”
“I saw him.”
“You saw something,” I countered. “I
don’t think it was Raven. Let’s go.” We grabbed
his arms. I told Hagop to see about rounding up horses and
provisions. I sent Kingpin to tell the Lieutenant we wouldn’t
be back till tomorrow. Hagop gave a fistful of silver from
Raven’s chest. Asa’s eyes widened slightly. He
recognized the mintage, if not the immediate source.
“You guys can’t push me around here,” he said.
“You’re not anything more than I am. We go out in the
street, all I have to do is yell
and . . . ”
“And you’ll wish you hadn’t,” One-Eye
said. He did something with his hands. A soft violet glow webbed
his fingers, coalesced into something serpent-like that slithered
over and under his digits. “This little fellow here can crawl
into your ear and eat out your eyes from behind. You can’t
yell loud enough or fast enough to keep me from siccing him on
you.”
Asa gulped and became amenable.
“All I want is for you to show me the place,” I
said. “Quickly. I don’t have much time.”
Asa surrendered. He expected the worst of us, of course. He had
spent too much time in the company of villains nastier than us.
Hagop had the horses within half an hour. It took Kingpin
another half-hour to rejoin us. Being Kingpin, he dawdled, and when
he appeared, One-Eye gave him such a look he blanched and half drew
his sword.
“Let’s get moving,” I growled. I did not like
the way the Company was turning upon itself, like a wounded animal
snapping at its own flank. I set a stiff pace, hoping to keep
everybody too tired and busy to fuss.
Asa’s directions proved sound and were easily followed. I
was pleased, and when he saw that, he asked permission to turn
back.
“How come you’re so anxious to stay away from this
place? What’s out there that’s got you
scared?”
It took a little pressure, with One-Eye conjuring his violet
snake again, to loosen Asa’s jaw.
“I came out here right after I got back from Juniper.
Because you guys didn’t believe me about Raven. I thought
maybe you were right and he’d fooled me somehow. So I wanted
to see how he maybe did it.
And . . . ”
“And?”
He checked us over, estimating our mood. “There’s
another of those places out there. It wasn’t there when he
died. But it is now.”
“Places?” I asked. “What kind of
places?”
“Like the black castle. There’s one right where he
died. Out in the middle of the clearing.”
“Tricky,” One-Eye snarled. “Trying to send us
into that. I’m going to cut this guy, Croaker.”
“No, you’re not. You let him be.” Over the
next mile I questioned Asa closely. He told me nothing more of
importance.
Hagop was riding point, being a superb scout. He threw up a
hand. I joined him. He indicated droppings in the trail.
“We’re following somebody. Not far behind.” He
swung down, poked the droppings with a stick, duck walked up the
trail a way. “He was riding something big. Mule or
plowhorse.”
“Asa!”
“Eh?” the little man squeaked.
“What’s up ahead? Where is this guy
headed?”
“Nothing’s up there. That I know of. Maybe
it’s a hunter. They sell a lot of game in the
markets.”
“Maybe.”
“Sure,” One-Eye said, sarcastic, playing with his
violet snake.
“How about you put a little silence on the situation,
One-Eye? No! I mean so nobody can hear us coming. Asa. How far to
go?”
“Couple miles, anyway. Why don’t you guys let me
head back now? I can still get to town before dark.”
“Nope. You go where we go.” I glanced at One-Eye. He
was doing as I had requested. We would be able to hear one another
talk. That was all. “Saddle up, Hagop. He’s only one
guy.”
“But which guy, eh, Croaker? Suppose it’s one of
them creepy things? I mean, if that place in Juniper had a whole
battalion that came out of nowhere, why shouldn’t this place
have some?”
Asa made sounds that indicated he had been having similar
thoughts. Which explained why he was anxious to get back to
town.
“You see anything when you were there, Asa?”
“No. But I seen where the grass was trampled like
something was coming and going.”
“You pay attention when we get there, One-Eye. I
don’t want no surprises.”
Twenty minutes later Asa told me, “Almost there. Maybe two
hundred yards up the creek. Can I stay here?”
“Quit asking stupid questions.” I glanced at Hagop,
who pointed out tracks. Somebody was ahead of us still.
“Dismount. And stow the chatter. Finger talk from here on in.
You, Asa. don’t open your mouth for nothing. Understand?”
We dismounted, drew our weapons, went forward under cover of
One-Eye’s spell. Hagop and I reached the clearing first. I
grinned, waved One-Eye forward, pointed. He grinned too.
I waited a couple of minutes, for the right time, then strode
out, stepped up behind the man, and grabbed his shoulder.
“Marron Shed.”
He shrieked and tried to pull a knife, tried to run at the same
time. Kingpin and Hagop headed him off and herded him back. By that
time I was kneeling where he had knelt, examining the scatter of
bones.