"He wanted to pick your brains," Goblin said.
"While he made up his mind if he was going to kill you," One-Eye added cheerfully.
"Oh, that's real encouraging."
"He did decide, Murgen. And he didn't pick the option you want to hear. It's time to start being real careful."
We did make it home unharmed.
64
"sDon't bother dragging me up there till we find out what Uncle wants." Goblin and One-Eye were at the foot of steps leading to the battlements. Doj was up top, looking down.
"I wasn't planning to carry your dead ass anywhere anyhow anymore," One-Eye told me. "Far as I'm concerned this exercise was for camouflage."
Uncle Doj started downward.
I stared at the wall. Tiny beads of sweat covered it, but that was because the stone was cooler than the air, not because water had begun seeping through from outside.
The Shadowmasters were good builders.
"Stone Soldier. You are well?"
"Not bad for a guy with the runs. Ready to dance on your grave, Stubby. We got business?"
"The Speaker wishes to see you. Your excursion was not successful?" He moved his head to indicate my trip outside.
"If you call spending two weeks as a guest of the Shadowmaster a success I tore them up, Uncle. Otherwise, all I did was get sick, lose some weight, then have barely enough sense left to run for it when some Taglians hit Shadowspinner's camp with a nuisance raid. That's all right. I can walk that far." Just don't let me fall down any rabbit holes.
I could walk to the Speaker's place easily but why give up the pretense of weakness if it might be useful?
Nothing changed with the Speaker's crew. Except that this time one smell was absent. I noticed that as soon as I stepped inside. I could not identify the missing odor, though.
The Speaker was ready. Hong Tray was in place. The beautiful one had tea brewing.
Ky Dam smiled. "Thai Dei ran ahead." He read my curiosity from my glance and flaring nostrils. "Danh has gone to his judgment. At last. A bleak season has ended for this house."
I could not help myself. I looked at the young woman. I found her looking at me. Her gaze shifted immediately, but not so fast that I did not feel guilty when I returned attention to the Speaker.
The old man missed nothing. Neither did he get excited about something best left ignored. He was wise, was Ky Dam.
I had come to respect that frail oldster a lot.
"The hard times have come, Standardbearer, and will lead to more terrible tomorrows." He reviewed my discussion with Mogaba well enough to convince me that someone had watched us.
"Why tell me this?"
"To support my claim when I tell you we spy on the black men. After your departure they spoke only their native tongue until they sent messengers to the tribunes of the cohorts and other senior Taglians. They are to gather at suppertime."
"Sounds big."
The old man bowed slightly, "I would like you to see something for yourself. You know these men more certainly than do I. You can determine if my suspicions are well-founded."
"You want me to spy on that meeting?"
"Something of the sort." The old man did not tell me the whole story. Not then. He wanted me walking into it cold. "Doj will conduct you."
65
Doj conducted me. The way led through cellars as intricately connected as ours but less care had been used in the tunneling. The people who did this just wanted to be able to sneak away. They had had no intention of hiding. They must have been Jaicuri collaborators in Stormshadow's administration, acting for her. She would have wanted an emergency exit.
"I'm surprised at you," I told Uncle Doj. "I wouldn't think underground would occur to swamp people. I don't suppose there are a lot of tunnels in the delta."
"Not many." He smiled.
My guess is they found the escape route through sheer blind luck, maybe coupled with an informed suspicion about how Stormshadow's mind worked.
Getting into the citadel, then, was no problem, though it required some crawling. The architects had not been concerned with Stormshadow's dignity. It was tough for me. I was not yet back to my best.
We came to a small open space beneath a ladder. That rose straight up into infinity, so far as I could see by the light of one feeble candle. I had a feeling the candle was a luxury laid on for me, that the Nyueng Bao made this journey entirely in darkness.
I could not have endured that. I dislike enclosed places intensely despite having lived in them. Close places, darkness, recurring spells and visions were not a combination I wanted to tempt.
I did seem more stable lately, I reflected. I set a hand and foot on the ladder.
Uncle Doj grabbed my wrist, shook his head.
"What? Isn't that the way to the council chamber?" My whisper rattled off like the scurry of mice.
"Not what the Speaker wants you to see." Doj used almost no air when he whispered. "Come."
There was no crawling now, just a lot of easing along sideways in an airspace almost too narrow for Uncle. His belly was going to ache from rubbing against stone.
I learned that there was a lot more to Stormshadow's citadel than I had seen in the little time I spent there these past few months. Down below there, beneath the surrounding plazas, were countless unsuspected storerooms and prison cells, armories and barracks rooms, cisterns and smithies. I whispered, "They have supplies down here to hold out for years." Meaning the Nar and their favorites, holed up inside the citadel. Stormshadow had laid in a great store against the evil day.
Mogaba had lied to me, just trying to find out how well off we Old Crew were.
Was that what the old man wanted me to know?
Was this why the Nyueng Bao had seemed to prosper while everyone else became gaunt? Were they nibbling at these stores like mice, taking just a little here and there so their predations would go unnoticed?
Uncle Doj beckoned. "Hurry."
Soon I began to hear a distant chanting. "We may not be in time, Bone Warrior. Hurry."
I didn't slug him mostly because the racket would have alerted the singing men.
I knew they were Nar before I saw a thing. I had heard the rhythms and style before, though not these particular lyrics. Always before, though, there had been joy in their work songs and celebrations. This song was cold and grim.
Uncle Doj left the candle, tugged my elbow. We continued to step sideways until, suddenly, we were in an ordinary passageway, not some tight, secret squeeze behind a wall. Nothing concealed the entrance to the hidden ways. That was just a shadowed corner unlikely to entice a closer look.
There was light out there, from candles in sconces widely spaced. The people in charge were frugal despite their wealth.
Uncle Doj placed a finger to his lips. We were near dangerous people who might detect us in an instant. He dropped to his knees and led me right into a large chamber where most of the Nar had gathered. Lighting was nonexistent except down where they were. Doj got behind a pillar. I squatted behind a low, dusty table just inside the doorway. I wished I was as dark as the Nar. My forehead must be shining like a little half moon.
This life hardens you. Too soon you have seen so much that when you encounter another something terrible you don't howl and run in circles, snapping at your tail. But most of us still appreciate horror if horror is there. Horror was there.
There was an altar. Mogaba and Ochiba were involved in something ceremonial. Above the altar stood a small statue of dark stone, a four-armed woman dancing. I was too far away to make out details but I was pretty sure sure she had vampire fangs and six teats. She might be wearing a necklace of baby skulls. The Nar might give her another name but she was Kina. The worship offered by the Nar was not that described in the Jaicuri scriptures, though.