Khatovar. Croaker's mystery destination, the place the Black Company had originated. For four hundred years the Company moved northward slowly, in the service of various princes, till it came into mine, then of my enemies, and was reduced to a handful of men. After the battle in the Barrowland, Croaker turned back south with fewer followers than my squad leaders had today.
We'd gathered a man here, a man there, and when we'd reached Taglios we'd discovered we couldn't cross the last four hundred miles because the principalities of the Shadowmasters lay between us and Khatovar. There was only one way to cover those final miles. Take Taglios, already pressed by the Shadowmasters, with its pacifist history, and win an impossible war.
The agreement with the Prahbrindrah had been that the Company would train and lead a Taglian army. Once the war had been won that army would support the Company's quest for Khatovar.
"Interesting," I told Blade. "But not a surprise. Sindhu!" He was back. He'd moved fast. Whatever he was, he could do a job. I told him, "I want you to stick to our guests." I indicated Swan, Mather, and Smoke. "Show the little one your rumel if they abuse our hospitality." He nodded.
"They're to walk like everyone else." He nodded again, went back to mounting skulls on poles.
Blade watched for a moment but said nothing, though I'm sure he had thoughts.
We marched out an hour after I decided to move. I was pleased.
Chapter Fifteen
We didn't reach Ghoja in ten hours but I hadn't expected to make four miles an hour in the dark. We did get in before dawn and, with Blade's connivance, we chose a campsite which both shouldered the road and almost nudged Jahamaraj Jah's encampment. We were there an hour before anyone noticed. Sloppy. Deadly sloppy. If we'd been the Shadowmasters' cavalry we could have cleaned the area.
We used the skulls and poles to mark the bounds of the camp. I had the interior laid out in a checkerboard cross with the center square for the headquarters group, the four squares on its points for four battalions with the squares between as drill grounds. The men grumbled about having to set up for twice their number-especially since certain favored individuals, who had been performing well, only had to stand around holding poles with skulls atop them.
Croaker had been fond of showmanship. He'd said you should adjust the minds of observers to think what you wanted them to think. That was never my style, but in the past I'd had brute force to waste. Here, let everyone think I believed I'd soon have men enough for four battalions and the battalions would expand.
Tired as they were, the men were content to work and grumble. I saw no shirking. No one deserted.
People came out of the fortress and other camps to watch. The men Narayan sent to gather firewood and timber and stone ignored their undisciplined cousins. Skulls looking down moved the curious to keep their distance. Sindhu babysat Swan, Mather, and Smoke. Blade took his appointment seriously. The men in his battalion accepted him. He was one of the heroes of the desperate hours before the coming of the Company. It was almost too sweet.
But nothing crept up. I watched the watchers. The camp was three-quarters complete, including a ditch and embankment and the rudiments of a palisade faced with locust thorns and wild rose canes. Jahamaraj Jah rode out of his camp, watched for fifteen minutes. He didn't look pleased by our industry.
I summoned Narayan. "You see Jah?" He was hard to miss. He was as gaudy as a prince. He'd carried all that with him on campaign? "Yes, Mistress."
"I'll be on the other side of camp for a while. If some of your men-especially Shadar-suffered a lapse of discipline and called him coward and deserter I doubt their punishments would be onerous." He grinned, started to dart away. "Hold it." "Mistress?"
"You seen to have friends everywhere. I wouldn't be averse to knowing what's going on around here if you found contacts. Maybe Ghopal and Hakim and a few others could desert when you weren't looking. Or otherwise get out and poke around."
"Consider it done."
"I do. I trust you that far. I know you'll do what needs to be done."
His grin faded. He caught the warning edge.
From Narayan I went to Swan. "How are you doing?"
"Dying of boredom. Are we prisoners?"
"No. Guests with limited mobility. Now free to go. Or stay. I could use your cachet."
Smoke shook his head vigorously, as though he feared Swan would desert the Radisha. I told him, "You're awfully anxious to hang onto a Black Company spy."
He looked at me and went through some internal change, as though he'd decided to abandon ineffectual tactics. It wasn't a dramatic shift, though. The role he'd been in couldn't have been that far from the real Smoke.
He never said a word.
Swan grinned and winked. "I'm gone. But I got a feeling I'll be back."
The racket started up in Narayan's sector as I watched Swan go. I wondered how Jah was taking it.
Swan was back within the hour. "She wants to see you."
"Why am I not surprised? Ram, get Narayan and Blade. Sindhu, too."
I took Narayan and Blade with me. Sindhu I left in charge, hinting that I'd be pleased if the camp was finished when I got back.
I paused at the gate of the Ghoja fortress, glanced back. It was an hour short of noon. We had been here six hours. Already my camp was the most complete, best protected, most military.
Professionalism and preparedness are relative, I suppose.
Chapter Sixteen
Croaker hobbled to the temple door, looked out. Soulcatcher was nowhere around. He hadn't seen her for days. He wondered if he'd been abandoned. He doubted it. She'd just waited till he was able to care for himself, then had hurried off on some arcane business.
He thought of making a run for it. He knew the surrounding country. There was a village he could reach in a few hours, even at the pace he could make. But that escape would be no escape.
Soulcatcher was away but the crows had stayed to watch. They would stay with him. They would lead her to him. She had the horses. Those beasts could run forever without tiring. She could spot him a week's lead and catch him.
Still...
This place was like an island outside the world. It was dark and depressing.
He started walking, going nowhere, moving for the sake of movement. The crows nagged at him. He ignored them, ignored the ache thumping in his chest. He strolled through the woods, to the countryside beyond, emerging near the half-dead tree.
He recalled it now. Before Dejagore and Ghoja he had come south to scout the terrain, had spied Soulcatcher watching, had chased her into these woods. He'd stood by that tree trying to decide what to do next-and an arrow had hit it, nearly taking off his nose. It had carried a message, telling him it wasn't time for him to catch whomever he was chasing.
Then the Shadowmasters' men had come after him and he'd been too busy running to give the place any more thought.
He walked up to the tree. Crows burdened its branches. He fingered the hole where the arrow had hit. She'd been watching over him then, hadn't she? Not interfering but there just in case, maybe laying on a nudge or two to make sure he was around for her revenge.
A long, lazy hill lay before. He decided to ignore the crows. He kept walking.
The pain in his chest became insistent. He wasn't ready for so much exercise. He couldn't have gone far even without the crows keeping track.
As he paused to rest he wondered how much Soulcatcher had intruded on his affairs. Could she have had some hand in the outcome at Dejagore?