"Priests and functionaries," Narayan corrected. "You're right. Blade will take nothing on faith."
He was the last man alive who would. That might come between us someday.
"Are any of your brotherhood cynical enough to be hiding inside other priesthoods?"
"Mistress?" He sounded hurt.
"I have few sources of information. If we had friends within the priesthoods ..."
"I don't know about Taglios, Mistress. It seems unlikely."
I did miss the old days, when I'd had the unbridled use of my powers, when I could summon a hundred demons to spy for me, when I could recall the memories of a mouse that had been in the wall of a room where my enemies had congregated.
I'd told Narayan that I'd built an empire from beginnings as humble as ours. That was true, but I'd had more weapons. This time I often felt disarmed.
The weapons were coming back, but far too slowly.
"Send Blade to me."
I took Blade for a walk up the river, east of the fortress. He was content to wait on me. He spoke only once, cryptically, as we approached a bankside tree where a fishing pole leaned. "Looks like Swan never got back."
I had him explain. It didn't mean much. I looked at the fortress. Swan and Mather were in there, nominal commanders of all Taglian forces below the river. I wondered how seriously they took that. They hadn't been out much. I wondered if Blade was in touch. He'd hardly had time. He'd been working hours longer than mine, teaching himself as he taught his men. I wondered why he made the effort. I sensed a deep reservoir of irrational hatred inside him.
I suspected he was a man who wanted to change the world.
Such men are easy to manipulate, easier than the Swans, who mostly just want to be left alone.
"I'm thinking of promoting you," I told him.
He responded sardonically. "To what? Unless you're promoting yourself, too."
"Of course. You become legate of the Ghoja legion. I become general of the army."
"You're going north."
He didn't waste words and didn't need many to extract a lot of information. "I should be in Taglios now. To guard my interests."
"It's a bad spot. In the crocodile's jaws."
"I don't follow."
"You need to be here to gather soldiers, to gain power. You need to be there to control the priests who can keep recruits away."
"Yes."
"You need trustworthy lieutenants. But you're alone."
"Am I?"
"Maybe not. Maybe I misinterpret the interest of Narayan and Sindhu."
"Probably not. Their goals aren't mine. What do you know about them?"
"Nothing. They aren't what they pretend."
I thought about that, decided he meant they weren't what they pretended to be to the world. "Have you heard of the Deceivers, Blade? Sometimes called the Stranglers?"
"Death cult. Legendary, probably. The Radisha mentioned them and their goddess. The wizard is terrified of them. The soldiers say they are extinct. That isn't true, is it?"
"No. A few still exist. For their own reasons they're backing me. I won't bore you with their dogma. It's repulsive and I'm not sure it was related to me truthfully."
He grunted. I wondered what went on inside his head. He hid himself well.
I'd met others like him. I will be stunned the day I meet someone entirely new.
"Go north without fear. I'll manage Ghoja."
I believed him.
I turned back. We walked toward camp. I tried to ignore the stench from across the river. "What do you want, Blade? Why are you doing this?"
He shrugged, an uncharacteristic action. "There are many evils in the world. I guess I've chosen one for my personal crusade."
"Why such a hatred for priests?"
He didn't shrug. He didn't give me a straight answer, either. "If each man picks an evil and attacks it relentlessly, how long can evil persist?"
That was an easy one. Forever. More evil gets done in the name of righteousness than any other way. Few villains think they are villains. But I left him his illusion. If he had one. I doubted he did. No more than a sword's blade does.
At first I'd thought him moved as Swan so obviously was when he looked at me. But he hadn't so much as hinted that he considered me anything but a fellow soldier.
He confused me.
He asked, "Will you talk to Willow and Cordy? Or shall I?"
"What do you think?"
"Depends. What you want to discuss? How? You wiggle some, you can lead Swan anywhere."
"Not interested."
"I'll talk to them, then. You go ahead. Do what you have to do."
Sunrise next morning I was on the road north with two incompetent and incomplete battalions, Narayan and Ram, and all the trophies I had claimed from the Shadowmasters' horsemen.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Radisha waited impatiently while Smoke bustled around making sure his spells were proof against eavesdroppers. The Prahbrindrah Drah lounged in a chair, looking indolent and unconcerned. But he spoke first when the wizard signalled satisfaction with his precautions. "More bad news, Sis?"
"Bad? I don't know. Not pleasant. Dejagore was a disaster. Though experts tell me it hurt the Shadowmasters so badly they can't bother us this year. The woman you lust after did survive, though."
The Prahbrindrah grinned. "Is that the good news or the bad?"
"Subject to interpretation. For once, though, I think Smoke might be right."
"Ah?"
"She insists the defeat neither destroyed the Black Company nor terminated our contract. She gave me a requisition for more men, equipment, and materials."
"She's serious?"
"Deadly. She reminded me of the Company's history and what becomes of those who renege on contracts."
The Prahbrindrah chuckled. "Bold wench. All by herself?"
Smoke squeaked something.
The Radisha said, "She's already recruited a force two thousand strong. She's training them. She's dangerous, dear. You'd better take her seriously."
Smoke squeaked again, apparently unable to articulate what he wanted to say.
"Yes. She killed Jahamaraj Jah. Jah tried giving her some trouble. Poof! She made him disappear."
The prince took a deep breath, blew it out between puffed cheeks. "Can't fault her taste. But that's no way to make friends with priests."
Smoke gobbled again.
The Radisha said, "She doesn't intend to try. She got Blade to defect. He's her number two man, now. You know his attitude. Dammit, Smoke! One thing at a time."
"Swan and Mather?"
"They stuck. I think. But Swan is taken with her, too. I really don't know what you see in her."
The Prahbrindrah chuckled. "She's exotic. And gorgeous. Where are they now?"
"I left them in charge. Supposedly. It's meaningless. She considers herself the Captain and free to do whatever she pleases. With those two there I'll have eyes on the scene. They can keep us informed. All right, Smoke. All right."
"What's he lathered about?"
"He thinks she's made an alliance with the Stranglers."
"The Stranglers?"
"Kina worshippers. Like Smoke's been whining all along."
"Oh."
"First time she visited me she brought two of them with her. Or men who appeared to be Stranglers."
Smoke managed a clear statement. "She carried a strangling cloth herself. I believe she slew Jah personally. I believe she disposed of his corpse in a Deceivers' rite."
"Let me think." The prince steepled his fingers before his lips. Finally, he asked, "Were they men she'd recruited? Or did she make an alliance with the whole cult?"
Smoke gobbled. The Radisha contradicted him. "I don't know. Who knows how that cult works?"
"It's not monolithic."
Smoke said, "She carried a rumel herself. She posed as Kina during the fight with the Shadowmasters' cavalry."