"No doubt. You've thought this through. You've seen the difficulties. You think you've seen ways around them. So tell me how we do it. I don't think it's practical but I'll listen."
"There are distinct kinds of assassins. A lone crazy who doesn't care if he gets killed himself. A cabal grasping for power, ready to turn on itself when its target is eliminated. And the professional."
I saw no point. I said so.
"To be successful we have to avoid the weaknesses of various kinds of assassins. I've watched you. Your skills aren't what they were but you sell yourself short. You could disguise a strike team sneaking up on Shadowspinner. If we create the illusion that our goals are impersonal he won't guard against personal attack. Right?"
"To a point."
"To a point. Shadowspinner shouldn't know you have problems with Mogaba. So go after ways to relieve the city. While a handful work on killing Shadowspinner."
"Tell me how."
"Narayan should do the actual killing. You will have to disguise the attack group or make it invisible. Ram goes because he must. I go because no one else is better with a weapon. Swan goes because his presence implies the involvement of the Taglian state. Mather would be better because there's a personal involvement with the Woman, but Cordy needs to hold the reins here. He's steady. He thinks. Willow is all passion, action without thought. Add however many specialists Narayan needs."
"Two arm-holders." I said it in Stranglers' cant. Blade gave me a quick glance. He was surprised I was that far into that world. We walked in silence. Then I said, "You've just talked more than I've heard since I met you."
"I talk when I have something to say."
"Do you know card games?" I had seen none south of the equator. Here the well-to-do played dominoes or board games, the impoverished games with dice or sticks you shook in a canister and tossed.
"Some. Cordy and Mather had cards but they wore out."
"Know what a wild card is?"
He nodded.
I stopped, bent my head, closed my eyes, concentrated, conjured a ferocious illusion. It took form high above, a flying lizard twice the size of an eagle. It dove.
Crows have sharp eyes. They have brains, for birds, but they are not geniuses. They panicked. The panic would make their reports of the event incomprehensible.
Blade said, "You did something." He watched the crows flee.
"The birds are spies for one of the wild cards in our game." I told him what I had found in the grove and what I thought it meant.
"Mather and Swan have mentioned this Howler and Soulcatcher. They did not speak well of them. But they didn't speak well of you, either, as you were. What's their interest here?"
I talked about them till the crows returned. Blade had no trouble grasping the intricacies of scheming in the old empire. He must have had experience.
The crows reestablished their watch. I did not disturb it. Too often would generate suspicion. Blade wore a thin, pleased smile. As we approached the others, waiting silently, watching intently, each with his concerns too evident. Blade whispered, "For the first time I'm glad Cordy and Willow dragged me out."
I glanced at him quickly. Yes. He seemed completely alive for the first time since I'd met him.
Chapter Fifty-Four
The Prahbrindrah Drah turned slowly before a mirror, admiring himself. "What do you think?"
The Radisha eyed his tailored dress, bright silk, and jewels. He cut a handsome figure. "When did you turn into a peacock?"
He half drew a sword he'd had forged as a symbol of the state. "Nice?"
It was as fine a weapon as could be produced by Taglian craftsmen, hilt and pommel a work of art incorporating gold, silver, rubies, and emeralds in a symbolic intertwining of the emblems of Taglian faiths. The blade was strong, sharp, practical, but its hilt was overweight and clumsy. Still, it was not a combat weapon, just a trapping of office.
"Gorgeous. And you're trying to make a fool of yourself."
"Maybe. But I'm having fun doing it. And you'd be having fun making a fool of you if Mather was here. Eh?"
The Radisha eyed him narrowly. He was not as open as he had been before Lady caught his eye. He was up to something and for the first time in their lives he was not sharing. That worried her. But she said only, "You're wasting your time. It's raining. Nobody goes to the gardens when it's raining."
"It won't last."
That was true. It was just a brief rain. They always were, this time of year. The real rains were more than a month away. But still... She felt he should avoid the gardens tonight, with no rational basis for her feeling.
"You're investing too much in it. Slow down. Make her work harder."
He grinned. Give the woman that. Murderess she might be but she did put a smile on his face. "Don't count me so smitten I'll give away the palace."
"I wasn't thinking that. But she's changed since she came back. It concerns me."
"I appreciate it. But I'm in control. Taglios is my first love. And hers is the Company. If she's up to anything it's trying to make sure we don't go back on our bargain."
"That could be enough." Regarding the Black Company she still hovered over the abyss between his position and Smoke's.
"How's Smoke?" he asked.
"Hasn't come to yet. They say he lacks the will to recover."
"Tell those leeches that for their sakes he'd better. I want to know what happened. I want to know what that thing was. I want to know why it wanted to kill him. Our Smoke has been up to something. It could get us destroyed."
They had discussed that again and again. There were implications in Smoke's behavior which boded evil. Till they learned the truth, they suspected, a sword hung over their heads.
"You haven't said what you think."
"I think everyone who sees you will think you look like a prince of the blood instead of a vegetable peddler someone threw ill-fitting clothing on and called a prince."
He chuckled. "You're right. In your sarcastic way. I never cared what I looked like. Wasn't anyone I wanted to impress. Time to go."
"Suppose I go along, this once?" A facetious suggestion, to see how he wriggled.
"Why not? Get ready. It ought to be amusing, seeing her response."
And instructive? The Radisha's estimate of her brother rose. He was not completely smitten. "I won't be long."
She was not. It took her longer to pass instructions to Smoke's attendants than to prepare to go out.
Chapter Fifty-Five
Croaker leaned on the lance supporting the Company standard, wearing his Shadar disguise. He was bored. He was not alert. He was depressed. He had begun to despair of escape. He was ready to say the hell with it and try walking first time a faint chance arose.
The Prahbrindrah Drah and Soulcatcher chattered and laughed beneath paper lanterns while garden staff came and went. They were oblivious to anything but one another. The surprise guest, the Radisha, was out in the cold, ignored.
Croaker had grumbled about spending so much time on the prince and not enough on preparing soldiers. Catcher had laughed, told him not to worry. She would be true to him forever. This was just politics.
He would not be able to resist her much longer. She had him on the run, desperate, on the brink of surrender. Once he did that she would have won everything.
Maybe he should. Maybe once she counted that final coup she would just go away, back north, where her prospects were so much finer. She talked about going north sometimes.
Being her companion was cruel. She had made of him something more than spoil. She talked about the Soulcatcher inside sometimes, when what she had chosen to be became too much to bear. In those moments, when she was human, he was most vulnerable. In those moments he wanted to comfort her. He was sure the moments were genuine, not tactical. Her approach to conquest was not subtle.