Maybe. "I couldn't give him an answer here, now. You know that if you know anything about the Black Company at all. I don't think there's much chance. It isn't what we want to do. But I'll give the situation a fair look. Tell him I want a week and the cooperation of his people." I planned to spend another eleven days resting and refitting. I was out nothing making that promise. Nothing but some of my share of the rest.
"That's it?" Swan asked.
"What else is there? You expect me to jump in just because you're a sweet guy? Swan, I'm headed for Khatovar. I'll do what I have to do to get there. You made your pitch. Now's the time to back off and let the customer think."
He babbled to his prince. The more the evening went on, the more I was tempted to issue a flat rejection. Croaker was getting old and cranky and not thrilled with the idea of learning yet another language.
The Prahbrindrah Drah nodded to Swan. He agreed with me. They rose. I did likewise, and gave the Prince a shallow bow. He and Swan walked away, pausing here and there to speak to other midnight diners. No telling what he said. Maybe what they wanted to hear. The faces I could see were smiling.
I got myself comfortable, leaned back to watch One-Eye at play. He had a swarm of bugs zipping around his victim's head. I asked Lady, "What do you think?"
"It's not my place to think."
"Where would you be inclined to stand?"
"I'm a soldier of the Black Company. As you're inclined to remind me."
"So was Raven. So long as it suited his convenience. Don't play games with me. Talk to me straight. Do you know these Shadowmasters? Are they Taken you sent down here to start building you a new empire?"
"No! I salvaged Shifter and sent him south, just in case, when the fury of the war and Stormbringer's enmity were enough to explain his disappearance. That's all."
"But Howler... "
"Had his own escape planned. Knows of my condition and nurtures ambitions of his own. Obviously. But the Shadowmasters... I know nothing. Nothing. You should've asked more about them."
"I will. If they're not Taken they sound close enough as makes no difference. So I want to know. Where do you stand?"
"I'm a soldier of the Black Company. They've already declared themselves my enemies."
"That's not a definitive answer."
"It's the best you're going to get."
"I figured. What about Shifter and his sidekick?" I hadn't seen them since Thresh, but had the feeling they were just around the corner. "If it's as bad as it looks we'll need all the resources we can muster."
"Shifter will do what I tell him."
Not the most reassuring answer, but I did not press. Again, it was the best I was going to get.
"Eat your dinner and stop pestering me, Croaker."
I looked down at food now so old it was no longer palatable.
Smirking, Frogface ambled off to help his master soften the will of an assassin.
One-Eye overdid it. He has that way when he has an audience. He gets too exuberant. Our prisoner expired from sheer terror. We gained nothing from him but notoriety.
As though we needed that.
Chapter Twenty-three: WILLOW, BATS, AND THINGS
It was late. Willow yawned as he tumbled into his chair. Blade, Cordy, and the Woman looked at him expectantly. Like the Prahbrindrah couldn't talk for himself. "We talked."
"And?" the Radisha demanded.
"You maybe expected him to jump up and down and yell, ‘Oh, goodie!' "
"What did he say?"
"He said he'd check it out. Which is about the best you could expect."
"I should have gone myself."
The Prahbrindrah said, "Sister, the man wouldn't have listened at all had not someone just tried to kill him."
She was astonished.
Willow said, "Those guys aren't stupid. They knew we was up to something way back when they let us hook up with them at the Third Cataract. They been watching us as close as we been watching them."
Smoke drifted in with all the racket of his namesake. It was a big room in the cellar of a friend of the Radisha, near the olive grove. It smelled moldy although it was open to the night in places. Smoke came a few steps into the light cast by three oil lamps. His face puckered into a frown. He looked around.
"What's the matter?" Cordy asked. He shivered visibly. Swan got a creepy feeling, too.
"I'm not sure. For a moment... like something was staring at me."
The Radisha exchanged looks with her brother, then with Willow. "Willow. Those two odd little men. One-Eye and Goblin. Fact or fraud?"
"Six of one and half a dozen of the other. Right, Blade? Cordy?"
Cordy nodded. Blade said, "The little one. Like a child. Frogface. That's dangerous."
"What is it?" the Woman asked. "The oddest child I've ever seen. There were times when it acted a hundred years old."
"Maybe ten thousand," Smoke said. "An imp. I dared not investigate lest it recognize me as more than a silly old man. I don't know its capacities. But definitely a supernatural entity of great efficacy. My question is how an adept of a capacity as limited as the One-Eye creature obtained control. I'm superior to him in talent, skill, and training, but I can neither summon nor control such a thing."
Sudden squeaks and flutters came from the darkness. Startled, everyone turned. Bats hurtled into the light, peeping, diving, dodging. A sudden larger shape flashed through, dark as a chunk of night. It ripped a bat on the fly. Another shape flung through a second later, dropping another bat. The others got away through a barred but otherwise unclosed ground-level window.
"What the hell?" Willow squawked. "What's going on?"
Blade said, "Couple of crows. Killing bats." He sounded perfectly calm. As if crows killing bats in a basement at midnight, around his head, was something that happened all the time.
The crows did not reappear.
"I don't like it, Willow," Cordy said. "Crows don't fly at night. Something's going on."
Everyone looked at everyone else and waited for somebody to say something. Nobody noticed the pantherine shadow settle outside the window, one eye peeking inside. Nor did anybody realize that a child-sized figure lounged atop an old crate beyond the light, grinning. But Smoke began to shiver and turn in slow circles, again with that feeling of being watched.
The Prahbrindrah said, "I recall saying it wouldn't be a good idea to meet this close to the grove. I recall suggesting we get together in the palace, in a room that Smoke has sealed against prying. I don't know what just happened, but it wasn't natural and I don't want to talk here. Let's go. The delay can't hurt. Can it, Smoke?"
The old man shuddered violently, said, "It might be most wise, my Prince. Most wise. There is more here than meets the eye... Henceforth we must assume we are under surveillance."
The Radisha was irked. "By who, old man?"
"I don't know. Does it matter, Radisha? There are those who are interested. The High Priests. These soldiers you wish to use. The Shadowmasters. Perhaps forces of which we are unaware."
They all looked at him. "Explain that," the Woman ordered.
"I cannot. Except to remind you that those men successfully fought their way through river pirates who have held the river closed for some time. None of them would say much about it, but a word here and a word there added together suggested that there was sorcery of the highest order involved, on both sides. And theirs was sufficient to force the blockade. But, except for the imp, there was nothing of that sort evident when we joined them. If they had it, where did it go? Could it be that well hidden? Maybe, but I doubt it. Maybe it travels with them without being with them, if you see what I mean."
"No. You're up to your old tricks. Being deliberately vague."