I took the lead and gave my horse his head, telling him to find Lady's mount. I'd never determined how intelligent the beasts were, but it seemed worth a try. And the animal went walking, though his pace was a little slow to suit me.
I don't know how long the ride went on. There was no way to estimate time. After a while I began drifting off and coming awake with a start, then drifting off again. Near as I could tell, the others were doing the same thing.
I could have raised hell with them and me both, but that would have been unreasonable. Reasonable men would have been in a warm room, back at that village, snoring.
I was about half awake when the crest of a hill half a mile ahead burst into flames. It was like an explosion. One moment darkness, the next several acres ablaze and men and animals scattering, burning, too. The smell of sorcery was so strong I could detect it.
"Go, horse!"
There was light enough for it to risk a trot.
A minute later I was moving over ground dotted by smoldering, twitching bodies. Little brown men. One hell of a lot of little brown men.
The flaming trees illuminated a racing silhouette, a gigantic wolf with a smaller wolf astride, clinging with paws and claws. "What the hell is that?" Mather demanded.
Murgen guessed, "That Shifter, Croaker?"
"Maybe. Probably. We know he's around somewhere. Lady!" I yelled it at the burning trees. The fire was dying in the drizzle.
A sound that might have been an answer slithered through the crackling.
"Where are you?"
"Here."
Something moved amidst an outcrop of small rocks. I jumped down. "Goblin! Where the hell are you?"
No Goblin. Just Lady. And now not enough light to see how badly she was hurt. And hurt she was, no doubt about that. A fool damned thing to do, and me a physician who ought to know better, but I sat down and pulled her into my lap and held her, rocking her like a baby.
The mind goes.
From the minute you sign on with the Company you're doing things that make no sense, drills and practices and rehearsals, so that when the crunch comes you'll do the right thing automatically, without thought. The mind goes. I was without thought of anything but loss. I did not do the right thing.
I was lucky. I had companions whose brains had not turned to mud.
They got together enough burnable wood to get a fire started, got me my gear, and with a little judicious yelling got me to stop fussing and start doing.
She wasn't as bad off as she'd seemed in the dark. A few cuts, a lot of bruises, maybe a concussion to account for her grogginess. The old battlefield reflexes took over. I became a military physician. Again.
Murgen joined me after a while. "I found her horse. No sign of Goblin, though. How is she?"
"Better than she looks. Banged around some but nothing critical. She'll hurt all over for a while."
About then her eyelids fluttered, she looked up at me, and recognized me. She threw herself at me, wrapped her arms around me, and started crying.
Shadid said something. Murgen chuckled. "Yeah. Let's see if we can find Goblin." Cordy Mather was a beat slow, but he got it and went away, too.
She settled down quickly. She was who she was, and was not in the habit of yielding to her emotions. She peeled herself off me. "Excuse me, Croaker."
"Nothing to excuse. You had a close call."
"What happened?"
"I was going to ask you."
"They had me. They had me dead, Croaker. I thought we'd given them the slip, but they knew right where we were. They split us apart and ran me up here, and there must have been a dozen of them sneaking around, jumping in on me and jumping away. They were trying to capture me, not kill me. Guess I should be glad. Otherwise, I'd be dead. But there's some time missing. I don't remember you showing up and running them off."
"I didn't. Near as I can tell, Shifter saved you." I told her about the sudden fire and the wolf.
"Maybe. I didn't know he was around."
"Where's Goblin?"
"I don't know. We split about a mile from here. He tried to baffle them with illusions. We must have killed a hundred of those men today, Croaker. I never saw anybody so inept. But they never stopped coming. When we tried to outrun them there were always more in ambush no matter which way we went. If we tried to fight they always outnumbered us and two more turned up for every one we killed. It was a nightmare. They always knew where we were." She snuggled in close again. "There had to be some kind of sorcery involved. I was never so scared."
"It's all right now. It's over." It was the best I could think to say. Now that my nerves were settled I was intensely aware of her as a woman.
What appeared to be lightning flashed to the east, several miles away. But there had been no lightning running with this petty drizzle. I heard Shadid and Murgen and Mather yelling at each other, then the sounds of their mounts moving away. "That's got to be Goblin," I said, and started to get up.
She tightened her grip, held me down. "They can handle it, Croaker."
I looked down. It did not take much light to show me what was in her face. "Yeah. I guess they can." After a moment's hesitation, I did what she wanted.
As the breathing got heavier I broke away and said, "You're not in any shape for—"
"Shut up, Croaker."
I shut up, and paid attention to business.
Chapter Twenty-eight: BACK TO SCOUTING
The pinhead gods had other ideas.
I am not a swift worker, and Lady had her natural reluctances—and all of a sudden the sky opened up like somebody chopped open the bellies of the clouds. The downpour was heavy and cold and came with just a breath or two of chill wind for warning. I'd have thought I was already wet enough not to mind more, but...
We'd hardly stopped scrambling around trying to find some shelter when Murgen and the others came out of the night. Murgen said, "It was Goblin, all right, but he was gone when we got there." He assumed I knew what he was talking about. "Croaker, I know us Black Company types is tough he-men and neither rain nor snow nor little brown geeks is supposed to stop us from doing any damned thing we want, but I'm burned out on this rain. I guess I got what you call conditioned at the Barrowland. I can't handle too much of it. I get the collywobbles."
I was burned out on it, too. Especially now it was coming down serious. But... "What about Goblin?"
"What about him? I'll make you a bet, Croaker. That little dork is all right. Goddamned well better off than we are. Eh?"
This is where command really gets you. When you make a choice that feels like you're taking the easy way out. When you think you are taking convenience over obligation. "Right, then. Let's see if we can't find our way back to town." I let go Lady's hand. We got ourselves in better array. Those guys pretended not to notice. I supposed the troops back in Taglios would know before sunrise, somehow. Rumor works that way.
Damn, I wished I was guilty as suspected.
We reached the village as the world began to turn grey. Even those fabulous mounts of ours were worn out. We boothorned them into a stable meant for half a dozen normal animals and went clumping inside. I was sure the owner would be thrilled to death to see his clientele expanded again and looking like they'd just spent the night rolling around in the mud.
The old boy wasn't around. Instead, a pudgy little woman appeared from the kitchen, looked at us like she thought the barbarians had invaded, then saw Lady.
Lady looked just as rough as the rest of us. Just as mean. But there was no mistaking her for a guy. The old gal rushed her and babbled in Taglian and reached up to pat her back and I didn't need Cordy to tell me she was doing an "Oh, you poor dear" routine. We followed them back into the kitchen.
And there was friend Goblin, leaning back with his feet up on a log in front of a fire, sipping something from a huge mug.