"You," she said, initiating conversation, which she did rarely, "Bone Warrior, you are wary of crows? They are significant?" Her Taglian was abominable. I spoke Nyueng Bao much better but she would not do me the courtesy. I suppose that would, somehow, lend legitimacy to my relationship with Sahra.
I stopped trying to make sense of Mother Gota's thinking years ago.
I responded in Nyueng Bao. "They carry messages sometimes. They spy. We know this. Mice and bats do the same. Those who use the animals aren't our friends."
I exceeded myself telling her that much. Croaker would not be pleased. But I was fishing. It would be nice to find out what she knew or suspected. Sometimes she just could not help showing off.
"I have seen owls in the night, too, Stone Soldier. They do not behave the way owls should."
I grunted. That was news. And it told me that if owls were being used and no one else had noticed, then the old woman was a lot sharper than I had suspected.
"Last night many crows came and went from the shining fortress."
I looked at her more closely. Last night. While Thai Dei and I were in town with the lost boys. While she was traipsing through the night with Uncle Doj. She had seen something that I missed. Maybe.
Crows had been scarce near Overlook lately. Longshadow had taken a dislike to the dark harbingers. His crystal turrets were surrounded with nasty little spells that worked like trapdoor spiders, striking when birds came too close.
"That's interesting," I said. "That might be something new."
"There have been crows before. But never so many."
"Uhm." What went on in there last night that Soulcatcher found so interesting? I had seen nothing abnormal today. It might be worth checking.
Maybe I was being worked. Maybe Uncle Doj and Mother Gota were bound to start checking out the oddities they had noticed about my behavior in recent months. Maybe they were getting ready to do whatever Croaker suspected they were going to do. If he did anything more than just suspect.
He suspected everybody of something.
"The one who flies went out last night, Soldier of Darkness."
"Ah." She was trying to manipulate me. She knew I hated those enigmatic titles first employed by her father, Ky Dam. The old Speaker never explained them and Mother Gota would not waddle where her dad had refused to tread. "That is interesting." There had been no aerial sightings of the Howler for a while. He liked to use spells of concealment when he was aloft, though.
She wanted me to ask questions so she could toy with me and frustrate me. The information she had given was all I was going to get. Right now.
I refused to play her game. I turned to Thai Dei. "Did I just get promoted to honorary member of the tribe?"
He shrugged. He seemed mildly surprised that his mother had told me anything at all.
I did not rush right over to visit Smoke. If that was what the old woman wanted I meant to disappoint her in a big way. I tended to chores, helped Thai Dei work on our dugout, ate again, drank plenty, worked on the Annals for a while. I could change nothing that had happened during the night. And whatever that was, it had not been so earthshaking that it was an immediate threat.
One-Eye actually made it easy. Shortly after sundown he came over with a clay pot. "Soup's ready," he said. He sloshed the pot's contents. The stink of a really bad beverage quickly filled my dugout.
"All right!" I got up and followed him into the darkness.
53
"That was a stroke of luck, you showing up just then," I told One-Eye. "I needed to get away." I relayed what Mother Gota had told me.
"How would she know that?"
I told him about spotting her and Uncle Doj during the night. "Maybe they spotted me, too."
"Thai Dei could've told them."
"I guess."
"You think it's important?"
"They make a special point of making sure I know, I'd better check it out. I didn't notice anything when I did my routine snooping."
One-Eye grunted. He looked thoughtful. "Goes to show you. No matter how well set up we are we're going to miss stuff because we don't know what to watch for."
Which was true. Things could be right there in the open and even with the advantage Smoke gave me I could miss them if I did not know to look.
There just was not enough time to look everywhere all the time.
I suggested, "Why don't you take some of your magic potion over to my in-laws? Screw up their thinking for a while."
"Thought they didn't touch the stuff."
"They're not supposed to. But I've seen Thai Dei take a tummy-warmer a time or three, to be sociable, and his mother would've developed a taste for it if Uncle Doj hadn't been there most of the time we were in Taglios. She'd sneak a few pints whenever he was away. She hasn't had a chance since we've been on the road."
"Very interesting." The little black man started rustling around. "Tell you what. I'll just go over there and keep them company while you're out. I'll tell them you're working."
He left before I finished my preparations. He lugged a slimy old wooden bucket with him. I muttered, "I got to get him to talk to Swan." Willow Swan made bad beer, too, but he did know a little about the brewer's art. Compared to One-Eye's product Willow's was ambrosia.
There was very nearly a warmth to Smoke when I took hold of him, as though some part of him sensed that he was no longer alone and was pleased. I took him directly to Overlook, sliding backward in time as we went, avoiding the ruins where the fires burned so I would not see myself. I had to shuffle forward and backward to find Mother Gota's crows. They were visible only briefly and were never obvious. They streaked in from the north, high above the fortress, then plummeted into Overlook like falling stones. There were no more than a dozen so any message they carried, either direction, would be severely limited. I expected greater numbers from what my mother-in-law had said.
I followed the last one down. The flock did not go near Longshadow's glowing towertop, where the Shadowmaster labored late over some esoteric text. They plunged into the darkness of a courtyard and entered the fortress through a door standing just a crack ajar. They muttered among themselves, uncomfortable with where they were. A sharp cry, broken off, nearly spooked them.
A voice whispered. I could see nothing but the vaguest shape in the darkness but recognized the Howler's aborted cry. I did not understand a word he said. I did not understand the crows, who took turns making noises that might have constituted a message. For me the critical piece of information was not included in the body of the message but in the existence of the message.
Soulcatcher and Howler were communicating.
I ran back in time another hour. Howler did nothing but sit there and wait. I jumped forward, planning to bracket him till I found something else interesting.
I had to advance only a few minutes beyond the arrival of the crows.
They stayed only briefly. Then Howler rustled back into the darkness. I drifted along behind him, tracking him by ear and by smell. Even in the ghostworld Howler had an air about him.
He stayed in darkness, away from routes Longshadow might use, till he reached a particular door. He knocked, which surprised me. Howler was the kind of guy who just invited himself in.
Narayan Singh opened the door a crack. Howler fought down a shriek. He was developing a talent for silence. Singh stepped back and allowed him to enter. Howler slipped in like a diminutive Deceiver on a deadly skulk. "It's time," he whispered.
Time for what?
Singh knew. He went to the Daughter of Night immediately. The kid was hunched up in front of a small fire, fanatically transcribing that first Book of the Dead. Looked to me like she was almost done. But who knew how long a book it was?