"You gonna stand around and gawk or are you gonna get on with business?"
That was One-Eye. Turn everything around so any delays would be my fault.
I took one last look around before I went inside. Still nothing. I dropped the rags covering the doorway, moved a shadow repellent candle on a stand into place between the doorway and the rest of us. I lighted it from the nearest lamp. We ought not to count on Longshadow to keep our timetable. "I wonder if the Shadowmaster isn't curious about why we aren't showing any lights and making any noise."
"Hush," One-Eye told me. He whispered, "Thought you said Croaker was giving him a physical."
Croaker was sitting in my chair, slumped. "He was when I left." I grabbed a pitcher and sucked down a bellyful of sweet water.
"He don't look real frisky to me," One-Eye said. He poked Smoke.
"I didn't say he got up and danced a hornpipe. He groaned. In all the time I've been around him the only noises he ever made was when we thought he was coming down with pneumonia. A groan looked like a big thing. Croaker agreed."
The Old Man made a noise. He returned to flesh. As soon as his head cleared he told us, "It's going to be interesting. Longshadow just sent for Howler, Singh and the girl. He's ready to get started."
One-Eye grumbled, "A thrill a minute around here. Shadows again. I knew I should've picked up that farmland and got out. Swizzledick here says the runt's been getting uppity. Talking back and everything."
"He made a sound," Croaker snapped. "Call it a groan. And when I tried to take a look at the girl he shied away and gave off a sort of feeling to do with shadows."
" ‘She is the darkness,' " I quoted. "Lately he's done it any time I take him close to anybody female. It's strongest near Soulcatcher. Sarie and the Radisha tie for number two."
"Ah," One-Eye said. "I'd almost forgotten that old witch. How's she doing, Murgen?"
"You care?"
"I hear Cordy's on his way. He might want to know."
"You're going to tell him we can spy on his bounce baby?"
"Grr. I guess not. But I owe him a couple, three big tweaks."
Personally, I doubt that anybody has ever gotten ahead of One-Eye anywhere. Except maybe Goblin. One-Eye is the kind of guy who gets even with you first.
One-Eye is also the kind of guy who can still hand out the occasional surprise after two hundred years. "I don't make it through the night tonight, there's a will in my bedroll. Most everything goes to Goblin. Couple things, though, I want Gota to have." He was peeling back Smoke's eyelids at the time so did not notice when Croaker and I exchanged startled looks.
Croaker said, "You don't make it, there's not much chance we'll still be here, either."
"The Kid will be. His mother-in-law claims he's destined. What for, who knows? The only one who ever did is dead."
Before the Old Man could ask, I said, "He's talking about something Hong Tray came up with way back in Dejagore. I'm not sure what it was. Sarie and I talked about it but they never made it clear to her, either. Something about the future of the Nyueng Bao. I know it bugged the shit out of Uncle Doj and Mother Gota. Thai Dei's more neutral but he's not keen on it, either. I think he's glad he doesn't really know what's going on."
"I think you've pretty well shaped the future of those people already," Croaker told me. "We've still got half the tribe traipsing around behind us. Where's your pet, One-Eye? I haven't seen him in a week."
"JoJo? Damned if I know. Long as he stays out from underfoot... Look, I don't see anything different about this guy. Not from here. Let me take him out, see if there's any change in him where he's at."
I said, "I already told you—"
"Yeah, yeah. Shut up. I got to concentrate here." But not much. Smoke was so used to being used this way that taking him out required no effort at all.
Croaker said, "He did feel a little different. But it's been a long time for me."
"It just occurred to me that I haven't run into Kina out there lately."
"How about in your dreams?"
I could not remember. "That's odd. I don't remember. But it has to be. I have the same dreams all the time. I'm almost comfortable with them now."
"Maybe that's the point. Be careful."
"Like One-Eye says, careful is my middle name."
"Stupid is One-Eye's middle name."
"I heard that. I'll turn you into a toad." The little wizard was back already.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again. You're not even good at turning food into shit. What's the word?" I asked.
"We may have to wait for a day when we have more time but you and me are going to have to sit down and see what we can figure out about what you've been doing."
"What?"
"It feels to me like a couple of the walls he's hiding behind have started to fall down."
Croaker asked, "Is he going to wake up on us tonight, right in the middle of things?"
"I doubt it. He's still buried way down deep." He watched me suck down some more water, then follow that with a leg from a roasted chicken. You do not eat badly if you are the Liberator. "You going to suck down everything in sight, Kid?"
"It's going to be a long night."
"You stay here and stick to business," Croaker told me. "Short trips out only. Let me know what's happening when it happens."
"Right. Will do, boss."
"One-Eye. We need more spells around this place. Something that will keep the shadows away but that will let us come and go if we want to."
One-Eye put on a big, gap-toothed grin and cocked that ugly hat of his at an uglier angle. "I done come up with the perfect amulet, chief. Figuring we were going to need to have messengers moving around during hard times."
"How many do you have?"
"Right now, an even baker's dozen."
"That's all?"
"Hey. They're hard to make."
And, no doubt, fooling with them took time away from his still and black market projects.
We had been in one place long enough for him to have gotten involved in some sort of black marketing, however feeble its prospects were. Which would take time away from less interesting avocations. Like making amulets that might save lives. I was willing to bet that he had more than the thirteen he was willing to turn over to the Old Man. He would have at least one for each of his own wrists and ankles plus a few socked back to retail to the highest bidders once we saw how well they worked and how badly they were needed.
That little shit really is a villain.
But he was on our side, our villain, the best we had. Unless you counted Lady, which I did not even though she was the Lieutenant. I never have been able to count her part of the Company. She came with too much baggage.
"It's getting late," Croaker remarked. "You might take a quick run at Overlook, see what they're doing now. One-Eye. I want to stash my couriers in your dugout."
"What? No way, chief. I just got the place cleaned up."
I took another drink, then sat down beside Smoke.
63
The light in Longshadow's crystal chamber seemed brilliant enough to hurt fleshly eyes. Magically created, it came from everywhere at once and left no place at all where a wild shadow might lurk. The few furnishings up there were smooth and rounded and left no little pockets or crevasses or corners where even a pinhead of untamed darkness might come to life.
No feral shadow was going to sneak up on him.
Longshadow seemed to have changed clothing and even bathed in preparation for the night's events. Certainly he wore a new mask, black and silver with inlays of cyan, cardinal, and a particularly intense dark green. The patterns on the mask altered every time I looked. I told myself when I got a minute I ought to go back and have a look at Longshadow making himself over. He had not done anything like this ever before.