Lady said, "Sounds like he's spent time hanging around with Blade."
Tobo continued, "The key my ancestors used to cross the plain was created secretly in Khang Phi. It went back to Hsien so the next group of fugitives could use it. They never got the chance."
"But they had the golden pick." Which was the key that Sleepy eventually found and used to get onto the plain so she could release us Captured from underneath Shivetya's fortress.
"That must have been the key that belonged to the Deceivers who hid the Books of the Dead back in Rhaydreynek's time. They must've hidden the pickax under the temple of Ghanghesha. The temple has a long history. It started out as a Janaka shrine. The Gunni took over and used it as a retreat. Then the survivors of Rhaydreynek's pogrom chased the Gunni out. But they faded away. Nyueng Bao folklore talks about bitter fighting over doctrine in the early days. A century later Gunni holy men from the cult of Ghanghesha began to come back to the swamp. Eventually most Nyueng Bao forgot Khadi and adopted Ghanghesha. A few generations back the pick turned up when the temple was being repaired. Somebody realized that it had to be an important relic. It wasn't till more recent times, when Longshadow, and later Soulcatcher, found out about it, that anyone realized how important it had to be."
"What about the pilgrimages?"
"Originally people from Hsien were supposed to meet our people at the shadowgate with news from home and more refugees. But the Shadowmasters found out. Plus on this side my ancestors lost touch with the past. Contrary to legend, and unlike the way things are now, there wasn't that much pressure from outside. Hanging on to old ways and old ideas wasn't that important a way to maintain the identity of the Nyueng Bao.
"Whatever Doj says, most Nyueng Bao aren't devoted to tradition and keeping the old ways. Most don't remember anything anymore. You saw that while we were in Hsien. The Nyueng Bao aren't anything like those people over there."
Lady and I exchanged looks. Neither of us assumed Tobo was telling any more of the truth than Doj ever had. Though the boy was not necessarily lying consciously. I glanced at Thai Dei. He gave nothing away.
I said, "I've been wondering why Doj never found any Path of the Sword guys over there."
"That's easy. The Shadowmasters wiped them out. They were the warrior caste. They kept fighting till there weren't any of them left."
I had, for years, wondered why a sword-worshipping cult would be part of a people descended from a band of worshippers of Kina, who, in my world, did not believe in shedding blood. I still did not know. But now I knew that nobody else was likely to know, either.
I told Lady, "I'm surprised Sleepy never picked up on the fact that the supposed priest of this Nyueng Bao band went around carving people into steaks."
"Deceiver people at that," she added. "He slaughtered them by the score at Charandaprash."
Tobo is a clever young man. He understood that we did not find his version of history more convincing than Doj's.
I still was not sure whether he believed what he was saying.
It did not matter.
Lady poked me. She whispered, "Murgen and Willow Swan have drawn my attention to an interesting phenomenon. You'll want to see for yourself. Tobo, drop doing what you're doing and look at this, too."
By then I knew it would be something I did not want to see. Thai Dei, Murgen and the others were debating the best places to take cover already.
I turned. Lady pointed. A trio of Voroshk flyers, appearing only slightly larger than dots, hovered above the rim of the plain. They were way up high and a long way away, motionless.
I asked, "Anybody want to guess how well they can see us?"
Lady said, "They can tell we're here but that's it. Unless they have a farseeing device."
"What're they doing?"
"Scouting around, I imagine. Now that their gate is gone they can get onto the plain whenever they want. During the day they're safe as long as they stay off the ground. And they probably won't have much trouble with shadows even at night if they stay high up. We've never seen shadows go higher than ten or fifteen feet above the surface of the shielding."
"Think they're looking for us? Or are they just looking?"
"Both, probably. They'll want revenge. And maybe even a safe new world."
The Voroshk did not move while we were talking. I pictured similar trios ranging to all points of the plain, perhaps hoping they could open the way without us. "Tobo, can they get off of the plain?"
"I don't know. They won't be able to here. Not without one of my keys. I'll install something that'll kill them if they try."
I admired his confidence. "Suppose they have somebody as slick as you are? What's to keep him from undoing your spells the way you're undoing Longshadow's?"
"Lack of training. Lack of the knowledge we got out of Khang Phi. You have to know a little about these things to redo them."
Lady asked, "Can they break through the gateway into Hsien?" The knowledge was there.
"I don't know. They got the forvalaka through. Maybe they could shove their own people through on a slow, one-at-a-time basis. They never tried before. But they've never been desperate before. And time isn't on their side."
"What about Shivetya? What's his take on this?"
"I'll find out. I'll send a messenger in just a minute."
One of the soldiers from Hsien—Panda Man, I think—asked, "What about the men with Longshadow? If he hasn't left the plain. One is my cousin."
Tobo drew a long, deep breath. "My work is never done."
Lady said, "If you're going to do something you'd better do it fast. They have a key. It's at risk."
"Damn! You're right. Captain, I'm going to borrow your ravens. Lady, lean out the gate and yell for Big Ears and Cat Sith. They'll hear you. Tell them I want them. It's an emergency."
"One damned thing after another," I grumbled. "It never lets up."
"But you're alive," Swan said.
"Don't you be jumping around on the other side of your own argument." We amused ourselves with some good-natured bickering while Tobo sent supernatural messengers off to Shivetya, the guards at the Hsien shadowgate, Longshadow's keepers, and our folks up north.
Along the way Murgen asked his son, "What's to keep those jokers up there from just flying off the plain? I remember times when crows came and went." And he used to do so himself, all the time.
"They could do that because they come from our world. Crows from any other world we wouldn't have seen at all. Even if they were there. Yes. The Voroshk can fly out any time they want. But when they do they'll end up in Khatovar. Every time. If they want to get off the plain into another world they'll have to come onto it through their shadowgate and leave it through another shadowgate. Shivetya restructured it that way."
It can be confusing. I guess that happens where realities overlap, with a deathless demigod in the middle who feels compelled to make it hard for the human species to realize its darkest potential.
45
Nijha: The Stronghold Falls
There were fewer than fifty soldiers to hold Nijha's walls, most of them injured already and all of them thoroughly terrified after having endured a night overrun by the Unknown Shadows.
The defenders were accorded the honors of war and allowed to march out without their weapons, taking their families and what possessions they could carry. They were admonished to clear the road whenever the Black Company passed.
If the Nijha stronghold had surrendered any faster Sleepy would have worried that she was walking into a trap. As it was, she did send Doj in first to make sure Soulcatcher had left her no special little gifts.