"The names of the Taken have been enscribed on stellae raised in their respective demenses. At Rust the army commander is named Benefice. His Stella appeared after a carpet arrived by night. He has not actually been seen."
That bore investigation. Only the Taken can manage a carpet. But no carpet can reach Rust without crossing the Plain of Fear. The menhirs have reported no such passage. "Benefice? Interesting name. The others?"
"In Thud the Stella bears the name Blister."
Chuckles. I said, "I liked it better when the names were descriptive. Like the Limper, Moonbiter, the Faceless Man."
"At Frost we have one called the Creeper."
"That's better." Darling gave me a cautionary look.
"At Rue there is one called Learned. And at Hull, one called Scorn."
"Scorn. I like that, too."
"The western bounds of the Plain are held by Whisper and Journey, both operating from a village called Spit."
Being a natural mathematical phenom, I summed and said, "That's five new ones and two old. Where is the other new one?"
"I don't know. The only other is the commander over all. His Stella stands in the military compound outside Rust."
The way he said that abraded my nerves. He was pale. He started shaking. A premonition gripped me. I knew I would not like what he said next. But, "Well?"
"That Stella bears the sigil of the Limper."
Right. So right. I did not like it at all.
The feeling was universal.
"Oh!" Goblin shrieked.
One-Eye said, "Holy shit," in a soft awed tone that was all the more meaningful for its reserve.
I sat down. Right there. Right in the middle of the floor. I folded my head in my hands. I wanted to cry. "Impossible," I said. "I killed him. With my own hands." And saying it, I did not believe it anymore, though I had had faith in that fact for years. "But how?"
"Can't keep a good man down," Elmo chided. That he was shaken was evidenced by the smart remark. Elmo says nothing gratuitously.
The feud between the Limper and the Company dates to our arrival north of the Sea of Torments, for it was then that we enlisted Raven, a mysterious native of Opal, a man of former high estate who had been done out of his titles and livings by minions of the Limper. Raven was as tough as they come, and utterly fearless. The robbery sanctioned by Taken or not, he struck back. He slew the villains, among them the Limper's most competent people. Then our path kept crossing the Limper's. Each time something worsened the weather between us…
In the confusion after Juniper, Limper thought to settle with us. I engineered an ambush. He charged in. "I would have bet anything I killed him." I tell you, at that moment I was as rattled as ever I have been. I was on the precipice of panic.
One-Eye noticed. "Don't get hysterical, Croaker. We survived him before."
"He's one of the old ones, idiot! One of the real Taken. From times when they had real wizards. And he's never really been allowed to go full speed at us before. And with all that help." Eight Taken and five armies to assault the Plain of Fear. Seldom were there more than seventy of us here in the Hole.
My head filled with terrible visions. Those Taken might be second-rate, but they were so many. Their fury would fire the Plain. Whisper and the Limper have campaigned here before. They are not ignorant of the Plain's perils. In fact, Whisper battled here both as a Rebel and as Taken. She won most of the most famous battles of the eastern war.
Reason reasserted itself but did little to brighten tomorrow. Once I thought, I reached the inescapeable conclusion that Whisper knows the Plain too well. Might even have allies out here.
Darling touched my shoulder. That was more calming than any words from friends. Her confidence is contagious. She signed, "Now we know," and smiled.
Still, time has become a hanging hammer about to fall. The long wait for the comet has been rendered irrelevant. We have to survive right now. Trying for a bright side, I said, "The Limper's true name is somewhere in my document collection."
But that recalled my problem. "Darling, the specific document I want is not there."
She raised an eyebrow. Unable to speak, she has developed one of the most expressive faces I've ever seen.
"We have to have a sit-down. When you have time. To go over exactly what happened to those papers while Raven had them. Some are missing. They were there when I turned them over to Soulcatcher. They were there when I got them back from her. I am sure they were there when Raven took them. What happened to them later?"
"Tonight," she signed. "I will make time." She seemed distracted suddenly. Because I mentioned Raven? He meant a lot to her, but you'd think the edge would be off by now. Unless there was more to the story than I knew. And that was plenty possible. I really have no idea what their relationship became in the years after Raven left the Company. His death certainly bothers her still. Because it was so pointless. I mean, after surviving everything the shadow threw his way, he drowned in a public bath.
The Lieutenant says there are nights she cries herself to sleep. He does not know why, but he suspects Raven is at the root.
I have asked her about those years when they were on their own, but she will not tell the tale. The emotional impression I get is one of sorrow and grave disappointment.
She pushed her troubles away now, turned to Tracker and his mutt. Behind them, the men Elmo caught on the bluff squirmed. Their turn was coming. They knew the reputation of the Black Company.
But we did not get to them. Nor even to Tracker and Toadkiller Dog. For the watch above shrieked another alert.
This was getting tiresome.
The rider crossed the stream as I entered the coral. Water splashed. His mount staggered. It was covered with foam. Never again would it run well. It hurt me to see an animal so broken. But its rider had cause.
Two Taken darted about just beyond the bound of the null. One flung a violet bolt. It perished long before it reached us. One-Eye cackled and raised a middle finger. "Always wanted to do that."
"Oh, wonder of wonders," Goblin squeaked, looking the other way. A number of mantas, big blue-blacks, soared off the rosy bluffs, caught updrafts. Must have been a dozen, though they were hard to count, maneuvering as they did to avoid stealing one another's wind. These were giants of their kind. Their wings spanned almost a hundred feet. When they were high enough, they dove at the Taken in pairs.
The rider halted, fell. He had an arrow in his back. He remained conscious just long enough to gasp, "Tokens!"
The first manta pair, seeming to move with slow stately grace, though actually they streaked ten times faster than a man can run, ripped past the nearer Taken just inside Darling's null. Each loosed a brilliant lightning bolt. Lightning could speed where Taken witchery would not survive.
One bolt hit. Taken and carpet reeled, glowed briefly. Smoke appeared. The carpet twisted and spun earthward. We sent up a ragged cheer.
The Taken regained control, rose clumsily, drifted away.
I knelt by the messenger. He was little more than a boy. He was alive. He had a chance if I got to work. "A little help here! One-Eye."
Manta pairs ripped along the boundary of the null, blasting away at the second Taken. This one evaded effortlessly, did nothing to fight back. "That's Whisper," Elmo said.
"Yeah," I said. She knows her way around.
One-Eye grumbled, "You going to help this kid or not, Croaker?"
"All right. All right." I hated to miss the show. It was the first I had seen so many mantas, the first I had seen them support us. I wanted to see more.
"Well," said Elmo, while calming the boy's horse and going through his saddlebags, "another missive for our esteemed annalist." He proffered another oilskin packet. Baffled, I tucked it under my arm, then helped One-Eye carry the messenger down into the Hole.