Goblin giggled.
“Turn the crank!” Sweet roared.
The man at One-Eye’s feet tried. The first spider scuttled up the lever onto his hand. He shrieked, flung his hand around, hurled the arachnid into the shadows.
“Colonel,” I said in as businesslike a voice as I could muster, “this has gone far enough. Let’s not get someone hurt.”
There was a whole mob of them and four of us and Sweet wanted badly to rely on that. But already several men were edging toward the exit. Most were edging away from us. Everyone stared at Sweet.
Damned Goblin. Had to let his enthusiasm get away. He squeaked, “Hold on, Croaker. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Let them stretch One-Eye a little.”
I saw the light dawn behind Sweet’s eyes, though he tried to conceal it. “Damn you, Goblin. Now you’ve done it. We’re going to have a talk after this is over. Colonel. What will it be? I have the edge here. As you now know.”
He elected for the better part of valor. “Release him,” he told the man nearest One-Eye.
There were spiders all over One-Eye. He had them popping out of his mouth and ears now. Getting enthusiastic, he had them turning up as gaudy as you can imagine, hunters, web-spinners, jumpers. All big and revolting. Sweet’s men refused to go near him.
I told Tracker, “Go stand in the doorway. Don’t let anybody out.” He had no trouble understanding that. I released One-Eye. I had to keep reminding myself the arachnids were illusions.
Some illusions. I felt the little creepies... Belatedly, I realized One-Eye’s legions were marching on Goblin. “Damn it, One-Eye! Grow up!” The son-of-a-bitch wasn’t satisfied to bluff the imperials. He had to play games with Goblin, too. I wheeled on Goblin. “If you do one damned thing to get involved in this, I’ll see you never leave the Hole again. Colonel Sweet. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed your hospitality. If you and your men will come over here? We’ll just be on our way.”
Reluctantly, Sweet gestured. Half of his men refused to move toward the spiders. “One-Eye. Game time is over. It’s get-out-alive time. Would you mind?”
One-Eye gestured. His eight-legged troops rushed into the shadows behind the rack, where they vanished into that mad oblivion from which such things spring. One-Eye strutted over to stand by Tracker. He was cocky now. For weeks we would hear about how he had saved us. If we lived to get away tonight.
I shooed Goblin over, then joined them myself. I told Goblin and One-Eye, “I want no sound to escape this room. And I want that door sealed like it was part of the wall. Then I want to know where we find this character Corbie.”
“You got it,” One-Eye said. Eye twinkling, he added, “So long, Colonel. It was fun.”
Sweet forebore making threats. Sensible man.
Fixing the room took the wizards ten minutes, which I found inordinately long. I became mildly suspicious, but forgot that notion when they said they were done and that the man we wanted was in another building nearby.
I should have harkened to my suspicions.
Five minutes later we stood in the doorway of the building where Corbie was supposed to be. We had encountered no difficulty getting there. “One second, Croaker,” One-Eye said. He faced the building we had vacated, snapped his fingers.
The whole damned place fell in.
“You bastard,” I whispered. “What did you do that for?”
“Now there’s nobody who knows who we are.”
“Whose fault was it they did know?”
“Chopped off the head of the snake, too. Be so much confusion we could walk off with the Lady’s jewelry if we wanted.”
“Yeah?” There would be those who knew we were brought in. They would wonder some if they saw us wandering around. “Tell me, O genius. Did you locate the documents I want before you tumbled the place down? Jf they’re in there, you’re the gent who’s going to dig them out.”
His face dropped.
Yes. I expected that. Because that is my kind of luck. And that is the way One-Eye is. He never thinks things through.
“We’ll worry about Corbie first,” I said. “Inside.”
As we pushed through the door we encountered Case coming to investigate the uproar.
Thirty-Three
Missing man
“Hi, fellow,” One-Eye said, punching a finger into the soldier’s chest, pushing him back. “Yeah. It’s your old pals.”
Behind me, Tracker stared across the compound. The collapse of the headquarters building was complete. Fire snapped and crackled inside. Toadkiller Dog loped around the end of the ruin.
“Look at that.” I punched Goblin’s arm. “He’s running.” I faced Case. “Show us your friend Corbie.”
He did not want to do that.
“You don’t want to argue. We’re not in the mood. Move it or we walk over you.”
The compound had begun to fill with yammering soldiers. None noticed us. Toadkiller Dog loped up, sniffed Tracker’s calves, made a sound deep in his throat. Tracker’s face gleamed.
We pushed in behind Case. “To Corbie,” I reminded him.
He led us to a room where a single oil lamp illuminated a man on a bed, neatly blanketed. Case turned the lamp up.
“Oh, holy shit,” I murmured. I plopped my butt on the edge of the bed. “It ain’t possible. One-Eye?” But One-Eye was in another universe. He just stood there with his mouth open. Like Goblin.
Finally, Goblin squeaked, “But he’s dead. He died six years ago.”
Corbie was the Raven who played such a grand part in the Company past. The Raven who had set Darling on her present course.
Even I had been convinced he was dead, and I was by nature suspicious of Raven. He had tried the same stunt before.
“Nine lives,” One-Eye remarked.
“Should have suspected when we heard the name Corbie,” I said.
“What?”
“It’s a joke. His kind. Corbie. Crow. Rook. Raven. All pretty much the same thing. Right? He waved it under our noses.”
Seeing him there illuminated mysteries that had plagued me for years. Now I knew why papers I had salvaged would not come together. He had removed the key pieces before faking his last death.
“Even Darling didn’t know this time,” I mused. The shock had begun to wear off. I found myself reflecting that on several occasions after the letters began arriving I had skirted the suspicion that he was alive.
A raft of questions rose. Darling not knowing. Why not? That did not seem like Raven. But more, why abandon her to our mercy, as he had, when for so long he had tried to keep her away?
There was more here than met the eye. More than Raven just running off so he could poke into doings at the Barrowland. Unfortunately, I could question neither of my witnesses.
“How long has he been this way?” One-Eye asked Case. The soldier’s eyes were wide. He knew who we were now. Maybe my ego did not need deflating after all.
“Months.”
“There was a letter,” I said. “There were papers. What became of them?”
“The Colonel.”
“And what did the Colonel do? Did he inform the Taken? Did he contact the Lady?”
The trooper was about to get stubborn. “You’re in trouble here, kid. We don’t want to hurt you. You did right by our friend. Speak up.”
“He didn’t. That I know of. He couldn’t read any of that stuff. He was waiting for Corbie to wake up.”
“He would have waited a long time,” One-Eye said.
“Give us some room, Croaker. First order of business is going to be finding Raven.”
“There anyone else in this building this time of night?” I asked Case.
“Not unless the bakers come in for flour. But it’s stored in the cellars down to the other end. They wouldn’t come around here.”