“No.”
“It’s getting better. The sapling stilled my husband’s ability to shape it. Too late, of course. It will be months before the river falls.”
She was depressed. She merely nodded when I told her what Bomanz had to say.
“Is it that bad? Are we defeated before we enter the lists?”
“No. But the price of victory escalates. I do not want to pay that price. I don’t know if I can.”
I stood there perplexed, awaiting an expansion upon the subject. None was forthcoming.
After a time she said, “Sit, Croaker.” I sat in the chair she indicated, next to a roaring fire diligently tended by the soldier Case. After a time she sent Case away. But still nothing was forthcoming.
“Time tightens the noose,” she murmured at one point, and at another, “I’m afraid to unravel the knot.”
Fifty-Four
An evening at home
Days passed. No one of any especial allegiance gained any apparent ground. The Lady canceled all investigations. She and the Taken conferred often. I was excluded. So was Bomanz. The Limper participated only when ordered out of my quarters.
I gave up trying to sleep there. I moved in with Goblin and One-Eye. Which shows how much the Taken distressed me. Sharing a room with those two is like living amidst an ongoing riot.
Raven, as ever, changed not the least and remained mostly forgotten by all but his loyal Case. Silent did look in occasionally, on Darling’s behalf, but without enthusiasm.
Only then did I realize that Silent felt more toward Darling than loyalty and protectiveness, and he was without means of expressing those feelings. Silence was enforced upon him by more than a vow.
I could not learn which sisters were twins. As I anticipated, Tracker found nothing in the genealogies. A miracle he found what he did, the way sorcerers cover their back trails.
Goblin and One-Eye tried hypnotizing him, hoping to plumb his ancient memories. It was like stalking ghosts in a heavy fog.
The Taken moved to stall the Great Tragic. Ice collected along the western bank, turning the force of the current. But they overtinkered and a gorge developed. It threatened to raise the river level. A two-day effort won us maybe ten hours.
Occasionally large tracks appeared around the Barrowland, soon vanished beneath drifting snow. Though the skies cleared, the air grew colder. The snow neither melted nor crusted. The Taken engineered that. A wind from the east stirred the snow continuously.
Case stopped by to tell me, “The Lady wants you, sir. Right away.”
I broke off playing three-handed Tonk with Goblin and One-Eye. So far had things slowed-except the flow of time. There was nothing more we could do.
“Sir,” said Case as we stepped out of hearing of the others, “be careful.” “Uhm?”
“She’s in a dark mood.”
“Thanks.” I dallied. My own mood was dark enough. It did not need to feed on hers.
Her quarters had been refurnished. Carpets had been brought in. Hangings covered the walls. A settee of sorts stood before the fireplace, where a fire burned with a comforting crackle. The atmosphere seemed calculated. Home as we dream it to be rather than as it is.
She was seated on the couch. “Come sit with me,” she said, without glancing back to see who had come in. I started to take one of the chairs. “No. Here, by me.” So I settled on the couch. “What is it?”
Her eyes were fixed on something far away. Her face said she was in pain. “I have decided.”
“Yes?” I waited nervously, not sure what she meant, less sure I belonged there.
“The choices have narrowed down. I can surrender and become another of the Taken.”
That was a Jess dire penalty than I had expected. “Or?” “Or I can fight. A battle that can’t be won. Or won only in its losing.”
“If you can’t win, why fight?” I would not have asked that of one of the Company. With my own I would have known the answer.
Hers was not ours. “Because the outcome can be shaped. I can’t win. But I can decide who does.”
“Or at least make sure it isn’t him?”
A slow nod.
Her bleak mood began to make sense. I have seen it on the battlefield, with men about to undertake a task likely to be fatal but which must be hazarded so others will not perish.
To cover my reaction, I slipped off the couch and added three small logs to the fire. But for our moods it would have been nice there in the crispy heat, watching the dancing flames.
We did that for a while. I sensed that I was not expected to talk.
“It begins at sunup,” she said at last.
“What?”
“The final conflict. Laugh at me. Croaker. I’m going to try to kill a shadow. With no hope of surviving myself.”
Laugh? Never. Admire. Respect. My enemy still, in the end unable to extinguish that last spark of light and so die in yet another way.
All this while she sat there primly, hands folded in her lap. She stared into the fire as if certain that eventually it would reveal the answer to some mystery. She began to shiver.
This woman for whom death held such devouring terror had chosen death over surrender.
What did that do for my confidence? Nothing good. Nothing good at all. I might have felt better had I seen the picture she did. But she did not talk about it.
In a very, very soft, tentative voice, she asked, “Croaker? Will you hold me?”
What? I didn’t say it, but I sure as hell thought it.
I didn’t say anything. Clumsily, uncertainly, I did as she asked.
She began crying on my shoulder, softly, quietly, shaking like a captive baby rabbit.
It was a long time before she said anything. I did not presume.
“No one has done this since I was a baby. My nurse...”
Another long silence.
“I’ve never had a friend.”
Another long gap.
“I’m scared, Croaker. And alone.”
“No. We’ll all be with you.”
“Not for the same reasons.” She fell silent for good then. I held her a long time. The fire burned down and its light faded from the room. Outside, the wind began to howl.
When I finally thought she had fallen asleep, and started to disengage myself, she clung more tightly, so I stilled and continued to hold her, though half the muscles in my body ached.
Eventually she peeled herself away, rose, built up the fire. I sat. She stood behind me a while, staring at the flames. Then she rested a hand on my shoulder a moment. In a faraway voice she said, “Good night.”
She went into another room. I sat for ten or fifteen minutes before putting on a last log and shuffling back into the real world.
I must have worn an odd look. Neither Goblin nor One-Eye aggravated me. I rolled into my bedroll, back to them, but did not fall asleep for a long time.
Fifty-Five
Opening rounds
I wakened startled. The null! I had been out of it so much it disturbed me by its presence. I rolled out hurriedly, discovered I was alone in the room. Not only there, but in the barracks, practically. There were a few Guards in the mess hall.
The sun was not yet up.
The wind still howled around the building. There was a marked chill in the air, though the fires were burning high. I shoveled boiled oats in and wondered what I was missing.
The Lady entered as I finished. “There you are. I thought I’d have to leave without you.”
Whatever her problems the night before, she was brisk and confident and ready for business now.
The null faded while I got my coat. I dropped by my own room momentarily. The Limper was there still. I left frowning thoughtfully.
Into the carpet. Full crew today. Every carpet was fully crewed and armed. But I was more interested in the absence of snow between town and the Barrowland., That howling wind had blown it away. We went up as it became light enough to see. The Lady took the carpet up till the Barrowland resembled a map taking shape as shadows vaporized. She set us to cruising in a tight circle. The wind, I noted, had faded.