Sahra sent Tobo to fetch the statue. The boy could be much less unpleasant when he was in a group.
Silence struck as Banh Do Trang rolled in, pushed by one of his own people. He smiled at a private joke. He enjoyed startling us. "One of my men tells me that we have a couple of outsiders caught in the confusion net. They appear to be harmless. An old man and a mute. Somebody will have to get them out and send them on their way without making them suspicious."
That news gave me a little chill but I did not suspect the truth till poor overworked Tobo and Goblin—the latter going along but staying out of sight while the boy led the intruders to safety—returned and Goblin reported, "I think your boyfriend followed you home, Sleepy."
"What?"
"There was this terrified old man who tried to impress Tobo with the fact that he was a librarian." A lot of Taglians would have been impressed. The ability to read was almost a sorcery in itself. "He called his sidekick Adoo. You told us—"
One-Eye began to howl. "The Little Girl's a regular heartbreaker! Damn, I'd give anything to be there when that oid fool slides his hand into her pants and don't find what he's looking for.''
I was embarrassed. I do not think I have been embarrassed about anything since the first time my uncle Rafi slipped his hand under my sari and did find what he was after. That darned fool Santaraksita! Why did he have to go complicating things like this?
"That's enough of that!" Sahra snapped. "There's supposed to be a meeting of the Privy Council tomorrow. I think we can use it to get to Gokhale. But I'll need to take Sawa and Shikhandini."
"Why?" I asked. I had no desire to go back inside the Palace ever again.
"That's great," One-Eye enthused. "You don't show at the library tomorrow, that old goat is gonna pine and whine and wonder what happened, if it's all his fault even though he knows there's no way you could know he tried to follow you home. You'll have your hook set, Little Girl. All you have to do is pull him in."
Sahra snapped, "I said—"
"Wait a minute. He may have a point. Suppose I do play Santaraksita's game? To the point where I get him to do my translations for me? We could even add him to our collection. I don't think he has much family. Why don't we take a closer look, see how long it might be before people wondered why he was missing."
"Oh, you're wicked, Little Girl," One-Eye said. "You're really wicked."
"You could find out someday, you keep riding me."
"About Gokhale?" Sahra asked.
"All right. Why are we taking me and Tobo both?"
"Tobo to put an idea into his head so he gets an itch he's going to have to go scratch. You to cover us. Just in case. I'll have Tobo carry his flute." Tobo's flute was a small version of the fire-projecting bamboo. "He can turn it over to you once we're inside." Tobo had carried that flute every time he had accompanied his mother into the Palace. We try to think ahead. "Also, I want to keep you fresh in Jaul Barundandi's mind. I'll definitely have to have you along when I snatch the Radisha. Goblin, what can you do with my Ghanghesha?"
No one else on earth would have dared hand the little wizard a straight line like that. But Sahra was Sahra. She did not have to pay the price.
I started to leave. I had other things to do. Tobo asked, "Is it all right if I show your Annals to Murgen? He wants to read them."
"You two starting to get along now?"
"I think so."
"Good. You can let him see them. Tell him not to be too critical. If he is, I won't come out there and dig him up."
27
N arayan seemed thoroughly puzzled by my continued interest. I do not believe he remembered me at all. But he now knew that I was female and had been the young man Sleepy that he had encountered, only rarely, ages ago.
"You've had time to reflect. Have you decided to help us yet?"
He looked at me with pure venom, yet without obvious personal hatred. I was just a particularly unpleasant obstacle delaying the inevitable triumph of his goddess. He had gotten his mind back into a rut.
"All right. I'll see you again tomorrow night. Your son Aridatha has a leave day coming up. We'll bring him around to visit you."
There was a guard watching the Daughter of Night. "What're you doing here, Kendo?"
"Keeping an eye on—"
"Go away. And don't come back. And spread the word. Nobody guards the Daughter of Night. She's too dangerous. Nobody even goes near her unless Sahra or I tell them to. And then they don't do it alone."
"She don't look—"
"She wouldn't, would she? Start hiking." I went to the cage. "How long would it take for your goddess to create all the right conditions for the birth of another like you? If I decide to kill you?"
The girl's gaze rose slowly. I wanted to cringe away from the power in her eyes but I held on. Maybe she should be getting even more opium than she was already.
"Reflect upon your value. And upon my power to destroy it." I felt puffed up. That was the kind of thing the devas, or lesser gods, blathered at one another on the fringes of the epics spun by the professional storytellers.
She glared. There was so much power in her eyes that I decided Kendo ought to spend a little time in private with Goblin and One-Eye, making sure he had not been taken in already.
"I think that without you there never will be a Year of the Skulls. And I know that you're still alive only because I want something from Narayan, who loves you like a father." Singh was her father, for all practical purposes. Croaker had been denied the chance by cruel Fortune. Or, more accurately, by the will of Kina.
"Keep well, dear." I left. I had a lot of reading to get done. And some writing if I got the chance. My days were always full and all too often they got confused. I decided to do things, then forgot. I told others to do things, then forgot that, too. I was beginning to look forward to the time when our successes—or sufficiently spectacular failures—forced us out of town. I could sneak off somewhere where nobody knew me and just loaf for a few months.
Or for the rest of my life if I wanted.
I had no trouble understanding why every year a few more of our brothers gave up and faded away. I only hoped a little notoriety would bring them back.
I studied the pages Sahra had brought out for me but the translation was difficult, the subject matter was uninspiring, and I was tired. I kept losing my concentration. I thought about Master Santaraksita. I thought about going back up to the Palace, armed. I thought about what Soulcatcher would do now that she knew she did not have us trapped inside the Thieves' Garden. I thought about getting old and being alone and had a suspicion that that fear might have something to do with why some brothers remained with the Company no matter what. They had no other family.
I have no other family.
I will not look back. I am not weak. I will not relax my self-control. I will persevere. I will triumph over myself and will conquer all adversity.
I fell asleep rereading my own recollections of what Murgen had reported about the Company's adventure on the glittering plain. I dreamed about the creatures he had encountered there. Were they the rakshasas and nagas of myth? Did they have anything to do with the shadows, or with the men who evidently created the shadows from hapless prisoners of war?
28
I have a bad feeling about this," I told Sahra as she and Tobo and I started the long walk. "You're sure the shadows are all off the streets?"
"Quit fussing, Sleepy. You're turning into an old woman. The streets are safe. The only monsters out here are human. We can handle those. You'll be safe in the Palace if you just stick to your character. Tobo will be safe as long as he remembers that he's not really Shikhandini and desperate for his mother to keep her job. It's in the nature of men like Jaul Barundandi that they do their bullying inside your head, not physically. They'll take ‘no' for an answer. And I won't lose my job over it. My work is being noticed by others. Especially by Barundandi's wife. Now, get yourself into character. Tobo, you too. You particularly. I know Sleepy can do this when she concentrates on it."