The Radisha stormed through not long after the news began to make the rounds. She was distraught. She headed directly for her Anger Chamber. Sawa looked up from the brasswork she was cleaning, just for an instant, apparently badly troubled. Subredil set her mop aside and went to see what was wrong. No one else paid them any attention.
Not much later, when Jaul Barundandi dropped in to see how the work was going and somehow got into an argument with Narita, Sawa wandered away when no one was looking. No one noticed right away because Sawa almost never did anything to be noticed and today she wore charms reinforcing that.
Shiki drifted closer to her mother. She looked pale and troubled and kept touching her flute. She whispered, "Shouldn't be we going?"
"It isn't time. Place your Ghanghesha." Shiki was supposed to have done that hours ago.
Rumor rushed through, pursued by uglier rumor still. The Protector had returned and she was in a frothing rage. She was visiting her shadows now. It was going to be another night of terror in the streets of Taglios.
The women started talking about the possible wisdom of finishing work before the Protector decided she had to see the Radisha. The Protector would not respect the privacy of the Princess. She made no secret of her contempt for Taglian custom. Even Narita seemed to hold the opinion that it would be best not to be where you could be seen when the Protector was in a mood.
At that point Shiki discovered that her aunt was missing.
"Damn it, Subredil!" Narita fumed. "You promised you'd watch her closer the last time this happened."
"I'm sorry, mistress. I became so frightened. She probably decided to go to the kitchen. That was what she was trying to do when she got lost last time."
Shiki was going already. Not more than a minute later, she called, "I found her, Mother."
When the rest of the women arrived, they found Sawa seated against a wall, brass lamp in her lap, unconscious, with vomit all over her. "Oh, no!" Subredil cried. "Not again." And in a whirlwind of nonsense and apparently vain efforts to get Sawa's attention, she got across the hint of a fear that Sawa might be pregnant after having been abused by one of the Palace staff.
Narita was away in seconds, fuming. Subredil and Shiki were right behind her, supporting Sawa between them, heading for the servants' postern. Nobody noticed that none of the women were carrying their Ghangheshas, not even the one that Subredil had forgotten the day before.
Because of the state Sawa was in, and the state Narita was in, and the imminent explosion of displeasure expected from the Protector, the women managed to draw their pay, then to escape without having to deal with Barundandi's kickback lieutenant. Again.
They were able to lay Sawa inside a covered ox cart not long after they got into the twisty streets downhill from the Palace. Subredil had to caution Shiki repeatedly against celebration.
38
E verything we did must have been seen by somebody," I told the gathered troops. "When word gets out that the Radisha has vanished, all those people are going to remember and try to help. Soulcatcher is supposed to have a knack for separating wheat from chaff."
"Also a knack for calling up the kind of supernatural assistance that can pick your particular trail out of a thousand," Willow Swan volunteered. He was present because he had agreed to take care of the Radisha. She was going to be in a state when she awakened and discovered that her demons had caught up with her at last.
Banh Do Trang wanted to know, "Are you going to flee or not?" The old man was at the edge of collapse. He had been working since before dawn.
"Can we?" I asked.
"You could go this instant if the situation became totally desperate. It will be a few hours yet before the barges are completely provisioned, however."
Nobody wanted to go, though. Not just yet. A lot of the men had developed ties. Everyone had unfinished business. That was life. The same situation had come up time and again over the course of the Company's history.
Sahra said, "You still haven't gotten Narayan to give you the Key."
"I'll talk to him. Is River back yet? No? What about Kendo? How about Pooch and Spiff?" We had people running all over on special assignments. Good old One-Eye had sent our last two men, the barely competent Pooch and Spiff, to assassinate Adoo the gateman because Murgen had been able to determine that it had been he who had caused all the excitement at the library. More, Adoo knew the general neighborhood where I lived.
One-Eye informed me, "Kendo Cutter is coming through the web right now. Arjana Drupada appears to be reasonably healthy for a man with a dozen knife wounds. Hang on."
Murgen was whispering something. It was thundering and hailing outside. I could not hear a word.
"It's started at Semchi, Murgen says. Slink hit them just as they were starting to pitch camp. Cut them off from their weapons."
"Darn!" I swore. "Darn-darn-darn!"
"What's the matter with you, Little Girl?"
"He should've waited until they tried to do something to the Bhodi Tree. This way, nobody will know why we jumped them."
"There's why you don't have you a man."
"What?"
"You ask too much. You sent Slink out there to kill some people. Unless you told him it's got to be a show, all our guys allowed to fight only left-handed or something, he's going to do it fast and dirty and with as little risk to our own guys as he can."
"I thought he understood—"
"Did you assume, Little Girl? At this late stage in your career? You, who's got to run a checklist on lacing your own boots?"
He had me. And he had me good. I tried to change the subject. "If we decide to evacuate, we're going to have to run somebody out there to warn Slink and tell him where to rendezvous."
"Don't try to change the subject."
I turned away. "Kendo. Does he need medical attention?"
"Drupada? He's not bleeding that much anymore."
"Then let's take him back to meet his new roommate." One-Eye catching me out had me feeling particularly evil. This seemed like a good time to take it out on the enemy. "The rest of you, take real good care of the Radisha. We don't want her coming up with a hangnail anybody can blame on us."
Cutter bobbed his head and muttered something under his breath.
"Hey, pervert!" I called to the Inspector-General of the Records. "I don't want you ever to say that the Black Company don't cater to its guests, so here's your very own human play toy. Maybe a little longer in the tooth than you prefer but it's only until the Protector gets around to rescuing you."
Kendo planted a boot in Drupada's behind and shoved. Into the cage the Purohita went. He and Gokhale backed off into opposite corners and glared at one another. Human nature being what it is, each man probably thought the other was responsible for his dismay.
I told Kendo, "Relax now. Get something to eat. Take a nap. But stay away from the girl."
"Hey, I got it the first time, Sleepy. And more so now she's started sleepwalking. So ease up."
"Give me a reason."
"Why don't we just skrag her?"
"Because we need Singh to help open the way through the Shadowgate. And he won't unless he feels confident that we'll be good to the Daughter of Night."
"I don't know any of the Captured that well. Don't feel like you've got to save them on my account."
"I feel like we have to save them on the Company's account, Kendo. Just the same as we'd be doing if it was you out there."
"Sure. Right." Kendo Cutter was one of those people who tended to look on the dark side no matter what.
"Get some rest." I went to talk with Narayan while I waited for Murgen to generate some report on what was happening inside the Palace.