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was clear of the parapet he muttered, "Bamboo. I have to humor a lunatic."
I tried to travel south of Overlook. Smoke went only a short way before he
balked. Well.
I would find out sooner than I wanted, I supposed. After we settled Longshadow
and Overlook the plain was next on the list of obstacles blocking our path to
Khatovar.
Chapter 52
I returned to the chamber with Smoke and our stinky pet Strangler. I was
hungry and thirsty but also so excited I shook. I had not uncovered much of
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resounding import, but, gods! The potential!
I drank from the pitcher, cleared my throat, lifted the corner of the cloth
covering the prisoner. "You in there? Want a drink? Want to tell me?" He was
asleep. "Be that way."
So what now? Help had not arrived. I gnawed on one of Mother Gota's stones.
That eased my hunger. That was all I wanted at the moment.
What now? Keep going out until somebody came to reclaim me? See Lady? Look for
Goblin? Hunt for Blade? How about finding out where Soulcatcher was hiding?
She had to be out there somewhere, though we had not stubbed our toes on her
lately. No place was free of crows if a member of the Company was around.
Soulcatcher is patient. That is her scariest trait.
It was kid-in-the-candy-shop time.
I decided to look for Soulcatcher. She was the oldest mystery going right now.
Smoke jumped right out, but then he stalled. His soul, or ka, or whatever,
became more agitated as I grew more insistent. "All right! She always was more
trouble than I want to deal with, anyway. Let's find her goofy sister."
Lady did not intimidate Smoke at all.
I found her in the citadel at Dejagore, in the conference chamber with four
men, leaning over a map. The frontier markings on the map lay far south of
Dejagore. Earlier boundaries were noted and identified by date.
She needed a new map. Her old one was too busy. She had won too many
skirmishes.
Lady is a beauty even fresh from the field. She looks way too young for
Croaker although she is far older than One-Eye. One-Eye never mastered any
youth sorcery.
Two of Lady's companions were Company men, Gea-Xle Nar anxious to show the
world that Mogaba and his traitors were mutants, that their like would not be
seen again. I did not buy that. Neither did Lady or the Old Man. We were
confident that Mogaba had left somebody behind. Croaker once told me, "Watch
out for somebody to start pointing fingers. That'll be the traitor."
A third man was the Prahbrindrah Drah, the ruling Prince of Taglios. He was
about as nondescript, for a Taglian, as a man could be and still be breathing.
He put in the last four years learning the arts of war. He commanded a full
division now, the right wing of the field army. Lady and the Old Man took
pains to entangle him deeply in their war machine so he had a personal stake
to maintain there.
The last man was the improbable Willow Swan. When I focused on him Smoke
became agitated, which proved to me Smoke's self was partially aware on some
plane. He and Swan had gotten on like rats and mice.
These days Swan is the captain of the Royal Guards detachment assigned to
Dejagore.
Swan wears his cornsilk hair longer than Lady does her shoulder-length black
hair. Sometimes Willow braids his but at the moment it was pulled back into a
ponytail. Lady's hair was back in a tail, too. Usually she lets it hang free.
She did keep it combed and clean when she could.
A soldier by accident, Swan did not want to be a hero. His Guards existed
outside the army and functioned mainly as military police. He and they owed
their allegiance directly to the Prince and his sister.
Lady said, "Howler has quit attacking outposts."
"You said he ain't stupid," Swan replied.
"I got too close when I missed him. That scared him off for good."
One of the Nar observed, "Our raids must trouble them."
"They trouble me, Isi. And I authorized them." Lady shivered momentarily.
"They are effective."
"Beyond a doubt."
The Prince asked, "But would the Liberator approve?"
Lady's smile revealed glistening white teeth that were almost too perfect. She
had mastered the cosmetic sorceries early. "He doesn't approve. Definitely.
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But he won't interfere. I'm the one who is here and I'm relying on my own
experience."
The Prince asked, "Will Longshadow unleash Mogaba?" The Nar brigadiers tensed.
Mogaba shamed them greatly by letting pride and vanity seduce him away from
the ancient ideals of the Nar. Not to mention he was going to be blue-assed
hell in a fight.
Swan asked, "You take any prisoners down there?"
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