snaggen riddly rodden racklesnatzes under her breath, then told the lieutenant, “Go talk it over with your men.” The moment he was out of hearing she demanded, “Does this mean we stop being friends? If I take your damned oath?”
“Do you reckon I stopped being friends with the others when they elected me Captain?”
“I admit I don’t hear a lot of ‘yes sir,’ ‘no sir,’ ‘your worship sir.’”
“But you do see them do what they’re told when they know I mean what I say.”
“Most of the time.”
“Goblin and One-Eye need a little extra convincing once in a while. What’s it going to be? You going to be a soldier?”
“Do I have a choice, Croaker? You can be a bastard.”
“Of course you have a choice. You can go back with your men and be the Lady.”
The lieutenant was talking to his troops and the idea of going on south was proving less popular than he or I had thought it would. Most of the bunch started getting their horses together, facing north, before he finished talking.
He finally came over and presented us with six men who wanted to go on with us. He did not include himself with the group. Evidently his conscience had shown him a way around doing what he considered to be his duty minutes before.
I questioned the men briefly and they did seem interested in going on. So I brought them over the line and swore them all in, making a production of it for Lady’s sake. I do not recall doing anything particularly formal for anyone else before.
I gave the six to Otto and Hagop for dividing between them, and kept the one for me, and later entered their names into the Annals when we learned how they wanted to be known.
Lady remained content to be called Lady. It sounded like a name when heard by speakers of any language but one, anyway.
Crows watched the whole show from a nearby tree.
10
Shadowmasters
Though the sun stared in through a dozen vaulted windows there was darkness in that place where Darkness met.
A pool of molten stone simmered in the center of the vast floor. It cast bloody light upon four seated figures floating a few feet in the air. They faced one another over the pool, forming an equilateral triangle with a couple at its apex. Those two were leagued more often than not. They were allied now.
There had been war among the four for a long time, with nothing gained, one in relation to another. But at the moment there was an armistice.
Shadows slithered and swirled and pranced around them. Nothing could be seen of any of them except vague shapes. All four chose to conceal themselves within robes of black, behind black masks.
The smallest, one of the couple, broke a silence that had reigned an hour. “She has begun moving south. Those who served her and still bear her indelible mark are moving also. They have crossed the sea, and they come bearing mighty talismans. And their road is strewn with those who would join their destinies to that black standard. Including some whose power we would be foolish not to beware.”
One angle of the triangle made a sound of contempt. The other asked, “And what of the one in the north?”
“The Great One remains secure. The lesser one who lay in the shade of the prisoning tree does so no longer. It has been resurrected and given new form. It comes south too, but it is so insane and vengeance-starved that it is not to be feared. A child could dispose of it.”
“Have we cause to fear that our presence here is known?”
“None. Even in Trogo Taglios only a few are convinced that we exist. Beyond the First Cataract we are but a rumor, and not that above the Second. But he who has made himself master in the great swamps may have sensed us stirring. It is possible he suspects there is more afoot than he knew.”
The reporter’s companion added, “They come. She comes. But harnessed to the pace of man and animal. We still have a year. Or more.”
The one snorted again, then spoke. “The swamps would be a very good place for
“Do you reckon I stopped being friends with the others when they elected me Captain?”
“I admit I don’t hear a lot of ‘yes sir,’ ‘no sir,’ ‘your worship sir.’”
“But you do see them do what they’re told when they know I mean what I say.”
“Most of the time.”
“Goblin and One-Eye need a little extra convincing once in a while. What’s it going to be? You going to be a soldier?”
“Do I have a choice, Croaker? You can be a bastard.”
“Of course you have a choice. You can go back with your men and be the Lady.”
The lieutenant was talking to his troops and the idea of going on south was proving less popular than he or I had thought it would. Most of the bunch started getting their horses together, facing north, before he finished talking.
He finally came over and presented us with six men who wanted to go on with us. He did not include himself with the group. Evidently his conscience had shown him a way around doing what he considered to be his duty minutes before.
I questioned the men briefly and they did seem interested in going on. So I brought them over the line and swore them all in, making a production of it for Lady’s sake. I do not recall doing anything particularly formal for anyone else before.
I gave the six to Otto and Hagop for dividing between them, and kept the one for me, and later entered their names into the Annals when we learned how they wanted to be known.
Lady remained content to be called Lady. It sounded like a name when heard by speakers of any language but one, anyway.
Crows watched the whole show from a nearby tree.
10
Shadowmasters
Though the sun stared in through a dozen vaulted windows there was darkness in that place where Darkness met.
A pool of molten stone simmered in the center of the vast floor. It cast bloody light upon four seated figures floating a few feet in the air. They faced one another over the pool, forming an equilateral triangle with a couple at its apex. Those two were leagued more often than not. They were allied now.
There had been war among the four for a long time, with nothing gained, one in relation to another. But at the moment there was an armistice.
Shadows slithered and swirled and pranced around them. Nothing could be seen of any of them except vague shapes. All four chose to conceal themselves within robes of black, behind black masks.
The smallest, one of the couple, broke a silence that had reigned an hour. “She has begun moving south. Those who served her and still bear her indelible mark are moving also. They have crossed the sea, and they come bearing mighty talismans. And their road is strewn with those who would join their destinies to that black standard. Including some whose power we would be foolish not to beware.”
One angle of the triangle made a sound of contempt. The other asked, “And what of the one in the north?”
“The Great One remains secure. The lesser one who lay in the shade of the prisoning tree does so no longer. It has been resurrected and given new form. It comes south too, but it is so insane and vengeance-starved that it is not to be feared. A child could dispose of it.”
“Have we cause to fear that our presence here is known?”
“None. Even in Trogo Taglios only a few are convinced that we exist. Beyond the First Cataract we are but a rumor, and not that above the Second. But he who has made himself master in the great swamps may have sensed us stirring. It is possible he suspects there is more afoot than he knew.”
The reporter’s companion added, “They come. She comes. But harnessed to the pace of man and animal. We still have a year. Or more.”
The one snorted again, then spoke. “The swamps would be a very good place for
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