She Is The Darkness tbc-8 Read online

  The smell of Kina remained strong there.

  I dislocated Smoke’s ghostly knuckles and applied pressure till he moved back toward the moment when he had dragged me away. We never got there. Kina arrived first, making a second, surprise visit that caught everyone off guard.

  When I got close enough to feel Kina’s presence, to catch glimpses, I became unfocused. Smoke made a run for it. I regained control, dove right back in there.

  We bounced in and away, in and away. I caught several more glimpses of an animate darkness that, seen from the corner of my invisible eye, looked like a miniature version of the many-armed goddess. Kina concentrated on enveloping the brat in the dark shell that surrounded her now. Howler and Soulcatcher took their lumps in a minute of vain resistance in which they caught the goddess’s attention about like an annoying yellow jacket buzzing around an outdoor lunch catches the attentions of picnickers.

  Longshadow grabbed the chance to employ a ready protective catechism to create the egg enveloping him now. Most of the damage he suffered was accidental and collateral and happened during the scrimmage between Kina and the others.

  Narayan Singh appeared to be splashed all over the floor. I could not tell if he was alive.

  I let Smoke pull away, drove him toward Lady. She ought to resemble a bouquet of posies on his fear scale now.

  I positioned myself right in front of her, at eye level, as I had done before. That took some doing. She would not stand still. She continued to mutter curses about the screaming, which had become more common.

  Longshadow had to be teetering on the brink of eternity.

  I shrieked.

  Lady froze.

  I glared into the eyeholes of her ugly black helmet. Those glowed with an unnatural intensity. If something so unnatural initially could become more unnatural. She whispered, “You’re there again.”

  I tried to bellow. “Your pal Kina whipped their asses upstairs. They’re all down right now. There’ll never be a better time to get them.”

  Lady turned slightly. She stared up at Longshadow’s personal tower. The light in the crystal chamber was feeble, guttering like a spent lamp.

  The fate Longshadow feared so much might catch up with him yet.

  Lady shouted at Isi and Sindawe.

  She did not get my message exactly but she did hit on the notion that right now might be a good time to take one last whack at the Shadowmaster.

  68

  This time when I returned to flesh I was wiped out completely. I had just enough strength to grab some sugar water. I consumed my resources a lot faster, apparently, when I had to fight Smoke all the time.

  Croaker was talking to somebody on the other side of the curtain. I did not recognize the voice so I did not include myself in the discussion.

  The subject seemed to be a rapid deterioration in our fortunes due to a sudden increase in the number of shadows getting past the troops below the Shadowgate. Shadows were turning up everywhere now, though not yet in disastrous numbers.

  The man reporting to Croaker was a courier who had come all the way around Overlook from the Old Division. Mission completed now, he did not want to go back out into the night even when Croaker offered him one of One-Eye’s amulets.

  “You’re perfectly safe now,” Croaker told him. “The shadows won’t know you’re around.”

  “I don’t trust—”

  “Don’t test my temper, soldier. I’ll call the guards.”

  Smoke groaned. It was a for real, out-loud, full-throated kind of groan.

  Croaker started to snarl at the messenger again. The ground shook as though somebody had dropped a seven-ton boulder next door. Dirt rained down. Some got into my food. Some went down the back of my neck. I was too tired to care much, or even to wonder what was happening. Croaker pulled the hangings aside. “What was that?”

  “The old fart made a noise.”

  “He didn’t make the earth shake, did he?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know about that. I do know Lady wants to take one more crack at Overlook.” I explained the situation there. “Wouldn’t it be something if we could just round them all up? If we ended up getting the best of everybody because they couldn’t stop feuding among themselves?”

  “We’ve been doing that for the last five years. More or less. I don’t like the idea of her going in there again. She ought to hunker down till morning. A place like Overlook could turn into a death trap if the shadows infest it.”

  I said, “We’d really better worry about Longshadow’s health. If the well-being of the Shadowgate depends on his well-being.”

  “Uhm?”

  “A lot of the insane stuff he did the last several years he did because Soulcatcher and Kina were manipulating him. But he was paranoid about the shadows twenty years before any of us showed up in these parts. He’s convinced they’re out to get him. What if he’s right? What if they do get him? I don’t know what happens to a man when the shadows come, except that he dies horribly. If one of them kills Longshadow, will that break open the Shadowgate? Would that be why they want to get him so bad?”

  “I don’t know. I’d have to ask One-Eye.”

  “Where is that little shit? He should have been hanging around here instead of playing tonk.”

  “Tonk?”

  “A while ago he was bitching because he wanted to get back to his burrow. He’d suckered somebody into coming over to play.”

  “He was bullshitting you, then, Murgen. There’s nobody in this army stupid enough to play cards with him anymore. Maybe he was going to get drunk. Why don’t you run over there and—”

  “I’m wiped. That’s one reason I wanted to see One-Eye. I don’t have anything left to give.”

  Croaker sighed. He started to settle his winged Widowmaker helmet onto his head. “What should he look for?”

  “He’ll want to keep track of Lady and what’s happening in Longshadow’s chamber. He’ll have to fight Smoke every step to do it, though. The little shit is really turning into his old chickenshit self. He don’t want to get near this or that or... Never mind. Tell him if he sees something Lady ought to know about, he can sort of warn her by getting his point of view down right in front of her and screaming. She won’t pick up anything word for word but she’ll understand that there’s something she needs to know. Then she’ll pick up the gist of it.”

  Croaker frowned. He was really worried about Lady going back into Overlook. He asked, “Can you make it back to your place?”

  The sugar water had given me strength enough to attack some hard rolls and fragments of a scrawny chicken that had not been able to outrun the headquarters cooks. “Yeah. Now. I wish we’d brought more cattle. I’d cut somebody’s throat for a good hunk of rare beef.”

  “One-Eye is supposed to have woven a network of spells around here to make the area proof against shadows. But I want you to take this amulet, too. Just in case.”

  It is never wise to count on One-Eye one hundred percent. Sometimes he gets sloppy. Sometimes he forgets. Sometimes he is too lazy.

  Croaker said, “Bring the standard when you come back. Then I can give that amulet to somebody else.”

  “Still want me to go past One-Eye’s hole? I’m better now.”

  “I’ll handle it. Get some rest. If you’ve turned into the religious sort while I wasn’t looking, beg your gods to get us through the rest of the night.” Fortunately, there was not a lot of night left. The shadows would have to go into hiding before long. The tables would turn. Soldiers would spend the daylight hours hunting them.

  During our conversation we had heard several remote screams. “Yeah.” As I was about to leave I observed, “Shouldn’t most of the stupid ones, the ones who didn’t want to do the work or to inconvenience themselves, be dead by now?”

  “I expect so. I imagine the shadows are learning from their successes, though. And their failures.”

  Shaking, I went out into the night.

  Clouds masked the stars. I could s
ee nothing but the occasional flight of a fireball and the glow atop Overlook’s remaining lighted towers.

  I listened for crows and owls and bats, for rats and mice. I heard none of those. There was no noise anywhere that was not of human origin. Shadows found nonhuman life nearly as tasty as human. And a whole lot less difficult about being hunted.

  A breeze had begun to blow. I sniffed the air, considered the overcast. Looked like we were going to get some rain.

  I descended into my own dugout. Inside I found Thai Dei huddled beside the fire, pallid for a Nyueng Bao, obviously frightened. Weird. I had trouble picturing him being scared of anything.

  I told him, “We’ll be fine here. This candle will keep out any shadows that get through the spells One-Eye spread around outside.” I did not mention the standard. He did not need to know. I tossed him the amulet Croaker had given me. “For insurance. You wear that, you can go anywhere safely.”

  “I’ll go nowhere till the sun is high in the sky.”

  “I like your attitude. Shows good sense. I’m exhausted. I need to get some rest before I collapse.” I looked around.

  “Where’s your mother?”

  Thai Dei shook his head. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t know where to start looking if I could summon the courage to rid myself of the cold water that has replaced my bones.”

  “She isn’t out there with Uncle Doj, is she?” Concerned, tired, I spoke without thinking.

  Thai Dei was not so frightened and worried that he missed my slip. “Uncle Doj?”

  Why pretend? “Oh, I know he’s prowling around out there. I saw him the other night. Him and Mother Gota were prancing through the ruins of Kiaulune. Doing who knows what the hell why. Or maybe hell knows what the who. What’s he up to? I’m sure he wasn’t looking for plunder Mogaba’s and the Prince’s men missed.”

  Thai Dei just looked at me. Maybe a hint of a smile tried to break through. It did not last. “Will that candle last all night?”

  Evidently he could become mildly talkative if he was scared and worried.

  “It’ll last a lot of nights. I’m going to crap out. If it makes you more comfortable, put on the amulet and sit next to the candle. Just don’t move it. It has to block the doorway.”

  Thai Dei grunted. He had the amulet on his wrist already and was back at full worry.

  I said, “We’ll look for your mother first thing.” Now that there was a chance she was dead I was concerned. Result of a whole lot of boyhood teaching that insisted that even the most hated member of your family was immeasurably precious. And there was some truth to that. Who will watch your back if not family?

  It is the same here in the Company. The most loathsome, most despicable of my brothers has to be of more value to me than any outsider. On one level we are a big, ugly family.

  There are, of course, rare exceptions, bullies and assholes so bad they have just got to be fragged. That has not happened in a long time.

  I would look for my mother-in-law even though I had wished her away at least a hundred thousand times.

  I was not yet all the way horizontal when sleep overcame me.

  69

  I dreamt. Of course. Awake or asleep I spent most of my life in dreamlands.

  I was in the place of bones. Some great force troubled the plain. The bones themselves drifted on tides and currents. Scattered skeletons pulled themselves together, rose up and wandered aimlessly for seconds or minutes before falling apart again. Skulls turned to stare wherever I floated. Crows cawed drunkenly from perches in the few enwintered trees, afraid to fly because their equilibrium was all off and every straight flight nevertheless warped groundward where the stricken bird flopped and struggled amongst the bones like a moth caught in a spider’s web. Dark clouds scurried across what had always been iron-grey skies. The wind was icy. Gusts made the bones rattle.

  The smell of Kina was strong but I did not see her.

  There was something behind me, though. I just could not turn fast enough to find out what.

  Turning did inform me that I had some control, which I exercised immediately by wishing myself out of that place. Naturally, the move failed to be an improvement.

  I went to the caverns of ice and old men. Those ancients made no sound but they were bickering. Something was in the wind. The smell of Kina was strong there, too, but she was nowhere to be seen.

  Some of those old boys had their eyes open. They watched me as I passed.

  Again I had the feeling that there was something behind me but saw nothing when I looked back.

  I did have control. I followed the tunnel, eventually reached the place where the Books of the Dead rested upon their lecterns. The first, which the Daughter of Night had been transcribing, was now open to a page near the beginning.

  The stink of Kina was particularly strong there.

  I had no business in that place. There was nothing I wanted there.

  Except out.

  I tried to recall how I had gotten away last time. By just wanting to do it badly enough, I guess.

  Darkness came.

  It reminded me of something Narayan Singh said one time:

  “Darkness always comes.”

  It seemed I was in the darkness a long time. Fear began to build. I reflected on just how right Narayan had to be.

  Though it might wear a thousand different names in a thousand different times, and might come from a thousand different directions, darkness always comes.

  When the light came back I found myself way up high above everything again. So high up, I was above the clouds that had been moving in as I headed for bed, leaving me at the mercy of those unfamiliar stars.

  I picked out the ghoulish dagger constellation in the north, took a guess at the direction I had followed before, put on all the speed I could and dived into the clouds. In moments I was down where treetops whisked right under where my love handles would have hung had I had any belly at all. I thought I could learn to enjoy this if I could just get rid of the feeling that something was close behind me and gaining.

  There were no lights down there this time. The whole world smelled of fear, as though every rock and animal and tree sensed something dire about to happen. I located a village. The entire population was wide awake, despite the hour. They huddled in frightened clumps, babies clutched tightly, livestock gathered into their homes with them. They did not talk much. The children whimpered.

  How could they know what was happening at Overlook? Was there some prophecy or something that said tonight was the night the Shadowgate would go down? Had there been signs and portents unseen by me? Did they know anything at all? Maybe their terror had nothing to do with Shadowmasters or the Black Company.

  I streaked onward. Far, far ahead the occasional spark flipped into the sky. Those had to be the home fires burning.

  The quarrel with the shadows was not over.

  It was a long night.

  The Shadowgate had not collapsed. Not yet. Longshadow was still alive.

  I recalled having no problems getting close to any she is the darkness when I did not have Smoke along. I headed for the flickering remnant of Longshadow’s crystal chamber.

  Soulcatcher was on her feet and in nasty form, carping at Howler. The screaming wizard hardly knew where he was. “Come on, you worthless ball of rags!” Catcher raged in a fishwife’s voice. “We’ve got to get out of here before my beloved sister realizes the lovely chance she’s missing!”

  Her darling sister was on her way already, thanks to me. I was surprised she was taking so long. She seemed to have grown cautious in the last hour. Of course, she did have to slither through a long tunnel, then wander around a dark fortress, then make a long climb, all the while making sure no little shadows jumped on her back.

  Howler let out a groggy, interrogative sort of cry. He was not yet clear on where he was or how he had gotten there. He concentrated on getting his feet back under him.

  Catcher had to keep her back clean, too. She cast some little spe
ll that sent a worm of light slithering into all the dark places in that tossed salad of a chamber. It rooted out several tiny shadows. They evaded the light easily. Soulcatcher cursed. “Damned thing isn’t fast enough!” The shadows darted at Longshadow, who was in far worse shape than Howler. He was, however, more in touch with what was happening around him. He whispered a cantrip before the darknesses reached his shell. The little shadows spun and went after the invaders.

  This battle would not end while he was alive, apparently. He was a stubborn shit.

  Soulcatcher cuffed Howler around the ears. The fishwife’s shrill insisted, “Come on! This place is going to be your death if we don’t get” She sensed imminent danger. Lady was not far away now. “It’s her.” New voice. Baffled, frightened, childlike. “How does she dare? She can’t have any real powers anymore. It doesn’t work that way.”

  Lady was in the stairwell now. She did not seem afraid of a confrontation with her little sister at all.

  She carried a bundle of short bamboo poles.

  So did the dozen men behind her. They would be able to launch a small blizzard of fireballs. Those at the rear of the party backed up the steps. They kept poles ready to discharge at anything coming up behind them. The smell of fear grew stronger than the lingering perfume of Kina.

  Soulcatcher thumped Howler a few more times, trying to get him to come alert. He remained too groggy to be much use.

  She turned to the doorway. With some small but well-chosen spell she sealed it, then resumed trying to get Howler into shape for a flying escape.

  The small shadows had gone into hiding again.

  The door began to glow. Its surface rippled colorfully, according to the hue of the fireballs hitting its far side.

  Soulcatcher produced a knife and slit Howler’s clothing. I did not understand till she found what she was looking for. That proved to be a piece of silk, four feet by six when she spread it, and a little bundle of sticks. The silk rectangle became almost rigid when she spoke a certain word. It floated up off the floor like it was floating on the surface of a gently rippling pool. Soulcatcher broke the bundle of sticks and assembled them into a framework on which she stretched the silk. She muttered as she worked. The whole thing seemed much too fragile but in a minute she grabbed the Daughter of Night and clambered aboard. The carpet sagged but held their weight.