She Is The Darkness

29

I told Croaker, "I found out why Longshadow refuses to turn Mogaba loose when even he's got to see that that's best. He's scared Mogaba might do a Blade of his own."

"The Shadowmaster is a blind fool," Blade said. "He doesn't know how to look at people."

I said, "What?"

"Mogaba has to destroy Croaker. He can't do anything else and live with the image of himself he's created for himself."

Croaker made a rude noise.

Blade continued, "Mogaba has his own troubles keeping in touch with reality anymore. This confrontation has become what his life is all about. There's no future if there's no victory."

Croaker was not flattered. "I feel pretty much the same way." He told me, "Longshadow is right about one thing. The whole world is out to get his ass. What's morale like over there?"

I winced. Was I supposed to tell him in front of people who knew nothing about Smoke?

"Lower than a snake's butt," One-Eye said. I glowered at him.

"They likely to break?"

"Only if Mogaba runs. They may not like him a whole lot but they believe in him."

I stared at Lady. Her eyes were closed. She might be grabbing the chance to nap. Seldom on stage doing anything obvious, she was working harder than anybody else. She had to be completely alert every second.

I wondered if Longshadow and Howler had any notion how exhausted she must be, if they would try to turn things around by taking advantage of that. I shivered.

The Captain nodded to himself. "We go at three in the morning. Meantime, everybody rest." His general's mask faded whenever he looked at Lady. In those moments his feelings, were pretty obvious.

I drifted off into a reverie, recalling the nightmares Lady had described in her book, all so obsessed with death and destruction, much like the ones I kept having. I was sure she was suffering those again. She was fighting sleep most of the time, trying to avoid them. I visualized Kina as Lady had described her, black and tall, naked, glistening, with four arms and eight teats, vampire fangs and nifty jewelry made from babies' skulls and severed penises. Not exactly a girl just like good old mom. I wondered if Lady had been dreaming any of the times I had glimpsed something that might have been Kina.

I started. For an instant I thought I had caught a whiff of Kina's perfume, which was the stench of rotting corpses.

There would be plenty of that here soon enough. Only the cold kept it from being really bad already.

I squeaked. Thai Dei was shaking me. Where had he come from? He looked troubled. Croaker was staring at me, too. So were the others. I had drifted right off into a nightmare, never realizing I was gone. The Captain asked, "What's the matter?"

"Bad dream."

Lady was just leaving with Swan and Blade. She stopped, looked back at me. Her nostrils moved restlessly, as though she could smell that stench, too. She eyed me hard.

"Excuse me?" I had missed another question while Lady and I exchanged looks.

"Your in-laws, Murgen. Where are your in-laws?"

"I don't know. This morning they turned up over there in the Deceiver camp and went berserk." I spoke softly because I was not sure there was any language I could get past Lady and her tagalongs. "Uncle Doj sliced up about fifty Deceivers while Mother Gota covered his back. It was a sight. You don't want to get that old woman mad." I shifted to Nyueng Bao. "Thai Dei. Where are Doj and your mother?"

He shrugged. That could mean he did not know or that he was not going to say.

"Thai Dei doesn't know, either." But where had Thai Dei been lately? He had not been underfoot for nearly a day.

Referring to what I had said about Uncle Doj and Mother Gota, Croaker said, "I've told you a million times not to exaggerate. Old people can't—"

"I'm not exaggerating. Blood and shit were everywhere. That old boy's sword moved so fast you could hardly see it. All those assholes wanted to do was get out of his way. Singh grabbed the girl and ran for it. He's hiding out under Mogaba's tower right now. Even the Daughter of Night was a little rattled by the way things were going."

"What about your in-laws?"

Stubborn bastard. "They've disappeared, all right? I haven't looked for them. Maybe the soldiers got them." I doubted that, though.

The old man nodded. He glanced at Thai Dei. "I'll get the angle on them yet. Get some sleep. Be long hours tomorrow."

Seemed to me like I ought to be plenty well rested.

Thai Dei looked like he really wished he understood a few more languages.