She Is The Darkness

55

You look like shit," One-Eye told me over breakfast.

"Thanks for the boost."

"What's up?"

"Bad dreams last night." He did not know what I had been going through. I chose not to share everything now but I did practice my Forsberger long enough to tell him, "It looks like our friend the crow woman is up to something with her old pal Howler, our favorite Deceiver and the kid."

Both Thai Dei and Mother Gota glanced at me sharply. I had used the Taglian for "Deceiver," tooga. It was the same in Nyueng Bao.

"And old Longshadow thinks he's got nothing to worry about."

"Yeah. The Old Man always says even paranoids sometimes got somebody trying to stab them in the back." Usually when I let him know I thought he was overdoing the paranoia himself.

"That kind of thing is nice to know but how can we use it?"

"Not my problem. I just work here. The Captain gets to make the decisions. That's why he's the Captain." Just for the fun of it I slipped in the Taglian for "captain," jamadar. Thai Dei and Mother Gota looked me over again. In the context of the Deceivers jamadar means more than just "captain." It indicates a leader of a band, which is like a small nation of Deceivers. The only Deceiver jamadar now known to be alive was Narayan Singh, who had become jamadar of jamadars before the destruction of his cult.

They would think we were talking about the living legend, the saint who still walked the earth on his goddess's behalf.

I tucked the last of my breakfast away, thanked Mother Gota, got up and left the dugout. Thai Dei followed me. I told him, "I'm just going to see the Captain. If you want to you can stay and work on the house." We called our hole in the ground the house now.

Thai Dei shook his head. He had gotten lax about bodyguarding me lately. I did not feel neglected.

Time has a way of blunting the sharpest edge of determination.

I waited a moment for One-Eye to join us but he did not come out. More and more the little shit seemed perfectly willing to invite himself to my family meals rather than go to any trouble on his own.

I should be surprised after all these years?

Croaker looked about as happy as I felt. His night had been no bed of roses, either. He grumbled, "What is it this time?"

"Did a little dreaming last night. Went to hell and came back and then went out roaming without using Smoke at all." I gave him the unhappy details.

"Could you do that again?"

"I been falling through rabbit holes in space and cracks in time for over a year. Maybe I'm getting the hang of it."

"We wouldn't need Smoke."

"Especially since he's threatening to wake up." I must have had a nasty look on my face because he raised an eyebrow. I said, "It'd be fun to watch him try to get used to the new world he'd wake up in."

Croaker smirked. "You'd want to stand upwind. He'd shit his guts out when he saw how far we've come. By the by, as long as you're here, it'd be handy if you'd go see Lady. I sent her your maps. She's going to pick off Narayan and catch the girl. If anybody asks you about the maps all you know is that we captured a couple of Mogaba's officers who used to belong to Overlook's garrison."

I grunted, not entirely thrilled. I would not be able to lie to Lady convincingly.

"Experiment with this. I have to know if we can get along without Smoke."

"I already know about one severe handicap."

"Uhm?"

"I can't travel back in time when I'm on my own."

He sucked a bunch of air in, blew it out. "Wouldn't you know? There had to be a catch. Smoke's got job security."

"You said you'd talk to One-Eye about keeping him from waking up."

"He wasn't much help."

"Is he ever?"

"If you see him, send him over."

"Right." I got out of there, paused outside to stare across at the encampment below Overlook's wall. I said, "The boss wants me to go over there and show Lady how to manage her business."

It was a bright, sunshiny day. There was enough breeze to carry the smoke and stench away. Thai Dei observed, "Maybe some of the ground will dry up."

Most of the snow had melted. It was springtime. Around Kiaulune that meant mud season. Mud would mean bugs eventually.

I wondered if melting snows would cause floods that would chase Soulcatcher out of her hideout.

It was time spring came to Kiaulune. It had arrived already everywhere else.