Soldiers Live

26

Khatovar: Hunkered Down

I returned from consultations with the white raven. "They've reached the downhill side of the pass."

Lady observed, "They're moving fast, then."

"They've begun to wonder if we suspect something. They've begun to wonder why so few of their shadow scouts come back and why the few that do never came close to us. So they left their infantry and heavy cavalry and artillery behind in an effort to get here before we can do a lot to get ready if we do expect trouble. The bird tells me they're also preparing some sort of surprise but it couldn't get close enough to find out what."

Swan grumbled, "I don't understand why they weren't just sitting here waiting for us."

"Probably because there's not much here to eat, it's a long way from where things are happening and they couldn't know when we'd arrive. Or even if we would. They have an empire up north to keep in line. And if they were camped out here, chances are we'd just not bother to come off the plain. Also, I would imagine that they really expected us to follow the forvalaka once we understood what had happened here. So they could trap us north of the Dandha Presh. In familiar territory, closer to home. Which I would've run into if I didn't have the Black Hounds and whatnot to go scouting.

"On top of the distance for them, there're a raft of superstitions about this country. Plus there's just been a change in the head of the Voroshk family. Somebody called the Old One died unexpectedly about the time we climbed onto the plain. His replacement seems to be more action-oriented."

"And you got all that by talking to crows?"

"They're smart birds, Swan. Smarter than a lot of people. They make wonderful scouts."

Doj asked, "What is our strategy now?"

"We sit tight. We wait. We let the Black Hounds play. They like to tease horses."

Everybody looked at me with that exasperated expression I recalled from those days when I was the Captain and played my cards close to my chest. I shuddered, forced myself to open up further.

"They've separated a small light cavalry force in order to make more speed. The Unknown Shadows will start tormenting the horses after nightfall. Subtly, of course. We don't want to lose them. The bigger ones are going to work on the forvalaka by letting her see them as One-Eye's ghost. I'm hoping she'll rush on down here ahead of her friends. So we can kill her and get out before they get here." There. I had shared.

I felt lousy. I felt like something was sure to go wrong now that I had talked about it.

Silence. Which stretched. Until Murgen finally asked, "Will it work?"

"How the fuck should I know? Ask me again this time tomorrow."

Lady asked, "What're we going to do about Goblin?"

"Keep an eye on him. Don't let him get near One-Eye's spear." That all seemed self-evident to me.

Silence stretched again. Then Swan said, "Here's a thought. Why don't we leave Goblin here when we pull out?"

I grumped, "I thought he was your friend."

"Goblin was. But we've already decided that this can't be the Goblin we knew. Right?"

"But there's a chance the Goblin we knew might still be inside him waiting to be let back out. Like the rest of us when we were buried under the plain."

"And us guys who weren't aren't so sure about you."

"Just say I've developed a soft streak. We'll treat the guy like Goblin till he does something that makes us want to hang him. Then we'll string him up." I had to posture some. It was expected of me.

Murgen observed, "The Captain is still solving her personnel problems by exiling the questionables to Khatovar."

"And that's funny?" Because he was smiling.

"Of course it is. In the sense that neither you nor I nor Lady would've considered doing anything like that while we were in charge."

"Everybody's a sarcastic social critic," I told Lady. "Don't you let on that you can't kick Goblin's ass all the way to Hsien when he gets here. I'll try to keep him so busy he doesn't have time to get into trouble. But it'll help if he believes he has to walk a narrow line, too."

"He won't have to be convinced of that. He isn't stupid."

"How much longer you going to need us?" Swan asked He had begun shuffling a deck of cards. Murgen and Thai Dei seemed eager to join him in a pastime that had made a comeback during our sojourn in the Land of Unknown Shadows.

"Go ahead. There's not much to do now but wait. And watch Uncle Doj sneak around with all those snail shells like he can't even conceive of the idea that anybody would be alert enough to notice." That was how the Unknown Shadows had crossed the plain and gotten here. So who on my team was in cahoots with Tobo and the Captain?

I could not wait forever, though. Nor did I have any intention of facing any Voroshk soldiers. My only quarrel with the Voroshk sprang from their presumption that the Company existed only as an as yet untapped resource.

I deplore that attitude wherever I encounter it.

There was a full moon in Khatovar that night. I went strolling in the moonlight. My ravens came and went. They traveled like lightning as long as I did not try to watch them do it.

The Unknown Shadows are every bit as wicked and dangerous as Hsien folklore indicates. It was almost too easy for them to taunt and lure the forvalaka away from the umbrella of protection offered by the Voroshk sorcerers.