Soldiers Live

52

The Nether Taglian Territories: Lady Made Grumpy Noises

Lady was in a towering rage. I could not recall ever having seen her so close to losing control. "How the hell could they let that happen? Somebody was supposed to stay in that little shit's pocket every second!"

No one bothered to respond. She did not want answers. Not really. She wanted somebody to hurt.

Tobo was quietly busy talking to things that were there only when you looked away. Big things, little things, human-looking things and things that had escaped from madmen's nightmares. Goblin was going to be found. Goblin was going to be tracked and harassed and hurt if at all possible, all the live-long day. Insofar as this fragment of the Company was concerned Goblin was going to be the main mission from this day forward. He was to be hunted down and exorcised—or exterminated—before he could engineer any more disasters on Kina's behalf.

Though long out of practice and definitely out of the habit, Lady hurled a deadly spell at an inoffensive scrub pine. The tree began to wilt almost immediately.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded. "I thought you couldn't... "

"Be quiet. Let me think." So astonished was Lady that she forgot to be angry about Goblin.

I was quiet. I gave her all the thinking room a girl could want.

Was there a silver lining inside our latest black cloud?

My at-the-moment not very lucky wife called, "Tobo. Next message you send north, ask if the little shit got away with one of the gate keys. Or anything else unusual."

Tobo made little gestures to the air, then replied, "I checked on that already. He got away with nothing more than two horses and one saddle. Not even a sausage. He's probably eating bugs. The only unusual thing mentioned is that nobody noticed him. An eventuation almost certainly artificial in origin."

"Because?"

"Because he's being damned hard to notice right now. The Black Hounds shouldn't be having trouble finding and following him. But they are. He's as elusive as a ghost. Each time they do make contact it's because he's been following the road, without deviating, and they can just wait for him to show up."

"Following the road where?"

"North. Toward the junction with the Rock Road. Though because he isn't talking his plans are unclear."

Tobo still had a sense of humor about what was going on.

I asked Lady, "How did you manage to murder that tree?"

She mused, "A good question. Without a good answer. I never felt any sharpened Kina presence."

"You think it might have to do with Goblin? We know Kina must've put a piece of herself into him or he wouldn't even be alive."

"I would've sensed something before. I think. Tobo. Did you feel anything weird about Goblin?"

"Of course." The boy was curt. He was trying to work. Old folks kept interrupting. "He wasn't Uncle Goblin anymore. But he wasn't any more powerful than he was before, either."

I said, "Maybe it was something that didn't come out until he got the chance to kill Narayan."

Debate on the why increasingly focused on the fact that crippled old Narayan had been in no shape to run or do anything on behalf of his Goddess and, if left in our hands, would have been compelled to reveal whatever he knew eventually. And while most of us would view his murder as a betrayal by his Goddess, what we knew of Deceiver doctrine suggested that he might actually see it as a reward. Having been strangled for the Goddess, Narayan would go directly to Deceiver paradise where, no doubt, his rewards would be commensurate with his service.

I tend toward the cynical view where religion is concerned.

After a silence so extended I decided she was not listening, my beloved responded, "You might just be smarter than you look. She'd expect us to be suspicious enough to watch every breath Goblin took. So she'd want him to seem as normal as possible until he got a solid chance to get away." She began to pace. "Poor Goblin. That would've been mostly him, maybe even really trying to help his old friends as much as he could. And he'll still be partly Goblin, but a prisoner inside his own body." The hollowness of her voice indicated that she might have been through that herself, once upon a time.

"Which tells us nothing of his purpose. Or of Kina's."

"She's in prison. She wants out. That doesn't take any special figuring."

"But there'll be a grand plan. Old Goblin didn't get his soul eaten up just so he could be flung across the pond of the world like a skipping stone. He's going to go somewhere and he's going to do something and if he gets away with it all the rest of us are going to end up really sorry."

Lady grunted. She was still mostly angry.

I said, "He headed north. What's up there that would interest Kina?"

Tobo interrupted his sweet talk with his pets. "Booboo." He sounded as unhappy as I felt. "He's going to take Narayan's place watching over the Daughter of Night."

"Yeah. Only there'll be a big chunk of Goddess in him so he'll be a lot more dangerous than Narayan ever was."

Lady glared around her with an expression that made me think she did not have much trouble seeing Tobo's friends. "Do you think my sister can be made to hear one of those?"

You could have heard a stack of pans drop. Even the animals quieted down.

I asked, "You have something in mind?"

"Yes. We send her a message. Tell her what's going on with Goblin. It's as much in her interest to stop him as it is in ours."

"And she has a personal interest," Tobo reminded us.

I understood immediately but Lady needed it explained. "Goblin is the reason Soulcatcher has a bad leg."

"Oh. Of course. I remember now."

She ought. She was there, spying on everything through the eyes of a white crow, during the kidnapping of the Radisha. That same night Goblin managed to trick Soulcatcher into springing a booby trap. The result had been serious and irreversible damage to her right heel.

Tobo said, "She gets around pretty well now. She wears a special boot and brace and is supported by several specialized spells. She only limps when she's really tired."

"Ah. She'll definitely want to chat with Goblin, then. She's always been a sore loser."

"Just a thought," I offered. "What happens if Soulcatcher turns Goblin into her own version of the Taken? And maybe Booboo, too? Word is, there were times when she showed a few powers of her own."

"Make a slave out of a Goddess?" Lady was incredulous. I raised an eyebrow. She protested, "What I did wasn't the same thing at all. What I did was pure parasitism. I wormed in so she couldn't get me out without hurting herself."

"And now you're getting a little of that back?"

"But it doesn't feel the same. Tobo. Can you send a message to my sister or not?"

"I can try. In fact, I can do it. Easily. The real question would be whether or not she'd listen."

"She'll listen or I'll kick her butt."

It took all of us a moment to realize she was joking. She did so so rarely.

Tobo began concentrating on the task of getting an extended message to Soulcatcher.

Again I cautioned, "There's a risk in this."

Lady just made one of her grumpy noises. She was turning into a cranky old witch.