Water Sleeps

95

O ur flight ended where the rest of the band was camped at the last circle before the southwest road reached our destination shadowgate. Flying definitely offered the advantage of speed. We outflew the white crow, arriving less than two hours after our toes departed solid stone. That Shivetya fellow was a handy friend to have.

I tried to see what lay beyond the edge of the plain but it was just too dark. There might have been one or two small points of light out there. It was hard to tell.

We descended feetfirst, evidently immune to shadows. I had sensed several of those pacing us but they had shown no inclination to get too close. Which left me admiring Shivetya's power even more, for those things were little more than bundles of hatred and hunger to kill.

We passed through the top of the shielding protecting our brethren without compromising it. The whole band watched our arrival in disbelief. Tobo managed to direct himself toward his mother and accomplished a somersault before he touched down. I did not exactly get down and hug the stone surface but I was glad the ordeal was over. The Singh brothers rushed around looking for family. So did Doj, who ignored Sahra and went directly to Gota. Gota was not in good spirits and possibly was in ill health. I could not tell much more about anyone in the feeble light available from a changeable moon. Gota did not offer any complaint or criticism. Swan stuck with me.

As soon as he convinced himself that it was safe to open his eyes, Riverwalker began bustling around being a busybody, devoutly determined to make sure everyone and everything conformed to whatever rules he happened to recall at the moment. I frowned, shook my head, but did not interfere. We all need our rituals to help us get by.

"Sahra," I asked, "how are they?" I meant those we had brought out of the caverns, because I had a suspicion that Gota's state meant nothing good and I did not want to hear what I feared it did mean.

Sahra could not feel friendly. She blamed me because she had discovered her baby strolling through the sky. Never mind that he had come down safely and could not stop raving about the experience.

What a fall from a great height might do to a body never occurred to him. But it certainly did to Sahra.

"No change in the Captured. One-Eye went into a funk when he heard about Goblin and hasn't spoken since. Mother isn't sure if it's emotional withdrawal or he had another stroke. What worries her is the possibility that he doesn't want to live anymore."

"Who would he fight with?" I did not mean to belittle, though it came out sounding that way.

Sahra showed me an instant of pique but did not reveal her thoughts. "Mother can be a handful."

"Probably what got them together in the first place." I made no mention of the fact that I feared Gota would not be with us much longer. The Troll had to be around eighty. "I'll go talk to him."

"He's asleep. It can wait."

"In the morning, then. Are we still in touch with Murgen?"

The light was good enough to reveal Sahra's anger. Perhaps she was right. I had not had my feet on the ground two minutes and already I wanted to use her husband. But she managed the emotion. We had worked together for a long time now, early on with her usually being the stronger one, only occasionally with me taking the lead role. We always managed without sharp words. We always managed because we knew we had somewhere to go and we had to collaborate to get there. These days I took charge most of the time but she could do so when it was appropriate.

Only she was just about where she wanted to get to now, was she not? She had Murgen out of the ground. She would not need to go on with her role once he was up and around. Unless he was not the man she wanted him to be. In which case she would have to contrive a new Sahra all over again.

I am sure that had her on edge more than ever. Neither she nor Murgen were the people they had been. None of us were. There were going to be some difficulties adjusting, possibly some major difficulties.

I anticipated big problems with Lady and the Captain.

Sahra said, "I've done my best to keep the mist projector working but I haven't been able to make contact since we left that fortress. He doesn't seem to be willing to leave his body anymore. And I can't get that to wake up more than it already is." So she was also afraid that the rescue might have been a mistake, that we might have hurt Murgen instead of saving him. Upbeat, hopefully, she said, "Maybe Tobo can help."

I wondered what had become of the tough, focused, dedicated Sahra who had been Minh Subredil. I tried to reassure this Sahra. "Murgen will be fine." Shivetya had given me the knowledge we needed to reanimate the Captured. "But we have to get him off the plain before we can wake him all the way up. Same for the others."

Riverwalker returned from his tour. "The demon food is going fast here, Sleepy. There's enough to get us off the plain and have a couple meals more but then we're on our own. We either eat the dog and the horses or we scrounge up something locally fast."

"Ah, well. We knew that going in. We're better off than we expected to be. Did anybody think to steal anything valuable while we were there?"

That comment got me blank looks. Then I realized that it was possible no one else had noticed the treasures I had discovered while chasing Tobo into the deeps of the earth. The boy would have said something if he had seen anything. He could not shut up.

Swan told me, "It'll be harvest time when we get there."

"What?"

He shrugged. "I just know."

So he might. "Everybody listen up. Get all the rest you can tonight. I want to get up and move out early tomorrow. And nobody knows what we'll run into at the end of the road."

Somebody grumbled something about if I wanted him to sleep, why did I not shut up and let him get to work?

I could not keep my eyes open myself, although it had not been that long since I had wakened by Shivetya's throne. In fact, my mind seemed to be shutting down. I said, "Forget everything else. I'm going to take my own advice. Where's a place I can wrap my blanket around me and lie down before I collapse?"

The only open space was back at the tail end of the Company. All my flying companions except Tobo had to migrate back there. I had planned to eat before I slept but exhaustion overwhelmed me before I swallowed my third bite of demon's food. My final reflection concerned whether God could overlook one of the Faithful accepting a gift from one of the Damned.

An interesting exercise. God knows all. Therefore, God knew what Shivetya was doing and allowed him to do it. Therefore, it must be God's will that we benefit from the demon's generosity. It would be a sin to defy God's will.