by Glen Cook
Pawnbroker stepped into position to block the doorway. “Neither one of you will be there. Some friends of mine want to talk to you.”
“Shed, what is this?” Panic edged Asa’s voice. Shed looked at Pawnbroker. The mercenary nodded. Shed poured out most everything. Asa did not understand. Shed did not himself, because his chaperones had not told • him everything, so there was some sense missing from the picture he had.
Pawnbroker was alone at the Lily. Shed suggested, “How about I go get Goblin?” Pawnbroker smiled. “How about we just wait?”
“But....”
“Somebody will turn up. We’ll wait. Let’s go downstairs.
You.” He indicated Asa with his blade. “Don’t get any funny ideas.”
Shed said, “Be careful, Asa. These are the guys Raven was scared of.”
“I will. I heard enough from Raven.”
“That’s a pity, too,” Pawnbroker said. “Croaker and Elmo aren’t going to like that. Down, gents. Shed, just go on about your business.”
“Somebody’s liable to recognize Asa,” Shed warned.
“We’ll take a chance. Git.” Pawnbroker stood aside and allowed both men to pass. Downstairs, he seated Asa at the shadowiest table and joined him, cleaning his nails with his knife. Asa watched in fascination. Seeing ghosts, Shed figured.
He could get away now if he wanted to sacrifice Asa. They wanted Asa more than they wanted him. If he just headed out through the kitchen, Pawnbroker would not come after him.
His sister-in-law came from the kitchen, a platter balanced on each hand. “When you get a minute, Sal.” And when she got the minute: “You think you and the kids could run the place for me for a few weeks?”
“Sure. Why?” She looked puzzled. But she glanced quickly into the shadows.
“I might have to go somewhere for a while. I’d feel better if I knew somebody in the family was running the place. I don’t really trust Lisa.”
“You haven’t heard from her yet?”
“No. You’d have thought she’d turn up when her father died, wouldn’t you?”
“Maybe she’s shacked up somewhere and hasn’t heard yet.” Sal did not sound convinced. In fact, Shed suspected, she thought he had something to do with the disappearance. Way too many people had disappeared around him. He was afraid she would do her sums and decide he had had something to do with Wally disappearing, too.
“There’s one rumor I heard said she got arrested. Keep an eye out for Mom. She’s got good people taking care of her, but they need supervising.”
“Where are you going, Marron?” “I don’t know yet.” He was afraid it might be just a way up the hill, to the Enclosure. If not that, then certainly somewhere, away from everything that had happened here. Away from these merciless men and their even less merci-ful employers. Have to talk to Asa about the Taken, Maybe Raven had told him something.
He wished he could get a moment with Asa to plan something. The two of them making a break. But not on the Tulwar ship. Asa had mentioned that, damn him. Some other ship, headed south.
What had become of Raven’s big new vessel? And Darling?
He went over to the table. “Asa. What happened to Darling?”
Asa reddened. He stared at his folded hands. “I don’t know, Shed. Honest. I panicked. I just ran for the first ship headed north.”
Shed walked away, shaking his head in disgust. Leaving the girl alone like that. Asa hadn’t changed much after all.
The one called Goblin came through the door. He began to beam at Asa before Pawnbroker said anything. “My, my, my, my, my,” he said. “Is this who I think it is, Pawn?”
“You got it. The infamous Asa himself, home from the wars. And does he have stories to tell.”
Goblin seated himself opposite Asa. He wore a big frog grin. “Such as?”
“Mainly, he claims Raven is dead.”
Goblin’s smile vanished. In an eye’s blink he became deadly serious. He made Asa tell his story again while staring into a mug of wine. When he finally looked up, he was subdued. “Better talk this over with Elmo and Croaker. Good job, Pawnbroker.
I’ll take him. Keep your eye on friend Shed.”
Shed winced. In the back of his head had lain the small hope that both would leave with Asa.
His mind was made up. He would flee at the first opportunity. Get south, change his name, use his gold pieces to buy into an inn, behave himself so thoroughly nobody would notice him ever again.
Asa showed a spark of rebellion. “Who the hell do you guys think you are? Suppose I don’t want to go anywhere?”
Goblin smiled nastily, muttered something under his breath. Dark brown smoke drifted out of his mug, illuminated by a bloody inner glow. Goblin stared at Asa. Asa stared at the mug, unnerved.
The smoke coalesced, formed a small, headlike shape. Points began glowing where eyes might be. Goblin said, “My little friend wants you to argue. He feeds on pain. And he hasn’t eaten for a long time. I’ve had to keep a low profile in Juniper.’’
Asa’s eyes kept getting bigger. So did Shed’s. Sorcery! He had sensed it in the thing called the Taken, but that had not upset him much. It had been removed, not experienced. Something that had happened to Lisa, out of sight. But this....
It was a minor sorcery, to be sure. Some slight trick. But it was sorcery in a city which saw none other than that involved in the slow growth of the black castle. The dark arts hadn’t gained any following in Juniper.
“All right,” Asa said. “All right.” His voice was high and thin and squeaky, and he was trying to push his chair back. Pawnbroker prevented him.
Goblin grinned. “I see Raven mentioned Goblin. Good. You’ll behave. Come along.”
Pawnbroker released Asa’s chair. The little man followed Goblin docilely.
Shed sidled over and looked into Goblin’s mug. Nothing. He frowned. Pawnbroker grinned. “Cute trick, eh?”
“Yeah.’’ Shed took the mug to his sink. When Pawnbroker was not looking, he dropped it into the trash. He was more scared than ever. How did he get away from a sorcerer?
His head filled with tales he had heard from southern sailors. Bad business, wizards were.
He wanted to weep.
Chapter Thirty-Two: JUNIPER: VISITORS
Goblin brought me the man Asa, and insisted we wait for Elmo before questioning him. He had sent someone to dig Elmo out of Duretile, where he was trying to placate Whisper. Whisper was getting goosed by the Lady regular and taking it out on anyone handy.
Goblin was unsettled by what he had learned. He did not play the usual game and try to make me guess what was going on. He blurted, “Asa says him and Raven had a run-in with Bullock. Raven is dead. He lit out. Darling is on her own down there.”
Excitement? Better believe it. I was ready to put the little man to the question, then and there. But I controlled myself.
Elmo was a while showing up. Goblin and I got damned antsy before he did, while Asa worked himself up for a stroke.
The wait proved worthwhile. Elmo did not come alone.
The first hint was a faint but sour odor that seemed to come from the fireplace, where I’d had a small fire lighted. Just in case, you know. With a few iron rods set by, ready to be heated, so Asa could look them over and think, and maybe convince himself he ought not to leave anything out.
“What’s that smell?” somebody asked. “Croaker, you let that cat in again?”
“I kicked him out after he sprayed my boots,” I said.
“Like halfway down the hill. Maybe he got the firewood before he left.”
The odor grew stronger. It wasn’t really obnoxious, just mildly irritating. We took turns examining the firewood. Nothing.
I was in the middle of a third search for the source when the fire caught my eye. For a second I saw a face in the flames.
My heart nearly stopped. For half a minute I was in a panic, nothing but the face’s presence having registered. I considered every evil that could h
appen: Taken watching, the Lady watching, the things from the black castle, maybe the Dominator himself peeking through our fire.... Then something calm, back in the far marches of mind, reiterated something I hadn’t noticed because I had no reason to expect it. The face in the flames had had only one eye.
“One-Eye,” I said without thinking. “That little bastard is in Juniper.’’
Goblin spun toward me, eyes wide. He sniffed the air. His famous grin split his face. “You’re right, Croaker. Absolutely right. That stink is the little skunk himself. Should have recognized it straight off.”
I glanced at the fire. The face did not reappear.
Goblin mused, “What would be a suitable welcome?”
“Figure the Captain sent him?”
“Probably. Be logical to send him or Silent ahead.”
“Do me a favor, Goblin.”
“What?”
“Don’t give him no special welcome.”
Goblin looked deflated. It had been a long time. He did not want to miss an opportunity to refresh his acquaintance with One-Eye with a flash and a bang.
“Look,” I said. “He’s here on the sneak. We don’t want the Taken to know. Why give them anything to sniff out?”
Bad choice of words. The smell was about to drive us outside.
“Yeah,” Goblin grumbled. “Wish the Captain had sent
Silent. I was all worked up for this. Had him the biggest surprise of his life.”
“So get him later. Meantime, why not clear this smell out? Why not get his goat by just ignoring him?’’
He thought about it. His eyes gleamed. “Yeah,” he said, and I knew he had shaped my suggestion to his own warped sense of humor.
A fist hammered on the door. It startled me even though I was expecting it. One of the men let Elmo in.
One-Eye came in behind Elmo, grinning like a little black mongoose about to eat snake. We paid him no heed. Because the Captain came in behind him.
The Captain! The last man I expected to reach Juniper before the Company itself.
“Sir?” I blurted. “What the hell are you doing here?” He lumbered to the fire, extended his hands. Summer had begun to fade, but it was not that cold. He was as bear-like as ever, though he had lost weight and aged. It had been a hard march indeed. “Stork,” he replied.
I frowned, looked at Elmo. Elmo shrugged, said, “I sent Stork with the message.”
The Captain expanded, “Stork didn’t make any sense. What’s this about Raven?”
Raven, of course, had been his closest friend before deserting. I began to get a glimmer.
I indicated Asa. “This guy was in the thick of it from the beginning. Been Raven’s sidekick. He says Raven is dead, down … What’s the name of that place, Asa?”
Asa stared at the Captain and One-Eye and swallowed about six times without being able to say anything. I told the Captain, “Raven told stories about us that turned his hair grey.”
“Let’s hear the story,” the Captain said. He was looking at Asa.
So Asa told his tale for the third time, while Goblin hovered, listening for the clunk of untruth. He ignored One-Eye in the most masterful show of ignoring I’ve ever seen. And all for nought.
The Captain dropped Asa completely the moment he finished his tale. A matter of style, I think. He wanted the information to percolate before he trotted it out for reexamination. He had me review everything I had experienced since arriving in Juniper. I presumed he had gotten Elmo’s story already.
I finished. He observed, “You’re too suspicious of the Taken. The Limper has been with us all along. He doesn’t act like there’s anything up.” If anyone had a cause for malice toward us, the Limper did.
“Nevertheless,” I said, “there’re wheels within wheels within wheels with the Lady and the Taken. Maybe they didn’t tell him anything because they figured he couldn’t keep it secret.”
“Maybe,” the Captain admitted. He shuffled around, occasionally gave Asa a puzzled look. “Whatever, let’s not get Whisper wondering any more than she is. Play it close. Pretend you’re not suspicious. Do your job. One-Eye and his boys will be around to back you up.”
Sure, I thought. Against the Taken? “If the Limper is with the Company, how did you get away? If he knows you’re gone, the word will be out to the Lady, won’t it?”
“He shouldn’t find out. We haven’t spoken in months. He stays to himself. Bored, I think.”
“What about the Barrowland?” I was primed to find out everything that had happened during the Company’s long trek, for I had nothing in the Annals concerning the majority of my comrades. But it was not yet time to exhume details. Just to feel for high points.
“We never saw it,” the Captain said. “According to the Limper, Journey and the Lady are working that end. We can expect a major move as soon as we have Juniper under control.”
“We haven’t done squat to prepare,” I said. “The Taken kept us busy fussing about the black castle.”
“Ugly place, isn’t it?” He looked us over. “I think you might’ve gotten more done had you not been so paranoid.” “Sir?”
“Most of your trail-covering strikes me as needless and a waste of time. The problem was Raven’s, not yours. And he solved it in typical fashion. Without help.” He glared at Asa.
“In fact, the problem seems solved for all time.”
He had not been here and had not felt the pressures, but I did not mention that. Instead, I asked, “Goblin, you figure Asa is telling the truth?”
warily, Goblin nodded.
“How about you, One-Eye? You catch any false notes?”
The little black man responded with a cautious negative, “Asa. Raven should have had a bunch of papers with him. He ever mention them?”
Asa looked puzzled. He shook his head.
“He have a trunk or something that he wouldn’t let anybody near?”
Asa seemed baffled by the direction my questions had taken. The others did too. Only Silent knew about those papers. Silent, and maybe Whisper, who had possessed them once herself.
“Asa? Anything he treated unusually?”
A light dawned in the little man’s mind. “There was a crate. About the size of a coffin. I remember making a joke about it. He said something cryptic about it being somebody’s ticket to the grave.”
I grinned. The papers still existed. “What did he do with that crate down there?”
“I don’t know.”
“Asa …”
“Honest. I only saw it a couple times on the ship. I never thought anything about it.”
“What are you getting at, Croaker?” the Captain asked.
“I have a theory. Just based on what I know about Raven and Asa.”
Everyone frowned.
“Generally, what we know about Asa suggests he’s a character Raven wouldn’t take up with on a bet. He’s chicken. Unreliable. Too talkative. But Raven did take up with him. Took him south and made him part of the team. Why? Maybe that don’t bother you guys, but it does me.”
“I don’t follow you,” the Captain said. “Suppose Raven wanted to disappear so people wouldn’t even bother looking for him? He tried to vanish once, by coming to Juniper. But we turned up. Looking for him, he thought. So what next? How about he dies? In front of a witness. People don’t hunt for dead men.”
Elmo interrupted. “You saying he staged his death and used Asa to report it so nobody would come looking?” “I’m saying we ought to consider the possibility.” The Captain’s sole response was a thoughtful, “Uhm.” Goblin said, “But Asa did see him die.” “Maybe. And maybe he only thinks he did.” We all looked at Asa. He cowered. The Captain said, “Take him through his story again, One-Eye. Step-by-step.” For two hours One-Eye dragged the little man through again and again. And we could not spot one flaw. Asa insisted he had seen Raven die, devoured from within by something snake-like. And the more my theory sprung leaks, the more I was sure it was valid.
“My case
depends on Raven’s character,” I insisted, when everybody ganged up on me. “There’s the crate, and there’s Darling. Her and a damned expensive ship that he, for godsakes, had built. He left a trail going out of here, and he knew it. Why sail a few hundred miles and tie up to a dock when somebody is going to come looking? Why leave Shed alive behind you, to tell about you being in on the raid on the Catacombs? And there’s no way in hell he’d leave Darling twisting in the wind. Not for a minute. He would have had arrangements made for her. You know that.” My arguments were beginning to sound a little strained to me, too. I was in the position of a priest trying to sell religion. “But Asa says they just left her hanging around some inn. I tell you, Raven had a plan. I bet, if you went down there now, you’d find Darling gone without a trace. And if the ship is still there, that crate wouldn’t be aboard.”
“What is this with the crate?” One-Eye demanded. I ignored him.
“I think you have too much imagination, Croaker,” the Captain said. “But, on the other hand, Raven is crafty enough to pull something like that. Soon as I can spring you, figure on going down to check.”
“If Raven’s crafty enough, how about the Taken being villainous enough to try something against us?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” He faced One-Eye. “I want you and Goblin to save the games. Understand? Too much clowning around and the Taken will get curious. Croaker. Hang on to this Asa character. You’ll want him to show you where Raven died. I’m heading back to the outfit. Elmo. Come ride with me part way.”
So. A little private business. Bet it had to do with my suspicions about the Taken. After a while you get so used to some people you can almost read their minds.
Chapter Thirty-Three: JUNIPER: THE ENCOUNTER
Things changed after the Captain’s visit. The men became more alert. Elmo’s influence waxed while mine waned. A less wishy-washy, more inflexible tone characterized the Company deputation. Every man became ready to move at an instant’s notice.
Communications improved dramatically while time available for sleep declined painfully. None of us were ever out of touch more than two hours. And Elmo found excuses to get everyone but himself out of Duretile, into places where the Taken would have trouble finding them. Asa became my ward out on the black castle slope.
