Soldiers Live (13 page)

Khatovar:

The Unholy Land
We had been in the holy land of my imagination for four days. Nothing had been
gained. Something had been lost. An old Company hand named Spiff was dead.

Likewise, Cho Dai Cho, alias JoJo, the Nyueng Bao who had been One-Eye’s
indifferent bodyguard for so long.

Shadows had gotten them the first night. Killer shadows that had escaped the
glittering plain after the forvalaka’s breakout had damaged the Khatovar
shadowgate. Shadows that had depopulated this part of Khatovar.

Once we knew they were there we had little trouble luring and destroying them.

We had had plenty of experience. But the alarm method was awfully unpleasant.

It could have been worse. The fact of regional devastation had inspired everyone
to a higher state of readiness.

During subsequent nights we eliminated a total of nine shadows. I hoped that
augured well for the rest of this world. I hoped they were now that uncommon.

The Black Hounds helped destroy the shadows. They hated their undomesticated
cousins from the plain. And feared them greatly. Though these shadows seemed
much less aggressive than those we had encountered in the past.

They ranged afar, too, and found no living people south of Khatovar’s equivalent
of the Dandha Presh. Of the forvalaka they found little sign, either. Its trail,

though, they were able to uncover. Apparently it was so plain my ravens
suspected that it had been left that way on purpose.

“You really want to cross those mountains again?” Swan asked.

Lady remarked, “He looks exhausted already, doesn’t he? And we haven’t walked a
foot.”

I admitted, “This would be a great time to have one of those flying carpets.”

“There’re a lot of things we could use. Several of the black stallions from
Charm would be handy. So would a hundred more fireball throwers. You wouldn’t
steal Sleepy’s horse.”

“Well, I couldn’t, could I? It’s the last one left. She’d notice it was
missing.”

“But she isn’t missing you and me and the rest of these droppings beneath the
roost of the rooks of dim wittedness.”

“That’s a cute image,” Swan said. “Here come the lead birds of the flock.”

Murgen. Thai Dei and Uncle Doj were approaching. Like the rest of the band they
wanted to know, “What now?” and I had promised to tell them this afternoon.

Murgen asked, “So what’re we going to do, boss?”

“Go get it. We can’t stay here. The shadows wiped out almost all the game.”

They just kill. They will kill bugs if the passion takes them. Large animals
they overlook only when they have the opportunity to suck the life out of
something human.

Murgen asked, “You think that’s why she didn’t hang around here?”

Only part of it. “She does have to eat.” A glance around told me the fire in
their bellies for revenge no longer burned so hot.

Doj said, “But there is food here. And it’s not that hard to find. I’ve seen
wild pigs and a species of miniature deer that I didn’t recognize. I’ve seen
rabbits and several kinds of smaller rodents. I’d say there was food enough if
she wanted it. I’d also say the shadows haven’t been active here for a long
time. Otherwise I wouldn’t have seen the animals I have. The monster had to be
rejoining her allies. And the shadows had to be sent. To spy on us.”

I said, “Do go on.”

“I’ve considered several alternate frames for the evidence. Maybe it does add up
to nothing more than the surface picture. A raid by an insane monstrosity. But I
think that is just too simple. I feel there has to be more. Insanity and revenge
as motives don’t seem adequate. But if she’s working with someone local . . . ”

I had been supposing almost from the moment I broke out of my coma. I did not
have enough information to support my guesswork, though.

I grunted.

“The monster had to know she would be pursued. The Soldiers of Darkness have
that reputation. And they’ve tried to kill her before, with much weaker
provocation.”

“And Goblin also tried to help her, as I recall. Which she repaid by turning on
him before he could do her any good.”

Doj continued, “She had to get through two shadowgates to reach Hsien. Which she
knew, somehow, was where One-Eye could be found. Both shadowgates, as far as she
knew, were damaged. So even if she was safe on the roads she could expect to be
vulnerable at the gates. But she didn’t get hurt. And then the distance between
the gates would be a long one if she got no help from Shivetya. We have no
reason to believe he helped her. On its face it looks like it would’ve been too
long and too dangerous and too hungry a journey if One-Eye’s murder was all she
hoped to accomplish and could expect no help managing it.”

I turned to Lady, then looked back to Doj. He was as smart as I was. “I see. Of
course she couldn’t have managed without help. With the shadows and, especially,

with food. She had no chance to feed while she was in Hsien. The Hounds were
after her all the time.”

Lady chipped in, “Then she had help from helpers who expected a sizable payback.

What might that be?”

“How about the same thing we worked for four years to dig out of the Land of
Unknown Shadows?” Murgen said. “The secrets of the shadowgates.”

Heads nodded. I asked, “How would they know? And why would they want it? To stop
this gate from leaking? Didn’t Shivetya say they always repair themselves to
that level? Tobo and Suvrin never found any that were open, did they?” I assumed
Doj would be familiar with Tobo’s adventures.

All eyes were on me. Murgen suggested, “This is Khatovar. Source of the Free
Companies.”

“More than four hundred years ago. Closer to five, now. They might not even
remember.”

“Probably not.”

“And they must have some knowledge of shadowgates. They got Bowalk through this
one, in and out of Hsien, then back through here again. Without destroying
anything.”

Lady said, “Another thing we can infer is that someone here knows something
about controlling shadows.”

“We can?”

“Implicit in the fact that Bowalk made it to Hsien and back again. As well as in
the fact that we should’ve had more shadows to deal with here if a horde did
break out and devastate the world when Bowalk came through the gate the first
time. There’s game, Doj says. If those were feral shadows we destroyed they
would’ve killed all the game. Those things were here to watch us.”

I growled. “Damn! Murgen. All that time at Khang Phi. You ever hear tell of any
Shadowmasters that never were accounted for? We’re not going to have to butt
heads with Longshadow’s long-lost mom, are we?”

“They’re accounted for. Any that turn up here would have to be home grown.”

Which was possible. Two of the three we had destroyed in our world were exactly
that. One had been one of the Lady’s henchwomen believed dead but gone fugitive
instead.

Continued talk led to the notion that we might have been lured to Khatovar
specifically so we could be stripped of whatever knowledge we might possess.

Even now Lady remained a tremendous repository of arcane information.

I went off alone with my raven companions. One I told to take the Unknown
Shadows out scouting, ranging as far as necessary to find the nearest natives.

The other I sent to find Tobo. It carried a detailed and honest report, just as
if Sleepy had sent us to Khatovar and expected regular communiques.

I hoped Tobo might have some useful suggestions. I hoped he knew more about
Khatovar than he had pretended.

Neither Lady nor I could sleep. The white raven had not taken long to find
people. An army was headed our way, though it was still on the far side of the
mountains. The forvalaka was there, accompanying a family of wizards who,

according to reports from Tobo, were the uncontested overlords of modern
Khatovar.

Tobo’s source was indirect. He had consulted the scholar Baladitya, who took our
questions to the demon Shivetya. Shivetya then tacitly acknowledged his ability
to monitor events in the worlds connected to the glittering plain.

The rulers of Khatovar were a sprawling, brawling, turbulent clan of wizards
known as the Voroshk, which was simply their family name. The founding father’s
talented blood had bred true. And often. He had been a man of immense appetites.

There were several hundred Voroshk today. Their regime was cruel. Its sole
purpose was to further enrich and empower the Family. Following the disaster
caused by the forvalaka’s breakthrough into Khatovar, the Voroshk had learned to
manage the shadows. It would be the Voroshk who had sent the shadows we had
destroyed.

Kina, or Khadi, was no longer worshipped in the world bearing the name that
meant Khadi’s Gate. The Voroshk had exterminated the Children of Kina.

Nevertheless, once each year, sometime during the time when the Deceivers would
have celebrated their Festival of Lights, somebody managed to strangle a member
of the Family and get away.

Chances were good that the Voroshk knew their history well enough to recall that
the Free Companies of Khatovar had gone out as missionaries on behalf of the
Mother of Night. They might well dread the Queen of Darkness’s return.

My own supernatural allies were under instruction to avoid notice except in
instances where Khatovar’s shadows could be picked off without risk of our
secret strength being revealed.

Her face against my chest, Lady murmured, “These Voroshk sound like bad people,

hon. As bad as any you’ve run into before.”

“Including you?”

“Nobody’s as bad as me. But you need to worry about this. There’s a whole family
of them. And they don’t squabble amongst themselves. Much. Even when I had the
Ten on their shortest rein they were always trying to stab each other in the
back.”

There was a message there, under her teasing. I held her and told her, “I’ll
retreat to the plain rather than risk the confrontation. We can always sneak
back here some other time.” But I would not be happy if I had to let Bowalk get
away yet again.

I drifted off wondering about the minds of the Voroshk. Wondering about this
mysterious world that had sent our forbrethren out so long ago, on a crusade
that had gotten lost. Were the Voroshk unwitting pawns of Kina? Could they be
yet another device by which the Dark Mother might try to bring on the Year of
the Skulls?

“No,” Lady said when I suggested it aloud. “We know whose role that is.”

“Don’t want to think about Booboo, hon. Just want to go to sleep.”

Glittering Stone:

The Revenant
Goblin denied nothing. “She kept me alive somehow. She intended to use me. But
she never did anything to me. I spent most of the time sleeping. Dreaming ugly
dreams. Probably her dreams.”

The little wizard’s voice was barely a whisper. It husked. He seemed permanently
on the verge of tears. The irrepressible spirit that had made him the Goblin of
old seemed to have fled.

His audience did nothing to make him welcome or feel wanted. He was not welcome
or wanted. He had spent four years sleeping with the Queen of Night, the Mother
of Deceivers.

“She lives in the bleakest place you can imagine. It’s all death and
corruption.”

“And madness,” Sahra added without looking up from the trousers she was mending.

Tobo asked, “Where’s the Lance?” Goblin had been asked before. The Lance of
Passion was the soul of the Company. As much as the Annals did, it tied past and
present together. It went all the way back to the Company’s departure from
Khatovar. It had symbolic power and real power. It was a shadowgate key. And it
was capable of causing a Goddess terrible pain.

Goblin sighed. “There’s nothing but the head left. Inside her, from when I
stabbed her. She made it migrate through her flesh. She’s taken it into her
womb.”

The Captain, obviously uncomfortable with this heathen talk, snapped, “Would any
of you infidels care to explain that? Tobo?”

“I don’t know anything about religion, Captain. Not the practical stuff,

anyway.”

“Anybody?”

None of the infidels had a thought.

Sleepy had a few. One was that Kina was not a real Goddess. Kina was just an
incredibly powerful monster. All the Gunni Gods and Goddesses were nothing but
powerful monsters. There was only one God . . . She continued staring at Goblin,

wondering if he was worth believing, wondering if the best course was just to
kill him. The silence stretched. Goblin remained immensely uncomfortable. As he
should be, considering the circumstances and his limited ability to explain what
had happened to him.

There was no way anyone would ever trust him.

The Captain said, “I have a thought, Tobo.”

Silence stretched again as the boy waited on her and she waited for him to ask
what her thought was. Grown-up silliness.

Sahra said, “Why don’t we have Goblin go help Croaker with Khatovar? He’ll be
more comfortable with his old friends, anyway.”

Sleepy gave her a dirty look. Then Tobo did the same. Sahra smiled, bit the
thread she was using, put her needle away. “That’s done, then.”

Goblin’s froglike face had lost the little color that had survived his time
underground. It lost all expression. The man within was trying hard to remain
unreadable. In trying he gave away the fact that he did not want to join the
expedition to Khatovar.

Maybe he just dreaded facing the forvalaka again.

“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” the Captain said. Coldly. “Croaker sent a
raven whining for help. He has all those unpredictable soldiers and sorcerers
headed his way. Goblin. You can still cut it, can’t you? Sorcery-wise? You
haven’t lost the knack?”

The sad little wizard shook his head slowly. “I don’t know. I’d have to try. Not
that I would be any good against a real talent even on my best day. I never
was.”

“It’s decided. You’ll take the Khatovar road. Everyone else. We’re done here.

We’re moving out. Tobo, find the Chu Ming brothers. They’re going to go with
Goblin.”

The news that movement was imminent spread quickly. The remaining troops were
glad to hear it. They had stayed here in this uncomfortable, frightening place
far too long while the higher-ups fussed about nothing. Rations were growing
short, despite all the years of preparation.