Water Sleeps (21 page)

C an you believe that?” I asked. “She was as mad about ruining her outfit as she
was about losing Goblin and getting hurt.”

One-Eye chuckled, immensely relieved because Goblin had gotten away. “I believe
it.”

“What? You, too?”

“It’s a northern thing. Everything she wears is leather. You people are all
goofy about stuff like that. She probably has to fly five thousand miles every
time she wants a new pair of pants. Means she’s really got to watch her waist
and behind. Unlike some—hey! No punching! We’re all on the same side here.”

“Do you believe this little pervert?” I asked Sahra.

“You go ask Swan.” One-Eye showed me his tooth. The one he was about to lose.

“He’ll tell you the woman’s got her good points.”

Sahra remained all business. “What are we going to do if she just pretends the
Radisha is all right? How many people normally see the Princess? Not many, I
know. And there’s no Privy Council anymore. We’ve seen to them. Except for
Mogaba.”

“We’ve got to see about him, too,” One-Eye grumbled.

“Let’s not overreach. The Great General will be harder to take than the others
were.”

I mused, “She wouldn’t actually have to keep the Radisha in hiding very long.

Maybe two weeks, while she builds a new Council, handpicked to woof ‘Yes,

ma’am!’ and ‘How high?’ when she tells them to jump.”

One-Eye blew out a bushel of air. “She’s right. Maybe we should’ve considered
that.”

I said, “I did consider it. Having the Radisha under our control looked like the
best deal. We can trot her out any time Soulcatcher gets too bizarre. And
Soulcatcher will realize that. She won’t let temptation carry her too far. Not
until she sorts us out.”

“She will do everything she can to find and recover the Radisha,” Sahra said.

“I’m sure of that. Which means we need to hurry up and get out of the city.”

I said, “I have one little thing to do before I go. Don’t anybody wait on me.

Murgen. Be a pal and put a little real effort into finding out about this other
white crow.”

I did not await his response. Now that Goblin seemed safe, I was eager to
interview our newest prisoner.

Someone had taken some effort to make the Radisha comfortable. Nor had she been
forced into a cage. Presumably, One-Eye had provided a sampler of choker spells.

I studied her while she remained unaware of my presence. She had had a
formidable reputation when first the Company had come to Taglios. She had put up
a good struggle, too, but the years had worn her down. She looked old and tired
and defeated now.

I stepped forward. “Have they treated you well so far, Radisha?”

She showed me a weak smile. There was a twinkle both of anger and sarcasm in her
eye.

“I know. It’s not the Palace. But I’ve enjoyed worse. Including chains and no
roof at all.”

“And animal hides?”

“I’ve lived here for the last six years. You get used to it.” It had been longer
than that but I was not taking time to be precise.

“Why?”

“Water sleeps, Radisha. Water sleeps. You were expecting us. We had to come.”

At that point it became completely real to her. Her eyes grew big. “I’ve seen
you before.”

“Many times. Lately, around the Palace. Once upon a time, long ago, around the
Palace also, with the Standardbearer.”

“You’re the idiot.”

“Am I? Perhaps one of us—”

She began to grow angry then.

I told her, “That won’t help. But if you need to rage to feel better, consider
this. The Protector is covering up your disappearance already. The one person
who knew for sure—not counting us villains, of course—is dead already. There’ll
be more deaths. And you’ll begin making the most outrageous pronouncements from
the anonymity of your Anger Chamber. And in six months the Protector will be so
solidly in control, behind her Greys and those who think they can profit from an
alliance with her, that you won’t matter anymore.” As long as Soulcatcher could
come to an accommodation with Mogaba. I did not mention that. The Radisha began
to speak quite rudely of her ally.

I let her run for a while, then offered another slogan: “All their days are
numbered.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Sooner or later we’re going to get everyone who injured us. You’re right. It’s
not really sane. But it’s the way we are. You’ve seen it happening lately. Only
the Protector and the Great General are still running free. All their days are
numbered.”

The reality sank in a little deeper. She was a captive. She did not know where.

She did not know what was going to happen. She did know that her captors were
willing to pursue their grudges to insane lengths, just as they had promised
they would before she made the mistake of letting herself be seduced by
Soulcatcher’s deadly promises.

“You have no designated heir, do you?”

The change of direction startled her. “What?”

“There isn’t any clear-cut line of succession.”

Again, “What?”

“At the moment I don’t just hold you hostage, I have the entire future of
Taglios and the Taglian Territories firmly under my thumb. You don’t have a
child. Your brother has no child.”

“I’m too old for that now.”

“Your brother isn’t. And he is still alive.”

I left her then, to think, her mouth hanging open.

I considered seeing Narayan Singh again, decided I would seem too eager. I was
too tired, anyway. You do not treat with a Deceiver without full command of your
faculties. Sleep was the lover whose arms I needed to wrap me up.

I was playing tonk with Spiff and JoJo and Kendo Cutter, an interesting mix. At
least three of us took our religion somewhat seriously. JoJo’s real name was Cho
Dai Cho. He was Nyueng Bao and, in theory, One-Eye’s bodyguard. One-Eye did not
want a bodyguard. JoJo did not want to be a bodyguard. So they did not see much
of one another, and the rest of us saw as little of JoJo as we did of Uncle Doj.

JoJo complained, “You’re just ganging up on the dumb swamp boy. I know.”

I said, “Me get in cahoots with a heretic and an unbeliever?”

“You’ll ambush them after you finish picking my bones.”

I had been having an unusual run of luck.

Everybody resents it when their favorite mark gets lucky.

I said, “I can’t get used to this not having to go to work.” JoJo discarded a
six I needed to fill to the inside of a five-card straight. “Maybe this is my
day.”

“Be a good time to get out and find you a man, then.”

“Goblin. You’re still alive. As mad as Soulcatcher was last night, I figured she
would have you for a midnight snack before you got halfway home.”

Goblin gave me his big frog grin. “She’s gonna walk funny for a while. I
couldn’t believe she actually stomped on it.” His grin faded. “I’ve been
thinking. Maybe nailing her that way was a mistake. I could’ve led her somewhere
where we could’ve got her in a crossfire—”

“She would’ve been looking for that. In fact, her suspecting something like that
was probably one reason she didn’t keep chasing you. You want to sit in?”

All three of my companions glowered. Goblin was not One-Eye but they did not
trust him a bit. They knew with the confidence of ignorance that Goblin was just
more clever when he cheated. The fact that his history was one of losing more
than he won was just a part of the cover-up.

You might have noticed that the human animal is fond of forming and clinging to
prejudices, remaining their steadfast curator in the face of all reason and
contradiction.

“Not this time.” Goblin could take a hint. He would also take them some other
way sometime and laugh himself silly behind his hand. And it would serve them
right. “Got work to do. I’m already getting complaints from everybody about a
ghost that was all over the warehouse last night. Got to scope it out.”

I had a losing hand. Or foot. I tossed it in. “He’s making me feel guilty for
loafing.” I collected my winnings.

“You can’t quit now,” Kendo grumbled.

“You proved your point. Women can’t play cards. I stay here much longer, I won’t
have a copper left to my name. Then you wouldn’t get a birthday present this
year.”

“Didn’t get one last year, either.”

“I must’ve played tonk with you then, too. So many of you do it, I have a hard
time keeping track of which ones of you guys keep beating up on me.” They all
grumbled now.

Goblin said, “Maybe I can sit in, just for a hand or two.”

“That’s all right. You better help Sleepy. Or Sleepy can help you.” The
grumbling stopped till we were out of earshot.

Goblin chuckled. So did I. He said, “We ought to get married.”

“I’m too old for you. See if Chandra Gokhale can fix you up.”

“Aren’t those two like a couple of starving rats?” Gokhale and Drupada were at
one another constantly. Their squabbles had not yet devolved into anything
physical only because they had been warned in the strongest of terms that the
winner of any fight would be punished terribly.

“Maybe one of them will kill and eat the other one,” I said. “If we’re lucky.”

“You’re a dreamer, for sure.”

“What’s your opinion on this ghost?”

He shrugged.

“You know it’s the girl, don’t you?”

“I’m pretty sure.”

“You think she’s going through the same thing Murgen did when he started?

Falling through time and everything?”

“I don’t know. There’s a difference. Nobody ever saw anything with Murgen.”

“Can you stop her from doing it?”

“Spooking you out?”

“In the sense that I’m scared she’ll go out and get help, sure.”

“Ooh. I didn’t think about that.”

“Do think about it, Goblin. What about the white crow? Could she be the white
crow?”

“I thought Murgen was the white crow.”

He knew better. “Murgen’s here, being Sahra’s recon slave.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time Murgen was in the same place, looking at things
from two different times.”

“He tells me he can’t remember being the crow.”

“Maybe that’s because he hasn’t done it yet. Maybe it’s a Murgen from next year
or something.”

I did not know what to say to that. That possibility had not occurred to me. And
Murgen had done that sort of thing before.

“On the other hand, personally I don’t think it’s Murgen or the brat.” He
grinned his big toad grin. He knew I would stub my toe on that.

I did. “What? You little rat. Who is it, then?”

He shrugged. “I got a couple ideas but I’m not ready to talk about them yet. You
got the Annals. All you need to follow my reasoning is right in there.” He began
giggling, pleased with himself for stumping the Annalist at her own game. So to
speak. “Ha-ha.” He spun around, dancing. “Let’s go beat up on Narayan Singh.

Whoa. Look who’s here. Swan, you’re too damned old to wear your hair that long.

Unless you’re going to comb it all up on top there to kind of cover the thin
spot.”

I held a finger above Goblin’s dome, pointing down. He had not had a crop come
in during my lifetime.

Swan said, “Kind of looks like your widow’s peak is sagging back a little, too.

Probably comes of banging your head on the bottoms of so many tables.” Swan
looked at me, an eyebrow raised. “He been in the ganja or something?”

“No. He just hasn’t gotten over the fact that he went toe to toe with your
girlfriend and came out ahead on points.” Swan had suggested a good point
indirectly, though. With hemp such a common weed, it was a wonder that Goblin
and One-Eye had not gotten in on the entertainment side of that crop.

Goblin understood what I was thinking without me saying a word. He told me, “We
don’t have anything to do with it because it screws up your head.”

“And that water-buffalo urine you brew back there doesn’t?”

“That’s pure medicine, Sleepy. You ought to try it. It’s chock-full of stuff
that’s good for you.”

“My diet is just fine, Goblin. Except for the fish and the rice.”

“That’s what I’m saying. We take up a collection, buy us a pig . . . never mind
what Sahra says. There ain’t nothing sweeter than some fatback and beans—”

Swan had invited himself to accompany us in our seventy-foot trek to Narayan’s
cage. He said, “I’ll kick in on that myself. I haven’t tasted bacon in over
twenty years.”

“Shit,” Goblin said. “You’re going to kick in? Man, you don’t even have a name
anymore. You’re dead.”

“I could run up to the Palace, dig around under my mattress. Times haven’t been
all bad for me.”

“You won’t marry me, Sleepy,” Goblin said, “then you oughta marry Swan. He’s got
a hoard put back and he’s too damned old to bother you with any of that man
stuff. Narayan Singh. Get your skinny, shit-smelling ass up from there and talk
to me.”

Swan whispered, “Survival must be a real powerful drug.”

“I expect it is when you’re Goblin’s age,” I agreed.

“I guess it is at any age.”

“Meaning?” I asked.

“Meaning, I guess, I should’ve headed back north a long time ago. I got nothing
going for me here. I should’ve started moseying when Blade and Cordy went down.

But I couldn’t. And it wasn’t just Soulcatcher twisting my arm.”

“Umm?”

“I’m a loser. We were all losers. All three of us. We couldn’t even make it as
soldiers in the old empire. We deserted. Blade got his ass thrown to the
crocodiles for smarting off to the priests back in his home country. We never
had no real start-up, any of us. Me and Cordy only headed on down here because
once we got to running, it took a long time to stop. Now I don’t have my friends
anymore, I don’t have anybody to goose me into doing things.”

I did not enlighten him about the health of Blade and Mather, who were among the
Captured, but I did point out, “You can’t be entirely inadequate. You’ve had
some kind of commission or other from the Taglian throne practically since you
got here.”

“I’m an outsider. I make a great fall guy. Everybody knows who I am and
everybody can recognize me. So the Protector or the Radisha puts me out front
where I can take the heat for all their unpopular decisions.”

“Now they’ll need to find somebody else.”

“Don’t give me that look. I wouldn’t join the Black Company if you promised to
marry me and make me Captain, too. You guys got doom written all over you.”

“What do you want?”

“Me? Since I don’t got the stones or the young body to go home anymore—and home
wouldn’t be there when I showed up anyway—what I’d like to do is what we tried
to do when we first came down here. Set me up a little brewery, spend my last
few years making people’s lives a little easier.”

“I’m sure Goblin and One-Eye would be happy to take on a partner.”

“Them two? No way. They’d drink up half the product. They’d get drunk and get in
a fight and start throwing the barrels at each other—”

He had a point. “You have a point. Though they’ve shown considerable
self-control lately.”

“It helps you pay attention if your fuckup will get you killed. I’m always
surprised by this guy.” He meant Narayan Singh. “He looks like such a trivial
little wart. There’re ten thousand that look just like him out there on the
streets right now and not one will ever do anything more important than starve
to death.”

“If I thought it would do any good, I’d starve this one to death, too. Narayan.

I’m back. Are you going to talk to me today?”

Singh raised his eyes. He seemed serene, at peace. That could be said for
Stranglers. They never had trouble with their consciences. “Good morning, young
woman. Yes. We can talk. I took your advice. I went to the goddess. And she
approved your petition. Frankly, I was surprised. She set down no special
conditions for making a bargain. Other than that the lives and well-being of her
chief agents remain unimpaired.”

Swan was more taken aback than I was. “You got the right guy here, Sleepy?”

“I don’t know. I figured they’d still try to weasel a little even after they
couldn’t stall anymore.” This required a little thought. Or a lot of thought.

And maybe some worry. “I’m definitely pleased, Narayan. Definitely. Where’s the
Key?”

Narayan smiled a smile almost as ugly as One-Eye’s. “I’ll take you to it.”

“Aha,” I murmured. “I see. The first shoe drops. Fine. When will you be ready to
travel?”

“As soon as the girl recovers. You may have noticed she’s been sick.”

“Yes, I did. I thought it must be her time of the month.” A horrible, horrible
thought occurred to me. “She’s not pregnant, is she?”

The look on Singh’s face told me that notion was completely unthinkable to him.

“That’s good. But it doesn’t matter, Narayan. As long as we’re conspiring
together, Deceivers and Black Company, you two aren’t going to be a team. It’s a
sad truth, Narayan Singh, but I just don’t trust you. And her I wouldn’t trust
if she was in her grave.”

He smiled like he knew a secret. “But you expect us to trust you.”

“Based on the well-known fact that once it has sworn a thing, the Company always
keeps its word. Yes.” A slight exaggeration, of course.

Narayan glanced at Swan for just a second. He smiled again. “I guess that’s just
going to have to be good enough for me.”

I pasted on my most scintillating false smile. “Wonderful. We’re in business
together. I’ll get some people ready for an expedition. Do we have far to go?”

Smile. “Not far. Just a few days south of the city.”

“Ha. The Grove of Doom. I should have guessed.”

I led Swan away. I rejoined the fellows at the card table. “I want Singh’s son
brought in as soon as we can get him.” It could not hurt to have a little extra
ammunition.