He looked puzzled. “Maybe? Why?”
“Let's have a sit-down with them. An idea. It might help us break our thing
here.”
He looked at me a long moment. Maybe he was sharper than he pretended. “All
right. Not that they would've learned much. The only reason they haven't run our
guys off is we don't bother them. They just get together and talk about the old
days. They don't have any fight left.”
“Let's give it a look anyway. Maybe they're less innocent than they look.”
“Give me a half-hour.”
I did. And when that time was up, he and I sat down with two secret policemen.
He and I took turns asking questions, each coming from his own private slant.
Neither knew Raven, at least not by that name. That was a relief. But there was
something there, and Bullock sensed it immediately. He hung on till he had
something to chew.
“I'm going to my boss,” I told him. “She'll want to know about this.” I had come
up with a diversion. It seemed it would suit Bullock.
He said, “I'll take it up with Hargadon. Didn't occur to me this might be
foreigners. Political. That could be why the money didn't show up. Maybe they're
selling bodies, too.”
“Rebellions do take money,” I observed.
We moved next evening, at Whisper's insistence, over the objections of the Duke,
but with the support of the chief Custodian. The Duke still did not want us
seen. The Custodians didn't give a damn. They just wanted to salvage their
reputation.
Elmo came slinking through the evening shadows. “Ready here?” he whispered.
I glanced at the four men with me. “Ready.” Every Company man in Juniper was
there, with the Duke's secret police and a dozen of Bullock's men. I'd thought
his job silly, but even so had been astonished to discover how few men his
office actually employed. All but one were there. The one was legitimately sick.
Elmo made a sound like a cow mooing, repeated three times.
The one-time Rebels were all together for their regular confab. I snickered,
thinking of the surprise they were going to get. They thought they were safe
from the Lady by fifteen hundred miles and seven years.
It took less than a minute. No one was injured. They just looked at us dumbly,
arms hanging slack. Then one even recognized us, and groaned, “The Black
Company. In Juniper.”
Then another: “It's over. It's the end. She's really won.”
They didn't seem to care much. Some, in fact, looked relieved.
We pulled it off so smoothly there was hardly any notice from the neighbors. The
slickest raid I'd ever seen. We marched them up to Duretile, and Whisper and
Feather went to work.
I just hoped one of them wouldn't know too much.
I'd made a long bet, hoping Raven would not have told them who Darling was. If
he had, I'd pulled the roof down instead of misdirecting attention.
I did not hear from Whisper, so I guessed I'd won.
JUNIPER: FEAR
Raven slammed through the door of the Lily. Shed looked up, startled. Raven
leaned against the door frame, panting. He looked like he'd just stared his
death in the face. Shed put his rag aside and hurried over, a stoneware bottle
in hand.
“What happened?”
Raven stared over his shoulder, at Darling, who was waiting on Shed's lone
paying customer. He shook his head, took several deep breaths, shuddered.
He was scared! By all that was holy, the man was terrified! Shed was aghast.
What could have gotten him into this state? Even the black castle did not shake
him.
“Raven. Come over here and sit.” He took Raven's arm. The man followed docilely.
Shed caught Darling's eye, signed for two mugs and another stoneware bottle.
Darling took one look at Raven and forgot her customer. She was there with mugs
and bottle in seconds, her fingers flashing at Raven.
Raven did not see.
“Raven!” Shed said in a sharp whisper. “Snap out of it, man! What the hell
happened?”
Raven's eyes focused. He looked at Shed, at Darling, at the wine. He tossed off
a mug in one gulp, slapped it down. Darling poured again.
Her customer protested at being abandoned.
“Get it yourself,” Shed told him.
The man became abusive.
“Go to hell, then,” Shed said. “Raven, talk. Are we in trouble?”
“Uh. ... No. Not we, Shed. Me.” He shuddered like a dog coming out of water,
faced Darling. His fingers started talking.
Shed caught most of it.
Raven told her to pack. They had to run again.
Darling wanted to know why.
Because they've found us, Raven told her.
Who? Darling asked.
The Company. They're here. In Juniper.
Darling did not seem distressed. She denied the possibility.
The Company? Shed thought. What the hell was this?
They are here, Raven insisted. I went to the meeting. I was late. Lucky. I got
there after it started. The Duke's men. The Custodians. And the Company. I saw
Croaker and Elmo and Goblin. I heard them call each other by name. I heard them
mention Whisper and Feather. The Company is in Juniper, and the Taken are with
them. We have to go.
Shed had no idea what in hell this was about. Who were these people? Why was
Raven scared? "How you going to run anywhere, Raven? You can't get out of town.
The harbor's still frozen."
Raven looked at him as if he were a heretic.
“Settle down, Raven. Use your head. I don't know what the hell is going on, but
I can tell you this. Right now you're acting more like Marron Shed than like
Raven. Old Shed is the guy who panics. Remember?”
Raven managed a feeble grin. “You're right. Yeah. Raven uses his brain.” He
snickered sourly. “Thanks, Shed.”
“What happened?”
“Let's just say the past came back. A past I didn't expect to see again. Tell me
about this sidekick you said Bullock's been pulling around lately. Word I've
heard, Bullock is a loner.”
Shed described the man, though he could not recall him
well. His attention had been on Bullock. Darling positioned herself so she could
read his lips. She formed a word with hers.
Raven nodded. “Croaker.”
Shed shivered. The name sounded sinister when Raven translated it. “He some kind
of hired killer?”
Raven laughed softly. "No. Actually, he's a physician. Halfway competent, too.
But he has other talents. Like being crafty enough to come around looking for me
in Bullock's shadow. Who would pay attention to him? They'd be too worried about
the damned Inquisitor."
Darling flashed signs. She went too fast for Shed, but he thought she was
admonishing Raven, telling him Croaker was his friend and would not be hunting
him. It was coincidence that their paths had crossed.
“Not coincidence at all,” Raven countered, both aloud and by sign. “If they
aren't hunting me, why are they in Juniper? Why are two of the Taken here?”
Again Darling responded too fast for Shed to catch everything. She seemed to be
arguing that if someone called the Lady had gotten to this Croaker or another
someone called Silent, Croaker would not be here.
Raven stared at her a good fifteen seconds, still as stone. He downed another
mug of wine. Then he said, “You're right. Absolutely right. If they were looking
for me, they would have had me. And you. The Taken themselves would have been
all over us. So. Coincidence, after all. But coincidence or not, the Lady's top
thugs are in Juniper. And they're looking for something. What? Why?”
This was the old Raven. Cool and hard and thinking.
Darling flashed, Black castle.
Shed's humor vanished. Raven looked at the girl for several seconds, glanced in
the general direction of the black castle. Then he looked at Darling again.
“Why?”
Darling shrugged. She flashed, There is nothing else about Juniper that would
bring Her here.
Raven thought a few minutes more. Then he turned to Shed. "Shed, have I made you
rich? Have I gotten your ass far enough out of trouble?''
“Sure, Raven.”
“Your turn to give me a hand, then. Some very powerful enemies of mine are in
Juniper. They're working with the Custodians and the Duke, and are probably here
because of the black castle. If they spot me, I'm in trouble.”
Marron Shed had a full belly. He had a warm place to sleep. His mother was safe.
He had no debts and no immediate threats hanging over his head. The man opposite
him was responsible. Also responsible for saddling him with an agonized
conscience, but that he could forgive. “Ask. I'll do what I can.”
"You'll be helping yourself, too, if they're looking into the castle. You, me,
and Asa. We made a mistake, raiding the Catacombs. Never mind. I want you to
find out whatever you can about what's going on in Duretile. If you need bribe
money, tell me. I'll cover it."
Puzzled, Shed said, "Sure. Can't you tell me a little more?''
“Not till I know a little more. Darling, get your stuff together. We have to
disappear.”
For the first time, Shed protested. “Hey! What're you doing? How am I supposed
to run this place without her?”
“Get that girl Lisa in here. Get your cousin. I don't care. We have to
disappear.”
Shed frowned.
Raven said, “They want her more than they want me.”
“She's just a kid.”
“Shed.”
“Yes, sir. How do I get in touch, sir?”
“You don't. I'll get in touch with you. Darling, go. Those are Taken up there.”
“What're Taken?” Shed asked.
“If you have gods, Shed, pray that you never find out. Pray hard.” And, when
Darling returned with her meager belongings, Raven said, “I think you ought to
reconsider leaving Juniper with me. Things are going to start happening around
here, and you won't like them.”
“I have to take care of my mother.”
“Think about it anyway, Shed. I know what I'm talking about. I used to work for
those people.”
JUNIPER: SHADOW TALK
Raven vanished on us. Even Goblin could find no trace. Feather and Whisper
worked on our prisoners till each was drained, and got nothing on our old
friend. I concluded that Raven had used an assumed name when dealing with them.
Why hadn't he used one down in the Buskin? Folly? Pride? As I recall, Raven had
too much of that.
Raven was not his real name, any more than Croaker is mine. But that was the
name we knew him by the year he served with us. None of us, unless maybe the
Captain, knew his real one. He had been a man of substance once, in Opal. That I
knew. He and the Limper became bitter enemies when the Limper used his wife and
her lovers to do him out of his rights and titles. That I knew. But not who he
was before he became a soldier of the Black Company.
I dreaded telling the Captain what we had found. He was fond of Raven. Like
brothers, the two of them. The Captain, I think, was hurt when Raven deserted.
He would be hurt more deeply when he learned what his friend had done in
Juniper.
Whisper called us in to announce the results of the interrogations. She said
roughly, “We did not exactly score a triumph, gentlemen. All but a couple of
those men were dabblers. We knocked the fight out of them at Charm. But we did
learn that the black castle has been buying corpses. Its denizens even buy live
bodies. Two of our captives have sold to them. Raising money for the Rebel.”
The idea of trading in corpses was repellent, but not especially wicked. I
wondered what use the black castle people had for them.
Whisper continued, “They were not responsible for the raid on the Catacombs. In
fact, they are of no interest to us. We're turning them over to the Custodians
to do with as they please. You gentlemen will now go out into the city and
resume digging.”
“Excuse me, ma'am?” Elmo said.
“Somewhere in Juniper there is someone who is feeding the black castle. Find
him. The Lady wants him.”
Raven, I thought. Had to be Raven. Just had to be. We had to find that
son-of-a-bitch, yes. And get him out of town or dead.
You have to understand what the Company means. For us, it is father, mother,
family. We are men with nothing else. Raven getting caught would kill the
family, figuratively and literally. The Lady would disband what remained of the
outfit after she'd mauled us for not turning Raven in back when.
I told Whisper: “It might help if we knew what we're dealing with. It's hard to
take something serious when nobody tells you anything. What's the point of the
exercise? That castle is damned bizarre, I grant you. But why should we care?”
Whisper seemed to think about it. For several seconds her eyes were blank. She
had taken the matter to higher authority. She was in communion with the Lady.
When she returned, she said, “The black castle has its roots in the Barrowland.”
That got our attention. I croaked, “What?”
“The black castle is the Dominator's escape hole. When it reaches a certain size
and certain set of circumstances, the creatures who live there, who are his
creatures, heart and soul, will conjur him out of the Great Barrow. Here.”
Several men snorted in disbelief. It did seem far-fetched, for all the weirdness
and sorceries we have seen.
Whisper said, "He foresaw his defeat by the White Rose, though not his betrayal
by the Lady. Even before the Domination fell, he started preparing his return.
He sent a faithful follower here with the seed of the black castle. Something
went wrong. He never planned to spend so long waiting. Maybe he did not know of
Juniper's preoccupation with preserving the dead. What are they waiting for? A
ship that will carry them to paradise?"
“Roughly,” I agreed. “I studied it, but the whole business is still monkey
chatter to me. Go on. The Domina-tor is going to pop out on us here?”