“What did you do then?”
“What? I figured you guys didn't want Bullock back in Juniper, so we got him
charged with Raven's murder. There was plenty of witnesses besides us saw them
fighting. Enough to maybe convince a court we really saw what we said.”
“You do anything to trace Darling?”
Kingpin had nothing to say. He stared at his hands. The rest of us exchanged
irritated glances. Goblin muttered, “I told Elmo it was dumb to send him.”
I guess it was. In minutes we had come up with several loose ends overlooked by
Kingpin.
“How come you're so damned worried about it, anyway, Croaker?” Kingpin demanded.
“I mean, it all looks like a big so-what to me.”
“Look, King. Like it or not, when the Taken turned on us, we got pushed over to
the other side. We're White Rose now. Whether we want it or not. They're going
to come after us. The only thing the Rebel has going is the White Rose. Right?”
“If there is a White Rose.”
“There is. Darling is the White Rose.”
“Come on, Croaker. She's a deaf-mute.”
One-Eye observed, “She's also a magical null-point.”
“Eh?”
“Magic won't work around her. We noticed that clean back at Charm. And if she
follows true for her sort, the null will get stronger as she gets older.”
I recalled noting oddities about Darling during the battle of Charm, but hadn't
made anything of it then. “What are you talking about?”
"I told you. Some people are negatives. Instead of having a talent for sorcery,
they go the other way. It won't work around them. And when you think about it,
that's the only way the White Rose makes sense. How could a deaf and dumb kid
grow up to challenge the Lady or Dominator on their own ground? I'll bet the
original White Rose didn't."
I didn't know. There had been nothing in the histories about her powers or their
noteworthy absence. “This makes it more important to find her.”
One-Eye nodded.
Kingpin looked baffled. It was easy to fuddle King, I decided. I explained. “If
magic won't work around her, we've got to find her and stay close. Then the
Taken won't be able to hurt us.”
One-Eye said, “Don't forget that they have whole armies they can send after us.”
“If they want us that bad. ... Oh my.”
“What?”
“Elmo. If he didn't get killed. He knows enough to put the whole empire on our
trail. Maybe not so much for us as in hopes we'll lead them to Darling.”
“What're we going to do?”
“Why're you looking at me?”
“You're the one seems to know what's going on, Croaker.”
"Okay. I guess. First we find out about Raven and Darling. Especially Darling.
And we ought to catch Shed and Asa again, in case they know something useful.
We got to move fast and get out of town before the empire closes in. Without
upsetting the locals. We better have a sit-down with the Lieutenant. Get
everything on the table for everybody, then decide exactly what we'll do."
MEADENVIL: THE SHIP
Ours, apparently, was the last ship out of Juniper. We kept waiting for a later
vessel to bring news. None came. The crew of our vessel did us no favor, either.
They yammered all over town. We were buried by nosy locals, people concerned
about relatives in Juniper, and the city government, concerned that a group of
tough refugees might cause trouble. Candy and the Lieutenant dealt with all
that. The struggle for survival devolved on the rest of us.
The three wizards, Otto, Kingpin and Pawnbroker, and I stole through the
shadowed Meadenvil waterfront district after midnight. There were strong police
patrols to dodge. We evaded them with help from One-Eye, Goblin and Silent.
Goblin was especially useful. He possessed a spell capable of putting men to
sleep.
“There she is,” Kingpin whispered, indicating Raven's ship. Earlier I'd tried to
find out how her docking fees were being paid. I'd had no luck.
She was a fine, big ship with a look of newness the darkness could not conceal.
Only the normal lights burned aboard her: bow, stern masthead, port and
starboard, and one at the head of the gangway, where a single bored sailor stood
watch.
“One-Eye?”
He shook his head. “Can't tell.”
I polled the others. Neither Silent nor Goblin detected anything remarkable,
either.
“Okay, Goblin. Do your stuff. That'll be the acid test, won't it?”
He nodded. If Darling was aboard, his spell would not affect the watch.
Now that everyone had accepted my suspicions about Raven being alive, I'd begun
to question them. I could see no sense in his not having slipped away by now,
taking his very expensive ship somewhere far away. Perhaps out to the islands.
Those islands intrigued me. I thought we might grab a ship and head out there.
Had to take someone who knew the way, though. The islands were a long way out
and there was no regular commerce. No way to get there by guess work.
“Okay,” Goblin said. “He's out.”
The sailor on the quarterdeck had slumped onto a handy stool. He had his arms
folded on the rail and his forehead on his arms.
“No Darling,” I said.
“No Darling.”
“Anybody else around?”
“No.”
“Let's go, then. Keep low, move fast, all that.”
We crossed the pier and scampered up the gangway. The sailor stirred. Goblin
touched him and he went out like the dead. Goblin hustled forward, then aft, to
the men on the rat guards. He returned nodding. “Another eight men below, all
asleep. I'll put them under. You go ahead.”
We started with the biggest cabin, assuming it would be the owner's. It was. It
sat in the stern, where the master's cabin usually is, and was split into
sections. I found things in one indicating that it had been occupied by Darling.
On Raven's side we found soiled clothing discarded some time ago. There was
enough dust to indicate that no one had visited the cabin for weeks.
We did not find the papers I sought.
We did find money. Quite a substantial amount. It was cunningly hidden, but
One-Eye's sense for those things is infallible.
Out came a chest brimming with silver.
“I don't reckon Raven is going to need that if he's dead,” One-Eye said. “And if
he ain't-well, tough. His old buddies are in need.”
The coins were odd. After studying them, I recognized what that oddness was.
They were the same as the coins Shed had received at the black castle. “Sniff
these things,“ I told One-Eye. ”They're black castle. See if there's anything
wrong with them.”
“Nope. Good as gold.” He chuckled.
“Uhm.” I hadn't any scruples about lifting the money. Raven had obtained it by
foul means. That put it up for grabs. It had no provenance, as they say in
Juniper. “Gather round here. I got an idea.” I backed up to the stern lights,
where I could watch the dock through the glass window.
They crowded in on me and the chest. “What?” Goblin demanded.
"Why settle for the money? Why not take the whole damned ship? If Raven's dead,
or even faking he's dead, what's he going to say about it? We could make it our
headquarters."
Goblin liked the idea. So One-Eye didn't. The more so because ships had to do
with water. “What about the crew?” he asked. “What about the harbormaster and
his people? They'd get the law down on us.”
“Maybe. But I think we can handle it. We move in and lock the crew up, there's
nobody to complain. Nobody complains, why should the harbormaster be
interested?“ ”The whole crew ain't aboard. Some's out on the town.“ ”We grab
them when they come back. Hell, man, what better way to be ready to move out in
a hurry? And what better place to wait for Raven to turn up?”
One-Eye gave up objecting. He is essentially lazy. Too, there was a gleam in his
eye which said he was thinking ahead of me. “Better talk to the Lieutenant,” he
said. “He knows ships.”
Goblin knew One-Eye well. “Don't look at me if you're thinking about going
pirate. I've had all the adventure I want. I want to go home.”
They got into it, and got loud about it, and had to be shut up.
“Let's worry about getting through the next few days,” I growled. “What we do
later we can worry about later. Look. We got clothes that belonged to Darling
and Raven. Can you guys find them now?”
They put their heads together. After some discussion Goblin announced, “Silent
thinks he can. Trouble is, he has to do it like a dog. Lock on the trail and
follow around everywhere Raven went. Right up till he died. Or didn't. If he
didn't, right on to where he is now.”
“But that. . . . Hell. You're spotting him a couple months lead.”
“People spend a lot of time not moving around, Croaker. Silent would skip over
that.“ ”Still sounds slow.”
“Best you can get. Unless he comes to us. Which maybe he can't.”
“All right. All right. What about the ship?” “Ask the Lieutenant. Let's see if
we can find your damned papers.”
There were no papers. One-Eye was able to detect nothing hidden anywhere. If I
wanted to trace the papers, I'd have to start with the crew. Someone had to help
Raven take them off.
We left the ship. Goblin and Pawnbroker found a good spot from which they could
watch it. Silent and Otto took off on Raven's trail. The rest of us went back
and wakened the Lieutenant. He thought taking the ship was a good idea.
He'd never liked Raven much. I think he was motivated by more than practical
considerations.
MEADENVIL: THE REFUGEE
The rumors and incredible stories swept through Meadenvil rapidly. Shed heard
about the ship from Juniper within hours of her arrival. He was stunned. The
Black Company run out? Crushed by their masters? That made no sense. What the
hell was going on up there?
His mother. Sal. His friends. What had become of them? If half the stories were
true, Juniper was a desolation. The battle with the black castle had consumed
the city.
He wanted desperately to go find somebody, ask about his people. He fought the
urge. He had to forget his homeland. Knowing that Croaker and his bunch, the
whole thing could be a trick to smoke him out.
For a day he remained in hiding, in his rented room, debating, till he convinced
himself that he should do nothing. If the Company was on the run, it would be
leaving again. Soon. Us former masters would be looking for it.
Would the Taken come after him, too? No. They had no quarrel with him. They did
not care about his crimes. Only the Custodians wanted him. ... He wondered about
Bullock, rotting in prison, accused of Raven's murder. He did not understand
that at all, but was too nervous to investigate. The answer was not significant
in the equation of Marron Shed's survival.
After his day in isolation he decided to resume his quest for a place of
business. He was looking for a partnership in a tavern, having decided to stick
with what he knew.
It had to be a better place. One that would not lead him into financial
difficulties the way the Lily had. Each time he recalled the Lily, he suffered
moments of homesickness and nostalgia, of bottomless loneliness. He had been a
loner all his life, but never alone. This exile was filled with pain.
He was walking a narrow, shadowed street, slogging uphill through mud left by a
nighttime rain, when something in the corner of his eye sent chills to the deeps
of his soul. He stopped and whirled so swiftly he knocked another pedestrian
down. As he helped the man rise, apologizing profusely, he glared into the
shadows of an alley.
“Conscience playing tricks on me, I guess,” he murmured, after parting with his
victim. But he knew better. He had seen it. Had heard his name called softly. He
went to the mouth of the gap between buildings. But it had not waited for him.
A block later he laughed nervously, trying to convince himself it had been a
trick of imagination after all. What the hell would the castle creatures be
doing in Meadenvil? They'd been wiped out. . . . But the Company guys who had
fled here didn't know that for sure, did they? They had run off before the fight
was over. They just hoped their bosses had won, because the other side was even
worse than theirs.
He was being silly. How could the creature have gotten here? No ship's master
would sell passage to a thing like that.
“Shed, you're worrying yourself silly about nothing.” He entered a tavern called
The Ruby Glass, operated by a man named Selkirk. Shed's landlord had recommended
both.
Their discussions were fruitful. Shed agreed to return the following afternoon.
Shed was sharing a beer with his prospective partner. His proposition seemed
beneficial, for Selkirk had satisfied himself as to his character and now was
trying to sell him on the Ruby Glass. “Night business will pick up once the
scare is over.”
“Scare?”
“Yeah. Some people have disappeared around the neighborhood. Five or six in the
last week. After dark. Not the kind usually grabbed by the press gangs. So
people have been staying inside. We aren't getting the usual night
Traffic.”
The temperature seemed to drop forty degrees. Shed sat rigid as a board, eyes
vacant, the old fear sliding through him like the passage of snakes. His fingers
rose to the shape of the amulet hidden beneath his shirt. “Hey, Marron, what's
the matter?“ ”That's how it started in Juniper,” he said, unaware that he was
speaking. “Only it was just the dead. But they wanted them living. If they could
get them. I have to go.“ ”Shed? What the hell is wrong?” He came out of it
momentarily. “Oh. Sorry, Selkirk. Yeah. We have a deal. But there's something I
have to do first. Something I need to check on.“ ”What?”
“Nothing to do with you. With us. We're ready to go. I'll bring my stuff up
tomorrow and we can get together with the people we need to close the deal
legally. I just have something else to do right now.”