He went out of the place practically running, not sure what he could do or where
he could start, not even if he was sane in his assumption. But he was sure that
what had happened in Juniper would reoccur in Meadenvil. And a lot faster if the
creatures were doing their own collecting. He touched his amulet again,
wondering how much protection it afforded. Was it puissant? Or just a promise?
He hurried to his rooming house, where people were patient with his questions,
knowing he was from out of town. He asked about Raven. The murder had been the
talk of the town, what with a foreign policeman having been charged on the
accusation of his own men. But nobody knew anything. There was no eyewitness to
Raven's death except Asa. And Asa was in Juniper. Probably dead.
The Black Company would not have wanted him turning witness against them.
He shed an impulse to contact the survivors. They might want him out of the way,
too.
He was on his own with this.
The place where Raven had died seemed a likely place to start. Who knew where
that was? Asa. Asa was not available. Who else? How about Bullock?
His guts knotted. Bullock represented everything he feared back home. In a cage
here, but still very much a symbol. Could he face the man?
Would the man tell him anything?
Finding Bullock was no problem. The main prison did not move. Finding the
courage to face him, even from beyond bars, was another matter. But this entire
city lay under a shadow.
Torment racked Shed. Guilt cut him apart. He had done things that left him
unable to endure himself. He had committed crimes for which there was no way of
making restitution. Yet here was something. . . .
“You're a fool, Marron Shed,” he told himself. “Don't worry about it. Meadenvil
can look out for itself. Just move on to another city.”
But something deeper than cowardice told him he could not run. And not just from
himself. A creature from the black castle had appeared in Meadenvil. Two men who
had had dealings with the castle had come here. That could not be coincidence.
Suppose he moved on? What was to keep the creatures from turning up again,
wherever he went?
He had made a deal with a devil. On a gut level he sensed that the net in which
he had been taken had to be unwoven strand by strand.
He moved the every-day, cowardly Shed to a throne far behind his eyes and
brought forward the Shed who had hunted with Krage and eventually killed his
tormentor.
He did not recall the cock-and-bull story he used to get past the wards, but did
bullshit his way in to see Bullock.
The Inquisitor had lost none of his spirit. He came to the bars spitting and
cursing and promising Shed an excruciating death.
Shed countered, “You ain't never going to punish nobody but maybe a cockroach in
there. Shut up and listen. Forget who you were and remember where you are. I'm
the only hope you got of getting out.” Shed was amazed. Could he have been half
as firm without the intervening bars?
Bullock's face went blank. “Go ahead. Talk.”
"I don't know how much you hear in here. Probably nothing. I'll run it down.
After you left Juniper, the rest of the Black Company showed up. They took over.
Their Lady and what-not came to town. They attacked the black castle. I don't
know how that turned out. What word there is makes it sound like the city was
wiped out. During the fighting some of the Company guys grabbed a ship and got
out on account of their masters were going to turn on them. Why I don't know."
Bullock stared at him, considering. “That's the truth?”
“From what I've heard second-hand.”
“It was those Black Company bastards got me in here. Framed me. I only had a
fight with Raven. Hell, he almost killed me.”
“He's dead now.” Shed described what Asa had seen. “I have a notion what killed
him and why. What I need to know is where it happened. So I can make sure. You
tell me that and I'll try to get you out.”
“I only know approximately. I know where I caught up with him and which way him
and Asa went when they got away. That should pin it down pretty close. Why do
you want to know?”
"I think the castle creatures planted something on Raven. Like a seed. I think
that's why he died. Like the man who brought the original seed to Juniper.''
Bullock frowned.
“Yeah. Sounds tall. But listen to this. The other day I saw one of the creatures
near where I'm staying. Watching me. Wait! I know what they look like. I met
them. Also, people are disappearing. Not too many yet. Not enough to cause a big
stink. But enough to scare people.”
Bullock moved to the back of his cell, settled on the floor, placed his back
against the wall. He was quiet for more than a minute. Shed waited nervously.
“What's your interest, innkeeper?” “Repayment of a debt. Bullock, the Black
Company kept me prisoner for a while. I learned a lot about that castle. It was
nastier than anybody guessed. It was a doorway of sorts. Through which a
creature called the Dominator was trying to get into the world. I contributed to
the growth of that thing. I helped it reach the point where it attracted the
Black Company and its sorcerer friends. If Juniper has been destroyed, it's as
much my fault as anybody's. Now the same fate threatens Meadenvil. I can do
something to stop it. If I can find it.”
Bullock sniggered. Sniggers turned into chuckles. Chuckles became laughter.
“Then rot here!” Shed shouted, and started to leave. “Wait!” Shed turned.
Bullock stifled his mirth. “Sorry. It's so incongruous. You, so righteous. I
mean, I really believe you mean it. All right, Marron Shed. Give it a shot. And
if you manage it and you get me out of here, I might not drag you back to
Juniper.”
"There's no Juniper to drag me to, Bullock. Rumor says the Lady planned to loot
the Catacombs after she finished the black castle. You know what that means.
All-out rebellion."
Bullock's humor vanished. “Straight down the Shaker Road, past the twelfth mile
marker. Left on the first farm track, under a dead oak tree. You go at least six
miles on that. Way past the farms. That's wild country. You better go armed.”
“Armed?” Shed grinned a big, self-conscious grin. “Marron Shed never had guts
enough to learn to use a weapon. Thanks.”
“Don't forget me, Shed. My trial comes up first week next month.” “Right.”
Shed dismounted and began leading the rented mule when he reached a point he
estimated to be six miles from the Shaker Road. He went on another half-mile.
The track was little more than a game trail, winding through rugged country
densely covered with hardwood. He saw no evidence man ever traveled this way.
Odd. What had Raven and Asa been doing out here? He could think of no reason
that made sense. Asa had claimed they were running from Bullock. If so, why
hadn't they kept on going down the Shaker Road?
His nerves tautened. He touched the amulet, the knife hidden up his sleeve. He
had splurged and bought himself two good short weapons, one for his belt and one
for his sleeve.
They did little to boost his confidence.
The trail turned downhill, toward a brook, ran beside that for several hundred
yards, and debouched into a broad clearing. Shed almost walked into that. He was
a city boy.
Never before had he been into country more wild than the Enclosure.
Some innate sense of caution stopped him at the clearing's edge. He dropped to
one knee, parted the undergrowth, cursed softly when the mule nudged him with
its nose.
He had guessed right.
A great black lump stood out there. It was the size of a house already. Shed
stared at faces frozen in screams of terror and agony.
A perfect place for it, out here. Growing this fast, it would become complete
before anyone discovered it. Unless by accident. And the accidental discoverer
would become one with it.
Shed's heart hammered. He wanted nothing more than to race back to Meadenvil and
cry the city's danger in the streets. He had seen enough. He knew what he had
come to learn. Time to get away.
He went forward, slowly. He dropped the mule's reins, but it followed,
interested in the tall grass. Shed approached the black lump carefully, a few
steps at a time. Nothing happened. He circled it.
The shape of the thing became more evident. It would be identical to the
fortress overlooking Juniper, except for the way its foundations conformed to
the earth. Its gate would face south. A well-beaten path led to a low hole
there. Further confirmation of his suspicions.
Where had the creatures come from? Did they roam the world at will, hidden on
the edge of night, seen only by those who bargained with them?
Returning to the side from which he had approached, he stumbled over something.
Bones. Human bones. A skeleton-head, arms, legs, with part of the chest missing.
Still clad in tatters he'd seen Raven wear a hundred times. He knelt. “Raven. I
hated you. But I loved you, too. You were the worst villain I ever knew. And as
good a friend as I ever had. You made me start thinking like a man.” Tears
filled his eyes.
He searched childhood memories, finally found the prayer for the passage of the
dead. He began to sing in a voice that had no notion how to carry a tune.
The grass swished only once, just on the edge of audibility. A hand closed on
his shoulder. A voice said, “Marron Shed.”
Shed shrieked and grabbed for his belt knife.
MEADENVIL: WARM TRAIL
I did not have a good night after visiting Raven's ship. It was a night of
dreams. Of nightmares, if you will. Of terrors I dared not mention when I
wakened, for the others had troubles and fears enough.
She came to me in my sleep, as she had not done since our grim retreats when the
Rebel was closing in on Charm, so long ago. She came, a golden glow that might
have been no dream at all, for it seemed to be there in the room I shared with
five other men, illuminating them and the room while I lay with heart hammering,
staring in disbelief. The others did not respond, and later I was not sure I had
not imagined the whole thing. It had been that way with the visits in the way
back when.
“Why did you abandon me, physician? Did I treat you less than well?”
Baffled, confused, I croaked out, “It was run or be killed. We would not have
fled had there been a choice. We served you faithfully, through hazards and
horrors greater than any in our Company's history. We marched to the ends of the
earth for you, without complaint. And when we came to the city Juniper, and
spent half our strength storming the black castle, we learned that we were to be
rewarded by being destroyed.”
That marvelous face formed in the golden cloud. That marvelous face drawn in
sadness. "Whisper planned that. Whisper and Feather. For reasons of their own.
But Feather is gone and Whisper has been disciplined. I would not have allowed
such a crime in any case. You were my chosen instruments.
I would permit no machination of the Taken to harm you. Come back."
“It's too late, Lady. The die is cast. Too many good men have been lost. Our
heart is gone. We have grown old. Our only desire is to return to the South, to
rest in the warm sun and forget.”
“Come back. There is much to be done. You are my chosen instruments. I will
reward you as no soldiers have ever been rewarded.”
I could detect no hint of treachery. But what did that mean? She was ancient.
She had deluded her husband, who was far harder to fuddle than I. “It's too
late, Lady.”
“Come back, physician. You, if no one else. I need your pen.”
I do not know why I said what I did next. It was not the wisest thing to do, if
she was feeling the least benevolent toward us, the least disinclined to come
howling after us. “We will do one more thing for you. Because we are old and
tired and want to be done with war. We will not stand against you. If you do not
stand against us.”
Sadness radiated from the glow. “I am sorry. Truly sorry. You were one of my
favorites. A mayfly who intrigued me. No, physician. That cannot be. You cannot
remain neutral. You never could. You must stand with me or against me. There is
no middle ground.”
And with that the golden cloud faded, and I fell into a deep sleep-if ever I had
been awake.
I woke feeling rested but worried, at first unable to recall the visit. Then it
slammed back into consciousness. I dressed hurriedly, raced to the Lieutenant.
“Lieutenant, we got to start moving faster. She won. She's going to come after
us.”
He looked startled. I told him about the night vision. He took it with a pound
of salt till I told him that she had done the same before, during the long
retreat and series of encounters that had brought the Rebel main forces to the
gates of Charm. He did not want to believe me, but he dared not do otherwise.
“Get out there and find that Asa, then,” he said. “Candy, we move on that ship
tonight. Croaker, you pass the word. We're pulling out in four days, whether you
guys find Raven or not.”
I sputtered a protest. The critical thing now was to find Darling. Darling was
our hope. I asked, “Why four days?” “It took us four days to sail here from
Juniper. Good winds and seas all the way. If the Lady left when you turned her
down, she couldn't get here any quicker. So I'll give you that long. Then we hit
the sea. If we have to fight our way out.”
“All right.” I didn't like it, but he was the man who made the decisions. We had
elected him to do that. “Hagop, find Kingpin. We're going looking for Asa.”
Hagop hurried away like his tail was aflame. He brought Kingpin back in minutes,
King crabbing because he hadn't yet eaten, hadn't yet gotten his eight hours of
sleep.