Water Sleeps (41 page)

I haven’t found them yet!” I snapped at Sahra and the Radisha. “I don’t want to
go any farther if One-Eye can’t assure me that I’m not going to kill somebody
just by being here.” Against all advice, those two had pushed as far forward as
I would let them go. I could understand that they wanted to see their husbands
and brothers and boyfriends, but they ought to have sense enough to restrain
themselves until we knew what we could and could not do without risking harm to
those very husbands and brothers and boyfriends.

Sahra gave me a sharp, hurt look.

“Sorry,” I said, insincerely. “Come on. Think. You can see that the stasis down
here didn’t work for everyone. Swan. How far up this tunnel do we have to go?” I
could see a scatter of eight recumbent forms between myself and the curve, none
of whom were immediately recognizable as the Captain, Lady, Murgen, Thai Dei,

Cordy Mather or Blade. “From where we stand now, roughly eleven people still
aren’t accounted for.”

“I don’t remember,” Swan grumped. Bass echoes chased one another around the
cavern. They were worse with my higher pitched voice, though.

“Memory spell wearing off?”

“I don’t think so. This feels more like something I never knew. I’m still a
whole lot confused about what went on down here.”

One big problem was that none of us really knew exactly how many Captured there
were. Swan was the best witness because he had ridden with them, but he had not
kept track, other than of key people. Murgen never had been any help because
after he had become one of the Captured, he had apparently become unable to
explore the immediate vicinity where he was confined.

“We need to get Murgen awake first thing. Nobody else will know all the names
and faces.” It seemed probable that some of the people I did not recognize just
were not part of the Company. “One-Eye. Figure out how to wake these people up.

As soon as I find Murgen, I want to get him into talking condition. Can I go
ahead?” Squabbling echoes reminded me to keep my voice down.

Crabbily, One-Eye responded, “Yes. Just don’t touch anybody. Or even anything
that you don’t recognize. And stop trying to rush me.”

“Can you bring them out of stasis?”

“I don’t know yet, do I? I’ve been too damned busy answering dumb questions.

Leave me alone long enough and I might figure it out, though.”

Tempers were getting short and manners were becoming frayed. I sighed, rubbed my
forehead and temples because I had begun to develop a headache, listened to the
sounds of more people descending the stair. “Willow, see if you can keep those
fools out of here till One-Eye’s ready.” I looked ahead without eagerness. Not
only did the cavern turn to the right, it steepened. The water-polished floor
was covered with frost. The footing was going to be treacherous.

“Caw!”

The white crow was up there somewhere. It had been announcing itself repeatedly,

sounding more impatient every time.

I moved forward carefully. When I reached the steeper floor, I knelt and brushed
the frost away to improve the footing. I told Sahra and the Radisha, “If you
have to follow me, you’d better be even more careful than I am.”

They insisted. They were careful. Not one of us slipped and went flailing back
down the slope. “Here’s Longo and Sparkle,” I said. “And that wad definitely
looks like the Howler.”

In fact, that wad definitely was that crippled little Master Sorcerer. He had
been one of the Lady’s henchmen in the far north, then our enemy down here. He
had become a prisoner of war along with his ally Longshadow, and Lady must have
foreseen some use for him or she would not have kept him alive. But he was not
likely to get released while I was in charge. In his way, he was crazier than
Soulcatcher.

The crow chided me for taking so long.

The Howler was awake. His will was such that he could move his eyes, though
nothing more was within his capacity. One glimpse of the madness within those
dark orbs and I knew that this man could not be permitted to make it back to the
world. “Be very careful around this one,” I said. “Or he’ll nail you as surely
as Soulcatcher nailed Swan. One-Eye. Howler is awake. He can move his eyes.”

One-Eye repeated my warning, absentmindedly. “Don’t get too close to him.”

The crow began to nag. Its voice gave birth to a particularly annoying
generation of echoes.

“Ah. Radisha. Here’s your brother. And he seems to be in pretty good shape. No!

Don’t touch! That’s probably what contaminated the stasis spells protecting the
dead men. You’ll just have to be patient, same as the rest of us.”

She made a sound like a low growl.

The icy cave ceiling above us made creaking sounds that added to the volleys of
echoes.

I continued, “It’s hard. I know it’s hard. But right now patience is the best
tool we have for getting them out of here safely.” Once I was sure she would
restrain herself I resumed inching forward. The white crow cawed impatiently.

Out loud I thought, “I do believe I’ll wring that thing’s neck.”

The Radisha reminded me, “You’ll build bad kharma. You might come back as a crow
or parrot in your next life.”

“One of the beauties of being Vehdna is that you don’t have a next life to worry
about. And God, the All-Powerful, the Merciful, has no love at all for crows.

Except to use as plagues upon the unrighteous. Does anybody know if Master
Santaraksita planned to come down here?” My organizational skills had vanished
because of my own eagerness to reach the Captured. It occurred to me only now
that the scholar’s knowledge might prove especially useful here if he could
connect anything in this cave to known myth.

I got no answer. “I’ll send for him if I have to. Ah. Sahra, here’s your honey.

Don’t touch!” I said that a little too loudly. The echoes got very boisterous.

Several small icicles broke loose from the ceiling. They shattered with an
almost metallic tinkle when they struck the floor.

The crow spoke, very distinctly, “Come here!”

And I, having finally figured it out, told it, “If your manners don’t improve
dramatically, you might not get out of here at all.”

The bird was strutting back and forth nervously in front of Croaker and Lady.

Soulcatcher had left those two snuggled up together, arranged so that the
Captain had one arm around Lady’s waist while she held his other hand with both
of hers in her lap. Additional delicate touches suggested that Soulcatcher’s
wicked sense of play had peaked for this bit of still life.

If Catcher had left any booby traps at all, this was where they would be.

“One-Eye. I need help.” Any traps that existed were beyond me.

Lady’s eyes were open. There was no dust on them. She was angry. And the white
crow wanted to tell me all about it.

“Patience,” I counseled, close to becoming impatient myself. “Swan. One-Eye.

Come on up here.” Swan arrived first despite coming from farther away. I asked,

“You recall anything special she did with these two? Any little bit of
sneakiness?”

“No. I wouldn’t worry about it. By the time she laid them out, she was worried
about what might happen next. That’s the way she is. When she’s starting
something, it’s her whole world and she has no doubts about any part of it. But
the closer she comes to getting finished, the more trouble she has keeping her
confidence up.”

“Nice to know that she’s human.” I did not mean a word of that. “One-Eye. Look
for booby traps around here. And make up your mind. Tell me if you can bring
these people back, darn it!” My headache had not gotten any better. But, thank
the God of Mercies, it had grown no worse.

Another icicle fell.

“I know. I know. I heard you the first time you asked.” He grumbled something
about wishing he knew a way to charm me up a better love life.

I stared past Croaker and Lady. The cavern went on. Pale light barely
illuminated it. There was no gold in that at all now. A touch of silver, a touch
of grey, a lot of blue ice. In fact, the sedimentary rock seemed to give way to
actual ice now, ahead. “Willow. Did Catcher go up there when you were here?”

He checked where I was looking. “No. But she could have during an earlier
visit.”

Someone had traveled in that direction recently, in cavern scales of time. There
were still clear tracks in the frost. And I suspected that I would not enjoy the
journey once I began to follow them. But I would do so. I had no choice. I had
failed elsewhere by letting Narayan and the Daughter of Night get away. That
Kina undoubtedly supplied them with a subtle boost did not sufficiently signify.

I should have been better prepared. “One-Eye. Talk to me. Can you resurrect
these people or not?”

“If you’d stop barking for five minutes I could probably figure that out.”

“Take your time, sweetness. It’ll take us a while to starve.” That ice up there
must have been what Swan had meant when he mentioned ice on the plain.

“You’ve had all the fool-around time I’m willing to give you,” I told One-Eye.

“Can you do it? Yes or no. Right now.”

“The shape I’m in, I need more rest.” His speech was slow and slurred and had
taken on an odd rhythm that made following him difficult. He was right, of
course. All of us needed rest. But we also needed to finish our business and get
off the plain. Hunger was a reality already. It was not going to go away. I
feared it might become a companion as intimate and dreaded as it had been during
the siege of Jaicur.

I had decided, already, that I would adopt Uncle Doj’s suggested strategy. We
would recover only a few people now. We would return for the others later. But
that meant making cruel choices. Somebody would end up hating me no matter what
I did. If I was really clever, I would find some good old-fashioned Goblinlike
way of spreading the blame all around me. Those tagged to wait could not hate
everybody.

And there went some good old-fashioned wishful thinking, Sleepy. We were talking
about human beings. If there is any way to be contrary, unreasonable and
obnoxious, human beings are sure to find and pursue it. With verve and
enthusiasm at whatever might be the most inconvenient time.

I s anybody at all still up topside?” I demanded. I had settled down for a short
nap when the timing had seemed appropriate and that had turned into a long nap
that might have become a permanent nap had not so many people been around to
keep me from drifting too far away. I dreamed while I was out, I knew that, but
I remembered none of it. The smell of Kina remained strong in my nostrils, so I
knew where I must have gone, though.

One-Eye was seated beside me, apparently assisting me with my snoring. A worried
Goblin appeared, checking to make certain his best friend did not drift too far
into sleep. Beyond me, Mother Gota had become engrossed in a protracted debate
with the white crow. That must have been a classic dialog to disinterested
listeners.

Goblin murmured, “From now on, don’t make any sudden movements, Sleepy. Always
look around you. Always make sure that you’re not going to damage any of our
friends.”

I heard Tobo talking rapidly, softly, in a businesslike voice. I could not
distinguish his words. Somewhere Uncle Doj rattled away, too. “What’s
happening?”

“We’ve started waking them up. It’s not as complicated as we feared it might be
but it takes time and care, and the people we bring out aren’t going to be any
use to us after they waken—if you had any plans along those lines. One-Eye
worked it all out before he collapsed.” The little wizard sounded grimmer
suddenly.

“Collapsed? One-Eye collapsed? Was it just exhaustion?” I hoped.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to know. Yet. For now, I’m just going to let him
rest. Right down on the edge of the stasis. Or even into it if I think that’s
necessary. Once his body regains its strength, I’ll bring him out and see how
bad it really was.” He did not sound optimistic.

I said, “If we had to we could leave him here, in stasis, till we could give him
proper treatment.” Which reminded me. “You’re not just getting everyone up, are
you? There’s no way we can nurse and feed the whole crowd.” Surely the Captured
would not be able to take care of themselves after fifteen years of just sitting
around, stasis or not. They might even be as weak and unskilled as babies and
have to learn everything all over again.

“No, Sleepy. We’re going to do five people. That’s all.”

“Uhm. Good. Hey! Where the heck did the standard go? It was right over there.

I’m the Standardbearer. I have to keep track—”

“I had it moved over by the gap to the stair. So somebody going that way can
take it upstairs. Will you quit fussing? That’s Sahra’s specialty.”

“Speaking of Sahra—Tobo! Where do you think you’re going?” While I was talking
with Goblin, the boy had slipped past and headed up the cave.

“I was just gonna go see what’s up there.”

“No. You’re just gonna stay right here and help your uncle and Goblin take care
of your father, the Captain and the Lieutenant.”

He gave me a black look. Despite everything, he still had those moments when he
was just a boy. He put on a pouty face that made me grin.

Willow Swan came up behind me. “I’ve got a problem, Sleepy.”

“Which would be?”

“I can’t find Cordy. Cordy Mather. Not anywhere.”

From the corner of my eye I noted that the Radisha had overheard. She rose
slowly from a squat in front of her brother, looked our way. She said nothing
nor did anything otherwise that might betray an interest. It was not common
knowledge that she and Mather had enjoyed an intimate relationship.

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“You did bring him down here?”

“Absolutely.”

I grunted. There was one other absentee whose nonpresence I had been willing to
ignore until some rational excuse for her disappearance arose. The shapeshifter
Lisa Bowalk, unable to shed the guise of a black panther, had gone up onto the
plain as a prisoner but was not now to be found among the dead above or the
Captured down below.

Lisa Bowalk had been possessed of a towering hatred for the Company, and
particularly for One-Eye because it was One-Eye’s fault that she had become
trapped in the feline shape. I had to ask. “What about the panther, Willow? It’s
not around here anywhere, either.”

“What panther? Oh. I remember. I don’t know.” He was looking around like he
thought he might spot his old friend Mather hiding behind a stalagmite. “I
remember we had to leave her upstairs because we couldn’t get her cage around
the first turn in the stair. I mean, it would have gone if Catcher and I didn’t
have anything else to mess with, but we couldn’t manage it and the rest of the
string both. So Catcher decided to leave the cage up there for later. I don’t
know what happened when later came. I don’t remember much of anything that
happened after we came down here. Maybe One-Eye should give me another dose of
that memory spell.” He tugged on and twisted the ends of his hair, girl-style,

and stared down the slope. “I know I left Cordy right down there, just a little
above Blade, where it seemed like the floor would be more comfortable.”

“Right down there” was the downhill edge of the clot of seven dead men. There
had to be a connection. “Goblin, what’s the story? Are we going to wake these
people up or not?” Me, ignoring everything he had said earlier.

Goblin responded with a sneer that turned into one of his big toad grins. “I’ve
already got Murgen out.”

“But I wanted him down here where I could ask questions.”

“I mean I’ve got him out of stasis, bimbo-brain. He’s right over there. I’m
working on the Captain and Lady now. Tobo and Doj have been doing prelims on
Thai Dei and the Prahbrindrah Drah.”

Exactly according to my expectations. With the latter two men included entirely
for political reasons. Neither was likely to contribute much to the Company’s
glory or survival.

I moved down to where Murgen lay snoring. The echoing racket and the melting ice
webs were the only changes I saw. I squatted. “Anybody think to bring blankets
down?” I had not. I am what you would have to call disorganized when it comes to
present-tense operations. It had not occurred to me to bring spare clothing or
blankets or gear. But I sure can plan bloodshed and general mayhem real well.

There were treasure chambers down here somewhere, though. I had glimpsed several
in my dreams. There might be something useful there—if we could find them.

My stomach growled. I was getting hungry. The rumble reminded me that it would
not be long before our situation became desperate.

Murgen’s eyes opened. He tried to form an expression, a smile for Sahra, but the
effort was too much for him. His gaze shifted to me. A whisper struggled through
his lips. “The Books. Get . . . the Daughter . . . ” His eyes closed again.

It was true. The Captured were not going to jump up and dance tarantellas when
they were liberated.

Murgen’s message was clear. The Books of the Dead were down here. Something had
to be done before the Daughter of Night got another chance to begin copying
them. And I had no doubt that she would manage that, despite Soulcatcher. She
had Kina backing her up.

“I’ll take care of it.” I did not have a ghost of a notion how I would manage
that, though.