Read Book 2 - She Is The Darkness for Free Online Page B

more about those things.”
    Croaker did not respond. He did order a halt to rest the
animals. So many had gone south ahead of us that there were no well
rested remounts available. Amidst all the saluting and hasty
turning out of an honor guard and whatnot, I stared southward and
said, “That little clown is making damned good time.” I
had asked already and had learned that One-Eye was still a day
ahead.
    “We’ll catch him before we get to Dejagore.”
Croaker eyed me as though he feared the city name would strike me
with the impact of some terrible spell. I disappointed him. Thai
Dei, who could follow the conversation because we were speaking
Taglian, showed no reaction, either, though the siege had been as
terrible for his people as for the Company. Nyueng Bao seldom
betray any emotion in the presence of outsiders.
    I told Thai Dei, “Give your horse to the groom and
let’s see if we can’t find something decent to
eat.” Living on horseback is not a gourmet’s
delight.
    For the same reason there were no fresh remounts, there were
very few delicacies at the Ghoja fortress, but because we belonged
to the Liberator’s party we were given a newly taken gamecock
that was so full of juice and substance my stomach nearly rebelled
at taking it in. After eating we got to stay inside, out of the
cold, and get some sleep. I should have stuck to Croaker in case
his talks with local commanders turned up anything that belonged in
the Annals, but after a short interior debate I chose sleep
instead. If he heard anything worthwhile the Old Man would tell me.
If necessary I could come back with Smoke later.
    I dreamed but did not remember the dreams long enough to note
them down. They were unpleasant but not overpowering or so terrible
Thai Dei had to awaken me.
    We were back on the road before sunrise.
    We overtook One-Eye passing through the hills that surround
Dejagore. When I first glimpsed his wagon and realized it had to be
him I started to shudder and had to fight an urge to kick my mount
into a faster pace. I wanted to get to Smoke.
    Maybe I had more of a problem than I wanted to admit.
    I did not show it enough to be noticed, though.
    One-Eye never slowed down a bit.
    There had been some changes since my days of hell in Dejagore or
Jaicur, as its natives called it, or Stormgard, as it was named
while it was the seat of the deceased Shadowmaster Stormshadow.
Poor witch, she had been totally unable to guard the Shadowlands
against the storm of the Black Company.
    The plain outside the city had been drained of all water and
cleared of wreckage and corpses, though I thought I could still
smell death in the air. Prisoners of war from the Shadowlands still
labored on the city walls and inside the city itself. Why seemed
problematic. There were almost no Jaicuri left alive.
    “Interesting notion, planting the plain in grain,” I
said, seeing what looked like winter wheat peeping through last
year’s stubble.
    “One of Lady’s ideas,” Croaker replied. He
still watched me as though he expected me to start foaming at the
mouth any minute. “Anywhere there is a permanent garrison one
of the responsibilities of the soldiers is to raise their own
food.”
    When it came to the logistics of war Lady was more the expert
than Croaker. Till we came to Taglios he was never part of anything
bigger than the Company. Lady had managed the warmaking instruments
of a vast empire for decades.
    The Old Man simply left most of that stuff to Lady. He would
rather lie back scheming his schemes and piling up the tools Lady
could use.
    The crop notion was not new. Lady had done the same around most
of her permanent installations in the north.
    You got to go with what works.
    Helps keep the neighbors more tractable, too, if you are not
stealing their daughters and seed grain.
    “You sure you’re all right?” Croaker
demanded.
    We were nearly at the foot of the ramp to the north barbican.
One-Eye was no more than a hundred feet ahead now,