by the Black Company. And I
had no trouble recalling when there were just seven of us, as unprepossessing a
bunch of thugs as ever walked the earth. That was barely more than five years
ago. Triumph or failure, this campaign would survive as a mighty drumbeat in the
Annals.
I went back to my flesh and slept again. When I awakened our vanguards were
already approaching the Plain of Charandaprash. Mist had formed in all the low
places and gullies.
Black Company GS 7 - She is Darkness
20
We stopped amidst a grand hubbub. I leaned out of the wagon.
The mists had become an all enveloping fog. People with torches hustled hither
and yon, their torches glowing like witch lights. None came near me. All the
forces had come together and now the world was very crowded.
Croaker appeared. I told him, “You look totally beat.”
“My ass is banging off my heels.” He climbed aboard, checked Smoke, settled down
and closed his eyes.
“Well?”
“Uhm?”
“You’re here. How come? And what about your goddamned pets? They watching?”
For a moment I thought he had gone to sleep that quickly. He did not answer
immediately. But: “I’m hiding out. From the birds, too. One-Eye scared them
off.” About two minutes later, he added, “I don’t like it, Murgen.”
“What don’t you like?”
“Being Captain. I wish I could’ve stayed Annalist and physician. There’s less
pressure.”
“You’re managing all right.”
“Not the way I hear it. I wasn’t Captain I wouldn’t have any long-term worries,
either.”
“Hell. And here I thought you were having the time of your life baffling the
shit out of everybody.”
“All I’ve ever wanted was to take us home. But they won’t let me.”
“It’s for sure nobody’s ever going to open any doors for us. Especially not the
Radisha. What to do about us seems to be on her mind a lot lately.”
“It ought to be.” He smiled. “And I haven’t forgotten her.” He paused a moment,
then said, “You’re up on your Annals. What was the bloodiest mess we ever got
ourselves into?”
“Right here is my guess. Back in the beginning, four hundred years ago. But
that’s only by implication in the surviving Annals.”
“History may repeat itself.” He did not sound thrilled. Not at all. He was not a
bloodthirsty man.
Neither am I, despite the hatreds I obsess over here. But my scruples do have
blind areas. I do want to see several thousand villains suffer for what happened
to Sahra.
Croaker asked, “Do you know of any way to authenticate the lost Annals you took
back from Soulcatcher?”
“What?” What a horrible question. It never occurred to me before. “You saying
you think they might not be real?”
“I couldn’t read them but I could see that they weren’t originals. They were
copies.”
“They might not have told the true story?”
“Smoke believed every word in the ones he had. And oral history supports his
view of the Company as the terror of the ages, though there aren’t any
specifics. But I do have to wonder because there just aren’t any contemporary
accounts from independent observers.”
“Something happened. Even if these books we have now are fabrications. What’re
you thinking?”
For a moment Croaker seemed tired of fighting. “Murgen, there’s something going
on that’s more than you and me and Lady, the Taglians and the Shadowmasters and
all that. Strange things are happening and they don’t add up any other way. I
started to wonder when you kept falling into the past.”
“I think Soulcatcher had something to do with that.”
“She may well have. She’s got her fingers in everywhere else. But I don’t think
she’s all of it. I think we’re all—even Soulcatcher—being manipulated. And I’m
even beginning to think that it’s been going on for ages. That if we had the
true firsts of the missing Annals and could read them we might see ourselves and
had no trouble recalling when there were just seven of us, as unprepossessing a
bunch of thugs as ever walked the earth. That was barely more than five years
ago. Triumph or failure, this campaign would survive as a mighty drumbeat in the
Annals.
I went back to my flesh and slept again. When I awakened our vanguards were
already approaching the Plain of Charandaprash. Mist had formed in all the low
places and gullies.
Black Company GS 7 - She is Darkness
20
We stopped amidst a grand hubbub. I leaned out of the wagon.
The mists had become an all enveloping fog. People with torches hustled hither
and yon, their torches glowing like witch lights. None came near me. All the
forces had come together and now the world was very crowded.
Croaker appeared. I told him, “You look totally beat.”
“My ass is banging off my heels.” He climbed aboard, checked Smoke, settled down
and closed his eyes.
“Well?”
“Uhm?”
“You’re here. How come? And what about your goddamned pets? They watching?”
For a moment I thought he had gone to sleep that quickly. He did not answer
immediately. But: “I’m hiding out. From the birds, too. One-Eye scared them
off.” About two minutes later, he added, “I don’t like it, Murgen.”
“What don’t you like?”
“Being Captain. I wish I could’ve stayed Annalist and physician. There’s less
pressure.”
“You’re managing all right.”
“Not the way I hear it. I wasn’t Captain I wouldn’t have any long-term worries,
either.”
“Hell. And here I thought you were having the time of your life baffling the
shit out of everybody.”
“All I’ve ever wanted was to take us home. But they won’t let me.”
“It’s for sure nobody’s ever going to open any doors for us. Especially not the
Radisha. What to do about us seems to be on her mind a lot lately.”
“It ought to be.” He smiled. “And I haven’t forgotten her.” He paused a moment,
then said, “You’re up on your Annals. What was the bloodiest mess we ever got
ourselves into?”
“Right here is my guess. Back in the beginning, four hundred years ago. But
that’s only by implication in the surviving Annals.”
“History may repeat itself.” He did not sound thrilled. Not at all. He was not a
bloodthirsty man.
Neither am I, despite the hatreds I obsess over here. But my scruples do have
blind areas. I do want to see several thousand villains suffer for what happened
to Sahra.
Croaker asked, “Do you know of any way to authenticate the lost Annals you took
back from Soulcatcher?”
“What?” What a horrible question. It never occurred to me before. “You saying
you think they might not be real?”
“I couldn’t read them but I could see that they weren’t originals. They were
copies.”
“They might not have told the true story?”
“Smoke believed every word in the ones he had. And oral history supports his
view of the Company as the terror of the ages, though there aren’t any
specifics. But I do have to wonder because there just aren’t any contemporary
accounts from independent observers.”
“Something happened. Even if these books we have now are fabrications. What’re
you thinking?”
For a moment Croaker seemed tired of fighting. “Murgen, there’s something going
on that’s more than you and me and Lady, the Taglians and the Shadowmasters and
all that. Strange things are happening and they don’t add up any other way. I
started to wonder when you kept falling into the past.”
“I think Soulcatcher had something to do with that.”
“She may well have. She’s got her fingers in everywhere else. But I don’t think
she’s all of it. I think we’re all—even Soulcatcher—being manipulated. And I’m
even beginning to think that it’s been going on for ages. That if we had the
true firsts of the missing Annals and could read them we might see ourselves and
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