She Is the Darkness: Book Two of Glittering Stone: A Novel of the Black Company (46 page)

I do not believe it was for the sake of the Prahbrindrah Drah.

None of my no never mind, though.

Catcher was awake and alert. She looked me in the eye. I think she would have
smiled had she had the use of her mouth. I told her, “I want Sleepy back.” She
did not respond. She just lay there and twinkled.

When I caught up with the Old Man and finished puffing I asked, “Did you send
anyone to look around where I thought I saw my horse?”

“Sent a whole company. Left the same time we did.” He looked down the road.

“What’s taking them so long?”

“All generals and no soldiers.” Lady, I noted, had turned her mount completely
and was surveying the world from our new vantage point. Men were at work in
Overlook already. Smoke rose from cookfires scattered everywhere. Most of the
more westerly belonged to shadowlanders gradually creeping back into the
farmland. The sky was overcast. I wondered if we would have rain.

“What’s that?” Croaker asked.

“What’s what?”

“Down there. On the road to your camp.”

“Your eyes are better . . . I see it. Little bit of dust.” Somebody, maybe
several somebodies, was headed for my camp. They were too far off to make
anything of them. They did seem to be in a hurry.

The carts began to roll. Clete and Longo and Loftus began congratulating
themselves loudly. Goats bleated. Bullocks offered bovine complaints. Men
cursed. The column began to creak forward.

“Lead on, Standardbearer,” Croaker said. “And don’t forget that those goats
can’t run as fast as you can.” He put his helmet on. The spells on his armor
came alive.

I started walking, standard raised. I knew it would get damned heavy before this
was all over.

My pack was heavy already. I wiggled my shoulders, trying to get the straps
settled more comfortably.

I stepped up onto the plain and set foot on the road. Ahead the standing stones
sparkled even with the sun behind the clouds.

The ground shook just as Croaker and Lady came up behind me. I dropped to one
knee but it was not a bad quake. In fact, it was barely perceptible.

Embarrassed, I got up and started walking again. “First one of those in a
while,” I told Thai Dei. “Took me by surprise.”

Lady and the Old Man did not seem troubled so I guessed I did not need to be.

It became a quiet journey once everybody got up onto the plain. We were all too
nervous to talk. After a mile or so, though, Lady said, “Warn everyone not to
leave the road. As long as we stay on it nothing can touch us.”

Croaker raised a hand to signal a halt. I dropped the butt of the Lance to the
road surface. Damn, that thing got heavy fast. The Old Man sent Lady’s news back
down the column. He did not question her. He did not distract her at all. Which
might mean she was concentrating totally.

Soon after we resumed moving we reached a place where the road widened out into
a big circle. A campground, I reasoned. Lady, in one of her rare remarks,

confirmed my guess. Whoever created the plain understood its dangers.

It was almost noon when we came at last to a standing stone near enough the road
to be examined. It was the same kind of rock as the plain’s surface off the
road. The sparkle came from metal characters set into the stone. They were
characters, that much was clear, but they were none I or anyone else could read.

It is immortality of a sort.

I jumped.

Lady said, “There is great power in this place.”

“No shit.”

The earth shivered again, no more strongly than the last time but sufficient to
make everyone nervous. These tremors might be harbingers of something worse.

Though, I noted, not one of the pillars had been toppled by the vicious quakes
of recent years.

Croaker paid the stone little heed. He kept staring ahead. It was now clear that
there was, indeed, some massive structure beyond the forest of stones. It had
begun to look like it might be of Overlook’s magnitude.

The Old Man pushed hard all day, not sparing himself. He spelled me with the
standard, setting its butt in his stirrup. Eventually he halted in one of the
circles that occurred about each five miles. He stopped only because Lady
insisted that it was time. He wanted to keep going. But the column was strung
out for miles now and the animals needed rest and water worse than did the men.

I checked the clouds, wondered if there would be rain and if we could collect
any of it. We had brought a lot of water but animals consume a lot and I had a
feeling we would get thirsty a long time before we started getting hungry.

The Captain shed his helmet and the more cumbersome parts of his armor. He was
less intrigued with his Widowmaker avatar than was Lady with hers. She bent the
knee to comfort, too, though, divesting herself of her helmet, then shaking out
her hair. Croaker stared into the distance. He asked, “You make anything of that
place?”

“There is great power there.”

“There is great power there,” Croaker grumbled. “She’s starting to repeat
herself.”

“That Kina’s hideout?” I asked. “Or Khatovar? Or both? Or neither?”

“I’ll tell you when we get there.”

“Let me hold that for you,” Rudy told me, offering to take the standard. He
planted its butt and leaned on it.

“Where the hell were you the last fifty miles?”

“Fifty? You’re letting your imagination overload your asshole.”

“Felt like five hundred, lugging that thing.”

Rudy chuckled. “Bet you we didn’t do fifteen.” He was having fun. At my expense.

“Thought you’d be in shape after all those trips over to suck up to the Old
Man.”

“Rudy, I ain’t in the mood for it.” I wanted to keep an eye and ear on Lady and
the Captain, who had moved away once Rudy intruded.

“Don’t let me get to you, son. I’m just thinking about what a wonderful night
it’s going to be.” Behind us the Nyueng Boa had their heads together
contemplating those possibilities. A lot of bamboo was in evidence. Sparkle had
a team erecting a community cookfire that would be elevated above the surface of
the plain. Lady had an idea the road would not like being burned. She had
suggested, during the hike, that it might be alive in its own way.

I wished there was a way to look inside her mind. She had been focused
completely since coming onto the plain. Her speculations would be interesting.

And she was sharing them with the Old Man, now. And Rudy was keeping me away.

“Hold on there,” Croaker told Sparkle. “Go ahead and set it up. But don’t start
a fire. We’ll eat cold if we can.”

Shit. We had not eaten well since we left Taglios but plain water and jerky were
a step beyond bad.

“Rudy. You got work to do?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Let me see you doing it.” Croaker turned around, leaned close to Lady again,

stared through the stands of pillars. I was willing to bet he was trying to face
down his doubts. Right out there might be the culmination of many hellish years
that had begun by what, I suspect sometimes, might have been the momentary whim
of a man who had had no idea what to do next and who had big trouble changing
his mind in public.

I began to prowl the perimeter of the camping circle. Wherever I looked the view
was the same. With an overcast sky that was disorienting.

“Standardbearer? You all right?”

“Sindawe. I’m sorry. I guess I’m more distracted than I thought. I never noticed
you coming.”

“The place has that effect, doesn’t it?” I got the impression he would have been
ghostly pale had he been capable. “There’s something I thought you should see.”

“All right.” I followed him through the press of animals and men all trying to
set up camp without pushing one another out of the circle or damaging the road.

“There,” Sindawe told me, indicating the road where it left the circle on the
southern side, a fact I determined only because I could see parts of the huge
structure down that way.

“A hole?” That was all I saw. A hole in the road, two inches across and a foot
deep. Maybe more. The light was not good enough to betray its bottom.

“Yes. A hole. It may be a huge leap of faith, or just my imagination, but it
strikes me that it would be a perfect place to set the standard.”

“Sure does.” Had I been past this point before? Had there been a hole? I could
not recall. The opportunity to put the damned pole down for a while sure was
attractive, though. And grew more so as I stared.

I dropped the butt of the standard into the hole. It went in a foot and a half.

“That’s good,” I muttered. “Perfect place for it, too. Assuming the Old Man
don’t have some notion of his own.” I stretched. I had not lugged the standard
all day but I had carried it more than anybody else.

Sindawe grunted. He sounded nervous.

I felt it, too. Another earth tremor. “Hope it’s not building up to a big one.”

I looked down at the base of the Lance. The road had hold of it solidly. But
when I put it in there, there had been half an inch to spare.

I tried to pull it out.

No go.

It was not vibrating anymore.

“Shit.”

Sindawe tried to pull it out. He stopped before he got a hernia.

“No problem,” I grouched. “If I have to, I’ll just cut it off. Tomorrow.”

I checked the Old Man and his woman. They still stood shoulder to shoulder,

staring southward, now only exchanging the rare word or two. Even with their
helmets off they looked pretty spooky.

Thai Dei materialized to tell me he had our camp set and food prepared. His
expression was so bland I knew that he was angry. Here I was out gallivanting
around, having a good time, while he was home working his fingers to the bone.

“I wish you’d grow tits and lose the sausage, we’re going to be married.”

Another feeble tremor stirred the stone beneath us. I murmured, “And the earth
shakes when they walk.”

“What?” Thai Dei asked.

“Something from a story I heard when I was a kid. About ancient gods called
titans. I was just thinking how far I’ve come since then.” And maybe we were
giants.

I knew I was dreaming because there was a full moon and no clouds overhead. But
there was some sort of haze between me and the world because the moon was just
the center of a cloud of light drifting across the sky, never rising directly
overhead the way it had in the land of my childhood. The ghostly, bluish light
betrayed the restless shadows prowling the bounds of the circle, flowing over
and around one another in hundreds. From a thousand miles away, it seemed, I
heard Longshadow whimper without respite.

One large shadow pressed against the edge of the circle not far from where I
watched. Something kept it from entering. It spread out upon that invisible
surface. I remembered the time I touched a shadow while ghostwalking.

I began to find traces of the fear that had been missing since I climbed up onto
the plain.

That one shadow seemed to be obsessed with me. I turned away and tried to forget
it.

I looked up. Vaguely fishlike silhouettes moved back and forth against the
diffuse moonlight. This must be the kind of view you would have if you were a
crab on the bottom of the sea.

I do not know if it was a true dream. It felt that way. If it was, it would seem
that shadows could rise above the surface.

The schooling shadows suddenly shot off as though impelled by a single will.

The moon was past its zenith. Maybe that was why.

Or maybe they were afraid of the creatures who appeared upon the black road,

coming from the direction we were headed. They were the shape of men from the
waist down and on their right sides. Their heads and left sides were masked by
shawls that looked like they were made of polished brass fish scales. There were
three of them. They felt like powerful ghosts.

My big shadow buddy did not run away with the others. I began to have some sense
of it, as I had had with that other. It was terrified.

I caught one little flash of an instant in a place of torture, of pain beyond
pain, while priests chanted.

I rose from my pallet. I went to stand beneath the standard, facing the ghosts.

They let the shawls fall from their faces.

I do not know why. I thought, You motherfuckers are too ugly. Get the fuck off
my road. And quit messing with my sleep. I had a feeling if they conformed to
legend or whatnot they would be something like the Lady’s Ten Who Were Taken,

demons or sorcerer kings who had been enslaved by some power greater and darker
than they. Go on. Get out of here. You’re dead. Stay that way. I reached for the
Lance, felt it come alive in my ghostly hand. Go on.

Three ugly beast masks inclined slightly toward the surface of the road. At
least I think they were masks. I hope they were. Anybody that ugly for real
should not have been allowed to climb out of the cradle.

They folded their hands before them. They began to withdraw. They did so without
moving their feet.

Weird.

They flickered into nonexistence as they dwindled into the distance.

I stalked the perimeter of the circle. The shadows began to return. My pet
matched my movements, always pressing against the barrier. I sensed a great
hunger there.

I was surprised to find four roads leading out of the circle, matching the
primary arms of the compass rose.

How come the east and west arms were not visible in the waking world?

The shapechanger’s roar reached into the ghostworld. Goats and bullocks
protested. The men on watch, already scared shitless from watching shadows
search for a break in the barrier, cursed all the beasts. Some went to beat the
panther. Somebody yelled, “What the fuck is that?” and pointed toward the
standard. The lack of light made it unclear. I drifted that way swiftly.

A white crow perched on the crosspiece, apparently sleeping. Which brought up a
hundred questions immediately.

Was there another me up there watching from a time yet to come? Was the bird
Kina’s creature? Or Soulcatcher’s? How had it gotten here, by night, from the
world beyond the Shadowgate? I had seen huge shadows circling above . . . but I
saw no such thing when I looked at the moon now. In fact, that untimely moon was
no longer there. What I did see was a fingernail clipping of moon just beginning
to rise.

More questions.

The panther roared again, this time in startled pain. They were paying her back
for scaring the animals.

I drifted past where Croaker and Lady had made their beds. He was snoring. She
was wide awake. She sensed my passage somehow. Her gaze followed me
inaccurately. I lost her after a few yards. I wriggled between the cages.

Longshadow was awake, too. He was sobbing quietly and shaking. I do not think
there was anything left of the once dreadful, insane sorcerer.

Howler was awake, too. I realized, belatedly, that he had not been making much
noise lately.

As I watched he tried to get off one of his ferocious yowls but nothing came
out.

What had Lady done to him?

Soulcatcher was the one I really wanted to examine. And she too was awake when I
found her. She was still bundled and gagged to a point that would have driven me
over the edge, but she seemed as madly merry as at her best moments. She sensed
me as easily as her sister had. Her eyes tracked me. They seemed to laugh,

filled with secret knowledge. In fact, I got the distinct feeling that if she
wanted to badly enough she could slide out of her flesh and chase me around.

No. But she wanted me to think she could do that. She was messing around with me
even in her present circumstances.

That troubled me not nearly so much as her confidence did. She was not at all
afraid or even worried.

That had to be passed on to the Captain and Lieutenant.

I drifted near the boundary, wondering if I ought to go see Sarie or engage in
any of the hundred tasks I pursued when I walked the ghostworld. I did not
really want to do anything but sleep. My personal shadow splashed itself against
the barrier. There was some emotion there. But I could not tell if the thing
wanted to talk to me or to eat me. It made me feel the way I might have, had I
acknowledged the existence of a beggar who then refused to let me get away.

I passed a nervous Nyueng Bao prowling on catlike feet, his sword ready. The
swamp men were more troubled by our quest than were the few Taglians
accompanying us, despite their traditional burden of fear of Khatovar.

Sleeplessness was a common problem. I paused to eavesdrop on the murmurs of
Blade, Mather and Willow Swan. No sedition surfaced there, though. Swan, being
Willow Swan, was telling ghost stories. I wish I could talk about the man more.

He was a character.

The Prahbrindrah Drah was awake as well, among them but evidently not with them.

He contributed nothing.

I drifted near the crow. It sensed me. It cawed softly once, opened one reddish
eye momentarily, resumed napping. But it cawed again sharply when I considered
testing the barrier’s ability to contain me.

Without knowing how I got the message, I understood that it insisted I go
roaming only by flying above the plain.

The wings were there, available, but I did not choose to don them. I continued
around the camp. No ghosts watched me from any of the roads. The east and west
ways were growing tenuous while the route back north remained solid,

unthreatening, even inviting. My shadow companion could not reach me there,

either. The roads were protected, too.

I raced northward. I am not sure what I meant to do, though I had some notion of
visiting Sarie one more time.

Long before I managed that I got yanked back to my flesh.

I did find something else to intrigue me, though, right in front of the
Shadowgate, before I went.