Shadows Linger

More of its kind were back there, hissing, jostling. Shed recognized the short one he’d dealt with once.

The tall being stopped counting. Absently, Shed put the coins into a pocket, returned to his wagon. The things in shadow swept forward, seized Sue, began ripping her clothing. One yanked the gag out of her mouth. Shed started packing his rig.

“For God’s sake, Marron. Don’t leave me.”

“It’s done, woman. It’s done.” He snapped his traces.

“Back up, mules.”

She started screaming as he turned toward the gate. He did not look. He did not want to know. “Keep moving, mules.”

“Come again soon, Marron Shed,” the tall creature called after him.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Juniper

Banished

The summons from Whisper caught me unprepared. It was too early for the daily report. I’d barely finished breakfast. I knew it meant trouble. I was not disappointed.

The Taken prowled like a caged animal, radiating tension and anger. I went inside by the numbers, stood at a perfect attention, giving no excuse for the picking of nits-in case whatever it was was not my fault.

She ignored me for several minutes, working off energy. Then she seated herself, stared at her hands thoughtfully. Her gaze rose. And she was in complete control. She actually smiled. Had she been as beautiful as the Lady, that smile would have melted granite. But she was what she was, a scarred old campaigner, so a smile only ameliorated the grimness of her face.

“How were the men disposed last night?” she asked. Baffled, I responded,  “Excuse me? You mean their temper?”

“Where were they stationed?”

“Oh.” That was properly Elmo’s province, but I knew better than to say so. The Taken do not tolerate excuses, sound though they may be. “The three men on the ship south with Bullock, looking for that man Asa.” I worried about her having sent them. When I do not understand the motives of the Taken, I get paranoid. “Five down in the Buskin pretending to be foreign sailors. Three more down there watching people we’ve found especially interesting. I’d have to double-check with Elmo to be positive, but at least four more were in other parts of the city, trying to pick up something of interest. The rest of us were here in the castle, off duty. Wait. One man would have been down in the Duke’s secret police office, and two would have been at the Enclosure, hanging around with the Custodians. I was with the Inquisitors most of the night, picking their brains. We’re scattered pretty thin right now. I’ll be glad when the Captain gets here. We’ve got too much going for the available manpower. The occupation pla

She sighed, rose, resumed pacing. “My fault as much as anyone’s, I suppose.” She looked out a window for a long time. Then she beckoned. I joined her.

She indicated the black castle. “Just whiskers short. They’re trying to open the way for the Dominator already. It’s not yet time, but they’re getting hurried. Maybe they’ve sensed our interest.”

This Juniper business was like some giant, tentacled sea beast from a sailor’s lie. No matter where we turned or what we did, we got deeper into trouble. By working at cross-purposes with the Taken, trying to cover an increasingly more obvious trail, we were complicating their efforts to deal with the peril of the black castle. If we did cover well, we just might make it possible for the Dominator to emerge into an unprepared world.

I did not want that horror upon my conscience.

Though I fear I tend not to record it that way, we were embroiled in substantial moral quandaries. We are not accustomed to such problems. The lot of the mercenary does not require much moralizing or making of moral decisions. Essentially, the mercenary sets morality aside, or at best reorders the customary structures to fit the needs of his way of life. The great issues become how well he does his job, how faithfully he carries out his commission, how well he adheres to a standard demanding unswerving loyalties to his comrades. He dehumanizes the world outside the bounds of his outfit. Then anything he does, or witnesses, becomes of minor significance as long as its brunt is borne outside the Company.

We had drifted into a trap where we might have to face the biggest choice in the Company’s history. We might have to betray four centuries of Company mythos on behalf of the greater whole.

I knew I could not permit the Dominator to restore himself, if that turned out to be the only way we could keep the Lady from finding out about Darling and Raven.

Yet... The Lady was not much better. We served her, and, till lately, well and faithfully, obliterating the Rebel wherever we found him, but I don’t think many of us were indifferent to what she was. She was less evil than the Dominator only because she was less determined about it, more patient in her drive for total and absolute control.

That presented me with another quandary. Was I capable of sacrificing Darling to prevent the Dominator’s return? If that became the price?

“You seem very thoughtful,” Whisper said.

“Uhm. There’re too many angles to this business. The Custodians. The Duke. Us. Bullock, who has axes of his own to grind.” I had told her about Bullock’s Buskin origins, feeding her seemingly irrelevant information to complicate and distract her thinking.

She pointed again. “Didn’t I suggest a close watch be kept on that place?”

“Yes, ma’am. We did for a while, too. But nothing ever happened, and then we were told to do some other things...” I broke off, quaking with a sudden nasty suspicion.

She read my face. “Yes. Last night. And this delivery was still alive.”

“Oh boy,” I murmured. “Who did it? You know?”

“We just sensed the consequent changes. They tried to open the way. They weren’t strong enough yet, but they came very close.”

She began to prowl. Mentally, I ticked off the roster for the Buskin last night. I was going to ask some very pointed questions.

“I consulted the Lady directly. She’s very worried. Her orders are to let ancillary business slide. We’re to prevent any more bodies reaching the castle. Yes, the rest of your Company will be here soon. From six to ten days. And there is much to be done to prepare for their arrival. But, as you observed, there is too much to do and too few to do it. Let your Captain cope when he arrives. The black castle must be isolated.”

“Why not fly some men in?”

“The Lady has forbidden that.”

I tried to look perplexed. “Buy why?” I had a sweating, fearful suspicion that I knew.

Whisper shrugged. “Because she doesn’t want you wasting time making hellos and briefing newcomers. Go see what can be done about isolating the castle.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I departed, thinking it had gone both better and worse than I had anticipated. Better, because she did not throw one of her screaming rages. Worse, because she had in effect a

Scary.

“Yeah,” Elmo said when I told him. He did not need it explained. “Which means we got to make contact with the Old Man.”

“Messenger?”

“What else? Who can we break loose and cover?”

“One of the men from the Buskin.”

Elmo nodded. “I’ll handle that. You go ahead and figure how to isolate the castle with the manpower we have.”

“Why don’t you go scout the castle? I want to find out what those guys were doing last night.”

“That’s neither here nor there now, Croaker. I’m taking over. Not saying you done a bad job, just you didn’t get it done. Which is my fault, really. I’m the soldier.”

“Being a soldier won’t make any difference, Elmo. This isn’t soldier’s work. It’s spy stuff. And spies need time to worm into the fabric of a society. We haven’t had enough of that.”