his
doubts.
We would have a numbers advantage but our men had not been
drilled until they were automatons. Our men did not fear their
officers more than they feared death itself. Our men did not know
the price you paid if you stirred the anger of a Shadowmaster. Not
in the intimate way the defenders of Charandaprash knew.
Our men had not rehearsed again and again, learning every
boulder on the ground where they would be expected to fight.
----
----
13
A breeze whipped smoke and the stench of death into my face. A
soldier shouted. I glanced back. The Captain, wearing the hideous
black Widowmaker armor Lady had created for him, was coming up.
Ravens surrounded him. For the thousandth time I wondered about his
connection with Soulcatcher.
“You sent for me?”
“There’s something you ought to see, I think.”
I had not seen it myself yet, but did know what to expect.
He gestured. “Let’s go.”
We rode up a small rise. We stopped to look at the bodies of six
small brown men far too old to have been soldiers. They lay inside
a bowl that had been hollowed out of the hard ground, around a fire
that still yielded a puny thread of smoke.
“Where are the men who killed them?”
“They didn’t hang around. You don’t take
chances with these people.”
Croaker grunted, not pleased but understanding the thinking of
the ordinary soldier. He removed his ugly winged helmet. Crows took
the opportunity to perch on his shoulders. He seemed not to notice.
“I’d say we’ve gotten somebody’s
attention.”
I had run into little brown men like these before, years ago
when first we had come into the south and more recently in the
Deceivers’ holy Grove of Doom, where I had ambushed many of
their top people. A group of these skrinsa shadowweavers had had
the misfortune to be there on behalf of the Shadowmaster.
These men would have been doing the same as those others, using
a gaggle of little shadows to spy and run messages. Croaker
pointed. Several of the old men had had chunks ripped right out of
them. He observed, “Lady did say you shouldn’t get in
the way of her bamboo toys.”
We had overtaken Lady, more or less. She was following a line of
advance several miles to our left. If Croaker and she had stolen a
kiss they had managed it by magic. Croaker was in too big a hurry
to assume complete control of his assembling center corps of two
divisions.
He carried a bamboo pole slung across his back. So did I. And so
did every other man in the main force, now. Some carried a bundle.
“Oh?”
“She’ll pitch a fit if this gets to be a
habit.” Croaker was amused.
“She never was a ground-pounder.”
Your average infantryman does not give a rat’s ass about
the design function of a weapon. He is concerned about staying
alive and about getting his job done with the least risk taken. The
bamboo doohickeys were meant for combating killer shadows? So
fucking what? If using them made taking out nasty little wizards
easier, guess what was going to happen?
Pop!
----
----
14
We sighted Lake Tanji an hour before night fell. The sudden view
was so stunning I stopped dead in my tracks. The lake was miles
across and cold grey. It dwindled away to my right, the direction
our road ran. To our left the land was very rugged. Arms of
increasingly substantial hills ran down to the water. The Dandha
Presh itself seemed to rise directly from the far shore, all greys
in the evening light, dark down low and lighter at the peaks, where
snowfields sparkled. A playful god had scrawled a thin cloudline
across the panorama, halfway up the mountains, so that the peaks
rode a magic carpet.
Grey, grey, grey. Right then the whole world seemed grey.
“Impressive,” the Captain said.
“Not at all like seeing it through Smoke’s
eyes.”
He frowned at me even though not even a crow was near enough to
hear. “Look there.”
A village burned along the shore several miles ahead. A ball of
blue light streaked out of the
doubts.
We would have a numbers advantage but our men had not been
drilled until they were automatons. Our men did not fear their
officers more than they feared death itself. Our men did not know
the price you paid if you stirred the anger of a Shadowmaster. Not
in the intimate way the defenders of Charandaprash knew.
Our men had not rehearsed again and again, learning every
boulder on the ground where they would be expected to fight.
----
----
13
A breeze whipped smoke and the stench of death into my face. A
soldier shouted. I glanced back. The Captain, wearing the hideous
black Widowmaker armor Lady had created for him, was coming up.
Ravens surrounded him. For the thousandth time I wondered about his
connection with Soulcatcher.
“You sent for me?”
“There’s something you ought to see, I think.”
I had not seen it myself yet, but did know what to expect.
He gestured. “Let’s go.”
We rode up a small rise. We stopped to look at the bodies of six
small brown men far too old to have been soldiers. They lay inside
a bowl that had been hollowed out of the hard ground, around a fire
that still yielded a puny thread of smoke.
“Where are the men who killed them?”
“They didn’t hang around. You don’t take
chances with these people.”
Croaker grunted, not pleased but understanding the thinking of
the ordinary soldier. He removed his ugly winged helmet. Crows took
the opportunity to perch on his shoulders. He seemed not to notice.
“I’d say we’ve gotten somebody’s
attention.”
I had run into little brown men like these before, years ago
when first we had come into the south and more recently in the
Deceivers’ holy Grove of Doom, where I had ambushed many of
their top people. A group of these skrinsa shadowweavers had had
the misfortune to be there on behalf of the Shadowmaster.
These men would have been doing the same as those others, using
a gaggle of little shadows to spy and run messages. Croaker
pointed. Several of the old men had had chunks ripped right out of
them. He observed, “Lady did say you shouldn’t get in
the way of her bamboo toys.”
We had overtaken Lady, more or less. She was following a line of
advance several miles to our left. If Croaker and she had stolen a
kiss they had managed it by magic. Croaker was in too big a hurry
to assume complete control of his assembling center corps of two
divisions.
He carried a bamboo pole slung across his back. So did I. And so
did every other man in the main force, now. Some carried a bundle.
“Oh?”
“She’ll pitch a fit if this gets to be a
habit.” Croaker was amused.
“She never was a ground-pounder.”
Your average infantryman does not give a rat’s ass about
the design function of a weapon. He is concerned about staying
alive and about getting his job done with the least risk taken. The
bamboo doohickeys were meant for combating killer shadows? So
fucking what? If using them made taking out nasty little wizards
easier, guess what was going to happen?
Pop!
----
----
14
We sighted Lake Tanji an hour before night fell. The sudden view
was so stunning I stopped dead in my tracks. The lake was miles
across and cold grey. It dwindled away to my right, the direction
our road ran. To our left the land was very rugged. Arms of
increasingly substantial hills ran down to the water. The Dandha
Presh itself seemed to rise directly from the far shore, all greys
in the evening light, dark down low and lighter at the peaks, where
snowfields sparkled. A playful god had scrawled a thin cloudline
across the panorama, halfway up the mountains, so that the peaks
rode a magic carpet.
Grey, grey, grey. Right then the whole world seemed grey.
“Impressive,” the Captain said.
“Not at all like seeing it through Smoke’s
eyes.”
He frowned at me even though not even a crow was near enough to
hear. “Look there.”
A village burned along the shore several miles ahead. A ball of
blue light streaked out of the
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