“How about you?”
The taller man nodded, frowning. He was going to bust a vein trying to remember.
I said, “Maybe Shadowspinner did something to us and let us go. That’s worth keeping in mind-especially if you have urges that really surprise you.”
After dark we stole along the shoreline till we found a raft, jumped aboard and headed for Dejagore. And discovered immediately that we were going to get nowhere using poles. The water was too deep. We ended up using poles and broken boards as inefficient paddles. It took us half the night to make the crossing. And then, naturally, everything went to hell.
One-Eye was on watch and had been passing the time making love to a keg of beer. He heard water splash and people ask for a hand up and concluded that the evil hordes were upon him, whereupon he flung fireballs hither and yon so any handy archers could plink us.
One-Eye recognized me before more than three or four arrows whizzed past. He yelled for a ceasefire. But the damage had been done. The Nar at the North Gate saw us.
We were far enough away that they should not recognize faces. But the possibility that the Old Crew might have outside contacts would get Mogaba’s interest.
“Hey, Kid, good to see you,” One-Eye said as I clambered to the top of the wall. “We thought you was dead. We was going to have a funeral in a few more days if we got time. I been stalling it, account of if you was officially dead then I’d have to start keeping the Annals.” Generously, he offered me a drink from his very own unwashed for a fortnight mug. I declined the honor. “You all right, Kid?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you can tell me.” I told him what I could remember.
“You have another spell?”
“If I did these guys had it with me.”
“Interesting. Come around and see me about it tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“I’m gonna be off watch in ten minutes and I intend to hit the sack. And you need some sleep yourself.”
My pal. Don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have One-Eye to worry about me.
62
Bucket wakened me. “One of Mogaba’s guys is here, Murgen. Says His Majesty wants to see you.” I groaned. “Does it have to be so bright out there?” I had not bothered to go down into the warrens.
“He’s pissed off. We’ve been pretending you were here but couldn’t talk to him. Goblin and One-Eye put doubles of you on the wall sometimes so the Nar could see you.”
“And now you have the real Murgen back you want to throw him to the wolf.”
“Uh... Well... He didn’t ask for nobody else.” Meaning he did not want Goblin or One-Eye. He wanted to stay away from those two.
“Find my bitty buddies and tell them I need them. Now.” The wizards turned up at their own leisure, of course. I told them, “Put me in a litter and lug me over to the citadel. We’re going to admit that you’ve been lying about me but only because I was totally sick. What we were doing on that raft last night was taking baths. You thought it would be cute to pop off a few fireballs while I had my pants down.”
One-Eye started to complain but before he could start I growled, “I’m not face Mogaba without backup. He don’t have any reason to be nice anymore.”
“He won’t be in a good mood,” Goblin predicted. “There’s been rioting. Food shortages are getting really bad. He won’t turn one grain of rice loose. Even his handpicked Taglian sergeants have started to desert.”
“It’s all falling apart for him,” I said. “He was going to take over and show the world wonders but his followers can’t match his iron will.”
“And we’re some kind of philanthropic brotherhood?” One-Eye muttered.
“We never kill nobody who don’t ask for it. Come on. Let’s do it. And be ready for anything. Both of you.”
But first we went up to the battlements, both so I could see this world by daylight and so the Nar at the North Gate could see me looking sick before I presented myself that way.
The water level was just eight feet below the ramparts, higher than Hong Tray’s prediction. “Any flooding inside?”
“Mogaba sealed the gates somehow. He has Jaicuri working parties bucket-brigading what seepage there is.” “Good for him. How about down below?” “There’s some seepage in the catacombs. Not a lot. We could keep up by hauling it up in buckets.”
I grunted. I stared at Shadowspinner’s lake. I saw more corpses than I could count. “Those didn’t float up from the mounds, did they?”
Goblin told me, “Mogaba threw people off the wall during the riots. And some might be from rafts that turned over or broke up.”
I squinted. I could just make out a mounted patrol beyond the water. A raft with Jaicuri piled high had been caught by daylight. The people aboard were trying to move away from the waiting patrol by paddling with their hands.
Thai Dei turned up so we knew his people were watching. I figured he would want me to visit the Speaker. But he said nothing. I told my bearers, “Take me to his worship.”
As we approached I observed, “The citadel looks like something out of a spook story.” And it did, with the sky overcast behind it and crows swarming around. Dejagore was a paradise for crows. They were going to get too fat to fly. Maybe we would get fat eating them.
The Nar at the entrance would not let One-Eye and Goblin inside. “So take me home,” I told them. “Wait!”
“Stick it, buddy. I got no need to put up with Mogaba’s crap. The Lieutenant is alive. So is the Captain, probably. Mogaba ain’t shit nowhere but inside his own head anymore.”
“You could have at least argued until we were rested up.”
One-Eye started shuffling sideways so he could turn and head back down the steps.
Ochiba caught us before we reached street level. He was cast in the same mold as all Nar. His face remained neutral. “Apologies, Standardbearer. Won’t you reconsider?”
“Reconsider what? I don’t especially want to see Mogaba. He’s been eating magic mushrooms or chewing lucky weed or something. I been shitting my guts out for over a week. I ain’t in no shape to play games with no homicidal lunatic.”
Something fluttered behind Ochiba’s dark eyes. Maybe he agreed. Maybe there was another war going on inside him, a struggle between keeping faith with Gea-Xle’s greatest Nar ever and keeping faith with his own humanity.
I was not going to pursue it. Any hint of outside interest would push waverers in the direction of “That’s the way it’s always been.”
That was the top two, then, quietly questioning Mogaba’s way. If these guys doubted him things were probably worse than I thought.
“As you wish.” Ochiba told the sentries, “Let the litterbearers in.”
Nobody missed the significance of who my litterbearers were. It was a pretty direct statement.
I felt comfortably confrontational.
63
Was Mogaba happy to see Goblin and One-Eye, and them looking so fit? You better believe he wasn’t. But he did not pursue his displeasure. He just ticked something on his mental get-even slate. He would make me even more unhappy than he had planned. Later.
“Can you sit up?” he asked, almost like he cared.
“Yeah. I made sure. That’s partly why I took so long. That and I wanted to make sure I’d stay rational.”
“Oh?”
“I’ve been suffering severe fevers and dysentery for over a week. Last night they took me out and threw me in the water to cool me down. That worked.”
“I see. Come to the table, please.”
Goblin and One-Eye helped me into a chair. They put on a fine show.