She Is The Darkness

She stepped in through a door opened by Narayan Singh as though she had been about to knock.

Longshadow was not ready for this. Not at all. He was surrounded, totally betrayed, before he realized Catcher had arrived.

I clung there with all the power I had to resist Smoke's terror. The little shit whined and repeated she is the darkness! like that was some mantra against the fangs of the night.

"The game ends," Soulcatcher said in the booming, basso voice of a crier in an amphitheater. Then she giggled like a teenaged girl. "It's been hard work but worth it. I really like my new house." Both those sentences arrived in the voice of a little old man who keeps account books.

Longshadow was caught, trapped, pinned like a butterfly on a collector's display board. He was surrounded, outnumbered, and did not have a chance even if he was the greatest wizard who ever lived. Which he was not. Even so, he did not surrender.

He knew his value. His mind was not clouded. She dared not kill him because the Shadowgate would collapse.

I had to give in to Smoke. I had to get this news back fast.

I really needed to get it to Lady fastest but there was no way.

Longshadow moved slowly to pick up his gloves. As he began to pull one on, Soulcatcher said, "I think not." Her voice was the velvet tenor of a tombstone salesman. "In fact, it's time... "

Longshadow's right pinky was crooked, as though it had been broken and badly set a long time ago. The nail looked like a bit of rotten, dried out, blackened spinach leaf.

The Shadowmaster flicked that little finger.

The nail flew off just as Catcher said, "... time... "

I shook my ghostly head. You never see everything.

In one eyeblink that nail became a shadow filled with hatred for the light.

Smoke's wriggling became irresistible.

64

I reached for a mug of water even as I sat up. Groggily, it dawned on me that I had been shoved into the cramped little alcove where the Old Man had been keeping Smoke since we sneaked him over from One-Eye's pesthole. There were voices beyond the ragged hangings concealing me.

I took a long drink, stirred Smoke's blankets around so he would be hidden, ran my fingers through my hair, stepped out of hiding.

The voices stopped instantly. Croaker looked about as angry as he could get. I told him, "It's that important." Which left a baffled look on the faces of Swan and Blade. "Good thing they're handy. You guys go outside for a minute? Take the candle."

"What the fuck are you doing?" Croaker demanded. He had to make a major effort to keep his voice down.

"Soulcatcher just took over Overlook."

"Huh?"

"She walked in while Longshadow was cutting the shadows loose. Which he did, by the way. And she and Singh and the kid and Howler all jumped him. You needed to know right now. This changes everything. Lady should hear as soon as possible, too."

"Uhn!" Croaker was still angry but I could see the changes taking place behind his eyes, see the focus of his anger shifting like a ship changing course. "The bitch. The deceitful, conniving, treacherous bitch."

"Way she talked, she's planning on moving into Overlook and making it home."

"The bitch!"

"I wish I could tell you more. Smoke refused to stay around where she was at. Think you better tell Lady?"

"Of course I'd better tell her. Shut up. Let me think."

"Hey in there!" Swan yelled from the other side of the hangings keeping the wind out. "You guys better come and see this."

"Now what?" Croaker snarled.

"I'll check it out. Write them a message they can take to Lady."

"Damn it. It may be too late. She was going to try to sneak up on Longshadow herself."

Shit. We were in the brown stuff deep. Maybe.

I made a wobble-legged dash for the open air. I slipped on the steps going up to ground level. The earth was still soggy, even up here on the hillside.

I did not have to ask Willow what troubled him.

The biggest fireworks show of all time was going on over by the Shadowgate. Maybe the dustup at Lake Tanji was a match but I got to see that one only from the inside. "Gods damn!" I swore. There were so many fireballs flying around that no expletive could do the event justice.

I flung myself back down the muddy steps.

Croaker was wriggling into his Widowmaker costume. I told him, "It's started at the Shadowgate. You have to see it to believe it. I hope those guys have enough bamboo."

"Lady gave them everything she could. It'll be a matter of numbers. Which we've known from the beginning. If we have more fireballs than they throw shadows, we win. If we don't, we end up sorry. But not for long."

"Longshadow didn't seem to do much. If that tells you anything positive."

"It doesn't. I don't have any idea what he would or wouldn't have to do to unleash some or all of the shadows. And there's no way I can guess how he'd think about it. Except that he wouldn't want to let go so many that they'd come after him, too. He'd want to be able to control the survivors after he got rid of us."

"He doesn't know that he doesn't have any more shadowweavers. Singh and Howler have been feeding him very selective information lately. The true extent of what Lady accomplished the other day is a complete mystery to him."

"More treachery from our friend Soulcatcher, no doubt."

"I'd bet on it."

"You need to get back out there. She wouldn't do just that one thing. It would leave her too vulnerable."

"Huh?" My turn to make funny noises.

"She's got to know we can get in and out of there whenever we want. She has to cover her sweet little ass. Go see what she's up to before she really gets going."

"On my way, boss."

I drank some sugar water and went out.

Smoke did not want to go back to Overlook. I got my way. I tricked him, sort of, by ducking back to before Catcher pushed her way into his awareness. Then I zipped forward and watched the shadow explode off Longshadow's pinky.

It went for Howler. It hit Howler. Howler howled. And fought it off somehow. It darted at Narayan Singh, who shrieked as it struck him. Howler and Catcher together forced the animate darkness away from the Deceiver. Singh lapsed into unconsciousness immediately.

The shadow was not whipped yet. It struck at the Daughter of Night.

The instant she screamed the ghostworld began to fill with the stench of Kina. A cyclone of rage roared toward Overlook. Smoke squeaked she is the darkness and away we went, streaking out of there like a shaft from a ballista. We went high and we went north and we went fast. The fireworks at the Shadowgate vanished behind the Dandha Presh. We were north of Dejagore before I could exert any control.

The ghostworld had become one protracted whimper from my steed. He was fleeing somewhere where he expected to be safe. Somewhere that the deepest part of him recalled from days when he was still an ordinary mortal.

He had only just begun to respond to directions when we drifted into the Palace.

The place was a beehive. Priests and Guards and functionaries rushed everywhere. There was excitement out on the city streets, too. Shadar watchmen roamed in packs, making arrests by the score.

This bore closer examination.

I checked the prisoners. A few seemed vaguely familiar. I dipped around in time and discovered that they were being collected in the empty Black Company barracks. I found some definitely familiar faces in the crowd there.

They were all people who had been friendly to the Company.

I zipped around for a look at the Radisha, ran back in time to the beginning... Near as I could tell her adventure had been going on for only a short while, though she had spent hours earlier getting her assets positioned. Actual arrests commenced just about the time Soulcatcher strolled into Longshadow's chamber at Overlook.