The small shadows had gone into hiding again.
The door began to glow. Its surface rippled colorfully, according to the hue of the fireballs hitting its far side.
Soulcatcher produced a knife and slit Howler's clothing. I did not understand till she found what she was looking for. That proved to be a piece of silk, four feet by six when she spread it, and a little bundle of sticks. The silk rectangle became almost rigid when she spoke a certain word. It floated up off the floor like it was floating on the surface of a gently rippling pool. Soulcatcher broke the bundle of sticks and assembled them into a framework on which she stretched the silk. She muttered as she worked. The whole thing seemed much too fragile but in a minute she grabbed the Daughter of Night and clambered aboard. The carpet sagged but held their weight.
Sputtering, jerking like he was having a seizure, Howler staggered toward his stolen emergency conveyance. I wondered if this was his final secret or if he still had more flying tricks up his sleeves. I bet it was something like that piece of silk that got him out of dying, back when they thought he had crashed at high speed into the side of the Tower at Charm.
Soulcatcher did something incredibly violent. Most of the tower top vanished inside a globe of white light. The flare was so brilliant it betrayed every shadow slithering through the night but temporarily blinded half the men trying to exterminate them.
When the light faded a third of the tower's crystal roof no longer existed. Soulcatcher snagged Howler by the hair, dragged him onto the carpet, said some word that started the tiny thing moving.
It began to sink almost immediately. It barely cleared the turret. Then it went down, down, toward the unfriendly folks and unfriendlier shadows hunting one another amongst the rocks below. Catcher did not want to go down there but the carpet was overloaded. It was designed to help the runt get out of a tight spot, not him and all his friends and neighbors.
The smell of Kina grew stronger again. The whirlwind of rage was coming back for one more try.
The goddess did not want her daughter carried off.
The brat's eyes were closed inside her egg. That had proven to be flexible and slick when Soulcatcher was slinging it around. The kid's face bore that serene expression she got when she was communing with Kina.
Lady and her cohorts burst into the chamber where Longshadow and Narayan Singh still groaned and twitched. Fireballs routed the small shadows instantly. Seconds later a stream of fireballs reached down for Catcher and her companions. None hit home but they did alert our troops that something was on the fly. Anything that flew would not be friendly.
Kina's interest and anger heightened fast. A hurricane screamed in the ghostworld. Her stench leaked over into the real world. Men heaved up their last meals. The sky darkened more than the night and clouds insisted.
The earth shook.
The throne shudders and slips a thousandth of an inch. The tortured figure groans. Its blind eyes flutter.
One crow cackles.
The bird fails to recall that it dares not rest. Its claws touch down atop the sleeper's head. Before its wings finish folding it begins to scream. Small shadows have found it. They squabble over its life force joyfully.
The earth shivers. There is no silence anymore. Stone is broken. It continues to break. The light in the abyss is brighter. Pastel, gossamer mists rise like the questing tentacles of a sea anemone.
There is color. There is life, of a sort. There is light.
There is death. The crow shrieks out its pained outrage.
And dies.
Death will find a way. Darkness will find a way inside. Darkness always comes.
70
It took me a while to realize that the shaking was neither imaginary nor metaphorical. The earth was shaking. This was a genuine badass earthquake as nasty as the one that had destroyed Kiaulune and much of the Shadowlands back before we headed south. Panic filled the air of the ghost world, apparently a divine panic on Kina's part. Her stink took on a whole new air.
Who ever heard of a god being scared?
Fireballs continued to scar the night.
I watched Lady and her people stagger around as they collected Singh and Longshadow. They were extremely careful with both. Lady knew just how dangerous each could be. She had been both in her time.
She wanted to hurl some special farewell after her sister but before she could get a spell woven an aftershock rattled the fortress. Pieces began to fall off the battered tower. Lady decided it might be an opportune time to head downstairs and get out to ground where things were less likely to fall on her.
I decided it would be a good time to get back out and talk to Croaker. Then I recalled that I was not riding Smoke now so I did not have that kind of control. I could not force myself awake.
I decided to stick with Soulcatcher and her companions. It would be useful to know where she settled down to regain control enough to surround herself in mists and repulsions again.
For a second, as I went over the lip of the tower into the abyss of night, I thought I felt Smoke whiningly trying to shy away from the tower. Maybe I was getting too accustomed to bejng close to that little chickenshit.
The smell of Kina grew stronger, faded, grew stronger, as though the goddess was hunting blindly. Her anger never abated.
Soulcatcher managed to nag Howler awake enough to lend a hand keeping the carpet aloft. As soon as he had half his wits collected they began bickering. They must have gotten loud because the fireballs began streaking much closer.
Those things had a power that extended beyond the mortal plane, that was sure. I found out the hard way, by giving in to a childish temptation. I allowed one to go zipping through what, roughly, was my body space.
The pain was terrible. I felt what the shadows must feel when hit. But the fireball did not attach itself to me the way it did the shadows though its momentum did drop dramatically enough for me to notice even in my agony.
I was not going to pull that damnfool trick again.
Catcher and Howler almost evaded me after I began to watch the fireballs too closely. But those that darted up after Howler's racket kept her trail warm.
She was heading for that same canyon where she had holed up all winter. It was unlikely that she would stay there long, though. We knew where it was.
I caught up. I could make some time out there when I concentrated.
Maybe I got too close. Soulcatcher seemed, suddenly, to realize that she was being watched. She stopped the carpet and spun it around. Even in the darkness I could feel the intensity of her glare. "Howler!" she snapped. "Do you feel something strange?"
Bad move, that. It encouraged the stinky little wizard to open his mouth. A grand howl ripped out when he did. Catcher had stopped right above some of the Prahbrindrah Drah's fugitives. They were very nervous men.
The first fireballs up illuminated the carpet well enough for other snipers to take better aim. Hardly had Howler gotten his mouth under control than a fireball winged him. He shrieked again. And lost his concentration.
The carpet began to slide toward the ground. Soulcatcher cursed in a cranky old man's voice, fought it. A fireball nearly parted her raven hair. Enraged, she opened her mouth to pronounce some deadly retribution.
The carpet began to fall.
Catcher shrieked in frustration, threw out a booted foot and pushed Howler off the edge of the carpet. He yelled angrily. Catcher grumbled an unfriendly goodbye. The carpet stopped falling. Muttering control spells, Catcher got it moving again. The boys on the ground never stopped sniping.