The Goblin-thing and the Daughter of Night settled down, too, and they really did nothing but sit. They did not begin transcribing the Books of the Dead because they had no supplies. They did not consult with Deceivers making pilgrimages into the holy grove. Those men we left alone, every future step to be dogged by Unknown Shadows so we could follow their routines once they returned to their home environments. There were not many Stranglers left alive. This way we could find out who those few were.
Handy as it is, being able to see whatever you want takes a lot of getting used to.
The Grove of Doom was always a cruel and wicked place, filled with ancient darkness. The hidden folk hated it but they endured going in for Tobo's sake.
Their devotion to the boy gets scary when I think about it too much.
Gromovol and Arkana were mending at a pace equaling Tobo's, which was amazing but not magical. Gromovol's arrogance remained undiminished by misfortune. Arkana was understandably withdrawn.
Soulcatcher worried me increasingly. Not only did she show no improvement, she seemed to be growing weaker. She was headed right down the grim trail Sedvod had blazed.
There was a lot of sentiment favoring letting her slide, and for possibly easing Gromovol along the same dark path while he was sleeping. The jury remained out on Arkana even though the hidden folk had exculpated her in all ways but calculation and manipulation. There were random moments, widely separated, when I felt sorry for the girl.
I remembered the loneliness.
I was the only one who would talk to her, excepting Gromovol. She turned her back on him every time he tried to do so. During our reluctant chats I tried to learn more about her homeworld and, especially, Khatovar. But she did not have much to say. She knew nothing. She had a full measure of youth's indifference to the past.
Shukrat shunned Arkana completely.
Shukrat was almost pathetically eager to fit in. Shukrat really wanted to belong. I have a strong feeling she did not belong before she joined us. And maybe Arkana had, which might illuminate Shukrat's spite toward her now.
80
The Taglian Territories: In Camp
Life is never like a canal, flowing gently through a straightforward and predictable channel. It is more like a mountain brook, zigging and zagging, tearing things up, sometimes going almost dormant before taking an unexpected and turbulent turn.
I was setting out some similar proposition to Lady and Shukrat while examining Tobo to see if he dared put any weight on the broken leg. He thought he was feeling better and was getting extremely restless, which is usually a sign that the patient is, indeed, getting better but is not nearly as far advanced as he wants to believe. We were in my VIP hospital. Soulcatcher and Arkana were present as well. Shukrat was putting on a show, fussing over Tobo while making it clear that Arkana no longer existed. Lady was on her knees beside her sister's pallet, hands flat on her thighs, motionless. She had stayed that way for almost an hour. For a while I thought she was meditating. Or she had gone into some sort of trance. Now I was starting to worry.
The women looked more like mother and daughter than sisters. Poor Lady. Against the years all men campaign in vain. And of late, time has been particularly unkind to my love.
Now that we were settled and had little to do but wait for people to mend, Lady spent time with Soulcatcher every day. She could not explain it herself.
She finally came around, looked back, asked the question that tormented her. "She's dying, isn't she?"
"I think so." I admitted. "And I don't know why. It looks like the same thing that got the Voroshk kid. So I don't know how to turn it around. Howler doesn't know how, either." Though the screaming sorcerer never had been renowned for his skills as a healer.
"Goblin must've done something to her but it isn't sorcery." I added, "Not that anybody recognizes. And it isn't any of the diseases I see in the field." In most armies more soldiers die of dysentery than fall to enemy arms. I am proud that that has never been true in my army.
Lady nodded. She resumed staring at her sister. "I wonder what it is. Something Goblin did. We'd have to wake her up to find out, wouldn't we?" After a heartbeat, "The little bastard was right there when Sedvod took sick, too. Wasn't he?"
"I'm afraid so." I passed Tobo to Shukrat. "Take it easy on him, girl. Or we'll need to get you two a separate tent."
Tobo blushed. Shukrat grinned. I turned to Arkana. "You think you're ready to take up your dancing career again?"
"Is nothing ever serious with you?"
She caught me by surprise. Frivolity was not a crime often attached to my name. "Absolutely. None of us are going to get out of this alive so we might as well grab a laugh while we can." So One-Eye used to claim. "Cranky this morning?" I leaned forward and whispered, "I would be, too. Broken bones are no fun. I know. I've had a few. But try to smile. You're through the worst of it."
She put on her best scowl. The worst of it was still inside her head. She might never recover emotionally. She had not been brought up in a place and station where it was even conceivable that such horrors could overtake her.
"Look at it this way, child. No matter how bad you think it is right now, it can always get worse. I've been in the soldier racket a long time and I promise you, that's a natural law."
"How could my life be worse than this?"
"Think about it. You could be back home. Where you'd be dead. And you would've gone through hell getting that way. Or you could be a prisoner instead of my guest. Which means that every day could be like your one bad day. There're plenty of guys out there who think we let you off too easy. Which reminds me of another natural law. Once you're outside the circle of people who agree that you're special, you're just another human body. And that's hardly ever a good situation for a woman. You're actually better off here, where we have women running stuff, than you would be almost anywhere else."
Arkana retreated inside herself, evidently thinking that I was threatening her. I was not. I was just thinking out loud. Maundering. Old men do that.
I told her, "You need to take it out on somebody, put Gromovol's name at the head of your list."
Lady said, "She's the only connection I have left with ninety percent of my life. The only connection with my family."
The stream takes its wild turns.
"You do anything that saves her, the first thing she'll do when she gets on her feet is try to cut you off at the knees and make you dance on the stumps."
Tobo started to say something. I poked him. We had discussed this several times. His opinion was bloody-minded.
"I know. I know. But every time I turn around it seems like someone else is gone and we're getting to be more and more alien... "
"I understand. I've felt completely dislocated in time since One-Eye died. There's almost nothing left of my past." The nearest thing was come-lately Murgen. Lady and I had chosen the way—and now we were refugees from our own place and time. Though why should I be surprised at this late date? That was what the Company always was: the gathering of the landless, the hopeless, the fugitive and the outcast.
I sighed. Was I about to start creating another past as an emotional crutch?
I knelt beside Lady. "I don't think she'll last more than another week. I'm having trouble getting food down her. And more keeping it there. But I've thought of something we can do to stall death. And maybe even get a sound diagnosis."
Lady turned a gaze on me so intense I shuddered, recalling ancient times, when I was a captive in the Lady's Tower at Charm and about to face the Eye of Truth. "I'm listening."
I noted that, even now, she would not touch her sister. There was a strong selfish underpinning to her emotions. She wanted to save this mad devil sister entirely for her own sake.