Fireballs flew. Some peppered the fortress. Some dove after the shadows that spilled out of the breaking glass containers. Suvrin began whimpering behind me. I told him, "Don't run. They'll get you for sure. They love a fleeing victim."
There was a lot of screaming inside the fortress. Fireballs streaking through had found human targets. In their way, the fireballs were almost as bad as the killing shadows.
One of my men began shrieking when a shadow found him. But he was the only one. Goblin's spell helped some. The quick use of fireballs helped more.
Goblin began loosing fireballs from the pole he had snagged but sent them racing northward instead of toward the stubborn little fort. He quit after only a few tries. He came back to me. "They've done their job, those brave boys in there. They got their warning away." He was as sour as a lemon slice under the tongue.
"So I take it Soulcatcher didn't die when she hit the water." I had heard the news from Taglios only up to the part where the Protector's carpet had fallen apart in midair, with her streaking along four hundred feet above the river. The break coming at that point had not been because anyone was trying to make things particularly dramatic, it was just because there was too much going on to have a lot of time left for catching up. Especially where Murgen was concerned. Murgen seemed to be employed full time easing Sahra's frights and concerns.
"She was one of the Ten Who Were Taken, Sleepy. Those people don't hurt easy. Hell, she survived having her head cut off. She carried it around in a box for about fifteen years."
I grunted. Sometimes it was hard to remember that Soulcatcher was much more than just an unpleasant, distant senior official. "They likely to have any more surprises in there?" I meant the question for Suvrin but Goblin answered.
"If they did, they would've used them. You thinking about going in after them?"
"Oh, heck no! Somebody might get hurt. Somebody besides them. Suvrin, go over there and tell them if they surrender in the next half hour, I'll let them go. If they don't, I'll kill them all before the hour is up."
The fat man started to protest. Vigan poked his behind with the tip of a dagger. I told Suvrin, "If they do anything to you, I'll avenge you."
"That's a big weight off my heart."
Goblin asked, "How are you going to avenge anybody? Considering you're not going to go in there after them."
"That's what we have wizards for. This looks like a wonderful opportunity for you to give Tobo some on-the-job training."
"Am I surprised? Not hardly. For a hundred years it's been, ‘What do we do now?' ‘I don't know. Let's let Goblin handle it.' I oughta just take a hike and let you figure it out for yourself."
"I'm tired. I'm going to sit down here and rest my eyes until Suvrin gets back."
I heard Goblin tell Vigan to put another heavyweight fireball into the corner of the fortification, along the length of the wall so all its energy would be spent devouring the pale limestone. There was a solid thump! swiftly followed by the smell of superheated limestone. As I drifted away, Goblin muttered something about burning them out.
64
T he surface of the river was not friendly when Soulcatcher hit it but neither was the impact like hitting stone from the same altitude. Her fall had been long enough to allow her time to prepare for the landing.
Even so, the collision was brutal enough to extract her consciousness temporarily. But she had prepared for that, too, between curses. When consciousness returned she was drifting downriver with the flood, head above the surface. It being the rainy season, the river was high and the current brisk. It took a great effort to complete the swim to the south bank. By the time she crawled out of the flood and collapsed, she was a half-dozen miles downstream from where she had gone in, which was outside the city proper, in a domain best known for its jackals, of both the two- and four-legged varieties. It was said that leopards still hunted there at night, the occasional crocodile could be found along the shore, and it was not that many years since a tiger had come visiting from down the river.
The Protector experienced no difficulties with any mad or hungry thing. A hundred crows perched around her, standing guard. Others flapped about in the darkness until squadrons of bats had gathered. Birds and bats together discouraged the scavengers and predators till Soulcatcher awakened and in a fit of pique, sent an entire band of jackals racing away with their pelts aflame.
She stumbled toward home, regaining strength slowly, muttering about growing old and less resilient. A tremor entered the voice she chose to inveigh against the predations of time.
Eventually she reached the home of a moneylender, where she commandeered transportation back to the Palace. She arrived there somewhat after the breakfast hour in a temper so foul that the entire staff made a point of becoming invisible. Only the Great General came to inquire after her well-being. And he went away when she started snarling and snapping.
Though she reveled in her paranoia, Soulcatcher did not suspect that her accident had been anything else until she examined her remaining carpet preparatory to another effort to fly off to entertain the Nyueng Bao. Then she discovered that the light wooden-frame members on which the carpet was stretched had been weakened by strategic saw cuts.
The who and probable why became clear within seconds. She sent out a summons to Jaul Barundandi and his associates.
Surprise. Barundandi was nowhere to be found. He had been called out of the Palace for a family emergency, he had said, just moments after her return. So the Greys reported when told to investigate.
"What an amazing coincidence. Find him. Find the men he worked with regularly. We have a great deal to discuss."
Greys scattered. One bold captain, however, remained behind to report, "Rumor in the city says the Bhodi intend to resume their self-immolations. They want the Radisha to come out and address their concerns personally."
The news did not improve Soulcatcher's temper. "Ask them if they would like me to donate the naphtha they need. I'm feeling particularly charitable today. Also ask them if they can hold off starting long enough for the carpenters to put up grandstands so more of the Radisha's good subjects can enjoy the entertainment. I don't care what those lunatics do. Get out of here! Find that Barundandi slug!" The voice she used was informed with a potent lunacy.
Jaul Barundandi's luck was mixed. He managed to avoid the attentions of the bats and crows and shadows the Protector released when the Greys had no immediate success in locating him, but an informer eventually betrayed him when the reward for his capture grew large enough. The lie was that he had attacked and severely wounded the Radisha, that only the Protector's swift intercession with her most powerful sorcery had saved the Princess's life. The Radisha's situation remained grave.
The Taglian people loved their Radisha. Jaul Barundandi discovered that he had no friends but his accomplices and it was one of those who betrayed him in exchange for a partial reward (the Grey officers pocketing the bulk) and a running start.
Jaul Barundandi suffered terrible torments and tried hard to cooperate so the pain would stop but he could tell the Protector nothing that she wanted to know. So she had him put into a cage and hung fifteen feet above the place where the Bhodi disciples generally chose to give up their lives and issued a rescript encouraging passersby to throw stones. It was her intent that he hang there indefinitely, his suffering neverending, but sometime during the first night, somehow, someone managed to toss him a piece of poisoned fruit while leaving his betrayer and a murdered Grey below, each with a piece of paper in his mouth bearing the characters for "Water Sleeps." Crows savaged both corpses before they were discovered.