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smiled fawningly. "Thanks, Shed." Count called, "Shed." Shed shook as he crossed the room. Krage's men smirked. This wouldn't work. Krage wouldn't listen. He was going to throw his money away. "Count says you've got something to give me on account," Krage said. "Uhm." Krage's den could have been ripped whole from a mansion high up the wall of the valley. Shed was stunned. "Stop Page 13 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html gawking and get on with it. You'd better not give me a handful of copper and beg for an extension, either. Picked a warm doorway yet? Your payments are a joke, Shed." "No joke. Mr. Krage. Honest. I can pay over half of it." Krage's eyebrows rose. "Interesting." Shed laid nine silver leva before him. "Very interesting." He fixed Shed with a penetrating stare. Shed stammered, "That's over half, counting interest. I hoped maybe seeing as how that would put me ahead...." "Quiet." Shed shut up. "You think I should forget what happened?" "That wasn't my fault, Mr. Krage. I didn't tell him to.... You don't know what Raven is like." "Shut up." Krage stared at the coins. "Maybe something can be arranged. I know you didn't put him up to it. You don't have the guts." Shed stared at the floor, unable to deny his cowardice. "Okay, Shed. You're a regular client. Back to the regular schedule." He eyed the money. "You're ahead three weeks, looks like." "Thank you, Mr. Krage. Really. You don't know how much this means...." "Shut up. I know exactly what it means. Get out. Start getting another payment together. This is your last reprieve." "Yes. sir." Shed retreated. Count opened the door. "Shed! I may want something sometime. A favor for a favor. Understand?" "Yes, sir." "All right. Go." Shed left, a sinking feeling replacing relief. Krage would make him help get Raven. He almost wept as he tramped homeward. It never got any better. He was always in a trap. Chapter Ten: TALLY TURNAROUND Tome was typical of towns we had garrisoned recently. Small, dirty, boring. One wondered why the Lady bothered. What use were these remote provinces? Did she insist they bend the knee merely to puff her ego? There was nothing here worth having, unless it was power over the natives. Even they viewed their country with a certain contempt. The presence of the Black Company strained the resources of the area. Within a week the Captain started talking about shifting a company to Heart and billeting smaller units in the villages. Our patrols seldom encountered the Rebel, even when our wizards helped hunt. The engagement at Madle's had all but eliminated the infestation. The Lady's spies told us the few committed Rebels left had fled into Tambor, an even bleaker kingdom to the northeast. I supposed Tambor would be our next mission. I was scribbling away at these Annals one day, when I decided I needed an estimate of the mileage we'd covered in our progression eastward. I was appalled to learn the truth. Tome was two thousand miles east of Charm! Far beyond the bounds of the empire as it had existed six years ago. The great bloody conquests of the Taken Whisper had established a border arc just this side of the Plain of Fear. I ran down the line of city-states forming that forgotten frontier. Frost and Ade, Thud and Barns, and Rust, where the Rebel had defied the Lady successfully for years. Huge cities all, formidable, and the last such we had seen. I still shuddered, recalling the Plain of Fear. We crossed it under the aegis of Whisper and Feather, two of the Taken, the Lady's black apprentices, both sorceresses orders of magnitude above our three puny wizards. Even so, and traveling with entire armies of the Lady's regulars, we suffered there. It is a hostile, bitter land where none of the normal rules apply. Rocks speak and whales fly. Coral grows in the desert. Trees walk. And the inhabitants are the strangest of all.... But that is neither here nor there. Just a nightmare from the past. A nightmare that haunts me still, when the screams of Cougar and Fleet come echoing down the corridors of time, and once again I can do nothing to save them. "What's the trouble?" Elmo asked, slipping the map from beneath my fingers, cocking his head sideways. "Look like you saw a ghost." "Just remembering the Plain of Fear." "Oh. Yeah. Well, buck up. Have a beer." He slapped my back. "Hey! Kingpin! Where the hell you been?" He charged away, in pursuit of the Company's leading malingerer. One-Eye arrived a moment later, startling me. "How's Goblin?" he asked softly. There had been no intercourse between them since Madle's. He eyed the map. "The Empty Hills? Interesting name." "Also called the Hollow Hills. He's all right. Why don't you check him out?" "What the hell for? He was the one who Page 14 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html acted the ass. Can't take a little joke...." "Your jokes get a bit rough, One-Eye." "Yeah. Maybe. Tell you what. You come with me." "Got to prepare my reading." One night a month the Captain expects me to exhort the troops with a reading from the Annals. So we'll know where we came from, so we'll recall our ancestors in the outfit. Once that meant a lot. The Black Company. Last of the Free Companies of Khatovar. All brethren. Tight. Great esprit. Us against the world, and let the world watch out. But the something that had manifested itself in Goblin's behavior, in the low-grade depression of Elmo and others, was affecting everybody. The pieces were coming unglued. I had to pick a good reading. From a time when the Company had its back against the wall and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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