Book 1 - Shadow Games Read Free Page A

Swan.
    “Come to collect your share and tell us how lousy we are,
corrupting these children?” Willow asked.
    Blade shook his head. “That old spook Smoke’s having
dreams again. The Woman wants you.”
    “Shit.” Swan dropped his feet to the floor. Here was
the fly in the ointment. The Woman wouldn’t leave them alone.
“What is it this time? What’s he doing?
Hemp?”
    “He’s a wizard. He don’t need to do nothing to
get obnoxious.”
    “Shit,” Swan said again. “What do you think,
we just do a fade-out here? Sell the rest of Cordy’s rat piss
and head back up the river?”
    A big, slow grin spread across Blade’s face. “Too
late, boy. You been chosen. You can’t run fast enough.
That Smoke, he might be a joke if he was to open shop up where you
came from, but around here he’s the bad boss spook pusher.
You try to head out, you’re going to find your toes tied in
knots.”
    “That the official word?”
    “They didn’t say it that way. That’s what they
meant.”
    “So what did he dream this time? Why drag us
in?”
    “Shadowmasters. More Shadowmasters. Been a big meet at
Shadowcatch, he says. They’re going to stop talking and start
doing. He says Moonshadow got the call. Says we’ll be seeing
them in Taglian territory real soon now.”
    “Big deal. Been trying to sell us that since the day we
got here, practically.”
    Blade’s face lost all its humor. “It was different
this time, man. There’s scared and scared, you know what I
mean? And Smoke and the Woman was the second kind this time. And it
ain’t just Shadowmasters they got on the brain now. Said to
tell you the Black Company is coming. Said you’d know what
that means.”
    Swan grunted as if hit in the stomach. He stood, drained the
beer Cordy had brought, looked around as if unable to believe what
he saw. “Damned-foolest thing I ever heard, Blade. The Black
Company? Coming here?”
    “Said that’s what’s got the Shadowmasters
riled, Willow. Said they’re rattled good. This’s the
last free country north of them, under the river. And you know
what’s on the other side of Shadowcatch.”
    “I don’t believe it. You know how far they’d
have to come?”
    “About as far as you and Cordy.” Blade had joined
Willow and Cordwood Mather two thousand miles into their journey
south.
    “Yeah. You tell me, Blade. Who in the hell besides you and
me and Cordy would be crazy enough to travel that far without any
reason?”
    “They got a reason. According to Smoke.”
    “Like what?”
    “I don’t know. You go up there like the Woman says.
Maybe she’ll tell you.”
    “I’ll go. We’ll all go. Just to stall. And
first chance we get we’re going to get the hell out of
Taglios. If they got the Shadowmasters stirred up down there, and
the Black Company coming in, I don’t want to be anywhere
around.”
    Blade leaned back so one of the girls could wiggle in closer.
His expression was questioning.
    Swan said, “I seen what those bastards could do back home.
I saw Roses caught between them and . . . Hell.
Just take my word for it, Blade. Big mojo, and all bad. If
they’re coming for real, and we’re still around when
they show, you might end up wishing we’d let those crocs go
ahead and snack on you.”
    Blade never had been too clear on why he had been thrown to the
crocodiles. And Willow was none too clear on why he had talked
Cordy into dragging him out and taking him along. Though Blade had
been a right enough guy since. He’d paid back the debt.
    “I think you ought to help them, Swan,” Blade said.
“I like this town. I like the people. Only thing wrong with
them is they don’t have sense enough to burn all the temples
down.”
    “Damnit, Blade, I ain’t the guy can help.”
    “You and Cordy are the only ones around who know anything
about soldiering.”
    “I was in the army for two months. I never even learned
how to keep in step. And Cordy don’t have the stomach for it
anymore. All he wants is to