Book 1 - Shadow Games Read Free Page B

forget that part of his
life.”
    Cordy had overheard most of what had been said. He came over.
“I’m not that bad off, Willow. I don’t object to
soldiering when the cause is right. I just was with the wrong bunch
up there. I’m with Blade. I like Taglios. I like the people.
I’m willing to do what I can to see they don’t get
worked over by the Shadowmasters.”
    “You heard what he said? The Black Company?”
    “I heard. I also heard him say they want to talk about it.
I think we ought to go find out what’s going on before we run
our mouths and say what we’re not going to do.”
    “All right. I’m going to change. Hold the fort, and
all that, Blade. Keep your mitts off the one in the red. I got
first dibs.” He stalked off.
    Cordy Mather grinned. “You’re catching on how to
handle Willow, Blade.”
    “If this’s going down the way I think, he
don’t need handling. He’ll be the guy out front when
they try to stop the Shadowmasters. You could roast him in coals
and he’d never admit it, but he’s got a thing for
Taglios.”
    Cordy Mather chuckled. “You’re right. He’s
finally found him a home. And no one is going to move him out. Not
the Shadowmasters or the Black Company.”
    “They as bad as he lets on?”
    “Worse. Lots worse. You take all the legends you ever
heard back home, and everything you heard tell around here, and
anything you can imagine, and double it, and maybe you’re
getting close. They’re mean and they’re tough and
they’re good. And maybe the worst thing about them is that
they’re tricky like you can’t imagine tricky.
They’ve been around four, five hundred years, and no outfit
lasts that long without being so damned nasty even the gods
don’t screw with them.”
    “Mothers, hide your babies,” Blade said.
“Smoke had him a dream.”
    Cordy’s face darkened. “Yeah. I’ve heard tell
wizards maybe make things come true by dreaming them first. Maybe
we ought to cut Smoke’s throat.”
    Willow was back. He said, “Maybe we ought to find out
what’s going on before we do anything.”
    Cordy chuckled. Blade grinned. Then they began shooing the marks
out of the tavern—each making sure an appointment was understood by
one or more of the young ladies.
     
----

----

Chapter Four: THE DARK TOWER
    I piddled around another five days before working myself up to a
little after-breakfast skull session. I introduced the subject in a
golden-tongued blurt: “Our next stopover will be the
Tower.”
    “What?”
    “Are you crazy, Croaker?”
    “Knew we should have kept an eye on him after the sun went
down.” Knowing glances Lady’s way. She stayed out of
it.
    “I thought she was going with us. Not the other way
around.”
    Only Murgen did not snap up a membership in the
bitch-of-the-minute club. Good lad, that Murgen.
    Lady, of course, already knew a stopover was needed.
    “I’m serious, guys,” I said.
    If I wanted to be serious, One-Eye would be, too.
“Why?” he asked.
    I sort of shrank. “To pick up the Annals I left behind at
Queen’s Bridge.” We got caught good, there. Only
because we were the best, and desperate, and sneaky, had we been
able to crack the imperial encirclement. At the cost of half the
Company. There were more important concerns at the time than
books.
    “I thought you already got them.”
    “I asked for them and was told I could have them. But we
were busy at the time. Remember? The Dominator? The Limper?
Toadkiller Dog? All that lot? There wasn’t any chance to
actually lay hands on them.”
    Lady supported me with a nod. Getting really into the spirit,
there.
    Goblin pasted on his most ferocious face. Made him look like a
saber-toothed toad. “Then you knew about this clean back
before we ever left the Barrowland.”
    I admitted that that was true.
    “You goatfu-lover. I bet you’ve spent all this time
concocting some half-assed off-the-wall plan that’s
guaranteed to get us all killed.”
    I confessed that that was mostly