Shadow Games: The Fourth Chronicles of the Black Company: First Book of the South Read Free Page B

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 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.

Black Company S 4 - Shadow Games

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