Shadows Linger: A Novel of the Black Company (Chronicles of The Black Company) Read Free Page B

knew I had an aversion to this kind of slaughter. “Otto, you take the kitchen. Me and Pawnbroker will help Silent.”
    The Rebel outside tried to get us by speeding arrows through the doorway. He had no luck. Then he tried firing the place. Madle suffered paroxysms of rage. Silent, one of the three wizards of the Company, who had been sent into Tally weeks earlier, used his powers to squelch the fire. Angrily, the Rebel prepared for a siege.
    “Must have brought every man in the province,” I said.
    Candy shrugged. He and Pawnbroker were piling corpses into defensive barricades. “They must have set up a base camp near here.” Our intelligence about the Tally guerrillas was extensive. The Lady prepares well before she sends us in. But we hadn’t been told to expect such strength available at short notice.
    Despite our successes, I was scared. There was a big mob outside, and it sounded like more were arriving regularly. Silent, as an ace in the hole, hadn’t much more value.
    “You send your bird?” I demanded, assuming that had been the reason for his trip upstairs. He nodded. That provided some relief. But not much.
    The tenor changed. They were quieter outside. More arrows zipped through the doorway. It had been ripped off its hinges in the first rush. The bodies heaped in it would not slow the Rebel long. “They’re going to come,” I told Candy.
    “All right.” He joined Otto in the kitchen. Pawnbroker joined me. Silent, looking mean and deadly, stationed himself in the center of the common room.
    A roar went up outside.
    “Here they come!”
    We held the main rush, with Silent’s help, but others began to batter the window shutters. Then Candy and Otto had to concede the kitchen. Candy killed an overzealous attacker and spun away long enough to bellow, “Where the hell are they, Silent?”
    Silent shrugged. He seemed almost indifferent to the proximity of death. He hurled a spell at a man being boosted through a window.
    Trumpets brayed in the night. “Ha!” I shouted. “They’re coming!” The last gate of the trap had closed.
    One question remained. Would the Company close in before our attackers finished us?
    More windows gave. Silent could not be everywhere. “To the stair!” Candy shouted. “Fall back to the stair.”
    We raced for it. Silent called up a noxious fog. It was not the deadly thing he had used before. He could not do that again, now. He hadn’t time to prepare.
    The stair was easily held. Two men, with Silent behind them, could hold it forever.
    The Rebel saw that. He began setting fires. This time Silent could not extinguish all the flames.

Chapter Seven: JUNIPER: KRAGE
    The front door opened. Two men shoved into the Lily, stamped their feet and beat the ice off themselves. Shed scuttled over to help. The bigger man pushed him away. The smaller crossed the room, kicked Asa away from the fire, squatted with his hands extended. Shed’s guests stared into the flames, seeing and hearing nothing.
    Except Raven, Shed noted. Raven looked interested, and not particularly disturbed.
    Shed sweated. Krage finally turned around. “You didn’t stop by yesterday, Shed. I missed you.”
    “I couldn’t, Krage. I didn’t have anything to bring you. Look in my coin box. You know I’ll pay you. I always do. I just need a little time.”
    “You were late last week, Shed. I was patient. I know you’re having problems. But you were late the week before that, too. And the week before that. You’re making me look bad. I know you mean it when you say you’ll pay me. But what will people think? Eh? Maybe they start thinking it’s all right for them to be late, too. Maybe they start thinking they don’t have to pay at all.”
    “Krage, I can’t. Look in my box. As soon as business picks up.…”
    Krage gestured. Red reached behind the counter. “Business is bad everywhere, Shed. I got problems, too. I got expenses. I can’t meet mine if you don’t meet yours.” He ambled around the