The Books of the South: Tales of the Black Company (Chronicles of the Black Company) Read Free Page A

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 forget that part of his