Water Sleeps Read Free Page A

But definitely not that. He didn’t know I was a
     woman till just before he left for the glittering plain. And I didn’t know he
     knew till I read his Annals. Nobody knew. They thought I was a cute runt who
     just never got any bigger. I let them think that. I felt safer as one of the
     guys.”
    “Oh.”
    His tone was so neutral I had to wonder. “Why did you even ask?” Surely he had
     no reason to believe I had behaved differently before he knew me.
    He shrugged. “I just wondered.”
    Something must have set him off. Possibly an “I wonder if . . . ” from Goblin or
     One-Eye, say, while they were sampling some of their homemade elephant poison.
    “I didn’t ask. Did you put the buttons behind the shadow show?”
    “That’s what I was told to do.”
    A shadow show uses cutout puppets mounted on sticks. Some of their limbs are
     manipulated mechanically. A candle behind the puppets casts their shadows on a
     screen of white cloth. The puppeteer uses a variety of voices to tell his story
     as he maneuvers his puppets. If he is sufficiently entertaining, his audience
     will toss him a few coins.
    This particular puppeteer had performed in the same place for more than a
     generation. He slept inside his stage setup. In so doing, he lived better than
     most of Taglios’ floating population.
    He was an informer. He was not beloved of the Black Company.
    The story he told, as most were, was drawn from the myths. It sprang from the
     Khadi cycle. It involved a goddess with too many arms who kept devouring demons.
    Of course it was the same demon puppet over and over. Kind of like real life,
    where the same demon comes back again and again.
    Just a hint of color hung above the western rooftops.
    There was an earsplitting squeal. People stopped to stare at a bright orange
     light. Glowing orange smoke wobbled up from behind the puppeteer’s stand. Its
     strands wove the well-known emblem of the Black Company, a fanged skull with no
     lower jaw, exhaling flames. The scarlet fire in its left eye socket seemed to be
     a pupil that stared right down inside you, searching for the thing that you
     feared the most.
    The smoke thing persisted only a few seconds. It rose about ten feet before it
     dispersed. It left a frightened silence. The air itself seemed to whisper,
    “Water sleeps.”
    Whine and flash. A second skull arose. This one was silver with a slightly
     bluish tint. It lasted longer and rose a dozen feet higher before it perished.
    It whispered, “My brother unforgiven.”
    “Here come the Greys!” exclaimed someone tall enough to see over the crowd.
    Being short makes it easy for me to disappear in groups but also makes it tough
     for me to see what is happening outside them.
    The Greys are never far away. But they are helpless against this sort of thing.
    It can happen anywhere, any time, and has to happen before they can react. Our
     supposed ironclad rule is that perpetrators should never be nearby when the
     buttons speak. The Greys understand that. They just go through the motions. The
     Protector must be appeased. The little Shadar have to be fed.
    “Now!” Tobo murmured as four Greys arrived. A shriek erupted from behind the
     puppeteer’s stage. The puppeteer himself ran out, spun and leaned toward his
     stage, mouth wide open. There was a flash less bright but more persistent than
     its predecessors. The subsequent smoke image was more complex and lasted longer.
    It appeared to be a monster. The monster focused on the Shadar. One of the Greys
     mouthed the name “Niassi.”
    Niassi would be a major demon from Shadar mythology. A similar demon under
     another form of the name exists in Gunni belief.
    Niassi was a chieftain of the inner circle of the most powerful demons. Shadar
     beliefs, being heretical Vehdna, include a posthumous, punitive Hell but also
     definitely include the possibility of a Gunni-like Hell on earth, in life,
    managed by demons in Niassi’s employ, laid on for the