[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
handsome man who had no lack of confidence.
Uncharacteristically, I slipped an arm around his waist and walked down toward
where other familiar faces had begun to appear. "How was your journey?"
"Mostly kind of fun, except when they made me study, which was about all the
Page 169
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
time. Sri Surendranath is worse than Goblin but he says I could be a scholar.
So Mother always backs them up whenever anybody wants to make me study. But we
got to see a lot of neat things. There was this temple in Praiphurbed that was
completely covered with carvings of people doing it all different ways--oh,
I'm sorry." He reddened.
Tobo had a mental image of me as a sort of chaste nun. And most of my adult
life would not contradict that view. But I am not against interpersonal
adventures, I am just not interested myself. Probably because, Swan insists, I
have not yet run into the man whose animal presence completely overwhelms my
intellectual reluctance. Swan being a leading authority in his own mind.
He keeps volunteering. Who knows? Maybe someday I will become curious enough
to experiment, just to find out if I can be touched without running away to my
place to hide.
Now the others were wishing me welcome with a sincerity that set another place
inside me, a small, warm place, all aglow. My comrades. My brothers. All kinds
of rattle and chatter inundated me. Now we were going to do something. Now we
were going to get somewhere. Now we were going to kick some ass if we had to.
Sleepy was here to figure it all out and tell everybody where and when to
stick the knife.
"God knows all the secrets and all the jokes," I said, "and I wish He'd share
the secret of the joke that explains why He created such a scruffy bunch of
hired killers." I used a little finger to get rid of a tear before anybody
realized that it was not raining. "You guys look pretty fat for having been on
the road so long."
Somebody said, "Shit, we been here waiting for you for a whole fuckin' month.
Some of us. The slowest ones got here last week."
"How's One-Eye doing?" I asked as Sahra wriggled through the throng.
"He's fucked up," a voice volunteered. "How'd you know... ?"
I exchanged hugs with Sahra. She said, "We were starting to worry." A question
clung to the edge of her statement.
"Tobo. Your grandmother and Uncle Doj are waiting in the woods back up the
road. Run up and tell them to come on down."
"Where're the rest?" somebody demanded.
"Swan is with them. The rest are behind us somewhere. We broke up into three
groups after we reached the highlands. There were crows around. We didn't want
to give them anything obvious to watch."
"We did the same thing after we left the barges," Sahra told me. "Did you see
many crows? We saw only a few. They might not have been the Protector's."
"The white one keeps turning up."
"We saw it, too. Are you hungry?"
"You kidding? I've been eating your mother's cooking since we left Jaicur." I
looked around. People were watching who were not Black Company. They might
only be refugees, too, but the enthusiasm of my reception was sure to cause
talk.
Page 170
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Sahra laughed. It sounded more like the laughter of relief than that of good
humor. "How is Mother?"
"I think there's something wrong, Sahra. She's stopped being nasty, bitter old
Ky Gota. Most of the time she's lost inside herself. And those times when she
is completely aware, she almost has manners."
"In here." Sahra lifted a tent flap. It was the largest tent in the
encampment. "And Uncle Doj?"
"A step slower but still Uncle Doj. He wants me to turn Nyueng Bao and be his
apprentice. Like I have a lot of free time being Murgen's apprentice. He says
it's just because he doesn't have anybody else to pass his responsibilities on
to. Whatever they are. He seems to think I should sign on before he tells me
what for."
"Did you get the Key?"
"We did. Uncle Doj has it in his pack. But Singh got away. Not unexpectedly.
Did he turn up here? We picked up rumors along the way that gave me the idea
that he was ahead of us and gaining ground. You do still have the girl?"
Sahra nodded. "But she's a handful. I think bringing her south again put her
in closer touch with Kina. Common sense tells me we should break our promise
and kill her." She settled on a cushion. "I'm glad you're here. I'm completely
worn out. Keeping these people under control when there's so little for them
to do... it's a miracle that we haven't had any major incidents... I bought a
farm."
"You what?"
"I bought a farm. Not far from the Shadowgate. They tell me the soil is lousy,
but it's a place where most of the men can stay out of sight and keep out of
trouble and even stay busy building housing or working the ground so we'll
eventually be self-supporting. Half the gang is over there now. Most of these
guys here would be, too, except that Murgen said you were going to arrive
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]