Shadows Linger (8 page)

The edge of the Barrowland is now marked by stakes trailing red flags, put there
when the Lady announced she was sending outsiders to investigate. The Guards
themselves, having lived there always, need no markers to warn them off. I
enjoyed my month and a half there. I indulged my curiosities, and found Feather
and Whisper remarkably accessible.

That hadn't been true of the old Taken. Too, the commander of the Guard, called
the Monitor, bragged up his command's past, which stretches back as far as the
Company's. We swapped lies and tales over many a gallon of beer.

During the fifth week someone discovered something. We peons were not told what.

But the Taken got excited. Whisper started lifting in more of the Company. The
reinforcements told harrowing fables about the Plain of Fear and the Empty
Hills. The Company was at Lords now, only five hundred miles distant.

At the end of the sixth week Whisper assembled us and announced another move.

"The Lady wants me to take some of you out west. A force of twenty-five. Elmo,

you'll be in command. Feather and I, some experts, and several language
specialists will join you. Yes, Croaker. You're on the list. She wouldn't deny
her favorite amateur historian, would she?"

A thrill of fear. I didn't want her getting interested again.

“Where're we headed?” Elmo asked. Professional to the core, the son-of-a-bitch.

Not a single complaint.

“A city called Juniper. Way beyond the western bounds of the empire. It's
connected with the Barrowland somehow. It's a ways north, too. Expect it to be
cold and prepare accordingly.”

Juniper? Never heard of it. Neither had anyone else. Not even the Monitor. I
scrounged through his maps till I found one showing the western coast. Juniper
was way up north, near where the ice persists all year long. It was a big city.

I wondered how it could exist there, where it should be frozen all the time. I
asked Whisper. She seemed to know something about the place. She said Juniper
benefits from an ocean current that brings warm water north. She said the city
is very strange-according to Feather, who'd actually been there.

I approached Feather next, only hours before our departure. She couldn't tell me
much more, except that Juniper is the demense of a Duke Zimerlan, and he
appealed to the Lady a year ago (just a while before the Captain's courier
letter would have left Charm) for help solving a local problem. That someone had
approached the Lady, when the world's desire is to keep her far away, argued
that we faced interesting times. I wondered about the connection with the
Barrowland.

The negative was that Juniper was so far away. I was pleased that I would be
there when the Captain learned he was expected to head there after resting in
Oar, though.

Could be I'd hear his howl of outrage even from that far. I knew he wouldn't be
happy.

JUNIPER: THE ENCLOSURE
Shed slept badly for weeks. He dreamt of black glass walls and a man who hadn't
been dead. Twice Raven asked him to join a night hunt. Twice he refused. Raven
did not press, though they both knew Shed would jump if he insisted. Shed prayed
that Raven would get rich and disappear. He remained a constant irritant to the
conscience.

Damnit, why didn't Krage go after him?

Shed couldn't figure why Raven remained unperturbed by Krage. The man was
neither a fool nor stupid. The alternative, that he wasn't scared, made no
sense. Not to a Matron Shed. Asa remained on Krage's payroll, but visited
regularly, bringing firewood. By the wagonload, sometimes. “What're you up to?”

Shed demanded one day. “Trying to build credit,” Asa admitted.

“Krage's guys don't like me much.”

“Hardly anybody does, Asa.”

“They might try something nasty. ...”

"Want a place to hide when they turn on you, eh? What're you doing for Krage?

Why is he bothering with you?"

Asa hemmed and hawed. Shed pushed. Here was a man he could bully. “I watch
Raven, Shed. I report what he does.”

Shed snorted. Krage was using Asa because he was expendable. He'd had two men
disappear early on. Shed thought he knew where they were. Sudden fear. Suppose
Asa reported Raven's night adventures? Suppose he'd seen Shed. . . .

Impossible. Asa couldn't have kept quiet. Asa spent his life looking for
leverage.

“You've been spending a lot lately, Asa. Where are you getting the money?”

Asa turned pale. He looked around, gobbled a few times. “The wood, Shed. Selling
the wood.”

“You're a liar, Asa. Where're you getting it?”

“Shed, you don't ask questions like that.”

"Maybe not. But I need money bad. I owe Krage. I almost had him paid off. Then
he started buying my little debts from everybody else. That damned Gilbert! ...

I need to get ahead enough so I don't have to borrow again."

The black castle. Two hundred twenty pieces of silver. How he had been tempted
to attack Raven. And Raven just smiled into the wind, knowing exactly what he
was thinking. “Where're you getting that money, Asa?”

"Where did you get the money you paid Krage? Huh? People are wondering, Shed.

You don't come up with that kind of money overnight. Not you. You tell me and
I'll tell you." Shed backed down. Asa beamed in triumph.

“You little snake. Get out before I lose my temper.” Asa fled. He looked back
once, face knotted thoughtfully. Damnit, Shed thought. Made him suspicious. He
ground his rag into a tacky mug.

“What was that?”

Shed spun. Raven had come to the counter. His look brooked no crap. Shed gave
him the gist.

“So Krage hasn't quit.”

“You don't know him or you wouldn't ask. It's you or him, Raven.”

“Then it has to be him, doesn't it?”

Shed gaped. “A suggestion, Shed. Follow your friend when he goes
wood-gathering.” Raven returned to his seat. He spoke to Darling animatedly, in
sign, which he blocked from Shed's view. The set of the girl's shoulders said
she was against whatever it was he was proposing. Ten minutes later he left the
Lily. Each afternoon he went out for a few hours. Shed suspected he was testing
Krage's watchers.

Darling leaned against the door frame, watching the street. Shed watched her,

his gaze sliding up and down her frame. Raven's, he thought. They're thick. I
don't dare. But she was such a fine looking thing, tall, lean of leg, ready for
a man. ... He was a fool. He did not need to get caught in that trap, too. He
had troubles enough. “I think today would be good for it,” Raven said as Shed
delivered his breakfast. “Eh? Good for what?” "For a hike up the hill to watch
friend Asa.'' “Oh. No. I can't. Got nobody to watch the place.” Back by the
counter, Darling bent to pick something off the floor. Shed's eyes widened and
his heart fluttered. He had to do something. Visit a whore, or something. Or get
hurt. But he couldn't afford to pay for it. “Darling couldn't handle it alone.”

“Your cousin Wally has stood in for you before.” Caught off balance, Shed could
not marshall his excuses quickly. And Darling was driving him to distraction.

She had to start wearing something that concealed the shape of her behind
better. “Uh. ... He couldn't deal with Darling. Doesn't know the signs.” Raven's
face darkened slightly. “Give her the day off. Get that girl Lisa you used when
Darling was sick.“ Lisa, Shed thought. Another hot one. ”I only use Lisa when
I'm here to watch her.“ A hot one not attached. ”She'll steal me blinder than my
mother. ...“ ”Shed!“ ”Eh?”

“Get Wally and Lisa here; then go keep an eye on Asa. I'll make sure they don't
carry off the family silver.“ ”But. . . .” Raven slapped a palm on the tabletop.

“I said go!”

The day was clear and bright and, for winter, warm. Shed picked up Asa's trail
outside Krage's establishment.

Asa rented a wagon. Shed was amazed. In winter stable-keepers demanded huge
deposits. Draft animals slaughtered and eaten had no provenance. He thought it a
miracle anyone trusted Asa with a team. Asa went directly to the Enclosure. Shed
stalked along behind, keeping his head down, confident Asa would not suspect him
even if he looked back. The streets were crowded.

Asa left the wagon in a public grove across a lane running alongside the wall
which girdled the Enclosure. It was one of many similar groves where Juniper's
citizenry gathered for the Spring and Autumn Rites for the Dead. The wagon could
not be seen from the lane.

Shed squatted in shadow and bush and watched Asa dash to the Enclosure wall.

Somebody ought to clear that brush away, Shed thought. It made the wall look
tacky. For that matter, the wall needed repairing. Shed crossed and found a gap
through which a man could duck-walk. He crept through. Asa was crossing an open
meadow, hurrying uphill toward a stand of pines.

The inner face of the wall was brush-masked, too. Scores of bundles of wood lay
among the bushes. Asa had more industry than Shed had suspected. Hanging around
Krage's gang had changed him. They had him scared for sure.

Asa entered the pines. Shed puffed after him. Ahead, Asa sounded like a cow
pushing through the underbrush.

The whole Enclosure was tacky. In Shed's boyhood it had been park-like, a fit
waiting place for those who had gone before. Now it had the threadbare look that
characterized the rest of Juniper.

Shed crept toward hammering racket. What was Asa doing, making so much noise?

He was cutting wood from a fallen tree, stacking the pieces in neat bundles.

Shed could not picture the little man orderly, either. What a difference terror
made. An hour later Shed was ready to give up. He was cold and hungry and stiff.

He had wasted half a day. Asa was doing nothing remarkable. But he persevered.

He had a time investment to recoup. And an irritable Raven awaiting his report.

Asa worked hard. When not chopping, he hustled bundles down to his wagon. Shed
was impressed.

He stayed, watched, and told himself he was a fool. This was going nowhere. Then
Asa became furtive. He collected his tools and concealed them, looked around
warily. This is it, Shed thought. Asa took off uphill. Shed puffed after him.

His stiff muscles protested every step. Asa traveled more than a mile through
lengthening shadows. Shed almost lost him. A clinking brought him back to the
track.

The little man was using flint and steel. He crouched over a supply of torches
wrapped in an oilskin, taken from hiding. He got a brand burning, hastened into
some brush. A moment later he clambered over some rocks beyond, disappeared.

Shed gave it a minute, then followed. He slid round the boulder where he had
seen Asa last. Beyond lay a crack in the earth just big enough to admit a man.

“My god,” Shed whispered. “He's found a way into the Catacombs. He's looting the
dead.”

“I came straight back,” Shed gasped. Raven was amused by his distress. “I knew
Asa was foul, but I never dreamed he'd commit sacrilege.” Raven smiled.

“Aren't you disgusted?”

“No. Why are you? He didn't steal any bodies.”

Shed came within a hair's breadth of assaulting him. He was worse than Asa.

“He making out at it?”

“Not as well as you. The Custodians take all the burial gifts except passage
urns.” Every corpse in the Catacombs was accompanied by a small, sealed urn,

usually fixed on a chain around the body's neck. The Custodians did not touch
the few coins in those. When the Day of Passage came, the Boatmen would demand
payment for passage to Paradise.

“All those souls stranded,” Shed murmured. He explained.

Raven looked baffled. “How can anybody with an ounce of brains believe that
crap? Dead is dead. Be quiet, Shed. Just answer questions. How many bodies in
the Catacombs?”

“Who knows? They've been putting them away since. . . . Hell, for a thousand
years. Maybe there's millions.”

“Must have them stacked like cordwood.”

Shed wondered about that. The Catacombs were vast, but a thousand years' worth
of cadavers from a city Juniper's size would make a hell of a pile. He looked at
Raven. Damn the man. “It's Asa's racket. Let's not try.”

“Why not?”

“Too dangerous.”

“Your friend hasn't suffered.”

“He's smalltime. If he gets greedy, he'll get killed. There are Guardians down
there. Monsters.”

“Describe them.”

“I can't.”

“Can't or won't?”

“Can't. All they tell you is that they're there.”

“I see.” Raven rose. “This needs investigating. Don't discuss it. Especially not
with Asa.”

“Oh, no.” Panicked, Asa would do something stupid.

Word drifted in off the street. Krage had sent his two best men after Raven.

They had disappeared. Three more had vanished since. Krage himself had been
injured by an unknown assailant. He had survived only because of Count's immense
strength. Count wasn't expected to live.

Shed was terrified. Krage was neither reasonable nor rational. He asked Raven to
move out. Raven stared at him in contempt.

“Look, I don't want him killing you here,” Shed said.

“Bad for business?”

“For my health, maybe. He's got to kill you now. People will stop being scared
of him if he doesn't.”

“He won't learn, eh? A damned city of fools.”

Asa boiled through the doorway. “Shed, I got to talk to you.” He was scared.

"Krage thinks I turned him over to Raven. He's after me. You got to hide me,

Shed."

“Like hell.” The trap was closing. Two of them here. Krage would kill him for
sure, would dump his mother into the street.

“Shed, I kept you in wood all winter. I kept Krage off your back.”

“Oh, sure. So I should get killed, too?”

“You owe me, Shed. I never told nobody how you go out at night with Raven. Maybe
Krage would want to know that, huh?”