Raker Page 4

  My hands and feet felt halfway human. I scooted over and nabbed Otto's boots. He was about my size, and he didn't need them.

  Out into the night again. Morning, almost. Dawn was due soon.

  If I expected any remonstrance from Raven, I was disappointed. He just looked at me. I think he actually shivered. I remember thinking, maybe he's human after all. "Had to change my boots." Then, "Elmo's getting the wagon. The rest of them are passed out."

  "Soulcatcher?"

  "Not back yet."

  "Let's plant this seed." He strode into the swirling flakes. I hurried after him.

  The snow had not collected on our trap. It sat there glowing gold. Water puddled beneath it and trickled away to become ice.

  "You think Soulcatcher will know when this thing gets discharged?" I asked.

  "It's a good bet. Goblin and One-Eye, too."

  "The place could burn down around those two and they wouldn't turn over."

  "Nevertheless.... Sshh! Somebody out there. Go that way." He moved the other direction, circling.

  What am I doing this for? I thought as I skulked through the snow, weapon in hand. I ran into Raven. "See anything?"

  He glared into the darkness. "Somebody was here." He sniffed the air, turned his head slowly right and left. "Come on." He took a dozen quick steps, pointed down.

  He was right. The trail was fresh. The departing half looked hurried.

  I stared at those marks. "I don't like it, Raven."

  Our visitor's spoor indicated that he dragged his right foot.

  "The Limper."

  "We don't know for sure."

  "Who else? Where's Elmo?"

  We returned to the Raker trap, waited impatiently. Raven paced. He muttered. I could not recall ever having seen him this unsettled. Once, he said, "The Limper isn't Soulcatcher."

  Really. Soulcatcher is almost human. The Limper is as cruel and inhuman as the Taken come. The sort of creature who enjoys torturing babies.

  A jangle of traces and squeak of poorly greased wheels entered the plaza. Elmo and the wagon appeared. Elmo pulled up and jumped down.

  "Where the hell you been?" Fear and weariness made me cross.

  "Takes time to dig out a stableboy and get a team ready. What's the matter? What happened?"

  "The Limper was here."

  "Oh, shit. What'd he do?"

  "Nothing. He just...."

  "Let's move," Raven snapped. "Before he comes back." He took the head to the stone. The wardspells might not have existed. He fitted the trophy into the waiting cavity. The golden glow winked out. Snowflakes began accumulating on head and stone.

  "Let's go," Elmo gasped. "We won't have much time."

  I grabbed a sack and heaved it into the wagon. Thoughtful Elmo had laid out a tarp to keep loose coins from dribbling between the floorboards.

  Raven told me to rake up the loose stuff under the table. "Elmo, empty some of those sacks and give them to Croaker."

  They heaved bags. I scrambled after loose coins.

  "One minute gone," Raven said. Half the bags were in the wagon.

  "Too much loose stuff," I said.

  "We'll leave it if we have to."

  "What're we going to do with it? How'11 we hide it?"

  "In the hay in the stable," Raven said. "For now. Later we put a false bed in the wagon. Two minutes gone."

  "What about wagon tracks?" Elmo asked. "He could follow them to the stable."

  "Why should he care in the first place?" I wondered aloud.

  Raven ignored me. He asked Elmo, "You didn't cancel them coming here?"

  "Didn't think of it."

  "Damn!"

  All the sacks were aboard. Elmo and Raven helped with the loose stuff.

  "Three minutes," Raven said, then, "Quiet!" He listened. "Soulcatcher couldn't be here already, could he? No. The Limper again. Come on. You drive, Elmo. Head for a thoroughfare. Lose us in traffic. I'll follow you. Croaker, go try to cover Elmo's back-trail."

  "Where is he?" Elmo asked, staring into the falling snow.

  Raven pointed. "We'll have to lose him. Or he'll take it away. Go on, Croaker. Get moving. Elmo."

  "Get up!" Elmo snapped his traces. The wagon creaked away.

  I ducked under the table and stuffed my pockets, then ran away from where Raven said the Limper was.

  XIV

  I don't know that I had much luck obscuring Elmo's back trail. I think we were helped more by morning traffic than anything I did. I did get rid of the stableboy. I gave him a sock full of gold and silver, more than he could make in years of stable work, and asked him if he could lose himself. Away from Roses, preferably. He told me, "I won't even stop to get my things." He dropped his pitchfork and headed out, never to be seen again.

  I hied myself back to our room.

  Everyone was sleeping but Otto. "Oh, Croaker," he said. "Bout time."

  "Pain?"

  "Yeah."

  "Hangover?"

  "That too."

  "Let's see what we can do. How long you been awake?"

  "An hour, I guess."

  "Soulcatcher been here?"

  "No. What happened to him, anyway?"

  "I don't know."

  "Hey. Those are my boots. What the hell you think you're doing, wearing my boots?"

  "Take it easy. Drink this."

  He drank. "Come on. What're you doing wearing my boots?"

  I removed the boots and set them near the fire, which had burned quite low. Otto kept after me while I added coal. "If you don't calm down you're going to rip your stitches."

  I will say this for our people. They pay attention when my advice is medical. Angry as he was, he lay back, forced himself to lie still. He did not stop cussing.

  I shed my wet things and donned a nightshirt I found lying around. I don't know where it came from. It was too short. I put a pot on for tea, then turned to Otto. "Let's take a closer look." I dragged my kit over.

  I was cleaning around the wound, and Otto was cursing softly when I heard the sound: Scrape-dump, scrape clump. It stopped outside the door.

  Otto sensed my fear. "What's the matter?"

  "It's...." The door opened behind me. I glanced back. I'd guessed right.

  The Limper went to the table, dropped into a chair, surveyed the room. His gaze skewered me.

  Inanely, I said, "I just started tea."

  He stared at the wet boots and cloak, then at each man in the room. Then at me again.

  The Limper is not a big man. Barely over five feet tall, and of slightly under average build. Meeting him in the street, not knowing what he was, you would not be impressed. Like Soulcatcher, he was clad in a single color, a dingy brown. He was ragged. His face was concealed by a battered leather mask which drooped. Tangled threads of hair protruded from under his hood and around his mask. It was grey peppered with black.

  He did not say a word. Just sat there and stared. Not knowing what else to do, I finished tending Otto, then made the tea. I poured three tin cups, gave one to Otto, set one before the Limper, took the third myself....

  What now? No excuse to be busy.

  Nowhere to sit but at that table.... Oh, shit!

  The Limper removed his mask. He raised the tin cup....

  I could not tear my gaze away.

  His was the face of a dead man, of a mummy improperly preserved. His eyes were alive and baleful, yet directly beneath one was a patch of flesh which had rotted. Beneath his nose, at the right corner of his mouth, a square inch of lip was missing, revealing gum and yellowed teeth.

  The Limper sipped tea, met my eye, and smiled.

  I nearly dribbled down my leg.

  I went to the window. There was some light out there now, and the snowfall was weakening, but I could not see the stone.

  The stamp of boots sounded on the stair. Elmo and Raven shoved into the room. Elmo growled, "Hey, Croaker, how the hell did you get rid of that...." His words grew smaller as he recognized our visitor.

 
; Raven gave me a guestioning look. The Limper turned. I shrugged when his back was to me. Raven moved to one side, began removing his wet things.

  Elmo got the idea. He went the other way, stripped beside the fire. "Damn, it's good to get out of those. How's the boy, Otto?"

  "There's fresh tea," I said.

  Otto replied, "I hurt all over, Elmo."

  The Limper peered at each of us, and at One-Eye and Goblin, who had yet to stir. "So. Soulcatcher brings the Black Company's best." His voice was a whisper, yet it filled the room. "Where is he?"

  Raven ignored him. He donned dry breeches, sat beside Otto, doublechecked my handiwork. "Good job of stitching, Croaker."

  "I get plenty of practice with this outfit."

  Elmo shrugged in response to the Limper. He drained his cup, poured tea all around, then filled the pot from one of the pitchers. He planted a boot in One-Eye's ribs while the Limper glared at Raven.

  "You!" the Limper snapped. "I haven't forgotten what you did in Opal. Nor during the campaign in Forsberg."

  Raven settled with his back against the wall. He produced one of his more wicked knives, began cleaning his fingernails. He smiled. At the Limper, he smiled, and there was mockery in his eyes.

  Didn't anything scare that man?

  "What did you do with the money? That wasn't Soulcatcher's. The Lady gave it to me."

  I took courage from Raven's stance. "Aren't you supposed to be in Elm? The Lady ordered you out of the Salient."

  Anger distorted that wretched face. A scar ran down his forehead and left cheek. It stood out. Supposedly it continued down his left breast. The blow had been struck by the White Rose herself.

  The Limper rose. And that damned Raven said, "Got the cards, Elmo? The table's free."

  The Limper scowled. The tension level was rising fast. He snapped, "I want that money. It's mine. Your choice is to cooperate or not. I don't think you'll enjoy it if you don't."

  "You want it, go get it," Raven said. "Catch Raker, chop off his head, take it to the stone. Ought to be easy for the Limper. Raker's only a bandit. What chance would he stand against the Limper?"

  I thought the Taken would explode. He did not. For an instant he was baffled.

  He was not off balance long. "All right. If you want it the hard way." His smile was wide and cruel. Did he have some special interest in Raven?

  The tension was near the snapping point.

  XV

  A shadow moved in the open doorway. A lean, dark figure appeared, stared at the Limper's back. I sighed in relief.

  The Limper spun. For a moment the air seemed to crackle between the Taken.

  From the corner of one eye I noted that Goblin was sitting up. His fingers were dancing in complex rhythms. One-Eye, facing the wall, was whispering into his bedroll. Raven reversed his knife for a throw. Elmo got a grip on the teapot, ready to fling hot water.

  There was no missile within grabbing distance of me. What the hell could I contribute? A chronicle of the blowup afterward, if I survived?

  Soulcatcher made a tiny gesture, stepped round the Limper, deposited himself in his usual seat. He flung a toe out, hooked one of the chairs away from the table, put his feet up. He stared at the Limper, his fingers steepled before his mouth. "The Lady sent a message. In case I ran into you. She wants to see you." Soulcatcher used only one voice. A hard female voice. "She wants to ask about the uprising in Elm."

  The Limper jerked. One hand extended over the table, twitched nervously. "Uprising? In Elm?"

  "Rebels attacked the palace and barracks."

  The Limper's leathery face lost color. The twitching of his hand became more pronounced.

  Soulcatcher said, "She wants to know why you weren't there to head them off."

  The Limper stayed about three seconds more. In that time his face became grotesque. Seldom have I seen such naked fear. Then he spun and fled.

  Raven flipped his knife. It stuck in the doorframe. The Limper didn't notice.

  Soulcatcher laughed. This was not the laugh of earlier days, but a deep, harsh, solid, vindictive laughter. He rose, turned to the window. "Ah. Someone's claimed our prize? When did that happen?"

  Elmo masked his response by going to close the door. Raven said, "Toss me my knife." I eased up beside Soulcatcher, looked out. The snowfall had ceased. The stone was visible. Cold, unglowing, with an inch of white on top.

  "I don't know." I hoped I sounded sincere. "The snow was heavy all night. Last time I looked - before he showed up - I couldn't see a thing. Maybe I'd better go down."

  "Don't bother." He adjusted his chair so he could watch the square. Later, after he had accepted tea from Elmo and finished it - concealing his face by turning away - he mused, "Raker eliminated. His vermin in panic. And, sweeter still, the Limper embarrassed again. Not a bad job."

  "Was that true?" I asked. "About Elm?"

  "Every word," in a fey, merry voice. "One does wonder how the Rebel knew the Limper was out of town. And how Shapeshifter caught wind of the trouble quickly enough to show up and quash it before it amounted to anything." Another pause. "No doubt the Limper will ponder that while he's recuperating." He laughed again, more softly, more darkly.

  Elmo and I busied ourselves preparing breakfast. Otto usually handled the cooking. So we had an excuse for breaking routine. After a time, Soulcatcher observed, "There's no point to you people staying here. Your Captain's prayers have been answered."

  "We can go?" Elmo asked.

  "No reason to stay, is there?"

  One-Eye had reasons. We ignored them.

  "Start packing after breakfast," Elmo told us.

  "You're going to travel in this weather?" One-Eye demanded.

  "Captain wants us back."

  I took Soulcatcher a platter of scrambled eggs. I don't know why. He did not eat often, and breakfast never. But he accepted.

  I looked out the window. The mob had discovered the change. Someone had brushed the snow off Raker's face. His eyes were open, seemed to be watching. Weird.

  Men were scrambling around under the table, fighting over the coins we'd left behind. The pile-up seethed like maggots in a putrid corpse. The crowd was indifferent to the dead Rebel. "Somebody ought to do him honor," I murmured. "He was a hell of an opponent."

  "You have your Annals," Soulcatcher told me. And, "Only a conqueror bothers to honor a fallen foe."

  I was headed for my own plate by then. I wondered what he meant, but a hot meal was more important at the moment.

  XVI

  They were all down at the stable except me and Otto. They were going to bring the wagon round for the wounded soldier. I'd given him something to get him through the coming rough handling.

  They were taking their time. Elmo wanted to rig a canopy to shield Otto from the weather. I played solitaire while I waited.

  Out of nowhere, Soulcatcher said, "She's very beautiful, Croaker. Young-looking. Fresh. Dazzling. With a heart of flint. The Limper is a warm puppy by comparison. Pray you never catch her eye."

  Soulcatcher stared out the window. I wanted to ask questions, but none would come at that moment. Damn. I really wasted a chance then.

  What color was her hair? Her eyes? How did she smile? It all meant a lot to me when I couldn't know.

  Soulcatcher rose, donned his cloak. "If only for the Limper, it's been worth it," he said. He paused at the door, pierced me with his stare. "You and Elmo and Raven. Drink a toast to me. Hear?"

  Then he was gone.

  Elmo came in a minute later. We lifted Otto and started back to Meystrikt.

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