The Black Company - 05 - Dreams of Steel by Glen Cook

The Black Company - 05 - Dreams of Steel by Glen Cook

Author:Glen Cook
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9780812502107
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 1990-04-08T07:00:00+00:00


Chapter Thirty-Two

The meeting with the priests had not gone well. The Radisha was in a blistering rage. Her brother looked grim. Smoke squeaked, "Something has to be done about that woman."

They were in a shielded room but something had installed itself amongst clutter on a high shelf. Those below did not notice the one yellow crow eye watching.

"I'm not so sure," the Prahbrindrah Drah replied. "We talked extensively. I think she was truthful. My gut feeling is that we should give her her head."

"Gods!" Smoke swore. "No!"

The Radisha remained neutral. For the moment. "We were inches from getting thrown out tonight. We couldn't drive a wedge between them. The fact that we might be able to point her in their direction was all that saved us. We can't get rid of her, Smoke."

The Prahbrindrah Drah said, "We've got the tiger by the tail. Can't let go. I feel like I'm in a big bowl and all around the rim are people who want to roll boulders down on me."

"She will devour us," Smoke said. He kept his tone reasonable. Panicky talk had worked against him before. The Prahbrindrah Drah and Radisha had to be convinced intellectually. "She traffics with Stranglers."

"Of whom there are maybe only a few hundred in the whole world," the Radisha observed. "How many men are there in the Shadowlands? How many shadows? There're more backstabbing priests here in the city than there are Stranglers anywhere."

"Read those old chronicles again," Smoke suggested. "How numerous were the Black Company when they came here before? Yet before they were driven out our ancestors very nearly witnessed the Year of the Skulls. You can't traffic with this darkness. It wakens the devil in everyone. You can't invite the tiger into your house to keep the wolf away. There are no greys. There is no tightrope to walk. No one can hope to play this off against other darknesses. This is the deep and ultimate evil beyond all evils. Consider what the woman did last night."

The Prahbrindrah Drah said, "I was put out by the damage done. Master Gupta and his predecessors worked on that for a century."

"Not the damned plants!" Smoke almost lost control. "A man is dead, killed by sorcery. Seven more were carried off to who knows what fate? Tal and his cronies were slain in their very temples. Strangled!"

"They asked for it," the Radisha said. "They did something stupid. They paid for it. You notice the other Gunni priests weren't put out."

"Ghapor's bunch? They probably encouraged Tal and didn't mind when he came out on the short end."

"Probably."

"Don't you see what she's done? A year ago no priest would have considered murder. Now it's accepted. Nobody is distressed.

"Tal is gone. You say he was stupid and asked for it and you're right. But he was one of the most important men in Taglios. So was Jahamaraj Jah. He asked for it, too. When she picks off the next one, well, maybe everybody will say the same thing again.



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