Book 1 - The Black Company Read Online Free PDF

spit and grumbled
like a volcano in bad temper.
    There wasn't a damned thing to see.
    Servants' quarters. Blood splashed the walls. Bodies and pieces
of bodies lay everywhere amidst furniture invariably shredded and
wrecked. There are hard men in the Company, but even the hardest
was moved. Even I, who as physician see the worst the battlefield
offers.
    The Lieutenant said, "Captain, I'm getting the rest of the
Company. This thing isn't getting away." His tone brooked no
contradiction. The Captain merely nodded.
    The carnage had that effect. Fear faded somewhat. Most of us
decided the thing had to be destroyed.
    A scream sounded above. It was like a taunt hurled our way,
daring us to come on. Hard-eyed men started up the stair. The air
crackled as the spell preceded them. Tom-Tom and One-Eye bore down
on their terror. The death hunt began in earnest.
    A vulture had evicted the eagle nesting atop the Paper Tower, a
fell omen indeed. I had no hope for our employer.
    We climbed past five levels. It was gorily obvious the forvalaka
had visited each.
    Tom-Tom whipped up a hand, pointed. The forvalaka was nearby.
The halberdiers knelt behind their weapons. The crossbowmen aimed
at shadows. Tom-Tom waited half a minute. He, One-Eye, Silent, and
Goblin posed intently, listening to something the rest of the world
could only imagine. Then, "It's waiting. Be careful. Don't give it
an opening."
    I asked a dumb question, altogether too late for its answer to
have bearing. "Shouldn't we use silver weapons? Quarrel heads and
blades?"
    Tom-Tom looked baffled.
    "Where I come from the peasants say you have to kill werewolves
with silver."
    "Crap. You kill them same as you kill anything else. Only you
move faster and hit harder 'cause you only get one shot."
    The more he revealed the less terrible the creature seemed. This
was like hunting a rogue lion. Why all the fuss?
    I recalled the servant's quarters.
    "Everybody just stand still," Tom-Tom said. "And be quiet. We'll
try a sending." He and his cohorts put their heads together. After
a while he indicated we should resume our advance.
    We eased onto a landing, packed tightly, a human hedgehog with
quills of steel. The wizards sped their enchantment. An angry roar
came from the shadows ahead, followed by the scrape of claws.
Something moved. Crossbows twanged. Another roar, almost mocking.
The wizards put their heads together again. Downstairs the
Lieutenant was ordering men into positions the forvalaka would have
to pass to escape.
    We eased into the darkness, tension mounting. Bodies and blood
made the footing treacherous. Men hastened to seal doors. Slowly,
we penetrated a suite of offices. Twice movement drew fire from the
crossbows.
    The forvalaka yowled not twenty feet away. Tom-Tom released a
sigh that was half groan. "Caught it," he said, meaning they had
reached it with their spell.
    Twenty feet away. Right there with us. I could see
nothing . . . Something moved. Quarrels flew.
A man cried out . . . "Damn!" the Captain
swore. "Somebody was still alive up here."
    Something as black as the heart of night, as quick as unexpected
death, arced over the halberds. I had one thought, Fast!, before it
was among us. Men flew around, yelled, got into one another's way.
The monster roared and growled, threw claws and fangs too fast for
the eye to follow. Once I thought I slashed a flank of darkness,
before a blow hurled me a dozen feet.
    I scrambled up, got my back to a pillar. I was sure I was going
to die, sure the thing would kill us all. Pure hubris, us thinking
we could handle it. Only seconds had passed. Half a dozen men were
dead. More were injured. The forvalaka didn't seem slowed, let
alone harmed. Neither weapons nor spells hampered it.
    Our wizards stood in a little knot, trying to produce another
enchantment. The Captain cored a second clump. The rest of the men
were scattered. The monster flashed around, picking them off.
    Grey fire ripped through the room, for an instant exposing