Book 2 - Shadows Linger Read Online Free PDF Page A

startled me for a moment. Staring my way,
it looked like the Lady. Well, like the face the Lady wore the one
time I actually saw her. That was during the battle at Charm. She
called me in to dredge my mind for suspicions about a conspiracy
among the Ten Who Were Taken . . . A thrill of
fear. I have lived with it for years. If ever she questions me
again, the Black Company will be short its senior physician and
Annalist. I now have knowledge for which she would flatten
kingdoms.
    The face in the fire extended a tongue like that of a
salamander. Goblin squealed. He jumped up clutching a blistered
nose.
    One-Eye was draining another beer, back to his victim. Goblin
scowled, rubbed his nose, seated himself again. One-Eye turned just
enough to place him at the corner of his vision. He waited till
Goblin began to nod.
    This has been going on forever. Both were with the Company
before I joined, One-Eye for at least a century. He is old, but is
as spry as men my age.
    Maybe spryer. Lately I’ve felt the burden of time more and
more, all too often dwelling on everything I’ve missed. I can
laugh at peasants and townies chained all their lives to a tiny
corner of the earth while I roam its face and see its wonders, but
when I go down, there will be no child to carry my name, no family
to mourn me save my comrades, no one to remember, no one to raise a
marker over my cold bit of ground. Though I have seen great events,
I will leave no enduring accomplishment save these Annals.
    Such conceit. Writing my own epitaph disguised as Company
history.
    I am developing a morbid streak. Have to watch that.
    One-Eye cupped his hands palms-down on the countertop, murmured,
opened them. A nasty spider of fist size stood revealed, wearing a
bushy squirrel tail. Never say One-Eye has no sense of humor. It
scuttled down to the floor, skipped over to me, grinned up with a
One-Eye black face wearing no eye-patch, then zipped toward
Goblin.
    The essence of sorcery, even for its nonfraudulent
practitioners, is misdirection. So with the bushy-tailed
spider.
    Goblin was not snoozing. He was lying in the weeds. When the
spider got close, he whirled and swung a stick of firewood. The
spider dodged. Goblin hammered the floor. In vain. His target
darted around, chuckling in a One-Eye voice.
    The face formed in the flames. Its tongue darted out. The seat
of Goblin’s trousers began to smoulder.
    “I’ll be damned,” I said.
    “What?” the Captain asked, not looking up. He and
the Lieutenant had taken opposite ends of an argument over whether
Heart or Tome would be the better base of operations.
    Somehow, word gets out. Men streamed in for the latest round of
the feud. I observed, “I think One-Eye is going to win
one.”
    “Really?” For a moment old grey bear was interested.
One-Eye hadn’t bested Goblin in years.
    Goblin’s frog mouth opened in a startled, angry howl. He
slapped his bottom with both hands, dancing. “You little
snake!” he screamed. “I’ll strangle you!
I’ll cut your heart out and eat it!
I’ll . . . I’ll . . . ”
    Amazing. Utterly amazing. Goblin never gets mad. He gets even.
Then One-Eye will put his twisted mind to work again. If Goblin is
even, One-Eye figures he’s behind.
    “Settle that down before it gets out of hand,” the
Captain said.
    Elmo and I got between the antagonists. This thing was
disturbing. Goblin’s threats were serious. One-Eye had caught
him in a bad temper, the first I’d ever seen. “Ease
up,” I told One-Eye.
    He stopped. He, too, smelled trouble.
    Several men growled. Some heavy bets were down. Usually, nobody
will put a copper on One-Eye. Goblin coming out on top is a sure
thing, but this time he looked feeble. Goblin did not want to quit.
Did not want to play the usual rules, either. He snatched a fallen
sword and headed for One-Eye. I couldn’t help grinning. That
sword was huge and broken, and Goblin was so small, yet so
ferocious, that he seemed a caricature. A