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If she was in the mountains she could not block my way back to my body. But I
was not scared now. And Uncle had begun moving faster, determined to get
somewhere quickly. What would make him come out here in his condition?
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It became evident soon enough. He wanted to take advantage of the fact that
Soulcatcher was preoccupied.
He found what Croaker's searchers had not, probably because of what he carried
in his hand. The hiding place was not obvious because a veil of illusion
surrounded it.
The first hint was the snort of a large animal. A moment later I recognized my
horse. And he recognized me although I was invisible and he had not seen me
for almost a year.
The beast had more talent than Uncle Doj did. Doj thought the animal was
excited to see him.
Uncle was more attuned to the waking world than I was, though. Ash Wand leapt
into his hand as he reacted to something else before I sensed anything. I
caught nothing but a flicker of darkness in the dark. I thought shadow but
felt none of the coldness that indicated their proximity.
We were not the only ones out there.
I flitted around trying to find the lurker.
I found Sleepy instead. And the Daughter of Night. They were chained to a
tree, each by an ankle, with ten feet of slack. They had no fire. They did
have a keg of water that was nearly empty and a stash of hard bread that was
down to the crumbs. Catcher had planned to be back sooner. Sleepy was awake
but seemed drugged. The child was too small to break away. There was evidence
Sleepy had not been able to pull himself together well enough to try.
I heard a choking sound behind me. Metal rattled on stone. A large object
crashed through brush.
I found Doj on his knees, Ash Wand two feet from his fingers. His left hand
was at his throat, clawing at a piece of black cloth. He was lucky. Few men
ever survived such attacks.
All it took was a lifetime of training to hone the reflexes.
There was a Strangler in the darkness. And I could do nothing to help.
Doj's left hand dropped to the ground. With his right he reached for Ash Wand.
His wounds forced him to stay put but once he had his sword back nobody would
end his tale prematurely.
I went to see if I could keep Sleepy's luck from turning worse than it already
was. I found him alert and frightened but unharmed. He was ready to fight. He
was alone.
The Daughter of Night was gone.
I scouted around. Child and Deceiver had gotten away clean. I felt no need to
hunt them down. Not now. But the task would rise to the top of several to-do
lists real soon.
I had a notion this was not part of Soulcatcher's plan. Maybe the lady had
been deceived. Kina was slow but she kept on plugging.
For the little it was worth I decided to hang around till Uncle gathered his
wits and Sleepy regained his peace of mind. Sleepy recovered first. As soon as
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he felt safe he decided to take a leak. He did not know that Uncle and I were
around.
Well. So Catcher knew what she was doing when she played Sleepy as a slim girl
pretending to be a guy. Interesting. Sleepy did a great job fooling everybody.
I needed to have a talk with Bucket. He had to know something, somehow.
I caught a whiff of Kina. She was close and getting closer.
Sleepy jumped up, yanked up her pants, looked around wildly. She sensed the
goddess, too. She concentrated visibly, turned slowly, tried to identify the
bearing of the source of her discomfort. But the presence faded fast. Kina had
no more interest here.
Sleepy stopped turning when she faced me. She jumped. Her chin thrust forward
slightly the way people do sometimes when they see something unexpected. She
squinted. "Murgen? Are you a ghost or something? Are you dead?"
I tried saying no, but she could not hear me so I shook my head.
"So the rumors were true. You really can leave your body."
I nodded, too amazed to wonder how the kid could take it so calmly. One thing
people can always do is surprise you.
If Sleepy could see me that meant I could communicate over a distance. Even if
he could not hear me. As long as he remembered the deaf and dumb sign he was
supposed to have learned. But, as I recalled, he had had trouble catching
on... She, Murgen. She.
I had not gotten used to the idea the first time it came around.
I started using finger speech without the slightest idea of what Sleepy could
follow. I might be just some shimmering blob of ectoplasm that smelled like
Murgen.
No point. As I started Uncle Doj arrived, drawn by Sleepy's voice. His
movements were a painful shuffle. "Be calm, young one," he said. "You remember
me. I am of the Standardbearer's family. I have been looking for you." Doj was
about as alert as any human being could be. He should have been able to hear
me breathing. "You called out to the Standardbearer. Why did you do that?"
"I don't know. I'm trapped. A man came. He took the child who was here with
me. I was afraid. The Standardbearer is my friend and mentor."
Glib, that kid. And thoroughly loaded up with a healthy dose of Company
suspicion.
And I was thoroughly loaded up with a healthy burden of news they needed out
on the plain. I had to go. Sleepy would be all right with Doj. I made the sign
for horse. After three tries Sleepy nodded. I hoped that was a response.
Doj asked, "You were a captive of she who flies the crows?" He said that last
part in Nyueng Bao, as though it was a name like the Thousand Voices, but
Sleepy understood anyway. Sharp kid. Must have picked it up following me
around.
"Yes."
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"Did she leave anything behind? Where did she hide when she was here?" Doj cut
Sleepy loose but it was obvious Sleepy's liberty was not his real concern. His
behavior confirmed my notion that there had been a clash between Catcher and
the Nyueng Bao.
I began to drift away. Sleepy said, "There's a cave. Over there. But we
weren't here very long." She whistled a peculiar four note melody. My horse
snorted in reply. He could not come, of course, because he was a captive
himself.
I headed for the plain.
Chapter 106
Kina was looking for me. Or for something. Whatever direction I went I sensed
her before long, though she never closed in. But if I was not her object, what
was?
I fought off the urge to run to Sarie, telling myself to wait the demon out.
But the logical side of my mind, logically, told me that Kina had been waiting
for ages. She would not get impatient in one night.
But why would she want to find me?
I needed to get back to my flesh. The goddess was less a terror when I was not
amongst the ghosts.
I wished Thai Dei would waken me. When somebody did that it seemed my spirit
did not have to traverse the distance between.
I sneaked around to the camp in front of the Shadowgate. Gods, what squalor!
Successful conquerers ought to live better.
One-Eye was stirring. So was Gota. Another terrible breakfast was about to be
committed.
It was light out. I was still ghostwalking. I had not done so during daylight
since we lost Smoke. I had begun to think that I could not do it during the
day.
Got to get back up there, I thought. They need to know. They would not wait
around for me. They would not carry me anywhere, either. I was no prisoner.
One-Eye seemed to sense something. He became nervous, snippy. Which was not
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