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since the Kiaulune wars. This one not only was not dead, it was in outstanding
health. Despite its age. It also appeared bored by the business of travel.
"Don't gape," Riverwalker told me. "People get curious about why other people
are curious."
"I think we can afford to stare some. Mogaba will feel like he deserves it."
Mogaba looked every bit the Great General and mighty warrior. He was tall and
perfectly proportioned, well-muscled, well-clad, well-groomed. But for the
dust of silver in his hair, he looked little older than he had been when first
I saw him, right after the Company captured Jaicur from Stormshadow. He had
had no hair then, having preferred to shave his head. He seemed in a good
humor, not a condition I had associated with him in the past, when all his
schemes had come to frustration as the Captain just seemed to bumble around
and do the one thing that would undo all his efforts.
As the Great General came abreast, his mount suddenly snorted and tossed its
head, then shied slightly, as though it had stirred up a snake. Mogaba cursed,
although he was never in any danger of losing his seat.
Laughter dropped out of the sky. And a white crow fell right behind it,
alighting precariously atop the pole carried by the Great General's personal
standardbearer.
Cursing still, Mogaba failed to note that his steed turned its head to watch
me as I passed.
The darned thing winked.
I had been recognized. The beast must be the very one I had ridden so long
ago, for so many hundreds of miles.
I began to get nervous.
Someone amongst Mogaba's personal guard launched an arrow at the crow. It
missed. It fell not far from Runmust, who shouted angrily before he thought.
Now the Great General vented his spleen upon the archer.
The horse continued to watch me. I fought an urge to run. Maybe I could get
through this yet...
The white crow squawked something that might have been words but were just
racket to me. Mogaba's mount jumped enough to freshen the well of
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vituperation. It faced forward and began to trot. The ultimate effect was to
divert attention from us southbound scrubs.
Everybody but Iqbal's Suruvhija stared at the ground and walked a little
faster. Soon we were past the worst danger. I drifted over beside Swan, who
was still so nervous he stuttered when he tried to crack a joke about pigeons
coming to roost on the Great General while he was still alive.
Laughter passed overhead. The crow, up high, was almost indistinguishable
against the gathering clouds. I wished I had someone along who could advise me
about that thing.
For a generation, crows have not been good omens for the Company. But this one
seemed to have done us a favor.
Could it be Murgen from another time?
Murgen would be watching, I was sure, but that crow had no way to communicate.
So maybe so...
If so, this encounter would have been an adventure for him, too, what with him
knowing that if we got caught, his chances for resurrection plummeted to zero.
Chapter 50
The passages of the Great General held us up long enough that we could not
leave the road unremarked until after the rains began falling hard enough to
conceal our movements from everyone except someone extremely close by. We left
the road unnoticed then. Our travel formation collapsed into a miserable pack.
Only Narayan Singh showed real eagerness to get to the grove. And he did not
hurry. Not often long on empathy, I found myself pitying Iqbal's children.
Swan pointed out, "It'd be to Singh's advantage to get us there just after
night falls."
"Darkness always comes."
"Uhn?"
"A Deceiver aphorism. Darkness is their time. And darkness always comes."
"You don't seem particularly bothered." He was hard to hear. The rainfall was
that heavy.
"I'm bothered, buddy. I've been here before. It isn't what you'd call a good
place." I could not state that fact with sufficient emphasis. The Grove of
Doom was the heart of darkness, a spawning ground for all hopelessness and
despair. It gnawed at your soul. Unless you were a believer, apparently. It
never seemed to trouble those for whom it was a holy place.
"Places are natural, Sleepy. People are good and evil."
"You'll change your mind after you get there."
"I got a sneaking suspicion I'm gonna drown first. Do we got to be out in
this?"
"You find a roof, I'll be glad to get under it." Big thunder had begun fencing
with swords of lightning. There would be hail before long. I wished I had a
better hat. Maybe one of those huge woven-bamboo things Nyueng Bao farmers
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wear in the rice paddies.
I could just make out Riverwalker and the Radisha. I followed them hoping they
were following someone they could see. I hoped we did not have anyone get
disoriented and lost. Not tonight. I hoped the guys from Semchi were where
they were supposed to be.
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