“It keeps me going.”

“Maybe. This is how things stand. Last week Spinner attacked Dejagore in force. He was thrown back. He would have succeeded if he’d used all his skills. But he couldn’t without Longshadow finding out he’s not as feeble as he pretends. He’ll try again tonight. He could succeed. Your One-Eye and Goblin have broken with their commander.”

“My beloved sister has obtained a strong position in and around Taglios. She has five or six thousand men, none of them worth a damn.”

“She left the man Blade at Ghoja when she headed north. He has the same problems and none of her expertise but some of the men he has have legionary experience. He’s decided to let them learn the hard way. He’s begun occupying surrounding territories, especially southward along the road to Dejagore.”

“Makes it easier to feed his men, probably.”

“Yes. He has a force exceeding three thousand men now. His scouts have skirmished with Shadowspinner’s patrols.”

“And the big news, of course, is that the wizard Smoke has been seduced by Longshadow.”

“Say what? That little bastard. I never did trust him.”

“Longshadow appealed to his idealism. And to his fear of my sister and the Black Company. Offered him assurances he couldn’t help but believe, made him think he could become a hero by saving Taglios from its supposed saviors while he made peace with the Shadowlands.”

“That man is a fool. I thought you had to be smart to be a wizard.”

“Smart doesn’t mean sensible, Croaker. And he isn’t a complete fool. He didn’t trust Longshadow. He used every device he could to make Longshadow keep his word. His real mistake was going to visit Longshadow at Shadowcatch.”

“What?”

“The Howler and Longshadow combined their talents to create a flying carpet like those we had back when, before they were destroyed. It’s a puny one but good enough for Howler to fly the wizard to Shadowcatch and to drop spies into Taglios. Smoke is down there now. Frogface is watching him. Longshadow is trying to do a poor man’s Taking of Smoke. He’ll go back to Taglios as Longshadow’s creature.”

Croaker did not like the sums he came up with. Three major wizards against Taglios now, and Taglios’ only magical defender was a creature of the enemy. Lady might be doing well but could not be doing as well as she must to manage both the Shadowmasters and her enemies behind her.

Doom would be stalking Taglios long before anyone expected it.

Khatovar was farther away than ever.

He could not manage that mission on his own. Taking the Annals back... He did not have them. They were trapped inside Dejagore. He could not get to them.

Was Murgen keeping them up? He’d better be.

“You haven’t said anything about our part in all this.”

“But I have. Often. We’re just going to have fun with it. We’re going to kick the props out from under people. Tonight we’ll have this whole end of the world wondering what’s going on and who’s doing what to who.”

He began to understand soon after she told him to start getting ready.

“Ready how?”

“Get your armor on. It’s time to scare the shit out of Spinner’s men and save Dejagore.”

He just stood there, puzzled. She asked, “Would you rather let them be wiped out?”

“No.” The Annals were in the city. They had to be preserved. He unpacked the armor they had lugged all the way from the temple. “I can’t get this on by myself.”

“I know. You’ll have to help me with mine, too.”

With hers? He had assumed she would use her old Soulcatcher guise. He began to see her subtlety.

The armor she had made at the temple was a copy of Lady’s Lifetaker rig. Their appearance would leave all the principals completely confused. His Widowmaker was supposed to be dead. Lady’s Lifetaker was supposed to be in Taglios. Neither was supposed to amount to anything in sorcerous terms. The besieged would be stunned. Spinner’s men would be dismayed. Longshadow might suspect the truth but would not be sure. Smoke and the Taglian prince and his sister would be baffled. Even Lady would be confused.

He was sure she believed him dead.

“Damn you,” he said as he settled her helmet over her head. “Damn you to hell.” He could not refuse to cooperate. Dejagore would fall and its defenders would be massacred if he and she did not intercede.

“Relax, my love. Relax. Put emotion aside. Have fun with it. Look. The lance.” She pointed.

It was the lance that had carried the Company standard for centuries. He had searched in vain for it at the temple. He had not seen it coming down. Now it stood beyond the fire they had lighted for illumination. It glowed gently. A banner hung from it but he could not make it out.

“How did you...?” To hell with her. Sorcery. He would play her game only as far as he had to. He would give her no pleasure.

“Get it, Croaker. Mount up. It’s time.” She’d even conjured the armor that went with the stallions, baroque and beginning to show highlights of witchfire.

He did as he was told. And was startled. Her armor had a subtly different look from that which Lady had created for her Lifetaker character. This was more intimidating. It radiated menace. It had the feel of an archetypal doom.

Two huge black crows settled on his shoulders. Their eyes burned red. More crows circled Catcher. Frogface materialized on the neck of her horse, chattered briefly, vanished. “Come. We should arrive just in time to save the day.” The voice she used was that of a happy kid contemplating a prank.

Mather stuck his head into the room. “He’s on his way, Willow.”

Swan grunted, opened shutters for more light. He looked out at Blade’s camp and its satellites. The gods themselves were on Blade’s team. Recruits had een arriving in droves. None of them wanted to enlist in the Radisha’s guard. He’d had high hopes when he had invented that. But the Radisha’s name carried less weight here than Blade’s. And, damn him, he was as stubborn about sticking with Lady as Cordy was about the Radisha.

“Cordy, Cordy, why the hell don’t we just go home?” he muttered to himself.

Blade came in, escorted by Mather. That human stump Sindu was right behind them. He was like Blade’s shadow, anymore. Swan did not like the man. He was creepy.

Blade said, “Cordy says you have something.”

“Yeah. We finally got one up on you.” He had begun fielding patrols of his own after Blade started expanding southward. “Our boys grabbed some prisoners.”

“I know.”

Of course he did. There was no hiding from each other here. They did not try. They remained friends, however much they disagreed. Blade did most of his planning in that room, on the map table there. Anything Swan wanted to know he could see right there.

“There was a big dust-up at Dejagore the other night. Shadowspinner hit the burg with everything he had. He grabbed our friends by the short hairs. Then what should pop up but two giant fire-breathing riders in black armor flinging thunderbolts around and kicking ass wholesale. When the smoke cleared away it was the Shadowlanders that got whupped. One of the prisoners saw it with his own eyes. He said Shadowspinner had to yank everything out of his trick bag to hold those two off. Here’s the way they say it went down.”

Swan kept a close eye on Blade while he chattered. There was some emotion showing through that bland facade.

He finished his tale- “What you think, old buddy? Those two miracle visitors sound like anybody we know?”

“Lady and Croaker. In their costume armor.”

“Bingo! But?”

“He’s dead and she’s in Taglios.”

“Two in a row. Give the man a prize. I think. So what the hell really went down? Sindhu. What you grinning about, man?”

“Kina.”

The others looked hard at the broad man. Mather said, “Descriptions again, Willow.”