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will have to be done before Whisper can put the word out."
He cut me off. "Right. I'll send you a wagon. Don't dilly-dally." He looked
grey around the edges as he stalked outside.
A new strain of terror entered the screaming and shouting outside. I untangled
my aching legs and went to the door. They were herding the Rebels together on
their drill field. The prisoners sensed the Company's sudden eagerness to cut
and run. They thought they were about to die just minutes before salvation
arrived.
Shaking my head, I returned to my reading. Raven gave me a look that might
have meant he shared my pain. On the other hand, it might have contained
contempt for my weakness. With Raven it is hard to tell.
One-Eye shoved through the door, stomped over, dumped an armload of bundles
wrapped in oilskin. Moist clods clung to them. "You were right. We dug these
up behind her sleeping quarters."
Goblin let out a long, shrill screech as chilling as an owl's when you are
alone in the woods at midnight. One-Eye charged the sound.
Such moments make me doubt the sincerity of their animosity.
Goblin moaned, "He's in the Tower. He's with the Lady. I see Her through his
eyes... his eyes... his eyes.... The darkness! Oh, God, the darkness! No! Oh,
God, no! No!" His words twisted into a shriek of pure terror. That faded to,
"The Eye. I see the Eye. It's looking right through me."
Raven and I exchanged frowns and shrugs. We did not know what he was talking
about.
Goblin sounded like he was regressing toward childhood. "Make it stop looking
at me. Make it stop. I've been good. Make it go away."
One-Eye was on his knees beside Goblin. "It's all right. It's all right. It's
not real. It's going to be all right."
I exchanged glances with Raven. He turned, began gesturing at Darling. "I'm
sending her to fetch the Captain."
Darling left reluctantly. Raven took another sheet from the pile and resumed
reading. Cool as a stone, mat Raven.
Goblin screamed for a while, then got quiet as death. I jerked around. One-Eye
lifted a hand to tell me I was not needed. Goblin had finished delivering his
message.
Goblin relaxed slowly. The terror left his face. His color improved. I knelt,
touched his carotid. His heart was hammering, but its beat was slowing.
"Surprised it didn't kill him this time," I said. "It ever been this bad
before?"
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"No." One-Eye dropped Goblin's hand. "We'd better not put it on him next
time."
"Is it progressive?" My trade borders theirs along the shadowed edges, but
only in small ways. I did not know.
"No. His confidence will need support for a while. Sounded like he caught
Soulcatcher right at the heart of the Tower. I think that would leave anybody
rocky."
"While in the presence of the Lady," I breathed. I could not contain my
excitement. Goblin had seen the inside of the Tower! He might have seen the
Lady! Only the Ten Who Were Taken ever came out of the Tower. Popular
imagination invests its interior with a thousand gruesome possibilities. And I
had me a live witness!
"You just let him be, Croaker. He'll tell you when he's ready." There was a
hard edge to One-Eye's voice.
They laugh at my little fantasies, tell me I have fallen in love with a spook.
Maybe they are right. Sometimes my interest scares me. It gets close to
becoming an obsession.
For a time I forgot my duty to Goblin. For a moment he stopped being a man, a
brother, an old friend. He became
a source of information. Then, shamed, I retreated to my papers.
The Captain arrived, puzzled, dragged by a determined Darling. "Ah. I see. He
made contact." He studied Goblin. "Said anything yet? No? Wake him up,
One-Eye."
One-Eye started to protest, thought better of it, shook Goblin gently. Goblin
took his time awakening. His sleep was almost as deep as a trance.
"Was it rough?" the Captain asked me.
I explained. He grunted, said, "That wagon is on its way. One of you start
packing."
I started straightening my piles. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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