She Is the Darkness: Book Two of Glittering Stone: A Novel of the Black Company Read Online Free Page B

more than ever, I’ll need
     flexibility to buy time.”
    It was an old, old argument. Longshadow was weary of it. “If you cannot carry
     out your orders as given, General, without questioning everyone and nagging me
     continuously, then I’ll find someone who will. That fellow Blade comes to mind.
    He’s done wonderful things for us.”
    Mogaba inclined his head, said nothing. He particularly did not note that
     Blade’s successes came because he was allowed exactly the sort of freedom of
     decision and movement that Mogaba had been petitioning for for almost two years.
    Longshadow’s outburst was not unexpected. But Mogaba felt obligated to try, for
     the sake of his soldiers.
    The Strangler Singh took a step toward the Shadowmaster. His odor preceded him.
    Longshadow shrank back. The little man said, “They are moving against us. There
     is no longer any doubt.”
    Longshadow did not believe that because he did not want it to be true. “Winter
     has only just begun.” But when he glanced at the Howler the crippled little
     sorcerer nodded his rag covered head.
    He stifled a shriek stillborn. “It’s true. Everywhere I look Taglian forces are
     on the move. None are large but they are everywhere, following every possible
     road. Singh’s attempt to assassinate their top people seems to have set them
     off.”
    Singh’s failed attempt, Longshadow did not say aloud. His own espionage
     resources were feeble now but they had gotten that much back to him. The
     alliance with the Stranglers was very unpopular and therefore very precarious.
    The Deceivers were loved no more in the Shadowlands than they were in the
     Taglian Territories.
    Mogaba moved his feet but held the remark eager to force its way past his teeth.
    Longshadow knew exactly what it was. The general wanted to be allowed to strike
     the Taglian bands before they could gather into a large force on the Plain of
     Charandaprash.
    “Howler. Find Blade. Tell him to deal with as many of these small forces as he
     can. General.”
    “Sir?” Mogaba had to strain to keep his voice neutral.
    “You may send some of your cavalry north to harass the enemy. But only some and
     only cavalry. If I find you interpreting me as having turned you loose you will
     indeed be turned loose. On the other side of the Shadowgate.” It had been a long
     time since he had sent someone through to watch him die a cruel death. He just
     had no time for himself anymore. Nor could he open the way these days, without
     the Lance. The only other key had been stolen long ago by one of his dead
     colleagues. He did not have the necromantic power to call up their shades and
     compel the villain to reveal where the thing was buried. “Have I made myself
     clear?”
    “Absolutely.” Mogaba stood a hair straighter. The concession was not much but it
     was something. The terrain north of Charandaprash was not suited to cavalry
     maneuvers, though, so he would have to use his horsemen as mounted infantry.
    Still, it was an opportunity. “Thank you, sir.”
    Longshadow glanced sideways at the child, who almost never spoke. He surprised a
     look of complete disdain that vanished even as his gaze shifted, disappearing so
     quickly it seemed nothing more than a flicker of imagination.
    The Shadowmaster let his gaze travel on to the plain of glittering stone. Once
     he had been driven by an obsessive need to learn about that place. Now he just
     hated it and wished it would go away, but he needed it, too. Without it he would
     be feeble, no match for the likes of Howler or the woman Soulcatcher, whose
     madness and enmity were entirely unpredictable. She seemed a complete child of
     chaos.
    “Where is the one called Soulcatcher?” he asked. “Has there been no sign?”
    Howler, who had had a report from a skrinsa shadowweaver whose circle directed a
     colony of spy bats, lied, “Nothing. Though there was something strange that
     happened in Taglios about the time Jamadar Singh’s