Water Sleeps Read Online Free Page B

seem clear on what that is anymore. The world keeps changing on him,
    not in ways he likes.
    Goblin brought a sack of objects without challenging One-Eye’s foul manners. He
     deferred to One-Eye more lately, if only for efficiency’s sake. He wasted no
     time making his opinions known if work was not involved, though.
    Even though they were cooperating, laying out their tools, they began bickering
     about the placement of every instrument. I wanted to paddle them like they were
     four-year-olds.
    Sahra began singing. She had a beautiful voice. It should not have been buried
     this way. Strictly speaking, she was not employing necromancy. She was not
     laying an absolute compulsion on Murgen, nor was she conjuring his shade—Murgen
     was still alive out there. But his spirit could escape his tomb when summoned.
    I wished the other Captured could be called up, too. Especially the Captain. We
     needed inspiration.
    A cloud of dust formed slowly between Goblin and One-Eye, who stood on opposite
     sides of the table. No, it was not dust. Nor was it smoke. I stuck a finger in,
    tasted. That was a fine, cool, water mist. Goblin told Sahra, “We’re ready.”
    She changed tone. She began to sound almost wheedling. I could pick out even
     fewer words.
    Murgen’s head materialized between the wizards, wavering like a reflection on a
     rippling pond. I was startled, not by the sorcery but by Murgen’s appearance. He
     looked just like I remembered him, without one new line in his face. None of the
     rest of us looked the same.
    Sahra had begun to look something like her mother had back in Jaicur. Not as
     heavy. Not with the strange, rolling waddle caused by problems of the joints.
    But her beauty was going fast. In her, that had been a wonder, stretching on way
     past the usual early, swift-fading characteristic of Nyueng Bao women. She did
     not talk about it but it preyed upon her. She had her vanity. And she deserved
     it.
    Time is the most wicked of all villains.
    Murgen was not happy about being called up. I feared he suffered the malaise
     afflicting Sahra. He spoke. And I had no trouble hearing him, though his words
     were an ethereal whisper.
    “I was dreaming. There is a place . . . ” His irritation faded. Pale horror
     replaced it. And I knew he had been dreaming in the place of bones he described
     in his own Annals. “A white crow . . . ” We had a problem indeed if he preferred
     a drift through Kina’s dreamscapes to a glimpse of life.
    Sahra told him, “We’re ready to strike. The Radisha ordered the Privy Council
     convened just a little while ago. See what they’re doing. Make sure Swan is
     there.” Murgen faded from the mist. Sahra looked sad. Goblin and One-Eye began
     excoriating the Standardbearer for running away.
    “I saw him,” I told them. “Perfectly. I heard him, too. Exactly like I always
     imagined a ghost would talk.”
    Grinning, Goblin told me, “That’s because you hear what you expect to hear. You
     weren’t really listening with your ears, you know.”
    One-Eye sneered. He never explained anything to anybody. Unless maybe to Gota if
     she caught him sneaking back in in the middle of the night. Then he would have a
     story as convoluted as the history of the Company itself.
    Sounding like a woman pretending not to be bitter, Sahra said, “You can bring
     Tobo in. We know there won’t be any explosions or fires, and you melted only two
     holes through the tabletop.”
    “A base canard!” One-Eye proclaimed. “That happened only because Frogface here—”
    Sahra ignored him. “Tobo can record what Murgen has to say. So Sleepy can use it
     later. It’s time for us to turn into other people. Send a messenger if Murgen
     finds out anything dangerous.”
    That was the plan. I was even less enthusiastic about it now. I wanted to stay
     and talk to my old friend. But this thing was bigger than a bull session. Bigger
     than finding out if Bucket was keeping well.

Black Company