Shadows Linger Part 12

"How stupid do you think people are? Rent a wagon for a raid on the Catacombs?"

I shrugged. "We're counting on one of them being stupid, aren't we?"

He admitted, "You're right. It should be checked. But it's hard when I'm the only one who has guts enough to do legwork in the Buskin. I'm hoping we get lucky somewhere else. If I have to, I'll cover it. When there's nothing more pressing."

"I see the place where they got in?" I asked.

He wanted to tell me no. Instead, he said, "It's a fair hike. Use up an hour. I'd rather go sniff around this Krage thing while it's hot."

I shrugged. "Some other time, then."

We got down into Krage's territory and started rambling.

Bullock still had a few contacts left from his boyhood. Coaxed properly, with a few gersh, they would talk. I was not allowed to sit in. I spent the time sipping beer in a tavern where they alternately fawned over my money and acted like I had the plague. When asked, I did not deny being an Inquisitor.

Bullock joined me. "Maybe we don't have anything after all. There's all kinds of rumors. One says his own men did him in. One says it was his compet.i.tion. He's a little pushy with his neighbors." He accepted a mug of wine on the house, something I hadn't seen him do before. I put it down to preoccupation.

"There's one angle we can check. He was obsessed about getting some foreigner who made a fool of him in public. There's some say the same foreigner was the man who cut him up." He took out a list and began to peruse it. "Not going to be a lot there for us, I expect. The night Krage disappeared there was a lot of whoop and holler. Not a single eyewitness, of course." He grinned. "Ear-witnesses say it was a running battle. That makes me favor the palace revolution theory."

"What have you got there?"

"A list of people who were maybe getting wood out of the Enclosure. Some might have seen each other. I was thinking I might find something interesting if I compared their stories." He waved for more wine. This time he paid, and covered the first mug, too, though the house would have forgiven him payment. I got the impression Juniper's people were used to giving Custodians anything they wanted. Bullock simply had a sense of ethics, at least where the people of the Buskin were concerned. He would not make their lives harder than they already were.

I could not help liking him on some levels.

"You're not going to pursue the Krage thing, then?"

"Oh, yeah. Of course. The bodies are missing. But that's not unusual. Probably turn up across the river in a couple days, if they're dead. Or screaming for blood if they're not." He tapped a name on his list. "This guy hangs around the same place. Maybe I'll talk to this guy Raven while I'm there."

I felt the blood drain from my face. "Who?"

He looked at me strangely. I forced myself to relax, to look casual. His eyebrows dropped. "Guy named Raven. The foreigner who was supposed to be feuding with Krage. Hangs out the same place as this one guy on my wood-gatherer's list. Maybe I'll ask him a few questions."

"Raven. Unusual name. What do you know about him?"

"Just that he's a foreigner and supposed to be bad news. Been around a couple years. Typical drifter. Hangs out with the Crater crowd."

The Crater crowd were the Rebel refugees who had established themselves in Juniper.

"Do me a favor? It's a long shot, but this guy could be the ghost I was talking about the other day. Stand off a ways. Pretend you never heard the name. But get me a physical description. And find out if he's got anybody with him."

Bullock frowned. He didn't like it. "Is it important?"

"I don't know. It could be."

"All right."

"Keep the whole thing under your hat if you can."

"This guy means something to you, eh?"

"If he's the guy I knew, that I thought was dead, yeah. Him and me got business."

He smiled. "Personal?"

I nodded. I was feeling my way now. This was touchy. If this was my Raven, I had to go careful. I didn't dare let him get caught in the coils of our operation. He knew too d.a.m.ned much. He could get half the Company officers and noncoms put to the question. And made dead.

I decided Bullock would respond best if I kept it mysterious, with Raven an old enemy by implication. Somebody I would do most anything to jump in the dark, but not somebody important in any other way.

"I got you," he said. He looked at me somewhat differently, as though glad to discover I wasn't different after all.

h.e.l.l, I'm not. But I like to pretend I am, most of the time. I told him, "I'm going back to Duretile. Got to talk to a couple buddies."

"Can you find your way?"

"I can. Let me know what you find out."

"Will do."

We separated. I went up the hill as fast as forty-year-old legs would carry me.

I got Elmo and Goblin off where n.o.body could overhear us. "We maybe got a problem, friends."

"Like what?" Goblin wanted to know. He had been aching for me to talk from the minute I rounded him up. I guess I looked a little ragged around the fringes.

"There's a guy named Raven operating down in the Buskin. The other day, when I was down there with Bullock, I thought I saw a guy who looked like our Raven from a distance, but I shrugged it off then."

They quick got as nervous as me. "You sure it's him?" Elmo asked.

"No. Not yet. I got the h.e.l.l out of there the minute I heard the name Raven. Let Bullock think he's an old enemy I want to stick a knife in. He's going to ask around for me while he's doing his own business. Get me a description. See if Darling is with him. I'm probably off in the wild blue yonder, but I wanted you guys to know. In case."

"What if it is him?" Elmo said. "What do we do then?"

"I don't know. It could be big trouble. If Whisper had some reason to get interested, like because he hangs around with the Rebel refugees here...Well, you know."

Goblin mused, "Seems Silent said Raven was going to run so far n.o.body would ever find him again."

"So maybe he thought he'd run far enough. This is d.a.m.ned near the end of the world." Which, in part, was why I was so nervous. This was the kind of place I could picture Raven having gone to ground. As far from the Lady as you could get without learning to walk on water.

"Seems to me," Elmo said, "we ought to make sure before we panic. Then decide what to do. This might be the time to put our guys into the Buskin."

"That's what I was thinking. I already got a plan in front of Whisper, for something else. Let's tell her we're going with that, and have the guys watch for Raven."

"Who?" Elmo asked. "Raven would recognize anybody who knows him."

"Not true. Use guys who joined up at Charm. Send p.a.w.nbroker just to make sure. He's not likely to remember the new guys. There were so many of them. If you want somebody reliable to run the thing, and back them up, use Goblin. Park him where he can stay out of sight but keep his hands on the reins."

"What do you think, Goblin?" he asked.

Goblin smiled nervously. "Give me something to do, anyway. I'm going out of my skull up here. These people are weird."

Elmo chuckled. "Missing One-Eye?"

"Almost."

"All right," I said. "You'll need a guide. That'll have to be me. I don't want Bullock getting his nose any deeper into this. But they think I'm one of his men down there. You'll have to follow me from a distance. And try not to look like what you are. Don't make it hard on yourselves."

Elmo stretched. "I'll get Kingpin and p.a.w.nbroker now. You take them down and show them a place. One can come back for the others. Go ahead and scope it out with Goblin." He left.

And so it went. Goblin and the six soldiers took rooms not far from the moneylender Krage's headquarters. Up on the hill I pretended it was all for the cause. I waited.

Chapter Seventeen:.

JUNIPER: TRAVEL PLANS.

Shed caught Asa trying to sneak out. "What the h.e.l.l is this?"

"I need to get out, Shed. I'm going crazy up there."

"Yeah? You want to know something, Asa? The Inquisitors are looking for you. Bullock himself was in here the other day, and he asked for you by name." Shed was stretching the facts slightly. Bullock's interest had not been intense. But it had to have something to do with the Catacombs. Bullock and his sidekick were in the Buskin almost every day, asking, asking, asking questions. He didn't need Asa meeting Bullock face-to-face. Asa would either panic or crumble under questioning. Either way, Marron Shed would get into the heat d.a.m.ned fast. "Asa, if they catch you, we're all dead."

"Why?"

"You were spending those old coins. They're looking for somebody with a lot of old money."

"d.a.m.n that Raven!"

"What?"

"He gave me the pa.s.sage money. As my share. I'm rich. And now you tell me I can't spend it without getting grabbed."

"He probably figured you'd hold off till the excitement died down. He'd be gone by then."

"Gone?"

"He's leaving as soon as the harbor opens."

"Where's he headed?"

"South somewhere. He won't talk about it."

"So what do I do? Keep scrambling for a living? d.a.m.n it, Shed, that's not fair."

"Look on the bright side, Asa. n.o.body wants to kill you anymore."

"So? Now Bullock is after me. Maybe I could have made a deal with Krage. Bullock don't deal. It ain't fair! All my life..."

Shed did not listen. He sang the same song all too often.

"What can I do, Shed?"

"I don't know. Stay holed up, I guess." He had a glimmer of a notion. "How about you get out of Juniper for a while?"

"Yeah. You might have something. That money would spend just fine somewhere else, wouldn't it?"

"I don't know. I've never traveled."

"Get Raven up here when he shows up."

"Asa..."

"Hey, Shed, come on. It won't hurt to ask. All he can do is say no."

"Whatever you want, Asa. I hate to see you go."

"Sure you do, Shed. Sure you do." As Shed ducked out the doorway, Asa called, "Wait a second."

"Yeah?"

"Uh...It's kind of hard. I never did thank you."

"Thank me for what?"

"You saved my life. You brought me back, didn't you?"

Shed shrugged, nodded. "No big thing, Asa."

"Sure it is, Shed. And I'll remember it. I owe you the big one."

Shed went downstairs before he could be embarra.s.sed further. He discovered that Raven had returned. The man was in one of his animated discussions with Darling. Arguing again. They had to be lovers. d.a.m.n it all. He waited till Raven noticed him watching. "Asa wants to see you. I think he wants to go with you when you leave."

Raven chuckled. "That would solve your problem, wouldn't it?"

Shed did not deny that he would be more comfortable with Asa out of Juniper. "What do you think?"

"Not a bad idea, actually. Asa isn't much, but I need men. I have a hold on him. And him being gone would help cover my backtrail."

"Take him with my blessing."

Raven started upstairs. Shed said, "Wait." He didn't know how to approach this, because he didn't know if it was important. But he'd better tell Raven. "Bullock's been hanging around the Buskin a lot lately. Him and a sidekick."

"So?"