The Thousand Names Part 53

"For my behavior the night of the Desoltai raid, and during the time since we left the city."

"Ah." It's about d.a.m.n time. Winter shifted awkwardly and tried to sound conciliatory. Feor was clearly having a hard time getting this out. "I don't know. I mean, it hasn't been easy for you-"

"It's no excuse." Feor swallowed. "Especially for what I . . . tried to do, at the end. I put you and Bobby in danger from my own selfishness."

"But-" Winter shook her head. "All right. Apology accepted. If it means anything to you, I think I understand. After Ashe-Katarion . . ."

"But you had the truth of it all along," Feor said earnestly. "Onvidaer returned my life to me. To waste it now would be to cast away his suffering as well as mine."

Winter had said something like that, come to think of it, although at the time she'd just spouted whatever came to mind in order to get Feor moving. She shrugged.

"Well. I'm glad you've worked it out."

"It has become clear to me," Feor said, "that it was the will of the G.o.ds that I meet you, and do as I have done. Even Mother's sanction is nothing beside that. Bobby is the proof."

"Proof?" Winter said. "What about her?"

"My naath . . ." Feor hesitated. "It is a sacred thing. Obv-scar-iot. In Khandarai it means . . ." Her lips worked silently for a moment. "*Prayer of the Heavenly Guardian,' perhaps. It is the closest I can come. The language of magic is . . . difficult."

"I remember. What about it?"

"It grants the strength and power of Heaven to defend the faithful and the cause of the Heavens in this world. When I used it on a raschem, a nonbeliever, I thought it would not achieve its full flowering. The power of the Heavens would not invest one who was not worthy."

"Its full . . . flowering?" Winter said.

"No." Feor hesitated. "Have you examined where she was . . . wounded, the first time?"

"I did." Winter glanced again at Bobby, but spoke in Khandarai. "It's growing, isn't it?"

"I think so."

Winter chewed her lip. "What's happening to her?"

"The Heavens favor her. I do not know why, but they have chosen to grant her their power. She is truly becoming the Heavenly Guardian." Feor blew out a deep breath. "That is how I know that coming to you was their will."

"But what's going to happen to Bobby? Is that stuff going to spread over her whole body?"

"I don't know. There has not been a true Guardian in many generations, and I was not permitted to study the oldest lore." Feor shook her head. "It may be that the process will halt when she has accomplished the purpose the Heavens have set for her."

"*May be'?" Winter tried to squelch her anger. Without this naath, Bobby would be dead twice over, and likely me in the bargain. "All right. So you don't really know. Is there anyone who does?"

"Mother. Or perhaps not even she. Much of the knowledge of ancient days is lost to us."

"Right." Winter rubbed her forehead with two fingers, trying to fight off an incipient headache. "Right. So when we capture your *Mother,' I'll just ask the colonel if we can have a moment alone with her."

"She will not be captured." A haunted look pa.s.sed across Feor's face, and she hugged herself tightly. "She will die instead. They all will."

"They might escape again," Winter said.

"No." Feor looked up. "That is what I came to tell you. Mother is close. I can feel her. Onvidaer as well."

"You think they're here? At the oasis?"

"Yes."

"But . . ." Winter turned to Bobby and switched to Vordanai. "You said the oasis was taken, right?"

The corporal nodded. "Why?"

"Feor insists that someone is still there. Those people we saw in Ashe-Katarion the night of the fire. Could they be hiding somewhere?"

Bobby paused. "I know the colonel ordered the place searched for supplies, but I hadn't heard of anybody finding anything like that. They're still at it, though." She shrugged. "Graff and the rest of the company are out there now with Captain d'Ivoire."

Winter went very quiet. Something in her chest had tightened into a knot, and it was a moment before she could speak.

"You stayed behind?" she said.

"We wanted someone to be with you when you woke up," Bobby said. "I thought it would be best if it was me. Because-well, you know."

Winter blew out a breath. Her side ached.

"Well," she said, "now that I'm up, I'd better get back to my post. Let's track down the others."

"That's not really necessary," Bobby said. "Graff can handle things-"

"I'd rather go myself," Winter said, through gritted teeth. The memory of that terrible night in Ashe-Katarion kept playing out behind her eyes, with the young man named Onvidaer dispatching three armed men in the casual way one might kill a chicken for the pot. She turned to Feor and said in Khandarai, "Do you think you can find your way to Onvidaer?"

"Not . . . precisely. I can feel him when he is close, but no more than that."

"If we found him . . ." Winter hesitated. "He disobeyed your Mother once. Do you think he would do it again? If you had the chance to talk to him?"

"I do not know." Something in Feor's expression told Winter that she'd been thinking along the same lines. "But I would like to try."

MARCUS.

Up close, a cannon always seemed like a tiny thing compared to the G.o.d-awful noise it produced.

Field guns did, anyway. Marcus had seen siege pieces, first at the War College and later on the docks in Ashe-Katarion. Those iron monsters were so enormous it was hard to imagine anyone even being able to load them, much less daring to be nearby when a spark was applied to the touchhole.

The twelve-pounder was tiny by comparison, a six-foot metal tube with a barrel not much larger than Marcus' head at the business end. It was dwarfed by its own wheels, big hoops of iron-banded wood. This was one of the Preacher's original three, carefully engraved from muzzle to axle with scripture from the Wisdoms, and now mottled all over with powder residue.

The Preacher himself was standing beside the gun, talking to Ja.n.u.s. Behind them waited the Seventh Company of the First Battalion. Marcus recognized the big corporal who'd been imprisoned with them in Adrecht's tents, and resisted giving the man a wave.

"You'd get more force if you hit it straight on," Ja.n.u.s was saying. "And those doors can't be solid stone, or they'd be too heavy to move. There's no room for a counterweight."

"No disrespect, sir, but I've seen some clever counterweights," said the Preacher. "Besides, if they are light, it won't matter how we hit them. And if we get a rebound, I sure don't want it coming right back at us." He patted the cannon fondly. "Besides, by the grace of the Lord and the Ministry of War, we've no shortage of roundshot. If we don't break through the first time, we'll just have to try again."

"I suppose you know your business." Ja.n.u.s looked back at Marcus. "You've warned the men?"

"I sent Lieutenant Warus, sir." Unexpected cannon fire had a way of producing unpredictable results, and with the Colonials dispersed through the little oasis town Marcus didn't want to take a chance on someone panicking.

"Excellent." Ja.n.u.s took two long strides back from the gun. "You may fire at your pleasure, Captain Vahkerson."

The Preacher looked at the three cannoneers standing beside the piece, who gave him a thumbs-up. He nodded, and they fell back from the gun, one of them holding the end of a length of lanyard.

Ja.n.u.s retreated as well and, somewhat to Marcus' surprise, jammed his hands over his ears. This undignified but prudent example rippled down the chain of command as first Marcus and then the men of the Seventh standing behind him followed suit. Marcus didn't hear the Preacher give the order to fire, but he saw the cannoneer give a sharp jerk on the lanyard, and a moment later the world went white.

a a a The "oasis" was little more than a spring, in truth, issuing from a crack in the side of a rocky hill that rose out of the endless wastes of the Great Desol like a granite whale. Where the steady trickle of water had once soaked away into the thirsty ground, the Desoltai had built a stone-walled pool, shaded with horsehides to keep off the worst of the sun. Around it was a village, if it could be dignified with the name. It consisted of a wide-open s.p.a.ce around the pool, surrounded by a scattering of huts built of stone and sc.r.a.ps of wood and roofed with more hides. Even these must have represented a significant investment for the Desoltai. There were no trees in the Desol, so every piece of timber would have been transported on horseback from the valley of the Tsel.

Whatever noncombatants had inhabited the village had plenty of warning of the Colonials' approach, and the Vordanai had found the buildings stripped of everything a man could carry. A wide corral stank with still-fresh horse droppings, but there were no animals to be seen. Marcus had been frankly glad to hear it. Given the state of their supplies, burdening the column with a few hundred captive civilians would have brought on some choices he didn't like to contemplate.

Beside the spring, where the hill had crumbled into something approaching a sheer cliff, the rock was carved into what must once have been a spectacular bas-relief. That it was ancient was obvious by the weathering. Human figures had eroded to blank-faced mannequins, arms raised in prayer or war or missing entirely. There were dozens of them, stretching for yards on either side of the crack where the spring emerged. Between them the remains of pillars could still be discerned, and in a few spots where a crevice had provided shelter from the wind the original delicate carvings of leaves and foliage were visible.

In the center of the ancient work of art was a pair of doors, twice the height of a man and cut from the same yellow-brown stone as the hillside. They had once been carved as well, but the centuries had weathered them nearly flat. More important, at least to Ja.n.u.s, it was obvious from the wide sc.r.a.pes in the sandy soil that they had been opened recently. So while the rest of the regiment had been set to hauling water from the pool and searching the town, one company of infantry and one of the Preacher's guns had been quietly commandeered to effect an entry. The men had spent the better part of an hour straining at the door with lines and makeshift crowbars, to no effect, so Ja.n.u.s had decided on more drastic measures.

a a a Even with his ears covered, the blast of the cannon filled the world. Close up, it wasn't the ba.s.s roar he was used to, but a monstrous crescendo that rattled his teeth and shifted things uncomfortably in his guts. His next breath reeked of powder. When he opened his eyes tentatively, he saw a ragged cloud of smoke drifting upward from the gun's muzzle. Beyond, barely twenty paces away, were the doors of the temple. Marcus couldn't imagine anything resisting the shot at that distance. It seemed as though it would have torn a hole in the mountain itself.

It certainly had done a number on the doors. The Preacher had aimed for the crack between the pair, and his aim had been impeccable, as had Ja.n.u.s' logic. The stone surface was revealed as a thin facade, no more than an inch thick, supported by a wooden frame. The ball had punched clean through, smashing an irregular hole in the stonework and sending a spiderweb of cracks across the rest of the surface. As Marcus watched, a snapped-off section buckled and fell with a sound like someone dropping a tray full of crockery. Other pieces followed, one by one, until only the lower half of the doors and a few sc.r.a.ps around the hinges remained intact. A cloud of dust billowed up from the pile of stone fragments at the base.

"Well laid, Captain," Ja.n.u.s said, when the chorus of destruction had come to an end. "I think no further shots will be required."

"At your service, Colonel," the Preacher said, and saluted. "Shall I send for my teams?"

"Indeed." Ja.n.u.s looked thoughtfully at the dark opening. Sunlight cutting through the dust cloud illuminated only a narrow square of cut-stone floor, the air ablaze with dancing motes. Beyond that, the blackness was complete. He turned to the infantry, who were cautiously lowering their hands from their ears. "Corporal! Clear this mess out of the way, if you would?"

"Yessir!" the corporal snapped, throwing a sharp salute. A team of rankers was soon at work tossing the chunks of rubble aside, while others levered the wrecked wooden structure of the door out of the way. As the Preacher's artillery mounts arrived to drag his gun back to the camp, Ja.n.u.s turned to Marcus.

"You seem like a man with something on his mind, Captain," he said.

"Just thinking, sir," Marcus said. "If there's anyone in there, that just about rang the front bell for them. They'll be ready for us."

"True. But without access to the spring, they couldn't hope to conceal any significant force."

Marcus lowered his voice. "What about that thing that came for you in Ashe-Katarion?"

"The demon may try to stop us," Ja.n.u.s acknowledged. "But we demonstrated there that it is not invincible. Formidable as an a.s.sa.s.sin, certainly, but a full company should see it off."

"And you think you'll find your Thousand Names here?"

"I'm certain of it," Ja.n.u.s said. "We know they moved it this far, and they had no way to take it any farther. We've searched the rest of the town-not that it offers much of a hiding place. There's nowhere else it can be. Ergo, it must be here."

Marcus nodded. Looking into the dark entryway gave him a sour feeling in the pit of his stomach, but he'd had the same feeling in Ashe-Katarion, when the search had led to a dead end. Nerves, he told himself. It's just nerves.

a a a Saints and martyrs. This place goes on forever.

Once the corporals of the Seventh had managed to round up enough lanterns to light their way, Marcus and Ja.n.u.s had proceeded into the hillside, a squad of infantry in the lead. The doors had opened onto a low-ceilinged tunnel with a gentle curve, laboriously hacked from the native rock. After a few dozen feet, though, it opened out into a much larger s.p.a.ce.

"This must have been a natural cavern," Ja.n.u.s mused. "I can't believe anyone would excavate so much stone."

Marcus nodded in agreement. The vaulting cave put him in mind of a cathedral, high-ceilinged and spreading wide to either side of the entrance. Two great fires burned in the far corners, but they barely served to outline the s.p.a.ce and throw leaping shadows. The floor was covered with shapes, humanoid figures twisting grotesquely in the bobbing lantern light and the flares of the bonfires, and Marcus had a bad moment before he realized they were statues. He'd seen dozens like them on Monument Hill in Ashe-Katarion, elaborate depictions of the myriad Khandarai G.o.ds, each possessing inexplicable animal features and dressed in odd, ceremonial regalia. The closest pair were what looked like a horse-headed man with wings and a snake that walked upright on a pair of gra.s.shopper legs, and had for some reason been provided with an enormous, drooping p.e.n.i.s.

"G.o.dd.a.m.ned priests," Marcus muttered. He wasn't a religious man, but there was something a lot more . . . well, respectful about a simple double circle in gold hanging over an altar. He turned to Ja.n.u.s. "You were right. This is a temple."

"There must be a shaft," Ja.n.u.s said to himself. "Otherwise the smoke would be smothering. Unless they only lit the fires as we came in?"

"Either way, they're ready for us."

"As you pointed out, Captain, that was inevitable when we used a cannon as a door knocker." Ja.n.u.s raised his voice. "All right, Corporal. Onward! They're only statues. And ask your men not to touch any of them, please. They are quite old, and some of them seem fragile."

The big corporal barked orders, and the rankers advanced, spreading in a loose formation through the enormous room. The statues were set in a rough pattern, not quite a grid, with ten or twenty feet between them. They seemed to fill the cavern to the walls, giving the impression of an army of shadowy, lantern-lit figures all around them. Marcus heard muttering among their escorts, and more than one man brought his hand to his chest to make the double-circle ward against evil. He couldn't blame them.

Another fire sprang to life, just ahead of them, and men raised their weapons. This one was smaller, just enough to illuminate a small circle of flagstones. On either side of it lay a human figure, spread-eagled, with a wooden box sitting between them. Marcus glanced at Ja.n.u.s, and caught the corner of the colonel's mouth quirked in amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Sir?" Marcus said.

"Gifts, Captain. Someone is trying to . . . buy us off."

"I'm not sure I understand."

Ja.n.u.s beckoned him forward, and Marcus reluctantly approached the fire. As he got closer, he realized with a start that he recognized both of the men on the floor. The fat body of General Khtoba, still in his stained dress uniform, wore an expression of blank surprise. The young man in black robes who had been the Hand of the Divine seemed more serene. Each corpse had a slim dagger embedded to the hilt in its left eye socket.

The colonel went to the box and flipped the lid open with a boot before Marcus could protest. He stared down at the contents for a moment, then looked up with another brief smile.

"Take a look, Captain. You'll appreciate this."

The firelight glittered across a steel mask, twin to the one they'd found after the ambush. Ja.n.u.s bent and picked it up. Underneath it was another identical copy, and Marcus could see another beneath that.

"What is that?" Marcus said. "The Steel Ghost's spare wardrobe?"

"More like the source of his mysterious powers," Ja.n.u.s said.

"I'm not sure I understand. Was there something special about the masks after all?"

"Only the significance ascribed to them." Ja.n.u.s ran a finger along the smooth metal. "It's inspired, really. I'm amazed they managed to keep the secret for so long."

"The way he could be in two places at once," Marcus said. "The Steel Ghost used doubles."

"In a way. My guess is that there was never any such person as the Steel Ghost to begin with. He was . . . a sort of myth, but one that only outsiders believed in. They must have laughed long and loud around the campfires."

"But someone must have worn the masks!"

"Whoever was convenient. Once you've built up the legend, think of the advantages. Pull a mask out from under your cloak, and suddenly it's not just a Desoltai raid but the Steel Ghost himself out for blood. Take it off when no one's looking, and the Ghost vanishes into the desert like a shadow. Combine that with the intelligence advantage they derived from their lantern codes, and they'd created a shadow puppet that had the whole country running scared."

Marcus looked down at the mask in the colonel's hand. "You knew. That's why you told me not to put it out that we'd killed the Ghost in the ambush-you knew he might turn up here as well."

"Let's say that I strongly suspected. When you have a man whose only distinguishing feature is something that hides his ident.i.ty, why should you a.s.sume it's the same man each time? It's like saying the Pontifex of the White has lived for a thousand years because different men keep putting on the hat."

"You might have told me."