I was confident of that. I was sure he would have betrayed himself to Howler by now if they had been allies in the past. Those potatoes. Did you get the little kind like I...

Hagop glowered at me, told the Old Man, There is the remotest chance that he could be the Faceless Man, Moonbiter, or Nightcrawler although everybody up there was sure those three really did bite the dust. It was just that we couldnt come up with any bodies.

How about one of the later Taken? Croaker mused.

Five actually survived. Journey, Whisper, Blister, Creeper and Learned. But Lady stripped all five of their powers. In front of witnesses.

But Lady has been getting her powers back, I argued.

A point. On the other hand, we know the exact day when the Shadowmasters appeared. Even the hour, I gather. All the later Taken were still in business up north. In fact, most of them werent even Taken yet.

I traded glances with the Old Man. He began pacing. He said, When Soulcatcher held me captive she told me one of the Shadowmasters who died at Dejagore wasnt ever one of the Taken.

I added, Neither was Shadowspinner.

Hagop said, All they could tell us, really, was that they didnt have a clue if Longshadow used to be one of the old mob. The written record supported them.

Croaker kept pacing, narrowly avoided a collision with Otto, but stayed well away from the cluster of unhappy Taglians awaiting his blessing upon their desires to go home. After all this time could they recognize him through his Shadar disguise? Probably.

I was sure he was thinking that this war with the Shadowmasters was no ordinary struggle, that the stakes went far beyond simple survival. He said, Weve taken three of the bastards down. But Longshadow is the worst. He is the craziest. Hes working on Overlook day and night...

Still?

Still. The poor idiot is a living testimonial to the fact that everything takes longer and costs more. Even magic cant get you around that. But hes a lot closer to being finished than he was when you left. And if he does get done before we get him we can bend over and kiss our butts goodbye. Itll be the end of the world. His plan is to pull his hole in behind him and loose the dogs of hell then come out later and collect up the pieces of whatever is left.

I grumbled, Ive heard this one before. I never took it entirely serious despite the characters involved. But it did sound like Croaker believed Longshadow was capable of doing it. Maybe his adventures with Smoke had shown him something I had missed so far.

So the end of the world was imminent, either at the hands of Kina and her Deceivers or at those of Longshadow. Either way, only the Black Company could prevent the tragedy.

Yeah. Sure.