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Back Bleak Seasons Save as PDF
Chapters (102)
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I said, He never gets all the way naked but Im pretty sure Longshadow is a he. Physically.

The Old Man offered me a daggers look. Damn! But the Taglians were way off in a corner sulking. None of them caught my slip. Hagop was not on the list of three, either, though. I hastened to amend myself. But Smoke is the only one who ever saw him in the flesh. And he aint talking.

He still alive? Hagop asked.

Barely, Croaker said. We keep him alive. Men have come back from comas before. Thats it, Hagop? All that time and travel. Thats all you got me?

Thats the way she goes sometimes, boss. He grinned. Oh. I almost forgot. They did give me a coffin full of papers and stuff that night have belonged to some of the people who maybe could have turned into Longshadow if he was ever one of the Eighteen. The stuff is all packaged and labeled in case some wizard decides he wants to use them.

Croakers face lit up like a bonfire. You shithead. Grinning, he yelled, Otto, send them guys home, why dont you? Bonharj, the rest of you, what the hell are you doing hanging around here? Your people want to see you. He told me, Guess we ought to ship that stuff down to Lady. Shell know what to do with it.

Otto hustled the Taglians out of the warehouse. They seemed baffled by the Liberators sudden generosity. Me too.

Hagop said, Now how about you guys telling whats been happening?

I said, A whole lot. But nothing big and dramatic. We keep nibbling them to death.

Is Mogaba really the head honcho of Longshadows army?

Absolutely. Hes one kickass sonofabitch, too, only Longshadow wont let him run loose. He has to mess with us secondhand, mostly, letting Blade do his dirty work.

Huh? Blade? Like in Blade of Blade and Mather and Swan?

Oh. Yeah. I glanced at the Old Man, whose expression had gone stony. Yeah. Blade defected while you were gone.

Lets get back to the Palace, Murgen, Croaker said. We have work to do.

92

92

Croaker did not say much as we walked, though he did snarl at people who dared stare at the Shadar and his white-devil companion. We northerners are so few that even after years few of the commoners have yet seen any of us. And, of course, we have done very little to dispel our evil reputation.

Some intellectuals inside the priesthoods have argued that the friendship of todays Black Company is as deadly to Taglios as was the enmity of its remote forbears.

Their complaint may have merit.

We were coming up to the Palace. Croaker kept grumbling to himself, mostly because so little had come of the expedition. That had been his pet and his expectations had run away with him. He asked, How long are your in-laws going to hang around?