Raven struggled with himself, trying to say thank you, unable to get through the barriers he had built around the man inside. Guess we could head toward....

I dont want to know. Ive met the Eye twice already. Shes got a thing about getting her side set down for posterity. Not that she wants to look good, just that she wants it down true. She knows how history rewrites itself. She doesnt want that to happen to her. And Im the boy shes picked to do the writing.

Get out, Croaker. Come with us. You and Silent. Come with us.

It had been a long, lonely night. I had thought about it a lot. Cant, Raven. The Captain has to stay where hes at, even if he dont like it. The Company has to stay. Im Company. Im too old to run away from home. Well fight the same fight, you and me, but Ill do my share staying with the family.

Come on, Croaker. A bunch of mercenary cutthroats....

Whoa! Hold it. My voice hardened more than I wanted. He stopped. I said, Remember that night in Lords, before we went after Whisper? When I read from the Annals? What you said?

He did not respond for several seconds. Yes. That youd made me feel what it meant to be a member of the Black Company. All right. Maybe I dont understand it, but I did feel it.

Thanks. I took another package from my bedroll. This one was for Darling. You talk to Silent a while, eh? I got a birthday present here.

He looked at me a moment, then nodded. I turned so my tears would not be so obvious. And after I said my goodbyes to the girl, and cherished her delight in my feeble present, I went to the roadside and had myself a brief, quiet cry. Silent and Raven pretended blindness.

I would miss Darling. And I would spend the rest of my days frightened for her. She was precious, perfect, always happy. The thing in that village was behind her, But ahead lay the most terrible enemy imaginable. None of us wanted that for her.

I rose, erased the evidence of tears, took Raven aside. I dont know your plans. I dont want to know. But just in case. When the Lady and I caught up with Soulcatcher the other day, he had a whole bale of those papers we dug up in Whispers camp. He never turned them over to her. She doesnt know they exist. I told him where they could be found. Ill ride out that way in a couple weeks. If theyre still there, Ill see what I can find in them myself.

He looked at me with a cool, expressionless face. He was thinking my death warrant was signed if I came under the Eye again. But he did not say it. Thanks, Croaker. If Im ever up that way, Ill check into it.