"Hi, fellow," One-Eye said, punching a finger into the soldier's chest, pushing him back."Yeah. It's your old pals."

Behind me, Tracker stared across the compound. The collapse of the headquarters building was complete. Fire snapped and crackled inside. Toadkiller Dog loped around the end of the ruin.

"Look at that." I punched Goblin's arm. "He's running." I faced Case. "Show us your friend Corbie."

He did not want to do that.

"You don't want to argue. We're not in the mood. Move it or we walk over you."

The compound had begun to fill with yammering soldiers. None noticed us. Toadkiller Dog loped up, sniffed Tracker's calves, made a sound deep in his throat. Tracker's face gleamed.

We pushed in behind Case. "To Corbie," I reminded him.

He led us to a room where a single oil lamp illuminated a man on a bed, neatly blanketed. Case turned the lamp up.

"Oh, holy shit," I murmured. I plopped my butt on the edge of the bed. "It ain't possible. One-Eye?" But One-Eye was in another universe. He just stood there with his mouth open. Like Goblin.

Finally, Goblin squeaked, "But he's dead. He died six years ago."

Corbie was the Raven who played such a grand part in the Company past. The Raven who had set Darling on her present course.

Even I had been convinced he was dead, and I was by nature suspicious of Raven. He had tried the same stunt before.

. "Nine lives," One-Eye remarked.

"Should have suspected when we heard the name Corbie," I said.

"What?"

"It's a joke. His kind. Corbie. Crow. Rook. Raven. All pretty much the same thing. Right? He waved it under our noses."

Seeing him there illuminated mysteries that had plagued me for years. Now I knew why papers I had salvaged would not come together. He had removed the key pieces before faking his last death.

"Even Darling didn't know this time," I mused. The shock had begun to wear off. I found myself reflecting that on several occasions after the letters began arriving I had skirted the suspicion that he was alive.

A raft of questions rose. Darling not knowing. Why not? That did not seem like Raven. But more, why abandon her to our mercy, as he had, when for so long he had tried to keep her away?

There was more here than met the eye. More than Raven just running off so he could poke into doings at the Barrowland. Unfortunately, I could question neither of my witnesses.

"How long has he been this way?" One-Eye asked Case. The soldier's eyes were wide. He knew who we were now. Maybe my ego did not need deflating after all.

"Months."

"There was a letter," I said. "There were papers. What became of them?"

"The Colonel."

"And what did the Colonel do? Did he inform the Taken? Did he contact the Lady?"