Case nodded. He thought he understood while not understanding. He had known other old veterans. Most had had their peculiarities. "Hey! Corbie. You ever run into the Black Company when you was up here?"

Corbie froze, stared with such intensity the young soldier blushed. "Uh… What's the matter, Corbie? I say something wrong?"

Corbie resumed walking, his limp not slowing a furiously increased pace. "It was odd. Like you were reading my mind. Yes. I ran into those guys. Bad people. Very bad people."

"My dad told us stories about them. He was with them during the long retreat to Charm. Lords, the Windy Country, the Stair of Tear, all those battles. When he got leave time after the battle at Charm, he came home. Told awful stories about those guys."

"I missed that part. I got left behind at Roses, when Shifter and the Limper lost the battle. Who was your dad with? You've never talked about him much."

"Nightcrawler. I don't talk about him because we never got along."

Corbie smiled. "Sons seldom get on with their fathers. And that's the voice of experience speaking."

"What did your father do?"

Corbie laughed. "He was a farmer. Of sorts. But I'd rather not talk about him."

"What are we doing out here, Corbie?"

Double-checking Bomanz's surveys. But Corbie could not tell the lad that. Nor could he think of an adequate lie. "Walking in the rain."

"Corbie…"

"Can we keep it quiet for a while, Case? Please?"

"Sure."

Corbie limped all the way around the Barrowland, maintaining a respectful distance, never being too obvious. He did not use equipment. That would bring Colonel Sweet on the run. Instead, he consulted the wizard's chart in his mind. The thing blazed with its own life there, those arcane TelleKurre symbols glowing with a wild and dangerous life. Studying the remains of the Barrowland, he could find but a third of the map's referents. The rest had been undone by time and weather.

Corbie was no man to have trouble with his nerve. But he was afraid now. Near the end of their stroll he said, "Case, I want a favor. Perhaps a double favor."

"Sir?"

"Sir? Call me Corbie."

"You sounded so serious."

"It is serious."

"Say on, then."

"Can you be trusted to keep your mouth shut?"

"If necessary."

"I want to extract a conditional vow of silence."

"I don't understand."

"Case, I want to tell you something. In case something happens to me."

"Corbie!"

"I'm not a young man, Case. And I have a lot wrong with me. I've been through a lot. I feel it catching up. I don't expect to go soon. But things happen. If something should, there's something I don't want to die with me."

"Okay, Corbie."

"If I suggested something, can you keep it to yourself? Even if you think you maybe shouldn't? Can you do something for me?"

"You're making it hard, not telling me."