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Always there was a powerful presentiment of demons or demigods to come.
What she could not comprehend was why all this frightened her so. There was
nothing here more deadly or threatening or bizarre than a thousand perils she
had faced before. Nothing here matched the sheer dark menace of the Dominator
in his time.
There were infrequent moments when she still longed for those dark and ancient
times. The Dominator had taken her and all her sisters, had made one of them
his wife and another his lover...
He had been a strong, hard, cruel man, the Dominator. His empire had been one
of cruelty and steel. And Soulcatcher had revelled in its pomp and dark glory.
And would never forgive her rival, her last surviving sister, for having
brought all that to an end. Blame the death of the Dominator on the White Rose
if you wanted. Soulcatcher knew the truth. The Dominator never would have gone
down if his whining virgin of a wife had not helped his destruction along.
And who had fought and conspired so hard after their resurrection to keep the
Dominator in the ground? His loving wife, that was who!
She would be back. She would be out there somewhere, wherever the Black
Company had been hiding. She was not here yet but she would be soon. Having
been buried alive again would be no impediment to the inevitable, that grim
moment when they would settle their differences face-to-face.
Soulcatcher could will herself blind in some quarters, despite centuries of
cynical experience. She would not see that fortune could be just as erratic
and insane as she was.
Soulcatcher's powers of recuperation were tremendous. After a few hours of
rest she rose and started walking northward, her stride long and confident.
Tonight she would gather an army of her own shadows around her. Never again
would she be as threatened as she had been the night before.
So she told herself.
By late afternoon her confidence was as high as ever it had been and fragments
of her mind were already peeping past today's crisis to scout out what might
be done to sculpt the future.
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Soulcatcher had long been intimate with the knowledge that horrible things
could and did happen to her but always she had enjoyed the certainty that she
would come through everything alive.
Chapter 33
Khatovar: Leave-taking
Looks clean," Swan said. Murgen and Thai Dei grunted agreement. I nodded to
the Nyueng Bao. What he had to say meant something here. His eyes were still
as sharp as those of a lad of fifteen. I was damned near blind in one and
could not see out the other.
"Doj? What do you think? Did they run away? Or did they sneak back just in
case we sneaked back?" Element of surprise no longer my ally, I did not want
to run into the Voroshk again. Especially not those old men. They would be
bitter and in a mood to drag me down to hell with them.
"They went away. They went back to prepare for the onslaught. They know horror
and despair are headed their way but they also know they're strong enough to
weather it if they remain calm and work hard."
I suspect I gaped. "How do you figure all that?"
"It's just a matter of mental exercise. Take what we know about them, about
sorcerers as a whole, and about human beings in general, and the rest follows.
They've been through this before, in a smaller way. They'll have worked out
what to do if it happened again. All this empty country, from here to the
other side of their Dandha Presh, will serve the same function as the cleared
ground surrounding a fortress expecting to be besieged."
"You've convinced me. Let's just hope they're not so ready that they figure
out how to come looking for us after they wrap up their pest problem." As
badly as the shadowgate and nearby barrier had been damaged I doubted the
Voroshk would have much energy to spare for generations.
Swan said, "He had me for a minute, too, but here comes the argument that
proves what I always knew: Uncle Doj is full of shit."
A half dozen billowing black forms had emerged from the vegetation down the
slope. They were walking very slowly, two by two, hands extended away from
their sides, their flying posts tagging along behind at waist height.
I said, "I don't know what the fuck is going on but I want Goblin and Doj
ready for anything. Murgen, you and Thai Dei spread out so we can hit them
from in front and both sides with fireballs." Me and my pals had three live
poles, literally all our band had left. Lady said there were just six usable
fireballs between the three. She hoped.
One for each of the Voroshk.
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