Free Shadows Linger: A Novel of the Black Company (Chronicles of The Black Company) by Glen Cook Page B

there. Monsters.”
    “Describe them.”
    “I can’t.”
    “Can’t or won’t?”
    “Can’t. All they tell you is that they’re there.”
    “I see.” Raven rose. “This needs investigating. Don’t discuss it. Especially not with Asa.”
    “Oh, no.” Panicked, Asa would do something stupid.
    *   *   *
    Word drifted in off the street. Krage had sent his two best men after Raven. They had disappeared. Three more had vanished since. Krage himself had been injured by an unknown assailant. He had survived only because of Count’s immense strength. Count wasn’t expected to live.
    Shed was terrified. Krage was neither reasonable nor rational. He asked Raven to move out. Raven stared at him in contempt. “Look, I don’t want him killing you here,” Shed said.
    “Bad for business?”
    “For my health, maybe. He’s got to kill you now. People will stop being scared of him if he doesn’t.”
    “He won’t learn, eh? A damned city of fools.”
    Asa boiled through the doorway. “Shed, I got to talk to you.” He was scared. “Krage thinks I turned him over to Raven. He’s after me. You got to hide me, Shed.”
    “Like hell.” The trap was closing. Two of them here. Krage would kill him for sure, would dump his mother into the street.
    “Shed, I kept you in wood all winter. I kept Krage off your back.”
    “Oh, sure. So I should get killed, too?”
    “You owe me, Shed. I never told nobody how you go out at night with Raven. Maybe Krage would want to know that, huh?”
    Shed grabbed Asa’s hands and yanked him forward, against the counter. As if cued, Raven stepped up behind the little man. Shed glimpsed a knife. Raven pricked Asa’s back, whispered, “Let’s go to my room.”
    Asa went pallid. Shed forced a smile. “Yeah.” He released Asa, took a stoneware bottle from beneath the counter. “I want to talk to you, Asa.” He collected three mugs.
    Shed went up last, intensely aware of his mother’s blind stare. How much had she heard? How much had she guessed? She had been cool lately. His shame had come between them. He no longer felt deserving of her respect.
    He clouted his conscience. I did it for her!
    Raven’s room had the only door left on the upper floors. Raven held it for Asa and Shed. “Sit,” he told Asa, indicating his cot. Asa sat. He looked scared enough to wet himself.
    Raven’s room was as Spartan as his dress. It betrayed no hint of wealth.
    “I invest it, Shed,” Raven said, wearing a mocking smile. “In shipping. Pour the wine.” He began cleaning his nails with a knife.
    Asa downed his wine before Shed finished pouring the rest. “Fill him up,” Raven said. He sipped his own wine. “Shed, why have you been giving me that sour cat’s piss when you had this?”
    “Nobody gets it without asking. It costs more.”
    “I’ll take this from now on.” Raven locked gazes with Asa, tapped his own cheek with his knife blade.
    No, Raven wouldn’t have to live frugally. The body business would be lucrative. He invested? In shipping? Odd the way he said that. Where the money went might be as interesting as whence it came.
    “You threatened my friend,” Raven said. “Oh. Excuse me, Shed. A misstatement. It’s partner, not friend. Partners don’t have to like each other. Little man. You have something to say for yourself?”
    Shed shuddered. Damn Raven. He’d said that so Asa would spread it around. Bastard was taking control of his life. Nibbling away at it like a mouse slowly destroying a head of cheese.
    “Honest, Mr. Raven. I didn’t mean nothing. I was scared. Krage thinks I tipped you. I got to hide, and Shed’s scared to put me up. I was just trying to get him to.…”
    “Shut up. Shed, I thought he was your friend.”
    “I just did him some favors. I felt sorry for him.”
    “You’d shelter him from weather, but not from enemies. You’re a real gutless wonder, Shed. Maybe I made a mistake. I was going to make you a full partner. Going to give you the