Free Shadows Linger by Glen Cook Page A

Lisa you used when
     Darling was sick.“ Lisa, Shed thought. Another hot one. ”I only use Lisa when
     I'm here to watch her.“ A hot one not attached. ”She'll steal me blinder than my
     mother. ...“ ”Shed!“ ”Eh?”
    “Get Wally and Lisa here; then go keep an eye on Asa. I'll make sure they don't
     carry off the family silver.“ ”But. . . .” Raven slapped a palm on the tabletop.
    “I said go!”
    The day was clear and bright and, for winter, warm. Shed picked up Asa's trail
     outside Krage's establishment.
    Asa rented a wagon. Shed was amazed. In winter stable-keepers demanded huge
     deposits. Draft animals slaughtered and eaten had no provenance. He thought it a
     miracle anyone trusted Asa with a team. Asa went directly to the Enclosure. Shed
     stalked along behind, keeping his head down, confident Asa would not suspect him
     even if he looked back. The streets were crowded.
    Asa left the wagon in a public grove across a lane running alongside the wall
     which girdled the Enclosure. It was one of many similar groves where Juniper's
     citizenry gathered for the Spring and Autumn Rites for the Dead. The wagon could
     not be seen from the lane.
    Shed squatted in shadow and bush and watched Asa dash to the Enclosure wall.
    Somebody ought to clear that brush away, Shed thought. It made the wall look
     tacky. For that matter, the wall needed repairing. Shed crossed and found a gap
     through which a man could duck-walk. He crept through. Asa was crossing an open
     meadow, hurrying uphill toward a stand of pines.
    The inner face of the wall was brush-masked, too. Scores of bundles of wood lay
     among the bushes. Asa had more industry than Shed had suspected. Hanging around
     Krage's gang had changed him. They had him scared for sure.
    Asa entered the pines. Shed puffed after him. Ahead, Asa sounded like a cow
     pushing through the underbrush.
    The whole Enclosure was tacky. In Shed's boyhood it had been park-like, a fit
     waiting place for those who had gone before. Now it had the threadbare look that
     characterized the rest of Juniper.
    Shed crept toward hammering racket. What was Asa doing, making so much noise?
    He was cutting wood from a fallen tree, stacking the pieces in neat bundles.
    Shed could not picture the little man orderly, either. What a difference terror
     made. An hour later Shed was ready to give up. He was cold and hungry and stiff.
    He had wasted half a day. Asa was doing nothing remarkable. But he persevered.
    He had a time investment to recoup. And an irritable Raven awaiting his report.
    Asa worked hard. When not chopping, he hustled bundles down to his wagon. Shed
     was impressed.
    He stayed, watched, and told himself he was a fool. This was going nowhere. Then
     Asa became furtive. He collected his tools and concealed them, looked around
     warily. This is it, Shed thought. Asa took off uphill. Shed puffed after him.
    His stiff muscles protested every step. Asa traveled more than a mile through
     lengthening shadows. Shed almost lost him. A clinking brought him back to the
     track.
    The little man was using flint and steel. He crouched over a supply of torches
     wrapped in an oilskin, taken from hiding. He got a brand burning, hastened into
     some brush. A moment later he clambered over some rocks beyond, disappeared.
    Shed gave it a minute, then followed. He slid round the boulder where he had
     seen Asa last. Beyond lay a crack in the earth just big enough to admit a man.
    “My god,” Shed whispered. “He's found a way into the Catacombs. He's looting the
     dead.”
    “I came straight back,” Shed gasped. Raven was amused by his distress. “I knew
     Asa was foul, but I never dreamed he'd commit sacrilege.” Raven smiled.
    “Aren't you disgusted?”
    “No. Why are you? He didn't steal any bodies.”
    Shed came within a hair's breadth of assaulting him. He was worse than Asa.
    “He making out at it?”
    “Not as well as you. The Custodians take all the burial gifts except