Free Shadows Linger by Glen Cook Page B

passage
     urns.” Every corpse in the Catacombs was accompanied by a small, sealed urn,
    usually fixed on a chain around the body's neck. The Custodians did not touch
     the few coins in those. When the Day of Passage came, the Boatmen would demand
     payment for passage to Paradise.
    “All those souls stranded,” Shed murmured. He explained.
    Raven looked baffled. “How can anybody with an ounce of brains believe that
     crap? Dead is dead. Be quiet, Shed. Just answer questions. How many bodies in
     the Catacombs?”
    “Who knows? They've been putting them away since. . . . Hell, for a thousand
     years. Maybe there's millions.”
    “Must have them stacked like cordwood.”
    Shed wondered about that. The Catacombs were vast, but a thousand years' worth
     of cadavers from a city Juniper's size would make a hell of a pile. He looked at
     Raven. Damn the man. “It's Asa's racket. Let's not try.”
    “Why not?”
    “Too dangerous.”
    “Your friend hasn't suffered.”
    “He's smalltime. If he gets greedy, he'll get killed. There are Guardians down
     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