Free The Books of the South: Tales of the Black Company (Chronicles of the Black Company) by Glen Cook Page A

fire easily, so that many bore black scars. From a distance they looked like a herd of giant, tawny, humped beasts sleeping.
    I was in a state of high nerves. That sleeping-beast image haunted me. I kept half expecting those hills to waken and shrug us off. I caught up with One-Eye. “Is there something weird about these hills that you accidentally forgot to tell me about on purpose?”
    He gave me a funny look. “No. Though the ignorant believe them to be burial mounds from a time when giants walked the earth. But they aren’t. They’re just hills. All dirt and rock inside.”
    “Then why do they make me feel funny?”
    He glanced back the way we had come, puzzled. “It’s not the hills, Croaker. It’s something back there. I feel it, too. Like we just dodged an arrow.”
    I did not ask him what it was. He would have told me if he had known.
    As the day wore on I realized the others were as jumpy as I was.
    Worrying about it did as much good as worrying ever does.
    *   *   *
    Next morning we ran into two wizened little men of One-Eye’s race. They both looked a hundred years old. One of them kept hacking and coughing like he was about to croak. Goblin cackled. “Must be old Lizard Lips’s illegitimate grandchildren.”
    There was a resemblance. I suppose that was to be expected. We were just accustomed to One-Eye being unique.
    One-Eye scowled at Goblin. “Keep it up, Barf Bag. You’ll be grocery shopping with the turtles.”
    What the hell did that mean? Some kind of obscure shop talk? But Goblin was as croggled as the rest of us.
    Grinning, One-Eye resumed gabbling with his relatives.
    Lady said, “I presume these are the guides the monks sent for?”
    They had done us that favor on learning our intentions. We would need guides. We were near the end of any road we could call familiar. Once past One-Eye’s jungle we would need somebody to translate for One-Eye, too.
    Goblin let out a sudden aggrieved squawk.
    “What’s your problem?” I demanded.
    “He’s feeding them a pack of lies!”
    So what was new about that? “How do you know? You don’t talk that lingo.”
    “I don’t have to. I’ve known him since before your dad was whelped. Look at him. He’s doing his classic mighty-sorcerer-from-a-faraway-land act. In about twenty seconds he’s going to…” A wicked grin spread his mouth around his face. He muttered something under his breath.
    One-Eye raised a hand. A ball of light formed within his curled fingers.
    There was a pop like that of a cork coming out of a wine bottle.
    One-Eye held a hand full of swamp bottom. It oozed between his fingers and ran down his arm. He lowered his hand and stared in disbelief.
    He let out a shriek and whirled.
    Innocent Goblin was faking a conversation with Murgen. But Murgen was not up to the deceit. His shifty eyes gave Goblin away.
    One-Eye puffed up like a toady frog, ready to explode. Then a miracle occurred. He invented self-restraint. A nasty little smile pranced across his lips and he turned back to the guides.
    That was the second time in my experience that he had controlled himself when provoked. But, then, it was one of those rare times when Goblin had initiated the process of provocation. I told Otto, “This could get interesting.”
    Otto grunted an affirmative. He was not thrilled.
    Of One-Eye, I asked, “Have you finished telling them you’re the necromancer Voice of the North Wind come to ease the pain in their hearts brought on by worry about their wealth?” He’d actually tried to sell that once, to a tribe of savages coincidentally in possession of an eye-popping cache of emeralds. He found out the hard way that primitive does not mean stupid. They were fixing to burn him at the stake when Goblin decided to bail him out. Against his better judgment, he always insisted afterward.
    “It ain’t like that this time, Croaker. I wouldn’t do it to my own people.”
    One-Eye does not have an ounce of shame. Nor even the sense not to