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

lie to those who know him well. Of course he would do it to his own people. He would do it to anybody if he thought he could get away with it. And he has so little trouble conning himself on that.
    “See that you don’t. We’re too few and too far from safety to let you indulge yourself in your usual line of shit.”
    I got enough menace into my voice to make him gulp. His tone was markedly different when he resumed gobbling at our prospective guides.
    Even so, I decided I would pick up a smatter of the language. Just to keep an ear on him. His often misplaced self-confidence has a way of asserting itself at the most unpropitious moments.
    Straight for a time, One-Eye negotiated a deal that pleased everyone. We had ourselves guides for the passage through the jungle and intermediary interpreters for the land that lay beyond.
    Relying on his usual moronic sense of humor, Goblin dubbed them Baldo and Wheezer, for reasons that were self-evident. To my embarrassment, the names stuck. Those two old boys probably deserved better. But then again …
    *   *   *
    We wended our way between the shaggy, hump-backed hills the rest of that day, and as darkness approached we topped the cleavage between the pair that flanked the summit of our passage. From there we could see the sunset, reflecting bloody wounds of a broad river, and the rich green of the jungle beyond. Behind us lay the tawny humps, and beyond them a hazy sprawl of indigo.
    My mood was reflective, flat, almost down. It seemed we might have reached a watershed in more than a geographical sense.
    Much later, unable to sleep for thoughts that questioned what I was doing here in an alien land, thoughts that replied that I had nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, I left my bedroll and the remaining warmth of our campfire. I headed for one of the flanking hills, moved by some vague notion of going up where I could get a better view of the stars.
    Wheezer, who had the watch, gave me a gap-toothed leer before spitting a wad of brown juice into the coals. I heard him start wheezing before I was halfway up the hill.
    A lunger I got, yet.
    *   *   *
    The moon threatened to rise soon. It would be fat and bright. I picked me a spot and stood looking at the horizon, waiting for that fat orange globe to roll over the lip of the world. The faintest of cool, moist breezes stirred my hair. It was so damned peaceful it hurt.
    “You couldn’t sleep, either?”
    I jerked around.
    She was a dark glob on the hillside just ten feet away. If I had noted her at all, it was as a rock. I stepped closer. She was seated, her arms wrapped around her knees. Her gaze was fixed on the north.
    “Sit down.”
    I sat. “What are you looking at so hard?”
    “The Reaper. The Archer. Vargo’s Ship.” And yesterdays, no doubt.
    Those were constellations. I considered them, too. They were very low, seen from here. This time of year they would be quite high in the sky up north. What she meant began to sink in.
    We had come a far piece, indeed. With many a mile to go.
    She said, “It’s intimidating when you think about it. It’s a lot of walking.”
    It was.
    The moon clambered over the horizon, monstrous in size and almost red. She whispered “Wow!” and slipped her hand into mine. She was shivering, so after a minute I slid over and put my arm around her. She leaned her head against my shoulder.
    That old moon was working its magic. That sucker can do it to anybody.
    Now I knew what made Wheezer grin.
    The moment seemed right. I turned my head—and her lips were rising to meet mine. When they touched mine I forgot who and what she had been. Her arms surrounded me, pulled me down.…
    She shivered in my grasp like a captive mouse. “What is it?” I whispered.
    “Shh,” she said. And that was the best thing she could have said. But she could not leave it there. She had to add, “I never … I never did this.…”
    Well, shit. She sure knew how to distract a man, and put a