Glen Cook Black Company 07 Bleak Season

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Mather's Guards brought it up. I read it, told him, "Give the old fool a
beating and tell him not to bother me again."
The Guard gave me a funny look. He glanced at Thai Dei, then whispered, "Ain't
old, ain't a him, but probably is a fool, Standardbearer. Was I you I'd take
the time."
I got it. At last. "I'll just box his ears myself, then. Thai Dei, try to keep
the bad guys out. I'll be back in a few minutes."
He did not listen, of course, because he could not bodyguard me from a
distance, but I did confuse him long enough to get a headstart. I got down
there and got my hands on Sahra before he caught up or got ahead of me. After
that he had little say. And my clever lady had brought To Tan to distract him.
Thai Dei did not talk much but that did not make him stupid. He knew he could
not win with the cards he held right now. "Clever," I told Sahra. "I thought
I'd never see you again. Hi, kiddo," I said to To Tan, who did not remember
me. "Sahra, honey, you gotta promise me. No more of that cryptic stuff like
Grandpa Dam. I'm just a simpleminded soldier."
I led Sahra inside and up to my little hole in the wall. For the next three
years I marvelled every morning when I wakened to find her beside me and
almost every time I saw her during the day. She became the center of my life,
my anchor, my rock, my goddess, and every damned one of my brothers envied me
almost to the borders of hatred though Sahra converted them all into devoted
friends. She could give Lady lessons on softening the hearts of hard men.
Not till Uncle Doj and Mother Gota came to visit did I find out that Sahra had
done more than just defy the customs of the Nyueng Bao. She had ignored the
express orders of her tribal elders to come make herself the wife of a Soldier
of Darkness. Confident little witch.
Those toothless old men put no value on the wishes of the "witch" Ky Hong
Tray.
I think I have a realistic picture of who and what I am so I am amazed that
Sahra ever thought as much of me as I thought of her.
Chapter 98
I sipped water, ate, and reflected that this was one time when I had no
trouble leaving Smoke's world. There was no attenuation of the pain if I went
out there to see Sarie. What was I doing here?
There was one mystery yet to be illuminated before I allowed Croaker to drag
me off into the next fun phase of our great adventure. I wanted to know what
had happened between him and Blade.
Smoke and I zigzagged back and forth through time, quartering the temporal
reaches, tacking into the winds of time, following a search pattern, looking
for anomalies in the relationship between Blade and my boss. I knew about when
the blowup happened so, instead, for the time being, I sought contributory
evidence.
You can cover a lot of time fast riding Smoke. It did not take long to
establish, beyond a doubt, that Blade's relationship with Lady was never
anything but proper, however charged with wishful thinking on his end. Lady
never acknowledged Blade's mooneyes nor those of anyone else. She seemed too
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accustomed to them to pay them any mind.
So what did happen?
I worried it like a wild dog trying to dig a rodent out of its hole. Smoke was
no help at all. There were places, times, angles that he just refused to go
see. I tried tricking him several ways, just to find out why he could not or
would not go where I wanted him to go. None of that did any good.
Maybe I was baying down the wrong trail.
The actual headbutting had been less than wildly explosive and made only
marginal sense when viewed from another point in time. All I could find out
that made sense was that Blade and Croaker were sipping some potent home brew
before they started getting crazy.
Verbal sniping turned into angry implications which became threats on the Old
Man's part. And the beer continued to flow.
I have to say that Croaker was definitely the bad guy. Or fool. He kept on and
on while Blade did his best not to let himself be baited.
That only infuriated Croaker. He spouted threats that left Blade no choice but
to run.
I backed away, embarrassed for my Captain. I had not thought that he could be
such a complete asshole. I did not understand why he was so insecure about
Lady. I felt for Blade, deeply, and had to think less of one of my heroes.
Now that I reflected on it, I recalled occasional bestowals of unpleasantries
upon Willow Swan that had not gotten out of hand. And Croaker had even
exchanged cross words with the Prahbrindrah Drah once.
I sensed a pattern. It was not one I wanted to see. But it was obvious if you
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