Book 1 - The Black Company by Glen Cook Read Free Book Online Page A

day-old
rawhide.
    Pawnbroker winced, looked around furtively. He has that manner.
"The Captain wants you guys."
    We exchanged glances. One-Eye settled down. We had not seen much
of the Captain lately. He was all the time hanging around with
bigwigs from the Imperial Army.
    Elmo and the Lieutenant got up. I did too, and started toward
Pawnbroker.
    The barkeeper bellowed. A serving wench darted to the doorway,
blocked it. A huge, dull bull of a man lumbered out of a back room.
He carried a prodigious gnarly club in each hogshead hand. He
looked confused.
    One-Eye snarled. The rest of our crowd rose, ready for
anything.
    The sailors, smelling a riot, started choosing sides. Mostly
against us.
    "What the hell is going on?" I shouted.
    "Please, sir," said the girl at the door. "Your friends haven't
paid for their last round." She sped the barkeeper a vicious
look.
    "The hell they didn't." House policy was payment on delivery. I
looked at the Lieutenant. He agreed. I glanced at the barkeep,
sensed his greed. He thought we were drunk enough to pay twice.
    Elmo said, "One-Eye, you picked this thieves' den. You
straighten them out."
    No sooner said than done. One-Eye squealed like a hog meeting
the butcher.
    A chimp-sized, four-armed bundle of ugly exploded from beneath
our table. It charged the girl at the door, left fang-marks on her
thigh. Then it climbed all over the club-wielding mountain of
muscle. The man was bleeding in a dozen places before he knew what
was happening.
    A fruit bowl on a table at the room's center vanished in a black
fog. It reappeared a second later--with venomous snakes boiling over
its rim.
    The barkeep's jaw dropped. And scarab beetles poured out of his
mouth.
    We made our exit during the excitement. One-Eye howled and
giggled for blocks.
     
     
    The Captain stared at us. We leaned on one another before his
table. One-Eye still suffered the occasional spate of giggles. Even
the Lieutenant could not keep a straight face. "They're drunk," the
Captain told him.
    "We're drunk," One-Eye agreed. "We're palpably, plausibly,
pukingly drunk."
    The Lieutenant jabbed him in the kidney.
    "Sit down, men. Try to behave while you're here."
    Here was a posh garden establishment socially miles above our
last port of call. Here even the whores had titles. Plantings and
tricks of landscaping broke the gardens into areas of
semi-seclusion. There were ponds, gazebos, stone walkways, and an
overwhelming perfume of flowers in the air.
    "A little rich for us," I remarked.
    "What's the occasion?" the Lieutenant asked. The rest of us
jockeyed for seats.
    The Captain had staked out a huge stone table. Twenty people
could have sat around it. "We're guests. Act like it." He toyed
with the badge over his heart, identifying him as receiving the
protection of Soulcatcher. We each possessed one but seldom wore
them. The Captain's gesture suggested we correct that
deficiency.
    "We're guests of the Taken?" I asked. I fought the effects of
the ale. This should go into the Annals.
    "No. The badges are for the benefit of the house." He gestured.
Everyone visible wore a badge declaring an alignment with one or
another of the Taken. I recognized a few. The Howler. Nightcrawler.
Stormbringer. The Limper.
    "Our host wants to enlist in the Company."
    "He wants to join the Black Company?" One-Eye asked. "What's
wrong with the fool?" It had been years since we had taken a new
recruit.
    The Captain shrugged, smiled. "Once upon a time a witchdoctor
did."
    One-Eye grumbled, "He's been sorry ever since."
    "Why is he still here?" I asked.
    One-Eye did not answer. Nobody leaves the Company, except feet
first. The outfit is home.
    "What's he like?" the Lieutenant asked.
    The Captain closed his eyes. "Unusual. He could be an asset. I
like him. But judge for yourselves. He's here." He flicked a finger
at a man surveying the gardens.
    His clothing was grey, tattered, and patched. He was of modest
height, lean, dusky. Darkly handsome. I guessed him to be in