Book 3 - Water Sleeps by Glen Cook Read Free Book Online Page B

“We were going to be here
early. Sawa needs to work bad.” She looked around.
“Where are the others?”
    There had been others. Four or five even more eager to be first
in line. They had fled. That might mean trouble. No telling what
they might have seen before they ran. An early stray fireball was
supposed to have panicked and scattered them before Swan got to us
but I could not recall that having happened.
    Subredil turned more toward Barundandi. I held on to her tighter
and whimpered. She patted my shoulder and murmured something
indistinct. Barundandi seemed to buy it, particularly when Subredil
discovered that one of her Ghanghesha’s trunks had broken
off, and she began to cry and search our surroundings.
    Several of Barundandi’s associates were out as well,
looking around, asking one another what happened. The same thing
was going on at the main entrance, where stunned Guards and
sleep-fuddled functionaries asked one another what had happened and
what they should do and, holy shit! some of those fires burned all
the way through the wall and it was six or eight feet thick! Shadar
from as far as a mile away were arriving, gathering dead and
wounded Greys and also trying to figure out what had happened.
    Jaul Barundandi’s voice gentled further. He beckoned his
assistants. “Help these two inside. Be gentle. The high and
the mighty may want to talk to them.”
    I hoped my start did not give us away. I had counted on getting
inside early but it had not occurred to me that anyone might be
interested in what two near-untouchables might have seen.
     
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8
    I need not have
worried. We were interviewed by a seriously distracted Guard
sergeant who seemed to be going through the motions mainly as a sop
to Jaul Barundandi. The subassistant had evidently suffered an
overinspiration of ambition in thinking he could win favor by
providing eyewitnesses to the tragedy.
    His solicitude began to fade once he had little to gain. A few
hours after we were taken inside, while excitement still gripped
the Palace and a thousand outrageous rumors circulated, while
leading Guardsmen and Greys kept bringing in more and more trusted
armed men and sending out more and more spies to watch the regular
soldiers in their barracks, just in case they were in on the attack
somehow, Minh Subredil and her idiot sister-in-law were already
hard at work. Barundandi had them cleaning the chamber where the
Privy Council met. A huge mess had been left there. Somebody had
lost her temper and had worked out her anger by tearing the place
up.
    Barundandi told us, “Expect to work very hard today, Minh
Subredil. Few workers showed up this morning.” He sounded
bitter. He would not garner much kickback because of the raid. It
did not occur to him to be thankful he was still alive. “Is
she all right?” He meant me. Sawa. I was still doing a
credible job of shaking.
    “She will manage as long as I stay close. It would not be
good to put her anyplace where she cannot see me today.”
    Barundandi grunted. “So be it. There’s work enough
here. Just don’t get in anybody’s way.”
    Minh Subredil bowed slightly. She was good at being unobtrusive.
She seated me at a wide table about a dozen feet long, piled up
lamps and candlesticks and whatnot that had gotten thrown around. I
invoked Sawa’s narrow focus and went to work cleaning them.
Subredil began cleaning floors and furniture.
    People came and went, many of them important. None of them
noticed us except the Inspector-General of the Records, Chandra
Gokhale, who kicked Subredil irritably because she was scrubbing
the floor where he wanted to walk.
    Subredil got back onto her knees, bowing and begging pardon.
Gokhale ignored her. She began cleaning up spilled water, showing
no emotion whatsoever. Minh Subredil took that sort of thing. But I
suspect Ky Sahra had just formed a definite opinion about which of
our enemies should follow Willow Swan into captivity.
    The Radisha appeared. The