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as Sahra scowled at me. "But the part with Uncle Doj and Mother Gota and why
they came out of the swamp when they didn't have a debt of honor like your
brother, Sahra." Sahra's brother Thai Dei was under the glittering plain with
Murgen, serving as his bodyguard because of what Murgen and the Company had
done to help the Nyueng Bao during the siege of Jaicur. "Sahra, you must know
some of this."
"That may be true, Sleepy. But you'll have to tell us what you're talking
about first."
"I'm talking about whatever it was that The Thousand Voices stole from the
Temple of Ghanghesha sometime between the end of the siege and when Uncle Doj
and your mother invited themselves to come stay with you here in Taglios.
Murgen touches on it over and over, lightly, but I don't think he ever really
caught on completely. Whatever it was that The Thousand Voices stole, Uncle
Doj called it 'the Key.' From other internal evidence, I think it had to be
another key to the Shadowgate, like the Lance of Passion." The Thousand Voices
was what the Nyueng Bao called Soulcatcher. "I think if we had that key, we
could open the way for the Captured."
If I was guessing right here, I had created a whole new line of inquiry: Why
the Nyueng Bao?
Sahra began shaking her head slowly.
"Am I wrong? What is the Key, then?"
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"I'm not saying you're wrong, Sleepy. I'm saying I don't want you to be right.
There are things I wouldn't want to be true."
"What? Why?"
"Myths and legends, Sleepy. Ugly myths and legends. Some of them I'm not
supposed to know. And I know I don't know them all. Probably none of the
worst. Doj was their curator and keeper. As you are for the Black Company. But
Doj never shared his secrets. Tobo, find your grandmother. Bring her here. Get
Do Trang, too, if he's here."
Bewildered, the boy shuffled away.
A spectral whisper came out of the device where Murgen waited. "Sleepy may be
right. I recall suspecting something like that and wondering if I could find a
good history of the Nyueng Bao so I could figure it out. You'll need to
question Willow Swan, too."
I said, "I'll do that later. Separately. Swan doesn't need to know what's
happening. Are you paying attention now, Standardbearer? Do you have any idea
where we're at and what we're doing?"
"I do." His tone was resigned, though. Like mine when I know I have to get up
in the morning, want to or not.
"Tell me about the Temple of Ghanghesha, then. Both of you. Why would this Key
have been kept there?"
Sahra did not want to talk about it. Her whole body said she was caught up in
a ferocious internal struggle.
"Why is this so hard?" I asked.
"There is old evil in my people's past. I'm only vaguely familiar with it. Doj
knows the whole truth. The rest of us just understand that our ancestors were
guilty of a great sin and until we expiate it, our whole race is condemned to
live in bitter destitution in the swamp. The temple was a holy place long
before some Nyueng Bao began to adopt Gunni beliefs. It protected something.
Possibly the Key you mentioned. The thing Uncle Doj has been looking for."
"Where did the Nyueng Bao come from, Sahra?" That question had intrigued me
since childhood. Each few years hundreds of those strange people would pass
through Jaicur on pilgrimage. They were quiet and orderly and stayed to
themselves. And a year after they arrived from the north, they would pass
through again, going back that way. Even at the height of the power of the
Shadowmasters, that cycle had continued. Nobody knew where they went. Nobody
ever cared.
"Out of the south somewhere, a long time ago."
"From beyond the Dandha Presh?" I could not imagine subjecting little children
and old folks to the rigors of a journey of that magnitude. The pilgrimage had
to be very important indeed.
"Yes."
"But there are no pilgrimages anymore." The one that had ended up with
hundreds of Nyueng Bao dying in Jaicur was the last of which I was aware.
"The Shadowmaster and the Kiaulune wars made the next few times impossible.
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There's supposed to be a pilgrimage every four years. Each Nyueng Bao De Duang
has to make the pilgrimage at least once as an adult. For a while the lack was
no problem. But now the Protector will not permit the people to meet their
obligations," Banh Do Trang rasped from his wheelchair, having arrived in time
to catch the drift of my interrogation. "There are things we do not discuss
with those who aren't Nyueng Bao."
I got the feeling he was saying the same thing twice at one time, one way for
my benefit and another for Sahra's. This could be ticklish. We dared not
offend Banh Do Trang, whose friendship we needed. If we lost him, we also
risked losing Sahra, whose value to the Company could not be calculated.
Nothing is ever simple and straightforward.
I told the old man the way I had it figured. Ky Gota waddled in just as I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]