Bottle felt his heart tighten in his chest. The one seated crosslegged opposite was Quick Ben. To his right squatted the assassin Kalam, his dark face glistening, worn black gloves on his hands and the elongated handles of his twin long-knives jutting out from beneath his arms. The man looked ready to kill something, although Bottle suspected that was his normal expression.
Quick Ben's eyes were fixed on him, languid yet dangerous, like a leopard playing with a maimed hare. But there was something else in that regard, Bottle suspected. Something not quite hidden. Fear?
After a moment of locked gazes, Bottle's attention was drawn to the collection of dolls perched in the sand before the wizard.
Professional interest helped push down his own fear, for the time being, at least. Involuntarily, he leaned forward.
'It's an old art,' Quick Ben said. 'But you know that, don't you, soldier?'
'You're at an impasse,' Bottle said.
The wizard's brows lifted, and he shot Kalam an unreadable glance before clearing his throat and saying, 'Aye, I am. How did you see it?
And how so… quickly?'
Bottle shrugged.
Quick Ben scowled at an amused grunt from Fiddler. 'All right, you damned imp, any suggestions on what to do about it?'
Bottle ran a hand through the grimy stubble of his hair. 'Tell me what you're trying to do.'
'What I'm trying to do, soldier, is none of your damned business!'
Sighing, Bottle settled onto the sand, assuming a posture to match that of the man opposite him. He studied the figures, then pointed to one. 'Who's she?'
Quick Ben started. 'I didn't know it was a "she".'
'First one you set down, I'd hazard. You probably woke from a bad dream, all confused, but knowing something was wrong, something somewhere, and this one – this woman – she's your link to it. Family, I'd hazard. Mother? Daughter? Sister? Sister, yes. She's been thinking about you. A lot, lately. Look at the skein of shadow lines around her, like she was standing in a thatch of grass, only there ain't no grass nearby, so that skein belongs to something else.'
'Hood squeeze my balls,' Quick Ben hissed, eyes now darting among the figures on the sand. He seemed to have forgotten his belligerence. '
Torahaval? What in the name of the Abyss has she got herself into now?
And how come not one of the others can reach a single shadow towards her?'
Bottle scratched at his beard, fingernails trapping a nit. He pulled it loose and flicked it away.
Kalam started, then cursed. 'Watch that!'
'Sorry.' Bottle pointed at one doll, wrapped in black silks. The shadow the doll cast seemed to reveal two projections of some kind, like crows perched on each shoulder. 'That's Apsalar, yes? She's part of this, all right, though not at the moment. I think her path was meant to cross your sister's, only it never happened. So, there was intent, unfulfilled, and be glad for that. That one's Cotillion and aye, he's dancing his infernal dance all right, but his only role was in starting the pebble from the hilltop – how it rolled and what it picked up on the way down he left to the fates. Still, you're right in choosing the House of Shadows. Was that instinct? Never mind. Here's your problem.' He pointed at another doll, this one hooded and cloaked entirely in gauze-thin black linen.
Quick Ben blinked, then frowned. 'Hardly. That's Shadowthrone, and he' s central to this. It's all got to do with him and, damn you, Bottle, that's more than instinct!'
'Oh, he's central all right, but see how his shadow doesn't reach?'
'I know it doesn't reach! But that's where he stands, damn you!'
Bottle reached out and collected the doll.
Snarling, Quick Ben half rose, but Fiddler's hand snapped out, pushed the wizard back down.
'Get that paw off me, sapper,' the wizard said, his tone low, even.
'I warned you,' the sergeant said, 'didn't I?' He withdrew his hand, and Quick Ben settled back as if something much heavier had just landed on his shoulders.
In the meantime, Bottle was busy reworking the doll. Bending the wires within the arms and legs. For his own efforts, he rarely used wire – too expensive – but in this case they made his reconfiguring the doll much easier. Finally satisfied, he set it back, in precisely the same position as before.
No-one spoke, all eyes fixed on the doll of Shadowthrone – now on all fours, right foreleg and left rear leg raised, the entire form pitched far forward, impossibly balanced. The shadow stretching out to within a finger's breadth of the figure that was Torahaval Delat.