He looked me askance but settled. The crow watched him. His fingers teased at that fold of black cloth.

"Narayan, the throne I gave up was the seat of an empire so broad you couldn't have walked it east to west in a year. It spanned two thousand miles from north to south. I built it from a beginning as humble as this. I started before your grandfather's grandfather was born. And it wasn't the first empire I created."

He grinned uneasily. He thought I was lying.

"Narayan, the Shadowmasters were my slaves. Powerful as they are. They disappeared during a great battle twenty years ago. I believed them dead till we unmasked the one we killed in Dejagore.

"I'm weakened now. Two years ago there was a great battle in the northernmost region of my empire. The Captain and I put down a wakening evil left over from the first empire I created. To succeed, to prevent that evil from breaking loose, I had to allow my powers to be neutralized. Now I'm winning them back, slowly and painfully."

Narayan couldn't believe. He was the son of his culture. I was a woman. But he wanted to believe. He said, "But you're so young."

"In some ways. I never loved before the Captain. This shell is a mask, Narayan. I entered this world before the Black Company passed this way the first time. I'm old, Narayan. Old and wicked. I've done things no one would believe. I know evil, intrigue, and war like they're my children. I nurtured them for centuries.

"Even as the Captain's lover I was more than a paramour. I was the Lieutenant, his chief of staff.

"I'm the Captain now, Narayan. While I survive the Company survives. And goes on. And finds new life. I'm going to rebuild, Narayan. It may wear another name for a while but behind the domino it will be the Black Company. And it will be the instrument of my will."