Shadows Linger
Glen Cook
319 pages
published in 1984

Shadows Linger is the sequel to The Black Company . It tells the further adventures of the last Free Company of Khatovar, still in service to the Lady, the evil ruler of the biggest empire in the world, the most powerful magic user alive. Not that the rebellion against her rule is much better; they fight a guerilla wars and these are dirty. In the previous book the Black Company came into the Lady's service and ultimately helped her survive and then crush the then existing rebellion, who came close to dethroning her. As Shadows Linger opens, the Black Comapny is still hunting rebels, who have somewhat recovered in the several years that have passed after the events of the first book.

And the Black Company is growing weary. They have spent too long fighting a dirty war and are tired of it. Unfortunately, there are no alternatives. They can't quit the Lady's employment and joining the rebellion isn't a smart career move either. And so they end up taking yet another mission, this one to a city far beyond the borders of the Lady's empire, where a strange black castle has sprung up from a small black rock a dead man brought to the city, a castle that houses an ancient evil..

In the meantime, Croaker and several other company members share a secret. In The Black Company they learned of an ancient prophecy that foretold that the White Rose, who defeated both the Lady and her husband, the Dominator, who is still lying bound in the Barrows the Lady escaped from, when they first arose, would be reborn and defeat them again when the comet is in the sky. Unfortunately, that comet will take years to come back and Croaker and others know who the White Rose is... Understandably, they're keen to avoid the Lady.

Unlike the previous book, this story isn't told from just the point of view of Croaker. There are two at first separate storylines, one starring Marroon Shed, a down on his luck innkeeper in Juniper who is dragged in to something monstrous. It's only late in the book that this storyline dovetails with that of Croaker, who is sent with a small group of Company men to Juniper to prepare for the coming of the entire Company.

In The Black Company, Glen Cook introduced the company and its principal members, but already in this, the second book, he shakes things up so much that everything has changed by the end of the novel. Several of the main characters do not make it to the end of the book, either dead or left behind. I like that.