Shadows Linger

Shadows Linger (released October 1984) is the second novel in Glen Cook's ongoing series, The Black Company. The series combines elements of epic fantasy and dark fantasy as it follows an elite mercenary unit, The Black Company, through roughly 40 years of its approximately 400-year history.

Plot introduction

In the earlier book the setting begins with the company employed by a Syndic, but the Captain slays him because he thinks he's fighting for a lost cause, for little pay, and he doesn't want to sentence the company to its doom. Soulcatcher, the Taken that recruited them becomes their mentor. They do many missions for the Lady. They end up being pushed, along with the rest of the Lady's forces, back to her HQ, the tower at Charm. They have an immense battle where many of the Company are lost. The Taken backstab each other during the battle except for Soulcatcher, who flees only to be hunted down and destroyed by Croaker and the Lady who use a set of magical arrows to kill her. The old legend, that tells the tale of The Lady and The Dominator, her worse than evil husband, and The White Rose who imprisons them is centuries in the past. The Dominator and his wife, the Lady, (both supremely skilled in the art of magic), had founded an empire legendary for evil. They were overthrown by a rebellion led by the White Rose, but even in defeat, they remained too powerful to be killed; the best the rebels could do was to imprison them in the Barrowland. The Lady escaped to rebuild the empire, but betrayed her husband, leaving him there. The Black Company recounted how she crushed several deadly challenges to her power. But those were not the only threats to her reign...