Suruvhija Singh was the wife of Black Company veteran Iqbal Singh, an attentive mother of their three children, and a Company dependent throughout the last two Books of Glittering Stone. She was an inconspicuous, loyal person and an observant Shadar. She was mentioned by name by the Annalists Sleepy and Croaker in 7 chapters each of their chronicles for Water Sleeps[1] and Soldiers Live[2], respectively. Though neither Annalist considered her to be an intelligent person, both kindly regarded her for her happy disposition and sense of humor.
Before Water Sleeps[]
Suruvhija is not mentioned in the Annals until about halfway through Water Sleeps, but information about her life before that point can be inferred. If Croaker's statement "I had not known her in the days when she and her husband joined the Company"[3] indicates that he simply missed the chance to meet her when Iqbal enlisted, this would mean she was already married and had attached herself to the Company sometime before or during She Is the Darkness. This would make her a survivor of the Shadowmaster wars, as well as the subsequent Kiaulune wars, during and after which she would have lived in the captured enemy fortress Overlook for a few years. She and Iqbal then made the secret migration north with the rest of the Company to Taglios, the sprawling capital city of the Protectorate, unnoticed by the forces of their enemies, Soulcatcher and Mogaba.
Water Sleeps[]
Suruvhija and Iqbal raised their older son Bhijar, a younger son, and a baby daughter in Taglios. The five of them left the city with Sleepy's traveling party the morning that their Nyueng Bao patron, Banh Do Trang, passed away of old age. Their goal was to free the Captured beyond the Shadowgate, hundreds of miles away. Alongside them were Iqbal's brother Runmust, Riverwalker, Uncle Doj, Ky Gota, and the cooperating prisoners Narayan Singh, Willow Swan, and the Radisha Drah. To avoid Protectorate attention, the group traveled with an ox-drawn cart, two donkeys, some goats, and they all donned various disguises. Suruvhija herself adopted Vehdna dress, and her husband and brother-in-law trimmed their hair and beards.[4]
Moving south inconspicuously on the Rock Road, this ragtag party passed directly through Mogaba's Third Territorial Division, which was heading in the opposite direction by pure chance. They were unnoticed, but when a mysterious white crow distracted Mogaba and his black stallion mount, "Everybody but Iqbal's Suruvhija stared at the ground and walked a little faster."[5] When they reached the Grove of Doom so Narayan could retrieve the Shadowgate Key for them, Suruvhija's baby daughter cried, distracting the paranoid Company veterans from the possible danger in the cursed location. Sleepy wrote:
| “ | Long-suffering Suruvhija rocked her and hummed a lullaby. She was not much more than a girl herself and, I suspected, not very bright. I could not imagine any woman being happy with her life, but Suruvhija seemed content to go where Iqbal led.[6] | ” |
In the Grove, Suruvhija prepared rice alongside Ky Gota, and soon used a red silk scarf she had just found to dab up her baby's spit. Unknown to her, the scarf was actually a rumel (a consecrated strangling weapon used by Stranglers) that had been taken from Stranglers killed very recently by Slink. Narayan balked when he saw Suruvhija with the rumel, inadvertently tipped off that his fellow cultists and would-be rescuers had been slain.[7]
Suruvhija and her family made the journey south, through the Plain of Charandaprash of the Dandha Presh mountains, through the Shadowgate, and halfway across the dangerous glittering plain to Shivetya's fortress. There, the ancient stone golem Shivetya supplied the group with manna; even Suruvhija's baby daughter enjoyed the bizarre food. Later, when Sleepy witnessed Suruvhija breastfeeding the baby out on the glittering plain, she had the idea that "In my consideration, that child ought to have been weaned by now but I knew I had no justification for my opinion."[8] Suruvhija and her family made the rest of the journey to the strange world Hsien; she was present when Uncle Doj informed the group that the monks of Khang Phi had just granted the Company permission to settle in the valley.
Soldiers Live[]
Suruvhija and her children accompanied Iqbal and Runmust when the reconstituted Company finally left Hsien and returned to the homeworld in Soldiers Live (4 years after Water Sleeps). Her husband and brother-in-law were among the first casualties in the Protectorate war when they and many of the rangers they commanded were injured in combat in a skirmish against Protectorate soldiers north of Lake Tanji.[9] Suruvhija checked with their surgeon, and later told Sleepy “They’ll recover. They’re Shadar. They’re strong men. They fought well. God will watch over them.” Sleepy reassured her and admired the courage exhibited by Suruvhija and her children.[10]
Croaker later noted in his Annals that most of the women attached to the Black Company were not known for their senses of humor, except for Suruvhija: "Only Iqbal Singh’s wife ever smiled and joked. And Suruvhija’s lot was the poorest of all the women associated with the Company."[11]
Suruvhija's husband Iqbal was killed in action at the bloody Battle at the Shadowlander cemetery. When Sleepy informed her second-in-command Suvrin, he asked who would take care of Suruvhija. Sleepy replied that the Company would watch over her. Croaker also wrote "Singh’s wife was not all that bright" and noted that Runmust had an obligation under Shadar religious law to watch over his sister-in-law.[12]
Despite the death of her husband, Suruvhija continued to support Company dependents. She kept a Company prisoner, "Booboo" (the Daughter of Night), clean, well-groomed, and dressed carefully. When Croaker learned this, he expressed the following:
| “ | I felt a slight twinge. Iqbal Singh’s widow. Favored by Sleepy. But I had been unaware that the family had survived the fighting south of Taglios. I had been too centered on my own preoccupations to look after the welfare of Company dependents. [...] Suruvhija appeared. I had not known her in the days when she and her husband joined the Company. She might have been a beauty, then, but I doubted it. She was not now. And none of her children made you want to jump in and hug them. But they were good people, if sad.[13] | ” |
Suruvhija was happy when Croaker finally got a reaction from the seemingly catatonic Booboo. After Suruvhija's son Bhijar brought food and drink, Booboo's birth mother Lady arrived and broke down weeping in a display of emotion. Suruvhija and her children were embarassed by this atypical display and left the room, and Suruvhija offered Croaker "a look of commiseration before she shut the door." As Croaker stepped out to ask Suruvhija for water, Booboo sprung her deadly trap on Lady with a rumel, the killing scarf of the Stranglers. The notoriously paranoid Croaker wondered if Suruvhija had supplied the cult weapon to Booboo: "I did not want it to be Suruvhija, though she was instantly the logical suspect [...] Suruvhija’s sorrow and slowness of wit could be an act."[14]
It was soon discovered that Bhijar – not Suruvhija – had given Booboo the rumel, but that he had simply been tricked by Booboo's love me sorcery and was not truly Strangler sympathizer. Since the boy was ignorant of the forces at work, he "received only what punishment his mother thought was appropriate."[15] Suruvhija looked after the injured Lady and Booboo, and later gave Croaker "a murmur of gratitude for excusing her son from the worst consequences of his actions."[16] She is not mentioned again in the Annals, and it is not specified if her brother-in-law Runmust survived the Siege of Taglios.
References[]
- ↑ Water Sleeps, chapters 48, 49, 51, 53, 54, 97, 98
- ↑ Soldiers Live, chapters 41, 42, 55, 94, 138, 139, 141
- ↑ Soldiers Live, ch. 38
- ↑ Water Sleeps, ch. 48
- ↑ Water Sleeps, ch. 49
- ↑ Water Sleeps, ch. 51
- ↑ Water Sleeps, ch. 53
- ↑ Water Sleeps, ch. 97
- ↑ Soldiers Live, chapter 41
- ↑ Soldiers Live, chapter 42
- ↑ Soldiers Live, chapter 55
- ↑ Soldiers Live, chapter 94
- ↑ Soldiers Live, chapter 138
- ↑ Soldiers Live, chapter 138
- ↑ Soldiers Live, chapter 139
- ↑ Soldiers Live, chapter 141