Steven Brust - Yendi

Six days after Zerika put her foot down, I met with Kragar and Smiley Gilizar. Smiley had been protecting Nielar, and was pretty much recovered from being revivified. He got his name because he smiled almost as much as Varg—that is, not at all.

Varg, however, rarely had any expression. Smiley had a permanent sneer. When he looked like he wanted to bite you in the leg, he was happy. When he got angry, his face became contorted. He had picked up an Eastern weapon called a lepip, which was a heavy metal bar with leather wrapped around it to prevent cuts. When he wasn’t doing protection, he did muscle work. He’d started on the docks, collecting for a short-tempered lender called Cerill. When Cerill was fed up with being reasonable, he’d send Smiley, and then send someone else the next day to reason with whatever was left.

So Smiley sat there, scowling at Kragar and me, and I said, “Smiley, our friend H’noc is going to open up his brothel tomorrow evening. He’s being protected by Abror and Nephital. I want you to go over to help them out.”

He sneered even more, as if it were beneath him.

I knew him well enough to ignore this, however. I continued: “Stay out of the way of our customers, so you don’t scare them. And if the guards try to shut the place down, just let them. Can you handle that?”

He snorted, which I took for a yes.

“Okay, be there at the eighth hour. That’s all.”

He left without a word. Kragar shook his head. “I’m amazed that you can get rid of him that easy, Vlad. You’d think you’d have to do a demon banishment or something.”

I shrugged. “He’s never ‘worked,’ as far as I know.”

Kragar grunted. “Anyway, we ought to know something by tomorrow. Any word from Narvane?”

“Not much. He’s been going slow.”

“I suppose. But he should at least be checking to see if Laris is opening something.”

I agreed. I got hold of Narvane and gave the necessary orders. Then I sighed. “I hate being in the dark like this. We have a good groundwork for the future, but we still know hardly anything about him.”

Kragar nodded, then brightened. “Vlad!”

“Yes?”

“Morrolan!”

“Huh?”

“Aren’t you his security consultant? Doesn’t he have a spy network?”

“Sure, Kragar. And if you want to find out how many sorcerers Lord Whointheheck of the House of the Dragon has, I could tell you in three minutes, along with their specialties, ages, and tastes in wine. But that doesn’t help us.”

He got a vacant look, and said, “There ought to be a way to use that . . . ”

“If you think of one, let me know.”

“I will.”

H’noc reached me late in the evening of the next day.

“ Yes? ”

“ Just wanted to tell you that we haven’t been bothered by any guards yet .”

“ Good. Customers? ”

“ Maybe two .”

“ Okay. It’s a start. Have you seen anyone who looks like he might be working for Laris? ”

“ How would I know? ”

“ All right. Stay in touch .”

I looked up at Kragar, who was spending more time in my office than in his own these days. “I just talked to H’noc. No problems; no customers.”

He nodded. “If we make it through the night, maybe we should open up a cleaner tomorrow.”

“Sure,” I said. “Who?”

“I know a few thieves who’ve been talking about getting into that end.”

“In the middle of a war?”

“Maybe.”

“All right. Check into it.”

“Will do.”

Kragar found a cleaner, and we opened up a couple of nights later. At the same time, Narvane found out that Laris wasn’t doing much of anything. We began to breathe easier. Soon, we decided, the Phoenix Guards would just disappear, and things would be back to normal.

Normal? Exactly what was “normal” at this point?

“Kragar, what happens when the Phoenix Guards disappear?”

“Things go back to . . . oh. I see what you mean. Well, in the first place, we’re back on the defensive. He starts moving in on us, we start trying to find out all we can about him—and by the way, we should have more than just Narvane working on that.”

“I know. We will, but—it seems to me that this is our big chance to get ahead.”

“Uh . . . what is?”

“This. Now. When neither of us can attack the other, but we can get our businesses going again. We should push it as far as we can. Get as much going as possible, to build up some cash, and make as many friends among Laris’s people as we can, get Narvane and whoever else we can digging into him—the whole bit.”

Kragar thought that over, then nodded. “You’re right. We’ve got the cleaner working, that means we can open up a lender. Three days? Two?”

“Two. We’re going to be paying extra bribes, but that shouldn’t go on too long.”

“Right. And once that’s going, we could start one of the small shareba clubs. A week from today, say? If everything goes well?”

“That sounds right.”

“Good. And we won’t need too much protection at first. Let’s put Wyrn and Miraf’n helping Narvane. And maybe Chimov and Glowbug, too. But keep them all on the rotation for bodyguards.”

“Not Chimov. I don’t want any free-lancer knowing too much about what I know. Make it N’aal. He isn’t good at it, but he can learn.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to them, and let Narvane in on it.”

“Good. Are we leaving anything out?”

“Probably, but nothing I can think of.”

“Then let’s get at it.”

“ It’s going to be nice seeing you do some work again, boss .”

“ Shut up, Loiosh .”

It took Narvane only a couple of days to work the extra help into his organization. The day the lender started, I began to get reports from them, and was impressed. While they still didn’t know many of his people—and those they did were right at the bottom—they found out seven establishments that Laris was running. To our surprise, none of them had reopened. Laris was lying low. I didn’t know whether to be overjoyed or nervous. But there were still Phoenix Guards all over the place, so we felt safe.

A few days later, I opened up a small shareba game, and the next day a game of s’yang stones and a game of three-copper mud. Our list on Laris grew, but he still wasn’t doing anything. I wondered what it meant.

“Hey, Kragar.”

“Yeah?”

“How many Dzur does it take to sharpen a sword?”

“I dunno.”

“Four. One to sharpen it, three to put up enough of a fight to make it worthwhile.”

“Oh. Is there some point to that?”

“I think so. I think it has something to do with needing to have opposition in order to act.”

“Hmmmm. Is this leading somewhere, or are you just being obscure?”

“I’m going to take a walk. Who’s protecting me today?”

“A walk? Are you sure it’s safe?”

“Of course not. Who’s on duty?”

“Wyrn, Miraf’n, Varg, and Glowbug. What do you mean, a walk?”

“I’m going to visit my businesses. Word will get around that I did so, and that I’m not worried about either Laris or the Empire, customers will relax, and business will pick up. True or not true?”

“You’re going to show that you aren’t worried by walking around with four bodyguards?”

“True or not true?”

He sighed. “True, I guess.”

“Call them in.”

He did so.

“Stay here,” I told him, “and keep things running.”

We walked out of the office, past the ruins of the front of the shop (I didn’t dare let anyone close enough to me to let them do repairs), and into the street. There were a pair of Phoenix Guards at the northwest corner of Garshos and Copper Lane. We went that way, Loiosh flying ahead, and I could feel their eyes on me. We went east on Garshos to Dayland, and I was surprised that I didn’t see any others. We went to the cleaner’s, which was set up in the basement of an inn called The Six Chreotha, which looked like it had been slowly falling to ruin for a few thousand years.