Steven Brust - Yendi

“No.”

I nodded. The Dagger of the Jhereg wished to be called the Dagger of the Jhereg. So be it.

“How did your partner evade Loiosh?” I asked.

“She didn’t. I gave her some herbs so she wouldn’t be affected by the poison, and she just ignored him.”

I waited for Loiosh to make some remark about that; when he didn’t, I said, “How much was my head worth to you?”

“You’d be flattered.”

She continued looking at me. The candles flickered and did things to her hair, and face, and neck, and the shadows of her breasts against the back wall. I swallowed.

Then she said, “We’ve returned the payment.”

I felt a sense of relief, as if the Imperial Executioner had been handed a stay just as he raised his staff. I felt it show on my face and cursed my weakness.

Her eyes came to rest on Loiosh, then she held out her hand. He hesitated and twitched nervously on my shoulders.

“ Boss . . . ”

“ Up to you, chum .”

He flew over to her and wrapped his talons around her wrist. She scratched under his chin, going with the scales.

“The jhereg is beautiful,” she said.

“His name is Loiosh.”

“I know.”

“Oh, of course. You must have found out quite a bit about me.”

“Not enough, apparently. How did Morrolan and Aliera find out, by the way?”

“Sorry.”

She nodded. “You . . . have a talent for making people underestimate you.”

“Thank you very much.” I walked into the room and let the door swing shut behind me. With a careful effort to appear casual, I sat at the edge of the bed. “So, what now?”

She shrugged, which was worth coming in just to see. “I don’t know. Morrolan and Aliera tried to mind-probe me before. It didn’t work, so I don’t know what they’ll try next. Do you?”

I was startled. “What were they trying to find out?”

“Who hired us.”

I laughed. “They could have just asked me. Don’t worry. They aren’t bad types, for Dragonlords.”

She smiled back at me, ironically. “And you’ll protect me, right?”

“Sure. Why not? You’ve given the money back, even though you didn’t have to, which is proof that you aren’t coming after me again. And we Easterners ought to stick together, don’t you think?”

She caught the point of that, and dropped her eyes. “I’ve never ‘worked’ on a human before, Vlad. I almost didn’t take it, but . . . ” She shrugged again. I wondered how I could make her keep doing that.

“I’m glad Aliera is good at revivification,” I said.

“I suppose so.”

“For both our sakes,” I added, because I meant it. She looked at me carefully. There was a moment when time did strange things. If I had thrown my stones right, I could have kissed her then. So I did. Loiosh flew off her arm as our lips met, lightly. It was hardly an intense kiss, but I discovered that I’d closed my eyes. Odd.

She continued looking at me, as if she could read something in my face. Then she said, very deliberately, “My name is Cawti.”

I nodded, and our mouths met again. Her arms went around my neck. When we came up for air, I reached up and slid the nightgown over her shoulders and down to her hips. She pulled her arms free and began working at the clasp of my cloak. I decided that this was insane. She would never have a better chance of getting one of my daggers and finishing me. Verra! I thought to myself, I think I ’ ve lost it.

My cloak dropped to the floor, and she helped me take off my jerkin. I paused to remove my boots and stockings, then we fell back together, and the sensation of her small, strong body against mine, her breasts against my chest and her breathing in my ear, my hand on the small of her back, her hand behind my neck—I’d never felt anything like it before, and I wanted to just stay like that, forever, and not take it any further.

My body, however, had its own set of rules, and let me know of them. I began stroking her lower spine. She pulled my head away and kissed me; this time we both meant business. I tasted her tongue, and that was nice too. I heard myself making small moaning sounds as my lips traveled down to her throat, then to the valley between her breasts. I kissed each one, carefully, and went back to her lips. She started fumbling for the catch to my breeches, but I interfered by finding her buttocks with my right hand and crushing her to me again.

We drew back and looked at each other once more. Then we paused long enough to send Loiosh out of the room, because love, like murder, shouldn’t have witnesses.

Eight

“I’ll stay here and clean up the blood.”

It is sad but true that there are a strictly limited number of times when waking up with the thought, “Hey, I’m alive!” is really astonishing. I hadn’t quite hit the limit yet, so I had the obligatory reaction, followed by, “Dear Verra, I hurt.”

My side, where the broadsword had taken me, felt hot and feverish, and the area around my kidney, where my lover had put her dagger into me, itched, burned, and ached. I moaned. Then I became aware of the sound of voices, outside the room and perhaps a bit down the hall.

My arm was around Cawti’s shoulder, her head on my chest. I enjoyed the sensation, but I was curious about the voices. Moving as carefully as I could, I succeeded in not waking her up. I dressed carefully, making sure nothing clinked.

Meanwhile, the voices had been growing gradually louder. As soon as I felt dangerous again I opened the door, and identified Aliera’s voice, although I still couldn’t distinguish the words. The dark stone walls of the hallway greeted me; the air was cold and dank, the hallway high and wide. I thought back to my first visit to Dzur Mountain and shuddered. I turned toward the voices. I identified the other voice as Morrolan’s. As I approached, he was speaking.

“ . . . you say may be true, but that hardly makes it any of our affair.”

“Any of our affair? Whose is it then? I—there! You see? You’ve woken up one of my patients.”

“It is just as well,” countered Morrolan, nodding to me. “You have exhausted all of my patience.”

I was in a long room, dimly lit and filled with books. There were several chairs nearby, all done in black leather, but they were empty. Morrolan and Aliera stood facing each other. Morrolan’s arms were crossed on his chest; Aliera’s hands were on her hips. As she turned to me, I saw that her eyes, normally green, had turned blue. This is as much of a danger sign as the stiffening of a dragon’s neck tentacles. I found a chair and sat down, to ease the pain a bit. This looked like it was going to be a good one.

Aliera snorted at his comment and turned back. “Ha! It’s your own fault if you can’t see the obvious. What’s the matter, isn’t it subtle enough for you?”

“If there was anything to see,” he parried, “I would doubtless have seen it long before you.”

Aliera pressed the attack. “If you had the sense of honor of a teckla. you’d see it as clearly as I do.”

“And had you the eyesight of a teckla, you would be able to see what does and does not concern us.”

This forced Aliera into a parry. “How could it not concern us? A Dragon is a Dragon. Only this one happens to be a Jhereg. I want to find out why, and so should you.”

Morrolan gestured toward me with his head. “Have you met Vlad’s assistant, Kragar? He ’ s as much of a Dragon—”

She snorted again. “That snake? He was thrown out of the House, as you well know.”

“Perhaps so was—”