Steven Brust - Yendi

“If so,” she stop thrust, “we’ll find out, and then why.”

“Why don’t you simply ask her?”

“She’d never tell me, you know that. She won’t even admit that she is a Dragon, much less—”

Morrolan snorted and tried a fancy maneuver, saying, “You know quite well that your only interest in this is to find someone else to be heir.”

“So what? What have my motives to do with—”

“Aliera!” said Morrolan suddenly. “Perhaps we should ask Sethra.”

She stopped and cocked her head to the side. “Ye-e-ess. An excellent idea. Why don’t we? Perhaps she can talk some sense into your head.”

He sidestepped that. “Let’s go see her, then.” He turned to me. “We’ll be back shortly.”

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

“What?”

“Never mind.”

They vanished. I stood up painfully and made my way back to the Dag—to Cawti’s room. Cawti. I let the name roll around in my head. CAW-ti. Cawwww-tiii. Cawti. A good, Eastern name. I started to open the door, stopped, and clapped softly.

“Who is it?” came from inside.

“Your victim,” I said.

“Which one?”

“Funny, funny.”

“Come in,” she said. “At your own risk.”

I slipped inside. “Good morning.”

“Mmmmmm.”

“It occurs to me that you didn’t kill me last night.”

“Oh, but I did,” she said. “Six times. But I lost count and revivified you seven times.”

I sat down on the bed next to her. She still hadn’t dressed. I ignored the dryness in my mouth. “Oh. I must have forgotten.”

“You could have killed me, too, you know.” Her voice was suddenly serious.

“Yes,” I said slowly. “But you knew I wouldn’t. I had no such knowledge of you.”

“I’ll take your word for that.” She laughed lightly. I put her laugh, with her shrug, on the list of things I wanted to make her do more often. The candle sputtered, so I rummaged around until I found a few more, and lit them all with the remaining stub. I returned to the bed and tapped her side lightly. She moved closer to the wall and I lay down. She rested her head on my arm.

There were a few pleasant minutes of silence, then I said, “I overheard an interesting conversation just now.”

“Oh?”

“Concerning your partner.”

She tensed. “What about her?”

I described the conversation. She pulled away from me, leaning on her arm to watch me as I spoke. Her brows were drawn together as she listened. She looked very beautiful that way, too.

I finished the tale, and said, “ Is she a Dragonlord?”

Cawti shook her head. “That isn’t my secret to tell.”

“Okay. You look worried.”

She smiled a little and put her head back on my chest. “For an assassin, you’re quite sensitive, Lord Taltos.”

“In the first place, I’m not an assassin—you’ve been listening to too many rumors about me. In the second, the same goes for you, doubled. And in the third, isn’t ‘Lord Taltos’ a bit out of place, all things considered?”

She chuckled. “As you wish, Vlad. Vladimir.” She repeated it, slowly. “Vladimir. VLA-di-meer. Vlaaaadimeer. Vladimir. I like it. A good Eastern name.”

“Shit,” I said. “Help me off with this damned jerkin, will you? And careful not to stab yourself . . . ”

Some time later, while engaged in serious snuggling, I said, “Morrolan and Aliera are liable to check up on your partner, you know.”

“Mmmmm. They won’t find anything.”

“Don’t be too sure, Cawti. They’ve surprised me before.”

She tsked. “Shouldn’t let yourself be surprised, Vladimir.”

I snorted, and withheld a few remarks. “I’m serious. They’re bound to find out something. You don’t have to tell me what it is, but you ought to think about it. Have you been in touch with her?”

“Of course.”

“Then warn her—”

“Why do you care?”

“Huh? I don’t know. Jhereg are Jhereg, I guess. You aren’t a threat to me anymore, and I don’t see why they should be meddling. Or Aliera, rather. Morrolan doesn’t see why, either.”

“Mmmmmm.”

I shrugged, causing her head to bounce on my chest. She giggled, which amazed and delighted me no end. Have you ever met an assassin who giggled? The absurdity of the whole situation was—

I decided that I had to get out of there. I sat up, dislodging her. “I’m going to check on our hosts and see what they’re doing now.”

“Like hell you are, my love. What’s really bothering you?”

“What did you call me?”

She sat up too, the bedclothes falling to her waist. She glared. “Don’t start getting mushy with me, you murdering Easterner.”

“What did you call me?”

“A murdering Easterner.”

“Yes, dear, and so are you. I meant before that.”

“Vladimir . . . ”

“Oh, Deathsgate. I’m getting out of here.” I dressed quickly and stepped into the hall, using all of my willpower to avoid looking back at her. I returned to my room, favoring my injured side, and collapsed on the bed. Loiosh gave me a good chewing out (literally) for deserting him, after which I got in touch with Kragar.

“ What ’ s new? ” I asked him.

“ I have some information about the Phoenix Guards—they weren ’ t just withdrawn in the area around where the job was done, they were taken out of the whole area. They ’ re gone. ”

“ Great. Well, I’m pleased they aren’t around, but I wonder what it means. Any ideas? ”

“ No .”

“ Okay. I want you to try to find out something for me .”

“ Sure. What? ”

“ Everything you can on the Sword of the Jhereg .”

“ Is this a joke? ”

“ Do you think it’s likely to be? ”

“ Fine. I ’ ll get back to you in a hundred years or so. Vlad, how am I— ”

“ She was once a Dragonlord; that should help. She was probably expelled. ”

“ Wonderful. Should I try to bribe a Lyorn or a Dragon? ”

“ The Lyorn would be safer, but the Dragon is more likely to help. ”

“ I was being sarcastic .”

“ I know. I wasn’t .”

He sighed telepathically. “ I ’ ll see what I can do. Would you mind telling me what we ’ re doing this for? ”

That was a tricky one. I didn’t feel like telling him that his boss had become infatuated with his own executioner. “ Oh, ” I told him, “ I ’ m sure you can figure it out if you really work at it. ”

Silence, then: “ You want to find out if there was anything shady in her expulsion, so you can clear her and have her owe you a favor, and then turn her back on Laris. Right? Not bad. ”

Hmmmm. Not bad at all. “ Clever, ” I told him. It was clever. I’d have to give him a bonus, if it worked out. “ Now, get on it. ” I broke the contact. I stretched out on the bed. After all of this, I really did need to sleep. I also needed to get my emotions under control.

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that my side and back didn’t hurt so much. Also, I actually felt refreshed. I lay there for a few minutes, just breathing and enjoying it, then forced myself to get up. In addition to feeling refreshed, I also felt filthy from sleeping in my clothes. I stripped and found a tub of water in the corner, did a quick spell to heat it, and washed. As I did this, I managed to put Cawti out of my mind, at least for a little while, and concentrate on my real problem—Laris.