Steven Brust - Yendi

“Any terms?” asked Norathar. “Including plain steel?”

Sethra snorted. “Including a Jhereg duel, if you wish.”

The least shadow of a smile crossed Norathar’s lips as she seated herself. “I accept your terms,” she said. Cawti and I relaxed. Morrolan and Aliera, as far as I could tell, had been interested but unworried.

Morrolan cleared his throat and said, “Well then, perhaps we should discuss just how we’re going to proceed.”

Sethra said, “Tell me this: if there was a plot of some kind, could Baritt have been involved?”

Aliera said “No” at the same instant that Morrolan said “Yes.” I chuckled. Aliera shrugged and said, “Well, maybe.”

Morrolan snorted. “In any case,” he said, “is it likely that they could fool an Athyra? And would an Athyra be involved in a plot of this type? Not to mention a Lyorn? If this was a plot, as you say, they would have had to convince the Athyra to help, and I have trouble believing they could do that. And there is no Lyorn in the world who would go along with it—that is why they’re included in things like that.”

Sethra nodded to herself.

I said, “Excuse me, but what is the procedure for getting a Lyorn and an Athyra to help with something like this? I mean, do you just walk over to the House of the Lyorn and yell, ‘We’re doing a genetic investigation, anyone want to help?’ What do you do?”

Sethra said, “With the House of the Lyorn, it is an official request, through the Empire, for the assistance of the House. With the Athyra, someone will propose a wizard he knows or has heard of, and the council approves it.”

“And the House of the Lyorn is likely to choose someone who’s familiar with this kind of thing,” I added.

Sethra nodded.

“Okay,” I said. “But—Aliera, how hard would it be to fool a genetic scan?”

“A complicated illusion spell would do it,” she said slowly. “ If whoever did the scan was incompetent.”

“What if he wasn’t?”

“He wouldn’t be fooled.”

“Could Sethra the Younger be fooled?”

“Easily.” She snorted.

I shot a glance at Sethra Lavode; she didn’t seem convinced. I set it aside for the moment. “What about Baritt?”

“No,” said Aliera.

Morrolan agreed. “Whatever he is—was—he was most assuredly not incompetent.”

“So,” I continued, “if someone did a spell to make it look like she wasn’t a full Dragon, Baritt must have been in on it. The Lyorn could have been fooled.”

“Vlad,” said Morrolan, “the Athyra would have to have been in on it, too—and you’ll have to convince me of that.”

“I haven’t figured that out yet,” I admitted. “But one thing at a time. Sethra, how did Sethra the Younger first hear about this?”

“I don’t know, Vlad. It was more than four hundred years ago.”

“At your age, Sethra, that’s almost yesterday.”

She raised an eyebrow. Then her eyes moved up and to the left as she tried to remember. “She said that she heard through a friend who’d been drinking with Lady Miera. She said that Lady Miera had told her friend about it, and her friend told her.”

“And the friend’s name?”

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. She rested her hands on top of her head, leaned her head back, and rolled her eyes straight up. We sat there, hardly daring to breathe. Suddenly she straightened up. “Vlad, it was Baritt!”

Why, I wondered, doesn’t this surprise me?

I shook my head. “If you people want to find out what Baritt knows about this, I can tell you where to find him, but don’t expect me to go along with you. I’ve been to Deathsgate once; that will last a lifetime—at least. I’ve got my own problems. There’s a guy who’s trying to send me there. Figuratively speaking,” I added. “I understand they don’t allow Easterners in.”

“Anyway,” I continued, “Sethra, do you remember who the Lyorn was?”

“I never knew,” she said. “My part of it was over, and I wanted nothing more to do with it. I wasn’t along when they did the second scan.”

“Oh. So I suppose you don’t know who the Athyra was, either.”

“Right.”

“It’ll all be in the records,” Aliera put in. “We can find out.”

I nodded. “Then I don’t think there’s anything more to do about this at the moment, right?”

There were nods from Sethra, Aliera, and Morrolan. Norathar and Cawti had been watching us the entire time without any expression. It occurred to me that it was odd for me to have taken the lead in this investigation into the history of the House of the Dragon. But then, in a certain sense, investigation is one of the things I’m good at. Cawti could have done it as well, but she had even less interest than I did.

“The next question,” said Morrolan, “is how we’re going to present this to the Dragon Council. I would suggest that Aliera and I appear before them and—”

Aliera interrupted. “Perhaps later would be better for this. It’s really a matter to be discussed among Dragons.”

There was a brief, uncomfortable silence; then Cawti stood up. “Excuse me,” she said. “I believe that I’d like to retire now.”

Sethra stood and bowed an acknowledgment as Cawti left. Then Sethra sat down again, and Morrolan said, “I wonder what troubles her?”

Typical.

“The end of a partnership,” Norathar said, and it seemed that there were new lines of pain around her eyes and jaw. But then, she was a Dragonlord now, so she could show her feelings. She stood, bowed, and followed Cawti out of the room.

I followed them with my eyes, then glanced at the table. The food was cold and the wine was warm. If there had been an onion, it would have been rotten clear through.

Eleven

“A quick game, boss?”

They left me alone at the table, so I thought about onions for a while. I was still thinking about them when I felt someone reaching for me psionically.

“ Who is it? ”

“ Fentor, at Castle Black, milord. I have the information you wanted .”

“ On the riot? Good, let’s have it .”

“ It was confined to three blocks, near —”

“ I know where it was. Go on. ”

“ Yes, milord. It was a row of flats, all owned by the same person. He ’ d started raising rents about four weeks before, and letting things deteriorate, and then began beating Easterners who were slow in paying. ”

“ I see. Who owned the flats? ”

“ A Jhereg, lord. His name is —”

“ Laris .”

“ Yes, milord .”

I sighed. “ Had he owned the property for long? ”

There was a pause. “ It didn’t occur to me to check, lord .”

“ Do so. And find out who he bought it from .”

“ Yes, milord .”

“ Is there anything more? ”

“ Not yet, milord, but we’re still working on it .”

“ Good. Another thing, too: I suspect someone triggered the riot deliberately. Try to find out. ”

“ Yes, milord. ”

We broke the contact. The conversation made me realize, among other things, that I’d been neglecting my own affairs again. I got in touch with Kragar and told him to expect me in two minutes. Then I made contact with Sethra, explained that I had to leave, and would she be good enough to teleport me back to my office? She would and did.

I didn’t have to tell her where it was, either. Sometimes I wonder about her.

Kragar was waiting for me, along with Glowbug and someone I didn’t recognize. We went into the still-unrepaired building, and I told Kragar to come into the office with me, I shut the door, looked around, and didn’t see him. I opened up the door again and said, “Kragar, I said to—”