Steven Brust - Yendi

“Uh . . . good. Well, I hope I helped.” He shook his head and left.

“Or,” I continued to Cawti, “he wasn’t really trying to kill me after all.”

“If he was trying to fool you,” she said, “couldn’t he have done a better job of it? After all, you figured it out. If you’re going to use success or failure to prove intention—”

“If we follow that reasoning, then I’m supposed to figure out that he’s only bluffing, right? Come on, lover. We aren’t Yendi.”

“Okay,” she said. “But you still haven’t said why he’d only want to bluff you.”

“That,” I admitted, “is a tricky one.”

She snorted.

I held my hand up. “I only said it’s tricky—not that I’m not trickier. The obvious reason for him not to kill me is that he wants me alive.”

“Right,” she said. “Brilliant.”

“Now, what reason could he have for wanting me alive?”

“Well, I know of at least one good reason, but I don’t think you’re his type.”

I blew her a kiss and hacked my way onward. “Now, there are several possible reasons why he might want me alive. If any—”

“Name one.”

“I’ll come back to that. If any of them is true, then he might be hoping to scare me into making a deal. We might be hearing from him any time, asking me if I’ll accept terms. If I do hear from him, what I say will depend on if I can figure out what he’s after, so I know how badly he wants to keep me alive. Got it?”

She shook her head. “Are you sure you aren’t part Yendi? Never mind. Go on.”

“Okay. Now, as for reasons why he might want me alive, the first thing that comes to mind is: he might not like something that will happen when I die. Okay, now, what happens when I die?”

“I kill him,” said Cawti.

“One possib—What did you say?”

“I kill him.”

I swallowed.

“Well,” she said angrily, her nostrils flaring, “what did you think I’d do? Kiss him?”

“I—Thank you. I didn’t realize . . . ”

“Go on.”

“Could he know that?”

She looked puzzled. “I don’t think so.”

Which suddenly made me wonder about something. “ Loiosh, could someone have—? ”

“ No, boss. Don’t worry about it .”

“ Are you sure? Love spells —”

“ I’m sure, boss .”

“ Okay. Thanks .”

I shook my head. “Okay, what I was going to say is, some of my friends—that is, my other friends—might come down on him. Not Aliera—she’s the Dragon Heir, and the Dragon Council would have a lyorn if she started battling Jhereg—but Morrolan might go after Laris, and maybe Sethra would. Laris might be worried about that. But if so, why did he start the war? Maybe he only found out about my friends after it was too late to back out.”

“That’s quite a chain of supposition, Vladimir.”

“I know, but this whole thing is a big chain of supposition. Anyway, another possibility is that he started the war knowing all this, but had some other reason for starting the war anyway, and hopes to get something without having to kill me.”

“What reason?”

“What’s the war about?”

“Territory.”

“Right. Suppose that there is some particular area he wants. Maybe there’s something buried around here, something important.” She didn’t look convinced. I continued. “You saw the front of this place? They staged a raid on it. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but maybe my office is sitting right on top of something they want.”

“Oh, come on. This is so farfetched I can’t believe it.”

“All right,” I said, backing up a bit. “I’m not saying that I’ve hit dead center, I’m just trying to show you that there are possibilities.”

She grimaced. “You aren’t going to convince me,” she said. “This whole thing is based on assuming that Norathar and I are part of the hoax. Maybe I can’t prove to you that we aren’t, but I know we’re not, so I’m not going to be convinced.”

I sighed. “I don’t really believe you are, either.”

“Well, then, where does that leave your theory?”

I thought about it for a while. Then, “ Kragar. ”

“ Yeah, Vlad? ”

“ Remember that tavern keeper who tipped us off? ”

“ Sure .”

“ You said that he heard it being arranged—do you know if he heard someone actually talking to the assassins? ”

“ Yes, he did. He said the button-man addressed them by name. That ’ s how I knew who we were up against. ”

“ I see. When you went to see him, you said he was, how did you put it? ‘ Surprised and caught off guard. ’ Now, can you take a guess about whether he was more afraid of you, or afraid of being seen with you? ”

“ That’s pretty subtle, Vlad .”

“ So are you, Kragar. Try .”

There was a pause. “ My first reaction was that he was afraid of me personally, but I don ’ t see— ”

“ Thanks. ”

I turned back to Cawti. “Would you mind telling me where this thing was set up?”

“Huh?”

“You’ve admitted that you were hired to assassinate me. All I want to know is where it was arranged.”

She looked at me for a long moment. “Why? What does this have to do with—”

“If my suspicions are confirmed, I’ll tell you. If not, I’ll tell you anyway. Now, where was it arranged?”

“A restaurant in Laris’s area. You know I can’t be more specific—”

“Which floor?”

“Huh?”

“Which floor?”

This earned me a quizzical look. “The main floor.”

“Right,” I said. “And a restaurant, not a tavern. Okay. And you didn’t discuss it with him personally, did you?”

“Certainly not.”

“So you don’t even know who the job came from?”

“Well . . . not technically, I suppose. But I assumed—” She stopped, and her eyes grew wide. “Then who—?”

“Later,” I said. “We’ll get to that. It isn’t what you think—I think. Give me a moment.”

She nodded.

“ Kragar .”

“ Yes, Vlad? ”

“ Our friend the tavern keeper—I would like him to become dead .”

“ But boss, he —”

“ Shut up. Finalize him .”

“ Whatever you say, Vlad .”

“ That’s right. Whatever I say .” I thought for a moment. “ Have Shoen do it—he’s reliable .”

“ Okay .”

That’s the trouble with not having any button-men: you have to do all the dirty work yourself.

Fourteen

“Lord Morrolan, I must insist.”

I leaned back in my chair. “The next question,” I said, “is why they—Cawti? What is it?”

She was staring at me through slitted eyes.

“He set us up,” she said. “Or someone did.”

“Hmmm. You’re right. I was so involved in my problem that I didn’t see it from your end.”

“You said I was wrong before, when it occurred to me that someone else had done it. Why?”

“We got the information from one of Laris’s people. That means that he must have had a hand in it.”

“You’re right. So it was him.”

“But why, Cawti? Why does he want me to think he’s after me?”

“I’ll ask you another one,” she said. “Why use us? ”

“Well,” I said, “it was certainly convincing.”

“I suppose. When I tell Norathar about this—” she stopped, and a strange look came over her face.