Steven Brust - Yendi

“We can afford it—for a while. If things go on too long, we’ll have to figure out something else.”

“Do you think he’ll give us the two days?”

“I don’t know. He might—”

Melestav was standing at the door. “I just got a report, boss. Trouble. Nielar’s place.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“I don’t know exactly. I got part of a message, asking for help, and then the guy got hit.”

I stood up and headed out of the office, picking up Wyrn and Miraf’n on the way.

“Boss,” said Kragar, “are you sure you ought to go out? That sounds like a—”

“I know. Come along behind me and keep your eyes open.”

“Okay.”

“ Loiosh, stay alert .”

“ I’m always alert, boss. ”

Four

“You expect to be unavailable?”

The city of Adrilankha lies along the southern coast of the Dragaeran Empire. It spent most of its existence as a middle-sized port city and became the Imperial capital when Dragaera City became a bubbling sea of chaos, on that day four hundred some years ago when Adron almost usurped the throne.

Adrilankha is as old as the Empire. It had its real beginnings in a spot that recently (in Dragaeran terms) became a cornerstone of the new Imperial Palace. It was there that, thousands of generations ago, Kieron the Conqueror met with the Shamans and told them that they could run wherever they wanted to, but that he and his Army of All Tribes would stand and wait for the “Eastern Devils.” From there, he walked alone down a long trail that ended in a high cliff overlooking the sea. It is said by those who make it their business to say things that he stood there, unmoving, for five days (hence the five-day Dragaeran week) awaiting the arrival of the Tribe of the Orca, who had promised reinforcements, as the Eastern army closed in.

The spot was known as “Kieron’s Watch” until the Interregnum, when the spells that had kept that part of the cliff from falling into the sea collapsed. I’ve always thought that amusing.

By the way, for those of you with an interest in history, the Orcas finally arrived, in time. They proved utterly useless as fighters on land, but Kieron won the battle anyway, thus securing the foundations of an Empire of Dragaerans.

Shame about that.

The path he walked is still known as Kieron Road, and leads from the new Imperial Palace down through the heart of the city, past the docks, and finally peters out with no ceremony somewhere in the foothills west of town. At some unspecified point, Kieron Road becomes Lower Kieron Road, and passes through a few not-very-nice neighborhoods. Along one of these stretches is the restaurant my father used to own, where he’d built up the small fortune that he later squandered buying a title in the Jhereg. The result of this is that I’m a citizen of the Empire, so now I can find out what time it is.

When I reached the age of deciding to get paid for what I was doing anyway (beating up Dragaerans), my first boss, Nielar, worked out of a small store on Lower Kieron Road. Supposedly, the store sold narcotics, hallucinogens, and other sorcery supplies. His real business was an almost continuous game of shareba, which he somehow kept forgetting to notify the Empire’s tax collectors of. Nielar taught me the system of payoffs to the Phoenix Guards (since most of them are actually Dragons, you can’t bribe one about anything important, but they like to gamble as much as anyone, and don’t like taxes any more than most), how to make arrangements with the organization, how to hide your income from the Imperial tax collectors, and a hundred other little details.

When I took this area over from Tagichatn, Nielar was suddenly working for me. He was the only one who showed up to pay me the first week I was running the area. Later, he tore out the narcotics business and expanded to running s’yang stones. Then he put in a brothel upstairs. All in all, the place was my biggest single earner. So far as I know, the idea of holding out part of my cut never even occurred to him.

I stood next to Kragar in the burnt-out ruins of the building. Nielar’s body lay before me. The fire hadn’t killed him; his skull was caved in. Loiosh nuzzled my left ear.

After a long time, I said, “Arrange for ten thousand gold for his widow.”

“Should I send someone over to tell her?” Kragar asked.

“No,” I sighed, “I’ll do it myself.”

Some time later, at my office, Kragar said, “Both of his enforcers were in there, too. One may be revivifiable.”

“Do it,” I said. “And find the other one’s family. See that they’re well paid.”

“Okay. What now?”

“Shit. What now? That cash just about exhausted me. My biggest source of income is gone. If someone delivered Laris’s head to me right now, I couldn’t pay him. If the revivification fails, and we have to pay that guy’s family, that’ll do it.”

“We’ll have more in a couple of days.”

“Great. How long will that last?”

He shrugged. I spun my chair and threw a dagger into the target on the wall. “Laris is too Verra-be-damned good, Kragar. He took one shot, before I could move, and crippled me with it. And you know how he could do it? I’ll bet he knows every copper I make, where I make it, and how I spend it. I’ll bet he has a list of everyone who works for me, strengths and weaknesses. If we get out of this thing, I’m going to build me the best spy network this organization has ever seen. I don’t care if I have to keep myself a Verra-be-damned pauper to do it.”

Kragar shrugged. “That’s if we get out of this.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think you could get to him yourself, boss?”

“Maybe,” I admitted. “Given time. For that, though, I’d have to wait until some of the reports came back. And it’d take me at least a week, more like three, to set it up.”

Kragar nodded. “We need to be earning in the meantime.”

I thought over a few things. “Well, okay. There’s one thing that might work to get some cash. I wanted to hold it in reserve, but it doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to.”

“What is it, boss?”

I shook my head. “Take charge here. If there’s any emergency, get hold of me.”

“Okay.”

I opened my bottom-left desk drawer and rummaged around until I found a fairly serviceable enchanted dagger. I scratched a rough circle on the floor and made a few marks in it. Then I stepped into the middle.

“Why do you do all that drawing, boss? You don’t need to—”

“It helps, Kragar. See you later.”

I drew on my link to the Orb and was in the courtyard of Morrolan’s Castle, feeling sick. I avoided looking down because the sight of the ground, a mile below, would not have helped at all. I stared straight at the great double doors, some forty yards in front of me, until I no longer felt like throwing up.

I walked up to them. Walking in Morrolan’s courtyard feels exactly like walking on flagstone, except your boots don’t make any noise, which is disconcerting until you get used to it. The doors swung open when I was about five paces away, and Lady Teldra stood facing me, a warm smile on her face.

“Lord Taltos,” she said, “we’re delighted to see you, as always. I hope you’ll be able to stay with us for at least a few days this time. We see you so seldom.”

I bowed to her. “Thank you, Lady. A short mission only, I’m afraid. Where can I find Morrolan?”

“The Lord Morrolan is in his library, my lord. I’m certain he’d be as delighted to see you as the rest of us.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I can find my own way.”