Steven Brust - Teckla

I made my way over to where my family stood. I couldn't read Cawti's expression. My grandfather said, "He was pressing you, Vladimir. If he had continued, he would have had the initiative and your balance would have been not right."

"Pressing me?"

"Each time he shifted his feet, he would end with his weight more forward. It is a trick some of these elves use. I think they don't know they are doing it."

I said, "I'll remember, Noish-pa."

"But you were careful, which is good, and your wrist was supple but firm, as it should be, and you didn't linger after the stop-cut, as you used once to do."

"Noish-pa," said Cawti.

"Thank you," I said.

"You shouldn't be here," said Cawti.

"And why should I not?" he said. "What is there to this life that is so worth saving?"

Cawti glanced around as if to see who was listening to us. I did, too. No one seemed to be.

"But why?"

"Why am I here? Cawti, I don't know. I know that I cannot change how you are, or what you will do. I know that girls aren't the same in Faerie as back home, and do what they want to, and that is not always a bad thing. But I came to tell you that you can come to see me if you want, and if you want to talk about things, yes? Vladimir, he comes now and then when he is troubled, but you don't. That is all I have to say. Yes?"

She looked at him for a moment, and I saw there were tears in her eyes. She leaned forward and kissed him. "Yes, Noish-pa," she said. Ambrus meowed. My grandfather smiled with what was left of his teeth, turned, walked away, leaning on his cane. I stood next to Cawti watching him. I tried to think of something to say but couldn't.

Cawti said, "Now we know why he was here; why were you here?"

"I was trying to convince that assassin to do just what he did. The idea was for me to shine him."

She nodded. "You've marked him?"

"Yeah. I'll set Kragar to work on it."

"So you know he has your name, and you'll have his, and you'll be trying to kill each other. What do you think he'll do now?"

I shrugged.

Cawti said, "What would you do?"

I shrugged again. "Dunno. Either return the money and run as far and as fast as I can, or move right away. Within the day, maybe within the hour. Try to catch the guy before he could set things up."

She nodded. "Me, too. Do you want to drop out of sight?"

"Not especially. There are—"

The lieutenant began speaking again. "All citizens harken. The following words are from the Empress: You are hereby informed that a full investigation, as you… requested, is and has been taking place in accordance with Imperial procedure. You are ordered to disband at once and remove all obstructions from the street. No arrests will take place if these things are done."

Then she turned and faced her troops. "Return to duty. That is all." The Guards resheathed their weapons. The reactions from, the Guards were interestingly diverse. Some of the Dragons gave us looks that read, "You're lucky this time, scum," and others were mildly regretful, as if they had been looking forward to the exercise. The Teckla seemed relieved. The lieutenant didn't spare us another look or gesture, she simply rejoined her unit and walked away.

I turned back to Cawti, but as I did Paresh touched her on the shoulder and gestured to the headquarters. Cawti reached out and squeezed my arm once before following him. As she was disappearing, Rocza left her shoulder and landed on mine.

" Someone thinks I need help, boss ."

" Yeah. Or I do. Do you mind ?"

" Now. I can use the company. You've been too quiet lately. I've been getting lonely ."

I didn't have an answer for that.

I didn't take any chances going back to the office; I teleported, then went inside to be sick rather than waiting in the street.

"Any luck with Herth, Kragar?"

"I'm working on it, boss."

"Okay. I've got another face. Ready?"

"What do you mean—Oh. Okay. Go ahead."

I gave him the image of the assassin. I said, "Know him?"

"No. Do you have a name?"

"No. I want one."

"Okay. I'll have a picture made and see what I can find."

"And when you find him, don't waste time asking me. Have him sent for a walk." Kragar raised an eyebrow at me. I said, "He's the one who's got my name. He almost had my head today, too."

Kragar whistled. "How'd you get out of it?"

"I was ready for it. I guessed someone was after me, so I gave him a pattern to my movements to sucker him out."

"And then you didn't manage to shine him?"

"A little matter of seventy or eighty Phoenix Guards in the area. Also, he wasn't as surprised as I'd hoped, and he was pretty good with a blade."

Kragar said, "Oh."

"So now I know what he looks like, but not his name."

"And so you give me the fun part, huh? All right. Do you have anyone in mind?"

"Yeah. Mario. If you can't find him, use someone else."

Kragar rolled his eyes. "Nothing like specific instructions. All right."

"And bring me a new set of weapons. Might as well do something with my hands while I wait for you to solve all my problems for me."

"Not all of them, Vlad. I can't do anything about your height."

"Go."

He went out and left me with Loiosh, Rocza, and my thoughts. I realized I was hungry and thought about having someone bring me some food. Then it occurred to me that I was going to be teleporting everywhere for a while now, so maybe that wasn't a good idea. Loiosh and Rocza hissed back and forth, then started chasing each other around the room until I opened the window and told them to do it outside. I was very careful to stand to the side when I opened it. I don't know of an assassin who would choose to try to get someone from across a street, but the guy was probably pretty desperate by now. At least, I would have been. I shut the window and drew the drapes.

I could at least accomplish a few things that I'd been too busy for.

"Melestav!"

"Yeah?"

"Is Sticks in the office today?"

"Yes."

"Send him up here."

"Right."

A few minutes later Sticks sauntered in and I handed him a purse with fifty Imperials in it. He weighed it without counting it and looked at me. "What's this for?"

I said, "Shut up."

He said, "Oh. That. Well, thanks." He sauntered out again.

Kragar came back in with a new set of toys for me. I shut the door after him and set up about changing weapons. I took off my cloak and began removing things from it and replacing them as I went. When the cloak was done I starting digging things out of the ribbing of my jerkin and other places. While I was removing the dagger from my left sleeve, I noticed Spellbreaker. I guess I'd been avoiding thinking about it since that night, but now I let it fall into my hand.

It hung there, just like an ordinary chain. I studied it. It was about eighteen inches long, golden, made of thin links. The gold didn't seem to be plating; it had never scratched or anything. But the chain didn't seem heavy enough for solid gold, and it certainly wasn't soft. I tried digging a fingernail into one of the links and it felt like a fine steel.

I decided that I really ought to try to find out what I could about the thing, if I lived through this. I continued changing weapons while I thought about that. What would it take to live through this?

Well, I'd have to kill the assassin, that was certain. And Herth. No, correct that: I was going to have to kill Herth before I killed the assassin, or Herth would just hire another one. I thought about hiring someone to kill Herth. That would be the intelligent thing to do. For one thing, then I'd know that he'd go down even if I did. And I still had all of that cash lying around; more than I'd ever dreamed of having. If Mario decided to show up and walk into my office, I could even meet his figure.