Steven Brust - Phoenix

"Reading," I said, holding up the heavy volume as evidence.

"What is it?"

"A collection of essays by survivors of Adron's Disaster and the early years of the Interregnum."

"Any good?"

"Some of them are. Most of them don't have anything to do with the Adron's Disaster or the Interregnum, though."

"Dragaerans are like that."

"Yes," I said. "Mostly they want to talk about the inevitability of cataclysm after a Great Cycle, or the Real True Ultimate Meaning of the rebirth of the Phoenix."

"Sounds dull."

"Is, for the most part. There are a few good ones. There's an Athyra named Broinn who says that it was the effort to use sorcery during the Interregnum, when it was almost impossible, that forced sorcerers to develop the skill that makes sorcery so powerful now."

"Interesting. So he doesn't think the Orb was changed by going to the Halls of Judgment?"

I nodded. "It's sort of an attractive theory."

"Yes, it is. Funny that it never crossed my mind."

"Nor mine," I said. "Seen our houseguest?"

"Not lately. He's probably all right."

"I guess. He's not the type to get himself into trouble. I still wonder if he's a spy."

"Do you care?"

"I care if he made a dupe of me. Other than that, no. I don't feel any special loyalty to the Empire, if that's what you're asking."

She nodded and stretched again, arms over her head. Her hair, long and dark brown and curling just a bit at the end, was pleasantly disarrayed over her narrow face. Her warm eyes always seemed big for her face, and her dark complexion made it seem as if she was always half in shadow. I ached for her, but I was getting used to that. Maybe I'd get used to not seeing the little tic of her lip before she made an ironic remark, or the way she'd stare at the ceiling with her head tilted, her brow creased, and her wrists crossed on her lap when she was really thinking hard about something. Maybe I'd get used to that. Then again, maybe not.

She was looking at me, eyes big and inquiring, and I wondered if she guessed what I'd been thinking. I said, "Are your people up to anything that you can tell me about?"

Her expression didn't change. "Why?"

"I got called in today. The back room wants me to assure them I'm not cooperating with Kelly. I think something's going on with the Empire, and the Organization thinks something's going on in South Adrilankha."

Her gaze didn't leave mine. "There's nothing going on that I can tell you about."

"So you people are up to something."

She stared at me vacantly, a look that meant she was pondering something, probably how much to tell me, and didn't want the reflections of her thoughts careening across her face. At last she said, "Not the way you mean it. Yes, we're organizing. We're building. You've probably seen things in your own area."

"A few," I said. "But I can't tell how serious it is, and I need to know."

"We think things are going to break soon. I can't give you details of—"

"How soon?"

"How soon what? An uprising? No, nothing like that. Vlad, do you realize how easy it is for the Empire to find out what we're doing?"

"Spies?"

"No, although that's possible, too. I mean that the spells for listening through walls are far more readily available to the Empire than the spells to counteract them are to us."

"That's true, I guess." I didn't say that I had trouble imagining the Empire being concerned enough about them to bother; that wouldn't have gone over well. On reflection, what with the Phoenix Guards all over the place, it might not be true, either.

"All right," she continued. "That means that what we do can't really be secret. So it isn't. When we make plans, we assume the Empire could find out about them as they're made. So we don't hide anything. A question like 'How soon?' doesn't mean anything, because all we're doing is preparing. Who knows? Tomorrow? Next year? We're getting ready for it. Conditions there—"

"I know about conditions there."

"Yes," she said. "You do."

I stared at her for a moment and tried to come up with something to say. I couldn't, so I grunted, picked up my book, and pretended to read.

An hour or so later Aibynn clapped at the door and came in. He ducked his head like a Teckla, smiled shyly, and sat down. His drum was clutched under his arm, as was something that looked like a rolled-up piece of paper.

"Been playing?" I asked him.

He nodded. "I found this," he said, and unrolled the thing.

"Looks like a piece of leather," I said.

"It is," he said. "Calfskin." He seemed unreasonably excited.

"Don't you have cows on the island? I'm sure I saw—"

"But look how thin it is."

"Now that you mention it, it is pretty transparent. Are the cows different here?"

He shook his head impatiently, "It's the tanning and cutting. I've never seen calfskin this thin. It's as thin as fish skin, and warmer."

"Warmer?"

"That's how they make those big drums sound so good."

" What big drums?"

"The ones outside the Imperial Palace, that they play every day to announce the ceremonies and things."

"I've never noticed them."

"You haven't? They're huge, like this." He stuck his arms way out. "And they get about ten of them going at once and—"

"Now that you mention it, I have heard some of that, behind the homs, doing the Reckoning every day."

"Is that what it's called? But now I know how they get the drums to sound that way. Calfskin. I'd never have believed it. They work better in the air here, too."

"The air?"

"The air in the city is really dry. I haven't been able to make my drum sound right since I got here."

This was the first time I'd ever heard anyone suggest that Adrilankha, a city pushed flat against the southern coast, was too dry. "Oh," I said.

"Why do they wear masks?"

"Who?"

"The drummers."

"Oh. Hmmm. I've never thought about it."

He nodded and wandered off to the blue room. As he left, he was running his fingers across the piece of leather, still holding his drum under his arm.

I noticed Cawti looking at me, but I couldn't read her expression.

"Calfskin," I told her. "They make the drums out of calfskin."

"Nothing to it, when you know," she said.

"Maybe that's our problem, though. Maybe the air here is too dry for us."

She smiled gently. "I've suspected that for a long time."

I nodded and settled back in my chair. Rocza landed on her arm and stared up at me quizzically. "Calfskin," I told her. She flew off again.

I sat in the lower east parlor of Castle Black and looked at the Lord Morrolan. He didn't look so tall sitting down.

After a while he said, "What is it, Vlad?" '

"I want to talk about revolution."

He cocked his head and raised both eyebrows. "Please?"

"Revolution. Peasant uprising. Violence in the streets."

"What about it?"

"Could it happen?" - "Certainly. It has before."

"Successfully?"

"That depends upon the meaning you choose for success. There have been rulers slain by their own peasants. During the War of the Barons there was a case where an entire county—I believe Longgrass—was turned into—"

"I mean more long-term success. Could the peasants take and hold power?"

"In the Empire?"

"Yes."

"Impossible. Not until the Cycle points to the Teckla, in any case, which will be several thousand years from now. We'll both be safely dead by then."

"You're quite certain?"

"That we'll be dead?"

"No, that it couldn't happen."

"I'm certain. Why?"

"There's this group of revolutionaries that Cawti's gotten involved with."

"Ah, yes. Sethra mentioned something about them a few weeks ago."

"Sethra? How would she know?"

"Because she is Sethra."