Steven Brust - Phoenix

"I've never assassinated a King before. Let's call it ten thousand Imperials."

"There are other things I could do for you instead."

"No, thanks. I've heard too many stories about people getting what they wish for. The money will be fine."

"Very well. So you will do it?"

"Sure," I said. "I've got nothing pressing going on just at the moment."

"Good," said the Demon Goddess.

"Is there anything I should know?"

"The King's name is Haro."

"You want him non-revivifiable, I assume?"

"They have no link to the Orb."

"Ah. So that shouldn't be a problem. Ummrh, Goddess?"

"Yes?"

"Why me?"

"Why, Vlad," she said, and it was odd to have her call me by my first name. "It is your profession, is it not?"

I sighed. "And here I'd been thinking of getting out of the business."

"Perhaps," she said, "not quite yet." She smiled into my eyes, and her eyes seemed to spin, and then I was once more in the same basement in South Adrilankha. I waited, but there was no sound. I poked my head out quickly, then for a longer time, then I stepped over, picked up my three throwing knives, and walked up the stairs and out of the house. I saw no sign of anyone.

"Melestav? I told you to send Kragar in."

"I already did, boss."

"Then where—? Never mind. " "Say, Kragar."

"Hmmm?"

"I'm being called out of town for a while."

"How long?"

"Not sure. A week or two, anyway."

"All right. I can take care of things here."

"Good. And keep tabs on our old friend, Herth."

"Think he might decide to take a shot at you?"

"What do you think?"

"It's possible."

"Right. And I need a teleport for tomorrow afternoon."

"Where to?"

"Northport."

"What's up?"

"Nothing special. I'll tell you about it when I get back."

"I'll just wait to hear who dies in Northport."

"Funny. Actually, though, it isn't Northport, it's Greenaere. What do you know about it?"

"Not much. An island kingdom, not part of the Empire."

"Right. Find out what you can."

"All right. What sorts of things?"

"Size, location of the capital city that kind of stuff. Maps would be good, both of the island and of the capital city."

"That shouldn't take long. I'll have it by this evening."

"Good. And I don't want anyone to know you're after the information. This job might cause a stir and I don't want to be attached to it."

"Okay. What about South Adrilankha?"

"What about it?"

"Any special instructions?"

"No. You know what I've been doing; keep it going. No need to rush anything." "Okay. Good luck." "Thanks."

I climbed the stairs to my flat slowly, unaccountably feeling like an old man. Loiosh flew over and began necking (quite literally) with his mate, Rocza. Cawti was wearing green today, with a red scarf around her neck that highlighted the few, almost invisible freckles on her nose. Her long brown hair was down and only haphazardly brushed, an effect I rather like. She put down her book, one of Paarfi's "histories," and greeted me without coolness, but without the pretense of great warmth, either. "How was your day?" I asked her.

"All right," she said. What could she say? I wasn't terribly interested in the details of her activities with Kelly and his band of rebels, or nuts, or whatever they were. She said, "Yours?"

"Interesting. I saw Noish-pa."

She smiled for the first time. If we had anything at all in common at that point, it was our love for my grandfather. "What did he say?"

"He's worried about us."

"He believes in family."

"So do I. It's inherited, I suspect."

She smiled again. I could die for that smile. "We should speak to Aliera. Perhaps she's isolated the gene." Then the smile was gone, leaving me looking at the lips that had held it. I looked into her eyes. I always used to look into her eyes when we made love. The moment stretched, and I looked away, sat down facing her. I said, "What are we going to do?" My voice was almost a whisper; you'd never know we had already had this conversation, in various forms, several times.

"I don't know, Vladimir. I do love you, but there's so much between us now."

"I could leave the Organization," I said. This wasn't the first time I'd said that.

"Not until and unless you want to for your own reasons, not because I disapprove." It wasn't the first time she'd said that, either. It was ironic, too; she'd once been part of one of the most feared teams of assassins ever to haunt the alleys of Adrilankha.

We were silent for a while, while I tried to decide how to tell her about the rest of the day's events. Finally I said, "I'm going to be leaving for a while."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. A job. Out of town. Across the great salt sea. Out past the horizon. To sail beyond the—"

"When will you be back?"

"I'm not sure. Not more than a week or two, I hope."

"Write when you find work," she said.

Lesson Two

TRANSPORTATION

I can't tell you much about Northport (which ought to have been called Westport, but never mind) because I didn't really see it. I saw the area near the waterfront, which compared pretty poorly to the waterfront of Adrilankha. It was dirtier and emptier, with fewer inns and more derelicts. It occurred to me in the first few minutes, before I'd even recovered from the teleport that this was because Adrilankha was still a busy port, whereas North-port had never recovered from Adron's Disaster and the Interregnum.

Yet there were, once or twice a day, ships that left for Elde or returned from there, as well as a few that went up and down the coast. Of the ships leaving for Elde, many stopped at Greenaere, which was more or less on the way, taking tides and winds into account. (Personally I knew nothing about tides or winds, but as I also knew almost nothing about where these islands could be found, I had no trouble believing what I was told.)

In any case, I located a ship in less than an hour and had only a few hours' wait. I had arrived in the early afternoon. We weighed anchor just before dusk.

I sometimes wonder if sailors don't get lessons in how to do strange and confusing things, just to impress the rest of us. There were ten of them, pulling on ropes, tying things, untying things, setting boxes down, and striding purposefully along the deck. The captain introduced herself as Baroness Mul-something-or-other-inics, but the name I caught was Trice, when they didn't call her "Captain." She was stocky for a Dragaeran, with a pinched-in face and an agitated manner. The only other officer was named Yinta, who had a long nose over a wide mouth and always looked like she was half asleep.

The captain welcomed me aboard with no great enthusiasm and a gentle request to "keep your arse out of our way, okay, Whiskers?" Loiosh, riding on my shoulder, generated more interest but no comments. Just as well. The ship was one of those called a "skip"; intended, I'm told, for short ocean jaunts. She was about sixty feet long, and had one mast with two square sails, one with a little triangular sail in front, and a third holding a slightly larger square one in back. I settled down on the deck between a couple of large barrels that smelled of wine. The wind made nice snapping sounds on the sails as they were secured, at which time some ropes were undone and we were pushed away from the dock by a couple of shore hands wielding poles I couldn't have lifted. Shore hands, crew, and officers were all of the House of the Orca. The mast held a flag which showed an orca and a spear and what looked like the tower of a castle or fort.

Before leaving, I had been given a charm against seasickness. I touched it now and was glad it was there. The boat went up and down, although, frankly, not as much as I'd been afraid it would.