Steven Brust - Phoenix

Dav-Hoel's instrument teased the melody the same way Aibynn's drum was teasing the rhythm. On the other hand, I wished they'd just play the song, but everyone else seemed very impressed, and the Empress looked positively excited. I've never been very knowledgeable about music.

After that they did a silly song about snuff, then an instrumental they introduced as the Madman's Dance, and then Loiosh said, "Boss, wake up! The Empress!"

' 'Huh ? Oh." She was gesturing to me, still looking amused.

I came forward, bowed once more, and she said, "Come with me."

" Yes, Your Majesty."

She stood, stretched quite unselfconsciously, threw a purse to the musicians, and went behind the throne through a curtained doorway. I followed, feeling self-conscious enough to make up for both of us. She turned back to me and nodded that I was to catch up to her. I did, and the four of us, the Empress Zerika, the Orb, Loiosh, and I, walked together in silence. Was it stranger for her to be walking with a Jhereg, a jhereg, or an Easterner? On the other hand, if it was true that she had a human lover—

She caught me staring at her and I turned away, feeling myself blushing

"You were thinking improper thoughts about your Empress" she said in a voice that sounded more amused than offended.

"Just speculating on rumors, Your Majesty."

"Ah. About an Eastern lover?"

"Urn, yeah."

"It's true," she said. "His name is Laszlo. He isn't my lover because he is an Easterner, nor despite it. He is my lover because I love him, and he is an Easterner because that is the house in which his soul resides."

I licked my lips. "How can you read my thoughts without my familiar catching you at it?"

She laughed, just a little. "By watching your face, and by guessing. I've gotten pretty good at it."

"That's all?"

"It is often enough. For example, I saw you try to foil an attempt on my life that was not going to take place. Had you forgotten the Orb, which protects the life of the Emperor?"

I blushed once more. I had forgotten. To cover, I said, "It hasn't always worked."

"You," she said, "are not Mario. And neither is your friend from Greenaere."

"Then I imagined the whole thing?"

"Yes."

"How did you know what I was thinking?"

"You were not troubling to keep your worries from your countenance, and you are an assassin."

"Who, me?"

"Yes," she said, "you."

There was nothing to say to that, so I said nothing. We went around a corner and through more plain white halls. She said,"For some reason, I do my best thinking when walking right here."

"Like a Tiassa", I said without thinking.

"What?"

"Excuse me, Your Majesty. Something I heard somewhere: Tiassa think walking, Dragons think standing, Lyorn think sitting, and Dzur think afterward."

She chuckled. "And when do you think, good Jhereg?"

"All the time, Your Majesty. I can't seem to help it."

"Ah. I know the feeling." We walked some more. She seemed very casual with me, but there was the Orb, circling her head slowly as we walked, and changing color occasionally; from the murky brown a few moments ago to a calm blue. I wondered if she was deliberately trying to confuse me.

"You are a very unusual man, Baronet Vladimir Taltos," she said suddenly. "You bring someone you think might be an assassin into the Empire and allow him to appear before me, and yet you were ready to act to protect me when you thought he might really do something."

"How did you know he is from Greenaere?"

"I suspected it when I found him psychically blank. I checked with the Orb, and there are memories recorded of the sort of clothes he wears and the type; of drum he plays."

"I see. Your Majesty, why did you summon me?"

"To see what you looked like. Oh, I remembered you faintly, from your skillful dancing around the truth during a certain murder inquiry. But I wanted to know a little better the man who threatened his own House representative right on the Palace grounds, and whose wife is best friends with my Heir."

I chuckled at that, remembering the nature of that friendship.

"Yes," she said, smiling. "I know all about it."

"How?"

She shook her head. "Norathar has told me nothing. But I am, after all, the Empress. I suspect I have a better spy network even than you do, Lord Taltos."

Ouch. "I wouldn't doubt it, Your Majesty." What didn't she know? Did she know, for example, that I was the one who had started the war with Greenaere? Probably not, or I'd be in the cell next to Cawti. "Is this how you usually spend the New Year's festivities, Your Majesty?"

"It is when we are threatened with war, and simultaneously with rebellion. I worry about these things, Baronet and decisions must be made—such as if I am to step down and let the House of the Dragon take the Orb. I will spend today seeing everyone who I think may have a role to play in all of this."

"What makes you think I will have a role to play in war and rebellion, Your Majesty?"

"I could give several answers to that, but the short one is when I searched the Orb for names, yours was one that emerged. I don't know why. Can you tell me?"

"No," I said, keeping careful control of my features.

"Cannot, or will not?"

"Will not, Your Majesty."

"Very well," she said, and I breathed again. I said, "Will there be war, Your Majesty?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry to hear it."

"As am I. The alliance of Greenaere and Elde will be a difficult one to defeat. It is all but impossible to effect a landing in either place, whereas we have too many miles of coastline to protect. In the end, we may have to crush them with numbers, and that will be costly, in lives and everything else."

"What do they want, Your Majesty?" "I don't know. They don't seem to want anything. Perhaps there is a madman behind it. Or a god."

We went around another turn, again to the left, and there was a slight rise to the floor. "Where are we now, Your Majesty?"

'Do you know, I'm not exactly certain. This is a route I walk often, but I've never known exactly where it goes. There are no doors or other paths that I've found or heard of. I sometimes wonder if it was put here just for this purpose."

"Then I suppose it would be pretty useless during the reign of a Dragon, Lyorn, or Dzur."

She chuckled. "I suppose it would."

The walk straightened out. "Your Majesty, why is my wife in your dungeons?"

She sighed. "First, let us be accurate. They are not dungeons. Dungeons are dank cells where Duke Curse-Me-Not keeps merchants he can't justify executing but whose goods he likes more than the prices. The Lady Cawti of Taltos, Countess of Lostguard Cleft and Environs, resides in the Imperial prison on suspicion of conspiring against the Orb."

I bit my lip. "Noted, Your Majesty."

"Good. Now, as to why she is there: because she wants to be. There was a petition to release her, it was granted, she refused."

"I know about that, Your Majesty. The Lady Norathar made this petition. What did she say upon refusing?"

"She didn't specifically say she wanted to stay, but she wouldn't sign the document we required for her release."

"Document? What sort of document, Your Majesty?"

"One that said she would not engage in any activities; contrary to the interests of the Empire."

"Ah. That would account for it." The Empress didn't say anything. I said, "But, Your Majesty, why was she arrested in the first place?"

"I'm wondering," she said slowly, "how much you know, and how much I should tell you."

"I know that it was my own House that made the petition. But why was it granted?" In other words, since when did a Phoenix Empress care a teckla's squeal about the business workings of House Jhereg?

She said, "You seem to think I am at liberty to ignore whatever requests I wish to."