Steven Brust - Jhereg

“Well,” I announced to the room in general, “I guess he didn’t have any protections against witchcraft.”

Daymar said, “That was very interesting, Vlad. Thanks for letting me come along.”

I suddenly realized that he had no idea that he’d almost destroyed me with his “help.” I tried to think of some way to tell him, but gave up. I’d just remember it in the future, if he was ever around when I did more witchcraft. I held out the crystal to him; he accepted it. He studied it carefully for a few seconds, then nodded slowly.

“Well,” I asked, “can you pin down where he is from that?”

“I think so. I’ll try, anyway. How soon do you need it?”

“As soon as you can get it to me.”

“Okay,” he said. Then, casually, “By the way, why are you looking for him, anyway?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Oh, just curious.”

That figured. “I’d rather not say, if you don’t mind,” I told him.

“Have it your way,” he said, miffed. “Going to kill him, eh?”

“Daymar—”

“Sorry. I’ll let you know when I’ve found him. It shouldn’t take more than a day or so.”

“Good. I’ll see you then. Or,” I added as an afterthought, “you can just give it to Kragar.”

“Fine,” he said, nodding, and vanished.

I forced my legs to work and pushed away from the wall. I killed the lamps and helped Cawti out the door; locked it.

“We’d better get some food,” I said.

“Sounds good. Then a bath, then about twenty years of sleep.”

“I wish I could take the time for the last two, but I’m going to have to get back to work.”

“Okay,” she said cheerfully, “I’ll sleep for you, too.”

“Damned helpful of you.”

Leaning on each other, we took the stairs, one at a time. I felt Loiosh, still lying against the side of my neck, sleeping.

6

“True heroics must be carefully planned—and strenuously avoided.”

Cawti and I shared a lunch at one of the restaurants that I had an interest in. We ate slowly and allowed our strength to return. The sense of physical exhaustion that accompanies witchcraft is usually very short-lived; the psionic drain is longer. By halfway through the meal I felt comfortable again and well rested. On the other hand, I still felt that it would be something of an effort even to achieve psionic contact. I hoped no one would need to reach me during lunch.

We ate the meal in silence, enjoying each other’s company, feeling no need to talk. As we were finishing, Cawti said, “So, you get work, while I stay home and wither away from boredom.”

“You don’t look withered to me,” I said, checking. “And I don’t remember your asking me for help with that little matter last month.”

“Hmmmmph,” she said. “I didn’t need any help with that, but this looks like something big. I recognized the target. I hope you’re getting a reasonable price for him.”

I told her what I was getting for him.

She raised her eyebrows. “Nice! Who wants him?”

I looked around the restaurant, which was almost deserted. I didn’t like taking chances, but Cawti deserved an answer. “The whole bloody Jhereg wants him, or will if and when they find out.”

“What did he do?” she asked. “He didn’t start talking, did he?”

I shuddered. “No, not that, thank Verra. He ran off with nine million gold in council operating funds.”

She looked stunned and was silent for a moment, as she realized that I wasn’t kidding. “When did this happen?”

“Three days ago, now.” I thought for a second, then, “I was approached by the Demon, personally.”

“Whew! Battle of the giant jhereg,” she said. “Are you sure you aren’t getting involved in more than you can handle?”

“No,” I answered, cheerfully.

“My husband, the optimist,” she remarked. “I suppose you’ve already accepted.”

“That’s right. Would I have gone to all of that trouble to locate him if I hadn’t?”

“I suppose not. I was just hoping.”

Loiosh woke up with a start, looked around, and jumped down from my shoulder. He began working on the remains of my tsalmoth ribs.

“Do you have any idea why you got the job?” she asked, suddenly worried. I could see her mind making the same jumps as mine had.

“Yes, and it makes sense.” I explained the Demon’s reasoning to her and she seemed satisfied.

“What do you think about subcontracting this one?”

“Nope,” I said, “I’m too greedy. If I subcontract it, I won’t be able to build you that castle.”

She chuckled a little.

“Why?” I continued. “Do you and Norathar want to do it?”

“Not likely,” she answered drily. “It sounds too dangerous. And she’s retired in any case. Besides,” she added, rather nastily, “you couldn’t afford us.”

I laughed and lifted my glass to her. Loiosh moved over to her plate and began working on it. “I guess you’re right,” I admitted, “I’ll just have to stumble along on my own.”

She grinned for a moment, then turned serious. “Actually, Vlad, it is something of an honor to be given a job like this.”

I nodded. “I guess it is, to a degree. But the Demon is convinced that Mellar is out East somewhere; he figures that I can operate better than a Dragaeran out there. Since you went into pseudo-retirement, there aren’t many humans who do ‘work.’ ”

Cawti looked thoughtful for a moment. “What makes him think that Mellar is in the East?”

I explained his thinking on the matter, and Cawti nodded. “That makes sense, in a way. But, as you yourself said, he’d stand out in the East like a lightning bolt. I can’t believe that Mellar is so naive that he’d think the House wouldn’t go after him.”

I thought this over. “You may be right. I do have a few friends in the East I can check with. In fact, I was planning on trying to get hold of them if Daymar can’t find out where he is. I don’t really see what else we can do but check out the Demon’s theory, at this point.”

“There isn’t anything, I suppose,” she said. “But it makes me a little nervous. Do you have any idea how long Mellar’s been planning this move? If there was some way to figure that, it would give us an idea of how hard he’s going to be to track down.”

“I’m not sure. It seems to me that it doesn’t make sense unless it was a sudden, spur of the moment kind of thing, but Kragar has an idea that he’s been planning it all along, from the minute he joined the Jhereg, in fact.”

“If Kragar is right, he must have something planned for this,” she said. “In fact, if it was that long, he should have realized that someone would, or at least, could try to trace him using witchcraft. If that were the case, he would have some way to set up a block against it.

“On the other hand,” she continued, “if he did plan it for that long and somehow couldn’t block witchcraft, or didn’t think of it, it may mean the Demon underestimated his defenses.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, don’t you think that, in years, you could come up with a sorcery block that even the Left Hand couldn’t break down in the time they’ve had?”

I thought that over for a long time. “He couldn’t do it, Cawti. It’s always easier to break down a block than it is to set one up. There is no way he could get the resources to put up a strong enough trace-block to keep out the Left Hand. The impression I got was that the Demon had the best there is working on it. I’d defy Sethra Lavode to put up a block that would hold them out for more than a day.”