Steven Brust - Jhereg

“It is a rather frightening one from out here,” put in Morrolan. “I thought we’d lost you.”

Aliera smiled at him. “I’m not that easy to get rid of, cousin.”

“In any case,” I said. “It all worked out.”

“Yes,” said Morrolan. “I would imagine that you did rather well for yourself out of the affair.”

“In more ways than one,” I said.

“I suppose,” said Morrolan.

I shook my head. “It isn’t just the obvious. It seems that certain parties were quite pleased with the return of the gold, in addition to everything else. I’ve been given responsibility for a somewhat larger area.”

“Yeah,” said Kragar, “and you didn’t even have to ask your friend to kill anyone for it.”

I let that pass.

“I should point out, though,” said Kragar, “that, in actual fact, you don’t have any more responsibility than you did before.”

“I don’t?”

“Nope. You just make more money. I’m the one with more responsibility. Who do you think does all the work, anyway?”

“Loiosh,” I answered.

Kragar snorted. Loiosh hissed a laugh.

“ You are hereby forgiven, boss. ”

“ Lucky me. ”

Morrolan was looking puzzled. “Speaking of the gold reminds me of something. How did you discover where it was?”

“Daymar took care of it,” I told him. “Just before Mellar teleported me out, Daymar did a mind-probe on him. It was the only time he could have had a chance of succeeding, with Mellar completely disoriented. He caught him with his psychic pants down, you might say. Daymar found out where he had hidden the gold and found out about the arrangements he’d made for the information about the Dzur to get out. And, of course, it was the mind-probe itself that finally broke down Mellar and sent him into a panic.”

“Oh,” said Morrolan, “so you did find out about the information he had on the Dzur.”

“Yep,” I said. “And we suppressed it.”

“How did you do that?” asked Morrolan.

I looked over at Kragar, who had actually handled the matter. He smiled a little.

“It wasn’t difficult,” he said. “Mellar had given it to a friend of his in a sealed envelope. We picked up this friend, brought him to the dock where we’d dumped Mellar’s body, and pointed out to him that there was no reason for him to keep the thing anymore. We talked a little, and he ended up agreeing.”

Best not to know any more, I decided.

“What I don’t understand,” Kragar continued, “is why you didn’t want the information to come out, Vlad. What difference does it make to us?”

“There were a couple of reasons for it,” I told him. “For one thing, I made it clear to a few Dzurlords I know that I was doing it. It never hurts to have Dzur heroes owe you favors. And the other reason was that Aliera would have killed me if I hadn’t.”

Aliera smiled a little, but didn’t deny it.

“So, Vlad,” said Morrolan, “are you going to retire, now that you are wealthy? You could certainly buy a castle out of town and turn properly decadent if you chose to. I’d be curious. I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing a decadent Easterner.”

I shrugged. “I may buy a castle somewhere, since Cawti’s been wanting one, and now we can afford a few luxuries like a higher title in the Jhereg, but I doubt I’ll retire.”

“Why not?”

“You’re rich. Are you retiring?” I asked him.

He snorted. “From what should I retire? I’ve been professionally decadent for as long as I can remember.”

“Well, there is that . . . Say!”

“Yes?”

“How about if we both retire! What do you think about selling Castle Black? I can give you a good price on it.”

“Depend on it,” he said.

“Oh, well. Just asking.”

“Seriously, though, Vlad; have you ever thought about quitting the Jhereg? I mean, you don’t really need them anymore, do you?”

“Ha! I’ve thought about quitting the Jhereg a great deal, but so far I’ve always managed to be just a little bit quicker than whoever wanted me out.”

“Or luckier,” said Kragar.

I shrugged. “As for leaving voluntarily, I don’t know.”

Morrolan looked at me carefully. “You don’t actually enjoy what you do, do you?”

I didn’t answer, not really knowing at the time. I mean, did I? Especially now, when my biggest reason, my hatred for all things Dragaeran, turned out not to have the cause I had thought it did. Or did it?

“You know, Aliera,” I said, “I’m still not really sure about this genetic inheritance through the soul. I mean, sure, I felt something for it, but I also lived through what I lived through, and I guess that shaped me more than you’d think. I am what I am, in addition to what I was. Do you understand what I mean?”

Aliera didn’t answer; she just looked at me, her face unreadable. An uncomfortable silence settled over the room, as we all sat there with our thoughts. Kragar studied the floor, Cawti caressed my forehead, Morrolan seemed to be looking around for another subject.

He found one, finally, and broke the silence by saying, “There is still a thing that I fail to understand, concerning you and Rocza.”

“What is that?” I asked, as relieved as everyone else.

He studied the floor in front of the couch. “Exactly how do you plan on housebreaking her?”

I felt myself going red as the odor reached my nose, and Morrolan wryly called for his servants.