Steven Brust - Jhegaala

I shook my head. "What a mess. In the end, the only ones the peasants had to turn to were Father Noij, and the Coven." I shrugged. "It's led to all sorts of conflicts between those working at the mill and those who still farmed—"

"That's why you asked me about that? To find out—"

"Yes."

He looked unhappy. I shrugged. "In the past—back when this started, it led to conflicts among the witches, the breaking up of the old Coven and the formulating of a new one. And it ended with a three-way balance of power. Three groups that didn't trust each other, that schemed against each other, tried to get the advantage over each other, and needed each other."

"Needed each other?"

"Each needed another to keep the third in check."

I gave him a moment for that. I could see him going over things he knew, looking at them from that viewpoint. Finally, he gave a hesitant nod.

"And that is the situation I, the most suspicious-looking fellow this town has seen in a hundred years, walked into, all innocence. Meehayi, do you know what 'paranoid' means?"

He shook his head.

"It's a mind-sickness. It's when you think that everything going on is a conspiracy against you."

He thought that over and nodded. "And that's what you believed?"

"Not enough. No, that's what everyone believed about me."

He shook his head. "I don't understand."

"The Count believed I had come to town to steal the secret of paper-making. The Guild, seeing my familiars, assumed I was with the Coven. And the Coven, when they realized that witchcraft wouldn't work on me, jumped to the conclusion that I was working for the Count."

"Oh. How did you figure out all of, well, that?"

"From the questions they asked me. The Count had me first, and his questioner drugged me and asked me things that indicated he thought I was there to steal his secret." I snorted.

"Oh. But you couldn't tell them anything."

"No, and the questioner finally believed that, at which point he turned me over to the Guild. He'd worked with them to get me in the first place."

"How do you know that?"

"Orbahn was part of the set-up. And so was Tereza. They both work for the Guild."

"But you said Orbahn worked for the Coven, too."

"Yes, he reported to them, but he wasn't in on their councils, just a paid spy in the Guild. But that's how he learned that my jhereg would have to be distracted, and about making sure the amulet I wear had to stay on me."

"So, His Lordship was working with the Guild?"

"That far, yes. A deal. Probably something like, 'You help me take him, and I'll question him and tell you what I learn.' 'What if you don't learn anything?' 'Then you can have him, I don't care.' Probably a lot like that. And he carried out his bargain. The Guild's questioner had me when Saekeresh's was done."

He looked away. Then he said, "What did the Guild think?"

"At first they were afraid I was from the King; that the kingdom finally started caring about what happened out here in the West. Then they didn't know, and set about trying to find out. Of course, they didn't believe that I'd just come to visit my family. A flimsy story like that, who'd believe it? And the more I stuck to it, the more frightened they got."

He nodded.

"The other thing that helped me put it together was just the way they got me. It involved all of them: Saekeresh to lure me there, the Guild to play out a little comedy to distract Loiosh and Rocza, and the Coven, though all unknowing, to give Aybrahmis the knockout drops to slip into my glass on behalf of His Lordship."

He stared at me. "The physicker?"

I nodded. "I surprised a flush out of him when he wasn't expecting it. And I knew the Coven wasn't involved directly, because they wouldn't have made the mistake of telling me my familiar was dead without confirming it. But a witch was certainly involved on some level, because they recognized at least some of what my amulet did and made sure I couldn't remove it. Anyway, after that, it was just a matter of confirming it, and fixing it."

"Fixing it," he repeated.

"Yes. After I was taken out, we were playing a little comedy. His Lordship isn't a bad fellow, really, and when he saw what had been done to me, which he'd never planned on, he actually wanted to help me recover. The Guild didn't dare do anything, because Saekeresh was watching them, all ready to send his troops in. The Coven couldn't do anything, because everyone was suspicious of them for Zollie's death, and if I died too things could get ugly for them. They sent their youngest witches to help Aybrahmis; witches who wouldn't know enough to ask about why the Art wouldn't work on me, but—"

"Why won't it?"

I shook my head. "Long story. Never mind. But the witches did their best to cure me, and the Guild stayed out of the way, and all of them hoped this would just blow over and things could go back to normal. It didn't. Like I told—I mean, it was like a stool with three legs, you know? Kick one in, it all goes down."

He thought that over. He finally said, "Why didn't Count Saekeresh destroy the Guild before?"

"They were protected by the witches."

"I thought the Guild didn't like the Coven?"

"They don't, but they needed each other to fend off Count Saekeresh. Saekeresh could take the Guild, but he knows his family history. His grandfather had a lot of trouble with witches, and he didn't want the same sort of trouble."

"Well, but why did the Coven need the Guild?"

I smiled. "They didn't exactly need them. The Guild knows that—excuse me for this—that peasants, even when they may practice witchcraft, don't trust Covens. They, you, tend to blame them for things. According to my grandfather, that's why the leaders of most Covens stay secret, because sooner or later there will be a bad year for crops and it'll be taken out on the Coven. So the Guild had managed to discover at least some of the leaders of the Coven, and so they had that to hold over their heads. Whenever they needed to keep the Coven in line, someone would die with a 'witch's mark' on him."

He thought that over, and finally said, "Oh." Then he frowned. "But you—"

"Yes. I gave myself the witch's mark, just as the Guild gave it to Zollie. Probably almost the same way, too, if I had to guess."

"So you used me to—"

"Yes."

He looked at me with an expression I couldn't read. Then he shook his head. "How do you know all this?"

"I confirmed it in different ways, talking to different people. I wasn't sure about the connection between the Guild and the Coven until I learned there are certain diseases common to prostitutes that aren't a problem here. To prevent it takes a witch. There you have the foundation of a business arrangement."

After a while he said, "But who, who was it who actually, that is, who—?"

"Who killed my family? Who lit the fire? That was witchcraft; natural fires don't burn that way. I couldn't say who did the Working. Maybe Orbahn. It was the Coven, though."

"But I don't understand why."

"None of them trusted each other. They were always watching each other, finding each other's spies, pushing for advantages, careful none of the others got advantages. So I came in with an obvious lie about looking for my family, they all 'knew' I was up to no good. And that was fine; they just watched me, none of them daring to touch me until they knew whose side I was on. I might, after all, be from the King, and getting the King mad at them wouldn't be in anyone's interest."

He was watching me, his eyes fixed to my face, listening in silence.

I said, "When I started asking questions about the Merss family, they thought it was just to look good, and they kept watching me to see what I'd do. But then—okay, here I'm speculating, but it makes sense. The Guild pointed me at Zollie. It was a test, I think— they wanted to know how far I'd push my cover story, or else they wanted to see what I'd do when I'd used that up by finding them. So they arranged for me to see Zollie, who they knew would direct me to the Merss family and answer my questions.