Steven Brust - Iorich
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- Название:Iorich
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Iorich by Steven Brust
Cover
Iorich
Iorich
IORICH
Iorich
BOOKS BY STEVEN BRUST
The Dragaeran Novels
Brokedown Palace
THE KHAAVREN ROMANCES
The Phoenix Guards
Five Hundred Years After
The Viscount of Adrilankha,
which comprises
The Paths of the Dead,
The Lord of Castle Black,
and
Sethra Lavode
THE VLAD TALTOS NOVELS
Jhereg
Orca
Yendi
Dragon
Teckla
Issola
Taltos
Dzur
Phoenix
Jhegaala
Athyra
Iorich
Other Novels
To Reign in Hell
The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars
Agyar
Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille
The Gypsy (with Megan Lindholm)
Freedom and Necessity (with Emma Bull)
Iorich
STEVEN BRUST
IORICH
A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK
NEW YORK
Iorich
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events
portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination
or are used fictitiously.
IORICH
Copyright © 2009 by Steven Brust
All rights reserved.
Edited by Teresa Nielsen Hayden
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brust, Steven, 1955–
Iorich / Steven Brust. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 978-0-7653-1208-2
1. Taltos, Vlad (Fictitious character)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3552.R84I57 2010
813'.54—dc22
2009040414
First Edition: January 2010
Printed in the United States of America
0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Iorich
For Meridel Bianca
Iorich
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Reesa Brown for potato pastries and other things too numerous to mention, and to Kit O’Connell for computer and research help. Anne K. G. Murphy provided some emacs help for which I remain grateful. Thanks to Brad Roberts and Thomas Bull for significant help in surviving until this was done. Finally, my thanks to Alexx Kay for continuity checking.
Iorich
Iorich
IORICH
Iorich
PROLOGUE
Even if things don’t work the way you’d planned, it’s good when you can take something useful away from the experience.
They jumped me just as I was entering a little village called Whitemill at the southern edge of the Pushta. They had concealed themselves behind the long, broken hedge that bordered the Whitemill Pike before it turned into the single road of the hamlet. It was a good place for an attack. The nearest dwelling was perhaps a quarter of a mile away, and night was just falling.
There were three of them: Dragaerans, two men and a woman, wearing the colors of no special House. They all carried swords and knives. And they knew their business: the key to convincing someone to give up his cash is to be fast and very, very aggressive; you do not stand there and explain to your client why he should do what you want, you try to get him into a position where, before he has time to think, much less respond, he is at your mercy and hoping that somehow he can get out of this alive. When he hands over his purse, he should be feeling grateful.
Rocza took the man on the right, Loiosh flew into the face of the woman. I drew and disarmed the one in front of me with a stop-cut to the wrist, then took one step in and hit him in the nose with the pommel of my rapier. I took another step in and kicked the side of his knee.
He went down and I put the point at his throat. I said, “Intent to rob, intent to assault, assault, and failing to be selective in your choice of victim. Bad day for you.”
He looked at me, wide-eyed.
I gave him a friendly suggestion: “Drop your purse.”
The other man had run off, Rocza flying after him; the woman was doing what I call the Loiosh dance—futilely swinging her sword at him while he kept swooping in at her face then back out of range. He could do that all day.
The guy on the ground got his purse untied, though his fingers fumbled. I knelt and picked it up, the point of my rapier never moving from his throat. I spoke to my familiar.
“Get Rocza back. Let the other one go.”
“She’s on it, Boss.”
She returned and landed next to my client’s head and hissed.
“As long as you don’t move, she won’t bite,” I said. He froze. I went to the woman, who was still flailing about, and now looking panicked. I said, “Drop it.”
She glanced at Loiosh, then at me, then at her friend on the ground. “What about—”
“He won’t hurt you if you drop your weapon. Neither will I.”
Her sword hit the ground, and Loiosh returned to my shoulder.
“Your purse,” I told her.
She had less trouble untying it than her friend. She held it out to me.
“Just drop it,” I said.
She was very obliging.
“Now get out of here. If I see you again, I’ll kill you. If you try to follow me, I will see you.”
She sounded calm enough. “How did you—?”
“Wonder about it,” I said.
“Not a bad day’s work, Boss.”
“Lucky you spotted them.”
“Right. It was luck. Heh.”
“May I stay and help my friend?”
“No,” I said. “He’ll be along presently. You can pick up your weapons once I’m out of sight. I won’t hurt him.”
He spoke for the first time. A very impressive and lengthy string of curses finishing with, “What do you call this?”
“A broken nose,” I said. I gave him a friendly smile he may not have appreciated.
The woman gave me a glare, then just turned and walked away. I picked up the purse.
“Beware of Easterners with jhereg,” I told the guy with the broken nose.
“———!” he said.
I nodded. “Even if things don’t work out the way you planned, it’s good when you can take something useful away from the experience.”
I continued into the village, which had its requisite inn. It was an ugly thing, two stories high and misshapen, as if bits and pieces had been added on at random. The room I entered was big and full of Teckla, who smelled of manure and sweat, mixing with the smells of fresh bread, roasted kethna, tobacco smoke, dreamgrass, and now and then a whiff of the harsh pungency of opium, indicating there must be one or two nobles in here, among all the Teckla. Then I noticed that there were also a few merchants there. Odd. I wondered about it—even in rural inns, there generally isn’t that much of a mix. The bar ran about half the length of the room, with ceramic and wooden mugs on shelves behind it. At one end of the bar was a large knife, just lying there—almost certainly the knife the innkeeper used to cut fruit to put in wine punch, but that’s the sort of thing an assassin notices.
I got a lot of looks because I was human and had a jhereg on each shoulder, but none of the looks were threatening because I had a sword at my side and a jhereg on each shoulder. I acquired a glass of wine and a quiet corner. I’d ask about a room later.
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