Стивен Браст: Tiassa

“But what could hold you here?”

“I don’t know. It would have to be necromancy.”

“Discaru,” I said.

“Who?”

There’s a particular kind of annoyance that comes when you realize you’ve killed some bastard before you know all the stuff he’d done that would have given you even more satisfaction in killing him. I’d never had that happen before. Oh, well. “Never mind,” I said. “A demon. It’s gone now. The question is, why?”

“I don’t know.”

“I think I do,” I said. “And I think I know why I’m here.”

“That’s something many of us never learn.”

I snorted. “I meant it in a slightly more practical sense. I think you did it.”

“Did what?”

“I think as you were dying, you reached out to the Halls, and got some help.”

“I don’t remember that.”

“Yeah, you don’t remember dying. But I think you were asking for help from a god, and managed to reach Devera instead.”

“Who is Devera?”

“Not a god.”

“Oh. So it didn’t work.”

“I think it sort of did. And I think I’m on track for fixing the rest of it now.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Good. We’re even. Tell me something else?”

“Anything I can.”

“What does the guide look like for your House?”

“Guide?”

“I don’t know what to call it. The Dragons memorize a book so they know how to navigate the Paths of the Dead. The Hawks have a signet ring that acts as a guide. The Jhereg wear a pendant that works like the ring, and the Tiassa get a tattoo that works like the book. What do the Vallista use?”

“Oh. Our key. It’s a piece of linen, usually dyed yellow, with purple threads that indicate the proper paths, usually made into a dress, or a toga, or a sarong.”

“Does it appear with you when you die, like the ring, or do you have to memorize it, like the book?”

“You’re dressed in it when you go over the Falls. You remove the thread as you progress, and it gradually falls apart, so that you arrive in the Halls naked.”

“That’s how you established the connection with the Halls, right?”

“Yes.”

“Was that the only one your family had?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I believe I do, however.”

She nodded.

“All right, I think I have what I need. Thank you for your help.”

“Good luck,” she told me.

This time, because I was looking for it, I caught the slight turn in her chair she made just before she vanished. I drummed my fingers on the table. I wanted to find Lord Zhayin and have it out with him, shake him until I’d squeezed the answers out, but no, there was something else I needed to do first.

I stood up and headed out.

I emerged from the cave, went up the path, through the bedroom, and out, then to the nursery. She was sitting in a rocking chair, her eyes closed. I watched her for a while, trying to interpret the expression on her face as she dreamed, then it started to feel creepy so I cleared my throat.

She opened her eyes, took me in, and stood up. “My lord?”

“Hello, Odelpho.”

“Hello, my lord.”

“May I trouble you with another question?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Why did you lie to me?”

“My lord … I…”

“About the kitchen, and the cooks there. That’s nonsense. You knew that didn’t happen. It seems an odd thing to lie about. Why?”

“My lord, I—”

“Stop it. Answer my question.”

She was scared, but I figured that was because, well, I’m scary. The question was, was she also scared of someone else? If so, who and why and how much? “If you’re worried about Discaru,” I said, “he’s not going to be around anymore.”

She tilted her head. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” I said. It wasn’t a lie. I was pretty sure. And turned out I was right, so no harm.

“I … may I sit down?”

“Of course,” I said. Where were my manners? What would Lady Teldra say?

She folded her hands in her lap and said, “What happened to him?”

“He had an accident,” I said.

She studied my face as if expecting me to wink or smile or something. I didn’t, so she just nodded.

“He’s the one who wanted you to lie about the kitchen?”

“Yes.”

“When did he tell you to do that?”

“Just before we spoke, my lord. Perhaps an hour?”

“So, it was me in particular he didn’t want to know about it.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Why?”

“He didn’t say, my lord.”

Yeah, he didn’t have to. He’d have known when he saw me that I shouldn’t be there. He couldn’t have known about Devera, but he must have realized that Tethia had done something that resulted in me being there, which meant that I had to be prevented from learning about the manor until I could be disposed of, because—

Tethia. It all came back to her, and to what she knew and what she could tell, and what had happened to her, and why. I studied Odelpho and considered.

She looked uncomfortable with me staring at her. She shifted and said, “Will that be all, my lord?”

“Not quite. I’m curious about something. It isn’t terribly important, but do you go outside at all?”

“Sometimes.”

“And pick apples?”

She nodded, then frowned. “Is there something—”

“No, no. You just set me a little mystery, is all.”

“I like apples.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“You had one?”

“I had two. They were good.”

“I’ll be tending the trees myself from now on.”

“There’s no gardener?”

“At the old castle, not here.”

“Of course. There were lots of things Discaru didn’t want known, weren’t there?”

She nodded.

“Such as Lady Zhayin’s visit to the Halls of Judgment.”

She looked down.

“Were you with her?”

She nodded.

“You took care of Tethia, there, in the Halls.”

She nodded again.

“Odelpho, how did Tethia die?”

“Her mother died during the Interregnum.”

“Odelpho!”

She jumped a little, then looked down again.

“Tell me what happened. It can’t hurt you now.”

She remained still, eyes fixed on the floor. I was getting tired of people staring at the floor or over my shoulder.

“Odelpho, tell me how Tethia died.”

“It was the monster,” she said.

“The monster? That, ah, I mean, Lord Zhayin’s son?”

She nodded. “It chased her. I don’t know why. She couldn’t get out, so she tried to escape to the roof. In the end, she threw herself off it into the ocean-sea. She had only returned that day. I hadn’t seen her since she was a child, when she went off to, well, I don’t know. But I hadn’t seen her in so long, and an hour after she was back, she was dead.”

She looked like was about to cry. I said, “How?”

“My lord?”

“How could she get off the roof?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Have you ever been up there?”

“Only that one time. I saw her jump. Lord Discaru came up behind me, and he was able to control the beast. He said I must never speak of it. Is he really gone?”

“Yeah.”

“Good,” she said, like she meant it.

“How did it get loose?”

“My lord?”

“You said it was chasing Tethia. How did it get out of its cell?”

“I don’t know. It was just after the completion of the construction, when we first appeared here, so perhaps something went wrong.”

“Or something went right.”

“My lord?”

I shook my head.

“Thanks for your help, Odelpho. What did you say your name means?”

“Delpho means ‘home of the bear’ in the ancient language of the Lyorn, my lord.”