Steven Brust - Hawk

“So, how’s business, Kragar?”

“Good. Not so much income as when you ran things, but less trouble.”

“No border disputes?”

He smirked. “No one seems to notice my operations.”

“Nice.”

“And you? Anything new?”

“I think I might have a way to get this matter handled.”

“By ‘this matter’ do you mean-?”

“Yeah.”

He whistled. “How can I help?”

“For starters, let me stay here.”

“Here? In the office?”

“I’ll curl up in a corner.”

The klava arrived. I drank some, and the day became better.

“Seriously, Vlad?”

“Seriously. I need somewhere to operate from. Somewhere I know the Jhereg isn’t going to be able to get me.”

“Here? This is your idea of a place the Jhereg can’t get you?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Vlad, did you lose your mind on the road, or was it since you came back?”

“Kragar, who hangs out up here in your office?”

“Jhereg, Vlad. You know, people who want to kill you?”

“Yeah, have a lot of them done ‘work’?”

“The people in my office? No, but-”

“And do they do what you say?”

“I…”

“Yes?”

“If word gets out-”

“As Loiosh says, when word gets out. It will. And then they’ll have the problem of setting up a shot at me in the worst possible place.”

“But every time you leave-”

“Kragar, remember? I know about the other exit.”

He frowned, looking pained. “How long?”

“A few days at the most.”

He shook his head. “All right. I’ll have my old office cleared out. Been using it for storage. However crazy I am for letting you do it, you’re crazier for wanting to.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“You know, I can’t believe you haven’t gotten me killed yet. Even once.”

“Yeah, we’ll see if we can do something about that before it’s too late.”

“Hey, thanks, Vlad.”

“What are friends for?”

“How does the thing work?”

“What thing?”

“Your idea for getting out from under.”

“Oh. It’s complicated. The short version is I’ve come up with a business opportunity so lucrative, the Demon says he’ll clear me if I can prove it’ll work.”

“Really?”

“So he says. And I trust him as well as I trust anyone in that position.”

“What’s the plan?”

I hesitated.

“No,” he said. “Skip that. What do you need to make it work?”

“Kragar, are you really asking me that?”

“Yeah. I invited you to stay here, and now I’m asking what you need. Tonight, I’m going to drop a rock on my foot, and tomorrow is eat a live teckla day.”

“Hey, now-”

“Shut up.”

“Fair enough,” I told Kragar.

“So, what do you need?”

“Any idea where we can find a hawk’s egg?”

He frowned. “A hawk’s egg. I assume you mean the, you know, the magical hawk’s egg, not just the egg of some hawk.”

“Right.”

“I’d ask Daymar.”

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to avoid that.”

He chuckled. “I can understand that. I could look for someone else-”

“No, no. We’ll go with Daymar. I told him I’d be needing his help again.”

“That makes me feel better. If I have to deal with you, you have to deal with Daymar. More klava?”

“Always.”

“Want me to get a message to him?”

“If you would, Loiosh would be grateful.”

“Got that right, Boss.”

“What should I tell him?”

“Let’s say an hour before noon in the back room of Mertun’s.”

“Will do. Need any money?”

“No, thanks. I’m good.”

He gave the orders for the message to be sent, then we sat in companionable silence while we waited for klava, and then again after it arrived. It was good, and I felt some tension drain out of me.

* * *

I was going to need a hawk’s egg.

Depending on the region, it is known as the thorn-hawk, the gully-hawk, the scatter-hawk, or the brushbird. It is one of 114 varieties of raptors so far identified by Imperial naturalists, all of which are commonly called hawks. The thorn-hawk is ubiquitous in many regions, including the jungles near Adrilankha itself. It makes its nest in thorny shrubs, where the male guards the eggs and the chicks as the female hunts. Many naturalists believe that, long ago, by chance or design, essential material from an athyra was mixed with that of a raptor. Maybe so. What cannot be argued is that in the normal course of things, such a creature could not survive in the environments where it is found without some form of that odd hiccuping of nature that we call magic.

As with all magical creatures, it is impossible to say how much of what it does is natural and how much supernatural. But there’s no doubt that one element is magical concealment of the nest. That’s what makes it so tedious to search through the jungle, looking at each nest, to find the one egg in thirty that cries out into the mind as having the peculiar properties needed.

There isn’t much danger in the search; provided the searcher has a modicum of psychic ability-enough, that is, to send the cock away while eggs are searched; and enough savvy to survive in the jungle for the two or three days the search is liable to take.

I know all of this, because I found it in Jescira’s Birds of the Southeast and most of it I just quoted word for word, at least as well as I can. If it bothers you that I did that, feel free to write a letter of complaint, fill it with threats and obscenity, and send it to Lord Morrolan, Castle Black. Let me know how that works out for you.

* * *

“Hawk’s egg,” Kragar repeated after a while. “I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never been clear on what they are, or what they’re used for. Is it a witch thing?”

“Not exactly.”

“Some weird kind of sorcery?”

“In a way.”

“Psychics?”

“Kind of.”

“Vlad-”

“I’m not an expert.”

“I was starting to suspect that.”

“Shut up. What I know about the hawk’s egg is that it comes from a particular kind of hawk, and it can be used by a witch to simulate the effect of a circle for a short time, and that psychics use it in different ways, and-”

“Circle?”

“A witchcraft thing. Amplifies power.”

“So, you’re not sure what it does, or what it is, but you know you need one?”

“Yeah.”

“Uh, okay. What else do you need?”

I shook my head. “Lots of stuff.”

“Then I suppose we should get started.”

“I saw the Demon about this.”

“Yeah, so you said.”

“Before I went in to see him, he tried to have me killed. For an on-the-spot effort with no set-up, it wasn’t a bad try. It was close.”

“I’m listening, Vlad.”

“That was fourth attempt on me in three days.”

“Fourth?”

“Yeah. All of them spur-of-the-moment, so I was able to survive, but-”

Kragar looked me over. “You got nailed, didn’t you?”

“Pretty bad, but I lived.”

He nodded. “All right. Is there a particular point you’re getting at, Vlad?”

“I’m saying that there have already been bodies, and there might be more before this is over.”

“Just like old times.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Just like old times.”

“Vlad? You okay?”

“With any luck, I will be in a few days.”

He nodded. “One more klava, then we switch to wine?”

“Better eat something in between.”

“Steamed kethna rolls.”

“I just had some bad ones.”

“So I’ll get us some good ones. I have a craving.”

“I like how your mind works.”