Steven Brust - Hawk

“Yeah,” I said. “Sorry. Something came up.”

He looked like he was about to ask what, but instead his eyes flicked over me; I’m not sure what he was seeing, or concluding from what he saw, but he said, “The Jhereg took a shot at you, Vlad?”

“Yeah. They tapped into your tower enough to direct me somewhere else when I tried to use it. They were waiting for me.”

“They used my tower?”

“Yeah. Rude of them, don’t you think?”

“Who?”

“He’s kind of dead now.”

“The sorcerer?”

“No, I let her go.”

“Who is she?”

“No idea.”

“Vlad-”

“She said her name was Disaka, but under the circumstances, I doubt she was telling the truth.”

He glared at me. Then, “I can trace it. Or have the Necromancer trace it. How did you escape?”

“The Necromancer,” I repeated.

“What?”

“The Necromancer. The Warlock. The Sorceress in Green. The Blue Fox. All of these people with a name that starts with ‘the.’ It isn’t fair. Why don’t I get a name that starts with ‘the’?”

He suggested one.

“Now, is that nice?”

“Vlad, how did you escape?”

I touched Lady Teldra. “She woke up,” I said.

His eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” I said. “On account of, you know, when dealing with weapons that are more powerful than the gods, and that involve a destiny tracing back longer than the Empire, and when you learn things with vague impressions of half-memories in the middle of almost having a Morganti sword shoved into your vitals, it’s easy to be sure of things. Why do you ask?”

“Vlad-”

“I think so,” I said. “I gave her a message from Sethra and it felt like she heard it, all right?”

“All right.”

I couldn’t tell what he was thinking or feeling; my guess is he didn’t know himself. I said, “Maybe we should go somewhere else?”

Morrolan looked around, his lips curling with distaste. “Yes,” he said. “You wanted to go to Dzur Mountain, yes?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll accompany you.”

“All right.”

Once more the shimmer of sparks, and we stepped through, and then there was a window in front of me, and I walked through that, and we were in Dzur Mountain. We had arrived just inside a door I recognized as opening out onto the western slopes. From there, I could, if I wanted, get a distant view of Adrilankha on those nights when the Enclouding was high and there were a lot of lights in the city. I’d done that before, just looked.

Morrolan led us in the other direction, and I followed.

I think I’ll have to live about as long as Sethra to learn the insides of Dzur Mountain. The odd thing is that, as you negotiate the short, narrow corridors and the unexpected stairways and the back doors to rooms that look like they should only have one door, it always seems as if it’s such a small place-as if you should be able to learn it all the first time you’re there. It isn’t until your third or fourth visit that it starts hitting you how big the mountain is, and the fact you’re crawling around inside of it.

I guess Morrolan has a better head for that sort of thing than I do; he took us to a small sitting room where Sethra’s servant, Tukko, was stretched out on a sofa. Tukko opened an eye as we came in, saw me, saw Morrolan, and pulled himself grudgingly to a standing position. Then he bowed a little to Morrolan and said, “I’ll let her know.”

Morrolan nodded and found a chair; I found another.

We sat there, saying nothing, for about five minutes. Then I heard Sethra’s voice: “Well, Vlad. What have you done this time?”

I rose, bowed, and said, “It’s more what I’m going to do.”

She sat down and so did I. Tukko set a glass of wine next to Morrolan, then gave me one. He looked at Sethra, who barely shook her head; then he twitched and shuffled out.

“All right,” she said. “Let’s hear it.”

I told her pretty much what I’d told Kiera about my plan for the new business deal for the Jhereg, and eavesdropping on psychic communication. She listened intently; Morrolan shifted back and forth a few times as I spoke, and made various sounds that could be interpreted as disgust, disbelief, or disdain. When I’d finished, he said, “Not a bad idea.”

I studied his face to see if he was just messing with me. He looked like he meant it.

I told Sethra, “You said you could help.”

She nodded. “What do you need?”

“Um,” I said. “I hadn’t exactly thought about it. You said you could help-”

“I can. But what do you need?”

“First of all, a good night’s sleep.”

“I can help with that,” she said, smiling a little. “What else do you need?”

It was, I suddenly realized, another one of Sethra’s maneuvers. She wanted me to think of something, because anything I figured out on my own was going to stick with me better than stuff she just told me. She was right, as usual, and it irritated me, as usual.

I ran down the list: Kiera’s lockpick, the passage from the book on Imperial trade laws, a hawk’s egg, the ring, the euphonium, and the other stuff. I went through the whole plan in my head, piece by piece. It took a while, but they were patient.

“Not seeing it,” I told Sethra eventually. “How about, you know, a hint?”

“Vlad, do you think I’m playing games?”

“Of course you’re playing games, Sethra. You’re always playing games. Everything you’ve done as long as I’ve known you has been a game of one sort or another. You’ve been around so long, the only way to keep yourself from going crazy is to make everything into a game, and then play the game as if it were life and death. I get that. I don’t mind it. That doesn’t mean it isn’t serious. Now, how about a hint?”

For a second I thought she was going to blow up at me, but then she frowned. “You may be right.”

“Yeah, that’ll happen from time to time. Now, as I said, how about a hint?”

She smiled. “All right. A hint, then: What’s the part of your plan that’s still vague and unformed?”

“None of it. Oh, except right. How to get back up if I go over the cliff. How can you help with that?”

“I know an artificer who can show you how to build what you need. Or a stonecutter, if that’s how you want to go.”

I stared at her. “Sethra, how could you know about that? I haven’t told anyone-”

“I wasn’t sure until now. But from knowing how you think, and from the rumors I’ve heard, and then with what Daymar told me, well, it just seemed likely.”

“Wait, with what Daymar told you? When?”

“Today. He was very excited about that bit of work you had him do. So I put that together with-”

I swore. “Any idea who else he’s told?”

“No one. I impressed upon him the need to not talk about it to anyone but me.”

“Oh. Well, good. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“But even knowing that, you had to guess-”

“Why you wanted that location? Yes. As I say, I wasn’t sure until now.”

“You’re looking smug,” I said.

“And with reason, don’t you think?”

I shook my head. “You continue to astound me.”

“I’ll be sad when I no longer do,” she said.

“Yeah, because it’ll mean I’m dead. Well, thank you.”

“Which way are you going?”

“Stonecutter.”

She nodded, found paper and wrote, then handed me a small note with a name and an address on it. Then she said, “There’s something I need from you.”

I nodded and waited.

“Okay, not true. Something I want from you.”

“A subtle distinction, but important. All right, I’m listening.”

“I want to try something with Lady Teldra.”