Steven Brust - Hawk

My mind wandered while I worked, but nowhere that matters, and nowhere I want you to go with me. By the time my boots were clean, I was a little more settled down and ready for what came next.

“What comes now, Boss?”

“A nap.”

I never quite fell asleep, but it did feel good. I’d been resting less than an hour when Deragar came back with trousers and a shirt that didn’t have blood all over them. I changed, and managed to make them fit well enough.

“What next?” he said.

“Hang around for a bit. I’ll have another errand.”

“Oh, good,” he said, and left me alone.

I looked at the stuff he’d gotten me. A bit more stylish than I was used to, with black seams on the trousers and a hint of ruffle at the sleeves, but I didn’t mind. I spent some time transferring my hardware. If you’re good at concealing things about your person, you can not only get at what you need quickly, but they don’t feel as heavy as they should. I used to be good at it.

I tried a few draws with this and that, made sure I remembered where that and this were, and nodded. “All right, buddy. Let’s get on this.”

What came next was, maybe, the scariest part of the whole operation, just because I had to put myself in someone else’s hands-in fact, in the hands of a stranger.

I arranged for a message to be sent to the stonecutter Sethra had told me of, and an hour later he arrived, a husky-looking Vallista with thick fingers that didn’t look like they’d be capable of fine work. But if you judge by appearance, you’re an idiot.

I told him what I wanted, and where, and when. He allowed as to how constructing a stairway, or more precisely a ladder, would be pretty easy. I gave him a lot of money. Then I explained to him, as politely as I could manage, that if he told anyone about this, Sethra would be very angry. He seemed to believe me, and I wasted about ten minutes listening to him declare, swear, promise, and protest that he would never, ever do anything that made Sethra mad at him, even if he had any reason to, which he didn’t, and, well, on like that for a long time. I shouldn’t have brought it up.

When he finally left, I felt exhausted. It was getting late; I slept.

My eyes were barely open when Loiosh said, “What are we doing now, Boss?”

“Can you guess?”

“Klava?”

“Good guess.”

“After that?”

“You did so well with the klava, I’ll bet you can guess that, too.”

“Fluffy kitten tea party?”

“Done that already.”

“Boss, you have a hawk’s egg, a cloak with reinforced hems, a ring, and an enchanted lockpick. And you want me to guess what comes after that?”

“I also have my sword sheath.”

“You always have your sword sheath.”

“True. And you heard what I asked that guy to do.”

“How can I possibly, oh, right. The sword sheath.”

“Yeah.”

“You can’t be planning-”

“Guess.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Do it anyway.”

“A rusted boat anchor.”

“A rusted boat anchor? Why do I need a rusted boat anchor, Loiosh?”

“You don’t need a rusted boat anchor. You need to get a rusted boat anchor.”

“Oh.” I laughed. “Nice. That’s better than anything I’d come up with. A rusted boat anchor. Lovely.”

“So this is what you’ve been planning, Boss?”

“Don’t ask rhetorical questions.”

He shut up.

I considered a little more, then said, “There is a piece of good news.”

“And that is?”

“We don’t need Daymar for this part.”

* * *

Adrilankha Harbor (or Port Adrilankha to the older folks, or Port Kieron to the very oldest) is wide, extending from the mouth of the Adrilankha River a little bit east and a considerable distance west. The farther west you go, the smaller and less important are the crafts at the piers, docks, or at anchor. The naval vessels are to the east, the big merchant ships in the middle, and the smaller crafts and fishing boats (gradually diminishing in size) are to the west.

The western end is marked by the place where a jutting section of cliff called Kieron’s Watch fell into the ocean during the Interregnum. There in the water is a mass, effectively a small island, of brutally sharp rocks that used to be up above. They are called, with the imagination typical of Dragaerans, Kieron’s Rocks.

There is something of a game played by the smaller fishing boats (except for the very smallest, of course, the one- or two-man vessels, which are pulled up onto the shore). The object of the game is to find a place to anchor as far from Kieron’s Rocks as possible. The better you do, the less you have to worry about the winds shifting or the waves breaking wrong; the losers, in the worst case, lose their boats.

This has been going on for something like four hundred years. So, even though only a few boats are lost each decade, there is, by now, quite a collection of them.

And, naturally, when the boats sink, their anchors are lost. And by lost, I mean, they sit on the floor of the harbor and rust. If you want to get one of those, for some strange reason, all you need to do is offer a few coppers to one of the urchins who inhabit the western area of the docks, and who are very good at salvaging from sunken hulks.

* * *

I sent Deragar to find the boy I’d saved, Asyavn, who had no fear whatever of being in a Jhereg office. I told him what I wanted. He looked at me like I was an idiot. I told him what I’d pay for it. He took off like he was afraid I’d come to my senses.

A few hours later he was back with just what I wanted-a rusted boat anchor.

I pulled out a purse, weighed it in my hand. “How did it go?”

He shrugged. “Easy enough, m’lord.”

“Easy? How did you get it?”

He blinked at me. “I dived down, m’lord, with a rope. Found one, tied it, then came back to shore and pulled it in.”

“You can dive that deep?”

“M’lord, it’s only about eight feet, in front of the rocks.”

“Oh. Hmmm. I’d thought it was deeper.”

I tossed him the purse. “I’ll be in touch if there’s anything else,” I said.

He bowed and left-very polite. I studied the rusted boat anchor now sitting on the floor of the room I’d been sleeping in.

Deragar looked at it and said, “I’m not going to ask what that’s for because I’m afraid you might tell me.”

“Wise,” I said. “How is Kragar?”

“He sat up on his own today.”

“Good!”

Deragar nodded. “Anything else?”

“Not right now.”

“I’ll be around,” he said.

“Okay, then, Loiosh. On to the next item.”

“Do we need Daymar for this?”

“Depends which one I want to go after.”

“I think you should get the hard one out of the way first, Boss.”

“So you don’t have to go find Daymar?”

“And you don’t have to deal with him.”

“Well argued.”

I put the special cloak on, not because it was special, but because it was the only one I had that wasn’t covered with blood. It felt sort of weird, but I stood in front of the mirror in my old office, and it looked okay. I picked up the bloody pile of clothes, shook them to make sure I hadn’t left any hardware in them, and made my way down the stairs. When I passed through my lab, I took the opportunity to burn them before continuing out onto the streets of Adrilankha, where waited death and, you know, stuff like that.