Steven Brust - Hawk

But, all right.

Now, I just needed to survive.

I made tiny circles with Lady Teldra, while I also turned, so everyone knew exactly what he was facing.

“Well,” I said. “All right, then. Who wants to start the party?”

“You aren’t getting out of here alive,” said Poletra.

“No? Well, who wants to go first, then?”

“Nicely done,” said the Demon. “But even if you escape us now, this only puts you back where you were.”

“Are you making me another offer, my lord?”

“Yes,” he said. “Let us end this. We won’t use the Morganti blade. We’ll-”

“No!” said Poletra. “I want to see this-”

“It’s business, not personal,” said the Demon, with something of snap in his voice.

I said, “Hey, if the two of you want to have this out, I can come back later. Should I make an app-”

Then came a new voice into the mix. “Count Szurke?” and my knees almost turned to water; not from fear, from relief. It came over me in waves and torrents and it took more than just a little effort to keep my voice even when I replied.

“Yes,” I managed. “That’s me.”

“ Boss. The weapon.”

“Oh, right.” I quickly sheathed Lady Teldra-no point in rubbing his nose in it, after all.

“I am Khaavren, Captain of the Imperial Guard, and I must ask you all to surrender your weapons.”

Diyann, the silent one, took a step toward him. Khaavren seemed to have about thirty guardsmen with him, and they were spreading out in a nice circle. Diyann said, “I have no weapons. May I ask what this concerns?”

I cleared my throat. “I can answer that,” I said.

I had everyone’s attention again.

The Demon said, “Taltos. Well. What?”

I recited from memory, “‘Whosoever shall, for monetary gain, or the equivalent in station, merchandise, or other considerations, put at risk Imperial security through the use of such arts or techniques as described in parts two or three above, shall be subject to any or all of the punishments described in section nine below.’ Let me skip to paragraph six of section nine below, because being stripped of your House titles doesn’t matter much, and what’s a few lashes? Here’s the good part. ‘The forfeiture of all monies, properties, wealth, and other interests. This to be extended to family and other associates as deemed appropriate by the Imperial Justicers.’”

I smiled. “That should cover it,” I said. “As you can guess, ‘part three above’ is rather complex, but what you were just trying to do-eavesdrop on psychic communication-”

“It had nothing to do with Imperial security!” said Poletra.

I shrugged. “If you can convince the Justicers of that, why, I’m sure there will be no problem.”

Poletra said, “But you-”

“I?”

“You taught it to us!”

“Oh? Did I receive gold for this service? Or anything else? In fact, it would seem that I got no benefit at all, however you want to calculate it.”

“No, you received-” He broke off, his face-none too pretty at the best of times-twisting up. Even if he were willing to say, in front the Imperial Guard, that they’d been planning to kill me, it wouldn’t have helped him. Because I had received nothing. No consideration, no benefit. Because they had betrayed me.

The Demon looked like he was trying to fight off a smile. “All right,” he said. “I can see half your play. Any and all wealth and property, and the right to keep digging until they’ve found everything, and then they take more. So, there’s the rind. What’s the fruit?”

I nodded to him. He really did know me. I turned to Khaavren and held out my signet ring. “My lord Captain,” I said. “I present to you my identification as Imperial Count of Szurke. I hereby invoke my right to defer justice. I would, therefore, request and require that this arrest be temporarily suspended.”

“You have that right, my lord,” agreed Khaavren, keeping his face straight. “Suspended for how long?”

“Until my death or extended disappearance,” I said.

“As you wish, my lord,” said Khaavren. “But I must secure the identities of all of these-persons-so that, in the event of your death, we’ll know where to look.”

“Of course,” I said. “Take your time.”

Poletra glared and ground his teeth and vowed under his breath to do things to me that he knew very well he couldn’t do. The Demon almost laughed aloud, and said, “Well played, Taltos.” Diyann simply nodded. That guy was really scary. I think if I’d first gone to him instead of the Demon, this wouldn’t have worked out so well for me.

But no point in dwelling on that.

“Will there be anything else, Count Szurke?”

I shook my head. “No, thank you, Captain.”

The other Jhereg-the sorcerers and the thugs-were just sort of milling about, not sure of what they should be doing. I walked out past them, keeping my eyes forward, because if I’d caught anyone’s eyes I’d have been gloating, and I don’t like to do that.

I started back toward the road, which, once more, took me past the cliff. I went back into the room and picked up Sara’s euphonium. I looked it over, and shook my head at the little ding in the side and the egg on the valves. I’d have to apologize to her. With luck, when she heard the whole story she wouldn’t be too upset. I also grabbed Daymar’s wand.

I looked around the room, feeling, I admit it, a little smug.

“Boss, you did it!”

“Seems like.”

I put the euphonium in its case, slung the case over my shoulder, and walked back outside. It was just starting to get dark, but I could still see the path that took me next to the cliff. I stepped onto it, once more overlooking the cliff. The Jhereg and the guards were gone.

So that’s when they hit me.

This time, it wasn’t Loiosh who let me know; I felt it myself. It was elegant, subtle, precise, deadly, and useless. From what I could figure, the attacker was a powerful sorcerer who knew I’d taken off my amulet, but didn’t know I had put it back on again. I know that I felt the attack as a sharp point aimed at my head. The field produced by the amulet is so effective that when I’m any distance from the Orb, even that doesn’t penetrate; so an attack so strong I knew it was happening meant I was up against someone who was very, very good.

I shouldn’t complain-the first total idiot they send after me will probably be the one to get the job done.

“Boss? Was that-”

“Yeah. Can you tell where it came from?”

“Sorry, it was too brief.”

Well, okay. It had to be someone nearby. That meant one of the three sorcerers who’d been at the meeting. If I could find out who, I could maybe do something.

At which point I realized how ironic it was. If I could find the sorcerer, I could use the recently proven technique to listen in on the sorcerer reporting back, and learn who was behind it. Only I no longer had the hawk’s egg, and if I removed the amulet, I’d be very quickly dead.

In the meantime, my only movement was ten or so steps away from the cliff. The sorcerer had to know the attack had failed, so what would the next step be? I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to make it easy to build up a wind strong enough to sweep me over the cliff. Just because I’d survived a fall into the water didn’t mean I cared to repeat the experience.

I shivered. I’d been too busy until now to realize that I was soaking wet, and cold. I hoped I wouldn’t pick up the lung-squeeze, because it seemed I wouldn’t be able to remove the amulet to have it cured, and that would be an awfully stupid way to die.